Applications Ministers attend QU's 'Tajrebaty' Initiative ......Bouncy castles and majlis are among...

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Al Attiyah leads star cast for Kazakhstan challenge QInvest reports QR15m net profit for first quarter BUSINESS | 11 SPORT | 17 Volume 22 | Number 7159 | 2 Riyals Friday 12 May 2017 | 16 Sha'baan 1438 www.thepeninsulaqatar.com MEDINA CENTRALE MEDI INA NA C CEN ENTR TRALE Special Lease Offer 4409 5155 3 rd Best News Website in the Middle East Affordable food items at 'Meerat Ramadan' Raynald C Rivera The Peninsula F ood supplies and other requirements in preparation for the Holy Month of Ramadan are being sold at cheaper prices at ‘Meerat Ram- adan’, which launched yesterday in the southern area of the Cultural Village Foundation-Katara. Open until June 29, the market has around 35 local shops which offer a wide array food items that are in large demand during the Holy Month such as dates, sweets, dried fruit and nuts, vegetables, bread, milk and an assortment of dairy products as well as meat and other poultry products sold at lower prices. Tomatoes and eggplant are sold for QR5 per kg at the Al Alamya Farm’s shop while prices of a variety of nuts at Aljanoub's stall range from QR10 to QR30 per pack. The market is a one-stop shop with the presence of stalls that pro- vide oud, clothing, accessories, and other gift items to help families com- plete their shopping at a single venue. The market offers equal chance to local companies such as Widam and a number of big retail outlets as well as local entrepre- neurs to reach out to the public at one of the most visited spots in the country. Bouncy castles and majlis are among the additional features of the market which is open from 4pm to 10pm. “Meerat Ramadan is a great opportunity for eve- ryone to buy their necessities in preparation for the Holy month of Ramadan. It is a one-stop place where visitors are welcome to enjoy a distinc- tive ambience that combines the experience of shopping with spirituality,” said Katara General Man- ager Dr Khalid bin Ibrahim Al Sulaiti at the inaugura- tion yesterday. Dr Al Sulaiti pointed out that the Cultural Village has become an ideal desti- nation for families as it offers facilities most appro- priate to host such events and festivals, with an aim to provide a unique ambi- ence for Katara’s visitors, while purchasing their necessities. With the aim of reach- ing out to citizens and residents by offering oppor- tunities for cultural, spiritual and family-themed activities, Katara has been hosting similar food mar- kets, exhibitions and festivals through the year. Applications for US Green Card to surge Sachin Kumar The Peninsula D elay in the pro- posed 170 percent sharp hike in investment required for Green Card, under EB-5 visa, has brought smiles to the faces of investors in Qatar looking for permanent residence in the US. The proposed hike in investment was expected in the first quarter of this year but the increase has now been post- poned until September 30. The extension of this pro- gramme has given a window of opportunity to investors in Qatar seeking to apply for a green card. Immigration consultants believe that the extension of the programme will see surge of applications for Green Cards in coming months. They expect around $50-60m of investment from Qatar during January to September 30 this year. The Department of Home- land Security, US, in January, had proposed increasing the minimum investment amount required for the EB-5 pro- gramme to $1.35m from $500,000 currently in a ‘tar- geted employment area’. “US President Donald Trump, on May 5, had signed an omnibus spending bill which among other measures extends the EB-5 Regional Center Immi- grant Investor Program, better known as EB-5, through Septem- ber 30, 2017. Now the investors in Qatar have an opportunity to take benefit of this extension,” Jorawar Singh, a leading EB-5 expert and Managing Director of Stratix Consultants told The Peninsula. Extension of EB-5 pro- gramme is big relief for investors. “Green card seekers in Qatar are now very happy with the exten- sion of this programme. There were many investors in Qatar who were trying hard to mobi- lise funds for green card. They were constrained by shortage of liquidity due to slowdown in their businesses. Some wanted to sell their real estate assets but were unable to find buyers due to the sluggish market in Qatar,” said Sanjay Singh, Assistant Branch Manager at Stratix Con- sultants. Investment required for Green Card is likely to happen after September end, say experts. “While the price of just about everything else in the US has gone up since 1990, the mini- mum capital contribution for EB-5 has not increased — an increase is imminent,” said Jen- nifer Sherer, Vice President of FirstPathway Partners, a leading EB-5 firm. Minister of Culture and Sports H E Salah bin Ghanem Al Ali (leſt), Minister of Energy and Industry H E Dr Mohammed bin Saleh Al Sada (centre), and QU President Dr Hassan Al Derham at the first session of 'Tajrebaty' Initiative, hosted by Qatar University, yesterday. → See also page 2 Ministers attend QU's 'Tajrebaty' Initiative Hospital offers customised insole for foot problems Fazeena Saleem The Peninsula A l Ahli Hospital yesterday introduced a state of the art biomechanical assess- ment tool which detects anomalies and provides cus- tomised special orthotics for foot problems. The service is now availa- ble at Al Ahli Hospital’s Foot Care Clinic. “Al Ahli is the first private hospital in Qatar to introduce orthotics, a personal and spe- cific foot care method which will have a major impact on a per- son’s health,” said Jamal Hammad, Al Ahli Hospital's Deputy Chief Executive Officer. “Not many people know that heel, knee and back pain can be caused by standing in the wrong posture of the feet. Through this technology, we can get the impression of the feet, find the anomalies and correct it by a orthotics,” he added. Foot orthotics comprises a custom-made insert or footbed or insole fitted into a shoe. Orthotics provide support for the foot by redistributing ground reaction forces as well as rea- ligning foot joints while standing, walking or running. Podiatrists use orthotics to treat foot problems such as plantar fasciitis, bursitis, tend- initis, diabetic foot ulcers, and foot, ankle and heel pain. At Al Ahli Hospital, custom orthotics are manufactured after a podiatrist has conducted a complete evaluation of the feet, ankles, and legs, so the orthotic can accommodate a person’s unique foot structure and pathology. Nabil Matta, Manag- ing Director, Medi Comfort said, “Orthotics helps relieve the pain and stress on the foot and it can be for anyone including a child of four years or an athlete.” The custom orthotics are divided into two categories as functional orthotics accommo- dative orthotics. Functional orthotics are designed to con- trol abnormal motion. They may be used to treat foot pain caused by abnormal motion, treat injuries such as shin splints or tendinitis. Func- tional orthotics are usually crafted of a semi-rigid material such as plastic or graphite. The technology has been introduced at the Al Ahli Hospi- tal in collaboration with Medi Comfort of Iriss Trading. QNA A n 18-year-old Indian, Shorook, invented the world's smallest satel- lite as part of a contest 'Cubes in Space' which was organ- ised by US space agency NASA in collaboration with Idoodle- learning Inc, a global education company. The satellite weighs only 64 grammes. Claimed to be the world's smallest satellite and a first to be manufactured via 3D printing, 'Kalam Sat' will be launched on an SR-4 rocket on June 21 from Virginia, USA. 11 illegal vendors nabbed in Msheireb The Peninsula T he Ministry of Economy and Commerce in coop- eration with the Ministry of Municipality and Environment and Ministry of Interior, in a sur- prise inspection in Msheireb area, caught 11 street vendors selling products without licence. The offenders have been transferred to authorities for legal action. The joint inspection raid was aimed to ensure com- pliance of suppliers and vendors with the provision of Law No 5/2015 regulating activities of commercial shops, industrial places and others similar, and vendors. In addition to their compliance with the Ministe- rial decision 243/2016 on terms and references regulating issuance of vendor’s licensing. The inspection campaigns come within the frame- work of the Ministry’s efforts to monitor markets and commercial activities in a bid to crack down on ven- dors' illegal activities and to protect consumer rights. The Ministry has urged consumers to report viola- tions to the Consumer Protection and Anti-Commercial Fraud Department. It also stressed that it would not tolerate any vio- lations of the provision of the law and would intensify its inspection campaigns to crackdown on violations. Dr Khalid bin Ibrahim Al Sulaiti, General Manager of Katara (second right), and other officials at Meerat Ramadan, in Katara yesterday. Pic: Abdul Basit/ The Peninsula The extension of the EB-5 visa programme has given a window of opportunity to people in Qatar seeking to apply for a Green Card. Civil servants' pay cut in Gaza hurts families Gaza City Anatolia T he Ramallah-based Pal- estinian government has failed to pay the full salaries of its employees in the Hamas-run Gaza Strip for the second consecutive month. After receiving their April paycheques on Wednesday, government employees in Gaza were dismayed to find that at least 30 percent of their salaries had been cut. It was not the first time. Gaza-based civil servants also suffered pay cuts last month, with at least 30 per- cent of their March salaries being held back by the government. Ola Abdel-Aal, a 36-year- old housewife in Gaza City, lamented that her husband’s salary — after the pay cut — was no longer sufficient to meet their family’s needs. Indian invents smallest satellite t

Transcript of Applications Ministers attend QU's 'Tajrebaty' Initiative ......Bouncy castles and majlis are among...

Page 1: Applications Ministers attend QU's 'Tajrebaty' Initiative ......Bouncy castles and majlis are among the additional features of the market which is open from 4pm to 10pm. “Meerat

Al Attiyah leads star cast for Kazakhstan challenge

QInvest reports QR15m net profit

for first quarter

BUSINESS | 11 SPORT | 17

Volume 22 | Number 7159 | 2 RiyalsFriday 12 May 2017 | 16 Sha'baan 1438 www.thepeninsulaqatar.com

MEDINA CENTRALEMEDIINANA C CENENTRTRALESpecial Lease Offer

4409 5155

3rd Best News Website in the Middle East

Affordable food items at 'Meerat Ramadan'Raynald C Rivera The Peninsula

Food supplies and other requirements in preparation for the

Holy Month of Ramadan are being sold at cheaper prices at ‘Meerat Ram-adan’, which launched yesterday in the southern area of the Cultural Village Foundation-Katara.

Open until June 29, the market has around 35 local shops which offer a wide array food items that are in large demand during the Holy Month such as dates, sweets, dried fruit and nuts, vegetables, bread, milk and an assortment of dairy products as well as meat and other poultry products sold at lower prices.

Tomatoes and eggplant are sold for QR5 per kg at the Al Alamya Farm’s shop while prices of a variety of nuts at Aljanoub's stall

range from QR10 to QR30 per pack. The market is a one-stop shop with the presence of stalls that pro-vide oud, clothing, accessories, and other gift items to help families com-plete their shopping at a single venue.

The market offers equal chance to local companies such as Widam and a number of big retail outlets as well as local entrepre-neurs to reach out to the public at one of the most visited spots in the country. Bouncy castles and majlis

are among the additional features of the market which is open from 4pm to 10pm.

“Meerat Ramadan is a great opportunity for eve-ryone to buy their necessities in preparation for the Holy month of

Ramadan. It is a one-stop place where visitors are welcome to enjoy a distinc-tive ambience that combines the experience of shopping with spirituality,” said Katara General Man-ager Dr Khalid bin Ibrahim Al Sulaiti at the inaugura-tion yesterday.

Dr Al Sulaiti pointed out that the Cultural Village has become an ideal desti-nation for families as it offers facilities most appro-priate to host such events and festivals, with an aim to provide a unique ambi-ence for Katara’s visitors, while purchasing their necessities.

With the aim of reach-ing out to citizens and residents by offering oppor-tunities for cultural, spiritual and family-themed activities, Katara has been hosting similar food mar-kets, exhibitions and festivals through the year.

Applications for US Green Card to surge

Sachin Kumar The Peninsula

Delay in the pro-posed 170 percent sharp hike in i n v e s t m e n t required for Green

Card, under EB-5 visa, has brought smiles to the faces of investors in Qatar looking for permanent residence in the US.

The proposed hike in investment was expected in the first quarter of this year but the increase has now been post-poned until September 30.

The extension of this pro-gramme has given a window of opportunity to investors in Qatar seeking to apply for a green card. Immigration consultants believe that the extension of the programme will see surge of applications for Green Cards in coming months. They expect around $50-60m of investment from Qatar during January to September 30 this year.

The Department of Home-land Security, US, in January, had proposed increasing the minimum investment amount

required for the EB-5 pro-gramme to $1.35m from $500,000 currently in a ‘tar-geted employment area’.

“US President Donald Trump, on May 5, had signed an omnibus spending bill which among other measures extends the EB-5 Regional Center Immi-grant Investor Program, better known as EB-5, through Septem-ber 30, 2017. Now the investors in Qatar have an opportunity to take benefit of this extension,” Jorawar Singh, a leading EB-5 expert and Managing Director of Stratix Consultants told The Peninsula.

Extension of EB-5 pro-gramme is big relief for investors. “Green card seekers in Qatar are now very happy with the exten-sion of this programme. There were many investors in Qatar who were trying hard to mobi-lise funds for green card. They were constrained by shortage of liquidity due to slowdown in their businesses. Some wanted to sell their real estate assets but were unable to find buyers due to the sluggish market in Qatar,” said Sanjay Singh, Assistant Branch Manager at Stratix Con-sultants. Investment required for Green Card is likely to happen after September end, say experts. “While the price of just about everything else in the US has gone up since 1990, the mini-mum capital contribution for EB-5 has not increased — an increase is imminent,” said Jen-nifer Sherer, Vice President of FirstPathway Partners, a leading EB-5 firm.

Minister of Culture and Sports H E Salah bin Ghanem Al Ali (left), Minister of Energy and Industry H E Dr Mohammed bin Saleh Al Sada (centre), and QU President Dr Hassan Al Derham at the first session of 'Tajrebaty' Initiative, hosted by Qatar University, yesterday.

→ See also page 2

Ministers attend QU's 'Tajrebaty' Initiative

Hospital offers customised insole for foot problemsFazeena Saleem The Peninsula

Al Ahli Hospital yesterday introduced a state of the art biomechanical assess-

ment tool which detects anomalies and provides cus-tomised special orthotics for foot problems.

The service is now availa-ble at Al Ahli Hospital’s Foot Care Clinic.

“Al Ahli is the first private hospital in Qatar to introduce orthotics, a personal and spe-cific foot care method which will have a major impact on a per-son’s health,” said Jamal Hammad, Al Ahli Hospital's Deputy Chief Executive Officer.

“Not many people know that heel, knee and back pain can be caused by standing in the wrong

posture of the feet. Through this technology, we can get the impression of the feet, find the anomalies and correct it by a orthotics,” he added.

Foot orthotics comprises a custom-made insert or footbed or insole fitted into a shoe. Orthotics provide support for the foot by redistributing ground reaction forces as well as rea-ligning foot joints while standing, walking or running.

Podiatrists use orthotics to treat foot problems such as plantar fasciitis, bursitis, tend-initis, diabetic foot ulcers, and foot, ankle and heel pain.

At Al Ahli Hospital, custom orthotics are manufactured after a podiatrist has conducted a complete evaluation of the feet, ankles, and legs, so the orthotic can accommodate a person’s

unique foot structure and pathology. Nabil Matta, Manag-ing Director, Medi Comfort said, “Orthotics helps relieve the pain and stress on the foot and it can be for anyone including a child of four years or an athlete.”

The custom orthotics are divided into two categories as functional orthotics accommo-dative orthotics. Functional orthotics are designed to con-trol abnormal motion.

They may be used to treat foot pain caused by abnormal motion, treat injuries such as shin splints or tendinitis. Func-tional orthotics are usually crafted of a semi-rigid material such as plastic or graphite.

The technology has been introduced at the Al Ahli Hospi-tal in collaboration with Medi Comfort of Iriss Trading.

QNA

An 18-year-old Indian, Shorook, invented the world's smallest satel-

lite as part of a contest 'Cubes in Space' which was organ-ised by US space agency NASA in collaboration with Idoodle-learning Inc, a global education company.

The satellite weighs only 64 grammes.

Claimed to be the world's smallest satellite and a first to be manufactured via 3D printing, 'Kalam Sat' will be launched on an SR-4 rocket on June 21 from Virginia, USA.

11 illegal vendors nabbed in MsheirebThe Peninsula

The Ministry of Economy and Commerce in coop-eration with the Ministry of Municipality and Environment and Ministry of Interior, in a sur-

prise inspection in Msheireb area, caught 11 street vendors selling products without licence.

The offenders have been transferred to authorities for legal action.

The joint inspection raid was aimed to ensure com-pliance of suppliers and vendors with the provision of Law No 5/2015 regulating activities of commercial shops, industrial places and others similar, and vendors.

In addition to their compliance with the Ministe-rial decision 243/2016 on terms and references regulating issuance of vendor’s licensing.

The inspection campaigns come within the frame-work of the Ministry’s efforts to monitor markets and commercial activities in a bid to crack down on ven-dors' illegal activities and to protect consumer rights.

The Ministry has urged consumers to report viola-tions to the Consumer Protection and Anti-Commercial Fraud Department.

It also stressed that it would not tolerate any vio-lations of the provision of the law and would intensify its inspection campaigns to crackdown on violations.

Dr Khalid bin Ibrahim Al Sulaiti, General Manager of Katara (second right), and other officials at Meerat Ramadan, in Katara yesterday.Pic: Abdul Basit/ The Peninsula

The extension of the EB-5 visa programme has given a window of opportunity to people in Qatar seeking to apply for a Green Card.

Civil servants' pay cut in Gaza hurts familiesGaza City

Anatolia

The Ramallah-based Pal-estinian government has failed to pay the full

salaries of its employees in the Hamas-run Gaza Strip for the second consecutive month.

After receiving their April paycheques on Wednesday, government employees in Gaza were dismayed to find that at least 30 percent of their salaries had been cut.

It was not the first time. Gaza-based civil servants also suffered pay cuts last month, with at least 30 per-cent of their March salaries being held back by the government.

Ola Abdel-Aal, a 36-year-old housewife in Gaza City, lamented that her husband’s salary — after the pay cut — was no longer sufficient to meet their family’s needs.

Indian invents smallest satellite

t

Page 2: Applications Ministers attend QU's 'Tajrebaty' Initiative ......Bouncy castles and majlis are among the additional features of the market which is open from 4pm to 10pm. “Meerat

02 FRIDAY 12 MAY 2017HOME

QU hosts first session of 'Tajrebaty' initiativeThe Peninsula

Minister of Culture and Sports H E Salah bin Ghanem Al Ali and Minister of Energy and

Industry H E Dr Mohammed bin Saleh Al Sada honoured the First Session of “Tajrebaty” initiative, which was yesterday hosted by Qatar University (QU) at Ibn Kha-ldoon Hall.

Organised in collaboration with the Ministry of Culture and Sports and Qatar Youth Hostels Association, the event aimed to promote the role of youth in the development and growth of the human civilisation through knowledge-sharing. It provided youth with a platform to exchange their ideas and expe-riences with the members of the community, which will enable them to realise their aspirations.

The Ministers were joined by QU President Dr Hassan Al

Derham, QU Director of Student Services and Activities Abdulla Al Yafei, “Tajrebaty” Initiative Founder Eng Ibrahim Al Sada, QU officials, faculty and staff, and students across QU colleges and Inclusion and Special Needs Support Center, as well as rep-resentatives of the local media.

The programme agenda

included welcome speeches by Eng Ibrahim Al Sada on “The Concept Begins Here” and by student Ahmed Al Hajery from QU College of Business and Eco-nomics on QU Special Needs Support Center. It also included discussions in which three guest speakers shared their personal experiences. IT Expert Dr Rashed bin Ali Al Kubaisi gave a talk on “Overcoming Challenges”, Health Culture Activist Sabah Al Bahlani shared her experience on “Educating and Rehabilitat-ing Children With Special Needs”, and Visual Artist Safiya Al Bahlani gave a talk entitled “Art Speaks”.

Also on the programme were the acknowledgement of guest speakers and the inauguration of “Arts Speaks” exhibition.

In his remarks, Eng Ibrahim Al Sada said: “The "Tajrebaty" Initiative has been launched by the youth who believed in its mission and objectives. I strongly believe that this initiative serves

as a platform for successful youth to share their ideas and inspire the society.”

Ahmed AlHajery said: “Dis-ability is a motivation to maintain equality between the members of the society. My disability did not prevent me from achieving my ambitions and improving my talent. Through its Inclusion and Special Needs Support Center, Qatar University plays a pivotal role in providing the academic support to students with special needs. In addition, QU

is working closely with local institutions to raise community awareness on the rights of indi-viduals with special needs and to promote inclusion.”

Dr Al Kubaisi said: “We face life challenges on a daily basis. However, successful people have a strong determination to solve these challenges. We have to work hard to achieve our life goals.”

Sabah Al Bahlani said: “I believe that early rehabilitation of children with special needs has a positive impact on their life.

Families are responsible of iden-tifying the special needs of their kids and should work hand-in-hand with experts to provide their children with the necessary assistance and to engage them in the society.”

Safiya Al Bahlani said: “Believing in yourself and in your abilities is the key of success. Challenges should not make our life harder; they are the source of inspiration that encourages us to create and to achieve our goals.”

Minister of Culture and Sports H E Salah bin Ghanem Al Ali and Minister of Energy and Industry H E Dr Mohammed bin Saleh Al Sada and other dignitaries at the First Session of “Tajrebaty” Initiative, which was hosted by Qatar University at Ibn Khaldoon Hall, yesterday.

Organised in collaboration with the Ministry of Culture and Sports and Qatar Youth Hostels Association, the event aimed to promote the role of youth in the development and growth of the human civilisation through knowledge-sharing.

Minister of State for Defence Affairs H E Dr Khalid bin Mohamed Al Attiyah paid a visit to the International Defence Industry Exhibition (IDEF), in Istanbul, Turkey. The Minister was briefed on the latest innovations in military and Defence technology showcased by the specialised companies.

Al Attiyah in Turkey Experts discuss rise of social media at Al Jazeera summitThe Peninsula

Held under the patronage of Sheikh Hamad bin Thamer Al Thani, Chair-

man of Al Jazeera Media Network, AJMN’s “Future of Media – Leaders’ Summit” con-cluded yesterday at the Ritz Carlton Hotel in Doha.

The Summit, the first of its kind in the region, prominent figures and leaders of the world’s top broadcasting and media organisations to discuss innovation and transformation strategies in the face of digital disruption.

The closing day began with a pair of presentations about the ways increased social media use has affected media organisations’ relationship with their content and audiences.

Keynote speaker Moham-med Nanabhai, Deputy CEO at Media Development Investment Fund, outlined how quickly the way news organisations and their audiences interact have changed.

He reminded attendees that as recently as 20 years ago, information moved in one direction, from media provid-ers to consumers. Since then, however, the flow has become increasingly back-and-forth.

“People on social media are now the first one to cover events such as protests, and that in turn drives media

coverage. That coverage then then drives people to take part in these events, which creates even more coverage on social media. It becomes a cycle,” Nanabhai said.

Al Jazeera Executive Direc-tor Dr Yaser Bisher addressed the changing relationship between media and audience in his presentation about Al Jazeera’s digital strategy. He outlined the major challenges Al Jazeera faces in a social media-driven world, including shortened attention spans, frag-mentation of audiences, and the sheer volume of content being created.

Bisher urged attendees to focus on user experience, using the Apple iPhone as an exam-ple. The iPhone experience doesn’t begin when one turns the phone on, he said. Instead, it begins from the very idea of being a part of what is per-ceived of as a separate group—iPhone owners—and that experience is reinforced by Apple’s stores and buying experience.

As media organisations become more connected to their audience, the opportuni-ties for hostile actors to take advantage of that connectivity increase as well, said Haroon Meer, founder of South African firm "Thinkst Applied Research". His presentation on cyber security and the

broadcast industry served as a wake-up call for a field he said has been until recently isolated from such threats.

The afternoon began with a presentation by Ken Morse, Media CIO at Cisco Systems, who spoke about the way newsrooms are evolving in the digital age. “Media distribution is absolutely going through a renaissance,” he said.

In closing the Summit, Dr. Mostefa Souag, Acting Director General of Al Jazeera Media Network, said, “This conference represents a unique opportu-nity for TV and digital media professionals in our region to discuss ideas related to the lat-est technologies relevant to their work, and to learn about the latest technological inno-vat ions in te levis ion broadcasting, digital media platforms, cloud storage, data security and content dissemi-nation. We hope that it has contributed to a clearer picture of the future of the media and the expected changes in the nature of our work, so that we can prepare to keep pace with this development and make maximum use of it.”

Along with Al Jazeera, spon-sors of the event include Cisco, Microsoft, Avid, CommVault, SAP, Smart Global, and Tech Mahindra, as well as the Min-istry of Transport and Communications.

Top Indian leaders in the Arab world honoured by Forbes Middle EastThe Peninsula

Forbes Middle East revealed the 5th edition of the Top Indian Leaders in the Arab

World at a gala ceremony hosted at The Westin Dubai Mina Seyahi Beach Resort & Marina Dubai on Wednesday. The annual event honours some of the most pio-neering and inspiring Indian business leaders in the Middle East.

Shri Vipul, Indian Consulate General of India to the UAE, graced the occasion as the guest of honour and presented the awards to the winner. The 2017 edition of the list included busi-ness leaders from various sectors like retail, industrials, healthcare,

banking and finance, both in top owners and top executive man-agement categories.

Diversified companies dom-inated the awards list, followed by retail and real estate while luminaries from 24 other sectors were also honoured at the event.

In recognition of his contri-bution to the retail sector in the region, M A Yusuff Ali was hon-oured for the fifth year running. Many other noted owners and founders were also honoured during the ceremony, including, Adeeb Ahamed, MD, Lulu Finan-cial Group & Twenty14 Holdings, Ravi Pillai, MD, RP Group of Companies, Dr Shamsheer Vay-alil, Founder & MD, VPS Healthcare, Dr Azad Moopen,

Chairman and MD, Aster DM Healthcare, Rizwan Sajan, Founder & Chairman, Danube Group, Shaji Ul Mulk, Chairman, Mulk Holdings and Adnan Chilwan, Group CEO, Dubai Islamic Bank, among others.

“It is a tremendous honour to receive this award and be rec-ognised among your peers in the region. This recognition is an impetus for me to continue set-ting new benchmarks in the region’s financial industry as well

as the hospitality sector,” said Adeeb Ahamed, MD, Lulu Finan-cial Group and Twenty14 Holdings.

“I would like to congratulate the fellow awardees who have been an integral part of the

success story of this region. I would also like to thank Forbes Middle East for this recognition, and my incredible team, who continue to propel our business to ever greater heights,” added Adeeb.

FROM LEFT: M A Yusuff Ali, Azad Moopen, Ravi Pillai, Adeeb Ahamed, Adnan Chilwan and Dr Shamsheer Vayalil.

Ashghal to close U-turn on Dukhan HighwayThe Peninsula

The Public Works Author-ity, ‘Ashghal’, will close an existing U-turn on Dukhan

Highway to enable the construc-tion of an underpass on the Dukhan Highway East project.

The minor road change, which is located near Wajba Interchange, has been designed

in coordination with the General Directorate of Traffic, said a statement.

The traffic change will com-mence tomorrow, and is expected to be in operation until February 2018.

Road users travelling west-bound on Dukhan Highway who need to return to Doha will need to continue straight to the Emiri

Guard Roundabout to perform a U-turn.

There will be no other changes implemented on Dukhan Highway as part of this diversion. Ashghal requests all road users to abide by the speed limit, which remains at 50 kph, and follow newly implemented traffic road signs to ensure their safety.

Page 3: Applications Ministers attend QU's 'Tajrebaty' Initiative ......Bouncy castles and majlis are among the additional features of the market which is open from 4pm to 10pm. “Meerat

03FRIDAY 12 MAY 2017 MIDDLE EAST / AFRICA

Supporters of Iran presidential candidate, Tehran Mayor Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf, pose for a selfie during a campaign rally in the Iranian capital Tehran, yesterday. Six candidates were selected last month by the conservative-controlled Guardian Council, which rejected more than 1,600 applicants. Election will take place on May 19.

Campaign rally in Tehran

US-backed forces hunt for Tabqa holdoutsTabqa

AFP

US-backed fighters hunted for jihadist holdouts in Syria's Tabqa yesterday after overrunning

the city and nearby dam in a step forward for their advance on Islamic State group strong-hold Raqa.

The Syrian Democratic Forces scored one of their big-gest victories against IS jihadists as controversy intensified over a US decision to arm the alli-ance's Kurdish component.

The SDF was conducting clearance operations after seiz-ing Tabqa and the nearby dam on Wednesday, said the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.

"The SDF were able to deploy onto the dam itself dur-ing the night," the Observatory's Rami Abdel Rahman said. "But civilians are still unable to enter some parts of Tabqa because of explosives" left by IS.

The US military command in the Middle East, Centcom, confirmed the "liberation" of Tabqa. "The SDF's increased pressure on ISIS from each flank allowed it to... clear the final neighbourhoods of the city and isolate Tabqa dam," said Centcom, referring to IS. The Arab-Kurdish alliance accepted IS's surrender to protect civil-ians and the dam, it said, adding "the coalition tracked fleeing fighters and targeted those that could be safely hit".

Situated on the Euphrates River about 55km upstream from Raqa, Tabqa is a key way-post in the operation to capture the jihadists' de facto Syrian capital. Operation Wrath of the Euphrates has seen the SDF capture large swathes of terri-tory north of Raqa and at their closest point its fighters are just 8km from the city.

It is now working to tighten the noose before a final assault.

The battle for Tabqa was marked by fears that fighting could damage the nearby dam — Syria's largest — with the potential for catastrophic flood-ing. Technicians fled the dam as fighting intensified in recent days. A repair team was on standby yesterday, awaiting permission from the SDF, which was still clearing mines, to enter and assess any damage to the structure.

SDF fighters distributing sweets to their comrades as they celebrated at the dam overlooking Lake Assad, a large reservoir created by the facil-ity in the 1970s.

Iraq fighters launch anti-IS push in western strongholdHabbaniyah

AFP

Iraqi forces have launched a broad operation to root out fighters from the Islamic

State group who have been har-assing security forces in remote border areas, officers said yesterday.

The army, backed by aircraft from the US-led coalition and local tribal fighters, launched their sweep at dawn in desert areas of Anbar province where the jihadists have hideouts, an army lieutenant colonel said.

"The security forces are advancing from an area called 'Kilometre 160', west of Ram-adi, towards Nukhaib," said the

officer stationed in Rutba, an outpost that is the last town on the road to Jordan.

Major General Mahmud Al Falahi, the head of Anbar Oper-ations Command, said the goal of the operation is to flush out IS fighters in the desert and secure Rutba.

About 30 members of the security forces have been killed in attacks and ambushes by the jihadists in the Rutba area over the past three weeks.

Anbar is a sprawling desert province traversed by the Euphrates River and borders Syria, Jordan and Saudi Arabia.

It has long been an insurgent stronghold, and IS already

controlled parts of it when it swept through Iraq in 2014 to take over around a third of the country.

Pro-government forces have since retaken most towns and cities in Anbar, but the jihadists still control areas near the Syr-ian border and have desert hideouts from which they har-ass federal forces.

Iraqi forces are also con-ducting a major operation further north in Anbar aimed at retaking the last towns along the Euphrates still controlled by IS near the Syrian border.

A major offensive launched in October to retake Mosul, Iraq's second-largest city, has also made steady gains.

Murderer of Hamas leader arrestedGaza City AFP

Hamas has arrested the suspected murderer of one of its key military

commanders in Gaza, the Pal-estinian Islamist movement's leader said yesterday, while maintaining Israel was behind the March assassination.

The killing of Mazen Faqha in the heart of Hamas-controlled Gaza shocked the militant movement and raised fears of a fresh conflict with Israel. "We announce that the killer and criminal that carried out the orders of the officers of the Zionist security services is in the hands of the (Hamas) secu-rity services," Ismail Haniya told journalists in Gaza City, referring to Israel. "He has confessed to the crime."

No details were provided on the suspect's identity, though Hamas has previously suggested Palestinian collab-orators had worked with Israel on the assassination.

"Punishment will be car-ried out against the murderer," Haniya added.

Faqha was shot dead on March 24 near his house in Gaza City.

A member of Iraq's Counter-Terrorism Service (CTS) stands guard as displaced Iraqis from western Mosul's Al Islah Al Zaraye neighbourhood flee their homes yesterday.

Israeli forces fire at supporters of striking prisonersRamallah

QNA

The Israeli occupation forces yesterday crushed two pro-tests in Ramallah and Nablus

is support of hunger striking pris-oners, Palestinian News Agency (WAFA) reported.

Soldiers opened live fire at Pal-estinians who demonstrated outside Beit El military headquar-ters, north of Ramallah, injuring at least four who were reported in light to moderate conditions, according to the Ministry of Health. It said the four were injured in the leg and were in stable condition in hospital.

The participants walked from the centre of Ramallah, where a rally was held at tent set up

in support of the prisoners, to the contact point outside Beit El mili-tary camp and settlement, where they clashed with soldiers who in addition to firing live bullets at the protesters, also fired tear gas can-isters and rubber-coated metal bullets.

The Palestinian ministry of Health said one person was hit in the eye by a rubber bullet and another hit by a tear gas canister, according to WAFA.

Further north of Ramallah, Pal-estinians participated in a prisoners’ solidarity march to Hawwara mil-itary checkpoint on the southern outskirts of the city of Nablus. The protesters, who carried Palestinian flags and pictures of prisoners, were pushed back by the soldiers when they arrived at the checkpoint.

The SDF was conducting clearance operations after seizing Tabqa and the nearby dam on Wednesday, said the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.

Palestinian protesters duck for cover during clashes with Israeli security forces following a protest in support of Palestinian prisoners on hunger strike in Israeli jails, near the Jewish settlement of Beit El, north of the West Bank city of Ramallah, yesterday.

Meningitis death toll tops 1,000 in NigeriaAbuja

AFP

More than 1,000 people have died in an out-break of meningitis in

Nigeria, the Centre for Disease Control said yesterday, but added that the spread of the disease is slowing.

The outbreak has mostly affected children in Africa's most populous country.

As of May 9, a total of 13,420 suspected cases had been reported in 23 states with 1,069 deaths, giving a fatality ratio of eight per cent, the CDC said in a statement.

The northern states of Zam-fara, Sokoto, Katsina and Kebbi, which were the worst affected,

have all seen a drop in the number of cases.

Two others which were also badly hit — Kebbi and Niger — recorded no deaths, the CDC said.

A new strain of meningitis C was first reported in Zamfara last November and spread to 22 other states in northern Nigeria. A mass vaccination programme was started to limit its spread.

The CDC said a new batch of vaccines was expected to arrive in the next few days.

Meningitis is caused by dif-ferent types of bacteria, six of which can cause epidemics. It is transmitted between people through coughs and sneezes, close contact and cramped liv-ing conditions.

UN confirms 58 cholera cases across Yemen

Nigeria talking to Boko Haram for more releases

DUBAI: The United Nations confirmed 58 cases of chol-era and 47 cholera-associated deaths across war-torn Yemen in the past two weeks, the sec-ond such outbreak in a year.

The UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitar-ian Affairs (OCHA) said laboratory testing had con-firmed the highly contagious infection in 10 governorates across Yemen, where less than half of the country's medical facilities are func-tional two years into a deadly war between government forces and Huthi insurgents.

Another 2,301 suspected cases were identified in gov-ernorates including Sanaa, home to the country's capi-tal, where more than 30 percent of the cases were diagnosed. Cases were also reported in governorates in the north, south and along the Red Sea coast, OCHA said.

Soaring rates of poverty and a blockade on the coun-try's Red Sea ports have left millions struggling to access food and clean water as the Saudi-supported government continues to fight Iran-backed Houthis for control of the country.

ABUJA: A Nigerian minister says the government is negoti-ating "seriously" for the release of the more than 110 kidnapped Chibok schoolgirls still held by Boko Haram extremists. Minister of Women's Affairs and Social Development Aisha Alhassan told reporters that "we will not relent until all are back."

She says Nigeria's govern-ment has no regrets about exchanging Boko Haram detainees for the 82 young women released over the weekend.

The young women are in government care in Abuja. Alhassan says they are under-going medical screening for a couple of weeks and that some have needed surgery.

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04 FRIDAY 12 MAY 2017ISLAM

The Holy Qur'an, in many verses, addresses man as an individual and makes it clear that everyone will be responsible for his own

deeds and will be blamed or credited for what he did. The codes of Shari'ah (Islamic Law) give the Muslim essen-tial character traits in order that he may obtain a general, correct notion of himself and everything around him, and a proper conduct and behavior.

The process of establishing an upright society begins with the indi-vidual. Once the individual attains the quality of righteousness, the fam-ily will undoubtedly follow suit, which eventually affects the society as a whole. Everyone is responsible for his role in this unifying effort. And each person must act in accordance to his position.

Shari'ah covers every aspect of life: moral, physical, psychiatric, economic, etc. - nothing is left out. It covers every detail concerning the existence of man, from the time when he is in his moth-er's womb until after his death.

The Muslim has several responsibil-ities and duties to fulfill in his life. These responsibilities are directed towards The Creator, one's own self, people in gen-eral, nature and other creatures.

1. RESPONSIBILITIES TOWARDS ALLAH, THE ALMIGHTY

Allah is the Creator of all that exists, the Sustainer of everything, the Giver of every favour, the Only True God, Wor-thy of worship and praise, the Unique. He has no equal or partner, Is Free from any fault, He begets not, nor was He begotten, He Has no beginning nor end-ing and He Is All-Powerful. His mercy is immense, and likewise His torment is extreme.

We, as His creatures, are obligated to worship and believe in Him based on the teachings of Islam; otherwise it (our belief or worship) will be not accepted and will be of no avail.

It's forbidden to try to imagine God (i.e. to give him a specific appearance), He is like no one, and nothing resem-bles Him. We know Him by contemplating in His signs and crea-tures, and by information revealed in the Qur'an and the Sunnah [sayings of Prophet Muhammad (PBUH))]. Our understanding of Allah is to be derived from no other sources beyond these two (i.e. The Qur'an and Sunnah).

Allah, the Almighty says in the Holy Qur'an, "Say: He is Allah, the One and Only! Allah, the eternal, Absolute! He begetteth not nor is He begotten, and there is none like unto Him." (Holy Qur'an, 112)

We believe in Him and whatever He commanded us to believe in: His Names and Attributes, His angels, His books revealed to prophets, His proph-ets and messengers, the Day of Resurrection and everything concern-ing it, and faith in Qada and Qadar (decree and predestination by Allah). This is the least that could be said con-cerning this issue.

2. RESPONSIBILITIES TOWARDS ONESELF

Man is created in his mother's womb without knowledge, not free to choose his own shape and attributes. He is born without knowledge about himself or the world that surrounds him, and (during first years of his life) is raised wholly unable to do anything. It is the Creator Who decides, man has no say in this matter - whatever he possesses is from the favours of Allah. Had it been from his ability, the blind would choose to see, the deaf to hear and so on. Man didn't create himself, nor was he able to do. So, man is the property of Allah, thus he should accept his self as it is, honor it, recognize it as a great and esteemed cre-ation of Allah, take care of it, give it its rights in full (in every aspect) and make a vigorous effort to protect himself against the Fire prepared for disbeliev-ers in the Hereafter. Allah, the Almighty, says "…enguard yourselves against the fire prepared for disbelievers, whose fuel is of men and stones." (Holy Qur'an, 2:24)

Allah has forbidden whatever is harm-ful to man. The intentional killing or harming of oneself is strictly forbidden in Islam, as Allah says: "…and be not cast by your own hands to ruin…" (Holy Qur'an, 2:195) Surely, man will give account to The Creator regarding himself.

3. RESPONSIBILITIES TOWARDS OTHER PEOPLE

Man has social character. Life is based on interaction and communica-tion between people; they share many things, and together they form the

family and society. Man is born alone to live with others in harmony. Allah, the Almighty, says in Qur'an: "O mankind! Lo! We have created you from a male and a female, and have made you nations and tribes that ye may know one another. Lo! The noblest of you, in the sight of Allah, is the best in conduct. Lo! Allah is Knower, Aware." (49:13)

To live in harmony and to work together, Allah, the Almighty, established rules and laws (in every aspect of life) to facilitate people in their relations with each other. These rules precisely deter-mine the rights of the individual according to his position, status and totality of his traits.

In Islam, the individual is honored with special rights as a child, parent, brother, sister, young, old, relative, neighbour, etc. All people are equal in the sight of Allah; the most honored one is the best one in behaviour (i.e. his con-duct in pleasing Allah). Thus, there's no discrimination between people in gen-eral. The only distinction is based on belief and righteous deeds. In Islam, man is esteemed and respected just because he is a human being.

Human rights have a very high sta-tus in Islam. Violating those rights means showing unwillingness to accept the laws and rules of Allah, being unjust to people (this sin is not erased unless for-given by the person who was subject to injustice), and lack of harmony and peace. The true Muslim is distinguished by loving his friends and brothers for the sake of Allah, a love that is unpol-luted by any worldly interests or motives.

Allah, the Almighty, said in a

Hadith Qudsi (a saying of Allah not revealed in the Qur'an): "My love is due to those who love one another in My cause, who spend in My cause and those who visit each other in My cause." (Imam Malik)

4. RESPONSIBILITIES TOWARDS OTHER CREATIONS

Allah, The Glorified, says in Qur'an, "There is not a moving (living) creature on earth, nor a bird that flies with its two wings, but are communities like you. We have neglected nothing in the Book, then unto their Lord they (all) shall be gathered." (Holy Qur'an, 6:38)

This includes every living creation besides human beings such as animals, birds, etc. They are creations of Allah brought under the control of man. They have a great status in Islam. Most of them are considered respectable crea-tures. Islam recognizes their rights and has set up a specified etiquette regard-ing them. We have to show mercy to them and should not torture them such as by burning, beating, grieving, dis-tressing, loading on them more than they can bear, etc. When they are hun-gry or thirsty we have to feed and give them water.

The Prophet (PBUH) said: "A woman entered the Hell-fire because of a cat that she tied down. She neither fed it nor let it free to eat the insects of the earth until it died." (Al-Bukhari).

Also, the Prophet (PBUH) cursed the one who uses a live animal for target. There are many other hadiths with respect to animals.

5. RESPONSIBILITIES TOWARDS NATURE AND ENVIRONMENT

We mean by nature, the features of the world surrounding us. It's the place where man lives. Everything we see around us has been designed for a pur-pose by the Designer, Allah. Everything in the universe is remarkably homoge-nous and balanced. Since man is given power and control in some spheres to some extent, he should manage them fairly and justly. Islam fights environ-ment degradation, pollution, destruction, clearing of trees and plants, misusage, depletion of resources, and every kind of corruption on earth.

Allah, The Exalted, says: "The only reward of those who make war upon Allah and His messenger and strive after corruption in the land will be that they will be killed or crucified, or have their hands and feet on alternate sides cut off, or will be expelled out of the land. Such will be their degradation in the world, and in the Hereafter theirs will be an awful doom." (Holy Qur'an, 5: 33)

Allah also says: "He it is Who send-eth down water from the sky, whence ye have drink, and whence are trees on which ye send your beasts to pasture. Therewith He causeth crops to grow for you, and the olive and the date palm and grapes and all kinds of fruit. Lo! Herein is indeed a portent for people who reflect. (Holy Qur'an, 16: 11,12)

The proper use of natural resources and everything around us is of great importance concerning our well-being, benefit and prosperity.

www.islamweb.net

Individual responsibilities in Islam

Happiness is the universal goal of people from all walks of life – be they philoso-phers of a high intellectual calibre or unlettered labourers — everyone strives in search of happiness and looks for

ways to escape the worries of life.However, most people achieve only partial or

superficial happiness, which provides temporary relief from their problems. In order to search for everlasting happiness that will lead a person to true success, one must keep an open heart and mind, as the wise one is he who searches for the truth and adopts it immediately.

1. The most important means of happiness and the foundation of all felicity is to have sound belief and perform righteous deeds.

Allah, the Almighty, Says (what means): {Who-ever works righteousness (whether male or female) while he (or she) is a true believer (of Islamic Mon-otheism) verily, to him We will give a good life (in this world with respect, contentment and lawful provision), and We shall pay them certainly a reward in proportion to the best of what they used to do (i.e. Paradise in the Hereafter).} [Quran16: 97]

Allah, the Almighty, promises whoever pos-sesses sound belief and performs righteous deeds that he will have a happy life and will also be rewarded in the eternal Hereafter.

The reason for this is obvious: those who have the correct belief which leads to righteous deeds, reformed hearts and refined manners, have the basic foundation that they can refer to in any event — regardless of whether these are matters which cause

joy and happiness or sorrow and dejection.The Prophet (PBUH) described this quality of

the true believers when he said: “How wonderful is the affair of the believer! All of his affairs are good and this is the case for nobody else except a

believer. If he is blessed with prosperity, he thanks (Allah) and that is good for him; and if he is afflicted with adver-sity, he perseveres and that is also good for him.” [Mus-lim]. The Prophet (PBUH) informed us that a believer's reward would be multiplied many times over, regardless of whether what befalls him brings him joy or sorrow.

2. Keeping oneself busy in performing beneficial deeds and acquiring useful knowledge.

By doing so, one's heart is diverted from whatever causes it grief and sorrow, to the extent that a person may completely forget his wor-ries and unhappiness and become happy and ener-

gized. This is something that is common to believers and others, but the believer is distinct due to his belief, sincerity, and his hope for reward while learning or performing beneficial deeds. If this deed is an act of worship, then he will receive the reward

for it, and if it is a worldly task which is accompa-nied with a good intention, such as working for the sake of being able to worship Allah, The Almighty, better, then this will have a strong effect in remov-ing his anxiety and grief.

3. Concentrating on the tasks at hand, not being anxious about the future and not crying over the past is another way of attaining happiness.

This is why the Prophet (PBUH) sought refuge with Allah, the Almighty, from anxiety and sorrow. Usually, a person experiences sorrow due to what has passed and cannot be retrieved, whereas grief is due to anxiety for the future and the fear of what may happen.

A believing slave of Allah, the Almighty, should live for the current moment, focus, and exert the utmost effort to utilise his time in the best possi-ble way. This will enable him to accomplish his tasks and forget his sorrow and grief. When the Prophet (PBUH) made a particular supplication or guided his nation to do so, he would also encour-age them to exert efforts to obtain what they supplicated for and shun everything which might prevent the supplication from being answered.

As the Prophet (PBUH) said: “Be keen to do that which will benefit you, rely on Allah, and do not be lazy (by not exerting effort) and do not say when a problem befalls you: ‘If only I would have done such and such, then the result would have been such and such’; rather, one should say: ‘This was decreed by Allah and He does what He wills.’ Saying ‘If’ opens the gate for Satan (to cause discontent).” [Muslim]

Three steps to a happy life

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05FRIDAY 12 MAY 2017 ASIA

Modi heads to Sri Lanka as China influence risesColombo

AFP

Prime Minister Naren-dra Modi landed in Sri Lanka yesterday on a charm offensive as New Delhi seeks to

reassert its influence on the island amid signs of a Chinese comeback.

Sri Lanka's President Maithripala Sirisena came to power in January 2015 promis-ing to loosen ties with China after a decade of hefty funding by Bei-jing under his predecessor. When Modi visited the island shortly afterwards, he promised to "script a golden chapter in the history of India-Sri Lanka rela-tions". Just two years later, analysts say Beijing's influence is on the rise again as Colombo struggles to find alternative sources of foreign capital.

For India, which wants to keep Sri Lanka within its sphere of influence, that is a worrying sign. "For Modi to visit again so soon is clearly an expression of India's concerns about China's deepening economic roots in S r i L a n k a a n d t h e

potential strategic, even military, advantages this might ultimately bring," said Alan Keenan of the International Crisis Group.

Sirisena halted all Chinese-funded infrastructure projects when he swept to power in 2015, ousting the island's strongman leader Mahinda Rajapakse, who had aggressively courted Beijing.

Now these projects, which included new highways, railway lines and a telecommunications tower, are back on track.

A $1.4bn Chinese-funded land reclamation project outside Colombo harbour has also been relaunched.

New Delhi has long been nervous of a Chinese presence at the Colombo port, a key

transshipment point for Indian cargo.

Even more controversially, Colombo is trying to sell a con-trolling interest in a strategically-located deep-sea port in the south to China.

Shortly after hosting Modi, Sri Lanka's Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe will travel to China, where he is expected to try to finalise that sale.

Experts say India simply doesn't have deep enough pock-ets to take over China's place as the country's main financial backer. "The new government realises that its Western allies have not delivered and only China has the deep pockets to invest," said Sri Lankan political analyst Kusal Perera. "The new govern-ment has understood this reality and they are wooing China while keeping India on board."

Last time Modi visited Sri Lanka, he made a highly sym-bolic trip to the war-ravaged north in a demonstration of sup-port for Sri Lanka's mostly Hindu Tamil minority, who share close cultural and religious ties with counterparts living in southern India.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi (centre) is watched by Sri Lankan Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe (centre right) as he receives betel leaves from children after arriving at Bandaranaike International Airport in Colombo, yesterday.

Modi is visiting Sri Lanka on a charm offensive as New Delhi seeks to reassert its influence on the island amid signs of a Chinese comeback.

Modi takes part in Vesak Day celebrationsCOLOMBO: Prime Minister Narendra Modi yesterday took part in a traditional lamp lighting ceremony at a Buddhist temple here as part of the Interna-tional Vesak Day celebrations.

"In holy sanctum. PM @narendramodi visits Gangaramaya temple @ d famous Beira Lake, lights lamps @ temple on Vesak Day eve," External Affairs Ministry spokesperson Gopal Baglay tweeted.

As Modi put a switch on, the entire complex of the Gangaramaya temple, one of the most impor-tant Buddhist temples in Sri Lanka, was lit up by colourful lights, which was followed by fireworks in the sky. According to Indian state broadcaster Doordarshan, Modi, who was accompanied by Sri

Lankan Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe, also offered prayers at the temple.

The Gangaramaya temple was established in the late 19th century by one of the most famous scholar monks, Venerable Hikkaduwe Sri Suman-agala Nayaka Thera.

Its complex comprises the temple, the ‘seema malaka' or assembly hall for monks in the pictur-esque Beira Lake and a vocational training institute. Modi, who arrived here earlier in the day on a two-day visit to Sri Lanka, will be the chief guest at the UN-recognised 14th International Vesak Day meant to mark the birth, enlightenment and passing away of Lord Buddha.

SC to consider of Karnan's sentence pleaNew Delhi

IANS

Even as Calcutta High Court judge Justice C S Karnan's whereabouts remain a

mystery, the Supreme Court was moved yesterday seeking sus-pension of the six-month sentence awarded to him for

contempt of court, which the apex court has said it will consider.

Justice Karnan has sought stay of the May 9 order convict-ing him of criminal contempt of court and sentencing him to undergo imprisonment for six months till the final disposal of his petition filed yesterday.

As Karnan's counsel Mathew J Nadumpara mentioned the petition before the Constitution bench, Chief Justice JS Khehar, who is heading the bench, told the counsel that they will con-sider it. When Nadumpara mentioned the petition, judge asked: "Who are you?"

At this, the counsel said that

he was appearing for Justice Kar-nan and produced the authorisation by him.

Nadumpara told Chief Jus-tice Khehar that he had approached a large number of lawyers (advocate of record) to file the petition "but they all refused as they are very afraid of you" (SC bench).

24 dead as wall falls onto guests at wedding New Delhi

AP

A building wall collapsed onto guests at a wedding in Rajasthan, killing at

least 24 people and injuring others, a government official said yesterday.

Hundreds of guests were having dinner or assembling on the outdoor lawn when a strong dust storm blew into the area Wednesday night, forcing peo-ple on the lawn to go indoors.

When the 80-foot-long wall fell, it trapped people inside the

wedding hall and a covered shed built along the wall out-side, Bharatpur District Magistrate NK Gupta told reporters. Another 28 people were injured and have been hospitalised, police officer Anil Tank told the Press Trust of India news agency.

Police registered a case of culpable homicide against the building owner and were ques-tioning him, Tank said.

A power outage hampered rescue work. It wasn't clear if the dust storm was a factor in the collapse.-

Bystanders survey the damage to a wedding hall in Bharatpur yesterday.

Police personnel celebrate after a passing out ceremony at a police training academy in Agartala, yesterday. One hundred and thirty-two women police cadets passed out in the ceremony in the north-eastern state of Tripura.

Passing out ceremony

Won't leave state politics again: ParrikarPANAJI: Announcing that he would not leave state politics for a central role again, Chief Minister Manohar Parrikar also expressed confidence at win-ning the Panaji by-poll. "There is no question of me quitting state politics again. I have been sent to run the state government. And the government is running smoothly," Parrikar said.

Parrikar said he would look at increasing the margin of victory in the upcoming by-poll, which has been necessitated by his return to state politics from his position as Defence Minister in March this year.

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06 FRIDAY 12 MAY 2017ASIA

Moon urges parallel talks to rein in N KoreaSeoul

Reuters

South Korea's new pres-i d e n t l a u n c h e d international efforts to defuse tension over North Korea's weapons

development yesterday, urging both dialogue and sanctions while also aiming to ease Chi-nese anger about a US anti-missile system.

Moon Jae-in, a liberal former human rights lawyer, was sworn in on Wednesday and said in his first speech as president he would immediately address security tensions that have raised fears of war on the Korean peninsula.

Moon first spoke to Chinese President Xi Jinping and later to Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, with how to respond to North Korea's rapidly develop-ing nuclear and ballistic missile programmes, in violation of UN Security Council resolutions, dominating talks. "The resolu-tion of the North Korean nuclear issue must be comprehensive and sequential, with pressure and sanctions used in parallel with negotiations," Moon's

spokesman, Yoon Young-chan, quoted Moon as telling Xi.

"Sanctions against North Korea are also a means to bring the North to the negotiating table aimed at eliminating its nuclear weapons," Yoon told a briefing, adding that Xi indicated his agreement.

Moon has taken a more con-ciliatory line with North Korea than his conservative predeces-sors and advocates engagement. He has said he would be pre-pared to go to Pyongyang "if the conditions are right".

Regional experts have

believed for months that North Korea is preparing for its sixth nuclear test and was working to develop a nuclear-tipped mis-sile capable of reaching the United States, presenting US President Donald Trump with perhaps his most pressing secu-rity issue.

Trump said last month major conflict with North Korea was possible though he would pre-fer a diplomatic outcome.

North Korea says it needs its weapons to defend itself against the United States which it says has pushed the region to the brink of nuclear war. "Threats from North Korea's nuclear and missile development have entered a new stage," Japan's Abe told Moon in their telephone call, according to Japanese Dep-uty Chief Cabinet Secretary Koichi Hagiuda. "How to respond to North Korea ... is an urgent issue. I would like to closely cooperate with the president to achieve the denuclearisation of North Korea," Abe told Moon.

But Abe also said "dialogue for dialogue's sake would be meaningless" and he called on North Korea to demonstrate "sincere and concrete action",

Hagiuda said, adding that Moon shared Abe's views.

Japan has been concerned that Moon will take a tough line on feuds stemming from the bit-ter legacy of its 1910-1945 colonisation of the Korean peninsula and could fray ties at a time when cooperation on North Korea is vital.

Moon told Abe to "look

straight at history" and not make the past "a barrier", though he raised South Korea's dissatisfaction with a 2015 agreement meant to put to rest a dispute over Japanese com-pensation for South Korean women forced to work in Jap-anese brothels before and during World War Two, Korea's presidential office said.

Collapsed houses are seen after a 5.5 magnitude earthquake hit Taxkorgan County, Kashgar Prefecture, Xinjiang Autonomous Region, China, yesterday. A moderate earthquake that struck close to the earth's surface killed eight people and injured more than 20 others.

Eight dead in China earthquake

South Korea's President Moon Jae-in talks with senior presidential secretaries as they take a walk at the Presidential Blue House in Seoul, yesterday.

N Korea seeks extradition of plot culpritsPYONGYANG: North Korea will seek the extradition of anyone involved in what it says was a CIA-backed plot to kill leader Kim Jung Un last month with a biochemical poison, a top North Korean foreign minis-try official said.

Han Song Ryol, the vice-foreign minister, called a meeting of foreign diplomats in Pyongyang to outline the North's allegation that the CIA and South Korea's intelli-gence agency bribed and coerced a North Korean man into joining in the assassina-tion plot, which the North's Ministry of State Security has suggested was thwarted last month. The North's state media have been running sto-ries about the plot since last week. The security ministry has vowed to "ferret out" any-one involved in the alleged plot, which it called "state-sponsored terrorism."

"According to our law, the Central Public Prosecutor's Office of the DPRK will use all available methods to start to work to demand the hando-ver of the criminals involved, so as to punish the organizers, conspirators and followers of this terrible state-sponsored terrorism," he said.

South Korea's new President Moon first spoke to Chinese President Xi Jinping and later to Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, on how to respond to North Korea's rapidly developing nuclear and ballistic missile programmes.

China says has 'positive' talks with Vietnam on South China SeaBeijing

Reuters

The leaders of China and Vietnam had "positive" talks about the disputed

South China Sea yesterday with neither side criticising the other, a senior Chinese diplomat said.

Vietnam is the country most openly at odds with China over the waterway since the Philippines pulled back from confrontation under President Rodrigo Duterte.

Speaking after Chinese President Xi Jinping met Viet-namese President Tran Dai Quang in Beijing's Great Hall of the People, Chinese Vice Foreign Minister Liu Zhenmin said the South China Sea had been brought up in their talks.

"It was discussed but the main tone was very positive," Liu told reporters.

Both agreed to follow their consensus to continue stabilising the situation and

to keep pushing talks, as well as continue joint resource exploration in less sensitive areas, like the Gulf of Tonkin, he added.

"I think that talking about the South China Sea this time is really a positive piece of news. Neither side raised any criticisms of each other. There

were no voices of that were out of step," Liu said.

China claims 90 percent of the potentially energy-rich South China Sea. Brunei, Malaysia, the Philippines, Vietnam and Taiwan lay claim to parts of the route, through which about $5 trillion of trade passes each year.

Philippines to review concerns over deathsGeneva

Reuters

The Philippines said yes-terday it would review recommendations over

killings in its war on drugs, but stopped short of committing to make reforms or prosecute police for excessive use of force after criticism from UN rights council members.

President Rodrigo Duterte has been widely condemned in the West for failing to curtail the killings and address activists' allegations of systematic, state-sponsored murders by police of drug users and dealers, a charge which the authorities reject.

The United Nations Human Rights Council examined the Philippines record this week, where the government delega-tion said there had been no new

wave of killings prompted by the campaign and denounced "alternative facts".

Since Duterte took office 10 months ago there have been 9,432 homicide cases, includ-ing 2,692 deaths from "presumed legitimate law enforcement operations", it said. The Council adopted a report yesterday comprising 257 recommendations from 95 states, roughly half voicing con-cern over the killings, and told the Philippines to report back "with a clear position" at its September session.

Among them was a recom-mendation from the United States to "ensure that all coun-ter-narcotics operations are conducted in conformity with constitutional protections and international human rights obligations".

Dozens join rare hunger strike at immigration centre in JapanTOKYO: Dozens of detainees at a Japanese immigration cen-tre were on hunger strike in protest against prolonged and multiple detentions, drawing fresh attention to the policy towards immigration.

Some of the hunger strik-ers were asylum seekers and others had lived in Japan for decades as migrant workers, said Mitsuru Miyasako, head of the Provisional Release Association in Japan.

More than 20 detainees launched their hunger strike at the Tokyo Regional Immi-gration Bureau on Tuesday, with more than a dozen join-ing them yesterday.

Protests and hunger strikes are rare in Japan, which prizes social stability. Immigration, seen by some Japanese as a threat to secu-rity, is a controversial subject in a country where many pride themselves on cultural and ethnic homogeneity.

Chinese President Xi Jinping's wife Peng Liyuan talks with Vietnamese President Tran Dai Quang's wife Nguyen Thi Hien (left) during a welcome ceremony at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing, yesterday.

Islamabadsummons Indian diplomat over firing deathISLAMABAD: Pakistan sum-moned India's deputy high commissioner yesterday to condemn what it called "unprovoked" firing over the Kashmir frontier that violated a 2003 ceasefire and killed one civilian, the foreign min-istry said.

India also accused Paki-stan of "indiscriminate firing" along the de facto border, which an Indian military offi-cial said had killed a woman and wounded a man on Wednesday night.

According to a statement from Pakistan's foreign min-istry, Indian Deputy High Commissioner JP Singh met with Pakistani officials to dis-cuss the firing on Wednesday and yesterday.

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07FRIDAY 12 MAY 2017 EUROPE

German Chancellor Angela Merkel (left) and Nato Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg hold a joint press conference after their talks in Berlin yesterday.

Boosting ties

London

AFP

Britain’s opposition Labour party sought to shrug off the apparent leak yester-

day of its manifesto for next month’s election, which includes its view on Brexit talks.

The document proposes sweeping reforms including the renationalisation of the railways, tax hikes and a large increase in borrowing to invest in infrastruc-ture. It also says that if Labour were in charge of negotiations on leaving the European Union, it would not follow through on Prime Minister Theresa May’s threat to walk away rather than accept an unsatisfactory deal.

Most of the proposals have been raised before and Andrew

Gwynne, Labour’s national cam-paigns co-ordinator, said it was not a manifesto but simply a draft of policy ideas.

But it provides further embarrassment for Labour, which is divided over its direc-tion under leftist leader Jeremy Corbyn and languishing in the p o l l s b e h i n d M a y ’ s Conservatives.

Senior Labour figures gath-ered Thursday for a meeting to finalise the manifesto for the June 8 vote, ahead of its publi-cation next week.

Speaking afterwards, Corbyn said participants had “amended a draft document that was put forward” and reached unani-mous agreement.

The policies included would be “very popular” and

“transform the lives of many people”, he said, adding that they were fully costed.

But the Conservatives said Labour was in “total shambles”. “The commitments in this dos-sier will rack up tens of billions of extra borrowing for our fam-ilies and will put Brexit negotiations at risk,” a spokes-man said.

Labour has struggled to adopt a clear position on Brexit, which most of its MPs opposed and which has divided its supporters.

Corbyn this week said the issue was “settled”, and it was now a question of getting the best deal for Britain.

But he then failed to confirm that Britain would definitely leave the EU if he were prime

minister, leaving aides to clarify later that this was the case.

The leaked document, first published by the Daily Telegraph and Daily Mirror, said that leav-ing the EU without a deal “is the worst possible deal for Britain and would do damage to our economy and trade”.

“We will reject ‘no deal’ as a viable and negotiate transitional arrangements to avoid a cliff-edge for the UK economy,” it said. On immigration, a key fac-tor in the referendum vote for Brexit last year, it vowed to make no “false promises” on cutting the number of migrants coming to Britain.

The Conservatives have failed for the past seven years to fulfil their pledge to reduce net migration to under 100,000, but

look set to repeat the promise, which is popular.

The document also details plans to renationalise the rail-ways, introduce state-owned energy firms, and hike corpora-tion tax on large companies.

It outlines plans to borrow £250 billion ($323 billion, 297 billion euros) to “upgrade” the British economy, including investing in transport, energy and digital infrastructure.

It also commits to more than £6 billion extra funds every year for the state-run National Health Service (NHS) through increas-ing income tax on the highest five percent of earners.

Other policies include scrap-ping university tuition fees and launching a review to slow the number of pubs closing.

Paris

AFP

French president-elect Emmanuel Macron’s par ty yesterday unveiled more than 400 candidates who will

stand in parliamentary elections in June, with half of them new-comers to politics and half of them women.

Pro-Europe centrist Macron, 39, was elected on Sunday after promising a “revolution” that would bring fresh faces into France’s stale political landscape and end the pattern of power alternating between traditional parties. His newly renamed grass-roots movement, La Republique en Marche (Republic on the Move), founded only 13 months ago, revealed 428 out of 577 can-didates who will stand in parliamentary elections in June.

“We aim to build a majority for change and to win an abso-lute majority in parliament for La Republique en Marche (LREM) in the National Assembly,” party secretary general Richard Fer-rand told a news conference.

Macron had promised that half would be newcomers, meaning a diverse range of figures from busi-ness, public service, activist groups and academia will get a chance to seek their first ever elected office. “The promise of renewal is ful-filled,” Ferrand added at the news conference, adding that the aver-age age of the candidates was 46 compared with 60 in the current national assembly.

On the tricky decision of whether to accept former Social-ist prime minister Manuel Valls, Ferrand said the party had not

selected him, but would not field a rival against him in his constit-uency south of Paris.

Valls, a friend-turned-foe of Macron’s from their time in gov-ernment from 2014-2016, had asked to be selected on Tuesday. Other successful bids came from a woman fighter pilot who will run in eastern France and a man born in Rwanda who was adopted in France at the age of four and will contest a seat in Brittany.

The nomination process is a balancing act for Macron and rep-resents major risks for his presidency, which will begin for-mally on Sunday when he takes over from Socialist Francois Hollande.

Without his own parliamen-tary majority, he will find it hard to push through his planned reforms of the labour market, pensions, unemployment bene-fits or education.

Many of his newcomers will also face seasoned politicians with long careers and local net-works of activists and supporters.And there is also the risk of scan-dal if anyone with a chequered history slips through the vetting process of the more than 19,000 applications sent online since January.

Ferrand said each candidate had been interviewed and had declared not to have a criminal

record or to have been disquali-fied for any function in the past. “Our movement has done every-thing possible to make sure that the candidates chosen respect our values,” Ferrand added.

The president-elect is a left-leaning liberal—a one-time Socialist party member—and was a senior advisor to Hollande and an economy minister during his unpopular term.

Among the 214 politicians selected as candidates include a number of familiar faces from the Socialist Party and from the cen-trist MoDem party, headed by Macron ally Francois Bayrou. There are none from the rightwing Republicans party, according to Republicans secretary general Bernard Accoyer, but Ferrand left the door ajar for some of them to join in the next week.

There remain another 149 constituencies — 148 excluding Valls’ area—that remain open. Macron, a former investment banker who has never held elected office, faces other tricky decisions this week. The biggest among them is his choice for prime minister, who will head the government until at least the par-liamentary elections on June 11 and 18 and perhaps beyond.

The choice will send a strong signal about Macron’s intentions, and he has promised to pick someone with past experience of parliament and capable of man-aging a majority. His declared preference is for a woman.

Amid feverish speculation in the French media—will he pick a loyal supporter or someone from the rightwing Republicans? -- nothing has leaked from his small group of aides.

Macron's revolution faces the first test

Labour’s election manifesto and Brexit plan leakedEU approves visa-free travel for UkrainiansBrussels

AFP

The European Union approved visa-free travel for Ukrainians

yesterday, fulfilling a key promise to cement ties with Kiev as it remains embroiled in a deadly conflict with pro-Russian insurgents.

“YES, we did it!” Ukrain-ian President Petro Poroshenko wrote on Face-book after the Brussels decision, which the former Soviet republic has been try-ing to clinch for years.

“It feels like coming home after a long and exhausting journey,” the pro-Western leader said, adding that Ukraine was gradually “becoming part of a common European civilisation”.The European Union and Ukraine sealed a broad trade and polit-ical association agreement after the overthrow of Kiev’s Russian-backed government in 2014, with Brussels aiming to bring the Soviet-era satel-lite into the European fold.

The agreement included the offer of the removal of visa requirements, a potent symbol of the bloc’s commit-ment to Kiev, which has fretted over repeated delays.

A statement by the Euro-pean Council, which groups the 28 EU member states, said visa liberalisation was “an important development which will help strengthen ties between the people of Ukraine and the EU”.“It follows the completion of the necessary reforms by Ukraine in a number of areas including migration, public order and security, external relations and fundamental rights,” it said.

Pristina

AFP

President Hashim Thaci of Kosovo yes-terday called for a snap parliamentary election on June 11, a day after the

government lost a confidence vote in par-liament after a year of political crisis.

Kosovo’s ruling coalition had been strained by growing discord between its two main parties, Thaci’s centre-right PDK and the conservative LDK of Prime Minis-ter Isa Mustafa.

The main trigger for the confidence vote, held Wednesday, was a border demar-cation deal with neighbouring Montenegro, the final condition for obtaining visa-free travel in the European Union.

The opposition strongly opposes the deal, claiming that it gives to Montenegro several thousand hectares of land that has traditionally been used by Kosovo’s shep-herds. Kosovo’s parliament has yet to ratify the deal, and the opposition has fiercely

protested the plan, releasing tear gas in par-liament on several occasions and organising street protests, some of which were marred by serious violence. “The work the EU has started with Kosovo institutions should not stop because of upcoming elections,” the bloc’s representative in Pristina, Nataliya Apostolova, told local TV, urging the new parliament to approve the deal.

The crisis was also fuelled by an agree-ment reached with Serbia, its former enemy, in August 2015 that envisages political auton-omy for the Serb minority in the Balkan territory. The plan is also sharply contested by the opposition. Thaci’s PDK eventually joined with other opposition parties to push for a snap parliamentary election, which was originally scheduled for next year.

Western analysts say the move could reflect a bid by the PDK to boost its popu-lar legitimacy while a new special tribunal at The Hague prepares to try former lead-ers of the Kosovo Liberation Army (KLA) for alleged war crimes.

Kosovo snap polls on June 11

Parliamentary pollsLa Republique en Marche revealed 428 out of 577 candidates who will stand in parliamentary elections in June.

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08 FRIDAY 12 MAY 2017VIEWS

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

QUOTE OF THE DAY

If we put things in the right order, if we negotiate with mutual respect, without any kind of aggressivity... and if we are open to finding solutions, there is no reason why our strong Europe cannot maintain a strong relationship with the UK.

Michel BarnierEU’s Chief Brexit Negotiator

As the Iranian presidential election campaign gets into full swing, sitting president Hassan Rouhani is facing two strong favourites from the cler-ical establishment.

As with the first time he ran, in 2013, Rou-hani, a “moderate”, is battling “hardline conservatives”, Judge Ebrahim Raisi (protegee of the Supreme Leader), and military heavy-weight Mohammad Bagher Qalibaf, the current mayor of Tehran.

They have also been called “Principalists” (the label they prefer), and, often in the West, “religious extremists” — Rouhani used the term in his first campaign in reference to his predecessor, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.

Today, another label has slipped in quietly to describe Rouhani’s rivals: Populists. How-ever, unlike in the West, where populism has been used in relation to US President Donald Trump, French presidential candidate Marine Le Pen or Italian Beppe Grillo, in Iran the pop-ulists aren’t overturning the establishment; they are the establishment. It’s Rouhani, the reformist, the liberal internationalist, who represents the opposition.

Looking at the Iranian election through a populist lens makes the murky politics of the Islamic Republic more transparent, particu-larly in light of the populist moves so recently chronicled in the US and Europe. It also gives a clue as to what populist-led countries look like in the long term, as well what they’re like for both allies and enemies on the outside.

Iran’s establishment has a quiver-full of populist practices it has honed over the years. Three in particular stand out — not least because they have been recently on display on several Western stages:

‘Making Iran Great Again’The economy, according to opinion polls, is

the issue of greatest popular concern, with 72 percent of Iranians indicating they don’t feel it has improved, or improved sufficiently, since the passage of the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA, the nuclear agreement).

Despite Rouhani’s record of raising GDP growth to 7 percent, and rescuing the econ-omy from falling into hyperinflation as a result of Ahmadinejad’s ill-managed statist policies (today, according to the IMF, inflation is around 9.2 percent), Qalibaf and Raisi accuse him of failing to deliver the promised rewards of sanctions relief.

Their reason: Rouhani has become too chummy with the West, and is threatening Iran’s economic well-being through global financial and trade deals.

Their solution: to follow Supreme Leader Khamenei’s idea of a “resistance economy”which prioritises domestic produc-tion and self reliance, the only way to “fight unemployment and recession, control infla-tion and confront the threats of enemies”, as he explained in a speech last year. Qalibaf promises to create five million jobs and dou-ble the country’s income during his tenure;

Iran’s presidential election puts populism to the testRoxane FarmanfarmaianAl Jazeera

Raisi is offering 1.5 million more jobs a year, and says that he will triple hand-outs to the poor. Rouhani’s team have hit back by calling this populist rhetoric empty promises, noting that creating so many jobs would need economic growth of 26 percent — a pipe dream.

Yet, although the same populist practices were tried - and failed — under Ahmadinejad, appeal-ing to those “left behind” with promises of payouts, a jobs mir-

acle, and utopian well-being are all populist mainstays in the Islamic Repub-lic, made all the more legitimate as their proponents see the same rhetoric now copied elsewhere — in Trump’s prom-ises to back out of global trade deals that hurt “regular Americans”, and Theresa May’s assurances that Britain’s divorce from the EU will boost British sover-eignty and strengthen the UK economy.

Rouhani, who put Iran’s economy back on track after the ravages of sanc-tions-enforced financial and trade isolation, sees such policies as the route to arrested development.

Although touted at the time as a “win-win”, the nuclear deal with its accompanying sanctions relief has lost its lustre in Iran. Rouhani’s rivals accuse him of signing away Iran’s sovereign rights and appeasing the West. It is time, say both Raisi and Qalibaf, to stop compromising and to start pursuing a foreign policy that protects Iran’s interests and prestige.

Neither has officially rejected the JCPOA, but they condemn Rouhani for succumbing to US and European duplic-ity. International banks, they point out, still fear US fines if they offer Iran financing, the US Congress is plotting further sanctions in response to Iran’s missile tests — even though they’re not precluded by the JCPOA, and Trump’s administration is cozying up to Iran’s biggest rival, Saudi Arabia, as Washing-ton has put “Iran on notice” while it reviews US policy towards Tehran.

Every time Iran extends its hand, these establishment candidates point out, the US has returned with an iron fist, and now again, Trump’s administration has signalled that it’s not committed to the nuclear agreement.

Rouhani’s response is that Iran’s for-eign policy should serve its domestic economy — a campaign slogan he used to good effect in his first presidential run, and which he is drawing on to argue that

the bigger fruits of sanctions relief will come during a second term under the same consistent liberal leadership. Indeed, Rouhani’s view is that Iran’s own unpredictability and self-serving foreign policies, not just Western distrust and antagonism, have isolated and hurt it over the years.

For Rouhani, the populist idealism of Iran against the rest has repeatedly proven unserviceable in a globalised world. Only when a country has been led by liberals and reformers has it made progress and accrued credibility and prosperity.

‘Controlling the Media’When the phrase “alternative facts”

or “false facts” crashed onto the Ameri-can conscience, Iranians and other Middle Easterners interviewed for this story expressed amazement at Western idealism. “We’re used to false facts — our governments always use them,” said a journalist.

Although Iran tops the charts for blog building and mobile calling, the tussle between the establishment and opposi-tion reformists over media control has often been brutal, and has swung widely from one administration to another. Internet activism helped Rouhani to win his first election, and he has refused to succumb to pressure from his critics, including the Islamic Republican Guard’s Chief of Intelligence, to block social media — particularly the highly popular Telegram app. Among his first state-ments on the campaign trail was that a vote for him was a vote for freedom of expression.

Concerned that the media might be a key in sowing discord among a deeply divided population (conservative vs mod-ernist), Supreme Leader Khamenei is keen to project an image of strong and stable leadership. His Islamist vision marries revolutionary idealism with religion and state, a polemic that, like most populism, does not allow multiple interpretations. To inspire the nationalistic fervour to make “Iran Great Again” and view the world from the lens of “Iran First”, a media that exudes patriotism, revolutionary activism, and broad buy-in is critical — even if it’s not all drawn from truth.

What distinguishes the populist establishment in Iran from the conserv-ative populist experiments in the US, Italy or Britain, is that fiction is now a plank of the platform. To believers, it furnishes credibility; to domestic oppo-nents and international players, it introduces a strange air of discordant unreality. For Rouhani, it is anathema to good governance. To US Defence Secre-tary Jim Mattis, who sees Iran as “not a nation state … but a revolutionary cause devoted to mayhem”, it is rhetoric in the service of the nation.

The writer is a lecturer at the University of

Cambridge, Centre for the Study of the

International Relations of the Middle East

and North Africa.

What distinguishes the populist establishment in Iran from the conservative populist experiments in the US, Italy or Britain, is that fiction is now a plank of the platform.

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 [email protected]

ACTING MANAGING EDITORMOHAMMED SALIM [email protected]

The Gulf region, widely seen as a bastion of conservatism, seems to be proving the world wrong. The culture of the region, not considered open by Western standards, has

been steeped in mores that frown upon any attempt at going berserk in the pursuit of practices breaking tradition. Tradition is appreciated in a sense of maintaining the stability of family and society in keeping with customs and long-held beliefs.

Cinema, generally believed to be anathema for the conservative class, has generally been instrumental as a vehicle of change. Recently, Saudi Arabia announced that it may gradually open theatres screening films. It is also thinking about starting a giant opera house. Films have been banned in the country since the 1970s and were seen to be corrupting by conservatives.

The government has promised to reform the cul-tural scene with a set of Vision 2030 reforms announced by Deputy Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman bin Abdulaziz last year. The changes are aimed at creating jobs and opening up lifestyles. According to the chairman of Saudi Arabia’s General Entertainment Authority (GEA), Ahmed Al Khatib, most people wanted the changes.

Qatar’s Doha Film Institute has for years been in the forefront of creating and supporting cinema. It sup-ports the growth of local film community through film appreciation and enhancing industry knowledge. A number of films have been funded by the Institute.

In a move seen to be pathbreaking for the nas-cent film industry in Qatar, ten ‘Made in Qatar’ films are to be screened at the prestigious Cannes Film Festival. Two emerging filmmakers from the coun-try – Rawda Al Thani and Hend Fakhroo will be attending the world’s lead-ing film event. They will participate in workshops, meetings, advisory sessions and events designed to develop their filmmaking careers.

The Qatar films will be screened on May 24 at the festival to be held in the

French rivera town. The Market screening of ‘Made in Qatar’ films includes Al-Johara, Amer: An Arabian Leg-end, Kashta, Makh’bz, Smicha, and Red. Ten titles will be screened including the six from the Market screen-ing. Al-Johara is a Qatari take on the classic Cinderella fairytale that highlights Arab traditions with a modern twist. Amer: An Arabian Legend (2016), by Jassim Al-Rumaihi, chronicles the tale of Amer, a legendary purebred Arabian racehorse. The other films also con-sistently show the dreams and struggles of people from the region.

The showcase of Qatari cinema at Cannes is set to leave an indelible mark on film enthusiasts and critics. It will project Qatar as a country trying to enter the arena of filmmaking by presenting its creations in an ode to the culture and heritage of the region. It seems the day is not far when cinema from the region will be celebrated and looked up to by the fraternity.

Heralding change

Plan to screen Made in Qatar films at Cannes is good for cinema and culture of the region.

ED ITOR IAL

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09FRIDAY 12 MAY 2017 OPINION

Britain, wanted to repackage nationalist policies into more acceptable language. Macron instead argued openly against the fear, nostalgia, nativism, statism and stagnation on offer from the rest of the political class.

He made no populist promises, he offered no impossible schemes or unattainable riches. And then he won.

Not only did Macron defeat the national social-ism of Marine Le Pen, he also defeated what looks like a joint Russian/American attempt to derail him using material hacked from his campaign team and spread through bots and trolls on both sides of the Atlantic. We’ll learn more about the leak in the days that come, including the tantalising possibility that Macron’s own team knew it was coming and delib-erately confused the hackers.

But it’s already clear that the hack failed largely because the French media, and the French public, refused to let it succeed. Though the leak was pub-lished during France’s official preelection news blackout, meaning that the French press kept away, disgust with its Russian origins seems to have per-suaded ordinary French voters to stay away from it too, despite robust efforts to bring it to their

Trump thrusts US presidency into perilous area

With his shocking dismissal of FBI Director James Comey, Donald Trump is propelling the presidency into rarely traversed territory.

His surprise announcement Tuesday flouts decades of presidential deference to the nation’s top law enforcement agency and its independence. It earns Trump the dubious distinc-tion of being the first president since Richard Nixon to fire the official overseeing an investigation involv-ing the commander in chief. And it cements a clear pattern of a man willing to challenge — in dramatic fashion — the institutions created to hold the presi-dent accountable.

“That’s why this is unprecedented,” said Michael Beschloss, a presidential historian. “He’s showed signs of not having a great deal of respect for the sys-tem by which this investigation has been operating.”

Sen. Richard Burr, the North Carolina Republican who is overseeing one of the congressional investi-gations into Russia’s election interference, said: “I am troubled by the timing and reasoning of Comey’s termination.”

Sen. Jeff Flake, R-Ariz., said he’d spent hours try-ing to find “an acceptable rationale” for Trump’s decision. “I just can’t do it,” he said.

Trump attained his White House goal after a dec-ades-long career in business during which he was accountable to few people other than himself. Thus, he has chafed at the constitutionally mandated con-straints on the presidency. Within days of taking the oath of office, he suddenly fired acting Attorney Gen-eral Sally Yates — a career Justice Department official — after she refused to defend the White House’s controversial travel and immigration ban.

When the federal courts blocked that measure as well, Trump aggressively castigated individual judges as political actors and challenged the court’s role in curbing a president’s policies.

No matter which president originally appoints them — Comey was tapped by Barack Obama in 2013 — almost all FBI directors are allowed to serve out their full 10-year terms under successor command-ers in chief. Bill Clinton is the only other president to fire an FBI chief, amid questions about the director’s use of FBI aircraft for personal purposes.

The Trump White House cited Comey’s handling of last year’s investigation into Hillary Clinton’s email practices as the cause for the firing, and, to be sure, Comey left himself vulnerable.

He was widely criticised for heavy-handed and high-profile decisions in the case, particularly when he sent a letter to Congress 10 days before the elec-tion saying the bureau was looking at new information related to the inquiry. He said at the time that the new information related to emails found on a laptop belonging to the husband of Clinton aide Huma Abedin, the disgraced congressman Anthony Weiner. At the time, Trump praised Comey for hav-ing “guts” and doing “the right thing,” statements that complicate his assertion that now, seven months later, Comey’s decisions warranted firing.

Trump’s announcement came as Comey was again facing criticism, this time for telling congres-sional lawmakers that Abedin had forwarded “hundreds or thousands” of emails to the laptop. On Tuesday, hours before Trump fired Comey, the FBI told lawmakers that the director was wrong, and Abedin had forwarded only a “small number” of emails.

Although Democrats blame Comey for Clinton’s loss, they are unlikely to accept Trump’s explanation for the firing.

The president has repeatedly dismissed Comey’s Russia investigation — as well as the congressional inquiries — as a “hoax.” He’s also insisted that he is not personally under investigation — asserting Tues-day that Comey told him three times that he was not a target — though the FBI has stated unequivocally that the president’s campaign and his associates are facing scrutiny.

“This is Nixonian,” said Sen. Bob Casey, D-Pa.Jimmy Gurule, a former assistant attorney gen-

eral who was appointed by President George H W Bush, said Trump’s decision “threatens our democ-racy and undermines the integrity of the FBI investigation.” Gurule is now a law professor at the University of Notre Dame.

Nixon’s decision had a ripple effect throughout

Before you do anything else, spend a moment thinking about the extraordinary achievement of modern France’s youngest president-elect, Emmanuel

Macron. Not since Napoleon has anybody leapt to the top of French public life with such speed. Not since World War II has anybody won the French presidency with-out a political party and a parliamentary base. Aside from some belated endorse-ments, he had little real support from the French establishment, few of whose mem-bers rated the chances of a man from an unfashionable town when he launched his candidacy last year.

He was, it is true, extraordinarily lucky (luck being the quality that Napoleon said he most preferred in his generals). He ben-efited both from the flameout of Socialist President François Hollande, who decided not even to contest the election, and from a surprise series of personal scandals that dragged down the center-right’s candi-date, François Fillon.

But Macron was also extraordinarily prescient. He saw that there was an open-ing in France for a socially liberal,

economically liberal, inter-nationalist and optimistic voice. Fillon, like Prime Minister Theresa May in

Macron’s extraordinary political achievement

Protesters gather outside of Trump Tower a day after FBI Director James Comey was fired by President Donald Trump.

attention on social media. This might represent a real change: Finally, West-ern voters are beginning to understand that the intent of a leaker is more important than the content of the leak.

The future of Macron’s radical-cen-trist movement — in the rest of Europe as well as France — now depends on what Macron is actually able to achieve. Here is the obvious counterpoint to Macron’s victory, one which has been repeated by gloomier observers all evening: Though Le Pen lost by a greater margin than expected, she still attracted more votes than any National Front candidate ever had before.

She represents real dissatisfaction with the economy, with terrorism, with immigration policy and with the privi-leged political class, though of course she is a part of that class herself. Macron will now have to address these issues. His center-left supporters may have to accept Thatcherite reforms; he has no party in the legislature right

now to support him. The strength of his far-right opponents may grow.

Macron can only succeed if he accepts that this is now the essence of politics in Western democracies: An open fight against the toxic appeal of false promises and divi-sive, nativist nostalgia. There is no point mourning the “normalisation” of populism, or in trying to silence Le Pen and her many like-minded colleagues in Europe and the United States.

They are here to stay, and they will only be defeated through open confrontation, a growing economy and better security, not censorship and shocked faces.

Macron’s first step in that direction came Sunday evening, in his first videotaped address after the election. May used her first major speech to jeer at her opponents as “citizens of nowhere;” the American president used his inaugural address to attack “American carnage” and under-line his country’s divisions. Macron instead offered a “Republican salute” to Le Pen and her voters — and addressed himself to “all of you together, the people of France.”

It’s not a solution, but it’s the start of one.

The author writes a biweekly foreign affairs column for The

Washington Post.

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his administration, with the attor-ney general and deputy attorney general resigning rather than carry out the president’s orders. There was no such response from Trump’s White House aides and other top administration officials.

“We haven’t had a voice from within the Trump administration denounce this yet,” said Douglas Brinkley, a presidential historian at Rice University. “I think at this moment the question is, will leading Republicans step out of the box and become profiles of courage?”

In the immediate aftermath of Trump’s announcement, many Republicans appeared more inclined to back his decision, citing their own concerns with Comey’s stewardship of the FBI following months of controversy.

None of the Republicans who did raise concerns were rushing to draw comparisons to Nixon, the only president to resign from office. Yet they, too, appeared troubled by Trump’s decision and wary of the prospect of White House interference in an investigation involving the president.

Comey’s “removal at this par-ticular time will raise questions,” said Sen. Bob Corker, R-Tenn. It is essential, he said, that ongoing investigations are full “and free of political interference until their completion.”

Julie Pace has followed the White

House and politics for The Associated

Press since 2007.

Anne ApplebaumThe Washington Post

Julie Pace AP

None of the Republicans who did raise concerns were rushing to draw comparisons to Nixon, the only president to resign from office. Yet they, too, appeared troubled by Trump’s decision and wary of the prospect of White House interference in an investigation involving the president.

A file photo of French President-elect Emmanuel Macron, after winning the lead percentage of votes in the first round in Paris.

The future of Macron’s radical-centrist movement — in the rest of Europe as well as France — now depends on what Macron is actually able to achieve.

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10 FRIDAY 12 MAY 2017AMERICAS

Washington

Reuters

President Donald Trump blasted ousted FBI chief James Comey as a “showboat” and “grandstander” on

Thursday even as the agency’s acting leader contradicted the president’s account that the agency had been in turmoil before he fired Comey.

In testimony before the Sen-ate Intelligence Committee, acting FBI director Andrew McCabe promised to tell the panel of any White House med-dling into the agency’s probe of possible Russian interference in the 2016 election. McCabe also declined to say whether he ever heard Comey tell Trump that the president was not a target of the investigation into possible col-lusion between Russia and Trump’s 2016 presidential campaign.

McCabe testified in place of Comey, who Trump abruptly

dismissed as FBI director on Tuesday in an action that has roiled Washington. Democrats have accused the Republican president of trying to foil the FBI’s probe into Moscow’s actions and many have called for a special prosecutor to look into the Russia matter.

“He’s a showboat. He’s a grandstander. The FBI has been in turmoil,” Trump told NBC News in his first interview since firing Comey. “I was going to fire Comey. My decision,” Trump said. “I was going to fire regard-less of recommendation.”

McCabe’s testimony contra-dicted Trump’s appraisal of

turmoil at the FBI under Comey.“I can tell you also that

Director Comey enjoyed broad support within the FBI and still does to this day,” McCabe testi-fied. “I can tell you that I hold Director Comey in the absolute highest regard. I have the high-est respect for his considerable abilities and his integrity,” McCabe added. “And it has been the greatest privilege and honor of my professional life to work with him.”

Republican Committee Chairman Richard Burr asked McCabe whether he ever heard Comey tell Trump the president was not the subject of investiga-tion. McCabe sidestepped the question, saying he could not comment on an ongoing investigation.

In his letter firing Comey on Tuesday, Trump wrote, “While I greatly appreciate you inform-ing me, on three separate occasions, that I am not under investigation, I nevertheless con-cur with the judgment of the

Department of Justice that you are not able to effectively lead the Bureau.” McCabe said it was not typical practice to tell a per-son they are not a target of an investigation.

“It is my opinion and belief that the FBI will continue to pur-sue this investigation vigorously and completely,” McCabe said, adding that he saw no “crisis of confidence within the leadership of the FBI.”

US intelligence agencies con-cluded in a January report that Russian President Vladimir Putin ordered an effort to disrupt the election that included hacking into Democratic Party emails and leaking them, with the aim of helping Republican Trump.

Leaders of the US intelli-gence agencies, including Director of National Intelligence Dan Coats and CIA chief Mike Pompeo, testifying on Thursday said they agreed with that find-ing. Moscow has denied any such interference and the Trump administration denies allegations

of collusion with Russia.Thursday’s hearing was

scheduled to address global security threats, but there were frequent questions about Comey and the FBI’s Russia probe. Sev-eral congressional panels are also investigating Russia’s role in the election.

The Senate intelligence com-mittee’s top Democrat, Mark Warner, said in light of Comey’s firing, “It is important to restate the critical importance of pro-tecting the independence and integrity of federal law enforcement.”

“And while it’s clear to me now more than ever that an independent special counsel must be appointed, make no mis-take our committee will get to the bottom of what happened during the 2016 presidential election,” Warner said, although he said he was not happy with the pace of the committee’s probe. “The timing of this firing is wrong to anyone with a sem-blance of ethics,” added

Democratic Senator Ron Wyden.Senate Judiciary Committee

Chairman Chuck Grassley called on the FBI to publicly confirm whether or not it is probing Trump. In a statement, Grassley said that Comey had previously briefed him and the panel’s top Democrat, Senator Dianne Fein-stein, and that the lawmakers “heard nothing that contradicted the president’s statement.”

McCabe said he has met with Trump this week but that the Russia investigation did not come up, adding that he also has not spoken about the probe with Attorney General Jeff Sessions. White House spokeswoman Sarah Huckabee Sanders said on Wednesday the Russia probe was one of the smallest things the FBI is dealing with, but McCabe tes-tified, “We consider it to be a highly significant investigation.” McCabe added that Comey’s fir-ing did not force a curtailment of the probe and said the agency has adequate resources to pur-sue it.

Willingboro

AFP

Tirades, yells and cries of “liar” lit up a town hall meeting in New Jersey,

where for five hours furious Americans tore into a Republi-can congressman for attempting to repeal Obamacare.

Tom MacArthur came home to his swing district to face the music after helping to write the amendment that allowed a con-troversial health reform bill to pass the lower house last week.

But if health care was the focus, the largely hostile audi-ence vented general outrage at President Donald Trump, taking issue with his temperament, his sacking of the FBI director and investigations into whether his

campaign colluded with Russia in last year’s election.

Hour after hour, the polari-sation of US politics was laid bare as the former insurance broker was harangued by a crowd of several hundred in the largely Democrat town of Willingboro, northeast of Philadelphia. “Nobody with a pre-existing condition will either be declined coverage or priced out,” insisted MacArthur, defending the bill. “That is a lie,” shot back a woman as the crowd groaned.

“Folks I didn’t come here to defend a president tonight,” said the congressman at one point, pleading with hecklers to keep quiet. Outside the venue dozens of protesters held up posters reading “Killer Tom” and “Peo-ple without health care die!” near

a skeleton. Inside certified med-ical assistant Geoff Ginter, 47, stole the show from the front row, subjecting a red-faced MacArthur to a 10-minute mon-ologue lashing the health bill as “immoral”.

“You have been the single greatest threat to my family in the entire world,” he bellowed into the microphone, jabbing his finger in MacArthur’s direction to cheers and applause.

The father from Pine Beach said his wife lives in fear of her cancer returning and their two children have cardiac and thy-roid conditions. “I will not forgive, I will not forget,” he yelled, explaining that he lives in fear of losing his job and not being able to afford health cov-erage if the bill passes.

“You are the reason I can’t sleep,” he added, slamming the moderate Republican for work-ing with “an orange-haired buffoon” in the White House. Republicans blame Obamacare for sending insurance premiums soaring while reducing options for millions. Those who passed the bill says it is a necessary reform.

But Democrats say the law helped 20 million Americans gain health coverage and saved thousands of lives by barring insurers from refusing to protect people with pre-existing condi-tions. “I hear people shouting out vulgarities,” hit back MacArthur after being interrupted an ump-teenth time. “This is part of what’s wrong in America, there’s no civil discourse,” he added.

Several expressed incredulity that he could be responsible for the bill after his mother died of cancer when he was four years old and his daughter, who had special needs, died aged 11. “I have a great deal of admiration for your tolerance for masochism. You’ve really taken a beating tonight,” said one woman. As the event dragged late into the night, many people drifted away.

Videographer Bob Finkel-stein, 49, who grew up in New Jersey and lives 40 minutes away, says his medication for multiple sclerosis costs $80,000 a year, the vast majority of which is covered by Obamacare.

“I absolutely could not afford the health care that I’m going to need if this repeal goes through,” he said.

Montreal

AFP

Expect more floods, wild-fires and other natural disasters than ever

before, Canadian Prime Min-ister Justin Trudeau warned yesterday as he toured flood-ravaged Quebec province, citing climate change as the reason. “The frequency of extreme weather events is increasing,” Trudeau told reporters on the ground after the helicopter tour. “And that’s related to climate change. “So we’re going to have to under-stand that bracing for a hundred-year storm is maybe going to happen every ten years now or every few years.”

Over the past three weeks, a large swath of land from the capital Ottawa downriver to Montreal and beyond have been flooded as a combination of torrential rains and the spring runoff from melting snow caused rivers to overflow their banks.

Nearly 3,000 residents have been evacuated, and 4,000 homes in low-lying areas were flooded. The mil-itary has sent in about 2,200 soldiers to help pile sandbags, secure critical infrastructure and aid in evacuations.

Trump slams Comey; FBI to pursue probe

Lima

Reuters

Venezuela’s opposition is pushing other Latin American countries to

pressure President Nicolas Maduro’s government into implementing a “democratic agenda”, opposition leader Julio Borges said yesterday.

Borges, the president of Venezuela’s opposition-led National Assembly, traveled to Lima to meet with Peruvian legislators and President Pedro Pablo Kuczynski, who has been one of the most vocal critics of Maduro among Latin American heads of state.

He said the humanitarian crisis and strong protests against Maduro’s socialist government had crossed Venezuela’s borders due to a wave of refugees across the region. “The request I’m bringing to the Peruvian con-gress and president is that they help us, together with other presidents who we’ve spoken with, to create a large group of presidents who are friends and proponents of democracy in Venezuela,” Borges told Reuters.

Venezuela has suffered through more than five weeks of violent anti-government pro-tests that have left at least 39 dead. The opposition has decried Maduro as an autocrat who has wrecked the OPEC nation’s economy, and

demanded elections to resolve the political crisis.

Peru recalled its ambassa-dor to Caracas in late March.

Borges said the aim of the strategy of street protests and calls for international pressure was to “break the conscience of the armed forces and the political groups” that still sup-port Maduro, and to avoid more deaths. “It’s important - funda-mental — that we get several governments in the region to unite in the short term to make sure in Venezuela there exists nothing other than a popular and democratic agenda,” Borges said upon exiting an interview with local radio sta-tion RPP.

He declined to specify which other countries he had visited or planned to visit, but had told RPP that he would seek support from Colombia, Argen-tina, Ecuador and Brazil. Socialist Venezuela has lost many regional allies as several Latin American countries have moved to the right in recent years. “There’s a new map in Latin America that I’m sure will strongly support this demo-cratic agenda for Venezuela,” Borges said.

Last week, Borges met with US President Donald Trump’s national security advisor H.R. McMaster, where they agreed on the need to bring Venezue-la’s crisis to a quick and peaceful conclusion.

Climate change to cause more floods: Trudeau

Venezuela oppn seeks global support for ‘democratic agenda’

Republican lawmaker gets drubbing over health reformWashington

Reuters

US President Donald Trump yesterday signed an executive

order aimed at strengthening the federal government’s cyber security and protecting the nation’s critical infra-structure from cyber attacks, a senior administration offi-cial told reporters on a call.

The order is Trump’s first significant action to address what he has called a top prior-ity of his administration. The long-delayed order comes after Trump nearly signed a cyber security measure just days into his presidency in January before it was pulled back to allow for more input from different fed-eral agencies and consultation with experts. It follows a pres-idential campaign dominated by running storylines related to cyber security, including the hacking and subsequent leak-ing of Democratic emails.

US President signs cyber security executive order

Testimony“It is my opinion and belief that the FBI will continue to pursue this investigation vigorously and completely,” McCabe said.

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BUSINESSBUSINESS20,911.68-31.43 PTS

0.15%

DOW PAGE | 12PAGE | 12Emirates profit falls for first time in 5 years

Global oil market may rebound

rapidly: ExpertsDow & Brent before going to press

$47.91 $47.91 +0.58+0.58

BRENT

7,386.63 +1.39 PTS

0.02%FTSE100

10,110.84 +119.17 PTS

1.19%QE

Friday 12 May 2017

Qatar’s investments in Turkey reaches over $20bn

Huda N VThe Peninsula

Strong bilateral trade relations between Qatar and Turkey offers much potential for growth to private sector partner-

ships between the two countries. An increasing number of Qatari companies are investing in Tur-key, making Qatar the second leading investor in terms of value in Turkey, according to experts.

Qatar Chamber (QC), yester-day hosted Turkish trade

delegation from the Korfez Chamber of Commerce, headed by Sibel Morali, head of commit-tee and Chairman of the Chamber Board. The meeting reviewed means of boosting bilateral trade and investment relations in major sectors.

Addressing the meeting, Qatar Chamber Vice-Chairman, Mohammad bin Ahmed bin Towar Al Kuwari stressed for constructive cooperation between private sector in both countries so that the trade vol-ume reach the ambitious levels.

“We have some 205 Turkish companies in Qatar out of which 186 are joint ventures between Turkish and Qatari business-men,” said Al Kuwari. These joint ventures together have a capi-tal worth QR42.02m, and most of these are based in infrastruc-ture construction, contracting, engineering consultancy, trade and electric works. Also some 19 companies here are fully Turk-ish owned and have a capital worth QR62.5m.

“Turkish companies here are handling projects worth about $11.6bn in Qatar, most of

which is put into Fifa World Cup 2022 projects. Qatar’s invest-ment to Turkey is over $20bn, the second highest value of investments by any country in Turkey,” he added. According to data provided, Qatari imports

from Turkey was $384.7m, while Qatari exports reached $277.4m. Total volume of trade between the two countries stood at $662.1m in 2016.

Both the countries are shar-ing strategic relations in

different areas of cooperation, which include business, trade, investments, security, culture and humanitarian. Turkey is one of the most preferred des-tinations for Qatari investors as the economy offers a wide

range of investment opportu-nities in several promising sectors. Major imports from Turkey includes, iron and steel; dairy and dairy products, elec-tr ic i ty machines and equipments, furniture, organic chemical products; plastic prod-ucts and textiles.

Qatari exports to Turkey comprise of petroleum and plastic products.

The Korfez trade delegation comprised of 19 companies rep-resenting construction, contacting, health, education, tourism, fire wear, transport laboratories and wood house construction. They discussed areas of interest and mutual cooperation with Qatari counterparts.

“Qatar Chamber will encourage Qatari businessmen to invest in turkey as they hold much promise for growth in business and strong bilateral relations can help boost the trade relations. With several MoUs signed between various Turkish chambers of commerce, private sectors in both the coun-tries can mutually benefit,” Al Kuwari stressed.

Bilateral tradeQatari imports from Turkey was $384.7m, while Qatari exports reached $277.4m. Total volume of trade between the two countries stood at $662.1m in 2016.

Both countries are sharing strategic relations in different areas of cooperation.

Qatar Chamber Vice-Chairman, Mohammad bin Ahmed bin Towar Al Kuwari, addressing the visiting Turkish business delegation at a meeting held at Qatar Chamber headquarters yesterday. Pic: Abdul Basit/The Peninsula

QSE's main index gained 172.56 points last weekThe Peninsula

Qatar Stock Exchange’s (QSE) benchmark index gained 172.56 points, 1.74

percent, last week when the bourse closed yesterday at 10,110.84 points.

Trading value during last week increased by 13.02 per-cent to reach QR1.30bn compared to QR1.15bn.

Trading volume decreased by 12.89 percent to reach 44.79 million shares, as against 51.42 million shares, while the number of transactions fell by 6.51 per-cent , to reach 14,974 transactions as compared to 16,016 transac-tions. Trading value during last week decreased by 7.88 percent to reach QR1.19bn compared to QR1.30bn.

Market cap rose by 1.59 per-cent to reach QR540.52bn as compared to QR532.05bn at the end of previous week.

The Banking and Financial Services sector led trading value last week with 27.16 percent of the total trading value, Industri-als sector accounted for 17.56 percent .The Telecoms sector accounted for 13.96 percent , and Real Estate sector accounted for 13.41 percent .

The Telecoms sector led trading volume last week with

35.62 percent of the total trad-ing volume, Banking and Financial Services sector accounted for 24.02 percent. The Real Estate sector accounted for 20.38 percent, and Industrials sector accounted for 7.32 percent.

The Banks and Financial Services sector led trading number of transactions last week with 31.34 percent of the total number of transactions, followed by Industrials sector, which accounted for 20.79 percent. Of the 44 listed companies 25 ended last week higher, while 16 fell and three companies remained unchanged.

The Industries Qatar led trading value during last week with 12.46 percent of the total trading value, Vodafone Qatar accounted for 11.94 percent . The Qatar Navigation ranked third, accounting for 9.83 percent, reports QNA.

When compared on daily basis, the QSE index gained 119.17 points, or 1.19 percent, when the bourse closed trading yesterday at 10,110.84 points. The volume of shares traded increased to 11.95 million from 7.27 million on Wednesday and the value of shares increased to QR327.31m from QR182.02m on Wednesday.

QInvest reports QR15m net profit for first quarterThe Peninsula

QInvest, Qatar's leading pri-vate investment group and one of the region’s

prominent Islamic financial institutions, reported a net profit of QR15m for the first quarter of this financial year (Q1,2017).

QInvest maintained reve-nue and operating profitability at a consistent level and is pleased to publish results in line with its expectations. The Bank’s revenues continue to be well diversified across numer-ous markets and sectors creating a balanced risk profile.

The Bank generated reve-nues of QR98m ($27m) across all three of its business lines. Operating profit was main-tained at QR51m ($14 m). The Bank’s assets stood at QR4.58bn ($1.25bn) at the end of the first quarter ended March 31, 2017.

In light of the challenging market conditions, the Bank has continued to deploy its capital cautiously and retain a prudent provisioning policy to protect its gains and prepare for any market uncertainties ahead. The Bank has a strong

capital adequacy ratio and sig-nificant liquidity ready for investment.

Tamim Hamad Al Kawari (pictured), Chief Executive Officer of QInvest, said: “The first quarter of 2017 has shown the significant opportunities available in our markets. We are seeing very strong deal flow across all our divisions and continue to connect Mid-dle Eastern investors to transactions across the world. We are currently in the mar-ket with the Magnolia Fund, which is seeing significant demand from our clients, and we launched the QInvest SQN

Income Fund, which is now fully subscribed.” Looking at QInvest’s three key business lines in more detail, the Group completed a number of trans-actions and advisory mandates during the first quarter and the pipeline for the rest of the year looks buoyant.

The Firm launched the QInvest SQN Income Fund in collaboration with SQN Capi-tal Management, a global investor and fund manager. The Fund, a Sharia’a compli-ant closed-ended fund, provides a unique opportunity for investors to access income generating equipment leasing assets in developed markets. It is already oversubscribed, having gained significant trac-tion with investors.

QInvest also announced its joint bid with Atlas Merchant Capital LLC to take Panmure Gordon private and reposition the company as a key boutique investment bank in the UK market. The transaction was recommended by the Inde-pendent Directors of Panmure Gordon’s Board and recently received 99.94 percent approval in the relevant share-holder General Meeting.

Stocks & US dollar drop amid political uncertaintyNew York

Reuters

US and European stocks fell yesterday, along with the US dollar,

while US Treasury yields reversed earlier declines, as political uncertainty in the United States sent investors in search of safer investments like gold and the Japanese yen.

The dollar fell to a ses-sion low against the yen and gold gained in US morning training.

Investors were con-cerned about developments relating to the firing of FBI Director James Comey late on Tuesday by US President Donald Trump.

White House officials told Reuters Trump’s deci-sion had been building for months, but a turning point came when Comey refused to preview for top Trump officials his planned testi-mony to a Senate panel, a decision considered an act of subordination by Trump and his aides.

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12 FRIDAY 12 MAY 2017BUSINESS

US House Speaker Paul Ryan (centre) takes a tour of Accel Inc in New Albany, Ohio. Ryan stopped at the contract packaging company to listen to local business leaders talk about strengthening the US manufacturing work force and to talk about tax reform legislation.

Strengthening US manufacturing

Emirates profit falls for first time in 5 yearsDubai

Reuters

Emirates, the Middle East’s largest airline, reported a drop in annual profit yester-day for the first time

in five years and criticised Pres-ident Donald Trump’s restrictions on some US flights as “destabilising” for travel.

The Dubai-based company said net profit at its airline busi-ness plunged 82 percent to AED1.3bn ($354m) in the year to March 31. That is the first time since its 2011-12 fiscal year that annual airline profit has fallen.

Airlines around the world have reported pressure on fares over the last couple of years due to volatile demand and cut-throat competition, though Europe’s major carriers have recently noted signs of the pres-sure easing. Emirates also added more seats than it could fill, leading to a drop in the average yield per passenger.

The Middle Eastern carrier said a series of “destabilising events,” including Britain’s vote to leave the European Union and restrictions on travel to the United States from the Middle East, affected demand for flights during the year.

Emirates did not say how those events impacted demand, though last month signalled its US expansion plans were on hold after announcing flights to five US cites would be cut due to weakened demand that it blamed on the travel restric-tions by President Trump’s administration.

Emirates Chairman Sheikh Ahmed bin Saeed Al Maktoum said the company expected “the

year ahead to remain challenging”.

Middle East carriers have seen slower growth over the past two years as regional travel budgets tightened due to lower oil prices and a wave of mili-tant attacks in Europe and Turkey weakened east to west traffic flows. The airline’s rev-enue was flat at AED85.1bn. Emirates said the “relentless rise” of the dollar in key mar-kets cost the airline AED2.1bn in revenue.

Its fuel bill increased 6 per-cent on the year to AED21bn and made up 25 percent of its operating costs compared with 26 percent last year.

Emirates carried 56.1 mil-lion passengers, up 8 percent on the year, though its load fac-tor, or number of seats filled, declined 1.4 percentage points to 75.1 percent. Capacity increased 10 percent.

UK-based aviation consult-ant John Strickland said he expected Emirates “to keep a tighter rein on its capacity growth in the short to medium term”.

Last December, Emirates deferred deliveries of 12 Airbus A380 superjumbos.

Net profit Net profit at its airline business plunged 82 percent to AED1.3bn ($354m) in the year to March 31. That is the first time since its 2011-12 fiscal year that annual airline profit has fallen.

London

Bloomberg

The Bank of England said it may need to raise interest rates faster than the mar-

ket suggests, assuming that Brexit goes well.

While it didn’t say what deal would be best for the UK, its lat-est forecasts are based on the assumption that the adjustment to a new relationship with the European Union is “‘smooth.” That means avoiding the so-called cliff edge where the UK leaves after the two-year nego-tiation period without transitional arrangements in place.

If the economy grows as expected, “then monetary pol-icy will need to be tightened by a somewhat greater extent over the forecast period than the very gently rising path implied by the

market yield curve underlying the May projections,” the Mon-etary Policy Committee said yesterday in London.

It made the assessment alongside its latest policy deci-sion and updated economic forecasts. The panel kept the benchmark interest rate at a record-low 0.25 percent, though Kristin Forbes dissented again, voting for an immediate increase. Others on the commit-tee said it may not take much upside news for them to switch to her position.

In a quarterly update, offi-cials cut their forecast for growth this year to 1.9 percent from 2 percent, though they raised it for the following two years and said expansion will remain around trend over the period.

Growth slowed to 0.3 per-cent in the first quarter, the weakest in a year, though the

bank expects the figure to be revised up to 0.4 percent. Forbes said the initial reading exagger-ated the extent of the slowdown.

Reflecting the weaker pound, the MPC lifted its 2017 inflation projection to 2.7 percent from 2.4 percent, meaning a bigger over-shoot of its 2 percent target. The bank sees a slightly weaker path further out but expects inflation to be accelerating again at the end of the three-year forecast period. It also warned that domestic price pressures could be building at that time. The pound fell against the dollar after the release of the Inflation Report and was at $1.2889 as of 12:20pm. London time, down 0.4 percent on the day.

“The medium-term inflation forecast is lower and that’s why markets have taken it as dovish,” Alan Clarke, an economist at

Scotiabank in London, said by telephone. “All in all, it signals they’re moving no time fast.”

In addition to the crucial Brexit assumption, the latest fore-casts are based on a rate increase not being fully priced in until the end of 2019.

In February, the curve had priced in a hike by the first quar-ter of that year. While inflation is set to reach 2.8 percent by the end of 2017, the BOE is balanc-ing its price concerns against the threats from Brexit and weak wage growth.

It expects almost no increase in real incomes this year and sluggish consumer spending, though that will be offset by investment and exports. Wages will pick up in 2018 and 2019 as unemployment falls and the out-put gap closes, which will increase domestic price pressures.

Saudi’s Al Borg Medical agrees to buy Anglo Arabian’s labDubai

Reuters

Saudi Arabia’s Al Borg Medical Laboratories, one of the largest private

medical laboratory chains in the Gulf, has agreed to buy the lab business of Anglo Arabian Healthcare, majority owned by Waha Capital, sources told Reuters.

The two parties signed an agreement in December though a number of terms and conditions remain to be met before the deal can close, the sources said, declining to be named as the matter is not public.

The transaction was nego-tiated and arranged by Al Borg and its majority shareholder, Gulf investment firm Invest-corp , one of the sources said.

The sources declined to provide a value for the deal.

Al Borg was not immedi-ately available to comment when contacted by Reuters yesterday. Waha Capital and Investcorp declined to comment.

Al Borg has 53 laborato-ries across eight countries in the Gulf and Africa, offering medical laboratory testing services to hospitals, clinics, companies and individuals.

Investcorp bought its stake in Al Borg in November and the companies said at the time the investment would help it expand in the kingdom and elsewhere in the region.

Bombardier chairman gives up executive role after uproar

Global oil market may rebound rapidly: Experts

Montreal

Bloomberg

Bombardier Inc said Chairman Pierre Beau-doin (pictured) will relinquish executive

duties while continuing to lead the board, partly bowing to a public uproar over pay prac-tices after major investors withheld support for his re-election.

The company didn’t imme-diately explain the practical impact of the shift. Beaudoin intends to give up his executive

responsibilities effective June 30 if approved by the board, Bombardier said yesterday in

a statement. The move falls short of the changes sought by Bombardier’s largest outside shareholder, Caisse de Depot et Placement du Quebec, which criticised the board for a “lapse of governance” on compensa-tion and pushed for an independent chairman.

That sparked a groundswell of opposition to Beaudoin by Canadian pension funds after Bombardier raised pay while cutting thousands of jobs and relying on taxpayer support for a $6bn jet programme.

Beaudoin’s family controls

the Montreal-based company through a special class of mul-tiple voting shares.

The manufacturer used $593m in free cash flow in the first quarter, better than the $809m that was the average of analysts’ estimates .

Cash use a year earlier was $750m. The company also reaf-firmed its full-year financial guidance. “Doing what it said it would do is building credibil-ity,” Walter Spracklin, an analyst with RBC Capital Markets in Toronto, said in a note to clients.

Cost-cutting efforts are tak-ing hold and “we believe investor confidence will con-tinue to improve as this management team executes and delivers on its targets.”

Chief Executive Officer Alain Bellemare is working to recover from two years of shrinking rev-enue and three straight annual losses. With Bombardier’s shares falling to a 26-year low in 2016, Bellemare announced about 14,500 job cuts to contend with cost overruns and a delay of more than two years in devel-oping the C Series jetliner.

London

Bloomberg

Oil is trading near $50 again, Opec seems to be losing its ability to influ-

ence prices and a wave of new supply is hitting the market from Texas to Libya. For some, there’s never been a better time to buy.

Despite last week’s selloff, the global oil market is rebalanc-ing rapidly, said Jeffrey Currie (pictured), head of commodi-ties research at Goldman Sachs Group Inc. If the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries extends its cuts into the second half – as the group has signaled – demand will significantly exceed production, according to the IEA’s Head of Oil Industry and Markets Neil Atkinson.

“Do I want to be long oil? The answer is absolutely yes because we are going into a def-icit market,” Currie said at the S&P Global Platts Global Crude

Summit in London on Wednes-day. “With demand continuing to surprise to the upside,” the global supply deficit may be as wide as 2 million barrels a day by July, he said.

Brent crude, the interna-tional benchmark, fell to a five month low of $46.64 a barrel last week amid doubts about the effectiveness of Opec and Rus-sia’s joint supply curbs. Subsequent signals from Saudi Arabia and Moscow that they could extend cuts into 2018 failed to trigger much of a price recovery.

While the resurgence in US shale oil continues to cause doubts about whether the three-year supply glut really is over, banks including Goldman and Citigroup Inc say markets are nevertheless tightening and prices are poised to rise again.

The bulls got some power-ful backing on Wednesday from the most keenly watched data

on the market – the US Depart-ment of Energy’s weekly report on crude stockpiles. The nation’s inventories fell by 5.2 million barrels last week, the biggest reduction this year.

West Texas Intermediate crude rallied 3.2 percent after the data release on Wednesday and gained another 1.4 percent to $47.97 a barrel as of 12:10 pm in London. The decline in global fuel stockpiles will accelerate this

quarter, Currie said. The volume of crude held in floating storage on tankers -- often a key indica-tor of a supply surplus -- is dropping like a brick, he said.

The aim of Opec’s supply deal was to shrink inventories, and by that measure it’s succeeding, said Bassam Fattouh, a director at the Oxford Institute for Energy Stud-ies. Opec and its allies looks set to prolong their agreement into the second half of the year, but not everyone is convinced they’ll maintain the near-full cuts com-pliance seen in recent months.

For Russia, Iraq and Iran -- three of the largest producers involved in the agreement -- curbs in the first quarter were compar-atively easy to implement, said David Fyfe, chief economist at oil trader Gunvor Group. The Middle Eastern producers were already close to their maximum produc-tion capacity, while Russia usually experiences a seasonal lull in the winter, he said.

China’s tech money heads for Israel as US welcome wanesHong Kong

Reuters

Struggling to seal deals in the United States as regu-latory scrutiny tightens,

Chinese companies looking to invest in promising technology are finding a warmer welcome for their cash in Israel.

Chinese firms have long hunted in the US for deals to develop their technological know-how and open up new markets, but their quarry has become more elusive since late 2016 due to increased US pro-tectionism and a tougher regulatory stance.

Last year, Chinese invest-ment into Israel jumped more than tenfold to a record $16.5bn, with money flooding into the country’s buzzing internet, cyber-security and medical device startups. These

investments surged in the third quarter just as the US regula-tory crackdown began to bite, Thomson Reuters data shows.

In contrast, Chinese bidders scrapped a record $26.3bn worth of previously announced deals from the United States in 2016, the data shows.

Speaking on the sidelines of a Hong Kong conference last month, TCL Corp Chairman Li Dongsheng told Reuters the review of one target company, which he declined to name, had been frozen following the appointment of President Don-ald Trump, who has championed a protectionist agenda. Li’s phones-to-fridges group is scouting in Israel instead.

“I’m flying to Israel in May where we’ve selected more than 10 potential targets,” Li said.

'Smooth' Brexit may see faster rate hikes

Page 13: Applications Ministers attend QU's 'Tajrebaty' Initiative ......Bouncy castles and majlis are among the additional features of the market which is open from 4pm to 10pm. “Meerat

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Page 15: Applications Ministers attend QU's 'Tajrebaty' Initiative ......Bouncy castles and majlis are among the additional features of the market which is open from 4pm to 10pm. “Meerat

Yesterday’s answer

15FRIDAY 12 MAY 2017 BREAK TIME

Yesterday’s answer

SHOWING ATVILLAGGIO & CITY CENTER

BABY

BLU

ES

ALL IN THE MINDADAPTATION, AUTHOR, AUTOBIOGRAPHY, BIOGRAPHY, BOOK,CHRONICLE, COMPOSITION, DIARY, DISSERTATION, DOCUMENT, DRAFT, EDITORIAL, EPIC, EPISTLE, ESSAY, ISSUE, JOURNAL, LEDGER, LETTER, LIMERICK, LITERATURE, MANUSCRIPT, MEMO, MEMOIRS, NOTATION, NOTE, NOVEL, PAPER, PLAY, POEM,PROSE, PUBLICATION, RECORD, SCRIPT, SCRIPTURE, SONNET,TEXT, THESIS, TOME, TREATISE, VERSE, VOLUME, WRITER, WRITINGS.

08:00 News

08:30 Wukan: China's

Democracy

Experiment

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 Shadow War In The

Sahara

16:00 NEWSHOUR

17:00 News

17:30 The Stream

18:00 Newsgrid

19:30 Wildlife Warzone

20:00 News

20:30 Inside Story

21:00 NEWSHOUR

22:00 News

22:30 UpFront

23:00 The Guantanamo 22

08:30 Ax Men

09:20 Ice Road

Truckers

10:10 Swamp

People

11:00 American

Pickers

11:50 Big Easy

Motors

12:40 American

Restoration

13:30 Hunting Hitler

15:10 Ronnie O'Sullivan's

American Hustle

16:00 Swamp

People

19:20 Lost In

Transmission

20:10 Ice Road

Truckers

21:50 Ozzy & Jack's

World Detour

22:40 Forged In Fire

23:30 101 People That

Made The 20th

Century

10:05 Tanked

11:00 Cats 101

11:55 Bondi Vet

13:15 Wild Ones

13:45 Swimming With

Monsters: Steve

Backshall

14:40 Untamed China

With Nigel

Marven

15:35 Tanked

16:30 Swimming With

Monsters: Steve

Backshall

17:25 Into The Lion's

Den

18:20 Wildest Africa

19:15 Tanked

20:10 Cats 101

21:05 Into The Lion's

Den

22:00 Wildest Africa

22:55 Mutant Planet

23:50 Swimming With

Monsters: Steve

Backshall

13:05 Star Darlings

14:00 Jessie

14:55 The Zhuzhus

15:45 Elena Of Avalor

16:10 Liv And Maddie

16:35 The Emperor's

New Groove

18:05 Welcome To The

Ronks

18:25 Girl Meets World

18:50 Best Friends

Whenever

19:45 Austin & Ally

20:35 Cracke

20:40 Disney The

Lodge

21:05 Bizaardvark

21:30 That's So Raven

21:55 Star Darlings

22:00 Shake It Up

22:50 Sabrina Secrets

Of A Teenage

Witch

23:10 Hank Zipzer

23:35 Binny And The

Ghost

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

AL KHOR

ROXY

King Arthur: Legend of The Sword (Action) 2D 11:30am, 12:00noon, 1:30, 2:00, 4:30, 6:00, 6:30, 7:00, 9:30, 11:00, 11:30, 11:45pm & 12:00midnight 3D 11:00am, 4:00 & 9:00pmGuardians of The Galaxy 2 (Action) 3D 10:00am, 3:30 & 9:00pm 2D 12:45am, 3:00, 6:15, 8:45 & 11:45pm Spark: A Space Tail 10:00am, 12:00noon, 2:00, 4:00, 6:00 & 8:00pm The Rezort 10:00pm & 12:00midnight The Dinner 10:00am, 2:30, 7:00 & 11:30pm Kalb Balady (Arabic) 12:30, 5:00 & 9:30pm Fast & Furious 8 (Action) 11:00am, 4:10 & 9:10pm Bank Alhaz (2D/Arabic) 1:40, 6:40 & 11:50pmRevenger (2D/Thriller) 11:00am, 3:15, 7:30 & 11:45pm Bashtery Ragel (2D/Arabic) 1:00, 5:15 & 9:30pm The Boss Baby (2D/Animation) 11:00am, 1:00, 3:00, 5:00, 7:00 & 9:00pm Guardians of The Galaxy 2 (3D IMAX/Action) 11:30am, 2:30, 5:30, 8:30 & 11:30pm

Spark: A Space Tail (2D/Animation) 2:00 & 3:45pm Meri Pyaari Bindu (2D/Hindi) 2:00pm Saravanan Irukka Bayamaen (2D/Tamil) 2:30pm Radha (Telugu) 4:15pm Saravanan Irukka Bayamaen (2D/Tamil) 4:15pm The Dinner (Drama) 4:45pm The Boss Baby (2D/Animation) 5:30pm Sarkar 3 (2D/Hindi) 6:00 & 11:15pm Bashtery Ragel (2D/Arabic) 7:00pm King Arthur: Legend of The Sword (2D/Action) 7:15, 8:30 & 11:00pm Kalb Balady (2D/Arabic) 9:30pm The Rezort (2D/Horror) 9:15pm Georgettan (2D/Malayalam) 11:00pm

Meri Pyaari Bindu (2D/Hindi) 2:15pm The Boss Baby (2D/Animation) 2:30pm Spark: A Space Tail (2D/Animation) 2:30 & 4:15pm Bashtery Ragel (2D/Arabic) 4:30pm The Dinner (Drama) 6:00pm Sarkar 3 (2D/Hindi) 4:30, 6:30 & 8:30 pmKalb Balady (2D/Arabic) 9:00pm King Arthur: Legend of The Sword (2D/Action) 7:00 & 9:15pm Georgettan (2D/Malayalam) 11:00pm The Rezort (2D/Horror) 11:30pm

The Boss Baby (2D/Animation) 2:30 & 4:30pm Spark: A Space Tail (2D/Animation) 2:30 & 6:30pm Sarkar 3 (2D/Hindi) 2:15, 4:45 & 8:30pm Bahubali 2: The Conclusion (2D/Hindi) 4:00pm Radha (Telugu) 4:30 & 11:00pmKing Arthur: Legend of The Sword (2D/Action) 7:00 & 9:15pm The Dinner (Drama) 7:15pm Bashtery Ragel (2D/Arabic) 9:30pm The Rezort (2D/Horror) 11:30pm Kalb Balady (2D/Arabic) 11:30pm

Georgettan (Malayalam) 12:30, 5:45, 8:30, 11:15pm & 02:00am Baahubali 2 (Hindi) 6:30 & 12:30am Saravanan Irukka Bayamaen (2D/Tamil) 1:00, 3:30, 6:00, 11:00pm & 01:00am Radha (Telugu) 3:15pm

Spark: A Space Tail 2:00, 4:00, 6:00 & 8:00pm Georgettan 2:00, 5:00, 8:00 & 11:00pm King Arthur: Legend of the Sword 2:00, 4:40, 7:20, 10:00pm & 12:30am Meri Pyaari Bindu 2:00 & 5:00pm Guardians of The Galaxy 10:00pm & 12:40am

Baahubali 2(Tamil) 11:15am, 5:15 & 11:15pm Baahubali 2 (Hindi) 2:45 & 8:30pm

Baahubali 2 (Malayalam) 2:15 & 7:45pm Georgettan (Malayalam) 2:15 & 8:15pm

Meri Pyaari Bindu (Hindi) 11:45am, 5:15 & 10:45pm Sarkar 3 12:00noon, 5:45 & 11:30pm

Page 16: Applications Ministers attend QU's 'Tajrebaty' Initiative ......Bouncy castles and majlis are among the additional features of the market which is open from 4pm to 10pm. “Meerat

SPORT16 FRIDAY 12 MAY 2017

Lekhwiya ready for Al Rayyan clash Rizwan RehmatThe Peninsula

De f e n d i n g c h a m p i o n s Lekhwiya are 'well prepared' for their Emir

Cup semi-final against Al Rayyan, team coach Djamel Belmadi said yesterday.

Two days ago, Group B leaders Lekhwiya crushed Saudi club Al Fateh 4-1 in their AFC Champions League clash.

"We played the AFC Champions League match on our home soil and that was also a preparation for this game," Belmadi said ahead of the clash tomorrow.

"Before that we played a great quarter-final against Al Khor so we are well prepared," he added during a pre-match press con-ference yesterday.

The Algerian said he avoids giving his team a huge pep talk ahead of big games like tomorrow's Emir Cup semi-final.

"Sometimes for such games, we don't have to talk a lot. The players know how important this tournament is and we won it last year. So the play-ers know we created club history as we won it for the first time," Belmadi said.

Belmadi will be hoping his high-scoring for-wards Nam Tae-hee and Youseef Msekni retain

their form at Al Sadd Stadium tomorrow.

"They defi-nitely want to be s u c c e s s f u l (again)," Belmadi said about his players.

"They know they have to pass

the semi-final stage. The players want to do well and qualify for the final. Nothing changes for us in terms of preparation," he said.

"We are the champions and we are trying to defend our title. That's the only motivation we need," said Belmadi.

"The game will be tough and we know that very well. Al Rayyan is a big team. They lost the league

title and are out of the AFC Champions League, so they certainly pin their hopes on doing well in the Emir Cup," Belmadi warned.

"We have to do our best and be at our best and everyone is at the top of the game and we'll see what happens in the end," he said.

Al Rayyan coach Michael Laudrup predicted a feisty contest between the arch-rivals despite his

side coming off a 4-3 loss in their AFC Champions League clash against Al Hilal of Saudi Arabia three days ago.

"It will be a big game. If we look at our two games in QSL, you will note that neither of the two teams dominated," Laudrup said.

"In the first game, we were winning 2-1 until the 90th minute. The other one was a 1-1 draw and it was a very tight game. So I predict this would be more of the same," the popular Dane added.

Laudrup, who will be hoping star strikers Rod-rigo Tabata and Sebastian Soria deliver a memora-ble performance, said that

their ace forward Sergio Garcia seemed a likely starter for the semi-final.

"We have to see the MRI scan again (as a pre-caution). We have to see how he is and if he is 100 percent fit. He played in the AFC Champi-ons League game. He played for 15 minutes. We were lucky that he didn't break up again," Laudrup said.

"It was a big risk that we took and the player wanted to see if he is okay. Obviously we hope he is back for the semi-final. He should be okay," he added.

"About Lekhwiya, they had El Erabi injured, so they signed a Brazilian just for the rest of the sea-son but he cannot play in this competition. But we know most of the times they play with a fantastic XI. (Key defender) Yassir is also back with (Span-ish international) Chico Flores.

"They have a great midfield player, Karim Boudiaf, who usually plays a key role," Laudrup said. "But as long as my team creates a lot of oppor-tunities to score, winning is the most important thing for us," he added.

As long as my team creates a lot of opportunities to score, winning is the most important thing for us: Al Rayyan coach Michael Laudrup

We are the champions and

we are trying to defend our title.

That's the only motivation we

need: Lekhwiya coach Djamel

Belmadi

Lekhwiya coach Djamel Belmadi Al Rayyan coach Michael Laudrup

TomorrowLekhwiya vs Al Rayyan

At Al Sadd Stadium (7.00pm)

May 14El Jaish vs Al Sadd

At Al Sadd Stadium (7.00pm)

EMIR CUP SEMI-FINALS

Ali lumbers to 100 for prudent Pakistan Roseau, Dominica

AFP

Azhar Ali crawled to a sec-ond hundred in as many matches as Pakistan

reached 227 for three at lunch on the second day of the third and final Test against the West Indies yesterday.

An extended morning ses-sion at Windsor Park in Dominica following the rain interruptions of day one saw just 58 runs added in 30 overs for the loss of Younis Khan's wicket.

Unbeaten on 85 overnight, Ali added 37 of those in getting to his 14th Test century, although his innings so far will be remem-bered more as a dour, tedious affair on a pitch holding no ter-rors whatsoever for the batsmen.

His 122 not out has so far occupied 460 minutes and 311 deliveries with two sixes and eight fours to embellish an oth-erwise listless effort.

Like Younis in his farewell Test match, Misbah ul Haq is already leaving an indelible mark on this fixture, although not in the way that anyone might have expected.

Coming to the crease after Younis was trapped leg-before by West Indies captain Jason Holder for 18 inside the first hour

of a bright, sultry morning, the Pakistan skipper batted with exaggerated care to be unbeaten on eight off 60 deliveries at the interval.

West Indies, though, have only themselves to blame, and particularly Shane Dowrich,

for not getting rid of Misbah soon after his arrival in the middle.

Having put down Babar Azam off leg-spinner Devendra Bishoo the day before, the wick-etkeeper was inexplicably wrong-footed and failed to hold

on to a low chance before the visiting skipper had scored, to the exasperation of Holder the suffering bowler.

In pursuit of more success following the relatively swift demise of Younis, West Indies took the second new ball and

although none of the bowlers strayed from a consistent, disci-plined line, the benign surface and complete lack of enterprise from the opposing batsmen combined to create the unap-pealing spectacle of a protracted stalemate.

Members of the West Indies team form a guard of honour for Pakistan captain Misbah-ul-Haq who is playing his final Test match, during the second day of the third and final Test match at the Windsor Park Stadium in Roseau, Dominica yesterday. INSET - LEFT: West Indies players, led by captain Jason Holder congratulates Younis Khan of Pakistan (left) who is playing in his final Test match. Pakistani batsman Azhar Ali celebrates after scoring a century against the West Indies.

Pakistan (I innings):A Ali (batting) ...............................................122S Masood c Holder b Chase ...........................9B Azam c Powell b Joseph ..........................55Y Khan lbw Holder ......................................... 18Misbah ul Haq (batting) .................................8Extras (B-3, LB-4, NB-6, W-2) ................... 15Total (for 3 wkts at lunch) ............227Fall of wickets: 1-19, 2-139, 3-177.Bowling: S Gabriel 27-9-48-0 (6nb, 1w); A Joseph 21-8-50-1; R Chase 11-3-31-1; J Holder 21-5-45-1 (1w); D Bishoo 19-3-46-0.

SCOREBOARD

Kings XIdefend 230 to stay aliveAgencies

Riding on Wriddhiman Saha’s unbeaten 55-ball 93 and Sandeep

Sharma, Mohit Sharma’s tight death bowling, Kings XI Pun-jab beat Mumbai Indians by 7 runs in a high-scoring thriller to keep their IPL 2017 playoff hopes alive.

The Seasoned wicket-keeper-batsman, Saha's excellent effort propelled Kings XI Punjab to 230/3 at the Wankhede Stadium.

Saha's innings which was laced with 11 boundaries and three sixes, helped the Kings to the highest total of this IPL season.

Mumbai needed 16 in the last over with their hard hit-ting West Indies batsman Kieron Pollard facing Mohit Sharma, but could only achieve half of it.

Mumbai were 223 for 6 at the end of 20 overs with Pol-lard not out on 50 which came in just 24 deliveries.

The Mumbai Indians' total is the joint highest total in the second innings in the IPL.

Wriddhiman Saha was named the Player of the match for his match-winning knock.

Brief Scores:Kings XI Punjab: 230/3

(Wriddhiman Saha 93 not out, Glenn Maxwell 47, Martin Guptill 36, Jasprit Bumrah 1/24)

Mumbai Indians: 223/6 (Lendl Simmons 59, Parthiv Patel 38, Kieron Pollard 50 not out)

Page 17: Applications Ministers attend QU's 'Tajrebaty' Initiative ......Bouncy castles and majlis are among the additional features of the market which is open from 4pm to 10pm. “Meerat

17FRIDAY 12 MAY 2017 SPORT

Qatar storm into semis, qualify for Sochi WorldsFawad Hussain The Peninsula

Three-time champions Qatar claimed back-to-back wins at the Asian Beach Handball Championship to

cruise into semi-finals in Thai city of Pattaya, hence confirm-ing their place at the World Beach Handball Championships 2018.

Qatar, champions in the 2011, 2013 and 2015 editions, entered the Asian Beach Hand-ball Championship as defending champions, needing at least an entry into the semi-finals to con-firm their place in the global event to be held in Sochi, Russai as the top four teams of the con-tinental competition will qualify for the next year 's championships.

The Al Anabi achieved their initial target in style with one-sided victories over Uzbekistan a n d C h i n e s e T a i p e i respectively.

In their opening match, the defending champions prevailed over Uzbekistan 2-0 and repeated a similar show against Chinese Taipei for the identical victory.

After confirming their Sochi berth, Qatar are now eyeing their fourth Asian crown.

They will meet Oman in their last group A clash today, before the semi-finals to be on May 14. The final of the event is sched-uled on May 15. As many as 9 teams are taking part in the event. Iran, Afghanistan,

Thailand, the United Arab

Emirates and Vietnam are fight-ing for semi-finals spots in Group B.

According to details made available, Vietnam are leading Group B with three victories from as many matches followed by Thailand who have so far secured two wins besides a draw. Iran are third followed by the UAE and Afghanistan.

Infantino slams 'fake news' surrounding 'new' FIFA

Cahill itching to get Chelsea party started West Bromwich AFP

Defender Gary Cahill admits there was a party atmosphere at Chelsea

this week with the Premier League leaders 90 minutes away from clinching a second title in three years.

A "buzzing" Chelsea head to The Hawthorns to face West Bromwich Albion today know-ing victory will deliver the championship in coach Anto-nio Conte's first season in charge.

The fiercely demanding Ital-ian has revived the fortunes of a side who ended last season 10th and is expected to be rewarded with an improved contract and assurances about the club's spending plans during the com-ing transfer window.

But the immediate priority is to deliver the Premier League trophy and Tottenham Hot-spur's defeat at West Ham United last week together with Chelsea's defeat of Middles-brough on Monday significantly eased the pressure during the run-in.

Should Conte's side beat a

West Brom team with little to play for they will become cham-pions with two games to go.

"It's one more to go, we have two home games and one away so we're in a very good position now," England centre-back Cahill told the club website.

"If anything, we should be enjoying it. After the Tottenham result, naturally spirits were high in training and everybody was buzzing.

"Everyone went out and enjoyed themselves and there was a little bit of pressure off, although that can sometimes be bad when you relax and don't do the right things."

Cahill, 31, insisted that there was no complacency: "It's going to be a tough game at West Brom, it always is.

"It's never comfortable and we need to be aware of that, but we're looking forward to get-ting the job done."

West Brom will take on the champions-elect with their spirits boosted by a 2-2 draw at Burnley which ended their four-match losing run and saw Salomon Rondon end his 19-game goal drought.

Al Attiyah leads star cast for Kazakhstan challengeThe Peninsula

The organisers at the Auto-motorsport Federation of the Republic of Kaza-

khstan have announced a quality field of 25 of the world’s leading drivers for the Central Asian country’s inaugural round of the FIA World Cup for Cross-Country Rallies on May 20-27.

Nasser Saleh Al Attiyah, the two-time winner of the Dakar Rally and the defending FIA World Cup champion, heads a field that includes eight FIA Pri-ority drivers and competitors from 15 nations. Rally officials are also arranging a National Rally running behind the main international event.

Al Attiyah and his French navigator Matthieu Baumel are in excellent form after winning last weekend’s FIA special stage round of the Middle East rally series in Jordan and face strong competition from a fleet of Mini All4 Racings in the deserts of western Kazakhstan.

Saudi Arabia’s Yazeed Al-Rajhi pushed the Qatari on a

couple of stages at the recent Qatar Cross-Country Rally and he joins Poland’s Jakub Przy-gonski and Qatar’s Mohammed Abu Issa in a trio of German-built X–raid Mini All4 Racings.

Other leading non-Toyota or Mini drivers include the expe-rienced Czech Miroslav Zapletal in his Hummer H3 Evo VII and the Mobilex Racing Team’s Yuriy Sazonov in his own Hummer H3.

All the regular FIA T2 Championship contenders will make the journey to Central Asia to continue a contest in the cat-egory for series production cross-country vehicles that has seen Saudi Arabia’s Yasir Seaidan take a commanding championship lead after four rounds.

The Toyota Land Cruiser driver faces the likes of defend-ing champion, Adel Abdulla, the UAE’s Mansour Al Helai and Saudi team-mate Ahmed Al-Malki.

Several local drivers add weight to the category, includ-ing Marat Abykayev, President of the Automotorsport

Federation of the Republic of Kazakhstan, and Kirill Chernenkov.

The T3 contest will be fought out between the French duo of Claude Fournier and Patrice Garrouste in a pair of Polaris RR 1000s.

“We are delighted that our inaugural round of the FIA World Cup has attracted the leading competitors in each of the T1 and T2 categories and we can expect some fascinating competition over the six com-petitive days of the event,” said Marat Abykayev.

“I am sure that teams attending the rally for the first time will enjoy the challenge of our beautiful terrain and our stages and this event will be the start of Kazakhstan’s regular slot in the cross-country rallying calendar.”

Rally Kazakhstan starts and finishes in the main square in Aktau City, although it will be based at the Kenderly Sea Resort, around 220km from Aktau, for three nights after the second selective section on May 22.

Qatar's Nasser Saleh Al Attiyah and his French

navigator Matthieu Baumel are in excellent form after winning last weekend’s FIA special

stage round of the Middle East rally series in Jordan.

Dr Thani honours star Al Homaidi

Reza extends stay at Al Khor

The Peninsula

The Qatar Olympic Com-mittee Secretary General Dr Thani bin

Abdulrahman Al Kowari hon-oured Qatar’s Triathlon star Mohammed Al Homaidi at his office in the QOC building on Wednesday, in the wake of the athlete’s positives results made recently in Australia Ironman Championship 2017 held in Port Macquaire.

It is worth mentioning that the Qatari star had made impressive performance and ended his campaign in the event on high note, com-pleted all race stages in time of 15 hours and 49 minutes.

Ironman Australia Cham-pionship 2017, comprises 3800 m swimming event and 180 km cycling and 42km running.

The Peninsula

Qatar Stars League (QSL) side Al Khor have con-firmed that they have

extended the contract of defender Reza Shanbih for a further two seasons.

The 33-year-old has been a regular at Al Khor this cam-paign, and has been rewarded with a new two-year deal.

Reza is the second Al Khor player to sign a contract extension this week, after Knights management con-firmed Brazilian striker Madson for two more seasons.

Al Khor management will now turn their attentions to securing three new profes-sionals and a coach following the news that coach Jean Fernandez along with Sultan Al Enezi, Welinton Souza and Mouhcine Iajour will quit.

This file photo shows Qatar beach handball team's members and officials pose for a picture after winning the 2013 edition of Asian Beach Handball Championship in Hong Kong. Qatar will take Oman today in their last Group A match at the ongoing Asian Beach Handball Championship in Thailand.

Asian Beach Handball Championship

Qatar overcome Uzbekistan and Chinese Taipei in their first two matches to enter the semi-finals in Pattaya

Vietnam are leading Group B with an unbeaten run. Top four teams will get Sochi tickets

Manama

AFP

Gianni Infantino (pic-tured) slammed "fake news" surrounding

FIFA in an impassioned speech to the annual con-gress of world football's governing body in Bahrain yesterday.

Infantino – elected as president last year on the back of FIFA's greatest scan-dal but who has been criticised for his commitment to real reform – also claimed corruption could "never again" happen.

"Sadly the truth is not necessarily the truth, but it is what people believe is true," he told a packed hall of delegates.

"Fake news, alternative facts, these terms did not until some time ago, they have become en vogue."

He continued: "There's a lot of fake news and alterna-tive facts about FIFA circulating, FIFA-bashing has become a national sport, especially in some countries."

But, alternating between English, French, German and Spanish, Infantino said his organisation was now different.

"FIFA has changed now, this is a new FIFA and we are new people here and we act with facts, not with words. "Nunca mas – never again," Infantino added in reference to corruption once more rearing its ugly head.

He also told t h o s e w h o wanted to enrich t h e m s e l v e s through football to

leave FIFA."If there is anyone in this

room or outside of this room who still thinks he can enrich himself, he can abuse foot-ball, I have one clear and strong message to tell him: leave, leave football and leave football now," added Infantino.

His speech came after criticism earlier in the week after the FIFA Council rec-ommended that the ethics judge who helped bring down Sepp Blatter, Hans-Joachim Eckert, and chief investiga-tor Cornel Borbely not be re-elected by Congress.

Infantino also criticised "highly-paid experts" who did little to help reform.

"In the past, many highly-paid experts paid millions have been hired by FIFA to help reform FIFA, but what did they do? They simply rubber-stamped a wrong system."

In a wide-ranging speech, the Swiss president also added that FIFA was now a democracy and not a dictatorship.He said the sport had to boost women's foot-ball and raised the prospect of a "world women's league", which he said was under consideration, but gave no further details

Infantino also advocated examining the issue of trans-fer regulations. Earlier, this week it was revealed that FIFA would investigate the

w o r l d - r e c o r d £89.3m ($111m,

105.2m euros) transfer of Paul Pogba to Manchester

U n i t e d f r o m Juventus in A u g u s t

2016.

new people here and we actwith facts, not with words. "Nunca mas – never again," Infantino added in reference to corruption once more rearing itsugly head.

He also told t h o s e w h o wanted to enrich t h e m s e l v e sthrough football to

week it was revealed that FIFA would investigate the

w o r l d - r e c o r d £89.3m ($111m,

105.2m euros)transfer of Paul Pogba to Manchester

U n i t e df r o mJuventus in A u g u s t

2016.

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18 FRIDAY 12 MAY 2017SPORT

Kapil backs India to defend Champions Trophy title New Delhi AFP

Cricket legend Kapil Dev is backing India to win a new Champions Trophy title next month, saying the team has the ability

to go the distance in the 50-over tournament.

India, who beat hosts England in the 2013 final, have retained eight players from that successful cam-paign including skipper Virat Kohli.

Senior players like former cap-tain Mahendra Singh Dhoni, who lifted the trophy at Edgbaston, and premier spinner Ravichandran Ash-win feature in the 15-man Indian squad to go to England and Wales.

India edged past England 2-1 during their one-day international series in January, with the players continuing their good showing in Tests and Twenty20 matches.

"The way they are playing, yes, definitely...I believe we have the team and the ability," Kapil said of India's chances of defending their title in the tournament starting June 1.

As long as India stay clear of injuries "I don't see any reason why we can't win the event," Kapil said.

"I know the opposition is very very tough in England. The good part is that we won last time when we played there and that is an advantage," Kapil told reporters at

the unveiling of a wax work figure of himself in New Delhi.

The legendary all-rounder also billed India as favourites in their much-anticipated clash with arch-rivals Pakistan on June 4 in Birmingham, saying they "look much better on paper".

But the 1983 World

Cup-winning captain added that England will be the team to beat in the eight-team tournament with home conditions giving the Eoin Morgan-led side the edge.

England have undergone a major overhaul since their uncere-monious exit in the group stages of the 2015 World Cup.

"You can't rule out any team but England will be very very tough playing in England and their team is quite good. They know the con-ditions better than anybody else," said Kapil.

Kapil, 58, lauded India's impact players like Ashwin and Dhoni.

"If you look at Ashwin, he is an allrounder. It's not only a fast bowler who can hit hard who should be called an all-rounder," said Kapil, the only cricketer to take over 400 wickets and 5000 plus runs in Test cricket.

"You look at Jadeja, Dhoni, they are fabulous all-rounders. Any player who can do more than one job, two jobs, like Dhoni keeps wicket and bats, they become all-rounders."

Sydney

AFP

Pace spear-h e a d M i t c h e l l

Starc yesterday said that Australia's fast

bowling quartet is ready to "wreak havoc" at next month's Champions Tro-

phy one-day tournament in England.

Starc, who has recovered from a foot injury that cut short

his India Test tour in March, said he is excited by the prospect of com-

bining with his fellow speedsters at the Champions Trophy.

"We've had our issues with injury but Patty's (James Pattinson) only just turned 24 - I'm 27 and I'm the oldest - so we've still got plenty of time to wreak havoc on batsmen around the world," Starc told reporters.

"Hopefully that starts with the Champions Trophy and then onwards to the Ashes later in the year."

Injuries have prevented the pace quartet from being selected in the same squad but they have all been named for Australia's Champions Trophy cam-paign. In March, Pat Cummins made an impressive return to Test cricket in India after a five-year absence.

Pattinson returned from shin and back injuries to take 24 wickets last southern summer for Sheffield Shield

champions Victoria. Josh Hazlewood has been a consistent presence in the Aus-tralian team while left-armer Starc has been the spearhead.

"We've sort of grown up and come through the ranks together, but haven't had the chance to be in the same squad together," Starc said.

Squeezing all four into the same Test team next summer against England could be a possibility at pace-friendly wickets like the Gabba and the WACA, and Starc believes their accomplished lower-order batting gives selectors that option.

"I think the fact that we can all bat presents a stronger case for that," said Starc, who has made nine Test half-centuries.

Sy

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Starc ythat Au

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Starc, whofrom a foot injury

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bining with his fellowthe Champions Trophy

Starc relishes unleashing Australia's pace quartet

Djokovic, Nishikori march onMadrid

AFP

Novak Djokovic over-c a m e s t i f f resistance from

Feliciano Lopez to book his place in the quarter-finals of Madrid Masters with a 6-4, 7-5 win yesterday.

Djokovic had battled back from 3-0 down in the deciding set in his opening match against Nicolas Almagro in the Spanish capital on Wednesday.

And, although not pushed that far by Lopez, the Serb is still struggling to rekindle the form that saw him hold all four Grand Slams just under a year ago.

Djokovic was, though, dominant on serve throughout, facing only one break point in the opening game of the sec-ond set. And the 12-time Grand Slam champion applied just enough pres-sure at the right time to break Lopez's serve in the final game of both sets.

Djokovic faces a much tougher test on Friday against world number eight Kei Nishikori, who earlier swept aside David

Ferrer 6-4, 6-3. World number one

Andy Murray is in action later against Croatia's Borna Coric.

Meanwhile, Rafael Nadal's quest for a third straight title after wins in Monte Carlo and Barcelona faces a stiff test against Nick Kyrgios in the night session.

David Goffin awaits the winner of Nadal's clash with Australian Kyrgios as the Belgian beat world number six Milos Raonic 6-4, 6-2.

In the women's Madrid Open, third seed Simona Halep remains on course to defend her title as she thrashed American Coco Vandeweghe 6-1, 6-1.

Halep faces Latvian Anastasija Sevastova in Friday's semi-finals after the world number 22 saw off Kiki Bertens 6-3, 6-3.

MEN'S SINGLES

Third Round 2-Novak Djokovic (Serbia) beat Feliciano Lopez (Spain) 6-4 7-5 9-David Goffin (Belgium) beat 5-Milos Raonic (Canada) 6-4 6-2 6-Kei Nishikori (Japan) beat David Ferrer (Spain) 6-4 6-3

MADRID OPEN RESULTS

Novak Djokovic of Serbia returns the ball to Feliciano Lopez of Spain during their Madrid Masters third round tie in Madrid, Spain yesterday. Djokovic beat Lopez to book his place in the quarter-finals with a 6-4, 7-5 win.

Haas F1 team signs Indian teen asdevelopment driver Barcelona

Reuters

Indian teenager Arjun Maini has joined the US-owned Haas Formula One team as a

development driver alongside 18-year-old American Santino Ferrucci.

Born and brought up in Ban-galore, the 19-year-old won the Force India team's 'One in a Bil-lion' Indian driver talent competition in 2011, which led to a season of karting in Europe. He is currently competing in the GP3 support series.

"All of my racing to date has been with the focus of becom-ing a Formula One driver, and this opportunity puts me one step closer to my goal," he said at the Spanish Grand Prix yesterday.

"I am eager to learn, under-stand and experience how a Formula One team operates. Everything I learn can be used immediately in GP3 while pre-paring for my ultimate goal of Formula One."

Narain Karthikeyan and Karun Chandhok are the only Indians to have raced in

Formula One, with the former scoring points when he finished fourth for Jordan in the six-car US Grand Prix of 2005.

"Karun has been a great help because he has been sort of guiding me all throughout my career," Maini, whose brother Kush races in Formula Four, told Reuters.

India hosted a grand prix at the Buddh International Circuit near New Delhi between 2011 and 2013 but hopes of a return to the calendar have dimmed.

Maini also faces an uphill battle to progress to a full race seat, regardless of results, in a sport with only 20 drivers on the grid and some depending on sponsorship to be there.

The teenager said that his Haas deal did not require him to bring a financial contribution but hoped it would put him more on the radar for Indian backers.

"It was important for me to get this role in because it opens me up to many of the Indian Formula One fans who wouldn't have known me before," he said. "And this will help me financially with the sponsorships."

Celtics rout Wizards on home courtto take series lead Washington

AFP

The Boston Celtics continued their home court mastery over Washington, taking charge early and going on to beat the Wizards 123-

101 on Wednesday to grab a 3-2 lead in the second round series.

Avery Bradley tallied a postseason career high 29 points in the blowout as Boston can now advance to meet the Cleveland Cavaliers in the next round with a victory today in Washington.

"Everyone was prepared," said Bradley. "And that's what it's all about."

The Celtics and Wizards have played nine times this year, and the home team has won all nine games. Boston has now won eight straight overall at the Boston Garden over Washington.

The Celtics got on an early 16-0 run and never looked back. Their first quarter burst came after the Wizards scored the first four points of the game.

Bradley, who is playing with a sore hip, scored 25 points in the first half as the Celtics compiled a 22-point halftime lead.

"He put his injuries aside and laced his shoes up and played," teammate Isaiah Thomas said of Bradley. "He was the key to this game at both ends of the floor."

Bradley hit his last basket with 5:55 left in the third quarter and rested in the fourth.

Al Horford finished with 19 points and added seven assists and six rebounds for Boston.

Thomas and Jae Crowder both scored 18, Tho-mas with nine assists and Crowder with eight rebounds. Thomas scored eight consecutive points in the fourth with Bradley on the bench.

Thomas said the coaching staff did a good job of getting them ready for game five.

"We just wanted to impose our will," said Tho-mas. "The coaches kept saying that, 'Impose your will.' We were the more physical team tonight.

"We took what was on the whiteboard and we put it on the court,"

The Celtics went 16-for-33 from beyond the arc and became the sixth team in NBA history with at least 10 three pointers in six straight postseason.

John Wall led the Wizards with 21 points, and Bradley Beal had 16 and Otto Porter added 13.

The Wizard guards combined to go just 14 of 36 from the floor, two of seven from three-point range.

"When you give a very good team transition points and breakaway points with nobody guard-ing you ... it's going to be hard to keep up with them," Washington coach Scott Brooks said. "We had no answers for those guys. We've done a pretty good job on their best player, but not (a) good enough job on the other guys."

If the Celtics win Friday, they would open against Cleveland on Monday. If the Boston-Wash-ington series goes seven games, the winner meets the Cavaliers next Wednesday.

The way they (India) are playing, yes, definitely...I believe we have the team and the ability: Kapil Dev

Mitchell Starc

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Britain's Catherine, the Duchess of Cambridge, visits a cycle-themed festival at Place Clairefontaine during events to mark the official commemoration of 1867 Treaty of London, in Luxembourg, yesterday.

Commemorating history

Walter Kieliger, manager of the Frognerseteren Cafe, looks at tables and chairs covered with snow after heavy snowfall in Holmenkollen, Oslo, yesterday.

Snow platters!

19FRIDAY 12 MAY 2017 MORNING BREAK

FAJRSHOROOK

03.27 am

04.51 am

ZUHRASR

11.30 am

02.58 pm

MAGHRIBISHA

06.12 pm

07.42 pm

PRAYER TIMINGS

HIGH TIDE 05:00 - 18:30 LOW TIDE 00:30 - 11:15

Hazy at places at first becomes hot

daytime with slight dust and scat-

tered clouds with a chance of light

rain at times.

WEATHER TODAY

Minimum Maximum

Courtesy: Qatar Meteorology Department

31oC 41oC

Maverick Gabbani chasing Eurovision gloryRome

AFP

With his gravelly voice, catchy choruses and chatty good nature, Francesco Gabbani

(pictured) has already conquered Ital-ian fans and is now chasing full-throated glory at tomorrow's Eurovision Song Contest.

The slicked back hair, snazzily snug outfits and a slightly Freddie Mer-curyesque moustache certainly help to explain his visual appeal.

But singer-songwriter Gabbani, 34, also hopes that including someone dancing next to him in an ape costume will help justify his current status as bookies' favourite to land a third title for Italy, after their 1964 and 1990 Eurovision successes.

Gabbani's slick video of his groov-ing "Occidentali's karma" (westerners' karma) song has already soared up the continental charts and he hopes his

performance in Kiev tomorrow will garner those all-important votes from the national juries and TV audiences.

This year's highly original entry looks set to change the Eurovision for-tunes of Italy which has skipped more than half of the previous 35 editions.

But for Italians, he has already landed the top prize.

Gabbani, whose steady girlfriend of five years is a tattoo artist, landed the Italian nomination by winning the Sanremo music festival, a five-night affair which keeps Italians glued to their television screens every February.

This year's Sanremo drew an aver-age nightly audience of 10.8 million for a 50 percent national TV share — giving Gabbani, as the winner, legions of fans and plenty of popular momen-tum for his Eurovision assault.

Created back in 1951 in the tourist resort of San Remo, a short hop from the French Riviera, the festival has

helped launch several top Italian names from Eros Ramazzotti to And-rea Bocelli.

Traditionally, the festival winner earns a slot at Eurovision.

Gabbani, born further along the Mediterranean coast at Carrara, famed

for its marble, grew up in a musical environment — his parents running a shop selling instruments.

After releasing several low key albums he burst onto the scene at the 2016 edition of San Remo, winning the accolade of best newcomer with his feel-good dance entry "Amen."

That success vaulted him into the senior competition and he promptly entered "Occidentali's karma", co-written with, among others, younger brother Filippo.

The sheer energy the song exudes with its Gangnamesque choreography has seduced fans across Europe, despite some rather perplexing lyrical references of an oriental, but also sci-entific, political and philosophical nature.

"Lessons of Nirvana, there's Bud-dha in single line, break time for everyone, a moment of glory. The crowd shouts a mantra. Evolution stumbles. The ape is dancing."

Profession from the time of kings getting watered downNew Delhi AFP

Shakeel Ahmad wanders the cramped alleyways of Old Delhi offering water from a goat hide canteen slung over

his shoulder, a centuries-old service wel-comed by thirsty vendors toiling under the baking Indian sun.

Ahmad is one of last Bhishtis, a com-munity of water carriers fading into history after generations of quenching thirsts in Delhi's old quarter.

Bhishtis have been supplying busi-nesses, pilgrims and passersby with swigs from their swollen canteens since the Mughals ruled India, an era before piped water sounded the death knell for their trade.

"I spent my childhood doing this. My ancestors too spent theirs," Ahmad said at the footsteps of Jama Masjid, a towering mosque built at the height of the Mughal empire.

"Now I am the last. I'm not sure if my children, if the next generation, will do this or not." For centuries, Bhishtis have sourced water from an underground basin deep beneath the warrens and Mughal-era mon-uments of Old Delhi.

Inside a small Sufi shrine, Ahmad — like countless Bhishtis before him — draws water from a deep well, filling his large goat skin canteen known as a mashaq to the very

brim. "The water in this well hasn't stopped since it was dug," said Ahmad, gesturing to the murky depths of the pit below.

"It dried up just once when construc-tion began on the Delhi metro... But then it just came back on its own."

It is back-breaking work hauling a full mashaq around the crowded, cobbled streets. A full canteen carries roughly 30 litres — enough to earn a Bhishti a mere Rs30 ($0.50), a pittance for the hard labour involved. "My children will find it difficult to do this job. I am the last (of my family)," Ahmad said.

Indian water carrier Shakeel Ahmad carries a goat hide water container in Delhi.

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20 FRIDAY 12 MAY 2017HOME