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Volume 22 | Number 7236 | 2 RiyalsFriday 28 July 2017 | 5 Dhul-Qa’Da 1438 www.thepeninsulaqatar.com

3rd Best News Website in the Middle East

“Qatar has already stated more than ten times that we want to solve this issue by dialogue, and we are not willing to escalate, and they need to retreat from all their illegal actions,” says Foreign Minister H E Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al Thani. → See also page 2

New York QNA & Agencies

Emir H H Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani has sent a written message to the United Nations Secretary-General,

Antonio Guterres. The message was handed over by the Attorney General H E Dr Ali bin Fetais Al Marri yesterday, during his meet-ing with the Secretary- General.

The Foreign Minister H E Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdul-rahman Al Thani, who is in New York, accused Gulf neighbours and Egypt of stubbornness in their ongoing diplomatic dispute and said the United Nations should step in to help resolve the crisis.

The Foreign Minister met with UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres to discuss tensions after Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, the United Arab Emirates and Egypt cut ties with Qatar on June 5.

“There is a role for

the Security Council and for the General Assembly and all the United Nations mechanisms, because of course the violations have continued,” the foreign min-ister told reporters after his meeting with Guterres. “We are seeing from the other side of the conflict this stubbornness without even taking any forthcoming step to solve this problem,” he said.

“This is the right place where we have to start to seek all our options in order to find a legal solution,” said the foreign min-ister. The Security Council, the General Assembly and “all the United Nations mechanisms” can play a role.

“Qatar has already stated more than ten times that we want to solve this issue by dialogue, and we are not willing to esca-late, and they need to retreat from all their illegal actions,” he said.

Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al Thani said that State of Qatar has informed the

UN Security Council about the existing violations. “We met with many officials and explained to them how this crisis was based on weak grounds, a hacking which in itself is a cyberterror-ism against Qatar,” he said, adding that the Security Council and the General Assembly will have a special role to play if vio-lations by the siege countries continue.

The Foreign Minister expressed Qatar’s condemnation of the actions taken by the Israeli occupation forces against the Pal-estinian people in Al Quds as well as its condemnation of any actions that undermine the secu-rity of the Al Aqsa Mosque.

The Foreign Minister also met President of the United Nations General Assembly Peter Thom-son. He briefed the UN General Assembly president on the devel-opments of the Gulf crisis and all the measures taken by the siege countries against Qatar and how

Cairo QNA & Agencies

Qatar’s Minister of State for Foreign Affairs H E Sul-tan bin Saad Al Muraikhi

said that the occupied city of Al Quds in general and Al Aqsa Mosque in particular are facing an unprecedented and system-atic Israeli aggression. He was speaking at the emergency meet-ing of Arab foreign minister held in Cairo yesterday. The meeting discussed the latest Israeli attacks and actions against the city of Al Quds and Al Aqsa Mosque.

Meanwhile, thousands of worshippers streamed into the

compound for afternoon prayers yesterday for the first time in two weeks, ending a boycott after Israel removed controversial new security measures. Clashes erupted as thousands of worshippers entered to end a boycott of the compound. The Palestinian Red Crescent reported around 100 people wounded.

Al Muraikhi stressed that the Israeli government’s campaign to Judaise the city and close Al Aqsa Mosque in the face of wor-shipers and its attempt to impose a new reality in the holy city vio-lates all international laws and norms, violates the resolutions of the United Nations and the

relevant UN Security Council, stirs Arab and Muslim emotions, and represents a fierce war against the Palestinian people.

He added that Israel, the occupying power, is striving to change the historical reality in the Holy Mosque by installing metal detector gates in a danger-ous precedent that has not happened for nearly half a cen-tury, especially since the terrorist crime of burning Al-Aqsa Mosque in 1969, a matter which would lead to a very serious escalation and serious consequences and fuel religious war in the region.

→ Continued on page 3→ See also pages 2&9

Qatar: UN should play its role against siege

Raynald C Rivera The Peninsula

The Ministry of Municipality and Environment has plans to expand cultivated land of local farmers,

Minister of Municipality and Environ-ment, H E Mohammed bin Abdullah Al Rumaihi has said.

“We are thinking of increasing those productive farms that provide produce to the market. We will give them more space suitable to their programmes,” said Al Rumaihi, responding to a question from local media on the sidelines of the opening of the second Local Dates Fes-tival yesterday at Souq Waqif.

Farm owners have to present feasi-bility studies and defend their ideas to avail of land expansion in addition to other services of the Ministry, he added.

“It’s not just a piece of land that we give but mostly technology and advice to increase their production for the

market. We have a special programme even for the young farmers,” the Minis-ter explained, adding the Agricultural Affairs Department is working with Qatar

Development Bank on this programme.

→ Continued on page 2

The Peninsula

The prevalence of hepatitis C has reduced significantly in Qatar, accord-ing to an early screening campaign for

the disease conducted by the Ministry of Public Health (MoPH) jointly with the Pri-mary Health Care Corporation (PHCC).

The screening included more than 7,600 people. The prevalence of hepatitis C is 0.8 percent among the entire popula-tion of Qatar, with only 0.25 percent among Qataris. According to World Health Organ-ization, Qatar is also classified as a low-burden type B hepatitis, with a prev-alence rate of less than two percent.

Several hepatitis C positive cases found during the screening were transferred to Hamad Medical Corporation (HMC) and treated with the latest and most effective med-ical drugs known as ‘direct antiviral drugs.’

→ Continued on page 2

Plan to allot more land to productive farmsAl Jazeera to fight any bid to shut its Jerusalem officeT H E Q A T A R - B A S E D AlJazeera news outlet vowed a legal fight against Israel if Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu pursued plans to shut its office in Jerusalem, and it also accused him of supporting a regional block-ade of Qatar.

Netanyahu said on Wednesday he would work to shut the network’s office, accusing it of inciting recent violence in Jerusalem.

Emir sends message to UN Secretary-General

Al Aqsa facing systematic Israeli aggression: Qatar

Minister of Municipality and Environment, H E Mohammed bin Abdullah Al Rumaihi, visiting the stalls after inaugurating the second Local Date Festival at Souq Waqif, yesterday. Pic: Baher Amin / The Peninsula

Major fall in Hepatitis C cases in Qatar

Palestinians gather inside the compound of Al Aqsa Mosque, after Israel removed all security measures it had installed at the compound, in Jerusalem’s Old City, yesterday.

Foreign Minister H E Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al Thani with United Nations Secretary-General, Antonio Guterres, at the UN Headquarters in New York, yesterday.

they constitute serious violations of international treaties and

conventions as well as interna-tional law.The crisis between the

regional allies is the worst to hit the Gulf in decades.

Petrol to cost less in AugustTHE MINISTRY of Energy and Industry has decided to reduce the price of pre-mium and super grade petrol in August. The Min-istry announced on its website that price for pre-mium and super grade petrol will be cut by 5 dirhams. The price of die-sel will remain the same as that of July.

According to the new price list issued by the Ministry, premium grade petrol will cost QR1.50 from August, which is 5 dirhams less than July price. Super will cost QR1.60 in August, a five-dirham reduction from July price. Diesel will cost QR1.50, the same as in July.

Ali Shareef Al Emadi:End the unwarranted blockade against Qatar » Page: 8

02 FRIDAY 28 JULY 2017HOME

Foreign Minister H E Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al Thani with the President of the United Nations General Assembly, Peter Thomson, in New York, yesterday. Also seen is Permanent Representative of Qatar to the UN, H E Sheikha Alia Ahmed bin Saif Al Thani.

Foreign Minister meets UN General Assembly President

Continued from page 1The medicines for hepati-

tis C are provided free to all citizens and residents through the Liver Diseases Department of HMC, in cooperation with the Qatar Red Crescent, the private sector and other partners in the country.

Also, the MoPH together with the Ministry of Education and Higher Education con-ducted a screening campaign among school students to detect hepatitis B and found that no case was found. It reflects the high coverage of the immuni-sation programme against hepatitis B in Qatar.

While, several events are being held in Qatar to com-memorate the World Hepatitis Day, which is marked today, under the slogan ‘Eliminate

Hepatitis.’ World Hepatitis Day is an opportunity to enhance the efforts to implement the WHO Global Health Strategy for 2016-2021 and to help countries achieve the ultimate g o a l o f e r a d i c a t i n g hepatitis.

The MoPH, HMC and the PHCC, together with national partners, are holding awareness campaigns against the disease.

The Ministry also organised seminars and workshops for medical staff to raise their com-petence in identifying and treating the disease in line with the directives of the World Health Organization, which urges decision makers, medi-cal workers and members of the community to identify viral hepatitis.

Shura Council Speaker blasts Israeli occupationRabat QNA

Speaker of the Advisory (Shura) Council, H E Mohammed bin Mubarak Al Khulaifi, yesterday stressed that

Israel as an occupying state of the Arab lands has underesti-mated over seven decades international laws, treaties, charters and international organisations, with the support of a number of countries, organisations and groups under Zionist influence.

In his address before the 25th Emergency Conference of Arab Parliamentary Union (APU) in the Moroccan city of Rabat, Al Khulaifi said since its establishment against the Arab stolen land, Israel has continued to expand and Judaize the Palestinian occu-pied territories taking advantage of the weakness of solidarity and unity of the Arab ranks, flagrantly violat-ing international treaties and laws and exploiting historical circumstances that led to the weakness of the Arab and Islamic nations.

We meet today in response to the call of truth and the cry of Al-Aqsa, the first Qibla and the third of the two holy Sanc-tuaries, which marks the place from which Prophet Muham-mad (peace be upon him) was blessed with Isra and where all the Messengers and Prophets (peace be upon them) prayed in, Al Khulaifi said, wondering how don’t we respond to the call of a mosque blessed by Allah, the Almighty, and for

which thousands of Mujahideen have been martyred over history.

Al Aqsa, which symbolises the dignity of Islam, fell into the hands of the enemies of Islam only when its defend-ers have weakened and the will of the Muslin nation, which Allah the Almighty has blessed as a balanced (Wasat) nation, was split, Al Khulaifi emphasised.

Al Khulaifi warned that over the past two weeks, Israel had erected electronic gates at the entrances of the Al-Aqsa Mosque and replaced them with security cameras under popu-lar Palestinian pressure, citing security reasons for securing Al-Aqsa Mosque and its visitors, pointing out that Israeli occu-pation authorities were forced to remove them.

However, we were con-scious and aware of Israel’ s attempts to repeat the same scenario carried out in 1994 at the Ibrahimi Mosque in Hebron as part of its strategy and plan of Judaization, which since then imposed a de facto division between Muslims and Jews.

The Peninsula

Ooredoo yesterday announced another special weekend sale on its iPhone 7 and iPhone 7 Plus

stock across Qatar. The weekend sale has been launched to ensure as many people as possible can enjoy the new-est Apple device, which is marketed as ‘the most advanced iPhone ever’.

With the sale, which started yester-day and will last until 11.59pm tomorrow, Ooredoo will offer one of the best prices

in Qatar for the Apple devices, with prices dropping from QR2,599 to QR 2,449 for the 32GB iPhone 7 and QR2,999 to QR2,899 for the 32GB iPhone 7 Plus. Thanks to the sale, customers can save between QR100 and QR190 per device on the iPhone 7 and iPhone 7 Plus. Cus-tomers can enjoy the discount by visiting Ooredoo Shops.

The iPhone 7 and iPhone 7 Plus are compatible with Ooredoo’s Supernet enhancement- Category 9 LTE-Advanced Standard.

Turkish troops in Qatar due to pre-crisis deal: AmbassadorWashington QNA

Qatar’s Ambassador to the United States, H E Sheikh Meshal bin

Hamad Al Thani said that deploying Turkish troops in Qatar was according to an agreement that was signed long before the imposed siege on Qatar, stressing that he is not worried about the possi-bility of a military confrontation in the region.

In a speech during an interactive session at the World Affairs Council in Washington, the ambassador said the 13 demands that Doha received from the siege countries were neither con-vincing nor logical, adding that they jeopardise state sov-ereignty and repress free press. He noted that the siege countries want Qatar to give up on its sovereignty in return for lifting the siege.

Sheikh Meshal bin Hamad Al Thani said Qatar is trying to handle the issue positively and constructively, adding that it wants the four coun-tries to sit at the negotiations table. On accusing Qatar of forging a coalition with the Muslim Brotherhood, the ambassador denied that, say-ing that such a view of Qatar that it supports the Muslim Brotherhood is the result of Emirati and Saudi propa-ganda, adding that Qatar doesn’t ally with groups but rather supports peoples to achieve their aspirations.

The ambassador said Qatar backs governments and continues to work with Tuni-sia until today even after the Muslim Brotherhood left power there.

More farms join dates festivalContinued from page 1

This year’s festival has seen a huge increase in the number of participating local farms, from 18 last year to 57 this year.

The festival provides a plat-form for local farms to directly sell popular variety of fresh dates at cheap and discounted prices such as Khalas, Khanizi, Barhi, and Shishi.

Khalas and Shishi are sold for QR8 per kilo and QR21 per three kilos while Khanizi is sold for QR6 per kilo and QR15 per three kilos. The ten-day festi-val forms part of Qatar’s keen interest in supporting and encouraging cultivation and production of all local produce including dates. It aims to pro-mote various date varieties in the country and encourage farmers to cultivate high qual-ity varieties that could compete locally and internationally

through awareness of modern agriculture methods palm trees care.

The event also provides an opportunity for exchange of technical expertise among farm-ers and the introduction to residents and tourists to the local production of dates, which occupies a prominent position in Qatari culture and heritage.

The Ministry’s Agricultural Affairs Department and the Agricultural Research Depart-ment, as well as the Mahaseel Company and Qatfa Company are taking part at the festival. A specialised team at the Department of Agricultural Affairs took date samples from participating farms and sent to the laboratory of the Ministry of Public Health as part of the requirements for participation to ensure safety for consumers. Assistant Undersecretary for

Agriculture and Fisheries Affairs at the Ministry of Municipality and Environment Sheikh Dr Faleh bin Nasser Al-Thani said the state is self-sufficient of dates by 84 percent and this per-centage will rise soon to reach 95 percent according to a short-term plan. HE noted that the State has a stock of dates enough for two years.

Dr Faleh said that Qatar now produces through textile agri-culture 20,000 palm seedlings a year, and it will increase with plans to 50,000 seedlings for luxury types of dates, with the replacement of some items with higher quality. During the festi-val, the Department of Agricultural Affairs and the Agri-cultural Research Department are providing the public all information related to the serv-ices provided by the Ministry in the field of dates production.

Israel has continued to expand and Judaise the Palestinian occupied territories taking advantage of the weakness of solidarity and unity of the Arab ranks.

QFFD opens project in SudanQNA

Qatar Fund For Develop-ment (QFFD) has inaugurated an economic

project in Sudan to empower the demobilised militants under the Doha Peace Agreement and the United Nations Development Program (UNDP) to establish peace and development in the Darfur region and to implement projects which will contribute to pushing forward stability and d e v e l o p m e n t t h r o u g h partnership.

The inauguration ceremony of the economic empowerment project for demobilised militants in North Darfur State was attended by Qatar’s Ambassa-dor to Sudan, Rashid bin Abdulrahman Al Nuaimi, Min-ister of International Cooperation, Dr Idris Suleiman Yousif and the Representative of the Governor of North Dar-fur State, Dr Mohammad Yahya Hamed.

Qatar Fund For Develop-ment said in a press release that the project implemented by the RAF Foundation comes within the framework of the partnership between QFFD and the UNDP and the Disarma-ment, Demobilization and Reintegration Commission, pointing out that the cost of the Qatari development projects in cooperation with UNDP exceeds $88m.

QFFD stressed that the eco-nomic development project aims to achieve security and development in the Darfur region within the framework of the Doha Peace Document, which pays great attention to the issue of development and serv-ices as an essential component of peace.

The Fund said that the interest of empowering ex demobilised combatants and their integration into society comes within the projects of early recovery in Darfur and the

implementation of the Darfur Development Strategy adopted by the State of Qatar at the International Conference of Donors for Development and Reconstruction in Darfur in April 2013.

On this occasion, Sudanese Minister of International Coop-eration Dr Idris Suleiman Yousif praised Qatar’s efforts to bring peace to Darfur, adding that Qatar is not only contributing to the peace process but has also supported the development and social services which play a key role in stabilising and sustain-ing the peace process.

He stressed the importance of the project to empower eco-nomically demobilised militants, which is aimed at introducing them into the production proc-ess by targeting 3,000 militants in all Darfur states at a cost of more than $10m in the first phase, in implementation of the provisions of the Doha Peace Document on Darfur.

The Peninsula

The monthly Open House to address urgent con-sular and labour issues/

cases of Indian nationals in Qatar held at the Embassy has received 36 complaints since January 2017, a statement said yesterday.

The grievances brought to the notice of the embassy related to delayed wages and violations of contract terms and conditions. Among the complaints, 23 have been resolved and 13 are being fol-lowed up by the embassy.

Ambassador P Kumaran, Dr M Aleemm, Third Secre-tary for Labour and Community Welfare and other officials met the com-plainants and discussed their problems in detail.

Indian Embassy Open Houses received 36 complaints

HMC provides free Hepatitis C medicines

Ooredoo holds weekend sale of iPhone 7 & 7 Plus The Peninsula

The Public Works Authority, Ashghal, has announced that a traffic diversion on F-Ring Road will be in place to enable the construc-

tion of a bridge linking F-Ring Road with Al Wakra Bypass (Doha Express Highway).

The detour, installed in coordination with the General Directorate of Traffic, starts on Monday, July 31 and lasts until the end of 2018.

During the realignment period, road users on F-Ring Road travelling from Hamad International Airport towards Mesaimeer will be able to use a parallel route with three lanes instead of four lanes for a short distance of approximately 2km.

The speed limit will be reduced to 80km per hour from 100km per hour.

Speaker of the Advisory (Shura) Council, H E Mohammed bin Mubarak Al Khulaifi, at the Emergency Conference of Arab Parliamentary Union (APU) in the Moroccan city of Rabat.

F-Ring Road diversion

03FRIDAY 28 JULY 2017 MIDDLE EAST / AFRICA

Thousands rush to pray at Al Aqsa amid tensionJerusalem Reuters

Thousands of Muslim worshippers rushed to pray at Jerusalem’s Al Aqsa Mosque in cha-otic scenes yesterday

after Israel backed down in the face of 10 days of often-violent unrest and removed security measures it had installed at the sacred site.

At least 37 Palestinians were injured as Israeli security forces used sound bombs to control crowds of worshippers surging forth once the last gate Muslims are allowed to use to enter Al Aqsa was opened after a stand-off of several hours.

Israel’s removal of the secu-rity measures, including metal detectors and CCTV cameras, marked a significant climbdown by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. While Palestinians celebrated, political opponents accused him of weakness.

Netanyahu’s decision fol-lowed days of diplomatic effort by the United Nations, the involvement of President Don-ald Trump’s Middle East envoy and pressure from countries in

the region. The dispute began after Israel installed metal detec-tors at Muslim entrances to Al Aqsa compound, following the July 14 killing of two Israeli policemen by Arab gunmen who had concealed weapons inside the walled plaza. For the past two weeks, most Muslims have refused to enter, instead praying in the streets around the Old City.

Earlier yesterday, Muslim elders declared themselves sat-isfied that Israeli authorities had removed all the new security measures — mainly metal detec-tors and CCTV cameras — and

reverted to the set-up before July 14. “The technical report showed that all obstacles the occupation (Israel) put outside Al Aqsa mosque were removed,” said Abdel-Azeem Salhab, the head

of the Waqf, the Jordanian-funded trust that oversees Jerusalem’s Muslim holy sites.

“We praise this stand in the past two weeks outside Al Aqsa and we want this stand to

continue outside Al Aqsa and now inside Al Aqsa,” he said, urg-ing worshippers to return to pray.

Palestinian political factions issued statements supporting the

Waqf, which looked likely to help defuse the unrest. Before the announcement, factions had been calling for a “day of rage” today, raising concerns about another round of violence.

Jordan, which signed a peace treaty with Israel in 1994 and has been custodian of the Muslim holy sites in Jerusalem since 1924, said Israel’s removal of the extra security measures was an “essential step to calm the situation”.

Palestinian political factions were quick to highlight what they saw as a rare victory over Israel. A spokesman for Netanyahu declined to comment, but right-wing leaders criticised the premier for what they regarded as weakness. “Israel is emerging weakened from this crisis, to my regret,” said Education Minister Naftali Bennett, whose national-religious Jewish Home party is in Netanyahu’s coalition and who is a potential challenger for the leadership.

The dispute, like many in the Holy Land, is about more than security devices, taking in issues of sovereignty, religious free-dom, occupation and Palestinian nationalism.

→ Continued from page 1The Minister said that these

violations, backed by military force, are part of the implemen-tation of pre-planned plans to Judaize the occupied city of Jeru-salem and increased attempts to impose temporal and spatial divi-sion in Al Aqsa Mosque, by increasing excavations, incursions and desecration, a matter which constitutes a blatant aggression against the rights and sanctities of the Palestinian people, the Arab and Islamic nation. It is a grave violation of all international con-ventions, laws and resolutions of the Security Council, all of which affirm that any destruction or des-ecration of holy places, buildings or religious sites in Jerusalem, and that any encouragement or com-plicity to carry out such action would seriously threaten interna-tional peace and security, and that legislative or administrative meas-ures or actions taken by Israel to alter the status quo of East Jeru-salem (Al Quds), including the confiscation of land, property and displacement of the population, are totally null and cannot change the demographic and religious status of the city.

In this regard, the Minister

referred to the decisions of the Unesco and the Human Rights Council, which have repeatedly stressed that the city of East Jeru-salem is an occupied city and an integral part of the Palestinian ter-ritories occupied in 1967, and that Al Aqsa Mosque is a holy place for Muslims only.

He insisted that Qatar strongly condemns these ongoing Israeli violations of Al Quds and Al Aqsa Mosque, reiterates its total rejec-tion of any change in the status

quo in East Jerusalem and Al Aqsa Mosque, and calls upon the gov-ernment of Israel to cease all actions and restore the situation in the city to what it was, includ-ing the removal of metal detector gates and respect for freedom of worship, and the inalienable right of the Palestinian people to prac-tice their religious rites.

Qatar also calls upon the international community and its organisations to assume their responsibilities towards this

unprecedented Israeli aggression and to immediately intervene to enforce its resolutions, especially in the protection of Islamic and Christian sanctities, and to protect the Palestinian people in their land and holy sites. Qatar warns of the extreme seriousness of this new aggression, the persistence of Israel in committing such grave violations, and the challenge and disregard for the will and deci-sions of the international community and its repercussions on the situation in the region and the prospects for a comprehen-sive peace to achieve a two-State solution. The Minister reaffirmed Qatar’s full support for the Pales-tinian people, who are struggling for the restoration of their rights, self-determination and the estab-lishment of an independent and sovereign state on the borders of June 4, 1967 with Al Quds as its capital and saluting the steadfast-ness of the people of Al Quds in the protection of the Holy City and Al Aqsa Mosque.

The Minister said we are fac-ing a very dangerous situation, with all the dimensions it entails, which obliges us all to work with all seriousness, sincerity and impartiality in order to adopt

serious and efficient steps to come up with resolutions that support the Palestinian cause, which was and will continue to be the cen-tral issue of Arabs. He called for the stoppage of systematic proc-ess of encroachment and Judaization, which seeks to oblit-erate and alter the features of the Holy City, which is a violation of the relevant resolutions of the Security Council and the United Nations, as Israel is not concerned about any serious repercussions that may result from the continu-ation of these illegal policies.

The aim of the meeting is to work on cancelling these proce-dures and to affirm the rejection of any change in the historical and legal situation in occupied East Jerusalem since 1967, to remove and end these unprecedented measures and to ensure that it does not recur and return things in Al Quds to what it was before the fourth of July.

The General Secretariat of the Arab League had prepared draft resolutions and an explanatory memorandum containing a number of measures to deal with Israel. And this is what the Minis-ters will take decision about it at their meeting.

Palestinians gather outside the compound of Noble Sanctuary, after Israel removed all security measures, yesterday.

Israel’s removal of the security measures, including metal detectors and CCTV cameras, marked a significant climbdown by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. While Palestinians celebrated, political opponents accused him of weakness.

Qatar reaffirms full support for Palestinian peopleKing of Morocco urges action against IsraelRabat QNA

King Mohammed VI of Morocco, chairman of the Al Quds Commit-

tee, strongly condemned the unacceptable Israeli policies in Al Aqsa Mosque, calling on the international community to take a firm action to com-pel Israel to stop its practices through which it seeks to impose a fait accompli and decide single-handedly the fate of Jerusalem.

In a letter to UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres, King Mohammed said that whenever there appear to be signs of a chance to revive the peace process between the Palestinians and Israel, the latter resorts to fabricating events and fomenting ten-sions to abort those prospects.

Middle East adviser departs Trump’s teamWashington Reuters

A top adviser on Middle East issues to US Pres-ident Donald Trump

left the National Security Council yesterday as the White House grapples with internal divisions as well as major policy issues involving Syria, Iran and Iraq.

The Weekly Standard magazine was first to report the departure of Derek Har-vey, a retired Army colonel and intelligence officer who served in Iraq and Afghani-stan. The magazine said Harvey was fired.

Michael Anton, a spokes-man for NSC director HR McMaster confirmed Harvey’s departure. “General McMas-ter greatly appreciates Derek Harvey’s service to his coun-try as a career Army officer, where he served his country bravely in the field and played a crucial role in the success-ful surge in Iraq, and also for his service on Capitol Hill and in the Trump administration,” Anton said.

Nigeria death toll rises to 48MAIDUGURI: Nigerian hos-pital officials say the death toll from an ambush in north-eastern Nigeria has risen to 48 people. The officials say the bodies of 18 soldiers and 30 others have been brought to Maiduguri from the area near Lake Chad where Boko Haram fighters attacked geological surveyors who were pros-pecting for oil. The military has put the toll at 10 dead, and the government has suspended oil prospecting in the area.

Wife tells Mugabe to name successorHarare AP

Zimbabwe’s first lady publicly urged her 93-year-old hus-band to name a successor,

wading into a subject that Presi-dent Robert Mugabe has regarded as taboo. Grace Mugabe, whose political influence has been grow-ing, previously said the world’s oldest head of state could rule

from the grave. “If God decides to take him, then we would rather field him as a corpse” in the 2018 election, she said early this year. But in comments shown by state broadcaster ZBC, the first lady said she had been arguing with him about naming a successor: “He says no, no, no.”

With her husband in attend-ance, she told members of the ruling ZANU-PF party women’s

league: “I am asking him now in front of you ... You, president, don’t be afraid. Tell us your choice, which horse should we back.

Because we respect him, his word will be final.” The audience cheered, though the president’s response was not clear.

Zimbabwe President Robert Mugabe (left) with his wife Grace Mugabe at Rudhaka Stadium in Marondera.

Beirut AFP

A ceasefire deal has been reached that will see fighters withdraw from

the Syria-Lebanon border, a top Lebanese official said after a week-long operation there by the Hezbollah movement.

The powerful group began

the assault on fighters from Al Qaeda’s former Syrian affiliate, previously known as the Al Nusra Front, in the Jurud Arsal border region last week.

Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah said his fighters had surrounding remaining militants in a small pocket of territory and negotiations were underway for their withdrawal.

The head of Lebanon’s Gen-eral Security agency Major General Ibrahim Abbas con-firmed the deal, under which the militants will withdraw to the Syrian province of Idlib.

“There is a ceasefire in place and the armed men and those civilians who wish to do so will go to Idlib in an organised fash-ion, under the supervision of the

Lebanese state,” he said.He said Lebanon’s Red Cross

would help organise the logis-tics of transporting the evacuees to Idlib and the deal would be implemented “within days.”

Other parts of the deal remained secret, but some Leb-anese media outlets reported that Hezbollah fighters held by jihadists would be freed.

Ceasefire deal on Lebanon-Syria border US cuts ties with Syrian groupWASHINGTON: The Penta-gon is cutting ties with a group of Syrian opposition fighters after they started targeting regime forces instead of the IS group. The group, known as Shuhada Al Qaryatayn, had been receiving training and weapons from US-led coali-tion forces in southern Syria.

Minister of State for Foreign Affairs H E Sultan bin Saad Al Muraikhi at the Arab Foreign Minister’s meeting on Al Aqsa Mosque, in Cairo, yesterday.

04 FRIDAY 28 JULY 2017ISLAM

“The person who is put to a test because of the birth of the daughters and then he treats them generously, they will become a means of rescue for him from Hell.” (Bukhari, Muslim).

“The one who brought up two girls till they attained their matu-rity, will appear along with me on the Resurrection Day ... Saying this the Holy Prophet jointed and raised his fingers. (Muslim).

“The one who brought up three daughters, or sisters, taught then good manners and treated them with kindness until they became self-sufficient. AIlah will make Paradise obligatory for him. A man asked: what about two, O Messenger of Allah? The Holy Prophet replied: the same for two.” Ibn `Abbas, the re-porter of the Hadith, says: “Had the people at that time asked in respect of one daughter, the Holy Prophet would have also given the same reply about her. “ (Sharh as-Sunnh).

“The one who has three daughters born to him, and he is patient over them, and clothes them well according to his means, they will become a means of rescue for him from Hell. “ (Bukhari, Al-Adab al-Mufrad, Ibn Majah).

“The Muslim who has two daughters and he looks after them well, they will lead him to Paradise.” (Bukhari: Al-Adab al-Mufrad).

The Holy Prophet said to Suraqah bin Ju’sham: “Should I tell you what is the greatest charity (or said: one of the greatest chari-ties)? He said: Kindly do tell, O Messenger of Allah. The Holy Prophet said: Your daughter who (after being divorced or wid-owed) returns to you and should have no other bread-winner.” (Ibn Majah, Bukhari Al-Adab al-Mufrad).

These are the teachings which completely changed the view-point of the people about girls not only in Arabia but among all the nations of the world, which later became blessed with Islam.

Prophet Muhammad (PBUH) about daughters

To Muslims, Jerusalem houses one of the holiest Mosques, the Masjid Al Aqsa and repre-sents a place of greatest religious significance. Muslims

call to rule over Jerusalem is not driven by colonist, nationalist or material motives. The love of every grain in the Holy City is sacred to Muslims. Muslims respect all the Prophets revered by Juda-ism and Christianity and their venerated places are also central to the ethos of Islam.

To quote a few Quranic verses and sayings of Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him) with regard to Jerusalem will indicate the importance Masjid Al Aqsa and therefore Jerusalem has assumed upon the Muslims hearts.

1. The miraculous journey of the holy Prophet Muhammad (PBUH) from Makkah to Masjid al Aqsa (Al Isra) and his ascension through the heavens (al Ma’araj) has linked Jerusalem to the Muslims hearts and minds. The Holy Quran states:

Glory to Allah who did take His Serv-ant for a journey by night from the Sacred Mosque (in Makkah) to the Al-Aqsa (in Jerusalem) whose precincts We did bless (al-Isra 17: 1)

The Lord Almighty had it in His power to have taken Prophet Muham-mad from Makkah straight up to the heavens. However, to impress the importance of Jerusalem upon Muslims the Prophet Muhammad (Sallallaahu Alayhi Wasallam) was first taken to Mas-jid al Aqsa in Jerusalem.

When the Prophet Muhammad (PBUH) reached Al Aqsa (Haram Shareef), he led prayers in congregation that was attended by all the previous Prophets Alayhis salaam. Hence Masjid al Aqsa is unique in that this is the only place on earth where all the Prophets Alayhis salaam performed Salaah in congregation.

2. The Prophet Ibrahim (Abraham) Alayhis salaam who is central to all the three faiths, migrated to the land of Canaanite around 1805 BC. The Quran states:

We said, O Fire! Be thou cool and safety for Ibrahim. Then they planned against him, but We made them the greater losers. But We delivered him and (his nephew) Lot (and directed them) to

the land which We have blessed for the nations (Al-Anbiyaa 1: 69-71)

3. The sacredness of Jerusalem is emphasized in numerous places in the Holy Quran. The Apostles of Allah, Muhammad (Sallallaahu Alayhi Wasal-lam) and also Prophet Musa (Mosses) [Alayhis salaam] alluded to it. The Holy Quran reports Prophet Musa (Moses) [Alayhis salaam] telling his people (Chil-dren of Israel):

O my people! Enter the holy land… (Al-Maida 5: 21)

Further the Holy Quran states:(It was Our power that made) the

violent (unruly) Wind flow (tamely) for Suleiman. To his order, to the land Which We had blessed… (Al-Anbiyaa 21: 81)

4. Masjid al Aqsa and therefore Jeru-salem’s importance was further emphasized by the sayings of Prophet

Muhammad (Sallallaahu Alayhi Wasallam):

(a) According to Islamic teachings there are only three places to which it is desirable to undertake a journey for the purpose of Salaah. Abu Huraira [ra] is quoted as saying that Allah’s Messen-ger [Sallallaahu Alayhi Wasallam] said,

‘set out deliberately on a journey only to three mosques: this mosque of mine (in Medina), the Sacred Mosque (in Makkah) and the Masjid al Aqsa (in Jeru-salem) (Bukhari & Muslim)

Al aqsa mosque, the third holiest site in islam for Muslims, with mount of olives in the background in jerusalem, israel

(b) The virtues of praying in Masjid al Aqsa are exalted:

Abu Darda [ra] is quoted as saying that the Prophet of Allah Muhammad (PBUH) said: A prayer in the Sacred Mosque (in Makkah) is worth 100, 000 prayers, a prayer in my mosque (in

Medina) is worth 1, 000 and a prayer in Jerusalem is worth 500 prayers more than in an any other mosque. (Bukhari)

(c) The Masjid al Aqsa is the sec-ond house of prayer established on earth: Abu Dhar [ra] is quoted as saying:

I asked the beloved Prophet Muham-mad (Sallallaahu Alayhi Wasallam) which was the first mosque on earth? ‘The Sacred Mosque (in Makkah),’ he said. And then which, I asked? ‘Masjid al Aqsa,’ he said. I further asked, what was the time span between the two? ‘Forty years,’ the Prophet [Alayhis salaam] replied. (Muslim)

5. The Masjid Al Aqsa was the First Qibla (the direction to which Muslims faced when praying Salaah): The cen-trality, historical and cultural significance of Masjid Al Aqsa is further emphasised by the fact that Muslims used to turn towards Jerusalem when

they prayed. This was practiced until 16 to 17 months after hijra, when Allah commanded in His wisdom for the Mus-lims to face Makkah. The importance of Masjid Al Aqsa remained and all the worship performed in Masjid Al Aqsa was good and valid.

6. The resting place of Prophets [Alayhis salaam] and Prophet’s compan-ions [ra]: The land of Palestine has in it some of the noblest souls the earth has seen. The graves of many Prophet’s are in Palestine, including Ibrahim Alayhis salaam, Yakub Alayhis salaam, Ishaq [peace be upon them] and according to some commentators there are over 100 Prophets buried in Palestine.

Palestine also has the bodies of some of the closest companions of the Prophet and thus the first generation of Muslims. Included in these are the graves of Ubada ibn al Samit, Shaddad ibn Aws ibn Thabit al Ansari and Tamim al Dari [ra].

7. Umm Salamah [ra] narrates that she heard the Prophet [Alayhis salaam] saying, ‘whosoever starts his Umrah or Haj from Masjid al Aqsa his wrong actions will be forgiven, both past and future.’ In another version, he is reported to have said that Paradise would be his reward. (Targheeb)

8. After the battle of Yarmuk the Muslim forces under the command of Abu Ubaydahr lay siege to Jerusalem. The inhabitants consented to surrender on condition that the Khalifa, Umar ibn al Khattab (ra) came in person. Umar [ra] traveled to Palestine and formally received the keys to the city in 637 AD. On his arrival, he concluded the famous peace treaty with the people of Holy City. This opened the doors to the Jews, who were denied access for thousands of years and for the first time Jerusalem under Muslim rule became truly an OPEN CITY to all the three faiths.

Throughout Muslim rule of over one thousand two hundred years of Jerusa-lem, members of Jewish, Christianity and Islam prospered in Jerusalem. Muslim rule enabled the city to live up to its rightful title of ‘The Holy City’ as it encompassed all the believers in One God to go about their business without any hindrance.

Significance of Jerusalem and Al Aqsa

Ishaq Zahid

Allah the Almighty sent His final Messenger (peace and blessings be on him) as Rahmah (love, com-

passion and mercy) for all mankind. Islam is to live as a humble servant of the One and Only One God of all mankind, Allah in complete worship and obedience to Him and Him alone. Prophet Muhammad (peace and blessings be on him) was sent to all mankind with the message and mission to help save themselves from the Hellfire. Islam’s message is to be humble to Allah, and be compassionate, loving, giving and caring for all creation. Those who go out and shoot randomly and kill are submit-ting to the rejected Satan. Such acts are acts of disobedience to Allah and His Prophet Muhammad (s.a.a.w.). Evil does not justify evil.

Help Each Other“...Help ye one another in righteous-

ness and piety, but help ye not one another in sin and rancour: fear Allah...” (The Holy Quran, 5:2)

O mankind! We created you from a single (pair) of a male and a female, and made you into nations and tribes, that ye may know each other. Verily the most honored of you in the sight of God is (he who is) the most righteous of you. And God has full knowledge and is well acquainted (with all things). (The Holy Quran, 49:13) Prophet Muhammad (peace and blessings be on him) said: ‘O people, listen carefully, your Lord is one Lord, there is no doubt about it. Your ancestor, is one ancestor, there is no doubt about it. Listen well to my words: no Arab has any superiority over a non-Arab, and no non-Arab is superior to an Arab. No black

is superior to a brown or red, and no red superior to any black. If there is any supe-riority in anyone it is due to his God--fearing qualities. (Al-Jamili Ahkam al-Qur’an, 16:342)

No Compulsion in ReligionLet there be no compulsion in reli-

gion: Truth stands out clear from Error: whoever rejects evil and believes in God has grasped the most trustworthy hand-hold, that never breaks. And God hears and knows all things. (The Holy Quran, 2.256)

…if any one slew a person - unless it be for murder or for spreading mis-chief in the land - it would be as if he slew the whole people: and if any one saved a life, it would be as if he saved the life of the whole people….(The Holy Quran, 5.32) O ye who believe! Eat not up your property among yourselves in vanities: But let there be amongst you traffic and trade by mutual good-will: Nor kill (or destroy) yourselves: for ver-ily God has been to you Most Merciful! (The Holy Quran, 4:29)

JusticeO ye who believe! stand out firmly

for justice, as witnesses to God, even as against yourselves, or your parents, or your kin, and whether it be (against) rich or poor: for God can best protect both. Follow not the lusts (of your hearts), lest ye swerve, and if ye distort (justice) or decline to do justice, verily God is well-acquainted with all that ye do. (The Holy Quran, 4:135 ) “Do not let your hatred of a people incite you to aggression.” (The Holy Quran 5:2) “And do not let ill-will towards any folk incite you so that you swerve from dealing justly. Be just; that is nearest to heedfulness.” (The Holy Quran 5:8)

Good and evil are not equal. Repel (evil) with that which is good, and you will see that he, between whom and you there was enmity, shall become as if he were a bosom friend (of yours). (The Quran: 41:34) A man asked the prophet (peace and blessings be on him), “what in Islam is the best?” He answered, “To feed people and to say salam (greetings of peace) to everyone whether you know them or not.” (Bukhari and Muslim)

Do no mischief on the earth, after it has been set in order, but call on Him with fear and longing (in your hearts): for the Mercy of God is (always) near to those who do good. (The Quran, 7:56)

Prophet Muhammad (peace and blessings be on him) said:”Those who show mercy have God’s mercy shown to them. Have mercy on those here on earth, and the One there in Heaven will have mercy on you.” (Imam Ahmad)

Prophet Muhammad (peace and blessings be on him) said:”A believer is not the one who eats his fil while his next door neighbor goes hungry.” (Al-Bukhari)

For Muslims and in fact all of man-kind, the struggle between good and evil began with eating from the forbid-den tree and it will continue at personal, family, community, national and inter-national levels till the end. The real and ultimate success in this life-long strug-gle is for those who are good in their hearts and good in their works, and God is good. Let us help and cooperate in piety and God-fearing with our hearts and with our works and distance our-selves from sin and rancor with our hearts and with our works, for the sake of God and for the love of God.

Love and compassion, not hate and revenge

The Masjid Al Aqsa was the First Qibla (the direction to which Muslims faced when praying Salaah). The centrality, historical and cultural significance of Masjid Al Aqsa is further emphasised by the fact that Muslims used to turn towards Jerusalem when they prayed. This was practiced until 16 to 17 months after hijra, when Allah Almighty commanded in His wisdom for the Muslims to face Makkah.

05FRIDAY 28 JULY 2017 ASIA

Nitish is Bihar CM again, murmurs of dissent in JD-U

Mamata blames centre and DVC for ‘man-made floods’

Patna IANS

Nitish Kumar was yes-terday sworn in as the Bihar Chief Minister at the head of a JD-U-BJP

government, a day after he dumped the RJD and the Con-gress, but faced murmurs of protest from senior leaders including Sharad Yadav. The Kerala unit of his party snapped ties with him.

Nitish Kumar also came under attack from former allies who called his decision a “betrayal” of the 2015 mandate. Nitish Kumar, who took the oath of office and secrecy with his former Deputy Sushil Kumar Modi of the BJP, has to prove his majority in the Assembly today.

He was administered the oath of office and secrecy by Governor Keshari Nath Tripathi at a hurriedly-organised event at the Raj Bhavan as JD-U sup-porters raised slogans of “Nitish Kumar Zindabad”.

The new JD-U-BJP combine including some other parties has submitted to the Governor a list of 132 MLAs, 10 more than the half-way mark of 122 in the 243 member Assembly.

They include 71 of JD-U, BJP’s 53, RLSP’s and LJP’s two each, HAM’s one and three inde-pendents. The RJD has 80 MLAs and its ally Congress has 27. The CPI-ML, bitterly opposed to the BJP, has three members.

“My commitment is for the people of Bihar and for the development of Bihar. The deci-sion is in Bihar’s interest and for its development,” Nitish Kumar

said after taking oath. The Chief Minister pledged to take the state to new heights of development.

It was not a smooth affair though as two JD-U MPs, M.P. Veerendra Kumar, head of the party’s Kerala unit, and Ali Anwar (Bihar) rebelled against his decision to embrace the Bharatiya Janata Party.

The unhappy leaders met at Sharad Yadav’s residence in Delhi and said the veteran was upset with Nitish Kumar. The meeting was also attended by JD-U General Secretary Arun Srivastava and spokesperson Javed Raza.

Veerendra Kumar said he was ready to quit the Rajya Sabha to pursue his fight against “fascist forces”.

“We are not accepting the JD-U joining the NDA and our relations with Nitish Kumar have ended. It’s shocking Nitish Kumar has joined the NDA. We all thought that he will fight the

fascist tendencies but he has now become a part of it.”

Veerendra Kumar added: “He (Sharad Yadav) told me there is no question of accept-ing the present stand of Nitish Kumar.”

“None of the party office bearers were consulted before taking such a cruel decision,” Anwar said. He said Nitish Kumar yesterday morning spo-ken to Sharad Yadav over phone and briefed him about the cir-cumstances under which he chose to go with the BJP.

Nitish Kumar’s move marks his return to the NDA after almost four years. The JD-U sev-ered ties with the BJP after it chose Narendra Modi as its Prime Ministerial candidate in 2013.

Lalu Prasad, whose son Tejashwi Yadav faces corrup-tion charges and which triggered the collapse of the Grand Alli-ance, accused Nitish Kumar of “cheating” the people of Bihar. He said Nitish Kumar “con-spired” with the BJP to get graft cases filed against his family.

“I made him the Chief Min-ister despite my party being the single largest party in the state.”

The RJD leader said his party was consulting legal experts and may approach the Supreme Court as the verdict in the S.R. Bommai case was not followed while inviting Nitish Kumar to form the government in Bihar.

Congress Vice President Rahul Gandhi also slammed Nit-ish Kumar for shaking hands with the BJP for “personal gains”.

Howrah IANS

West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee yester-day held the

central government and the Damodar Valley Corporation (DVC) responsible for the “man-made” floods in southern West Bengal districts.

“This is a man-made flood. This will go on till September. We will monitor the situation closely till first or second week of October. It has rained more this year and, on top of that, water is being released by DVC without informing us,”

Banerjee told media persons here during an inspection of the inundated areas in Hooghly and Howrah. Banerjee also inter-acted with local residents and told them about the cause of flood there.

“What you see here is not due to rains. Over two lakh cusecs of water has been released by DVC. That water will reach the area by midnight. I can only apologise. Unless the DVC is reformed, the problem will persist,” she said.

Banerjee on Wednesday demanded that the central gov-ernment immediately “revamp” the DVC. She said the central government should start

dredging at places like Farraka barrage and ports of Kolkata and Haldia to stop this flooding every year.

The DVC, however, said that it had “no role” in releasing the water as the decision was made by the Damodar Valley Reser-voir Regulation Committee (DVRRC), which has central gov-ernment as well as state government representatives.

“The regulatory authority is more dangerous. They don’t consider the plight of the pub-lic. They don’t understand. We alert the public on our own that DVC is releasing water. My throat has become sore request-ing the Centre,” she said.

People using boats as they try to move to safer places along a flooded street in West Bengal’s West Midnapore district.

Nitish Kumar came under attack from former allies who called his decision a “betrayal” of the 2015 mandate.

Trust vote today

Nitish Kumar, who took the oath of office and secrecy with his former Deputy Sushil Kumar Modi of the BJP, has to prove his majority in the Assembly today.

NEWS BYTES

NEW DELHI: A scuffle over which way an air cooler should point ended in the murder of a father and son who were run-ning a roadside eatery in west Delhi, police said yesterday.Eatery owner Shyam Singh Verma, 57, and his son and man-ager Mayank Singh, 28, were shot dead by four armed men who had come to dine at the eatery in Nangli Dairy area of Najafgarh on Wednesday night. The accused, who were drunk, asked a waiter to point the cooler at the eatery in their direc-tion. Mayank objected to this, at which one of the accused then forcefully pointed the cooler towards their table. May-ank tried to stop him, resulting in a scuffle between the two. “He abused and dragged Mayank,” a police officer said.

GANDHINAGAR : In a blow to the Congress in Gujarat, three of its senior legislators resigned from the party and joined the BJP with the Chief Whip bagging a Rajya Sabha ticket that could threaten the chances of Congress President Sonia Gandhi’s polit-ical secretary Ahmed Patel in the biennial election. Chief Whip Balwantsinh Rajput, MLA from Siddhpur who is rebel leader Shankersinh Vaghela’s relative, was named by the BJP for the third Rajya Sabha seat for which Patel has filed his nomina-tion. BJP president Amit Shah and Union Minister Smriti Irani are the other two party candidates.

NEW DELHI: The Enforcement Directorate has registered a money-laundering case against RJD chief Lalu Prasad, his wife, younger son, and others regarding the upkeep of two IRCTC hotels during his term as Railway Minister, an official said yesterday. The agency filed the case under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) following registration of a first information report by the Central Bureau of Investiga-tion (CBI) on July 5. The official said the ED will investigate the case against Lalu Prasad and others since the accused had allegedly generated money through shell companies.

NEW DELHI: A 17-year-old boy was forced to drink acid by a group of people, a day after a scuffle over shortage of paneer at a dairy store here, family members said yesterday. Deputy Commissioner of Police Romil Baaniya said: “Two suspects have been detained in connection with the incident and they’re being interrogated.” A police officer privy to the case identi-fied the victim as Yogesh Sagar and said the incident took place in Sangam Vihar area of south Delhi on Tuesday night. Sagar is recuperating at the All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) but has not yet begun talking, his father said.

Two dead in quarrel overdirection of cooler

Gujarat chief whip quits Congress

ED registers FIR against Lalu, family

Boy forced to drink acid in Delhi

India frees Frenchwoman wanted for Chile assassinationNew Delhi AFP

India yesterday freed Frenchwoman Marie-Emmanuelle Verhoeven,

wanted in Chile in connection with the assassination of a senator, and she was put on a plane to France, sources said.

The Indian foreign min-istry said Verhoeven, who had been held in the country since February 2015, was released at France’s request on health reasons.

Verhoeven’s Indian law-yer confirmed that proceedings against her had been halted. “The govern-ment withdrew the extradition proceedings against her and the matter was closed,” Ramni Taneja, Verhoeven’s lawyer, said.

A source close to the case said the Frenchwoman, 57, had been put on a plane to Paris. A closed court hearing on Verhoeven’s case was held in New Delhi on Wednesday and the Chilean government had complained at India’s failure to hand her over.

The Indian foreign min-istry said: “Having considered the matter in its entirety, including the French request, the deteriorating mental and physical health of Ms. Marie Emmanuelle Verhoeven and the commitment of the French Government in the matter, the government decided ... to withdraw its inquiry order.”

It added the government “discharged Ms. Marie Emmanuelle Verhoeven on medical and humanitarian grounds”.

06 FRIDAY 28 JULY 2017ASIA

West warns against travel to MindanaoManila AFP

Western govern-ments are warning their c i t i z e n s against travel-

ling to nearly all of the southern third of the Philippines, citing the rising threats of terror attacks and kidnappings by militants.

Fresh alerts from Britain, Canada and Australia were released this week after Presi-dent Rodrigo Duterte extended military rule across the south-ern region of Mindanao until the end of the year to combat the militants.

The Canadian government’s advisory warned against visit-ing any part of Mindanao except for Davao, the biggest city in the south.

“There is a serious risk of terrorist attacks and kidnap-pings in this region,” the Canadian government said.

It also cautioned that peo-ple should only visit Davao, where the bombing of a crowded night market last year claimed 15 lives, if it was essential.

Mindanao comprises roughly a third of the Philippine

territory and is home to 20 mil-lion people.

The region has endured dec-ades of conflict, with separatists and communists waging deadly rebellions, and a small group of Islamic militants known as the Abu Sayyaf running a lucrative kidnap-for-ransom operation from there.

Western governments have long advised against travelling to parts of Mindanao, but the fresh alerts are more extensive as they warn against visiting almost the whole region.

The new advisories reflect growing concerns that the IS group’s influence is rising in Mindanao.

Gunmen who have pledged

allegiance to IS occupied Marawi, the main Muslim city in the southern Philippines, in May and security forces have been unable to dislodge them despite fierce battles that have claimed more than 600 lives.

Duterte initially imposed martial law across Mindanao immediately after the fighting erupted in Marawi.

The British government advisory, released on Tuesday, warned terrorists were “very likely” to carry out attacks any-where in the Philippines, including the capital of Manila.

It said the most acute threat was in the south, and warned against travelling through nearly all of Mindanao.

The British advisory said the threat of kidnappings and ter-rorism also loomed over the central city of Dumaguete and nearby Siquijor island, both tourist areas.

The Australian government warning largely echoed those issued by Britain and Canada.

In a July 18 advisory that warned against travelling to Mindanao, the US embassy in Manila said that it had “credible information” that terrorists also planned to conduct kidnappings on the tourist islands of Pala-wan, Cebu and Bohol in 2017.

Fresh alerts from Britain, Canada and Australia were released this week after President Rodrigo Duterte extended military rule across the southern region of Mindanao until the end of the year to combat the militants.

Advisory over unrest

Philippines receives spy planes from USManila AFP

The United States donated surveillance aircraft and began delivering weapons

to the Philippines yesterday to help its Asian ally fight militants.

“The two Cessna C208B planes, which together with their equipment are worth more than $30m, will track IS group-styled gunmen as well as patrol maritime borders,” US ambas-sador Sung Kim and Philippine

Defence Secretary Delfin Loren-zana said.

“These planes are the latest... manifestation of all that our alli-ance is supposed to be, a partnership of two old friends and two strong allies who work together, fight together and overcome adversity together,” Kim said.

The donated planes, along with the sales of defence equip-ment, are the latest support from Washington to help President Rodrigo Duterte root out mili-tants who have been fighting

government troops in the south-ern city of Marawi for more than two months.

The US has taken a significant support role for Manila in the Marawi conflict, the biggest secu-rity challenge of Duterte’s government, even as he sought to loosen the 65-year-old alliance and seek closer ties with China.

The US has also flown P3 Orion surveillance aircraft over Marawi while US Special Forces troops based in the southern region of Mindanao have been operating drones.

Philippine Air Force pilots check on a Cessna-208B Grand Caravan Intelligence, Surveillance and Recoinnaissance aircraft during a formal turnover ceremony at the PAF headquarters, in Manila, yesterday.

Kim Jong Nam’s murder suspects to plead not guiltyKuala Lumpur AP

TWO women accused of poisoning the estranged half brother of North Korea’s ruler in a bizarre airport assassina-tion are expected to plead not guilty when they appear in a Malaysian court today, their lawyers said.

Indonesian Siti Aisyah and Vietnamese Doan Thi Huong are accused of smear-ing Kim Jong Nam’s face with the banned VX nerve agent at a crowded airport terminal in Kuala Lumpur on February 13.

They are the only sus-pects in custody in a killing that South Korea’s spy agency said was part of a five-year plot by North Korean leader Kim Jong-Un to kill a brother he reportedly never met. Four North Korean suspects fled the country, police say.

Japanese and Sri Lankan win Magsaysay AwardsManila AP

A Japanese historian who helped Cambodians pre-serve the Angkor temples

and a Sri Lankan teacher who counseled war widows and orphans to overcome their nightmares are among the six winners of this year’s Ramon Magsaysay Awards, regarded as Asia’s version of the Nobel Prize.

The other recipients named yesterday are an Indonesian

working for the return of large tracts of forest land to indige-nous communities, a Singaporean who leads the cooking of 6,000 meals a day for the destitute, a Philippine theater group which stood up to a dictatorship and a Filipino who oversaw the opening of job-generating export process-ing zones.

The awards, named after a Philippine president who died in a 1957 plane crash, are to be pre-sented in Manila on August 31.

The winners were unafraid to take on large causes and “refused to give up, despite meager resources, daunting adversity and strong opposi-tion,” said Carmencita Abella, president of the Ramon Mag-saysay Award Foundation. “Their approaches are all deeply anchored on a respect for human dignity and a faith in the power of collective endeavor.”

Yoshiaki Ishizawa, a 79-year-old scholar of South-east Asian history who has

served as president of Japan’s Sophia University, devoted 50 years of his life to help preserve Cambodia’s Angkor Wat, a 162-hectare temple, from the ravages of time and conflict, according to the foundation.

Conservation work at Ang-kor Wat was suspended for years under the Khmer Rouge. When the ultra-communist group fell from power in 1979, violence had decimated the pool of Cambodian conserva-tionists. Ishizawa led an effort

in Japan and Cambodia to save the temple, putting Cambodi-ans at the center of the effort, the foundation said.

Gethsie Shanmugam, 82, a teacher and psychological counselor from Sri Lanka’s minority Tamil community, won for braving bombings and threats of arrests in conflict zones to counsel war widows, orphans and children trauma-tized by three decades of brutal civil war in her country, the foundation said.

Swine flu toll rises in MyanmarYangon Anatolia

THE Health Department under Myanmar’s Ministry of Health and Sports confirmed that two more H1N1-positive patients died in Yangon, bringing the total number of swine flu vic-tims to five since Tuesday.

The department said in a press release that about 30 other patients had tested pos-itive for H1N1 virus, commonly known as swine flu, and were being treated at hospitals in Yangon and many other areas.

Although local media reports said a total of six peo-ple -- including a six-year-old boy who died of severe res-piratory problems in Matupi, a small town in Chin state near the country’s northwest-ern border with India – died from the virus, the depart-ment said the boy had not contracted swine flu.

Kabul Reuters

Afghan security forces backed by air strikes have been fighting to

retake a district in the western province of Ghor since it fell to the Taliban earlier this week, officials said yesterday.

The insurgents took control of the district centre of Taywara on Sunday as part of a broad push that saw heavy fighting across much of the country.

Since then, government forces have pushed back. Local police spokesman Nazami, who like many Afghans goes by one name, said “large parts of the district” had been retaken in an operation involving hundreds of Afghan troops backed by local militia forces and air power. US military headquar-ters in Kabul said it had not conducted any strikes in Ghor.

“All of the strikes were taken by the Afghan Air Force,” spokesman Capt Bill Salvin said in an emailed statement.

“That is a demonstration of the AAF’s growing capability to support (Afghan) troops on the ground.”

Local Governor Naser Khazeh said fighting had been difficult because roads to the district had been heavily mined and Taliban fighters were fir-ing from civilian houses.

He said government forces were close to the district cen-tre and the whole Taywara district should be retaken by the end of the week.

Security forces have strug-gled to control Ghor, a remote mountain province with sharp ethnic and tribal divisions and illegal armed groups that oper-ate with impunity.

The Taliban have long had a strong presence and more recently, Afghan security offi-cials say, fighters loyal to Islamic State have established themselves in the province.

Earlier this week, around 30 Afghan soldiers were killed when the insurgents took an outpost in the southern prov-ince of Kandahar and there has also been heavy fighting in the province of Helmand as well as northern areas including Far-yab, Baghlan and Badakshan.

Troops battle to retake Tayawara from Taliban

Local Governor Naser Khazeh said fighting had been difficult because roads to the district had been heavily mined and Taliban fighters were firing from civilian houses.

Dhaka conjoined twins await surgeryDhaka AFP

Bangladeshi twins born conjoined at the skull will undergo a difficult and

potentially dangerous operation to separate them, surgeons said as they appealed for help from global medical experts.

Doctors are trying to estab-lish whether the one-year-old girls, born otherwise healthy in northwest Bangladesh, share the same brain, something that would vastly complicate the surgery.

“It would be a very delicate and sensitive surgery,” said Ruhul Amin, chief paediatric surgeon at Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujib Medical University in Dhaka.

“We’re evaluating their con-dition and trying to contact experts across the world for opinions and help.”

Their parents, both school-teachers, came to Dhaka shortly after Rabia and Rukia were born, to seek medical help.

Amin said the girls were healthy and playful but he

wanted more time to study their condition to minimise the risks of surgery as much as possible.

The parents did not even know they were having twins before the birth, with scans not revealing any abnormalities or indications of two children, said their father Rafiqul Islam.

“The doctor only said it was a baby with a bigger head.”

The parents wanted to ensure “a better life” for their daughters -- despite the poten-tially fatal ramifications of the surgery.

Conjoined twins baby girls Rabia and Rukia during their visit to a hospital in Dhaka.

07FRIDAY 28 JULY 2017 EUROPE

Flood woes

EU grants new funding for refugees in GreeceAthens Reuters

The European Commis-sion will give Greece $245m in new emer-gency aid to help refugees stranded in

the country rent homes and pay for basics with a cash card, the Commission said yesterday.

About 62,000 refugees and migrants, mainly Syrians, Afghans and Iraqis headed to northern Europe, have been stranded in Greece since Euro-pean countries closed their borders in March last year. Most live in overcrowded camps marred by violence.

The scheme, announced with UNHCR, the UN refugee agency, will provide 22,000 rented homes in cities and towns on mainland Greece and some 2,000 places on Greek islands.

It will increase the number of refugees living in rented apartments in Greece to as many as 30,000 by the end of 2017, the Commission said.

“Our new funding is a game changer on how we deliver aid to improve people’s lives,” said

Christos Stylianides, the EU’s commissioner for humanitarian aid and crisis management.

“The aim of these new projects is to get refugees out of the camps and into everyday accommodation and help them have more secure and normal lives,” he said.

Part of the aid will provide refugees with a card with a set

monthly cash allocation to help them pay for basic needs such as food, medicine and public transportation.

Yesteraday’s funding more than doubles the EU’s emergency support to Greece to a total of 401 million euros.

Nearly 11,000 asylum seek-ers and migrants have crossed to Greece from Turkey this year, down from 173,000 in the

year 2016 and just a fraction of the nearly 1 million arrivals in 2015.

But a steady flow of about 100 a day continues to weigh on overwhelmed facilities. On the islands, “the situation has become a bit more tense,” UNHCR Greece representative Phi l ippe Leclerc said yesterday.

He called for more transfers to the mainland.

“That’s why the accommo-dation programme is important,” he said.

Humanitarian groups in Greece, including Save the Chil-dren and Medecins Sans Frontieres, are worried that con-ditions could deteriorate further when the state assumes full man-agement and coordination of services on the islands from August.

“Without a clear transition plan, gaps in services will likely occur and men, women and chil-dren may be put at greater risk, without the health, legal and other services and safety they need and have the right to,” seven organisations said in a joint statement this month.

The new UNHCR scheme will provide 22,000 rented homes in cities and towns on mainland Greece and some 2,000 places on Greek islands.

Migrants crisis

Humanitarian groups in Greece are worried that conditions could deteriorate further when the state assumes full management and coordination of services on the islands from August.

EU Commissioner for Humanitarian Aid and Crisis Management, Stylianides, addresses journalists during a news conference at the EU Commission Representation offices in Athens, yesterday.

Russia tried to spy on Macron over FacebookSan Francisco Reuters

Russian intelligence agents attempted to spy on Pres-ident Emmanuel Macron’s

election campaign earlier this year by creating phony Face-book personas, according to a US Congressman and two other people briefed on the effort.

About two dozen Facebook accounts were created to con-duct surveillance on Macron campaign officials and others close to the centrist former fin-ancier as he sought to defeat far-right nationalist Marine Le

Pen and other opponents in the two-round election, the sources said.

Macron won in a landslide in May.

Facebook said in April it had taken action against fake accounts that were spreading misinformation about the French election. But the effort to infiltrate the social networks of Macron officials has not previ-ously been reported.

Russia has repeatedly denied interfering in the French elec-tion by hacking and leaking emails and documents.

US intelligence agencies said

in May that hackers with con-nections to the Russian government were involved, but they did not have conclusive evi-dence that the Kremlin ordered the hacking.

Facebook confirmed that it had detected spying accounts in France and deactivated them.

It credited a combination of improved automated detec-tion and stepped-up human efforts to find sophisticated attacks.

Company officials briefed congressional committee mem-bers and staff, among others, about their findings.

People involved in the con-versations also said the number of Facebook accounts suspended in France for promoting propa-ganda or spam - much of it related to the election - had climbed to 70,000, a big jump from the 30,000 account clo-sures the company disclosed in April.

Facebook did not dispute the figure.

Yesterday, Kremlin spokes-man Dmitry Peskov dismissed the accusations that Russia had attempted to influence the French election as “a lie and not true”.

Bucharest Reuters

Romania needs to pass a vaccination law and overhaul medical serv-

ices to prevent the spread of a measles outbreak that has already claimed 32 deaths, the most of any European country, the health ministry said.

Vaccination rules are being tightened across Europe, where a decline in immunisation has caused a spike in diseases such as measles, chicken pox and mumps, according to the Euro-pean Centre for Disease

Prevention and Control (ECDC).In Romania, the ministry

said 224,202 children aged 9 months to 9 years had yet to be vaccinated against measles, a highly contagious virus that spreads through direct contact and through the air and that remains one of the biggest kill-ers of children worldwide.

Since a measles outbreak started in 2016, Romania has reported 8,246 cases of both children and adults, including 32 deaths across the country but especially in some western counties where the vaccination rate was below 50 percent.

Data leak: Sweden PM reshuffles CabinetStockholm AFP

Two Swedish ministers will leave the government in a reshuffle sparked by a

huge leak of sensitive data, Prime Minister Stefan Lofven said yesterday.

Interior Minister Anders Ygeman, a political heavyweight in the centre-left government who reportedly knew about the leak but failed to inform the pre-mier, will quit “at his own request”, Lofven said, adding that Infrastructure Minister Anna Johansson will also step down.

The scandal has blown up in

recent weeks after it emerged that an entire database on Swedish drivers’ licences was made available to technicians in the Czech Republic and Romania, with media reporting that the identities of intelligence agents may have been jeopardised.

Defence Minister Peter Hultqvist has kept his job -- which was also on the line over one of the largest breaches of government information in Sweden in decades -- but still faces the threat of being forced out in a censure motion launched by the opposition on Wednesday against all three ministers.

Lofven, at the head of a Social Democrat-led coalition since 2014, did not announce snap elections as had been expected by political commen-tators after the scandal, instead saying he intends to stay on until his term ends in 2018.

“I have no intention of plunging Sweden into a politi-cal crisis,” he said, pointing to “formidable challenges” the country is facing including ten-sions in the Baltic region, Brexit, and the government’s plans for social and economic reforms.

“I looked at several alterna-tives, and I chose the best one for the country,” Lofven said yesterday.

Ministry urges Romania to overhaul medical services

NEWS BYTES

MOSCOW : The Kremlin yesterday announced the appoint-ment of Vasily Nebenzya as Russia’s ambassador to the United Nations, replacing the previous long-serving envoy Vitaly Churkin who died in February.

President Vladimir Putin signed a decree appointing Nebenzya. Nebenzya will start in the new post as relations between Russia and the West have hit post-Cold War lows over Moscow’s annexation of Crimea from Ukraine and its role in escalating the eastern Ukrainian separatist conflict.

Russia appoints new UN envoy

BORMES-LES-MIMOSAS: French firefighters have tamed one of the fiercest blazes to break out during four days of wild-fires in the country’s southeast Mediterranean coast that led to the evacuation of more than 12,000 people.

The fire in the seaside town of Bormes-Les-Mimosas in the southern Var region calmed yesterday because of a drop in the wind.

“The fire is contained,” Frederic Marchi-Leccia of the Var Fire and Emergency Service said of the blaze.

Firefighters tame French wildfires

MADRID: Spain’s jobless rate tumbled in the second quar-ter, official data showed yesterday.

The unemployment rate stood at 17.2% in the second quar-ter, down from 18.7% in the previous quarter, national statistics institute INE said. The number of people out of work fell to 3.9 million at the end of June from 4.25 million at the end of March’

The second quarter tends to be a strong period of job cre-ation as the tourism season begins, with the services sector creating the most jobs in the second quarter -- 272,400 -- as tourist-oriented businesses took on extra staff.

Spain’s unemployment rate drops

LONDON: Anti-Semitic hate incidents in Britain rose by 30 percent to a record high of 767 in the first six months of this year compared to the same period last year, a Jewish com-munity group said yesterday.

The Community Security Trust said 80 of the incidents involved physical attacks but the highest number was ver-bal abuse at visibly Jewish people in public places.

“Anti-Semitism is having an increasing impact on the lives of Jews and the hatred and anger that lies behind it is spread-ing,” David Delew, head of the Community Security Trust, said.

Anti-semitic incidents rise by 30%

People use a canoe on a flooded street in Wolfenbuettel, nothern Germany, yesterday.

Putin vows to hit back at new sanctionsSavonlinna Reuters

PRESIDENT Vladimir Putin said yesterday that Russia would be forced to retaliate if Washington pressed ahead with what he called illegal new sanctions against Mos-cow, describing US conduct towards his country as boor-ish and unreasonable.

Putin, speaking on a visit to Finland, was commenting on a vote by the US House of Representatives which on Tuesday decided to impose new sanctions on Moscow and to force President Don-ald Trump to obtain lawmakers’ permission before easing any sanctions on Russia.

The sanctions have yet to be approved by the Senate or Trump, and a top White House aide said yesterday that Trump could veto the legislation in order to push for a tougher deal.

Putin, who has repeatedly denied US allegations that Russia interfered with last year’s US presidential elec-tion, said Moscow would only decide on how to retaliate against Washington once it had seen the final text of the proposed law.

“As you know, we are exercising restraint and patience, but at some moment we’ll have to retaliate. It’s impossible to endlessly toler-ate this boorishness towards our country,” Putin told a joint news conference with his Finnish counterpart yesterday.

08 FRIDAY 28 JULY 2017VIEWS

E S T A B L I S H E D I N 1 9 9 6

QUOTE OF THE DAY

Handling holy sites lightly and with this level of arrogance seriously threatens to ignite a religious war.

Ahmed Abul GheitArab League Chief

For two months, the United Arab Emirates and Saudi Arabia have led an illegal and unwarranted blockade on Qatar. The blockaders have attempted to use trade and eco-

nomic levers as weapons – by closing borders, forbidding exports to Qatar, forcibly recalling their citizens, and censoring information.

Qatar has successfully rejected these attempts to curb its sovereignty, as our citi-zens and residents have responded valiantly to every challenge and obstacle.

Our strength traces back to our independ-ence in 1971, when an early decision was made to always pursue dialogue and diplo-macy over threats and force. At the same time, we resolved to guide economic and investment decisions by taking the long view toward our interests at home, in the region and globally.

This approach has borne fruit. The City Center D.C project in America’s capital is a prime example: Qatari Diar’s $1.5bn invest-ment in this commercial and residential project, the largest private-sector investment in Washington, has created jobs and provided an anchor for future development in the city.

Its success is being replicated near Sabine Pass, Texas, where Qatar Petroleum has part-nered with two other leading energy companies – ExxonMobil and ConocoPhillips –to build one of the world’s largest liquefied natural gas terminals. This $10 billion project will generate thousands of jobs in the U.S. and push forward billions of dollars in economic development.

These projects come in addition to the $27bn that Qatar has invested in the U.S. in the past two years, and the nearly $10bn more slated for new and existing projects in years ahead.

We have also made significant invest-ments at home. Today Qatar has one of the world’s largest modern airports, which is

now accommodating an increased volume of air cargo from global trading partners – to mitigate short-falls from the blockading nations. Our new seaport has been vital in enabling the

End the unwarranted blockade against QatarAli Shareef Al Emadi Bloomberg

flow of food, provisions and building materials into the country. Day-to-day life in Qatar has continued without interruption. Just as important, Qatar continues to be the world’s largest exporter of liquefied natural gas. Not a single shipment has been missed or delayed – even those to the blockading UAE. While they have cut off exports to Qatar, we have continued to supply 40 percent of the UAE’s daily LNG con-sumption via the Dolphin Pipeline.

We do this because Qatar does not use economic tools to harm trading part-ners. Nor do we leverage business deals for political gain. We want the compa-nies and countries we invest in to know that Qatar keeps business and politics

separate. It is why we honor our busi-ness agreements with Egypt and Saudi Arabia, and keep our skies open to all carriers.

These same countries are recalling their citizens and expelling Qataris, forc-ing people to sell assets or in some cases forfeit businesses they have spent years building. Then there is the regrettable human cost – families split apart when only one parent is Qatari.

Despite the blockading countries’ behaviour, we will not fundamentally change our approach. Speaking to the people last week, Emir of Qatar, His Highness Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani called for more initiative and investment to diversify the economy, and for Qatar to achieve greater eco-nomic independence through bilateral cooperation regionally and globally, but to always ground its partnerships in mutual interest and respect.

Qatar still wants to achieve the good relations, economic growth and oppor-tunities that the leaders of our countries envisioned when they created the Gulf Cooperation Council in 1981. With their blockade, the other GCC members are doing the opposite.

Repairing the economic and social damage this is causing will not be easy. But it must start with ending the block-ade and allowing reasonable dialogue to begin. As Henry Ford said, “Coming together is a beginning; keeping together is progress; working together is success.” Let us end this disastrous impasse and aim for success.

H E Ali Shareef Al Emadi is Qatar’s Minister of Finance.

Repairing the economic and social damage will not be easy. But it must start with ending the blockade and allowing reasonable dialogue to begin. As Henry Ford said, “Coming together is a beginning; keeping together is progress; working together is success.” Let us end this disastrous impasse and aim for success.

E S T A B L I S H E D I N 1 9 9 6

CHAIRMANSHEIKH THANI BIN ABDULLAH AL THANI

EDITOR-IN-CHIEFDR. KHALID BIN MUBARAK AL-SHAFI

editorinchief@pen.com.qa

ACTING MANAGING EDITORMOHAMMED SALIM MOHAMED

msalim@pen.com.qa

Leader of the Rose Revolution and the man who liberated Georgia from Russia is today a stateless man. By taking away Mikheil Saakashvili’s Ukrainian citizenship, Petro

Poroshenko has delivered two blows in one fell swoop. He have had his revenge against the former Georgian president, and kept him out of the country at the same time. Since Saakashvili was stripped of his Ukrainian citizenship while visiting the United States, he has lost the chance to even utter a word on Ukrainian soil. Though he issued a statement on Radio Free Europe, vowing to fight for his right to go to Ukraine, it is impossible for him to make it to the country that has been his new home for the last few years.

If Saakashvili goes back to Ukraine, he would probably be unable to cross the airport from where he is likely to be extradited to Georgia, to which the US-educated lawyer belongs. The Georgian government has filed requests with Ukraine for his extradition over alleged irregularities during his tenure as president of the country.

Saakashvili is known to be a crusader against cor-ruption. Right after taking over as president in 2004, he started a campaign against graft in a country where corruption in public life was the new normal. The former Soviet Republic had inherited the corrupt prac-tices of its Soviet masters many of whom wallowed in wealth at the expense of citizens of the country of about 4 million.

Saakashvili had a large number of government officials jailed in an anti-corruption crackdown that became a model to emu-late in other countries. Police station buildings were made of glass, a move that symbolised transparency and account-ability. Police reforms led to a more humane force treating citizens and for-eigners with respect. A zero-tolerance policy for

corruption led to a better administration and more sat-isfied citizens.

However, the Rose Revolution leader who threw out Soviet-era president Eduard Shevardnadze could not bring the nation out of poverty. He lost the elections to the opposition that tried to get even with him. A beleaguered Saakashvili moved to Ukraine where his one-time ally Poroshenko elevated him to the position of the governor of the eastern region of Odessa in 2015. He made many enemies in his new position and even accused Poroshenko of corruption. The US-trained lawyer fell out with his president who he accused of promoting oligarchs and protecting corrupt officials.

Saakashvili’s clampdown on graft in Georgia and Ukraine has made him an anti-corruption revolution-ary. Statesmen have been known to fight corruption but not with Saakashvili’s zeal. Revolutions devour their own children. Probably, this explains his denouement.

Not a rosy path

Saakashvili is the victim of a system in the former Soviet Republics that has an entrenched inertia for change.

ED ITOR IAL

A worker offloading cargo from a Qatar Airways Cargo plane at the Hamad International Airport in Doha.

09FRIDAY 28 JULY 2017 OPINION

partisan approach to covering Trump, a tactic that fed his supporters’ suspicion that the media was biased against the president.

But Trump’s media attacks didn’t end with the election. If anything, they have intensified since he has been in office, often in proportion to the number of scandals plaguing the White House. His war against the press has become his single most coher-ent ideology. It is his default approach to governing.

Let’s be clear: Trump’s attack against “fake news” is, in one very important sense, fake. Throughout his life as a public person, Trump has shown that he des-perately craves media attention and has become a master at cultivating it. New York tabloid reporters will tell you how obsessive he was about his media image, even pretending to be his own PR rep calling reporters to pitch stories about himself. Now, as pres-ident, the same week he tries to demean the New York Times on Twitter and elsewhere, he sits down with its reporters in the Oval Office and makes clear how much he’d like to do it again.

If that were the end of the story, we could

Al Aqsa: One encroachment too many?

The metal detectors at the entrance to the Al Aqsa Mosque compound were no more than the latest hurdle on a long and bumpy road. And in a sense, their removal was also part of a deal struck by HM King Abdullah II

with PM Benjamin Netanyahu for the return of Israeli embassy officials to Jerusalem following the Israeli embassy “incident” in Amman, in which an Israeli embassy security guard shot dead two Jordanian citizens.

But this was not the first such hurdle, and it was not merely about airport-style machines either. I am long enough in the tooth to remember the Six-Day War of 1967 when Israeli Jews exclaimed trium-phantly that they would finally pray at the Temple Mount.

Since those days, this walled territory of 35 acres (or 144 dunams) that is known interchangeably as the Noble Sanctuary (Al Haram Al Sharif) or Al Aqsa com-pound, has been the scene of many ugly events and challenging standoffs.

Remember 1969 when Al Qabali Mosque was set on fire, or Black Monday in 1990 when 20 Palestini-ans were killed in the Al Aqsa Massacre? Remember also the 63 people who died in 1996 during the pro-tests over the opening of a new tunnel by the Israelis under the Western Wall?

Or the second Intifada in 2000 that was set off in part by Ariel Sharon prancing around on the com-pound? Since then, confrontations between Palestinians and Israeli settlers protected by Israeli forces have led to an escalation of violence in both Israel and the occupied Palestinian territories.

In fact, what Israel has been doing over many long years is pursuing its political aims of encroach-ing on Palestinian lands through religious prisms. It is simple: appropriate the lands on the basis of a politi-cal ideology and then claim that they are being taken for religious purposes. In fact, Israel has mooted a

similar concept of sharing this Noble Sanctuary by Jews and Muslims.

It has suggested time-sharing and space-sharing whereby Muslims and Jews would enter the Al Aqsa Mosque compound for prayer at separate times. In so doing, it has used the arrangements at the Ibrahimi Mosque (known to Jews as the Cave of Patriarchs) in Hebron as a future template for Jerusalem. In Hebron, for instance, Jews enjoy the use of 60 percent of the mosque while Muslims have 40 percent only.

Consequently, Jewish religious settlers have been fighting to seize those rights on religious grounds and government officials have encouraged them for polit-ical reasons. Only this week, al-Resalah newspaper reported Bezalel Smotrich from the Jewish Home party calling for the building of a synagogue inside the Al Aqsa Mosque courtyard.

It is a heady mix when religion and politics coa-lesce in such an inflammatory manner. And the outcome is that any opening is grabbed to introduce new realities on the ground. After all, has this not been the case all along with illegal settlements?

The metal detectors, in their own right, are one small factor. But viewed more broadly, they become a tool for the gradual control of Palestinian territory in such a way that it does not jolt Arab and Muslim sensibilities let alone ruffle the international commu-nity - including the EU. And any enhancement in the rights of Israeli Jews would ineluctably lead to a reduction in the rights of Palestinian Muslims - until

such day as Muslims in Palestine and elsewhere wake up to the fact that the arrangements of Hebron had been cloned in Jerusalem too.

But there was a difference. In the past, the Arab and Muslim worlds have defended the rights of Pales-tinians to this third holiest site for Islam. From Saudi Arabia to Morocco, and from Egypt to Jordan, these countries had used their moral and political stature to impede the unfurling of such predatory designs.

Following the Arab uprisings of 2010-2011 though, the political topography of the region has changed noticeably - in some cases subtly and in oth-ers more bluntly. These days, the Arab masses are far too busy with their own Sisyphean struggles against the despotism of their rulers to clamour for Palestin-ian rights. In fact, Palestine nowadays garners more support outside the Arab World than inside it.

Few are the Arab governments that still support Palestinian rights - be they for self-determination or for movement and worship. Indeed, new alliances are clearly being forged, and new enmities are also being honed: Israel is more of a strategic ally with whom to share intelligence than to fight over holy sites and peoples’ usurped rights. With Iran the arch-nemesis of some Arab leaders, the enemy of my enemy becomes my friend.

This is why it pains me to watch the so-called Anti-Terror Quartet expending so much theatrics blockading Qatar - one of their own - and castigating it for actions that are no different from those of its

The Columbia Journalism Review, the publication that I edit, has been in existence for 56 years. Over that time we have seen moments when the press has

been revered and honoured in this coun-try, and moments when its reputation has suffered. We have seen great and noble work by journalists here and around the world, and we have seen embarrassing blunders and lapses of judgment.

But what we have never seen, until now, is an attack by a sitting US president on the press’ very role as a democratic institution. This is new, it is dangerous, and it has resulted in a sharp increase in threats against the American press and its work.

For more than a year now, Donald Trump - first as a candidate, then as presi-dent - has made a war against the press a central plank of his public persona. He has singled out individual journalists for ad hominem attacks and declared entire news organisations to be working against America’s interests.

We can’t ignore that he was helped in that effort by the media’s coverage of the 2016 election, when many outlets simply missed the biggest story of the campaign, failing to understand the size and intensity of the electorate that would bring Trump to power. In addition, many national news outlets broke with decades of tradition and practice in the run-up to the election and took on a much more aggressive and even

It’s time for the press to stop helping Trump

Palestinians shouting slogans and wave a national flag upon entering the Haram Al Sharif compound, in the old city of Jerusalem, yesterday.

largely dismiss Trump’s sham press war and move along to more important things.

Unfortunately, it has not ended there. Trump’s attacks, despite the dishonesty at their core, are starting to have real effects in the real world. CJR, along with other press-freedom organisations, has worked in recent months to track increases in attacks against the press, both here and around the world. The number of incidents is startling, and they range from name-calling - like the governor of Texas joking about shooting reporters - to actual gunfire being aimed at a newsroom in Kentucky and a reporter in Montana being assaulted for questioning a candidate for Congress.

So while the rhetoric and threats coming from the Trump team are scary enough - loosened libel laws, a war against whistleblowers, the banning of reporters it doesn’t like - what’s even scarier is the message that is trickling down to state and local elected officials, as well as to some of the president’s more rabid supporters. The message is: The press is the enemy; nothing it says should be believed; there is no role or need for the press in American democracy.

The lack of trust that now exists between the press and the public didn’t start with Trump, though he certainly has done his part to exacerbate it. It has been building slowly for decades, to the point that the conversation between the media and its readers is broken. Many Americans no longer think the press listens to or understands them, and they long ago started tuning us out. We became part of the establish-ment that had turned its back on them. These are our failings, and they need to be fixed.

We need to start listening again and reporting the kinds of stories that matter in people’s lives. We need to make it clear that we’re in our readers’ corner, not in the pocket of the source who gave us the tip in the first place. We shouldn’t whine every time the Trump administration snubs us, and we shouldn’t make the story about ourselves. Every time Trump tweets the words “fake news,” it doesn’t warrant a “Breaking News” alert or a front-page headline. Instead, reporters should be focused on the president’s team and his policies, examining his remaking of American government. These are the stories that resonate with Americans, not his views about what’s air-ing on MSNBC or CNN some Monday morning. We are already seeing some excellent reporting in this vein. We need more.

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accusers. Would it not be better if they invested their time, energy and money defending Arab rights that are being pilfered stealthily but progressively?

Political mistakes have often tended to come back and haunt Arab leaders: I hope this will not be the case here too.

Kyle PopeThe Washington Post

Harry HagopianAl Jazeera

In fact, what Israel has been doing over many long years is pursuing its political aims of encroaching on Palestinian lands through religious prisms. It is simple: appropriate the lands on the basis of a political ideology and then claim that they are being taken for religious purposes.

Reporters should be focused on the president’s team and his policies, examining his remaking of American government. These are the stories that resonate with Americans, not his views about what’s airing on MSNBC or CNN some Monday morning. We are already seeing some excellent reporting in this vein. We need more.

10 FRIDAY 28 JULY 2017AMERICAS

House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (centre) looks on as a staffer lights a candle on a cake to celebrate the 52nd Anniversary of Medicare and Medicaid on Capitol Hill in Washington, yesterday.

52nd Anniversary of Medicare and Medicaid Trump mulls tougher Russia sanctions Washington Reuters

US President Donald Trump could veto pending legislation that would slap new sanctions on

Russia in order to push for a tougher deal, a top White House aide said yesterday.

“He may sign the sanctions exactly the way they are or he may veto the sanctions and negotiate an even tougher deal against the Russians,” White House Communications Direc-tor Anthony Scaramucci told CNN. His comments came after US lawmakers reached an agreement on Wednesday clear-ing the way for the Senate to pass a measure as soon as this week to impose new sanctions on Russia and bar the president from easing sanctions on Mos-cow if Congress objects.

The bill, which also includes sanctions on Iran and North Korea, has enough bipartisan support that lawmakers could easily override the threatened veto. There was no immediate word on when the Senate would vote on the measure, but mem-bers of both parties have said they want to send it to Trump before they leave Washington mid-month for their summer recess.

Senate Democratic Leader Charles Schumer said Demo-crats would work with Republicans to move the bill quickly, adding that Congress would swiftly override if Trump were to veto the measure.

Trump’s fellow Republicans as well as Democrats have pushed for more sanctions partly as a response to findings by US intelligence agencies that the Kremlin interfered in the 2016 US election to boost Trump’s campaign.

Several congressional com-mittees and a federal special counsel are investigating possi-ble collusion between Moscow and Trump’s campaign, some-thing denied by both Trump and the Kremlin. Russia warned it could retaliate, and the Euro-pean Union said the new sanctions might affect its energy security and prompt it to act, too. The House of Representa-tives has already approved the

sanctions. If passed by the Sen-ate as expected, the bill would be sent to the White House for Trump to sign or veto.

Scaramucci cast the presi-dent’s consideration of a possible veto as something that would appeal to core support-ers. “He is a counterintuitive, counterpunching personality,” citing the president’s recent “fan base” at a recent rally. “The American people get it. The American people like what he is doing. The establishment does not like what he is doing. He’s going to disrupt the establish-ment,” he said on CNN.

However, Trump can impose new sanctions on Rus-sia at any time through an executive order. Lawmakers said the administration has spent weeks lobbying for a weaker bill. Trump’s concerns include a provision letting Con-gress stop any effort to ease existing sanctions on Russia.

The bill would affect a range of Russian industries and might further hurt the Russian econ-omy, already weakened by 2014 sanctions imposed after the Ukraine crisis.

An adviser to Russian Pres-ident Vladimir Putin said that any tightening of the sanctions should not have a deeper impact but hope they would be lifted has faded.

Top US general says no changes yet to transgender policyWashington Reuters

The United States’ top gen-eral told the military there had been no change yet to

Pentagon policy on transgender personnel, after President Don-ald Trump’s announcement of his plans to ban them appeared to catch senior officers by surprise.

Marine General Joseph Dun-ford, chairman of the military’s

Joint Chiefs of Staff, began his note to service chiefs, command-ers and senior enlisted leaders by acknowledging the uncer-tainty that followed Trump’s announcement. “I know there are questions about yesterday’s announcement on the transgen-der policy by the President,” Dunford wrote. “There will be no modifications to the current policy until the President’s direc-tion has been received by the Secretary of Defense and the

Secretary has issued implemen-tation guidance,” Dunford said in the message.

Dunford then made the assurance that the US military would “treat all of our person-nel with respect.”

Trump issued his surprise announcement on Wednesday morning in a series of Twitter postings, saying he would ban transgender people from the US military, a move appealing to some in his conservative

political base but creating vast uncertainty for active-duty and reserve transgender service members, who say they number in the thousands.

The action came on the same day that the Trump administra-tion told a US appeals court in New York that federal law does not ban discrimination against gay employees, a sharp reversal of the position Democratic former President Barack Obama took. The White House said

Trump had “extensive discus-sions with his national security team,” and that Defence Secre-tary Jim Mattis was informed after the president made the decision on Tuesday to go ahead.

But one official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said Dunford, in a separate message sent more narrowly to heads of the Army, Navy, Marine Corps and Air Force, acknowledged that Trump’s announcement on Wednesday was “unexpected.”

Russia warned it could retaliate, and the European Union said the new sanctions might affect its energy security and prompt it to act, too.

Bill to block firing of AG, special counselWashington AP

Members of the US Senate Judiciary Com-mittee are working on legislation that could attempt to insulate Special Coun-

sel Robert Mueller from being fired.A Republican and two Democrats said Thurs-

day they’re among committee members working on legislation that would prevent the firing of spe-cial counsels without judicial review.

They are Republican Sen. Lindsey Graham of South Carolina and Democrats Sheldon White-house of Rhode Island and Richard Blumenthal of Connecticut.

A Graham spokesman says the senator’s still working on the bill, and it’s unclear when it will be introduced.

Graham has sternly warned Trump not to fire Mueller or Attorney General Jeff Sessions. He said Thursday there would be “holy hell” to pay if Trump fired Sessions.

Argentina sentences 4 former judges for crimesBUENOS :AIRES: Four former federal judges in Argentina were sentenced to life in prison for crimes against humanity committed during the coun-try’s last dictatorship in a ruling human rights groups are calling historic for pun-ishing the regime’s civilian accomplices.

The court in Mendoza province ruled that ex-judges Rolando Carrizo, Guillermo Petra Recabarren, Luis Miret and Otilio Romano partici-pated in kidnappings, torture and murders. The men were tried for their failure to inves-tigate petitions of habeas corpus filed by relatives of dissidents who disappeared during the 1976-1983 dictatorship.

During the trial, which began in 2014, prosecutors asked to change the charges against the four from being accomplices to primary par-ticipants in crimes, arguing their inaction on the petitions preceded the disappearance of more than 20 dissidents.

“Historic: members of the judicial body of state terror-ism sentenced to life,” read a tweet from the group Sons And Daughters For Identity And Justice Against Forget-fulness And Silence.

Mothers and relatives of children born with microcephaly protest against the government, demanding more support, in Recife, Brazil, yesterday.

Seeking supportClashes kill 3 in Venezuela strikeCaracas/Barinas Reuters

Clashes between Venezue-lan security forces and demonstrators have

killed three people during the latest opposition-led strike to protest against an election on Sunday critics say will mark the end of democracy in the Opec nation.

Many streets remained bar-ricaded and deserted yesterday, as the nationwide work stop-page entered its second day.

Plenty of rural areas and working-class urban neighbor-hoods were bustling, however, and the strike appeared less massively supported than a one-day shutdown last week. With Venezuela already brim-ming with shuttered stores and factories, amid a blistering four-year recession, the effec-tiveness of any strike can be hard to gauge.

Both of the latest stoppages were held to heap pressure on unpopular President Nicolas Maduro to scrap his plan for Sunday’s vote for a Constituent Assembly, which will have power to rewrite the constitu-tion and shut down the existing opposition-led legislature.

At least 106 people have died in anti-government unrest convulsing the South American

country since April, when the opposition launched protests demanding free and fair elec-tions to end nearly two decades of socialist rule.

“People are working out of necessity,” said coffee seller Jose Vazquez, 46, in Caracas though he had fewer custom-ers than usual and there was little traffic on the streets around him.

In Barinas, home state of former Venezuelan leader Hugo Chavez, only about a third of businesses were closed accord-ing to a witness, as opposed to the opposition’s formal estimate of 92 percent participation nationally.

“I am opposed to the gov-ernment and I agree we must do everything we can to get out of this mess, but I depend on my work. If I don’t work, my family does not eat,” said Ramon Alvarez, a 45-year-old barber at his shop in Barinas.

Adversaries say the ruling Socialist Party wants to consol-idate dictatorship with with Sunday’s vote. There has been widespread international con-demnation of the ballot, and the United States on Wednesday announced sanctions against 13 current and former officials for corruption, undermining democracy, and participating in repression.

Hillary’s ‘What Happened’ to hit shelves in SeptNew York AFP

Defeated Democratic White House hopeful Hillary Clinton (pictured) prom-

ises to let her guard down and explain what happened in her shock electoral defeat to Don-ald Trump, including the mistakes she made, in a book to published in September.

Publishers Simon and Schus-ter revealed that the previously

unnamed tome would be enti-tled “What Happened” and would be the former secretary of state’s “most personal mem-oir yet.”

“In the past, for reasons I try to explain, I’ve often felt I had to be careful in public, like I was up on a wire without a net. Now I’m letting my guard down,” writes Clinton in the introduction.

Her publishers said the book would reveal what Clinton

thought and felt during the bruising 2016 campaign that saw her make history as the first US woman to win the presidential nomination from a major party.

It will describe “what it was like” to run against Trump, “the mistakes she made, how she has coped with a shocking and dev-astating loss, and how she found the strength to pick herself back up,” they said in an announce-ment ahead of the September 12 release date.

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15FRIDAY 28 JULY 2017 BREAK TIME

Yesterday’s answer

SHOWING ATVILLAGGIO & CITY CENTER

HAGA

R TH

E HO

RRIB

LE

ALL IN THE MIND

AIRPLANE, AUTOMOBILE, BICYCLE, BOAT, BUS, CABLECAR, CIRCUIT, COACH, CONVEYANCE, CRUISE, DRIVE, EXCURSION,FERRY, FLIGHT, HELICOPTER, HOVERCRAFT, JAUNT, JOURNEY, JUNKET, LINER, LOCOMOTIVE, MOTORBIKE, MOVEMENT, NAVIGATE, RIDE, ROWING, RUNNING, SAIL, SHIP, SKATEBOARD,SLED, SWIM, TAXI, TOUR, TRAIN, TRAM, TRANSIT, TRANSPORT, TRAVEL, TREK, TRIP, TRUCK, VOYAGE, WALK.

08:00 News

08:30 AJ Selects

09:00 Al Jazeera World

10:30 Inside Story

11:00 News

11:30 The Stream

12:00 News

12:30 101 East

13:00 NEWSHOUR

14:00 News

14:30 Inside Story

15:00 Prison Lives: Inside

And Out

16:00 NEWSHOUR

17:00 News

17:30 The Stream

18:00 Newsgrid

19:00 News

19:30 Soapbox Mexico

20:00 News

20:30 Inside Story

21:00 NEWSHOUR

22:00 News

22:30 UpFront

23:00 Iraq: A Deadly

Deception

10:10 The Wheel: Survival

Games

10:55 Castro: The World's

Most Watched Man

11:40 Mega Trains

12:25 How Do They Do

It?

13:32 Sacred Steel Bikes

15:02 Shark-Croc

Showdown

15:47 Return To The Isle

Of Jaws

16:35 Sharks And The

City: Los Angeles

18:20 The Shark Vortex

19:15 Alien Sharks:

Stranger Fins

21:00 Fast N' Loud

21:50 Sacred Steel

Bikes

22:40 The Lost Cage

23:30 Great Hammerhead

Invasion

00:20 Castro: The World's

Most Watched Man

01:05 Fast N' Loud

09:10 Wildest Islands

Of Indonesia

11:00 Life At Vet

University

11:55 Animal Cops

Philadelphia

12:50 Wildest Europe

13:45 Untamed China

With Nigel

Marven

14:40 Wildest Islands

Of Indonesia

15:35 Tanked

16:30 Untamed China

With Nigel

Marven

20:10 Life At Vet

University

21:05 Life On Earth: A

New Prehistory

22:00 Wildest Africa

22:55 Wildest Islands

Of Indonesia

23:50 Untamed China

With Nigel

Marven

13:05 Star Darlings

13:10 Good Luck

Charlie

15:20 Miraculous Tales

Of Ladybug...

15:45 Elena Of Avalor

16:10 Liv And Maddie

16:35 Frenemies

18:10 Welcome To The

Ronks

18:25 Alex & Co.

18:50 Best Friends

Whenever

19:15 Star Wars Forces

Of Destiny

20:10 Jessie

20:35 Cracke

20:40 Alex & Co.

21:05 Austin & Ally

21:30 Stuck In The

Middle

21:55 Star Wars Forces

Of Destiny

22:00 Bunk'd

22:25 Miraculous Tales

Of Ladybug...

Conceptis Sudoku: Conceptis Sudoku is a number-

placing puzzle based on a 9×9 grid. The object is to

place the numbers 1 to 9 in the empty squares so

that each row, each column and each 3×3 box

contains the same number only once.

CROSSWORD

CONCEPTIS SUDOKU

Yesterday's answer

MALL

LANDMARK

ROYAL PLAZA

ASIAN TOWN

NOVO — Pearl

ROXY

Atomic Blonde (2D/Thriller) 10:00am, 12:20, 2:40, 5:00, 7:20, 9:40pm & 12:00midnight Baby Driver (2D/Action) 11:00am, 1:30, 4:00, 6:30, 9:00 & 11:30pm Boyka: Undisputed (2D/Action) 10:00am, 12:00noon, 2:00, 4:00, 6:00, 8:00, 10:00pm & 12:00midnight Baywatch (2D/Comedy) 11:30am, 2:00, 4:30, 7:00, 9:30pm & 12:00midnightWar For The Planet of The Apes (2D/Action) 11:30am, 2:30, 5:30, 8:30 & 11:30pm Huroob Ezterari (2D/Arabic) 10:30am, 2:50, 7:10 & 11:30pm Jawab Leteqal (2D/Arabic) 12:40, 5:00 & 9:20pmCars 3 (2D/Animation) 10:00am, 12:10, 2:20 & 4:30pm Spider Man: Home Coming (2D/Action) 6:40, 9:20pm & 12:00midnight Dunkirk (2D/Action) 10:00am, 12:10, 2:20, 4:30, 6:40, 8:50 & 11:00pm Dunkirk (2D IMAX/Action) 11:00am, 1:10, 3:20, 5:30, 7:40, 9:50pm & 12:00midnight Dunkirk (2D/Action) 12:00noon, 4:15 & 8:30pm Boyka: Undisputed (2D/Action) 2:15, 6:30 & 11:00pm

Sunday Holiday(2D/Malayalam) 2:30 & 9:15pm Munna Michael (2D/Hindi) 2:00 & 4:00pm Cars 3 (Animation) 2:00pm Baby Driver (2D/Action) 4:30pm Mubarakan (2D/Hindi) 5:00 & 6:30pm Dunkirk (2D/Action) 7:30 & 10:00pm Atomic Blonde (2D/Thriller) 6:30 & 11:45pm Boyka: Undisputed (2D/Action) 8:30pm Huroob Ezterari (2D/Arabic) 11:30pm Jawab Ieteqal (2D/Arabic) 9:30pm Nibunan (2D/Tamil) 11:30pm

Mubarakan (2D/Hindi) 2:15 & 5:00pm Cars 3 (Animation) 2:30pm Fidaa (2D/Telugu) 2:30pmSunday Holiday(2D/Malayalam) 4:30 & 11:00pm Huroob Ezterari (2D/Arabic) 5:00pm Nibunan (2D/Tamil) 7:00 & 11:15pm Dunkirk (2D/Action) 7:15 & 9:15pm Atomic Blonde (2D/Thriller) 7:45 & 11:30pm Boyka: Undisputed (2D/Action) 9:45pm Jawab Ieteqal (2D/Arabic) 9:30pm

Sunday Holiday(2D/Malayalam) 2:00 & 9:00pm Munna Michael (2D/Hindi) 2:30 & 6:30pm Cars 3 (2D/Animation) 2:30pm Fidaa (2D/Telugu) 4:30pm Huroob Ezterari (2D/Arabic) 4:30pm Mubarakan (2D/Hindi) 5:00pm Atomic Blonde (2D/Thriller) 7:00 & 11:30pm Jawab Ieteqal (2D/Arabic) 7:45pm Dunkirk (2D/Action) 9:00 & 11:30pm Boyka: Undisputed (2D/Action) 9:45pm Nibunan (2D/Tamil) 11:00pm

Sunday Holiday (Malayalam) 12:30, 1:00, 3:00, 3:45, 5:45, 8:30, 9:15, 11:15,

11:30pm, 12:00midnight, 01:45 & 02:30am Fidaa (2D/Telugu) 12:30, 3:15 & 6:00pm

Nibunan (2D/Tamil) 1:00, 9:15pm & 02:30am Goutham Ganda (2D/Telugu) 3:45pm Mubarakan (2D/Hindi) 6:30pm Munna Michael (2D/Hindi) 6:30pm Thondi Muthal (2D/Malayalam) 8:45pm

Vikram Vedha (2D/Tamil) 12:00midnight

Cars 3 (Animation) 3:00pm Huroob Ezterari 10:00 & 12:20Atomic Blonde (Thriller) 12:00noon, 2:30, 5:00, 7:30, 10:00pm & 12:00midnight

Baby Driver (2D/Thriller) 12:00noon, 2:30, 5:00 & 7:30pm Goutham Ganda (2D/Telugu) 12:00noon & 5:00pm Baywatch (2D/Comedy) 9:00 & 11:30pm Boyka (Action) 8:00, 10:00pm & 12:00midnight Sunday Holiday (Malayalam) 10:00am, 12:00noon, 3:00 & 6:00pm

AL KHORDunkirk (2D/Action) 10:45am, 4:00 & 9:15pm Mubarakan (2D/Hindi) 2:45 & 8:15pmAtomic Blonde (Thriller) 12:15, 5:45 & 11:15pm Fidaa (2D/Telugu) 12:45pm

Sunday Holiday (Malayalam) 1:00, 6:15 & 11:30pm

Yesterday's answer

Actors perform on the stage of the National Centre for the Performing Arts during “Jinsha River” opera’s final dress rehearsal in Beijing, yesterday. “Jinsha River”, the opera adapted from a novel of the same name telling the story of the Red Army on the long march in Tibetan area in 1935, will have its premiere as the country marks the 90th anniversary of the founding of Chinese People’s Liberation Army (PLA).

“Jinsha River” opera’s final rehearsal

FRIDAY 28 JULY 201720 MORNING BREAK

KidzMondo opens ‘Monster’s Ice’ in QatarThe Peninsula

KidzMondo Doha, Qatar’s one-of-a-kind miniature edutainment city, has recently wit-

nessed the opening of the first ‘Monster’s Ice’ ice cream shop in Qatar, in a step that further establishes the indoor theme park as the ultimate entertain-ment and education destination for children in the country. On this occasion, Monsters Ice also announced and introduced their brand’s ambassador, the seven years old Alreem Khalid Al Kuwari.

The signing and ribbon cutting ceremony took place on Wednesday, at the kid-sized city’s ‘Dancing k’ theatre, in the presence of represent-atives from KidzMondo Doha and Monster’s Ice as well as a number of special guests.

Commenting on the occa-sion, Dr Eman Baker Abu El Hawa, General Manager of KidzMondo Doha, said: “The ultimate aim of KidzMondo Doha is to create memorable experiences for its young vis-itors that last a lifetime, all while contributing to their holistic development into adulthood. The addition of ‘Monster’s Ice’ to our indoor

theme park further enriches children’s experience at the kid-sized city and lets them enjoy a much needed break at the ice cream shop as part of their thrilling adventure at our edutainment city. We are excited to be shaking hands with our great partners at Monster’s Ice and to be host-ing their very first outlet in Qatar at KidzMondo Doha. By doing so, KidzMondo Doha is not only remaining at the forefront of children’s pur-poseful entertainment in Qatar, but also serving as a distinguished and effective platform for local companies and startups to introduce their brands to the country’s younger generations and establish their presence in the local community and beyond.”

On his part, Saed Mohamed Al Bordaini, General Manager of Monster’s Ice, said: “Today we are happy to announce our partnership with KidzMondo Doha, where we provide the best in educating the city’s young visitors on how we pre-pare our signature ice creams from scratch, and how we ensure our desserts are healthy by using a variety of fruits and nutritious toppings. As a ‘100% made in Qatar’ local company, our outlet in KidzMondo Doha

is our Launchpad for growing our name in the country as well as around the world, as our proud brand goes global, following the footsteps of other r e n o w n e d Q a t a r i companies.”

In addition to a myriad of educative and entertaining establishments that let chil-dren go on an immersive journey of exploration mim-icked after real-world experiences, KidzMondo Doha

features a number of F&B out-lets that offer its ‘Kidizens’ a wide range of nutritious dishes and delicious desserts, augmenting their physical and mental voyage of exploration and role-play at the miniature edutainment city.

KidzMondo Doha wel-comed young visitors in Qatar for the first time in December 2016 during its ‘soft-opening’ phase at the recently-opened Mall of Qatar. The indoor

theme park is designed as an exact replica of the real world, complete with its own cur-rency, constitution, economy, and functioning infrastruc-ture. At the heart of the kid-sized city lie more than 60 unique establishments that have been developed with real-world high profile firms and organizations, ensuring a realistic, fully immersive experience that stimulates all of our young visitors’ senses.

Officials at the opening of ‘Monster’s Ice’ ice cream shop.

Oman unveils eVisa service to attract tourists The Peninsula

Aiming to greatly boost the Sultanate of Oman’s tourism sector

in the coming years launched a new eVisa service.

Tourists planning to visit Oman can apply online for visas by submitting their applications at www.evisa.rop.gov.om.

The first stage comprises non-sponsored tourist visas for people from 67 countries as well as GCC residents e m p l o y e d i n 1 1 6 professions.

Through the eVisa system, visitors can get their visa applications processed in accordance with the laws and regulations of Oman.

Tourists will only need to fill up the form online and attach the necessary docu-ments as well as pay the application by credit card through a Global Payment Gateway that is officially cer-tified by Oman. All applicants will receive notifications through the emails provided.

“ T h e S u l t a n a t e ’ s announcement of the eVisa system will ensure the con-tinuous growth of Oman’s tourism sector in the coming years as this provides not only tourists but also investors, businessmen, researchers and students easier access to visa processing,” said Salim Adi Al Mamari, Director General of Tourism Promotion at the Ministry of Tourism, Oman.

“Last year, the number of tourist arrivals reached three million and it is expected to increase to more than 4 mil-lion by 2020,” said Al Mamari.

The eVisa system will also allow Oman to receive more tourists from key markets such as China, Russia and the US and drive the demand for experiential travel to the Sultanate.

Secret Service gets active at balloon festival New Jersey AP

For 35 years, organisers of New Jersey’s biggest hot-air balloon festival

have made preparations by lining up musical acts and getting ready to fill the skies over rolling hills and horse farms. This year, they had to deal with the Secret Service.

The annual New Jersey Festival of Ballooning starts today near President Donald Trump’s Bedminster golf course and residence, where he has been spending some of his summer weekends.

Organisers began to plan for the possibility of flight

restrictions and other secu-rity concerns late last year.

“Anytime you do an out-door festival you have to have the theory for ‘hope for the best but prepare for the worst,’” said Howard Free-man, executive producer of the event. “Preparing for a potential temporary flight restriction by the POTUS has enabled us to learn a lot more about preparation for that.”

Freeman said organisers have met with the Secret Service three times and they’ve been told they’ll be able to fly the balloons, even if the president was at his course about seven miles away. There is a temporary flight restriction set up for the

area around the golf course from August 3 to 20, but there is no sign that Trump is head-ing to Bedminster this weekend, allowing organis-ers to breathe a sigh of relief.

If Trump were in town, the balloon pilots and riders would go through security screening run by the Trans-p o r t a t i o n S e c u r i t y Administration and Secret Service, Freeman said. Some of the balloons also would carry transponders so that they could be tracked to make sure they’re not posing a threat.

While pilots have landed their balloons on the golf course in years past, Freeman said it will be considered

off-limits this year, whether Trump is there or not.

Mark McKevitt, the spe-cial agent in charge of the Secret Service’s Newark field office, said communication is the key to working with events like the balloon festival.

“We don’t want to shut it down if we can avoid it,” he said. “As long as we commu-nicate with them and work out what they want to do, as long as it’s a safe platform for everyone involved.”

The flight restrictions for Trump’s visits have led to complaints for those who own and operate a group of small airports around the club.

FAJRSHOROOK

03.34 am

04.59 am

ZUHRASR

11.40 am

03.07 pm

MAGHRIBISHA

06.24 pm

07.54 pm

PRAYER TIMINGS

HIGH TIDE 08:30 – 20:30 LOW TIDE 03:15 – 13:30

Hazy to misty at places at first be-

comes hot daytime and humid by

night.

WEATHER TODAY

Minimum Maximum

Courtesy: Qatar Meteorology Department

32oC 42oC