BUSINESS | 14 SPORT | 19Al Sadd go atop as Al Duhail survive Qatar SC scare

Qatar plans huge investments in

Germany: Report

Volume 23 | Number 7638 | 2 RiyalsMonday 3 September 2018 | 23 Dhul-Hijja I 1439 www.thepeninsula.qa

Over 43,000 sign up as FIFA 2022 volunteers on first day

DOHA: The Supreme Committee for Delivery & Legacy (SC) has officially opened doors for people from Qatar, region and the world to register as volunteer to support preparations for the 2022 FIFA World Cup Qatar.

Within first four hours of the launch, more than 12,000 people signed up as volunteers via the registration platform www.seeyouin2022.qa. It hit 43,014 while going to press.

Volunteers will contribute towards numerous Qatar 2022 milestones, including stadium launches and test events. They will support in a range of func-tions, including event man-agement, hospitality, marketing, communications, audience man-agement, security, medical services and more.

Applicants must be aged 16 and over, they are not required to have any volunteering expe-rience and will receive training in the lead-up to the tournament, which will kick off on November 21, 2022.

Working as a volunteer now will give participants an advantage when applying for

FIFA’s Qatar 2022 volunteer pro-gramme, which will cover various aspects of the tour-nament, including match day operations.

During the launch event at the Four Seasons Doha, SC unveiled the first 22 volunteers from countries across the region, including Bahrain, Egypt, Jordan, Morocco, Oman, Pakistan, Pal-estine, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Somalia, Sudan, Syria, Tunisia, Turkey and Yemen.

Talking to The Peninsula, Nasser Al Khater, SC’s Assistant Secretary-General for Tour-nament Affairs said: “We are pleased to welcome volunteers

from Qatar, Arab region and the world. We aim to recruit about 14,000-16,000 volunteers. Vol-unteers will play an important role throughout the tournament and we will make sure that all our volunteers are well trained. We will manage everything with special care whether it is

transportation or related to any other field. We will sit and talk with officials from Russia to discuss what we need to improve in order to deliver the best for our audience.”

During the event, SC’s Sec-retary-General, Hassan Al Thawadi said: “Volunteers

would play a pivotal role in helping Qatar deliver a unique tournament. We have always maintained that this tournament is one for the whole region. Now, we are excited to open registration for volunteers inter-ested in joining us on our journey.

“This tournament will provide a platform to showcase the true nature of the Arab world and volunteers will be essential partners in ensuring that all our preparations for 2022 help achieve this,” Hassan added.

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Officials from the Supreme Committee for Delivery & Legacy with first 22 volunteers at the launch of registration of volunteers, yesterday.PIC: ANWAR SADATH

AMNA PERVAIZ RAO THE PENINSULA

Ashghal signs QR1bn contractsfor six new health projectsIRFAN BUKHARI THE PENINSULA

DOHA: The Public Works Authority (Ashghal) yesterday signed contracts of building five new health centres at Al Khor, Al Wakra South, Al Sadd, Al Mashaf and Ain Khalid.

Ashghal also signed another contract of building of National Health Laboratories. The total value of six new health projects is around QR1bn.

These contract agreements were signed by Dr. Eng Saad bin Ahmad Al Muhannadi, President of the Public Works Authority, in the presence of Dr Musallam Al Nabit, General Manager Assistant for Administration and Financial Affairs in the Primary Health Care Corporation, and a number of offi-cials from the Ministry of Public Health and the contractors.

Dr Eng Saad bin Ahmad Al Muhannadi said that during the last five years (2014-18), Ashghal had implemented double the number of health centres that were implemented in the past.

He added that four other health centres for Madinat Khalifa South, Umm Ghuwailina, Al Thamid and Nuaija were under designing phase whose implementation will commence in coordination with the Ministry of Public Health.

The five new health centres will serve around 3,500 visitors per day.

The new projects come as part of achieving the Qatar National Vision 2030, which comes at the top of Ashghal’s strategy. In the contracts signing ceremony, it was revealed that Ashghal had imple-mented 24 health buildings between 2004 and 2018.

On the occasion, Dr Eng Saad bin Ahmad Al Muhannadi, Pres-ident of the Public Works Authority, thanked Prime Min-ister and Interior Minister H E Sheikh Abdullah bin Nasser bin Khalifa Al Thani for his unlimited support and for providing budgets for the new projects, as well as overcoming all obstacles that face infrastructure projects that serve both citizens and residents.

Ashghal President also expressed his pride that all con-tractors who had been awarded the new contracts were local contractors, noting that Ashghal encouraged local and national companies to implement their projects in line with the direc-tives of the wise leadership.

Dr. Musallam Al Nabit, General Manager Assistant for Administration and Financial Affairs in the Primary Health Care

Corporation, thanked President of the Public Works Authority for his continuous support and fruitful cooperation during the past years and during this year.

The contractors reposed their complete trust in Ashghal. Rashid Al Kaabi, Vice-Chairman of AlSorayi Group for Trading and Contracting praised the role of the Public Works Authority in sup-porting national companies and qualifying them to implement the

largest infrastructure projects in the country and compete for the largest development projects inside and outside Qatar. He added that Al-Sorayi Group would establish national health laboratories.

Hashim Abdullah of Al Tawfeek & Partners for Con-tracting said that Ashghal has opened the way for local com-panies to execute important projects in the country that serve the health sector.

Around 90,000 Qataris expected to visit Turkey this year: AmbassadorRAYNALD C RIVERA THE PENINSULA

DOHA: Turkey expects around 90,000 Qatari visitors this year as bilateral relations become stronger in recent years, Ambassador of Turkey to Qatar Fikret Ozer said yesterday.

Ozer was speaking at a press conference held yes-terday at the Turkish Embassy to announce Turkey-Qatar Intercultural Dialogues, a new project carried out by Istanbul Intercultural Dialogues Asso-ciation of Art (IKASD).

He said that while Turkey and Qatar currently enjoy excellent political, economic and military relations, they also attach great importance on further strengthening cul-tural relations with Qatar.

“Dear friends, as you know, the political, economic and military relations between Turkey and Qatar are at excellent level. As the Embassy of Turkey in the State of Qatar, we desire to carry these rela-tions further. But on the other hand, we attach a great impor-tance to the cultural relations between the two countries,” said the ambassador.

“Turkey and Qatar share the same cultural values in different fields. As we have shared the same happiness, pains and concerns throughout the history, the two nations have felt very close each other. We expe-rience the advantages of this togetherness in sisterly and friendly Qatar,” he added.

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HBKU sees 33% increase in admissionsFAZEENA SALEEM THE PENINSULA

DOHA: Hamad Bin Khalifa University (HBKU) has seen an increase of 33 percent in admis-sions to its five colleges this year.

The total number of admis-sions has increased from 250 in 2017 to 332 this fall.

Students from Qatar, the region and around the world kick started their academic journey at HBKU yesterday. HBKU opened its doors to the incoming students this fall under the ‘Hayakom at HBKU’ theme yesterday.

“We have 332 new students this year. Among them 42 percent are Qataris and others are resi-dents and international students. Every year we see a steady increase in the number of students since the beginning,” Mohammed Al Salat, Admissions Specialist at HBKU told The Peninsula.

As a homegrown university, HBKU embodies the nation’s aspirations and offers a variety of courses at the College of Islamic Studies, College of Humanities and Social Sciences, College of Science and Engi-neering, College of Law and Public Policy, and College of

Health and Life Sciences. “It is a huge opportunity for

the students to study at HBKU because it is a homegrown uni-versity with many local and international collaborations. I would encourage people to apply here if they are interested to con-tinue their students and increase knowledge,” said Al Salat.

He also emphasised that some courses such as the Master of Science and a PhD in Genomics and Precision Med-icine are the rarest in the region, which shows how HBKU is helping in reaching Qatar National Vision 2030.

Mohannad Khandakji, a new PhD student in Genomics and Precision Medicine at the College of Health and Life Sciences said: “The programme is outstanding regionally and globally. As well as HBKU has global partnerships with institutes like Harvard Uni-versity and HBKU is part of Qatar Foundation which has branches of prestigious universities. This provides plenty of opportunities to exchange research collabo-ration and this very aspect is not present at any other place.”

Students at HBKU are given the opportunity to work closely with the three national research

centers – Qatar Computing Research Institute (QCRI), Qatar Environment & Energy Research Institute (QEERI), and Qatar Bio-medical Research Institute (QBRI).

They also get the chance to collaborate with partner univer-sities at Qatar Foundation, and institutions across Qatar, for their research and professional pursuits.

Among the colleges at HBKU, College of Science and Engi-neering has the highest number of students and this year it has received 136 new admissions.

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“This tournament will

provide a platform

to showcase the

true nature of the

Arab world and

volunteers will be

essential partners in

ensuring that all our

preparations for 2022

help achieve this,”

SC’s Secretary-General

Hassan Al Thawadi said.

02 MONDAY 3 SEPTEMBER 2018HOME

Amir greets President of VietnamDOHA: Amir H H Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani sent yesterday a cable of congratulations to the Pres-ident of the Socialist Republic of Vietnam, Tran Dai Quang, on the occasion of his country’s National Day. Deputy Amir H H Sheikh Abdullah bin Hamad Al Thani also sent similar cable of congratulations to the President. Prime Minister and Interior Minister H E Sheikh Abdullah bin Nasser bin Khalifa Al Thani sent a cable of congratulations to the Prime Minister of the Socialist Republic of Vietnam, Nguyen Xuan Phuc, on the occasion of his country’s National Day.

Zakat Fund gives over QR9m to needy familiesDOHA: Zakat Fund run by the Ministry of Awqaf and Islamic Affairs provided worth over QR9m to needy families in Qatar during Eid Al Adha.

The money was spent to meet the requirements of Eid Al Adha for 3,384 beneficiary families registered at the Fund, said a release. These families receive monthly and seasonal assistance. Other beneficiaries are needy families and a number of minors who are registered with the general authority for minors affairs.

The aids are provided to its beneficiaries in accordance with the Shariah regulations and after taking the necessary procedures for those requesting assistance, to make sure they reach people who need those aids.

MoI awards winners of Security Research ContestTHE PENINSULA

DOHA: The Ministry of Interior yesterday celebrated the winners of MoI Security Research Contest 2017-2018, with the attendance of Director General of Public Security Major General Saad bin Jassim Al Khulaifi, a number of officers and officials from the Ministry of Interior (MoI).

The celebration was held at Officers Club of the Civil Defence under the patronage of Prime Minister and Interior Min-ister H E Sheikh Abdullah bin Nasser bin Khalifa Al Thani.

This year the contest focused on ‘Enhancing Intellectual Security in Qatari Society’ under themes like “the concept of intel-lectual security and its treatment”, “relation between national security and intellectual security” and “the role of fam-ilies, education and media in pro-moting intellectual security”. “It is a tool that will contribute to

meeting the goals of the ministry and tries to include research centers in public universities, police college and Police Training Institute, in aim to raise the level of intellectual security among members of society and institu-tions to achieve security and sta-bility in the Qatari society,” said Director-General of Police College Brig. Dr Mohammed

Abdullah Al Mahanna Al Marri and head of the awarding com-mittee for the contest. The award receivers were Dr Wadha Matar Morshed Al Nuaimi from Min-istry of Education and Higher Education, Laila Fadl Hamad Al Sada from MOI and Amina Mohammed Shafie Al Ansari from the Ministry of Municipality and Environment.

The Director-General of Public Security, Major General Saad bin Jassim Al Khulaifi (right), and a number of officers from the Ministry of Interior at the award function, yesterday.

NBA stars inspire schoolchildren during Qatar visitTHE PENINSULA

DOHA: Four of the leading names in US basketball have showcased their skills and inspired others with their dedication to excel-lence as they visited Qatar Foun-dation (QF).

The stars from the National Basketball Association (NBA) are spending five days in Doha at the invitation of the Supreme Com-mittee for Delivery & Legacy (SC) to see how Qatar is preparing to host the 2022 FIFA World Cup, how the country is a destination that welcomes the world, and its commitment to encouraging young people to participate in sport.

As part of their visit to Qatar, the NBA guests held a Masterclass for about 40 schoolchildren at the Hamad Bin Khalifa University Student Center at QF’s Education City, attended by H E Sheikha Hind bint Hamad Al Thani, Vice-Chairperson and CEO of Qatar

Foundation; Sheikh Mohammed bin Hamad Al Thani, Managing Director of SC; Hassan Al Thawadi, Secretary-General of SC; Omran Al Kuwari, Executive Director, CEO Office, QF and other dignitaries.

The class, which was opened by Al Thawadi, saw triple Olympic gold medalist Carmelo Anthony of the Houston Rockets,

four-time NBA All-Star Klay Thompson of the Golden State Warriors, seven-time NBA All-Star Tracy McGrady, and Los Angeles Lakers head coach Luke Walton pass on basketball tips to their young sporting students, before hosting a Q&A session. A friendly competition at QF then pitted the NBA players against Qatar’s national basketball team.

The events at Education City illustrated how QF promotes sport and physical activity, as a key element of nurturing healthy lifestyles and stronger commu-nities. The visit of the NBA stars also showcased how QF is sup-porting the 2022 FIFA World Cup, Qatar’s sporting ambitions, and its global profile as a forward-thinking, open, and diverse nation.

Al Kuwari said, “The dedi-cation and the values of profes-sional sportspeople, such as our guests from the National Bas-ketball Association whom we are

delighted to welcome to QF, serve as inspiration for millions of people throughout the world.

“Meeting people who are not only heroes within their sport, but also positive role models for society in general, is an oppor-tunity for members of the QF community to enhance their rec-ognition of what is required to achieve our goals in life.”

Commenting on the visit, Al Thawadi said, “We’re thrilled to be hosting these sporting icons — their visit is further testament to the support and excitement all over the world for the Qatar 2022 World Cup.

“We’ve always said sports have the power to transcend borders and bring people together. We’re confident that these NBA superstars and their fans will see the great work we’re doing to make Qatar 2022 truly amazing.”

Reflecting on his visit to Edu-cation City, Anthony said, “It was

great to learn that basketball has such a huge following in Qatar.

“We’ve been impressed with our tour of Qatar Foundation and Education City. The students were great, and it was amazing to see young people from all over the world pursuing their dreams.”

And speaking about his QF experience, Thompson said, “This Masterclass is an example of how Qatar Foundation is helping stu-dents who might otherwise not have access to an event like this. The facilities at Qatar Foundation, and the passion of the students, really show the spirit of Qatar ahead of the 2022 World Cup, and I’m excited to find out more about what Qatar has in store for the tournament.”

During their time at Edu-cation City, the NBA stars also met students from QF member Hamad Bin Khalifa University and QF’s partner universities, sharing basketball tips and advice on how to succeed in life.

H E Sheikha Hind bint Hamad Al Thani, Vice-Chairperson and CEO of Qatar Foundation, and other officials with four of the leading names in the National Basketball Association at the Hamad Bin Khalifa University Student Center at QF’s Education City.

The stars from the

National Basketball

Association are

spending five days

in Doha at the

invitation of the

Supreme Committee

for Delivery & Legacy

to see how Qatar is

preparing to host the

2022 FIFA World Cup.

Around 90,000 Qatarisexpected to visit Turkeythis year: Ambassador

CONTINUED FROM PAGE 1

He said cultural ties between the people have been strengthened in the recent years, thanks to touristic visits of Qataris to Turkey.

“We estimate that, we will have hosted approximately 90,000 Qatari visitors in Turkey in 2018. This tendency has more meaning for us than economic profits. Our Qatari friends visiting Turkey have chances to know the Turkish culture better and to bring the cultural items of Turkey to Qatar. As a result of this interaction, Turkish movies and series are very popular in Qatar,” Fikret Ozer (pictured), Turkish Ambas-sador to Qatar, said.

He also expressed interest to continue organising more cul-tural activities building on the success of 2015 Qatar-Turkey Year of Culture, which witnessed many activities organized both in Turkey and Qatar. “We are very keen to pursue the positive atmos-phere of these activities organized in 2015. In coming term, we will be making more effort to hold such activities,” he said.

Qatar flays stabbing incident at AmsterdamDOHA: The State of Qatar has strongly condemned a knife stabbing incident in a railway station in the Dutch capital Amsterdam, in which two American citizens were seri-ously injured.

In a statement, the Min-istry of Foreign Affairs reit-erated Qatar’s firm stance rejecting violence and ter-rorism, regardless of motives and reasons. The statement expressed Qatar’s wishes for a speedy recovery to the injured.

On August 31, a 19-year-old person pulled out a knife and stabbed two people, seri-ously injuring them. The suspect was then shot by police, right after the violent crime took place. Witnesses said that the incident began as an argument on a train platform, which then escalated.

Over 43,000 sign up as FIFA 2022 volunteers on first day

CONTINUED FROM PAGE 1

Mead Al Emadi, the SC’s Community Engagement Manager, gave a presentation during the event that offered details on how to sign-up as a volunteer. Mead Al Emadi told The Peninsula: “We are looking forward to cater huge number of volunteers, fans and spectators. We will provide special training to all our volunteers depending on which field they choose. The opportunity to participate in such a tournament is unprecedented and I encourage all interested football fans and volunteers from around the world to join us on the road to 2022.”

The event also hosted a panel session involving,Mohammed Saadon Al Kuwari, Ambas-sador of SC; Faisal Al Shanfari from Oman and member of the Arab Federation for Voluntary Activities; and Mohamed Essoussi, from Tunisia, who was a volunteer during the 2018 FIFA World Cup in Russia. Al Kuwari called on people from

across the region to unite in support of Qatar’s tournament.

Essoussi, who spent time volunteering with FIFA’s anti-doping unit during Russia 2018, said: “There are many advantages to volunteering. It gives you the chance to meet people from all over the world. You also have the opportunity to rep-resent your country and region.I volunteered as I wanted to give a good image of Arab youth. Now I have returned from Russia, I feel very proud at what I achieved.”

Al Shanfari from Oman said: “Volunteering has many positive impacts and offers the chance to learn important skills. I have seen people change their outlook through volunteering. This is the first time the World Cup will be held in our region, so it’s a valuable opportunity for millions of people.”

Volunteers interested in registering their interest can visit www.seeyouin2022.qa.

Qatar calls on fighting parties in Libya to end violence soonQNA

DOHA: The State of Qatar called on the parties in conflict in Libya for an immediate end to violence, and to work urgently on regaining calm in Libyan capital Tripoli and its surrounding areas.

The Ministry of Foreign Affairs said in a statement that Qatar has been monitoring with great concern the rocket attacks and the escalating violence in Libyan capital Tripoli and its sur-roundings over the past few days.

The statement also stressed that such military operations can only complicate matters further in Libya.

The Ministry of Foreign Affairs renewed Qatar’s support of UN missions who continue to try and resolve the situation. Qatar also called on the parties involved not to obstruct the political process, and encouraged regional forces and the interna-tional community to push for peaceful dialogue and an end to the bloodshed in accordance to

the Skhirat agreement, the national dialogue and the meetings that followed.

The statement also stressed that the Libyan people and the future generations were the ones paying the price of the current confrontations as they are deprived of their right to edu-cation and suitable services, adding that their wealth is being drained on conflicts that the wise in Libya can work out through dialogue and an immediate ceasefire.

03MONDAY 3 SEPTEMBER 2018 HOME

HMC gets re-accreditation

for Palliative Care Program

Qatar strongly condemns attack in Mogadishu

THE PENINSULA

DOHA: The National Center for Cancer Care and Research (NCCCR), part of Hamad Medical Corporation’s (HMC) network of specialist hospitals, recently announced the successful re-accreditation of its Supportive and Palliative Care Program by the Joint Commission Interna-tional (JCI).

Palliative care is care pro-vided for people who have a life-limiting illness and for whom the primary goal is quality of life. Palliative care takes a holistic approach to address the full spectrum of a patient’s needs, from the physical and emotional to the spiritual and social.

Commenting on the signifi-cance of the international accreditation, Professor Alex-ander Knuth, CEO and Medical Director at NCCCR, said, “We are

proud of this achievement and honored to be re-accredited by an internationally recognized organization such as JCI. This highlights HMC’s approach to developing excellence in healthcare in Qatar and it rec-ognizes the outstanding quality of care we provide to our patients. Our vision is to deliver an internationally recognized Supportive and Palliative Care Program and to become a regional leader in palliative care clinical services.”

“This is the only palliative care program accredited as a clinical care program by JCI in the Middle East and Gulf region. This achievement reflects HMC’s commitment to providing the best quality services to our patients by offering world-class cancer therapies and support. Our Supportive and Palliative Care Program meets the highest

quality standards and our teams are committed to the provision of exemplary care,” he added.

Dr Azza Ibrahim Hassan, Senior Consultant, Oncology at NCCCR and Director of the Sup-portive and Palliative Care Program said coping with advanced illness is stressful for patients and their families. She said the goal of HMC’s Sup-portive and Palliative Care Program is to maintain an optimal quality of life for patients and caregivers.

“The patient is at the heart of everything we do here at HMC and our Supportive and Palli-ative Care Program is focused on the patient. It is tailored to meet patient needs, using proven tools and techniques to better integrate, coordinate, and com-municate patient care. The program prioritizes patients with late-stage disease, identifying

those who may need immediate assistance and accepting referrals for symptom control and psychological support for both patients and their families. The program also provides advice on the direction of care and assistance in communicating difficult medical information,” said Dr. Hassan.

The Palliative and Sup-portive Care Program was ini-tially accredited in 2012, fol-lowed by a second re-accredi-tation in 2015. The JCI

accreditation recognizes hospital programs that demonstrate exceptional care to optimize the quality of life for patients with serious illnesses. It acknowl-edges compliance with the highest standards.

In 2016 the supportive and palliative care team developed a Fellowship Program focused on palliative care for patients and families at diagnosis, during active treatment, and at end-of-life. The first fellow joined the program in 2017.

The staff at the National Center for Cancer Care and Research.

CRA represents Qatar in UPU CongressDOHA: A high-level delegation from Qatar, headed by Mohammed Ali Al Mannai, President of the Communica-tions Regulatory Authority (CRA), is participating in the 2nd Extraordinary Congress of the Universal Postal Union (UPU), being held from September 3 to 7, 2018 at African Union headquarters in Addis Ababa. It is being convened as part of ongoing efforts to reform the UPU, with a view to improving and speeding up decision-making processes. An Extraordinary Congress may be convened at the request, or with the consent of at least two-thirds of the member countries of the UPU.

Kahramaa’s water quality exceeds WHO standardsTHE PENINSULA

DOHA: The Water Quality Lab of Qatar Genera Electricity and Water Corporation (Kahramaa) has renewed the recognised International Standard ISO 17025:2005 from the American Association for Laboratory Accreditation (A2LA) for third straight time.

Kahramaa made tremendous efforts to ensure the quality of drinking water it provides to cus-tomers as per the highest inter-national standard, said a release. The quality of Kahramaa drinking

water exceeds WHO standards. In 2017, The Water Quality Lab has collected more than 30,000 samples where more than 189,000 tests were performed, said a statement.

Kahramaa’s Water Quality Lab was granted the accreditation for the first time in 2012. It is one of around 200 non-commercial laboratories in the world authorized to use the logo of the world class certification body A2LA.

Kahramaa Water Quality Lab is the leading laboratory in Qatar in terms of international

accreditation and one of the first accredited laboratories in the region.

This accreditation is a recog-nition of Kahramaa Water Quality Lab capability of issuing authentic and accurate chemical and microbiological results, moreover, it maintains and complies with the requirements of international quality standard ISO 9001:2008.

This international accredi-tation opens the door for Kah-ramaa water quality lab to be an international reference for testing samples and issuing accurate results inside and outside Qatar.

HBKU sees 33% increase in admissions

CONTINUED FROM PAGE 1

Dr Tareq Al Ansari, Assistant Professor at the College of Science and Engi-neering said, “It is the biggest college in HBKU which pro-vides variety of Master and PhD programmes in fields such as sustainable environment, sustainable energy, supply chain management and ICT serving Qatar’s needs. The variety of degrees we offer which are very relevant to Qatar and to the world.”

The incoming cohort of students at HBKU represent versatile educational back-grounds. Ghoroor Ahmed, a new Masters students in Women Society and Devel-opment at the College of Humanities and Social Science has obtained her bachelor degree from Weill Cornell Medicine Qatar.

“I have come from medical school to a college of human-ities. But I find a connection between the two fields. I like to learn more about health and about women in society devel-opment,” she added.

Ooredoo announces bonus data with Hala Flexi, Dawli and data rechargesTHE PENINSULA

DOHA: Ooredoo announced yesterday that all Hala customers can now enjoy a special data bonus for making a data recharge on their Hala account.

All Hala customers who make a data recharge of QR10 and above via selected Hala services will be rewarded with up to 20 GB of bonus data.

Hala customers can also earn bonus data by purchasing Flexi Cards and Dawli Cards.

Customers who recharge with a Hala Flexi Card will earn 1.1 GB of free data with a QR20 Flexi top-up, 7.1 GB with a QR100 Flexi top-up and a

massive 22 GB with a QR200 Flexi Card.

Hala Data Recharges and Dawli Card customers will get 500 MB of free data with a QR10 recharge or Dawli top-up, 1250 MB with a QR20 data recharge or Dawli card top-up and a huge 20 GB extra data with a QR200 Data Recharge.

All bonus data will be available on top of regular allowances and the new offer is valid until September 10, 2018.

As well as pay-as-you-go services, Hala offers a host of daily and weekly calling bundles, designed to cover international needs, data and local calling/SMS.

DOHA: The State of Qatar has strongly condemned the attack on a government office in the Somali capital, Mogadishu, causing deaths and injuries. In a statement, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs reiterated Qatar’s firm stance rejecting violence and terrorism, regardless of motives and reasons.

The Ministry expressed condolences of the State of Qatar to the victims’ families, the government and people of Somalia, wishing the injured a speedy recovery.

QAF Medical Services Commandtakes part in Global Medix 2018THE PENINSULA

DOHA: The Qatar Armed Forces Medical Services Command partici-pated in the Global Medix 2018 exercise held at Fort McCoy, Wisconsin, USA from August 13 to 16.

The exercise aimed at training all medical and para-medical staff on the medical evacuation and evacuation stages in the field and to take lessons learned through previous wars and crises and how to avoid them, said a release. The exercise included hands-on training and field training using field simulations technology. The exercise included a group of branches of US naval,

air, land and marines, as well as a number of brotherly and friendly countries.The participation of medical services comes in response to the invi-tation received by the Qatari Armed Forces from the Central Command of the US Army.

ACTA reveals new identity THE PENINSULA

DOHA: The Chairman of Admin-istrative Control and Trans-parency Authority (ACTA) Hamad bin Nasser Al Missned yesterday launched the new identity of the Authority. The idea of identity, comes since its inception until its announcement by Amiri Law No. (6) of 2015, reorganiing the ACTA and its objectives and competencies.

The ACTA new identity fea-tures first its logo, which inspired its design and its philosophy from the naked eye as a symbol of control and monitoring, adopting maroon color, which symbolises the State’s flag, thus embodying the ACTA main message and the meanings and objectives it aspires to. The phrase “ towards a flourishing homeland” has also

been taken as a verbal symbol of its commitment to achieving the highest indicators of integrity, transparency and combating corruption, in cooperation with all departments of the State .

ACTA looks forward to working on spreading the new identity to all sectors of society, and to be reflected in the systems and rules of all institutions and departments in the State.

An awareness plan has been developed for all segments of the society, including concepts and values of integrity and trans-parency, the prevention of all forms of corruption and its man-ifestations, the promotion of reli-gious awareness and the national responsibility to combat cor-ruption. The plan will be acti-vated in cooperation with all departments in the State.

The participants at the Global Medix 2018 exercise held at Fort McCoy, Wisconsin.

04 MONDAY 3 SEPTEMBER 2018HOME

Dr Azad Moopen gets FICCI’s Lifetime Achievement AwardTHE PENINSULA

DOHA: Dr Azad Moopen, Founder Chairman and Managing Director of Aster DM Healthcare, has been honoured with the Lifetime Achievement Award at 10th edition of The Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce (FICCI) Healthcare Excellence Awards. The prestigious accolade is in recognition of his valuable contribution and efforts in the field of healthcare. Under his leadership, Aster DM Healthcare in the last 31 years has become one of the few entities across the globe providing the complete circle of care from primary, secondary, tertiary to quaternary medical care, said a statement.

Starting with a single doctor clinic in Dubai in 1987, when healthcare was still in its prim-itive stages in the region, Dr Moopen has played a significant role in shaping the healthcare industry in the UAE and GCC.

Accepting the award at a cer-emony in New Delhi, Dr Moopen paid tribute to Aster DM Health-care’s 17,000 plus staff members for their efforts in providing “compassionate care to millions of patients” and hardwork to keep pushing the boundaries of healthcare excellence.

“Our journey over the last 30 years has been driven by our vision to provide quality

healthcare at affordable costs at the doorstep of the people that we serve and pushing boundaries to achieve our mission has seen us set benchmarks in healthcare excellence. I would like to thank FICCI for this honour, and this serves as further motivation to continue making a positive dif-ference in the lives of the people that we serve everyday,” Dr Moopen said.

Dr Azad Moopen (centre) receiving the Lifetime Achievement Award at FICCI Healthcare Excellence Awards.

AFG College welcomes new cohort of students THE PENINSULA

DOHA: AFG College with the University of Aberdeen welcomed its new cohort of undergraduate business and accounting students this week at their campus in Al Mamoura Doha.

Attending the first day of their student induction pro-gramme, over one hundred and fifty students completed their registration and were introduced to their university lecturers and personal tutors who offered a guided tour of the institutions facilities and the range of student services available to them.

AFG College with the Uni-versity of Aberdeen currently offers two bachelor degrees with honours specialising in business management and accountancy and finance.

The new students will com-mence their studies this month and will join the university’s

existing student body who com-menced their studies the pre-vious academic year.

The college chairperson, Dr Sheikha Aisha bint Faleh Al Thani, commented, “It is so encouraging to see so many new students starting their academic journey with the University of Aberdeen here in Qatar. Aberdeen University is not only one of the oldest UK universities, it is also ranked within the top 1 percent of global universities for research excellence and student outcomes. I am delighted to be part of this great institution and looking forward to the intro-duction of new postgraduate management degrees which we are hoping to launch this October.”

A further fifty new students are expected to join the Qatar campus over the coming few days, resulting in over two hundred undergraduate students joining the 2018 academic year.

Safari launches Turkish FestivalSafari, the leading hypermarket group in Qatar, unveiled its new promotion — Turkish Festival. The Festival was inaugurated by the Turkish Ambassador, Fikret Ozer, along with Zainul Abideen, the Director and General Manager of Safari Group of Companies; Ashraf Abu Issa, the Chairman of the Abu Issa Marketing and Distribution; Muhammed Keten, MD of Ulker Middle East; with staff of Safari Group, Abu Issa Marketing & Distribution, Ulker Middle East Management at Safari Mall in Abu Hamour.

DFI Cinema to screen globally-acclaimed ‘The Rider’THE PENINSULA

DOHA: The Doha Film Institute Cinema (DFI Cinema) will screen the profound film, The Rider (USA/2018) directed by Chloé Zhao, on Thursday and Friday at the Museum of Islamic Art (MIA) Auditorium.

The screenings are part of DFI’s ‘Contemporary Releases’ which aims to bring a selection of the latest internationally and regionally acclaimed films to Qatari audiences.

Fatma Al Remaihi, Chief Executive Officer of DFI, said: “Selected from recent festival favourites and emerging new voices of DFI granted filmmakers, Contemporary Releases aims to strengthen awareness of the bold

new narratives in world cinema and enhance appreciation of good cinema among the public. The Rider is a brilliantly crafted film that is powerfully empathetic and visually rich, assuring viewers a highly memorable cinema expe-rience. We will continue to bring

films that engage audiences with their strong narratives and unique treatment and hope to inspire our talented filmmakers to push their own creative boundaries.”

The Rider narrates the life of Brady Jandreau as a once-rising star of the rodeo circuit, who is warned that his competition days are over, after a tragic accident.

Back home, Brady finds himself won-dering what he has to live for when he can no longer do what gives him a sense of purpose: to r i d e a n d compete. To

regain control of his fate, he undertakes a search for a new identity and tries to redefine his idea of what it means to be a man in the heartland of America.

The film premiered at Cannes Film Festival 2017 and has won several accolades since including five nominations for the Inde-pendent Spirit Award for Best

Film and Best Director. Ranked #1 Best Movie of 2018 on Met-acritic, The Rider is the second feature film by Chinese film director, screenwriter and pro-ducer Chloé Zhao, whose debut film Songs My Brothers Taught Me (2015) premiered at Sundance Film Festival.

The Rider is rated 18 plus and is screened with Arabic subtitles. The first screening on Thursday is at 7pm followed by two screenings on Friday at 4pm and 7pm. Tickets are priced QR35. Students and Culture Pass by Qatar Museum members can avail of discounted rates of QR25 per person. Tickets are available at DFI Ticket Outlet across the MIA Auditorium and online at www.dohafilminstitute.com

A still from the film ‘The Rider’.

Civil service exams for OFWs in Qatar on October 12THE PENINSULA

DOHA: The Philippine Civil Service Commission (CSC) will conduct the Career Service Examination-Pen and Paper Test (CSE-PPT) for Professional and Subprofes-sional levels in Qatar on October 12, the Philippine Embassy has announced.

The Philippine Civil Service Commission is a general ability test designed to measure an individual’s preparedness to enter gov-ernment service in the Philippines.

A Professional or Subpro-fessional Eligibility is one of the qualifications to enter government service.

Passers of the Profes-sional Level will obtain the Career Service Professional Eligibility, which is appro-priate for appointment to both first level (clerical) and second level (technical) posi-tions in the government, including executive/mana-gerial positions in the second level.

On the other hand, Sub-professional Level passers will obtain the Career Service Subprofessional Eligibility appropriate only for first level p o s i t i o n s i n t h e government.

The Commission has again begun holding the CSE-PPT overseas to cater to OFWs who are interested to obtain a career service eligi-bility, in the hope of returning and securing government employment back in the Philippines.

For the requirements and application process, visit: http://www.csc.gov.ph/new-updates/1588-csc-to-hold-civil-service-exam-for-ofws-in-qatar.html

The screenings

are part of DFI’s

‘Contemporary

Releases’ which

aims to bring a

selection of the latest

internationally and

regionally acclaimed

films to Qatari

audiences.

Ashghal signs QR1bn contracts for six new health projectsAshghal President Dr Eng Saad bin Ahmad Al Muhannadi (fifth right) with other officials at the contract signing ceremony of six new health projects worth QR1bn at Ashghal headquarters in West Bay, yesterday. PIC: QASSIM RAHMATULLAH / THE PENINSULA

05MONDAY 3 SEPTEMBER 2018 HOME

HBKU marks beginning of new academic year

THE PENINSULA

DOHA: Hamad Bin Khalifa University (HBKU) celebrated the commencement of the Academic Year 2018-19 with the Univer-sity’s Orientation Day which was held yesterday.

This year, the University wel-comes an incoming cohort of 332 students made up of 49 nation-alities with a Qatari student enrolment rate of 42 percent.

The annual event set a tone for the returning and incoming student, faculty and staff members, who came together for a full day of informative sessions, which introduced them to the University’s framework as well as the institution’s objectives for the upcoming year. The attendees further learned about the University’s main mission, vision, pillars and values, which serve as important guidelines for the graduate experience at HBKU as they gained an understanding of the experiences of Yousef AlJaber, a College of Science and Engineering alumnus and a Class of 2016 graduate.

Following his laudatory remarks to the incoming cohorts, President of HBKU, Dr Ahmad M Hasnah, said: “Within HBKU’s community, each individual is integral to the continued success of the institution. As we mark the beginning of the academic year at HBKU, we welcome both new and returning students who will go on to become innovative leaders in their own right and

address the challenges we will face tomorrow.”

“It is our hope to create a journey of transformative growth for our students and to help them find a place within the tapestry of graduate life. The teachers, peers, and friends they meet here today will undoubtedly become valuable connections for life.”

The event explored an array of academic, social and profes-sional development opportunities at HBKU before concluding with academic breakout sessions organised by each of its five col-leges — College of Islamic Studies, College of Humanities and Social

Sciences, College of Science and Engineering, College of Law and Public Policy, and College of Health and Life Sciences.

This included outlining available support structures which range from IT services to academic writing and research support, as well as the Univer-sity’s e-library. Students also renewed their commitment to upholding the HBKU Code of Honor and Academic Integrity and discussed the importance of communal inclusivity both within the University as well as Qatar Foundation for Education, Science and Community

Development. This year, the University is

notably marking an expansion of its curricular offer with the launch of six new degree pro-grams across a variety of disci-plines that cater to Qatar’s business world. HBKU’s College of Islamic Studies added a Master of Science in Islamic Art, Archi-tecture and Urbanism; a Master of Arts in Islam and Global Affairs; and a PhD in Islamic Finance and Economy. Similarly, the College of Science and Engi-neering’s new degrees include a Master of Data Analytics in Health Management; a Master of

Science in Logistics and Supply Chain Management; and a PhD in Logistics and Supply Chain Management.

HBKU is guided by Excel-lence, Innovation, People and Partners — four founding pillars that reflect a directive of con-tinuous advancement at the highest international level through the support and inclusion of strong stakeholders, partners, employees, and researchers. Ultimately, these principles join together into a uniform formula for the educa-tional contribution to the nation’s grand challenges.

HBKU continues to raise a new generation of entrepre-neurial, research-driven minds whose academic and profes-sional contributions will be a tes-tament to its institutional excellence.

Furthermore, their outputs across all domestic industries will support Qatar’s development as a self-reliant nation whose home-grown industries and talents underscore its place within the global market-economy.

To learn more about HBKU’s upcoming events and activities throughout the new academic year, visit hbku.edu.qa.

HBKU President Dr Ahmad M Hasnah (left, below) addressing the Orientation Day yesterday, while students gather for the event.

HBKU continues to

raise a new generation

of entrepreneurial,

research-driven minds

whose academic

and professional

contributions will

be a testament

to its institutional

excellence.

06 MONDAY 3 SEPTEMBER 2018MIDDLE EAST / AFRICA

Call to boost Iran’s defence capabilitiesREUTERS

DUBAI: Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei said yesterday that war was unlikely but called on Iran’s armed forces to boost their defence capacities, according to his official website, as the country faces increased tension with the United States.

On Saturday, Iran announced plans to boost its ballistic and cruise missile capacity and acquire modern fighter planes and submarines to boost its defences following the US pullout from Tehran’s nuclear agreement with world powers.

“Ayatollah Khamenei emphasised that based on political calculations there is no likelihood of a military war but added that the armed forces must be vigilant ... and raise their personnel and equipment capacities,” the website quoted Khamenei as telling com-manders of Iran’s air defence forces.

“The Supreme Leader said ...the air defence units were a very sensitive part of the armed forces and on the front line of confronting the enemy, and emphasized the need to increase their readiness and capabilities,” the website said in its report on the gathering, which was held to mark Iran’s Air Defence Day.

Saturday’s news of the mil-itary development plans came a day after Iran dismissed a

French call for negotiations on Tehran’s future nuclear plans, its ballistic missile arsenal and its role in wars in Syria and Yemen.

Iranian President Hassan Rowhani said last month the Islamic Republic’s military prowess was what deterred Washington from attacking it.

Separately, a senior Iranian diplomat met visiting UK Junior Foreign Minister Alistair Burt and urged swift European action on a planned package of eco-nomic measures to offset the US pullout from the accord and the reimpositions of sanctions by Washington, the state news agency IRNA reported.

“The imposition of (US) sanctions and pressures and the lack of rapid action by Europe

to fulfill their commitments will have serious consequences,” Kamal Kharrazi, a former foreign minister who heads a top foreign policy council, told Burt, IRNA reported.

Iranian officials have said they would decide whether to quit the 2015 nuclear deal with world powers after studying the European package of economic measures that could help offset US sanctions.

“European countries have not been able yet to take nec-essary measures to secure Iran’s interests under the nuclear agreement,” Kharrazi said.

“(Burt) said Britain’s position is different from that of the United States and we are looking for a European mechanism to make the nuclear accord suc-cessful,” IRNA reported.

Burt, on the first visit by a British minister since US Pres-ident Donald Trump withdrew from the nuclear deal, earlier met Iranian Deputy Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi.

Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif said on Saturday the talks with Burt had involved “access to banking resources and the sale of oil”.

Iran has been seeking com-mitment from European signa-tories of the nuclear deal that it will be able to access the Western banking system and continue to sell oil despite US sanctions.

Turkey to further boost ties with KyrgyzstanANATOLIA

ANKARA: Turkey is determined to further enhance bilateral relations with Kyrgyzstan while rescuing it from “the shadow of Fetullah Terrorist Organization (FETO)”, President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said yesterday.

“We are resolute in further enhancing our relations in the upcoming period while saving it from the shadow of FETO,” Erdogan said at a ceremony at Manas University in the Kyrgyz capital Bishkek, where he was awarded an honourary doctorate.

Erdogan warned Kyrgyzstan

about FETO, saying it is a “treacherous and sneaky” organisation.

FETO and its US-based leader Fetullah Gulen orches-trated the defeated coup of July 15, 2016, which left 251 people martyred and nearly 2,200 injured.

Ankara also accuses FETO of being behind a long-running campaign to overthrow the state through the infiltration of Turkish institutions, particularly the military, police, and judiciary.

Erdogan said Turkey wants to increase cooperation with “brotherly” Kyrgyzstan not only

in the areas of politics but also in economy, trade and culture.

About Manas University, which was established in 1995, Erdogan said he had visited the university thrice in the last eight years.

He praised the university for its growth in academics and technology in a short span of 23 years.

“Turkey has contributed $356m in grant to the uni-versity,” Erdogan said.

The Turkish president added that a total of 128 Turkish people were employed at the university as academics and administrative personnel.

Iran official website

said: Ayatollah

Khamenei emphasised

that based on political

calculations there

is no likelihood of

a military war but

added that the

armed forces must be

vigilant ... and raise

their personnel and

equipment capacities.

Iran parliament drops plan to impeach ministerAFP

TEHRAN: Iran’s parliament called off a planned vote to impeach the education minister yesterday, Iranian media reported, offering some respite for the embattled government of President Hassan Rowhani.

Twenty-nine lawmakers signed a motion last Wednesday to impeach the minister, Mohammad Bathaei, but all of them withdrew their signatures.

“Given the imminent opening of schools (on Sep-tember 23), those requesting the impeachment have with-drawn their request,” said Ahmad Amirabadi, a member of parliament’s presiding board, according to the semi-official news agency ISNA.

Rouhani has faced mounting pressure from law-makers over his handling of an economic crisis.

Abbas says ‘Palestine still believes in two-state solution’ANATOLIA

RAMALLAH: Palestinian Pres-ident Mahmoud Abbas yesterday said Palestine still believes in peace on the basis of the prin-ciple of a two-state solution, according to the official Pales-tinian news agency WAFA.

Speaking at a meeting with a delegation from the Israeli “Peace Now” movement at the presidential headquarters in Ramallah, Abbas said: “Peace must be reached no matter how great the challenges and diffi-culties it faces, for a better future

for our children and our youth from both peoples.”

“Despite all the difficult cir-cumstances surrounding us, we still believe in peace on the basis of the resolutions of interna-tional legitimacy and the prin-ciple of a two-state solution to establish our civil state, which works to spread culture and peace in the world,” he said.

Abbas recalled that the con-tacts with the US administration have been cut since President Donald Trump announced the transfer of the US Embassy to Jerusalem, declaring it the capital

of Israel, and trying to redefine the Palestinian refugee in vio-lation of the resolutions of inter-national legitimacy.

Jerusalem remains at the heart of the Middle East conflict, with Palestinians hoping that East Jerusalem — occupied by Israel since 1967 — might even-tually serve as the capital of an independent Palestinian state.

Trump, however, sparked international uproar for his decision to recognize Jerusalem as Israel’s capital.

The Palestinians have snubbed calls from the Trump

administration to return to the negotiating table, arguing that Washington gave up its status as a neutral mediator by making the declaration.

About the US decisions to end funding for he United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Pal-estine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA), Abbas stressed that this issue must be resolved in accordance with the resolutions of international legitimacy and the Arab Peace Initiative.

On Friday, the US State Department spokeswoman Heather Nauert said Washington

“will no longer commit further funding” to the UNRWA.

The US was by far UNRWA’s largest funder, giving $350m annually, or about one-quarter of the agency’s budget.

Earlier last week, UNRWA had warned if Washington went through with its funding cut it would likely result in greater instability.

Established in 1949, UNRWA provides critical aid to more than 5 million Palestinian refugees in the Gaza Strip, the Israeli-occupied West Bank, Jordan, Lebanon, and Syria.

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan (left) delivering his speech after receiving an honourary doctorate at a ceremony at Manas University, in Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan, yesterday.

Protests over Yemen’s ailing economyREUTERS

ADEN: Hundreds of demon-strators protesting against Yemen’s deteriorating economic situation and weakening currency blocked major roads and burned tyres in the southern city of Aden yesterday, with shops and government offices closing.

The Yemeni rial has lost more than half its value against the US dollar since the start of a

civil war in 2015 between the internationally recognised gov-ernment, based in the south and backed by Saudi Arabia, and the Iran-aligned Houthi movement which controls the north including the capital Sanaa.

Soaring prices have put some basic commodities out of reach for many Yemenis, and the central bank has struggled to pay public sector salaries on which many depend as foreign exchange reserves dwindle.

Aden’s usually bustling markets were empty yesterday after the coordinating council of the General Confederation of Southern Workers’ Unions called for civil disobedience. Plumes of smoke from burning tyres filled the air, including in the main square where a National Bank of Yemen building is situated.

There were reports of smaller protests in nearby municipalities.

Protesters block a street with burning tyres after the Yemeni rial severely plunged against foreign currencies, in Aden, yesterday.

Six dead in Somalia suicide car bombingAP

NAIROBI: At least six people were killed, including two children, after a suicide bomber detonated an explo-sives-laden vehicle outside a district headquarters in Soma-lia’s capital, authorities said yesterday.

Capt Mohamed Hussein said that the bomber tried to speed through a checkpoint but was stopped by Somalia security forces, prompting him to detonate the vehicle near the gate of Howlwadag district headquarters.

The three soldiers who stopped the truck were killed instantly and the three others killed were civilians, said the Mogadishu mayor’s spokesman, Salah Hassan Omar.

Fourteen people, including six children, need intensive care, said the Aamin Ambulance service.

Among the wounded was deputy district commissioner Ibrah Hassan Matan.

Many victims were students at a nearby Islamic school. Offi-cials warned there could be more casualties as the blast brought down nearby buildings including a mosque.

“I saw bodies strewn on the

ground after the explosion before the ambulances and the paramedics reached the scene and the whole scene was very ugly,” witness Halima Mohamed said.

The attacker “literally failed to achieve their goal of inflicting maximum casualties,” police captain Hussein said, accusing the IS-linked militant group Al Shabab of carrying out the attack.

Al Shabab later claimed responsibil i ty for the explosion, which shattered a period of calm in seaside Mogadishu.

The Somalia-based Al Shabab often targets the capital with bombings, including a truck bombing in October last year that left at least 512 people dead.

Somali troops are meant to take over the Horn of Africa nation’s security in the coming years from an African Union force but concerns about their readiness remain high.

The United Nations’ Security Council recently voted to delay the reduction of troops in the African Union force from October to February and the target date to hand over security to Somali forces to December 2021.

One dead, dozens injured as church collapses in NigeriaAP

WARRI: One worshipper has been killed and dozens of others injured after a church collapsed in southern Nigeria.

Delta state police spokesman Andrew Ani-akama said that St Paul Catholic Church in Adagbrasa collapsed midway into the service.

Church collapses are rel-atively common in Nigeria. In December 2016 dozens of worshippers were killed when a church collapsed in Akwa Ibom state.

T h e g o v e r n o r ’ s spokesman, Charles Aniagwu, said that the government has dispatched a team to determine the cause of yes-terday’s collapse.

07MONDAY 3 SEPTEMBER 2018 ASIA

Calling for discipline not

autocratic: PM ModiIANS

NEW DELHI: Prime Minister Narendra Modi yesterday launched a veiled attack on the opposition for disrupting Parliament proceedings and dubbing presiding officers who tried to enforce discipline as “autocrats”. Modi praised Rajya Sabha Chairman M Venkaiah Naidu for ensuring “discipline” in the House.

“Naidu is a disciplinarian, but the situation in the country is such that it has become easy to call dis-cipline undemocratic. If someone even tries to be a disciplinarian, he has to face the music. He is called an autocrat and they open the dictionary…,” said Modi.

Modi said the disruptions in the Rajya Sabha enabled Naidu to display his administrative expertise.

The Prime Minister was speaking after unveiling “Moving On... Moving Forward: A Year In Office” — a book marking the completion of Naidu’s one year as the Vice President and the Rajya Sabha Chairman.

The book details Naidu’s mission of engagement on key issues with various stakeholders across the country and it’s

alignment with the mission of a new India in the making.

The event witnessed former Prime Ministers H D Deve Gowda and Manmohan Singh sharing the dais with Modi, Union Finance Minister Arun Jaitley and Lok Sabha Speaker Sumitra Mahajan.

Praising the former BJP Pres-ident’s administrative expertise, Modi said, “Naidu himself follows discipline which he preaches. Discipline is in his nature.

“If a House functions properly, then nobody pays attention to who is presiding. But when it does not function as

per the norms, everybody focuses on the Chairperson; what that person’s qualities are and how that person maintains discipline in the House.

“This year, people got the opportunity to witness how Naidu presides over the House. Had the House functioned properly this wouldn’t have been possible,” said Modi making a veiled attack on the opposition protests over various issues in Parliament.

Naidu’s tenure as the Rajya Sabha Chairman has witnessed continuous disruptions especially by the Opposition over a host of issues including Rafale fighter jet deal and lynching incidents.

Modi then went on to praise Naidu for his “diligence” to carry out the work that has been assigned to him whether as a union minister or a BJP politician.

“Which ever duty he had, he performed with utmost dili-gence and adapted into that role with ease. He always provides visionary leadership whenever he gets a responsibility. He gets the best experts to ensure justice is done to the work assigned.” The Prime Minister also lauded Naidu for always being focused on the plight of farmers and the development of agriculture.

Bollywood actor Avinash Tiwari (second right) and actress Tripti Dimri (second left) pay their respects at the Golden Temple in Amritsar, yesterday.

Paying obeisance

Sitharaman discusses J&K security with GovernorIANS

SRINAGAR: Defence Minister Nirmala Sitharaman yesterday discussed the security situation in Jammu and Kashmir with Governor Satya Pal Malik.

“Sitharaman, accompanied by Chief of Army Staff, General

Bipin Rawat, held discussions with Governor Satya Pal Malik at the Raj Bhavan here,” a statement said.

The Governor and Defence Minister discussed several important inter-related issues concerning effective man-agement of internal and external

security, particularly in the context of increasing attempts at infiltration and the ongoing anti-terrorist operations.

They also had detailed dis-cussions on the Urban Local Bodies and Panchayat elections which will be conducted in October-December this year.

Kerala minister warns of action for fudging flood damagesIANS

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: A Kerala Minister yesterday warned that strict action would be taken against the state government offi-cials who were not making an objective assessment of the damages caused to houses by the recent floods.

With Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan leaving for medical treatment to the US, Industries Minister E P Jayarajan, the de facto number two in the gov-ernment, told the media that “very tough action” would be taken against erring officials. “All complaints will be looked into and none will be spared,” he said.

Kerala floods have claimed 483 lives and the estimated loss is more than the annual outlay of the state. Thousands of houses have been destroyed, while a greater number of homes have been damaged.

With the state government starting a massive fund collection drive to rebuild a ‘new Kerala’,

the local bodies officials have begun estimation of the losses.

Jayarajan spoke tough when he was told about specific cases of officials overestimating the damages suffered to residential properties in Malappuram district. The state government has also announced an interim relief of Rs 10,000 to every family that has

suffered on account of floods. “This money will be given to all and there is no rule that this money will be given to only who were in relief camps. Every family who suffered the floods... even if they remained in their homes would get this. Only those who say they do not want, will not be given,” said Revenue Secretary P H Kurien.

Vadra booked, Congress alleges witch-hunt by PremierIANS

NEW DELHI: The Congress yesterday said Prime Minister Narendra Modi had launched a “vicious and malicious witch-hunt” by filing cases against former Haryana Chief Minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda and Robert Vadra, brother-in-law of party chief Rahul Gandhi, for a contro-versial 2008 land deal in Gurugram.

The Congress said it was being done to divert attention from the corruption saga of Rafale deal, demonetisation, Rs12 lakh crore loot through hike in fuel prices, failure to create two crore jobs every year, rapidly falling rupee and failing economy and com-plete failure of the BJP government.

“A new set of manufac-tured lies is being served through false and fake FIRs against political oppo-nents,” said Congress spokesperson Randeep Singh Surjewala.

“As elections to the four states of Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh and Mizoram along with the general elections draw near, the fake news factory and dirty tricks department of the Modi government-BJP act maliciously in pursuit of their vicious propaganda.”

Denying any wrongdoing, Surjewala said Skylight Hos-pitality of Vadra purchased land measuring 3.5 acres on January 28, 2008 in the notified commercial zone of Sikohpur in Gurugram through a registered sale-deed for Rs 7.95 crore, including stamp duties.

“In accordance with the prevailing government policy for grant of licence, a com-mercial licence for 2.5 acres was granted on December 15, 2008.

“After a lapse of nearly five years, this land was sold by Skylight to DLF for Rs 58 crore on September 18, 2012. Even on this amount, Sky-light/Vadra paid an additional tax of Rs8 crore.

Don’t become slaves to national parties: KCR sounds poll bugleIANS

HYDERABAD: Telangana Chief Minister K Chandrasekhar Rao yesterday sounded the poll bugle, appealing to the people of the state not to become slaves of national parties and urged them to emulate Tamil Nadu for their self-respect.

The Telangana Rashtra Samithi (TRS) chief gave the call at a massive public meeting held here amid talks of early polls to the state Assembly which completes its term in May 2019. TRS has hinted that it may go for early polls to delink them from the Lok Sabha elections.

Promising to take Tel-angana forward on the path of development, Rao sought con-tinued support of the people so that the TRS can take various works launched by it to their logical conclusion.

“You have to decide whether decisions relating to Telangana should be taken by us here or should we become slaves of Delhi parties,” he said in an obvious reference to the Congress and the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP).

Hinting that the TRS will contest the coming polls on the plank of self-respect, he advised Telangana people to emulate Tamil Nadu, which has its own parties and where people never allow Delhi parties to take their decisions.

Lakhs of people were mobi-lised from across the state for the meeting christened “Pra-gathi Nivedana’ (Progress report).

TRS leaders claimed that 25 lakh people attended the meeting held at Kongara Kalan on the city outskirts.

KCR, as Rao is popularly k n o w n , m a d e n o announcement about disso-lution of the Assembly to go for early polls.

He said the ministers and party leaders have authorised him to take a decision which is in the best interest of Tel-angana. “In the coming days you will hear that decision.”

He announced the for-mation of a manifesto com-mittee, headed by party General Secretary K Keshava Rao. The panel will come out with what TRS plans to do if voted to power again.

Seeking a fresh mandate, KCR promised to make “Bangaru” or golden Telangana a reality. Stating that works on many irrigation projects were on, he said the goal of bringing one crore acres under irri-gation would be achieved in two years.

KCR vowed to further increase the revenues of the state and distribute the fruits of economic development among people.

He promised to do more for the welfare of various sections of people by increasing the social security pensions and providing jobs to the unemployed.

The TRS chief recalled his announcement that he would not seek votes in the next elec-tions if he failed to ensure tapped drinking water to every house in the state.

“If a House functions

properly, then nobody

pays attention to who

is presiding. But when

it does not function

as per the norms,

everybody focuses

on the Chairperson;

what that person’s

qualities are and how

that person maintains

discipline in the House,

Modi said.

For nearly 70

years, UNRWA

has provided

lifesaving

assistance to

more than

five million

Palestinian

refugees in

the occupied

territories, as well

as Lebanon, Syria

and Jordan.

08 MONDAY 3 SEPTEMBER 2018VIEWS

Wishing away Palestinian refugees: End of United States’ UNRWA aid

The UN Palestinian refugee agency (UNRWA) has called the decision by the Trump administration to no longer commit funding “deeply

regrettable” and “shocking”.Chris Gunness, spokesperson for the

United Nations Relief Works and Agency, said on Friday’s move would affect “mil-lions of people” including “some of the most disadvantaged and marginalised on this planet”. For nearly 70 years, UNRWA has provided lifesaving assistance to more than five million Palestinian refugees in the occupied territories, as well as Lebanon, Syria and Jordan.

But over the past year, the US gov-ernment has made it increasingly clear it considers the work the organisation does, and who it considers as refugees, to be an obstacle in the protracted Palestinian-Israeli conflict.

In January, a month after President Donald Trump sparked widespread inter-national condemnation by recognising Jerusalem as Israel’s capital, the White House decided to cut $65m in aid to UNRWA. It was later reported that the Trump administration had withheld about $305m in funding, and only delivered $60m to UNRWA.

The US decision to stop all funding to the UN agency, which it called an “irre-deemably flawed operation”, was quickly criticised by the Palestinian leadership. A spokesperson for UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres also pushed back against claims that the agency was inefficient.

“UNRWA has a strong record of pro-viding high-quality education, health and other essential services, often in extremely difficult circumstances,” a statement by Stephane Dujarric read.

“The secretary-general calls on other countries to help fill the remaining financial gap, so that UNRWA can continue to provide this vital assistance, as well as a sense of hope

this vul-nerable population.”

Originally established as a temporary solution, UNRWA was set up after the creation of Israel in

1948 to assist the more than 700,000 Pal-estinians who were forcibly expelledfrom their towns and villages.

Since then, it has helped four genera-tions of Palestinians with basic needs, including housing, healthcare, education and social services.

Employing more than 30,000 staff, it mostly works in education, and operates closely with local government bodies. It helps more than half of the Gaza Strip’s two million population, a region which has been devastated by more than 10 years of blockade. According to UNRWA,

Gaza suffers from a 44 percent unem-ployment rate. Gunness, the agency’s spokesman, told Al Jazeera that if UNRWA didn’t receive emergency cash injection in the next 30 days, when its funds are expected to run dry, a “doomsday sce-nario” could unfold.

“Let there be no mistake; this decision is likely to have a devastating impact on the lives of 526,000 children who receive a daily education from UNRWA; 3.5 million sick people who come to our clinics for medical care; 1.7 million food insecure people who receive assistance from us, and tens of thousands of vul-nerable women, children and disabled refugees who come to us. “If we don’t fill a funding gap of $217m very quickly, they are all likely to suffer.”

What programmes does it offer?According to UNRWA, the US provided

$364m to the agency last year. Other member states donated $650m.

The funds helped provide for basic commodities such as flour, rice, sugar, powdered milk, canned meats, pharma-ceuticals and drugs, as well as general supplies such as school textbooks and equipment.

Mohammad Oweis, a Washington, DC-based political analyst and researcher, who specialises in the Middle East, said the agency helped people such as himself go on to live a better life. “I was born in a tent in a refugee camp. I was raised in camp. Without the help of UNRWA, I would not have had clothes, food or schooling,” he said. Key to the Trump administration and Israel’s criticism of UNRWA is the way the agency counts the refugees — its total includes the descendants of refugees who were originally displaced by the creation of Israel.

Israel fears that the passing of refugee status from parents to children could threaten the country’s so-called “Jewish character”, as Palestinians claim the right of return to their ancestral homeland.

Earlier this year, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu called for UNRWA to be scrapped and accused the agency of helping “fictitious refugees”.

“UNRWA is an organisation that per-petuates the Palestinian refugee problem and the narrative of the right-of-return, as it were, in order to eliminate the State of Israel,” Netanyahu said. His comments

were echoed earlier this week by Nikki Haley, the US ambassador to the UN, who accused the agency of exaggerating the number of Palestinian refugees it cur-rently provides aid to, amid reports Wash-ington is planning to cap the number it officially recognises as refugees at only 500,000.

“We will be a donor if it (UNRWA) reforms what it does ... if they actually change the number of refugees to an accurate account, we will look back at partnering them,” Haley said. By under-mining UNRWA’s definition of refugees, the administration appears to be attacking the Palestinian belief in the “right of return”. Mustafa Barghouti, a former Pal-estinian information minister and sec-retary-general of the Palestinian National Initiative, said the decision to end funding was “not just an economic act, but also a political one”.

“The US tried to liquidate the issue of Jerusalem by saying they were removing it from the negotiating table, now they want to kill UNRWA with the aim of killing the right of the Palestinian refugees to return to their homeland. “These are actions aimed at liquidating the Palestinian issue completely while trying to normalise rela-tions between Israel and Arab countries. “This will fail and what the Americans have done will make us more determined to stick to the rights of Palestinian ref-ugees, especially after their nationalistic law, which is nothing but a system of apartheid”.

Sam Bahour, a cofounder of the Right to Enter campaign, which highlights Israeli restrictions on Palestinian movement, agreed, adding that the end of funding would awaken the Palestinian com-munity. With the UN struggling to grapple with a host of international crises, the shortfall could have disastrous conse-quences for the five million Palestinian refugees.

According to Gunness, the $217m shortfall means that by the end of the month “UNRWA will be running on empty and won’t have enough money to pay for its 22,000 teaching staff”.

“After September we won’t have enough money to run our schools, health clinics and our relief and social services programmes,” he said. “We are working tirelessly to avoid that.”

AL JAZEERA

QUOTE OF THE DAYWe are determined

to strengthen the functioning of an independent and

impartial judiciary in real terms which

sets goals for the continuation of unity

and peace for the people.

Recep Tayyip Erdogan

Turkey’s President

Africa’s forests at risk if indigenous rebels excluded

Initiatives to restore African forests, deci-mated by loggers and land-hungry farmers,

must include indigenous people if they are to succeed, experts said.

Analysis shows that forest-dwelling communities often sabotage efforts to plant or safeguard trees when they are excluded from them, whereas they can prove valuable allies if they are brought on board, they said.

“When you don’t give a chance to forest people like the Ogiek to own their ancestral land, they feel like they are rebels,” said Daniel Kobei, head of the Ogiek Peoples’ Development Program, which promotes

his community in Kenya.“They feel they are

neglected and their rights are not protected, yet this is their ancestral home,” he said at the Global Landscapes Forum, a conference on sus-tainable land use.

Tensions are rife around the world between conserva-tionists, who believe the best way to protect forests is by creating reserves where humans do not live, and mil-lions of indigenous people who have been expelled from their traditional lands.

With Africa’s population expected to nearly double by 2050, demands are increasing on already scarce land, pushing people to invade forests for agriculture.

Dozens of countries have committed to restore 100 million hectares (247 million

acres) of degraded forest lands by 2030 under the African Restoration Initiative aiming to conserve water, boost harvests and combat climate change.

The Ogiek won a landmark case against the Kenyan government in Africa’s highest human rights court in 2017 over their eviction from the Mau forest — Kenya’s largest water catchment area - in the Rift Valley.

Since then, the com-munity has restored over 100 acres of the forest, with the support of the government, by replanting and guarding forests in areas where they live, Kobei said.

The Ogiek are optimistic of returning to their ancestral forests as the government has pledged to honour the ruling by the African Court

on Human and Peoples’ Rights.

The world’s indigenous people and local commu-nities have historically used and owned half of the land globally, but they only have rights to less than one-fifth of it, according to analysis by the development charity Oxfam.

After the eviction of the Baka people from the Ngoyla-Mintom forest in Cameroon in 2012, wide-spread logging took place said Israel Bionyi, a spokesman for the Interna-tional Land Coalition advocacy group.

“The presence of indig-enous people in these spaces makes it difficult for logging companies to take advantage of the forest,” he said. (Reporting by Kevin Mwanza, Editing by Katy Migiro.

Qatar has provided

humanitarian

assistance to

more than 100

countries, mostly

developing

countries,

amounting to $2bn

a year. This figure

represents more

than 0.7 percent

of Qatar’s national

income.

CHAIRMANSHEIKH THANI BIN ABDULLAH AL THANI

EDITOR-IN-CHIEFDR. KHALID BIN MUBARAK AL-SHAFIeditorinchief@pen.com.qa

ACTING MANAGING EDITORMOHAMMED SALIM MOHAMEDm.salim@pen.com.qa

DEPUTY MANAGING EDITORMOHAMMED OSMAN ALI osman@pen.com.qa

ESTABLISHED IN 1996

EDITORIAL

Boosting relations

Qatar has taken many steps which have resulted in strong ties with friendly countries around the world. Recently, Minister of Economy and Commerce H E Sheikh Ahmed bin Jassim Al Thani visited Tajikistan. The visit was aimed to further boost the relations

between the two friendly countries. Speaking at an event he expressed hope that efforts

would be taken to increase cooperation between Qatar and Tajikistan on the economic, trade and investment levels. He was speaking at the third session of the Joint Tajik-Qatari Economic, Commercial and Technical Cooperation Committee, which was held in the Tajik capital Dushanbe.

The event was an ideal opportunity to discuss ways to develop trade and investment partnership between busi-nessmen from both countries.

The third session, discussed economic and trade rela-tions between the two countries and enhanced cooper-ation in related fields such as trade and investment, higher education, fisheries and water resources, civil aviation, agriculture, tourism and culture.

The visit yielded positive results as the two sides agreed to take the necessary steps to develop economic relations and increase the volume of trade exchange between them, including facilitating the flow of goods, services and invest-ments between the two coun-tries. The two sides also renewed their desire to intensify and increase cooperation in activating the previously signed agreements and memorandums of understanding.

The two sides also agreed on signing an agreement on the prevention of double taxation between the two countries at the earliest opportunity, the participation of Tajikistan in the international product exhibition to be held in Doha in October and forming of a Qatari-Tajik Businessmen Council to

enhance business relations between the two countries and to strengthen cooperation in trade, investment, services and other economic fields.

In a related development, Ambassador of Kyrgyzstan to Qatar Nuran S Niyazaliev said, early this week, that the Kyrgyz Republic is looking for ways to strengthen trade and business with Qatar.

He said that the Kyrgyz Republic wanted to expand trade relations beyond existing range of products and investment in power generation, mining, transport, infrastructure, agri-culture, halal industry as well as tourism.

He said that being an agricultural country, Kyrgyzstan could provide food products to Qatar.

Qatar has always been in the front in helping needy people across the globe. Qatar has provided humanitarian assistance to more than 100 countries, mostly developing countries, amounting to $2bn a year. This figure represents more than 0.7 percent of Qatar’s national income.

Strong ties with several countries shows that Qatar’s foreign diplomacy is a success.

KEVIN MWANZA REUTERS

It is the most

notable case of

foreign tampering

with US election

systems made

public. There has

been no evidence

of efforts to change

voter information

or tamper with

voting machines,

but experts caution

hackers might have

planted unseen

malware in systems

that could be

triggered later.

09MONDAY 3 SEPTEMBER 2018 OPINION

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As elections approach, what is the risk of Russian meddling?

FRANK BAJAK & ADAM GELLER AP

German far-left leaders launch ‘Stand Up’grassroots movement

Its battle cry is “Stand up”, its public face is a divisive anti-capitalist politician who sup-ports limiting immigration, its

aim is to build a populist leftwing movement to shake up Merkel-era Germany.

On Tuesday, Sahra Wagenknecht, 48, will launch the grassroots project which borrows from the campaigns of British Labour’s Jeremy Corbyn, French Socialist Jean-Luc Melenchon and US Democrat Bernie Sanders.

Its aim is to energise followers of her far-left Die Linke party, the centre-left Social Democrats (SPD) and ecologist Greens — but also to win back disenchanted working-class voters who have drifted to far-right protest parties.

Its website launched in mid-August cites reggae singer Bob Mar-ley’s chant “get up, stand up!” and declares boldly that “no politician, no party will solve our problems if we don’t do it ourselves”.

Tens of thousands have signed up online to join the fight for secure jobs and pensions, good education, protecting the environment, disar-mament and “a true democracy not ruled by banks, corporations and lobbyists”.

The jury is still out on whether it will spark a political revolution or

quickly fizzle out. Unsurprisingly, party leaders across the left, including Wagenknecht’s own com-rades at Die Linke, have rejected the Stand Up (“Aufstehen”) guerilla cam-paign as divisive and unhelpful.

The leader of the SPD, Germany’s traditional labour party, Andrea Nahles, quipped that she “wasn’t losing any sleep over it”.

Others have greeted the effort to re-energise the left as a challenge to Merkel’s centrist coalition gov-ernment and the rise of the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD).

News weekly Der Spiegel said that, after populist anger over immi-gration swept the AfD into par-liament last year, “it is high time to launch a movement of rallying the left”.

But even backers of the idea have wondered whether it is being led by the right people.

Wagenknecht, 48 and hailing from the former communist East Germany, is a lawmaker and polar-ising TV talk show star, married to a firebrand leftist SPD defector, ex-finance minister Oskar Lafontaine.

Known as rhetorically brilliant but awkward with voters, she is fre-quently critical of the EU and defends Vladimir Putin’s Russia.

She argues that the SPD has sold out its principles and failed to fight back against unbridled capitalism and Merkel’s neo-liberal” policies.

As Germany has absorbed a mass influx of migrants and refugees, which has sparked a far-right backlash, Wagenknecht has also broken with the left’s traditional orthodoxy on immigration.

“The idea of ‘open borders for all’ is unrealistic,” she said in a recent interview.

“If the core concern of leftist pol-itics is to represent the disadvan-taged, then the no-borders position is the opposite of being on the left.

“All successes in restraining and regulating capitalism have been achieved within individual states,

and states have borders.” Berlin political scientist Dieter

Rucht said such views may indeed “please some of the AfD’s voters”, predicting success for the new movement “at least in the short term”.

The idea of a cross-party leftist alliance has repeatedly come up and been dismissed — in large part because of Die Linke’s uncompro-mising hard-left positions, such as wanting to abolish Nato and all secret services.

Germany’s three leftist parties won combined support of under 40 percent in last year’s elections, which narrowly delivered a bruised Merkel, until then dubbed “the eternal chan-cellor”, her fourth four-year term.

The SPD was dispirited and split after a historically poor result, which forced it to reluctantly joined Mer-kel’s conservatives again as junior partner, further damaging morale.

The working man’s party, which saw mass desertions after the tough labour market reforms of previous chancellor Gerhard Schroeder, is now polling below 20 percent, raising existential angst.

The mood is more upbeat among the ecologist Greens, who under charismatic and pragmatic new co-leader Robert Habeck appear open to a future government alliance with either the SPD or conservatives.

Carsten Brzeski, chief economist with ING Diba bank, was doubtful about the future of “Stand Up”, after “Germany’s left wing parties have failed to work together for decades”.

He said Stand Up appears “nationalist in tone, with anti-European and anti-refugee sentiments”.

“Such rhetoric not only plays on the under-currents running through society but is also a clear attempt to win back disappointed Linke voters in eastern Germany, who are now voting for the far-right AfD party,” he said. “It’s where the left and right meet.”

Nearly a year after Russian government hackers meddled in the 2016 US election, researchers at

cybersecurity firm Trend Micro zeroed in on a new sign of trouble: a group of suspect websites.

The sites mimicked a portal for US senators and their staffs. Emails to Senate users urged them to reset their passwords — an apparent attempt to steal them.

The attempt to infiltrate the Senate network and others reported recently point to Russia’s continued efforts to interfere in US politics, which Moscow official denies.

There is no clear evidence, experts said, of Kremlin efforts spe-cifically designed to disrupt elec-tions in November.

Still, “we fully realise that we are just one click away of the keyboard from a similar situation repeating itself,” Dan Coats, the director of national intelligence, said in July.

Michael McFaul, architect of the Obama administration’s Russia policy, has said he believes Russian President Vladimir Putin perceives little benefit in major disruption now, preferring to keep his powder dry for the 2020 presidential contest.

Experts said it is too late to safe-guard US voting systems and cam-paigns this election cycle. Trump’s recent decision eliminating the White House cybersecurity coordi-nator’s post confirmed his lack of

interest in countering Russian med-dling, critics say. Congress has not delivered any legislation to combat election interference or disinformation.

But there is time to take stock of interference that has come to light - and to assess the risks of what we don’t know.

In mid-2016, hackers got into Illinois’ voter registration database. Special counsel Robert Mueller’s indictment of a dozen Russian intel-ligence agents this July said the hackers had stolen information on 500,000 voters.

It is the most notable case of foreign tampering with US election systems made public. There has been no evidence of efforts to change voter information or tamper with voting machines, but experts caution hackers might have planted unseen malware in systems that could be triggered later.

“My unofficial opinion is that we’re kind of fooling ourselves if we don’t think that they tried to at least make a pass at all 50 states,” said Christopher Krebs, the undersec-retary for critical infrastructure at the Department of Homeland Security.

Before the 2016 general election, Russian agents sent spear-phishing emails to 122 state and local elec-tions officials who were customers of election software vendor VR Systems. At least 21 state systems

were probed by the same Russian unit, officials said. But federal officials have moved slowly to share intelligence. As of mid-August, 92 state election officials had been given clearances.

Much of the machinery used to collect and tabulate votes is antiquated, built by a handful of unregu-lated and secretive vendors, the outdated software highly vulnerable to attacks, researchers say.

“If someone was able to compromise even a handful of voting machines I think that would be suffi-cient to cause people to not

trust the system,” said Sherri Ramsay, a former National Security Agency senior executive.

Democratic Sen. Claire McCaskill of Missouri, seeking re-election in a state that voted overwhelmingly for Trump, provided little detail in July when an attempt by Russian hackers to infiltrate her campaign came to light.

“While this attack was not suc-cessful, it is outrageous that they think they can get away with this,” McCaskill said.

The failed hack, which included an attempt to steal the password of at least one McCaskill staffer through a fake Senate login website identified by Microsoft, is the most notable instance of attempted cam-paign meddling by Russia made public this year.

Microsoft executives said recently that the company had detected attempts by Russia’s GRU military intelligence agency to hack two senators.

Since mid-2017, the group behind that attempt has aggressively targeted political groups, univer-sities, enforcement agencies and others, according to TrendMicro.

“Russian hackers appear to be broadening their target set, but I think tying it to the midterm elections is pure spec-ulation at this point,” said Michael Connell, an analyst at the federally funded Center for Naval Analyses in Arlington, Virginia.

Eric Rosenbach, assistant sec-retary of defense for global security during the Obama administration and now at Harvard, said Russian intrusion that has come to light may be only a tip to larger, hidden schemes.

“There probably have already been compromises of important campaigns in places where it could sway the outcome or undermine trust in the election,” Rosenbach said. “We might not see that until the very last moment.”

By the time a group called “ReSisters” began organizing a rally against white nationalism, it had spent a year sharing left-wing posts. But in late July, Facebook shut down ReSisters’ account and

Germany’s three

leftist parties won

combined support

of under 40 percent

in last year’s

elections, which

narrowly delivered a

bruised Merkel, until

then dubbed “the

eternal chancellor”,

her fourth four-

year term. The

SPD was dispirited

and split after a

historically poor

result, which forced

it to reluctantly

joined Merkel’s

conservatives again

as junior partner,

further damaging

morale.

31 others that researchers said echoed Russian troll operations before the 2016 election.

Since 2016, we’ve learned much more about social media infiltration. House Democrats’ May release of thousands of ads placed on Facebook by Russian agents revealed a deliberate campaign to inflame racial divisions in the US Tech companies say they are working hard to combat such behavior.

But companies must be forced to act faster against such cam-paigns and be more accountable, said Dipayan Ghosh, who has worked at the White House and Facebook on tech policy and is now at Harvard.

It is difficult to assess the threat of Russian disinformation efforts. In 2016, the greatest damage was done by hacking and leaking emails from Hillary Clinton’s campaign and Demo-crats’ national organization, widely reported by the news media.

But comparatively few saw individual pieces of misinfor-mation on social media, making it unlikely they swayed many votes, said Brendan Nyhan, a University of Michigan political scientist.

Still, it is clear the Russian efforts have stirred others, like Iran, to try similar strategies, with long-term goals of influencing US politics.

“We can’t just think in the context of the next election,” said Lee Foster, manager of infor-mation operations analysis at the cybersecurity firm FireEye. “It’s not like this goes away after the midterms.”

ISABELLE LE PAGE & FRANK ZELLER - AFP

10 MONDAY 3 SEPTEMBER 2018 ASIA

US commando takes helm of forces in AfghanistanAFP

KABUL: General Scott Miller took command of US and Nato forces in Afghanistan yesterday, as worsening violence erodes hopes for peace in the war-torn country.

Miller, who has commanded special operations units in Afghanistan since 2013, succeeds General John Nicholson, who is rotating out of the post after more than two years.

The handover comes at a sensitive time in the 17-year war that has seen little progress by Afghan or US forces against the Taliban, Afghanistan’s largest militant group.

Afghan and international players have been ratcheting up efforts to hold peace talks with the Taliban, which was toppled from power by US-led forces in 2001.

A recent spate of attacks by Taliban and the smaller but potent Islamic State group that left hundreds of security forces and civilians dead has almost extinguished that optimism.

“This is a tough fight,” Miller acknowledged during an outdoor change of command ceremony in Kabul attended by top Afghan officials and foreign diplomats.

“There’s no room for status quo, we cannot afford to be com-placent. We must be aware of bias and easy conclusions — they don’t exist here.” In a WhatsApp message to reporters, Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid warned Miller would “fail like the other commanders”.

For the past two years Miller has headed up the secretive Joint Special Operations Command (JSOC) and has lengthy

experience working with some of America’s most elite fighters.

Nicholson, who will return to the Pentagon, is the longest-serving US commander of Nato and American Forces in Afghanistan.

There had been concerns that militants would shower Kabul with mortar or rocket fire to spoil yesterday’s handover, as they did during Afghan President Ashraf Ghani’s speech on the first day of the Eid Al Adha holiday last month.

But the ceremony passed off uninterrupted.

Miller takes up his new role more than a year after US Pres-ident Donald Trump unveiled his Afghanistan strategy, which increased the US troop presence and now includes a renewed push to bring the Taliban to the negotiating table.

But there are fears that Trump is growing frustrated with the pace of progress in the country.

The Taliban have long insisted on direct talks with W a s h i n g t o n a n d

refused to negotiate with the Afghan government, which they see as illegitimate.

There is speculation that another meeting between US and Taliban representatives could be held this month. “We know the military component is only one part of this conditions-based strategy,” Miller said.

He added that it was nec-essary to “create space for the political process” to end the war.

Separately, Miller confirmed in a statement that a US air strike in the eastern province of Nan-garhar on August 25 killed the leader of the Islamic State group in Afghanistan.

Abu Saad Orakzai, also known as Saad Arhabi, was among several people killed in the strike. IS first emerged in Afghanistan around 2014.

Currently there are about 14,000 US troops in Afghanistan, providing the main component of the Nato mission there to support and train local forces.

Incoming Commander of Resolute Support forces and command of Nato forces in Afghanistan, U S Army General Scott Miller walks during a change of command ceremony in Resolute Support headquarters in Kabul, Afghanistan, yesterday.

Three die as copter crashes in AfghanistanAFP

MAZAR-I-SHARIF: A heli-copter crash in northern Afghanistan yesterday killed at least three people including a foreign pilot, Afghan offi-cials said.

The aircraft crashed due to “technical problems” shortly after taking off in Dehdadi district in Balkh province, Nazer Khuda Pamiri, deputy commander of Afghan forces in northern Afghanistan, said.

Ten people were on board the helicopter at the time of the accident.

It was transporting Afghan security forces from a military base in Dehdadi to the volatile northwestern province of Faryab.

“Three people were killed and seven others were wounded,” Pamiri said. The helicopter caught fire after it hit the ground, Pamiri added.

Pakistan plans task force to get back money stashed abroadINTERNEWS

ISLAMABAD: A committee yesterday suggested setting up a Joint Task Force (JTF) comprising representatives of different important government functionaries and other agencies to bring alleged ill-gotten money of Pakistani citizens stashed abroad back.

The chief justice of Pakistan (CJP) had formed the committee to prepare terms of reference (ToRs) that can help the gov-ernment recover money smuggled out of the country and stored in foreign accounts.

Initially, the committee had

three members, led by the SBP gov-ernor and included federal finance secretary and FBR chairman.

Later, it, with the court’s per-mission, co-opted other members such as the interior secretary, Deputy Chairman of NAB, the FIA DG, SECP chairman, represent-atives of the Intelligent Bureau (IB) and the Foreign Office. On August 7, the court asked the committee to submit a report by September 3 for achieving the objectives of suo motu proceedings.

Complying with the court’s order, the committee held meetings on August 20 and August 30 and proposed the

formation of a JTF, in addition to suggesting its terms of reference (ToRs) to the apex court.

Yesterday, the committee submitted its report, telling the Supreme Court that it would ini-tially act on the information about the assets of Pakistani cit-izens in the UAE that had been obtained by the FIA.

It stated that the committee would identify assets of such individuals where sufficient information was available to conduct an inquiry.

“The committee will also examine the possibility of using information available with the FBR about the assets of Pakistani

citizens in the UK obtained under the OECD multilateral convention.”

It also informed the top court that the committee would form a JTF comprising representatives of the FIA, FBR, NAB and other agencies or organisations or persons as “it may deem appropriate”.

According to the proposed ToRs, the JTF would summon persons identified by the com-mittee for personal hearings.

Individuals refusing or evading to appear before the JTF would be reported to the com-mittee, “which shall submit in the monthly reports the names of such persons before the SC for

appropriate orders”.Similarly, persons appearing

before the JTF would be asked to confirm that they or their dependents or spouses owned the reported foreign assets or submit an affidavit that the assets did not belong to them.

“Where such an affidavit is sub-mitted, the FIA or relevant agency will approach relevant authorities informing them that the owners of certain assets have on affidavit, denied their ownership and request them to initiate proceeding with respect to such assets under anti-money laundering legislation or provide prosecutable evidence to the law enforcement agency.”

Pakistani militants of the Islamic state (IS) Sediqullah (left) and Sajjad after they surrendered to the Afghan National Directorate of Security (NDS) after four years fighting against Afghan and US forces, in Achin district of Nangarhar province, yesterday.

IS men surrender after four years of fighting

China detains 46 after violent protest over schoolingAP

BEIJING: Police in central China have detained 46 people who were part of a protest against a government plan to address overcrowded classrooms that escalated into violence.

Police in the city of Leiyang in Hunan province said on their official microblog that the people were detained early Sunday as officers dispersed around 600 protesters who had gathered outside the local police station

on Saturday night.They said some of the pro-

testers hurled plastic water bottles, bricks, firecrackers and beer bottles, injuring more than 30 police and auxiliary police officers and damaging several vehicles. Police attributed the violence to “good-for-nothings” who were looking for trouble.

An official at the Leiyang city government who would only give his surname, Zeng, said the parents were protesting the city government’s plan to transfer

students from overcrowded public schools to expensive private schools.

Some parents were con-cerned that their children were exposed to toxic formaldehyde fumes at the dormitory to which they were being transferred, he said. He repeated the police’s assertion that troublemakers were using the protest to cause issues for the authorities.

“Some lawless people are making use of this as an oppor-tunity to stir up trouble,” Zeng

said by phone.Calls to the police and

schools affected by the plans rang unanswered yesterday.

The protest began earlier on Saturday with parents gathering and hoisting banners outside six local schools and the city’s Com-munist Party committee building and blocking roads. Police said they took away five protesters who were disrupting traffic.

The protesters later marched from the party committee

building to the police station to demand the release of the five who had been detained.

As the protest grew, police took away another 10 people but let them go home under escort after verifying that they were parents of students affected by the transfer plans.

Police said that shortly after midnight Saturday, they force-fully dispersed the protesters after repeated warnings failed and detained the 46 people after the protest turned violent.

Kathmandu airport scare after plane skids off runwayAFP

KATHMANDU: Nepal’s only international airport had to be closed for some 11 hours after a domestic aircraft skidded off the recently repaired runway, officials said yesterday.

The Jetstream 41 was flying in to Kathmandu from Nepa-lgunj in southern Nepal late Sat-urday with 21 passengers onboard when it suffered a runway excursion before coming to a halt onto the adjoining grassland.

Nobody was hurt in the incident but incoming and outgoing flights to Nepal’s sole international air gateway were diverted while authorities tried to remove the aircraft, which had become stuck in mud.

The airport reopened at 8am yesterday after the aircraft

was moved.The incident comes amid

mounting safety concerns over cracks on the runway’s surface, which was repaired only recently.

“An investigation com-mittee will look into the cause of the incident. Other flights have safely landed, we don’t believe the runway was an issue,” the airport’s general manager Raj Kumar Chettri said.

Nepal has a poor air safety record and Nepal-based airlines are banned from flying in European Union airspace.

In April a Malaysian jet with 139 people on board aborted its takeoff and skidded off the runway.

In March, a US-Bangla Airways plane crashed near the airport, killing 51 people

Police bike squad set to fight street crime in KarachiINTERNEWS

KARACHI: Residents of Paki-stan’s southern port city of Karachi will soon see some 2,000 police commandos patrolling on city roads and streets on over 1,000 motor-bikes as the authorities have launched a “street watch force” to fight increasing street crime.

A senior official said that the plan to set up a new force comprising trained and young police commandos had been launched after a batch of 200 personnel with 100 motor-bikes hit the roads in Karachi’s South district.

Gradually, he said, the plan would be expanded to other dis-tricts and a total of 1,000 bikes with 2,000 police commandos would become part of the force.

“In the first phase we have brought a team of 200 police commandos with 100 motor-bikes. They are being deputed in Defence and Clifton in the South district,” said Karachi police chief Dr Amir Ahmed Shaikh.

“According to our plan, we keep the force under the command of the area SP. The force will be in touch with the police helpline Madadgar 15.”

General Scott Miller,

who has commanded

special operations

units in Afghanistan

since 2013, succeeds

General John

Nicholson, who is

rotating out of the

post after more than

two years.

11MONDAY 3 SEPTEMBER 2018 ASIA / EUROPE

South Korean President names special envoy to North KoreaAFP

SEOUL: A high-level South Korean delegation will fly to North Korea this week to discuss arrangements for an inter-Korean summit there this month, as relations grow cooler between Washington and Pyongyang.

The South’s President Moon Jae-in yesterday named his top security adviser as a special envoy to the North to discuss details before Moon’s planned meeting in Pyongyang with Kim Jong-Un.

Chung Eui-Yong, head of the presidential National Security

Office, will lead a five-member delegation to the North’s capital on Wednesday (tomorrow), Moon’s spokesman Kim Eui-Kyeom said.

The delegation, which also includes South Korea’s spy chief Suh Hoon, will fly to Pyongyang via a rare direct route across the

inter-Korean border for their day trip.

It will be Chung’s second visit to the North since March this year.

The spokesman said that it was unclear whether the dele-gation would meet the North’s leader this time around.

Japan braces for powerful typhoonAFP

TOKYO: Japan yesterday braced for a “very strong” typhoon, with authorities warning of high waves, floods and landslides, including in areas hit by deadly flooding earlier this year.

Typhoon Jebi, packing winds of up to 252km an hour, is expected to make landfall on the country’s main island on Tuesday (today), according to Japan’s Meteor-ological Agency.

“Maintaining its very strong power, the typhoon is forecast to approach western and eastern Japan.”

The path of the typhoon appeared to cover the western Chugoku region, where record rainfall in July unleashed flooding and landslides.

Abe hopes for abduction issue resolution in talks with Kim

AFP

TOKYO: Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe (pictured) said any summit he holds with North Korea’s Kim Jong Un must tackle abducted citizens, an issue that has bedevilled relations between the two countries for decades.

North Korea kidnapped scores of Japanese citizens in the 1970s and 1980s to help Pyongyang train its spies, a sore point that Tokyo says has has never been adequately addressed.

“In the end, I have to meet Chairman Kim Jong-Un,” Abe told the Sankei Shimbun daily in an interview published yes-terday, adding he wished to “break mutual distrust” between the two countries.

But he added: “As long as we hold a meeting, the meeting must contribute to the resolution of the abduction issue”.

Tokyo and Pyongyang have long had tense rela-tions, from historical grievances of Japan’s wartime brutalities on the Korean peninsula to Pyongyang’s regular sabre rattling, including recent missile tests last year that sent rockets heading towards Japan.

Recent months have seen a remarkable diplo-matic detente on the Korean peninsula with Kim holding summits with both US President Donald

Trump and South Korea’s leader Moon Jae-in.

Tokyo fears being shut out of negotiations on North Korea, which have proceeded at a breakneck pace in recent months with Japan largely on the sidelines.

During historic talks with Trump in Singapore, Kim reportedly said he was open to a meeting with Abe.

Trump promised to work to help bring abductees home from North Korea.

In the interview, Abe also said Japan-China relations have gotten back “on the completely right track”.

“I’m looking forward to vis-iting China and then want to invite President Xi Jinping to Japan,” he said.

The world’s second- and third-largest economies also have a fraught relationship, complicated by longstanding maritime disputes and Japan’s wartime legacy.

Duterte eyes arms deal on Israel tripAFP

MANILA: Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte yesterday left for a visit to Israel and Jordan, pursuing a pivot away from his nation’s long-time reliance on American military hardware and support.

The four-day visit to Israel will be the first by a Philippine leader in more than 60 years of diplomatic ties between the two nations, even though the links between their people go back to Manila’s sheltering of Jews during the Holocaust.

Duterte’s visit has generated much attention, powered both by his penchant for foul-mouthed statements — including likening himself to Hitler — and his internationally condemned drug crackdown that has killed thousands.

Duterte, accompanied by an

entourage including soldiers and police, will sit down with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and hold an event with some of the thousands of Filipino migrant workers in Israel.

“We assign great importance

to this visit, which symbolises the strong, warm ties between our two peoples,” Israel’s foreign ministry said in a statement.

Duterte has pivoted the Phil-ippines away from its former colonial master the United States and towards warmer diplomatic and business ties with China and Russia.

The US and Canada have both seen military hardware deals fall apart with the Philip-pines due to concerns over Duterte’s drug war. But so far sales with Israel have gone smoothly.

“(The visit) is for President Duterte to look for an alternative market for... weapons for our armed forces as well as for the police,” Henelito Sevilla, an international relations expert at the University of the Philippines, said.

Israel is among the world’s

top arms dealers, with nearly 60 percent of its defence exports going to the Asia-Pacific region, according to Israeli defence min-istry data.

The Philippines emerged as a significant new customer in 2017 for Israel, with sales of radar and anti-tank equipment worth $21m.

Manila said the trip is expected to yield agreements on defence as well as labour, which is one of the Philippines’ top exports.

Some 10 million Filipinos work abroad and send home money that is a lifeline for the economy.

Manila is keen to sign agree-ments on protections for the workers.

Although the Philippines has a special bond with Israelis for giving refuge to some 1,300 Jews fleeing the Holocaust, Duterte

drew global condemnation for comparing himself to Hitler in 2016. Duterte later apologised for his remarks.

Just over a year later the Philippines abstained from a United Nations vote rebuking the United States for moving its embassy to Jerusalem.

Palestinians see the eastern part of the disputed city as the capital of their future state.

Duterte yesterday expressed support for a two-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

“We shall be guided by our constitution and laws as well as our international commitments in support of efforts and initia-tives including the two-state solution,” he said.

Duterte heads to Jordan on September 5, where he is expected to meet King Abdullah II.

Philippine bomb blast leaves one dead, 15 injured

Duterte, accompanied

by an entourage

including soldiers and

police, will sit down

with Prime Minister

Benjamin Netanyahu

and hold an event

with some of the

thousands of Filipino

migrant workers in

Israel.

Mourners pay respect to top Ukrainian rebelAFP

DONETSK: Tens of thousands of mourners gathered in Ukraine’s rebel stronghold of Donetsk yesterday to pay their final respects to separatist leader Alexander Zakharchenko, while an aide to the Russian president praised him as a “brother” and a “hero”.

Throngs of admirers — many clutching flowers and in tears — formed a line to view the flag-draped casket of the 42-year-old chief of the self-proclaimed Donetsk People’s Republic (DPR), whose body was lying in state in a theatre.

Zakharchenko was killed in a bombing at a Donetsk cafe on Friday, becoming the four-year conflict’s most prominent victim from the Moscow-backed side.

His bodyguard also died and 12 more people were injured.

In a statement carried by the Donetsk republic’s official news agency, Russian President Putin’s aide Vladislav Surkov called the separatist a “brother”.

“You are a cool guy, a true

hero and it’s a huge honour to be your friend,” said Surkov, calling Zakharchenko Sasha, a dimin-utive form of his first name.

A representative of the local authorities estimated the turnout at around 100,000 people, while a witness said more than 30,000

turned up. Armed men in fatigues cordoned off the city centre and public transport was temporarily suspended.

Pallbearers carry the coffin during the funeral ceremony for assassinated leader of the self-proclaimed Donetsk People’s Republic Alexander Zakharchenko, in Donetsk, yesterday.

AFP

COTABATO: A bomb ripped through an Internet cafe in the southern Philippines yesterday, killing one person and wounding 15 in the second deadly blast to strike the same city in days, author-ities said.

The explosion in Isulan was a short distance from where an improvised bomb under a motorcycle blew up on August 28, killing three and wounding dozens.

There was no immediate claim of responsibility for yesterday’s bombing, but authorities’ suspicion imme-diately fell on the Bang-samoro fighters (BIFF).

“It is the BIFF who is responsible,” Army General Cirilito Sobejana said. “This group is out to sow chaos.”

The mayor’s office of Isulan and the military said one person was killed in the bombing and 15 were wounded, four of whom were in critical condition.

New political party launched in Thailand

EU accuses Guatemalan government of graftAFP

BRUSSELS: The European Union yesterday accused the Guatemalan government of President Jimmy Morales of taking a “step backward” by shutting down a UN mission investigating corruption in the central American country.

Morales said on Friday he was not renewing the mandate of the International Com-mission Against Impunity in Guatemala (CICIG) after it made a joint request with the state prosecutor’s office to lift his presidential immunity as part of a probe into campaign finances.

“The decision by the Gov-ernment of Guatemala not to renew the mandate of CICIG beyond 2019 constitutes a step backward in the consolidation of rule of law,” a spokesperson for the EU’s diplomatic arm said.

“In the last ten years this body, set up on request of the

Guatemalan Government, has made an important contri-bution to the fight against cor-ruption and impunity,” the statement said.

“The European Union has been a staunch supporter of its work, in cooperation with the attorney general,” the European External Service spokesperson said.

“We expect CICIG to be able to continue its full operation for the remainder of the period in accordance with its mandate,” the statement added.

The EU pledged to continue backing Guatemala in bol-stering the rule of law and developing its institutions in future to benefit all Guatemalans.

Both the UN mission and prosecutors presented evidence that Morales’ FCN-Nacion party failed to report nearly one million dollars in financing to electoral authorities during his successful 2015 presidential campaign.

Former Thai house of representatives speaker and transport minister Wan Muhammad Noor Matha speaks during the launch of the Prachachat political party, in Pattani, Thailand, yesterday. About 500 co-founders launched the “Prachachat” party, formed by Muslim politicians of the Wadah group.

12 MONDAY 3 SEPTEMBER 2018EUROPE

Theresa May vows no

compromise on BrexitREUTERS

LONDON: Britain’s Prime Minister Theresa May (pictured) said she would not allow compromises to her Brexit strategy that went against the national interest, seeking to allay fears among some in her Conservative Party that she will cave in to Brussels’ demands in negotiations.

But her words drew scep-ticism, including from the former Brexit negotiator David Davis who said the pledge was little reassurance and that he would vote against parliament giving May’s exit plan its required approval.

With under two months before Britain and the European Union want to agree a deal to end over 40 years of union, May is struggling to sell what she calls her business-friendly Brexit to her own party and across a divided country.

After an initially sceptical reaction, the EU is formulating its response to what has become known as the Chequers plan, which is designed to protect cross-border trade.

Boxed in between a those at home who would balk at further concession and an EU negotiator demanding more concession, difficult talks lie ahead, followed by a vote in parliament on whatever deal is reached.

“I will not be pushed into accepting compromises on the Chequers proposals that are not in our national interest,” May wrote in the Sunday Telegraph

newspaper. Parliament returns from its

summer break. “The coming months will be

critical in shaping the future of our country and I am clear about my mission.”

Both Britain and the EU have stepped up contingency planning in case the two sides are unable reach a deal in time, setting financial markets on edge and weakening sterling at the prospect of economic disruption.

May also said she would not hold a second referendum on Britain’s EU membership, reit-erating a long-held position in an attempt to counter increas-ingly vocal campaigning for another public vote on the terms

of the divorce.“To ask the question all over

again would be a gross betrayal of our democracy,” May said.

May’s plan would keep Britain in a free-trade zone with the EU for manufactured and agricultural goods. But some Brexit supporters have said that would mean parts of the British economy would still be subject to rules set in Brussels.

Davis, who resigned in protest over the Chequers plan after two years as May’s chief negotiator, said the proposal was “almost worse than being in” the EU, and that May could use ‘national interest’ as a caveat to justify further concessions.

“You’re not going to turn around said to parliament ‘Oh, I agreed this, but that wasn’t in the national interest’ are you?” he said.

Any agreement Britain is able to strike with EU will need approval from the British par-liament - presenting a major headache for May who runs a minority government propped up by a deal with a small Northern Irish party and whose own Conservative party are deeply divided over Brexit.

According to a report in the Sunday Times, leading Brexiteer lawmakers in May’s party are ready to publish their own plan for Brexit ahead of the party’s annual conference which begins at the end of September.

In her article, May reiterated that Britain would be ready to leave the EU without a deal if the two sides cannot agree on the divorce terms.

Poland should keep away from EU’s ‘social ailments’: KaczynskiREUTERS

WARSAW: Poland belongs in the European Union but should be careful not to be “infected by social diseases” that dominate the bloc, ruling Law and Justice (PiS) party leader Jaroslaw Kaczynski said yesterday.

Speaking at a party con-vention ahead of local elections in October, Poland’s most influ-ential decision-maker laid out the broad campaign priorities of the PiS.

He defended his party’s democratic record and accused critics of serving “powerful

interests and making deals with the mighty of the world”, in an apparent jab at the close ties between the liberal opposition in Poland and Brussels.

“I had said we would face an uphill battle and that stones would be thrown,” Kaczynski said. “We are being attacked internally and from the outside ... in ways that discount the reality and aim to demean ... Poland”.

“It’s easy to serve the interests of the most powerful. If you want to serve the society, the nation, it’s much more difficult.”

While underlining the need for Poland to remain inside the bloc, his party says the EU is forcing member states to conform to standards that con-travene Poland’s traditional family values.

Yesterday, Kaczynski said EU membership was “the shortest way for Poland to achieve parity when it comes to living standards” with its western allies.

“But that doesn’t mean we should repeat the mistakes of the West and become infected with social diseases that dom-inate there,” he added.

Jaroslaw Kaczynski, leader of the ruling Law and Justice party (PiS), delivers a speech during the party’s convention in Warsaw, Poland, yesterday.

18 injured in Chemnitz protestsAFP

CHEMNITZ: Eighteen people were injured as the anti-migrant far-right and counter-protesters held opposing rallies in the German city of Chemnitz, which was hit by xenophobic demon-strations last week.

According to police estimates, more than 11,000 demonstrators turned up for the separate protests.

Local police, backed up by officers from across Germany, were out in force to keep both sides from clashing. But as the rallies cleared, scuffles took place among small groups.

SPD MP Soeren Bartol said on Twitter that his group from Marburg were “attacked by Nazis” while they were heading for the bus.

Afghan teen to face court over Amsterdam attackAFP

THE HAGUE : A 19-year-old Afghan man who was shot and wounded by Dutch police after allegedly attacking bystanders at Amsterdam’s Central Station will briefly appear in court today, police said.

The suspect, identified by authorities as “Jawed S”, “will appear before a judge and until then no further details will be released,” the Amsterdam police said in a statement

Two American citizens were seriously injured when a knife-wielding man attacked bystanders around noon on Friday at the busy station next to the Dutch capital’s historic city centre.

Police quickly reacted and shot the man in the lower body. He and the two injured bystanders were taken to hospital.

There was no update on the victims’ condition, which police on Saturday described as “satisfactory”.

“Following an initial statement by the suspect it has emerged that the man had a

terrorist motive,” Amsterdam City Hall announced yesterday after police questioned the suspect.

Jawed S. has a German res-idency permit and German police on Saturday raided his apartment. The police did not release details about its exact location.

The suspect will make a brief first appearance behind closed doors and according to Dutch criminal legal procedures will not be asked to plead.

“It is likely that the judge will remand him in custody for two more weeks, in order for detectives to continue their investigation,” a Dutch prose-cution service official said.

This process could take up to three months, the official added.

Thousands of commuters and tourists were evacuated from the rail terminus after the attack.

The Netherlands has so far been spared from the slew of terror attacks which have rocked its closest European neighbours in the past few years.

German citizens urged to take stand against racismAP

CHEMNITZ: Germany’s foreign minister told his fellow coun-trymen yesterday that they’re too lazy when it comes to battling racism and fighting for democracy.

“We have to get off the couch and open the mouth,” Heiko Maas said in an interview with weekly Bild am Sonntag. “Our generation was given freedom, rule of law and democracy as a present. We didn’t have to fight for it; (now) we’re taking it too much for granted.”

Maas’ comments followed Saturday’s demonstrations by about 4,500 far-right protesters in Chemnitz, who were rallying against migration a week after a German was killed in the eastern city, allegedly by two migrants from Iraq and Syria. Around 4,000 leftist protesters also marched through the city in a counter-protest, and 1,800 police officers were deployed to keep the groups apart.

Far-right activists and leftist groups had already clashed in Chemnitz on Monday, a day after the 35-year-old German man’s

death. Scenes of vigilantes chasing foreigners in the city’s streets have shocked people in others parts of Germany since then.

The tension that has built up over the past week in Chemnitz, reflects the growing polarisation over Germany’s ongoing effort to come to terms with an influx of more than 1 million refugees and migrants seeking jobs since 2015.

The far right has constantly criticised Chancellor Angela Mer-kel’s decision to allow in hundreds of thousands of asylum-seekers from war-torn countries.

Theresa May also said

she would not hold a

second referendum

on Britain’s EU

membership.

Russians protest pension reformAFP

MOSCOW: Thousands of people across Russia protested yesterday against a deeply unpopular pension reform despite President Vladimir Putin’s announcement of several concessions this week.

Moscow plans to gradually raise the state pension age as the economy struggles under

Western sanctions, in the first such hike in nearly 90 years.

The proposed move —already approved by parlia-ment’s lower house in a first reading in July — has led to a rare outburst of public anger.

Police estimated that some 6,000 people turned up for the Communist rally while another 1,500 joined a smaller protest, also in Moscow.

There were also protests in other Russian cities, including Saint Petersburg where some 2,500 demonstrators took to the streets.

The Russian president this week proposed rasing the pension age by five years to 60 for women, instead of eight years, as previously planned.

The state pension age for men will rise by five years to 65.

Russian Communist party supporters carrying a banner reading “55 - and no minute more” as they take part in a rally against the government’s proposed reform hiking the pension age, in Moscow, yesterday.

Moldovans call for reunification with RomaniaAP

CHISINAU: Several thousand Moldovans have gathered in the capital Chisinau to call for reunification with Romania.

Supporters carried the Romanian and Moldovan flags, which are virtually identical, and shouted: “Unity,” and “Bessarabia, Romanian land,” using the old name for Moldova.

Moldova united with Romania in 1918 and was annexed to the Soviet Union in 1940. It gained inde-pendence in 1991.

Demonstrators applauded a group of several dozen Romanians who joined Sat-urday’s reunification rally after a 1,300km “Centenary March” march they started in Romania on July 1.

Journalists held over alleged theft of documentsREUTERS

BELFAST: Two journalists were arrested over the suspected theft of documents from Northern Ireland’s police ombudsman that were used in a documentary that alleged police collusion in the 1994 murder of six soccer fans.

The two were later released on bail, police said, and the documentary makers secured a temporary court order to stop police exam-ining documents and material seized in raids.

The 2017 documentary “No Stone Unturned” named a Protestant paramilitary gunman it said police believed shot six fans in one of the most notorious episodes of Northern Ireland’s ‘Troubles’.

Tornado over MichiganA tornado hovers over Kalamazoo, Michigan, in the US, in this picture obtained from social media. Storms have resulted in tornado warnings in several counties in Michigan.

13MONDAY 3 SEPTEMBER 2018 AMERICAS

Pentagon cancels $300m Coalition Support Funds to PakistanREUTERS

WASHINGTON: The US military said it has made a final decision to cancel $300m in aid to Pakistan that had been suspended over Islamabad’s perceived failure to take decisive action against militants, in a new blow to deteriorating ties.

The so-called Coalition Support Funds were part of a broader suspension in aid to Pakistan announced by President Donald Trump at the start of the year, when he accused Pakistan of rewarding past assistance with “nothing but lies and deceit.”

The Trump administration says Islamabad is granting safe haven to insurgents who are waging a 17-year-old war in neighboring Afghanistan, a charge Pakistan denies.

But US officials had held out

the possibility that Pakistan could win back that support if it changed its behaviour.

US Defense Secretary Jim Mattis, in particular, had an opportunity to authorize $300m in CSF funds through this summer - if he saw concrete Pakistani actions to go after insurgents. Mattis chose not to, a US official told Reuters.

“Due to a lack of Pakistani decisive actions in support of the South Asia Strategy the

remaining $300m was repro-grammed,” Pentagon spokesman Lieutenant Colonel Kone Faulkner said.

Faulkner said the Pentagon aimed to spend the $300m on “other urgent priorities” if approved by Congress. He said another $500m in CSF was stripped by Congress from Pakistan earlier this year, to bring the total withheld to $800m.

The disclosure came ahead of an expected visit by US Sec-retary of State Mike Pompeo and the top US military officer, General Joseph Dunford, to Islamabad. Mattis told reporters on Tuesday that combating mil-itants would be a “primary part of the discussion.” Experts on the Afghan conflict, America’s longest war, argue that militant safe havens in Pakistan have

allowed Taliban-linked insur-gents in Afghanistan a place to plot deadly strikes and regroup after ground offensives.

The Pentagon’s decision showed that the United States, which has sought to change Pakistani behavior, is still increasing pressure on Pakistan’s security apparatus.

It also underscored that Islamabad has yet to deliver the kind of change sought by Washington.

“It is a calibrated, incre-mental ratcheting up of pressure on Pakistan,” said Sameer Lalwani, co-director of the South Asia program at the Stimson Center think tank in Washington.

Reuters reported in August that the Trump administration has quietly started cutting scores of Pakistani officers from

coveted training and educational programmes that have been a hallmark of bilateral military relations for more than a decade.

The Pentagon made similar determinations on CSF in the past but this year’s move could get more attention from Islamabad, and its new prime minister, Imran Khan, at a time when its economy is struggling.

Pakistan’s foreign exchange reserves have plummeted over the past year and it will soon decide on whether to seek a bailout from the International Monetary Fund (IMF) or friendly nations such as China.

“They are squeezing them when they know that they’re vul-nerable and it is probably a signal about what to expect should Pakistan come to the IMF for a loan,” Lalwani said.

The United States has the

largest share of votes at the IMF. Khan, who once suggested he might order the shooting down of US drones if they entered Pakistani airspace, has opposed the United States’ open-ended presence in Afghanistan. In his victory speech, he said he wanted “mutually beneficial” relations with Washington.

A Pakistani official, speaking on the condition of anonymity, said he was unaware of a formal notification of the US decision on assistance but said one was expected by the end of September.

Pakistan has received more than $33bn in US assistance since 2002, including more than $14bn in CSF, a US Defense Department programme to reimburse allies that have incurred costs in sup-porting counter-insurgency operations.

Teen from New Mexico says he was trained for jihad: FBIREUTERS

TAOS: A 13-year-old boy who was part of group taken into custody at a squalid New Mexico compound last month has told FBI agents his mother’s boyfriend was training him to conduct “jihad” against non-believers, according to federal court documents.

The boy was among 11 children and five adults living at the compound in Taos County when it was raided on August 3 by local sheriff’s deputies who discovered a cache of firearms and the children living without food or clean water. The dead body of a three-year-old boy was found buried at the site later.

They initially faced state charges, then on Friday, the five adults including a Haitian woman described as the group’s leader, 35-year-old Jany Leveille, were arrested by the Federal Bureau of Investigation and accused of conspiracy and firearms offenses.

In an affidavit filed in support of a criminal com-plaint, an FBI special agent wrote that Leveille’s 13-year-old son told investigators that his mother’s boyfriend, Siraj Ibn Wahhaj, 40, wanted to “get an army together” and train them for jihad.

The boy told agents that Ibn Wahhaj trained him and another of Leveille’s teenage sons in firearms and military techniques, including rapid reloads and hand-to-hand combat, according to the affi-davit filed in US District Court in New Mexico.

The 13-year-old also told the FBI that he watched his mother and Ibn Wahhaj perform supposed “exorcism” rituals over the three-year-old boy, including one during which the boy choked and his heart stopped, according to the special agent’s affidavit.

The teenager said his mother and others at the compound told him not to talk to anyone about the three-year-old ever being at the compound because they would “all go to jail.”

Defense lawyers have said that the five adults were exercising their constitutional rights to practice their religion and own firearms, and that the group is being discriminated against because they are black and Muslim.

The five defendants came under FBI surveillance in May after Leveille wrote a letter to Ibn Wahhaj’s brother asking him to join them and become a “martyr.”

UN human rights mission departs NicaraguaAFP

MANAGUA: The United Nations human rights mission left Nica-ragua after being ordered out by a government it criticized over its heavy-handed response to anti-regime protests.

President Daniel Ortega’s government on Friday ordered the mission’s expulsion two days after it published a report criticizing the “climate of fear” in the Central American country, where rights groups say months of turmoil has left more than 300 people dead.

The four-member mission of the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights (OACNUDH), led by Guillermo Fernandez, traveled to Panama after Managua ordered i t s departure.

“The @OACNUDH is grateful for the support received in relation to the work carried out in Nica-ragua,” the mission wrote on Twitter. “We will continue to monitor the situation and accompany the victims in their search for justice and truth

from the Regional Office in Panama,” it said.

The United Nations report denounced a wide range of serious violations in Nicaragua, including disproportionate use of force by police, which in some cases resulted in extraju-dicial killings, enforced disap-pearances, arbitrary detention and torture.

Ortega, a former guerrilla leader who has been in power for the last 11 years, rejected the claims and described the UN as “an instrument of the policies of terror, lies and infamy.”

Brazil leftist party insists on banned candidate Da SilvaAP

SAO PAULO: Brazil’s main leftist party said Saturday it’s sticking with former President Luiz Inacio Lula Da Silva as its pres-idential candidate even though the electoral court has thrown him off the ballot for an election just five weeks away.

Da Silva’s vice presidential running mate, former Sao Paulo Mayor Fernando Haddad told reporters the Workers Party will continue pushing to somehow get da Silva, 72, who easily leads in the polls, back on the ballot.

“The people are sovereign regarding the party’s candidate. And that candidate is Lula,” Haddad said.

That strategy would keep da Silva in the spotlight until the absolute last minute, perhaps rallying support from backers that could then be transferred to a stand-in, likely Haddad, who is much less popular or charismatic.

The electoral court voted 6-1 early Saturday to reject da Silva’s candidacy because of a cor-ruption conviction that has been upheld on appeal. Da Silva and the party are appealing both the conviction and the electoral court ruling.

The ruling had been widely expected and there were no immediate street protests of the sort that occurred when the former president was initially arrested.

Da Silva, who was wildly popular when he left office on January 1, 2011, is now a sharply polarising figure. Many Bra-zilians still revere him for pulling millions from poverty during his eight years in power.

But he and the Workers’ Party have lost much of that appeal over the last several years due to a stumbling economy under his hand-picked successor Dilma Rousseff and a sprawling corruption probe that has ensnared many top businessmen

and politicians, including da Silva. That division was clear in the reaction to the electoral court ruling.

“We have a big debt with Lula,” said Thiago Renato, a 39-year-old IT specialist in the northeastern city of Recife.

“We trust him here. I will vote for whoever he endorses

because then I will know who will have the biggest impact for the poor,” he added. “I know Haddad, but I don’t know him well. If he is the candidate, he will have my vote.” At a Sao Paulo coffee shop, Alexandre Fonseca- 21 year old medical student, called the court decision an “unfortunate and fully

expected ruling,” one unlikely to be overturned on appeal.

The former president is serving a 12-year-sentence for corruption and money laun-dering after being convicted of trading favours with con-struction company Grupo OAS in exchange for the promise of a beach house apartment. As part of the ruling, Justice Luis Roberto Barroso said the Workers’ Party should replace da Silva within 10 days, and that he should not appear as a presidential can-didate in free airtime that is given to political parties on nationwide TV and radio.

However the party used the first day of free campaign TV airtime on Saturday to denounce the electoral court ruling in a spot that featured filed footage of da Silva.

Left-leaning candidate Ciro Gomes of the Democratic Labor Party said the electoral court’s ruling was “not a good thing for Brazil.”

Supporters offormer Brazilian presidentLuiz Inacio Lula Da Silva attend a vigil outside the Federal Police Superintendence in Curitiba, Brazil.

Democrats slam White House for withholding documents on Supreme Court nomineeREUTERS

WASHINGTON: Democrats yesterday criticised the Trump administration for refusing to release thousands of documents on Brett Kavanaugh (pictured) ahead of this week’s upcoming Senate hearings on his nomi-nation to the US Supreme Court.

Kavanaugh, nominated by President Donald Trump, worked in the White House under former President George W Bush, whose lawyers combed through documents from that time and decided that 27,000 of them were protected under “constitutional privilege.”

The White House directed them not to hand them over to the Senate Judiciary Committee, one of Bush’s lawyers said in a letter to the chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, which will host the hearings scheduled to start tomorrow.

Another 102,000 pages of documents related to Kavanaugh’s record were not turned over for other reasons. The committee has had access to more than 415,000 pages on Kavanaugh’s background, the lawyer said in the letter.

Dick Durbin, the No. 2 Senate Democrat, said in an interview aired on “Fox News Sunday” that the White House’s citation of privilege on the doc-uments was the first time that had occurred.

“There has been more con-cealment of documents that are concerning his public service and his position on issues than ever in the history of the United States... If he’s so proud of his

conservative credentials, show us the record,” Durbin said.

Democratic Senator Amy Klobuchar, a Judiciary Com-mittee member, echoed Durbin’s concerns in an interview with NBC’s “Meet the Press” yesterday, saying, “This is not normal.” Republicans have dismissed Democrats’ concerns over lack of access to portions of the record on Kavanaugh’s background, arguing their criticism is polit-ically motivated.

“Democrats have more than enough information to under-stand that this is a highly qual-ified jurist that should be the next Supreme Court justice,” Wisconsin US Senator Ron Johnson, a Republican, said in an interview on ABC’s “This Week.”

T r u m p n o m i n a t e d Kavanaugh to be a justice on the US Supreme Court to replace the retiring Justice Anthony Kennedy on July 9.

Kavanaugh must win a majority of the 100-seat Senate to approve his nomination. Most Republicans, who hold a slim majority in the chamber, are expected to back him.

Another $500m in

(Coalition Support

Funds) CSF was

stripped by Congress

from Pakistan earlier

this year, to bring

the total withheld to

$800m.

20 MONDAY 3 SEPTEMBER 2018HOME

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Qatari climbers

scale Europe’s

highest mountainTHE PENINSULA

DOHA: An expedition team from Qatar summited Mount Elbrus in Southern Russia, the highest mountain in Europe, on August 28. They were part of a team of climbers from Qatar and Kuwait.

Qatar Museums (QM) and its Chair-person, H E Sheikha Al Mayassa bint Hamad bin Khalifa Al Thani, greeted the team for their achievement on Twitter.

“Congratulations to our Qatari youth who climbed Mount Elbrus in #Russia as part of #QatarRussia2018 Year of Culture,” her tweet reads.

It took six days of preparation for the team to get acclimatised to the climate and ready the body and mind

to do the extremely difficult climb to the highest point of 5,642m.

Part of the group’s mission was to promote the importance of mental health in coordination with Ministry of Health and also to promote Qatar Russia year of culture 2018.

“I believe that the best moments in life are those that take our breath away. On August 28th I reached the summit of Mt. Elbrus — the highest mountain in Europe —, 5642m of pure hard work, commitment, and team work. I’m grateful with my team, for their support and strength throughout the adventure,” one of the climbers, Fahad Badar, EGM of International Banking, CommercialBnak.

Another team member Aisha Al Naama posted on her Instagram that it was one of the most challenging experiences in my life, mentally, phys-ically, and emotionally.

“Made it to the summit of Mt Elbrus, the highest mountain in Europe. What an experience! it was one of the most challenging experiences in my life, men-tally, physically, and emotionally. I am extremely honoured and proud to carry

my country’s flag and I hope I am able to inspire some of you,” her post reads.

“Today was one of the toughest/successful days in my entire life. I tested myself in so many levels, mentally and physically. I woke up at 12 a.m. to get ready for the summit that lasted until today noon. Loved every moment of this trip, the group work and support,” a post by another member Dana Al Mannai said.

The expedition team from Qatar.

Project to boost Qatar-Turkey cultural ties

DOHA: Cultural ties between Qatar and Turkey are expected to see a major boost with Turkey and Qatar Intercul-tural Art Dialogues, a four-year project which launches tonight at Katara Cultural Village with an exhibition of works by prominent Turkish artist Fatih Mika.

Organised under the auspices of Turkish Ambassador to Qatar Fikret Ozer, the exhibition titled “Endless Entrust” is the first event under the project being carried out by Istanbul Intercultural Art Dialogues Association (IKASD).

“This exhibition is the first step for the four-year duration of this important cultural exchange project aimed towards the promotion of intercultural dialogue between the peoples of Turkey and Qatar,” Beste Gursu, President-International Culture and Art Advisor at Istanbul Intercultural Dialogue Asso-ciation of Art, told The Peninsula yesterday.

Speaking on the sidelines of a press conference yesterday at the Turkish Embassy, Gursu said they are collabo-rating with various art and culture entities to organise various cultural events in Qatar and Turkey such as exhibitions, concerts, conferences, workshops and festivals .

“We are now talking with different entities such as Museum of Islamic Art, Fire Station and Mathaf in Qatar as well

as different museums in Istanbul for this project,” she said.

She describes Qatar’s art and culture scene as “young but very open with a new generation who love art and culture. I believe we can make very good projects here.”

On the choice of exhibiting works by Mika to launch the project, Gursu, who is also curating the show, said: “Professor Fatih Mika is a very

important artist in art history who spe-cializes in gravure art (engraving). Gravure art is very important in tradi-tional Ottoman art and not all coun-tries know about this art. thus are organizing this project for the new gen-eration of art lovers to learn about it.”

Gravure art had slowed down at end of the 20th century, but Mika has worked very hard to ensure its revival.

The two-week long exhibition to

be held at Katara Building 18 Gallery 2 will be a retrospective showcasing 44 of Mika’s works from 1994 till 2017 focusing on history and nature.

On September 14, the last day of the exhibition, the artist will be holding a conference on gravure art, which is free to the public, she said.

The exhibition is sponsored by Turkish Airlines and supported by Art and Life GPP.

FROM LEFT: Yehya Savas, Coordinator at IKASD; Fikret Ozer, Turkish Ambassador to Qatar and Beste Gursu, President-International Culture and Art Advisor at IKASD during a press conference on the “Endless Entrust” expo held at the Turkish Embassy, yesterday. PIC: BAHER AMIN / THE PENINSULA

RAYNALD C RIVERA THE PENINSULA

Doha Youth & Junior Choir unveils new nameTHE PENINSULA

DOHA: In celebration of its fifth birthday, the Doha Youth & Junior Choir will be renamed as Qatar Youth and Junior Choir.

Choir Director Alena Pyne sees this change as a “natural progression because of the choirs’ raised performance level” and most importantly because these choirs

travel abroad extensively and are great ambassadors for Qatar.

The choir have undertaken four inter-national tours in their short existence to Germany, Latvia, Croatia and Poland.

The Youth Choir frequently performs with Qatar Philharmonic Orchestra and also with the adult Qatar Concert Choir.

Pyne also believes that this change will

raise the engagement level with other foreign high-performance choirs and will generate increased interest and involvement from the Qatar-based business community.

Pyne has brought many choirs to Qatar for concerts and outreach workshops in schools across Doha, with the aim of helping to raise the general standard of choral singing and generate more interest in the choral singing art form.

Such achievements were possible with the practical support from the choir fam-ilies and long-term partners such as Yamaha Fifty One East, Qatar Philhar-monic Orchestra, Millennium Hotel Al Saad, Swiss International School Qatar, Germany Embassy Doha and earlier partners, the German International School Doha and Doha College, according to Pyne.

Last season culminated in the Youth Choir’s performance with Qatar Philhar-monic Orchestra of the Qatar National Anthem at the grand opening of the Qatar National Library, for Amir H H Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani and his dis-tinguished guests.

The singers prepared carefully and dil-igently for this performance, fully appre-ciating the honour bestowed upon them.

The Qatar Youth and Junior Choir have exciting plans for the coming season, and are on the lookout for singing talents. If you can sing in tune, love singing and can commit to the rehearsal schedule then reg-ister for auditions through their website, www.qyj-choir.com.

The Doha Youth & Junior choir during their performance.

Heavenly Spa by Westin welcomes new season with array of offeringsTHE PENINSULA

DOHA: Heavenly Spa by Westin embraces the new season with a selection of treatments and wellness packages that suit both individuals and families alike during the whole month of September.

Visitors are invited to expe-rience the Hot Stone massage which is a relaxing body treatment that relieves stiffness and restores the energy through the smooth application of heated volcanic stones with oil. Throughout the month of September, guests can enjoy 30% off on this treatment, said a statement.

Creating an ideal day retreat, the spa has introduced a refreshing and revitalising package, ‘The Heavenly Ritual Express’ which blends a 30 minute body scrub, 30 minute body wrap and 30 minute massage featuring natural and rejuve-nating products for QR800 only.

To help guests restore their facial and body health after a long summer, the spa will be offering a 40% dis-count on any 50 minutes massage, facial or body treatment booked before 4pm

during weekdays. To focus on the importance of

holistic health, Heavenly Spa has introduced an inspiring wellness Calendar to complement its various treatments. It includes the weekly Summer sessions (re-launching in October outside the hotel garden) a very popular package which inl-cudes a morning of moving, eating and feeling well with a 60 minutes Yoga session balanced with healthy breakfast bites followed by time to revitalize by the pools till 1:00pm for QR120.

Also, the spa will be working in collaboration with Evolve, a group of talented trainers and practi-tioners with a range of expertise in wellness services, for a Candle Lit full moon yoga in the open-air area on the September 25.

Heavenly Spa by Westin’s treatment room.