editor@pen.com.qa | adv@pen.com.qa Editorial: 4455 7741 | Advertising: 4455 7837 / 4455 7780www.thepeninsulaqatar.comSATURDAY 7 FEBRUARY 2015 • 18 Rabial II 1436 • Volume 19 Number 6334

Home | 3 Business | 13 Sport | 22

Qatar Motor Show 2015 attracted a large number of automobile aficionados to QNCC yesterday.

The Greek government has vowed not to accept any deal that keeps its bailout programme in place.

Nasser Saleh Al Attiyah was on course yesterday for a 12th victory at the QMMF Qatar International Rally.

ISO 9001:2008 C E R T I F I E D N E W S P A P E R

Ladies Tour of Qatar

Britain’s Lizzie Armitstead (left) crosses the finish line to claim overall victory in the Ladies Tour of Qatar, ahead of Australia’s Chloe Hosking, at Doha Corniche yesterday. See also page 21

UN, Arab League in urgent appeal to Gaza donorsUNITED NATIONS: The leaders of the United Nations and the Arab League made an urgent appeal to international donors yesterday to expedite aid promised to the people of Gaza, following last year’s war.

In a joint statement, Ban Ki-moon and Nabil Al Arabi expressed their “deep concern” over limited resources to improve the situation in Gaza.

They “urgently appeal to donors

to honour and disburse as soon as possible their financial commit-ments made at the October 2014 Cairo Conference,” the statement said.

Those funds include money for UN agencies in Gaza to “pre-vent a further deterioration in the already dire humanitarian situation.”

The international commu-nity promised $5.4bn to the Palestinians, half of which is to

help rebuild Gaza after devastat-ing Israeli bombing aimed at stop-ping Hamas rocket attacks in July last year.

The two leaders pointed out reconstruction has been slow in Gaza and aid is necessary to ensure stability for the people.

Short on money, the UN announced in January they had suspended housing financial aid to tens of thousands of Palestinians in Gaza.

The United Nations Relief and Works Agency, responsible for distributing much of the aid, has said none of the promised aid had arrived to Gaza.

Qatar made the largest aid promise, a billion dollars, during the Cairo conference.

Washington announced $212m additional aid and the European Union pledged about €450m at the conference.

AFP

SANA’A: The Shia militia that has seized Yemen’s capital announced yesterday it had dis-solved parliament and installed a “presidential council” to run the country in the face of a power vacuum.

The Houthi militia said it would set up a national council of 551 members to replace the legislature.

The five-member presidential council will form a transitional government to govern for two years, the Houthis announced in a “constitutional declaration”.

The declaration came after a Wednesday deadline set by the militia for political parties to resolve the crisis passed with no agreement.

After another round of talks late on Thursday attended by UN envoy Jamal Benomar, partici-pants had said negotiations would resume today.

Yesterday, Benomar flew out of the country before the declaration was announced.

Yesterday’s declaration sug-gested that the Houthis had taken on more powers, including form-ing the new parliament and con-trol over the military and security forces.

Some political leaders attended the announcement, which took place at the Presidential Palace. Former interior and defence min-isters were also there, indicating that the announcement might

have had the blessing of some other political factions.

A senior American official said the United States was opposed to the Houthi militia’s creation of a “presidential council” in Yemen, after top US diplomat John Kerry met leaders from the Gulf Cooperation Council.

“No, we don’t agree with it, and they didn’t agree with it either,” the official told report-ers in Munich, when asked what Washington thought about yester-day’s developments in Yemen.

Hundreds of protesters took to the streets in the Yemeni city of Taiz to reject the Houthi takeover, eyewitnesses said.

Sunni tribal leaders in Marib

region of Yemen have urged GCC states not to abandon their coun-try, and to back them in the cur-rent crisis.

A spokesman for Marib’s Sunni tribal leaders, Saleh Al Anjaf, was quoted by Alarabia.net as exhort-ing Yemeni tribes to stand up to the Shia Houthis.

Al Anjaf said what had hap-pened in his country would lead to civil war.

In Qatar, people commented on social networking sites, with one person saying he feared that Iran, which was active in Syria, will now be active in Yemen. “The Shia extension is at our doorstep,” another commentator said. THE

PENINSULA & AGENCIES

Clerics slam burning of Jordan pilotIssue taken up in Friday sermons

Foreign Minister H E Dr Khalid bin Mohamed Al Attiyah with US Secretary of State John Kerry and ministers from other GCC countries during a meeting in Munich, Germany, yesterday.

DOHA: Most imams in Qatar, in their Friday sermons yester-day, slammed the burning alive of a Jordanian pilot by Islamic State (IS) militants late last week and dubbed them as cow-ards and anti-Islamic.

It was the first Friday after the pilot’s burning shocked the world. In Islam, the only one who can punish a human with fire is Allah, the Almighty, a cleric told this newspaper.

At the Grand Mosque, Imam Dr Thaqueel Al Shummari, in his sermon, denounced the burning alive of Maaz Al Kassasbeh.

It was an anti-Islamic act, for Maaz was a prisoner of war (PoW) and he should have been treated as per principles laid down in Islam on how to treat a PoW, he said.

A PoW can either be released or exchanged for another PoW or released in lieu of cash, said the prominent Islamic cleric.

The Grand Mosque, now renamed as Imam Mohamed bin Abdul Wahab Mosque, was packed to capacity with the devout.

Al Shummari said that Muslims were being burnt alive in differ-ent places around the world: in Central Africa, in Myanmar and in Iraq and Syria. “This must stop.”

Even if an enemy is to be killed, Islam says he should be killed in a merciful way without much pain, said the cleric.

And mutilating the body of

a human, whether he has been killed or has died, is forbidden in Islam. It is ‘haraam’, he said.

In Soheb Mosque in Al Wakra, Imam Sheikh Ahmed Al Buanain, while delivering the Friday ser-mon, said the Islamic State was a group of terrorists.

“They are misusing the name of Islam and destabilising Muslim countries and we are just watch-ing as mute spectators.”

Al Buanain, who is Secretary-General of the International Muslim Preachers’ Association, decried the killing of Al Kassasbeh as an act against humanity.

In Al Khor’s Osman bin Affan Mosque, Imam Dr Mohamed bin Hassan Al Miraikhi said these were times of crises as people were deviating from Islam. He slammed the pilot’s killing by the IS militants.

In Assailiya mosque, Imam Dr Abayee said, while denouncing the burning of Al Kassasbeh in no uncertain terms, that some-times people could be confused with such acts of brutality and terror and may think Islam per-mits them.

“That’s not true. Islam forbids such acts of terror,” he said.

On the website of International Muslim Scholars’ Union, of which he is head, noted cleric Dr Yusuf Al Qarawadi said the rights of PoWs are protected in Islam.

“What we are seeing is against the teachings of Islam,” said Al Qaradawi. THE PENINSULA

Shia militia dissolves Yemen parliament

GCC states call for bigger international role in Yemen MUNICH: Gulf Arab States have called for a “stronger” position by the international community on the situation in Yemen, a senior US State Department official said yester-day following meetings with US Secretary of State John Kerry.

The meeting between Kerry and ministers from Bahrain, Oman, Qatar, the United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia and Kuwait also expressed concern about Iran’s influence in Yemen but no arrangements were made to talk to Tehran about it, the official added.

“There was a feeling that the international community needed to take a stronger position, either through the UN or another mul-tilateral organization,” the official added.

REUTERS

UAE: No victory over IS minus Iraqi Sunnis

Oil surges after US jobs reportNEW YORK: Oil prices scored strong gains for a second day yesterday, helped by a surpris-ingly robust jobs report in the United States, the world’s larg-est crude consumer.

US benchmark West Texas Intermediate (WTI) for March delivery advanced $1.21 (2.4 per-cent) to settle at $51.69 a barrel.

Brent North Sea crude for March, the European benchmark, closed at $57.80 a barrel, up $1.23 (2.2 percent) from Thursday’s closing level.

After several days of volatile trade, the two key futures con-tracts posted their best weekly performances since February 2011: WTI jumped 13.6 percent and Brent added 9.4 percent.

AFP

DUBAI: The United Arab Emirates pulled out of US-led air strikes on Islamic State posi-tions partly because it thought they could not succeed without a push to arm Sunni Muslim tribes in Iraq, a newspaper close to the government said yesterday.

The UAE’s decision to withdraw its planes, reported by US offi-cials after a Jordanian pilot was shot down over Syria on December 24, raised fears that regional sup-port for the coalition air campaign might be slipping.

The UAE has not commented on the reports of its decision but US officials said it was concerned about pilots’ safety.

Al Etihad newspaper said yes-terday that was only part of the reasoning.

“The other important part behind the UAE’s reservation ... was its discontent with the coalition, which has not kept its promise in supporting the Sunnis in Anbar, not preparing them, equipping them and arming them to take part in the war against Daesh,” the newspaper’s editor-in-chief, Mohammed Al Hammadi, wrote in an editorial.

“Neither the air strikes nor the media war are enough to defeat Daesh,” said the paper, using a pejorative Arabic acronym for Islamic State.

Etihad reported that UAE officials had brought up their

concerns about the failure to arm Sunni tribes at a meeting of coun-tries supporting the coalition in London

“The UAE said: ‘the main point is what we have expressed in the last London conference — coali-tion against Daesh — about the continuation of not empowering the Sunni tribes in Anbar province despite the promises to do so’,” the paper reported.

It did not give any details on the source of its information.

Tribes in Iraq’s western Anbar province, which borders Jordan, Syria and Saudi Arabia, are divided. Some have chosen to join the hardline Sunni Muslim fight-ers of Islamic State, while others are fighting the group.

The fall of large parts of Anbar province to Islamic State poses a major security risk for its neighbours.

The United States has said the coalition includes more than 60 countries, carrying out various tasks, including military attacks, humanitarian support, propa-ganda and cracking down on Islamic State’s finances.

Washington says Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Jordan and Bahrain have also participated in or supported air strikes in Syria. Australia, Britain, Canada and France have joined US operations against Islamic State targets in Iraq.

REUTERS

02 HOMESATURDAY 7 FEBRUARY 2015

www.thepeninsulaqatar.com

DOHA: Qatar Airways (QA) will participate in the Eighth Annual Qatar UK Career Fair in London on February 21.

QA will take part with its Al Darb Qatarisation Programme which provides citizens with opportunity to join the airline and the fast-growing aviation sector, QNA reports, quoting a QA statement.

At the fair organised by the Qatari embassy, QA will update Qatari students graduates in the UK on the programmes under Al Darb Qatarisation initiative.

The initiative offers employ-ment and training oppor-tunities, helps students and graduates pursue studies to develop careers and prepares them for strategic roles and responsibilities in the airline.

Akbar Al Baker, QA Group Chief Executive, said: “We are pleased to have a long-standing presence at the fair to introduce rewarding opportunities the airline provides and the long- term career paths available for Qatari talents joining the car-rier’s team.”

Dr Kholode Al Obaidli, Vice-President, National Talent Management, QA, said, “We are pleased to showcase our pro-grammes to attract more Qatari

talent to work for the airline.”QA will participate along

with nine other Qatari compa-nies. The airline will interview students who have applied for Al

Darb programmes and highlight employment and career devel-opment opportunities.

Al Darb initiative includes Nat iona l Scholarsh ip Programme, Graduate Development Programme in cooperation with Massey University in New Zealand, Aviat ion Management Programme and Internship Programme. QA’s talent management team, trained graduates and those on QA scholarships studying in the UK will highlight benefits of QA’s employment and training programmes, answer students’ questions and share expertise.

Al Darb offers employment and training opportunities for new graduates and scholar-ships to university students. It supports 23 majors and targets students with high performance and potential and professionals in the aviation sector. It seeks to train participants to apply what they learn in real-life situations, not just in Qatar but also in locations across the globe.

THE PENINSULA

QA to take part in Eighth Qatar-UK Career Fair

Qatar Airways launches FCB Holiday campaign DOHA: Qatar Airways (QA) has launched a new market-ing campaign as part of its three-year partnership with FC Barcelona.

Following the success of the first TV spot, The Land of FC Barcelona depicting the imaginary world of FC Barcelona where Lionel Messi taught football skills and Andres Iniesta was an artist, the airline unveiled the second campaign at a press con-ference at Four Seasons Hotel in Doha, QNA reports.

Present were QA Group Chief Executive, Akbar Al Baker, Vice-President, Economic and Strategic Area, FC Barcelona, Javier Faus, FCB’s First Team players Gerard Pique and Neymar da Silva and Manel Arroyo, Vice-President, Media Area, FC Barcelona.

Starring FC Barcelona stars Messi, Neymar Jr., Pique, Iniesta and Luis Suarez, QA’s new commercial has the players visiting destinations within the airline’s network, including the Maldives, Dallas, Paris and Seoul. The spot to be aired in English, Arabic and Catalan takes a humorous look at the players participating in activities at each destination. THE PENINSULA

DOHA: RasGas has cele-brated five major safety mile-stones of 2014, including 50 million man-hours without lost time injury (LTI) at the corporate level.

Other milestones included 20 million man-hours without LTI at the operations group level, 30 million man-hours without LTI achieved by the Operation Projects Department, 18 years without LTI by the Shorebase team of the Offshore Asset and safe shutdowns.

A ceremony was held in Ras Laffan to celebrate the achievements.

Hamad Rashid Al Mohannadi, CEO, RasGas, said: “Each mile-stone is a remarkable achieve-ment on its own but together they demonstrate our employ-ees’ commitment to safety as a core value and corporate stra-tegic choice.”

The company has established a culture of safety awareness, implementing and maintaining a safe work environment through

strategies, systems and proc-esses. Safety has become inher-ent in daily work as employees

take responsibility for their and colleagues’ safety.

RasGas also recognised the

role of its contractors in ensur-ing safety in all of its locations.

THE PENINSULA

RasGas officials, employees, contractors and guests at the event in Ras Laffan.

RasGas celebrates five safety milestones

DOHA: Qatar Tourism Authority (QTA), along with the Ministry of Culture, Arts and Heritage, Qatar Museum Authority and Supreme Committee for Delivery and Legacy 2022 are represent-ing Qatar in the fifth Gulf Heritage Village Festival in Kuwait.

The annual festival in Sheikh Sabah Al Ahmad Cultural and Heritage Village aims to pre-serve Gulf heritage through competitions, exhibitions and other activities.

The village over an area of thousands of kilometres, has

its own cultural and histori-cal characteristics. It includes museums, competitions, awards, entertainment, traditional bazaars, children’s games, res-taurants, cafes, camel riding and old car shows, among others.

An artificial lake highlights Gulf marine heritage.

Heritage competitions involv-ing camels, falcons, horses and goats and archery are held daily on the outskirts of the village.

The village has a pavilion for every GCC member state, including Qatar, to showcase their local arts, heritage, antiq-uities, handicrafts and folk art.

“QTA is participating as part of its efforts to promote Qatar as a world tourism destination with deep cultural roots.

“QTA believes that heritage plays a key role in preserving national identity by helping improve individuals and the community,” said Rashed Al Qurese, Chief Marketing and Promotions Officer, QTA.

“Through its participation, QTA also seeks to stress the importance of a unified GCC tourism strategy and initiatives to deepen tourism cooperation.”

QTA is promoting Qatar’s tourism sector by opening

representative offices in key tourism markets. It recently opened two offices in Jeddah and Riyadh to expand its promotion in the GCC.

QTA statistics show that Qatar’s tourism industry con-tinued to grow last year, ben-efitting from investments and promotions.

More than 2.8 million people of whom 40 percent from the GCC visited Qatar last year.

Since 2009, the number of international visitors to Qatar has increased by 91 percent, with annual average rise of 13.9 percent. THE PENINSULA

DOHA: A four-day work-shop on preparations for the 13th UN Congress on Crime Prevention and Criminal Justice has ended.

The workshop in Civil Defence Officers Club was attended by the preparatory commit-tee, officials from the Ministry of Interior, Foreign Ministry, Ministry of Justice, Public Prosecution and the General Secretariat of the Cabinet.

It discussed the agenda of the congress, and the role of the United Nations Office and its support to member states in the field of justice and crime prevention.

Maj. Gen. Abdullah Yusuf Al Mal, Adviser to the Minister of Interior and Chairman of the

committee, honoured speakers and presented certificates to participants.

Experts from UN offices in New York and Vienna high-lighted topics of the workshops of the congress to be held on April 12-19 in Doha.

Dr Ahmad Hasan Al Hamadi, Director, Legal Affairs Department, Foreign Ministry, and Vice-Chairman of the committee, said the workshop discussed the UN conventions related to the prevention of cor-ruption, transnational organised crime and terrorism. The work-shop focused on four key points — the rule of law, international cooperation, new and emerging crimes, and public participation.

THE PENINSULA

Qatar attends Gulf Heritage Village Festival

Workshop reviews UN congress agenda

Officials at the event.

DOHA: The second Mal Lawal exhibition has been extended until March 21, organisers have announced.

Mohammad Abdu Al Samad Al Mulla, Chairman, Coordinating Committee of the exhibition, said the expo was supposed to end by this month and was extended because of the huge turnout.

The number of visitors has reached 100,000, a local Arabic daily has reported.

Sultan Jassim Al Jassim, a sport researcher, told Al Raya that Mal Lawal 2 attracted all segments of society — citizens, expatriates, offi-cials, tourists and artists.

He said the expo links the cur-rent generation with the past as it displays ancient pieces which reveal their ancestors’ lifestyle.

Presented by Qatar Museums, the expo is showcasing 4,000 arte-facts from over 110 Qatari private

collectors and 42 from the GCC.In nine categories, Mal Lawal

(‘from the old days’ in Qatari dia-lect) features manuscripts, weapons, Islamic collections, old maps, ethno-graphic/heritage items, antiquities, jewellery, clothing, accessories and other rare items.

The Qatari women’s basketball team was among those who recently visited the expo at Doha Exhibition Centre.

Amal Al Khaldi, Member of the team, said the expo offered an oppor-tunity to see how people in the past lived. It is not enough to learn about the past through stories, seeing the pieces exhibited here make people understand it better, she added.

Another member of the team, Ghalia Al Obaid, said she acquired important information about herit-age she didn’t know before and saw rare old sport photos.

THE PENINSULA

DOHA: The fourth edition of Al Galayel Championship for Traditional Hunting has attracted many Qatari youth and partici-pants from other GCC countries who want to experience the herit-age sport.

The month-long contest at Al Areeq Reserve south of Qatar com-prises four heats with 16 teams.

The first heat began on Wednesday and included four teams — Al Sadd team and first-timers Al Asifa, Al Sailiyya and Marmi teams.

The third of the first heat yester-day saw Al Sailiyya in the lead after hunting four habaris (bustards) equivalent to 80 points, garnering 180 points in the first three days of the week-long contest.

Amid yesterday’s competition, Al Sailiyya team surpassed second day’s leaders Marmi team by 20 points.

Talal Hussein Al Jalabi, Member, Al Sailiyya, said he was taking part for the first time and found the com-petition very exciting.

“Our team is doing very well in the lead with 180 points which has boosted the members’ morale,” he told Al Sharq yesterday.

“The competition this year is not easy because there are excellent teams with experienced members who have competed in the champi-onship in the past,” he said.

Saudi Mohaamed Nasser Al Shairi, member, Al Sailiyya, said Al Galayel is also popular in his country.

“Our team has obtained excellent

result and we feel that we can do bet-ter because we have determination, although the difference between our score and Marmi’s is very small,” he said.

Mohammed Nasser Al Marri, member, Al Sailiyyam, said he was taking part in the championship for the second time and that he was proud to revive the tradition of his ancestors through his participation.

Although 80 percent of Al Sailiyya team is new, he said they were eyeing the top position and he believed they could win.

Marmi scored 40 points yesterday, taking its total to 160. Al Asifa ended the day with 100 and Al Sadd with 40 points. “We are not new in the com-petition. We have experience because we have members who participated last year and traditional hunting is our hobby,” said Ibrahim Nasser Al Naimi, Leader, Marmi.

“It is good to see participants from GCC join their Qatari counterparts and we are proud of them. I have a member from Kuwait in my team and last year I had one from the UAE,” he added.

Ali Al Ghaithal, Member, Al Asifa, said he participated last year and his team won.

“Until the final moment we will keep fighting to gain more points. If we don’t win, still we will feel proud because participating in the cham-pionship is a dream for those whose hobby is hunting,” he added.

THE PENINSULA

16 teams vying for Al Galayel honours

Mal Lawal 2 exhibition extended until March 21

DOHA: A Ministry of Environment patrol foiled a bid by a tanker to dump waste water in an undesignated area in Hadrami and initiated legal action against the owner, reports Al Sharq.

The ministry urged truckers to dump waste in designated areas and warned violators against legal action.

It said patrols are working round the clock to catch violators and protect the environment and urged the public to notify any violations by calling 998.

The ministry also urged farmers to use only recommended quantities of concentrated pesticides as they pose health and environmental hazards.

THE PENINSULA

Legal action has been initiated against the owner of the waste water tanker which was spotted in Hadrami.

Bid to dump waste water foiled

03SATURDAY 7 FEBRUARY 2015

www.thepeninsulaqatar.comHOME

DOHA: Minister of Youth and Sports H E Salah bin Ghanem bin Nasser Al Ali has called for a better understanding of National Sport Day so that the goal of the Emiri decree No. 80 of 2011 can be achieved.

During a meeting with doctors, nutritionists and fitness experts on the sidelines of a session on preparations for the Fourth National Sport Day, he pointed out challenges with the spread of chronic diseases such as obesity and diabetes and the increasing number of people living with them and stressed the need to eliminate wrongful behaviours by promot-ing sports.

The Minister hoped that the

next five years would see a decline in the incidence of chronic dis-eases that pose danger to the community and highlighted the role of experts in increas-ing awareness about the need for practising sports to ensure a healthy life for all.

“We seek to develop rules and regulations to help the commu-nity and involve specialists to put in place systems and programmes to achieve the goal.”

The meeting discussed ideas to help implement the Minister’s decision No. 140 of 2014 on the organisation of National Sport Day activities, QNA reports.

A National Sport Day commit-tee has been set up with members

from the Ministry of Youth and Sports, Ministry of Interior, Ministry of Finance, Supreme Education Council, Supreme Council of Health, Qatar Olympic Committee, and Aspire.

The Ministry of Culture, Arts and Heritage is taking part in National Sport Day celebrations for the fourth consecutive year.

National Sport Day Organising Committee Chairman Abdul Razak Abdullah Al Kuwari said the ministry is always keen to participate in national sporting events, especially National Sport Day, to achieve Qatar National Vision 2030 goals.

He said Minister of Culture, Arts and Heritage H E Dr

Hamad bin Abdulaziz Al Kuwari has recommended the formation of a committee to participate in activities.

The National Human Rights Committee, meanwhile, has com-pleted preparations to participate in activities on at Aspire Zone.

Abdullah Al Mahmoud, Head, Public Relations and Information Unit of the committee, said the panel is keen to interact with public institutions on the day and has lined up activities for differ-ent age groups and women.

He said the panel will organise a walk, as has been the case in previous years, in which Dr Ali bin Smaikh Al Marri, Chairman of the committee, senior officials,

employees and their families will take part.

Al Mahmoud said events include football, volleyball, table tennis, baby foot as well as a tug-of-war and games for children.

The committee always sup-ports activities that provide basic rights such as the right to sport and healthy body, he said, adding that Qatar has been proactive in providing a decent life for all.

As part of celebrations last year, the panel inaugurated its sports hall for staff. The hall has separate areas for men and women and offers facilities for table tennis, billiard, bodybuild-ing and gym.

THE PENINSULA

Greetings sent to Queen ElizabethDOHA: Emir H H Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani yesterday sent a cable of congratulations to Queen Elizabeth II of the United Kingdom on the anniversary of her accession to the throne.

Deputy Emir H H Sheikh Abdullah bin Hamad Al Thani sent a similar cable to the queen.

Prime Minister and Interior Minister H E Sheikh Abdullah bin Nasser bin Khalifa Al Thani also sent a greetings cable.

FM attends Munich forumDOHA: Foreign Minister H E Dr Khalid bin Mohamed Al Attiyah is leading Qatar’s delegation to the 51st Munich Security Conference, attended by heads of states and govern-ments, foreign and defence ministers, MPs and interna-tional experts. The conference which started 50 years ago is an international forum for dia-logue on security policy. The two-day event is discussing issues related to global secu-rity, peace, international crises and foreign policy strategies.

Organ transplants draft law reviewedDOHA: The Advisory Council’s Legal and Legislative Affairs Committee held its 43rd session under the chair-manship of Rapporteur Nasser Serayea Al Kaabi.

It studied a draft law on the regulation of human organ transplants and decided to sub-mit a report to the council.

Second Umrah batch leavesDOHA: The second batch of 94 workers of the Ministry of Municipality and Urban Planning left for Umrah.

This comes within the sec-ond phase of a programme with Doha Municipality and Al Ansar Campaign for Hajj and Umrah.

The ministry, represented by the municipality, enabled over 1,500 workers to perform Umrah in the first phase.

Safety alert over paratroop drillDOHA: The Armed Forces General Command has announced that Internal Security Force (Lekhwiya) will conduct training for para-troopers in Aspire Park on February 9-10 at an altitude of 5,000 feet. It urged people to take safety precautions.

Aspetar wins excellence award DOHA: Aspetar, the ortho-paedic and sports medicine hospital, has won the Gulf Excellence Award for Media for its website namat.qa

The awards ceremony was held in Riyadh on the sidelines of the 78th conference of the GCC Council of Health Ministers. Namat won first place as the best health web platform in the GCC. QNA

DOHA: Aspire Zone Foundation (AZF) is gear-ing up to receive thousands of enthusiasts of sports and physical activities from across Qatar for events throughout its venues on National Sport Day on February 10.

Following last years’ success-ful celebrations, Aspire plans to celebrate the day with events for people of all ages to pro-mote a healthy lifestyle.

Events have started with the announcement of registra-tion for 3km Fun Run around Aspire.

Last year, Fun Run attracted over 2,000 participants. Designed for all age groups and categories, including peo-ple with special needs, the race gives all family members an opportunity to enjoy physical activity.

Nasser Al Hajri, Member, Organising Committee, said, “National Sport Day is an important festivity and Aspire

DOHA: About 400 women attended a campaign organised to create awareness about cervical cancer in the ladies club at Aspire. It was held by Qatar Cancer Society (QCS) to highlight the main causes of the disease, ways to prevent it and provide women with a forum to ask questions about the diseases.

Participants also joined in a walk which was held to highlight the need for physical exercise to strengthen their immune system and increase their chances of preventing the disease. “QCS realises the importance of such events in increasing awareness about cancer in general and cervical cancer in particular,” said Mariam Hamad Alnoaimi, Director-General, QCS.

The society has launched an e-awareness campaign to educate the public on different types of cancer every month. Last month, it focused on cervical cancer and stressed the importance of educating women on the Pap test and vaccination to protect themselves from the disease. THE PENINSULA

Cervical cancer awareness campaign held

Some of the participants at the event.

Experts urged to create sports awareness

Zone and its member organisa-tions will exert all possible efforts to ensure an exceptional celebration that leaves every one with incredible experience.

“Preparations are part of AZF’s mission to promote healthy living and our role in achieving Qatar National Vision 2030 which focuses on human and social development as essential factors that drive progress and development we seek,” he added.

Abdullah Aman Al Khater, also member of the committee, said, “This year’s celebration will feature events, including open activities for all com-munity members like Family Cycling,

Fun Run and 5,000 Step Journey and women-specific activities to be held by Aspire Active.

“Girls will have an opportunity to take part in synchronised swimming to be held for the first time in Doha.

“There are also mother-daugh-ter and father-son activities, foot-ball tournaments and motor skills competitions.”

Twenty-four organisations and companies will mark the day at Aspire facilities with public and private events to encourage their employees and their families to engage in sport activities.

THE PENINSULA

DOHA: Qatar Motor Show 2015 which opened to the pub-lic yesterday at Qatar National Convention Centre (QNCC) attracted a large number of automobile aficionados and motorsports enthusiasts.

They witnessed the launch of some much-awaited brands in the region and took part in activities.

Harley Davidson and Mercedes organised competitions and gave away prizes. It hosted a photo competition where participants were asked to share their picture of H.O.G. Qatar chapter under the hashtag#HOG_qatar_chap-ter. The best picture won a spe-cial prize.

NBK asked visitors to share their photo via Instagram under the hashtag#MercedesBenz_Qatar and win a surprise gift.

Official retail bank partner Commercial Bank of Qatar also gave visitors a chance to win prizes by sharing a selfie on Twitter or Instagram with the Minicooper car at its stand under the hashtag#motorselfie.

Nasser Bin Khaled Automobiles, the dealer of Mercedes-Benz in Qatar, displayed four of its cars — Maybach S Class, AMG GT S,

CLA 250 and GLA 45 AMG.NBK also unveiled the new

Harley-Davidson Street 750, a new line to the 2015 assembly.

Powered by a new Revolution X liquid-cooled engine, with six-speed transmission, specially tuned shocks and frame and sus-pension made for tight turns and quick moves, Harley-Davidson Street 750 has been built to deal effortlessly with the urban gridlock.

Nasser Bin Khaled (NBK) Powered Sports announced its partnership with Husqvarna Motorcycle of Sweden.

The Audi sport stand featured Audi S3, Audi S6, Audi S7 and the favourite Audi Q5.

Porsche showcased the new Porsche Cayenne models. Boasting outstanding credentials for high-performance athleticism, Cayenne GTS and Cayenne Turbo S are standout extensions of Porsche’s commitment to developing every-day sports cars.

QNCC was also the first to host the Middle Eastern debut of the latest incarnation of a historic bloodline, Porsche 911 Targa 4 GTS. A special fourth regional premiere of Panamera Exclusive

Series thrilled visitors. Based on Panamera Turbo S Executive, the

new model delivers luxury and craftsmanship unrivalled in the

automotive sector.THE PENINSULA

Visitors at the exhibition at Qatar National Convention Centre .

Qatar Motor Show wows enthusiasts

Aspire ready for National Sport Day celebration

Abdullah Al-Khater, Member, National Sport Day Organising Committee, highlighting Aspire’s preparations at a meeting.

Dhreima holds Sport DayDOHA: Qatar Orphan Foundation (Dhreima) organised a sport day under the patronage of Qatar Women’s Sport Committee, with 40 employees taking part.

The day featured bas-ketball, handball, football and volleyball competi-tions in which Qatari women national teams participated.

Fatima Al Mulla, Head, PR, Dhreima, said the event aimed to promote sports and a healthy life-style in line with Qatar National Vision 2030 to prevent obesity, blood pres-sure and other diseases caused by a lack of physi-cal activity. QNA

04SATURDAY 7 FEBRUARY 2015

www.thepeninsulaqatar.com

Baher Amin

Top-of-the-line automotive brands in the industry revved up the excitement of hundreds of motor aficionados at the fifth Qatar Motor Show that opened to the public yesterday. Some 38 brands are showcasing their latest models on a 15,000sqm exhibition space at Qatar National Convention Centre. Organised by Qatar Tourism Authority, q.mediaevents and Fira de Barcelona, the show

which runs until Tuesday features Ferrari, Maserati, Lamborghini, Bentley, Porsche, Lexus, Volkswagen, Toyota, Ducati, Cadillac and scores of other models.

Dazzling models

Protesters clash with police

Teargas canisters are fired at protesters demanding the release of Bahraini opposition leader Sheik Ali Salman, during clashes with police in the village of Bilad Al Qadeem south of Manama, yesterday.

05SATURDAY 7 FEBRUARY 2015

www.thepeninsulaqatar.comMIDDLE EAST

AMMAN/PARIS: Islamic State (IS) said a coalition air strike yes-terday killed an American woman it was holding hostage in Syria, in a claim that could not be immedi-ately verified. The claim came as Amman said dozens of its jet fight-ers had struck IS, widening their campaign from Syria to include tar-gets in neighbouring Iraq.

Britain-based monitor the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said more than 30 IS militants were killed in coalition raids yesterday around Raqa, the “capital” in Syria of the militants’ self-proclaimed caliphate.

In a statement on its websites, IS said the woman, whom it named as Kayla Jean Mueller, was buried under rubble after a raid by a Jordanian warplane in Raqa.

“The plane from the crusader coa-lition bombed a position outside the city of Raqa after Friday prayers,” it said.

“No fighter was wounded but we can confirm that an American hos-tage was killed in the strikes.”

The statement did not show any pictures of a body and there was no independent confirmation of the claim. US officials declined to comment.

“I cannot confirm those reports in any way. I’m not going into specifics of Americans held overseas,” State Department spokeswoman Marie Harf said.

The horrifying images of a Jordanian pilot burned alive by the IS group this week has put added pres-sure on the US to ensure rapid rescue operations for its partners.

US officials confirmed last month that the United Arab Emirates — nicknamed “Little Sparta” for its initial eagerness to enter the fray against IS — had pulled out of the US-led air campaign over concerns about rescue operations.

According to a report in the New York Times, the UAE has demanded that the America relocate its US Combat Search and Rescue Team, currently based in Kuwait, closer to the conflict zone in northern Iraq.

Its concerns were triggered by the capture of Jordanian pilot Maaz Al Kassasbeh, and will only have been sharpened by the horrifying death depicted in the Islamic State video released this week.

Kassasbeh was captured in December after being shot down near Raqqa, the de facto capital of the Islamic State group in north-ern Syria, and a rescue operation

came too slowly to save him. His fate will be playing on the minds of pilots throughout the coalition, said a former French intelligence chief, speaking anonymously. “Images like that certainly hurt morale,” he said. “Pilots are people like anyone else, not robots. They know they are taking risks flying over these hostile zones, but after this, they will think twice.”

General Gilles Desclaux, who was head of operations for France’s air force until 2011, said the incident would undoubtedly play on pilots’ minds but “they are psychologically prepared”.

In his day, Desclaux said, pilots wrestled with the possibility they might be ordered to drop a nuclear bomb — a task that meant “no hope of returning” — but that fear was some-thing they were trained to ignore.

“For a while now, this war has not been a gentleman’s affair. In the past, pilots who were shot down would be captured and placed in detention,” said the former intelligence chief.

“All that is finished. Now, it’s bar-barity, especially in these asymmetri-cal wars. The pilots know that if they go down in the heart of the conflict, their lives are not worth much.”

AFP

AMMAN: Thousands marched in Jordan’s capital yesterday demanding ret-ribution for the burning alive of a fighter pilot by the Islamic State (IS) group, as Amman intensified its fight against the jihadists. Jordan said dozens of its jet fight-ers struck IS on Thursday, and had wid-ened their campaign from Syria to include targets in neighbouring Iraq.

Foreign Minister Nasser Judeh told CNN the operation was “the beginning of our retaliation over this horrific and brutal murder of our brave young pilot.”

Earlier this week, IS released a video of the gruesome killing of airman Maaz Al Kassasbeh, whose death has sparked grief and deep anger in Jordan. In Amman crowds of people waved Jordanian flags and pictures of Kassasbeh. “We are all Maaz... We are all Jordan,” they chanted, some holding placards aloft that read: “Yes to punishment. Yes to the eradication of terrorism.”

Holding a portrait of the pilot with the words “Maaz the martyr of righteousness”, Jordan’s Queen Rania joined the marchers

after weekly prayers at the Al Husseini mosque. Demonstrator Yussef Al Soud said: “We are here to express our anger. We are all soldiers... ready to avenge the pilot.”

The queen, who did not address the rally, had called in November for redoubled efforts in the anti-IS offensive, which she said was a “fight for the Middle East and Islam”. Judeh declined to reveal Jordan’s military plans but said it would hit the mili-tants with all its might. “We’re going to go after them and we will eradicate them... We are at the forefront. This is our fight,” he told CNN.

Jordan has conducted regular air raids against IS across the border in Syria as part of a US-led campaign against the Sunni extremist group. Asked by Fox Newsin a separate interview if Jordan was now also targeting IS in Iraq, he replied: “That’s right. Today, more Syria than Iraq. It is an ongoing effort.”

He added: “They are in Iraq and they are in Syria and therefore you have to tar-get them wherever they are.” American F-16 and F-22 jets provided security to the

Jordanian fighter planes, with additional support from refuelling tankers and sur-veillance aircraft, US officials said.

On Thursday, King Abdullah II and Queen Rania visited Kassasbeh’s family, which has urged the government to “destroy” the mili-tants, to pay their condolences.

Safi Al Kassasbeh branded IS “infidels and terrorists who know no humanity or human rights”, and said the “international community must destroy” the group.

On Wednesday, in response to the killing, Jordan executed two Iraqi convicts — female would-be suicide bomber Sajida al-Rishawi and Al Qaeda operative Ziad Al Karboli.

IS had offered to spare Kassasbeh’s life and free Japanese journalist Kenji Goto — who was later beheaded — in exchange for Rishawi. Jordanian television suggested Kassasbeh was killed on January 3, before IS offered to spare him and free Goto in return for Rishawi’s release.

The European Union yesterday pledged one billion euros ($1.14bn) in funding for the crises in Syria and Iraq and the fight against IS. AFP

AMMAN: King Abdullah II of Jordan, a member of the US-led coalition battling the Islamic State (IS) group, faces the toughest challenge of his 16-year reign after IS murdered a downed pilot.

One of Washington’s closest allies in the region, Abdullah was catapulted into the forefront of the conflict with the militants after IS burned the captured Jordanian airman alive. The British- and US-educated Abdullah became king in 1999 following the death of his father Hussein, a seasoned states-man who had weathered many challenges of his own.

On Wednesday, the day after IS released a video purporting to show F-16 pilot Maaz Kassasbeh being burned alive, Jordan executed two

Iraqi jihadists, including would-be suicide bomber Sajida Al Rishawi.

Analysts say Abdullah, who celebrated his 53rd birthday on January 30, was decisive in his response. “King Abdullah is very realistic when faced with crises,” said Mohammad Abu Rummaneh, a researcher at Jordan University Center for Strategic Studies.

Robert Danin, a senior fellow at the US-based Middle East Studies Council on Foreign Relations, agreed. “King Abdullah has been clear-minded in seeing IS as a threat both to the kingdom and to the regional order in the Middle East,” he said.

Abdullah, a military man who was thrust into the limelight of politics following his father’s death,

cut short a visit to Washington and vowed a harsh revenge for the exe-cution of Kassasbeh.

The king attended Britain’s prestigious Sandhurst Military Academy like his father, earned his wings as a Cobra attack helicopter pilot and also commanded Jordan’s Special Forces before becoming monarch.

Jordan’s constitution gives Abdullah extensive powers. He appoints governments, approves legislation and can dissolve parlia-ment. He has solid ties with tribes that form the backbone of the Hashemite kingdom.

Abdullah has described Jordan as a country wedged between “a rock and a hard place” — a ref-erence to its location between

war-wracked Iraq and the Israeli-occupied West Bank. The war that has raged for nearly four years in neighbouring Syria has added to the challenges facing Jordan and the brutal rise of IS has put the country further on edge.

In September, Jordan joined the US-led coalition of Arab and Western countries, launching air strikes on jihadist targets in Syria where IS has set up a “caliphate” that also straddles areas it holds in Iraq. Nadim Shehadi, director of the US-based Fares Centre for Eastern Mediterranean Studies, said “Daesh”, the Arabic acronym for IS, poses a clear threat to both Jordan and coalition partner Saudi Arabia.

AFP

Cleric removed for objecting to pilot burning: MonitorBEIRUT: A Saudi cleric with the Islamic State (IS) group has been removed from his post after objecting to the burning alive of a captured Jordanian pilot, a monitor said yesterday.

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said the cleric, known by the nom-de-guerre Abu Musab Al Jazrawi, raised objections during a Thursday meeting to the way pilot Maaz Al Kassasbeh was killed.

“He raised objections during the weekly meeting that takes place between clerics and IS leaders in the Aleppo area,” said Observatory director Rami Abdel Rahman. “He said the way Kassasbeh had been killed violated religious traditions.”

Abdel Rahman said Jazrawi was removed from his post after the criticism, and could also face a religious tribunal and possible punishment. IS and its supporters have sought to produce religious justifications for the hor-rific method by which they killed Kassasbeh, but ordinary Muslims and Islamic scholars have fiercely criticised the execution. AFP

US woman hostage killed in coalition raid: ISKayla Jean Mueller buried under rubble after a raid by a Jordanian warplane in Raqa

King Abdullah faces toughest challenge

Amman rally calls for revenge

Israel, Jordan leaders confer after IS murderJERUSALEM: Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu spoke by telephone to Jordan’s King Abdullah II, the premier’s office said, apparently their first contact since Jordan announced its ambassador was returning to Tel Aviv.

“Prime Minister Netanyahu extended his condolences to the King and to the Jordanian people” over the murder of a Jordanian air force pilot by the Islamic State group, a statement said.

Netanyahu “noted the impor-tance of the Jordanian ambassa-dor’s return to Israel and of the joint commitment to maintaining the status quo at the holy sites” in east Jerusalem, it said. On Monday, Amman announced that its envoy would return to his post in Tel Aviv three months after being recalled over “violations” at Jerusalem’s Al Aqsa mosque. AFP

DUBAI: Saudi Arabia yes-terday postponed for a fourth straight week the flogging of blogger Raef Badawi who was sentenced to 1,000 lashes for insulting Islam, his wife said.

Ensaf Haidar said that he was not flogged, but she did “not know the reasons”.

The 30-year-old received the first 50 lashes of his sentence outside a mosque in the Red Sea city of Jeddah on January 9.

The next round of punish-ment was postponed for the following two weeks on medi-cal grounds.

Badawi’s case has already prompted worldwide outrage

and criticism from the UN, US, the EU and others.

Haidar, who has sought asylum with their three chil-dren in Canada, has voiced concerns about the health of her husband, who has suffered from hypertension since his arrest in June 2012.

Badawi co-founded the now-banned Saudi Liberal Network along with women’s rights cam-paigner Suad Al Shammari, who was also accused of insult-ing Islam and arrested last October.

The charges against Badawi were brought after his group criticised clerics and the

kingdom’s religious police, who have been accused of a heavy-handed enforcement of Shariah law.

Badawi was initially sen-tenced to seven years in jail and 600 lashes for insulting Islam, but an appeals court overturned the verdict and sent his case back for retrial.

His sentence was then increased to 10 years and 1,000 lashes.

UN human rights chief Zeid Ra’ad Al Hussein urged ailing Saudi King Abdullah before his death to pardon Badawi, saying flogging is “cruel and inhuman”. AFP

Saudi postpones flogging of blogger for fourth week

Jordan’s Queen Rania holding a placard during a demonstration in the capital Amman to express solidarity with the pilot murdered by the Islamic State group. Wearing a black suit and a red-and-white checked keffiyeh over her shoulders, the Queen joined thousands of people who turned out after midday prayers and marched from the central Al Husseini mosque to Palm Park, about one kilometre away.

E S TA B L I S H E D I N 1 9 9 6

CHAIRMAN

SHEIKH THANI BIN ABDULLAH AL THANI

ACTING EDITOR-IN-CHIEF

DR KHALID AL-JABER

k.aljaber@pen.com.qa

ACTING MANAGING EDITOR

HUSSAIN AHMAD

hussain@pen.com.qa

EDITORIAL

TEL: 44557741 / 44557743

FAX: 44557746 / 44557758

P. O. BOX: 3488, DOHA, QATAR

E-MAIL: editor@pen.com.qa

ADVERTISING: TEL: 44557837 / 780 FAX: 44557870

CLASSIFIED: 44557857 E-MAIL: adv@pen.com.qa

SUBSCRIPTION / HOME DELIVERY

TEL: 44557809 /839 FAX: 44557819

E-MAIL: info@tawseelqatar.com

SUBSCRIPTION RATES: ANNUAL QR 675

6 MONTHS QR 340

Cartoon Arts International / The New York Times Syndicate

BY NATALIE NOUGAYRÈDE

LITTLE noticed in the debate on how Europe should deal with Russia, looms a big anniver-sary: 70 years ago this week

Churchill, Roosevelt and Stalin met in Yalta to decide post-war arrangements following the defeat of the Nazis. It is often said that it was at Yalta that the big three carved up Europe.

In fact that had already happened, to a certain extent, with the advance of Soviet forces. One thing they agreed on was that “free elections” should be held in occupied countries – a promise Stalin

never upheld as he moved quickly to impose com-munist dictator-ships everywhere.

Roosevelt later privately admit-ted that he and Churchill had been naive and were tricked. But on the other hand, one of their main aims was to ensure the USSR would soon join the war effort against Japan: Stalin traded that off for Soviet domination over eastern Europe.

For east Europeans Yalta is a place name that became a codeword for the cynical sacrifice of small nations’ free-dom to great powers’ spheres of influ-ence. Russians, on the other hand, tend to only conceive of their role as that of liberators. Today, the war in Ukraine has brought the “zones of influence” debate back to Europe. There is some irony that the ongoing geopolitical struggle between Europe and Russia is centred on the country where the Yalta conference was held.

In this confrontation, the battle over narrative is as important as the out-come of the shooting war. Vladimir Putin has made a staple of invok-ing history to justify his actions. In a resounding speech given in March 2014, he described Russia’s annexa-tion of Crimea as correcting a histori-cal injustice. He also said that Russian compatriots, wherever they live in the former Soviet Union, are part of a sin-gle Russian nation – meaning he could conceivably make moves to ensure their “protection” too. This kind of logic amounts to consigning the whole of Europe’s rule-based order, of which the USSR and later Russia had been major stakeholders, to the dustbin of history.

AdvertisementIn any part of the world there is an

understandable temptation to project the knowledge and emotions of today on to past events, and thus to rewrite history.

But totalitarian regimes rely on offi-cial versions of history and propaganda to consolidate their very existence – something Orwell has well described. Putin knows that the way Russians relate to their own history is key to his political legitimacy. Recognising Soviet crimes in easternEurope would be par-amount to undermining his domestic narrative.

Last November Putin said the fol-lowing about Russia: “We understand the fatality of an ‘iron curtain’ for us. We will not go down this path, no one will build a wall around us.” It was new-speak at its crudest. It reminded me of the movie Goodbye Lenin, in which the children of an East German commu-nist woman who has a stroke during the fall of the Berlin wall, try to allay her trauma by, among other things, produc-ing a fake TV news reel in which East Germans fleeing to the West are por-trayed as West Germans seeking refuge in the GDR.

Creating an alternative reality, Putin casts Russia as a victim, not the

aggressor that it is in Ukraine. In his attempt to carve out a zone of influ-ence in Europe, he draws from the notion that Russia was mistreated by the West in the aftermath of the cold war. There is much myth-building here, which doesn’t mean the West didn’t make mistakes.

As the historian Mary Elise Sarotte has written, there simply never was a western promise not to enlarge Nato. Gorbachev accepted the terms of German reunification laid out by George Bush and Helmut Kohl because he desperately needed German finan-cial assistance for the crumbing Soviet economy.

Yet there is a also a caveat, in that Russia was put in a situation where an old cold war structure, Nato, sim-ply grew larger, and nothing else was invented to build a common Europe-Russia framework for the future.

Sarotte has put this down not to western cynicism, but to how fast events were unfolding in 1989-91. The international actors were juggling so many balls that there was little time to be creative.

France and Germany were able to reconcile after World War II because there was a common assessment of his-tory. It is only when Russia and Europe share a common understanding of past events that something durable can be built between them.

But that, crucially, will require Russians coming to terms with their self-inflicted wounds. It is telling that Putin has never officially visited the small monument to the victims of the Gulag in the centre of Moscow.

So far, there is not much to be opti-mistic about.

Just recently, the speaker of Russia’s Duma said it should vote to condemn the “annexation” of East Germany by West Germany in 1990. In Putin’s world – as in the old Soviet joke – the future is certain, it is the past that is unpre-dictable. THE GUARDIAN

The Islamic State (ISIS) demonstrates yet again that terrorist groups like few things more than waging a

propaganda war against governments which underrate their prowess. Two weeks ago, US secretary of state John Kerry told at a conference of 20 countries that had assembled in London to discuss ISIS that the tide was beginning to turn against the group. Mr Kerry indicated that the fight would “neither be short nor easy” but suggested that coalition airstrikes and Kurdish, Iraqi ground forces had “definitively” halted ISIS’ advance and, in some cases, reversed it. Anti-ISIS forces have reportedly recovered more than

700 square kilometres including the city of Kobane, recently. ISIS in turn — as if to demonstrate its clout and defiance of norms — executed two Japanese hostages and a Jordanian pilot who was pointedly dressed in an orange suit resembling those used by the US for prisoners in Guantanamo Bay, placed in a cage, doused in fuel and set ablaze.

ISIS continues to surprise govern-ments with its attempts at establishing State-like structures in areas it con-trols and is clearly keen on extending the range of its ‘caliphate’. It uses oil revenues to sustain itself and uses acts of brutality to recruit thousands of disgruntled radicals based in Europe. It has taken advantage of ungoverned

spaces that have emerged owing to the Syrian civil war and the Sunni-Shia divide in Iraq. With the killing of the Jordanian pilot it is now cleverly open-ing another front with the Hashemite kingdom. Jordan is ruled by a pro-Western monarchy that wields power along with tribes who control the armed forces. The kingdom’s internal cohesion is, however, not a given. Palestinians comprise more than 60% of the coun-try’s population and are politically dis-empowered. The country’s economy is struggling, unemployment levels are high and the Islamist influence is on the rise. ISIS is thus attempting to exacer-bate faultlines in Jordanian society by staging a dramatic confrontation with

King Abdullah. Western nations are reconciled to the idea that the battle against ISIS will be a long one. Their leaders are averse to the idea of com-mitting more troops and resources fol-lowing the scarring experience of wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. Militaries insist on having a clear strategy before send-ing in soldiers. The fight against ISIS is also hamstrung by regional politics. Major powers like Saudi Arabia, Iran, Turkey and Syria work at cross-pur-poses. The London conference on ISIS did not invite the Kurds owing to Iraqi and Turkish sentiments, even though Peshmerga fighters are at the forefront of fighting ISIS. The battle blunders on.

The Hindustan Times

Putin is rewriting cold war history

I am the father of this country and 44 of my children were killed. They can no longer be brought back. This tragedy happened during my term, and I will carry this to the end of my days.

Quote ofthe day

Benigno AquinoPhilippine President

The other side

Russia wasn’t

tricked by the

West about

the expansion

of Nato. This

narrative is

propaganda.

THE heinous attacks on Charlie Hebdo saw the world unite in fury and condemnation against terrorism. World leaders descended on Paris to express solidarity with the French and the French

proclaimed that they would never be intimidated, their values would never be trampled on, and the enemies will be dealt with severely. But every cataclysmic event leads to some soul-searching. After the initial condemnation of terrorists and an expression of unity came the tough questions, which the French asked themselves and the world asked the French: Did the Charlie Hebdo journalists take their freedom to the extreme to provoke the attack? Was the attack driven purely by the anti-prophet cartoons or did it have anything to do with France’s treatment of its immigrants? Can France be accused of some double standards on the issue of freedom of expression, on the one hand giving free rein to and even encouraging attacks on Islam and Muslims while being overprotective of Jews and their icons? Was the attack a result of the deep sense of alienation of French immigrants and the open discrimination they faced? These and other questions are currently being debated in France. There has been an acknowledgement that there is an element of truth in all these questions and a willingness to address them is vital to rooting out terrorism.

The plain fact is that for more than thirty years, successive French governments have failed to address the social exclusion and economic deprivation and backwardness faced by the country’s millions of immigrants, especially from Algeria and other parts of Africa. The youth unemployment in the immigrant neighbourhoods is said to be a huge 40 percent and the feeling of discrimination is very high. Terrorism cannot be condoned and justified, but how does the state prevent a few members of these communities from going astray? As the government of Francois Hollande works hard on

avoiding a repetition of Charlie Hebdo attack, he would have to address these issues first. The French far-right parties, which have already benefited from the Paris attacks and are ratcheting up anti-immigrant belligerence, must realize that they too need to work for the rehabilitation and integration of immigrants.

France must also take a close look at its application of secularism. Laicite, the concept of state secularism, is a defining principle of the French republic, but this brand of secularism is a more toxic one, being characterized by an antipathy to the practice of religion, compared to the more liberal secularism of other European countries like Britain.

France has some five million Muslims, close to eight percent of the population. Expecting this huge number to eschew practice of their faith is a utopian idea.

(In)equality in France

Issues conveniently thrown under the carpet are coming to the fore after the Charlie Hebdo attacks.

Editorial

Democracies struggling to stem ISIS onslaught

06SATURDAY 7 FEBRUARY 2015

www.thepeninsulaqatar.com

07SATURDAY 7 FEBRUARY 2015

www.thepeninsulaqatar.comVIEWS

BY OLIVER HOLMES

Lebanon has begun removing political posters and party ban-ners from neighbourhoods of the capital in a move to unify a country still divided from a civil war, following an agreement between the militant and political group Hezbollah and its

rivals. Beirut is fragmented into fiefdoms where political banners and photographs of dead fighters and warlords have marked territory controlled by various groups since the start of the civil war that raged from 1975 to 1990.

The poster ban was agreed by Lebanon’s main political group-ings after gun battles, car bombs and skirmishes on the border with Syria highlighted the need for reconciliation. Shia Hezbollah supports Syrian President Bashar Al Assad against a majority Sunni insurgency, angering its Lebanese political rivals who say it is dragging the small Mediterranean state into conflict 25 years after peace accords.

In neighbourhoods where Hezbollah is strong, posters of men who fought Israel for decades have been joined by pictures of young men killed more recently in Syria’s civil war.

“Ripping down the posters is sensitive but it’s a political decision,” said a Beirut Hezbollah supporter who asked to remain anonymous as he was not authorised to speak to the media.

“One family on this road was upset because we took down a photo of their son who died late last year fighting in Syria,” he said, speaking in Zarif, an old district full of battered French-style houses.

He said 1,000 posters in the area had been removed. Only a few faded photos of Assad and some tattered yellow Hezbollah flags remained.

Bashir Itani, a senior member of a rival political party, Future Movement, said: “You can now walk in the streets and find it clean ... you couldn’t previously see the sky due to the banners.”

A large photograph of exiled Sunni politician Saad Hariri, a former prime minister, was taken down from the Beirut neighbourhood of Tariq Al Jadideh. In Lebanon’s coastal cities of Sidon and Tripoli, centres of sectarian violence between armed groups, a similar cleanup was launched. Most residents interviewed by Reuters supported the move in Beirut, where the posters are seen by many as a menacing way to mark out turf. But they said it was just one step in dampening sectarianism in a country still divided into Christian, Sunni and Shia, Druze and Alawite villages and districts. “It doesn’t change what people feel inside,” said one man. REUTERS

BY MUKULIKA BANERJEE

A small but significant elec-tion will take place in the world’s largest democracy today. Small, because just 13

million voters — more than the Dutch electorate but only 1.4 percent of India’s — will go to the polls to elect a local government for the territory of Delhi. Significant, because a new insurgent party and its campaigning has provoked passionate and novel, popular debates about what kind of politics and society Indians want.

The established national parties in the fray are the Congress and the BJP. The Congress is in deep decline, so the con-test in Delhi is in fact a face-off between the BJP — the mighty and well-financed Goliath whose leader swept to national power in May 2014 — and the slight-framed David of the Aam Admi (common man) party, formed only two years ago on a financial shoestring. Full disclosure: my brother-in-law is a senior member of AAP, but my interest in Indian elections is longstanding and primarily as a social scientist.

The BJP’s large, well-oiled political machine has rolled through Delhi, an entire cabinet of national ministers and MPs drafted in to campaign. The formi-dable network of party workers map each constituency meticulously, profiling sup-porters by genealogy, caste and religion in readiness to appeal to primordial loy-alties. They present the well-rehearsed message of Narendra Modi’s extraor-dinary leadership and commitment to development as the only answer to India’s problems.

This message has served them well

over the past 12 months. In contrast, AAP’s campaign is less orchestrated but increasingly gathering support from voters who feel this underdog deserves a second chance.

AAP had formed a minority govern-ment about a year ago but the chief min-ister resigned after 49 days, citing the collusion of Congress and the BJP in the Assembly in obstructing the passing of anti-graft legislation.

AAP self-consciously distances itself from establishment politics which is dominated by money, cronyism and intimidation. Instead it offers zero tol-erance of corruption, transparency in its own dealings and an issue-based mani-festo that focuses on the basic rights of citizens — of water, electricity, health, women’s safety and education.

AAP’s determined focus on the con-crete interests of the common man has dragged campaigning into the underbelly of Delhi that was kept well-hidden from President Obama last month. Unfamiliar names — Trilokpuri, Narela, Buradi, Matiala, Kiradi, Karaval Nagar — have entered public discourse. Here live the people — 80 percent of Delhi’s popula-tion — who keep Delhi running, work-ing in the vast informal economy that services the shiny coat of the beast. An astonishing two-thirds of the population live on less than ̀ 13,500 (about £140) per month; in contrast, 7 percent of Delhi’s population lives on `30,000 to `120,000 per month.

Inspired, journalists with a conscience left their air-conditioned offices to cover them, making this faceless mass visible, the three-quarters of Delhi’s population that does not have access to water supply where girls have schooled themselves to

need the toilet just once a day. They live in dwellings that are often

built on land whose legal ownership remains uncertain, making their exist-ence fragile and insecure. Viewers saw how new roads, icons of development, are built annually over last year’s accu-mulated sewage and rainwater, raising the ground level and turning homes into subterranean hovels in just a few years. These stories showed that this majority too belongs to the city of Delhi.

So the stakes are big in this small elec-tion because it has raised a fundamen-tal question — what kind of politics do Indians want? Do they desire a politi-cal establishment that caters to the few who bob on the surface or do they want a party that unashamedly prioritises the needs of the majority below? A poli-tics that cannot account for 75 percent

of their funding or one that aspires to total transparency?

A politics that can plaster the city with expensive advertisements or one in which young people campaign with flashmobs and songs? A politics of an electoral jug-gernaut that demolishes everything in its path or a groundswell of ordinary people that raises David up to look Goliath in the eye?

These are the questions that the Delhi campaign has raised, and it has forced vot-ers to choose not just between one party and another, but also between one kind of politics and another. This Delhi election is a contest over opposed ideas of political norms, behaviour and morals.

While it is true that elections are not sufficient to achieve true democracy, the current Delhi election campaign has powerfully demonstrated what elections

can in fact achieve, in any democracy in the world.

This election has showed that Goliath can be challenged, that the established way is not the only way but change requires courage and conscience. This election has shown that the democratic process can throw up alternatives to the status quo, that not all politicians are corrupt, that politics need not be dirty, and that the high voter turnout rates in India should not be taken for granted, given the voter apathy in western democracies. The electorate’s commitment to political participation can be rewarded with real alternatives. Elections are carnivals in India, and turn the world upside down for a few weeks. The question on 7 February is whether the underbelly will flex its political muscle and flip the beast, for five years at least? GUARDIAN NEWS

Why Delhi poll could be a turning point

BY LEONID BERSHIDSKY

As European lead-ers engage in shuttle diplomacy to still the armed conflict in east-

ern Ukraine, Crimea, where the Russian onslaught began almost a year ago, has become all but forgotten. It isn’t the subject of any talks, and the international sanctions imposed on Russia for annexing the Ukrainian peninsula are light compared to the ones stemming from later phases of the conflict. Yet Crimea provides a key to understanding the crisis and its potential resolution: Ultimately, it’s all about how the people in disputed areas see both Russia and Ukraine.

Ukrainian political scien-tist Taras Berezovets, a Crimea native, recently started an initia-tive he called Free Crimea, aided by the Canada Fund for Local Initiatives and aimed at build-ing Ukrainian soft power on the peninsula.

To establish a starting point, he started by commissioning a poll of Crimean residents from the Ukrainian branch of Germany’s biggest market research organisa-tion, GfK. The poll results were something of a cold shower to Berezovets.

GfK Ukraine’s poll wasn’t based on actual field work, which is understandable, since a Ukraine- based organisation would have a tough time operating in today’s Crimea, which is rife with Russian FSB secret police agents and ruled by a local government intent on keeping dissent to a minimum.

Instead, it conducted a tel-ephone poll of 800 people in

Crimea. The calls were made on January 16-22 to people living in towns with a population of 20,000 or more, which probably led to the peninsula’s native population, the Tatars, being underrepresented because many of them live in small villages.

On the other hand, no calls were placed in Sevastopol, the most pro-Russian city in Crimea. Even with these limitations, it was the most representative inde-pendent poll taken on the penin-sula since its annexation.

Eighty-two percent of those polled said they fully supported Crimea’s inclusion in Russia, and another 11 percent expressed par-tial support. Only 4 percent spoke out against it.

Berezovets is inclined to credit Crimea’s “Orwellian atmosphere” for some of that near-unanimity. He’s probably right. Given the ubiquitous FSB attention and the arrest of some pro-Ukrain-ian activists — the persecution of filmmaker Oleg Sentsov is the cause celebre — as “extremists,” few people are likely to be brave enough to condemn the annexa-tion on the phone, especially when the caller is a stranger.

In Russia itself, polls show 85 percent support for Putin, but it’s hard to calculate how much of that is motivated by caution: it’s best to treat those numbers as an indication that most people are willing to acquiesce than to protest.

Yet answers to other, more neutral questions show Crimeans are not interested in going back to Ukraine.

Fifty-one percent reported their well-being had improved in the past year. That especially concerns retirees, who started

receiving much higher Russian pensions.

Being part of a wealthier state — and, despite its recent economic woes, Russia is still far wealthier than Ukraine — is a powerful lure, despite a drop-off in tourism revenues, the peninsula’s major source of income.

Berezovets’ group estimates dropped to $2.9bn in 2014 from $5.1bn the year before — but that is being compensated by transfers from Moscow.

In 2015, the peninsula will receive 47bn roubles ($705m), or 75 percent of its budget, from Russia, not counting the increased pensions. Ukraine never financed the peninsula at that level: in 2014, it planned to transfer 303bn hryvnias ($378m at the time) to Crimea.

Crimeans’ year of upheaval has made them sophisticated news consumers: They have learned to reject the propaganda flying at them from all sides. Eighty per-cent say Ukrainian coverage of their region is all or mostly lies.

While 84 percent watch Russian television from time to time, only 10 percent say they trust it. Social networks have become the most trusted source of information: 29 percent say they rely on them.

The armed conflict in eastern Ukraine was the biggest worry for 42 percent of respondents. It’s more important to them than inflation, which 40 percent of the respondents named, or the penin-sula’s de facto transport blockade by Ukraine, which worries 22 per-cent of those asked.

Taken together, these answers suggest that a majority of Crimeans see Ukraine as a poor and unstable country where

the media are hostile toward them. That’s largely an accurate assessment that has nothing to do with fear or brainwashing from Moscow. All things con-sidered, Ukraine is not at this point a welcoming alternative to Russia.

As Berezovets pointed out, the Kiev government has not even passed a single legislative act to help the Ukrainian patriots who fled the peninsula after the annexation.

It’s true they are a smaller group, by two orders of magni-tude, than those displaced by the fighting in the east — the govern-ment puts their number at 19,941 people — but they are still a siza-ble community of pro-Kiev people who were left to fend for them-selves after leaving their houses and other property in what is now Russian territory.

Legal and diplomatic mat-ters aside, people want to live in countries that they see as wealthy, non-threatening and protective of them. It’s hard to imagine any-one thinking of today’s Russia in these terms, but people’s thinking is often relative.

That’s why, according to Russian data, 850,000 people from Ukraine’s eastern regions have fled across the border. Fewer refugees — 610,174 people — chose to resettle in other parts of Ukraine.

Kiev’s claims on Crimea and the rebel-held areas are legally indisputable, and the March 2014 referendum that Russia used as justification for Crimea’s annexa-tion was a half-hearted imitation of a ballot carried out in the sights of Russian guns.

Still, Ukraine has a long way to go before people in these areas actually want to be governed from Kiev. A year after what Ukrainians call their “revolu-tion of dignity,” many of them appear to believe even Moscow is preferable.

Propaganda can’t solve this problem: It takes money, political will and a friendly attitude toward wary, disillusioned citizens.

WP-BLOOMBERG

Lebanon removes legacy of the civil war

Aam Admi Party’s determined focus on the concrete interests of the common man has dragged campaigning into the underbelly of Delhi that was kept well-hidden from President Obama last month.

Most Crimeans prefer Russia

Aam Admi Party (AAP) chief Arvind Kejriwal greets supporters during an election rally in New Delhi. India’s Prime Minister Narendra Modi faces the first real test of his popularity today when voters in Delhi elect a new state government.

Eighty-two percent of those polled say they fully support Crimea’s inclusion in Russia, and another 11 percent express partial support. Only four percent spoke out against it.

Beirut governor Ziad Chebib (centre) supervises the removal of political posters and party banners along a street in Beirut.

08 MIDDLE EASTSATURDAY 7 FEBRUARY 2015

www.thepeninsulaqatar.com

Kerry stresses March deadline to Iran FMMUNICH: Secretary of State John Kerry stressed to his Iranian counterpart yester-day that the US aimed to meet a late March deadline for a deal reining in Iran’s nuclear programme.

Kerry “reiterated our desire to move towards a political frame-work by the end of March”, a senior US official said after Kerry met Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif for two hours in Munich.

Kerry met with his Iranian counterpart on the sidelines of security talks in Munich, as a March deadline for a framework nuclear deal looms.

Kerry arrived in southern Germany late on Thursday, fly-ing in from Kiev where he met Ukrainian leaders amid a new diplomatic push to end the deadly conflict in eastern Ukraine.

Global powers have been struggling for more than a year to pin down a comprehensive deal to rein in Iran’s suspect nuclear programme, after an interim accord was struck in November 2013.

After missing two previous deadlines, the group known as the P5+1 — Britain, China, France, Germany, Russia, and the United States — set a March 31 deadline for a political agreement.

That would be followed by a final deal setting out all the tech-nical points of what would be a complex accord by June 30.

But the atmosphere has been

complicated by hardliners both in Iran and the United States, with US lawmakers threatening to impose new sanctions on Iran if the March deadline is missed.

So far, Iran has frozen some of its nuclear enrichment pro-gramme in return for limited sanctions relief.

“We face a major opportunity in resolving the Iranian nuclear issue. China is ready to enhance communication and cooperation with relevant parties to work for the early conclusion of a just, bal-anced and comprehensive agree-ment,” China’s State Councillor Yang Jiechi told the Munich Security Conference.

But in a renewed sign of ten-sions, Iran’s President Hassan Rowhani berated the world’s nuclear powers on Wednesday, saying atomic weapons had not kept them safe, and reiterating his country was not seeking the bomb.

He avoided explicit mention of the ongoing nuclear talks, but accused atomic-armed states of hypocrisy. “They tell us ‘we don’t want Iran to make atomic bombs’, you who have made atomic bombs,” Rowhani said.

Kerry and Zarif have met many times over the past months, mostly in European capitals, as they have sought to hammer out a deal. Their political teams have also been negotiating behind the scenes.Both diplomats were in Germany to take part in the annual security conference that

this year will focus on the “col-lapse of the global order,” and which US Vice President Joe Biden is also attending.

Government leaders from around the world will discuss the conflict in Ukraine, war in Syria, the threat from Islamic State jihadists and other crises from Ebola to refugees.

Today, Kerry is due to meet his Russian counterpart Sergei Lavrov for talks focusing on Syria, Ukraine and the Iranian nuclear programme.

The Ukraine conflict, Islamic State group and the wider “col-lapse of the global order” are the main topics before the annual meeting at the three-day Munich Security Conference.

Also on the agenda will be Iran’s nuclear talks, the Syrian war and mass refugee crisis, West Africa’s Ebola outbreak and cyber terrorism.

German Chancellor Angela Merkel is among 20 heads of gov-ernment and state on the guest list, along with 60-odd foreign and defence ministers including US Secretary of State John Kerry and Russia’s top diplomat Sergei Lavrov.

Ukraine’s President Petro Poroshenko and US Vice President Joe Biden will also join the 51st MSC, a gathering launched at the height of the Cold War that is expected to focus heavily on the new East-West standoff over Ukraine.

AGENCIES

Egyptian military kills 27 militants in SinaiCAIRO: Military air strikes killed 27 militants in Egypt’s Northern Sinai yesterday in one of the biggest security operations in the region in months, security sources said. Apache helicopters targeted militants from the Sinai Province group, which pledges allegiance to Islamic State (IS), who have seized swathes of Iraq and Syria, the sources said.

Sinai Province, fighting to topple the Cairo government, has claimed responsibility for coordinated attacks that killed more than 30 members of the security forces in late January. After that bloodshed, President Abdel Fattah Al Sisi told Egyptians the country faced a long, tough battle against militants.

Sinai-based militants have killed hundreds of soldiers and police since then army chief Sisi toppled president Mohamed Mursi of the Muslim Brotherhood in mid-2013 after mass protests against his rule.

A security crackdown on Brotherhood supporters—hundreds were killed in the streets and thousands arrested—has weakened the group.

Yesterday, Brotherhood supporters and security forces clashed in the Cairo suburb of Matariya, the state news agency reported.

Eighteen people were killed in the Brotherhood strongold during the January 25 anniversary of the start of the 2011 uprising that ousted autocrat Hosni Mubarak. Egyptian authorities have also jailed liberal activists, including some that gained prominence in the 2011 popular uprising that toppled autocrat Hosni Mubarak, on charges of violating a law that effectively bans protests.

Benghazi suicide blast kills father, sonBENGHAZI: A suicide car bomber struck a Libyan army post in the battleground second city of Benghazi yesterday, killing a father and son, the military said. Milud Al Zwei, spokesman for the army’s special forces, said the blast killed the two bystanders and wounded 20 other people, mostly soldiers.

The bomber was headed for an army post in the central district of Al Lithi but was intercepted and blew up his car short of the target, he said. Benghazi has been gripped by a months-long battle pitting Islamist militias against forces loyal to an internationally recognised government and its backer, General Khalifa Haftar.

The Islamists, who had been using the port to resupply with arms, were now cornered in the Souk al-Hut (fish market) district. But Katibat Rafallah Al Sahati, one of the militias, issued a statement on its Facebook page denying the army had made major advances in the eastern city, which Islamists seized last summer.

REUTERS/AFP

TUNIS: Tunisian Prime Minister Habib Essid prom-ised quick reforms to stimulate growth as he took office yester-day at the head of a coalition government combining secular and Islamist parties.

Four years after toppling auto-crat Zine El Abidine Ben Aliand inspiring Arab Spring uprisings in nations like Egypt, Libya and Syria, Tunisia is widely praised as a model for the region, having held free elections last year and adopted a new constitution.

But it faces pressure from its international lenders to curb high public spending, including by cut-ting politically sensitive subsidies on basic foods and fuel. Jobs, high

living costs and economic oppor-tunities are the main worry for most Tunisians. “After the suc-cess of the democratic transition, now we must make a successful economic transition, stimulate growth, fight poverty and open new windows of hope to desper-ate youths,” Essid said.

“We must immediately start structural reforms of the economy and new development schemes because temporary solutions are no longer appropriate.”

Essid, an independent, will lead a coalition between the secular Nidaa Tounes party, which won the most seats in elections in October, its Islamist rival Ennahda and other smaller

parties. It took a month to negoti-ate the line-up of the new cabinet, in which Ennahda will lead the employment ministry and hold three other junior ministerial posts.

The government sees economic growth accelerating to 3 percent in 2015 from an estimated 2.5 percent in 2014, while the budget deficit is expected to narrow to 5 percent of gross domestic product from 5.8 percent.

Essid also faces security chal-lenges. The armed forces are cracking down on militants who emerged after the 2011 revolu-tion and have carried out attacks mostly on the military.

REUTERS

JERUSALEM: A senior Israeli official suggested yesterday that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu had been misled into thinking an invitation to address the US Congress on Iran next month was fully sup-ported by the Democrats.

Netanyahu was invited by the Republican speaker of the house, John Boehner, to address Congress on March 3, an invita-tion Boehner originally described as bipartisan.

The move angered the White House, which is upset about the event coming two weeks before Israeli elections and the fact that

Netanyahu, who has a testy rela-tionship with President Obama, is expected to be critical of US policy on Iran.

“It appears that the speaker of Congress made a move, in which we trusted, but which it ulti-mately became clear was a one sided move and not a move by both sides,” Deputy Israeli Foreign Minister Tzachi Hanegbi told 102 FM Tel Aviv Radio yesterday.

The interviewer asked if that meant Netanyahu had been “misled” into believing Boehner’s invitation was bipartisan, a char-acterisation Hanegbi did not contest.

Asked whether the prime min-ister should cancel or postpone the speech, Hanegbi said: “What would the outcome be then? The outcome would be that we forsake an arena in which there is a going to be a very dramatic decision (on Iran).” The invitation has caused a furore in Washington, leading to much criticism of Boehner by Democrats and repeated state-ments by Boehner and other Republicans explaining their position.

Top Democratic lawmaker Nancy Pelosi said on Thursday the event was “politicised” and she hoped it would not take place

— piling pressure on Netanyahu after the White House said it would not meet him during the visit. Netanyahu has denied seek-ing electoral gains or meddling in internal US affairs with the speech, in which he is expected to warn world powers against agreeing to anything short of a total rollback of Iran’s nuclear programme. A Netanyahu spokesman declined to com-ment on Hanegbi’s comments. Hanegbi is a senior member of Netanyahu’s Likud party.

Acknowledging that Democrats had been “pained” by the invita-tion, Hanegbi said Netanyahu and

Israeli emissaries were making “a huge effort to make clear to them that this is not a move that flouts the president of the United States”. Yet Hanegbi said the address to Congress could help pass a bill, opposed by Obama, for new US sanctions on Iran.

“The Republicans know, as the president has already made clear, that he will veto this legislation. So in order to pass legislation that overcomes the veto, two-thirds are required in the Senate. So if the prime minister can persuade another one or two or another three or four, this could have weight,” he said. REUTERS

Senior Shebab commander killed in US drone strikeMOGADISHU: Somalia yes-terday confirmed the death of Shebab commander Yusuf Dheeq in a US drone strike south of Mogadishu last week.

“The killing of terrorist leaders through precision, low risk strikes such as this one, increases the opportunities for bringing peace and stability back to Somalia,” the government said in a statement.

Abdi Nur Mahdi, also known as Yusuf Dheeq, was killed by Hellfire missiles launched from a US drone on Saturday afternoon.

Witnesses said over the week-end that a house used by members of the Al Qaeda-linked Shebab militants had been hit in the air raid.

Dheeq was a senior figure in Shebab’s intelligence unit, the Amniyat, responsible for external operations and security planning.

Somalia’s government wel-comed Dheeq’s death and warned other militants to surrender and renounce violence or face further attacks.

“To those who choose to con-tinue to follow the path of vio-lence and destruction, be aware: the government and its allies will continue to target you and your network, as we have done previously, and will do again and again and again, until the threat from the Shebab menace within Somalia and the region as a whole no longer remains,” it said.

The death of Dheeq follows that of Shebab leader Ahmed Abdi Godane who was killed in a US air strike last September.

There are roughly 100 US military advisors, mainly Green Beret special forces, deployed to Somalia to help the government in its fight against Shebab, offi-cials said.

The Shebab militants are fight-ing to overthrow Somalia’s inter-nationally backed government and have also carried out a string of revenge attacks in neighbour-ing countries.

Dheeq’s role is believed to have been coordinating cross border attacks, including in neighbour-ing Kenya, where Shebab gunmen massacred 67 people in a 2013 attack on the Westgate shopping mall in Nairobi.

AFP

Nuclear issue on agenda at Munich Security Conference

ANKARA: Turkish foreign minister Mevlut Cavusoglu yes-terdaypulled out of a security conference in Munich at the last minute, saying he did not wish to attend a joint session with an Israeli delegation.

Relations between Israel and Turkey remain strained since a major rupture in 2010, when Israeli soldiers killed nine Turks travelling in a Turkish-led humanitarian aid convoy attempting to break a blockade of Gaza.

“I was going to attend the

conference but we decided not to after they added Israeli officials to the Middle East session at the last minute,” Cavusoglu told a news conference in Berlin, where he has been meeting Turkish ambas-sadors based in Europe.

Withdrawing from the meeting was nothing to do with Turkey’s relationship with Germany, he said in the remarks broadcast by Turkish state television TRT.

Despite being major trading partners, Israel and Turkey — former allies — frequently engage in bitter verbal exchanges.

President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, an outspoken advo-cate of the Palestinian cause, last year likened the actions of Israel to those of Hitler, in comments that led Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to accuse him of anti-Semitism.

Last month Turkish Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu in turn likened Netanyahu to the Islamist militants who killed 17 people in Paris, saying both had committed crimes against humanity.

REUTERS

Turkey pulls out of Munich meet to avoid Israeli delegation

German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier (left) with his Iranian counterpart Mohammad Javad Zarif ahead of bilateral talks during the 51st Munich Security Conference (MSC) in Munich, southern Germany, yesterday.

Speaker misled PM on Congress speech: Israeli official

New Tunisian govt takes officeTunisian President Beji Caid Essebsi with his new government after a swearing-in ceremony at the Carthage Palace in Tunis yesterday.

09SATURDAY 7 FEBRUARY 2015

www.thepeninsulaqatar.comINTERNATIONAL

Canada’s top court allows doctor-assisted suicideOTTAWA: Canada’s supreme court yesterday unanimously struck down a ban on doctor-assisted suicide for mentally competent adults suffering from an incurable disease, reversing a decision on the books since 1993.

The ruling was, however, sus-pended for one year to allow law-makers an opportunity to enact new rules surrounding the issue.

The court ruled that an earlier ban on the practice was too broad, saying it wrongly applied to more people than the small group it was meant to protect — “vulner-able persons from being induced to commit suicide at a time of weakness.”

It noted that making it a crime to assist another person who is “grievously and irremediably ill” in ending their own life had left the sick with only two options: sui-cide “often by violent or dangerous means,” or suffering until natural death.

“The choice is cruel,” the court concluded.

Nothing in the court’s ruling indicated that doctors would be compelled to take part in assisted suicide if asked by a patient.

“Physician-assisted death is the existential and moral issue of our time,” said parliamentary deputy Steven Fletcher.

Fletcher, who is a paraplegic, had proposed loosening the ban on doctor-assisted suicide last year, and said he looked forward to working to revise the rules.

It was not immediately clear if that process would occur before or after Canada’s general election in October, or if doctor-assisted suicide would become an election issue.

Fletcher said he agreed with the court, but said he favours main-taining some kind of regulations to prevent abuses.

The Canadian Medical Association said it would consult with the government on a new framework.

The CMA said in a statement it “recognizes that there are rare occasions where patients have such a degree of suffering, even with access to palliative and end of life care, that they request medical aid in dying.

“We believe in those cases... that medical aid in dying may be appro-priate.” AFP

NIAMEY: Boko Haram mili-tants yesterday launched an attack on a border town in Niger that left a number of peo-ple dead, the first such assault in the country by the Islamists now being hunted by regional forces.

Soldiers repelled the assault on the town of Bosso, but it marked yet another expansion of violence attributed to Boko Haram, which has waged a worsening six-year insurgency centred in northeast-ern Nigeria.

Local radio reports said three

troops from Niger were injured in the fighting that broke out around 0800 GMT and saw an unknown number of Boko Haram fighters killed.

“We’re hearing about quite a few dead on the Boko Haram side,” a humanitarian source said. “It’s a fair number. There were clearly people killed.”

The attack came a day after Niger announced it would ask its parliament to approve on Monday sending troops to Nigeria to fight the militants. Cameroon and Chad have already targeted the

Islamists with their militaries in recent days.

“We could hear the sound of weapons all around the town, often very near our windows. There was the noise of heavy weapons and of light arms, mak-ing our houses shake,” one resi-dent said.

Niger’s army took on the Nigerian jihadists alongside troops from Chad who have been stationed in Bosso since Monday, a humanitarian worker said, stat-ing that Boko Haram “took the municipality” for a time before

being “driven back to Nigeria”.However, a local leader said

only that Niger’s troops fought back the raid, while the Chadians were stationed at a distance.

A resident who spoke on con-dition of anonymity said soldiers from Chad and Niger “were all over the streets” of Bosso.

“It was like a race across the town,” one resident said. “As the fighting drew near, we heard cries of ‘Allahu Akbar’ (God is Greater). We heard an aircraft fly over the town.”

AFP

WASHINGTON: President Barack Obama believes the United States must resist the temptation to “over-reach” in its foreign policy and have “strate-gic patience” when it comes to tough international problems.

In a 29-page memo to Congress required under law, the White House broadly outlined Obama’s foreign policy priorities for the rest of his time in office.

The president made the case for a more deliberative, cautious and restrained US foreign policy.

“The question is never whether America should lead, but how we lead,” Obama wrote in his intro-duction, describing challenges including violent extremism, Russian aggression, cyberat-tacks and climate change that he believes are best addressed by mobilising international coalitions.

The United States cannot try to “dictate the trajectory of all unfolding events around the

world” as it does not have infinite resources nor influence to tackle complex problems that cannot be fixed only with its military might, he said.

“We must always resist the overreach that comes when we make decisions based upon fear,” Obama said.

“The challenges we face require strategic patience and persist-ence,” he said — comments likely to be painted as vacillation or obfuscation by his political rivals.

The strategy echoes Obama’s foreign policy mantra — informally summed up as “don’t do stupid stuff” — adopted in the wake of damaging simultaneous wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.

“We shifted away from a model of fighting costly, large-scale ground wars in Iraq and Afghanistan in which the United States — particularly our military bore, an enormous burden,” the strategy stated.

“Instead, we are now pursu-ing a more sustainable approach that prioritises targeted counter-terrorism operations, collective action with responsible partners, and increased efforts to prevent the growth of violent extremism and radicalisation that drives increased threats.”

Outgoing Defence Secretary Chuck Hagel described the docu-ment as “clear-eyed.”

“The strategy wisely calls for drawing on all the sources of our national power — including the unrivalled strength and resilience of America’s economy, diplomacy, and military, as well as our values,” he said in a statement.

But Republicans were less than enthusiastic.

“I doubt ISIL, the Iranian mul-lahs, or Vladmir Putin will be intimidated by President Obama’s strategy of ‘strategic patience.’” said Senator Lindsey Graham.

AGENCIES

Police find 61 bodies in MexicoACAPULCO: Mexican police have found 61 bodies, including children, in an abandoned crematorium in the Pacific resort of Acapulco, authorities said yesterday.

“We are working on identifying how many children, women and men” were in the building, Guerrero state chief prosecutor Miguel Angel Godinez said, without giving details about the cause of death.

Acapulco has been beset by drug gang violence but it was not immediately clear whether the bodies were murder victims dumped by a gang, or whether the crematorium’s operators left corpses there when the facility closed down.

“We can’t say for now that there is an indication that organized crime participated in this, but we can’t rule it out,” Godinez told Radio Formula.

Forensic experts and investigators are seeking to determine how long the bodies were left in the building, he said.

Top Paris sleuth charged with leaksPARIS: The head of Paris’ powerful criminal investigation force was charged and immediately suspended late on Thursday over allegations that he leaked details of a probe to a fellow top officer who was under inquiry.

Just minutes after the Paris prosecutor’s office said it was charging Bernard Petit, the French interior ministry announced his suspen-sion and named Christian Sainte, head of the judicial force for the city of Marseille, as his replacement.

The charges against Petit are unprecedented for the force — France’s answer to the FBI. Petit is accused of feeding information to Christian Prouteau, the former chief of the GIGN elite police unit, before he was taken into custody in October over a case relating to fraudulent documentation being given to illegal migrants.

Petit’s chief of staff, Richard Atlan, was charged with the same offence.

Uruguay expels Iranian diplomatJERUSALEM: Uruguay has expelled a senior Iranian diplo-mat over last month’s planting of a dummy bomb near Israel’s embassy in Montevideo, Israeli daily Haaretz reported yesterday.

Citing an unidentified “senior official in Jerusalem”, it said the diplomat was expelled two weeks ago and although Uruguayan offi-cials briefed Israel on the move they made no public announcement.

“Investigations carried out by Uruguay’s intelligence services after the discovery of the device yielded information pointing to a possible involvement of someone at the Iranian embassy,” Haaretz’s diplomatic correspondent wrote.

“The Uruguayan government turned to Iran’s government for information and after consultations between the two, it was decided to expel one of the senior diplomats at Iran’s embassy.”

Israel’s foreign ministry declined to confirm or deny the report.“I am aware of it but I have nothing to add,” a spokesman said.On January 8, Montevideo bomb squad officers detonated what

turned out to be a fake bomb near the Israeli embassy, located in the World Trade Centre office complex in the city. AFP

MOSCOW: German Chancellor Angela Merkel and France’s Francois Hollande met Vladimir Putin yesterday in a bid to pre-vent a further escalation of vio-lence in Ukraine but hopes of a breakthrough were slim.

The European leaders’ talks with the Kremlin strongman were widely seen as a last-ditch attempt to prevent the 10-month conflict in east Ukraine from spilling out of control.

Putin and the European duo held the closed-door talks in the Kremlin. A Kremlin official said the leaders were expected to dine together and said she did not know when the talks would end.

Ahead of the talks, Merkel played down hopes of a rapid end to the fighting as she and Hollande sought to convince Putin to sign up to a peace plan to stop a con-flict that has claimed more than 5,300 lives.

“We know that it is completely open as to whether we’ll succeed in achieving a ceasefire through these talks,” Merkel told reporters in Berlin before taking the initia-tive to Putin.

Merkel and Hollande flew first to Kiev on Thursday, hop-ing to revive a widely flouted truce accord agreed in Minsk last September.

The high-level shuttle diplo-macy to end the worst East-West crisis since the end of the Cold War came as US Secretary of State John Kerry also visited Kiev on Thursday. He is also set to meet Russia’s top diplomat Sergei Lavrov at a security conference in Munich this weekend.

Earlier yesterday, US Vice President Joe Biden said Ukraine was battling for survival in the face of escalating Russian military involvement.

“We, the US and Europe as a whole, have to stand with Ukraine at this moment,” Biden said in Brussels.

“Russia cannot be allowed to redraw the map of Europe.

“President Putin continues to call for new peace plans as his troops roll through the Ukrainian countryside, and he absolutely ignores every agreement his coun-try has signed in the past,” Biden said.

The West and Kiev accuse the Kremlin of sending troops and sophisticated weapons across the border to bolster separatists in Ukraine. Moscow has insisted it is not a party to the conflict.

Observers have warned that if the United States gets involved militarily the regional conflict could acquire a dangerous new dimension and turn into a proxy war between Russia and the West.

European Union officials said on Thursday that the bloc will black-list more Russian individuals.

Ahead of the talks, Hollande said a ceasefire should be “the first step” on the path to a comprehen-sive settlement

No confirmed details have emerged of what exactly the new European proposals contain and there is much disquiet in Kiev after the collapse of the previous peace deal.

Kerry said the plan was a “coun-ter-proposal” made by Merkel and Hollande to suggestions made earlier this week by Putin. The European plan was then presented to the US and Ukraine for their input on Wednesday.

As pressure grows for a peace-ful resolution, rebel and Ukrainian forces on the ground agreed a ceasefire for several hours yester-day around the battleground town of Debaltseve to allow civilians to leave, both sides said.

A journalist in Debaltseve said some 25 city buses sent by both the rebels and the Kiev govern-ment left the shattered town to take civilians out, although only one separatist bus was full.

One civilian and two soldiers were killed yesterday and 25 wounded in fighting over the past 24 hours, a government official said. AFP

Putin, Merkel, Hollande in key Ukraine talksCivilians evacuated from town

Obama security strategy warns against foreign policy overreach

Queen’s anniversary

Seeking justice

Members of the King’s Troop Royal Horse Artillery stage a 41-gun Royal Salute in Green Park, central London, to mark the 63rd anniversary of Queen Elizabeth II acceding to the British throne. The Queen marked the occa-sion privately at her estate in Sandringham, southeast England, where she spends her annual winter break.

Protesters and relatives of 43 trainee teachers who disappeared four months ago march during a demonstra-tion to demand justice for their disappearance, in Chilpancingo, Guerrero state. The Mexican government has said that the 43 were killed on the orders of a drug cartel that mistook them for members of a rival gang.

Boko Haram attacks Niger for first time

Egyptian gets 25 years for embassy bombingsNEW YORK: An Egyptian man was sentenced in New York yesterday to 25 years in US prison in connection with the 1998 bombings of US embas-sies in Kenya and Tanzania that killed 224 people.

Adel Abdul Bary, 54, pleaded guilty in September to three counts, including conspiring to murder US citizens abroad, as part of a deal that limited his maximum sentence to 25 years.

US District Judge Lewis Kaplan said Bary could be released in approximately eight years after receiving credit for more than 15 years already spent in UK and US custody. His primary role was that of a “communications facilitator” who disseminated messages from Al Qaeda leaders to the public. He was not accused of planning the attacks. REUTERS

10 ASIA / PHILIPPINESSATURDAY 7 FEBRUARY 2015

www.thepeninsulaqatar.com

Aquino demands rebels surrender top militantPhilippine leader tries to calm furoreMANILA: Philippine President Benigno Aquino yesterday demanded Muslim rebels sur-render a top terror suspect who escaped a bloody police raid or be “run over” in a government manhunt.

In a televised address, Aquino sought to calm public outrage over the death of 44 police com-mandos in a chaotic bloodbath that targeted two most-wanted terrorists.

Zulkifli bin Hir, better known as Marwan and a key suspect in the 2002 Bali bombings, was believed killed in the raid. Abdul Basit Usman — accused of taking part in at least nine bombings in the Philippines — is thought to be hiding with rebel groups.

“If Usman is in your territory, I expect you to surrender him to authorities, help arrest him, or don’t interfere in the manhunt,” Aquino said, addressing the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF).

“To those who have lost their way, who would still stand in our way, remember this: you are fight-ing the state, and we will run you over,” he said.

The MILF signed a peace treaty with Manila last year aimed at ending a decades-old rebellion that has claimed more than 120,000 lives.

“May this serve as a warn-ing and a reminder: we will get Usman, whatever you decide, regardless of who provides a safe haven for him, regardless of where he may be hiding,” he said.

Aquino has been heavily criti-cised over the botched January 25 raid on the southern island of Mindanao which descended into chaos when police were ambushed by rebel forces, including mem-bers of the MILF.

Usman, charged in Philippine

courts over bombings since 2003, is believed to have links to the Southeast Asian militant group Jemaah Islamiyah (JI) and the local Abu Sayyaf outfit. The US government is offering a $1mn reward for his capture.

DNA analysis by the FBI indi-cated that Malaysian bombmaker Zulkifli, a top JI militant and a key suspect in the 2002 Bali bombings that killed 202 people, was killed, Manila said. The US had offered a $5m bounty for him.

The bloodshed threatens not only the peace treaty, but Aquino’s hold on power as it has left secu-rity forces demoralised said Ramon Casiple, executive director of the Manila-based Institute for Political and Electoral Reform.

“It’s the biggest political crisis he has faced. The survival of his administration, his legacy, and the peace process are all at stake,” Casiple said.

“This can cost him his life. This is a very dangerous situation because he picked a fight with his bodyguards... It’s a terrifying situ-ation,” he said.

The Philippines has a long his-tory of military uprisings, includ-ing two that toppled presidents Ferdinand Marcos in 1986 and Joseph Estrada in 2001.

Aquino was ambushed in a failed coup against his mother, democracy icon Corazon Aquino in 1987. A bullet from the attack remains lodged in his neck.

Aquino tried to calm the furore during his Friday speech, pledging support for the slain police offic-ers’ widows and orphans.

“I am the father of this country and 44 of my children were killed. They can no longer be brought back. This tragedy happened dur-ing my term, and I will carry this

Banners and placards are displayed during an interfaith prayer rally in Manila yesterday to support the peace process amid calls to scrap the peace treaty with Muslim rebels.

to the end of my days,” he said.The president was savagely

criticised after he skipped arrival honours for the policemen’s remains at Manila airport. He also arrived late to funeral serv-ices the following day.

“He has gone from one blunder to another... This is a slow-burning crisis that is very difficult to stop

because the sacrifices involved are massive,” Casiple said.

Aquino said he made his own informal investigation into the incident and found that the situ-ation on the ground was “vastly different” than expected during planning.

He also announced Friday the resignation of national police chief

Alan Purisima, who oversaw the police assault.

Zulkifli’s death was the “most significant terrorist kill in recent years,” international terrorism expert Rohan Gunaratna, of Nanyang Technological University in Singapore, said.

Jakarta-based security ana-lyst Sidney Jones agreed Zulkifli

was a “big name”, but said his death would not have a huge impact on the new generation of fighters.

“It’s symbolic because he was one person who always seemed to evade capture,” said Jones, the director of the Institute for Policy Analysis of Conflict.

AFP

Myanmar monks threaten protests over Rohingya vote changeYANGON: Nationalist monks and some political leaders in Myanmar have threatened to hold mass rallies to protest a parliamentary decision giving the Rohingya ethnic minority voting rights in a referendum to amend the constitution.

Most of Myanmar’s 1.1 million Rohingya Muslims live in apart-heid-like conditions in Rakhine state in the west of the predomi-nantly Buddhist country. Many in Myanmar consider them illegal immigrants even though they have lived in the area for generations.

Few Rohingya are full citizens, but most hold temporary national identification cards known as white cards. They were able to vote in a 2008 referendum to approve Myanmar’s military-drafted constitution, as well as in elections in 2010.

Parliament on Feb. 2 approved a referendum law that allows white card holders to take part in a future referendum on amend-ments to the constitution. Many say the constitution needs reform, because it reserves substantial power for the military and bars Nobel Laureate Aung San Suu Kyi from the presidency, among other contentious clauses.

While members of ethnic minorities including those of Indian and Chinese descent also hold white cards, about two thirds are Rohingya, according to the government.

The constitutional referendum has yet to be scheduled, but par-liament’s decision also strength-ens the chances that white card holders will be able to cast ballots in general elections later this year.

The prospect of the Rohingya being allowed to vote has alarmed nationalist monks and politicians who have threatened to hold mass protests next week to pressure parliament to reverse its decision.

“No matter what the parlia-ment has adopted concerning this issue, the ANP will continue fight-ing relentlessly until the white card holders are not allowed to vote,” the Arakan National Party, an ethnic political party from Rakhine state, said in a statement.

REUTERS

US slams ‘unconscionable’ Bangladesh unrest as toll risesDHAKA: Two more opposi-tion activists were killed in a new bout of political violence in Bangladesh yesterday after the US voiced grave concern about the unrest and slammed a spate of “unconscionable” firebombings.

Police shot dead an Islamist protester from the Jamaat-e-Islami party and wounded two more after they threw a molo-tov cocktail at a police van in Rajshahi, northwest of Dhaka, after midnight ysterday, local police chief Alamgir Hossain said.

“Three police constables were injured in the clashes,” he added.

Another Jamaat supporter was killed in the western city of Jessore during a shootout with officers, police told reporters.

Rights groups say the shootouts are fake and are nothing but cold-blooded executions of opposition activists.

A total of 65 people have been killed in political violence in the last month, according to a tally, as an opposition alliance tries to force the resignation of Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina.

Many of the victims have been travelling on trains or buses that have been firebombed by opposi-tion activists as part of an ongoing transport blockade designed to

bring the government to its knees.The US State Department

issued a statement late Thursday saying there could be “no justi-fication” for such violence while also calling on the government to allow peaceful protests.

“The United States is gravely concerned by the ongoing unrest and violence in Bangladesh,” deputy state department spokes-person Marie Harf said in the statement.

“We deplore the unconscion-able attacks including bus burn-ings, throwing incendiary devices, and train derailments that have killed and wounded innocent victims.

“There is simply no justification for such actions in a democratic Bangladesh,” she added, urging the government “to provide the necessary space for peaceful polit-ical activity”.

The unrest began when secu-rity forces confined main oppo-sition leader Khaleda Zia to her offices after she threatened to lead a mass rally against Hasina’s government on January 5, the first anniversary of disputed polls.

A confined Zia then called for a nationwide blockade of roads, railways and waterways in an effort to topple Hasina’s government and pave the way

for a new polls under a neutral government.

The blockade unleashed unprecedented violence with anti-government protesters targeting buses and trucks with petrol bombs.

The government has deployed thousands of security forces nationwide and arrested some 10,000 protesters as part of a crackdown on the unrest.

Thousands more demonstra-tors have gone into hiding and Zia has remained holed up in her office, after her Internet, mobile phone and satellite television con-nections were cut.

AFP

Pilot’s body found clutching plane’s controlsTAIPEI: The pilot of a doomed TransAsia plane, hailed as a hero for his actions in the final moments before a crash that killed 35 people, still had his hands on the controls when his body was found, media reported yesterday.

The pilot, identified by TransAsia as 42-year-old Liao Chien-tsung, has been praised by Taipei’s mayor for steering the plane between apartment blocks and commercial buildings before ditching the stalled aircraft in a river.

TransAsia Flight GE235 was carrying 58 passengers and crew when it lurched nose-up between buildings, clipped an overpass and a taxi with one of its wings and then crashed upside down into a shallow river after taking off on Wednesday.

The bodies of Liao and his co-pilot were retrieved from the almost-new turboprop ATR 72-600’s cockpit, with their legs badly broken, investigators said.

“They were still trying to save this aircraft until the last minute,” Taiwanese media quoted uniden-tified prosecutors involved in the crash investigation as saying.

Media quoted city officials as say-ing the death toll would have been much worse if the plane had crashed into any of the buildings it narrowly missed. Fifteen people survived.

REUTERS

TransAsia crash probe focuses on engine failureTAIPEI: One engine failed on the TransAsia plane that crashed in Taiwan this week with the loss of at least 35 lives, and the pilots may have inex-plicably shut down the other, investigators and experts said yesterday.

Initial findings from the plane’s black boxes were released as reports emerged that the chief pilot was still clutching the joy-stick when his body was found in the cockpit, after he apparently battled to avoid populated areas.

The Civil Aeronautics Administration (CAA) also dis-closed that TransAir Airways had failed to meet around a third of the regulatory requirements imposed after another fatal crash just seven months ago in Taiwan’s western Penghu islands.

On Wednesday the French-made ATR 72-600 plane, equipped with two Pratt & Whitney tur-boprop engines, plummeted into a river after clipping an elevated road, as shown in dramatic dash-cam footage.

In the first account of the last moments of Flight GE235, Taiwan’s Aviation Safety Council said the right engine had “flamed out” about two minutes after takeoff from an airport in north-ern Taipei.

Warning signals blared in the cockpit and the left engine was then shut down manually by the crew, for unknown reasons, the

Reporters photograph the black box of the crashed TransAsia Airways plane at the Aviation Safety Council in NewTaipei City, Taiwan, yesterday.

council’s director Thomas Wang told a news conference.

“The pilot tried to restart the engines but to no avail. That means that during the flight’s final moments, neither engine had any thrust,” he said. “We heard ‘Mayday’ at 10:54:35.”

Wang said it was “not clear” why the left engine was shut down manually. “We are not reaching

any judgement yet,” he said.But analysts said it was prob-

able the crew made an error.“It looks like they shut

the wrong engine,” said Greg Waldron, the Singapore-based Asia managing editor at aviation industry publication Flightglobal.

“The right-side engine flamed out but that in itself is not enough to cause a crash because the ATR

is designed to fly on one engine,” he noted.

“What happened was that a few seconds after engine two flamed out, they (the pilots) cut the fuel to engine one, and when they cut fuel to engine one that’s when things started to go haywire because the plane was not pow-ered anymore.”

AFP

Afghan president arrives in Munich

Afghan President Ashraf Ghani arrives at ‘Bayerischer Hof’ hotel for the 51st Munich Security Conference in Munich yesterday.

Rooster fight

Afghans watch a rooster fight in Herat, yesterday. Gamblers sometimes bet up to 500 per fight. A system similar to boxing is used, with marks and rounds. The owners decide when to stop the match and which bird is the winner.

11SATURDAY 7 FEBRUARY 2015

www.thepeninsulaqatar.comPAKISTAN / AFGHANISTAN

Experts advise caution on judges appointmentRepeated reforms could harm selection process: LawyersISLAMABAD: While many await the outcome of yet another proposed constitutional amend-ment in Pakistan, suggested by the eight-member bi-partisan parliamentary committee to further reform the procedure of appointing superior court judges, legal experts fear that repeated modifications could harm the process more than improving it.

“The existing system of judges’ appointment, as laid down in Article 175A of the Constitution, should be allowed to function unhindered,” senior counsel Yasin Azad, who represents legal fra-ternity in the judicial body that selects judges, says.

On February 2, the parlia-mentary committee that met at Parliament House under the chairmanship of Senator Haji Adeel, approved signifi-cant changes in the procedure of appointing high court judges, which would be brought about by a 22nd amendment.

The committee’s suggestions were the outcome of the widely-held perception that the com-mittee had become “virtually redundant” when it came to the appointment of superior court judges.

But this was rejected outright by ruling party PML-N Senator Rafiq Rajwana, another member of the commission, who explained that the committee’s suggestions had been misconstrued.

“At no point did parliamen-tarians wish to curb or interfere in the independence of judiciary and believe that superior court judges are ideally placed to judge the calibre and ability of the indi-viduals to be elevated and assume the highest judicial offices in the country,” he said.

“We just want to strengthen the process of scrutiny and there-fore have proposed that the time period, during which recom-mendations of the judicial com-mission must be ratified by the parliamentary committee or be considered final, be extended from a fortnight to around one month,” he explained.

He said they had also suggested the setting up of an ‘initiation committee’ that should consist of chief justices of the high court concerned as well as two of the court’s senior-most judges, the law minister concerned, repre-sentatives of the provincial bar council and the respective advo-cate general.

This committee would deliber-ate on names for judges before sending them on to the judicial commission. “We believe there is no need of putting retired judges in the judicial commission that is already chaired by the chief jus-tice of Pakistan,” he said.

The judicial commission and the parliamentary commit-tee are two limbs, created by the 18th and 19th amendments through changes in Article

175-A of the Constitution.But the debate over the ideal

procedure for the appointment of judges refused to die down. The process also become controver-sial under former Chief Justice Iftikhar Chaudhry, who recom-mended over 120 judges for eleva-tion to the superior judiciary.

As a result, the perception that the parliamentary committee had become useless grew in the wake of the growing powers of the judicial commission, where nominations for the elevation of a judge could only be initiated by the chief justice.

This led the Pakistan Bar Council to first boycott the com-mission’s proceedings and then suggest amendments to the com-mission’s rules, something they are still seized with.

Azad, meanwhile, suggested that parliamentary committee’s proposed amendments should be widely published so that the opinion of jurists, legal bodies and other stakeholders could be ascertained.

Lahore High Court Bar Rawalpindi chapter’s former pres-ident Sheikh Ehsanuddin opposed the recommendations and said they would adversely affect the cherished concept of the inde-pendence of judiciary.

Disturbing the existing system would politicise the procedure of judges’ appointment, he said, but admitted that there was room for improvement.

INTERNEWS

Sharif in a fix over Senate chiefISLAMABAD: Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif is in a fix over selection of his party candidates for the Senate election.

Sources say this is especially so about the chairmanship of the upper house, as his family wants him to name a female chairper-son while the senior leadership of his Pakistan Muslim League-N is in favour of appointing someone from Balochistan.

Sources privy to the develop-ment say that the premier is con-tinuously deliberating upon the March 3 Senate elections.

Out of 104 Senators, 52 are going to retire on March 11, 2015, including its current Chairman Nayyar Bukhari and Deputy Chairman Sabir Baloch — both of Bilawal Bhutto’s Pakistan People’s Party.

Sources said the Sharif family has almost finalised the names of the Senate candidates during their deliberations in Murree and Raiwind but they are still mulling over who to appoint as the next Senate chairman.

The party anticipates that it will bag all 11 seats from Punjab,

around four from Balochistan, two from Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, two from Islamabad and one from the tribal areas. Out of PML-N’s 16 existing Senators, eight are going to retire next month.

Sources believe that Sharif and his daughter Maryam are in favour of Nuzhat Sadiq as next chairperson of Senate. Sadiq’s father-in-law, Sheikh Masood, was the finance minister in Ayub Khan’s cabinet. However Sadiq’s one dilemma is that she belongs to Punjab.

INTERNEWS

Committees to protect women from harassmentPESHAWAR: The government in Pakistan’s northwest Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP) province has finally stepped in, after a meeting of the provincial watch committee was called for the second time since the harass-ment at the workplace act was promulgated in 2010.

Not many have heard of the provincial watch committee which was created to expedite the implementation of the Protection against Harassment of Women at the Workplace Act 2010. The Act was passed at the federal level and is yet to be absorbed by the provincial law book.

According to insiders, the meeting on February 3 was the only one held after the commit-tee’s first one in June 2014.

At the meeting, the govern-ment decided to form monitoring and capacity-building commit-tees as well as harassment watch committees at the district level. The Act itself focuses on inquiry committees at all public and pri-vate companies-not just govern-ment departments-and makes it mandatory to have a provincial ombudsmen.

It was acknowledged harass-ment was being reported but was not being investigated.

“Yes, we have received several complaints. Majority of them are from the industrial area where working women are being har-assed,” an official privy to the matter told The Express Tribune. “Nurses in hospitals also complain of harassment.” He said the meet-ing on Tuesday was held with the social welfare and women empow-erment department, NGOs and civil society activists.

“Women aren’t just harassed in the provincial capital; we need to focus on all government depart-ments across the province,” said the official. “Clear directions have been issued to all departments across the province to constitute committees to probe harassment complaints.”

Sources privy to the meet-ing said two different commit-tees were formed this week. The monitoring and compliance com-mittee comprises UN Women representative Syed Wajid, Blue Veins member Qamar Naseem and a gender specialist from the social welfare department.

INTERNEWS

Troubled Quetta faces major challenges of governing itselfQUETTA: Quetta, the capital of Pakistan’s troubled Balochistan province, is accused of many things. It is infamous for suspi-cions of sheltering some Afghan Taliban leaders and murder-ers of Hazaras. Only hardcore political issues and security problems make news here.

But in the rush of things it is mostly forgotten that Quetta is also guilty of being an extremely ill-governed town, with more residents it was designed to hold, more vehicles its roads meant to entertain. A reputation, says its new mayor Dr Kaleem Ullah, that is about to change.

“Quetta needs reshaping,” he says. “The current infrastruc-ture design is almost as old as

I am.” That does mean too old. Dr Kaleem Ullah, 77, was born in Pishin three years after once nature reshaped Quetta in 1935 when the earth around it shook, nearly burying the entire town.

Before the disaster, Quetta is said to be a beautiful and pros-perous place in which the British saw the glimpses of a typical little European town of the time.

After the earthquake, the mayor says, when the city was designed to function again, the administrators had 170,000 people in mind and now it has a popula-tion of around three million. “This makes the functioning of the town very difficult.”

Indeed it does, and Dr Kaleem Ullah feels he is the right man to

get Quetta out of this mess. He claims he has been serving the people in different capacities for decades now.

He has served twice as provin-cial minister in the mid-90s and runs a health foundation which has a 200-bed hospital in Quetta. He claims he had to sell his assets to run the foundation. “I want to pay back what the people have given me,” he says.

He joined politics in 1974 and since then has been a member of the Pakhtunkhwa Milli Awami Party, which is currently in power in the province.

He plans to restore the tax col-lection structure. “There is abso-lutely no system of tax collection,” he says. He will make sure that

building rules are followed and there is no room for encroach-ment. He will work to protect and preserve the environment and see that the waste is disposed of properly.

But how will he go about his business? He has a textbook answer for that. He will listen to the advice of the intelligentsia. He will accommodate his worst of enemies for the greater good. The incompetent and the corrupt will be kicked out.

In a province of nationalistic politics where the names of most parties start with either the word Baloch or Pakhtun or Hazara, will Dr Kaleem Ullah, a Pakhtun, only look after the interests of his own vote bank? “My administration

will be completely apolitical,” he says. “In Quetta, we are a single nation.”

That is why, he says, he will try and make sure no one is punished for belonging to a particular eth-nic or religious group.

“My dream is to see 200 empty beds in my hospital,” he says, using the idea of no sick people in his hospital as a meta-phor for an absolutely peaceful Quetta.

However, things might not be that simple in Balochistan which is a politically tense province. Some trace back the reason of this political dissent to 1839 when the British came and conquered Balochistan.

INTERNEWS

KP province jails to have Aids treatment centresPESHAWAR: The govern-ment in northwest Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province ruled by Imran Khan’s Pakistan Tehrik-e-Insaf government will establish HIV/Aids screening and treatment centres in jails to protect inmates from the deadly disease.

Sources here say prisoners tested positive for HIV will get the desired facilities inside jails. The federal government has approved a request by the provincial gov-ernment to establish HIV/Aids treatment centres for patients in jails after detection of many cases during the past two years.

The proposal has been included in the five-year (2016-2020) HIV/Aids Control Programme to be implemented by National Aids Control Programme.

Currently, the provincial and federal governments in collabora-tion with UNAIDS, UNFA, UN Office on Drug Control and Global Fund are engaged in formulating HIV/Aids prevention policy to stem tide of the disease, officials associ-ated with the development say.

The policy, which will be final-ised by April this year, will be sent to the federal government for approval and release of funds.

Officials said the proposal was floated by the prison department of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa in view of the detection of several HIV/Aids patients as it wanted to have

own facilities for screening and treatment of the disease.

The provincial government has started work on the establish-ment of HIV treatment centres for the prisoners. The centres will be fully equipped and the patients will get counselling as well as treatment services to control the blood-borne disease.

The National Aids Control Programme will provide antiret-roviral drug to the patients free of cost. The province’s jails have a number of inmates, who have been tested positive for HIV/AIDS, but the authorities aren’t able to transport them to the treatment centres outside jails in Peshawar or Kohat because of security concerns.

Peshawar and Kohat have HIV/Aids treatment centres, which are located in the hospitals. At present, there is no mechanism for diagnosis and treatment of Aids among prisoners which has escalated the threat of spread of the disease among the prisoners and the establishment of exclu-sive treatment centre is seen as the only way to reduce the risk of spreading of the virus.

Authorities have been carrying out screening of the prisoners for HIV/Aids from time to time but there are no permanent arrange-ments to check the disease and take steps accordingly.

INTERNEWS

Indian film Sholay set for screeningKARACHI: Nadeem Mandviwalla, the owner and man-aging director of Mandviwalla Entertainment, Pakistan’s larg-est entertainment chain, has said Indian film Sholay will be screened in the country shortly.

“Sholay is such an iconic film, it is a classic. But many people in Pakistan have not seen the film in cinemas,” he said.

He added that since the movie has been re-mastered, the time

is right to screen it in cinemas for Pakistani audiences. However, Mandviwalla noted that since the classic films that have been re-released in Pakistan have not gen-erated business at the Pakistani box office, it remains to be seen whether Sholay can change that trend.

Previously, movies such as, Star Wars Episode I: The Phantom Menace, Lion King and Titanic, have been re-mastered and re-released in 3D format in Pakistani cinemas.

Interestingly, Sholay’s release date is the same as that of the Pakistani crime-caper film Jalaibee, which has been directed by Yasir Jaswal. Mandviwalla said this was a strategic move on their part.

“March 20 would be a long week-end due to the public holiday on March 23. Plus, the movie is releas-ing towards the business-end of the ICC Cricket World Cup, so only a few matches would be left,” he said.

INTERNEWS

12 INDIASATURDAY 7 FEBRUARY 2015

www.thepeninsulaqatar.com

NEW DELHI: Muslim and Christian leaders yesterday-warned of growing fear among India’s religious minorities after US President Barack Obama said Mahatma Gandhi would have been shocked by commu-nal violence in the country.

Only days after warning in New Delhi about the need to pro-mote religious tolerance, Obama invoked the memory of India’s independence icon to drive home a similar appeal during a speech in Washington on Thursday.

While praising its “magnificent diversity”, Obama then described India as a place where “religious faiths of all types have, on occa-sion, been targeted by other peo-ples of faith, simply due to their heritage and their beliefs”.

Such “acts of intolerance ... would have shocked Gandhiji”, Obama added — using a term of respect for the late icon — in comments that made front-page headlines in Indian newspapers yesterday. The issue of religious freedom in India — an officially secular country — has become particularly contentious since the election last year of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, a fer-vent Hindu nationalist.

Obama’s comments came on the same day that a protest in Delhi by Christians to denounce

a spate of attacks on churches ended in clashes with police that saw a nun knocked to the ground in the violence.

John Dayal, spokesman for the United Christian Forum for Human Rights, said the unease

about religious intolerance in India was growing and the nature of Obama’s comments was par-ticularly striking.

“The entire world is speaking about the fears of religious minor-ities in India,” Dayal said.

“For President Obama, this is as direct as he can get.”

Father Dominic, the spokes-man for the Delhi Catholic Archdiocese, said that India needed to face up to the “real-ity” that different religions were

attacking each other. “I don’t think anyone will disagree with what he (Obama) has said as he has said it for all and it is the reality in India,” he told the NDTV network.

Mirwaiz Umar Farooq, the chief cleric in India’s only Muslim majority state of Jammu and Kashmir, said it was “disturb-ing” that Hindu hardliners were becoming more powerful under Modi and were spreading “a feel-ing of insecurity among religious minorities”.

“There is no denying the fact that divisive Hindutva forces are gaining strength in India,” he said. “This is a dangerous trend. The world will do better to see it for what it is.”

Modi was persona non grata in the US for a decade following anti-Muslim violence that left at least 1,000 people dead in Gujarat, where he was state chief minister before winning the 2014 general election.

He has also been criticised for failing to speak out against a BJP lawmaker who called for Hindu women to have at least four chil-dren to “protect” their religion and a recent spate of “re-conver-sions” to Hinduism.

Around 80 percent of India’s 1.2 billion population is Hindu but it is also home to large num-bers of Muslims, Christians and Buddhists. AFP

Court rejects Togadia’s plea to enter BangaloreBANGALORE: The Karnataka High Court yesterday dismissed the interim prayer of Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP) leader Pravin Togadia to stay the police ban on his entry into this city to attend a religious con-vention tomorrow. Upholding the ban order imposed by city Police Commissioner M N Reddi on Togadia, Justice S Abdul Nazeer, however, observed that his petition was maintainable and he had the right to appeal in a higher court for relief.

The week-long ban from Feb ruary 5-11 barred Togadia from entering the city and participat-ing in public meetings or functions for seven days on the grounds that his provocative and inflam-matory speeches would have grave consequences and cause breach of peace.Earlier, Togadia’s counsel B V Acharya told the court that banning his client’s entry into the city was against the fundamental right of a citizen and constitu-tional rights of freedom of speech and expression. State advocate general Ravivarma Kumar, how-ever, defended the ban on Togadia, as he was a “dangerous man who could disrupt communal harmony in the state through provocative speeches”.

Police hunt suspect over rape and murder of girlBANGALORE: Police in southern India were yesterday searching for a man suspected of raping and murdering an eight-year-old girl, in the lat-est shocking sex attack in the country. Superintendent B Ramesh said they are hunting a man in his early 20s, captured on CCTV, who is thought to have bitten the child’s genitalia before smothering her to death.

“The victim was molested and raped before she was smothered to death by an unidentified youth aged (between) 22 and 25 years,” Ramesh said. “We have formed eight search teams to trace the culprit.” CCTV footage released by police showed a man playing with the schoolgirl before lead-ing her into a deserted car shed on the outskirts of Bangalore, the state capital of Karnataka.

Later he is seen emerging from the shed without the girl and walking away. Police found the mutilated body of the victim late on Thursday after her parents, who were working at a local brick factory at the time of the attack, reported her missing.

Swine flu claims two more lives in TelanganaHYDERABAD: Swine flu continues to claim lives in Telangana with two more people succumbing at a hospital here since Thursday. Government-run Gandhi Hospital, which is the state nodal centre for swine flu, reported two more deaths.

With this the toll due to swine flu rose to 41 since Jan 1, officials said. According to a bulletin by the health department, 89 sam-ples were tested for H1N1 virus Thursday and out of them, 20 were found positive. The authori-ties screened 2,212 samples since Jan 1 and out of them, 738 were found positive. AGENCIES

NEW DELHI: Delhi will vote today in a keenly fought election with the BJP and the AAP vying for power and an also-ran Congress desperate to make a mark. Although the election is only to pick a new city government, it has become a high-profile battle, with Prime Minister Narendra Modi coming out vocally against the AAP and former chief minister Arvind Kejriwal.

With pre-poll surveys indicat-ing a tough fight, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has said the election outcome won’t be a refer-endum on Modi. Any reverses for the BJP could have ramifications nationally. At least 13 supporters of various political parties were injured in three separate inci-dents of clashes in the past 24 hours, police said.

A total of 673 candidates are in the fray for the 70-member assembly, which is witnessing its second election in a over a year fol-lowing a hung verdict in December 2013. Sixty-three contestants are women. Over 13.3 million voters are eligible to vote. Some 5.9 mil-lion of them are females.

With her own axe to grind vis-a-vis the BJP, West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee has asked the people of Delhi to sup-port the AAP, which is just over two years old. The Left parties have reportedly decided to sup-port the AAP in those constituen-cies where they have not fielded candidates. Welfare Party of India (WPI) has also announced its

support to AAP. Modi and BJP president Amit Shah have done aggressive campaigning after propping up former Kejriwal associate Kiran Bedi, India’s first woman police officer, as the BJP’s chief ministerial candidate.

The Congress effort is led by Ajay Maken, a former central minister. Congress president Sonia Gandhi and party vice pres-ident Rahul Gandhi also held ral-lies but far fewer than Kejriwal.

Opinion polls have come out with varying predictions of who will be the winner. Some say the BJP will edge past the AAP to take power while others have said that the AAP will be an outright winner.The best hope for the once powerful Congress, which ruled Delhi for 15 long years until December 2013, would be a hung assembly — when it ended with just eight seats and propped up Kejriwal.

Kejriwal, who resigned in February 2014 after 49 days in power, countered him: “I am happy and confident that we are forming the government in Delhi.”

The AAP won a surprising 28 of the 70 seats in its election debut in 2013, causing nationwide sensation. The BJP finished with 31 seats — five less than the 36 needed to form a government.

The campaign this time was as much on the streets as in the social media and over radio.

There are over 227,000 first-time voters. The Election Commission is making efforts for greater voter participation with

messages in the widely used Delhi Metro urging people to vote today.

Delhi’s Chief Electoral Officer Chandra Kumar Bhushan said his office was “fully prepared” to ensure a smooth election.

At 18, Burari constituency in north Delhi has the highest number of candidates. Ambedkar Nagar in the south has the least: four. While 9,369 voters are home-less, 311 are over 100 years old.

The 2013 election saw a record polling at over 66 percent. The number of candidates then was 810. Today, there will be 11,763 polling stations in 2,530 locations. Officials said nearly 55,000 police-men and paramilitary personnel would be deployed. The results will be declared on Tuesday.

AAP yesterday rejected the offer of support of Shahi Imam Syed Ahmed Bukhari of Jama Masjid.

“The AAP seems to be in a position to form the government, and we must give them strength,” Bukhari of the 17th century Jama Masjid in Old Delhi said earlier in the day. The AAP quickly rejected

his unsolicited support.“We not only reject the offer

by Bukhari but also condemn his politics and what he stands and the ideology he stands for,” AAP leader Ashish Khetan told reporters. Khetan said that when Bukhari annointed his son as the Jama Masjid’s Naib Imam, he had invited the Pakistani Prime Minister but not the Indian Prime Minister.

The number of Muslims con-testing the assembly polls in Delhi has fallen significantly in compar-ison to 2013. And Muslim leaders and pundits feel most Muslims are likely to vote for the AAP.

Of the 673 candidates, only 68 are Muslims — down from 108 two years ago when the total number of contestants was 810. Up to eight constituencies have significant Muslim presence.

These include Okhla in south Delhi, Mustafabad and Seelampur in east Delhi and Matia Mahal and Ballimaran in Old Delhi. Muslims account for over 11 per-cent of nearly 17 million popu-lation in Delhi. Pre-poll clashes were also reported in various

parts of the state. Three AAP workers were injured after being allegedly attacked by work-ers of the BJP in Uttam Nagar late on Thursday night. “One of the alleged attackers has been arrested and a case registered,” Deputy Commissioner of Police Pushpendra Kumar said.

The second incident was reported yesterday around 4 pm from north Delhi’s Adarsh Nagar area where a clash broke out between supporters of the Congress and the AAP. Police said at least seven members from both sides were injured in the scuffle that broke out after the support-ers of one side found the other distributing liqour to lure voters.

Three AAP members, includ-ing its candidate Akhilesh Tripathi from Model Town constituency, were injured in the attack while four supporters of the Congress also received injuries in the attack. The third incident happened in west Delhi’s Narela area where three men allegedly barged into the office of a Congress candidate to threaten him. AGENCIES

Delhi votes today; 13 hurt in clashes AAP rejects Imam’s support offer

Christians in Bangalore hold candles after attending the silent protest to condemn the recent attack on church in New Delhi, yesterday.

Election staff get instructions on the usage of electronic voting machine in New Delhi yesterday.

Christians, Muslims hail Obama’s tolerance call

PATNA: The crisis in Bihar’s ruling Janata Dal-United yesterday deep-ened further over the party’s vis-ible move to replace Chief Minister Jitan Ram Manjhi by his predecessor Nitish Kumar with the support of Lalu Prasad’s RJD.

Nitish Kumar’s supporters and Manjhi and his backers in the party yesterday locked in a war of words, with the chief minister terming the Sharad Yadav-convened meeting of the JD-U legislature party today as illegal and unconstitu-tional and Nitish Kumar camp threat-ening to take action against Manjhi.

Manjhi, who earlier refused to resign, called a counter-meeting of the JD-U leg-islature party on February 20.

Amid speculation that the JD-U is heading for a split, Manjhi’s support-ers also clashed with some supporters of Nitish Kumar near the JD-U office on Birchand Patel Marg here, leaving at least 12 people injured.

The clashes broke out when Manjhi’s slogan shouting supporters burnt an effigy of Nitish Kumar and shouted slo-gans against the former chief minister, police said.

“Dozens of Manjhi supporters entered the JD-U office and tried to ransack it and damage the property,” a police officer said. Manjhi’s supporters took to the streets after JD-U national general sec-retary K C Tyagi yesterday said Manjhi would be replaced by Nitish Kumar and

action would be taken against him for describing the legislature party meeting called by Sharad Yadav as unconstitu-tional and if he fails to attend it.

Manjhi targeted Tyagi by describing him as a “pagal” (mad) and ‘Yamraj’. He said no one can remove him and he would continue to be chief minister. Manjhi announced that he would fight any move to remove him.

Manjhi also hit back at Nitish Kumar by describing him as ‘Bhism Pitamah’. “Nitish Kumar is behaving like Bhism Pitamah of Mahabharat as he is not opening his mouth and maintaining silence over ongoing development in the party,” Manjhi said Friday in Khagaria district.

In a related development yesterday, Sharad Yadav urged Bihar Governor Keshri Nath Tripathi not to accept Manjhi’s any recommendations as he does not enjoy support of majority of party leg-islators. “Sharad Yadav in a letter to the governor informed him that Manjhi does not enjoy support of majority of party legislators,” a JD-U leader said.

The JD-U leadership is fearing that Manjhi may recommend the governor to dissolve the Bihar assembly ahead of his likely replacement.

Earlier in the day, Tyagi said a major-ity of party leaders, including legis-lators, were with Sharad Yadav and Nitish Kumar. He, however, added that the JD-U leadership never expected that

Manjhi would openly revolt against the party’s decision. Tyagi said: “We never expected that Manjhi will openly revolt against the party’s decision.”

Tyagi told IANS here that the party was uncomfortable with Manjhi’s repeated controversial statements that damaged the party’s image among people. “Manjhi is not above the party and the party’s decision is final and supreme.”

“Manjhi is in minority and Nitish Kumar enjoys support of majority in the party,” Tyagi added.

Two ministers, Brishen Patel and Nitish Mishra, Friday declared their sup-port to Manjhi and said they would not attend the legislature meeting called by Sharad Yadav. IANS

JD-U crisis deepens, supporters of CM Manjhi and Nitish clash

Isolated Greece rejects bailout extensionFinance minister returns empty-handed after European tour; Athens wants bridge agreementA T H E N S / B R U S S E L S : Greece’s new leftist-led govern-ment, isolated in the euro zone and under pressure from the European Central Bank, vowed yesterday not to accept any deal in crunch talks next week that keeps its current international bailout programme in place.

Instead, a government offi-cial said Finance Minister Yanis Varoufakis would ask for a “bridge agreement” to keep state finances running until Athens can present a new debt and reform programme.

“We will not accept any deal which is not related to a new programme,” said the official, who asked not to be named.

Varoufakis returned empty-handed from a tour of European capitals in which even left-leaning governments in France and Italy insisted Greece must stick to commitments made to the European Union and International Monetary Fund and rejected any debt write-off.

Euro zone finance ministers will discuss how to proceed with financial support for Athens at a special session next Wednesday ahead of the first summit of EU leaders with new Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras the fol-lowing day.

Participants said no progress was made at a preparatory meet-ing of senior finance ministry officials in Brussels on Thursday because Greece and its euro zone partners were so far apart.

“It was Greece against all oth-ers, basically one versus 18,” one official said.

Athens’ partners broadly lined up in support of a hard-line German document reject-ing any roll-back of reforms or

commitments made by previous Greek governments.

Tsipras and his ministers promised in their first days in office to raise the minimum wage, re-hire some sacked gov-ernment employees and stop some privatisations.

This clashed with conditions set by the International Monetary Fund and eurozone countries, which have lent Athens a total of ¤240bn ($270bn).

Adding to pressure on Tsipras, the United States told Greece through its ambassador on Friday to work cooperatively with European partners and the IMF and “exercise fiscal prudence”.

The new premier will need to tread a fine line when he delivers a policy speech to parliament on Sunday and seeks a vote of confi-dence on Tuesday.

The ECB raised the stakes this week by deciding to bar Greek banks from using Greek govern-ment bonds as collateral to bor-row from the central bank as long as there is no prospect of an agreed bailout programme.

That makes lenders dependent on more costly emergency liquid-ity from the Greek central bank, which the ECB can stop at any time.

Greek bank shares fell further on Friday at the end of a week of wild trading swings, as bro-kers cut their forecasts on wor-ries over dwindling deposits and brinkmanship between Athens and its creditors.

Portugal, which emerged from its own EU/IMF bailout last year, joined a chorus of countries insist-ing that Greece must stick to the austerity medicine as Lisbon had done and respect past agreements with EU partners.

Greek Finance Minister Yanis Varoufakis speaks to reporters as he arrives at the ministry to meet with a US delegation in Athens yesterday.

Portuguese Economy Minister Antonio Pires de Lima rejected any kind of debt renegotiation for Greece, saying Athens must play by the rules established by euro members, especially considering his own country’s sacrifices.

He told the Reuters Euro Zone Summit that Lisbon had chosen a route “which was not the easi-est one” to recover credibility and return to growth, and “that is also our attitude to the situation in other countries”.

The Portuguese minister said

he was not concerned about any risk of contagion from Greece to his own country, pointing to Lisbon’s bond yields which are now trading near record lows.

“The project of the single cur-rency is not at risk,” he said. “At the end of the day, Greece is mas-ter of its own destiny.”

The Greek official said Varoufakis was expecting tough treatment from his partners at next Wednesday’s meeting, including a demand to extend the existing bailout programme,

which expires at the end of February.

This is anathema to the Greek government, led by Tsipras’ left-wing Syriza party, that came to power on a wave of anti-austerity anger in elections last month.

Euro zone officials say Greece is free to design its own reforms in line with Syriza’s campaign prom-ises, as long as the result is in line with commitments to stronger public finances, debt repayment and reforms.

REUTERS

Gold dips 2pc after US data; set for weekly fallLONDON: Gold fell up to two percent yetserday as global shares and the dollar rose after monthly US non-farm pay-rolls data showed the United States job market remained on a strong footing.

Nonfarm payrolls increased 257,000 last month, topping expectations for 234,000 jobs, and data for November and December was revised higher. The unem-ployment rate ticked up to 5.7 percent as a result of an increased labour force.

“The US employment report was good and there has been quite a sharp adjustment in interest rates expectations, with 10-year Treasury yields up 10 basis points,” ABN Amro analyst Georgette Boele said.

“I expect lower precious met-als prices for the next six months up to the moment the US really starts hiking interest rates.”

Spot gold dropped to a three-week low of $1,237.39 an ounce in earlier trade and was down 1.9 percent to $1,240.15 an ounce by 1508 GMT. The metal has lost 3.2 percent so far this week, which would be its largest fall since the week ending October 31.

It gained 8.4 percent in January, its biggest monthly rise in three years, lifted by global economic caoncerns and political uncer-tainty in the euro zone.

US gold for April delivery dipped 1.6 percent to $1,241.30 an ounce. The dollar rose 0.9 percent against a basket of leading cur-rencies, helped by a rise in the benchmark 10-year US Treasury yield to 1.9 percent.

REUTERS

Euro holds up on relief over Greek bank fundingTOKYO: The euro held up against the dollar in Asia yes-terday after rallying on assur-ances Greek banks will get emergency funding.

The single currency bought $1.1469 in Tokyo afternoon trade against $1.1475 in New York on Thursday afternoon, while edging down to 134.57 yen from 134.89 yen. “The euro has reversed Thursday’s Asian slump that saw a low of 1.1305... as the (dol-lar) eases moderately across the board,” National Australia Bank said in a note.

The dollar slipped to 117.33 yen from 117.55 yen in US trade on Thursday.

The euro plunged on Wednesday after the European Central Bank said it would no longer allow Greek banks to use government debt as collateral for loans.

However, it said Thursday lend-ers could still tap its emergency liquidity assistance programme, helping quell fears of an immedi-ate banking crisis.

The access should help protect them against a possible run by depositors while Athens seeks to renegotiate its international bail-out with creditors.

National Australia Bank said it was monitoring the Greek situa-tion with a view to sell the euro again.

AFP

Strong US job, wage gains open door to mid-year rate hikeWASHINGTON: US job growth rose solidly in January and wages rebounded strongly, a show of underlying strength in the economy that puts a mid-year interest rate increase from the Federal Reserve back on the table.

Nonfarm payrolls increased 257,000 last month, the Labor Department said yesterday. Data for November and December was revised to show a whopping 147,000 more jobs created than

previously reported, bolstering views consumers will have enough muscle to carry the economy through rough seas.

“By any measure this was an extremely good report. This report continues to add evidence that the consumer has the poten-tial to continue to move along at this very constructive pace,” said Tom Porcelli, chief US economist at RBC Capital Markets in New York.

At 423,000, November’s payroll

gains were the largest since May 2010, when employment was boosted by government hiring for the population count.

While the unemployment rate rose one-tenth of a percentage point to 5.7 percent, that was because the labor force increased, a sign of confidence in the jobs mar-ket. US stock index futures rose on the data. The dollar rose against a basket of currencies, while prices for US Treasury debt fell.

January marked the 11th

straight month of job gains above 200,000, the longest streak since 1994. Economists polled by Reuters had forecast hiring increasing 234,000 last month and the unemployment rate holding steady at 5.6 percent.

The continued improvement in the labor market comes despite the economy slowing. Sputtering growth overseas and lower oil prices have weighed on exports and business investment.

Wages increased 12 cents last

month after falling five cents in December. That took the year-on-year gain to 2.2 percent, the largest since August.

Interest rate hike expectations had been dialed back to September in the wake of December’s sur-prise drop in wages. The Fed last week ramped up its assessment of the labor market. Brisk job gains and the improvement in wages could harden expectations of a June policy tightening.

REUTERS

Friendly bell

Bank of Japan Governor Haruhiko Kuroda (centre) leads the opening bell ringing at the Philippine Stock Exchange in Makati city, metro Manila, yesterday. A delegation of business executives from Japan is in Manila this week to advance bilateral economic relations.

Sri Lanka cabinet allows China port city dealCOLOMBO: Sri Lanka’s cabi-net said it would allow a $1.5bn “port city” deal with China to go ahead, dropping a threat to cancel a project approved by the previous government.

Cabinet spokesman Rajitha

Senaratne said President Maithripala Sirisena would, how-ever, discuss arrangements over the freehold of land to be used when he visits China in March.

Prime minister, Ranil Wickremesinghe, said before

last month’s presidential vote he would cancel the deal if his party came to power because no envi-ronmental impact assessment (EIA) or feasibility study had been presented to parliament.

“The prime minister said that an

EIA has been done for land reclama-tion. However, it needs a second EIA for constructions after the land is reclaimed,” Senaratne told reporters on Thursday, adding that a feasibil-ity test had been carried out.

REUTERS

Oil poised for biggest weekly gain in 4 yearsLONDON: Brent crude oil was on track for the biggest weekly rise since 2011 as fighting in Libya and stronger economic signals from the United States helped futures rebound from near six-year lows.

Prices have rallied nearly 20 percent over the past six sessions, but they remain roughly 50 per-cent below their peak from the middle of last year.

No sustained recovery is expected in the near term amid rising global inventories and steady Opec supply. But further falls in the US oil-rig count, con-cerns over dented output from Libya, a key Mediterranean oil producer, and stronger US job figures boosted prices.

Nonfarm payrolls increased 257,000 last month, data released on Friday showed, while data for November and December was revised to show a whopping 147,000 more jobs were created than previously reported, bol-stering economic confidence in the world’s largest oil consumer.

“It’s still a bull trend (this week), and you get additional

support from falling rig counts and positive jobs data,” said Bjarne Schieldrop, chief commodities analyst with SEB in Oslo.

The average number of US rigs drilling for oil fell by 199 in January from December, following the largest weekly drop since 1987 last week, Baker Hughes said.

Benchmark Brent crude traded $1.40 higher at $57.97 per bar-rel by 1454 GMT. The weekly increase was poised to be the highest since 2011.

US crude for March delivery traded at $51.58 per barrel, up by $1.10, after trading more than $2 higher. The contract was on track to close with the highest weekly gain since at least 2013.

Fighting across Libya, where two governments and parliaments allied to rival armed groups are vying for control, highlighted the threat of a breakup in the country, imperilling the country’s oil exports.

Schieldrop added that the bal-ance in global supply and demand is “still out of reach,” and the prices are likely to come back down.

REUTERS

13SATURDAY 7 FEBRUARY 2015

www.thepeninsulaqatar.comBUSINESS

Jet Airways flies back into profit

A Jet Airways passenger plane prepares to land past a new air traffic control tower under construction at the Indira Gandhi International Airport in New Delhi. The airline yesterday reported an operating profit of Rs30m ($486,200) for the three months to December 31, ending seven consecutive quarters of losses after it benefited from a drop in fuel costs and increased revenues.

Petrobras shares plunge on new CEO reportsBendine to head troubled oil firmSAO PAULO: Shares in Brazilian oil giant Petrobras plunged yesterday on reports that banking executive Aldemir Bendine, who is seen as close to President Dilma Rousseff’s party, will be the scandal-hit firm’s new chief executive.

Petrobras, the largest company in the world’s seventh-largest economy, has been thrown into crisis by allegations that execu-tives colluded with construction firms to steal $4bn from its cof-fers, with some of the cash being paid out in bribes to politicians—including members of Rousseff ’s coalition.

Neither the company nor the government confirmed that Bendine, the chief executive of state-controlled Banco do Brasil, had been named to head Petrobras.

The name of the new CEO will only be officially announced after markets close around 5.30pm, Brazilian media said.

But Petrobras shares fell nearly eight percent on the Sao Paulo stock exchange after the reports, as investors registered disap-pointment that the post would apparently not go to an apoliti-cal, technical expert.

The stock later recovered some ground and was down about 4.5 percent in midday trade.

Bendine, 51, has said he is not affiliated with any political

party, but he is seen as close to Rousseff ’s Workers’ Party (PT) and her predecessor and mentor, Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva.

He has spent 32 years at Banco do Brasil, the largest bank in Latin America, where he was named chief executive in 2009.

“Bendine is a career Banco do Brasil professional, a trusted ally of ex-president Lula. So his appointment maintains the politi-cal connection with the PT, which the market didn’t like,” said econ-omist Eduardo Velho of consul-tancy INVX Global.

“The market was hoping for someone with more ties to the private sector,” he said.

Ex-CEO Graca Foster resigned Wednesday over the scandal along with her entire board of directors.

She had weathered the kick-back allegations for nearly a year with Rousseff ’s backing, but her position grew increasingly unten-able as Petrobras repeatedly delayed the release of its third-quarter results.

They were finally published last week, but without undergoing an external audit or stating the com-pany’s losses due to corruption.

That kicked off a devastating week in which the company was downgraded by two ratings agen-cies and lost nearly $9bn in stock value.

The state-controlled firm’s new chief executive will have to

W orkers hold a banner in front of the Petrobras headquarters in Sao Paulo yesterday. The banner reads: “Petrobras belongs to the Brazilian people and not the financial market”.

“isolate himself from the political crisis” and “rescue the company’s credibility with the markets,” said Edmar Fagundes de Almeida, an energy economist at Rio de Janeiro Federal University.

“The market wants to know what the company’s real situation is, how much it lost to corrup-tion,” said Lauro Vilares, tech-nical analyst at brokerage firm Guide Investimentos.

“And it’s important that it undergo an external audit to cor-roborate the numbers.”

Petrobras has also been hit hard by tumbling oil prices, a separate controversy over its $792 million loss on the purchase of a refinery in Pasadena, Texas,

and an investigation of the kick-backs scandal by the Securities and Exchange Commission in the United States, where the com-pany is also listed on the New York stock exchange.

The scandal has meanwhile spread dangerously close to Rousseff, who was sworn in for a second four-year term on January 1. Rousseff chaired the Petrobras board from 2003 to 2010, during much of the time when the illicit activity is said to have been going on.

On Thursday, the treasurer of the Workers’ Party, Joao Vaccari Neto, was detained for question-ing in the graft probe before being released after several hours.

Brazilian media reports say suspects arrested in the inves-tigation have told police that Vaccari funneled illicit cash from Petrobras to the party.

The oil firm’s former engineer-ing chief, Pedro Barusco, report-edly told investigators that the party received between $150 mil-lion and $200 million skimmed off the 90 largest Petrobras con-tracts from 2003 to 2013, and that Vaccari “participated” in the scheme.

Vaccari’s lawyer said his cli-ent had always acted in “absolute compliance with the law.”

The Workers’ Party also rejected allegations of wrongdoing.

AFP

Siemens says to cut 7,800 jobs in drive to cut costsBERLIN: German engineering giant Siemens said yesterday it was slashing 7,800 jobs world-wide, more than 3,000 of them in Germany, as part of an ongo-ing restructuring plan aimed at saving about ¤1bn.

“In a drive to streamline administrative and overhead functions, about 7,800 jobs are to be cut worldwide, including some 3,300 in Germany, “ the company, which employs more than 300,000 staff, said in a statement.

Chief executive Joe Kaeser unveiled a mass streamlining plan in May 2014 aimed at dramatically reducing both the number of divi-sions and hierarchy levels within the industrial group by 2016.

Job cuts had been expected under the restructuring plan but the group had given no indication of the number, saying it wanted to first hold talks with staff repre-sentatives, which took place this week.

“These steps will bring our businesses closer to our customers and make us significantly faster,” Kaeser said in the statement.

Siemens’ new Labour Director Janina Kugel said the com-pany wanted to start talks with employee representatives about the cuts in Germany as soon as possible and “search constructively for socially responsible solutions”.

Siemens is seeking to boost its profitability by focusing on certain divisions, such as energy, medical equipment and digitalised sys-tems for industry and transport.

Turkish lira hits all-time low against dollarISTANBUL: The Turkish lira weakened to an all-time low of 2.4720 to the US dollar yester-day, dropping in line with other emerging currencies after US employment data pointed the way to mid-year rate hikes by the Federal Reserve.

US job growth rose solidly in January and wages rebounded strongly, a show of underlying strength in the economy that puts a mid-year interest rate increase from the Fed back on the table.

“After strong US data sig-nalled earlier-than-expected rate hikes from the Fed, the lira is weakening like other emerg-ing currencies,” said Muammer Komurcuoglu, economist at Is Investment.

The lira has already been under pressure in recent weeks as criti-cism of the central bank by min-isters as well as President Tayyip Erdogan, a long-time champion of lower interest rates, has suggested to investors that the bank’s inde-pendence may be under threat.

AGENCIES

Wage cuts as Swiss firms respond to franc strength ZURICH: Swiss companies are cutting prices, asking suppli-ers for discounts, paying staff in euros and demanding new hours to protect profits from a soaring franc currency.

The central bank last month abandoned its cap on the Swiss franc, causing the currency to strengthen and prompting firms across Switzerland to warn of a plunge in profits. The 1.20-per-euro cap had protected the export-reliant economy from the effects of a strong currency since 2011.

“We did the math, and would have gone into the red from normal profitable numbers this year if we hadn’t done anything,” said Adrian Fuchser, the head of Schneeberger AG Lineartechnik, a maker of precision machinery.

The small family-owned firm of 230 employees is typical of one

whose products became far more expensive to euro zone customers overnight.

Ripples of the currency cap removal are expected to spread in the coming months, from the tourism sector that took an instant hit, to banking and engineering.

Some think tanks such as the KOF Swiss Economic Institute have warned that the move econ-omy could tip the economy into recession this year, with exports sliding and the unemployment rate rising to 3.4 percent — still low in comparison with the rest of Europe.

Analysts estimate that most global players on the Swiss blue-chip index will be spared a major hit from the strong franc because their global footprint means their sales and costs are spread out over a variety of currencies. But

small- and medium-sized compa-nies have fewer natural defences.

Schneeberger’s Fuchser said he had no choice but to respond aggressively to the central bank’s decision. Based in Roggwil, roughly 70km west of Zurich, the company draws the majority of its supply in Swiss francs, but sells roughly 40 percent into the eurozone.

It has cut prices by 12 percent to keep its clients and is seeking similar discounts from suppliers. Also, it is asking staff to work 42 hours a week instead of 40, effec-tively cutting wages, and will cut temporary jobs, Fuchser said.

Other companies are getting similarly creative. Dental implant maker Straumann has asked employees who commute from Germany or France to accept payment of their salaries in euros instead of francs.

Nearly 289,000 people work in Switzerland but live in neighbour-ing countries such as Germany, France and Italy.

Straumann is also cutting bonuses for Swiss-based staff and is asking some of its suppliers to cut prices and invoice in euros instead of francs.

“We want to convince our sup-pliers that they should carry the currency risk. That will make us better prepared for situations like what we’ve seen in the past few weeks,” said Chief Executive Marco Gadola.

Private bank Julius Baer, which analysts estimate generates about 60 percent of its costs in francs while more than 80 percent of its revenues are in other currencies, announced plans this week to cut about 200 jobs in response to the SNB decision.

Wage cuts will be hotly

contested by unions, but the government has approved a com-pensation scheme that will allow companies to cut production by shortening the working hours of employees without their staff los-ing their pay.

Lawmakers also agreed to debate relaxing stiff regulations on shop hours for the tourism industry, which were the first to report cancellations following the franc surge.

In the Joux Valley near the French border in the east, com-panies are more relaxed about the franc.

“What you need in this situa-tion where you have more com-petition is to be more innovative, reinforce your ‘Swiss-made’,” said Nick Hayek, the chief executive of Swatch , whose brands include Breguet and Omega.

REUTERS

Rescue deal bank letter was forged: SaharaMUMBAI: Indian conglomer-ate Sahara Group described as fake a Bank of America letter intended to show a US-based firm had enough funds to arrange a $2bn deal to bail out its jailed boss, Subrata Roy.

The statement, issued on Thursday, came a day after Reuters reported evidence that Saransh Sharma, a California man who was leading the deal through his company Mirach Capital Group, didn’t have the money to pull off the transaction.

Mirach, in a statement, denied forging the document and said Sahara’s lawyers had verified the company’s financial capabilities.

Mirach also said it was no longer willing to raise funds for Sahara by refinancing the conglomer-ate’s overseas hotels but “remains ready, willing and able to facilitate an acquisition of these assets”. The hotels include New York’s Plaza and Grosvenor House in London.

Mirach’s Sharma had said he was backed by a group of US and UK investors for the deal, whom he declined to name, and said they were the source of funds supposedly placed in the Bank of

America account.Sahara chairman Roy, who

during his heyday socialized with presidents and film stars, has been held at a New Delhi jail since March on contempt charges, after he failed to comply with a court order to repay investors in a bond scheme that was later ruled to be illegal. Roy is being held on $1.6bn bail, the largest ever in India.

On Thursday, following the Reuters story, Sahara said in a statement that it had found out that the Bank of America let-ter, submitted by Mirach to the Supreme Court as proof that it had set aside “sufficient funds” for the transaction, was forged.

Sahara said it had asked its law-yer in London to visit the Bank of America branch in Los Angeles and verify it: “We have now received the report ... it was a forged letter,” the company wrote in a statement.

Sahara did not specifically con-firm deal talks had now been called off and said it would take initiate civil and criminal legal proceed-ings against Mirach and its offi-cials in India and in the United States for “reckless conduct.”

REUTERS

Singapore Airlines Q3 profit surgesSINGAPORE: Singapore Airlines yesterday said its third-quarter net profit more than quadrupled, boosted by one-off gains from its absorp-tion of struggling budget car-rier Tiger Airways.

Net profit in the three months to December 31 surged to S$202.6m ($150.6m) from S$50.1m a year ago.

“The improvement was primarily attributable to a S$56m exceptional gain compared to an exceptional loss of S$80m last year,” the airline, known as SIA, said in a filing to the Singapore Exchange.

But the Asian carrier warned plummeting oil prices were not necessarily a boon for the avia-tion industry, predicting that the slump could herald a global economic slowdown. SIA cur-rently owns 55.8 percent of Tiger Airways after making annexing it as a subsidiary following after the Singapore-based low-cost carrier suffered heavy losses.

SIA’s own third-quarter earn-ings last year were weighed down by a huge legal settlement in the United States.

AFP

14 BUSINESSSATURDAY 7 FEBRUARY 2015

www.thepeninsulaqatar.com

15SATURDAY 7 FEBRUARY 2015

www.thepeninsulaqatar.comCLASSIFIEDS

SERVICES

CLEANING AND MAINTENANCE

ELECTRONICS

CAPITAL CLEANING COMPANY W.L.L.

44582257 33189899/ 55565328/77609026E-mail: capitalcleaningwll@gmail.com

AL SADEQ TRAD. & MAINTENANCE CO.

33020107/33020108 4436068 44353336

PRESTIGE GENERAL SERVICES

66752291 44323040 44131012

AL SAFINA AL KHALEEJIA TRD. & CONTG. W.L.L.

30209670/55465373E-mail: safin.siyam@yahoo.com

COMPUTER TRAINING CENTRE

FAMILY COMPUTER CENTRE

44435361/44370779 - 44449130

DENTAL

AL MASA DENTAL COMPLEX

44513289 44693086

AL MASA DENTAL COMPLEX

44513289 44693086

AL MASA DENTAL COMPLEX

44513289 44693086

COMPUTER & IT

CAR REPAIRING & INSPECTION

CAR INSPECTION & REPAIRING

Ahmed - 66862151

CRANES, FORKLIFT & BOBCAT HIRE

ELITE MIDDLE EAST HEAVY MACHINERY SALE & RENTAL44581119 - 44582035 66667550

elitemea@gmail.com

AL MUTWASSIT CLEANING & PEST CONTROL

44367555 44367999 55875920/55860432

ARTECH

Tel: 44375654 E-mail: artech@ar-technology.net

ACCOUNTING SOFTWARES

SAMA COOL

44433199 Mob: 66797555 4444 7709 - samacoolqatar@gmail.com

A/C MAINTENANCE & SERVICES

KASHMIR HANDICRAFT EMPORIUM

44432761 55553407

CARPET

M. PALLONJI QATAR

44606822 44606977 55879234

SKATE SHACK446-92532

552-47885/779-36152 -

CLEANING AND MAINTENANCE

BLASTING AND PAINTING

BICYCLES & WATER SPORTS

GEM ADVERTISING & PUBLICATIONS(Overseas Newspaper Advertisements)

44442001 55783303

ADVERTISING OVERSEAS NEWSPAPER

ATTESTATION

HELPLINE GROUP OF COMPANIES

77711129 44351974/44919213 - www.helplinegroups.com

ASIA ATTESTATION & TRANSLATION SERVICES CENTRE

QUEENS LAND SERVICES

Mob: 77776917 info@qlsqatar com

COLOUR NOTE CO.

44322868, 44430640, 77181874

ART & HANDCRAFT SUPPLIES

BUYING

AL NOOR CENTRE

FLORIST

APOLLO FURNITURE 44689522 (3 Lines)

FURNITURE

APOLLO ENTERPRISES

44426664 55830870/33599574 mlibor@belzona.org

GLASS COATING

GARDENING

GENERAL TRADING SERVICES

IT SOLUTION

Labs

Software Lab Qatar

Tel: +974 44622703, 44622705 GSM: 66836037

HR MANAGEMENT SYSTEM(DEVELOPED SPECIFICALLY FOR QATAR)

Expertise and capability to develop any kind of Software to suit your specific business needs!!!

16 CLASSIFIEDSSATURDAY 7 FEBRUARY 2015

www.thepeninsulaqatar.com

SERVICES

WRAPPING SERVICES

PARTY KINGDOM

44353501/ 44366431 E-mail: partykingdom10doha@yahoo.com

PARTY ITEMS & BALLOON DECORATION

INTERNATIONAL MASSAGE CENTER (AYURVEDIC)

44218166 77702421

KOTTAKKAL AYURVEDIC MASSAGE CENTRE

44360061 33453697

MASSAGE

MEDIHERB (INDIAN/THAI AVAILABLE)

44690363 66167700 www.mediherbqatar.com

MEDICAL SERVICES

JEWELLERY

CANARA JEWELLERY

44422071, 44357283

LIMOUSINE SERVICES

AL-JALOUI LIMOUSINE

IT TRAINING

INVEST IN QATAR

LEADER MIDDLE EAST W.L.L.

+974 55745147

HELPLINE GROUP OF COMPANIES

77711129/44351974/44919213 - www.helplinegroups.com

IMMIGRATION SERVICES

SIGNATURE DOHA COMPANY

+974 4411 1560 / +974 4411 1561 / +974 4016 5555 +974 33510958

AL DAR CAR RENTAL

44877789 55599972/55732070 44866637

COUNTRY RENT A CAR - BARWA AL WAKRA

44154467 55440424

RENT A CAR

CHAUFFEUR RENT A CAR

55820652 44445456

EUROPCAR - Moving Your Way44660677

44153331/55827766 44621188/ 55849587

SAFETY TRAINING

OFFICE EXPERTS

44433199 - 4444 7709 - oe@samagroup.me

STATIONERY & OFFICE SUPPLIES

SCAFFOLDING

APOLLO ENTERPRISES SCAFFOLDING DIVISION44693334

44416274 55521089/55560246/55536285

MALZAMAT QATAR W.L.L.

44504266 44502489 66715063www.malzamatqatar.com info@malzamatqatar.com, malzamat@gmail.com

TRANSLATION SERVICES

HELPLINE

44919213 77711129 - www.helplinegroups.com

UNIFORMS

WATER TANK CLEANING

AL MUTWASSIT CLEANING & PEST CONTROL

443679 99 55875920/55860432

CAPITAL CLEANING COMPANY

55565328/ 33189899/ 77609026 44582257

TRAVEL & TOURS

APOLLO REAL ESTATE

Qatar’s first Real Estate Company under British Management

Call: Office: 44689522, Maureen 55864352Abubakar 55850815, Peter 55506803, Dexter 55872145

www.apollopropertiesonline.com

FOR RENT

ANNOUNCEMENTS

Call: 55505773

BUYING

We buy all kinds of used household items. Office Furniture, Electric and

electronics items.. Fridge, A/Cs, Freezer, TV & Computers.

GO RENT A CAR

+974 44325500 44375753 33697075/ 66971703/55241629

PORTABLE/CHEMICAL TOILETS

BEAM CONSTRUCTION44901760 44901566

33138018 pcs@beam-ig.com

RECRUITMENT SERVICES

APOLLO REAL ESTATE55864352/55506803/ 55872145

44689522

ADAM REAL ESTATE COMPANY

44366932 44366931 55500789 / 55803731

REAL ESTATE

AL MUFTAH SERVICES & RENT A CAR WLL 44328100/44442003,

44414339 44326840/ 44426649, 44312899

OASiS RENT A CAR AND TRANSPORTATIONY RENT M T A CAR W O : 44130033

44130011/44130022 55157587 (Rental)/ 55129615 (Transportation)

NICE RENT A CAR

44413392 55514223 44317896 niceqatar.comniceqatar@qatar.net.qa/ rasheed@niceqatar.com

REGENCY FLEETS

44433822/44554046 44554047 Branches: 44153086 44122131 44966107/30122300

JABRCO RENT A CAR

LEADERSHIP LIMOUSINE

4444011233047637

AL SULAIMAN RENT A CAR44911711/44911710 44911699.

AL MUFTAH RENT A CAR WLL

RENT A CAR

AVIS RENT A CAR

44667744 / 40108887 - 44657626

BUDGET RENT A CAR

4431041140108880 -55808638 (24 Hrs)

NATIONAL CAR RENTAL

5547 8150/5547 8151

HAYA HOMES - THE DOOR TO LUXURY LIVING -

THE LITTLE HANDS NURSERY

55312803

NURSERY

APOLLO ENTERPRISES44426664

55871914/ 55524897

METAL REPAIRS

MOVERS

GOLDEN WINGS DOOR TO DOOR

NORTH OCEAN COMPANY W.L.L.

4437 4437/6695 3737

MUSIC HOUSE

MUSIC

ROYAL THAI MEN SPA

44666745 Royal Thai Men Spa

SIT. WANTED

HR/ADMIN/OPERATION/ISO

MR. KHALID KOLLIYIL MOIDU KOLLIYILINDIAN NATIONAL, PASSPORT NO. Z2355448

QATAR ID NO. 27235613338

CALL: 55895000 - 70600743

-

FOR SALE

CONTACT: 30097533

NOTICE

FOR SALE

SITUATIONS VACANT

REQUIRED

Who already got data�ow and evaluation.Please send your CVs at:

diamondsmile.dez@gmail.com

Call: 50490793

DIAMOND SMILE DENTAL CENTER

FILIPINA NURSES

17SATURDAY 7 FEBRUARY 2015

www.thepeninsulaqatar.comSPORT

Tendulkar’s absence gives Pakistan hope against India NEW DELHI: India go into the World Cup without the reassur-ing presence of retired batting superstar Sachin Tendulkar for the first time since 1992, which surely must bring relief to arch-rivals Pakistan.

Pakistan have lost all their five World Cup meetings against India and Tendulkar, who featured in all of them, proved a stumbling block on at least four occasions.

India and Pakistan face each other in a high-voltage clash at the Adelaide Oval on February 15 to kickstart their campaigns in the 2015 edition of cricket’s show-piece event.

Tendulkar, who retired in 2013 as the world’s leading run-getter in both Test and one-day cricket, added colour to the World Cup, both literally and metaphorically.

Coloured clothing was intro-duced to the World Cup when Tendulkar made his tourna-ment debut in Australia and New Zealand in 1992 after the first four editions were played in whites.

Over the next six editions, the prolific Mumbaikar scored more runs (2,278) and centuries (six) than any other batsman in the

tournament, ending his World Cup career with a creditable aver-age of 56.95.

Tendulkar often spoke of his dream of winning the World Cup for India, saying he was inspired as a 10-year-old by the country’s triumph in the 1983 editon when Kapil Dev’s men stunned favour-ites West Indies at Lord’s.

He saw action from close quar-ters as a ball boy at Mumbai’s Wankhede stadium when India co-hosted the World Cup with Pakistan in 1987, two years before he burst on the world scene as a 16-year-old.

Tendulkar was the tourna-ment’s leading scorer when India made the semi-finals in 1996 and the final in 2003 before he realised his dream when Mahendra Singh Dhoni’s side won back the title on a memorable night in Mumbai on April 2, 2011.

The 41-year-old, whose six World Cups is a record matched only by Javed Miandad of Pakistan, has been apppointed as the brand ambassador for the upcoming tournament by the International Cricket Council.

Tendulkar appeared to reserve his best at the World Cup for the

high-profile matches against Pakistan, contests that were fol-lowed passionately by millions of fans on both sides of the border.

In his first tournament in 1992, Tendulkar top-scored with an unbeaten 54 in India’s 43-run win in Sydney. But Pakistan survived the morale-sapping defeat to win the title even as India crashed out in the first round.

He made 31 in the 1996 quar-ter-final in Bangalore which India won by 39 runs and 45 in a second round match at Old Trafford four years later that helped fashion a 47-run victory.

Tendulkar’s spectacular assault on Pakistani tearaway Shoaib Akhtar on way to a glorious 98 off 75 balls at Centurion in 2003 is part of World Cup folklore that enabled India to chase down a challenging 273-7 with six wick-ets to spare.

“That innings must rank as one of the best I have played because of the immense pressure it was played under,” Tendulkar wrote in his recent autobiography ‘Playing It My Way’.

“The ground was buzzing hours before the match. It was sport at its best. This is why I played

Indian cricketers Sachin Tendulkar

(left) and Mahendra Singh Dhoni celebrate

after winning the semi-final match of the Cricket World Cup against

Pakistan at the Punjab Cricket

Associaton (PCA) Stadium in Mohali yesterday, in this March 2011 file

photo.

cricket, to be out in the middle for my team, on the world’s biggest cricketing stage, against India’s arch-rival.” In the 2011 semi-final in Mohali, Tendulkar hit a

streaky, but match-winning 85, after being dropped four times by Pakistani fielders and let off twice by the umpires’ review system.

Tendulkar’s knock turned out

to be the top score in the match which India won by 29 runs in front of a sell-out crowd that included the Prime Ministers of both nations. AFP

Whatmore looks to lift ‘fed up’ Zimbabwe CAPE TOWN: New Zimbabwe coach Dav Whatmore says the players are fed up with failure and are looking to make a state-ment of their potential at the World Cup in Australia and New Zealand.

Zimbabwe returned deflated from a dismal tour of Bangladesh late last year that saw them lose all three test matches and whitewashed 5-0 in the one-day series.

That prompted Zimbabwe Cricket to dump former coach Stephen Mongongo and bring in the vastly experienced Whatmore, who led Sri Lanka to the global title in 1996.

He will have had just six weeks to work with the players when the World Cup starts, not long enough to iron out major flaws but time to improve strat-egy and build confidence.

“I got a sense of genuine-ness to turn things around, especially from the players,” Whatmore told ESPNcricinfo. “They seem to think enough is enough and want to do better. They want to move on.

“I am always an optimist but I am going in with my eyes wide open. They can play and they are tough enough. They’re just looking for more of what they need to perform.”

Key to Zimbabwe’s chances will be the form of batsman Brendan Taylor, the most accomplished of their top six and the player they try to build their innings around.

Captain Elton Chigumbura provides power-hitting down the order and is also useful with the ball.

There has been a recall for spinner Prosper Utseya despite the International Cricket Council banning his off-break ball because of an illegal action, with the player now trying to reinvent himself as a medium-pacer who bowls cutters.

All-rounder Hamilton Masakadza and left-handed middle-order batsman Sean Williams are other play-ers to watch, while the pace attack will be led by Tinashe Panyangara, who is the liveliest of their quicks.

Zimbabwe will expect to beat United Arab Emirates in their first round pool and will likely have to overcome Ireland to stand a chance of a place in the quarter-finals. Victory would still be needed over at least one of South Africa, West Indies, Pakistan or India.

Since the last World Cup in 2011 they recorded home wins against New Zealand, Pakistan and most recently Australia last August, but those matches were played on low and slow condi-tions that will not be found Down Under. REUTERS

Clarke doubtful for openerAustralian ODI captain says team medics to make call on his fitness

Australia’s Michael Clarke is

seen during a training session in

this 2014 file photo.

SYDNEY: Captain Michael Clarke admitted yesterday he is doubtful for Australia’s World Cup opener against England on February 14 and that medics would make the call.

The 33-year-old has had two easy run-outs in the last week as he bids to recover from hamstring surgery and chronic back pain.

But noting he still had a “gap” to fill to be 100 percent fit, he said he did not know if he would be strong enough in time to play at the top level.

“I think you should ask that question to the medical staff,” Clarke told reporters.

“I don’t know the answer to that question. I have been fol-lowing their (medical) guidelines from day one and I’m extremely thankful and grateful that I sit in this position now because of their advice and guidance.

“So I will 100 percent be dic-tated by what they feel and believe.”

Clarke rebuffed fears he would not be able to play all the games due to a heavy travel sched-ule including trips to Brisbane, Auckland and Perth.

“I’ve missed enough cricket over the last six months,” he said.

“As soon as I can get back on the park I’m keen to play every game for Australia.”

Clarke bowled two overs and knocked a breezy 34 while opening

for a Cricket Australia XI against Bangladesh on Thursday.

Clarke hit 51 for a local Sydney team last weekend in his first out-ing back since a serious hamstring injury forced him to pull out of Australia’s Test series against India in December.

Cricket Australia have given Clarke until the team’s second pool match against Bangladesh on February 21 to prove his fit-ness for the World Cup.

Coach Darren Lehmann on Wednesday suggested Clarke could ready to play earlier than expected, saying “fingers crossed he might be” as he threw his support behind the middle-order batsman to return as captain.

Meanwhile, f ormer Australia paceman Brett Lee has picked his country’s bowling attack as the most balanced for the World Cup and hopes the pitches during the tournament will retain their tradition of being conducive to fast bowling.

There are concerns that the Australian pitches for the Feb. 14-March 29 tournament might be better suited to batting after a record number of runs were scored during India’s recent four-test series Down Under.

“The wickets when you play in India should be low and slow turn-ing wickets. That’s what India is about,” Lee told reporters during a video-conference from Sydney

to mark the launch of the official World Cup video game by Disney.

“When you are playing in Australia the wicket should be the traditional Perth wicket that we always see. Real bouncy, fast wickets. Sydney should have some pace.

“Adelaide should be low and slow. Brisbane should be seaming. The wickets should be traditional Australian wickets that we are used to and grew up playing on.”

The 38-year-old Lee, one of the fastest bowlers of his time, feels Australia have the ideal mix of bowlers to dominate batting sides during the 50-over tournament.

“If they are all firing on one particular day, it’s Australia to me that are very balanced,” said Lee, who played 76 Tests and 221 ODIs during a 13-year interna-tional career.

“They’ve got a strong bowl-ing attack. You got (Mitchell) Johnson, (Mitchell) Starc, (Pat) Cummins and (Josh) Hazlewood just to mention a few.”

England, South Africa, New Zealand and India also had the variety in bowling to succeed at the tournament, according to the right-arm paceman.

The twice World Cup winner will pass on his experience and knowledge about the local condi-tions as a bowling coach for giant-killers Ireland during the event.

“My allegiance is with

Australia, but it wouldn’t be fair of me not to take the opportunity to try and pass on some knowl-edge to younger players coming through,” said Lee, who agreed a short-term deal to help Ireland during their warm-up period.

“It is my chance to give some-thing back to cricket.”

Ireland, who famously defeated Pakistan and England in the 2007 and 2011 editions of the tourna-ment, have been paired in Pool B against cricket powerhouse South Africa, India, Pakistan, West Indies, Zimbabwe and the United Arab Emirates.

AGENCIES

Governing body ICC cracks down on live betting SYDNEY: The International Cricket Council vowed yesterday to clamp down on live betting to try to ensure a corruption-free World Cup in Australia and New Zealand.

Anyone caught breaking the rules will be barred from the whole tournament, which starts on February 14.

Live betting or “pitch-siding” involves gamblers at sports events gaining an upper hand on other punters by taking advantage of the short time-lag, usually a matter of seconds, between play and live international broadcasts on television.

Sir Ronnie Flanagan, head of the ICC’s anti-corruption and security unit, said the issue went far deeper than a few clever people getting one over on betting shops.

“I think the risk is that this feeds into a wider and more sophisticated network of illegal betting, often in the Indian sub-continent,” he said.

Gambling is mostly illegal in India, but betting on cricket matches thrives through networks of underground bookies.

“Facilitating people to either bet on events which are then known events or in terms of illegal bookmakers adjusting their odds to know they should be shortening the odds on something ... I think that’s where it is a risk of being some sort of minor contagion.”

At least three examples of pitch-siding have been reported during the southern hemisphere summer, with one man thrown out of two T20 Big Bash League games and another ejected from the first match of the ODI series against India.

Flanagan, a former British chief constable, said the ICC was sharing information with the New Zealand and Australian governments as well as state administrations. He urged players to be wary of criminals who might seek to take advantage.

“In our line of work, we too often meet and know that there are rotten people out there, criminal people out there, who will do all in their power to get at players and others of influence within the game,” Flanagan said.

“They will trick them, they will coerce them, they will try and attract them. They are almost like paedophiles in how they attempt to groom people into ultimately attempting to do what suits their nefarious intentions in terms of illegal betting and other elements of criminal-ity.” REUTERS

ICC approves Rahat’s induction for World Cup KARACHI: Cricket’s govern-ing body yesterday approved paceman Rahat Ali as a replace-ment player for injured Junaid Khan in Pakistan’s squad for the World Cup, which starts next week.

The 26-year-old Ali played his only one-day international against Sri Lanka in June 2012, and was a surprise replacement for Junaid, announced by the Pakistan Cricket Board on Thursday.

The International Cricket Council (ICC) said its technical committee for the World Cup approved Pakistan’s request to replace Junaid with Ali.

“Any injury or illness-based replacement requires a written submission to the Event Technical Committee along with a diagnosis from a medical practitioner as to the extent of the injury or illness,” said the ICC.

Once replaced, a player may not return to the squad save as an approved subsequent replacement for another injured or ill player, the ICC said.

Junaid failed to recover from a leg injury sustained last month.

REUTERS

Ronnie Flanagan, head of the ICC’s anti-corruption and security, takes a seat to speak at a press conference in Sydney yesterday. The International Cricket Council vowed to clamp down on live betting, often known as pitch-siding, at next week’s cricket World Cup in Australia and New Zealand.

18 SPORTSATURDAY 7 FEBRUARY 2015

www.thepeninsulaqatar.com

Cavaliers stretch streak with win over ClippersNBA: Love, James star in 12th straight victory for Cavs CLEVELAND: The Cleveland Cavaliers stretched their NBA winning streak in emphatic style yesterday with a 105-94 victory over the Los Angeles Clippers.

Kevin Love scored 24 points and pulled down nine rebounds and LeBron James added 23 points and nine assists and the Cavs notched their 12th straight victory – one shy of the club record 13 in a row set during the 2009-10 campaign.

With the latest win, the Cavaliers seized first place in the Central division.

They also looked like the title contenders they were expected to be when James opted to return to his home state this season after his stint with the Miami Heat.

The final score flattered the Clippers, who trailed by as many as 32 in the third quarter and 31 in the fourth before closing the gap against the Cleveland reserves.

“I think we had a concentrated effort on both ends,” said Love, who scored 10 points in the first quarter as the Cavaliers took charge early.

“I thought tonight on the defen-sive end we did a really good job of stepping it up and taking away the very good offense that they have.” Jamal Crawford’s jumper pulled the Clippers within 22-18

late in the opening quarter, but Cleveland responded with a 15-4 scoring run that continued into the second frame to seize control.

“We had a really good game plan going against them on our home floor,” Love said.

James, who scored six points during the surge, capped it with back-to-back baskets.

He drove from the left wing for a two-handed dunk before racing past Blake Griffin from the right for a layup that put Cleveland up 37-22.

JR Smith drained four three-pointers and finished with 16 points and Timofey Mozgov chipped in a dozen points and nine rebounds for the Cavs.

Kyrie Irving had 16 points, five rebounds and five steals.

Smith’s three-pointer late in the first half staked the Cavs to a 65-42 advantage at the interval.

Cleveland, who out-rebounded the Clippers 52-43, took a 94-63 lead into the final quarter and cruised home, not before the frus-trated Clippers were slapped with four technical fouls.

In addition to taking the Central division lead -- one half-game ahead of Chicago -- the Cavaliers are now tied for third overall in the Eastern Conference with the Washington Wizards, who suffered their fifth straight defeat on Thursday, 94-87 at Charlotte.

Cleveland will try to keep their streak going when they visit Indiana on Friday.

In other matches, Portland and Charlotte also registered victories over their opponents. AFP

Philadelphia 76ers center Nerlens Noel (left) shoots over Cleveland Cavaliers forward Kevin Love during the second half of their NBA game at Quicken Loans Arena. The Cavs won 97-84.

Brandon Pirri of the

Florida Panthers

takes a shot on goal during a

NHL game against the

Los Angeles Kings at

BB&T Center, yesterday.

Pirri powers Panthers to victory over KingsNEW YORK: Centre Brandon Pirri scored with 3:05 left in the third period to lead Florida to its second consecutive win, a decision over Los Angeles.

Pirri scored a goal for the fourth game in a row. He has nine goals this season and six in the past seven games. Centers Nick Bjugstad and Aleksander Barkov also scored for Florida, which got 29 saves from Roberto Luongo.

Los Angeles goalie Jonathan Quick, who led the Kings to two Stanley Cup titles in the past three years, finished with 17 saves. He is now 1-6-3 in his past 10 games with a goals-against-average well over 3.00.

Defenceman Jamie McBain and right winger Marian Gaborik scored for Los Angeles.

Blues 3, Sabres 0Goalie Jake Allen made 23 saves

to lead St. Louis over Buffalo. It was the fourth career shutout for Allen, who was terrific and made several standout stops.

Right winger Vladimir Tarasenko, defenseman Dmitrij Jaskin and left winger Jaden Schwartz scored for St. Louis, which improved to 12-0-1 in its last 13 games. The Blues are also winners of seven in a row.

Lightning 5, Stars 3Centre Tyler Johnson scored

two goals, and left winger Ondrej

Palat had two assists for Tampa Bay in a win over Dallas.

The game was tied 2-2 after two periods, and it was 3-3 with less than four minutes left. Johnson scored the game-winner with 3:37 to play, and right winger Nikita Kucherov added an empty-net goal with 1:17 remaining, seal-ing the win.

Red Wings 3, Avalanche 0Goaltender Petr Mrazek

stopped 28 shots for his first shut-out of the season as the Detroit beat Colorado.

Left winger Justin Abdelkader scored the deciding goal for the Red Wings. Centers Darren Helm and Luke Glendening had empty net goals for Detroit, which won eight of its last night to move into second place in the Atlantic Division. Meanwhile, Anaheim defeated Nashville 5-2 in other match. REUTERS

NBA ResultsCleveland 105 LA Clippers 94

Portland 108 Phoenix 87

Sacramento 78 Dallas 101

Charlotte 94 Washington 87

NHL ResultsDallas 3 Tampa Bay 5

Ottawa 1 Washington 2

Florida 3 Los Angeles 2

Vancouver 1 San Jose 5

Colorado 0 Detroit 3

Arizona 1 Carolina 2

Nashville 2 Anaheim 5

Buffalo 0 St Louis 3

Philadelphia 2 NY Islanders 3

Ashkanani claims first race of Round 4 at Porsche GT3 CupDOHA: Kuwait’s Zaid Ashkanani was unbeatable as he led from start to fin-ish in Race 1 of Round 4 of the Porsche GT3 Cup Challenge at Losail International Circuit in Doha, yesterday, cutting the gap to series leader Clemens Schmid to just 8 points at the top of the Drivers’ Standings and securing him his first win of the season.

After reaching the half way mark of Season 6 at Losail International Circuit at the end of January following three rounds and six races, Race 1 of Round 4 represented the start of the sec-ond half of the season with the drivers being tested on the floodlit track.

Despite practicing in daylight, the racers qualified and competed in night conditions making Qatar one of the most technically chal-lenging races in the series.

After posting a blistering time in qualifying defending champion Ashkanani showed his class to hold on to his lead despite early pressure from current champion-ship leader Schmid.

Securing the success for the Kuwaiti was a quick start that allowed him to close off any gaps as well as the correct technical setup from his crew which saw him only pull further and further away from his nearest challengers as the race went on.

The win means Ashkanani now sits eight points behind Schmid in the overall championship with five more races to go in the season.

Speaking after his first victory of the season Ashkanani said: “I have a great car so the Porsche 911 GT3 Cup is the biggest win-ner here. It’s really consistent and this is one of the biggest factors in helping me succeed but I could not be happier but it wasn’t easy.”

After qualifying in first place, the start of the race was going to be crucial for defending cham-pion Ashkanani with Schmid eyeing a good start to try and get the better of his rival on the

first corner. As soon as the lights went Ashkanani shot off and moved to the middle of the track to defend his early lead which he held through the first cor-ner. Following close behind was the Saudi Arabian driver Fahad Algosaibi who started third and maintained his position

Further back in the field Ahmad Al Harthy launched off the start line and up to an out-standing fourth from ninth posi-tion at the expense of Charlie Frijns and the Skydive Duo.

Close tussles during the first lap saw Sheikh Hasher Al Maktoum and Charlie Frijns drop back fur-ther as Raed Raffii worked his

way through the pack and up to fourth as Al Harthy began to slip down.

Sensing an opportunity it was Al Mehairi who made the most of the racing conditions and squeezed past Raffii into fourth spot.

Some slight damage to the front of Al Maktoum’s car meant he was forced to retire at the half-way stage.

As the race continued Ashkanani only built on his lead over Schmid with Frijns pressing Al Harthy and pushing past him in the closing stages.

The drivers now look ahead to Race 2 of Round 4 which will

take place in the same conditions as Race 1, under the floodlights of Losail International Circuit. Following the Qatar weekend the drivers head to Round 5.

Set to take place at Dubai Autodrome, it tees up a final showdown in Bahrain which will act as a support race to the offi-cial Bahrain Grand Prix weekend in April, signifying that the com-petitors are entering the most crucial part of the season.

The region’s leading drivers will line-up in the Porsche 911 GT3 Cup again as the star attractions at Losail International Circuit for Race 2 Round 4 on Friday the 6th of February. THE PENINSULA

Top three finishers in Race 1 of Round 4 at the Porsche GT3 Cup Challenge pose for a group picture on the podium along with officials and organisers at Losail International Circuit in Doha, yesterday.

Pavel Nedobity in action at Losail International Circuit in the fourth round of Qatar Challenge, yesterday in Doha.

Nedobity takes pole for Qatar Challenge at LosailDOHA: Pavel Nedobity took the pole position today at Losail International Circuit in the fourth round of Qatar Challenge, yesterday in Doha.

The Lotus Exige driver made a best lap time of 2:28.388 and will start in front of the leader of the championship, Mark Holroyd who did a lap time of 2:28.789.

“I am very happy to have quali-fied in second place , now for me the season is about reliability and keeping my car working. I made an OK lap but I think I can be very competitive in the race’ Holroyd said after the qualifying session.

Holroyd is leading the champi-onship with 89 points and has a gap of 41 points ahead of Peter De Vido who is second in the stand-ings with 48 points.

The race for Qatar Challenge is scheduled at 19:00 at Losail.

In the other championships taking place at Losail, in the Radical Middle East Cup Free practice 2, the french duo Romain Lutter and Ludo Loffreda were the fastest drivers with a time of 2:00.458 and in the Porsche GT3 CUP Middle East Cup

Meanwhile, Ollie Smith and

Eric Zimmerman won yester-day the first race of Radical Middle East Cup held at Losail International Circuit.

The duo of car number 95 started in second position in the grid and took the lead immedi-ately after the first lap until the checkered flag.

The second position was for the Russian driver Sergey Shalunov of the team Arloid Intrahouse while the third position in the Supersports category was for the French duo Romain Lutter and Ludo Loffreda who got the pole position yesterday.

In the Clubmans category, the win was for Salman Al Khater from Qatar and the second place was for Catalin Voicu from Romania and Hamad Al Asam from Qatar. John and Matt Illingworth came in third position.

Trophies were presented by Mr.Sultan Zaher Al Morraikhi, QMMF Board Member.

In the Porsche GT3 CUP Challenge ME, the Kuwati driver Zaid Ashkanani won the first race of Round 4. Ashkanani took the pole position yesterday and lead the 12 laps race until the end.

THE PENINSULA

19SPORT SATURDAY 7 FEBRUARY 2015

www.thepeninsulaqatar.com

Tennis: Sharapova targets Olympics as Russia tackle Poland PARIS: Maria Sharapova leads Russia in their Fed Cup World Group opener against Poland this weekend looking to take a step closer to the 2016 Olympics.

It will be the first meeting between the two countries and a rare Fed Cup appearance by 2012 Olympic silver medallist Sharapova, who must compete in the women’s team event if she wants to bid for gold in Rio next year.

The Russian star, runner-up to Serena Williams at the Australian Open last Saturday, has played just three ties for Russia since her 2008 debut and has a 3-1 singles record.

Champions the Czech Republic open their defence against Canada in Quebec City, as 2014 runners-up Germany host Australia in Stuttgart and France travel to play Italy, last year’s semi-final-ists, in Genoa.

The hardcourt clash today and-tomorrow at Krakow Arena will see 27-year-old Sharapova return to Fed Cup for the first time since February 2012.

Attention will also be focussed on her new team captain Anastasia Myskina, who a decade ago threatened to pull out of the Russian team if Sharapova was selected.

Myskina, the first Russian woman to win a Grand Slam at Roland Garros in 2004, the year she spearheaded their first Fed Cup victory, retired as a player in 2007 and took over the Fed Cup captaincy in 2014.

Russia are favourites with world number two Sharapova joined by 27th-ranked Sveltana Kuznetsova, a two-time Grand Slam winner, Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova (34), and Vitalia Diatchenko (82).

World Group newcomers Poland will be led by former Wimbledon finalist Agnieszka Radwanska, ranked eighth, after her run to the fourth round of the Australian Open, alongside her younger sister Urszula, ranked 135. Alicja Rosolska and Klaudia Jans-Ignacik will be on doubles duty for Poland.

In Quebec City, the Czech hold-ers are favourites having won all five of their previous meetings with the Canadians, despite being without top players Petra Kvitova and Lucie Safarova.

World number 20 Karolina Pliskova, 68th-ranked Tereza Smitkova, 107th-ranked Denisa Allertova and doubles specialist Lucie Hradecka, will line out in the first meeting between the two sides since 2002. Canada, whose best result was a semi-final in 1988, will be without world number seven Eugenie Bouchard.

In Stuttgart, Australia face Germany for the third time in four years.

World Group II also has a smattering of stardust with both Serena and Venus Williams appearing for the US against Argentina in Buenos Aires. REUTERS

Fed Cup FixturesPARIS: Fed Cup fixtures today and tomorrow:

World Group I

At Quebec City

Canada vs Czech Republic

At Genoa

Italy vs France

At Krakow

Poland vs Russia

At Stuttgart

Germany vs Australia

World Group II

At Apeldoorn

Netherlands vs Slovakia

At Galati

Romania vs Spain

At Helsingborg

Sweden vs Switzerland

At Buenos Aires

Argentina vs USA

Ahmed Rashed Al Dawas of Kuwait celebrates winning the Pro Marathon race at the UIM Qatar Cup on the Corniche bay in Doha yesterday. RIGHT: Thamer Ahmed Al Darwish heads out to deep waters during yesterday’s action.

Kuwait’s Rashed wins raceQatar Cup: Qatar’s Abdullah Mohammed Ali claims runners-up spot DOHA: Kuwait’s Ahmed Rashed Al Dawas claimed vic-tory in the Pro Marathon race for aqua bikes, held in conjunc-tion with the exciting UIM Qatar Cup in Doha Bay yesterday.

The Kuwaiti fended off a strong Qatari challenge for over-all honours, which saw local hero Abdullah Mohammed Ali claim second position and fellow Qatari Mohammed Al Heidus round off the podium places.

Kuwait’s Hamad Al Dalai reached the chequered flag in fourth overall and the Qatari racers, Waleed Mahmoud Al Sharshani and Rashed Al Mannai, were fifth and sixth.

Kuwait’s Abdulaziz Al Najdi and the Qatari trio of Rashed Rashed Al Muhannadi, Mubarak Khalifa Al Khuleifi and Khaled Mohammed Al Malki rounded off the top 10.

Ten other racers, including entrants from Saudi Arabia and the UAE, failed to finish a thrill-ing race held in perfect conditions

on the clear waters of Doha Bay yesterday.

Yesterday was a relatively quiet day by UIM Qatar Cup standards, but it gave all the registered Pro Marathon aquabike racers from Qatar, Kuwait, the UAE, Saudi Arabia and Jordan the chance to impress in their very own race.

Doha Bay was then opened for both Inshore and Offshore testing late yesterday afternoon.

Today is the final day of the inaugural Qatar Cup and the busiest of the four days.

The second C2 and C1 races

take centre stage on the Inshore course from 9.00am until 10.45am and they precede the UIM World 225 Championship race, starting at 11.00am

The afternoon belongs to the Offshore racers and SuperCat Lites venture out on to the water for their second race from 14.30hrs.

Rashed Rashed A Muhannadi of Qatar makes a splash off the Doha Corniche in Pro Marathon race action yesterday.

The second encounter for the SuperVee and SuperCat entrants brings the racing to a close from

15.30hrs before the awards cer-emony at 16.45hrs.

THE PENINSULA

Sailors in action on day three of the Sail the Gulf

competition off the coast of Katara in Doha yesterday.

Around 110 sailors representing 20

countries are taking part in the event. BELOW: Young

sailors negotiate the high tide during the same event which

ends today.

Qatar’s Waleed shines at Sail the GulfDOHA: Qatar’s Waleed Al Sharshani yesterday topped the Laser Standard card with an overall nett score of 9 on the third day of the Sail the Gulf competition off the Katara coast.

Al Sharshani finished ahead of Oman’s Hussain Al Jabri who managed a tally of 10 while com-patriot Ahmed Al Balushi ended the day with a nett score of 12.

In the Laser 4.7 class, UAE’s Hamza Al Ali with a nett score of 13 was a couple of notches better than Bahrain’s Saoud Al Naar and Qatar’s Abdurrahman Al Jinah.

Al Naar and Al Jinah managed an identical tally of 15 each.

In the Optimist class, India’s Chitresh Tatha emerged a con-vincing winner with a nett score of 9.

UAE’s Saif Al Mansoury (14) finished second while Netherlands’s Florine Bramervaer (22) finished in third spot.

Qatar’s Abdulrahman Al

Nasr finished in 8th spot (45). Pakistan’s Najeeb Ullah was in red-hot form as he topped the Laser Radial class. Najeeb man-aged a tally of 9 while UAE’s Saeed Al Zaidi posted a score of 10.

India’s Vir Amar Menon (10) was third.

In the 470 class, India’s Praveen Prabhakar (10) and Vishnu Sujeesh topped the charts along with the duo of Duarte Monteiro (Portugal) and Adeel Khan (Pakistan).

Around 110 sailors from 20 countries including Argentina, Australia, Bahrain, Belgium, Canada, Britain, Denmark, Germany, India, Iran, Italy, Japan, Kazakhstan, the Netherlands, Oman, Pakistan, Portugal, Romania, UAE and Qatar are taking part in the four-day championship.

Today is the final day of the championship, organisers said yesterday. THE PENINSULA

2015 UIM Qatar Cup

Pro Marathon race results yesterday:

1. Ahmed Rashed Al-Dawas (KUW)

2. Abdullah Mohammed Ali (QAT)

3. Mohammed Al-Haidus (QAT)

4. Hamad Al-Dalali (KUW)

5. Waleed Al-Sharshani (QAT)

6. Rashed Al-Mannai (QAT)

7. Abdullah Al-Nadi (KUW)

8. Rashed Rashed Al-Muhannadi (QAT)

9. Mubarak Khalifa Al-Khuleifi (QAT)

10. Khaled Mohammed Al-Malki (QAT)

2015 Qatar CupToday’s Timetable of Events

09.00 - 09.45 Inshore race 2 (C2)

10.00 - 10.45 Inshore race 2 (C1)

11.00 - 11.45 Inshore race 1 (C225)

14.30 - 15.15 Offshore race 2 (SuperCat Lite)

15.30 - 16.15 Offshore race 2 (SuperVee and SuperCat)

16.45 Awards ceremony

20 SPORTSATURDAY 7 FEBRUARY 2015

www.thepeninsulaqatar.com

Lekhwiya consolidate top spot with Al Gharafa win Umm Salal crush Al Shamal 5-0, Al Kharaitiyat pip Al Shahaniya 4-0 DOHA: Defending champions Lekhwiya maintained their top place at the Qatar Stars League (QSL) points table when they defeated Al Gharafa 3-2 at their own backyard.

Yesterday at the Al Gharafa Stadium, the Michael Laudrup’s side dominated their opponents, in contrast what the score-line suggests.

Andres Sebastian Quintana was the star with a brace as the title-holders took a 3-0 lead till 50th minute of the match. Mustafa Abdulla reduced the lead with a goal in 61st minute before Lekhwiya’s Ahmed Yasser Aziz scored an own goal by mistake in 91st minute, helping Al Gharafa to narrow the margin of defeat.

Meanwhile, Umm Salal and Al Kharaitiyat registered huge victories by taming their respec-tive opponents. At the Qatar SC Stadium, Umm Salal thrashed Al Shamal 5-0 with Ismail Mahmoud Mardanli being their star with the second half brace.

Al Kharaitiyat, on the other hand pummelled Al Shahaniya 4-0 with all their goals coming in the final session. The other match saw El Jaish collecting full points with a 2-0 win over Al Arabi. THE PENINSULA

Al Gharafa’s Hussain Ali Shehab (left) gestures as Lekhwiya’s players celebrate a goal during their QSL match at the Al Gharafa Stadium in Doha yesterday . Lekhwiya won 3-2 to consolidate their top position in the league. RIGHT: Al Arabi’s Paulo Sergio (front) wins the ball against an El Jaish player during their match at the Al Arabi Stadium.

Morocco banned from next two Nations Cups MALABO: Morocco have been banned from the next two African Nations Cup tourna-ments as punishment for with-drawing from hosting the 2015 finals over fears of the spread of the Ebola virus.

The Royal Moroccan Football Federation (FRMF) has also been fined $1m and ordered to pay 8.05m euros ($9.12m) in damages to the Confederation of African Football and their partners, CAF said in a statement.

CAF’s executive committee rejected claims of force majeure from the FRMF and found the federation financially liable for the decision to withdraw from hosting the finals.

Morocco had asked for the tournament to be postponed by a year to allow the Ebola outbreak in west Africa to be contained.

The north African country was stripped of hosting rights by CAF in November as the tourna-ment was switched to Equatorial Guinea.

CAF said at the time that Morocco’s concerns were alarm-ist, notably the fear the com-petition would attract tens of thousands of visitors from west Africa where the World Health Organisation estimates almost 9,000 have died due to Ebola.

Moroccan Youth and Sports Minister Mohamed Ouzzine sug-gested at the time that players based in Europe would not take part in the tournament, render-ing it a flop for all concerned, but that has not materialised.

CAF has also given the Tunisian Football Federation until March 31 to apologise for the behaviour of their players and TFF presi-dent Wadie Jary following the controversial quarter-final defeat by Equatorial Guinea or face exclusion from the 2017 edition.

Jary has been suspended from all CAF activities after he accused the organisation of bias against his country following a conten-tious penalty handed to Equatorial Guinea that allowed them to take the tie to extra-time.

CAF said Jary must apologise or submit a letter with “irrefu-table, tangible evidence” to sub-stantiate his claims.

Tunisia have already been fined $50,000 for what CAF termed “the aggressive attitude of some supporters in the stands, inva-sion of the pitch after the final whistle by players and substitutes ... insulting the referee and try-ing to physically assault him and the regrettable behaviour of the president of the Tunisian Football Federation.” REUTERS

‘Zidane could be future Real coach’ MADRID: Zinedine Zidane is shaping up as a future coach of Real Madrid coach, present incumbent Carlo Ancelotti said yesterday.

Zidane, who is currently coach-ing the Real reserve side Castilla, “has all the qualities” required to take the the helm of the club, Ancelotti told a news conference.

“I enjoy Zidane’s work, he’s doing very well,” Ancelotti said.

After a difficult start of the season, Castilla are top of Spain’s third tier league.

“He’s doing very well in his first year in charge. He’s taken Castilla to first place and he needs to keep up the good work. It’s pretty clear to me he has all the quali-ties to coach a big team. And that includes Real Madrid,” said the Italian manager, who appointed the French legend last season.

After seeing Castilla lose five of their first six initial games, Zidane has turned things around and his young charges have now lost just once in the past four months.

They could increase their lead when they take on Athletic Bilbao’s reserves on Sunday, a match which could see Norwegian teenage prodigy Martin Odegaard, snapped up from under the noses of many European giants in the transfer window, could make his debut.” AFP

PSG look to reclaim top spot PARIS: Champions Paris Saint-Germain can reclaim the top spot in Ligue 1 tomorrow, but they need to beat current leaders Lyon away from home to do so.

It’s a tough assignment for Laurent Blanc’s men, but they were boosted by a 1-0 win over Lille in midweek that took them into the French League Cup final.

With the Cup behind them and the Champions League clash against Chelsea coming up, the Ligue 1 giants need to focus on improving their league ranking.

“It’s not a final but it could be the turning point of the season”, admitted Blaise Matuidi.

“We’ve got a lot of avenues open to us and we want to do well in all the different competitions,” said Matuidi.

With 15 games to go, PSG have little margin for error.

The defending champions have yet to hit their stride during a mediocre campaign but maximum points at Gerland would take PSG ahead of their rivals in the table.

The Ligue 1 title race has effec-tively become a three-way tussle between current leaders Lyon on 49 points with Marseille and PSG hot on their heels on 47.

And PSG have no choice in Lyon, as Thiago Motta explained.

“If we lose on Sunday in Lyon, people will talk about a crisis at PSG. Our aim is to win and reclaim the top spot”, said the Italian midfielder.

The pressure is thus on Laurent Blanc and his men. Bernard Lacombe, special advi-sor to Lyon president Jean-Michel Aulas, knows that and cunningly added to their burden.

“PSG will be champions. At one point, the Parisian players are going to rebel. Let’s hope it’ll be as late as possible”, Lacombe told Radio Scoop.

Lyon, who are surprise leaders at this point in the season, are on eight-match unbeaten run, having

only dropped points at Monaco.But, just as they did in the

Principality, Lyon will have to do without their number one striker Alexandre Lacazette (21 league goals).

Second place Marseille could also take the reins, should they manage to win their first away game since October at Brittany outfit Rennes, who are winless in five Ligue 1 outings.

Marcelo Bielsa squad was boosted with the arrival of Lucas Ocampos from Monaco this week while their target man Pierre Andre Gignac is on clinical form in front of goal with a league tally of 14. AFP

Lyon’s French defender

Lindsay Rose runs during a training session

yesterday, at the Tola

Vologe training center in Lyon ahead of L1

match against Paris Saint-

Germain (PSG) tomorrow.

Al Kass stars warned of social media hazards DOHA: As social media usage has rapidly expanded in recent years, it forms an increasingly colourful addition to the excited chatter around the Al Kass International Cup.

For the young, web-savvy play-ers, platforms including Facebook, Twitter and Instagram present fantastic opportunities to share their experiences in Doha with fans, followers and friends alike.

This year a record level of ‘self-ies’ are predicted as more and more participants utilise social media to publicise their football-ing feats, perhaps with the long-term aim of building up personal online ‘brands’.

With the tournament just a couple of days in, the photography phenomenon has already been embraced by the AC Milan team who celebrated their 4-3 victory over River Plate with a joyful vic-tory selfie at the side of the pitch

However, while such activity is generally nothing more than harmless fun, some experts are warning of the growing dangers that social media can present to young footballers.

According to the International Centre for Sport Security (ICSS), many criminals and match-fixers are now utilising sites like Twitter and Instagram to approach and groom young footballers.

In an effort to encourage greater awareness of these risks, Al Kass and the ICSS hosted a joint event yesterday to highlight these hazards to the tournament’s young players.

The lessons form part of a wider legacy initiative by the Al Kass International Organising Committee to ensure that play-ers leave Qatar with more than just a football education.

Among those who addressed yesterday were legendary

football coach Bora Milutinovic, Dutch legend Edgar Davids, and ICSS Head of Anti-Corruption & International Development Partnerships, Werner Schuller.

Advising the players as to how they can fulfil their dreams, Davids said: “Each day you need to look at yourself and ask whether you have done everything to suc-ceed. If you can yes, you should have no trouble sleeping. If you say no then you are obviously not making enough of yourself.”

Meanwhile Milutinovic, who has coached five teams at the World Cup during his career, offered his own thoughts: “You have to pay a very high price to succeed in football. I was an aver-age player but I was also known for my positive behaviour and this made me easy to coach and improve. When a player is truly focused he will become an excel-lent asset. ” THE PENINSULA

QSL ResultsLekhwiya bt Al Gharafa 3-2

Umm Salal bt Al Shamal 5-0

Al Kharaitiyat bt Al Shahaniya 4-0

El Jaish bt Al Arabi 2-0

Al Kass and the International Centre for Sport Security (ICSS) host a joint event yesterday to highlight hazards of social media.

Al Kass Cup: Aspire Academy hit Kobe for sixDOHA: Aspire Academy romped an emphatic victory yesterday evening, hitting Vissel Kobe for six and delivering a resounding statement of intent in the process.

Having suffered a 3-2 defeat to Arsenal the day before, Vissel went into the game knowing they must earn at least a point in order to keep their Cup dreams alive.

Yet it was Aspire Academy who emerged the hungrier of the two sides. With a capacity crowd in the stands to cheer on the Doha-born players, Aspire made the most of their home advantage and completely overwhelmed Vissel with their pace and energy up front.

Asserting themselves from the get-go, Aspire bagged their first goal after just four minutes after a crunching tackle felled striker Hazem Shehata on the edge of the Kobe box.

Aspire’s Khaled Mazeed stepped up to float the resultant free kick the ball into the Kobe box. Khalid Al Naimi snuck away from the pack to meet the cross at the near post and fire past keeper Kaito Tsurata.

On 27 minutes the home side doubled their advantage thanks to some individual magic from Khalid Mazeed, who demonstrated incredible confidence to take on four Kobe defenders, break into the box and fire at goal from a tight angle.

Tsuruta could only divert Mazeed’s ambitious effort into the path of Meshaal Faraj, who slotted home with ease.

With the game rapidly slipping away from Vissel, Aspire confounded the Japanese side’s misery by recording their third goal just before half-time.

Newly introduced striker Hassan Palang used his pace to beat Kobe defenders Haruka Motoyama and Tomoyuki Maekawa before finish-ing confidently, ending Kobe’s chances of progression with 45 minutes still to play. Despite recording 68% possession, Vissel had managed just a single shot on target, while Aspire had converted all three of their efforts on goal.

With the game finishing 6-1, Vissel Kobe are now unable to progress from the group stages. They will however get the chance to fight for some pride on Monday when the 3rd placed teams from each group compete for 8th place. THE PENINSULA

21SATURDAY 7 FEBRUARY 2015

www.thepeninsulaqatar.comSPORT

Courageous Armitstead is new queen of the desertLadies Tour of Qatar: Final stage win powers the Briton to title glory

LEFT: British cyclist Lizzie Armitstead is seen with Australian

rival Chloe Hosking (right) and Netherland’s Ellen Van Dijk (left) after the top three riders in the

general classification were handed their trophies on the final day of the 2015 Ladies Tour of Qatar in Doha yesterday. Armitstead won

the fourth and the final stage ahead of Hosking to seal her maiden win in Qatar. BELOW:

Qatar Cycling Federation (QCF) President Sheikh Khalid bin Ali Thani hands over the winner’s trophy to Armitstead. PICTURES:

SYED OMAR

BY RIZWAN REHMAT

DOHA: Celebrated British cyclist Lizzie Armitstead yes-terday edged Australian rival Chloe Hosking in a photo-finish to take the final stage at the Ladies Tour of Qatar where the Boels Dolmans star was crowned champion after the last bunched sprint.

Armitstead made the most of defending champion Kiresten Wild’s absence to take stage three on Thursday and stage four yesterday to complete her maiden triumph in Doha ahead of Hosking and Netherland’s Ellen Van Dijk.

The 26-year-old Briton, a silver medallist at the London Olympic Games, was roundly cheered after she beat Hosking in a sprint fin-ish in the 85km race that started from Sealine Beach Resort and ended under sunny conditions on the Doha Corniche.

Hosking, who failed to win a stage over the course of four days, shared the two intermediate sprints with Armitstead who also topped the points classification to pocket the silver jersey to go along with her champion’s golden jersey.

After her victory at the Commonwealth Games and her UCI World Cup crown last year, the Yorkshire rider was thrilled to add another prestigious title to her career.

“I mean it was a bit of a dif-ficult day. The peleton was so big - there was not enough wind,” Armitstead said. “I really have to say ‘thank you’ to my team-mates. I finish off with a very close vic-tory,” she added..

“It’s fantastic to start the season with a win. We clicked together as a team. It worked so well which means we will have a great season,” the Boels Dolmans rider added.

“Victory here means my team has done well. We really domi-nated and it is fantastic to start the season like this. It is one of the best organised races of the season. The sun is always shin-ing which makes racing great,” Armitstead said.

Hosking, who was seeking her first race win in Qatar, presented a calm exterior.

“It was a really good week. It was my first week racing with my new team. I think we did great to come together as a team,” Hosking said.

“I think in the last stage it was bitter-sweet but I am proud how we rode. You know it’s a good sign for the season,” the Benigo-born said.

“It was a long and hard sprint.I was so close. In the I got beaten by a better ride. She was in really, really good shape. I am not ashamed to have lost to her,” Hosking said.

“I think what really let me down was the time bonuses on the second and third stages. I really messed myself around. But like I said the stronger rider won. I finished second overall so it’s not bad,” the Wiggle-Honda rider said.

After the dominance of Wild these last few years, Armitstead has now become the first British rider to win the Ladies Tour of Qatar title.

Earlier yesterday, the wind had seriously picked up for the final stage of the 7th edition of the Ladies Tour of Qatar as the 83 remaining riders took off from the Sealine Beach Resort for the 85-km stage heading north to the Doha Corniche.

All the pressure at the start was on the shoulders of Armitstead only enjoying an 8’’ advantage over her team-mate Van Dijk and 9’’ over close rival Hosking.

The first part of the stage was a real struggle for the riders fac-ing a fairly strong head wind (33.2kms covered during the first hour). Despite a few attempts,

the pack remained bunched all the way to the first intermediate sprint.

Led out by her Boels Dolmans sqaud, Armitstead proved to be the fastest to the line gaining three precious seconds while Hosking had to settle for second ahead of Emma Johansson.

The Brit had increased her overall lead to 10 seconds. Just after the first battle of the day, China’s Xiu Jie Jiang managed to break away.

Like on the very first day of the event on Monday, she enjoyed her moment of glory as the gap reached 55’’ at the 47-km mark.

At the first passage on the line of the final circuit her advantage had increased to reach 1’35. Not

too concerned by the Chinese escapee, the pack awaited the sec-ond crossing of the line to really start reacting.

As expected, Jiang was gob-bled up by the hungry pack just before the penultimate lap as Hosking went on to claim maxi-mum points and seconds ahead of her team-mate Julien D’Hoore and Armitstead.

Despite a few breakaway attempts, the pack remained bunched all the way to the final straight.

The expected sprinting battle took place but once again there wasn’t much anyone could do to stop Armitstead.

The Briton powered to the line beating Hosking and Italy’s

Barbara Guarischi. By claiming her second consecutive win, she supplemented her overall lead and claimed her first ever Ladies Tour of Qatar crown.

Beatrice Bartelloni finished as the best young rider of the event while Wiggle Honda claimed the title of best team.

Hosking, who finished 12 sec-onds adrift of Armitstead, said she was in no mood to give up on the Qatar race win.

“I said that last year (laughs) and the year before. I love com-ing to Qatar and I will be com-ing back next year. I always come with the objective to win so hope-fully fourth time lucky (laughs),” Hosking said.

THE PENINSULA

Lizzie Armitstead

gets a bouquet from Amani Al

Dosari, General Coordinator of Tour of Qatar

events, in Doha yesterday.

RIGHT: Photographers

shoot pictures at

the final prize distribution ceremony yesterday.

Cyclists in action on the final day Cyclists in action on the final day of the 2015 Ladies Tour of Qatar in of the 2015 Ladies Tour of Qatar in

Doha yesterday.Doha yesterday.

Results at Ladies Tour of Qatar

DOHA: Results and stand-ings on the final day of the 2015 Ladies Tour of Qatar which ended at Doha Corniche yesterday.

Top 10 riders in stage four1 Elisabeth Armitstead (GBr) Boels Dolmans Cycling Team 2:24:15

2 Chloe Hosking (Aus) Wiggle Honda

3 Barbara Guarischi (Ita) Velocio-SRAM

4 Roxane Fournier (Fra) France

5 Emma Johansson (Swe) Orica - AIS

6 Lucinda Brand (Ned) Rabo Liv Women Cycling Team

7 Kelly Druyts (Bel) Topsport Vlaanderen - Pro-Duo

8 Elena Cecchini (Ita) Italy

9 Pascale Jeuland (Fra) France

10 Tiffany Cromwell (Aus) Velocio-SRAM

Final general classification1 Elisabeth Armitstead (GBr) Boels Dolmans Cycling Team 9:59:25

2 Chloe Hosking (Aus) Wiggle Honda 0:00:12

3 Ellen Van Dijk (Ned) Boels Dolmans Cycling Team 0:00:22

4 Trixi Worrack (Ger) Velocio-SRAM 0:00:29

5 Emma Johansson (Swe) Orica - AIS 0:00:30

6 Jolien D’hoore (Bel) Wiggle Honda 0:02:26

7 Tiffany Cromwell (Aus) Velocio-SRAM 0:02:29

8 Pascale Jeuland (Fra) France

9 Amy Pieters (Ned) Team Liv-Plantur

10 Gracie Elvin (Aus) Orica - AIS 0:02:37

Points classification1 Elisabeth Armitstead (GBr) Boels Dolmans Cycling Team 50 pts

2 Chloe Hosking (Aus) Wiggle Honda 43

3 Shelley Olds - Evans (USA) Bigla Pro Cycling Team 23

4 Lucinda Brand (Ned) Rabo Liv Women Cycling Team 21

5 Emma Johansson (Swe) Orica - AIS 19

6 Trixi Worrack (Ger) Velocio-SRAM 17

7 Ellen Van Dijk (Ned) Boels Dolmans Cycling Team 15

8 Annalisa Cucinotta (Ita) Ale Cipollini 15

9 Jolien D’hoore (Bel) Wiggle Honda 14

10 Giorgia Bronzini (Ita) Wiggle Honda 14

Team classification1 Wiggle Honda 30:02:00

2 Orica - AIS 0:02:04

3 Boels Dolmans Cycling Team 0:09:03

4 Velocio - Sram 0:11:00

5 Ale Cipollini 0:15:21

6 Rabo Liv Women Cycling Team 0:22:32

7 France 0:24:25

8 Team Liv - Plantur 0:24:44

9 Hitec Products 0:33:51

10 Topsport Vlaanderen-Pro-Duo 0:36:12

PROTHOM ALO WEEKLY

Email: marketingfp@daralsharq.netTel: 4465 0600���������� ���������

Published every Thursday

Available in all leading stores in Qatar

Most Popular Bangladeshi Newspaper

SPORT22SATURDAY 7 FEBRUARY 2015

www.thepeninsulaqatar.com

Al Attiyah grabs lead on day oneQatar International Rally: Home hero on course for 12th straight win, Yazeed gives chase DOHA: Nasser Saleh Al Attiyah remained firmly on course for an unprecedented 12th victory at the QMMF Qatar International Rally after six timed special stages in the Qatar deserts yesterday.

The Qatari and co-driver Matthieu Baumel have teamed up for a full programme of FIA Middle East Rally Championship events in a Ford Focus RRC and lead the 13-stage event by 1min 17.50sec heading into the final half dozen timed tests today.

“It’s a nice position to be in at this point with a good lead and six stages to go,” said Al Attiyah. “But, I suppose I was a little for-tunate this morning. I was push-ing quite hard and managed to avoid the punctures that affected the others and cost them time. I do have a good lead, but one punc-ture tomorrow and that can all be lost. I need to manage the race carefully now.”

Punctures wrecked the chal-lenge from both of his major rivals. Abu Dhabi Racing’s Sheikh Khalid bin Faisal Al Qassimi was forced to stop and change a wheel on the second of the day’s spe-cials and the delay cost him 3min 50sec. He reached the end of the leg in third overall.

Saudi Arabian driver Yazeed Al Rajhi and his Ulster co-driver Michael Orr complained of han-dling issues on the first stage, but the Riyadh driver settled into an impressive pace from then on to hold third place and he moved up to second on the last test of the day.

Abdulaziz Al Kuwari com-pleted eight kilometres of the second stage of the day on a flat tyre and lost half a minute. The Qatari and his Irish navigator Killian Duffy held second at the

midday regroup and looked set to reach the overnight halt in a similar position until they report-edly punctured again on the last stage and dropped nearly four minutes to the leader and moved into fourth place.

Kuwait’s Salah bin Eidan and new Slovenian co-driver Vili Oslaj held sixth and led the Group N category from the sole-surviving Iranian crew of Ali Mesgarha and Vahidreza Vahdatinikzad until the last stage.

But they too hit serious sus-pension trouble and the Iranians held the showroom category lead at the overnight halt. Only five of the 12 starters reached the overnight halt, although the rest should return in Rally2 today.

Al Attiyah led 11 rivals into the opening 21.63km of the tricky Umm Wishah stage in his newly-liveried 2014 Ford Fiesta RRC. He already knew that Al Rajhi’s strategy was to attack from the start and the Qatari laid down the gauntlet with a time of 10min 31.20sec and gained 21 seconds on the struggling Saudi, as Abdulaziz Al Kuwari pipped Al Qassimi to second.

Al Rajhi’s co-driver Michael Orr had noticed low pressure in a rear tyre before the start of the special and the wheel was changed, but Al Rajhi clouted a rock early in the special and com-plained that the car was pulling to the right. All 12 cars reached the stage finish.

Nasser Al Attiyah was now in a focused mood and a stunning time through the first Al Shabana spe-cial saw his lead over Al Kuwari climb to 40.2sec when his rival sustained a rear, right flat tyre and was forced to drive for 8km on the deflating rubber.

The stage was also a critical one for Al Qassimi: he eventually finished 3min 43sec behind the leader and wrecked his chance of a maiden Qatar win.

“After about two or three kilo-metres, in a tight right-hand cor-ner, a rock had been pulled out into the track and we clipped it. I carried on a little, but we knew there was a problem and decided to change the front wheel. But there was also some damage under the car and we had to jack it up from the back. This cost us even more time, he said” A heavy landing after a jump sidelined Edith Weiss’s Mitsubishi with suspension damage and Rashid

Al Naimi was also in trouble. After sustaining a puncture, his

Mitsubishi took off over a huge jump and the resultant impact broke a turbo pipe and damaged the front of the car. He managed to finish the stage before retiring and returning to the service park.

Al Attiyah increased his lead over Al Kuwari to 50.20sec through Al Kharsaah 1 and reached service without issues. A slow puncture had slightly delayed Khalifa Al Attiyah, Abdullah Al Kuwari complained of power steering problems and the Iranian driver Mohammed Ghalehbani was sidelined in the special with technical trouble.

Nine cars began the second

loop of three stages, with Al Attiyah leading from Abdulaziz Al Kuwari, Al Rajhi, Khalid Al Suwaidi, Khalifa Al Attiyah, Al Qassimi, Group N leader Salah bin Eidan, Ali Mesgarha and Abdullah Al Kuwari, who incurred a hefty time penalty of 4min 44sec and slipped to ninth.

Al Attiyah had vowed to ease his pace a little to preserve his Ford Fiesta, but was a mere 7/10ths of a second slower on his repeat run through Umm Wishah.

Al-Qassimi only dropped a second to the defending regional champion, but suspension arm issues sidelined Al Suwaidi, as Al-Kuwari and Al Rajhi main-tained second and third.

Al-Rajhi collected a puncture within sight of the finish and changed it on the road section.

Abdulah Al Kuwari had com-plained of a sore hand after the earlier power steering issue and he began the stage before returning to the start to retire soon afterwards. There was no stopping a defiant Al Attiyah in SS6 either and the Qatari shaved three seconds off his morning’s time to extend his advantage to 1min 05.40sec.

He was again quicker on his second attempt at Al Kharsaah and reached the overnight halt with a lead of 1min 17.5sec. Khalifa Al-Attiyah lost fourth place with reported axle issues and Kuwait’s

Bin Eidan relinquished his grip on the Group N lead after stopping with terminal suspension damage.

Today, crews tackle the remain-ing six special stages of the MERC opener, starting with 20.90km near Mekanes at 08.38hrs. Runs through the 15.33km of Salwa at 09.11hrs and a QMMF-backed 27.56km special at 09.49hrs pre-cede a regroup and service stop at the Qatar Aqua Park.

The three specials are repeated at 11.52hrs, 12.25hrs and 13.03hrs. After a final service at the Aqua Park, cars then return to the QMMF on the Salwa Road in Doha for the ceremonial finish and prize giving from 14.30hrs onwards. THE PENINSULA

2015 QMMF Qatar International Rally

(Positions after SS7 (SS1 cancelled)

1. Nasser Saleh Al-Attiyah (QAT)/Matthieu Baumel (FRA) Ford Fiesta RRC 1hr 03min 08.9sec

2. Yazeed Al-Rajhi (SAU)/Michael Orr (GBR) Ford Fiesta RRC 1hr 04min 26.4sec

3. Khalid Al-Qassimi (ARE)/Chris Patterson (GBR) Citroën DS3 RRC 1hr 07min 20.3sec

4. Abdulaziz Al Kuwari (QAT)/Killian Duffy (IRL) Ford Fiesta RRC 1hr 08min 09.3sec

5. Ali Mesgarha (IRN)/Vahidreza Vahdatinikzad (IRN) Subaru Impreza 1hr 28min 45.7sec

Nasser Saleh Al-Attiyah in action at the QMMF Qatar International Rally in Doha, yesterday.

Highlights of Qatar International Rally

Killian Duffy with the flat tyre that cost Abdulaziz Al Kuwari 30sec in SS3 of the Qatar International Rally, yesterday in Doha.

Sheikh Khalid bin Faisal Al Qassimi of Abu Dhabi racing team gets ready for the action. RIGHT: Iranian driver Mohammed Ghalehbani accelerates on the opening day of Qatar International Rally in Doha, yesterday.

Abdulaziz Al Kuwari of Qatar andKillian Duffy of Ireland in action on opening

day of Qatar International Rally.

Baby Blues By Jerry Scott and Rick Kirkman

C O O DSR S RW

Yesterday’s answer

Yesterday’s answer

How to play Hyper Sudoku:A Hyper Sudoku Puzzle is solved by filling the numbers from 1 to 9 into the blank cells. A Hyper Sudoku has unlike Sudoku 13 regions (four regions overlap with the nine standard regions). In all regions the numbers from 1 to 9 can appear only once. Otherwise, a Hyper Sudoku is solved like a normal Sudoku.

How to play Kakuro:

The kakuro grid, unlike in sudoku, can be of any

size. It has rows and columns, and dark cells

like in a crossword. And, just like in a crossword,

some of the dark cells will contain numbers. Some

cells will contain two numbers.

However, in a crossword the numbers reference

clues. In a kakuro, the numbers are all you get!

They denote the total of the digits in the row or

column referenced by the number.

Within each

collection of cells

- called a run - any

of the numbers 1

to 9 may be used

but, like sudoku,

each number may

only be used once.

HYPER

ACROSS

1 Prepare to speak, say

16 Nurse

17 Not now

18 Puts somebody out

19 FICA fig.

20 ___ corde (piano

direction)

21 Ganders, e.g.

22 “Bummer”

25 President’s first name on

“The West Wing”

26 Slicker go-with

29 With 35-Down, slightly

stale

30 Choice for

bow-making

33 Inexperienced

34 Their contents have yet to

be dealt with

36 Tenor Vickers

37 Defense Department dept.

38 She played Detective

Sasha Monroe on “Third

Watch”

39 Greetings

40 Dummy in “Stage Door

Canteen”

41 Cellphone feature,

informally

42 Fr. religious title

43 Hotel waiter?

46 Florida preserve?

52 Keen insight, with “the”

53 Peak performance in

1953?

54 Focus of HGTV’s “House

Hunters”

DOWN 1 Philistine

2 “August: Osage County”

playwright Tracy

3 Westphalian city

4 Looking down on?

5 DVD-___

6 Snack since 1912

7 Fish with iridescent blue

stripesANSWER TO PREVIOUS PUZZLE

O P E C T H E O C S E M IP O L O T I A R A P R O ST W E N T Y Q U E S T I O N SS E P T A L H O T T E A

R H O S G M C G A I TA L A R T R I O S N C I SP I N T H A D U P D A Z EE N T I C I N G L Y P R E XR E S O U N D E D P O T S Y

N E A P S A O LM E L I S S A D E L I R I AO N E S T A R O R I S O N ST O O T I R E D T O T H I N KE R N C A N I T B E L A ST M I K I T T I E S E T OS E A S L S E S T D E F

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15

16

17

18

19 20 21

22 23 24 25

26 27 28 29 30 31 32

33 34 35

36 37 38

39 40

41 42 43 44 45

46 47 48 49 50 51

52

53

54

8 Automaker

Bugatti

9 German boys

10 The old you?

11 Snack since 1900

12 Named names,

maybe

13 Crazy quilts

14 “Look ___ now!”

15 Alternative to

cafés

22 Raid target

23 Top 10 hit for

Eminem or

3 Doors Down

24 Eponymous

German physicist

25 Aerosmith’s titular

gun carrier

26 Gandhi opposed it

27 ___, amas, amat

28 Crime writer

Rankin

29 China shop

purchase

30 Intro to biology?

31 Business bigwig

Blavatnik

32 Composition of

Accent seasoning

35 See 29-Across

39 Big name in

oratorios

40 Scottish island

that’s home to

Fingal’s Cave

41 First stabber of

Caesar

42 1930 tariff act

co-sponsor

43 Joe, for one

44 “___ of Rock ’n’

Roll” (1976 Ringo

Starr hit)

45 Propensities

46 “Hug ___” (Shel

Silverstein poem)

47 Exhibit upward

mobility?

48 Some paddle

wielders, briefly

49 Propose in a

meeting

50 Bass line?

51 Romance novelist

___ Leigh

TV LISTINGS

12:15 Dog With A Blog

12:40 Wizards Of Waverly

Place

13:05 Binny And The

Ghost

13:30 Girl Meets World

13:55 I Didn’t Do It

15:00 Girl Meets World

15:45 Jessie

16:10 Austin & Ally

16:35 Girl Meets World

17:00 Liv And Maddie

17:25 I Didn’t Do It

17:50 Dog With A Blog

18:15 Good Luck Charlie

19:05 Girl Meets World

19:30 Binny And The

Ghost

19:55 Gravity Falls

20:20 Kim Possible

20:45 Spooksville

21:10 I Didn’t Do It

21:35 Gravity Falls

22:00 Suite Life On Deck

22:25 A.N.T. Farm

10:00 Hot In Cleveland

14:00 How I Met Your

Mother

14:30 Community

15:00 Hot In Cleveland

15:30 The Daily Show With

Jon Stewart

16:00 Modern Family

16:30 The Goldbergs

17:00 Late Night With Seth

Meyers

18:00 Enlisted

18:30 How I Met Your

Mother

19:00 2 Broke Girls

19:30 Cougar Town

20:00 The Tonight Show

Starring Jimmy

Fallon

21:00 The Daily Show

Global Edition

21:30 Modern Family

22:00 Saturday Night Live

23:00 South Park

23:30 Late Night With Seth

13:50 Shamwari: A

Wild Life

14:15 Shamwari: A

Wild Life

14:45 Gangland

Killers

15:40 Wildest Africa

16:35 Safari Sisters

17:30 Echo And The

Elephants Of

Amboseli

19:20 Gangland

Killers

20:15 Wildest Africa

21:10 Shark Of

Darkness:

Wrath Of The

Submarine

23:00 Treehouse

13:00 Sa Re Ga Ma

Pa Li’l Champs

15:00 Zee Connect

Season 4

15:30 10 on 10

16:00 Neeli Chatri

Waale

17:00 Maharakshak

Aryan

18:00 Gulf Rangoli

Season 4

18:30 Trendsetters of

Bollywood

19:00 Sa Re Ga Ma

Pa Li’l Champs

20:00 Look Whos

Talking With

Niranjan

20:30 Aunn Zara

08:00 Kong Return To

The Jungle

09:45 Astro Boy

11:30 Space Dogs

13:00 Back To The

Sea

14:45 Renart The Fox

16:30 Eleanor’s

Secret

18:00 Astro Boy

20:00 Garfield’s Pet

Force

21:45 Renart The Fox

23:30 Eleanor’s

Secret

04:00 Son Of The

Mask-PG

06:00 Held Up (1999)-

08:00 It’s A Disaster-

10:00 The Incredible

Burt

Wonderstone-

12:00 In A World...-

14:00 Jesus Henry

Christ-PG15

16:00 It’s A Disaster-

18:00 Bringing Down

The House-PG15

20:00 Mental-PG15

22:00 Knocked Up-18

09:00 The Mortal

Instruments: City

Of Bones-PG15

11:15 Ender’s Game-

13:15 Tinker Bell And

The Pirate Fairy-

14:45 Getaway-PG15

16:45 The Mortal

Instruments: City

Of Bones-PG15

19:00 Labor Day-PG15

21:00 Diana-PG15

23:00 CBGB-

12:00 Diggers

12:30 Diggers

14:00 Chasing UFOs

15:00 Street Monkeys

16:00 Wild Australia

17:00 Going Deep With

David Rees

18:00 Car SOS

19:00 Street Monkeys

20:00 Wild Australia

21:00 Going Deep With

David Rees

21:30 Going Deep With

David Rees

TEL: 444933989 444517001SHOWING AT VILLAGGIO & CITY CENTER

BREAK TIME 23SATURDAY 7 FEBRUARY 2015

www.thepeninsulaqatar.com

05:30 How It’s Made

06:00 The Big Brain Theory

06:50 You Have Been

Warned

07:40 The Carbonaro

Effect

08:05 The Carbonaro

Effect

08:30 Bear’s Wild Weekend

With Stephen Fry

09:20 Dive Wars Australia

10:10 Survive That!

11:00 Street Outlaws

11:50 Street Outlaws

12:40 Street Outlaws

13:30 Street Outlaws

14:20 Street Outlaws

15:10 Street Outlaws

16:00 Gold Rush

17:40 Alaska: The Last

Frontier

18:30 Bear’s Wild Weekend

With Stephen Fry

19:20 Dive Wars Australia

20:10 Survive That!

21:00 What’s In The Barn?

7:30 Wildlife Warzone

8:00 News

8:30 People & Power

9:00 The System

10:00 News

10:30 Inside Story

11:00 News

11:30 Talk To Al Jazeera

12:00 News

12:30 Living The Language

13:00 NEWSHOUR

14:00 News

14:30 Inside Story

15:00 Al Jazeera World

16:00 NEWSHOUR

17:00 News

17:30 Listening Post

18:00 NEWSHOUR

19:00 News

19:30 101 East

20:00 News

20:30 Inside Story

21:00 NEWSHOUR

22:00 News

22:30 Talk To Al Jazeera

23:00 Muslims of France

1The Gambler (2D/Drama) – 10:45am, 1:00, 3:10,

7:30, 9:40 &11:55pm; Mortdecai (2D/Action) – 5:20pm

2Jupiter Ascending (2D/Adventure) – 2:00, 7:00,

9:30 & 11:55pm; 3D – 11:30am & 4:30pm

3Paddington (2D/Family) – 10:20am, 12:20, 2:20 & 4:20pm

Son of A Gun (2D/Action) –7:00, 9:15 & 11:30pm

4A Most Violent Year (2D/Crime)

– 10:10am, 2:40, 7:10, 9:40 & 11:50pm

Taken 3 (2D/Action) – 12:30 & 4:40pm

5Yellowbird (2D/Animation) – 10:30am, 12:30,

2:30 & 6:30pm; Wild Card (2D/Action) – 4:30,

8:30, 10:30pm & 12:30am

6Stone Hearst Asylum (2D/Thriller)– 11:10am

4:00 & 9:00pm; American Sniper (2D/Action) – 1:30, 6:20 & 11:15pm

7 Shamitabh (2D/Hindi) – 12:30, 6:00 & 11:55pm

Selma (2D/Drama) – 10:00am, 3:30 & 9:00pm

8Vitamin (2D/Arabic) – 11:15am, 1:30, 6:10, 8:30 & 11:00pm

Mortdecai (2D/Action) – 3:50pm

9Jupiter Ascending (IMAX 3D/Action) – 10:00am,

12:20, 2:40, 5:00, 7:20, 9:50pm & 12:10am

10Wild Card (2D/Action) – 1:30, 6:30 & 11:30pm

Jupiter Ascending (2D/Action) – 11:00am, 4:00 & 9:00pm

MALL

1 The Tale of The Princess Kaguya (2D/Animation) – 2:30pm

Yellowbird (2D/Animation) – 5:00pm

Stone Hearst Asylum (2D/Thriller) – 6:30pm

A Most Violent Year (2D/Crime) – 8:30pm

Shamitabh (2D/Hindi) – 10:45pm

2 Yennai Arindhaal (2D/Tamil) – 2:00pm

Son of A Gun (2DCrime) – 5:00pm

Jupiter Ascending (2D/Adventure) – 7:00 & 9:15pm

The Gambler (2D/Drama) – 11:30pm

3 The Gambler (2D/Drama) – 2:30pm

American Sniper (2D/Action) – 4:30pm

Vitamin (2D/Arabic) – 6:45pm

Mariyam Mukku (2D/Malayalam) – 9:00pm

A Most Violent Year (2D/Adventure) – 11:15pm

LANDMARK

1 The Tale of The Princess Kaguya (2D/Animation) – 2:15pm

Yellowbird (3D/Animation) – 4:45pm

A Most Violent Year (2D/Crime) – 6:15pm

Stone Hearst Asylum (2D/Thriller) – 8:30pm

Yennai Arindhaal (2D/Tamil) – 10:15pm

2 Son of A Gun (2DCrime) – 2:30pm

The Gambler (2D/Drama) – 4:30 & 9:00pm

Jupiter Ascending (3D/Adventure) – 6:45 & 11:00pm

3 Yennai Arindhaal (2D/Tamil) – 2:00pm

Mariyam Mukku (2D/Malayalam) – 5:00pm

Vitamin (2D/Arabic) – 7:15pm

A Most Violent Year (2D/Crime) – 9:15pm

Son of A Gun (2DCrime) – 11:30pm

ROYAL

PLAZA

1

Yellowbird (2D/Animation) – 2:30 & 4:00pm

Shamitabh (2D/Hindi) – 5:45 & 10:45pm

Jupiter Ascending (2D/Adventure) – 8:30pm

2

Stone Hearst Asylum (2D/Thriller) – 2:30pm

The Tale of The Princess Kaguya (2D/Animation) – 4:30pm

American Sniper (2D/Action) – 7:00pm

The Gambler (2D/Drama) – 9:15pm

Jupiter Ascending (2D/Adventure) – 11:15pm

3 Son of A Gun (2DCrime) – 2:30pm

The Gambler (2D/Drama) – 4:30pm

A Most Violent Year (2D/Crime) – 6:45 & 11:15pm

Vitamin (2D/Arabic) – 9:00pm

Family fun on ice

Chinese families and students visit a frozen lake to skate, ski, slip and fall at a popular tourist area in Beijing yesterday. For several decades most urban Chinese families were allowed to have only one child. Now, government officials in China’s biggest cities are telling young couples: Please have more children.

24 MORNING BREAKSATURDAY 7 FEBRUARY 2015

www.thepeninsulaqatar.com

Cumberbatch wins praise for troubled geniusLONDON: He made his name playing a physicist, won a global following as a brilliant private detective and has Bafta and Oscar nominations for his role as a Second World War maths genius.

But ahead of the Bafta awards in London tomorrow, Benedict Cumberbatch rejects the idea that he is typecast.

The 38-year-old British actor, who has a best actor nod for play-ing codebreaker Alan Turing in The Imitation Game, insists he can and has played idiots.

“If anyone’s got any other stupid people I can play, let me

know,” he said while being quizzed about his latest incarnation as the troubled intellectual.

In the movie, Cumberbatch harnesses the astonishing energy he showcases in hit TV series Sherlock into the obsession that Turing had with cracking the Nazis’ Enigma code machine.

He puts in a mesmerising per-formance as a brilliant, tortured man who helped bring forward the end of the Second World War but ended his life in despair after being prosecuted and then chemi-cally castrated for being gay.

S Barry Cooper, a maths

professor who has written a book about Turing, said Cumberbatch “deeply inhabited Turing’s story, encompassing all his brilliant insight, struggle and 1954 suicide”.

Cumberbatch said Turing “got under my skin”, and is a passion-ate defender of a man he said was a “war hero” but who was treated deplorably by the coun-try he served.

Cumberbatch is not classically handsome but has remarkable allure — entire fan sites are dedi-cated to his cheekbones —and in 2013 was named Empire maga-zine’s sexiest movie star.

He has an army of follow-ers who call themselves the “Cumberbitches” although, with the good manners instilled by his expensive Harrow boarding school, he prefers to call them “Cumberpeople”.

But despite working solidly since graduating from the London Academy of Music and Dramatic Art, he has never sought out the typical ‘leading man’ roles. Cumberbatch first caught the atten-tion of the critics a decade ago in a TV biopic of wheelchair-bound the-oretical physicist Stephen Hawking.

AFP

Jamaica fetes 70th birthday of late reggae great MarleyKINGSTON: Jamaicans cel-ebrated the 70th anniversary of the birth of late reggae legend Bob Marley yesterday with a jamming session at his former home and a free concert as the Caribbean island continues to wrestle over his place in its pantheon of heroes.

Marley, who was born in Nine Miles, northwest Jamaica, died on May 11, 1981, in a Florida hospital from cancer age 36.

A “mini-jam session” is sched-uled at Marley’s former home at Hope Road, north of Kingston, as well as discussions on reggae, a popular genre that began in Jamaica in the 1960s with strong influences from calypso and jazz and lyrics of social protest.

A free concert on the Kingston waterfront on Saturday is expected to draw crowds, and local reggae artists, including one of Marley’s sons, Ky-Mani, are set to perform. Police have announced traffic detours and street closures in anticipation of the throngs.

“I was not around when Bob was alive ... but people are still excited about his music,” said Marcia Facey, 32, a fashion designer who lives in Kingston.

Jamaica has debated for years adding Marley to its Order of National Hero, its highest honor. Jamaica’s current seven heroes are dominated by political figures.

No new heroes have been added since the 1980s and a commit-tee has been examining nomi-nations for the last three years, with Marley and former Prime Minister Michael Manley among a list of 10 names mentioned.

REUTERS

Rare collection of antique cars under the hammer in ParisPARIS: A treasure trove of extremely rare classic cars, dis-covered rusted and weather-beaten on a farm in western France last year after lying forgotten for half a century, is expected to fetch millions at auction in Paris yesterday.

The cars, described as “sleeping beauties” by the Artcurial auc-tion house, will be sold in the state they were found, having been kept in makeshift shelters exposed to the elements.

Artcurial has previously sug-gested the cars — amassed by an enthusiast on the property with the hope of turning it into an automobile museum — could sell for around ¤16m ($18m).

The 60 classic gems, with legendary names like Bugatti, Hispano-Suiza, Talbot-Lago,

Panhard-Levassor, Maserati, Ferrari, Delahaye and Delage have been described by Artcurial as “works of art.”

Among them is one of only 37 Ferrari 250 GT SWB California Spiders ever made, valued at up to 12 million euros, which was dis-covered under a pile of dusty old car magazines.

The once-in-a-lifetime discov-ery, announced in December, was likened by Artcurial managing director Matthieu Lamoure to stumbling upon the car world’s equivalent of the tomb of Egyptian pharaoh Tutankhamun.

Lamoure and senior specialist Pierre Novikoff got a tip-off about the timeworn fleet while criss-crossing the country hunting for rare pieces.

On the farm — Artcurial is

keeping the exact location secret — they found a hodge-podge of makeshift structures, describing shock after shock as they realised the treasures they contained.

“This was somewhere between a metallic graveyard and a museum,” said Novikoff, describ-ing valuable cars covered with ivy, and in some cases corrugated iron resting directly on the cars.

“We were overcome with emo-tion. Probably much like Lord Carrington and Howard Carter, on being the first for centuries to enter Tutankhamun’s tomb,” said Lamoure.

The rare California Spider — a car which features 13 times on the list of the 100 most expensive cars ever sold — was bought new by French actor Gerard Blain and later sold to fellow actor Alain

Delon. Delon was photographed with American actresses Jane Fonda and Shirley MacLaine in the car, which historians thought was lost forever.

The actor himself has criticised Artcurial for “using my name to push up the price.”

“I only had the car for two years,” he exclaimed.

“Everything that has been indi-cated, mentioned, written about the sale of this car has been done without my consent.”

Also uncovered is an extrava-gant Talbot Lago T26 Cabriolet that belonged to Egypt’s last mon-arch King Farouk, an immensely rich ruler known for grotesque extravagance, and avid collector who along with fast cars amassed one of the world’s most famous coin collections.

But how did such a jackpot of mythical automobiles end up on a rural French farm, left to rust for half a century?

While classic cars are now snapped up and extremely valu-able, this was not the case a few decades ago when inventor and automobile enthusiast Roger Baillon became one of the first collectors.

He had a transport business in the west of France where he in 1947 designed and built his own car known as the Bluebird, all while raking in a fortune in the post-WWII boom in the sector.

He bought the property in 1953 to turn into an automobile museum, snapping up classic cars — some saved from the scrapyard — between 1955 and 1965.

AFP

50 years on, quirky guide to London still shows wayLONDON: Arguably the best guide to London published this season was written nearly 50 years ago.

“Nairn’s London” by Ian Nairn first appeared in 1966 and has been reprinted after fans of the idiosyncratic architectural enthu-siast mounted a public campaign.

The author, a former Royal Air Force fighter pilot who badgered the editors of the Architectural Review into giving him a job and who went on to become the Observer’s architecture critic, died of drink in 1983, aged 52.

He made his name as an agi-tator against poor quality build-ings being thrown up after the war, coining the derisive term “Subtopia” for the damage being inflicted on Britain’s suburbs and starting a campaign against bad modern architecture called “Stop the Architects Now”.

Nairn’s guide to the capital contains 450 entries describing churches, galleries, offices, houses, monuments, bridges, markets, pubs and just about everything

else between Uxbridge to the west and Dagenham in the east.

Most of the buildings he writes about are still there, although inev-itably some have since changed use or disappeared. He chose places the public could get into.

It’s an extraordinary catalogue, the product of an exhausting amount of legwork enlivened by a literary style that is waspish, informed and opinionated.

Nairn very much likes the Soane Museum, the former home of the architect Sir John Soane in Lincoln’s Inn Fields now crammed with his collection of art and antiquities.

Although unremarkable from the outside, what lies inside is “an experience to be had in London and nowhere else, worth travelling across a continent to see in the same way as the Sistine Chapel or the Isenheim altarpiece”. Further north, an early Victorian develop-ment in Islington, Milner Square, provokes an equally forthright reaction, this time negative.

“Not to be missed in the sense

An Airbus A380-800 aircraft arrives at Terminal 3 at Heathrow Airport. Arguably the best guide to London published this season was written nearly 50 years ago.

that you ought to try Fernet-Branca at least once,” Nairn says of the square’s striking yellow brickwork and white pilasters. “It is as near to expressing evil as a design can be.”

Highgate cemetery, the north London necropolis where Karl Marx’s body lies and a popular

spot for Sunday strollers, also comes in for some criticism. “This is the creepiest place in London,” writes Nairn.

“Nothing seems real but death at its creepiest and clammiest.

The cemetery closes well before dark, and a good job too.”

Not much escapes Nairn’s

notice. Of the Albert Memorial, Queen Victoria’s elaborate Kensington tribute to her Prince Consort, Nairn says: “The ele-phant on one of the corners has a backside just like a businessman scrambling under a restaurant table for his cheque-book.”

REUTERS

Fajr (Dawn) 4:56

Shorook (Sunrise) 6:14

Zuhr (Noon) 11:48

Asr (Afternoon) 2:59

Maghrib (Sunset) 5:23

Isha (Night) 6:53

PRAYER TIME

Weather Conditions:

Moderate temperature daytime with some cloud becomes relatively cold and hazy at night.

High: 24° Low: 17°

High: 24° Low: 20°

High: 26° Low: 20°

ClearClear Clear

Today Sunday Monday

SUNRISE | SUNSET

06:15 17:22 07:00 & 19:00 13:45 & 00:00 03-13/15 KT

HIGH | LOW WIND

SUN TIDE SEA

TODAY TOMORROW

HI/LO WEATHER HI/LO WEATHER

THE REGION

TODAY TOMORROW

HI/LO WEATHER HI/LO WEATHER

THE WORLD

DOHA - SUN & SEA

WEATHER

MUSCAT 27/18 Clear 29/19 Clear

MAKKAH 35/24 Clear 35/22 Clear

KUWAIT 24/14 Clear 29/13 Partly cloudy

BAHRAIN 24/15 Clear 27/17 Clear

SANAA 24/07 Clear 26/08 Clear

RIYADH 28/15 Clear 31/17 Clear

DUBAI 26/16 Clear 28/18 Partly cloudy

BAGHDAD 22/13 Partly cloudy 25/09 Partly cloudy

ATHENS 16/09 Rain 14/04 Partly cloudy

WASHINGTON 11/03 Partly cloudy 16/07 Chance of rain

SYDNEY 27/17 Partly cloudy 24/19 Chance of rain

LONDON 08/03 Cloudy 08/01 Partly cloudy

PARIS 06/03 Clear 08/01 Mostly cloudy

ISTANBUL 10/03 Partly cloudy 07/03 Partly cloudy

MANILA 29/21 Clear 30/23 Partly cloudy

DHAKA 23/16 Partly cloudy 24/17 Clear

DELHI 22/13 Clear 20/12 Clear

ISLAMABAD 18/08 Partly cloudy 18/06 Partly cloudy