Qatar Airways Cargo in huge appointed Assistant to South ......2019/12/02 · Qatar-Georgia ties I...

Volume 24 | Number 8093 | 2 RiyalsMonday 2 December 2019 | 5 Rabia II 1441 www.thepeninsula.qa

BUSINESS | 01 SPORT | 12

Sheikh Joaaninaugurates Qatari Diar

Resort in Tunisia

Dr. Khalid Al-ShafiEditor-in-Chief

OPINION

Bright prospects of Qatar-Georgia ties

I visited Georgia October this year at the invitation of His Excellency Nikoloz Revazishvili, Ambassador

of Georgia to my beloved country Qatar, and interviewed a number of senior officials during my five-day visit.

The trip coincided with the Tbilisi Silk Road Forum, which was attended by top senior officials of the host country and ministers from several countries, including Qatar’s Minister of Transpor-tation and Communications, H E Jassim bin Saif Al Sulaiti and his accompanying delegation.

Georgia, a country bordering the eastern coast of the Black Sea, is well known to Qataris as a tourist desti-nation with stunning nature, land-scapes and historical monuments. �P3

EXCLUSIVE

The fraternal relations between Qatar and Georgia have grown exponentially in the past and there is huge potential for growth in bilateral relations between the two countries, said Natela Turnava, Minister of Economy and Sustainable Development of Georgia. An EXCLUSIVE INTERVIEW with The Peninsula �P4 & 5

Qatar Airways Cargo in huge South America expansionTHE PENINSULA DOHA

Qatar Airways Cargo, one of the leading air cargo carriers, yesterday announced major expansion of services in South America. The scheduled services to Campinas, Brazil (VCP), Santiago, Chile (SCL), Lima, Peru (LIM) and Bogotá, Colombia (BOG) will join the airline’s global freighter network on January 16, 2020 and will be serviced by a Boeing 777 freighter.

The twice-weekly flights to Bogotá from Doha will operate via Luxembourg and Miami, while the service from Bogotá to Doha will operate via Liège, offering 200 tonnes on each leg. The twice-weekly flights to Campinas from Doha will operate via Luxembourg with the service from Campinas to Doha, operating via Santiago, Lima, Dallas and Luxembourg, also offering 200 tonnes on each leg.

These new destinations will commence close on the heels of the recent arrival of the airline’s twenty-first brand new Boeing 777 freighter on November 25, 2019. The new freighter increased the airline’s freighter fleet to 28 air-craft. Qatar Airways Cargo also has an order for five additional Boeing 777 freighters, placed at the Paris

Air Show 2019, with deliveries starting from April 2020 onwards.

Qatar Airways Group Chief Executive, H E Akbar Al Baker, said: “Air cargo is a crucial element in the global transport system that sup-ports international trade and the free flow of goods around the world. The addition of these four new routes in South America further reinforces our position as one of the world’s leading air cargo providers, operating one of the largest net-works in the world with the youngest and most environmen-tally efficient fleet in the industry.”

Qatar Airways Chief Officer Cargo, Guillaume Halleux, said: “We are very excited about our expansion in South America. The Americas are a very important market for us and there is a huge

demand for South American fresh produce in Asia. With the intro-duction of our twice-weekly Boeing 777 freighter services, we offer exporters in South America a direct route for their cargo and a global net-work. Importers also stand to gain from the huge capacity to bring in their cargo to South America.”

General cargo, pharmaceu-ticals, and perishables will form the majority of goods imported and exported to and from South America along with some move-ments of live animals and high-value items like telecommuni-cation equipment, electronics and other valuable cargo.

The award-winning cargo carrier has an extensive network in The Americas serving 18 freighter and 13 belly-hold cargo destinations in the region. The carrier recently completed a year of successful trans-pacific opera-tions, now operating four-times weekly freighters direct from Asia to North America.

Qatar Airways Cargo has made substantial investment in its oper-ations at Doha hub and globally to ensure all cargo deliveries are processed efficiently and seam-lessly. Special facilities and well-trained personnel ensure expert handling over a wide variety of product categories. �P3

Lolwah Al Khater appointed Assistant to Minister of Foreign AffairsTHE PENINSULA/QNA DOHA

Amir H H Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani issued yesterday Amiri Decision No 56 of 2019, appointing H E Lolwah Rashid Al Khater as Assistant to the Minister of Foreign Affairs, in addition to her duties as Official Spokesperson for the Foreign Ministry.

The decision is effective starting from its date of issue and is to be published in the official gazette.

The Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Foreign Affairs H E Sheikh Mohamed bin Abdul-rahman Al Thani welcomed the appointment in a tweet.

“I congratulate sister Lolwah Al Khater, one of the Qatari women who we are proud of and who proved her excellence as an official spokesperson of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and for obtaining the confidence of His Highness the Amir in her appointment as Assistant Foreign Minister, wishing her success in the service of our dear country,” the Deputy Prime Minister tweeted.

The scheduled services to Campinas, Brazil; Santiago, Chile; Lima, Peru, and Bogotá, Colombia will join the airline’s global freighter network on January 16, 2020 and will be serviced by a Boeing 777 freighter.

Qatar eye semi-finals berth as full house expected at Khalifa International Stadium

02 MONDAY 2 DECEMBER 2019HOME

Amir congratulates

President of Romania

Amir receives message

from Albanian PM

DOHA: Amir H H Sheikh

Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani

and Deputy Amir H H Sheikh

Abdullah bin Hamad Al Thani

has sent cables of congratula-

tions to President of the Republic

of Romania, Klaus Werner Iohan-

nis, on the occasion of his country’s

National Day. Prime Minister and

Interior Minister H E Sheikh Abdul-

lah bin Nasser bin Khalifa Al Thani

has also sent a cable of congratula-

tions to Prime Minister of Romania

Ludovic Orban, on the occasion of

his country’s National Day. QNA



received yesterday a written

message from Prime Minis-

ter of the Republic of Albania,

Edi Rama, pertaining to bilat-

eral relations between the two

countries and ways of enhanc-

ing them. The message was

received by Minister of State for

Foreign Affairs, H E Sultan bin

Saad Al Muraikhi during a meet-

ing with the Charge d’Affaires of

the Albanian Embassy in Doha,

Kujtim Xhani. QNA

OFFICIAL NEWS

Amir condoles with

President of Tunisia



and Deputy Amir H H Sheikh

Abdullah bin Hamad Al Thani

sent cables of condolences

to President Kais Saied of the

Republic of Tunisia on the vic-

tims of the crash of a tourist

bus in Ain Snoussi, northwest

Tunisia, wishing the injured a

speedy recovery. Prime Minister

and Interior Minister H E Sheikh

Abdullah bin Nasser bin Khal-

ifa Al Thani also sent a cable of

condolences to Caretaker Prime

Minister of Tunisia. QNA

Shura Council Speaker meets US Congress delegation

Speaker of the Shura Council, H E Ahmed bin Abdullah bin Zaid Al Mahmoud, with the US Congress delegation.

QNA/DOHA

Speaker of the Shura Council, H E Ahmed bin Abdullah bin Zaid Al Mahmoud, met yesterday with a delegation from the US Congress, including Representative for New York Sean Maloney, Representative for Washington Rick Larsen and Representative for California Nanette Barragan.

During the meeting, they reviewed the stra-tegic relations between the State of Qatar and the US, and ways of supporting these relations in various fields, in addition to developing the relations between the Shura Council and the US Congress. A number of topics of common interest were also reviewed.

The meeting was attended by Chairman of Qatar Parliamentary Friendship Group with the United States, Canada, Australia and New Zealand, H E Nasser bin Khalil Al Jaida and a number of Shura Council members.

Minister of State for Foreign Affairs meets UN Official Qatar, Azerbaijan hold first round of political consultations

The Minister of State for Foreign Affairs, H E Sultan bin Saad Al Muraikhi, met yesterday with the Special Rapporteur on contemporary forms of racism, racial discrimination, xenophobia and related intolerance in the United Nations, E. Tendayi Achiume, who is currently visiting the country. They discussed bilateral relations, in addition to topics of mutual interest.

The first round of political consultations between the State of Qatar and the Republic of Azerbaijan was held yesterday in Doha. Minister of State for Foreign Affairs, H E Sultan bin Saad Al Muraikhi, headed the Qatari sides, while Deputy Foreign Minister of the Republic of Azerbaijan, Ramiz Hasanov,headed the Azeri side. The political consultations round focused on bilateral relations and means to develop them in addition to a host of issues of common concern.

Qatar Hot Air Balloon Festival to kick off on SaturdayRAYNALD C RIVERA THE PENINSULA

Qatar’s first ever Hot Air Balloon Festival, which begins on Saturday, will be a not-to-be-missed spectacular event as 33 hot air balloons from 13 coun-tries adorn the skies over Aspire Park, organizers have said.

Slated to be held from December 7 to 18, the event coin-cides with three important events namely the 24th Edition of Arabian Gulf Cup Tournament, the 2019 FIFA Club World Cup and Qatar National Day.

Teams from the UK, Germany, Lithuania, USA, Italy, Croatia, Portugal, Ireland, France, Spain, Belgium, the Netherlands and Qatar will be taking part in the 12-day event of majestic sights combined with live music, kids entertainment and culinary offerings.

Speaking at a press con-ference at The Torch Doha recently, Captain Hassan Al Mousawi, CEO of Safe Flight Solutions, organizers of the event, said the teams will be arriving on Thursday and Friday in time for the kickoff of the event on Saturday.

The event will start with

Tethered Flights from 2pm until sunset in which the balloons are inflated and tied to anchor points in the arena and flown up to 20 meters high, to be followed by the official launch. This will be followed by the Night Glow in which balloons are inflated and the flames in the balloons are in sync with music. “No matter how someone describes this event, it won’t do any justice. People need to see this event live in Aspire Park to appreciate it, so I would suggest not to miss this event,” said Al Mousawi.

“On December 8, we will

have the first Free Flight, which means the balloons are not tied to the ground or an anchor point and people will see the balloon actually flying in the air. Every day at 6.15am all the balloons will be flying to the direction of the prevailing wind for about 30 to 45 minutes. The free flights will be a spectacular scene to watch over Doha skies,” explained Al Mousawi.

He thanked the event’s stra-tegic partner Qatar National Tourism Council (QNTC), the official airline partner Qatar Airways, venue partner Aspire Zone Foundation, ground trans-portation partner Hertz and hos-pitality partner Aura hospitality. “With the continued support of our partners, we envisage to turn this into an annual global event with more countries partici-

pating,” said Al Mousawi. “As we work to diversify

Qatar’s calendar of festivals it is a pleasure to see our private sector partners taking the lead in building novel and attractive offerings. We’re excited to be a part of this event, which intro-duces a brand new tourism product to Qatari visitors and residents,” Jawaher Al-khuzaei of QNTC said in a statement.

Abdulla Aman Al Khater, Director of Events and Facilities at Aspire Zone Foundation, said: “We, at AZF, have the pleasure to present this exciting event as a new addition to our enter-tainment events calendar organised at Aspire Park that appeal to the whole family members. Also, this festival will be one a new addition to Qatar’s tourism agenda. I would like to invite all the public to enjoy this unique event.”

‘Being in the air is something we’re quite used to; however, this is different, and we’re delighted to be a part of this historical first for our nation’ said Qatar Airways Senior Vice President Marketing and Corporate Com-munications, Salam Al Shawa.

Entry to the festival is free to the public.

Captain Hassan Al Mousawi (right), CEO of Safe Flight Solutions, and Abdulla Aman Al Khater, Director of Events and Facilities at Aspire Zone Foundation, addressing the media on the upcoming Qatar Hot Air Balloon Festival, at The Torch Doha, yesterday. PIC: QASSIM RAHMATULLAH/THE PENINSULA

Teams from the UK, Germany, Lithuania, USA, Italy, Croatia, Portugal, Ireland, France, Spain, Belgium, the Netherlands and Qatar will be taking part in the 12-day event of majestic sights combined with live music, kids entertainment and culinary offerings.

Qatar pays special attention to cybersecuritySACHIN KUMAR THE PENINSULA

Qatar pays special attention to cybersecurity and protection of national vital information infra-structure as reliance on Infor-mation and communications technology (ICT) and internet is growing in the country, said Engineer Khalid Sadiq Al Hashimi, Assistant Undersecretary for Cyber Security Department at the Ministry of Transport and Communications (MOTC).

He was speaking at the ‘FIRST Technical Colloquium 2019’ workshop which began yesterday. The two-day workshop is being attended by a large number of regional and

international cyber security experts. FIRST (the Forum of Incident Response and Security Teams), is a premier organisation and recognised global leader in incident response.

Al Hashimi stressed that as part of Qatar’s efforts to address these challenges and to address current and emerging cyber threats and threats, the National Cybersecurity Strategy has been developed by the National Infor-mation Security Committee to provide a governance structure to address cybersecurity issues collectively at the highest levels of government.

Al Hashimi added that the objectives of the strategy can be achieved by sharing timely

information, cooperating and taking action as well as the development and refinement of the skills of national cadres in the field of cybersecurity. The MOTC annually organises a national cybersecurity exercise as part of the efforts to achieve the goals.

He said that every year, Qatar National Day is celebrated on December 18, and on this important national occasion, all sectors in the country celebrate it in their own way. “In the Cybersecurity Department of the Ministry of Transport and Com-munications, we promote national loyalty and solidarity, through a range of events and exercises related to this area, the most important of which is the

national cyber drill, which is held this year for the seventh time,” he said.

He stressed that the State of Qatar is constantly working to empower the workforce and raise the level of readiness in all sectors in the field of cybersecurity, as evi-denced by its knowledge and interest in hosting distinguished events in this field.

The workshop and the 7th National Cyber drill will focus on topics related to identifying and detecting cyber threats in proactive ways and how to deal with them. The workshop coin-cides with STAR 7, Qatars National Cyber Security Drill exercises, hosted annually in Doha.

Engineer Khalid Sadiq Al Hashimi, Assistant Undersecretary for Cyber Security Department at the Ministry of Transport and Communications, speaking at the workshop on cybersecurity, organised at the Messila Resort and Spa, in Doha, yesterday. PIC: SALIM MATRAMKOT/THE PENINSULA

Qatar condemns

New Orleans shooting

DOHA: The State of Qatar con-

demned the shooting incident in

the US city of New Orleans, which

resulted in the injury of 11 peo-

ple. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs

reiterated Qatar’s firm stance

towards rejecting violence, terror-

ism, and criminal acts, regardless

of the motives and causes. QNA

Amir sends cable of

condolences to

President of Russia

DOHA: Amir H H Sheikh Tamim

bin Hamad Al Thani and Dep-

uty Amir H H Sheikh Abdullah

bin Hamad Al Thani sent cables

of condolences to H E President

Vladimir Putin of the Russian

Federation on the victims of

a passenger bus crash in the

Sretensk region, eastern Russia,

wishing the injured a speedy

recovery. Prime Minister and

Interior Minister H E Sheikh

Abdullah bin Nasser bin Khal-

ifa Al Thani also sent a cable of

condolences to H E Prime Min-

ister of the Russian Federation

Dmitry Medvedev. QNA

03MONDAY 2 DECEMBER 2019 HOME

Minister of Foreign Affairs meets Minister President of German Province of Lower Saxony

Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Foreign Affairs, H E Sheikh Mohamed bin Abdulrahman Al Thani, met yesterday with Minister President of Lower Saxony in Federal Republic of Germany, H E Stephan Weil, who is currently vising the country. Bilateral relations were reviewed, in addition to topics of common interest. The Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Foreign Affairs also met with a delegation of the US Congress, who are currently visiting Doha. The two sides reviewed bilateral cooperation relations as well as topics of mutual interest.

Qatar takes part in TANAP-TAP gas pipeline completion event

The State of Qatar has taken part in the event that marked the completion of the Trans-Anatolian Natural Gas Pipeline (TANAP), which connects to the Trans-Adriatic Pipeline (TAP), in Edirne, Turkey, in the presence of Turkish President H E Recep Tayyip Erdogan and his Azeri counterpart H E Ilham Aliyev. The Minister of Transport and Communications, H E Jassim bin Saif Al Sulaiti, headed the Qatari delegation to the event, which was also attended by Qatari Ambassador to Turkey, H E Salem Mubarak Al Shafi and several ministers and officials from a number of countries.

MME launches new hand push cleaning carts with shadesTHE PENINSULA/ DOHA

The General Cleanliness Department at the Ministry of Municipality and Environment (MME), has launched latest hand push cleaning carts with shades to protect the workers from rain and sun.

The new carts are recently provided with appropriate designs and high technical specifications, within the framework of the devel-opment plans and programs of the Public Services Affairs Sector at the Ministry of Municipality and Envi-ronment in line with the Min-istry’s Sustainable Strategy Plan (2018-22).

Assistant Undersecretary for General Services Affairs at the Ministry of Municipality and Environment, Safar Al Shafi, said that that the pro-vision of new carts is in line with the policy of MME and its plans to ensure the safety of workers and provide the suitable work environment for them during the duty hours.

He stressed that Qatar secured an advanced position among the countries of the region in terms of general cleaning services, and that the provision of such hand carts is a qualitative leap in public services and unique.

He said that the carts are shaded to ensure the safety of workers and protect them

from the sun and weather conditions such as rain and others, and was taken into account to be light in weight to move easily from one place to other, in addition to the yellow color which is the logo of general cleanliness.

Al Shafi pointed out that the ministry’s priorities are to maintain the safety of workers and to provide tools and means of work com-mensurate with the nature of their work and to maintain

their safety, hence the idea of designing and imple-menting lightweight hand carts with sun shade came.

Director of the General Cleaning Department Moqbel Al Shammari said that the Department, as concerned with providing cleaning services to all regions in the country, always strives to develop its services to achieve the highest levels of service in terms of effi-ciency and quality.

He said that a total of 350

sunshade hand trolleys (carts) for cleaning were supplied for the first time made in Qatar. Al Shammari said that this is in itself an achievement for the management and the private sector to provide the requirements and tools of work locally.

He explained that these carts were distributed to all areas as of Sunday and to be used in commercial streets and in residential areas and neighbourhoods.

Assistant Undersecretary for General Services Affairs at the Ministry of Municipality and Environment, Safar Al Shafi (right), with Director of the General Cleaning Department, Moqbel Al Shammari, during the launch of new hand push cleaning carts.

UN top official hails Qatar’s reforms to improve workers’ conditionsQNA/DOHA

The Special Rapporteur on contemporary forms of racism, racial discrimination, xenophobia and related intol-erance, E. Tendayi Achiume, praised the significant reforms that the State of Qatar has implemented to improve the conditions of low-income migrant workers, noting the addi-tional reforms to be under-taken by the State in early 2020.

She was speaking at a press conference at the end of her visit to Qatar from November 23 to December 1, during which she met with government officials, academics, rep-resentatives of ethnic and religious minorities and international organisations working in the country.

Achiume stressed that positive reforms in nature and magnitude were “extremely important” and appreciated the State of Qatar’s pledge to combat racism and appreciated Qatar’s open invitation to the special procedures mechanisms of the United Nations Human Rights Council. She said that she was impressed by the tre-mendous reforms imple-mented by the Qatari gov-ernment in the laws of cit-izenship and xenophobia against foreigners, although it did not address all the problems,

She added that she was pleased with Qatar’s com-mitment to many of these reforms to improve the conditions of low-income earners, which deserves credit. She also expressed her gratitude to the State of Qatar for inviting her to visit the country and to meet low-income repre-sentatives, and the govern-ment’s cooperation with

her to visit all the places she wished to visit freely.

During the press con-ference, the international official noted that Qatar’s invitation to visit the country was a testament to the level of commitment of the State to all issues related to this visit. In that context, she cautioned that other countries were pre-venting her from visiting.

The Rapporteur noted that many United Nations Special Rapporteurs had visited Qatar and some of them would subsequently visit it, confirming the overall commitment of the State of Qatar to human rights issues, adding that there was a balance between the reforms that had been implemented and the challenges and addi-tional reforms expected to be implemented.

She pointed out that Qatar, through hosting the 2022 World Cup, is investing heavily in a national vision with a global ambition, adding that national vision had responsibilities and obli-gations for equality and non-discrimination, and more had been done in that regard.

Dr. Khalid Al-ShafiEditor-in-Chief

OPINION

Bright prospects of Qatar-Georgia ties

FROM PAGE 1It is not known much as an

attractive investment destination for foreign investments, despite the great facilities offered by Georgia to investors such as immediate residency, and fast speed of obtaining and reg-istering licences for companies, in addition to buying and selling real estate.

We arrived in Tbilisi where we were received by members of the Georgian Foreign Ministry in addition to the brothers from the Qatari Embassy, for whom we have all the appreciation and respect for the hos-pitality, and facilities they provided. Our special thanks goes for His Excel-lency Mubarak bin Nasser Al Khalifa, Ambassador of the State of Qatar to Georgia.

During the visit, H E Nikoloz, Ambassador of Georgia to Qatar, was instrumental in facilitating interviews with senior officials. Without his help, It would not have been possible for us to achieve our goal of coming to Georgia.

During the visit, we got opportunity to interview Salome Zourabichvili, President of Georgia, who was elected as the first female President of the country in 2018.

Zourabichvili stressed on the strength of the Qatari-Georgian rela-tions and the efforts exerted by the leadership of the two countries to strengthen these relations, and to expand cooperation in economic and tourism sector and increase the volume of trade between the two countries.

The President pointed out that the bilateral relations between the two countries have witnessed a remarkable development in various aspects of cooperation. She added that Qatar was the first Gulf country to establish dip-lomatic relations with Georgia in 1994, and its embassy was the first Gulf embassy that was opened in Tbilisi- the capital of Georgia.

Qatar and Georgia have signed more than 10 agreements and mem-oranda of understanding covering many fields of trade, economic, tourism, youth, culture, education and other vital fields, she said.

Zourabichvili added that there are many agreements that are being pre-pared for signing, including an agreement for the protection of invest-ments and another on technical and economic cooperation between the two countries.

The signing of the agreements will deepen economic cooperation and trade exchange between the two coun-tries, she said.

She also praised the role played by Qatar Airways, which has facilitated communication between the people of both countries and has encouraged trade and tourism with Georgia.

I conducted another exclusive interview with Georgian Minister of Economy and Sustainable Devel-opment Natela Turnava, who stressed that during the past years, both coun-tries have expanded trade and eco-nomic cooperation taking benefit of the tremendous potential in the bilateral relations between the two countries.

She said that the two countries look forward to further cooperation in the fields of tourism and investment.

She expressed her happiness at the significant increase in the number of visitors (citizens and expatriates) from Qatar to Georgia each year. The number of visitors to Georgia from Qatar has grown 25.6 percent till Sep-tember this year compared to last year.

I availed the opportunity by holding enriching dialogues with the heads of diplomatic missions of both countries, who gave us further expla-nation of the prospects for future coop-eration and the areas in which the two countries are keen to enhance coop-eration in the the coming years.

The visit was successful in various aspects as we explored the frame-works of relations and its promising future which is being assured by the governments of the two countries to serve the people of both countries in various fields.

ISESCO to hold workshop to reinforce green cities in Islamic worldQNA/DOHA

The Islamic Educational, Scien-tific and Cultural Organization (ISESCO) in partnership with the Qatar National Commission for Education, Culture and Science, will hold a workshop to reinforce green cities in the Islamic world,

The Workshop to be held in presence of 40 experts, rep-resentatives from the ministries of reconstruction, environment, planning, higher education, sci-entific research and civil societies from Algeria, Brunei, Iran and Uganda, and it will last for two days. More than 50 percent of the world’s population (over 3.5 billion people) live in cities, and according to the United Nations, this urban population growth is expected to reach 70 per cent by 2050.

The Special Rapporteur on contemporary forms of racism, racial discrimination, xenophobia and related intolerance at the UN, E. Tendayi Achiumes, said she was impressed by the tremendous reforms implemented by the Qatari government in the laws of citizenship and xenophobia against foreigners.

Qatar Airways Cargo in huge South America expansionFROM PAGE 1

They include livestock, val-uables, perishables, oversised cargo and general cargo that require air freight carriage. Its portfolio of distinctive products currently includes QR Pharma for pharmaceuticals, QR Fresh for perishables, QR Live for live animals, QR Express for time-sen-sitive cargo, QR Mail for postal consignments globally and QR Charter offering cost-effective global charter solutions.

“Today, according to the World Bank, we are one of the easiest countries in the world to do business in. We have eradi-cated corruption and you will never be asked to pay a bribe. We are the third low-est tax burden country in the world. We increased demand market through free trade agreements with countries, having more than one-third of the world popu-lation,” Turnava said.

All the aforementioned have trans-formed Georgia into new regional hub for doing business, she added.

Georgia’s business-friendly policies, strong regional and oversea trade rela-tions and geopolitical location have transformed the country into the new regional frontier for investment opportu-nities. Considering that, Georgia can be a unique place as an intermediary link for processing and manufacturing of goods bound to Europe as well as to Asia. As well, Georgia is uniquely positioned to provide Business Processes Outsourcing services to any country from Europe to Central Asia. “We have young, well educated, skilled and competitively priced labor force, thus creates favorable conditions for compa-nies to develop their activities in our country,” she said.

“We are small but very attractive country for international investments with open market, liberal economy and strategic location. Georgia has free trade with EU, EFTA, CIS countries, China and Turkey,” she said.

Macroeconomic stability, together with institutional strength and economic growth oriented reforms, creates the solid background for further improvement of investment environment. Government of Georgia is actively working on crea-tion of fair and transparent business environment, which will ensure equal opportunities for both, foreign and domestic companies and foster competition.

The Minister said that Georgia has successfully implemented tax policy and reforms, reflected in lower tax burden for business and according to “doing busi-ness” we are the third lowest tax burden country in the world - total tax rate ( per-cent of commercial profits) amounts to 9.9% and remains one of the lowest in the world. Only six taxes with stream-lined regulations makes our country investment heaven where is not any restrictions on currency convertibility or repatriation of capital & profit. Herewith, Georgia has double taxation avoidance treaties with 56 countries.

Georgia represents the open econ-omy where free movement of capital, goods and services is fully ensured. According to Heritage Foundation’s “Eco-nomic Freedom Index”, Georgia is on the 16th place in the world and represents the country with the mostly free group status.

“In regard with ease of doing busi-ness, Georgia is one of the leading countries globally. According to Doing Business 2020 Georgia ranks seventh worldwide and takes first position in ECA

region,” she said. “Georgia offers invest-ment opportunities in different attractive sectors, including hospitality and real estate, manufacturing, logistics, energy, IT and business process outsourcing, etc,” she added.

Georgia has variety of business opportunities to offer to those who seek new investment destinations, across a range of the country’s fastest growing sec-tors, including renewable energy, hospitality and real estate, manufactur-ing, business process outsourcing, logistics and more.

“When we speak to investors, we always highlight that Georgia has a very remarkable combination of all major FDI prerequisites. It can offer stability – through predictable political setting, the rule of law and solid financial sector. It can offer flexibility through its simplified procedures for starting a business, buy-ing and handling movable and immovable property and so on,” Turnava said.

Investors can take advantage of Geor-gia’s access to 2.3 billion consumer market through its solid FTA network which, amongst others, includes both EU and China. Georgia can also offer global businesses competitive costs for operat-ing business – as it has the one of the lowest tax rates globally, competitive wage and utility costs in the wider region.

And last but certainly not least, Geor-gia is a country full of young, dynamic and skilled people and generally a very beautiful, exciting and safe country not only for doing business but also to work and live in. That’s why my government’s strategy is to turn Georgia into a center of the region in the fields of business, trade, finance, logistics, tourism and education.

Talking about the most promising sectors in the Georgian economy where Qatari investors can explore opportuni-ties, he said that in 2018 and 2019, positive growth tendencies were observed in almost every sector of the economy. In this period, main growth driver sec-tors economy were: real estate, trade, transport and hotels and restaurants sec-tors. As well, in recent years, tourism has become one of the fastest growing sec-tors of the economy.

“Enhancement of productivity, export diversification and effective utilization of county’s economic advantages repre-

sent the main challenges that we should address in medium term, thus

will enable structural improvement of the econ-omy and boosting economic growth of the country. In this regard, manufacturing, energy and transport sec-tors have significant potential of growth,” Tur-nava said.

Government of Georgia aims to increase productiv-ity in the economy, through attracting foreign direct investments, especially in real sector. Consequently, we see the further potential of the development of Energy and Manufacturing. As well, Georgia’s business-friendly policies, strong regional and oversea trade relations and geopolitical location have transformed the country into the new regional frontier for investment oppor-tunities. Considering that, Georgia can be a unique place as an intermediary link for processing and manufacturing of goods bound to Europe as well as to Asia.

Besides, Government of Georgia also attaches particular importance to the full realization of Georgia’s transit potential. Georgia is actively involved in various international projects that intend to develop new transport corridors/routes and investing in the transport infrastructure.

“Hospitality & real estate, manufac-turing, BPO, energy, and logistics – these are top attractive investment sectors in Georgia right now and we believe for next medium-to-long periods,” she said.

Hospitality is one of the fastest-grow-ing sectors of Georgia’s economy. Just few years ago, in 2010 we were receiving only 2 million international visitors, but in 2018 we reached a record high of 7.9 million visitors. According to the Georgian Tour-ism Development Strategy inflow of visitors will reach 11 million by 2025 and this growing number of visitors generates a steady demand for industry development.

According to the minister, one of the top priority sectors for Georgian Govern-ment is transport and logistics, since it represents lifeblood of any country’s econ-omy. The current situation with the Belt and Road Initiative has once again strengthened Georgia’s strategic location. Alternative route through Georgia takes 10-15 days from China to Europe instead

of 45 days of traditional route.“Energy resources are key driver of eco-

nomic development and regional integration. The Georgian energy sector itself is increas-ingly attractive for foreign investment and is full of opportunities,” Turnava said.

“Specifically, we have a great-untapped potential in renewable energy and a steadily increasing consumption. Georgia is among top countries in terms of water resources per capita, only 20% is utilized, and 78% of the total electricity is generated from HPP’s,” she added.

Manufacturing is also a key sector of Georgian economy, which contributes about 16.4% to national GDP. Georgia offers competitive utility and labor costs, numerous free trade agreements and investment incentives for potential inves-tors in manufacturing sector and therefore is advantageous for FDI.

Georgia is also fast becoming a new lucrative hotspot for sourcing of services in the changing landscape of BPO indus-try. More and more clients prefer to transfer their outsourcing tasks to East-ern Europe because of time proximity, geographical affinity and cultural concur-rence. This is where Georgia rises as a new competitive destination.

He said that Georgia is not only a famous tourist destination but is also an major investment hub.

“Georgia has continuously attracted not only very impactful investments, but has also been continuously dubbed as a regional hub for doing business. Moreo-ver, the reasons why Georgia has gained its reputation of a top performer in the region is simple - The country stands out in terms of political and economic stabil-ity,” Turnava added.

“The general strategy that we follow is simple, we put easiness of doing busi-ness and export market diversification into focus and into the forefront of the domes-tic and foreign policy,” she said.

Georgia has consistently conducted a number of reforms and introduced incen-tives, which enlivened economic life.

“Nowadays, we try to make very

creative reforms in order to attract even more investments in Georgia. For this rea-son, we are making huge amounts of investments in our infrastructure and edu-cation to support tomorrow’s demands of large-scale impact investments,” she said.

“Our economic vision and business cli-mate model is wholly based on being open and advantageous for FDI, maintaining security and predictability of political envi-ronment and moving towards technology-and knowledge-driven econ-omy,” she said.

Economic policy of the Government of Georgia is based on free market prin-ciple, with a special emphasis on private sector development and macroeconomic stability.

Maintaining stable macroeconomic environment and continuous implemen-tation of economic reforms was reflected in international credit ratings. Moody’s Investors Service has upgraded Georgia’s sovereign credit rating from Ba3 to Ba2. Just as importantly, in February 2019, credit rating agency Fitch has upgraded Georgia’s rating to ‘BB’ from ‘BB-’ with a stable outlook.

“The Message to investors is quite simple and straightforward – Georgia is a great destination for companies from all around the world, whether it’s to enter the Regional market itself, the European market, or the broader Asian markets. It has an Open Door Policy to help foreign and local companies grow in and via Georgia,” she said.

One of Georgia’s main priorities is to play a more active role in the global economy and attention has firmly turned to creating an attractive busi-ness environment for international companies to succeed in the region. “For fulfilling this aim, we plan to constantly exchange the information about planned activities (forums, fairs etc) with foreign business circles and organ-ize industry conferences, which would significantly encourage the collabora-tion between both sides,” Turnava added.

04 MONDAY 2 DECEMBER 2019HOME 05MONDAY 2 DECEMBER 2019 HOME

The fraternal relations between Qatar and Georgia have grown exponentially in the past and there is huge potential for growth in bilateral relations

between the two countries, said Natela Turnava, Minister of Economy and Sus-tainable Development of Georgia. In an exclusive interview with The Peninsula, the Minister shared her thoughts on boost-ing bilateral investment and trade, increasing tourism and bringing the coun-tries further close.

Rising trade and investment volume and sharp rise in tourist inflows endorse the strength of ties between the two countries.

“In recent years we have further expanded bilateral trade and economic cooperation and the process is still in progress. First investments from Qatar to Georgia were carried out in 2013. In 2013-2018, investments from Qatar amounted to $27.2m and in the two quarters of 2019, investments amounted to $3.81m,” she said.

Transport and real estate are the sec-tors where major investment has been done.

According to the minister, great exam-ples of fruitful cooperation between two countries include successful conclusion of negotiations on the agreement and Pro-motion and Reciprocal Protection of Investments between Georgia and Qatar as well as on the agreement on Economic, Trade and Technical Cooperation between Georgia and Qatar.

“Desiring to enhance our bilateral trade and economic ties, I have invited the Minister of Commerce and Industry of Qatar H E Ali bin Ahmed Al Kuwari to visit Georgia at the time of his convenience, in the second half of the year,” Turnava said.

This visit will be an excellent oppor-tunity to discuss range of issues of bilateral cooperation and most importantly, to sign the above mentioned agreements, which will enhance existing international legal framework and create legal base for inten-sifying investment and trade flows between our countries.

“In recent years, we have observed positive shifts in trade dynamics, never-theless, our bilateral trade relations are further below our countries` potential,” she said.

In 2018, trade turnover amounted to $3.65m, which represents 84% growth

compared to the previous year. Accord-ing to the recent indicators of 2019 (in eight months), the trade turnover has also increased by 27% and amounted to $2.65m, out of which, Georgia’s export to Qatar amounted to $0.87m showing growth of 1% compared to the same period of previous year. Georgia’s major export product to Qatar is live sheep.

Some of the Georgian agricultural products, as well as medicaments, have already been exported to Qatar but the volume is quite low.

“We have a potential to further increase the export on those products, which include: medicaments, live sheep and sheep meat, mineral waters, non-alco-holic beverages, fruit and vegetable juices, honey, spices, preserved, as well as fresh fruits and vegetables,” Turnava said.

Government of Georgia has created various mechanisms for trade support and promotion, he said. LEPL Enterprise Geor-gia under the Ministry of Economy and Sustainable Development of Georgia is working towards organizing trade mis-sions, business forums, fairs for the purpose of supporting bilateral coopera-tion between entrepreneurs, as well as information provision on export possibil-ities of Georgian manufacturers to the proper side.

“With those and other supporting mechanisms we are constantly trying to deepen cooperation in the field of trade and Qatar is one of our priority destina-tions,” she said.

In 2018, six Georgian companies with the support and co-financing of Enterprise Georgia, participated in international food and beverages exhibition AGRITEQ QATAR 2018.

“We are always welcome to receive information regarding such exhibitions as it is one of the major possibilities to con-nect entrepreneurs of two countries with each other,” he said.

Qatar’s investment in Georgia has increased significantly in the recent past.

“We are very pleased that Qatar investments in Georgia are gradually increasing. In recent periods, Georgia has received about $31m Qatari investments in various sectors of economy (2013-2019). I would like to emphasize the implemen-tation of the joint venture real estate project ‘Landmark Tbilisi’, which entails investment of more than $55m and is the largest single investment from Qatar to Georgia to date. Certainly, there is room for much more investments from Qatar,” Turnava said.

Apart from trade and investment, tour-ism between the two countries has got a big boost, helped by visa on arrival facil-ity offered by Georgia for residents of Qatar.

“We are pleased to observe an increas-ing number of arrivals from Qatar over the past years. Namely, in the period of January-September 2019, visitors from

Qatar exceed 2,900, showing a 25.6% growth compared to the same period of the previous year,” she said.

It is worth highlighting that during 2018, Georgia received 8.7 million inter-national travelers’ trips with international receipts from tourism exceeding $3.2bn (up 7.6 % of the national GDP).

“Qatar represents one of the strategic and growing tourist markets for Georgia and we aim to further raise awareness on tourist products and offerings of our coun-try in Qatar. To this point, during August-December 2019, we conduct online marketing campaigns on such famous platforms as CNN and Bloomberg in Qatar and organises press-tours for the repre-sentatives of the leading media from Qatar on a regular basis,” she said. During the current year, an article about Georgia’s tourism offerings and a promotional page is provided in the in-flight magazine of Qatar Airways.

“We plan to continue the conduction of promotional activities in Qatar in the future as well. Moreover, we aim

to further diversify tourism markets and increase the share of travelers from Europe, Asia, and Middle East regions,” Turnava added.

In the recent years Georgia has under-gone significant transformation in terms of establishment of a country based on the European principles of democracy, rule of law, and free market economy. Today Georgia is a one of the leading country in terms of attractive investment environ-ment that is mainly caused by implemented reforms and significantly improved business environment in the recent years.

“Georgia is considered as politically stable, transparent and an essentially cor-ruption-free investment destination. Minimum bureaucracy, communication efficiency and low tax burden are among factors that create our favorable invest-ment environment. Our rule of law is strong and constantly improving: any busi-ness disputes are settled fairly without government interference,” she added.

Huge potential for growth in Qatar-Georgia relations

DR. KHALID AL-SHAFI EDITOR-IN-CHIEF & MOHAMMED OSMAN THE PENINSULA FROM TBILISI

EXCLUSIVEThe fraternal relations between Qatar and Georgia have grown exponentially in the past and there is huge potential for growth in bilateral relations between the two countries, said Natela Turnava, Minister of Economy and Sustainable Development of Georgia. In an EXCLUSIVE INTERVIEW with The Peninsula, the Minister shared her thoughts on boosting bilateral investment and trade, increasing tourism and bringing the countries further close.

“In recent years we have further expanded bilateral trade and economic cooperation and the process is still in progress. First investments from Qatar to Georgia were carried out in 2013. In 2013-2018, investments from Qatar amounted to $27.2m and in the two quarters of 2019, investments amounted to $3.81m,” she said.

We are pleased to observe an increasing number of arrivals from Qatar over the past years. Namely, in the period of January-September 2019, visitors from Qatar exceed 2,900, showing a 25.6% growth compared to the same period of the previous year

Qatar’s Ambassador to Georgia, H E Mubarak bin Nasser Al Khalifa, has said that Qatari-Georgian

relations have improved significantly in all areas in recent years.

“This can be seen in the number of high-level visits exchanged between offi-cials of both countries, as well as agreements and memorandums of understanding that have been signed or are under consideration,” the Ambassa-dor said in an exclusive interview with The Peninsula.

On the prospects of bilateral in other fields, the Ambassador said that there is nothing to prevent the strengthening of relations between Qatar and Georgia in all fields, given the desire of Georgia to expand relations with the largest number of Arab countries, especially the Gulf Cooperation Council states.

Therefore, Al Khlaifa noted, there is a possibility to strengthen relations in the field: economic, investment, commercial, tourism, marine transport, environmen-tal, educational and cultural, because this will contribute to the consolidation of relations between the two countries to serve the interests of the two peoples.

Talking on the nature of Qatari investments in Georgia, the Ambassa-dor said Qatari investments (in Georgia)

are mostly private and limited invest-ments, concentrated in the real estate sector as it is considered one of the most popular investment sectors in Georgia.

He added that the Qatari investments have witnessed a remarkable increase during the last two years, amounting to about $8m annually, while it was esti-mated at $2m for the previous years.

About incentives for Qatari invest-ment in Georgia, the Ambassador said that there are facilities provided by the Georgian government to investors in general to encourage them to invest in Georgia.

“These include ease procedures and low costs of starting a business, which is accomplished within a few hours at very low costs compared to other coun-tries, and the low level of tax and lower Georgian labor prices play a role in attracting investments to Georgia.”

He said that a delegation from the Qatar Chamber visited Georgia during the period from April 1 to 4, 2014 to par-ticipate in the Qatari-Georgian Business Forum.

The forum, the Ambassador said, was attended by senior Georgian officials, including the then Prime Minister Irakli Garibashvili and the Qatari delegation met with the Deputy CEO of

the Georgian Chamber, Director of the Georgian National Investment Author-ity, CEO of the Georgian Investment Fund and Head of Marketing Department of the Georgian National Tourism Admin-istration. “The two sides discussed the investment environment and investment opportunities in Georgia.”

He said that the delegation also held meetings with Georgian companies. “A delegation of Georgian businessmen headed by the President of the Georgian Chamber of Commerce and Industry,

Nino Shikovani, visited Doha on Octo-ber 5, 2016 and held a meeting with the Vice-President of the Qatar Chamber, Mohammed bin Ahmed bin Tawar Al Kuwari???.”

Al Khalifa further said that the two sides discussed ways of enhancing eco-nomic relations between the two sides, and reviewed the investment opportu-nities available in the sectors characterized by Georgia, especially in the sectors of tourism, real estate, energy, construction and agriculture.

To a question about most important areas of mutual cooperation and coor-dination, Al Khalifa said that areas of coordination between Qatar and Geor-gia at the regional and international levels are cooperation in the fields of international security and peace, as well as joint action on issues of combating terrorism in all its forms. “There is also coordination in the field of supporting the candidates of both countries in inter-nat ional organizat ions and committees.”

Regarding cultural relations between the two countries, the Ambassador said that every year, Qatar University wel-comes Georgian students to the Arabic program for non-native speakers as well other Georgian students also study at various universities in Education City.

He said that the cooperation in the cultural field between the two countries continued as the Georgian Ballet and Folklore band participated in the Cul-tural Diversity Festival held in Katara in 2016 in coordination with the Qatar National Committee for Education, UNESCO Office in Doha and the Qatar National Committee for Education, Cul-ture and Science.

“The Cultural Village of Katara also organized art exhibition for the Qatari artist Ali Dasmal Al-Kuwari in the Geor-gian capital, Tbilisi, to revive the Gulf’s artistic heritage. The cultural coopera-tion between the two countries continuing as this cooperation contrib-utes to bringing the cultures of the two peoples closer.”

Qatari investment rise significantly in Georgia

Qatar’s Ambassador to Georgia, H E Mubarak bin Nasser Al Khalifa

The bilateral relations between Qatar and Georgia have grown stronger over the past few years. Talking to The Peninsula in an exclusive

interview, Ambassador of Georgia to Qatar, H E Nikoloz Revazishvili, said that Georgia has become one of the favorite tourist des-tinations for residents in Qatar.

Qatar and Georgia established diplo-matic relations in March 1993. Embassy of Georgia was opened in the State of Qatar in 2012, while Qatar was first country from Gulf region to open its diplomatic mission in Tbilisi in 2013.

The ambassador said that since the establishment of diplomatic relations Geor-gia and Qatar maintain very positive dynamics of bilateral ties. Bilateral rela-tions and cooperation has been steadily developed in the fields of economy, cul-ture, trade, security cooperation, education, tourism and etc. Qatar has always been a staunch supporter of Georgia’s sovereignty and territorial integrity. The geographical proximity of our regions naturally contrib-utes to the development and deepening of many aspects of our relationship. Histori-cally close relations between Georgia and the Arab world, cultural ties and friendship between people are favorable precondi-tions for further deepening of mutually beneficial relations.

According to the ambassador Georgian community in the State of Qatar is relatively small and comprises 230 Georgian citizens, who are employed in different areas such

as medical services, teaching, hospitality sector, sports and etc.

Talking about the major areas of coop-eration between the two countries he said that over the years cooperation between Georgia and Qatar has grown stronger in various areas, such as economy, culture, education, trade, tourism and people to people contacts. Qatari-Georgian relations have developed rapidly. Several high level visits took place from both sides. More than 10 agreements and MoUs have already been signed in different areas and more are under consideration or ready to be signed in the nearest future. Georgia has become one of the favourite tourist destinations in Qatar. Three daily flights bring hundreds of visitors from Qatar to Georgia every day.

He said that Qatar and Georgia are dis-covering each other more and more as economic partners. Over the last couple of years bilateral trade volume increased. Georgia is exporting agricultural products to Qatar, while imports various products of petro-chemical industry from your coun-try. To sum up, the relations are very positive, very dynamic and very friendly.

About the presence of Georgian com-panies in Qatar, he said that there are some companies who are involved mainly in con-sultancy and trade, also couple of Georgian companies are planning to enter the Qatari market in the field of postal services and finances. We cannot say that there is sig-nificant presence of Georgian companies or investors in Qatar, but hopefully soon

we will see the significant grow. He said that robust changes and reforms

implemented during the recent years posi-tions Georgia among one of the world’s top destinations for investing and easy of doing business. Those changes relate to reforms in taxation and customs by putting in place liberal regulatory fiscal and trade regimes, substantially downsizing red tape, strength-ening independence and impartiality of judiciary and eliminating corruption.

A number of Qatari investment projects is already underway in Georgia. Despite that, I believe there are plenty of untapped opportunities.

Describing the investment climate in Georgia for foreign investment, the ambas-sador said that Georgia is a leader in the region in terms of stability and investment attractiveness. Georgia has created one of the most advanced investment friendly environment: efficient public services, cor-ruption-free government and free, fair and transparent business climate, which has been reflected in international institutions ratings. For example, World Bank’s “Doing Business 2020” placed Georgia at 7th posi-tion in “Ease of doing business” out of 190 countries. Further, according to World Eco-nomic Forum’s “lowest tax rates 2018”, Georgia occupies the 8th position. Herit-age Foundation placed Georgia at 16th place in “Index of Economic Freedom” out of 180 countries. Georgia has established itself as reliable partner worldwide and I am sure this will be translated into growth of joint

successful investment projects. He said that in addition, Georgia’s liberal trade regimes provide investors with a favoura-ble opportunity to not only access the country’s 3.7 million residents, but the wider region’s markets, as a direct result of the absence of customs and import tariffs. To date, Georgia has signed FTAs with EU, EFTA and CIS countries, Ukraine, Turkey and China (including Hong Kong), giving Georgian products access to $2.3bn mar-ket. In Georgia investors can enjoy low tax rates and a transparent taxation system.

Also find young, skilled and competitively priced labour force.

About the upcoming FIFA World Cup 2022 in Qatar, he said FIFA World Cup 2022 gives Georgia additional incentives and opportunities to step up tourism coopera-tion to qualitatively new level. Holding FIFA World Cup 2022 in Qatar will put the wider region in the spotlight internationally. He said that the Supreme Committee is doing great job in preparing the country for such important sport event and I wish them big success in this regard.

Remarkable progress in Qatar-Georgia relations

Natela Turnava, Minister of Economy and Sustainable Development of Georgia.

Natela Turnava, Minister of Economy and Sustainable Development of Georgia, with Dr. Khalid Al-Shafi, Editor-in-Chief of The Peninsula during the interview.

Dr. Khalid Al-Shafi, Editor-in-Chief of The Peninsula, presenting a memento of World Cup 2022 to Natela Turnava, Minister of Economy and Sustainable Development of Georgia.

Ambassador of Georgia to Qatar, H E Nikoloz Revazishvili


Barzan Holdings a Strategic Partner of DIMDEX 2020THE PENINSULA DOHA

Opening new avenues to mutual support and collaborative achievement in the global defence and security industry, the organising committee of the Doha International Maritime Defence Exhi-bition and Conference (DIMDEX) has announced Barzan Holdings as a Stra-tegic Partner and Gold Sponsor for its seventh edition (DIMDEX 2020), which will be held between March 16 and 18, 2020.

The event will be held under the patronage of Amir H H Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani, and will be hosted and organised by Qatar Armed Forces under the theme ‘Connecting the World’s Maritime Defence and Security Community’.

In the presence of Lieutenant General (Pilot) Ghanem bin Shaheen Al Ghanim, Chief of Staff of Qatar Armed Forces, and Mr. Nasser Hassan Al Naimi, President & Executive Board Member of Barzan Holdings, the agreement was signed by the latter and DIMDEX Chairman, Staff Brigadier (Sea) Abdulbaqi Saleh Al Ansari, at an official

signing ceremony that took place at the Ministry of Defence.

Lieutenant General (Pilot) Al Ghanim said: “A nation’s defensive strength rests on strong collaborative ties and support from both government and industry. Harnessing key sponsorship agreements

allows for a symbiotic association between leading Qatari institutions whose respective expertise and skillsets complement joint aspirations for the national development framework.”

Commenting on the sponsorship, DIMDEX Chairman said: “Forging

partnerships with key players from the national defence and security sector are central to the continuous success of DIMDEX. We are proud that our Stra-tegic Partner Barzan Holdings will also join the ranks of our sponsors as a dis-tinguished Gold Sponsor and now holds two important capacities that support our joint mission in strengthening Qatar’s defence industry and reinforcing our position as a global leader in the field.”

For his part, Al Naimi said: “We are delighted to be partnering for the second consecutive edition with DIMDEX, one of the largest and most high-profile defence shows in the world. We launched Barzan Holdings during DIMDEX 2018, and we are proud to be partnering for the upcoming edition with a stronger and more incisive presence, demonstrating our confidence and full commitment to empowering stability.”

A commercial gateway for the defence industry in Qatar, Barzan Holdings was publicly launched at DIMDEX 2018 as the first dedicated company responsible for empowering the military capabilities of the Qatar

Armed Forces. Since then, Barzan Holdings has forged successful partner-ships with leading international com-panies and organisations in the industry to strengthen the national defence system in line with Qatar’s overarching development objectives.

Similarly, DIMDEX serves as an international platform for knowledge-exchange among the highest level of industry leaders, government officials, chief executives and other key decision makers. Each edition brings about an unprecedented volume of strategic and commercial agreements between inter-national industry partners, thereby establishing DIMDEX as a key highlight in the global defence and security calendar.

Offering government-to-gov-ernment, business-to-government and business-to-business commercial opportunities, DIMDEX 2020 will broaden in both exhibitor profile and visitor numbers to highlight the latest regional and international trends in maritime defence including innovative anti-piracy systems, C5iSR systems, cybersecurity software and other emerging technologies.

The officials during the agreement signing ceremony.

Conference discusses Arab region’s documentary heritage preservationSIDI MOHAMED THE PENINSULA

Qatar National Library and the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) yesterday hosted a regional conference “Supporting Documentary Heritage Preservation in the Arab Region”.

The two-day event is being held at Qatar National Library, and participants representing more than 25 countries are attending the event.

The conference brings together inter-national and regional experts and prac-titioners to share experiences in regard to the status, issues and challenges currently being faced in the field of documentary heritage preservation in the Arab region.

The conference, a continuation of the partnership between the Library and Unesco, presents the main findings of their joint project launched in September 2018. It will be an opportunity to shed light on

different awareness and capacity-building activities that are taking place within the framework of this agreement.

“Today, we have quite an

international audience and an excellent roster of speakers from more than 25 countries and officials from professionals and international organisations,” said Dr.

Sohair Wastawy, Executive Director of the Library.

She also said at the outset of the con-ference that this conference is considered the closing of the first phase of the QNL-Unesco project which aims at preserving documentary heritage in the Arab region.

“Both the Unesco project and this con-ference are part of the IFLA Preservation and Conservation center for Arab and Middle Eastern countries, a role QNL has been selected for since 2015. Thanks to IFLA for the trust placed on our expertise and their support of the activities we are developing,” Dr. Wastawy said.

For her part, Dr. Anna Paolini, Unesco representative to the Gulf States and Yemen, pointed out: “We should redouble our efforts to protect documentary her-itage (human treasures) from different risks whether related to terrorist attacks, natural disasters or smuggling.”

She also appreciated the organisation of this regional conference in partnership

with Qatar National Library, expressing her delight that this conference provides a much-needed forum for specialists to exchange experiences and benefit from each other in this area. Experts discussed the status of documentary heritage pres-ervation in the Arab region, and focused on disaster risk preparedness and com-bating illicit trafficking.

Five sessions discussed a number of topics, among them “Disaster Risk Pre-vention and Response: Focus on Coun-tries in Conflict”; “Combating Illicit Traf-ficking of Documentary Heritage”; and “Documentary Heritage Fostering the SDGs: advocating for access to information”.

The conference today will concen-trate on the initiatives around the region, best practices in the area of conservation and preservation, awareness-raising and advocacy, and synergies between regional and international initiatives and national counterparts.

An expert speaking at the conference at Qatar National Library.

Second Flowers Festival opens at Souq WaqifTHE PENINSULA DOHA

The second Flowers Festival, organized by Souq Waqif in collaboration with the Ministry of Municipality and Environment (MME), kicked off yesterday and will continue for ten days in the West Square of Souq Waqif.

Director of Souq Waqif, Mohammed Al Salem said 21 farms and nurseries are partici-pating in this year’s edition of the festival, which saw a high turnout by the public last year.

He noted that the Festival is being organized for the second consecutive year as one of the important activities that support tourism in the country and encourage those interested in planting flowers to buy and plant them in their homes and gardens, as well as encouraging producers to market their pro-duction, adding that the Festival provides various types of flowers, seedlings, trees, and other related supplies.

He noted that the event aims to introduce the public to local companies engaged in this

field and to give them the opportunity to pur-chase flowers of all kinds and enjoy the exhibits at the festival. He invited the public to visit the Festival and enjoy the different types of flowers

displayed in one place under one roof.The 10-day festival is opens to public from

9am to 9pm. On Thursday and Friday, the Fes-tival will be open until 10pm.

The Flowers Exhibition at Souq Waqif. PIC: QASSIM RAHMATULLAH/THE PENINSULA

Qatar, Germany launch UNDP Accelerator Lab in AzerbaijanQNA BAKU

The State of Qatar, in part-nership with the Federal Republic of Germany and the United Nations Development Program (UNDP), has launched one of the 60 Accelerator Labs to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) in Baku, Azerbaijan.

This Accelerator Lab will be joining the 60 labs set up in many countries around the world.

Speaking at the inaugu-ration ceremony in Baku, H E Ambassador of the State of Qatar to Azerbaijan Faisal bin Abdullah Al Henzab said that the SDGs are human rights and

requirements for achieving sus-tainable human development, and that reaching this vision is of great importance in the presence of responsible lead-ership, good governance and strategic decision to participate in global efforts to achieve prosperity for the peoples.

HE the Ambassador added that according to Qatar Vision 2030 and its driving force for its foreign policy of interna-tional cooperation, “we are delighted to offer innovative ways to accelerate our pace and achieve relevant results to reach the Sustainable Devel-opment Goals, mitigate dispar-ities and provide a faster solution to the challenges of implementation.”

70 nations to participate in International Junior Science Olympiad in DohaSANAULLAH ATAULLAH THE PENINSULA

The Ministry of Education and Higher Education has announced its readiness to host the 16th Inter-national Junior Science Olympiad 2019 which will begin tomorrow at Qatar National Convention Center (QNCC) with the partici-pation of 70 countries.

“Qatar represented by the Ministry of Education and Higher Education will host this giant inter-national event, as first Arab country in which contestants from 70 countries will participate,” said Undersecretary of the Ministry of Education and Higher Education, Dr Ibrahim bin Saleh Al Nuaimi.

Al Nuaimi was speaking at a press conference held yesterday on the preparation of the 16th

International Junior Science Olympiad 2019 scheduled to be held in Doha from December 3 to 11.

He stressed that the success of the Olympiad will be the fruit of joining forces and concerted efforts of all participants, not spe-cific to the Ministry of Education and Higher Education, Qatar Uni-versity and Qatar Foundation, because it concerns the entire Qatari society, calling on everyone to embrace the Olympiad and work to make it a success.

Al Nuaimi said that the Olympiad is an opportunity for the guests of Qatar to see its renais-sance at all levels and its readiness for the 2022 World Cup, which is a testament to the quality and strength of our education system because our children will compete

with students from 70 countries from around the world, which opens new horizons for them and enhances their friendships and relations with their peers internationally.

He added that the Olympiad is an opportunity to compare the scientific performance of our stu-dents in the field of science with their international peers, and this will enable us to know more about our strengths and weaknesses and how to advance our methods and methodologies in teaching science.

For her part, Assistant Under-secretary for Educational Affairs and Deputy Chairman of the Supreme Committee for the Olympiad Fawzia Abdul Aziz Al Khater, confirmed that Qatar’s hosting of the International Junior Science Olympiad will benefit our

children and boost their skills and experience and benefit educa-tional leaders and teachers in the educational community, which contributes to the achievement of Qatar National Vision 2030.

She said that 200 students were selected from Qatar after training and tests, 24 students

representing 4 teams will be selected to participate in the Inter-national Olympiad.

The Acting Assistant Under-secretary for Higher Education Affairs and Chairman of the Sci-entific Committee for the Interna-tional Junior Science Olympiad 2019 Dr. Khaled Al Ali, explained

that the process of developing the exam questions went through several stages, including a team of members of the Scientific Com-mittee with the Organizing Com-mittee for the Science Olympiad 2019 to visit the State of Botswana to learn about the conditions and details of the competition.

The Undersecretary of the Ministry of Education and Higher Education, Dr Ibrahim bin Saleh Al Nuaimi (centre), addressing a press conference about the upcoming 16th International Junior Science Olympiad (IJSO 2019), in Doha, yesterday. PIC: SALIM MATRAMKOT/THE PENINSULA


Embassy marks 30th anniversary of Qatar-Peru diplomatic tiesTHE PENINSULA DOHA

Ambassador of Peru to Qatar, Jose Benzaquen, has said that the State of Qatar and the Republic of Peru fully agree on common goals, such as the prosperity and happiness of their people, promoting a close link between external action and development priorities.

In his speech at a reception to celebrate the 30th anniversary of the establishment of diplomatic relations between Qatar and Peru held on November 28 at his residence, the Ambassador said that since the estab-lishment of diplomatic ties on November 7, 1989, the bilateral and multilateral rela-tions have been developing positively.

The reception was attended by Director of Protocol at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, H E Ambassador Ibrahim Yousef Fakhroo; Director of American Affairs Department at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, H E Ambassador Essa Mohamed Al Mannai, and a large number of guests.

“In October last year, we had the priv-ilege to receive in my country Amir H H Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani. Pres-ident Martin Vizcarra discussed with H H the Amir the main regional and interna-tional issues of common interest and a number of mutual agreements were signed,” the Ambassador said.

He added: “We, both the countries, are based on the rule of law, with diplomatic policies for renewed cooperation, political dialogue, and promotion of trade and investments, as well as the defense of human rights, the fight against poverty,

terrorism, environmental conservation, and education and health for all.”

He said that Peru is considered one of the world’s leading emerging markets, with a solid recent history of economic stability based on a continuous average annual growth over the past 20 years of 4.6% of its GDP.

“In addition, I have to mention our bilateral trade. We coordinated a work of a commercial delegation who came to Doha last July. For this year, we hope to export goods to Qatar worth around QR17m, mostly in agricultural and phar-maceuticals products, and to import around QR15m from Qatar, including pet-rochemicals and construction material, among others.”

He said that both the countries are working on an inclusive investment pact that would be likely signed within next year and it would encourage investments between both the countries. “From another side, we expect that Peru and Qatar will sign the ‘air services agreement’ in the first quarter of the next year,” he added.

He said that Peru was promoting its relation with Qatar in education, culture and sports fields. “Peru was a part of the most important education summit “WISE” by the participation of the Former Edu-cation Minister, Dr. Jaime Saavedra Chanduvi.”

He said that Qatar would host an unfor-gettable edition of the 2022 FIFA World Cup. “It will be a friendly meeting between all the peoples of the whole world and Peru team will be here in Doha.”

FROM LEFT: Director of Protocol at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, H E Ambassador Ibrahim Yousef Fakhroo; Jose Benzaquen, Ambassador of Peru to Qatar; and H E Ambassador Essa Mohamed Al Mannai, Director of American Affairs Department at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, during the cake cutting ceremony.

QM opens Year of Culture photo exhibitionTHE PENINSULA DOHA

Qatar Museums (QM) inaugurated yesterday a photography exhibition titled “Where Cultures Meet: A Photo-graphic Encounter Between Qatar and India” as part of its annual Year of Culture programme.

The exhibition opened at Katara Cultural Village and will be on show until December 31 in Building 18.

As part of Qatar-India Year of Culture 2019, two Qatari photogra-phers — Hamad Al Shamari and Aisha Al Sadah — travelled to the Himalayan Region of Ladakh in India for two weeks. The aim was to create an inspiring portfolio that will help foster mutual understanding and cultural relations between the two countries. Alongside it, two Qatar-based Indian

photographers — Ajeesh Puthiyadath and Salim Abdulla — were selected as part of an open call to participate in the exhibition.

The exhibition presents common themes like architecture, landscape, portraits and street life both in Ladakh — a remote land tucked in the valleys among barren mountains and where communities known for their tolerant and generous manner live in peace — and in Doha, a bustling metropolis made up of century-old markets and futuristic buildings that line its waterfront.

Commenting on the exhibition, Aisha Al Attiya, Head of Years of Culture at QM, said: “The annual pho-tography exhibition is an important milestone in the Years of Culture pro-gramme. It promotes an appreciation for our similarities with

partner countries and celebrates the differences between our two cultures and perspectives. We hope that the trip to Ladakh will continue to inspire Hamad Al Shamari and Aisha Al Sadah for many years to come.”

Under the leadership of its Chair-person, H E Sheikha Al Mayassa bint Hamad bin Khalifa Al Thani, QM developed the “Year of Culture” ini-tiative — an annual international cul-tural exchange programme designed to deepen understanding between nations and their people. Though the formal programming lasts only one year, the initiative often sparks long-lasting collaboration.

Previous years of culture include: Qatar-Japan 2012, Qatar-UK 2013, Qatar-Brazil 2014, Qatar-Turkey 2015, Qatar-China 2016, Qatar-Germany 2017 and Qatar-Russia 2018.

Indian Ambassador P. Kumaran (centre) with participating Qatari and Indian photographers at the launch of the exhibition “Where Cultures Meet: A Photographic Encounter Between Qatar and India” yesterday at Katara Building 18.

Over 1,700 women cared for by Postnatal Community Midwifery Home Care ServiceTHE PENINSULA DOHA

The Postnatal Community Midwifery Home Care Service, an initiative of Hamad Medical Corporation (HMC) piloted last year at the Women’s Wellness and Research Center (WWRC), has cared for more than 1,700 women and their newborns since its launch sixteen months ago.

The service, which provides postpartum specialised care to women who have experienced a high-risk pregnancy or given birth by Caesarean section, is the first of its kind in Qatar.

“We are delighted by the success of this program and we are eager to make it available to other women who have had a C-section at WWRC. We are also happy to report that we are sup-porting other HMC maternity facilities as they prepare to launch this service at their facil-ities,” said Dr. Hilal Al Rifai, WWRC’s Medical Director.

Since June 2018, the Post-natal Community Midwifery Home Care Service, which is operated by a team of seven midwives and seven patient care assistants from the WWRC, has provided care to over 1,700 women and made more than 3,200 home visits.

The team works in close co-operation with the Mobile Doctors, HMC physicians, and

the Pediatric Emergency Centers as part of ongoing efforts to provide specialized postnatal care to mothers and their babies within the comfort of their homes. Women registered for the service receive up to two visits from the midwifery homecare team, with the first visit happening within 72 hours of giving birth and the follow-up visit occurring within 7 to 14 days after birth.

“During the visit, the team will assess the physical and emo-tional well-being of both the mother and her baby, provide education on normal changes women can expect after delivery, and provide support for both the

new mother and her family around managing the care of a newborn,” said Fatima Yusuf, Director of Nursing at WWRC.

Haila Johar Salim, Executive Director of Nursing at WWRC, expressed her delight at the success of the program, noting it has helped reduce the number of women presenting at Emer-gency Departments with post-partum complications.

Last month Al Khor Hospital launched its own Community Postnatal Midwifery Home Service. The service is an extension of the Maternity Homecare Service initially piloted and implemented at WWRC.

Dr. Hilal Al Rifai (left) and Haila Johar Salim

Ooredoo’s promotion for mobile broadband customersTHE PENINSULA/DOHA

Ooredoo announced yesterday an exciting new offer for mobile broadband customers just in time for camping season.

The new promotion will see cus-tomers who enjoy camping being able to stay connected, via the leading telecom operator’s popular Mobile Broadband services.

Customers buying an M1 or M2 router and signing up or upgrading to Ooredoo’s Mobile Broadband Unlimited Max package will get 10 percent off the monthly subscription for six months, meaning they will get a generous QR50 discount off the regular price of QR500

per month. They will also get a free one-year beIN Connect subscription and a free subscription to Starz Play and, if they are an Ooredoo One customer, a free subscription to the Ooredoo TV app. To ensure all new Mobile Broadband customers are getting a great deal, Ooredoo is also offering a 10 percent discount on monthly sub-scription costs for all Unlimited Mobile Broadband packages for six months, even without purchase of the router; MBB Unlimited Lite customers will get QR25 off the regular price of QR250, MBB Unlimited Standard customers will get QR35 off the regular price of QR350, and MBB Unlimited MAX customers will get QR50 off the regular price of QR500.

Speaking of the offers, Manar Khalifa Al Muraikhi, Director PR and Corporate Communications at Ooredoo, said: “We’re coming into a lovely time of year, and we know many of our customers like to spend time camping at our beautiful sites around the country. We also know staying con-nected even when camping is a huge priority, as is great value for money, so we’re excited to offer this new pro-motion allowing our customers to ensure they can still surf the Supernet and stay in touch with friends and family for less.”

The camping season promotion is available through Ooredoo shops. Offers are valid until January 30, 2020.

CRA participates in WRC-19THE PENINSULA DOHA

The Communications Regulatory Authority (CRA) participated as part of a Qatari delegation, in the World Radiocommunication Conference 2019 (WRC-19), which was held in Sharm El Sheikh, Egypt, from October 28 to November 22. This conference is one of the most important confer-ences on the International Tele-communication Union (ITU) calendar.

The agenda of the conference considered several important items, which have been included based on the proposals that were submitted by the administrations, the results of WRC-15, the report of the Conference Preparatory Meeting (CPM) and what needs to be taken into consideration for the existing and future services.

The CRA has submitted a number of contributions to the conference that are related to several topics of interest to Qatar, where the CRA contributed with 29 documents as part of the Arab Regional Group, in addition to 8 separate documents submitted on behalf of Qatar related to some vital services of interest to Qatar.

The CRA’s contributions were welcomed by a large number of European and American admin-istrations, especially that the con-tributions were in line with the global trends of frequency allo-cation that support number of modern technologies and appli-cations and contribute to the

digital transformation and achieving one of the Sustainable Development goals; industry, innovation and infrastructure.

The topics that were sup-ported by the CRA during the con-ference included, identification of frequency bands for the future development of international mobile telecommunications (5G technology), including the possi-bility of allocating additional fre-quencies to the mobile service on a primary basis, High-altitude platform stations (HAPS), and issues related to Wireless Access Systems (WAS) including Radio Local Area Networks (RLANs).

The CRA also supported the use of certain frequency bands of earth stations on mobile platforms communicating with geosta-tionary space stations in the fixed-satellite service, topics related to the meteorological-satellite service and the Earth exploration-satellite service, as well as sup-porting the consideration of spectrum requirements for tracking, controlling and telemetry in the space operations service for

non-geostationary satellites with short duration missions.

The CRA also supported global trends towards considering the spectrum requirements and reg-ulatory provisions related to the introduction and use of the Global Aeronautical Distress and Safety System (GADSS), and to take appropriate actions to facilitate global or regional harmonized fre-quency bands to support railway radiocommunication systems between train and trackside (RSTT) within existing mobile service allocations, in addition to considering possible global or regional harmonized frequency bands, to the maximum extent possible, for the implementation of evolving Intelligent Transport Systems (ITS) under existing mobile-service allocations.

“The CRA participation in WRC-19 was extraordinary, and the CRA contributions were wel-comed by many administrations, especially that CRA’s contributions all in all were converged with the global trends on many sensitive topics that were considered in the Conference. The CRA in coordi-nation with a number of admin-istrations has been able to fulfil the objectives that it has looking for to achieve in the Conference. All ITU Member States rely on WRC outputs to develop their National Frequency Plans in their respective countries for the coming three to four years till the next Conference,” said Mohammed Ali Al Mannai (pictured), President of CRA.

Since June 2018, the Postnatal Community Midwifery Home Care Service, which is operated by a team of seven midwives and seven patient care assistants from the WWRC, has provided care to over 1,700 women and made more than 3,200 home visits.

Labour unions and environmentalists, development advocates and public interest groups voiced their opposition, and faced state security forces who doused them with tear gas and pepper spray, shot them with rubber bullets, and arrested them by the hundreds - the vast majority of whom were exercising their democratic rights.

AFP

08 MONDAY 2 DECEMBER 2019VIEWS

The WTO 20 years after the ‘battle of Seattle’

On the 20th anniversary of the protests against the World Trade Organization (WTO), evidence of its harm

to workers, healthcare, farmers, and the environment - and particularly to developing countries - has proven its critics right. On that cold winter’s day in Seattle, the proponents of the WTO model of corporate globalisation were seeking to launch a new “Millennium” round of liberalisation.

Labour unions and environmen-talists, development advocates and public interest groups voiced their opposition, and faced state security forces who doused them with tear gas and pepper spray, shot them with rubber bullets, and arrested them by the hundreds - the vast majority of whom were exercising their democratic rights.

At the time of the protests, the WTO was less than five years old. But critics had already seen how the largest corporations in the world had succeeded in using its founding - and the good name of trade in promoting prosperity - to achieve a new set of agreements covering not just trade in goods but also trade-related investment measures, trade-related intellectual property (IP) rules, agri-culture and services.

These new agreements, far from the original goals of multilateralism, gave new rights to trade (which are exercised by corporations) and con-strained government regulation in the public interest. Predictions of

increased jobs and prosperity under the WTO system have failed abysmally. Inequalities have soared, leaving hun-dreds of mil-lions impov-erished while billionaires metastasise like cancer.

This is because cor-porate elites hijacked “trade” and rigged the rules to dis-tribute income upwards, while reducing pro-tections for people who work. Highly paid profes-

sionals (like doctors) are protected (by being able to regulate their own licensing) and businesses are given market access rights and predicta-bility. Meanwhile, workers are forced into unfair competition without a

minimum floor for protections, and developing country workers have been kept at the lowest levels of the global value chains.

This is a far cry from the goals of multilateralism at its birth, which included achieving full employment.

While labour movements lost in their efforts to ensure minimum standards of protections for workers, Big Pharma won in its efforts to spread maximalist IP protections - a far bigger distortion of “free trade” than tariffs - and one that has cost untold lives, as prices of medicines have skyrocketed.

The environment has suffered as countries use environmental exploi-tation as a comparative advantage, and trade is responsible for a growing per-centage of the greenhouse gases that contribute to climate change. Likewise, subsidies for the environmentally dam-aging production of oil and gas remain undisciplined, while countries have successfully sued each other in the WTO for directing subsidies towards greener fuels, especially if they try to create jobs at the same time.

As rich countries have been allowed to maintain their level of agri-cultural subsidies - which are mostly handed out to large producers, not family farms - developing countries have not been allowed under WTO rules to subsidise food production for domestic consumption to guarantee food security, nor to protect their farmers from unfair dumping.

Unfair agriculture rules contribute to global food crises and the impover-ishment of millions - there are still nearly a billion hungry people in the world - and keep developing countries from benefitting from fair trade. And yet, the US is currently suing India in the WTO for implementing the largest food security programme in the history of the world.

Since then, unfortunately, developed countries have never delivered on their promises to address the constraints that bad WTO rules put on development. In ministerial after ministerial - and I have attended every one since the one held in Doha in 2001 - they have refused to agree to the development agenda, of fixing WTO rules that constrain development, and instead pushed forward an agenda of further liberalisation, even when their own workers, patients, farmers and environment came under fire.

The reality is that most developing

countries that have gained from trade have done so by exporting to China, whose growth is usually attributed to its divergences from the WTO model.

And now the Big Tech industry wants to use the WTO to write a new constitution for the global (digital) economy, to give them rights to access markets and to permanently privatise the biggest resource in the world - data - while handcuffing governments from regulating the industry in the public interest.

They are also seeking new rules to limit even further their tax liabilities; to ensure an unlimited supply of cheap labour, stripped of its rights, and to prevent their having any accounta-bility to the communities in which they operate. At a time when most conversations regarding Big Tech are around the need for stronger antitrust and tax enforcement, and how their model of surveillance capitalism should not be allowed to shape the contours of our media, democracy, human rights, education and social relationships - or even how to break them up - they are working through the WTO, without public debate, to gain a new constitution that will con-solidate their power and profits.

They are aiming to conclude a new “plurilateral” in the WTO among nearly half the membership, by the next Minis-terial in June 2020 in Kazakhstan. Hint: the same provisions are in the “new” USMCA - in fact, they are one of the top gains celebrated by big business.

The WTO’s Dispute Settlement Mechanism (DSM) is facing an exis-tential crisis due to the Trump admin-istration’s blocking of appointments, and everyone expects that the judicial arm of the WTO will be neutered as of December 11. In reality, the problem with the dispute system is that it adju-dicates according to a set of rules guided by corporate interests. In the 45 cases in which members have tried to use public interest regulations as a defence in a case, commercial interests have won out 44 times.

Thus, there is a crisis in the WTO, but it is one of its own making. The crisis is that people around the world have suffered through nearly 25 years of a damaging pro-corporate trade model, encapsulated by the WTO, and the domestic policies of austerity that have led to uprisings on four conti-nents, mass migrations, and the election of right-wing governments in many countries.

DEBORAH JAMES AL JAZEERA

QUOTE OF THE DAY

We are confronted with a global climate

crisis and the point of no return is no longer over the horizon, it is in sight and hurtling

towards us.

Antonio Guterres UN Secretary-General

Aegean volunteers battle to turn plastic waste tide

Dressed in her pro-tective wetsuit and scuba gear, Antigone Kouteri

jumps into the murky waters of Zakynthos harbour in search of plastics -- and promptly snags her arm on a submerged object.

“It was a tyre,” offers her patrol mate Efthymis, coming up with a discarded beer bottle. “My treat!” he jibes.

The Ionian island of Zakynthos is one of Greece’s most pristine travel destina-tions, renowned for its azure waters and fabulous beaches, an environment clean enough to be a major Mediterranean nesting ground sought out by loggerhead sea turtles.

But even here, plastic pol-lution poses a grave threat to wildlife. Kouteri is one of

nearly a dozen volunteers from Aegean Rebreath, a Greek organisation formed in 2017 to protect Aegean biodi-versity from waste. Within three hours, the team has col-lected four tyres, two shopping carts, a street lamp, metal boxes, plastic bags, dozens of plastic bottles and several kil-ometres of fishing line.

“Marine litter is a global issue, so it is (present) in Greece. More than 70 percent of marine litter is plastic in Greece,” says Katerina Tsagari, a biologist at the Hellenic Centre for Marine Research near Athens.

Tsagari says her team has found litter, most of it plastic, in about 75 percent of loggerhead sea turtles tested. Overall, they have found plastic ingestion in between 20 and 45 percent of the species tested, which include fish and mussels.

With a coastline of some 14,000 kilometres (8,500 miles), one of the longest in the southeastern Mediter-ranean, Greece attracts tens of millions of tourists every year. It’s a regional problem. The Mediterranean, a partly closed sea, accumulates 570,000 tonnes of plastic annually from surrounding countries, according to the World Wildlife Fund.

WWF has reported that Greece produces 700,000 tonnes of plastic per year, or 68 kilos per capita. Out of that, 11,500 tonnes end up in the sea, it said.

“There is a junkyard beneath the blue waters,” says Violetta Walczyk, a Greek-Polish lawyer active with Aegean Rebreath.

On the Cycladic island of Andros, mounds of waste from a 2011 hilltop landfill

collapse are still to be found in the sea below.

In its two years of oper-ation, Aegean Rebreath has amassed 9,000 plastic water bottles, 3,6 tonnes of fishing net and 289 tyres. The gov-ernment readily admits that nearly 40 tonnes of plastic waste end up in Greek seas every day.

It recently started a cam-paign to phase out single-use plastics such as cups and straws — no small feat in a country with a huge coffee-to-go market. Speaking last month, Prime Minister Kyr-iakos Mitsotakis said that marine protection was a “key priority” for a country so dependent on tourism.

Greece continues to pay millions of euros in fines to the European Commission concerning the operation of illegal landfills.

CHAIRMANSHEIKH THANI BIN ABDULLAH AL THANI

EDITOR-IN-CHIEFDR. KHALID BIN MUBARAK [email protected]

ACTING MANAGING EDITORMOHAMMED SALIM [email protected]

DEPUTY MANAGING EDITORMOHAMMED OSMAN ALI [email protected]

ESTABLISHED IN 1996

EDITORIAL

Simply the best

Like many others sectors of the state, Qatar’s healthcare system is witnessing a constant rise due to far-sighted approach of the government and consistent hard work

from the officials of the Ministry of Public Health. With every passing day, Qatar is becoming a country

which is providing not only the most modern healthcare services to its people suffering with various diseases but also taking huge steps to save the population from different health disorders through chalking out timely strategies and their impeccable implementation mechanisms.

The Ministry of Public Health (MoPH) has officially launched 2018-22 Strategic Framework for Combating Viral Hepatitis in Qatar. The strategic framework aims to elim-inate viral hepatitis in Qatar by 2030 by completely elimi-nating new infections among the community while reducing the spread of chronic infections and reducing mortality rate caused by viral hepatitis.

The framework reflects a full commitment to the imple-mentation of high-quality disease control interventions at the national level, said the Ministry in a statement issued yesterday.

The most important inter-ventions planned in the Strategic Framework are to maintain high levels of coverage of disease awareness and early screening services and to increase the number of beneficiaries of care and treatment services easily and at low cost especially among the most vulnerable groups of the disease.

According to the World Health Organization (WHO), Qatar is a country with a low burden of viral hepatitis B, with a prevalence of less than 2 percent. International scientific reports have shown that Qatar is on track to eliminate viral hepatitis C by 2030.

Improved life expectancy, better health outcomes, and investment in health infra-structure have led to Qatar being ranked 5th in the world for health by the Legatum Institute,

a London-based think tank in March this year.Qatar was the only country in the region to score in the

top five on the annual prosperity index, placing behind Sin-gapore, Luxembourg, Japan, and Switzerland.

Qatar also ranked strongly for a number of health out-comes. The nation has the highest life expectancy rate in the Eastern Mediterranean Region and has seen the crude death rate per 100,000 population decline throughout this decade, from 99.1 in 2014 to 80.2 in 2017. Additionally, infant mortality rates have declined consistently in recent years, from 7.4 per 1,000 live births in 2015 to 5.4 per 1,000 live births in 2017.

In May this year, Hamad Medical Corporation (HMC) added another feather in its cap by becoming one of the very few organ transplant centres in the world that perform transplant surgery for a donor and recipient whose blood type does not match.

Qatar is becoming a country which is providing not only the most modern healthcare services to its people suffering with various diseases but also taking huge steps to save the population from different health disorders through chalking out timely strategies.

On this 20th anniversary of the Battle of Seattle, the struggle against globalized capital continues.

For the first time in an election campaign, the National Police Chiefs’ Council issued security guidance for candidates, which recommend not to campaign alone and to keep records of any intimidating behaviour or abuse.

09MONDAY 2 DECEMBER 2019 OPINION

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Europe, knowing and not knowing about Bosnia

An ugly British election season leaves candidates fearful of attack

KARLA ADAM THE WASHINGTON POST

EMIR SULJAGIC ANATOLIA

There is a small, two-story building across from where I work in Srebrenica. I remember its balcony in July

1995 as crammed with men just sepa-rated from their families, stripped of their passports, ID cards, and any and all documents, awaiting to be trans-ported to one of the collection points from where the Serb troops took them to execution sites across north-eastern Bosnia. There is a Serb family living there today. Driving by it, I see

clothes hanging on the clothesline over the balcony; at one moment I thought I saw children’s toys. Rarely, if ever, has a genocide been as nor-malized as the genocide against the Bosniaks.

Slobodan Milosevic and his clique of murderers were lucky in one respect: Europe did not perceive them as a danger to itself even as the troops under their direction or direct orders perpetrated the unspeakable in Bosnia and Herzegovina. In fact, Europe - to be precise, the European political class - was and continues to be in some form of denial of what hap-pened in Bosnia and Herzegovina between 1992 and 1995. From Francois Mitterrand’s “Bosnia does not belong” and British officials who spoke of “the painful but realistic res-toration of Christian Europe”, to engaging in negotiations with Ratko Mladic personally while the Sre-brenica genocidal operation was still ongoing in July 1995, the generation of European politicians who bragged about uniting Europe following the fall of the Berlin Wall, assumed the position of knowing, and not knowing

at the same time, about the genocide unfolding in Bosnia and Herzegovina against its Muslim population.

Genocide, to the likes of David Owen and Thorvald Stoltenberg, at one time UN mediators, was no more than a bargaining tool to be used in an effort to coerce the beleaguered Bosnian president Alija Izetbegovic to capitulate and accept the division of his country and the long-term genocide of the Bosniaks. International mediators, whether representing the UN or the European Community at the time, continued, throughout the war, to engage in rationalizations, justifica-tions and overt sympathy with the “professional military” sniping children, for example, in besieged Sarajevo.

A good part of the media and academic establishment was careful to toe the line. The brave journalists, such as Peter Maass, Ed Vulliamy, David Rohde and others went against the grain in reporting what they saw and standing by it.

Over the years, however, in the process that Stanley Cohen in his classic “States of Denial” calls “re-allocation”, genocide was first named “ethnic cleansing”; it was now “popu-lation exchange”, not “forceful deportation”; it was “detention”, and not “concentration camps”; that is how Bosnia moved from one into another, more “sanitary” class of events.

We have been told so many times over the past almost thirty years that our experience is not relevant; and certainly not relevant in the way we believe it is. An entire generation after the experience of being burnt alive, so many of the survivors still remain deeply apologetic for having been killed en masse, as a result of it.

Therefore, for Peter Handke, a genocide denier and open admirer of Milosevic, to receive the Nobel Prize in Literature was not necessarily a deviation from the European position

on Bosnian genocide at all. How is what Handke writes about the Bos-niaks - “if the Serbo-Croatian-speaking Muslim descendants of Serbs in Bosnia are in fact a people”, he argues in his award-winning literary opus - different from Mitterrand’s claim that “Bosnia does not belong to Europe”? The assertion by the Swedish Royal Academy [1] in a series of letters - that are condescending, to say the least - to survivors of Serbia’s campaigns in Bosnia and Herzegovina and Kosovo, that “there must be space for different reasonable interpreta-tions” of whether, among other things, the Bosniaks “are in fact a people”, follows in the same vein.

Not knowing and knowing at the same time meant in the 1990s getting on with the “European dream” while 12-year old girls in Bosnia and Herzegovina were held in assault camps.

To award Peter Handke - a lit-erary equivalent of a bully - the Nobel Prize in Literature is to send an unmistakable message that Europe was right to know and not know at the same time, and to deny, in one form or another, the genocidal nature of the war against Bosnia and Herze-govina and its people. The Bosnian genocide — to borrow from the Swedish Royal Academy — remained “at the periphery… of human experience”.

I do not intend to prove to anyone that I am, that we are, human. Sixteen years ago, I sat in the courtroom in The Hague and watched Elie Wiesel deliver a damning tes-timony during the sentencing hearing of Biljana Plavsic, a former University of Sarajevo professor who pleaded guilty to crimes against humanity. I knew then that I do not get to decide who I am.

That decision was always in the hands of the people holding the gun. Or the pen, as the case may be with this year’s laureate of the Nobel Prize in Literature.

Britain is in the midst of a general election that all sides agree is one of the most important in a generation.

But as candidates in 650 constitu-encies go about knocking on doors, the traditional method of cam-paigning in this country, they are doing so in a climate that is increas-ingly hostile to politicians.

This is the first December election in more than a century - Brits head to the polls on Dec. 12 - and it gets dark early here, shortly after 4 p.m. Some candidates are concerned about what they might encounter on the doorstep at a time when emotions around Brexit are running high.

The myth of absolute British politeness at all times has been punc-tured in recent months, with harsh language coming right from the top. In a particularly noxious parlia-mentary debate in September, Prime Minister Boris Johnson was widely criticized for using words such as “betray” and “surrender” to describe the actions of his rivals.

There have been signs of tension on the campaign trail. In the past week alone, a Labour Party volunteer in her 70s was thrown over the hood of a parked car in Herefordshire, and a 72-year-old Labour campaigner in

South Yorkshire was taken to hospital with a suspected broken jaw.

Steffan Aquarone, who is running as a candidate for the Liberal Demo-crats in Norfolk, said in an interview that he recently knocked on a door at dusk and was told by a man that he would shoot him if he became a member of Parliament. When the “gentleman who wasn’t very gentle-manly” made the remarks, Aquarone said it felt “personally threatening.”

“Because we’ve been requested to report any incidents like this to the police, I did. It actually hit me about 20 minutes after it happened, and I was quite shaken by this,” he said. (The next day, the “gentleman” reached out to apologize.)

For the first time in an election campaign, the National Police Chiefs’ Council issued security guidance for candidates, which recommend not to campaign alone and to keep records of any intimidating behaviour or abuse.

For many candidates on the cam-paign trail, the murder of Jo Cox just days before the 2016 European Union referendum remains on their minds. The pro-E.U. Labour lawmaker died after she was repeatedly shot and stabbed on the street.

Cox’s sister, Kim Leadbeater, said in an interview that after her sister

died, politicians promised to treat each other better, “but that didn’t last very long - over the last three years, it’s got progressively worse.”

“I’ve spoken to many MPs over the last three years who have had horrible abuse and intimidation, online and offline,” she said. “One MP was buying shampoo in the supermarket and was shouted at down the aisle, some have had their office windows smashed, some are out with children when they are shouted at. ... I don’t want to be accused of scaremongering, but these are real things.”

In the wake of Cox’s death, the Metropolitan Police Service set up a special investigation squad to focus on crimes against lawmakers, staffers and families. In the year after Cox’s death, the unit received 111 reports of criminal threats; in 2018, it received 242, more than double. Cressida Dick, commissioner of the Metropolitan Police, has described the levels of abuse directed at lawmakers as “unprecedented” and a result of Brit-ain’s growing polarization.

The abuse is not limited to one side of the Brexit debate, or to men or women. But researchers say that women and ethnic minorities are dis-proportionately targeted. In the last election, Diane Abbott, Britain’s first black female lawmaker, received almost half of all the abusive tweets sent to female members of Parliament.

Hillary Clinton, the 2016 U.S. Dem-ocratic presidential nominee, who was in London recently promoting her new book, told the BBC, “I’ve spoken to par-liamentarians, current and former, in your country, who are genuinely afraid of all of the emotions and threats they see coming at them.” Some of the law-makers who stepped down in this election cited the abuse they receive as a contributing factor.

New research by Cardiff Uni-versity and the University of Edin-burgh found that a majority of those who voted for Brexit thought violence toward members of Parliament is a “price worth paying” for Brexit.

Richard Wyn Jones, co-director of the survey, said the results were “shocking and disappointing” and highlight “really staggering levels of polarization.”

He said that one factor that may be contributing to the “industrial quantities” of threats is that those on the losing side haven’t accepted defeat. And they haven’t accepted

That decision was always in the hands of the people holding the gun. Or the pen, as the case may be with this year’s laureate of the Nobel Prize in Literature.

defeat, he said, because they feel they were “lied to, cheated and that the referendum was held under false pretenses.”

He added that on the winning side, “there was no attempt to reach out to the very, very large minority who voted a different way to say, ‘I hear your concerns, this is how we will assuage them.’ ... Instead they are called ‘saboteurs’ or ‘remoaners’ or ‘traitors,’ and Brexit is redefined in an evermore hard-line way.”

Social media has amplified the problem, many say, with ano-nymity encouraging people to say things they otherwise wouldn’t. Some politicians have called for an end to anonymity; others are looking at new ways to encourage better manners online.

To be sure, politicians have long received threats and abuse, but many say it has become worse in recent years, especially for women.

Sam Smethers, chief executive of the Fawcett Society, an equal rights advocacy organization, said there has been an uptick in recent years of the number of female poli-ticians prosecuting people for rape or death threats.

“It’s not just abuse and people not having a thick enough skin on social media. It’s actually a crossover between what people say online and what they are prepared to do offline,” she said.

Lawmaker Anna Soubry, who leads the Independent Group for Change and is well known for her views on Brexit, has received more abuse than most politicians. She recently received a letter at her office, written in all caps, that read: “COX WAS FIRST AND YOU’RE NEXT.”

UK opposition Labour Party leader Jeremy Corbyn gives a speech to supporters at Whitby Leisure Centre in Whitby, northern England, yesterday.


QF students show their pride in QatarTHE PENINSULA DOHA

With Qatar National Day just around the corner, students from universities at Qatar Foundation have come together to celebrate the country’s rich local traditions, values, and culture in a one-day festival at Education City. EC United takes place every year, and is curated by Qatar Foundation (QF) university students for the wider community. This year, more than 300 people from across the country attended the festival.

Ghalya Abdulla, Head of Media of Qatar Students Associ-ation (QSA) in Texas A&M Uni-versity at Qatar (TAMUQ), one of QF’s partner universities, said: “The aim of the event is to manage a Qatar National Day celebration that raises the spirit of unity among the various universities of Education City.

“It shows how students, regardless of the university they study at, stand together for Qatar, and demonstrates their appreciation for what the

country has given them.”This year, the main themes of

the event – sport and sustaina-bility – were at the heart of the festivities, with a number of engaging activities, workshops, performances, and exhibitions on offer that centred around these topics. The event also highlighted national achievements and dem-onstrated how the country is working together to realize Qatar’s sustainable development vision.

Sara Badar, Vice-President of

QSA in TAMUQ, said: “What made this Qatar National Day event dif-ferent were the themes that we combined to show the progress of Qatar National Vision 2030, which together we are helping to bring to fruition.

“We wanted to represent Qatar in the field of sports, showcasing the country’s achievements over the past years; while sustainable development – the other key theme – was promoted in collaboration with Torba Farmers Market.”

Children participating in various activities at the Education City.

QU College of Engineering faculty member named as Highly Cited Researcher 2019THE PENINSULA DOHA

Professor Dr. Bassim Hamid Hammadi (pictured), a Qatar University (QU) faculty member from the College of Engineering is named ‘Highly Cited Researcher’ for the year 2019 by the Web of Science Group.

Professor Bassim earned this distinction for his significant influence through the publication of multiple papers, for being highly cited by his peers over the last decade and also ranking in the top 1% by citations for field and year in Web of Science.

According to Clarivate Ana-lytics, of which Web of Science Group is a part of, “In 2019, fewer than 6,300, or 0.1%, of the world’s researchers, across 21 research

fields, have earned this exclusive distinction.”

This is not the first time Prof. Hammadi received such interna-tional recognition. He has been given the title of Highly Cited Researcher in the field of engi-neering for six consecutive years (2014–2019). In addition, he was listed as one of the Most Cited

Researchers in 2016 for chemical engineering, and environmental science and engineering by the Shanghai Global Rankings of Aca-demic Subjects.

Professor Bassim successfully supervised the works of five post-doctoral fellows, 22 PhD and 26 MSc students, and more than 70 final year research projects to completion. He achieved a mile-stone of 21 research grants as a lead principal investigator. To date, he published more than 280 articles in ISI-indexed journals, and more than 100 articles in other international and national journals and proceedings.

According to Google Scholar, his total number of received cita-tions is more than 37,000, and he has an author h-index of 97 and i-10 index of 273.

Gulf English School organises 14th Annual College Fair THE PENINSULA DOHA

The Gulf English School has held its 14th Annual College Fair in the presence of Sheikh Faisal bin Qassim Al Thani, Chairman of ‘Al Faisal Holding’. The event aims to provide the students with an informative platform which can assist them when choosing a career path as well as improving their future university applications.

Sheik Faisal bin Qassim Al Thani delivered a speech to give inspiration to all the students in attendance. In addition, Sheik’s holding company Al Faisal Holding sponsored the event. Representatives from the business advised the students on what businesses such as, Al Faisal Holdings look for during their recruitment process. The event is also sponsored EspressoLab Qatar, one of the most innovative coffee chains, offering various tastes of gourmet coffee to coffee aficionados.

Since its humble beginning in 2008,

the College Fair is a truly esteemed tra-dition in the Gulf English School. The event is organized by school’s selected Sixth form students, thereby enhancing their skills ranging from negotiation in financial management, media and com-munication, design and working effec-tively in a collaborative team, which are imperative in the professional world.

This year, the Gulf English School College Fair has appealed to 26 parties, comprising of our honoured sponsors:

Al Faisal Holding and EspressoLab Qatar.Faheem Javaid, Executive Director

of the Gulf English School, said: “The aim of the Gulf English School College Fair is to introduce students to the opportu-nities provided by various areas of employment and education. The College Fair is being held for the 13th consec-utive year with 26 participating parties including a wide range of businesses and universities.”

Currently, year 9 students are required to submit the initial draft for the subjects they would like to take for IGCSE. Likewise, year 11 students will be choosing their subjects for Sixth form. Thus this event is key in ensuring the right subjects are chosen for the right College.

The GES College Fair grants a ben-eficial opportunity not only to its own students but also to students from other schools in the Doha region. This is regarded as an exceptional guide to stu-dents who are potentially the pro-spective leaders of our future gener-ation. As a member of the Council of

International Schools (CIS) it is essential for us to create a rigorous culture that

engages the full community and encourages lifelong learning.

Sheikh Faisal bin Qassim Al Thani inaugurating the 14th Annual College Fair of Gulf English School.

The GES College Fair grants a beneficial opportunity not only to its own students but also to students from other schools in Doha region. This is regarded as an exceptional guide to students who are potentially the prospective leaders of our future generation.

Ashraf Abuissa scoops Lifetime Achievement Award 2019THE PENINSULA DOHA

The Swiss Business Council Qatar has honoured Ashraf Abuissa, Chairman of Abuissa Holding, with the Lifetime Achievement Award 2019 for his outstanding achievements throughout his career in various fields.

The award ceremony was held by the Swiss Business Council Qatar at the Kempinski Hotel to distribute its annual awards to the most prominent personalities and institutions that have played an active role in promoting economic and trade relations for the business and Bilateral relationship between Switzerland and the State of Qatar, or have had a pos-itive impact on the society in general.

Swiss Business Council Qatar was established in 2015 in order to support Swiss companies and Swiss professionals in Qatar with a platform and a network of mutual interest between investors in Qatar and

Switzerland, Ashraf Abuissa took over the

family business after the death of his father. His group started with a small retail business and has since grown to become one of the most famous business groups in the Middle East, with 100 stores in more than six countries.

Ashraf Abuissa took over the family business with his brother Nabil at a young age. From a small retail operations business, the company has grown to become one of the most distin-guished business groups. Through their strategic and global part-nerships and commitment to the highest standards of excellence, Ashraf Abuissa and his brother Nabil Abuissa have achieved sig-nificant regional reach.

Ashraf Abuissa succeeded in building one of the most diver-sified and advanced commercial groups in the State of Qatar, including ‘Blue Salon’. For three decades, this high-end luxury department store has been bringing the latest trends in fashion, watches, jewellery,

perfumes, cosmetics, home décor, travel items, luggage rep-resenting the most prestigious Swiss and international brands.

Ashraf Abuissa was awarded the Ernst & Young’s Entre-preneur of the Year Award in 2011 and named the Busi-nessman of the Year by Arabian Business magazine in 2016. He is the founder of a number of NGOs and charities such as: Injaz Qatar - Founding Board of Directors - Palestinian Children Relief Fund (PCRF) - Vice Chairman and Chairman of Young Presidents Organization (YPO).

Ashraf Abuissa, Chairman of Abuissa Holding, said: “The Lifetime Achievement Award 2019 is an honuor for the entire Abuissa Holding as it is a solid testament to the fact that Abuissa has been a key partner for the development and recognition of our nation on the regional and international business map. This award will foster our responsi-bility for further achievements in the future in order to continue the journey of success.”

Ashraf Abuissa, Chairman of Abuissa Holding (third left), with other officials during the award ceremony.

QRCS extends multiple social services for 53,465 beneficiaries in QatarTHE PENINSULA DOHA

Over 2019, Qatar Red Crescent Society (QRCS) has intensified its development activities in Qatar, with over 53,465 bene-ficiaries, such as widows, orphans, patients, school students, and other vulnerable groups, as well as QRCS male and female volunteers.

According to a recent report from QRCS’s Volunteering and Local Devel-opment Division, the Social Care Section provided a wide range of assistance for needy groups. Its Humanitarian Services Fund provided diverse cash aid for 5,459 poor families, families with no bread-winner, and victims of emergency like fire or accident.

Muna Fadel Al Sulaiti, Director of the Volunteering and Local Development

Division, revealed the release of a guide to the Humanitarian Services Fund, spec-ifying the standards, policies, and proce-dures that regulate the relation between program organizers and beneficiaries.

“The guide serves as a general framework of governance, under QRCS’ strategy of ensuring the highest quality and transparency in operational and administrative processes. QRCS is the region’s only humanitarian organization to adopt a governance guide for its Board of Directors, departments, and sections,” said Al Sulaiti.

As regards the Patients Support Fund, which covers the costs of treatment, med-ications, surgeries, and medical aids for poor patients, it has so far helped 13,495 beneficiaries, as follows: social and health support (9,000), treatment (1,100), and Cordiality Ramadan Iftar (3,395).

The Local Development Section holds development programs addressed to certain social groups, including school stu-

dents, expatriate workers, and peniten-tiary inmates.

Under the QRCS School Program,

theoretical lectures and practical training were provided for 10,278 schoolchildren, teachers, and administrative staff in first aid skills, healthy practices, risk reduction, and earthquake evacuation.

In cooperation with the Ministry of Interior and Qatar Scientific Club, voca-tional training workshops were held for penitentiary inmates on welding, met-alwork, electric networks, refrigeration, and A/C, under the Imdad program. In total, 116 inmates benefited from the workshops and 200 members of their families benefited from social support and life coaching.

One of the major achievements of 2019 was ‘One Hand’, a program aimed at promoting a culture of peace, coex-istence, and social integration among expatriate workers. It held community awareness sessions for 44 workers.

QRCS officials providing assistance to children under Patient Support Fund.

11MONDAY 2 DECEMBER 2019 MIDDLE EAST / AFRICA

Israel planning new settlement in HebronAFP/JERUSALEM

Israel’s new hard-right defence minister yesterday ordered offi-cials to start planning a new Jewish settlement in the heart of the divided West Bank city of Hebron.

N a f t a l i B e n n e t t ’ s announcement came as the prospects of a third snap election since April loomed larger, with the minister’s New Right party leaning heavily on settlers for support at the polls.

The Defence Ministry said Bennett had instructed depart-ments responsible for the Israeli occupied West Bank “to notify the Hebron municipality of planning a new Jewish neigh-bourhood in the wholesale market complex”.

The market area is on Hebron’s once-bustling Shuhada Street. The street is now largely closed off to Palestinians, who have long demanded that it be

reopened. The city is holy to both Muslims and Jews and is a flash-point for clashes between Pal-estinians and Israeli settlers.

On Saturday, Israeli forces shot dead a Palestinian southwest of Hebron, with the army saying he was one of three men throwing petrol bombs at

a military vehicle. About 800 Israeli settlers

live in the ancient city under heavy military protection, amid around 200,000 Palestinians.

Yesterday’s statement said the planned new building project would “double the number of Jewish residents in the city”.

Senior Palestinian official Saeb Erekat said the new project was a result of the United States’ decision last month to no longer consider Israeli settlements illegal. The Bennett plan, he wrote in English on Twitter, “is the first tan-gible result of the US decision to legitimise colonisation.”

The move comes amid political turmoil in Israel after general elections in April and September ended in deadlock.

Neither Prime Minister Ben-jamin Netanyahu and allies like Bennett, nor their opponents, won enough parliamentary seats to form a viable coalition.

Lawmakers now have until

December 11 to find a solution or see parliament dissolved once again. At yesterday’s weekly cabinet meeting, Netanyahu also offered good news for the settlers, pledging 40 million shekels

($11.5m) for improved security.“We are strengthening the

security components in the com-munities in Judea and Samaria, of the Israeli citizens there,” he said, using the biblical terms for

the West Bank.Israel’s West Bank settle-

ments are considered illegal under international law and are b i t t e r l y o p p o s e d b y Palestinians.

Hanan, the mother of 18-year-old Badawee Masalma, looks at a picture of him on her phone during his funeral in the West Bank village of Beit Awwa southwest of Hebron, yesterday. Israeli soldiers shot dead the youth near the West Bank village of Beit Awwa, southwest of Hebron the day before.

Tunisia bus crash leaves 22 deadAP/TUNIS

A regional bus in Tunisia crashed off a hill last morning, killing 22 local passengers who were on an excursion in the Amdoun region of the country’s north, the Interior Ministry said.

The bus, which belonged to a private local company, veered of a winding road after the driver failed to maneuver a sharp turn and crashed at the bottom of a ravine, the Ministry said. Local media showed images of an overturned, crumpled bus with smashed windows at the foot of a hill.

Rebels kill 14 in eastern CongoREUTERS/GOMA, DR CONGO

Suspected fighters killed 14 people in eastern Congo on Friday, local authorities said, as a month-long spike in violence complicates efforts to contain a deadly Ebola outbreak.

The attack in the village of Kukutama, 10km southwest of Oicha in North Kivu, comes on top of a death toll of more than 100 since October 30 when the army started an operation to root out the Allied Democratic Forces (ADF), a jihadist group operating in the dense forests bordering Uganda.

Friday’s attack was just a few miles from another attack days earlier in which at least 19 people were killed.

Parliament approves Iraq PM’s resignationREUTERS/BAGHDAD

Iraq’s parliament voted yesterday to accept the resignation of Prime Minister Adel Abdul Mahdi, following weeks of violent anti-government protests that have rocked the country.

Abdul Mahdi’s decision to quit on Friday came after a call by Iraq’s top Shi’ite Muslim cleric Grand Ayatollah Ali Al Sistani for parliament to consider with-drawing its support for Abdul Mahdi’s government to stem the violence.

“The Iraqi parliament will ask the president of state to nom-inate a new prime minister,” a statement from parliament’s media office said.

Lawmakers said Abdul Mahdi’s government, including the prime minister himself, would stay on in a caretaker capacity fol-lowing yesterday’s vote until a new government was chosen. Under the constitution, President Barham Salih is expected to ask the largest bloc in parliament to nominate a new prime minister to form a government, a move expected to trigger weeks of political wrangling.

Iraqi forces have killed

nearly 400 mostly young, unarmed demonstrators since mass anti-government protests broke out on October 1. More than a dozen members of the security forces have also died in clashes.

Abdul Mahdi’s resignation, though welcomed by protesters, is not expected to end the dem-onstrations, which have called for an overhaul of a political system accused of being corrupt and keeping most of the popu-lation in poverty, without opportunity.

Demonstrations are con-tinuing in Baghdad and other southern regions and security forces killed one protester and wounded nine others near a key bridge in the capital yes-terday, police and a medical source said.

The unrest poses the biggest challenge for Iraq since Islamic State insurgents seized swathes of Iraqi and Syrian territory in 2014. It pits mostly young, dis-affected Shia protesters against a Shia-dominated government backed by Iran and accused of squandering Iraq’s oil wealth while infrastructure and living standards deteriorate.

Smoke billows from the shrine of the late Ayatollah Mohammed Baqir Al Hakim in the southern Iraqi city of Najaf, during an anti-government demonstrations, yesterday.

AFP/KUT, IRAQ

An Iraqi court sentenced a police officer to death yesterday after convicting him of killing

demonstrators, in the first such sentence in two months of deadly civil unrest.

The Kut criminal court sen-tenced the police major to be

hanged and jailed a police lieu-tenant colonel for seven years for their roles in the deaths of seven protesters in the southern city on November 2.

Police officer sentenced to death over protest killings

Iran starts registering candidates for parliamentary electionsAP/DUBAI

Iran has begun registration of candidates for running in the country’s parliamentary elec-tions set for February 2020, the official Irna news agency reported yesterday.

The elections will be a gauge for the popularity of the mod-erate and reformist camps that President Hassan Rouhani rep-resents. It comes after unrest over government-set petrol prices earlier in November.

Iran has not released any figure on the death toll, though Amnesty International says at least 161 were killed in the pro-tests. A lawmaker has said more than 7,000 were arrested.

The current speaker of par-liament, Ali Larijani, who played a major role in the government increasing energy prices, has said he will not run in the election. He has been speaker for 12 years.

The elections will be held on February 21 and the new par-liament will begin working in May.

Candidates run in 208 con-stituencies for 290 seats. A con-stitutional watchdog, the Guardian Council, vets and must approve those wishing to run in the elections.

Those wishing to register must be between 30 and 75 years old, and hold a masters degree to be qualified.

Protests, apathy mar Algeria’s presidential campaignAP/ALGIERS

Algeria’s presidential campaign is in trouble. Candidates are struggling to fill rally venues, campaign managers have quit, voters have pelted campaign headquarters with tomatoes and eggs, and the country’s 9-month-old pro-democracy movement calls the whole thing a sham.

The five candidates seeking to

replace President Abdelaziz Boute-flika in the December 12 election have failed to captivate a disillu-sioned public. Bouteflika was pushed out in April after 20 years in power amid an exceptional, peaceful protest movement, and now dem-onstrators want a wholesale change of political leadership.

Instead, the election is managed by the long-serving power structure of this oil— and

gas—rich country with a strategic role in the Mediterranean region. Instead of new faces, two of the candidates are former prime ministers and one is a loyalist of Algeria’s influential army chief.

The Hirak protest movement held their 41st weekly demon-strations on Friday, denouncing the presidential election. But for the first time, thousands of pro-government supporters held

their own rally Saturday.The candidates have tried to

convince voters that taking part in the election is the only alter-native to chaos, an allusion to the civil war that ravaged Algeria in the 1990s. But that argument falls flat among the protesters, who have been overwhelmingly peaceful, with demonstrators calming each other down and ensuring that no one provokes

police. It’s a sharp contrast to the sometimes deadly protests and security crackdowns shaking Iraq, Lebanon and other coun-tries in recent weeks.

Former Prime Minister Ali Benflis, considered a leading candidate, was heckled in Tlemcen, Guelma, Oued Souf, Annaba, while he had to cancel a meeting altogether in Maghnia on Algeria’s western edge.

Nearly 70 killed in clashes between Syria regime forces and Idlib fightersAFP/SURMAN, SYRIA

Two days of clashes between regime forces and armed groups in Syria’s last major opposition bastion have killed nearly 70 on both sides, a war monitoring group said yesterday.

The battles in the north-western province of Idlib are the most violent there since a Russian-brokered ceasefire agreement went into effect in late August, said the head of the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights. Last morning, clouds of smoke rose over the Maaret al-Numan region as warplanes pounded jihadists and allied rebels in positions they had

recently recaptured from regime forces, said a correspondent.

Residents of affected villages fled north to escape the fighting, adding to the tens of thousands who have already flooded out of the province’s violence-plagued south since an escalation started earlier this year.

The Observatory on Sunday put the death toll from fighting at 69 combatants since battles started the previous day.

At least 36 regime forces were among those killed.

It said an attack led by Syria’s former Al Qaeda affiliate on several regime positions had ini-tially sparked the fighting.

Overnight, the Syrian army

backed by Russian warplanes launched a counter-push to reclaim territory it had lost in the battles, according to the Britain-based war monitor. Regime forces have since regained lost ground but violent clashes are ongoing, the war monitor said.

The Idlib region, home to around three million people including many displaced by Syria’s eight-year civil war, is controlled by the country’s former Al Qaeda affiliate.

The Hayat Tahrir Al Sham alliance also controls parts of neighbouring Aleppo and Latakia provinces where battles with regime forces have also recently taken place.

DRC army claims fresh win against Hutu militiaAFP/BUKAVU

The army in DR Congo said yesterday it has driven out Hutu Rwandan rebels from their bases in the east of the country, a few weeks after having killed their leader.

Troops launched a cam-paign on Tuesday against the CNRD — an offshoot of the FDLR militia — in South Kivu region, which borders Rwanda and Burundi, military spokesman Dieudonne Kasereka said.

“Since Saturday, we have dislodged these rebels from their headquarters and recap-tured all the areas that were previously under their control,” he added.

The rebels had fled towards the National Park of Kahuzi Biega, and the army will launch a major operation to flush them out and destroy them, said Kasereka.

The Defence Ministry said the Minister Naftali Bennett had instructed departments responsible for the Israeli occupied West Bank “to notify the Hebron municipality of planning a new Jewish neighbourhood in the wholesale market complex”.

12 MONDAY 2 DECEMBER 2019ASIA

Nirmala doesn’t know economics: Subramanian SwamyIANS NEW DELHI

In a scathing attack on Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman, senior BJP leader Subramanian Swamy has said, “she doesn’t know economics”.

Swamy’s attack comes at a time when Sitharaman is defending the Modi govern-ment’s economic policies and denying that there is a

slowdown in the economy.In a recent interview, Swamy

said, “If you see the press con-ferences, she is handing the mic to civil servants to answer.” “What is the problem in the country today? Poor demand. Supply is not the problem. But what did she do? She relaxes taxes for corporates. Corporates are flushed with supply. They will just use it,” Swamy said.

Part of the problem, Swamy

said in the interview was that Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s advisors were too afraid to tell him the truth.

“The Prime minister knows nothing about it. He is being told ‘wonderful growth rate’,” Swamy said.

Swamy has been positioning himself for the FM’s post and had earlier been critical of Arun Jaitley also, but has been over-looked for the job.

“He doesn’t want me,” Swamy said about PM Modi. “He doesn’t want any minister to talk back to him, let alone in public, but in private cabinet meetings too. If you look at the economy with a discerning eye, you see that growth may have come down,” Sitharaman said in the Rajya Sabha on November 27.

“But it is not a recession yet and won’t be a recession ever.” Swamy, however, slammed the

growth figures and put out numbers closer to 1.5 per cent. said, “Do you know what the real growth rate today is? They are saying that it is coming down to 4.8%. I’m saying it is 1.5 per cent”, Swamy said in the interview.

Swamy’s Twitter account is full of tweets and articles which remind everyone that only he had warned of the economy going into a tailspin as early as 2015, four years back.

NESO demands implementation of ILP and NRC across NE states

IANS NEW DELHI

Reiterating its strong opposition to the proposed Citizenship (Amendment) Bill, 2019, the North East Students’ Organi-sation (NESO) has made four demands before Home Minister Amit Shah to protect different indigenous communities across the Northeastern states.

The NSEO urged upon the Home Minister not to go ahead with the current amendment of the Citizenship Act but to respect the sentiments of the indigenous citizens of the northeastern states.

The demands are the imple-mentation of Inner Line Permit (ILP) system across the north-eastern states, exempting the northeastern region from purview of the Indo-Nepal Treaty of Friendship, 1950, implementation of National Register of Citizens (NRC) to all the northeastern states with a base year which might differ depending upon the unique history of each State and con-stitutional safeguards with rights

over land and natural resources, amongst others.

NESO supremo Samuel Jyrwa said the suggestions were aired to Shah during the consult-ative meeting on Saturday on the Citizenship (Amendment) Bill, 2019, which the government is planning to get passed in the ongoing winter session of Parliament.

“We have reiterated our stand against the Citizenship (Amendment) Bill on the ground that the Bill is against the interest of the indigenous people of the northeast region. The gov-ernment should understand that the indigenous people of northeast are a minority in all fronts, ethnically, linguistically and religiously,” he said.

Noting that the Citizenship (Amendment) Bill will also nullify the Assam Accord of 1985 whereby the cut-off date of 1971 will be quashed with the new proviso inserted in the Bill, the NESO chief said: “The Bill will only add to the influx problem and ultimately the indigenous populace will become minor-ities in their own land.”

Navy Day rehearsalMarine Commandos (MARCOS) of the Indian Navy get down with a rope from a helicopter as they take part in a simulated hostage rescue operation at the Gateway of India during a rehearsal for the forthcoming Navy Day celebrations in Mumbai, yesterday.

Congress’Patole electedas Speaker ofMaharashtraIANS MUMBAI

Senior Congress leader Nana F Patole has been declared elected unopposed as the 14th Speaker of Maharashtra Legis-lative Assembly, here yesterday.

Pro-Tem Speaker Dilip Walse-Patil made the announcement that was greeted with applause and thumping of desks by both the ruling Maha Vikas Aghadi and the Opposition Maha Yuti alliances.

The development came soon after the Opposition Bharatiya Janata Party withdrew its nominee, Kisan Kathore from the contest earlier today for the prestigious post, according to state party chief Chandrakant Patil.

Patole was the candidate of the ruling Shiv Sena-Nationalist Congress Party-Congress Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) which won the vote of confidence in the assembly on Saturday afternoon with 169:000.

Soon after Patole’s election was announced, Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray and other leaders of MVA con-gratulated him and recalled his glowing contributions as a parliamentarian and legislator in Maharashtra for over two decades.

Others who spoke included Congress Legislature Party Leader Balasaheb Thorat, Nationalist Congress Legis-lature Party Leader Jayant Patil and Shiv Sena’s senior leader Eknath Shinde among many more.

Onion spikes to Rs100; Delhi blames Centre for shortageIANS NEW DELHI

Delhi Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia, here yesterday, accused the central government of trying to create an onion scarcity as the vegetable touched the Rs100 mark in the national capital.

Addressing the media along with Food and Civil Supplies Min-ister Imran Hussain, Sisodia said the Centre had failed to provide onions in Delhi as assured in writing on September 5.

Either prices had rocketed as onion stocks got spoiled due

to Centre’s negligence or there were ill-motivated efforts to benefit hoarders, he said.

Stating that people are upset about the rising onion price, Sisodia said, “It’s the case across the country. But in Delhi, the central government was consciously cre-ating shortage. It has stopped pro-viding onions to Delhi government despite repeated requests.”.

On September 5, the Centre wrote to the Delhi government that they had 56,000 tonnes of onions and asked the state to lift the vegetable as required. “Soon, the Delhi government intimated

that it would take and distribute 10 trucks of onions — 2.5 lakh kg — a day on subsidised rates to stop hoarding,” Sisodia said.

They also asked about pro-vision of onions on a daily basis till December 9, he added.

However, it released only 3-4 trucks a day instead of 10 truck-loads of onions, the Deputy Chief Minister said. “We set up teams and facilities in every Assembly seat to sell onions at the subsidised rates. Where is the stock of onions that the Union government claimed in writing? Why it allowed huge stock to rotten away?” he said.

Vet’s murder case in fast track court, says KCRIANS HYDERABAD

Telangana Chief Minister K Chandrashekhar Rao yesterday directed officials to ensure that the accused in woman veterinar-ian’s gang-rape and murder are tried in a fast track court and the culprits get stringent punishment.

In his first reaction since the

ghastly crime on the outskirts of Hyderabad on November 27, the Chief Minister expressed his deep anguish.

KCR, as Rao is popularly known, decided to set up a fast track court to deal with the case. He asked the officials concerned to take measures in this regard.

He noted that in the case relating to rape and murder of a minor girl in Warangal, setting

up of the fast track court ensured the verdict in 56 days, and in the young veterinarian’s case too, the verdict should come quickly.

The Chief Minister announced that the government would extend all the necessary help and support to members of the victim’s family.

According to Chief Minister’s Office, he was upset that the per-petrators of such heinous crimes

are living amidst us. He termed the incident gruesome and inhuman.

Police on November 29 arrested four truck drivers and cleaners for the gruesome crime, which sent shock waves across the country and evoked huge public outrage.

Protests were held in several parts of the country to demand death penalty to the accused.

BJP’s spokesman in Jharkhand quits party in midst of electionsIANS NEW DELHI

In a jolt to the BJP in Jharkhand where polls are underway, its prin-cipal spokesman and a leading light of the statehood demand, Praveen Prabhakar, yesterday resigned from the party. He will now contest the Assembly elec-tions from Nala on an NPP ticket.

Associated with the BJP for the past five years, Prabhakar had been among the founding members of the All Jharkhand Students Union (AJSU), which fought the 2014 Assembly election in alliance with the BJP but is contesting separately this time. He was said to be unhappy with the ticket distribution in the state by the party.

Prabhakar said that he had learnt a lot from Prime Minister Narendra Modi and BJP chief and Home Minister Amit Shah but in Jharkhand, the BJP needed to do some introspection.

He joined the National Peoples’ Party, headed by Meg-halaya Chief Minister Conrad K Sangma, at its national con-vention at the Constitution Club here on Sunday, and was named its candidate from Nala, which will go to polls in the last of the five phases on December 20.

Shillong MP and former Union Minister Agatha Sangma,

Meghalaya Home Minister James Sangma and NPP’s Jharkand chief Raj Kumar Poddar were also present at the programme.

The NPP was recently rec-ognised as a national political party by the Election Com-mission, making it one of the eight to enjoy this status.

Speaking on the occasion, Conrad Sangma recalled his father and former Lok Sabha Speaker P A Sangma had set up the party in 2013 and his dream was that it not remained confined to the northeast but spread to other states across India as a national party to help the deprived.

Hailing Prabhakar’s joining his party, Sangma said that he would help the NPP increase its footprint in Jharkhand and other states.

Prabhakar said that he does not have any personal grievance with the BJP but it needs to do some soul-searching in his state. He said, “the nation was pro-gressing on all fronts, but in Jharkhand, the aspirations of the people were being constantly snuffed. I dedicated all I had for the creation of Jharkhand (as a sep-arate state) and will continue to fight all my life for its development. I have full faith that I will get the assistance and guidance of NPP leaders in this endeavour...”.

Congress slams government over mobile tariff hikeIANS NEW DELHI

The Congress has slammed the government for the increase in mobile data and call charges announced by the cellphone companies.

The party has alleged that it is with the consent of the gov-ernment that cellphone com-panies are robbing the common people of their money.

The Congress also claimed that the present regime delib-erately denied PSUs like BSNL and MTNL from upgrading to 4G services.

The hike in mobile tariffs would result in windfall profit for the telecom service pro-viders to the tune of Rs36,000 crore given that there are 120 crore mobile users in the country, the party claimed.

Congress spokesperson Pawan Khera alleged that “private telecom service pro-viders have liabilities of Rs1.47 lakh crore towards the gov-ernment, which include spectrum and licencing fees. The court has directed the telecom service providers to pay their dues by January 2020, but the government has given them a two-year window besides allowing them to raise tariffs in two phases.”

Awareness driveVolunteers light candles forming the shape of a red ribbon and a message reading ‘Stop AIDS’ during an awareness event on the occasion of the ‘World Aids Day’ in Kolkata, yesterday.

The demands are the implementation of Inner Line Permit system across the northeastern states, exempting the northeastern region from purview of the Indo-Nepal Treaty of Friendship, 1950, implementation of National Register of Citizens to all the northeastern states.

Panel to examine prisoners’ civil libertiesINTERNEWS ISLAMABAD

The Ministry of Human Rights of Pakistan submitted to Islamabad High Court (IHC) the notification regarding constitution of a commission tasked with exam-ining civil liberties for prisoners across the country.

The notification submitted to IHC Chief Justice Athar Minallah stated that Minister for Human Rights Dr Shireen Mazari was chairperson of the commission.

Secretaries of human rights, health, interior ministries, former Human Rights Com-mission of Pakistan chairperson Zohra Yousaf, journalist Ghazi Salahuddin, advocate Zia Awan, former Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) director general Tariq Khosa and all provincial

chief secretaries would be its members.

The terms of reference of the commission included “to inves-tigate human rights violations in the prisons of Pakistan and lack of medical assistance and obstacles in access to a court of law of pris-oners who do not have means or assistance in this regard.”

The commission will inves-tigate “failure on part of the exec-utive authorities and respective government to fulfil obligations and enforce the Prison Rules and

the Code of Criminal Procedure 1898 regarding the prisoners who suffer from illness and diseases.”

It will “carry out a review of the prison rules and other rel-evant laws with the object of ful-filling the commitments of the State of Pakistan under the con-stitution, international treaties and conventions and would propose solutions to deal with human rights violations in the prisons and amendments in any law, rules or regulation, appro-

priate governance and man-agement system.”

According to the notification, the commission will suggest “how to ensure individual and institu-tional accountability” as well.

During the course of hearing, the IHC chief justice expressed serious concerns over the mis-eries of the inmates detained in different jails across the country especially Adiala Jail which according to the jail authorities were crowded.

The deputy superintendent of Adiala Jail on Friday informed the IHC that against the space for 1,500 inmates, the total number of prisoners in the jail had exceeded 4,000.

Justice Minallah remarked that he would visit the jail some time next week to examine the situation.

On November 22, the IHC

had observed that executive authorities were vested with power and jurisdiction under the prison rules and the code of criminal procedure to address grievances of the prisoners suf-fering from serious illness.

The court pointed out that the United Nations committee on economic, social and cultural rights had declared health a fun-damental right. And the interna-tional convention on civil and political rights provides that every human being has the inherent right to life and this right shall be protected by the law.

The court noted that the objective of sentencing somebody to a jail term was to make the convict and others realise what the former had done.

Pakistan FM welcomes US willingness to help Afghan talksANATOLIA ISLAMABAD

Pakistan’s Foreign Minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi has welcomed US President Donald Trump’s statement to pursue political settlement in Afghan-istan by resuming dialogue with the Taliban.

“President Trump’s con-tinued willingness to pursue political settlement in Afghan-istan by resuming dialogue with the Taliban is a positive devel-opment,” Qureshi told reporters on Saturday in Multan, a north-eastern city of Pakistan, according to the state-run Pakistan TV.

We hope talks between the US and Taliban will resume soon and it will help in estab-lishing peace and stability in Afghanistan as well as in the region, he added.

Reaffirming his country support, Qureshi said Pakistan will continue to support and facilitate the peace and recon-ci l iat ion process in Afghanistan.

On Thursday, Trump made a surprise visit to Afghanistan to celebrate Thanksgiving with the American troops.

“The Taliban wants to make a deal, and we’re meeting with them,” Trump said in a meeting with his Afghan counterpart President Ashraf Ghani during his visit at Bagram Airfield, according to The New York Times.

On Friday, a day after the Trump’s statement, Qatar-based Al-Jazeera reported that the US and Taliban have resumed informal talks and met in Doha to discuss the resumption of formal peace talks.

Early September, Trump declared the peace talks with the Taliban “dead” following an attack in the capital Kabul which killed a dozen people, including a US service member.

Bangladesh jails three over deadly road accidentAFP DHAKA

A Bangladeshi court yesterday sentenced three transport workers to life for a road crash last year that killed two students and triggered major anti-government protests.

Hundreds of thousands of students across the country took to the streets after the two teenagers were hit by an out-of-control bus that had been illegally racing through the streets of Dhaka in July 2018.

The three workers, including two drivers, were found guilty of culpable hom-icide, prosecutor Tapash Kumar Paul told reporters.

“We are happy with the verdict,” he said.

The rallies, which began over anger at road safety but soon morphed into opposition to the government, lasted more than a week and paralysed the capital’s traffic.

As the demonstrations spread across the country, Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina launched a heavy crackdown and more than 150 people were left injured after police fired tear gas and rubber bullets.

Pro-government groups allied with the government also attacked demonstrators, as well as journalists.

Traffic accidents have spiked in Bangladesh with at least 7,500 people — over 20 a day — dying on the road in 2018, according to the Pas-sengers Welfare Association, a private watchdog.

Student solidarity marchStudents and activists chant slogans demanding the restoration of student union during a country-wide student solidarity march in Hyderabad, Pakistan, on Friday.

Govt, oppn start efforts to stave off ECP crisisINTERNEWS ISLAMABAD

The opposition and the government of Pakistan have stepped into action to ward off the crisis of the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) being rendered ineffective with the chief election commissioner (CEC) set to retire on December 6 and two members of the commission yet to be appointed.

PML-N President Shehbaz Sharif, who is also the Leader of the Opposition in the National Assembly, has proposed three names for the post of the CEC in a letter to Prime Minister Imran Khan.

He wrote another letter to the National Assembly speaker and the Senate chairman, rec-ommending names for the posts of the ECP members from Sindh and Balochistan.

Similarly, the premier also wrote to the National Assembly speaker and Senate chairman on Saturday, suggesting names for the positions of the election commission members from the two provinces.

In a letter to PM Imran dated November 25, Shehbaz, who is cur-rently in London for the treatment of his brother and former prime minister Nawaz Sharif, proposed the names of former bureaucrat Nasir Mehmood Khosa, former ambassador to the US Jalil Abbas Jilani and retired grade-22 officer Akhlaq Ahmed Tarar for the post of the CEC.

“Article 213 (2A) of the Con-stitution required that ‘the prime minister shall in consultation with the leader of the opposition in the National Assembly forward three names for appointment of a commission to a parliamentary committee for hearing and confirmation of

anyone…’, Shehbaz wrote explaining the process for the appointment of the CEC.

“In my opinion, the consult-ative process required under the above provision should have been initiated by you (PM Imran) much earlier,” he complained.

“However, in an attempt to avoid possible discontinuity in the functioning of the ECP which is a constitutional body, I am taking the initiative after a long wait with a hope to hear from you.” The PML-N president stressed the need for a “consensus-oriented consultation in accordance with the binding judgments of the Supreme Court”.

“Unfortunately, my cogent arguments were not accepted [in my letters to you regarding the appointment of ECP members for Balochistan and Sindh and no such consensus-oriented consultation took place in the case of the appointment of the two members, resulting in (a) deadlock in the parlia-mentary committee,” Shehbaz told PM Imran in the letter.

He added that the government and the opposition must endeavour to avoid any such impasse by making, “serious, sincere and genuine effort to evolve a con-sensus by [a] mutual discussion of the merits and demerits of the con-cerned candidate”.

In a separate letter written to National Assembly Speaker Asad Qaiser and Senate Chairman Sadiq Sanjrani, Shehbaz recom-mended Shah Mehmood Jatoi, Muhammad Rauf Atta and Rahila Durrani for the position of the ECP member from Balochistan.

For the post of the ECP member from Sindh, he pro-posed the names of Nisar Durrani, Justice (retd) Abdul Rasul Memon and Aurangzeb Haq.

Benazir case: Court seeks details of Musharraf properties for seizureINTERNEWS RAWALPINDI

The Anti-Terrorist Court (ATC) of Pakistan’s Judge Shaukat Kamal Dar has ordered the Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) to present full details of Musharraf’s property for confiscation in Benazir Bhutto murder case.

The court has given two days’ time to the FIA to present details of Musharraf’s property for con-fiscation till December 2, 2019. The court has already confiscated moveable and immovable prop-erties of former military dictator in BB murder case.

But, FIA has told the court that Musharraf yet having some other properties in the country which are not confiscated. On this, the court has directed to present full details of other properties of Musharraf for confiscation.

The FIA special prosecutor appeared in Rawalpindi ATC and requested for some more time to present full details of Mush-arraf’s property. The court has accepted the FIA request and given two days to present full details of Musharraf’s property till December 2.

The court has already con-fiscate Musharraf’s eight prop-erties in Pakistan. These include a house in Karachi worth Rs5 million, a plot at Khayaban-e-Faisal Phase 8 worth Rs1.5m, a plot in DHA Karachi worth Rs1.5 million, a plot in DHA Phase II Islamabad worth Rs750m, a plot in Lahore worth Rs6m, a farm-house at Islamabad Chak Shehzad worth Rs6m.

He also has bank accounts at Askari Bank, Rawalpindi, NBP Rawalpindi, Habib Metropolitan Bank Pindi Cantt, Bank Alfalah

Blue Area Islamabad, Askari Bank GHQ Branch Rawalpindi, NBP Super Market Islamabad, Union National Bank Super Market and HSBC London.

There is an estimated amount of $20m in foreign banks and Rs1.25m in national banks.

As Musharraf had been declared a proclaimed offender, the ATC then initiated a process for attachment of his moveable and immoveable properties.

The trial of the Benazir murder suspects had com-menced in January 2008. However, the government in 2009 ordered a fresh probe into the assassination.

Subsequently, a JIT of the Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) implicated the ex-military ruler Musharraf, then city police officer Saud Aziz and SSP Khurram Shahzad as accused.

People gather to rally in support of Myanmar State Counsellor Aung San Suu Kyi before she heads off to the International Court of Justice (ICJ), in Yangon, Myanmar, yesterday.

Hundreds rally to show support for Suu KyiAP YANGON

About 700 people rallied yesterday to show support for Myanmar’s leader, Aung San Suu Kyi, as she prepares to defend the country against charges of genocide at the UN’s highest court.

Members of Suu Kyi’s National League for Democracy party swelled the ranks in front of the colonial-era City Hall in Yangon, Myanmar’s largest city, as the crowd waved national flags and listened to music and poetry. A popular local singer told them that “Mother Suu is the bravest human being in the world — her weapon is love.” Many carried banners saying, “We stand with you, Mother Suu.”

The case before the Interna-tional Court of Justice in The Hague relates to a harsh

counterinsurgency campaign waged by Myanmar’s military against members of the country’s Muslim Rohingya community in August 2017 in response to an insurgent attack.

More than 700,000 Rohingya fled to neighbouring Bangladesh to escape what has been called an ethnic cleansing campaign involving mass rapes, killings and the torching of homes.

The head of a UN fact-finding mission on Myanmar warned recently that “there is a serious risk of genocide recurring.” Gambia filed the case at the ICJ, also known as the world court, on behalf of the Organization of Islamic Cooperation.

The case alleges that Myan-mar’s actions against the Rohingya are “genocidal in char-acter because they are intended to destroy the Rohingya group in whole or in part.”

13MONDAY 2 DECEMBER 2019 ASIA

The terms of reference of the commission included “to investigate human rights violations in the prisons of Pakistan and lack of medical assistance and obstacles in access to a court of law of prisoners who do not have means or assistance in this regard.”

14 MONDAY 2 DECEMBER 2019ASIA

Thousands take to streets in fresh Hong Kong protestsREUTERS HONG KONG

Police fired tear gas to disperse thousands of anti-government protesters in Hong Kong yesterday, ending a rare lull in violence, as residents took to the streets chanting “revolution of our time” and “liberate Hong Kong”.

The protest in the busy shopping district of Tsim Sha Tsui followed a march by hun-dreds of people to the US con-sulate to show “gratitude” for US support for the demonstrations that have agitated the Chinese-ruled city for six months.

Shops and businesses in the area closed early as police sprayed volleys of tear gas at protesters, as they marched past the city’s Kowloon waterfront, home to luxury hotels and shopping malls.

Police made several arrests as the tear gas sent hundreds fleeing towards the harbour.

Hong Kong, a major financial hub, had enjoyed relative calm for the past week since local elections last week delivered an overwhelming victory to pro-democracy candidates.

Activists pledged, however, to maintain the momentum of the anti-government movement. Protests in the former British colony since June have at times

forced the closure of government offices, businesses, schools and even the international airport.

Waving posters that read “Never forget why you started” and black flags with the logo “Revolution now”, protesters occupied several main roads yesterday, with young residents and families with children filling the nearby streets.

“We had demonstrations, peaceful protests, lobbying inside the council, a lot of things we have done but they all failed,” said Felix, a 25-year-old uni-versity graduate.

“There are still five demands,” he said, referring to protesters’ calls that include an independent inquiry into police behaviour and the implemen-tation of universal suffrage.

Some black-clad protesters wearing gas masks built barri-cades and blocked roads near luxury stores, including Armani, while others headed towards Hung Hom, a district near the

ruined campus of Hong Kong Polytechnic University.

The campus turned into a battleground in mid-November when protesters barricaded themselves in and faced off riot police in violent clashes of petrol bombs, water cannon and tear gas. About 1,100 people were arrested last week, some while trying to escape.

Police withdrew from the university on Friday after col-lecting evidence and removing dangerous items including thou-sands of petrol bombs, arrows and chemicals that had been strewn around the site.

By the night yesterday, the crowds of protesters had dimin-ished and some roads reopened to traffic. Police said hundreds of “rioters” had hurled smoke bombs, “stirring up public fear and causing chaos” which forced them to fire tear gas.

Yesterday’s marches, which were permitted by authorities, came as a top Hong Kong official said the government was looking into setting up an independent committee to review the han-dling of the crisis, in which dem-onstrations have become increasingly violent.

The protesters are angry at what they see as erosion of the freedoms promised to the former British colony when it returned to Chinese rule in 1997.

People take part in a march from Tsim Sha Tsui district to Hung Hom in Hong Kong, yesterday.

China says op-ed by UN rights chief on Hong Kong interferes in internal affairsAFP GENEVA

China yesterday accused UN human rights chief Michelle Bachelet of “inappropriate” interference in the country’s affairs after she called for inves-tigations into alleged excessive use of force by police in Hong Kong.

China’s mission to the UN in Geneva said an op-ed written by Bachelet in the South China Morning Post was “erroneous”

and “violates the purposes and principles of the Charter of the United Nations.”

The article contains “inap-propriate comments on the sit-uation of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region... (and) interferes in China’s internal affairs,” said the Chinese mis-sion’s statement.

It added that China had “lodged strong representations” with the UN rights office in Geneva.

In the article published on

Saturday, Bachelet urged authorities in Hong Kong to conduct “a proper independent and impartial judge-led inves-tigation into reports of excessive use of force by the police.”

There have been repeated violent clashes between police and protesters, who have called for police accountability and fully free elections.

China’s mission to the UN said Bachelet’s article “will only embolden the rioters to conduct more severe radical violence.”

Evacuations in Philippines as typhoon cancels SEA Games eventAFP CLARK, PHILIPPINES

The Philippines has begun evac-uating thousands of people, local officials said yesterday, as a powerful typhoon rumbling in from the Pacific forced Southeast Asian Games organisers to cancel or reschedule some events.

The storm entered Philippine territory on Saturday evening, shortly before President Rodrigo Duterte and boxing superstar Manny Pacquiao launched the Games with a colourful opening ceremony.

Forecasters expect Typhoon Kammuri to make landfall today in the evening or tomorrow morning, packing gusts of 170 kilometres (105 miles) per hour

and maximum sustained winds of 140 kph. This year’s Games in Clark, Manila and Subic are already particularly complex, with a record 56 sports across dozens of venues that are in some cases hours apart by car.

Outdoor events in Subic — on the west coast of the main island of Luzon in the country’s north — were the first to be affected by Kammuri.

“The windsurfing has been cancelled until we have a more accurate picture of the weather,” Ramon Agregado, organising committee chief for Subic, said.

The women’s triathlon event was brought forward to Sunday, Agregado said, “so we could take advantage of the good weather”.

Duathlon events scheduled

for Tuesday will now take place today (Monday).

Agregado said that venues will not be changed, but in the event of bad weather the equipment will be taken down and put back together once events are rescheduled.

Some local government offices in central Bicol region urged people to begin leaving their homes on Saturday night.

By the afternoon yesterday, more than 3,000 people were in evacuation centres, mostly in schools and gymnasiums in Camarines Norte, the provincial disaster management office said.

Most of them live in coastal areas and low-lying places where flash floods and landslides are possible due to heavy rains

that will be brought by the typhoon.

No mandatory evacuation has been ordered yet, the dis-aster management office said.

School classes and gov-ernment offices in some towns will be closed today and tomorrow in anticipation of the heavy rains. The Philippines last hosted the Games in 2005, and history is on their side in their quest to win the medal count.

Seven of the last 11 SEA Games hosts have topped the table, reflecting the tradition of rewriting the sporting pro-gramme to suit local strengths.

The hosts got off to a flying start yesterday, with world champion Carlos Yulo winning the men’s artistic gymnastics

all-around event, Agatha Wong taking the women’s triathlon title and competitive dancing teams picking up 10 golds.

By the evening the home nation topped the table with more than 35 medals.

Around 8,750 athletes and team officials are expected at this year’s 30th edition — the biggest ever — along with another 12,000 volunteers. Organisers hope more than 500 million viewers will tune in on TV by the end of competition on December 11. In an eclectic programme, Olympic sports like swimming and athletics sit side-by-side with regional favourites such as martial arts, and this year ath-letes will even battle an obstacle race course in Manila.

Heavy rains in southern ThailandPeople wade through a flooded road after seasonal rains at Ra-Ngae district in southern Thailand’s Narathiwat province, yesterday.

S Korea, Japan FMs likely to meet in Madrid this monthBLOOMBERG SEOUL

Top South Korean and Japanese diplomats will likely meet on the sidelines of a gathering of Asian and European foreign ministers later this month to discuss a resolution to a year-long dispute, Yonhap News reported.

Foreign Minister Kang Kyung-wha and her Japanese counterpart Toshimitsu Motegi are expected to table the con-tentious forced labour issue, the root of recent tensions between the two, at a bilateral meeting in Madrid, the report said, without citing the source of the information.

The meeting is expected to take place around the December 15-16 ministerial gathering, and before an expected trilateral summit with China in December.

A disagreement over com-pensation for Korean workers forced into labour during the 1910-1945 colonisation by Japan spread to various sectors this year. Tokyo has imple-mented export curbs on South Korea, which threatened to ter-minate a bilateral military intel-ligence-sharing pact. Many Korean consumers have also boycotted Japanese products and cancelled trips to Japan.

Kang and Motegi last met in late November, just hours after Seoul temporarily and conditionally suspended a ter-mination of the military infor-mation pact with Japan.

China introduces mandatory face scans for phone usersAFP BEIJING

China will require telecom oper-ators to collect face scans when registering new phone users at offline outlets starting yesterday, according to the country’s infor-mation technology authority, as Beijing continues to tighten cyberspace controls.

In September, China’s industry and information tech-nology ministry issued a notice on “safeguarding the legitimate rights and interests of citizens online”, which laid out rules for e n f o r c i n g r e a l - n a m e registration.

The notice said telecom operators should use “artificial intelligence and other technical means” to verify people’s iden-tities when they take a new phone number.

A China Unicom customer service representative said that the December 1 “portrait matching” requirement means customers registering for a new phone number may have to record themselves turning their head and blinking.

“In next steps, our ministry will continue to...increase super-vision and inspection...and strictly promote the man-agement of real-name regis-tration for phone users,” said the September notice.

Though the Chinese gov-ernment has pushed for

real-name registration for phone users since at least 2013 — meaning ID cards are linked to new phone numbers — the move to leverage AI comes as facial recognition technology gains traction across China where the tech is used for eve-rything from supermarket checkouts to surveillance.

Online, Chinese social media users reacted with a mix of support and worry over the December 1 facial verification notice, with some voicing con-cerns their biometric data could be leaked or sold.

“This is a bit too much,” wrote one user on Twitter-like Weibo, commenting under an article about the new rules.

“Control, and then more control,” posted another.

While researchers have warned of the privacy risks associated with gathering facial recognition data, consumers have widely embraced the tech-nology — though China saw one of its first lawsuits on facial rec-ognition last month.

In early November, a Chinese professor filed a claim against a safari park in Hangzhou, eastern Zhejiang province for requiring face scans for entry, according to the local court.

In addition to mobile users, Chinese social media site Weibo was forced to roll out real-name registration in 2012.

Australian state rolls out mobile phone detection camerasREUTERS MELBOURNE

The Australian state of New South Wales, home to the coun-try’s largest city Sydney, rolled out mobile phone detection cameras yesterday, hoping to cut the number of fatalities on its roads by a third over two years, transport authorities said.

The mobile phone detection programme, one of the first in the world, involves cameras operating day and night in all weather conditions to determine

if a driver is handling a mobile phone, according to Transport for NSW, which manages the state’s transport services.

“It’s a system to change the culture,” NSW Police Assistant Commissioner Michael Corboy told Australian media last week.

The Netherlands launched a similar system in October, fining drivers ¤240 ($265) for illegal use of mobile phones, according to a statement on a Dutch police website.

Making or receiving voice calls while driving in NSW is

legal, but only when using a hands-free device. All other functions, such as video calling, using social media and photog-raphy, are illegal while behind the wheel.

So far this year 329 people have died on NSW roads, com-pared with 354 people for all of 2018, according to official sta-tistics. The state wants to cut the number of road fatalities by 30% by 2021. The mobile phone detection cameras use artificial intelligence to review images and detect illegal use of the

devices, Transport for NSW said in a statement.

Images that the automated system identifies as likely to contain a driver illegally using a mobile phone are verified by authorised personnel.

For the first three months after the detection systems are in operation, offending drivers will be issued warning letters. After that, the penalty will be a A$344 standard fine and a A$457 fine in a school zone. In both cases, drivers will also receive penalty points.

Police said hundreds of “rioters” had hurled smoke bombs, “stirring up public fear and causing chaos” which forced them to fire tear gas.

15MONDAY 2 DECEMBER 2019 EUROPE

British PM vows to strengthen prison sentences after attackREUTERS LONDON

Prime Minister Boris Johnson said yesterday that he would strengthen prison sentences, vowing to boost security after an attack in the British capital by a man convicted of terrorism who was released early from prison.

With less than two weeks before Britain heads to the polls, law and order has raced to the top of the election agenda after Usman Khan, wearing a fake suicide vest and wielding knives, killed two people on Friday before being shot dead by police.

Johnson’s Conservatives have championed tough police and prison measures, but oppo-nents have criticised the gov-erning party for overseeing almost a decade of cuts to public services.

Johnson said if he won the December 12 election he would invest more money in the prison system and make sentences tougher.

“We are going to bring in tougher sentences for serious sexual and violent offenders and

for terrorists,” he told the BBC’s Andrew Marr show.

“I absolutely deplore the fact that this man was out on the street, I think it was absolutely repulsive and we are going to take action.” He was keen to portray his rival for prime min-ister, Jeremy Corbyn, as being weak on crime, blaming the Labour Party for bringing in a law that automatically released some prisoners early when it was in government more than a decade ago.

Johnson said there were probably about 74 people con-victed of serious offences who had been released under the leg-islation, adding that they were

being monitored to ensure there was no threat to the public.

Corbyn, a veteran peace campaigner, said he believed convicted terrorists should “not necessarily” serve their full prison terms.

“It depends on the circum-stances, it depends on the sen-tence, but crucially it depends on what they’ve done in the prison,” he told Sky News.

Corbyn said Conservative cuts to community policing, the probation service, mental health, and youth and social services could “lead to missed chances to intervene in the lives of people who go on to commit inex-cusable acts”.

“You can’t keep people safe on the cheap,” he said in a speech yesterday.

Khan’s attack on a Friday on London Bridge stirred memories of Britain’s last election in 2017, when three militants killed eight and injured at least 48 in the same part of the capital.

Bystanders on Friday wrestled Khan to the ground before the police shot him dead. So far the police have found no

evidence to suggest Khan was working with others.

Both of the people killed were Cambridge University graduates. One has been named as Jack Merritt, who worked for the group that organised a prisoner rehabilitation con-ference attended by Khan before his attack.

The other victim, a woman,

was a former student at the university.

The attack brought a sombre tone to what has often been an ill-natured election campaign, which is presenting voters with a stark choice — Labour’s promise to raise taxes on the rich and businesses to fund a much expanded state or the Conserv-atives’ pledge to “get Brexit

done” and move onto other issues. While Corbyn’s team struck a moderate tone, with his top legal policy adviser Shami Chakrabarti questioning whether it was the time to make “knee-jerk” policy changes, Johnson again said only he could deliver Brexit, allowing Britain to turn to reforms such as to the criminal justice system.

Police officers stand at a cordon as messages of condolences and floral tributes are seen near the scene of a stabbing on London Bridge, in London, yesterday.

New EU leaders take office vowing to tackle climate changeAP BRUSSELS

A new team of leaders took office at the helm of the European Union yesterday, pledging to put the fight against climate change at the top of their agenda and foster European unity despite the likely departure of Britain from the 28-nation bloc.

Germany’s Ursula von der Leyen officially replaced Jean-Claude Juncker as president of the EU’s powerful executive arm, which polices EU laws and nego-tiates trade on behalf of member countries. The former German defence minister becomes the first woman in the post.

Former Belgian premier Charles Michel succeeded Donald Tusk as president of the European Council, meaning he will chair summits of national leaders and drive their common agenda forward.

In the company of European Parliament President David Sassoli and new European

Central Bank President Christine Lagarde, Von der Leyen and Michel marked the start of their five-year terms in Brussels with events marking the 10th anni-versary of the Lisbon Treaty, the EU’s rule book.

At the commission’s head-quarters, as workers were still moving in office furniture and equipment, von der Leyen out-lined her schedule, seeming

somewhat relieved to be at work after “a difficult and bumpy start” getting her policy commissioners approved by the European Parliament.

Setting the tone for what she describes as “geopolitical com-mission,” Von der Leyen held phone talks with the leaders of China, South Korea, Turkey, Indonesia and Australia, with more due later. Showing that she is hitting the ground running on an issue of major European concern, von der Leyen will head today to Madrid for the interna-tional climate conference.

“The EU wants to be the first climate neutral continent in 2050. Europe is leading in this topic and we know that we have to be ambitious for our planet,” she told reporters. On Friday, von der Leyen makes her first foreign trip and has chosen Africa. In Addis Ababa, she will meet Moussa Faki Mahamat, chairman of the African Union Commission, as well as the president and prime minister of Ethiopia.

REUTERS BRUSSELS

European Union leaders yesterday celebrated the 10th anniversary of the Lisbon Treaty, the union’s legal cornerstone, amid calls to reform a bloc weakened over the past decade by economic and migration crises, rising euroscepticism and Brexit.

Yesterday was also the first day at work for a new EU exec-utive under its German pres-ident, Ursula von der Leyen.

“Europe is a promise, is future, is something we all have to build, brick by brick and day by day,” von der Leyen said.

Ten years after the Lisbon Treaty came into force, a bloc conceived to forge unity from

the ashes of World War Two finds itself beset by divisions.

Germany and France, long the EU’s main axis, last week called for a “Conference on the Future of Europe”, reporting by mid-2022, to make the EU “ m o r e u n i t e d a n d sovereign”..

The Lisbon Treaty sim-plified decision making in a union recently expanded to 28 members with the inclusion of 12 states from the former Soviet bloc. It strengthened the role of the elected European Parliament and reduced gov-ernments’ veto powers over legislative changes, but still left several areas such as foreign policy and tax requiring una-nimity — and thus vulnerable to veto from a single member state.

EU marks a decade of Lisbon Treaty amid calls for reform

European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen

Malta PM holds emergency talks amid pressure to quitAFP VALLETTA

Malta’s prime minister yesterday won his party’s backing to stay on in his post despite protesters’ calls for him to go for his handling of a probe into the 2017 murder of journalist Daphne Caruana Galizia.

Joseph Muscat got the unanimous backing of Labour MPs at an emergency meeting, called a day after tycoon Yorgen Fenech was charged with complicity in the murder. A court has also frozen Fenech’s assets.

The investigation has rocked the southern Mediterranean island, reaching the highest echelons of government.

Critics including members of Caruana Galizia’s family have accused Muscat, 45, of protecting those involved in murdering the popular journalist and blogger who exposed cronyism and sleaze within the tiny country’s political and business elite.

But a party insider said after the four-hour meeting yesterday: “The entire group was supportive of Joseph Muscat, and we told him that it’s for him to choose when to step down.”

Meeting at Muscat’s summer home, the MPs also agreed to reinstate Chris Cardona as economy minister and deputy leader.

Cardona had announced last week that he was “suspending himself” as the inves-tigation into the killing of Caruana Galizia in a car bomb attack implicated top gov-ernment officials.

Last week, the scandal claimed the scalps of Muscat’s top aide Keith Schembri and the former tourism minister, Konrad Mizzi.

Police sources said Fenech had iden-tified Schembri as the “real mastermind” behind the killing.

Caruana Galizia, described as a “one-woman WikiLeaks”, accused Schembri of corruption along with Mizzi and Cardona.

Caruana Galizia’s family and thousands of protesters have repeatedly taken to the streets calling for Muscat’s resignation.

Last week, the Council of Europe’s special rapporteur Pieter Omtzigt also called on the Labour PM to step down “at the earliest possible opportunity”.

But Muscat himself insisted he would remain in power until the case was “closed”.

On Saturday, party insiders said that Muscat was ready to go once those behind the killing had been charged.

The Labour Party would then elect his successor on January 18.

“The prime minister has said from the

outset that he will leave no stone unturned to solve this despicable murder under his watch, and he delivered exactly that with the arraignment of someone who is believed to have commissioned the murder,” a party insider said.

Meanwhile a European Parliament del-egation is due to arrive in Malta today and stay until Wednesday.

Led by Dutch MEP Sophie in’t Veld, it will examine doubts about the judiciary’s independence and investigate allegations of high-level corruption.

“Malta is part of Europe,” in’t Veld tweeted. “This concerns us all.” Leaked emails revealed in court indicated that both Schembri and Mizzi stood to receive pay-ments from a company owned by Fenech.

Protesters holding banners demonstrate demanding justice for the murdered journalist Daphne Caruana Galizia, outside the Court of Justice, in Valletta, Malta, yesterday.

IS detainee held on return to IrelandREUTERS DUBLIN

An Irish citizen aligned to Islamic State deported from Turkey along with her two-year-old daughter was arrested on her return to Dublin yesterday on suspicion of terrorist offences, Irish police said.

Ireland agreed to repatriate Lisa Smith, 38, and her two-year-old daughter after Ankara began deporting foreign cit-izens linked to Islamic State earlier this month.

Dublin has said for months that it has a responsibility to bring Smith back to Ireland and that its main concern was for the safe repatriation of her daughter.

The girl was now being cared for by relatives, police said.

Police: No sign of terror motive in Hague attackAFP THE HAGUE

Dutch police said yesterday they had found no indications of a terrorist motive after arresting a homeless man for stabbing three teenagers in The Hague.

The 35-year-old man was detained on Saturday after the assault, which happened as shoppers hunted Black Friday bargains in the city’s main com-mercial street.

“The precise circumstances of the stabbing incident are still unclear. No indications have yet been found to show that there was a terrorist motive,” police said on Twitter.

“The motive for the stabbing incident is still being investigated.” Police said the suspect had no fixed abode and was “arrested at a homeless shelter in the centre of The Hague” before being taken to a police station for questioning.

They had previously said they were investigating “several scenarios”.

The victims were a 13-year-old boy and two 15-year-old girls, none of whom knew each other. They were all treated in hospital but released overnight. The Neth-erlands has seen a series of terror attacks and plots, although not so far on the scale of those in other European countries.

Six EU countries join barter system for Iran tradeAFP PARIS

Paris, London and Berlin yesterday welcomed six new European coun-tries to the INSTEX barter mech-anism, which is designed to circumvent US sanctions against trade with Iran by avoiding use of the dollar.

“As founding shareholders of the Instrument in Support of Trade Exchanges (INSTEX), France, Germany and the United Kingdom warmly welcome the decision taken by the governments of Belgium, Denmark, Finland, the Netherlands, Norway and Sweden, to join INSTEX as shareholders,” the three said in a joint statement. The Paris-based INSTEX functions as a clearing house allowing Iran to continue to sell oil and import other products or services in exchange. The system has not yet enabled any transactions.

Washington in 2018 unilaterally withdrew from the international agreement governing Iran’s nuclear programme and reinstated heavy sanctions against Tehran.

The accession of the six new members “further strengthens INSTEX and demonstrates European efforts to facilitate legitimate trade between Europe and Iran”, France, Germany and Britain said.

It represents “a clear expression of our continuing commitment to the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action”, the trio added.

Johnson said there were probably about 74 people convicted of serious offences who had been released early, adding that they were being monitored to ensure there was no threat to the public.

16 MONDAY 2 DECEMBER 2019EUROPE

SPD leadership choice threatens German coalitionREUTERS BERLIN

The future of Germany’s ruling coalition looked shaky after the election of new leaders of the Social Democrats (SPD) who are demanding a shift in policies, while several senior conserva-tives yesterday ruled out talks to renegotiate a governing agreement.

Two strong leftist critics of the coalition with Chancellor Angela Merkel’s conservatives — Norbert Walter-Borjans and Saskia Esken — won a vote for leadership of the Social

Democrats on Saturday, possibly putting the country, Europe’s largest economy, at a political crossroads.

Their ascendancy raises the chances of an early election or minority government if the SPD leaves the coalition, which could trigger political instability at a time when the far-right Alter-native for Germany (AfD) has become the country’s third-largest party.

Walter-Borjans and Esken, who ran on a joint ticket, want to renegotiate the coalition deal to focus more on social justice, investment and climate policies,

setting them on collision with Chancellor Angela Merkel’s Christian Democrats (CDU).

“Of course nothing will be renegotiated now. That’s quite clear,” Armin Laschet, the Christian Democrat premier of North Rhine-Westphalia, told broadcaster Deutschlandfunk.

Asked whether there was movement on the issues that the new SPD leadership wants to change in a new agreement, Laschet said: “There is no such thing.” Walter-Borjans and Esken beat Finance Minister Olaf Scholz and Klara Geywitz, who said they would support their

rivals. SPD delegates are set to approve the leadership, elected via a party ballot that ended, at a party conference starting on December 6. They will also vote on the coalition. In the latest sign that established party tie-ups are being tested, a three-way coa-lition consisting of CDU, SPD and the Greens agreed yesterday on a government deal in Saxony, where the AfD came in second in a September election.

SPD members expect the new leadership duo will not rec-ommend leaving the coalition but rather will seek more con-cessions from the CDU.

Climate crisis has reached point of no return: UN chiefAFP MADRID

The devastating impacts of global warming that threaten humanity are a pushback from Nature under assault, UN chief Antonio Guterres warned yesterday ahead of a key climate conference.

“For many decades the human species has been at war with the planet, and now the planet is fighting back,” he said, decrying “utterly inadequate” efforts of the world’s major econ-omies to curb carbon pollution.

“We are confronted with a global climate crisis and the point of no return is no longer over the horizon, it is in sight and hurtling towards us.” Guterres flagged a UN report to be released tomorrow confirming the last five years are the

warmest on record, with 2019 likely to be the second hottest ever.

“Climate-related disasters are becoming more frequent, more deadly, more destructive,” he said on the eve of the 196-nation COP25 climate change talks in Madrid.

Human health and food

security are at risk, he added, noting that air pollution asso-ciated with climate change accounts for seven million pre-mature deaths every year.

The Paris Agreement calls for capping global warming at under two degrees Celsius, but recent science has made clear that the treaty’s aspiration goal of 1.5C is a far safer threshold.

A UN Environment Pro-gramme report last week con-cluded that CO2 emissions would need to drop by a vertiginously

steep 7.6 percent per year over the next decade to stay within that limit.

But Guterres insisted that the 1.5C goal is doable. All that is missing, he said, is political will.

“Let’s be clear — up to now, our efforts to reach this target have been utterly inadequate,” he said. “The world’s largest emitters are not pulling their weight.” Current national pledges — if carried out — would see global temperatures rise by at least 3C, a recipe for human misery, according to scientists.

The UN chief’s comments were clearly aimed at the handful of countries responsible for more than half of global greenhouse gas emissions, though he did not call them out by name.

President Donald Trump has set in motion the process that

will see the United States withdraw from the Paris deal by year’s end. At the same time, a US Congressional delegation going to Madrid will be headed by House Speaker Nancy Pelosi.

“We want to give every opportunity to the US to remain within the commitments in the fight against climate change,” a spokesperson for the Spanish prime minister’s office said.

Other major emitters — China, India, Russia and Brazil — have given scant indication that they will deepen their com-mitments in the near term.

Guterres did single out the European Union as playing a constructive role.

“Europe has an absolutely essential role to play, and must be a cornerstone in the global negotiations leading to carbon neutrality,” he said.

UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres

19 dead as bus plunges into frozen river in RussiaAFP MOSCOW

A passenger bus plunged off a bridge onto a frozen river in Siberia yesterday, killing 19 of the more than 40 people on board, authorities said.

A tyre on the bus burst as it was crossing the bridge over the Kuenga river in eastern Siberia’s Zabaikalsky region.

The vehicle, which was travelling from Sretensk to Chita, skidded off the road and onto the ice. “Nineteen people died and 21 received various injuries,” the office of the governor of the Zabaikalsky region said in a statement. Two helicopters with medics were dispatched to the scene.

Russia’s Investigative Committee, which probes serious incidents, said it had opened a criminal inquiry into a possible violation of traffic safety rules.

Road accidents are common in Russia, often due to alcohol, the poor state of roads and failure to observe traffic rules.

However, the number of road deaths has gone down in recent years, to around 20,000 per year.

Rescuers gather at the site of a bus crash at Kuenga River, some 60km from Sretensk, in Russia’s Siberia region.

Turin centre evacuated due to WWII bombAFP ROME

More than 10,000 residents of central Turin had to be evac-uated early yesterday while experts disarmed a 500-pound British bomb from World War II, local authorities said.

Residents living closest to the site were told to leave a “red zone” around Nizza Street in the city’s historic district while the experts tackled the bomb, dropped more than 70 years ago.

Another 50,000 in an outer perimeter were advised to either leave or stay indoors from 7:00 am (0600 GMT) until 4:00 pm.

But city officials were able to lift the alert at around 2:00 pm after the bomb disposal team announced they had com-pleted their work. The device had contained 65 kilos (140 pounds) of dynamite, they said.

Turin Mayor Chiara Appendino was present at the site and planned to also visit those who had been evacuated to buildings at a fairground on the edge of the city.

Airspace above Turin was closed during the operation as was the Porta Nuova train station which is located along Nizza Street.

Army experts have moved the deactivated bomb to Cirie, about 13 kilometres (eight miles) northwest of Turin. There, it will be permanently destroyed in a disused quarry.

Protest outside Ukrainian President’s office Activists of far-right Ukrainian party ‘Right Sector’ rally near Ukrainian President’s office in Kiev, yesterday, before a key December 9 summit in Paris aimed at ending the hostilities between Ukraine and Russia. Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelenskiy and Russia’s President Vladimir Putin will take part in a December 9 summit in Paris, moderated by the leaders of France and Germany, aimed at ending more than five years of fighting between the two countries.

Irish Premier suffers by-election defeats ahead of national voteREUTERS DUBLIN

Irish Prime Minister Leo Varad-kar’s Fine Gael party failed to win any of the four by-elections held to fill parliamentary vacancies on Saturday, a blow ahead of a general election he plans to hold in the next six months.

The governing centre-right party had held one of the seats left empty after four lawmakers successfully ran for European elections in May. Its main rival Fianna Fail captured two of the seats, a gain of one, while left-wing Sinn Fein and the Green Party added a lawmaker each in the 158-seat Irish parliament.

The Fine Gael-led minority government has ruled through a cooperation deal with Fianna Fail that they extended last year as the uncertainty created by Britain’s protracted exit from

the European Union kept either side from calling an election.

Both have identified the second quarter of 2020 as their preferred date to go to the polls again and, with the two dom-inant parties of Irish politics closely matched in most opinion polls, whoever edges it will likely lead another minority government.

While a gain was good news for centre-right Fianna Fail, Sinn Fein’s win in one of two Dublin contests was also a welcome boost for Ireland’s third-largest party whose political ascent suffered a major setback at local elections in May.

Fine Gael and Fianna Fail both refuse to govern with Sinn Fein, the former political wing of the Irish Republican Army (IRA), meaning the resurgent Greens could decide whether Varadkar or Fianna Fail leader Micheal Martin heads up the

next minority administration if little divides their parties.

The Green Party’s first-ever by-election win followed a strong showing at European and local polls in May, part of a growing trend for environ-mental parties around many parts of Europe with climate change becoming a top concern.

“All round it’s probably not a good day for the government but not fatal, governments do tend to lose these by elections but it does call into question the wisdom of having four by-elec-tions possibly just a few months before a general election, because the momentum is with other parties now,” said Theresa Reidy, a politics lecturer at Uni-versity College Cork.

“In a general election, though, we will still be looking at Leo Varadkar versus Micheal Martin for who will be Taoi-seach (Prime Minister).”

Burglers hit Stasi Museum in BerlinAFP BERLIN

Berlin’s Stasi Museum, which showcases items of East Germany’s hated secret police, was burgled overnight, author-ities said yesterday, days after a spectacular heist in Dresden.

The burglars broke in through a window on the first floor, and “smashed several showcases, and stole medals and jewellery”, said police in a statement.

They made off with their spoils undetected.

The hour of the raid was unclear but a museum employee found showcases smashed in the exhibition rooms yesterday morning.

The latest robbery came hot on the heels of a brazen heist at the Green Vault museum in Dresden’s Royal Palace on November 25.

Italy’s Benetton family calls for 5-Star to stop ‘hate campaign’REUTERS MILAN

Italy’s Benetton family, in a letter to media, said it had played no role in running a motorway bridge that collapsed last year killing 43 people, and asked politicians such as 5-Star leader Luigi Di Maio to halt their “hate campaign.”

The Benettons are the biggest investor in infra-structure group Atlantia, owner of Autostrade per l’Italia which operates the motorway in Genoa where the viaduct gave way.

“I want to clarify a big mis-understanding: no member of our family has ever run Auto-strade,” Luciano Benetton, 84, who has taken back the reins of the family businesses, wrote in the letter published in full by la Repubblica daily yesterday.

“We certainly acknowledge our share of responsibility in backing a management who turned out to be inadequate, a management that had full powers and complete confi-dence from shareholders,” he said.

The Benetton family has come under heavy attack fol-lowing the disaster in August 2018.

“I’m not looking for leniency for Autostrade, mis-takes must be paid for, but I find unacceptable the hate cam-paign against our family, with instant accusations that keep arriving strenuously from gov-ernment members such as Di Maio,” Luciano Benetton added in the letter.

“We are confronted with a global climate crisis and the point of no return is no longer over the horizon, it is in sight and hurtling towards us.”

Congressional investigators have been looking into whether Trump abused his power by pressuring Ukraine to launch investigations of former Democratic Vice-President Joe Biden, who is running to unseat him in the 2020 presidential election, and a discredited conspiracy theory that Ukraine, not Russia, interfered in the 2016 US presidential election.

17MONDAY 2 DECEMBER 2019 AMERICAS

US Congress ramps up impeachment focusREUTERS WASHINGTON

US President Donald Trump faced two deadlines in Congress this week as Democrats prepared to shift the focus of their impeachment inquiry from fact-finding to the consideration of possible charges of misconduct over his dealings with Ukraine.

The Democratic-led House of Representatives Judiciary Committee, tasked with consid-ering charges known as articles of impeachment, has given Trump until 6pm EST (2300 GMT) to say whether he or his legal counsel will participate in a Wednesday impeachment hearing.

This first-in-a-series of expected Judiciary proceedings will hear testimony on the impeachment process estab-lished under the US Constitution from a panel of legal experts that has yet to be named.

Hearings before the com-mittee, which has responsibility

for crafting any formal charges against Trump, are a major step toward possible charges. Dem-ocratic House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, who will make the final decision, has not yet said whether the Republican pres-ident should be impeached. But in a letter to supporters last week, she called for him to be held accountable for his actions. Trump has denied any wrong-doing, calling the impeachment inquiry a “witch hunt”. The White House has not yet indicated whether it will take part in the committee proceedings.

Judiciary Chairman Jerrold Nadler also set a 5pm EST (2200

GMT) Friday deadline for Trump to say whether he will mount a defense at further proceedings expected next week to examine evidence against him.

Three investigating panels, led by the House Intelligence Committee, are due to release a formal report this week when lawmakers return on Tuesday from a Thanksgiving recess. The report will outline evidence gathered by the Intelligence, Foreign Affairs and Oversight committees.

Congressional investigators have been looking into whether Trump abused his power by pressuring Ukraine to launch

investigations of former Demo-cratic Vice-President Joe Biden, who is running to unseat him in the 2020 presidential election, and a discredited conspiracy theory that Ukraine, not Russia, interfered in the 2016 US presi-dential election.

Representative Doug Collins, the senior Republican on the Judiciary Committee, said in an interview with “Fox News Sunday” that the White House will mount a defense during upcoming impeachment pro-ceedings and suggested calling Adam Schiff, the Democratic chairman of the Intelligence Committee, as a witness.

In a separate interview on ABC’s “This Week,” another Judi-ciary Committee Republican, Rep-resentative Tom McClintock, sug-gested the possibility that Trump’s acting chief of staff, Mick Mul-vaney, and his personal attorney, Rudy Giuliani should testify.

Representative Hakeem Jef-fries, a member of House Dem-ocratic leadership and the

Judiciary Committee, told Fox News, “We all may want to hear from John Bolton. We all would like to hear from Mick Mul-vaney.” In September, Trump fired Bolton from his job as national security adviser, citing policy disagreements.

The President and his Repub-lican allies in Congress say the inquiry has been rushed and unfair to Trump by not allowing the White House to have legal counsel present or call witnesses during weeks of closed-door testimony and open hearings before the House Intelligence Committee.

However, Republican law-makers were able to question witnesses during the closed hearings and called three wit-nesses during public hearings that wrapped up last week.

“The president may well look at this, or his counsel may well look at this, and say: Why would we want to get in here and legit-imize this process, when it was made illegitimate at the beginning by shutting us out?”

said Republican Representative Tom Cole.

The House Judiciary Com-mittee could vote on whether to recommend articles of impeachment within the next two weeks, setting the stage of a possible impeachment vote by the full House before Christmas, according to Democratic aides.

If the House impeaches Trump, the Republican-con-trolled Senate would hold a trial to determine whether he should be removed from office.

House Judiciary Democrat Zoe Lofgren, interviewed on CNN’s “State of the Union” program, urged Republicans and her fellow Democrats to keep an open mind as they weigh pos-sible impeachment charges against Trump.

“If we’ve got it wrong - it doesn’t look like we do - I would welcome an opportunity to reach a different conclusion about the president’s misconduct. We have to at least allow for that possi-bility,” Lofgren said.

Democratic 2020 US presidential candidate and former US Vice-President Joe Biden talks to six-year-old Olivia Cooper during a stop on his “No Malarkey!” campaign bus tour in Denison, Iowa, US.

Biden launches Iowa trip with focus on Trump, rural AmericaAP COUNCIL BLUFFS, IOWA

Joe Biden launched an eight-day bus tour of Iowa late on Saturday pro-jecting confidence, ignoring his many Democratic presidential competitors and pledging that he will unseat Pres-ident Donald Trump in 2020.

The former vice-president pledged first to win the February 3 Iowa caucuses, despite recent polls suggesting his standing there has slipped in recent months. “I promise you, I promise you,” Biden told a few hundred supporters outside his Council Bluff campaign office, “we’re going to win this race, and we’re going to beat Donald Trump, and we’re going to change America.”

Behind the optimism, Biden aides acknowledge he must sharpen his message and bolster his voter out-reach operation ahead of the cau-cuses that start Democrats’ 2020 voting. But his advisers also insist he has wide support and remains well-positioned to recover any lost ground.

His chief argument — his per-ceived strength against Trump — was on clear display. Sidestepping his philosophical tussle with progressive Sens. Elizabeth Warren and Bernie Sanders over the party’s direction,

Biden struck a general-election posture. He added an emphasis on small town and rural America, an electoral swath where Democrats have struggled in recent elections but that could prove critical in both the nominating fight and November battlegrounds.

“We’re going to touch on what we think is a forgotten part of this cam-paign,” Biden said, bemoaning the effects of Trump’s tariffs on Iowa farmers and highlighting his own rural policy plans shaped with the help of former Iowa Governor Tom Vilsack. The former Obama agriculture sec-retary recently gave Biden his most high-profile Iowa endorsement.

Jill Biden, the candidate’s wife, followed suit in Council Bluffs, intro-ducing her husband as the “only can-didate who can take on Trump in places like Florida and Wisconsin and Pennsylvania and Michigan”.

Iowa polls suggest that Biden, while a front-runner nationally, is in a jumble near the top. Mayor Pete Buttigieg, 37, of South Bend, Indiana, appears to hold a narrow edge over Biden, 77; Warren, 70; and Sanders, 78. The senators have animated the party’s left flank, while Buttigieg joins Biden in Democrats’ center-left wing but is calling for generational change.

Biden aides reject any framing of the bus tour as a reset; they see it as a way to drive home his potential strengths with Democratic voters who collective cite Trump’s defeat as their top priority, even beyond the particulars of intraparty debates on issues like universal health care.

In rural Denison, Iowa, Vilsack touted Biden as the best option for any Democrat, regardless of ideology. “You can’t do any of that unless you win,” he said of candidates’ various policy pitches. “You’ve gotta win.” Before Biden’s visit, Vilsack predicted in an interview that Biden would see his Iowa support rise because voters “become more and more practical about this” as caucus night approaches.

Thus far, Buttigieg, Warren and Sanders have drawn consistently larger Iowa crowds than Biden, while some party activists criticize his cam-paign as insufficiently aggressive.

“In terms of people out there knocking on doors, who attend other campaign events, district events, I can’t name a member of the southeast Iowa Democrats who’s supporting Joe Biden,” said Glenn Hurst, a leader of Iowa Democrats’ Rural Caucus.

Bobbie Moore, a party volunteer and Biden supporters who came to see him Saturday, stopped short of criticizing the campaign. But she noted the crowd “isn’t one-10th of what was here for Pete” Buttigieg just days ago.

Nothing can stop bacterium decimating Florida’s orangesAFP FORT PIERCE

Peter Spyke has two types of oranges in his groves: those that are the colour orange — and those that are green, unsaleable and responsible for the collapse of Florida’s orange crop over the past 15 years.

Florida farmers have observed, almost powerless, the spread of the huanglongbing bacterium (“yellow dragon disease” in Chinese), known worldwide as “HLB” and native to China. It was first reported in Florida in 2005, and has been conquering groves ever since.

The bacterium causes one of the most devastating citrus diseases called “greening”: the leaves of the infected trees turn pale, the fruit fails to ripen and remain green, and even-tually fall to the ground.

The bacterium is transmitted by a small insect called citrus psyllid. Compared to the 2003-2004 season, Florida’s orange production will be down by 80 percent this season (har-vests last from November to April depending on the citrus variety). Grapefruits are the most affected.

“We’ve lost a great deal of our productive capacity and along with that we’ve lost juice plants, we’ve lost jobs, we’ve lost packing houses,” said Spyke, a third-generation citrus farmer. “At this point we haven’t

identified any way to make the trees immune to HLB,” he said during a tour of his orchard.

Florida citrus farmers have gen-erally been reluctant to destroy con-taminated trees, and as a result 90 percent of their groves are infected — compared to only 19 percent in Brazil, while Europe so far has been spared the blight. Sprays used to treat trees in Florida have been ineffective. Of 7,000 citrus growers in the state in 2004, 5,000 have thrown in the towel, according to The Washington Post.

Spyke is taking a long-term approach to the problem by searching for citrus varieties that are naturally

more resistant to HLB. On his 30-acre farm he has planted two dozen vari-eties of citrus including lemons, oranges, mandarins and grapefruit.

The 68-year-old farmer knows it will take years, but is resigned to the idea that there is no miracle solution. He has also changed the way he looks after the trees. “We have to use appro-priate cultural practices that will help it deal with the disease,” he said.

One solution is to feed the plants “slow release” fertilizer, so that the nutrient supply is regular and con-tinuous. This apparently helps some trees fight against the effects of HLB, which literally “starves” them to

death. This is one of the recommen-dations given by a research labo-ratory that focuses on citrus just a 10-minute drive from Spyke’s farm.

The University of Florida’s research center employs 40 scien-tists including researcher Johnny Fer-rarezi. “Everyone really wants to see a deadline for solving that, unfortu-nately we scientists don’t have it,” Ferrarezi said.

“What’s very important to say is that — after 15 years handling this disease in Florida, we did acquire a lot of knowledge that can allow us to manage the groves in a way better way.” The laboratory, under pressure from the industry and based on their research, has made available new varieties of oranges and mandarins that can produce more fruit despite the bacteria.

The lab has even suggested a simple and effective but expensive solution: covering the citrus trees with huge protective nets that block HLB-carrying insects, called Citrus Under Protective Screen or CUPS.

In an industry already suffering from a downturn, the question of dollars often comes up, as was the case at a late November meeting organized by the state. Researchers are hard at work searching for a genet-ically modified alternative, but these mutant oranges are far from being ready to be planted.

Citrus grower Peter Spyk holds a halved orange at Arapaho Citrus Management grove in Fort Pierce, Florida.

Sewer blockage pushes waste into some 300 New York City homesAP NEW YORK

A blocked sewer main flooded basements on Sat-urday with brown filth and left residents in the neighborhood near New York City’s Kennedy Airport feeling sickened by the stench.

A water condition caused the backup, pushing human waste into about 300 homes in Jamaica, Queens, officials said. Cynthia McKenzie said she woke up around 3am to an odor she thought was a gas leak, only to realize that sewage water was rushing into her basement.

As the water level rose, McKenzie said she raced to move furniture and other belongings - but some electronics couldn’t be saved. After a few hours, she said, her whole neighborhood was awash in fetid fluid.

“It’s messy,” said McKenzie, who posted photos showing murky water covering the floor of a basement bedroom and the bottom of a staircase.

“When you open it, it just smells,” she said. “It makes you want to vomit. We have to pack up all the clothes.” Mayor Bill de Blasio said crews were making repairs and bringing in pumping equipment to clear up the mess. The city’s water agency says drinking water is safe and unaffected, but de Blasio advised residents to reduce usage to cut down on water going into the blocked main.

McKenzie said she called 911 and the city’s 311 help line soon after discovering the sewage. A few firefighters eventually showed up, she said, but according to her, none of the city services could stop the flow of sewage. Officials have a culprit in mind: cooking grease that’s been poured down the drain.

The National Weather Service predicted more than a foot of snow in swaths of upstate New York and New England, as well as ice accumulations in parts of Pennsylvania.

Winter storm takes aim at Northeast

AP & BLOOMBERG NEW YORK

A powerful winter storm that’s been tormenting travellers across the US since before Thanksgiving moved to the Northeast yes-terday, packing one last punch of snow and ice as people make their way home after the holiday weekend.

The National Weather Service predicted more than a foot of snow in swaths of upstate New York and New England, as well as ice accumulations in parts of Pennsylvania.

The same weather system has been pummeling the US for days as it moves cross country, dumping heavy snow from parts of California to the northern Midwest and inundating other areas with rain.

The storm has been blamed for several deaths. Two boys, ages 5 and 8, died on Saturday near Patton, Missouri, when the vehicle they were riding in was swept off flooded roads. The bodies of two children were found in central Arizona after the vehicle they were in was swept away while crossing a swollen creek. A third child is missing. A 48-year-old man died

in a separate incident near Sedgewickville, Missouri, and a storm-related death was also reported in South dakota.

Major highways reopened yesterday in Wyoming and Colorado, a day after blizzard conditions clogged roads with snow drifts. Road crews were able to reopen all of Interstate 25 and most of I-80 in Wyoming early yesterday after strong winds abated. Major interstates in Colorado were also reopened.

Still, authorities warned trav-ellers to remain alert for slick conditions and blowing snow. The city of Duluth, Minnesota, was blanketed with 19.3 inches of snow as of 6am yesterday. The

city issued a “no travel advisory” at noon on Saturday and deemed the storm “historic”.

Farther south, precipitation was in the form of rain and thun-derstorms. As the storm shifts east, flight delays and cancella-tions are continuing to pile up — disrupting travellers heading home after Thanksgiving. As of 10am yesterday, 80 flights were delayed and 7 were cancelled at the three New York City-area air-ports, according to the flight tracking website FlightAware.

The Federal Aviation Admin-istration said some flights heading to Newark, New Jersey, are being delayed by an average of more than 2 1/2 hours. There were also dozens of

delays at airports in Chicago and Minneapolis. At Denver Interna-tional Airport, 100 flights were cancelled on Saturday because of high winds.

The National Weather Service expects significant travel impacts across wide swaths of the US this weekend as the storm is chased by a second weather system. Parts of New York, New Jersey and Connecticut are under a winter storm watch. New York City officials braced for messy roads till today.

“A powerful storm continues its eastward movement this weekend with heavy snow, pow-erful winds, and areas of wintry mix spreading across the Northern Tier,” the weather

service said in an advisory. Rain and thunderstorms, some severe, are expected farther south in the Lower Mississippi, Tennessee, and Ohio valleys.

Blizzard conditions are already impacting the High Plains and around Duluth, Minnesota, on the shores of Lake Superior. Widespread snowfall of 10 inches or more is likely, with as much as 20 inches or more in places.

Severe storms are also pos-sible in the lower Mississippi Valley, and the East Coast faces a nor’easter through today.

The NWS predicted snowfall of 6 to 12 inches for much of New York’s lower Hudson Valley, interior northeast New Jersey, and interior southern Con-necticut. Adjacent areas could have a wintry mix of precipi-tation. The weather service warned of an icing threat through today.

New York City could receive much as 4 inches of snow by today, as flakes, then turning to sleet and later to rain by afternoon and becoming a mix of rain and snow with light to moderate snowfall by tonight.

Some 55 million travelers were expected to make trips of 80km or more this Thanksgiving, according to AAA, a federation of motor clubs. That’s the second-highest volume for the holiday since 2005.

The vast majority of holiday travellers drive to their destina-tions, and were helped this year by lower gas prices. But flights are also packed — AAA said about 4.5 million Americans were expected to fly during the Thanksgiving holiday this year.

Nine dead and three injured in South Dakota plane crashAP CHAMBERLAIN

Nine people died and three more were injured when a single-engine plane bound for Idaho crashed shortly after takeoff in South Dakota.

Peter Knudson with the National Transportation Safety Board told The Associated Press that 12 people were aboard the Pilatus PC-12 when it crashed about 12:30pm on Saturday, shortly after taking off in Cham-berlain, about 225km west of Sioux Falls.

Knudson said nine people were killed and three were injured. The small plane was bound for Idaho Falls, Idaho. Authorities have not released the names of the victims. Brule County emergency manager Katheryn Benton told the Sioux Falls Argus Leader that the passengers ranged in age from 7 to 81. She said the three survivors were three men ages 28, 27 and 17.

Chamberlain and central south-central South Dakota was under a winter storm warning on Saturday and Benton said planes were unable to land at Chamberlain at the time of the crash. NTSB investigators were expected at the site soon.

Weather will be among several factors they will review, although no cause for the crash has been determined, Knudson said. Inclement weather was making travel to the site dif-ficult, he said.

A man plays on the snow at San Bernardino Forest in Wrightwood, California.

US Supreme Court weighs challenge to New York gun transport limitsREUTERS NEW YORK

The US Supreme Court will hear its first major gun rights case in nearly a decade today in a chal-lenge backed by the National Rifle Association over a now-amended New York City handgun regu-lation that had prevented licensed owners from taking their handguns outside the city.

The nine justices will hear arguments in an appeal by three handgun owners and the New York state affiliate of the NRA - the gun rights group closely aligned with President Donald Trump and other Republicans - who say the regulation violates the US Constitution’s Second Amendment right to keep and bear arms.

Gun control advocates have said that if the justices choose to issue a broad ruling expanding gun rights, it could jeopardize a variety of firearms restrictions passed in recent years by state and local governments across the country, including expanded background checks and confis-cations of weapons from indi-viduals who a court has deemed dangerous.

Gun control is a contentious issue in the United States, which

has experienced numerous mass shootings. Since 2013, 45 states and the District of Columbia have adopted more than 300 gun control laws, according to the Giffords Law Center to Prevent Gun Violence. Repub-lican opposition in Congress has been instrumental in thwarting passage of new federal laws.

“The future of life-saving gun safety laws across our country is very directly on the line with this case,” the center’s litigation director Hannah Shearer said. The court has a 5-4 conservative majority. Its ruling is due by the end of June.

“I believe it will change the way the Second Amendment is applied to everyone who owns a gun in the country,” said Staten Island resident Romolo Col-antone, one of the plaintiffs.

The dispute centers on New York’s handgun “premises” licenses that allowed holders to transport their firearm only to a handful of shooting ranges within the city, and to hunting areas else-where in the state during desig-nated hunting seasons.

The transport rule was amended in July to specifically allow for a gun to be taken to a range or other residence outside the city. The city unsuccessfully

asked the Supreme Court to cancel the arguments and drop the case because the amendment removed the provision being challenged.

The New York State Rifle and Pistol Association filed the lawsuit in 2013 along with three city res-idents who were told by author-ities they could not participate in a shooting competition in New Jersey or bring their guns to a home elsewhere in the state.

The plaintiffs are appealing a 2018 ruling by the Manhattan-based 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals that the regulation did not violate the Second Amendment and advanced the city’s interest in protecting public safety.

The Supreme Court has avoided taking up a major firearms case since 2010, when it extended to state and local reg-ulations a 2008 ruling that rec-ognized for the first time that the Second Amendment protects a person’s right to keep a gun at home for self-defense.

That has left open questions such as whether that right extends outside the home. The challengers also are asking the Supreme Court to require lower courts to more strictly review gun curbs, with an eye toward striking them down.

Chile unrestA demonstrator reacts as she is detained by riot policemen during a protest against Chile’s government in Santiago, Chile.

Shootouts in northern Mexican town kill 21, fuelling debate on cartelsREUTERS MEXICO CITY

Clashes between police and sus-pected cartel gunmen in a northern Mexican town killed 21 people this weekend, authorities said, adding fuel to a debate sparked by US President Donald Trump, who has vowed to des-ignate the gangs as terrorists.

The government of the northern state of Coahuila said local security forces killed seven gunmen early on Sunday, adding to 10 others who were shot dead during exchanges in and around the small town of Villa Union not far from the Texas border.

Four police were also killed and six wounded in the shootouts, which stunned resi-dents of the town around midday on Saturday, sparking alarm on social media and fresh criticism of the government’s approach to handling the powerful gangs.

Riding into town in a convoy of heavily armed pickups, gunmen sprayed the offices of the mayor of Villa Union with

bullets and fought police for more than an hour. Heavy gunfire echoed through the town on videos broadcast on social media and local television.

Most of the downed gunmen, who were suspected members of the Cartel of the Northeast from Tamaulipas state to the east, were killed by state police in pursuit of the raiding party after it fled the town, Coahuila’s government said.

The events in Villa Union add to a series of recent security lapses that have raised questions about the containment strategy of President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador, who took office a year ago pledging to get a grip on chronic gang violence.

Lopez Obrador said on Friday he would not accept foreign intervention in Mexico to deal with the cartels in response to Trump’s comments earlier in the week.

Lopez Obrador’s remarks were supported on Saturday by Coahuila state governor Miguel Angel Riquelme. While pledging

to act decisively against the gangs, he said that Mexico needed “collaboration and coop-eration”, not intervention from abroad.

US Attorney General William Barr is due to visit Mexico next week to discuss cooperation on security. A veteran leftist, Lopez Obrador has pledged to pursue a less confrontational policy to subduing the gangs. He is due to hold a speech reviewing his first year in office later on Sunday.

US and Mexican criticism has focused on the November 4 mas-sacre of nine women and children of US-Mexican origin from Mormon communities in northern Mexico, and the armed forces’ release of a captured son of drug lord Joaquin “El Chapo” Guzman under pressure from cartel gunmen in the city of Culiacan.

Coahuila has a history of gang violence, although the homicide total in the state is well below where it was seven years ago. National homicide figures are pushing record levels.

DiCaprio denies Bolsonaro’s accusationAFP/SAO PAULO

American actor Leonardo DiCaprio denied a claim by Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro that he had helped fund groups allegedly linked to fires in the Amazon rain forest.

“While worthy of support,” the 45-year-old DiCaprio said in a statement on his Instagram account, “we did not fund the organizations tar-geted.” In his weekly broadcast on Thursday, Bol-sonaro accused DiCaprio of “collaborating with the fires in the Amazon” by donating $500,000 to a group he said had started fires in the ecologically sensitive forest in order to attract donations.

While citing no evidence, Bolsonaro said that DiCaprio had earmarked a part of the $500,000 “for the people who were setting fires.” The far-right Brazilian president repeated the accusations on Friday.

DiCaprio, long an environmental activist, said in his denial that “the future of these irreplaceable

ecosystems is at stake, and I am proud to stand with the groups protecting them.” He offered praise for those in Brazil who work “to save their natural and cultural heritage.” Since 2018, the Alter do Chao volunteer fire brigade has helped firefighters combat huge blazes in northern Para state, including a recent fire in the Alter do Chao region that destroyed the equivalent of 1,600 soccer fields.

But regional police claim that some members linked to the group have actually started fires in a bid to raise international funding. Four of the group’s members were arrested on Tuesday before being released two days later.

Investigators say the volunteers set several fires in order to sell photos of the blazes to the World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF) for use in a cam-paign to raise international donations — including from DiCaprio. WWF’s Brazil subsidiary has denied the allegations, saying it transferred only around 70,000 reals ($16,800) to the local group for fire-fighting equipment.

18 MONDAY 2 DECEMBER 2019AMERICAS


CROSSWORD

3 men, considered as losers in their lives by the people, plan to get rich along with their girlfriends by fooling 2 gangsters and robbing their money.

PAGALPANTI

MALL ROYAL PLAZA

Helen (2D/Malayalam) 2:15, 9:30& 11:30pmArjun Suravaram (2D/Telugu) 4:30pm; Knives Out (2D/Action) 7:15pmFrozen II (2D/Animation) 2:00, 3:45, 5:30, 6:15 & 7:15pm Adutha Saathai (2D/Tamil) 2:15 & 11:30pm; Marnie’s World (2D/Animation) 4:30pm; Enai Noki Paayum Thota (2D/Tamil) 11:00pm; Le Mans ’66 (Ford Vs Ferrari) (2D/Action) 8:15pmAndroid Kunjappan 5.25 (2D/Malayalam) 9:00pm

Helen (2D/Malayalam) 10;30am, 4:00 & 9:30pmFrozen II (2D/Animation) 12:00, 2:15, 4:30 & 6:45pmLe Mans ’66 (Ford Vs Ferrari) (2D/Action) 11:30am, 5:30 & 11:30pm; Enai Noki Paayum Thota (2D/Tamil) 1:00, 6:30pm & 12:00 midnight; Knives Out (2D/Action) 9:00 & 11:45pm; Happy Sardar (2D/Malayalam) 2:30 & 8:30pm

LANDMARK

AL KHOR

Helen (2D/Malayalam) 5:00, 7:15, 8:30, 9;30, 11;45pm; Jack And Daniel (2D/Malayalam) 5:45pm; Under World (2D/Malayalam) 10:45pmEnai Noki Paayum Thota (2D/Tamil) 6;00, 9:00pm & 12:00am; Android Kunjappan 5.25 (2D/Malayalam) 8:45pm

Happy Sardar (2D/Malayalam) 6:00, 11:30pm & 2:15am

ASIAN TOWN

ROXY

FLIK Mirqab Mall

21 Bridges (2D/Action) 10:20pmCharlie’s Angels (2D/Action) 9:00 & 11:20pmEnta Habibi W Bas (2D/Arabic) 6:50pmFrozen II (2D/Animation) 10:55am, 11:20am, 12:15, 1:00, 1:25, 2:20, 3:05, 3:30, 4:00, 4:25, 5:10, 6:05, 6:30, 8:10pm, Frozen II (3D/Animation) 7:15pmJoker (3D/Animation) 10:50pmKnives Out (2D/Action) 11;10, 1:40, 4:10, 6:40, 9:20 & 11:50pmLast Christmas (2D/Comedy) 5:35pmLe Mans ’66 (Ford Vs Ferrari) (2D/Action) 10;50am, 1:45, 2:30, 3:50, 4:30, 5:25, 7;35, 8:35, 9:10, 10:30, 11:30pm & 0:05amMaleficent: Mistress Of Evil (2D/Adventure) 11:10am & 1:35pmMercy Black 0:20am

Arjun Suravaram (2D/Telugu) 3:40 & 10:00pmEnal Noki Paayum Thota (2D/Tamil) 12:30 & 6:40pmFrozen II (3D/Animation) 12:30, 2:30, 4:00, 6:45, 9:15 & 11:00pmHelen (2D/Malayalam) 11:30pmKnives Out (2D/Action) 2:40, 4:10, 8:20 & 10:00pmLe Mans ’66 (Ford Vs Ferrari) (2D/Action) 1:00, 6:15, 5:20 & 11:00pmMarnie’s World (2D/Animation) 12:30, 4:45 & 9:00pm; Under World (2D/Malayalam) 1:00 & 6:50pm

Arjun Suravaram (2D/Telugu) 2:30pm; Frozen II (2D/Animation) 2:15, 5:15,6:15 & 7:15pmHelen (2D/Malayalam) 2:00 & 9:15pm Marnie’s World (2D/Animation) 4:15pmAdutha Saathai (2D/Tamil) 4:00pmEnai Noki Paayum Thota (2D/Tamil) 8:15pm;Charlie’s Angels (2D/Action) 6:00pmLe Mans ’66 (Ford Vs Ferrari) (2D/Action) 8:30pmUnder World (2D/Malayalam) 11:00pmKnives Out (2D/Action) 11:30pmJack And Daniel (2D/Malayalam) 11:15pm;

Arjun Suravaram (2D/Telugu) 2:15pm; Kabaddi Kabaddi Kabaddi (2D/Nepali) 2:15 & 5:00pm; Knives Out (2D/Action) 7:15pm; Helen (2D/Malayalam) 9:30pm; Under World (2D/Malayalam) 11:30pm; Frozen II (2D/Animation) 2:00, 3:45, 4:30, 5:30, 6:30 & 7:15pm; Joker (2D/Crime) 9:00 & 11:15pmAdutha Saathai (2D/Tamil) 5:00pm; Le Mans ’66 (Ford Vs Ferrari) (2D/Action) 8:30 & 11:15pm;

HBKU holds symposium on Genomics in Clinical Practice THE PENINSULA DOHA

As part of its commitment to providing essential education and training to healthcare profes-sionals, the College of Health and Life Sciences (CHLS) at Hamad Bin Khalifa University (HBKU) held a Genomics in Clinical Practice symposium.

This symposium, accredited by Qatar Council for Healthcare Practitioners, was the first Con-tinuing Professional Development (CPD) event of its kind hosted by the College. Specifically designed for healthcare practitioners such as physicians, trainee physicians, and medical residents, this one-day event traced the basic science behind genomics, genome sequencing technologies and their implications for patient care. In addition, the symposium high-lighted available facilities and resources in Qatar and offered advice regarding the practical

application of relevant technologies.

High-profile international speaker, Dr. Andre Uitterlinden, professor of complex diseases at Erasmus University in the Neth-erlands, delivered a keynote address on how genomic studies are used for understanding the

pathophysiology of complex diseases.

Participants benefitted from insights provided by Qatar’s leaders in the field of genomics. The symposium’s speakers included: Dr. Ihab Younis, Carnegie Mellon University; Dr. Chidambaram Manickam, Sidra

Medicine; Dr. Tawfeg Ben Omran, Hamad Medical Corporation; Pro-fessor Donald Love, Sidra Med-icine; and Professor Said Ismail, Qatar Genome Programme.

Speaking ahead of the sym-posium, Dr. Ayman Al Haj Zen, assistant professor, CHLS, said: “This event undoubtedly reflects the College’s multidisciplinary approach to research and dis-covery in the fields of biomedical sciences, genomics, and precision medicine. The subject matter also demonstrates that Qatar is increasingly influential in the study and application of genomics in clinical practice. It’s only right that this influence is backed up by initiatives to ensure the country’s healthcare providers are well-versed in current thinking and established practices. We’re looking forward to making this happen with our partners at Hamad Medical Corporation, Qatar Genome Programme, and Sidra Medicine.”

Professor André Uitterlinden, Department of Internal Medicine Genetic Laboratory at Erasmus University, Rotterdam, speaking at the symposium.

HEC Paris in Qatar to run ‘General Management – The Navigator Program’THE PENINSULA DOHA

HEC Paris, ranked number 3 worldwide in Executive Education by the Financial Times in 2019, will run the ‘General Management – The Navigator Program’ Exec-utive Short Program on December 10 - 11. This two-day program will give aspiring, current and future managers a solid, hands-on intro-duction to the challenges and key tasks of general management.

The program will be led by Dr. Wolfgang Amann, Affiliate Pro-fessor at HEC Paris. Dr. Wolfgang Amann is professor of strategy and

leadership and currently serves as academic director of degree, custom, and certificate programs at HEC Paris in Qatar. Moreover, Dr. Amann has been designing, directing and teaching in exec-utive education seminars for more than 20 years.

Highlighting the key aspects of the program, Dr. Wolfgang Amann said: “In today’s complex business environments, being a general manager has never been more challenging. Yet, sound preparation and solid executive education can help prepare for these challenges. A state-of-the-art framework from one of the

leading business schools in the world will allow participants to clarify deliverables, prioritize, anticipate issues, and drive home success.”

Dr. Amann added: “Together, we will build a solid foundation for your future success in general management. Participants will work with the analogy of general management resembling navi-gation. Following the motto that

‘You can’t change the wind, but you can adjust the sails’, we clarify six key steps for being more effective in general man-agement. By the end of this session, participants will have gained a profound understanding of the roles and tasks, the oppor-tunities and challenges, and the necessity to combine insights from leadership, governance and strategy.”

Professor Wolfgang Amann speaking at an event.

20 MONDAY 2 DECEMBER 2019MORNING BREAK

IRFAN BUKHARI/THE PENINSULA

MStudio — an Azerbaijani architecture and design company — is a new name in Qatar but its passion, experience, commitment and distinctive skills are 15 years old which flourished since it was born in Baku in 2005.

Since the company began its journey it has gathered a great team of designers, architects and developers with bright and creative ideas, and during these 15 years MStudio has signed over 100 different types of projects.

These include public buildings, museums, hotels, spas, hospitals, business centres, private villas, apart-ments, landscapes, solar energy stations and other government projects. More information on the projects can be seen on the official website of the company www.mstudio.az

After delivering dozens of incredibly attractive architectural designs in Azerbaijan and Georgia through a highly-professional, dedicated team, company’s Founder and General Director, Mehriban A. Muradova-Ismay-ilova, launched MStudio’s Qatar chapter around six months ago.

Talking about the conception of the idea of establishing company’s chapter in Qatar, Mehriban said that being an architect it would have been like missing a superb opportunity for her to not par-ticipate in ongoing projects in Qatar while Qatar was going through mega development phase.

“Many interesting projects of world-class nature and standard are being carried out in Qatar but sometimes it seems that I am little bit late as most of the interesting projects have already been done (in terms of architecture and design),” Mehriban observed. “But in our field, you always remain active; new generations come, they want to do something new like building new struc-tures and renovating the older ones.”

She said that establishing a new

company in Qatar was a smooth-sailing experience for her. “It is a nice system for company registration which I can term as very smooth.”

With a vast experience in the field of architecture and design and having suc-cessfully designed numerous award-winning projects in Azerbaijan and Georgia, Mehriban established MStudio in Qatar. Regarding similarities and dif-ferences vis-a-vis market and working style in Azerbaijan, Georgia and Qatar, Mehriban said that there were many dif-ferences but she could not say that one country was better than the other.

“Yes it is always easy to work in your native country on many reasons but thanks to God, Azerbaijan and Qatar are the countries which are close to each other. There exist many similarities and commonalities between the two coun-tries. The people from both the coun-tries like luxury lifestyle.”

She said that an Azerbaijani architect and design company could be very suc-cessful in Qatar because it could bring the idea of structure together with

luxury style requirement keeping in mind the tradition also.

Mehriban’s company, supported by very professional teams in Qatar, Azerbaijan and Georgia, offers full-scale architecture and design services and sometimes hires services of some local companies for execution/supervision of fit-out works.

Having professional degrees from Azerbaijan University of Architecture and Construction; Azerbaijan State Uni-versity for Economics; Baku State Uni-versity Azerbaijan among other pres-tigious institutes, Mehriban claims her company offers more convenient price tags to its clients in Qatar without com-promising on the quality of design at the same time. “MStudio’s service charges are much lower than the market price as we are not here to look after only about our benefit.” But, she said, despite lower rates, MStudio was providing world-class architecture and design services to its clients following com-pany’s do-the-best policy.

She says that MStudio delivers a project with passion and never engaged in the practice of finishing fast. Recently, MStudio designed few villas for Qatari clients that are a living proof of com-pany’s commitment, dedication and pro-fessional skills.

“We discuss a lot with the clients and also suggest a lot so that we can reach a perfect design in the end.”

MStudio offers services including exterior and interior design, landscape design, construction and repair works, indoor and outdoor art sculptures, reliefs and bas-reliefs, maquettes, signboards, stands etc. Mehriban also wants to par-ticipate in some landscape design projects in Qatar. “We also design art sculptures of various materials—marble, steel, wood or composite material. We work in each sector of design.”

She says that she wants to design public sector projects in Qatar to make her company’s name engraved in the

development history of Qatar for which she would be remembered in decades to come. “I will be happy with my little touch to something; private sector no problem, but I want to do something great in the public sector.”

Talking about Qatar’s landmark buildings, Mehriban highly praised Hamad International Airport. “It is a nicely designed structure where every-thing seems in harmony with one another. Materials used are also of high quality. When I compare this building with other airports of the world, I find a big difference.” In her opinion, the Educational City that Qatar Foundation has created differs with its unique and smart infrastructure. And the National Museum of Qatar is astounding with its beautiful exterior and interior design.

Mehriban enjoys Qatar’s life by attending different exhibitions held around the year and thinks that Qatar’s social, cultural life is very rich and vibrant. MStudio projects took the first places in the famous international competitions and received prestigious awards. The staff of MStudio consists of qualified professionals with extensive experience; designers and engineers carry out design objectives at a very high quality.

Rehabilitation Centre for Children with Down Syndrome, Baku, Azerbaijan

Le Plaisir Cafe Old City, Azerbaijan

MStudio brings amazing architectural designs to Qatar

Mehriban A. Muradova-Ismayilova, Founder and General Director of MStudio.

After delivering dozens of incredibly attractive architectural designs in Azerbaijan and Georgia through a highly-professional, dedicated team, company’s Founder and General Director, Mehriban A. Muradova-Ismayilova, launched MStudio’s Qatar chapter around six months ago.

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