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02Great India Property Festival ‘a big hit’

03‘e-Payment facility’ to be in place at fuel stations soon

04 ‘Iran pursuing path of death’

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45 years after Nixon, another US president faces impeachment 7WORLD

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Bahrain top UAE Bahrain powered to a resounding 71-53 victory over the UAE last night to make a winning start to the Gulf Basketball Associa-tion (GBA) Men’s National Teams Championship, which tipped off yesterday in Kuwait City. P16

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Why next month’s election could have a far bigger effect on the UK than Brexit?

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HUAWEI BAHRAINʼS VISION IS TO BRING DIGITAL TO EVERY PERSON, HOME AND ORGANIZATION FOR A FULLY CONNECTED, INTELLIGENT KINGDOM

His Majesty King Hamad bin Isa Al Khalifa received, at Al Sakhir Palace yesterday, senior participants in the Manama Dialogue, which is organised for the 15th straight year by the International Institute for Strategic Studies (IISS), in co-operation with the Foreign Affairs Ministry. His Majesty highlighted the significance of such summits amidst the world witnessing profound challenges including terrorism, extremism, piracy and poverty. “Despite these challenges, we should remain resolute in our quest for peace. The more our enemies plot to destabilise us, the more closely we collaborate with our friends. From policing the waters of the Gulf to co-operating on cyber security, we are stronger when we work together. That is the spirit that animates the Manama Dialogue,” His Majesty said. HM King Hamad later hosted a dinner banquet in honour of the senior participants in the IISS Manama Dialogue.

Summit role stressed

Iran ‘a major threat’ Foreign Minister calls for joint action to tackle terror threats in the region

• He called for an international stance towards Israel and its actions that violate international laws and resolutions, including its settlements and its occupation of the Golan heights.

Manama

Foreign Minister Shaikh Khalid bin Ahmed bin Mo-hammed Al Khalifa stressed

the role of the Gulf Co-operation Council States, the Arab Repub-lic of Egypt, and the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan in ensuring the stability and the security of the region through the efforts they exert in facing the challenges

and their endeavours to provide solutions for issues.

Addressing the 15th Manama Dialogue, he said that crucial stra-tegic value of the region at various political, security and economic levels necessitates the responsible countries in the world to co-oper-ate with the region’s countries in

maintaining regional peace and security.

He also pointed out that this co-operation and collective ac-tion is a prerequisite for the suc-cess of any coalition or regional grouping.

He affirmed that Iran remains a major threat targeting the region’s

security and stability by continuing its support to terrorism and terror-ist militias, such as Hizbollah and others, as well as its expansionist policies, its violation of interna-tional law and its attack on an oil refinery installation in the King-dom of Saudi Arabia and the com-mercial ships in the Sea of Oman.

Shaikh Khalid added, that in addition to that, Iran also threat-ened maritime safety and security, and trying to undermine the ef-forts exerted by our countries for the benefit of the region and the region’s countries.

The minister called upon the international community to ex-ert further efforts to deter Iran and stop its interference in the internal affairs of the region’s countries and to respect their sovereignty and independence, noting that the GCC have never and will never interfere in Iran’s internal affairs.

Shaikh Khalid speaks at the Manama Dialogue. Florence Parly

Mideast peace is only achievable by

ensuring the rights of Palestinian people.

SHAIKH KHALID

Pence on Iraq visit Irbil

Vice President Mike Pence worked to re-

assure the United States’ Kurdish allies in an unan-nounced trip to Iraq on Saturday, the highest-level American trip since Presi-dent Donald Trump ordered a pullback of US forces in Syria two months ago.

Flying in a C-17 military cargo jet to preserve the secrecy of the visit, Pence landed in Irbil to meet with Iraqi Kurdistan President Nechirvan Barzani.

ISIS-linked militant killedManila

Philippine soldiers have killed a militant who

had helped a local group linked to ISIS to stage suicide bombings in the southern province of Sulu, the mili-tary said on Saturday.

The body of Talha Jum-sah, also known as Abu Talha, was recovered after a clash with Filipino troops on Fri-day morning in the town of Patikul, military officials said.

They said Abu Talha had been trained in bomb-mak-ing by ISIS and had instruct-ed the militant Abu Sayyaf Group (ASG) in setting up suicide attacks.

02SUNDAY, NOVEMBER 24, 2019

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Great India Property Festival ‘a big hit’ TDT | Manama

In its most recent and big-gest instalment of the most awaited real estate extrava-

ganza the “Great India Property Festival” was held on 22nd and 23rd November 2019.

The real estate exhibition witnessed some of the biggest names from the real estate in-dustry at Bahrain’s ideal ven-ue for luxury and HNI themed events, The Gulf Hotel and Convention.

The show was inaugurated by Mohammed Dadabhai, Chair-man of the Dadabhai Group. Mr Dadabhai was joined by a delegation of eminent person-alities from Bahrain namely, Aziz Gilitwala, Managing Di-rector of Dadabhai Travels and Aziz Mithaiwala of Pegasus Real Estate.

City Estate Management’s founder and CEO, Pravin Ba-vadiya heads one of the pow-

erful real estate brokerage companies in Gujarat. He un-derstands the intricacies of the Gujarat market and niche of a client to help them find their dream homes. City Estate Management covered the entire Gujarat Pavilion at the expo and had clients from cities like

Ahmedabad, Kalol, Surat, and more.

It was an absolute delight to understand the Indian real es-tate sector from a prominent persona like Mr Bavadiya, the organisers said in a statement issued.

The show boasted well-

known and all RERA approved developers showcasing their conglomerate of luxurious and upscale properties from Mum-bai, Pune, Rajasthan, Delhi, Bangalore, Kerala, Gujarat, and some international destinations as well; Sobha Hartland from Dubai, Sugee Group from Por-

tugal and Banyan Tree from Phuket.

Featuring a variety of tracks that allow attendees to explore what’s next in global Invest-ment, The Portugal partner at The Great India Property Show, Sugee Group showcased their new project in Portugal

which focuses on opening new avenues of investment and introducing a myriad of new initiatives. Portugal remains one of the most sought-after investment destinations in the world. Bahrain investors are a testament to this.

The exhibition featured over 35 builders and property devel-opers from across India such as Godrej Properties, Platinum Corp, Paradigm Realty, Rus-tomjee from Mumbai, Mantri Group, Excella and Amanora Park Town from Pune, Sobha Developers showcasing their India-wide developments along with their Bangalore smart city project, Prarambh, Sheetal Infrastructure, Arvind Smartspaces from Ahmedabad, Puravankara from Bangalore and southern builders such as Mulberry Homes, Kent Prop-erties, Jos Alukkas Properties, Vishraam Builders, TVS from Chennai and others.

From left, Shekar Bhardwaj, Founder and CEO of The Great India Property Festival, Mr Aziz Gilitwala, Mr Mohammed Dadabhai and Mr Pravin Bavadiya. Visitors at one of the stalls.

Training programmes in Design Thinking, Data Visualisation set

TDT | Manama

The MENA Centre for Investment in the Kingdom will be host-

ing training programmes in Design Thinking and Data Visualisation.

The programmes will run simultaneously from Decem-ber 1-3, 2019, the centre said in a statement issued.

The trainers are from one of Asia’s largest Data Science Institutes - INSOFE.

INSOFE was ranked third by CIO.com in their list of “16 Big Data Certifications that will pay off” consecutively from 2013-2016.

Silicon India Magazine listed INSOFE as among the “Top 5 Big Data Training Institutes 2016”.

“Design thinking is a new process for creative problem solving that has generated a buzz in various sectors around the globe. It is a new way to approach business; making it more effective and productive.

“This new approach has been used by many successful com-panies like IBM, Infosys, Fidel-ity, Mass Mutual Insurance, Braun, Airbnb and many more,” the statement said.

Design thinking teaches how to bring together human views and technology at the same time making it economical. It

also allows those who aren’t trained with technology to use creative tools to address a vast range of challenges. It’s about embracing simple mindset shifts and tackling problems from a new direction, it added.

In the world of Big Data, data visualisation tools and technologies are essential to analyse massive amounts of in-formation and make data-driv-en decisions. Any professional industry will greatly benefit from making data more un-derstandable. For more infor-mation on these programmes, contact: 973-39158369 or email:[email protected].

Classical Bollywood duets performed by ‘SurSakhi’ an all-female orchestra from India enthralled fans at an event organised by Indian Ladies Association (ILA) at the Diplomat Radisson Blu Hotel and Spa under the title ‘Kajra Mohabbatwala’. The proceeds from the event will go towards Sneha, the free recreation centre run by ILA for specially-abled children. Indian Ambassador Alok Kumar Sinha, Zayani Motors General Manager Mohammed Zaki and other dignitaries along with ILA members attended.


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Brain TumorsBrain Hemorrhage (Bleeding)Head TraumaEpilepsy SurgeryBrain Endoscopic Surgery

Specialized in Brain Surgery

Spine Surgery

Surgery of Spinal Cord Tumors

Surgery of Peripheral NerveInjury & EntrapmentSyndromes

Lumbar & Cervical MicroscopicDisc Surgery & Fixation

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DR. SAMY GOUDAConsultant of Neurosurgery& Spine Surgery

MD, MS, PHD

FOR APPOINTMENTS 1736 2233 3612 9777

Great India Property Festival ‘a big hit’ TDT | Manama

In its most recent and big-gest instalment of the most awaited real estate extrava-

ganza the “Great India Property Festival” was held on 22nd and 23rd November 2019.

The real estate exhibition witnessed some of the biggest names from the real estate in-dustry at Bahrain’s ideal ven-ue for luxury and HNI themed events, The Gulf Hotel and Convention.

The show was inaugurated by Mohammed Dadabhai, Chair-man of the Dadabhai Group. Mr Dadabhai was joined by a delegation of eminent person-alities from Bahrain namely, Aziz Gilitwala, Managing Di-rector of Dadabhai Travels and Aziz Mithaiwala of Pegasus Real Estate.

City Estate Management’s founder and CEO, Pravin Ba-vadiya heads one of the pow-

erful real estate brokerage companies in Gujarat. He un-derstands the intricacies of the Gujarat market and niche of a client to help them find their dream homes. City Estate Management covered the entire Gujarat Pavilion at the expo and had clients from cities like

Ahmedabad, Kalol, Surat, and more.

It was an absolute delight to understand the Indian real es-tate sector from a prominent persona like Mr Bavadiya, the organisers said in a statement issued.

The show boasted well-

known and all RERA approved developers showcasing their conglomerate of luxurious and upscale properties from Mum-bai, Pune, Rajasthan, Delhi, Bangalore, Kerala, Gujarat, and some international destinations as well; Sobha Hartland from Dubai, Sugee Group from Por-

tugal and Banyan Tree from Phuket.

Featuring a variety of tracks that allow attendees to explore what’s next in global Invest-ment, The Portugal partner at The Great India Property Show, Sugee Group showcased their new project in Portugal

which focuses on opening new avenues of investment and introducing a myriad of new initiatives. Portugal remains one of the most sought-after investment destinations in the world. Bahrain investors are a testament to this.

The exhibition featured over 35 builders and property devel-opers from across India such as Godrej Properties, Platinum Corp, Paradigm Realty, Rus-tomjee from Mumbai, Mantri Group, Excella and Amanora Park Town from Pune, Sobha Developers showcasing their India-wide developments along with their Bangalore smart city project, Prarambh, Sheetal Infrastructure, Arvind Smartspaces from Ahmedabad, Puravankara from Bangalore and southern builders such as Mulberry Homes, Kent Prop-erties, Jos Alukkas Properties, Vishraam Builders, TVS from Chennai and others.

From left, Shekar Bhardwaj, Founder and CEO of The Great India Property Festival, Mr Aziz Gilitwala, Mr Mohammed Dadabhai and Mr Pravin Bavadiya. Visitors at one of the stalls.

Training programmes in Design Thinking, Data Visualisation set

TDT | Manama

The MENA Centre for Investment in the Kingdom will be host-

ing training programmes in Design Thinking and Data Visualisation.

The programmes will run simultaneously from Decem-ber 1-3, 2019, the centre said in a statement issued.

The trainers are from one of Asia’s largest Data Science Institutes - INSOFE.

INSOFE was ranked third by CIO.com in their list of “16 Big Data Certifications that will pay off” consecutively from 2013-2016.

Silicon India Magazine listed INSOFE as among the “Top 5 Big Data Training Institutes 2016”.

“Design thinking is a new process for creative problem solving that has generated a buzz in various sectors around the globe. It is a new way to approach business; making it more effective and productive.

“This new approach has been used by many successful com-panies like IBM, Infosys, Fidel-ity, Mass Mutual Insurance, Braun, Airbnb and many more,” the statement said.

Design thinking teaches how to bring together human views and technology at the same time making it economical. It

also allows those who aren’t trained with technology to use creative tools to address a vast range of challenges. It’s about embracing simple mindset shifts and tackling problems from a new direction, it added.

In the world of Big Data, data visualisation tools and technologies are essential to analyse massive amounts of in-formation and make data-driv-en decisions. Any professional industry will greatly benefit from making data more un-derstandable. For more infor-mation on these programmes, contact: 973-39158369 or email:[email protected].

Classical Bollywood duets performed by ‘SurSakhi’ an all-female orchestra from India enthralled fans at an event organised by Indian Ladies Association (ILA) at the Diplomat Radisson Blu Hotel and Spa under the title ‘Kajra Mohabbatwala’. The proceeds from the event will go towards Sneha, the free recreation centre run by ILA for specially-abled children. Indian Ambassador Alok Kumar Sinha, Zayani Motors General Manager Mohammed Zaki and other dignitaries along with ILA members attended.


‘e-Payment facility’ to be in place at fuel stations soon

New service to create enhanced customer experience

• Customers will have the opportunity to register for new Sadeem cards, plus add their existing Sadeem Cards in their BenefitPay application.

• Exciting offers and perks will be part of BENEFIT’s roll out plan to the public; to increase awareness of the new service in an engaging, and informative manner.

TDT | Manama

Citizens and residents will soon be able to pay elec-tronically at the King-

dom’s petrol stations after a key partnership was announced yesterday.

A strategic partnership was announced between Benefit and BAPCO to deliver cashless payment solutions for all petrol service stations.

This partnership will enable customers to pay through the BenefitPay QR Feature at all pet-rol stations.

The newly-added service will create an enhanced customer experience by enabling them to pay using their mobile phones.

Additionally, customers will have the opportunity to register for new Sadeem cards, plus add their existing Sadeem Cards in their BenefitPay application.

Exciting offers and perks will be part of BENEFIT’s roll out plan to the public; to increase aware-ness of the new service in an en-

gaging, and informative manner.Commenting on the partner-

ship, BENEFIT CEO Abdulwahed Al Janahi said: “Through this partnership with BAPCO; cash-less petrol service stations will become a reality. Also, in our quest to not only make things convenient for consumers, but support the government’s move towards a cashless society.

“Partnerships such as these

support our vision to lead, and provide innovative and value added solutions to our consum-ers, and stakeholders.”

BAPCO General Manager Mar-keting, Khalid Buhazza stated, “Our Partnership with BENE-FIT reflects our dedication, and commitment to be a major con-tributor to the national growth, and bring change to communi-ties in Bahrain.

“This step will not only create a simpler and more convenient experience for consumers but it will also empower Petrol Station owners via safe and faster pay-ment methods, while creating long-lasting relationships with their customers.”

BENEFIT (www.benefit.bh) was established in 1997 and is licensed by the Central Bank of Bahrain (CBB) as an ancillary service provider to the King-dom’s financial services indus-try.

BENEFIT is owned by Banks in Bahrain, regulated by the Central Bank of Bahrain (CBB), to provide innovative Payment Capabilities, Information Man-agement Solutions, and Business Process Outsourcing Services across different sectors in the Kingdom of Bahrain and the region.

Poster sparks outrage TDT | Manama

A poster placed in a college in the Kingdom, which

advertised immoral activities, was a source of controversy yesterday.

The poster created outrage among the students as well as members of the academics.

Pictures and videos of the advertisement poster was cir-culated on social media.

The incident took place in a well-known college in the Kingdom.

According to sources the poster has been removed af-ter it came to the notice of college staff and authorities were informed about it.

The Ministry of Interior said it has launched an inves-tigation into the incident.

Reportedly, it was found that the phone numbers men-tioned in the poster were in-valid. According to sources, the poster may have been placed there as a prank.

The ministry is yet to com-ment on who could be behind it or the possible motive.

“Investigation is underway to uncover further circum-stances of the case and the parties involved,” the minis-try stated.

Bahrain, Switzerland sign Convention for the Elimination of Double TaxationManama

The Minister of Finance and National Economy, Shaikh Salman bin Khal-

ifa Al Khalifa and the Assistant Secretary of State and Head of the Middle East and North Africa Division, Federal Department of Foreign Affairs of Switzerland, Ambassador Maya Tissafi, yes-terday signed the Convention and Protocol for the Elimination of Double Taxation with respect to Taxes on Income and on Capital and the Prevention of Tax Eva-sion and Avoidance (the Conven-tion) between the Government of the Kingdom of Bahrain and the Swiss Federal Council.

The Minister of Finance and

National Economy welcomed the signing of the Convention, adding that the agreement is an important step towards strength-ening existing economic and in-vestment cooperation between Bahrain and Switzerland.

Furthermore, he highlight-ed that the agreement is a rep-resentation of the Kingdom’s efforts to support an economic environment that encourages international investment.

On this note, he stressed the

importance of conventions like the one signed today in attracting foreign direct investments which will in turn enhance Bahrain’s economic competitiveness in line with its sustainable devel-opment goals.

The signed Convention aims to enhance cooperation on tax matters, including measures to avoid double taxation on persons resident in both or either Bah-rain or Switzerland, as well as provisions applicable to the taxes on income and capital imposed on behalf of either country.

The signing of the Convention is part of the Kingdom’s com-mitment to strengthening in-ternationally agreed standards on the Transparency and Ex-change of Information for Tax Purposes and prevention of tax evasion and avoidance, as set out by the G20 and Organisa-tion for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD). Until now, Bahrain has signed a total of

45 double taxation conventions with jurisdictions around the world.

Shaikh Salman, Ms Tissafi sign the agreement.

Bahrain has signed a total of

45 double taxation conventions with

jurisdictions around the world.

KNOW

DID

Once implemented, petrol bills could be paid using mobile phones.

Partnerships such as these support our vision

to lead, and provide innovative and value

added solutions to our consumers, and

stakeholders. MR AL JANAHI

‘Bahrain’s healthcare sector serves as a catalyst for health tourism’

TDT | Manama

The Kingdom, with its world-class healthcare system and services, has

a huge potential to emerge as a health tourism hub in the GCC region.

Bahrain has consistently been an attractive market for health-care investors in the Gulf region in part due to the high expecta-tions of standards in quality and patient safety regulations.

The Kingdom is looking to further bolster the levels of healthcare services in line with the Kingdom’s Vision 2030 and increase the medical tourism

sector’s contribution to GDP.In this regard, Shaikh Mo-

hamed Bin Abdullah AI Khalifa Chairman Supreme Council of Health, Kingdom of Bahrain re-ceived Dr Mariam Al Jalahma, CEO of the National Health Reg-ulatory Authority (NHRA), who briefed him on the upcoming GCC Healthcare Accreditation Conference.

Also, in attendance were the organisers of this event Ab-dulrahim Naqi, Chairman of Checklist for Conventions and Trade Shows, and Hassan Has-sani, Chief Executive Officer.

The organisers of this con-ference highlighted the impor-tance of the conference to re-

inforce Bahrain’s position as an emerging GCC health tourism hub with multi-billion-dollar tourism infrastructure projects that are already in the pipeline.

The GCC Healthcare Ac-creditation Conference and Exhibition is scheduled to be held from April 19th – 21st, 2020 at The Gulf Hotel and Convention Centre.

The conference will allow subject matter experts, regula-tors and moderators to deliber-ate the opportunities and chal-lenges being faced by health-care providers across the region and how to emulate the best public and private healthcare models from across the world.

Shaikh Mohamed with Dr Al Jalahma, Mr Abdulrahim Naqi and Mr Hassan Hassani during a meeting to announce the event.


‘Bahrain, Mideast vital national interest for US’Manama

Bahrain, the host of the US Fifth Fleet, and the Mid-dle East remain of vital

national interest to the United States, a senior US commander has affirmed.

“The various waterways – in-cluding the strategic maritime chokepoints of the Suez Canal, the Bab al Mandeb, and the Strait of Hormuz – are major tran-sit routes for energy and trade. And the ability for commerce to travel those paths freely is vital not just for the United States, but also for the global economy,” General Kenneth McKenzie, Commander US Central Com-mand, as he addressed the third plenary session of the IISS Ma-

nama Dialogue 2019, the 15th re-gional security summit.

“Since attacks on shipping in the Gulf began in May, insur-ance rates for oil tankers in-creased by a factor of 10. Those costs are passed along the entire value chain, so threats to safe transit in these waterways af-fects all nations – regardless of how much or how little they import energy, and regardless of from where those threats ema-nate,” he said.

“Our economies are globally connected – that’s an undeniable fact. Ensuring freedom of navi-gation – especially in these vital areas of the maritime domain – is not only a necessity, but a global responsibility.

“The United States military

proudly accepts its role and its share of the tasks in this activity, and to be clear we are unique-

ly suited and resourced to lead many of these efforts with allies and partners around the world.

But it’s a great big world and there’s a lot of water to cover.

“Simply put, we don’t have sufficient resources to be where we want to be, in the right numbers, all the time. Not too many years ago we maintained a near-constant presence with an aircraft carrier battle group in close proximity to the Gulf and these key maritime choke-points I defined. Today, we have positioned strategic assets globally to provide capabilities and deterrence against multiple adversaries and threats. I will note that today, 120 miles east of here, the carrier strike group Abraham Lincoln is operating in the Gulf.

“As the US adjusts its posture to meet its global – and my re-

gional – missions, an important element for us to consider is how we can work with our partners to create flexible, scalable, sus-tainable approaches toward se-curing freedom of navigation.

“Working along with these international partners, we are helping maintain freedom of navigation in and around the Straits of Hormuz by our pres-ence – deterring malign actions, and lending attribution to those that do take place – regardless of the origin of the threat.

“And that’s an important point to consider in this forum: efforts like these are about supporting customary international law and right of innocent passage, not as a preamble to conflict with any particular entity or nation.”

General Kenneth McKenzie

Manama

Iran has come under scathing attack from Adel Al Jubeir, Saudi Arabia’s Minister of

State for foreign Affairs, who blamed Tehran’s leadership of treading the path of darkness, death, and destruction.

Al Jubeir, was speaking dur-ing the second plenary session of The IISS Manama Dialogue 2019, the 15th regional securi-ty summit held in Bahrain un-der the patronage of His Royal Highness Prince Salman bin Hamad Al Khalifa, the Crown Prince, Deputy Supreme Com-mander and First Deputy Prime Minister.

“The region is currently wit-nessing two competing visions i.e. the vision of light and the vision of darkness,” he said.

“The vision of light seeks development, better living standards, women and youth empowerment, technology … This what we have been doing in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia and the other Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) countries.

“The vision of darkness is based on sectarianism and di-vision, destruction and death, and that is exactly what Iran has been pursuing in the Middle East.”

Al Jubeir, said that the effects of the competition between these two visions can be wit-nessed in some countries due to interference in the internal affairs of Lebanon, Syria, and the GCC.

The other panelists were Dr Anwer Gargash, the Minister of State of Foreign Affairs, UAE and Sir Mark Sedwill, National Security Advisor, Cabinet Secre-tary, Cabinet Office, UK.

“Appeasement simply cannot work with Iran. We hold Iran

responsible for the attack on Abqaiq. We do not want war, but Iran needs to be held account-able. The question is whether Iran can abandon its ambition to propagate the revolution and respect sovereignty,” he said.

“Germany under Hitler, the

Soviet Union, Iran today: revi-sionist states threaten interna-tional order. The key to stability is deterrence, and steadfast re-solve by the international com-munity that Iran must change. If not, sanctions must be in-creased, not loosened.”

With regard to sanctions on Iran, it never worked as the ap-proach of developing ballistic missile by Iran is reflective of its very core of the Iranian policy of death, destruction and dark-ness, he noted.

‘Loyalty to His Majesty’ theme of Bahrain Police centenary celebrations’

Manama

The theme of the Ministry of Interior’s celebrations of the centenary of the

formation of Bahrain police reflects sacrifices, the perfor-mance of duties and allegiance to His Majesty King Hamad bin Isa Al Khalifa.

The police forces have been working to reinforce allegiance and sacrifice values to protect the security of the nation in a journey of loyalty and national-ism, a statement by the ministry said.

Out of the commitment of the vow for Bahrain and its people to remain safe and secure, the celebrations come under a slo-gan that was carefully designed. Its idea reflects allegiance and sacrifice values as the essential foundation for the performance of the Bahrain police, it added.

The slogan also embodies the contributions of Bahrain police during 100 years of sacrifices to the nation as expressed by the flag of the Kingdom of Bahrain, as a symbol for national dignity that folds the logo.

Bahrain’s national flag over-laps with the flag of the Min-istry of Interior in its distinc-tive blue and bright colour. The gold colour was used to symbolise the stability of the doctrine of the police, sincerity and sacrifice in all the eras and forms of policing.

‘Iran pursuing path of death’

Saudi minister raps Tehran’s leadership for spreading sectarianism and division

The key to stability is deterrence, and steadfast resolve by the international community that Iran must change. If not, sanctions must be increased, not loosened. MR AL JUBEIR

ISB gears up for Mega Fair 2019

TDT | Manama

The Indian School Bah-rain (ISB) Mega Fair 2019 will be conducted at the

school campus in Isa Town on December 15 and 16, 2019. This was announced by Indian School Chairman Prince S Natarajan at a press conference yesterday.

The Mega Fair is spearheaded

by an Organising Committee with R Ramesh as the General Convener.

The main attractions of the event are the musical pro-grammes led by Indian Musi-cian Stephen Devassy and team on December 15 and popular singer Rithu Pathak and troupe on December 16.

The school has come up with a wide range of programmes to

ensure the success of the Mega Fair.

Various cultural programmes will be presented by the stu-dents of the Indian School and the former students who have offered immense support to the noble cause.

Several programmes have been organised in connection with the fair including a series of exhibitions from various sec-

tors and food festival as well as sports tournaments in cricket.

The main attraction of the event is an art exhibition of students with the community support.

The revenue generated from the fair is mainly used for the welfare activities of the school for the benefit of teachers and students, according to organ-isers.

Mr Natarajan with other ISB officials at the Press conference.

‘Bahrain leads with robust effort in streamlining VAT’ TDT | Manama

Bahrain is the third GCC country to implement value added tax (VAT)

after the UAE and Saudi Arabia. Following the VAT system’s implementation at the start of 2019, businesses in Bahrain have coped well with the new law, Tally Solutions said in a statement issued.

However, anything new when introduced, comes with its own set of learning which takes a little time to adapt, the statement added.

“However, majority busi-nesses were able to comply to this change. As this is a new process, businesses have to identify whether their systems would be able to cope with the new requirements, and some expressed the interest to know more about VAT provisions, which has been addressed well by the government and its partners.”

Vikas Panchal, Business Head- Middle East, Tally Solutions said, “The next few months are going to be very important as most of the busi-ness community in the country will be under VAT and will have to comply to all the rules and regulations to be compliant.

“We recommend that busi-

nesses employ a simple risk management approach and ad-dress the limitations in terms of successful VAT compliance and implementation. It is also advisable to automate the ac-counting and taxation process for hassle-free business oper-ations.”

Tally has been conducting a series of VAT summits in the entire GCC region to answer the various queries related to the new tax regime as well as introduce businesses to ad-vanced solutions that will as-sist them in ease of business operation.

Till date they have con-ducted over 100 events across Bahrain and 500 events across GCC. The aim of these events is to engage and reach max-imum businesses, especially the small and medium enter-prises, in Bahrain and the rest of the GCC region, the compa-ny said.

Mr Panchal


‘Bahrain, Mideast vital national interest for US’Manama

Bahrain, the host of the US Fifth Fleet, and the Mid-dle East remain of vital

national interest to the United States, a senior US commander has affirmed.

“The various waterways – in-cluding the strategic maritime chokepoints of the Suez Canal, the Bab al Mandeb, and the Strait of Hormuz – are major tran-sit routes for energy and trade. And the ability for commerce to travel those paths freely is vital not just for the United States, but also for the global economy,” General Kenneth McKenzie, Commander US Central Com-mand, as he addressed the third plenary session of the IISS Ma-

nama Dialogue 2019, the 15th re-gional security summit.

“Since attacks on shipping in the Gulf began in May, insur-ance rates for oil tankers in-creased by a factor of 10. Those costs are passed along the entire value chain, so threats to safe transit in these waterways af-fects all nations – regardless of how much or how little they import energy, and regardless of from where those threats ema-nate,” he said.

“Our economies are globally connected – that’s an undeniable fact. Ensuring freedom of navi-gation – especially in these vital areas of the maritime domain – is not only a necessity, but a global responsibility.

“The United States military

proudly accepts its role and its share of the tasks in this activity, and to be clear we are unique-

ly suited and resourced to lead many of these efforts with allies and partners around the world.

But it’s a great big world and there’s a lot of water to cover.

“Simply put, we don’t have sufficient resources to be where we want to be, in the right numbers, all the time. Not too many years ago we maintained a near-constant presence with an aircraft carrier battle group in close proximity to the Gulf and these key maritime choke-points I defined. Today, we have positioned strategic assets globally to provide capabilities and deterrence against multiple adversaries and threats. I will note that today, 120 miles east of here, the carrier strike group Abraham Lincoln is operating in the Gulf.

“As the US adjusts its posture to meet its global – and my re-

gional – missions, an important element for us to consider is how we can work with our partners to create flexible, scalable, sus-tainable approaches toward se-curing freedom of navigation.

“Working along with these international partners, we are helping maintain freedom of navigation in and around the Straits of Hormuz by our pres-ence – deterring malign actions, and lending attribution to those that do take place – regardless of the origin of the threat.

“And that’s an important point to consider in this forum: efforts like these are about supporting customary international law and right of innocent passage, not as a preamble to conflict with any particular entity or nation.”

General Kenneth McKenzie

Manama

Iran has come under scathing attack from Adel Al Jubeir, Saudi Arabia’s Minister of

State for foreign Affairs, who blamed Tehran’s leadership of treading the path of darkness, death, and destruction.

Al Jubeir, was speaking dur-ing the second plenary session of The IISS Manama Dialogue 2019, the 15th regional securi-ty summit held in Bahrain un-der the patronage of His Royal Highness Prince Salman bin Hamad Al Khalifa, the Crown Prince, Deputy Supreme Com-mander and First Deputy Prime Minister.

“The region is currently wit-nessing two competing visions i.e. the vision of light and the vision of darkness,” he said.

“The vision of light seeks development, better living standards, women and youth empowerment, technology … This what we have been doing in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia and the other Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) countries.

“The vision of darkness is based on sectarianism and di-vision, destruction and death, and that is exactly what Iran has been pursuing in the Middle East.”

Al Jubeir, said that the effects of the competition between these two visions can be wit-nessed in some countries due to interference in the internal affairs of Lebanon, Syria, and the GCC.

The other panelists were Dr Anwer Gargash, the Minister of State of Foreign Affairs, UAE and Sir Mark Sedwill, National Security Advisor, Cabinet Secre-tary, Cabinet Office, UK.

“Appeasement simply cannot work with Iran. We hold Iran

responsible for the attack on Abqaiq. We do not want war, but Iran needs to be held account-able. The question is whether Iran can abandon its ambition to propagate the revolution and respect sovereignty,” he said.

“Germany under Hitler, the

Soviet Union, Iran today: revi-sionist states threaten interna-tional order. The key to stability is deterrence, and steadfast re-solve by the international com-munity that Iran must change. If not, sanctions must be in-creased, not loosened.”

With regard to sanctions on Iran, it never worked as the ap-proach of developing ballistic missile by Iran is reflective of its very core of the Iranian policy of death, destruction and dark-ness, he noted.

‘Loyalty to His Majesty’ theme of Bahrain Police centenary celebrations’

Manama

The theme of the Ministry of Interior’s celebrations of the centenary of the

formation of Bahrain police reflects sacrifices, the perfor-mance of duties and allegiance to His Majesty King Hamad bin Isa Al Khalifa.

The police forces have been working to reinforce allegiance and sacrifice values to protect the security of the nation in a journey of loyalty and national-ism, a statement by the ministry said.

Out of the commitment of the vow for Bahrain and its people to remain safe and secure, the celebrations come under a slo-gan that was carefully designed. Its idea reflects allegiance and sacrifice values as the essential foundation for the performance of the Bahrain police, it added.

The slogan also embodies the contributions of Bahrain police during 100 years of sacrifices to the nation as expressed by the flag of the Kingdom of Bahrain, as a symbol for national dignity that folds the logo.

Bahrain’s national flag over-laps with the flag of the Min-istry of Interior in its distinc-tive blue and bright colour. The gold colour was used to symbolise the stability of the doctrine of the police, sincerity and sacrifice in all the eras and forms of policing.

‘Iran pursuing path of death’

Saudi minister raps Tehran’s leadership for spreading sectarianism and division

The key to stability is deterrence, and steadfast resolve by the international community that Iran must change. If not, sanctions must be increased, not loosened. MR AL JUBEIR

ISB gears up for Mega Fair 2019

TDT | Manama

The Indian School Bah-rain (ISB) Mega Fair 2019 will be conducted at the

school campus in Isa Town on December 15 and 16, 2019. This was announced by Indian School Chairman Prince S Natarajan at a press conference yesterday.

The Mega Fair is spearheaded

by an Organising Committee with R Ramesh as the General Convener.

The main attractions of the event are the musical pro-grammes led by Indian Musi-cian Stephen Devassy and team on December 15 and popular singer Rithu Pathak and troupe on December 16.

The school has come up with a wide range of programmes to

ensure the success of the Mega Fair.

Various cultural programmes will be presented by the stu-dents of the Indian School and the former students who have offered immense support to the noble cause.

Several programmes have been organised in connection with the fair including a series of exhibitions from various sec-

tors and food festival as well as sports tournaments in cricket.

The main attraction of the event is an art exhibition of students with the community support.

The revenue generated from the fair is mainly used for the welfare activities of the school for the benefit of teachers and students, according to organ-isers.

Mr Natarajan with other ISB officials at the Press conference.

‘Bahrain leads with robust effort in streamlining VAT’ TDT | Manama

Bahrain is the third GCC country to implement value added tax (VAT)

after the UAE and Saudi Arabia. Following the VAT system’s implementation at the start of 2019, businesses in Bahrain have coped well with the new law, Tally Solutions said in a statement issued.

However, anything new when introduced, comes with its own set of learning which takes a little time to adapt, the statement added.

“However, majority busi-nesses were able to comply to this change. As this is a new process, businesses have to identify whether their systems would be able to cope with the new requirements, and some expressed the interest to know more about VAT provisions, which has been addressed well by the government and its partners.”

Vikas Panchal, Business Head- Middle East, Tally Solutions said, “The next few months are going to be very important as most of the busi-ness community in the country will be under VAT and will have to comply to all the rules and regulations to be compliant.

“We recommend that busi-

nesses employ a simple risk management approach and ad-dress the limitations in terms of successful VAT compliance and implementation. It is also advisable to automate the ac-counting and taxation process for hassle-free business oper-ations.”

Tally has been conducting a series of VAT summits in the entire GCC region to answer the various queries related to the new tax regime as well as introduce businesses to ad-vanced solutions that will as-sist them in ease of business operation.

Till date they have con-ducted over 100 events across Bahrain and 500 events across GCC. The aim of these events is to engage and reach max-imum businesses, especially the small and medium enter-prises, in Bahrain and the rest of the GCC region, the compa-ny said.

Mr Panchal

05

world

SUNDAY, NOVEMBER 24, 2019

KNOW WHAT

French zoo finds runaway red pandaLyon

A zoo in central France said it found a runaway red

panda yesterday, a week after it escaped by scaling branches broken by snowfall.

The zoological park in Saint-Martin-la-Plaine said a man discovered the endan-gered furry mammal in his garden.

“We were called this morning around 8:15 am by a resident. He saw the red panda on a shrub in his garden,” said park vet Dr Jean-Christophe Gerard in a statement.

A team headed immediately to the site and recovered the red panda.

“The little panda appears to be in good health and has not

suffered from his stay outside the park, even if he is a bit thin-

ner,” Gerard said.The three-year-old male es-

caped from the park last Thurs-day, taking advantage of heavy snowfall that brought down trees.

His female partner did not follow him out of the zoo.

On Wednesday, a driver spot-ted the animal some 10 kilo-metres (six miles) from the zoo but the police and zoo staff were unable to locate it.

The shy creatures spend most of their time in trees a n d a r e n o t c o n s i d e r e d dangerous.

Vets will be monitor the pan-da over the next few days to ensure his well-being.

Red pandas, seen at this zoo in Berlin, spend most of their time in trees and are not considered dangerous

B o u g a i n v i l l e v o t e s o n l o n g - a w a i t e d

r e f e r e n d u m o n i n d e p e n d e n c e

Voters in the pacific island chain of Bougainville flock to polling stations, kicking off a long-awaited referendum on independence from Papua New Guinea. Dozens of small boats, with pro-independence flags waving above, were used to ferry people from smaller islands off Buka to vote in the city.

Thunberg to guest-edit BBC radio news programmeAFP | London

Teenage Swedish envi-ronmental activist Greta Thunberg will guest-edit

BBC radio’s main daily current affairs programme in Decem-ber, the broadcaster announced Saturday.

The 16-year-old climate change campaigner will be one of five prominent personalities invited to take over the “Today” programme between Christ-mas and New Year, the Brit-ish Broadcasting Corporation said.

Thunberg will speak to the world’s leading climate change figures and hear from frontline activists, said the BBC.

She has also commissioned reports from the Antarctic and

Zambia and an interview with Bank of England governor Mark

Carney.The other four guest editors

on the 6:00am to 9:00am dai-ly programme on BBC Radio 4 will be Supreme Court pres-ident Brenda Hale, transves-tite potter Grayson Perry, poet performer George the Poet and Charles Moore, the former editor of The Daily Telegraph newspaper.

Previous guest editors have included physicist Stephen Hawking, Prince Harry, actor and campaigner Angelina Jol-ie and Virgin tycoon Richard Branson.

The “Today” programme often sets the political news agenda for the rest of the day in Britain.

The 16-year-old climate change campaigner will be one of five people invited to take over the “Today” programme between Christmas and New Year

US troop presence in Japan a concern: Russia’s Lavrov

Nagoya | Japan

The presence of US soldiers on Japanese soil is hinder-

ing closer ties between Tokyo and Russia and remains of con-cern to Moscow, Russian For-eign Minister Sergei Lavrov said yesterday.

Speaking on the sidelines of a G20 foreign ministers’ meeting held in Nagoya, cen-tral Japan, Lavrov said these troops were “of course a prob-lem on the road to improving the quality of Russia-Japanese relations.”

He said Moscow’s concerns “over its own security stem-ming from the presence, de-velopment and constant re-inforcement of the US-Japan political and military alliance” had been transmitted to the Japanese side, who had “prom-ised to react.”

“We will await their re-sponse and continue discus-sions,” said Lavrov.

The two countries are locked in negotiations to conclude a peace treaty they never signed to end hostilities after World War II.

Talks are deadlocked by a dispute over four islands, be-tween the Sea of Okhotsk and the Pacific Ocean, seized by the Soviet army in the last days of World War II.

The string of volcanic is-lands are called the Kurils by Russia and the Northern Ter-ritories by Japan.

Japan considers the four is-lands part of their territory.

Last November, Russian

President Vladimir Putin and Japan’s Prime Minister Shinzo Abe agreed to accelerate talks towards formally ending their World War II hostilities.

They said they would re-sume talks on the basis of a 1956 declaration that restored diplomatic relations between Japan and the Soviet Union.

At that time, the USSR of-fered to give Japan the two smallest islands in exchange for agreeing to a treaty and Moscow keeping the bigger islands.

This deal was annulled by the Soviet Union in 1960 after Tokyo and Washington signed a cooperation accord.

“Let me remind you when the 1956 declaration was being negotiated, the USSR said that it could only be fully imple-mented if there was an end to US presence in Japan,” said Lavrov.

Russia and Japan are locked in negotiations to conclude a peace treaty they never signed to end hostilities after World War II

There are some 54,000 American

personnel stationed in Japan as part of a mutual security pact

between the two countries, according

to the US military.

Landslides kill at least 36 as heavy rains lash northwestern KenyaReuters | Mombasa, Kenya

At least 36 people, including seven children, have been

killed by landslides triggered by unusually heavy rains in north-western Kenya, a local official said yesterday.

The downpour began on Friday in West Pokot County, which borders Uganda, and worsened overnight, causing flooding and mudslides that swept away four bridges and left the worst-affected vil-lage, Muino, unaccessible by road.

“We can confirm that the number of those dead has sadly reached 36. Some people who we thought were lost have been found dead,” Samuel Poghisio, a senator from the county, told Reuters by phone.

“More people are marooned and the entire village is at risk of being wiped out by the floods,” the county’s governor, John Lonyangapuo, told Reuters by phone as he waited for a heli-copter to transport him to sur-vey the damage.

He added that rescue efforts were underway in the area, where more than 500 vehicles are stuck on roads damaged by

the landslides.Eleven of the people killed

were in the same house, Lon-yangapuo said.

Kenyan President Uhuru Ken-yatta said in a statement that he had deployed rescue personnel from various agencies including

the army and the police to try to stop the “further loss of lives”.

Researchers have warned that warming oceans are causing un-predictable weather patterns in East Africa.

Heavy rains and floods have killed more than 50 people and

forced hundreds of thousands of people from their homes across East Africa, aid groups said ear-lier this month.

Kenya is experiencing a heav-ier than usual rainy season, the Kenya Meteorological Depart-ment said in early November.

The landslides were sparked by heavy rain


Meet camel herders of Western SaharaDakhla | Western Sahara

In the Oued Eddahab desert in Western Sahara, Ha-biboullah Dlimi raises dairy

and racing camels just like his ancestors used to -- but with a little help from modern tech-nology.

His animals roam free in the desert and are milked as camels always have been, by hand, at dawn and dusk.

When camels “feed on wild plants and walk all day, the milk is much better,” said the 59-year-old herder, rhapsodising about the benefits of the nutrient-rich drink, known as the “source of life” for nomads.

But Dlimi no longer lives with his flock.

He lives in town with his fam-ily. His camels are watched over by hired herders and Dlimi fol-lows GPS coordinates across the desert in a 4X4 vehicle to reach them.

He is reticent when asked about the size of his herd. “That would bring bad luck,” he said.

He prefers to speak of the gen-tleness and friendliness of the animals he knows like his own children.

“ C a m e l s c a n e n d u r e everything: sun, wind, sand and lack of water, and if they could talk, you’d easily hear how intel-ligent they are,” he said.

‘Tribes are tribes’Dlimi comes from a long line

of desert dwellers from the Ouled Dlimi tribe.

As tradition dictates, he lists his ancestors going back five generations when introducing himself.

“I know the desert and the desert knows me,” he said.

Like elsewhere, the nomads of Western Sahara are settling, following a shift from rural to urban living.

“Young peo-ple prefer to s t a y i n

t o w n ,” Dlimi said, and herders now mostly come from neighbouring Mauritania, whose desert north is traversed by caravans of up to a thousand camels.

Even they “often demand to work in areas covered by (mo-bile phone) network signal,” he added.

The population of the nearby town of Dakhla has tri-

pled to 100,000 in 20 years,

w i t h

growth driven by fishing, tourism and greenhouse farming encouraged by Morocco.

In this part of Western Sahara, development projects depend entirely on Rabat.

Morocco has controlled 80 percent of the former Spanish c o l o ny s i n c e the 1970s and wants to main-

tain it as an autono-

mous territory under its sover-eignty.

The Polisario Front movement fought a war for independence from 1975 to 1991 and wants a referendum in which the peo-ple of Western Sahara choose between independence and in-tegration with Morocco.

The United Nations has been trying to negotiate a political compromise for decades.

Like many in his tribe, Dlimi has family members on the other side of the Western Sahara Wall separating the Moroccan con-trolled areas from the Polisario controlled areas.

He favours loyalty to Morocco while others back independ-ence, he said.

Tribal affiliation trumps poli-tics, though.

“Tribes are tribes, it’s a social organisation,” he said. “There are very strong links between us.”

To “preserve the past for the future,” Dlimi started a cultural association to conserve tradi-tions from a time when there were no borders and “families followed the herds and the clouds”.

‘Eight-time champion’While Dlimi loves the desert,

he does have one complaint: “The camel dairy industry is valued everywhere in the world except here.”

Camel milk is trendy with health-conscious

consumers and the lean meat is excellent,

Dlimi claims.Today though, it is small

livestock farming that is the main agricultural focus, in re-sponse to what non-nomadic Moroccans tend to eat.

The 266,000 square kilo-metres (106,400 square miles) of Western Sahara under Mo-roccan control hosts some 6,000 herders, 105,000 camels, and 560,000 sheep and goats, ac-

cording to figures from Rabat.

In other arid countries,

i n -

cluding Saudi Arabia, intensive farming of camels has taken off.

But, while Moroccan author-ities have undertaken several studies into developing Western Sahara’s camel industry, these have not so far been acted upon.

Regardless, a local adage holds that he who has no camel, has nothing.

“Some say that Saharans are crazy because when they have money they spend it on four feet,” Dlimi jokes.

For him, 20,000 dirhams ($2,000) spent on a camel is a safe investment.

But it is also a consuming pas-sion.

His Facebook page and WhatsApp messages are filled with talk of camel husbandry techniques, research and racing.

Racing “is a pleasure and it pays”, Dlimi said.

Since the United Arab Emir-ates funded construction of a camel racing track at Tantan, 900 kilometres (560 miles) to the north, racing animals have appreciated in value and can sell for up to 120,000 dirhams, according to Dlimi.

To train his racing camels, Dlimi chases the young animals across the desert in his 4X4.

The technique has made him an eight-time champion in na-tional competitions, he said.

But camels can be stubborn, Dlimi stressed, telling of how he once sold his best champion for a “very good price”, but the animal refused to race once it had changed hands.

A passion with pedigreeHe lives in town with his family. His camels are watched over by hired herders and Dlimi follows GPS coordinates across the desert in a 4X4 vehicle to reach them

At dawn and dusk in the Western Saharan desert, Habiboullah Dlimi milks his camels by hand in the same way his ancestors used to

Dlimi comes from a long line of desert dwellers but lives in town with his family, like many nomads of Western Sahara who are shifting from rural to urban living

Dlimi complains that the camel dairy industry is not valued in the region where small livestock farming is the main agricultural focus

There are some 6,000 herders and 105,000 camels in Western Sahara under Moroccan control

Dlimi follows GPS coordinates across the desert in a 4X4 vehicle to reach his camel herd


Meet camel herders of Western SaharaDakhla | Western Sahara

In the Oued Eddahab desert in Western Sahara, Ha-biboullah Dlimi raises dairy

and racing camels just like his ancestors used to -- but with a little help from modern tech-nology.

His animals roam free in the desert and are milked as camels always have been, by hand, at dawn and dusk.

When camels “feed on wild plants and walk all day, the milk is much better,” said the 59-year-old herder, rhapsodising about the benefits of the nutrient-rich drink, known as the “source of life” for nomads.

But Dlimi no longer lives with his flock.

He lives in town with his fam-ily. His camels are watched over by hired herders and Dlimi fol-lows GPS coordinates across the desert in a 4X4 vehicle to reach them.

He is reticent when asked about the size of his herd. “That would bring bad luck,” he said.

He prefers to speak of the gen-tleness and friendliness of the animals he knows like his own children.

“ C a m e l s c a n e n d u r e everything: sun, wind, sand and lack of water, and if they could talk, you’d easily hear how intel-ligent they are,” he said.

‘Tribes are tribes’Dlimi comes from a long line

of desert dwellers from the Ouled Dlimi tribe.

As tradition dictates, he lists his ancestors going back five generations when introducing himself.

“I know the desert and the desert knows me,” he said.

Like elsewhere, the nomads of Western Sahara are settling, following a shift from rural to urban living.

“Young peo-ple prefer to s t a y i n

t o w n ,” Dlimi said, and herders now mostly come from neighbouring Mauritania, whose desert north is traversed by caravans of up to a thousand camels.

Even they “often demand to work in areas covered by (mo-bile phone) network signal,” he added.

The population of the nearby town of Dakhla has tri-

pled to 100,000 in 20 years,

w i t h

growth driven by fishing, tourism and greenhouse farming encouraged by Morocco.

In this part of Western Sahara, development projects depend entirely on Rabat.

Morocco has controlled 80 percent of the former Spanish c o l o ny s i n c e the 1970s and wants to main-

tain it as an autono-

mous territory under its sover-eignty.

The Polisario Front movement fought a war for independence from 1975 to 1991 and wants a referendum in which the peo-ple of Western Sahara choose between independence and in-tegration with Morocco.

The United Nations has been trying to negotiate a political compromise for decades.

Like many in his tribe, Dlimi has family members on the other side of the Western Sahara Wall separating the Moroccan con-trolled areas from the Polisario controlled areas.

He favours loyalty to Morocco while others back independ-ence, he said.

Tribal affiliation trumps poli-tics, though.

“Tribes are tribes, it’s a social organisation,” he said. “There are very strong links between us.”

To “preserve the past for the future,” Dlimi started a cultural association to conserve tradi-tions from a time when there were no borders and “families followed the herds and the clouds”.

‘Eight-time champion’While Dlimi loves the desert,

he does have one complaint: “The camel dairy industry is valued everywhere in the world except here.”

Camel milk is trendy with health-conscious

consumers and the lean meat is excellent,

Dlimi claims.Today though, it is small

livestock farming that is the main agricultural focus, in re-sponse to what non-nomadic Moroccans tend to eat.

The 266,000 square kilo-metres (106,400 square miles) of Western Sahara under Mo-roccan control hosts some 6,000 herders, 105,000 camels, and 560,000 sheep and goats, ac-

cording to figures from Rabat.

In other arid countries,

i n -

cluding Saudi Arabia, intensive farming of camels has taken off.

But, while Moroccan author-ities have undertaken several studies into developing Western Sahara’s camel industry, these have not so far been acted upon.

Regardless, a local adage holds that he who has no camel, has nothing.

“Some say that Saharans are crazy because when they have money they spend it on four feet,” Dlimi jokes.

For him, 20,000 dirhams ($2,000) spent on a camel is a safe investment.

But it is also a consuming pas-sion.

His Facebook page and WhatsApp messages are filled with talk of camel husbandry techniques, research and racing.

Racing “is a pleasure and it pays”, Dlimi said.

Since the United Arab Emir-ates funded construction of a camel racing track at Tantan, 900 kilometres (560 miles) to the north, racing animals have appreciated in value and can sell for up to 120,000 dirhams, according to Dlimi.

To train his racing camels, Dlimi chases the young animals across the desert in his 4X4.

The technique has made him an eight-time champion in na-tional competitions, he said.

But camels can be stubborn, Dlimi stressed, telling of how he once sold his best champion for a “very good price”, but the animal refused to race once it had changed hands.

A passion with pedigreeHe lives in town with his family. His camels are watched over by hired herders and Dlimi follows GPS coordinates across the desert in a 4X4 vehicle to reach them

At dawn and dusk in the Western Saharan desert, Habiboullah Dlimi milks his camels by hand in the same way his ancestors used to

Dlimi comes from a long line of desert dwellers but lives in town with his family, like many nomads of Western Sahara who are shifting from rural to urban living

Dlimi complains that the camel dairy industry is not valued in the region where small livestock farming is the main agricultural focus

There are some 6,000 herders and 105,000 camels in Western Sahara under Moroccan control

Dlimi follows GPS coordinates across the desert in a 4X4 vehicle to reach his camel herd


45 years after Nixon, another US president faces impeachmentAFP | Washington

On August 7, 1974, a trio of top Republican lead-ers went to the White

House and told President Rich-ard Nixon that party support was eroding and impeachment was inevitable.

He resigned the next day.Fast forward 45 years, and

another US president, Donald Trump, is facing impeachment by the House of Representa-tives and a potential trial in the Senate.

Unlike Nixon, however, Trump appears to enjoy -- at least for the time being -- the support of Republican lawmak-ers, and has given no hint that he’ll buckle in the face of what he calls a partisan “witch hunt.”

“Part of the story of Watergate and the investigation is watch-ing Republicans peel off, start to call into question their support for Nixon,” said Kevin Mattson, a professor of contemporary his-tory at Ohio University.

“Now they just seem to be stiffening,” said Mattson, author of “Rebels All!: A Short Histo-ry of the Conservative Mind in Postwar America.”

“Partisanship is so much stronger today than it was back in the days of Watergate.”

Trump is accused of with-holding vital military aid from Ukraine, a country at war with Russia, in a bid to elicit political dirt on potential 2020 Demo-cratic rival Joe Biden.

Adam Schiff, chairman of the Democratic-controlled House committee conducting the im-peachment inquiry, claimed that

Trump’s conduct goes “beyond anything Nixon did.”

“What we’ve seen here is far more serious than a third-rate burglary of the Democratic headquarters,” Schiff said in a reference to the 1972 break-in at the Watergate hotel that led to a cover-up attempt and eventually Nixon’s resignation.

Trump, like Nixon, is accused of “using the powers of the pres-idency for personal political rea-

sons,” said Jon Marshall, an as-sistant professor at Northwest-ern University’s Medill School of Journalism.

But the accusations against Trump are indeed more serious than those facing Nixon, said Louis Caldera, who served as Secretary of the Army under president Bill Clinton and now teaches at American University.

“One is just about domestic politics,” Caldera said, while

Trump “withheld military aid to an ally at war.”

“He’s not advancing legiti-mate US national or foreign pol-icy ends,” he said. “He’s basically trying to stir the pot to create problems for a political rival.”

Alan Baron, a lawyer who served as special impeachment counsel in the cases of four fed-eral judges, said Trump’s actions were essentially a shakedown that “makes Watergate look like child’s play.”

Decline of bipartisanshipWhat’s changed since Nixon

faced impeachment and today, Marshall said, is the “media en-vironment and the nature of our politics.

“There was much more bipar-tisanship in the 1970s in Con-gress than there is now,” said Marshall, author of “Watergate’s Legacy and the Press: The In-vestigative Impulse.”

“There were conservative Democrats and there were lib-eral Republicans and they were used to working together.”

As for the media landscape, “the status of the media and how much people trust the media is just radically different now than it was in the 1970s,” said Mattson.

The three network TV chan-nels in the 1970s and a few ma-jor newspapers and news mag-azines “really determined the coverage,” Marshall said.

“It’s much easier now for peo-ple to choose a partisan outlet that they feel comfortable with,” he said. “And of course we now have an infinite number of social media outlets and websites that

people can go to get their own partisan spin on things.”

In addition, Marshall said, Trump can take his case to the American people directly through Twitter while Nixon only had recourse to occa-sional news conferences.

With Trump capable of firing off an angry tweet at any moment, “members of Congress cross this president at their peril,” Caldera said, knowing opposition could en-danger their chances of re-election.

To make their case f o r i m p e a c h m e n t , Democrats have held five days of public hear-ings featuring 12 witnesses but the White House has refused so far to turn over documents or allow top Trump aides to testify.

“Eventually during Water-gate, the White House tapes were produced and that was the smoking gun that was aimed directly at the president -- you could hear his voice ordering a cover-up,” Marshall said. “And in the end, all of Nixon’s top aides testified.”

At the end of the day, Caldera said, Democrats -- with or with-out a smoking gun -- are going to have to “convince the American people that what was done (by Trump) was an abuse of power.”

“If there’s public support for impeachment, than that cre-ates the cover for Republican members to be courageous,” he said. “Without that, they’re not going to be courageous.”

Forty-five years after Richard Nixon resigned, President Donald Trump is threatened with impeachment

Representative Adam Schiff, the chairman of the House committee conducting an impeachment inquiry into President Donald Trump, has charged that Trump’s conduct went ‘beyond anything Nixon did’

Nearly 100 Bangladesh ‘pirates’ surrender in search of quiet life

Cox’s Bazar | Bangladesh

Nearly 100 alleged pirates surrendered to police at

a formal ceremony in south-eastern Bangladesh on Sat-urday, vowing to quit a life of ocean larceny for a quieter one ashore.

Officials said the 96 pi-rates also handed in some 155 home-made guns, 300 shot-gun rounds and machinery for making weapons and ammu-nition at Maheshkhali town a ceremony watched by thou-sands of locals.

“We gave them 50,000 taka ($590) each as part of the re-habilitation deal to start a new life,” local police chief Masud Hossain said.

The pirates have been blamed for a reign of terror in

the waters off the southeastern coast, and accused of murders, rape, abductions, hijackings and theft, one police official said.

They were not granted am-nesty for their offences, but their surrender will be con-sidered favourably in any trial, he added.

The pirates said they were tired of living on the run and wanted to try a quieter life.

“I hope you will never return to the old profession and mem-orise the oath you took today,” home minister Asaduzzaman Khan told the pirates.

“God willing, things will get better,” said Mohammad Ishaq, a fisherman who watched the surrender programme.

“They frequently kidnapped us, often took away our catch and beat us for no reason.”

Officials said the 96 pirates also handed in some 155 home-made guns, 300 shotgun rounds and machinery for making weapons and ammunition

Pope Francis kicks off Japan trip with call for nuclear disarmament

AFP | Tokyo

Pope Francis yesterday is-sued a call for nuclear dis-

armament as he arrived on a long-awaited trip to Japan, which will take in visits to the cities of Hiroshima and Nagasa-ki, targets of the “catastrophic” atomic bomb.

Shortly after touching down in Japan, the 82-year-old Ar-gentine turned straight to the “tragic episode in human his-tory” at the end of World War II, which killed at least 74,000 in Nagasaki and 140,000 in Hiroshima.

“I will soon visit Nagasaki and Hiroshima, where I will offer prayers for the victims of the catastrophic bombing of these two cities, and echo your own prophetic calls for nuclear dis-armament,” Francis told bishops in a welcoming ceremony.

With his four-day trip -- the second leg of an Asian tour that also included Thailand -- the pontiff said he was fulfilling a long-held ambition to preach in Japan.

“I don’t know if you are aware of this, but ever since I was young I have felt a fond-ness and affection for these lands. Many years have passed

since that missionary impulse, whose realisation has been long in coming,” said Francis.

The head of the world’s 1.3 billion Catholics arrived late Saturday in Tokyo, with the white cape of his papal outfit whipped up by high winds as he gingerly descended the plane steps in heavy rain.

The first leg of his trip took him to Thailand, where he de-livered a message of religious tolerance and peace.

He is expected to do the same in Japan, a country with only

approximately 440,000 Catho-lics out of a population of 126 million.

The majority of Japanese practise a mixture of Shinto and Buddhism, two closely in-tertwined faiths based on the worship of nature and spirits, but many in Japan also ob-serve Christian festivals such as Christmas.

“We know that the Church in Japan is small and Catholics are in a minority, but this must not diminish your commitment to evangelisation,” he told his

bishops.In Tokyo on Monday, Fran-

cis will meet government of-ficials, Emperor Naruhito and victims of the “triple disaster” -- the earthquake, tsunami and nuclear meltdown in 2011 that devastated large swathes of north-eastern Japan.

“Evil has no preferences; it does not care about people’s background or identity. It sim-ply bursts in with its destructive force,” said Francis.

He spent three nights in Buddhist-majority Thailand, where he met with Thai King Vajiralongkorn and also sat down with the Buddhist Su-preme Patriarch -- the head of Thailand’s Buddhists -- read-ily taking off his shoes dur-ing the visit to adhere to local customs.

His cousin Sister Ana Rosa, who has worked as a missionary in Thailand since 1966, was a near constant presence by his side during the visit, serving as his interpreter.

In his final public address in Bangkok, the pontiff expressed gratitude to the small Catholic community for the warm wel-come he received.

“I am leaving you with a task: do not forget to pray for me!”

I will soon visit Nagasaki and

Hiroshima, where I will offer prayers for the victims of the catastrophic

bombing of these two cities,

and echo your own prophetic

calls for nuclear disarmament

POPE FRANCIS


C I V I L I A N ’ S T R I B U N E

Hon. Chairman Najeb Yacob Alhamer | Editor-in-Chief Mahmood AI Mahmood | Chairman & Managing Director P Unnikrishnan | Advertisement: Update Media W.L.L | Tel: 38444692, Email: [email protected] | Newsroom: Tel: 38444680, Email: [email protected] & circulation: Tel: 36458394 | Email:[email protected] | Website: www.newsofbahrain.com | Printed and published by Al Ayam Publishing

DAMIEN MCELROY

Britain’s general election campaign scheduled for next month is proving to

be a fascinating test-run for pop-ulist politics. A look at some of the policy pledges being made by leaders of the major parties reveals platforms wholly or sub-stantially unrestrained by the ideal of balancing the national budget.

There seems to be a desire to radically depart from the four-decade cross-party gov-erning consensus, which has proved highly influential around the globe. There is a real danger that the country’s place in the global economy and diplomatic realm will shift radically as re-sult of the December vote. This will also have consequences far more wide-reaching than the tortured Brexit project.

There are manifesto items that threaten the rule of law. In one respect, at least symboli-cally speaking, there appears to a shared drive to return to the medieval era. Let me deal with that claim first.

Almost all the parties agree that there should be a lot more trees planted in Britain to tackle climate change. The bidding war on foliage was triggered by a re-port from the University of Zu-rich earlier this year that claims 1.2 trillion trees could be planted on 1.7 billion hectares of treeless land. Scientists have said that two-thirds of carbon emissions could be absorbed by trees.

The epitome of populist par-ties is the Brexit Party. While it has not bothered to publish a manifesto, it did release a short, 20-page contract with voters. Nigel Farage, the leader of the party, promised to recruit US President Donald Trump, a cli-mate change denier, and other members of the United Nations to plant “hundreds of billions” of trees on the planet. The ruling

Conservative party has yet to publish its manifesto but it has already committed to 30 million trees. The Liberal Democrats have committed to double that number, while the Labour man-ifesto states its commitment to an “ambitious programme” of tree planting.

It is true that where the poli-ticians have gone, large corpora-tions are already leading. Airline companies Emirates and Easy-jet, for instance, spoke about their offset activities last week. Still, the race to win the tree war tells a wider story of hyperbolic electioneering and manifestos unleashing the floodgates of un-funded and untested promises.

So far third in the polls,

the Liberal Democrats have promised free childcare and a state-funded “skills wallet” to spend on re-training individuals in new technologies and indus-tries over 30 years. Labour has issued a massive programme to march back to 1970s-era la-bour laws and state control of the economy. Free broadband services are its most eye-catch-ing pledge. And it has promised to raise the annual amount the government spends by £80 bil-lion every year it is in power.

Building on a quip in the 2017 general election that there wasn’t a magic money tree to fund state spending, Prime Min-ister Boris Johnson tore into the Labour plans as a magic money

forest. More trees.The opposition has also prom-

ised costly one-off nationali-

sation projects to be paid for with government bonds. These moves would take postal servic-es, water supplies and railways into its control. Investors around the world are braced for years of legal battles to defend pro-visions in bilateral investment treaties that prohibit the seizure of assets.

The Conservatives’ document will only be unveiled on Sun-day but from what the party has talked about so far, it will also be a heavy-spending, tax-rais-ing exercise in reversing much of the investment-friendly po-sitions that have seen London entrenched as a global city. Late last week, a government minis-ter said it would slap a three per

cent levy on property purchases by non-Britons. A less friendly immigration system is also be-ing rolled out and will be cop-per-bottomed by the manifestos.

Victory for the Conservatives would at least hold the line at preserving, and maybe even deepening, the UK’s internation-al alliances. For example, Britain would remain a strong security partner for the Arabian Gulf region. Last week, there was also a joint ceremony on using the stealth fighter jet – the F35 – across aircraft carriers belong-ing to Britain, Japan and the US.

Grant Jeremy Corbyn, the Labour leader, control of the national security apparatus and the effects would be immedi-ate and dramatic. The mani-festo commits to an immediate freeze on specific arms exports. It also points to a shift away from Nato with greater empha-sis on working through the UN. Allegedly a long-term fellow traveller of radical groups, in-cluding Khomeinists, revolu-tionary terror factions and the Latin American populists, Mr Corbyn would alter the course of foreign policy just by walk-ing through the front door of 10 Downing Street.

The problem is that once bro-ken, long-standing ties are un-likely to be rebuilt and decades of work would be lost. That is true even if Mr Corbyn was to depend on the votes of the Lib-eral Democrats or Scottish Na-tional Party to sustain a minority administration. Speaking of the Scottish nationalists, within the UK an outcome that granted their party the balance of pow-er could result in the break-up of the country.

In short, the election is a road-test in how far wild populist promises can carry politicians. It might even end up as a grave-yard for capitalism or more likely the concept of “Global Britain”.

CONDEMN ME. IT DOES NOT MATTER. HISTORY WILL AB-SOLVE ME.FIDEL CASTRO

QUOTE OF THE DAY

Important findings, but same old problems

The annual Audit Bu-reau report has proved a hugely important tool

for identifying corruption and financial mismanagement in Bahrain government depart-ments. In particular, since 2015, there has been a major drive for reducing wasted expenditure in ministries and institutions.

As well as ensuring that every dinar of public money is used to ensure public wellbeing, this also gives Bahraini citizens greater confidence that officials

are acting in their best inter-ests and managing public funds properly and efficiently. The re-port furthermore is an important tool for parliamentarians in con-ducting their proper oversight duties and holding ministers accountable – and we hope that over the coming months depu-ties indeed will be following up on all the allegations mentioned in this report.

It is positive to see that some of the most offensive examples of blatantly corrupt practices

picked up by previous reports are no longer in evidence. This is an indication that these transparency mechanisms have been effective in weeding out and discouraging graft and deliberate abuses.

However, it is also disappoint-ing to see certain violations ap-pearing year after year. In par-ticular, significant numbers of officials are still getting away with travelling on unnecessary foreign jaunts – often using busi-ness class. Government depart-ments are still failing to properly

follow tendering practices for major contracts. There are also repeated failures to follow cor-rect financial or environmental procedures.

Meanwhile, numerous foreign employees are still getting paid huge amounts to occupy public sector positions which could easily be filled by qualified Bah-rainis.

Several ministries were found to have paid for officials to em-bark on overseas delegations in far greater numbers than was re-

quired or was allowed according to official guidance. One IT de-partment was found to have sent 20 officials on a single excursion. For some overseas trips, officials had been allowed to fly business class, in violation of regulations.

The Civil Service Bureau ap-proved contracts with foreign personnel and extended con-tracts of some foreign employees for more than 30 years, despite the appointed roles not requir-ing unusual skills and expertise. Furthermore, 5,736 public em-

ployees were recruited without undergoing the standard orien-tation programmes.

Bahrain University exempt-ed 241 students from fees who didn’t fulfil the required crite-ria. Education fees for foreign students over three years was found to have cost the university BD 8.5m. The drop-out rate for students in 2015-18 was found to have increased to 20 per cent, causing wasted expenditure of BD12 milllion.

Citizens for Bahrain


If politicians deliver on their populist pledges, it will upend Britain’s place in the global economy and diplomatic community

Victory for the Conservatives would

at least hold the line at preserving, and maybe

even deepening, the UK’s international alliances. For

example, Britain would remain a strong security

partner for the Arabian Gulf region.


C I V I L I A N ’ S T R I B U N E


DAMIEN MCELROY

Britain’s general election campaign scheduled for next month is proving to

be a fascinating test-run for pop-ulist politics. A look at some of the policy pledges being made by leaders of the major parties reveals platforms wholly or sub-stantially unrestrained by the ideal of balancing the national budget.

There seems to be a desire to radically depart from the four-decade cross-party gov-erning consensus, which has proved highly influential around the globe. There is a real danger that the country’s place in the global economy and diplomatic realm will shift radically as re-sult of the December vote. This will also have consequences far more wide-reaching than the tortured Brexit project.

There are manifesto items that threaten the rule of law. In one respect, at least symboli-cally speaking, there appears to a shared drive to return to the medieval era. Let me deal with that claim first.

Almost all the parties agree that there should be a lot more trees planted in Britain to tackle climate change. The bidding war on foliage was triggered by a re-port from the University of Zu-rich earlier this year that claims 1.2 trillion trees could be planted on 1.7 billion hectares of treeless land. Scientists have said that two-thirds of carbon emissions could be absorbed by trees.

The epitome of populist par-ties is the Brexit Party. While it has not bothered to publish a manifesto, it did release a short, 20-page contract with voters. Nigel Farage, the leader of the party, promised to recruit US President Donald Trump, a cli-mate change denier, and other members of the United Nations to plant “hundreds of billions” of trees on the planet. The ruling

Conservative party has yet to publish its manifesto but it has already committed to 30 million trees. The Liberal Democrats have committed to double that number, while the Labour man-ifesto states its commitment to an “ambitious programme” of tree planting.

It is true that where the poli-ticians have gone, large corpora-tions are already leading. Airline companies Emirates and Easy-jet, for instance, spoke about their offset activities last week. Still, the race to win the tree war tells a wider story of hyperbolic electioneering and manifestos unleashing the floodgates of un-funded and untested promises.

So far third in the polls,

the Liberal Democrats have promised free childcare and a state-funded “skills wallet” to spend on re-training individuals in new technologies and indus-tries over 30 years. Labour has issued a massive programme to march back to 1970s-era la-bour laws and state control of the economy. Free broadband services are its most eye-catch-ing pledge. And it has promised to raise the annual amount the government spends by £80 bil-lion every year it is in power.

Building on a quip in the 2017 general election that there wasn’t a magic money tree to fund state spending, Prime Min-ister Boris Johnson tore into the Labour plans as a magic money

forest. More trees.The opposition has also prom-

ised costly one-off nationali-

sation projects to be paid for with government bonds. These moves would take postal servic-es, water supplies and railways into its control. Investors around the world are braced for years of legal battles to defend pro-visions in bilateral investment treaties that prohibit the seizure of assets.

The Conservatives’ document will only be unveiled on Sun-day but from what the party has talked about so far, it will also be a heavy-spending, tax-rais-ing exercise in reversing much of the investment-friendly po-sitions that have seen London entrenched as a global city. Late last week, a government minis-ter said it would slap a three per

cent levy on property purchases by non-Britons. A less friendly immigration system is also be-ing rolled out and will be cop-per-bottomed by the manifestos.

Victory for the Conservatives would at least hold the line at preserving, and maybe even deepening, the UK’s internation-al alliances. For example, Britain would remain a strong security partner for the Arabian Gulf region. Last week, there was also a joint ceremony on using the stealth fighter jet – the F35 – across aircraft carriers belong-ing to Britain, Japan and the US.

Grant Jeremy Corbyn, the Labour leader, control of the national security apparatus and the effects would be immedi-ate and dramatic. The mani-festo commits to an immediate freeze on specific arms exports. It also points to a shift away from Nato with greater empha-sis on working through the UN. Allegedly a long-term fellow traveller of radical groups, in-cluding Khomeinists, revolu-tionary terror factions and the Latin American populists, Mr Corbyn would alter the course of foreign policy just by walk-ing through the front door of 10 Downing Street.

The problem is that once bro-ken, long-standing ties are un-likely to be rebuilt and decades of work would be lost. That is true even if Mr Corbyn was to depend on the votes of the Lib-eral Democrats or Scottish Na-tional Party to sustain a minority administration. Speaking of the Scottish nationalists, within the UK an outcome that granted their party the balance of pow-er could result in the break-up of the country.

In short, the election is a road-test in how far wild populist promises can carry politicians. It might even end up as a grave-yard for capitalism or more likely the concept of “Global Britain”.

CONDEMN ME. IT DOES NOT MATTER. HISTORY WILL AB-SOLVE ME.FIDEL CASTRO

QUOTE OF THE DAY

Important findings, but same old problems

The annual Audit Bu-reau report has proved a hugely important tool

for identifying corruption and financial mismanagement in Bahrain government depart-ments. In particular, since 2015, there has been a major drive for reducing wasted expenditure in ministries and institutions.

As well as ensuring that every dinar of public money is used to ensure public wellbeing, this also gives Bahraini citizens greater confidence that officials

are acting in their best inter-ests and managing public funds properly and efficiently. The re-port furthermore is an important tool for parliamentarians in con-ducting their proper oversight duties and holding ministers accountable – and we hope that over the coming months depu-ties indeed will be following up on all the allegations mentioned in this report.

It is positive to see that some of the most offensive examples of blatantly corrupt practices

picked up by previous reports are no longer in evidence. This is an indication that these transparency mechanisms have been effective in weeding out and discouraging graft and deliberate abuses.

However, it is also disappoint-ing to see certain violations ap-pearing year after year. In par-ticular, significant numbers of officials are still getting away with travelling on unnecessary foreign jaunts – often using busi-ness class. Government depart-ments are still failing to properly

follow tendering practices for major contracts. There are also repeated failures to follow cor-rect financial or environmental procedures.

Meanwhile, numerous foreign employees are still getting paid huge amounts to occupy public sector positions which could easily be filled by qualified Bah-rainis.

Several ministries were found to have paid for officials to em-bark on overseas delegations in far greater numbers than was re-

quired or was allowed according to official guidance. One IT de-partment was found to have sent 20 officials on a single excursion. For some overseas trips, officials had been allowed to fly business class, in violation of regulations.

The Civil Service Bureau ap-proved contracts with foreign personnel and extended con-tracts of some foreign employees for more than 30 years, despite the appointed roles not requir-ing unusual skills and expertise. Furthermore, 5,736 public em-

ployees were recruited without undergoing the standard orien-tation programmes.

Bahrain University exempt-ed 241 students from fees who didn’t fulfil the required crite-ria. Education fees for foreign students over three years was found to have cost the university BD 8.5m. The drop-out rate for students in 2015-18 was found to have increased to 20 per cent, causing wasted expenditure of BD12 milllion.

Citizens for Bahrain


If politicians deliver on their populist pledges, it will upend Britain’s place in the global economy and diplomatic community

Victory for the Conservatives would

at least hold the line at preserving, and maybe

even deepening, the UK’s international alliances. For

example, Britain would remain a strong security

partner for the Arabian Gulf region.


TOP

4TWEETS

04

02

03

01

We strongly condemn the Castro regime’s

accusations against our Chargé d’Affaires at the U.S. Embassy in Havana. The regime uses these baseless accusations to distract the international community from its abus-es, but the U.S. will not waver in our support of the Cuban people.

@SecPompeo

Inspired by the prin-ciples outlined in our

great Constitution, called upon respected Gover-nors to keep working for the welfare of the poor, downtrodden and mar-ginalised communities. In this context, empha-sised on furthering the all-round empowerment of tribal communities.

@narendramodi

By day, New York’s 114,085 homeless stu-

dents live in plain sight: They study on the sub-way and sprint through playgrounds. At night, these children some-times sleep in squalid, unsafe rooms. School is the only stable place they know.

@nytimes

The only way we can move this country

forward, and get Parlia-ment working for you again, is with a majority Conservative parliament. A vote for any other party risks another hung par-liament.

@BorisJohnson

Disclaimer: (Views expressed by columnists are personal and need not necessarily reflect our

editorial stances)

1359Peter I of Cyprus ascends the throne of Cyprus after his father, Hugh IV of Cyprus, abdicates.

1429Hundred Years’ War: Joan of Arc unsuccessfully besieges La Charité.

1542Battle of Solway Moss: An English army defeats a much larger Scottish force near the River Esk in Dumfries and Galloway.

1642Abel Tasman becomes the first European to discover the island Van Diemen’s Land (later renamed Tasmania).

TODAY DAY IN

HISTORY

As petrol prices soar, the Iran regime is feeling the squeeze from sanctions

Leaders in Tehran have admitted for the first time that they’re experiencing one of the hardest times since coming to power

CON COUGHLIN

If any proof were needed that the US sanctions imposed against Iran were having the

desired effect, it can be seen in the nationwide protests that have erupted throughout the country over the regime’s decision to raise petrol prices.

Critics of US President Donald Trump have argued that the puni-tive sanctions regime that Wash-ington imposed on Tehran after its decision to withdraw from the nuclear deal last year would ulti-mately prove counterproductive, as Iran would simply find ways to circumvent the sanctions by trading with powers such as Chi-na that were still committed to maintaining the deal.

Yet the fact that regime leaders have been forced to raise petrol prices by a staggering 50 per cent suggests that, far from failing to achieve their goal, the US sanc-tions are indeed having a devas-tating impact on the Iranian econ-omy, forcing the government of president Hassan Rouhani to take some deeply unpopular decisions.

The increase in fuel prices announced by the Iranian gov-ernment at the end of last week comes at a time when the Iranian economy is already under intense pressure.

The latest International Mon-etary Fund assessment indicates

that inflation is currently running at about 40 per cent, while there have also been sharp increases in basic staples: the cost of red meat and poultry has risen by 57 per cent, milk, cheese and eggs by 37 per cent and vegetables by 47 per cent.

Consequently, for many Irani-ans the hike in fuel prices was the last straw after the government announced the price of petrol would be increased to 15,000 ri-als a litre, and that drivers would be rationed to just 60 litres per month before the price rose to 30,000 rials.

Announcing the increase, Mr Rouhani said the government was acting in the public interest and that the money raised would be distributed to the country’s need-iest citizens.

But the decision has been met with bitter opposition throughout the country, with banks and petrol stations and other buildings being set ablaze as the protests have spread, affecting some 100 cities and towns.

The regime has reacted with characteristic brutality in deal-ing with the protests. The latest reports suggest more than 200 people have been killed and thou-sands more injured in the govern-ment crackdown overseen by Mr Rouhani, who has denounced the protests as rioting. Thousands of demonstrators are reported to

have been arrested as the author-ities closed down access to the internet in a bid to prevent the protests from spreading further.

Iranian Supreme Leader Aya-tollah Ali Khamenei claims the protests have been orchestrated by enemies of the regime, say-ing they were nothing more than “sabotage and arson” carried out by “hooligans, not our people. The counter-revolution and Iran’s enemies have always supported sabotage and breaches of security and continue to do so.”

Mr Rouhani has now declared victory in the regime’s attempts to quell the demonstrations, claim-ing “subversive elements” backed by the US, Israel and Saudi Arabia were behind the unrest.

Even so, there can be little

doubt that the protests provide a clear indication of the extreme domestic pressure Mr Rouhani’s government is facing as it seeks to cope with the economic con-sequences of sanctions.

Mr Rouhani is well aware that he owes his election as president in 2013 to his pledge to restore the Iranian economy. It was to this end that he participated in the negotiations that resulted in the 2015 nuclear deal and led to sanctions being lifted in return for Tehran scaling back its nuclear activities.

The Trump administration’s decision to withdraw from the agreement and impose a fresh set of sanctions therefore con-stitutes a serious setback for his presidency.

Iran, like Venezuela, now finds itself in the unenviable position where, despite priding itself on being one of the world’s major oil producers, is now struggling to meet the basic fuel requirements of its own people.

The regime has tried to put a brave face on the challenge it fac-es from the sanctions with Mr Khamenei even boasting that the country’s economy is self-suffi-cient and can therefore withstand American sanctions.

But Mr Khamenei is increas-ingly a lone voice in expressing such optimism, with most Iranian politicians now prepared to con-

cede that the government faces a dire economic predicament. For example, Mr Rouhani, speaking in the city of Kerman last week, acknowledged for the first time that “Iran is experiencing one of its hardest years since the 1979 Islamic revolution” and that “the country’s situation is not nor-mal”.

A key factor in the creation of Iran’s current woeful economic state has been the Trump admin-istration’s decision not to extend its waiver for Iran’s eight biggest oil buyers – China, India, Greece, Italy, Taiwan, Japan, Turkey and South Korea.

This has led to a run on the rial, which has dropped to his-toric lows. One US dollar, which equalled approximately 35,000 rials in November 2017, now buys nearly 110,000 rials.

The American measures have also had a dramatic impact on Iran’s oil and gas sectors. Before the sanctions, Iran was export-ing two million barrels of oil per day. That figure is now down to 200,000, a decline of 90 per cent in Iran’s oil exports.

Thus, despite the regime’s ini-tial claims that it could withstand the impact of fresh US sanctions, the reality is that they have se-riously affected Iran’s economic well-being, with all the long-term implications that could have for the regime’s survival.

Mr Rouhani has now declared victory in the regime’s attempts to

quell the demonstrations, claiming “subversive

elements” backed by the US, Israel and Saudi Arabia

were behind the unrest.

10

business


I’ll quite simply say this: if you’re trading in Britain and making money in Britain, pay your taxes in Britain,

and that is exactly what we’re proposing

LABOUR LEADER JEREMY CORBYN

Rising Technologies launches ReadON.ai TDT | Manama

Rising Technologies, Bah-rain celebrated the launch

of ReadON.ai, an award-win-ning SaaS technology for Spe-cial Education and Cognitive Remediation in Bahrain.

To mark the occasion a Sym-posium on Special Education was held in Crowne Plaza, yesterday. The event featured prominent dignitaries includ-ing Dr Sheikha Rania AlKhal-ifa and other renowned speak-ers and doctors in Kingdom such as Mohamed Shukri, Dr Anne Moustafa and Dr Abuzer Surka.

To introduce the pro -gramme, Dr Vinay Singh, CEO,

Orange Neurosciences, Cana-da did a presentation. This was followed by in-depth training on ReadON Therapy for partic-ipating therapists.

Zulfikar Dhanse, CEO of Ris-ing Technologies, said Rea-dON will empower current therapists, special educators and Schools in Bahrain to im-prove their service delivery and provide effective results faster.

“Seeing transform lives of one family at a time using AI is a dream come true,” said Dr Vinay Singh, CEO of Or-ange Neurosciences, a former Professor turned social entre-preneur.

RERA announces Owners Association seminars TDT | Manama

The Real Estate Regulato-ry Authority (RERA) an-

nounced holding a series of seminars starting on Monday to assist owners of properties in buildings/ developments with shared or common areas to create an Owners Associ-ation.

“Formation of an Owners Association is now a legal re-quirement in Bahrain for all joint properties with common areas,” said Shaikh Moham-med bin Khalifa Al Khalifa, CEO of RERA.

He said owners should pro-tect their investment by having a vote on the creation of the as-sociation, the election of Board of Directors, setting of service charges and how the property is managed.

“Owners also need to be aware of other obligations such as ensuring there is ad-equate insurance cover on the building or development,” he added.

The seminars are from 5:00 to 6:30 pm at BAPCO Club,

Awali Hall on Monday, Bah-rain Chamber of Commerce auditorium (Al Mamlaka Hall), Sanabis on Wednesday and BIPEX Property event on the 8th and 9th of December at the Bahrain International Exhibi-tion Centre.

To register email to [email protected] indicating pre-ferred venue and date. Places will be allocated on a first-come-first-served basis.

Additional information in-cluding a ‘Guide to Creating an Owners Association’ can be downloaded from the RERA website www.rera.gov.bh.

Shaikh Mohammed bin Khalifa Al Khalifa, CEO of RERA

Gulf Hotels Group, Garfield Jones, with a new batch of management trainees along with Director of Human Resources & Development Mahmoud Abd El Monem. The Group said has a quota of 10 management trainees and recently completed the 2019 intake, adding 6 new trainees to replace those who have recently graduated. The 2-year programme sees the trainees gain exposure in all aspect of hotel operations, with their work experience spread across all the Group’s hotels, including the newly opened Gulf Court Hotel Business Bay in Dubai. The trainees also attend Hotel School in Lausanne, Switzerland, where they obtain a Higher Diploma in Hotel Management.

UK’s Labour vows action on ‘tax and wage cheat’ multinationals• Labour unveiled a plan to spend almost 83 billion pounds ($106 billion) on a program of widespread nationalization and free public services

Reuters | London

Britain’s opposition Labour Party held a rally outside an Amazon depot yester-

day as it highlights its promise to target multinational firms it accuses of dodging taxes and cheating workers should it win next month’s general election.

In its manifesto launched on Thursday, Labour unveiled a plan to spend almost 83 billion pounds ($106 billion) on a pro-gram of widespread nationali-zation and free public services with the revenue coming from taxes on high earners and cor-porations.

Labour said its “Fair Tax Pro-gramme” would ensure the City of London financial district, big businesses and those who dodged tax paid their share.

“I’ll quite simply say this: if you’re trading in Britain and making money in Britain, pay your taxes in Britain, and that is exactly what we’re proposing,” Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn said outside the Amazon depot in Yorkshire, northern England.

In remarks published before his visit, Corbyn referred to a “tax and wage cheat” culture among multinational corpora-tions.

“Of course we want jobs in this country, of course we want people working in this country,” Corbyn said. “What is a prob-lem is if they decide to domicile their company somewhere else in order to pay tax at somebody else’s tax rate, and that ends up underfunding our public ser-

vices.”Amazon rebutted Labour’s

comments. “The government wrote the tax laws and they are designed to encourage in-vestment, and we are invest-ing heavily in creating jobs and infrastructure across the UK - more than 18 billion pounds ($23 billion) since 2010,” an Am-azon spokesman said.

Vested interests

Labour is lagging Prime Min-ister Boris Johnson’s Conserva-tive Party by about 10 points or more in the polls but it hopes that targeting “vested interests” will win over voters ahead of the Dec. 12 election.

“Jeremy Corbyn is lashing out at businesses because he is des-perate to distract from the fact that he has no credible plan to get Brexit done,” Conservative

Party Chairman James Cleverly said.

The party has earmarked tech firms such as Amazon, Alpha-bet’s Google and Facebook for additional taxes, saying it would bring in measures to stop mul-tinationals avoiding tax through profit-shifting schemes. It said this would bring in 6.3 billion pounds in 2023-4.

Other planned measures in-clude establishing an inquiry into the finance sector, intro-ducing a 20 per cent Offshore Company Property Levy, and scrapping non-domiciled sta-tus, which allows some people resident in Britain to limit the tax they pay.

Taxation of multinational gi-ants has become an internation-al issue since Reuters revealed in 2012 how companies like Amazon and Starbucks use in-ter-company payments to lower tax liabilities.

Other countries have already introduced taxes on digital com-panies - France for instance ap-plies a 3% levy to revenue from digital services earned by firms with more than 25 million eu-ros in French revenue and 750 million euros ($830 million) worldwide.

US President Donald Trump has described such taxes as “foolishness”.

Leader of the Labour Party Jeremy Corbyn speaks at the launch of the party manifesto in Birmingham, Britain

Johnson holds 12-point lead over Labour - pollReuters | London

Prime Minister Boris John-son’s Conservative Party

holds a 12-point lead over the opposition Labour Party ahead of Britain’s Dec. 12 election, ac-cording to the results of a You-Gov poll published by Britain Elects on the New Statesman website.

The figures showed support for the Conservatives at 42% and Labour at 30%, both un-changed from a YouGov poll published on Tuesday. The Lib-eral Democrats gained a point

to 16 per cent.Polling concluded on Friday,

the website showed.

British Prime Minister Boris Johnson

IMF to continue Ukraine loan talksReuters | Kiev

The International Mon-etary Fund said yester-

day it will continue talks with Ukraine about a new support program in coming weeks following significant progress in discussions so far with Kiev.

An IMF mission has been in Ukraine for a week as part of talks between Kiev and the fund to replace a $3.9 billion stand-by ar-rangement that expires in January.

“The IMF staff team had constructive and produc-tive discussions with the Ukrainian authorities and commended them on the considerable progress made during the last few months in advancing reforms and continuing with sound eco-nomic policies,” it said.

10

business


I’ll quite simply say this: if you’re trading in Britain and making money in Britain, pay your taxes in Britain,

and that is exactly what we’re proposing

LABOUR LEADER JEREMY CORBYN

Rising Technologies launches ReadON.ai TDT | Manama

Rising Technologies, Bah-rain celebrated the launch

of ReadON.ai, an award-win-ning SaaS technology for Spe-cial Education and Cognitive Remediation in Bahrain.

To mark the occasion a Sym-posium on Special Education was held in Crowne Plaza, yesterday. The event featured prominent dignitaries includ-ing Dr Sheikha Rania AlKhal-ifa and other renowned speak-ers and doctors in Kingdom such as Mohamed Shukri, Dr Anne Moustafa and Dr Abuzer Surka.

To introduce the pro -gramme, Dr Vinay Singh, CEO,

Orange Neurosciences, Cana-da did a presentation. This was followed by in-depth training on ReadON Therapy for partic-ipating therapists.

Zulfikar Dhanse, CEO of Ris-ing Technologies, said Rea-dON will empower current therapists, special educators and Schools in Bahrain to im-prove their service delivery and provide effective results faster.

“Seeing transform lives of one family at a time using AI is a dream come true,” said Dr Vinay Singh, CEO of Or-ange Neurosciences, a former Professor turned social entre-preneur.

RERA announces Owners Association seminars TDT | Manama

The Real Estate Regulato-ry Authority (RERA) an-

nounced holding a series of seminars starting on Monday to assist owners of properties in buildings/ developments with shared or common areas to create an Owners Associ-ation.

“Formation of an Owners Association is now a legal re-quirement in Bahrain for all joint properties with common areas,” said Shaikh Moham-med bin Khalifa Al Khalifa, CEO of RERA.

He said owners should pro-tect their investment by having a vote on the creation of the as-sociation, the election of Board of Directors, setting of service charges and how the property is managed.

“Owners also need to be aware of other obligations such as ensuring there is ad-equate insurance cover on the building or development,” he added.

The seminars are from 5:00 to 6:30 pm at BAPCO Club,

Awali Hall on Monday, Bah-rain Chamber of Commerce auditorium (Al Mamlaka Hall), Sanabis on Wednesday and BIPEX Property event on the 8th and 9th of December at the Bahrain International Exhibi-tion Centre.

To register email to [email protected] indicating pre-ferred venue and date. Places will be allocated on a first-come-first-served basis.

Additional information in-cluding a ‘Guide to Creating an Owners Association’ can be downloaded from the RERA website www.rera.gov.bh.

Shaikh Mohammed bin Khalifa Al Khalifa, CEO of RERA

Gulf Hotels Group, Garfield Jones, with a new batch of management trainees along with Director of Human Resources & Development Mahmoud Abd El Monem. The Group said has a quota of 10 management trainees and recently completed the 2019 intake, adding 6 new trainees to replace those who have recently graduated. The 2-year programme sees the trainees gain exposure in all aspect of hotel operations, with their work experience spread across all the Group’s hotels, including the newly opened Gulf Court Hotel Business Bay in Dubai. The trainees also attend Hotel School in Lausanne, Switzerland, where they obtain a Higher Diploma in Hotel Management.

UK’s Labour vows action on ‘tax and wage cheat’ multinationals• Labour unveiled a plan to spend almost 83 billion pounds ($106 billion) on a program of widespread nationalization and free public services

Reuters | London

Britain’s opposition Labour Party held a rally outside an Amazon depot yester-

day as it highlights its promise to target multinational firms it accuses of dodging taxes and cheating workers should it win next month’s general election.

In its manifesto launched on Thursday, Labour unveiled a plan to spend almost 83 billion pounds ($106 billion) on a pro-gram of widespread nationali-zation and free public services with the revenue coming from taxes on high earners and cor-porations.

Labour said its “Fair Tax Pro-gramme” would ensure the City of London financial district, big businesses and those who dodged tax paid their share.

“I’ll quite simply say this: if you’re trading in Britain and making money in Britain, pay your taxes in Britain, and that is exactly what we’re proposing,” Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn said outside the Amazon depot in Yorkshire, northern England.

In remarks published before his visit, Corbyn referred to a “tax and wage cheat” culture among multinational corpora-tions.

“Of course we want jobs in this country, of course we want people working in this country,” Corbyn said. “What is a prob-lem is if they decide to domicile their company somewhere else in order to pay tax at somebody else’s tax rate, and that ends up underfunding our public ser-

vices.”Amazon rebutted Labour’s

comments. “The government wrote the tax laws and they are designed to encourage in-vestment, and we are invest-ing heavily in creating jobs and infrastructure across the UK - more than 18 billion pounds ($23 billion) since 2010,” an Am-azon spokesman said.

Vested interests

Labour is lagging Prime Min-ister Boris Johnson’s Conserva-tive Party by about 10 points or more in the polls but it hopes that targeting “vested interests” will win over voters ahead of the Dec. 12 election.

“Jeremy Corbyn is lashing out at businesses because he is des-perate to distract from the fact that he has no credible plan to get Brexit done,” Conservative

Party Chairman James Cleverly said.

The party has earmarked tech firms such as Amazon, Alpha-bet’s Google and Facebook for additional taxes, saying it would bring in measures to stop mul-tinationals avoiding tax through profit-shifting schemes. It said this would bring in 6.3 billion pounds in 2023-4.

Other planned measures in-clude establishing an inquiry into the finance sector, intro-ducing a 20 per cent Offshore Company Property Levy, and scrapping non-domiciled sta-tus, which allows some people resident in Britain to limit the tax they pay.

Taxation of multinational gi-ants has become an internation-al issue since Reuters revealed in 2012 how companies like Amazon and Starbucks use in-ter-company payments to lower tax liabilities.

Other countries have already introduced taxes on digital com-panies - France for instance ap-plies a 3% levy to revenue from digital services earned by firms with more than 25 million eu-ros in French revenue and 750 million euros ($830 million) worldwide.

US President Donald Trump has described such taxes as “foolishness”.

Leader of the Labour Party Jeremy Corbyn speaks at the launch of the party manifesto in Birmingham, Britain

Johnson holds 12-point lead over Labour - pollReuters | London

Prime Minister Boris John-son’s Conservative Party

holds a 12-point lead over the opposition Labour Party ahead of Britain’s Dec. 12 election, ac-cording to the results of a You-Gov poll published by Britain Elects on the New Statesman website.

The figures showed support for the Conservatives at 42% and Labour at 30%, both un-changed from a YouGov poll published on Tuesday. The Lib-eral Democrats gained a point

to 16 per cent.Polling concluded on Friday,

the website showed.

British Prime Minister Boris Johnson

IMF to continue Ukraine loan talksReuters | Kiev

The International Mon-etary Fund said yester-

day it will continue talks with Ukraine about a new support program in coming weeks following significant progress in discussions so far with Kiev.

An IMF mission has been in Ukraine for a week as part of talks between Kiev and the fund to replace a $3.9 billion stand-by ar-rangement that expires in January.

“The IMF staff team had constructive and produc-tive discussions with the Ukrainian authorities and commended them on the considerable progress made during the last few months in advancing reforms and continuing with sound eco-nomic policies,” it said.


Tough times for Yemen honey tradeAslam | Yemen

Mohammed Manea has tended honey bees northeast of Sanaa for

years, but despairs that the pro-duction of “Yemen’s gold” is un-der threat as the war engulfing the country drags on.

The conflict has blighted mil-lions of lives and brought the economy to the brink of collapse. Cottage industries such as bee-keeping, coffee growing and ar-tisan manufacturing have been hit particularly hard.

Beekeepers say clashes which the United Nations has called the world’s worst, have throttled their livelihoods.

“When we recently arrived in this part of Hajjah province on the front line, the trucks were hit by an air strike,” Manea said.

“One was carrying the honey, and the other was carrying the bees,” he added as he used his bare hands to remove a honey-comb frame crawling with bees from a hive in the rural region of Aslam.

Yemen is renowned for its Sidr honey, named after the tree from which the nectar is gathered. The honey is referred to infor-mally as “Middle Eastern ma-nuka”, a bow to its famed market rival from New Zealand.

‘Production has dropped’Sidr honey is said to have me-

dicinal properties and is a best-seller in the souks and bazaars of the Gulf where it retails at a

premium.It is also a natural product that

is traditionally recommended to new mothers to augment breast milk production.

Manea’s fellow beekeeper, Ali Kabsh, agreed that the business was suffering badly.

“Honey product ion has dropped,” he said pointing to the challenges of exporting during wartime and the logistical diffi-culties of keeping bees.

He estimated that the num-ber of hives had dropped from between 800 and 1,000 when

the war broke out in 2014 to be-tween 100 and 150 currently. There are no official statistics that highlight the full damage suffered by the country’s once proud producers of honey.

Kabsh said that among the most significant problems he faced was travelling to find fresh flowers in bloom for his bees to harvest the nectar.

“A beekeeper’s work depends on the seasons. Each region has its flowering season -- so they have to move around to produce the honey,” he told AFP.

In Abs, another r e g i o n in Hajjah province, beekeeper A h m e d A l i al-Adili said he had struggled to export honey to Gulf states including Saudi Arabia.

The international airport in the capital Sanaa is under Huthi control and remains dormant, while most border crossings are closed, he said.

“My p r o -d u c -t i o n

has de-creased

by 90 per cent,” Adili

said.Other traditional

trades in Yemen have also suf-fered. The Al-Shinayni market in third city Taez once over-flowed with handicrafts includ-ing products made by black-smiths, potters and tailors. Now

it is an arms bazaar in which a Kalashnikov assault rifle retails for little more than $1,000.

Tens of thousands of peo-ple, mostly civilians, have been killed since the Saudi-led mili-tary coalition intervened in the conflict to support the interna-tionally-recognised government against the Huthis.

Around 3.3 million people have been displaced by the war and about 20 million people -- more than two-thirds of the population -- need humanitarian support to survive.

Beekeepers at work producing ‘Yemen’s gold’ in Hajjah province

Representative picture

Yemeni beekeeper Ahmed Ali al-Adili with honey for sale in the Abs district of Hajjah province

Natural gas, false hope in climate change campaign?Paris

Natural gas is cleaner and produces fewer global

warming emissions than other fossil fuels, making it key to our transition to a low-carbon fu-ture, but it comes with its own serious drawbacks.

The International Ener-gy Agency (IEA) said recently that natural gas is crucial to its sustainable development mod-el which requires oil and coal use to fall sharply if we are to get anywhere near the Par-is agreement climate change targets.

Natural gas is relatively cheap, abundant and produces 50 per-cent less CO2 than coal, used widely, especially in Asia to gen-erate electricity for fast growing economies.

In its latest annual report, the IEA pencilled in a 10 percent in-crease in natural gas use through to the end of the 2020s while oil use would have to return to

levels last seen in the 1990s.Some NGOs, however, attack

the IEA -- set up after the first great oil shock in 1973-74 to ad-vise countries how to manage their energy needs -- for being overly beholden to nae-say gov-ernments such as the United States, and the huge fossil fuel

companies.Rather than recommending

an increase in the use of natural gas, the IEA should be calling for a reduction, they say.

Murray Worthy at Global Wit-ness said “governments should not be misled... and should rath-er work on closing down exist-

ing oil and gas fields, and halting exploration for new reserves.”

Significantly, the European Investment Bank (EIB), the lend-ing arm of the European Un-ion, recently announced that it would halt funding new fossil energy projects, including nat-ural gas, from 2022.

Good and bad? For some, natural gas is the

ideal transition fuel, with ma-jor companies such as Total and Shell producing increasing amounts and launching new projects which stretch for dec-ades into the future.

“When it burns, natural gas releases less CO2, nitrous oxide and sulphur than coal or oil,” said Nicholas Browne of energy consultants Wood Mackenzie.

“Replacing coal with gas, for example, has had a huge impact on air quality in northern China, with immense benefits in terms of public health,” Browne said.

The question however is “if gas and LNG (Liquified Natural Gas) are better, are they good enough?” he added.

Extracting and transporting natural gas notably results in significant emissions of meth-ane, a greenhouse gas 30 times more potent than CO2.

“Methane emissions linked to... natural gas are largely un-der-estimated,” said Cecile Marchand of Friends of the Earth.

Taken together, it is not neces-sarily the case that natural gas is so much better than other fossil fuels, Marchand said, and on that basis, it may “not allow us to face up to the climate change challenge.”

The gas industry is trying to meet these criticism, com-mitting to reducing methane emissions and developing CO2 capture systems in the hope of keeping global warming at man-ageable levels.

Natural gas is widely seen as key to the fight against global warming but it might be just as problematic as other fossil fuels, critics say

Samsung Heavy Industries to pay $75 million to resolve foreign bribery case: US

Reuters | Washington

Samsung heavy indus-tries Co Ltd 010140KS

has agreed to pay more than $75 million in criminal pen-alties to resolve a U.S. inves-tigation of a scheme to pay millions of dollars in bribes to officials in Brazil, the US Justice Department said.

Samsung Heavy has ad-mitted to paying about $20 million to a Brazilian inter-mediary between 2007 and 2013 knowing that parts of it would be paid as bribes to officials in Brazil’s state-run oil company Petrobras SA for a contract which fa-cilitated the sale of a drill ship by Samsung Heavy, the Justice Department said in a statement.

Samsung Heavy will pay at least half of the total fine to the U.S. government un-der a deferred prosecution agreement filed in the East-ern District of Virginia, it said.

Billionaire Bloomberg buys record amount of TV adsWashington

Former New York Mayor Mi-chael Bloomberg, an increas-

ingly likely 2020 presidential candidate, plans to launch a $31 million television advertis-ing campaign on Monday, in a move deemed anti-democratic by Bernie Sanders.

The billionaire has purchased a total of $31 million in advertis-ing inserts, according to the ad tracking firm Advertising Ana-lytics, the largest sum ever spent by a US presidential candidate.

The amount -- an increase on the record $25 million spent by Barack Obama at the end of his 2012 campaign -- reflects the financial clout of the 77-year-old former mayor, one of the richest men in the world.

But the vast spend has raised concerns among the 17 or so Democrats who are already competing to challenge Donald Trump in the November 2020 White House race.

Senator Bernie Sanders at-tacked the decision on Friday,

tweeting he was “disgusted by the idea that Michael Bloomberg or any billionaire thinks they can circumvent the political process and spend tens of millions of

dollars to buy elections”.“If you can’t build grassroots

support for your candidacy, you have no business running for president,” he wrote.

Bloomberg, who ran New York from 2002 to 2013, regis-tered on Thursday with the US Federal Election Commission -- another step towards a run at the White House.

Twelve days ago he said he was “close” to making a final decision on whether or not to enter the crowded field.

The billionaire Mi-chael Bloomberg

has bought a total of $31 million in

advertising inserts

Michael Bloomberg


Egypt signs $430-million gas deal with Texas’ Noble EnergyReuters | Cairo

Egypt said yesterday it had signed several mul-timillion-dollar energy

investment accords including a $430-million deal for Tex-as-based Noble Energy to pump natural gas through the East Mediterranean Gas Company’s pipeline.

Under another agreement with Noble, which will also be financed by the US International Development Finance Corpo-ration, the energy company

will manufacture petroleum products in part-

nership with Egyptian com-pany Dolphi-nus Holdings.

The cabi-net detailed the plans at

the end of an Africa investment forum held on the site of the country’s planned new admin-istrative capital in the desert east of Cairo.

Amsterdam-based Lekela also announced the start of construc-tion work on its West Bakr wind power plant, which will have a capacity of 250 megawatts and require a total investment of $350 million.

Lekela CEO Chris Antonopo-ulos said Siemens Gamesa will build the West Bakr plant in the Gulf of Suez, creating an expect-ed 550 jobs, according to the cabinet statement.

Egypt signed an agreement with the European Bank

for Reconstruction and De-velopment (EBRD) worth $201 million to improve the Egyp-tian Electricity Transmission Company’s electric grid, and the lender will also finance a new asphalt production unit for the Suez Oil Processing Company worth $50 million.

The EBRD signed further deals with Sarwa Capital Holding and state-owned Banque Misr to is-sue 500 million Egyptian pounds ($31.13 million) in securitisation bonds for the government’s New Urban Communities Authority (NUCA).

NUCA, 51 per cent owned by the military’s engineering au-

thority and

49% by the housing ministry, is developing Egypt’s as yet-un-named new capital.

The International Islam-ic Trade Finance Corporation and the African Export–Im-port Bank also made available the first $100 million tranche of a $500 million loan to boost Egypt’s trade with other African and Muslim countries.

A general view of buildings by the Nile River in Cairo (Reuters)

The Merchant House launches Afternoon T and Friday brunch

TDT | Manama

With the winter approach-ing and cooler temper-

atures, the rooftop terrace at The Merchant House, Bahrain is the perfect destination to re-lax and unwind. Adding even more reasons to visit The Mer-chant House, the hotel has just launched a Friday Brunch with a difference as well as a traditional Afternoon T.

The Afternoon T is inspired by the tradition of the English

afternoon tea and borrows some of Gordon Campbell Gray’s grandmother’s traditional reci-pes such as the thinly sliced mini sandwiches and freshly baked scones served with homemade strawberry preserve and clot-ted cream. The Afternoon T also draws influences from the silk route history of Bahrain as a trading hub connecting East to West and so features spices and flavours of the region such as fresh ginger, fruits, dates and nuts. The Afternoon T will be

served in The Library, a beau-tiful, elegant space with a mod-ern classic atmosphere. The Af-ternoon T will be available on Fridays, Saturdays and Sundays from 2.00 pm to 5.30 pm.

Indigo Rooftop Restaurant of-fers a distinctive ambience for a refreshingly different Friday Brunch on its beautiful rooftop garden terrace. The much-ac-claimed Chef Robert Shipman has created an exciting menu, pairing interesting flavours and ingredients that are authentic to

both Mediterranean and Asian cuisines such as Poached Eggs served with Salsa Verde and Grilled Halloumi to Salmon Av-ocado Roll and Seabass Sashimi. The brunch also features signa-ture mocktails and beverages, all served at the table.

The hotel made its debut in February this year and has already scooped two coveted awards including the Boutique Hotel of the Year at the Leaders in Hospitality Awards 2019 by Hotel & Catering News Middle

East, and the Luxury Boutique Hotel of the Year at the LTG Af-rica and Middle East Awards. The Merchant House is also a part of Small Luxury Hotels of the World.

With its warm and colourful aesthetics, world-class inter-national and Bahraini art col-lection, impressive library with over a thousand books and the spectacular rooftop garden ter-race, The Merchant House is the jewel in the crown of Bahrain’s hotel scene.

The hotel made its debut in February this year and has already scooped two coveted awards

The Afternoon T is in-spired by the tradition

of the English afternoon tea and borrows some

of Gordon Campbell Gray’s grandmother’s

traditional recipes such as the thinly sliced mini sandwiches and freshly

baked scones served with homemade strawberry preserve and clotted

cream.

Ethiopia’s Sidama vote to form autonomous region

Reuters | Hawassa, Ethiopia

Ethiopia’s Sidama people have voted overwhelm-

ingly to form their own self-governing region as many of the country’s eth-nic groups demand greater autonomy under sweeping reforms led by Prime Min-ister Abiy Ahmed.

The country’s electoral board said yesterday that provisional results showed 98.5 per cent of voters had backed the change in Wednesday’s ballot, with turnout reaching 99.7 pc.

The result grants the Sid-ama, who represent about 4pc of Ethiopia’s 105 mil-lion population, their own self-governing region - the country’s 10th, control over local taxes, education, secu-rity and certain legislation.

Ethiopia’s constitution gives the right to seek au-tonomy to its more than 80 ethnic groups, but it is only under Abiy’s politi-cal reform agenda that the government approved the Sidama request for a ref-erendum.

The country, once one of Africa’s most repressive na-tions, has been undergoing rapid changes since Abiy was appointed last year, promising to forge a more open society.

Yesterday’s result may encourage the more than a dozen other ethnic groups that are considering re-questing similar votes, a move that could threaten Abiy’s push to unify the country ahead of elections scheduled for 2020.

Voters wait in a queue to cast their vote

British Airways ‘welcomes’ breakthrough in pay disputeLondon

Flagship carrier British Airways has welcomed

as a “positive step” a media report that it had reached a pay agreement with its pilots’ union following damaging strikes.

The airline has agreed to an inflation-proof pay rise of 11.5 per cent over three years, ac-cording to the report in the FT newspaper.

The BALPA union, which

represents most of the airline’s pilots, said in an email seen by the paper that its members would soon hold a ballot on the offer, with the union urging them to accept it.

The airline was forced to ground its entire UK fleet for two days in September when pilots went on strike in the bitter and long-running pay dispute, and the break-through looks to have staved off the threat of a Christmas walkout.

Former Trump advisor accuses of blocking Twitter accessWashington

Former Trump National Se-curity Advisor John Bolton

said the White House denied him access to his Twitter ac-count after his dismissal in early September, in a series of tweets that signal his return to the social media site.

“Since resigning as Nation-al Security Advisor, the White House has refused to return access to my personal Twitter account. Out of fear of what I may say?” Bolton wrote on Friday.

Prior to Friday’s series of tweets, nothing had been pub-lished by Bolton since Septem-ber 10, the day the US president announced his dismissal.

“To those who speculated I went into hiding, I’m sorry to disappoint!” he added.

The White House swept aside the charges, with spokeswoman Stephanie Grisham suggesting Bolton simply didn’t know how to use the platform.

“Sometimes, I’ll use my fa-ther as an example,” she told a Fox Business Network discus-sion program.

“Somebody who is of an ad-vanced age may not understand all you have to do is contact Twitter and reset your pass-word if you’ve forgotten it.”

71-year-old John Bolton

CHANGE OF NAME

FROZEN 2 (PG)(ANIMATION/ADVENTURE/COMEDY) ممOASIS JUFFAIR (KIDS CINEMA):10.45 AM + 1.00 + 3.15 + 5.30 + 7.45 + 10.00 PMOASIS JUFFAIR (ATMOS): 11.45 AM + 2.00 + 4.15 + 6.30 + 8.45 + 11.00 PMOASIS JUFFAIR (VIP): 12.00 + 4.30 + 9.00 PMOASIS JUFFAIR (3D): 11.15 AM + 1.30 + 3.45 + 6.00 + 8.15 + 10.30 PMCITY CENTRE: 11.15 AM + 12.15 + 1.30 + 2.30 + 3.45 + 4.45 + 6.00 + 7.00 + 8.15 + 9.15 +10.30 + + 11.30 PMCITY CENTRE (IMAX 3D) :11.45 AM + 2.00 + 4.15 + 6.30 + 8.45 + 11.00 PMCITY CENTRE (ATMOS):10.30 AM + 12.45 + 3.00 + 5.15 + 7.30 + 9.45 + 12.00 MNCITY CENTRE VIP (II) :12.30 + 2.45 + 5.00 + 7.15 + 9.30 + 11.45 PMSEEF (I): 12.30 + 2.45 + 5.00 + 7.15 + 9.30 + 11.45 PMSEEF (II):11.30 AM + 1.45 + 4.00 + 6.15 + 8.30 + 10.45 PMSEEF (3D): 12.00 + 2.15 + 4.30 + 6.45 + 9.00 + 11.15 PMWADI AL SAIL: 12.15 + 2.30 + 4.45 + 7.00 + 9.15 + 11.30 PMWADI AL SAIL: (3D): 11.30 AM + 1.45 + 4.00 + 6.15 PM

KRISTEN BELL, IDINA MENZEL, JOSH GAD

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CHADWICK BOSEMAN, SIENNA MILLER, STEPHAN JAMES

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ARAS BULUT İYNEMLİ, NİSA SOFİYA AKSONGUR, İLKER AKSUM

LAST CHRISTMAS (PG-15)(COMEDY/ROMANTIC/DRAMA)CITY CENTRE: 12.00 + 2.15 + 4.30 + 6.45 + 9.00 + 11.15 PMSEEF (II): 12.15 + 2.30 + 4.45 + 7.00 + 9.15 + 11.30 PMWADI AL SAIL:1.15 + 6.30 + 11.45 PM

EMILIA CLARKE, HENRY GOLDING, EMMA THOMPSON

PAGALPANTI (PG-15)(HINDI/COMEDY/ACTION) OASIS JUFFAIR :11.30 AM + 2.30 + 5.30 + 8.30 + 11.30 PMCITY CENTRE: 11.30 AM + 2.30 + 5.30 + 8.30 + 11.30 PMSEEF (II):11.45 AM + 2.45 + 5.45 + 8.45 + 11.45 PMWADI AL SAIL:10.30 AM + 3.30 + 8.45 PM

JOHN ABRAHAM, ANIL KAPOOR, KRITI KHARBANDA

10 MINUTES GONE (PG-15)(ACTION/CRIME) CITY CENTRE:8.00 + 10.00 + 12.00 MNSEEF (II): 11.45 AM + 1.45 + 3.45 + 5.45 + 7.45 + 9.45 + 11.45 PM

MICHAEL CHIKLIS, BRUCE WILLIS, MEADOW WILLIAMS

BEHIND THE TREES (15+)(THRILLER/ HORROR) SEEF (II): 12.00 + 2.00 + 4.00 + 6.00 + 8.00 + 10.00 + 12.00 MN

VANESSA CURRY, SAHIL SHROFF, SUBRAT DUTTA

THE SHED (18+)(HORROR/DRAMA)SEEF (II): 8.00 + 10.00 + 12.00 MN

JAY JAY WARREN, CODY KOSTRO, SOFIA HAPPONEN

CHARLIE’S ANGELS (PG-15)(ACTION/ADVENTURE/COMEDY) CITY CENTRE:11.30 AM + 2.00 + 4.30 + 7.00 + 9.30 + 12.00 MNSEEF (II): 11.00 AM + 1.30 + 4.00 + 6.30 + 9.00 + 11.30 PM

KRISTEN STEWART, NAOMI SCOTT, ELLA BALINSKA

MALEFICENT 2: MISTRESS OF EVIL CITY CENTRE: 11.00 AM + 1.30 + 4.00 + 6.30 + 9.00 + 11.30 PMSEEF (II): 1.45 + 6.30 + 11.15 PM

ANGELINA JOLIE, TERESA MAHONEY, MICHELLE PFEIFFER

JOKER (15+)(THRILLER/CRIME/DRAMA) CITY CENTRE: 10.30 AM + 1.00 + 3.45 + 6.30 + 9.15 + 12.00 MNSEEF (II):11.30 AM + 4.30 + 9.30 PM

JOAQUIN PHOENIX, ZAZIE BEETZ, ROBERT DE NIRO

PLAYING WITH FIRE (PG)(ADVENTURE/COMEDY/FAMILY) م CITY CENTRE:12.00 + 2.15 + 4.30 + 6.45 + 9.00 + 11.15 PMSEEF (II):11.30 AM + 4.15 + 9.00 PM

JOHN CENA, KEEGAN-MICHAEL KEY, JOHN LEGUIZAMO

TERMINATOR: DARK FATE (PG-15)مممممم CITY CENTRE: 12.45 + 3.30 + 6.15 + 9.00 + 11.45 PMSEEF (II) : 2.00 + 7.00 + 12.00 MN

LINDA HAMILTON, ARNOLD SCHWARZENEGGER, MACKENZIE DAVIS

THE ADDAMS FAMILY (PG)(ANIMATION/COMEDY) CITY CENTRE: 11.00 AM + 1.00 + 3.00 + 5.00 + 7.00 PMSEEF (II): 12.00 + 2.00 + 4.00 + 6.00 PM

OSCAR ISAAC, CHARLIZE THERON, CHLOË GRACE MORETZ

GEMINI MAN (PG-15)(ACTION/THRILLER/DRAMA) CITY CENTRE: 11.15 AM + 1.45 + 4.15 + 6.45 + 9.15 + 11.45 PM

WILL SMITH, MARY ELIZABETH WINSTEAD, CLIVE OWEN

BALA (PG-15)(HINDI/COMEDY/DRAMA/ROMANTIC) OASIS JUFFAIR : 2.45 + 8.30 PM

AYUSHMANN KHURRANA, BHUMI PEDNEKAR, YAMI GAUTAM

ABOMINABLE (PG)(ANIMATION/ADVENTURE/COMEDY) مم CITY CENTRE:11.00 AM + 1.15 + 3.30 + 5.45 PM

CHLOE BENNET, TENZING NORGAY TRAINOR, ALBERT TSAI

MIDWAY (PG-13)(ACTION/THRILLER/DRAMA/WAR)CITY CENTRE:9.00 + 11.45 PM

ED SKREIN, PATRICK WILSON, LUKE EVANS

KHAYAL MAATA (PG)(COMEDY/DRAMA) مممم مممم CITY CENTRE: 11.15 AM + 4.15 + 9.15 PM

AHMAD HELMY, MINNA SHALABI, HASSAN HOSNEY

ANGEL HAS FALLEN (PG-15)(ACTION/THRILLER/DRAMA)CITY CENTRE :1.45 + 6.45 + 11.45 PM

GERARD BUTLER, MORGAN FREEMAN, JADA PINKETT SMITH

SANGA THAMIZHAN (PG-15)(TAMIL) OASIS JUFFAIR : 11.45 AM + 5.30 + 11.15 PMSEEF (I): 11.45 AM + 2.45 + 5.45 + 8.45 + 11.45 PMAL HAMRA: (12.00 MN THURS/FRI)

VIJAY SETHUPATHI, RAASHI KHANNA, NIVETHA PETHURAJ

ADITHYA VARMA (PG-15)(TAMIL) FromThursday 7:30pm Onwards.OASIS JUFFAIR : 10.30 AM + 1.45 + 5.00 + 8.15 + 11.30 PMSEEF (I): 10.45 AM + 2.00 + 5.15 + 8.30 + 11.45 PMWADI AL SAIL: 1.30 + 7.45 PMAL HAMRA: 5.45 PM

DHRUV VIKRAM, BANITA SANDHU

JACK & DANIEL (PG-15)(MALAYALAM)OASIS JUFFAIR : 11.00 AM + 2.00 + 5.00 + 8.00 + 11.00 PMSEEF (I):11.30 AM + 2.30 + 5.30 + 8.30 + 11.30 PMWADI AL SAIL:10.30 AM + 4.45 + 11.00 PMAL HAMRA:9.00 PM

DILEEP, ARJUN SARJA, ANJU KURIAN

AKASHAGANGA II (PG-13)(MALAYALAM) AL HAMRA: 2.45 PM

RAMYA KRISHNAN, SALIM KUMAR, SREENATH BHASI

KABADDI KABADDI KABADDI (PG-13)(NEPALI) AL HAMRA: 12.00 NOON

KABITA ALE, BIJAY BARAL, MAOTSE GURUNG

13 SUNDAY, NOVEMBER 24, 2019

I, VELAYUDHAN NAIR VINITHA D/O. NAIR VELAYUDHAN , holding INDIAN PASSPORT NO. T 2401976 dated 28/01/2019 issued at BAHRAIN , having permanent residence at SAROJA NILAYAM , BEHIND ANNAPPA REDDY LANE , DOORVANI NAGAR , BANGALORE - 560016 , KARNATAKA . Presently residing at FLAT NO. 51 , BUILDING NO. 432 , , ROAD NO. 3601 , BLOCK NO: 336 , AL ADLIYA , BAHRAIN will henceforth be known as ( Given Name ) VINITHA VELAYUDHAN , (Surname ) NAIR , objection if any may be forwarded to Embassy of India , P.O.Box 26106, Bldg No. 1090, Road No. 2819 , Block 428, Al Seef , Kingdom of Bahrain.

C L A S S I F I E D S M O V I E R E V I E W

‘Last Christmas’ has a healthy dose of humour and heart

Last Christmas may not be remembered as one of the great holiday rom-coms – it’s no Love, Actually – but it’s a perfectly satisfying one-time watch

Last Christmas is a 2019 romantic comedy film directed by Paul Feig

and written by Bryony Kim-mings and Emma Thompson, who co-wrote the story with her husband, Greg Wise. Based on the song of the same name, the film stars Emilia Clarke as a cynical Christmas store worker who forms a relationship with a mysterious man (Henry Gold-ing) and begins to fall for him; Thompson and Michelle Yeoh also star.

Last Christmas was theat-rically released in the United States on 8 November 2019 and in the United Kingdom on 15 November 2019 by Universal Pictures. It received mixed re-views from critics, who praised the performances and chemistry of Clarke and Golding but crit-icized the screenplay, clichés, and plot twist. It has grossed $38 million worldwide.

On Rotten Tomatoes, the film holds an approval rating of 47% based on 169 reviews, with an average rating of 5.36/10. The website’s critics consensus reads: “Likable leads, terrific be-hind-the-scenes talent, and an intriguing musical hook aren’t enough to save Last Christmas from its poorly conceived story.”

On Metacritic, the film has a

weighted average score of 51 out of 100, based on 37 critics, indicating “mixed or average reviews”.

Audiences polled by Cine-maScore gave the film an av-erage grade of “B–” on an A+ to F scale, while those at Post-Trak gave it an average 3 out of 5 stars.

Variety’s Owen Gleiberman

gave the film a negative review and wrote: “It’s twee, it’s pre-cious, it’s forced. And it’s light on true romance, maybe be-cause the movie itself is a little too in love with itself.”

John DeFore of The Holly-wood Reporter called it a mis-fire “but it earns some warm feelings for its determination not to be like anything else cur-rently in circulation.”

Alonso Duralde of TheWrap compared the film to a Christ-mas album, and said it was not as good as Paul Feig’s best work “but it fulfills a craving for sticky Christmas pudding”.

Charles Bramesco of The A.V. Club called the film “a guilty pleasure” but criticized the pre-dictable plot twist. He praised Clarke for her performance say-ing “she succeeds in the only real meaningful test of rom-com skill, in that she makes us want her to be happy.”

Henry Golding and Emilia Clarke in ‘Last Christmas’

Applicants are invited for the following positions with required qualifications.1. Science coordinator, Math, Science and IT teachers.Conditions:-• Applicants should have M.A/B.A with B.Ed. 5 to 8

years of experience serving in Well-known Educational system and must have basic knowledge of computer.

• English will be the Medium of Education in Science and Math subjects.

• The Applicant should have a valid Residence Permit.(For Non-Bahrainis)

Please forward your C.V to [email protected]

Vacant Positions

14 SUNDAY, NOVEMBER 24, 2019

Katrina Kaif, Priyanka Chopra party together!Mumbai

Weekend is here and it seems Bollywood celebrities are in a

mood to party. And it is no less than a feast for the eyes when you get to see divas like Katri-na Kaif and Priyanka Chopra Jonas partying together under one roof.

On Friday, celebrity manager Rohini Iyer hosted her birth-day bash in Mumbai. From Pri-yanka, Katrina, to Kriti Sanon. Ekta Kapoor, Tahira Kashyap

and Huma Qureshi, several celebs marked their presence at the party.

A lot of pictures and videos are doing the rounds on the internet in which they all can be seen sharing smiles with each other.

Priyanka turned up for the party in a yellow top and pants. Katrina was seen in a short black dress.

Sharing a glimpse from Ro-hini’s birthday celebrations, Huma took to Instagram and wrote: “What a fun night.”

Kangana Ranaut’s Jayalalithaa look evokes mixed reaction

Mumbai

The first look poster of “Thalaivi”, which casts Kangana Ranaut as late Tamil Nadu chief minister J.

Jayalalithaa, was launched on Saturday, and Twitterati are divided in their

opinion.While some have panned the

prosthetics that have gone into transforming Kangana into Jayala-lithaa, others expressed excite-

ment at the idea of seeing the actress essay the late politician in the upcoming film.

If the poster, which comes with a short teaser, is anything to go by, Kangana looks nothing

Jayalalithaa in the film. Hard-core fans expect the actress to win a fourth National Award for

her starring role in the film, which is scheduled to release on June 26 2020, but many others on social media were far from impressed.

While many social media ad-dicts dismissed the poster mere-ly with LOL emojis, others were more expressive with words.

“Lmao this looks so freaking fake,” wrote one user.

“She neither looks Kangana nor Jayalalitha”, said another user.

Another user was reminded of Anil Kapoor’s bodysuit-ridden obese man look in “Badhai Ho Badhai”, “That’s anil kapoor from badhai ho badhai.”

Happy to contribute to growth of industry: AyushmannMumbai

National Award-winning actor Ayushmann Khur-

rana has struck gold at the box office once again as his latest release “Bala” hit the centu-ry mark, and he feels happy on “contributing towards the growth of industry”.

Released on November 8, “Bala” has become Ayush-mann’s third Rs 100 crore blockbuster of his career and his second Rs 100 crore hit this year itself after “ Dream Girl”.

Elated with the film’s suc-cess, Ayushmann said: “While I have always believed in the concept of art for art sake, I do realise that for an indus-try to thrive and grow, it is neces-sary that the films do really well.

“So, more than my personal milestones of 100 crore hits, I’’m happy that I could contribute to-wards the growth of my in-dustry as well as present some really good films to audiences in the process.”

Directed by Amar Kaushik, “Bala”, which also features Yami Gautam and Bhumi Pednekar, revolves around the issue of premature bald-ness.

As film is doing so well, Ay-ushmann considers himself “fortunate”.

“Every artiste wants their film to reach the maximum number of people, entertain them and leave them with a thought or a message to take home. I have been fortunate enough to find such brilliant scripts at the first place and backed them whole-heart-edly,” he added.

Justin Bieber drops hint at having ‘babies’ with wife Hailey BaldwinLos Angeles

Seems like Justin Bieber has got plans to become daddy soon. He has hint-

ed at the idea of expanding their family while wishing his model wife Hailey Baldwin on her 23rd birthday.

The 25-year-old sing-er-songwriter wrote in an

Instagram post “Happy birthday babes!” alongside two sweet snapshots from

their romantic wedding in

September, reported People mag-azine. The couple tied the knot for the second time in Bluffton, South Carolina. Baldwin and Bieber first got married in a New York City court-house in September 2018.

“You make me want to be better every day! The way you live you [sic] life is so attractive... ps, you turn me on in every way..next season BABIES,” Bieber continued.

Along with the sweet message, Bieber also gifted his wife an ‘Audemars Piguet’ watch.

The singer shared a video of

the lavish present, writing, “Had to stop by @jadellebh for Hailey’s birthday gift flooded AP... ONLY THE BEST FOR MY BOO.”

A source told People magazine the cou-ple enjoyed a “casual celebration” for Baldwin’s birthday.

A source told People magazine that after separate workouts this morning (he went to the dance studio and she took a class) “Justin and Hailey are spending her birthday together. A cake and gold coloured balloons with her birthday num-ber ‘23’ were delivered to their Beverly Hills house. Justin also took Hailey for a romantic lunch to Nobu in Malibu.”

Elizabeth Banks feels people ‘still judge’ her for using a surrogateLos Angeles

Elizabeth Banks who used surro-gacy to become a mother says no amount of criticism could

take away the fact that she was a mother.

The filmmaker talked about how her journey to motherhood birth-ing Felix and Mag-nus via surrogate, in a cover story for Net-a-Porter’s Por-ter Edit, reported Peo-ple magazine.

She revealed that she was incapable of carrying her chil-dren because of infertility issues, referring to it as her “broken belly”. Besides she not having control over the

situation, Banks said she feels like others judge her for using a surrogate to have

children.“I definitely think I’m still judged for

what I’ve done and that people don’t un-derstand my choices, but I don’t feel I owe

anybody any explanation,” she explained to the outlet.“If my story helps people feel less alone on their

journey, then I’m grateful for that,” she added.Banks, who starred, penned and produced the new ‘Charlie’s An-

gels’ had earlier made things clear that spending time with her kids is non-negotiable, despite her busy schedule.

Film on Michael Jackson in works by ‘Bohemian Rhapsody’ producerLos Angeles

Looks like Michael Jack-son fans have a reason to

cheer as a film based on the late pop star’s life is in works!

Yes, ‘Bohemian Rhapsody’ producer Graham King has struck a deal with the pop star’s estate to obtain the rights for his life and music to create a film on both, re-

ported Variety.M o r e o v e r,

King has also welcomed on-board screen-

writer John Lo-gan for the up-coming project.

A spokesperson for King confirmed the news with the outlet but didn’t comment on if the script by Logan will include Jackson’s accusers or not.

Sexual abuse allegations were levelled against the late singer in the HBO documenta-ry ‘Leaving Neverland’, which featured the accounts of two former Jackson proteges - Wade Robson and James Sa-fechuck. They both claimed that Jackson maintained an intimate relationship with them.

Los Angeles

“Fancy” singer Iggy Azalea and her rapper boyfriend Playboi Carti reported a burglar stole over $366,000 in jewellery from their

Atlanta home, police said on Friday.Iggy, 29, whose legal name is Amethyst Kelly, told police a

thief carried off items ranging from diamond eternity band rings valued at $70,000 to a $57,000 Audemars Piquet diamond-encrust-ed gold watch and a diamond engagement ring, a police report said.

Kelly, who grew up in Australia and rose to fame after moving to the United States at age 16, told police she was alone in the basement of the rented Atlanta home on Nov. 15 when she heard footsteps in the second floor dining room.

It was a rainy night and she thought it was Playboi, 23, whose legal

name is Jordan Carter, after she left the back door unlocked for him to come in.

On Nov. 17 she and Carter called police after they realized a blue Goyard bag where they kept all their jewellery was gone.

Kelly told officers they reviewed video surveillance footage and saw a man came into the house through the back door two nights earlier at 9.51 p.m. and leave eight minutes later with a bag in his hand.

Carter told police he thought the suspect had a gun and said he was wearing a dark mask and gloves, based on the video.

Carter said his stolen chains, bracelets, rings and watches were custom made and he was in touch with his insurance company to try

to put a value on them.

Ayushmann Khurrana

Justin Bieber and Hailey Baldwin

Michael Jackson

Iggy Azalea

15

sports


Sousa calls up Augusto, MarhoonBahrainis have begun their training programme for 24th Arabian Gulf Cup

TDT | Manama

Bahrain head coach Helio Sousa has made two key changes to his squad of 23

ahead of the 24th Arabian Gulf Cup, which is scheduled to kick off on Tuesday in Doha.

Sousa has called upon gener-ally the same team that played Bahrain’s two joint-qualifiers in the past couple of weeks for the Fifa World Cup 2022 and the AFC Asian Cup 2023.

But he has dropped Abdul-la Yusuf and Mohammed Adel from the team for the Gulf Cup, and has now picked up natural-ised striker Thiago Augusto of Muharraq Club and influential midfielder Mohammed Mar-hoon of Riffa.

The Bahrainis have already begun their training programme for the competition at the Bah-rain Football Association pitches in Riffa. Sousa has been conduct-ing the sessions.

Bahrain are in Group B of the Gulf Cup’s preliminary round alongside defending champions Oman, Saudi Arabia and Kuwait. Group A features hosts Qatar, Iraq, Yemen and the UAE.

The nationals will be open-

ing their campaign against their Omani counterparts on the tournament’s second day on Wednesday. It is scheduled for a 5.30pm kick-off. Bahrain’s following game will be against Saudi on November 30. That match will be kicking off at 8pm.

Both of Bahrain’s first two fix-tures will be held at Abdullah bin Khalifa Stadium in Doha.

Bahrain’s final group fixture will be against Kuwait on De-cember 2 at Khalifa Internation-al Stadium.

At the end of the prelimi-

nary round, the top two teams from each group move on to the knockout semi-finals on De-cember 5. There, the Group A winners take on the Group B runners-up and the Group A runners-up face off with the Group B winners.

The final will then be held on the tournament’s concluding day on December 8.

Prior to the Gulf Cup, Bah-rain’s two joint-qualifiers this

year for the Fifa World Cup 2022 and the AFC Asian Cup 2023 were both goalless draws, first against Hong Kong and then against Iraq.

Players warming up during training

Mohammed Marhoon Thiago Augusto

Bahrain SquadRoster: Jassim Al Shaikh, Mahdi Humaidan, Hamad Aldossari, Ahmed Bugammar, Mohammed Abdulwahab, Abdulwahab Almalood, Rashed Alhooti, Sayed Mohammed Jaffar, Waleed Alhayam, Mohammed Al Hardan, Ismaeel Abdullatif, Ali Madan, Sayed Shubbar Alawi, Sayed Redha Isa, Sayed Mahdi Baqer, Ali Haram, Komail Alaswad, Abdulla Alhazza, Mohammed Alromaihi, Ahmed Nabeel, Sayed Dhiya Saeed, Mohammed Marhoon, Thiago Augusto.

AMH golf tournament concludes

TDT | Manama

The third and final day of golfing for the 2019 AMH

Island Classic Charity Golf Tournament – commenced at 10.30am on the Private Golf Course of His Majesty, King Hamad bin Isa Al Khalifa in Saf-friya. During the last day only one flight was played and the end of the day decided the win-ning teams for both the flights.

Speaking at the end of the tournament AMH Chief Medi-cal Officer/ Corporate CEO, Dr. George Cheriyan said, “First-ly, we thank our kind patron HM King Hamad bin Isa Al Khalifa without whose sup-port and generosity this event could not be held. We also thank the Royal Court for their timely guidance and support always. Deepest appreciation to the sponsors whose kind

support ensures that year af-ter year the golf tournament continues to be an astounding success.

Julia Tovey, COO of American Mission Hospital on the occa-sion commented: “I would like to thank everyone who played a role in the enormous success of the event. Our deepest appreci-ation to the sponsors whose loy-al support ensures that we run the tournament year after year, the golfers who delight us with their skills and showmanship, His Majesty’s golf course staff for their in-valuable co-oper-ation and assistance and not to forget our precious volunteers who give freely of their time to come down and support the event.”

Overall results for the three days:The Championship Flight was won

by Al Hawaj 2 (53.4 net), this team being the one with the lowest score over the three days for all teams with a handicap average of less than 6.0.In overall second place was Gulf Air 2 (53.7 Net) and in third place overall was Bahrain Confidential (53.8 Net)The Premier Flight was won by Independent –US Embassy (54.2 Net), this team being the one with the lowest score over the three days for all teams with a handicap average of 6.0 or more.In overall second place was AMH Amwaj 2 (57.4 Net) and in overall third place was RCSI 1 (57.8 Net)

Overall on the final day were:Closest to the Pin (Hole 2): Abdul-rehman Al Amin (Ramee Grand 2)Most Accurate Drive (Hole 8): Ali Saleh (Ramee Grand 2)Longest Putt (Hole 4): Rashed Yagoob (Al Hawaj 2)

Participants after the game

Al Awadhi bows out from World Cup in round of 24TDT | Manama

Bahrain’s Ahmed Al Awadhi bowed out of contention in

the 55th QubicaAMF Bowling World Cup in Palembang, Indo-nesia in the round of 24.

The talented 20-year-old ranked 17th overall after play-ing eight games in the stage, which were added to his scores from the preliminary stage.

Al Awadhi took down 1,553 pins in the top 24, giving him

an overall score of 6,431 pins for the tournament and a 200.97 average.

He finished 279 pins behind the last player to make the cut into the ensuing round of eight.

Francois Louw of South Af-rica was eventually crowned the tournament champion. He beat hometown hero Ryan Lalisang 237-202 in the men’s final.

Rebecca Whiting of Australia was the women’s champion.

She defeated Aumi Guerra of the Dominican Republic 172-162 to claim her crown.

Al Awadhi was one of nearly 200 bowlers from close to 80 countries taking part in this year’s World Cup. The com-petition is held in a different country around the world each year and has visited more than 40 nations, establishing itself as the world’s largest annual sporting events in tenpin bowl-ing.

Al Awadhi, standing back row right, with the rest of the top 24 in the World Cup

Rampant India on brink of big win in day-night TestAFP | Kolkata

A sparkling century by Virat Kohli and Ishant Sharma’s

four wickets put India on the cusp of a big win over Bang-ladesh on just the second day of their maiden day-night Test yesterday.

The tourists were 152 for six at stumps in their second innings, still needing 89 runs to avoid an innings defeat in

India’s pink ball Test debut in Kolkata.

Kohli made 136 as India, who lead the two-match series 1-0, declared their innings on 347 for nine and then Ishant rattled the Bangladesh batting.

Ishant struck early to leave Bangladesh tottering at 13 for four before Mushfiqur Rahim made an unbeaten 59 to take the five-day match to day three.

Mushfiqur and Mahmud-

ullah, who retired hurt on 39 with what seemed a hamstring strain, put on 69 runs for the fifth wicket to offer some resist-ence against a persistent Indian pace attack.

Mushfiqur stayed on to com-plete his second half-century of the series with concussion sub-stitute Taijul Hasan losing his wicket for 11 to paceman Umesh Yadav and umpires called for end of play.


Bahrain top UAE Bahrain make winning start in Gulf basketball

Championship

TDT | Manama

Bahrain powered to a resounding 71-53 vic-tory over the UAE last

night to make a winning start to the Gulf Basketball Asso-ciation (GBA) Men’s National Teams Championship, which tipped off yesterday in Kuwait City.

After beginning the game strong and building a com-manding early lead, the Bah-rainis allowed their opponents back in the contest. But they took control once again towards the end with a 15-2 blitz start-ing the fourth quarter, which gave them a 21-point cushion and they were able to close the game out from there.

Naturalised big man CJ Giles paced the Bahrainis with 17 points, including seven re-bounds and two blocked shots. Versatile forward Mohammed Buallay chipped in with 15 markers, while frontcourt mate Mohammed Ameer came off the bench to score 10 as Bah-rain’s only other player in dou-ble figures.

Ahmed Salman had eight, Muzamel Ameer finished with seven, Ahmed Aziz had six points, Hesham Sarhan had four and both Subah Hussain and Mohammed Qurban both scored two apiece.

Bader Abdulla Malabes, Ahmed Najaf and Mustsafa Hussain also played but did not make it on the points column.

UAE captain Rashed Alzaabi paced his side in the loss with 20 points off the bench while Hamad Ashoor added 14, also as a substitute. None of their starting five scored in double figures.

The Bahrainis, coached by Serbian Darko Russo, raced out to a quick 16-6 lead at the be-ginning of the game and were up 21-9 to end the opening period.

The Emiratis narrowed the gap in the second quarter but Bahrain still had a 34-27 advan-tage heading into the half-time break. In a low-scoring third, the UAE fought back to within 33-34 following an Omer Khalid

jump shot, but the Bahrainis replied with seven unanswered points which helped them take a 46-38 lead into the fourth quarter.

That set the stage for their game-changing rally, which was capped by a Buallay bas-ket that made it 61-40 with just over five minutes remaining.

The nationals enjoyed their biggest lead at 24 points the rest of the way.

Bahrain will be looking to continue their winning ways when they play Qatar today at 5pm. The Emiratis will be hop-ing to bounce back against their Saudi Arabia counterparts at 7pm this evening.

Bahrain’s Buallay looks to dribble past the UAE’s Alzaabi in their win yesterday

Bahrain’s Muzamel Ameer rises for an uncontested lay-up in their game against the UAE

Mourinho makes instant impact • Jose Mourinho’s Tottenham reign starts with win despite late scare at West Ham

AFP | London

Jose Mourinho delivered Tot-tenham’s first away win in

the Premier League since Jan-uary in his first game in charge with a 3-2 win at West Ham to catapult Spurs up to sixth.

Son Heung-min, Lucas Mou-ra and Harry Kane got the goals as Mourinho made an instant impact after replacing the sacked Mauricio Pochettino on Wednesday.

A much-needed three points will help to endear Mourinho to a skeptical Spurs support who were sad to see Pochetti-no’s five-and-a-half year spell in charge of the club end just six months after leading the club to a first ever Champions League final.

There was no love lost be-tween Mourinho’s Chelsea sides and Tottenham in the past, but his arrival had the de-sired impact for Spurs chair-man Daniel Levy, even if a West Ham team devoid of confidence made for perfect opponents.

Mourinho followed Pochet-tino’s example in leaving out Christan Eriksen with the Dane one of a number of Spurs play-ers into the final months of his contract and showing no signs of agreeing a new deal.

“We have to make the right decision for the club,” Mour-inho said on Eriksen’s future before kick-off, but his deci-sion to field a front four of Dele Alli with Son, Moura and Kane worked.

Kane had smashed the ball past beleaguered West Ham goalkeeper Roberto after just three minutes from Alli’s pass but was denied by the offside flag.

An injury to first-choice stopper Lukasz Fabianski has coincided with a run of eight games without a win for West Ham with a string of errors from Roberto spreading a lack of confidence throughout the team.

The Spaniard could have done better when Tottenham did open the scoring nine min-utes before half-time when an-other through ball from Alli found Son, whose shot had too much power for the hapless ‘keeper.

Howeve r, Ro b e r t o wa s

blameless for Spurs’ second seven minutes later when a lovely flick from Alli sent Son racing down the left and his inch-perfect cross was met by Moura at the back post.

The same two players should have combined for the vis-itors’ third just two minutes into the second half when Son sent Moura clean through on goal, but the Brazilian dragged his shot wide to the despair of Mourinho, who sank to his knees on the touchline.

Tottenham’s celebrations were only put on hold for an-other two minutes as Serge Aurier’s cross picked out Kane to head home and become the third highest goalscorer in Spurs’ history with 175.

The England captain was fu-rious at himself for not adding another on the hour mark as he dallied with just Roberto to beat and was dispossessed by a last-ditch challenge from Issa Diop.

Michail Antonio pulled a goal back for the hosts 17 min-utes from time, but by the time Angelo Ogbonna scored West Ham’s second six minutes into stoppage time it was too little, too late.

West Ham manager Manuel Pellegrini now waits to see if he faces a similar fate to Pochet-tino.

The Hammers were expected to challenge for European qual-ification in the Chilean’s second season but instead are 16th and in danger of falling even closer towards the relegation zone by the end of the weekend.

KNOW WHAT

West Ham manager Manuel Pellegrini

now waits to see if he faces a similar fate to

Pochettino

Tottenham Hotspur’s English striker Harry Kane celebrates scoring his team’s third goal

Barcelona leave it late to sneak past Leganes• Freak Vidal goal gives sluggish Barcelona victory at Leganes

AFP | Madrid

Barcelona needed a late winner from Arturo Vidal

to beat bottom-club Leganes 2-1 yesterday and dig out a much-needed victory ahead of what could prove a crucial month in their season.

Vidal poked in a fortuitous goal in the 79th minute at Bu-tarque after Luis Suarez headed home a Lionel Messi free-kick to cancel out a brilliant opener from Leganes forward Youssef En-Nesyri.

Barcelona stay top of the ta-ble, three points above Real Ma-drid, who play later yesterday

at home to La Liga’s surprise high-fliers Real Sociedad.

A gritty win will also come as a relief to under-pressure coach Ernesto Valverde, whose team now turn their attention to Wednesday’s crunch Champi-

ons League group game against Borussia Dortmund at Camp Nou.

A goalless draw against Sla-via Prague earlier this month means Barca’s qualification from Group F is no longer guar-

anteed.After Dortmund, they then

play away at Atletico Madrid in La Liga to start a month that will include trips to Inter Milan in the Champions League and Real Sociedad in La Liga before the season’s first Clasico at home to Real Madrid.

It was important therefore to avoid a slip against Leganes, playing their first game in front of their own fans since appointing Javier Aguirre as coach.

The home side made the perfect start as En-Nesyri beat Gerard Pique with a wonderful early striker.

Pique has spent the interna-tional break juggling football with the Davis Cup, the re-vamped tennis tournament in Madrid that he is organising through his marketing company Kosmos.

Barcelona’s Uruguayan forward Luis Suarez (R) scores a goal

Higuain, Dybala score late to keep Juve top of Serie AAFP | Milan

Gonzalo Higuain grabbed a second-half brace with

Paulo Dybala adding a late third as Juventus rescued a 3-1 comeback win over Atalanta in the final quarter of an hour to stay top of Serie A yesterday.

Robin Gosens had nod-ded Atalanta ahead after 56 minutes as the Bergamo side chased their first Serie A win over Juventus since February 2001.

Higuain hit back with two goals in an eight-minute spell while Dybala marked his 200th Serie A appearance with the final goal two minutes into injury time.

Maurizio Sarri’s side open up a four-point lead on sec-ond-placed Inter Milan, who

travel to Torino later yester-day, as Atalanta drop to sixth place after their fourth league game without a win.

Cristiano Ronaldo missed the trip to Bergamo despite his four-goal spree for Portu-gal because of a slight knee problem ahead of Juventus’s Champions League game against Atletico Madrid on Tuesday.

Argentinian forward Gonzalo Higuain celebrates after scoring

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