Racing to success - KINGDOM OF BAHRAIN...2019/12/23 · Hilary Duff marries fiance Matthew Koma14...

Bahrain firm invests in Spanish football club TDT | Manama

Bahrain company Infini-ty Capital has invested in Spanish football club

Cordoba CF.His Majesty the King’s Repre-

sentative for Charity Works and Youth Affairs, National Security Advisor and Supreme Council for Youth and Sports Chairman His Highness Shaikh Nasser bin Hamad Al Khalifa announced that Bahraini Abdulla Al Zain has assumed the Cordoba CF presidency, following Infinity Capital’s investment in the club.

This was according to the

Embassy of the Kingdom of Bahrain in the UK, which post-ed of the development on their official Twitter account.

The news was also confirmed last night by HH Shaikh Nasser’s Media Office.

According to the club’s offi-

cial website, Mr Al Zain visited Cordoba CF’s facilities a few days ago and also met with the players, coaching staff, manage-

ment and club workers.He was accompanied on his

visit by Mohammed Al Nu-suf, who will be the future vice-president of the club and who is also currently the Bah-rain Olympic Committee sec-retary-general.

Codoba CF plays in Segunda Division B-Group 4, which is in the third level of the Spanish football league system.

The team was founded in 1954. They play their home matches at the 25,800-capacity Estadio Nuevo Arcangel, locat-ed in the Southern Spanish city of Cordoba.

8

Afghan’s Ghani on track for second term 5WORLD

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Bahrain1 set World Record NHRA champions Bahrain1 Racing set a new World Record to headline an ac-tion-packed second round in the 2019/2020 Bahrain Drag Racing Championship, held at Bahrain International Circuit’s (BIC) NHRA Drag Strip in Sakhir. P16

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N E W H O R I Z O N S 02Tamkeen’s key role in supporting the private sector hailed

03Shura dismisses proposed law to restrict ‘foreign ownership of land’

04Major oil projects boosting national economy: Minister

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• The King pointed out the growing popularity of motorsport in Bahrain and the world, stressing the Kingdom’s good reputation in hosting F1 races.

• HH Shaikh Abdullah expressed deepest thanks and gratitude to HM the King for his valuable directives.

Manama

His Majesty King Hamad bin Isa Al Khalifa yes-terday received at Saf-

riya Palace his Personal Repre-sentative His Highness Shaikh Abdullah bin Hamad Al Khalifa who introduced to him Bahrain 1 Racing team: driver and title winner Steve Jackson, driver Khalid Balooshi and Director Khalil Toorani.

The team won the 2019 NHRA World Championship for Pro Mod cars in the pre-final race which was held at Charlotte Mo-tor Speedway, in Concord, North Carolina, the US.

HM the King congratulated the team members and thanked them for their international achieve-ment in motorsport, which is added to the Kingdom’s track record brought about in various sports at the regional, continen-tal and international level.

The King lauded the distin-guished technical level shown by the racers and the technical crew, which helped them clinch the ti-tle and uphold Bahrain’s name in the international sporting event.

HM the King commended the

fruitful efforts of HH Shaikh Ab-dullah bin Hamad Al Khalifa and his keenness to provide every support to Bahrain 1 Racing.

The King pointed out the growing popularity of motor-sport in Bahrain and the world, stressing the Kingdom’s good reputation in hosting F1 races.

HH Shaikh Abdullah bin Ham-ad Al Khalifa expressed deepest thanks and gratitude to HM the King for his valuable directives, commending the great royal sup-port, which brought about the honourable accomplishments.

He also lauded the unlimited support to the team and motor-sport, in Bahrain, in general, by His Royal Highness Prince Sal-man bin Hamad Al Khalifa, the Crown Prince, Deputy Supreme Commander and First Deputy Premier, which contributed to bagging titles and world cham-pionships.

HH Shaikh Abdullah pledged to continue making efforts and working tirelessly to bring about more honourable results in the forthcoming speed racing cham-pionships.

Racing to success His Majesty congratulates Bahrain 1 Racing

Team for championship victory

His Majesty interacting with ahrain 1 Racing Team member.

His Majesty being handed over a miniature model of a racing car by Bahrain 1 Racing Team members in the presence of HH Shaikh Abdullah.

I thank Bahrain 1 Racing Team for

upholding the Kingdom’s name in the international sporting

event.HIS MAJESTY

Mr Al Zain, fourth from right, with Mr Al Nusuf, third from right, and other officials during their visit to the Cordoba CF facilities.

Iraqis rally against candidates Baghdad

Iraqi protesters marched across Baghdad and south-

ern cities on Sunday, holding a general strike to boost the anti-government movement as a deadline looms for par-liament to designate a new prime minister.

Thousands headed to-wards the capital’s Tahrir Square and the southern cit-ies of Diwaniyah, Muthana, Wasit, Basra, Maysan and Nasiriyah demanding for a government overhaul.

Protesters are holding the government accountable for being inept, corrupt and be-holden to neighbouring Iran.

Man killed in accident TDT | Manama

A man died yesterday after being hit by a car while

crossing Shaikh Isa Bin Sal-man Street near Tubli.

The accident led to a traf-fic congestion in the area yesterday.

The Interior Ministry has launched a probe into the accident.

02MONDAY, DECEMBER 23, 2019

Tamkeen’s key role in supporting the private sector hailed TDT | Manama

Bahraini businessman Ahmed Al Hujairi said that the Consultation

Forum organised by Tamkeen Labour Fund taking place tomor-row December 23 is paralleled with the need of private sector for the enhancement of Tam-keen’s programmes and services in order to boost the national economy.

Mr Al Hujairi, Advisor of Bahrain Technology Compa-nies Society, stressed that Bah-rain is going through economy challenges due to low oil prices. This maximises Tamkeen’s role in supporting the private sec-tor and stimulating the national economy.

“The Bahraini economy went through difficult times in which many enterprises, especially small ones, were able to sustain with Tamkeen’s support. Other-wise, they will be failed and will not be able for re-establishment,” said Mr Al Hujairi.

Mr Al Hujairi stressed the importance of Impact assess-ment of Tamkeen’s various pro-grammes and services. He said: “Tamkeen represents the most prominent fund entity in the Kingdom of Bahrain, so it is very important to invest every dinar that Tamkeen pays to develop business and achieve the goals for which Tamkeen was creat-ed.”

“Tamkeen’s permanent work to develop its programmes and

services aims to keep pace with the rapid changes in the work environment, which are closely related to the development of the

ICT sector, where we see modern technical applications such as ar-tificial intelligence, block chain, cloud computing playing a key

role in changing the market,” added Mr Al Hujairi.

Mr Al Hujairi highlighted that Tamkeen Consultation Forum comes at a time when the Bah-raini private sector is witnessing more supportive initiatives, such as the launch of liquidity fund support, activating the role of the “Bahrain Exports Centre”, allocating a portion of govern-ment purchases from small and medium-sized enterprises, im-plementing the bankruptcy law, and other initiatives that com-plement with the role of Tam-keen in supporting the private sector entities.

He also noted that industry im-pact in developing the economic environment in the Kingdom of Bahrain is a participatory pro-

cess in which all stakeholders of the economic system contribute.

In this regard, Mr Al Hujairi stressed that the Consultation Forum provides Tamkeen with an opportunity to showcase its prominent achievements in 2019 and discuss it with Tamkeen’s support beneficiaries.

It also provides a platform to review and discuss beneficiaries’ recommendations on the devel-opment of Tamkeen’s services and align it with Tamkeen’s fu-ture plans.

He also stressed the impor-tance of this forum, which comes in the last year of the current strategic plan 2018-2020, which focuses on the “sustainability” axis that Bahraini enterprises need in the market.

Tamkeen Consultation Forum comes at a time when the Bahraini private sector is witnessing more supportive initiatives such as the launch of a liquidity fund to support private sector. MR AL HUJAIRI

Deputy Prime Minister Shaikh Khalid bin Abdullah Al Khalifa received in his office at Gudaibiyah Palace yesterday the US Ambassador to Bahrain Justin Siberell. He praised distinguished relations between both countries and their perpetual growth in various fields. The Deputy Premier lauded the efforts of the USA in boosting regional security and stability and supporting the counter-terrorism efforts all over the world. Both sides reviewed the latest regional and international developments and issues of common interest.

The Southern Governorate hosted a ceremony in honour of sponsors and contributors to the events, which were held all along this year. Southern Governor His Highness Shaikh Khalifa bin Ali bin Khalifa Al Khalifa patronised the ceremony, which was attended by officials representing the public and private sectors, senior officers and media figures. He paid tribute to His Majesty King Hamad bin Isa Al Khalifa, His Royal Highness Prime Minister Prince Khalifa bin Salman Al Khalifa and His Royal Highness Prince Salman bin Hamad Al Khalifa, Crown Prince, Deputy Supreme Commander and First Deputy Premier. He stressed the Governorate’s keenness on consolidating partnership, in line with the directives of the Minister of Interior, General Shaikh Rashid bin Abdulla Al Khalifa to strengthen co-operation with the private and non-governmental sectors. He thanked all officials, private and non-governmental parties, which contributed to supporting the events which were held in the Southern Governorate during this year.

Interior Minister General Shaikh Rashid bin Abdulla Al Khalifa, received here yesterday, in the presence of Public Security Chief, Lieutenant-General Tariq Al Hassan, the British Ambassador to Bahrain, Roderick Drummond. The two sides reviewed relations between the two countries, and discussed topics of mutual interest.

Interior Minister, General Shaikh Rashid bin Abdulla Al Khalifa, received here yesterday, in the presence of Public Security Chief, Lieutenant-General Tariq Al Hassan, the outgoing Italian Ambassador to Bahrain, Domenico Bellato. The minister valued highly the ambassador’s efforts and role in bolstering relations between the two friendly countries, especially in the security field, wishing him further success. Ambassador Bellato expressed thanks and appreciation to the Interior Minister, wishing Bahrain and its people further progress and prosperity.

Under the patronage of the Interior Ministry Undersecretary, Shaikh Nasser bin Abdulrahman Al Khalifa, the Public Security Officers Club marked the national celebrations with a festival. The event was part of the directives of Interior Minister General Shaikh Rashid bin Abdullah Al Khalifa. The festival included a show for old police vehicles and held with the participation of NGOs representatives as part of the community partnership.

The Annual Athletic Meet Prize Distribution Ceremony of Al Noor International School, CBSE Section was held on 5th December, 2019. It was a day filled with fervour and exhilaration, amidst thrills and cheers. The school band welcomed all the dignitaries to the function with their excellent performance and were enthusiastically cheered by all the spectators. The programme commenced with the verse from the Holy Quran recited by Abdul Haleem of Grade 7. The guests were welcomed by the Cultural Secretary Ms Mayookha R Pillai. It was followed by a group song “Symphony of Peace” by the students of grade 6-8 which filled the hearts and souls of everyone present with happiness. Medals were given to the winners by the School Chairman Mr Ali Hassan, Director Dr Muhammad Mashood, Principal Mr. Amin Mohammed Hulaiwah, as well as other school officials and Head Teachers of the various sections. Individual Championship as well as House championship trophies were also awarded at the function.

The Annual Day of Bahrain Indian School - BHAVANS was conducted for the senior wing on 19th December 2019 at Bahrain Cultural Hall. The evening witnessed the energetic and dazzling performances. The Chief Guest of the Day, Ms Renu Yadav, Second Secretary (Political, Info, Culture and Education) was felicitated with a bouquet and also honoured with a memento. The guest was welcomed by Directors Himanshu Verma and Ritu Verma and Principal Saji Jacob.


Shura dismisses proposed law to restrict ‘foreign ownership of land’

RERA earlier expressed reservation about the parliamentary proposal

• The authority in a note to the Shura Council stated that such a law would adversely affect the real estate sector and the economy.

• A parliamentary proposal for exempting Bahrainis from paying registration fees was recently sent to the Shura Council.

TDT | Manama

No restriction on for-eign ownership of land will be implemented in

the Kingdom after the Shura Council shot down a proposed parliamentary law in this re-gard.

The proposal aimed at re-stricting foreign ownership of real estate in residential areas.

Shura Council members stat-ed that such a law would bring negative consequences to Bah-rain’s real estate market.

RERA has expressed its reser-vations about a parliamentary proposed law, which aims to

restrict foreign ownership of real estate to tourist areas.

The authority, in a note to the Shura Council stated that such a law would adversely affect the real estate sector and the economy.

It stated that the sector has al-ready suffered a loss in revenue due to the economic conditions in recent years.

“There has been a decline in real estate trading and existing economic conditions constitute

one of the primary reasons,” a RERA official said.

RERA along with a number of governmental agencies are studying the current real estate market in Bahrain and hoping to find a solution to the problem.

According to RERA, the real estate market needs a stimulus for immediate growth.

In 2019, there has been a drop in real estate property registra-tion revenue from 38 million Bahraini dinars to 22 million Bahraini dinars, which is a 42 per cent plummet.

The Chairman of the Commit-tee on Finance and Economic Affairs at the Shura Council, Khalid Almaskati confirmed the drop in revenue, stating that it is not possible to make any con-cession to anyone regarding real estate registration fees.

This comes after calls were made to exempt the registration fee on real estate registration for Bahrainis.

Mr Almaskati said the drop in revenue means that the gov-ernment cannot afford further reduction in revenue from real estate registration.

A parliamentary proposal for exempting Bahrainis from pay-ing registration fees was sent to the Shura Council.

However, the proposal was rejected. Procedures for real estate registrations have sped up recently.

It was recently announced that of ownership related to real estate transactions now only takes a day.

Chairman of the Board of Real Estate Regulation Author-ity (RERA) and President of the Survey and Land Registration Bureau (SLRB), Shaikh Salman bin Abdulla Al Khalifa, said that more mechanisms are being implemented to further reduce waiting time.

The council observed that such a law would adversely affect the real estate market.

There has been a decline in real estate trading and existing economic conditions constitute one of the

primary reasons. RERA

Woman granted divorce in domestic abuse case TDT | Manama

The High Sharia Court has put an end to the suffer-

ing of a woman in her twenties by granting her divorce from husband, who was allegedly beating and insulting her.

The woman is said to have received inhuman treatment from her husband to the point that she was expelled from the house after subjecting to phys-ical and verbal assault.

From that day, according to her lawyer, she was living in her father’s house.

Ironically, the husband lodged a counter case against her, demanding her to return to the house.

“My client suffered a lot dur-ing her marriage. She was once admitted to a hospital after he attacked her and she filed a complaint against him at the police.

“However, she dropped it af-ter he apologised,” the woman’s lawyer told the court earlier.

“He also tried to stain her reputation by telling others she was dating a man and consum-ing alcohol,” she added.

On the other hand, the de-fence witnesses refuted such claims stating that the pair were having normal issues that are common in any marital life.

Nevertheless, the court ruled in favour of the woman, stating that it didn’t feel reassured by the defence witnesses’ state-ment. The court pointed out that the woman wouldn’t have left her house without a valid reason.

Fikra opens e-vote process for the Peoples’ Choice Award TDT | Manama

As part of the second edi-tion of the Government Innovation Competition

(Fikra), launched by His Royal Highness Prince Salman bin Hamad Al Khalifa, the Crown Prince, Deputy Supreme Com-mander and First Deputy Prime Minister, an electronic voting process for the public to choose their favourite idea among the competition’s 12 finalist opened yesterday.

The public can take part in the voting process by accessing www.fdpm.gov.bh.

Short videos of each of the 12 qualified ideas are featured on the website in order to show-case each of their concepts. The Peoples’ Choice Award will be announced along with the com-petition’s final results.

The e-voting process comes after 12 ideas, out of an initial 40, qualified for the final stage of the competition after pitch-ing their proposals to an evalu-ation committee.

The 12 ideas going to the fi-nals are: Government Procure-ment Platform: Submitted by Ali Bukhammas and Abdulaziz Al-Buainain from the Civil Service Bureau, Ahmed Al Kuwari from the National Bureau for Rev-enues, and Mohammed BuAli from the Ministry of Finance and National Economy.

Others are Courts Appli-cation: Submitted by Ahmed Alaraifi from the Office of the First Deputy Prime Minister; Virtual Employment Center: Submitted by Iman Al-Sammak and Ibtihal Al-Shihabi from the Labor Market Regulatory Au-thority; AlHafeez (An applica-

tion for productive families): Submitted by Maryam Hassan from the Ministry of Labor and Social Development;

The National Technical Skills Development Program: Submitted by Ahmed Al Saffar from the Bahrain Training In-stitute; National Strategy for Electric Vehicles: Submitted by Mona Al Alawi from the Minis-try of Industry, Commerce, and

Tourism; EParkBH-Replace-ment of parking meters with an application: Submitted by Alia Al Qahtani from the Min-istry of Interior, and Nouf Al Qahtani from the Ministry of Youth and Sports; E-Sick Leave System: Submitted by Ahmed Buhaza and Noora Muhanna from the Ministry of Finance and National Economy; Citi-zen’s Digital Document Wallet on Blockchain: Submitted by Ali Al Aradi from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs; Government Vehicles Allocation App: Sub-mitted by AbdulRahman Essam from the National Audit Office; Energies (Taqat): Submitted by Elyas AbdulGhaffar from the Social Insurance Organisation; The Media Ambassador: Sub-mitted by Duaa Sharafi, Ed-ucation and Training Quality Authority.

National Guard, Housing Ministry

discuss co-operationManama

National Guard Di-rector of Staff Major General Shaikh Ab-

dulaziz bin Saud Al Khalifa received Housing Ministry Assistant Undersecretary for Housing Policies and Services Dr Khalid Abdulrahman Al Haidan.

Director of staff praised the efforts of Housing Ministry to execute the royal vision in providing a decent living for citizens through differ-ent housing projects all over Bahrain.

The assistant undersecre-

tary added that the ministry has achieved building a num-ber of major housing cities, which developed the pace of meeting citizens housing re-quests.

Dr Al Haidan confirmed the vital and national role of the National Guard in protecting the country’s achievements and in guaranteeing its secu-rity and stability along with the other military entities in the country.

They discussed issues of common interest, along with plans of cooperation between the National Guard and Hous-ing Ministry.

Kingdom attends Arab tourism meetingManama

A delegation of the Kingdom of Bahrain participated in the 25th session of the Ex-

ecutive Office of the Arab Minis-terial Council for Tourism, which was hosted in Al Ahsa and named ‘Capital of Arab Tourism’ for 2019.

The session was held in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, on Sun-day, on the sidelines of the 22nd session of the Arab Ministerial Council for Tourism.

The delegation was headed by the Minister of Industry, Com-merce and Tourism, and Chair-man of the Bahrain Tourism and Exhibitions Authority (BTEA)

Zayed Al Zayani, the Chief Ex-ecutive Officer of BTEA, Nader Al Moayyed, and the Acting Director of Marketing and Tourism Pro-motion Directorate at BTEA, Dr Ali Follad.

The council, which consists of eight Arab countries, elected Bah-rain as a member of its Executive Office for a period of two years (2018-2019).

The agenda of the 25th session of the Executive Office of the Arab Ministerial Council for Tourism included the report and decisions of the meeting previously held, including the action plan submit-ted by the BTEA to activate the

tourism information and statistics hub in support of the Arab tour-ism strategy, along with the up-dated draft and document of the Arab Strategy for Tourism which was submitted by the Ministry of

Tourism in Egypt.Commenting on the occasion,

Minister of Industry, Commerce and Tourism, and Chairman of BTEA, Zayed Al Zayani, said: “We are proud to be taking part in

these meeting which comes as part of our role as active mem-bers of the Executive Office for a period of two years (2018-2019). Through our participation, we have been able to discuss the op-portunities and challenges of the tourism sector in the Arab region and identify areas of cooperation between countries in the region and share experiences in the field of tourism.”

“Our participation in the meet-ing comes as part of our efforts to activate the tourism information and statistics hub in order to sup-port the Arab tourism strategy. The BTEA has developed an inte-

grated strategy aimed at elevating the Kingdom of Bahrain’s tourism industry by attracting investors and creating a suitable environ-ment where tourism projects can thrive,” said the CEO of BTEA, Mr Nader Al Moayyed.

“The sound implementation of BTEA’s strategy has resulted in a significant improvement in the tourism sector performance over the course of last three years, re-cording an unprecedented figure 12 million visitors in 2018, an increase of 5.9 per cent compared to the pre-vious year, reaffirming the contin-ued growth of the tourism industry in the Kingdom,” he added.

Mr Al Zayani at the 25th session of the Executive Office of the Arab Ministerial Council for Tourism.

12ideas out of the initial

40 qualified for the final stage of the competition.


He was honoured with many medals and awards.

Joined the Bahrain Police as a policeman on 1 April 1939 and was gradually promoted to the rank of a captain on 1 April 1980.

Throughout his career, he worked for various authorities and directorates, but mostly at the Traffic Licensing Directorate.

Retired on 1 April 1981

Bahrain Police ...Allegiance and SacrificeMajor Khamis MohammedAbdulrahman Al Musaifer

An accident occurred on Shaikh Khalifa bin Salman Bridge yesterday after a truck hit an iron barrier. The cargo loaded on the truck fell on to the road, causing a huge traffic jam as the bridge links roads between Manama, Muharraq, Hidd Industrial Area and many new housing projects. The Ministry of Interior in co-operation with the General Directorate of Traffic has initiated an investigation into the accident.

Highway accident

Major oil projects boosting national economy: Minister

Oil minister reviews major projects implemented in the Kingdom including Bapco modernisation programme

• The 103rd OAPEC ministerial meeting discussed ways to strengthen co-operation among member states in the fields of oil, gas and energy.

• Shaikh Mohammed held meetings with his counterparts from member states on ways to strengthen economic relations and deepen oil co-operation.

Kuwait City

Oil Minister, Shaikh Mo-hammed bin Khalifa Al Khalifa, chaired the

103rd ministerial meeting of the Organisation of Arab Pe-troleum Exporting Countries.

While opening the meeting, Shaikh Mohammed bin Khalifa welcomed the ministers and heads of delegations, noting that the event is a good oppor-tunity to exchange information and expertise, as well as dis-cuss the latest global develop-ments in the oil field.

He also welcomed Dr Khalid Ali Al Fadhel, Kuwait’s Minis-ter of Oil and Minister of Elec-tricity and Water Oil, who at-tended his first OAPEC meeting.

He also valued highly the warm welcome and hospital-ity accorded by the State of Kuwait to the participants in the meeting.

He pointed out that OAPEC meetings contribute to reach-ing positive results that serve the oil and gas sectors in the member states, as well as achieve the goals of the organ-isation since its establishment in 1982.

The minister reviewed the main oil and gas projects im-plemented by Bahrain, citing the Bapco Modernisation Pro-gramme (BMP), the third gas

plant of Bahrain National Gas Company (Banagas), the lique-fied natural gas (LNG) regasifi-cation terminal, in addition to other vital projects aimed at boosting the national economy, under the leadership of His Majesty King Hamad bin Isa Al Khalifa.

He underlined the keenness of Bahrain, represented by the National Oil and Gas Author-ity (NOGA), to participate in such high-profile meetings, as they provide platforms to discuss ways to enhance co-operation and launch joint projects that would benefit the oil, gas and energy sector in the Kingdom.

The 103rd OAPEC ministerial meeting discussed the topics on its agenda, mainly ways to

strengthen cooperation among member states in the fields of oil, gas and energy.

It also decided that Iraq should continue overseeing the Arab Petroleum Training Institute (APTI), which is a spe-cialised oil and gas institute.

In the end of the meeting, OAPEC ministerial council chairman sent a cable to the Kuwaiti Amir, HH Shaikh Sa-bah Al Ahmed Al Jaber Al Sa-bah, in which he expressed, on behalf of the ministers, sincere thanks, appreciation and gratitude to him for the warm welcome and hospitality accorded to them, wishing sis-terly Kuwait further progress and prosperity.

On the sidelines of the meeting, Oil Minister, Shaikh Mohammed bin Khalifa, held meetings with his counterparts from member states on ways to strengthen economic relations and deepen oil co-operation between Bahrain and their countries.

Bahrain, represented by NO-GA’s Deputy CEO for Strategies and International Relations, Faihan Al Faihani, also par-ticipated in the 155th OAPEC Executive Bureau meeting, also hosted by Kuwait ahead of the 103rd ministerial meeting.

Community Police organised a health day for employees and auditors of the security complex in co-operation with KIMS Bahrain Medical Centre. The event aimed to raise awareness of the attendees and the need to adopt a healthy lifestyle. Colonel Abdullah Rashid Burashed Al Anazi, Director of the Community Service Police Department, thanked the organisers. Dr Sheriff Sahadulla, Chief Executive Officer, KIMS Healthcare Group, attended.

Health Day

BTEA to host New Year celebrations

Manama

The Bahrain Tourism and Exhibitions Authority (BTEA) will be hosting

New Year’s Eve celebrations at The Park, The Avenues – Bah-rain, on Tuesday, 31st Decem-ber 2019 starting from 8pm.

As part of the festivities, BTEA will be organising a se-ries of events and activities to mark the occasion, including a live performance by Majaz Band, A Dancing of Colour performance by ballet danc-ers on stilts, in addition to a DJ performance from the United Kingdom “Sonic Snares” ac-companied by mesmerising light shows.

Spectators will enjoy the breath-taking musical aerial performance by the dancers and acrobats of Sonic, in ad-dition to a projection of the countdown timer chiming in

the New Year on the side fa-cade of the Four Seasons Bah-rain Bay hotel; marking the beginning of 2020.

With unforgettable per-formances and a spectacular fireworks display lined up for the New Year celebrations, BTEA aims to provide visi-tors and their families with unique and memorable ex-periences. The wide variety of shows is a testament to BTEA’s pursuit of surpass-ing visitor’s expectations and drawing them into the King-dom of Bahrain from neigh-bouring GCC countries.

Hosting the event comes in line with the BTEA’s overall strategy aimed at developing and strengthening the tour-ism sector under the slogan of ‘Ours. Yours.’, which contrib-utes towards the Kingdom’s economy and the 2030 Eco-nomic Vision.

Shaikh Mohammed chairs OAPEC 103rd ministerial meeting.

BTEA is planning spectacular fireworks to welcome New Year.

05

world

MONDAY, DECEMBER 23, 2019

KNOW WHAT

It’s important for all Afghans to remember:

these results are preliminary. Many

steps remain before final election

results are certified, to ensure the

Afghan people have confidence in the

resultsJOHN BASS

US AMBASSADOR TO AFGHANISTAN

After mission failure, Boeing spacecraft lands in New MexicoWashington

Boeing’s new Starliner un-manned spacecraft returned

to Earth on Sunday, landing in the New Mexico desert in the United States six days early after a clock problem prevented a ren-dezvous with the International Space Station.

Images broadcast by NASA showed the spacecraft touching down safely in the dark after a descent slowed by three large parachutes.

The Starliner capsule was launched Friday from Cape Canaveral in Florida, but short-ly after separating from its Atlas V launch rocket, its thrusters failed to activate as planned, preventing it from reaching an orbit high enough to meet up with the ISS.

The space station orbits at an altitude of about 400 kilometers (250 miles) above sea level.

The flight -- carrying only a dummy -- was meant to be a final

dress rehearsal before a crewed flight.

After calculating that the craft had burned too much propellant for several minutes, Boeing and

NASA were forced to guide the Starliner back to Earth without fulfilling its planned mission.

Jim Chilton, senior vice pres-ident of Boeing’s space and launch division, told reporters that “we started the clock at the wrong time.”

Starliner’s failure was the lat-est serious setback for Boeing, which is still reeling from two fatal crashes of its 737 Max air-liner. The crashes, in October 2018 in Indonesia and in March 2019 in Ethiopia, claimed a total 346 lives.

Boeing plans to suspend pro-duction of the plane in January.

Successful re-entryNASA administrator Jim Bri-

denstine insisted that the space mission was not a complete fail-

ure.“The NASA team and the Boe-

ing team have been working hand in glove to accomplish as many of the test objectives as we can,” he said before the landing.

Starliner was able to estab-lish a communications link with the ISS, and to test in space its docking mechanism as well as its solar panels, batteries, thrusters and heat regulation system.

Chilton said the vehicle’s sta-tus was “really excellent.”

The Starliner re-entered the atmosphere at 25 times the speed of sound, with its ther-mal shield resisting the intense heat created by friction with the atmosphere.

In a test in November only two of the three parachutes opened, although they proved sufficient

for the landing.“The entry, descent and land-

ing is not for the faint of heart,” Chilton said earlier.

NASA will have to decide whether to carry out another test flight or to trust that the ve-hicle is safe to carry astronauts.

Starliner’s first crewed flight had been scheduled for early 2020 -- a much-anticipated de-velopment ever since NASA sent up its last space shuttle in 2011.

Another vehicle, the Crew Dragon, has been developed by SpaceX corporation for NASA. It is expected to also be ready for launch next year.

NASA has committed to pay $8 billion to Boeing and SpaceX, which in return are to deliver six trips carrying four astronauts each from now to 2024.

This illustration, provided by Boeing in 2015, depicts the Starliner capsule in Earth orbit

Afghan’s Ghani on track for second term• Afghanistan’s Independent Election Commission (IEC) said Ghani had won 50.64 percent of the vote

• Candidates now have a few days to file any complaints

• The election saw by far the lowest turnout of any Afghan poll

• Thirty-one percent of votes were cast by women

AFP | Kabul

Afghanistan’s President Ashraf Ghani appeared to have secured a second

term Sunday, narrowly scoring an outright win in preliminary polling results, but his main rival immediately vowed to challenge the tally.

After months of political lim-bo and bitter allegations of fraud and corruption in the September 28 poll, Afghanistan’s Independ-ent Election Commission (IEC) said Ghani had won 50.64 per-cent of the vote.

If it holds, the result is enough for Ghani to avoid a run-off. He easily beat his top challenger, Chief Executive Abdullah Ab-dullah, who scored 39.52 per-cent.

Candidates now have a few days to file any complaints be-fore final results are announced, probably within weeks.

As soon as results were an-nounced, Abdullah’s office said in a statement he would contest them.

“We would like to make it clear once again to our people, supporters, election commis-sion and our international allies that our team will not accept the result of this fraudulent vote un-less our legitimate demands are addressed,” the statement read.

Abdullah lost to Ghani in 2014 in a divisive election that saw

the US intervene to broker an awkward power-sharing deal between the two rivals.

Ghani’s office did not imme-

diately comment, but the presi-dent was due to give an address at 5:00 pm (1230 GMT).

US ambassador to Afghanistan John Bass said it was vital the full electoral process plays out.

“It’s important for all Afghans to remember: these results are preliminary. Many steps remain before final election results are certified, to ensure the Afghan people have confidence in the results,” Bass wrote on Twitter.

Preliminary results were orig-inally due October 19 but were repeatedly delayed amid tech-nical issues and allegations of fraud from various candidates, particularly Abdullah.

Observers and candidates have blasted the IEC over its handling of the count and its repeated disregard of the elec-toral calendar.

The Transparent Electoral Foundation of Afghanistan, an

independent watchdog, said the IEC needs to share all informa-tion about how it reached its numbers and break down data by polling centre.

IEC chairwoman Hawa Alam Nuristani said her agency acted with “honesty, loyalty, responsi-bility and faithfulness”.

“We respected every single vote because we wanted democ-racy to endure,” she said.

Complaints procedureThe protracted limbo between

the vote and the preliminary result heaped additional un-certainty on Afghans who are already anxiously awaiting the outcome of talks between the US and the Taliban.

The UN Assistance Mission in Afghanistan (UNAMA), which provided support to electoral

authorities, welcomed the an-nouncement of preliminary re-sults and called on the Electoral Complaints Commission to lis-ten carefully to any grievances.

“The ECC has an obligation to adjudicate any complaints it receives transparently and thor-oughly so the election process may conclude in a credible man-ner,” UNAMA head Tadamichi Yamamoto said.

ECC chairwoman Zuhra Bayan Shinwari said candidates and their supporters should wait for final results to be announced.

“We are committed to review-ing all the complaints according to the law,” she said.

The election was meant to be the cleanest yet in Afghanistan’s young democracy, with a Ger-man firm supplying biometric machines to stop people from voting more than once.

But problems immediately emerged, with allegations of vote stuffing, illegal voting and other fraud coming almost as soon as the polls had closed.

Nearly one million of the initial 2.7 million votes were purged owing to irregularities, meaning the election saw by far the lowest turnout of any Afghan poll.

Ultimately, only 1.8 million votes were counted, a tiny num-ber considering Afghanistan’s estimated population of 37 mil-lion and a total of 9.6 million registered voters.

Many people stayed away amid Taliban vows to attack polling stations, compounded by voter apathy and despair that any politician can ever improve the lot of the average Afghan.

Thirty-one percent of votes were cast by women, the IEC said.

Abdullah has repeatedly cried foul over 300,000 votes the IEC counted even though his team claims many of these ballots were fake or had been cast outside of polling hours.

His apparent loss to Ghani makes Abdullah a three-time loser and his future in govern-ment is uncertain as he has ruled out another power-sharing deal with the president.

Afghanistan’s Chief Executive Abdullah Abdullah will challenge the election results

Independent Election Commission chairwoman Hawa Alam Nuristani announced the preliminary results of the September 28 poll

Ashraf Ghani looks set for a second term as Afghan president after winning 50.64 percent in the September polls

According to the tally released by the IEC, the total turnout was

1,824,401 with Ghani winning 923,868 votes and Abdullah

finished second with 39.5% and 720,099 votes.

Russia ready to include ‘super weapons’ in arms control treaty: Ifax cites Lavrov

Reuters | Moscow

Russia’s Foreign Minis-ter Sergei Lavrov said

yesterday that Russia was prepared to include the heavy Sarmat missile and the Avangard hypersonic missile in a new START stra-tegic arms reduction treaty, should it be extended, In-terfax reported.

Russia is also ready to demonstrate the Sarmat missile to the United States, Interfax cited Lavrov as say-ing on a talk show on Rus-sian state television.

Lavrov also said that U.S. President Donald Trump had sent a short letter about the Intermediate Nuclear Forces (INF) treaty to Rus-sian President Vladimir Putin, the Interfax news agency reported.

“US President Donald Trump sent a short letter in which he said that they are ready to continue looking for ways to overcome the problems in our relations,” Interfax cited the minister as saying on a TV talk show.

The letter was in response to Putin’s offer to introduce a moratorium on the devel-opment of missiles banned by the Intermediate Nuclear Forces (INF) treaty, Interfax cited Lavrov as saying.

The US formally left the INF treaty with Russia in August after determining that Moscow was violating the treaty and had already deployed one banned type of missile, an accusation the Kremlin denies.


Sudan opens Darfur crimes probe against Bashir regime figures

Khartoum

Sudan has opened an inves-tigation into crimes com-

mitted in the Darfur region by members of the regime of ousted former president Omar al-Bashir, the state prosecutor said Sunday.

T h e c o n f l i c t b e t we e n pro-government forces and ethnic minority rebels left around 300,000 people dead and 2.5 million displaced, ac-cording to the United Nations.

“We have launched an inves-tigation into the crimes com-mitted in Darfur from 2003,” prosecutor Tagelsir al-Heber said on his arrival in Khartoum after a trip to the United Arab Emirates.

He added that these were “cases against former regime officials” tied to Bashir, who is sought by the International

Criminal Court for his role in the Darfur conflict.

Warrants for the ex-dicta-tor’s arrest were issued by the ICC in 2009 and 2010 on charg-es of genocide, war crimes and crimes against humanity but Bashir has not been extradit-ed to The Hague, the seat of the ICC.

Sudan’s new transitional government, brought to pow-er after the protest movement toppled Bashir, has vowed to establish peace in conflict-hit regions, including Darfur.

On December 14, Bashir was sentenced by a court in Khar-toum to two years’ detention in a correctional centre for cor-ruption in the first of several cases against him.

Bashir is also being investi-gated for his role in the 1989 coup that brought him to pow-er.

Sudan’s deposed president Omar al-Bashir sits in a defendant’s cage during his corruption trial in Khartoum on December 14

Defective soda machine killed two McDonald’s workers in PeruLima

A defective soda vending machine was responsi-

ble for the deaths of two Mc-Donald’s cleaners in Peru, the general manager for the Lima franchise told a local news sta-tion on Saturday night.

Carlos Campos, 19, and Alex-andra Porrasa, 18, died late on December 15 as they cleaned the fast food restaurant in Li-ma’s Pueblo Libre district.

Police had said Monday the two were electrocuted.

S i n c e t h e d e a t h s , t h e chain has closed its 29 stores throughout the country, while the police and the prosecution investigate.

“Twenty-four hours before (the accident) it was already known that the machine had problems (...),” Jose Carlos An-drade, the general director of

Arcos Dorados, the owner of the McDonald’s franchise in Peru, told television channel N.

“This has hit us all very hard and we are working hard to review all our processes, all our protocols, to ensure such a thing does not happen again,” he told the local station.

The company confirmed the soda machine would not be used in future.

The deaths prompted Peru-vian President Martín Vizcarra to announce a bill to strength-en job security, as demonstra-tors rallied peacefully Satur-day against labor abuses for the second time in a week.

175 children abused by Mexican branch of Catholic Church• 18 of the 33 individuals who committed abuses are still part of the organization

Mexico City

At least 175 children were sexually assaulted by priests

belonging to an ultra-conserva-

tive Mexican branch of the Ro-man Catholic Church, according to an internal report published Saturday.

The founder of the Legion-aries of Christ, Marcial Maciel, abused as many as 60 children, with a total of 33 priests or dea-cons acknowledged to have com-mitted sexual assaults against minors since 1941, the document says. The findings of the report -- written by a commission created in June by the director general of

the group, Eduardo Robles-Gil -- spans from the group’s founding in 1941 until December 16, 2019.

“The vast majority of the victims were adolescent boys between 11 and 16 years old,” the statement said, published on ceroabusos.org, which is supported by the Legionaries of Christ.

The report notes that 18 of the 33 individuals who committed abuses are still part of the organ-ization, but says they have been

removed from tasks connected to the public or minors.

Fourteen of the 33 had them-selves been victims of the Le-gionaries, which the report said highlights the existence of “chains of abuse” where “a vic-tim of a Legionnaire, over time, becomes in turn an aggressor”.

“There are probably more cas-es of abuse than those in the report and the statistics will have to be updated regularly,” it added.

Ceroabusos also notes that a process of “reparation and rec-onciliation” with 45 victims is taking place, while acknowledg-ing that it has yet to extend it to the others.

Maciel, who died in 2008, was ordered to retire to a life of prayer and penitence by Pope Benedict XVI in 2006 after fac-ing years of allegations that he had sexually abused boys and young men. He never faced his accusers.

The founder of the Legionaries of Christ Marcial Macial abused as many as 60 children, the report states

Kim mulls bolstering military• The commission is North Korea’s top military decision-making body

Seoul

North Korean leader Kim Jong Un held a meet-ing of top military of-

ficials to discuss boosting the country’s military capability, state news agency reported on Sunday amid heightened con-cern the North may be about to return to confrontation with Washington.

Kim presided over an en-larged meeting of the ruling Workers’ Party’s Central Mil-itary Commission, KCNA news agency said, to discuss steps “to bolster up the overall armed forces of the country ... militar-ily and politically.”

“Also discussed were impor-tant issues for decisive improve-ment of the overall national de-fence and core matters for the sustained and accelerated de-velopment of military capability for self-defence,” KCNA said.

It did not give details on when the meeting was held nor what was decided.

The commission is North Ko-rea’s top military decision-mak-

ing body. Kim rules the country as its supreme military com-mander and is the chairman of the commission.

North Korea has set a year-end deadline for the United States to change what it says is a policy of hostility amid a stalemate in efforts to make pro-gress on their pledge to end the North’s nuclear programme and establish lasting peace.

Kim and U.S. President Don-ald Trump have met three times since June 2018, but there has been no substantive progress

in dialogue while the North de-manded crushing international sanctions be lifted first.

On Saturday, the state media said the United States would “pay dearly” for taking issue with the North’s human rights record and said Washington’s “malicious words” would only aggravate tensions on the Ko-rean Peninsula.

North Korea has also repeat-edly called for the United States to drop its “hostile policy” and warned about its “Christmas gift” as the end-year deadline it

set for Washington to change its position looms.

Some experts say the reclu-sive state may be preparing for an intercontinental ballistic missile test that could put it back on a path of confrontation with the United States.

The U.S. envoy for North Ko-rea, Stephen Biegun, has visit-ed South Korea and China in the past week, issuing a public and direct call to North Korea to return to the negotiating table, but there has been no response.

The North promised an ominous ‘Christmas gift’ earlier this month if Washington does not make concessions by the end of December

Thousands mourn Bangladeshi charity pioneer• Nobel laureate Muhammad Yunus, top politicians, diplomats, businessmen and the general public all paid tribute to Abed

Dhaka

Thousands gathered in Bang-ladesh yesterday for the

funeral of Fazle Hasan Abed, founder of one of the world’s largest NGOs and credited with lifting nearly 150 million people out of poverty.

The 83-year-old passed away on Friday in a Dhaka hospital while undergoing treatment for a brain tumour.

His body was brought to a stadium in Dhaka where at least 10,000 people attended the fu-neral.

Nobel laureate Muhammad Yunus, top politicians, diplo-mats and businessmen paid trib-ute to Abed, who founded BRAC in 1972.

“Sir Abed’s NGO helped me to start my business. It was him who pulled me up when

I thought I am done,” Abdur Rahman, a small business en-trepreneur, told AFP as he came to say a final goodbye.

BRAC’s micro-finance ap-proach has been hailed as one factor behind the drop in the proportion of Bangladeshis liv-ing in extreme poverty from 80 percent to around 40 percent.

The approach proved so suc-cessful that BRAC, which has more than 100,000 local em-ployees worldwide -- expanded elsewhere in Asia and even to Africa and has been lauded by world figures such as former US president Bill Clinton.

The NGO has helped nearly 150 million people out of pover-

ty according to the World Food Prize, which honoured Abed as its Laureate in 2015.

Abed also received a knight-hood from Britain in 2010 for his work.

The accountant-turned-aid worker will be laid to rest in a Dhaka graveyard, BRAC spokes-man Asif Saleh told reporters.

BRAC, the NGO founded by Fazle Hasan Abed, is credited with helping nearly 150 million people out of poverty. Inset, Fazle Hasan Abed


Russian President Vladimir Putin has always been reluc-

tant to acknowledge the link between

human activity and global warming.

KNOW WHAT

At least 18 dead in clash at Honduras jail• It was not clear what sparked the melee

• Prison officials had originally reported only three deaths

Tegucigalpa

At least 18 inmates died and 16 were injured in overnight clashes be-

tween prisoners in Honduras after fighting erupted at a jail in the northern port town of Tela, prison officials said Saturday.

The National Penitentiary Institute said 17 prisoners had died at the facility and another died in hospital, with local me-dia describing the unrest as gang violence.

It was not clear what sparked the melee at the prison in Tela, about 120 miles (200 kilometres) from Tegucigalpa, the capital of the small Central American country.

Prison officials had originally reported only three deaths, but the toll quickly rose. A statement Saturday identified 14 of the dead and 15 wounded by name.

Honduran President Juan Orlando Hernandez, grappling with a recent wave of prison kill-

ings, had ordered the army and the police on Tuesday to take full control of the country’s 27 pris-ons, which are badly overcrowd-ed with some 21,000 inmates.

Earlier killingsBut as of Friday, the military

had yet to take complete con-trol of the Tela detention center,

according to a prison spokesper-son, Digna Aguilar.

Hernandez announced the crackdown after the killings on December 14 of five members of feared gang Mara Salvatrucha (MS-13) by a fellow detainee at the high-security prison in La Tolva, 25 miles east of Teguci-galpa.

T h a t c a m e j u s t a day after Pedro Idel-fonso Armas, the warden of El Pozo -- the country’s main high-security pris-on, in the western city of Santa

Barbara -- had been murdered.The Ministry of Security had

suspended Armas shortly before that amid an investigation into his presence during the Octo-ber 26 killing by prisoners of Magdaleno Meza, a drug kingpin whose confession and notebooks linked him to a brother of the president, Juan Antonio “Tony” Hernandez.

Meza’s account books were entered as evidence in the New York trial of Hernandez, who was subsequently convicted on four counts of drug trafficking. He faces sentencing -- possibly

for life -- in Janu-ary.

P r e s -i d e n t

Her-n a n -

dez con-demned the

conviction of his young-

er brother, saying it was based on “the testimony of confessed assassins.”

Violent countryA video circulating on social

media shows the 52-year-old Armas talking with Meza when prison guards opened a locked gate, allowing a dozen inmates to enter and stab and fatally shoot the drug trafficker.

In addition, a lawyer who had represented Meza and other members of the Valle Valle drug cartel, Jose Luis Pinto, was killed in an attack December 9 in a town northwest of Tegucigalpa. That killing remains under in-vestigation.

Honduras has been plagued by drug trafficking, gangs, poverty and corruption.

It suffers from one of the high-est homicide rates in the world outside areas of armed conflict, having registered 41.2 homicides per 100,000 inhabitants in 2018.

To fight this scourge, Presi-dent Hernandez created a mil-itary police force financed by a new tax, and built special pris-ons for gang members.

The sky-high crime rate has been a key factor behind a wave of migration toward the United States, notably by minors who say they fear being forced into gangs.

The killings at the Tela prison came even as Honduras’s president, Juan Orlando Hernandez, has moved to toughen security in the nation’s prisons, like this maximum security unit at the Tamara prison, north of Tegucigalpa

Moscow wonders where winter has goneMoscow

Winters in Moscow usually look like something out

of a picture book: the Russian capital is covered in snow, peo-ple go skiing, and temperatures are well below freezing.

But this year things are dif-ferent.

For the past two weeks, tem-peratures in Moscow have easily topped four degrees Celsius and are expected to move as high as 7C next week -- compared to the normal average for December of around minus 6C.

Snow is nowhere to be seen, the city’s ski resorts are closed, and even the first spring buds on the trees are beginning to show -- three or more months too early.

At his traditional year-end an-nual news conference last week, he again insisted that “nobody knows” the causes of climate change.

But Putin acknowledged the consequences of global warm-ing could be catastrophic for a country that is one of the world’s biggest producers of carbon fuel and a fifth of whose land lies within the Arctic circle.

Putin said that the rate of warming for Russia was 2.5 per-cent higher than elsewhere on the planet.

And “for our country, this pro-cess is very serious,” he said.

Climate change was a par-ticular risk for Russian regions where buildings are built into permafrost and there “could be very big consequences if it melts,” Putin warned.

Early blossomIn the botanic garden of Mos-

cow State University, rhododen-drons, snowdrops and crocuses are already beginning to bud.

“I’ve never seen this be-fore,” chief gardener, Anton Dubenyuk, said.

“I like this weather, it’s a nor-mal European winter,” says one visitor, pensioner Svetlana Zolo-tukhina.

“When the flowers blossom, it makes you feel better.”

But another visitor, Svetlana Gribkova, says she finds the sit-uation “abnormal.”

“I want snow because it pro-tects plants in the winter,” says the trained botanist.

According to the Russian me-teorological office, Rosgidromet, Moscow, with its population of 12 million, experienced its hot-test year this year since records

began a century and a half ago.“Only the month of July was

slightly below normal for the season,” said senior Rosgi-dromet representative Anatoly Tsygankov, who described De-cember, with its temperatures around 10 degrees higher than average, as “very warm”.

But he, too, remained cautious about the possible explanations for climate change, saying the current warm temperatures could be attributable to cyclones coming in from the Atlantic.

This summer, the vast region of Siberia was devastated by for-

est fires, which experts linked directly to the effects of climate change.

Nevertheless, at one Moscow ski resort, where 20 pistes had to be shut down because temper-atures were too warm even for artificial snow, technical chief Andrei Kharkhota remained unfazed.

“I’m not worried. Winter al-ways comes,” he said.

Russian President Vladimir Putin acknowledged global warming could be catastrophic for Russia at his annual news conference

Temperatures in Moscow have topped four degrees Celsius this month

Fed-up French travellers face traffic chaos over festive periodParis

Travellers across France scrambled yesterday to be-

gin their Christmas getaways with trains cancelled, roads jam-packed and nerves tested as a strike over a pension overhaul shows no signs of letting up.

Hopes of a holiday truce were dashed after talks between the

government and union lead-ers this week failed to ease the standoff, with train operator SNCF warning the traffic would be “severely disrupted” over the festive period.

SNCF said its aim to allow 850,000 ticket holders to travel this weekend was being upheld -- but only half of its usual ser-

vices were running.“I’m upset, this strike is un-

bearable... The government must do something,” said Jef-frey Nwutu Ebube, who was in the northern port town of Le Havre trying to find a way back home to the southern city of Toulouse, some 850 kilometres (530 miles) away. Late Saturday,

French President Emmanuel Macron, called on the strikers to embrace a “spirit of respon-sibility” and for “collective good sense to triumph”.

“I believe there are moments in the life of a nation when it is also good to call a truce to respect families and the lives of families,” he said, speaking in

Abidjan, the commercial capital of Ivory Coast, where he is on a visit.

Many stranded travellers have turned to car rental agencies or sharing platforms since the strike began on December 5, but the last-minute surge in de-mand meant vehicles were hard to come by.

Train operator SNCF warned that the traffic would be ‘severely disrupted’ over the festive weekend

Cuba gets first prime minister in over 40 years

Havana

Cuba’s first prime min-ister in more than four

decades -- long-serving tourism minister Manuel Marrero -- took office Sat-urday as the country res-urrected a post last held by Fidel Castro.

The appointment of Mar-rero, 56, as head of govern-ment is part of a process of decentralization and gen-erational change from the revolutionary old guard that is aimed at extending and protecting Communist Par-ty rule.

“This proposal was duly approved by the political bureau of the Communist Party of Cuba,” President Miguel Diaz-Canel said, presenting it to the coun-try’s National Assembly, which unanimously signed off.

Manuel Marrero (C) is Cuba’s first prime minister since 1976


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

BARIA ALAMUDDIN

Are Lebanon’s leaders seek-ing to further provoke their long-suffering citizens?

Protesters rail at Iranian in-terference, while foreign donors refuse to bankroll a militant-dom-inated regime — so the authorities nominate a Hizbollah-favoured candidate to be prime minister.

Lebanese warn that their nation is held hostage by violent and un-accountable paramilitaries — so these same paramilitaries prove these claims true by escalating their attacks on peaceful rallies.

People demand abolishment of the corrupt, sectarian system — so the president stubbornly aims to force through a Cabinet appar-ently chosen to alienate ordinary Lebanese even more than its pre-decessors did.

In what some commentators are describing as a “counter-revo-lution” against the protest move-ment, Sunni politician Hassan Diab has been nominated as prime minister, having been wined and dined by Gebran Bassil at the presidential palace. Given the ex-pected boycott by the main Sunni, Druze and Christian factions, the resulting Cabinet is likely to be a bizarre mixture of nonentities and Hizbollah acolytes. After two months of protests, citizens won’t be placated or deceived by such desperate, self-serving maneu-vers.

Despite Hizbollah having mur-dered his father, Saad Hariri justi-fied participation in previous Hiz-bollah-sponsored governments as the price to be paid for civil peace. Yet peace for its own sake, while Iran-aligned factions bankrupted

the nation — financially, politically and morally — ultimately proved worthless.

Lebanon’s economy is in free-fall. Over 10 per cent of Lebanese companies went out of business in 2019, a further 22pc cut staff by over 60pc, and the collapse of several major corporations is just around the corner. Those lucky enough to retain their jobs have had their salaries slashed.

This is precisely why protesters must not back down now. If they return meekly to their homes, this painful process will simply reig-nite in the future — over and over again. Protests are about forcing the state to embark on emergency surgery, cutting away decades of accumulated cancerous tissue to save the patient’s life. If Lebanon is simply put to bed with an as-pirin and a warm drink, the only possible prognosis is a slow and painful death.

Lebanon’s entrenched political class in its entirety (“kilon yanni kilon,” or “all of them means all of them,” as the protesters chant) has bled Lebanon white. In one decade it plunged from 63rd to 143rd place on the global Corrup-tion Perceptions Index, and is thus among the most corrupt kleptoc-racies on the planet. One percent of the population hoards an esti-mated 25 percent of the nation’s wealth, forcing penniless citizens to shoulder a debt-to-GDP ratio of 150 percent, rendering debt-ser-vicing an intolerable burden.

Bassil and Hizbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah blame protest-ers for damaging the economy, but the protests were the straw that broke the camel’s back after their criminal enterprises left the coffers empty. Even before the demonstrations, GDP growth av-eraged 0-0.3 percent and in recent weeks the currency has lost 30 percent of its value.

The economy has been canni-

balised by entities hostile to Leb-anon’s existence. The smuggling to Syria of over $1.7 billion in hard currency, and the exploitation of Lebanon’s financial networks to launder funds for Tehran, have crippled the banking system. In-ternational sanctions resulting from these abuses, and the reluc-tance of Gulf investors to risk their wealth in this morass of criminali-ty, have worsened the plight of this erstwhile regional banking hub.

Lebanon’s modest population during peak tourist seasons is ha-bitually dwarfed by the influx of millions of Khaleejis, Westerners, and Lebanon’s own vast diaspo-ra. Yet how can tourism flourish when Beirut’s streets are teeming with theocratic militants nois-ily jostling for war with Israel? Panicking hotel owners report a collapse in occupancy from ap-

proaching 100 percent to below 10 percent. Everything inherently precious has been trampled un-derfoot by the thugs and terrorists who have laboured to turn Leba-non into a pariah state.

MY IDEA OF GOOD COMPANY IS THE COMPANY OF CLEVER, WELL-IN-FORMED PEOPLE WHO HAVE A GREAT DEAL OF CONVERSATION; THAT IS WHAT I CALL GOOD COMPANY.JANE AUSTEN

QUOTE OF THE DAY

What doesn’t kill Lebanon’s

revolution only makes it

stronger? Despite Hizbollah having murdered his father, Saad

Hariri justified participation in previous Hizbollah-sponsored governments as the price to be

paid for civil peace This is merely the darkness before the dawn if citizens succeed in taking that final

leap of faith; abolishing the last vestiges of a hated

and predatory sectarian system that for too long has created only misery,

poverty and national isolation.

HUSSEIN IBISH

On Wednesday, the US House of Representatives adopted two articles of

impeachment against Donald Trump. So, the president has been impeached and there will now be a trial in the Senate, correct? Well, not so fast. In the Trump era, nothing is ever quite what it seems.

House speaker Nancy Pelosi has suggested that she might not formally forward the articles to the Senate or name the House’s “managers” – or prosecutors – until she is satisfied that the Sen-ate will hold a serious proceeding.

By simply adopting the arti-cles, the Democratic-led House of Representatives did not automat-ically empower the Senate to take over the process. Constitutional lawyers are even abstrusely de-bating whether Mr Trump has been impeached technically yet.

The move to withhold the ar-ticles is risky but also politically masterful by Ms Pelosi, who has time and again proven to be Mr Trump’s most formidable oppo-nent.

She never wanted to impeach the president, preferring to focus on defeating him in the election. She understood that the Repub-lican Senate majority has nev-er been prepared to remove Mr

Trump from office, no matter what facts emerge about him.

However, her hand was forced by Mr Trump himself when the White House released a summary of a July 25 telephone conver-sation with the newly elected president of Ukraine, Volodymyr Zelenskiy, that appears to show him leveraging US military aid to secure the announcement of an investigation into the son of leading Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden.

That seemed such an appar-ently glaring abuse of power, especially as investigations are still ongoing into Russian med-dling in the 2016 election, that Ms Pelosi ran out of arguments and options. Almost every witness in the House inquiry made matters worse by emphasising that Mr Trump sought a quid pro quo with Mr Zelenskiy.

As I have noted several times in these pages, impeachment is fraught with peril for Democrats because Senate Republicans can hold any kind of trial they want. Mr Trump passionately wants them to put the Bidens and other Democrats on trial instead of him, but Senate majority leader Mitch McConnell has planned a short process without any testimony by witnesses or new documents.

During Bill Clinton’s impeach-ment trial in 1999, such fact-find-

ing didn’t happen because an ex-tensive record was already es-tablished and both sides agreed it would have been a pointless waste of time. Today no such con-sensus exists because the White House refused to co-operate in any way, most key witnesses re-fused to testify and no requested documents were provided. Many key facts clearly remain undis-covered.

Senate minority leader Chuck Schumer requested testimony

from acting White House chief of staff Mick Mulvaney, former national security adviser John Bolton, White House aide Rob Blair and budget official Michael Duffey.

Mr McConnell flatly refused. Republicans want nothing to do with fact-finding because what has already been established is damning enough and they do not know what might be next. Addi-tional evidence could easily put them in an impossible position.

Ms Pelosi has hit on an art-ful way of satisfying Democrats without falling into a Republi-can trap. Mr Trump has been im-peached but the House won’t let the Senate dismiss the entire mat-ter through a perfunctory proce-dure with a preordained outcome.

This certainly intensifies the appearance that Democrats are manoeuvring politically rather than ethically or patriotically. But that is undoubtedly a price worth paying under the circumstances.

If the Senate will not agree to a serious trial, Democrats can con-tinue to investigate the president as he languishes under the shad-ow of impeachment. It ensures that Mr Trump cannot have his day in court –unless Democrats

Even his loyal support base is beginning to fall out of

love with the ‘morally lost

and confused’ US president

More Americans are starting to believe Trump puts his own interests before the countryDuring Bill Clinton’s

impeachment trial in 1999, such fact-finding didn’t happen because

an extensive record was already established and

both sides agreed it would have been a pointless waste

of time.



BARIA ALAMUDDIN

Are Lebanon’s leaders seek-ing to further provoke their long-suffering citizens?

Protesters rail at Iranian in-terference, while foreign donors refuse to bankroll a militant-dom-inated regime — so the authorities nominate a Hizbollah-favoured candidate to be prime minister.

Lebanese warn that their nation is held hostage by violent and un-accountable paramilitaries — so these same paramilitaries prove these claims true by escalating their attacks on peaceful rallies.

People demand abolishment of the corrupt, sectarian system — so the president stubbornly aims to force through a Cabinet appar-ently chosen to alienate ordinary Lebanese even more than its pre-decessors did.

In what some commentators are describing as a “counter-revo-lution” against the protest move-ment, Sunni politician Hassan Diab has been nominated as prime minister, having been wined and dined by Gebran Bassil at the presidential palace. Given the ex-pected boycott by the main Sunni, Druze and Christian factions, the resulting Cabinet is likely to be a bizarre mixture of nonentities and Hizbollah acolytes. After two months of protests, citizens won’t be placated or deceived by such desperate, self-serving maneu-vers.

Despite Hizbollah having mur-dered his father, Saad Hariri justi-fied participation in previous Hiz-bollah-sponsored governments as the price to be paid for civil peace. Yet peace for its own sake, while Iran-aligned factions bankrupted

the nation — financially, politically and morally — ultimately proved worthless.

Lebanon’s economy is in free-fall. Over 10 per cent of Lebanese companies went out of business in 2019, a further 22pc cut staff by over 60pc, and the collapse of several major corporations is just around the corner. Those lucky enough to retain their jobs have had their salaries slashed.

This is precisely why protesters must not back down now. If they return meekly to their homes, this painful process will simply reig-nite in the future — over and over again. Protests are about forcing the state to embark on emergency surgery, cutting away decades of accumulated cancerous tissue to save the patient’s life. If Lebanon is simply put to bed with an as-pirin and a warm drink, the only possible prognosis is a slow and painful death.

Lebanon’s entrenched political class in its entirety (“kilon yanni kilon,” or “all of them means all of them,” as the protesters chant) has bled Lebanon white. In one decade it plunged from 63rd to 143rd place on the global Corrup-tion Perceptions Index, and is thus among the most corrupt kleptoc-racies on the planet. One percent of the population hoards an esti-mated 25 percent of the nation’s wealth, forcing penniless citizens to shoulder a debt-to-GDP ratio of 150 percent, rendering debt-ser-vicing an intolerable burden.

Bassil and Hizbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah blame protest-ers for damaging the economy, but the protests were the straw that broke the camel’s back after their criminal enterprises left the coffers empty. Even before the demonstrations, GDP growth av-eraged 0-0.3 percent and in recent weeks the currency has lost 30 percent of its value.

The economy has been canni-

balised by entities hostile to Leb-anon’s existence. The smuggling to Syria of over $1.7 billion in hard currency, and the exploitation of Lebanon’s financial networks to launder funds for Tehran, have crippled the banking system. In-ternational sanctions resulting from these abuses, and the reluc-tance of Gulf investors to risk their wealth in this morass of criminali-ty, have worsened the plight of this erstwhile regional banking hub.

Lebanon’s modest population during peak tourist seasons is ha-bitually dwarfed by the influx of millions of Khaleejis, Westerners, and Lebanon’s own vast diaspo-ra. Yet how can tourism flourish when Beirut’s streets are teeming with theocratic militants nois-ily jostling for war with Israel? Panicking hotel owners report a collapse in occupancy from ap-


MY IDEA OF GOOD COMPANY IS THE COMPANY OF CLEVER, WELL-IN-FORMED PEOPLE WHO HAVE A GREAT DEAL OF CONVERSATION; THAT IS WHAT I CALL GOOD COMPANY.JANE AUSTEN

QUOTE OF THE DAY

What doesn’t kill Lebanon’s

revolution only makes it

stronger? Despite Hizbollah having murdered his father, Saad

Hariri justified participation in previous Hizbollah-sponsored governments as the price to be

paid for civil peace This is merely the darkness before the dawn if citizens succeed in taking that final




HUSSEIN IBISH

On Wednesday, th e US House of Representatives adopted two articles of

impeachment against Donald Trump. So, the president has been impeached and there will now be a trial in the Senate, correct? Well, not so fast. In the Trump era, nothing is ever quite what it seems.

House speaker Nancy Pelosi has suggested that she might not formally forward the articles to the Senate or name the House’s “managers” – or prosecutors – until she is satisfied that the Sen-ate will hold a serious proceeding.

By simply adopting the arti-cles, the Democratic-led House of Representatives did not automat-ically empower the Senate to take over the process. Constitutional lawyers are even abstrusely de-bating whether Mr Trump has been impeached technically yet.

The move to withhold the ar-ticles is risky but also politically masterful by Ms Pelosi, who has time and again proven to be Mr Trump’s most formidable oppo-nent.

She never wanted to impeach the president, preferring to focus on defeating him in the election. She understood that the Repub-lican Senate majority has nev-er been prepared to remove Mr

Trump from office, no matter what facts emerge about him.

However, her hand was forced by Mr Trump himself when the White House released a summary of a July 25 telephone conver-sation with the newly elected president of Ukraine, Volodymyr Zelenskiy, that appears to show him leveraging US military aid to secure the announcement of an investigation into the son of leading Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden.

That seemed such an appar-ently glaring abuse of power, especially as investigations are still ongoing into Russian med-dling in the 2016 election, that Ms Pelosi ran out of arguments and options. Almost every witness in the House inquiry made matters worse by emphasising that Mr Trump sought a quid pro quo with Mr Zelenskiy.

As I have noted several times in these pages, impeachment is fraught with peril for Democrats because Senate Republicans can hold any kind of trial they want. Mr Trump passionately wants them to put the Bidens and other Democrats on trial instead of him, but Senate majority leader Mitch McConnell has planned a short process without any testimony by witnesses or new documents.

During Bill Clinton’s impeach-ment trial in 1999, such fact-find-

ing didn’t happen because an ex-tensive record was already es-tablished and both sides agreed it would have been a pointless waste of time. Today no such con-sensus exists because the White House refused to co-operate in any way, most key witnesses re-fused to testify and no requested documents were provided. Many key facts clearly remain undis-covered.

Senate minority leader Chuck Schumer requested testimony

from acting White House chief of staff Mick Mulvaney, former national security adviser John Bolton, White House aide Rob Blair and budget official Michael Duffey.

Mr McConnell flatly refused. Republicans want nothing to do with fact-finding because what has already been established is damning enough and they do not know what might be next. Addi-tional evidence could easily put them in an impossible position.




Even his loyal support base is beginning to fall out of

love with the ‘morally lost

and confused’ US president





of time.


TOP

4TWEETS

04

02

03

01

Anthony Scaramuc-ci thinks that Pres.

Trump would resign if the Senate votes to hear witnesses from his cab-inet. “He’s gonna leave before that testimony is brought. There is no way he can handle the heat of that testimony.”

@MSNBC

In three days’ time it will be #Christmas and my

thoughts go especially to families, who are reunit-ed in these festive days. May Holy Christmas be a fraternal time for every-one, one of growth in the faith and of actions of sol-idarity toward those who are in need.

@Pontifex

“We are now putting in the biggest invest-

ment in the NHS in living memory, but we have to keep that investment go-ing.” — PM @BorisJohn-son thanked NHS staff for their incredible work during a special recep-tion at Downing Street this week.

@10DowningStreet

Last night I was so proud to have signed

the largest Defense Bill ever. The very vital Space Force was created. New planes, ships, missiles, rockets and equipment of every kind, and all made right here in the USA. Additionally, we got Border Wall (being built) funding. Nice!

@realDonaldTrump

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

editorial stances)


A veteran Western diplomat commented to me that one of the best hopes for Lebanon emerging from the current stand-off was if France and its allies assertively in-tervened. Yet he feared that such multilateral diplomatic action via the EU and UN would be forth-coming only if there were wide-spread bloodletting perpetrated by Hizbollah against Christian and minority communities.

The endgame may be some dis-tance away, but in Iraq, Syria and Lebanon, Iran’s hegemonic pro-ject can end only in failure. Recent events have burnt away the last vestiges of support for Tehran’s proxies. In Iraq, Ayatollah Sis-tani’s call for fresh Iraqi elections (if free and fair) would produce a collapse in support for paramil-itary elements who have spent the past two months massacring

their own Shiite grassroots con-stituents. Hizbollah’s Lebanese supporters are either in demoral-ised denial, or have already begun to re-evaluate their allegiances.

What of Hizbollah’s manufac-tured outrage over a spurious critical social media post? They went on the rampage in Tripoli, attacked the home of a Sunni cler-ic, and firebombed a Christmas tree; do they believe such cartoon-ish gangsterism will endear them to citizens? Of course not.

This is Tehran’s “axis of resist-ance” in its death throes, willing to countenance dragging Lebanon back toward sectarian strife in a final, desperate throw of the dice to cling on to power.

Lebanese genuinely fear a re-turn to civil war, or Hizbollah returning to its favoured tactic of political assassinations, par-ticularly following reports that the Quds Force commander Qa-ssim Soleimani threatened to as-sassinate Iraqi cleric Muqtada Al Sadr if he continued to back protesters.

However, if people remain steadfastly united, determined and focused on their objectives, they can ultimately defeat these malevolent attempts to terror-ise, brutalise and humiliate them; whether through threats, violence or political maneuvering, each new attempt to kill off the revo-lution has only made protesters more determined.

This is merely the darkness be-fore the dawn if citizens succeed in taking that final leap of faith; abolishing the last vestiges of a hated and predatory sectarian sys-tem that for too long has created only misery, poverty and national isolation.

(Baria Alamuddin is an award-winning journalist and broadcaster in the Middle

East and the UK. She is editor of the Media Services Syndicate and has inter-

viewed numerous heads of state.)

1815The novel Emma by Jane Austen is first published.

1876First day of the Constantinople Conference which resulted in agreement for political reforms in the Balkans.

1893The opera Hansel and Gretel by Engelbert Humperdinck is first performed.

1913The Federal Reserve Act is signed into law by President Woodrow Wilson, creating the Federal Re-serve System.

TODAY DAY IN

HISTORY

Assessors may be excused…

I was waiting at the reception. A policeman came and verified my ID card. I could feel the blanket of fear embracing my body, from toe to head. A few policemen were walking around with some

handcuffed suspects. It seemed they were taking them to the courts for their next hearing.

I was visiting a prison in the Kingdom for the very first time. And the purpose was to meet one of my friends, punished in a dud cheque case.

The prison guards were amicable. The environment was quiet, neat and clean. In another few minutes, the guards would call me and tell me the exact time and booth number to meet my friend.

I sat against a wall and could see my friend through a glass window. There were microphones fixed on both sides to communicate.

To my surprise, my friend looked quite happy and normal. He had a new haircut and his face shone in the absence of a moustache.

How are you? The first question flew out of my mouth. In the next moment, I realised that it wasn’t an appropriate question to ask some-one who’s behind bars, filled with stress, ambiguities and despair.

“I am fine,” he smiled as he replied. “Now you look like Shahrukh Khan,” I said with an aim to melt the ice.

He laughed. “My blood sugar levels have come down, mainly be-cause I am eating on time, sleeping on time, taking medicines on time and exercising daily.

“The food served here is one of the best I have ever had in my life. Frankly speaking, this break has been a quite rejuvenating one.”

As he began speaking louder, one of the guards gave me a stare. It seemed the guard was seeking reasons behind my laughter.

I looked at my watch. I had many things on my ‘to do’ list; mainly selling some of his properties, collecting details of his receivables and strategies to negotiate with his creditors.

“I can make only a few telephone calls every week. I have no access to Internet, that’s the only problem I have over here. Rest is quite fine.”

We engaged in serious discussions to resolve his ongoing troubles. I didn’t try to console him, as he looked relaxed and comfortable.

I was overwhelmed to see the facilities inside the prison; impressed to see the best treatment received by inmates. I appreciate the highly civilised way in which prisoners are treated.

A guard offered me a cup of tea, and said: “Dear, your time is over.”

While driving home, the one-thought that haunted me was whether we need a separate cell for people like my friend, who got trapped because of the risk he took for enhancing his business.

Post-dated cheques (PDCs) are demanded every-where; be it car loans, leasing a hotel property or a

short-term finance from financial institutions. We often say ‘God willing’ before signing any big deals, which means

if everything goes fine we will be able to meet those commitments. But when you submit a PDC we are confirming that even if we fail

with the Acts of God we assure you to settle our commitment without fail! Does it sound sensible?

When we sign a PDC, we are strictly being blind about the uncertain-ty ahead. We are pledging an existing asset for a future uncertainty. We are confirming that we will fulfil our financial commitments even if we fail in the venture. How can we promise 100 per cent guarantee on such deals?

When you approach a bank for a loan or any financial assistance, you agree to abide by hundreds of clauses and sub-clauses. You need a good credit rating, bank statement and most often a guarantor.

Despite all these, there is an insistence on presenting PDCs, which is a negotiable instrument; something that is capable of taking a person to prison within a day, if he/she fails to honour it.

All businessmen are supposed to be risk takers. They provide jobs to people, boost the economy, increase exports, innovate industries and introduce novel products to customers only by taking this risk.

I feel they need a separate court and separate legal procedure. They should not be sent to a detention centre, but to a ‘correction centre’ and must have minimum facilities including telephone and Internet connection.

This will make us a more ‘business-friendly’ nation, where innova-tions and creativity flourish, raising the living standards of everyone.

Shahrukh Khan had said recently: “I don’t write cheques anymore as I have a tendency to sign off ‘With Love Shahrukh’.”

I think it’s time for us to find some random excuse like the one by Mr SRK to avoid writing a Post-Dated Cheque!

(P Unnikrishnan is the Chairman of the Management Board as well as Managing Director of The Daily Tribune)

P UNNIKRISHNAN

All businessmen are supposed to be

risk takers. They provide jobs to

people, boost the economy, increase exports, innovate

industries and introduce novel

products to customers only by

taking this risk.

This is merely the darkness before the dawn if citizens succeed in taking that final







have theirs too.Mr Trump often chides and

mocks Democrats for pursuing his impeachment and claims all this will be helpful to him in the 2020 election.

More often, though, he fulmi-nates about how terribly unfair this impeachment is, comparing it to a coup and worse. His Decem-ber 17 letter to Ms Pelosi is one of the most bizarre ever penned by a US president.

At the House impeachment de-bate, his Republican allies tried to outdo each other in following his lead.

One claimed Mr Trump had fewer rights than the victims of the Salem witch trials of 1692. Another compared impeachment to the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbour in 1941. One Trump ac-olyte even said Pontius Pilate had granted more due process to Je-sus before his crucifixion.

Clearly this is not actually help-ful to Mr Trump. A growing body of polling data from the likes of Politico, Quinnipiac and even Fox News suggests that more Ameri-cans now support impeachment, and even conviction and removal, than the number who oppose it. Before the impeachment inquiry began, the opposite was the case. This is especially dangerous for Mr Trump because his governing coalition, which has never been

a majority, is so thin that he can scarcely afford to lose any of it.

Plainly feeling vulnerable, Mr Trump appears more sensitive than ever to any potential devia-tion from absolute loyalty.

In a serious blow, the leading American evangelical magazine Christianity Today wrote in a scathing editorial that the pres-ident should be removed from office, calling him “a near perfect example of a human being who is morally lost and confused”.

To offset the impact that could have on his most loyal constitu-ency, Mr Trump will inaugurate a new “evangelicals for Trump” or-ganisation on January 3 next year.

Democrats will take significant political hits for withholding im-peachment articles. Mr McCon-nell will probably breathe a sigh of relief. But Mr Trump will not.

The facts unearthed by the impeachment inquiry and the president’s reactions have taken their toll. It would be a political blunder for Democrats not to try to build on that foundation.

The president is a master of commanding the loyalty of his base. But the growing indication from those polls suggests that the patience of many Americans is wearing thin, as more come to believe that Mr Trump consist-ently puts his own interests, and not America, first.





of time.

Like it or not

10

business


Gulf Air, in partnership with Bahrain Tourism & Exhibitions Authority, recently arranged a familiarisation trip for members of Southall Travel, one of the largest travel companies in the UK. The trip took place earlier this month and guests had the opportunity to experience the state-of-the-art Gulf Air aircraft and use the airline’s Falcon Gold lounge in Bahrain International Airport. During their time in Bahrain, Southall management visited some of Bahrain’s most notable touristic attractions and landmarks and enjoyed staying and visiting some of the Kingdom’s top hotels to fully understand the leisure and MICE facilities of the Kingdom. The trip served as a comprehensive overview to the guests to experience what the Kingdom of Bahrain has to offer as a boutique destination to the European market. Southall Travel Group is one of the largest travel companies in the United Kingdom and one of the top sellers of Bahrain holidays to the UK market. It has sold more than 4,000 inbound tourist packages to the Kingdom of Bahrain in 2018 with growing numbers in 2019.

Need public beaches, attractive events to boost hospitality and tourism sector: BCCI meeting

TDT | Manama

Lack of public beaches, attractive events, as well as severe competition be-

tween hotels in Bahrain have been identified as some of the factors affecting the growth of hospitality and tourism sector here during a recent BCCI meet-

ing. The roundtable meeting for

hotels, travel agencies, and events management companies were held by the hospitality and tourism committee of the Bah-rain Chamber of Commerce and Industry (BCCI) headed by Jehad Ebrahim Amin at Bait Al Tijjar.

On the key challenges fac-

ing the sector, Amin told the participants that the sector is facing severe competition between hotels resulting in a drop in the average room rates.

He also identified “the lack of public beaches and attractive events” among the factors affect-ing the sector.

The meeting, which delib-erated about the challenges of hotels, travel agencies, and events management companies, recommended streamlining the procedures for obtaining a visa for tourists.

Jehad Amin vowed sparing no effort to streamline the hos-pitality and tourism sector, and

putting it to its true potential during the meeting.

The meeting was held in the presence of the Chief Execu-tive Officer of Bahrain Tour-ism and Exhibitions Authori-ty (BTEA) Nader Al Moayed and other officials from the authority.

In his regard, BTEA’s CEO Al

Moayed expressed the readiness of the authority to consolidate efforts to spur the hospitality and tourism sector in Bahrain.

Al Moayed also shared the strategy of the authority and highlighted important prospec-tive projects including the new Exhibition and Convention Center in Sakheer.

In pictures, the roundtable meeting for hotels, travel agencies, and events management companies held at Bait Al Tijjar

The K Hotel team gathered at the hotel’s lobby to celebrate Bahrain’s 48th National Day in the presence of the hotel’s management, in-house guest and associates. Following Bahrain National anthem, a Bahrain flat cake was cut on the occasion as part of the celebrations

UAE’s Brooge to start trading on Nasdaq todayReuters | Dubai

UAE-based Brooge Petrole-um and Gas Investment

Co (BPGIC) said it will start trading on New York’s Nas-daq stock exchange on Mon-day, following its merger with US company Twelve Seas Investment Co.

Oil storage company BPGIC completed the merger on Fri-day, it said in a statement on Sunday, and its valuation now exceeds $1 billion.

The merger and listing were aimed at establishing a global presence with access to liquid markets that could support the company’s expansion plans, BP-GIC said.

BPGIC, which was set up in 2013, is one of the largest hold-ers of oil storage assets in Fu-jairah.

In September, BPGIC awarded a contract to Spain’s SENER en-gineering group to build an oil refinery in Fujairah, located just outside the Strait of Hormuz, a

key shipping lane.The plant will produce bun-

ker fuel that complies with new international laws capping sul-fur content in shipping fuels.

BPGIC, which was set up in 2013, is one of the largest holders of oil storage assets in Fujairah.

K Hotel National Day celebration

KNOW WHAT


W.African nations rename common currencyAFP | Abidjan

Eight West African coun-tries Saturday agreed to change the name of their

common currency to Eco and severed the CFA franc’s links to former colonial ruler France.

Benin, Burkina Faso, Guin-ea-Bissau, Ivory Coast, Mali, Niger, Senegal and Togo cur-rently use the currency. All the countries are former French colonies with the exception of Guinea-Bissau.

The announcement was made Saturday during a visit by French President Emmanuel Macron to Ivory Coast, the world’s top co-coa producer and France’s for-mer main colony in West Africa.

Ivory Coast President Alas-sane Ouattara, speaking in the country’s economic capital Abidjan, announced “three ma-jor changes”.

These included “a change of name” of the currency, he said, adding that the others would be “stopping holding 50 percent of the reserves in the French Treasury” and the “withdrawal

of French governance” in any aspect related to the currency.

Macron hailed it as a “historic reform”, adding: “The Eco will see the light of day in 2020.”

The deal took six months in the making, a French source said.

The CFA franc’s value was moored to the euro after its in-troduction two decades ago, at

a fixed rate of 655.96 CFA francs to one euro.

The Bank of France holds half of the currency’s total reserves, but France does not make money on its deposits stewardship, an-nually paying a ceiling interest rate of 0.75 per cent to member states.

The arrangement guarantees unlimited convertibility of CFA

francs into euros and facilitates inter-zone transfers.

CFA notes and coins are print-ed and minted at a Bank of France facility in the southern town of Chamalieres.

The CFA franc, created in 1945, was seen by many as a sign of French interference in its for-mer African colonies even after the countries became independ-ent.

The Economic Community of West African States regional bloc, known as ECOWAS, earli-er Saturday urged members to push on with efforts to establish a common currency, optimisti-cally slated to launch next year.

The bloc insists it is aiming to have the Eco in place in 2020, but almost none of the 15 coun-tries in the group currently meet criteria to join.

Stumbling blocksECOWAS “urges member states

to continue efforts to meet the convergence criteria”, commis-sion chief Jean-Claude Kassi Brou said after a summit of re-

gional leaders in the Nigerian capital Abuja.

The key demands for entry are to have a deficit of less than 3 percent of gross domestic prod-uct, inflation of 10 percent or under and debts worth less than 70pc of GDP.

Economists say they under-

stand the thinking behind the currency plan but believe it is unrealistic and could even be dangerous for the region’s econ-omies which are dominated by one single country, Nigeria, which accounts for two-thirds of the region’s economic output.

Nigeria’s Finance Minister Zainab Ahmed said “there’s still more work that we need to do individually to meet the conver-gence criteria”.

ECOWAS was set up in 1975 and comprises Benin, Burkina Faso, Cape Verde, Gambia, Ghana, Guinea, Guinea-Bissau, Ivory Coast, Liberia, Mali, Niger, Ni-geria, Senegal, Sierra Leone and Togo -- representing a total pop-ulation of around 385 million.

Eight of them currently use the CFA franc, moored to the single European currency and gathered in an organisation called the West African Mone-tary Union, or WAMU.

But the seven other ECOWAS countries have their own cur-rencies, none of them freely con-vertible.

Dr Issa Mohamed Amin, Chairman of the Bahrain Historical & Archeological Society, received Gulf Hotels Group contribution in supporting the activities of the Society. The donation was presented by Garfield Jones, CEO of the Gulf Hotels to Dr Amin as part of the Group’s belief in the importance of the services provided by the Society.

Gulf Hotels Group donation

The CFA franc was initially pegged to the French franc and has been linked to the euro for about two decades

The CFA franc was initial-ly pegged to the French

franc and has been linked to the euro for about two decades.

Trump slams impeachment delay as ‘so unfair’

Reuters | West Palm beach

President Donald Trump on Saturday criticised House

of Representatives Speaker Nancy Pelosi for holding off on sending the articles of im-peachment against him to the Senate.

“It’s so unfair,” Trump said, days after he was impeached by the House, during a speech to conservative student group Turning Point USA, saying that Pelosi adopted the strategy be-cause she has “no case.”

“They are violating the Con-stitution,” Trump said, calling Pelosi “crazy Nancy.”

The Democratic-controlled House voted on Dec. 18 to im-peach Trump, setting the stage for a trial in the Senate. Trump is very unlikely to be convicted and removed from office by the upper chamber of Congress because it is controlled by his Republican Party. A two-thirds majority vote in the Senate is needed for a conviction on impeachment charges.

Republicans and Democrats are at loggerheads over how the trial will play out. Pelosi and other Democrats want to call top Trump aides as wit-nesses and are seeking assur-ances that the trial will be held on terms they consider fair.

Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell has said he is working in tandem with the White House on trial prepa-rations, drawing accusations from Democrats that he is ig-noring his duty to consider

the evidence in an impartial manner.

Pelosi has not yet sent the impeachment package to the Senate in a bid to increase pressure on Republicans there. Pelosi has also not yet announced the managers, or prosecutors, who will present evidence in the trial.

“Until the House gets a clearer picture of what a Sen-ate trial will look like, the Speaker will not be in the po-sition to appoint managers and take the next steps in holding this President accountable and ensuring the Senate fulfills its constitutional duty,” Pelosi’s office said in a statement on Saturday.

Pelosi’s office said senators have a constitutional obliga-tion to conduct a “fair process that provides both the Sena-tors, who will act as jurors, and the public with the opportuni-ty to understand the full extent of President Trump’s abuse of power.”

Trump is accused of abus-ing his power by holding back $391 million in security aid to Ukraine in an effort to get Kiev to announce a corruption investigation of former Vice President Joe Biden, a leading candidate for the Democratic nomination to face Trump in the November 2020 election.

The president is also charged with obstruction of Congress for directing administration officials and agencies not to cooperate with the impeach-ment inquiry.

U.S. President Donald Trump delivers remarks at the Turning Point USA Student Action Summit at the Palm Beach County Convention Center in West Palm Beach, Florida

Russia’s Gazprom pays $2.9 bn to settle Ukraine disputeMoscow

Russian energy giant Gaz-prom has agreed to pay $2.9 billion to its Ukrain-

ian counterpart Naftogaz to set-tle a long-running dispute over transit fees for gas transported to Europe, Russian news agen-cies reported.

According to the reports, Gazprom chief Alexei Miller accepted the settlement -- orig-inally ordered by an arbitration court in Stockholm in February 2018 -- after both sides reached an agreement in principle last week on the transit of Russian gas to Europe.

Earlier this week, Moscow and Kiev signed a preliminary deal on the transit of Russian gas to Europe via Ukraine, af-ter months of difficult talks but ahead of the looming New Year

deadline.The current gas transit con-

tract between the two ex-Sovi-et countries expires at the end of the year and ties between them have been strained since Moscow annexed Crimea in 2014 and supported a sep-aratist insurgency in eastern Ukraine.

Gazprom CEO Miller said

that in return for the payment -- which is to be made before the end of the year -- Naftogaz had agreed to drop all other le-gal action.

That information was con-firmed by Ukraine’s Energy Minister Oleksiy Orzhel at a news conference in Kiev.

Orzhel said the gas transit deal would run for five years

and that the minimum guaran-teed volume will be 65 billion cubic metres in the first year and 40 billion in the following four years.

The deal was reached at three-way talks between Kiev, Moscow and the European Un-ion on Thursday and Friday.

Transit problems for Russian gas began after the fall of the So-viet Union when an independ-ent Ukraine won control of the pipeline infrastructure.

Several supply crises fol-lowed, with Russia using gas as a weapon against Ukraine and cutting supplies repeatedly in 1992, 1993 and 1994.

The current contract between Russia and Ukraine was signed following the last gas crisis which ended up disrupting Eu-ropean supplies in 2010.

Russian energy giant Gazprom and its Ukrainian counterpart Naftogaz will settle a long-running dispute over transit fees for gas transported to Europe


Whey they say, ‘do not sell our data’As US Congress delays on privacy, California law in focus

AFP | Washington

As US lawmakers head home without agreeing on consumer privacy leg-

islation, a new California law is set to become the de facto na-tional standard, potentially leav-ing consumers and businesses confused over rules for personal data collection and protection.

The statute becomes effective January 1, covering most entities doing business in California, just months after enforcement be-gan for Europe’s General Data Protection Regulation, which af-fects many US online operations.

The new law stems from a widespread effort to rein in practices over handling on on-line consumer data after years of breaches and abuses that have made headlines.

For much of the year, the US Congress debated efforts to draft a national privacy law that would avoid multiple standards but failed to come up with a bill before the clock ran out for 2019.

As a result, most companies with an online presence are rushing to comply with the Cal-ifornia law even as other states

consider their own protections and some in Congress pledge action when lawmakers return in 2020.

“There’s definitely going to be a lot of confusion in the short term with all the different laws,” said Daniel Castro of the Infor-mation Technology and Innova-tion Foundation, a think tank in Washington often aligned with the tech sector.

“What we’re likely to see is a domino effect with other states copying California, and that’s a big concern for industry. You have firms that have already im-plemented GDPR and they have to do all these processes again.”

‘Do not sell’ optionStill, some activists say the

California law will lead to im-provements on privacy, includ-ing giving consumers the right to access and delete data held by online services.

The law known as the Cali-fornia Consumer Privacy Act “is the broadest, most impactful privacy law in recent memory,” said John Verdi of the Future of Privacy Forum, a think tank focused on data protection.

“The centerpiece of CCPA is a requirement that companies display a prominent link to say ‘do not sell my data,’” he said.

“It’s always good to give peo-ple choices and this is a clear and prominent choice about data sale which is one of the prac-tices that is most top of mind to consumers.”

This “opt out” approach dif-fers from GDPR which requires consent to collect and use data, according to Verdi.

But many questions remain about how California author-ities will handle enforcement, set to begin in mid-2020, notably which companies may face tar-geting and how officials define “selling.”

Verdi said a number of free services such as streaming mu-sic or online mapping might be based on data exchanges which could under some circumstances be interpreted as a “sale.”

The new law, he said “poses challenges to companies that offer data-driven services.”

Cost of compliance, enforcement

Roslyn Layton, an American

Enterprise Institute scholar who focuses on internet regulation, warned that the cost of CCPA compliance will be high, with estimates as high as $55 billion, and that benefits may be elusive.

She noted that a variety of US laws cover privacy for medical

records, student data, banking dan financial information and more, and that legislation should be based on the degree of sensi-tivity of the data.

“All data is not equal,” she said.Layton said the large online

platforms such as Facebook and Google will be ready to comply with CCPA but that the law could hurt small firms and organiza-tions.

“I wouldn’t expect even 50 percent compliance,” Layton said, adding that California au-thorities will face a complicated task trying to enforce its new law nationally on firms which may have customers in the western state.

Layton added that even though much of the ire around privacy has been directed at Facebook, the huge social net-work may not face penalties in California because it has already settled with federal authorities, paying a $5 billion penalty.

Pressure is mounting on Con-gress to step in with a national law that could “pre-empt” the various state laws with a single standard, according to Layton.

“I think California wants to be saved from itself by Congress,”

she said. “If you look at their budget, it’s not possible to en-force the law.”

Looking ahead, California voters are to consider a ballot initiative in 2020 which would include even stronger privacy protections for “sensitive” cat-egories of data such as geoloca-tion and social security numbers.

Michelle Richardson, direc-tor of privacy at the Center for Democracy and Technology said that despite the lack of ac-tion in Congress on legislation, lawmakers have been working behind the scenes to seek a con-sensus.

“I think there will be signifi-cant work next year on a privacy bill,” she said.

The House Energy and Com-merce Committee said this month its staff has come up with a “bipartisan discussion draft” which could form the basis of a new law.

“This draft seeks to protect consumers while also giving data collectors clear rules of the road,” a committee spokesman said. “It reflects many months of hard work and close collabo-ration between Democratic and Republican Committee staff.”

Facebook has said it will be in compliance with the new California Consumer Privacy Act, but some analysts say smaller firms will face high costs

The new law stems from a widespread effort to rein in practices over handling on online consumer data after years of breaches and abuses that have made headlines

Pressure has mounted on US lawmakers to pass consumer data protection legislation following a long list of breaches (representative picture)

Trump says trade deal with China to be signed ‘very shortly’

Reuters | West Palm Beach, Fla.

President Donald Trump on Saturday said the United

States and China would “very shortly” sign their so-called Phase One trade pact.

“We just achieved a break-through on the trade deal and we will be signing it very shortly,” Trump said at a Turn-ing Point USA event in Florida.

The Phase One deal was an-nounced earlier this month as part of a bid to end the months-long tit-for-tat trade

war between the world’s two largest economies, which has roiled markets and hit global growth.

Under the deal, the United States would agree to reduce some tariffs in exchange for a big jump in Chinese purchases of American farm products.

Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin said last week the pact would be signed in early January, saying that the deal had already been translated and was just undergoing a technical “scrub.”

China’s President Xi Jinping with US President Donald Trump (file)

Donald Trump invites Britain’s Boris Johnson to White House in new yearReuters

US President Donald Trump has invited British Prime

Minister Boris Johnson to visit him in the White House in the new year, British media report-ed yesterday.

Trump’s invitation was made after the British prime minis-ter’s election win this month, The Sunday Times newspa-per reported. Britain wants to strike a new trade deal with the United States after it leaves the European Union at the end of January.

“Some potential dates have been floated in mid-January but nothing has yet been formally agreed. But it is clear that both sides want to make it happen some time in early 2020,” the Sunday Times quoted a source close to the White House as saying.

Johnson is reluctant to make the visit before delivering Brex-

it on Jan. 31 and would prefer to go after a cabinet reshuffle scheduled in February, when he is expected to appoint cabinet office minister Michael Gove as his new trade negotiator, The Mail on Sunday reported.

That could allow Johnson to take Gove on the U.S. visit ahead

of talks of a post-Brexit trade deal, according to the report.

Some Downing Street insid-ers, however, have concerns about a visit by Johnson due to fears the prime minister could be dragged into Trump’s ongo-ing impeachment proceedings, the Sunday Times reported.

Johnson won approval for his Brexit deal in the British parliament on Friday, the first step towards fulfilling his elec-tion pledge to deliver Britain’s departure from the European Union by Jan. 31.

As Britain prepares to leave the bloc, Johnson and Trump agreed in a phone call last Mon-day to pursue an “ambitious” UK-U.S. free trade agreement.

After Johnson’s election win on Dec. 12, Trump had said Brit-ain and the United States were now free to strike a “massive” new trade deal after Brexit.

“This deal has the potential to be far bigger and more lu-crative than any deal that could be made with the EU,” Trump had said in a tweet earlier this month.

The White House and Down-ing Street did not immediately respond to requests for com-ment on the reported invitation to Johnson.

Britain’s Prime Minister Boris Johnson shakes hands with U.S. President Donald Trump during a welcoming ceremony at the NATO leaders summit in Watford, Britain

Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker: a perfectly imperfect last chapterEpisode IX won’t be all things to all fans, but it’s a fine and fitting end to the Skywalker saga

• Death is not the end in new trilogy’s laborious exit

• Some familiar – and some surprising – franchise favourites return for a final fling in JJ Abrams’s whoppingly comprehensive galaxy quest

Star Wars: The Rise of Sky-walker (also known as Star Wars: Episode IX – The

Rise of Skywalker) is a 2019 American epic space-opera film produced, co-written, and directed by J. J. Abrams. It is the third installment of the Star Wars sequel trilogy, following The Force Awakens (2015) and The Last Jedi (2017), and the final episode of the nine-part “Skywalker saga”.

It was produced by Lucas-film and Abrams’s production company Bad Robot Produc-tions, and was distributed by

Walt Disney Studios Motion Pic-tures. The film’s ensemble cast includes Carrie Fisher, Mark Hamill, Adam Driver, Daisy Ri-dley, John Boyega, Oscar Isaac, Anthony Daniels, Naomi Ack-ie, Domhnall Gleeson, Richard E. Grant, Lupita Nyong’o, Keri Russell, Joonas Suotamo, Kelly Marie Tran, Ian McDiarmid, and Billy Dee Williams.

Review aggregator Rotten To-

matoes reported an approval rat-ing of 57% based on 343 reviews, with an average rating of 6.23/10. The website’s critics consensus reads: “Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker suffers from a frus-trating lack of imagination, but concludes this beloved saga with fan-focused devotion.”

Metacritic, another review aggregator, assigned the film a weighted average score of 54

out of 100 based on 58 critics, indicating “mixed or average reviews”.

Todd McCarthy of The Hol-lywood Reporter praised the visual aspects, but criticized the storytelling, writing, “A plot like this, featuring so many charac-ters, locations and story dynam-ics, can by nature be confusing; so relentless is the pileup of in-cident that, at a certain point,

one can be excused for checking out on the particulars of what’s going on at a given moment and why in favour of just going along for the amusement park ride.”

For The A.V. Club, A. A. Dowd gave the film a C+, writing that the film “is so freighted with ob-ligation that it almost groans un-der the weight, flashing a weak smile as it vaguely approximates the appearance of a zippy good time”.

The BBC’s Nicholas Barber wrote that “the film is well act-ed, it looks so good that there is bound to be a fabulous tie-in coffee-table book of concept art, and it has a positive message about never giving up hope. But the main feeling it instils in the viewer is a renewed respect for the imagination of Lucas. The Rise of Skywalker has been lov-ingly crafted by a host of talented people, and yet the best they can do is pay tribute to everything he did several decades ago.”

Richard Roeper, reviewing for the Chicago Sun-Times, gave the film three stars out of four, stating, “The Rise of Skywalker rarely comes close to touching greatness, but it’s a solid, vis-ually dazzling and warmhearted victory for the Force of quality filmmaking.”

Owen Gleiberman of Variety praised the film as “the most elegant, emotionally rounded, and gratifying Star Wars adven-ture since the glory days of Star Wars and The Empire Strikes Back”, but added that “given the last eight films, the bar isn’t that high”.

STAR WARS: THE RISE OF SKYWALKER (PG-13)OASIS JUFFAIR: 11.00 AM + 2.00 + 5.00 + 8.00 + 11.00 PMOASIS JUFFAIR (VIP): 10.45 AM + 4.30 + 10.15 PMCITY CENTRE: 12.00 + 3.00 + 6.00 + 9..00 PM + 12.00 MN CITY CENTRE (IMAX 2D) :11.00 AM + 2.00 + 5.00 + 8.00 + 11.00 PM CITY CENTRE (3D) :12.30 + 3.30 + 6.30 + 9.30 PM + (12.30 MN THURS/FRI)CITY CENTRE (VIP I) :11.30 AM + 2.30 + 5.30 + 8.30 + 11.30 PMSEEF (II) :11.30 AM + 2.30 + 5.30 + 8.30 + 11.30 PM WADI AL SAIL: 10.30 AM + 3.45 + 9.00 PM

DAISY RIDLEY, MARK HAMILL, ADAM DRIVER

DABANGG 3 (PG-15)(HINDI/ACTION/COMEDY)OASIS JUFFAIR : 10.30 AM + 1.45 + 5.00 + 8.15 + 11.30 PM CITY CENTRE: 10.30 AM + 11.30 AM + 1.45 + 2.45 + 5.00 + 6.00 + 8.15 + 9.15 + 11.30 PM + (12.30 MN THURS/FRI)SEEF (I): 10.30 AM + 11.30 +1.45 + 2.45 + 5.00 + 6.00 + 8.15 + 9.15 + 11.30 PM + (12.30 MN THURS/FRI)SEEF (II): 10.30 PM WADI AL SAIL: 10.30 AM + 1.45 + 5.00 + 8.15 + 11.30 PM

SALMAN KHAN, SONAKSHI SINHA, WARINA HUSSAIN

BOMBSHELL (18+)(DRAMA/BIOGRAPHY) OASIS JUFFAIR : 10.30 AM + 3.30 + 8.45 PM CITY CENTRE: 11.00 AM + 1.30 + 4.00 + 6.30 + 9.00 + 11.30 PM SEEF (II): 11.30 AM + 2.00 + 4.30 + 7.00 + 9.30 PM + 12.00 MN WADI AL SAIL: 2.00 + 6.45 + 11.30 PM

CHARLIZE THERON, NICOLE KIDMAN, MARGOT ROBBIE

INTO THE ASHES (PG-15)(DRAMA/CRIME/THRILLER) SEEF (II):11.00 AM + 3.15 + 7.30 + 11.45 PM

LUKE GRIMES, ROBERT TAYLOR (VII), JAMES BADGE DALE

GO FISH (G)(ANIMATION/ADVENTURE) SEEF (II): 1.15 + 5.00 + 8.45 PM

ELIJAH DHAVVAN, JUSTINE EZARIK, MARK HAMILL

I SEE YOU (PG-15)(THRILLER/CRIME/DRAMA) CITY CENTRE: 12.00 + 2.15 + 4.30 + 6.45 + 9.00 + 11.15 PM SEEF (II): 10.30 AM + 12.45 + 3.00 + 5.15 + 7.30 + 9.45 PM + 12.00 MNWADI AL SAIL:1.30 + 6.45 PM + 12.00 MN

HELEN HUNT, JON TENNEY, JUDAH LEWIS

BOONIE BEARS: BLAST INTO THE PAST (G)SEEF (II): 11.15 AM + 3.00 + 6.45 PM

CHRIS BOIKE, JOSEPH S. LAMBERT, SIOBHAN LUMSDEN

THE LEGEND OF THE CHRISTMAS WITCH (PG)SEEF (II): 1.15 + 5.30 + 9.45 PM

PAOLA CORTELLESI, STEFANO FRESI, FAUSTO MARIA SCIARAPPA

JUMANJI THE NEXT LEVEL (PG-15)ممممممم ممممم OASIS JUFFAIR: 12.30 + 3.15 + 6.00 + 8.45 + 11.30 PMOASIS JUFFAIR (VIP): 1.45 + 7.30 PM CITY CENTRE: 12.00 + 2.45 + 5.30 + 8.15 + 11.00 PM + (12.45 MN THURS/FRI)CITY CENTRE (ATMOS):10.30 AM + 1.00 + 3.45 + 6.30 + 9.15 + 12.00 MNCITY CENTRE (3D) : 12.30 + 3.15 + 6.00 + 8.45 + 11.30 PM CITY CENTRE (VIP II) : 12.45 + 3.30 + 6.15 + 9.00 + 11.45 PMSEEF (I) : 10.30 AM + 1.00 + 3.45 + 6.30 + 9.15 + 12.00 MNSEEF (II)12.00 + 2.45 + 5.30 + 8.15 + 11.00 PM + (12.30 MN THURS/FRI)WADI AL SAIL: 12.45 + 3.30 + 6.15 + 9.00 + 11.45 PM

DWAYNE JOHNSON, JACK BLACK, KEVIN HART

FROZEN 2 (PG)(ANIMATION/ADVENTURE/COMEDY) مOASIS JUFFAIR (KIDS CINEMA): 10.45 AM + 1.00 + 3.15 + 5.30 + 7.45 + 10.00 PMCITY CENTRE: 11.15 AM + 12.15 + 1.30 + 2.30 + 3.45 + 4.45 + 6.00 + 7.00 + 8.15 + 9.15 + 10.30 + 11.30PMSEEF (II):11.00 AM + 1.15 + 3.30 + 5.45 + 8.00 + 10.15 PM WADI AL SAIL: 11.45 AM + 4.30 + 9.15 PM

KRISTEN BELL, IDINA MENZEL, JOSH GAD

21 BRIDGES (PG-15)(CRIME/ACTION/THRILLER) م CITY CENTRE: 12.30 + 2.45 + 5.00 + 7.15 + 9.30 + 11.45 PM SEEF (II):11.00 AM + 4.15 + 9.30 PM

CHADWICK BOSEMAN, SIENNA MILLER, STEPHAN JAMES

MARDAANI 2 (PG-15)(HINDI/CRIME/THRILLER DRAMA) مOASIS JUFFAIR :12.45 + 6.15 + 11.45 PM

RANI MUKERJI, SHRUTI BAPNA, RAJESH SHARMA

KNIVES OUT (PG-15)(CRIME/COMEDY/THRILLER) مCITY CENTRE: 12.45 + 3.30 + 6.15 + 9.00 + 11.45 PM

DANIEL CRAIG, CHRIS EVANS, ANA DE ARMAS

MALEFICENT 2: MISTRESS OF EVIL (PG)(ADVENTURECITY CENTRE:10.30 AM + 1.00 + 3.30 + 6.00 + 8.30 + 11.00 PM

ANGELINA JOLIE, TERESA MAHONEY, MICHELLE PFEIFFER

JOKER (15+)(THRILLER/CRIME/DRAMA) مممممم CITY CENTRE: 10.45 AM + 1.15 + 3.45 + 6.15 + 8.45 + 11.15 PM

JOAQUIN PHOENIX, ZAZIE BEETZ, ROBERT DE NIRO

LE MANS ‘66 (PG-13)(DRAMA/SPORT/BIOGRAPHY) CITY CENTRE: 2.45 + 8.30 PM SEEF (II):1.15 + 6.30 + 11.45 PM

MATT DAMON, CHRISTIAN BALE, JON BERNTHAL

MIRACLE IN CELL NO . 7 (PG-15)(TURKISH/DRAMA) CITY CENTRE:12.00 + 5.45 + 11.30 PM

ARAS BULUT İYNEMLİ, NİSA SOFİYA AKSONGUR, İLKER AKSUM

PATI PATNI AUR WOH (PG-15)(HINDI/COMEDY/ROMANTIC) OASIS JUFFAIR : 3.15 + 8.30 PM

KARTIK AARYAN, BHUMI PEDNEKAR, ANANYA PANDAY

MAMANGAM (PG-13)(MALAYALAM)OASIS JUFFAIR :10.30 AM + 1.30 + 4.30 + 7.30 + 10.30 PMSEEF (II): 11.00 AM + 2.00 + 5.00 + 8.00 + 11.00 PM AL HAMRA:11.45 AM + (12.00 MN THURS./FRI)

MAMMOOTTY, UNNI MUKUNDAN, NEERAJ MADHAV, PRACHI TEHIAN

KETYOLANU ENTE MALAKHA (PG-15)(MALAYALAM) OASIS JUFFAIR : 12.30 + 5.45 + 11.00 PM

ASIF ALI, VEENA NANDAKUMAR

RULER (TELUGU) From Friday 20th onwardsSEEF (I): 12.15 + 5.45 PM

BALAKRISHNA, SONAL CHAUHAN

HERO (PG-15)(TAMIL) From Thursday 8.30 pm onwardsOASIS JUFFAIR :3.00 + 8.30 PM SEEF (I): 10.45 AM + 2.00 + 5.15 + 8.30 + 11.45 PMWADI AL SAIL: 11.00 AM + 5.00 + 11.00 PM AL HAMRA:2.45 + 8.45 PM

SIVAKARTHIKEYAN, ARJUN, ABHAY DEOL, KALYANI PRIYADARSHAN

THAMBI (PG-13)(TAMIL) From Thursday at 7.30 pm onwardsOASIS JUFFAIR: 12.45 + 6.00 + 11.15 PMSEEF (I): 12.15 + 3.00 + 5.45 + 8.30 + 11.15 PM WADI AL SAIL: 2.15 + 8.15 PM AL HAMRA: 6.00 PM

KARTHI, JYOTHIKA, SATHYARAJ

PRATI ROJU PANDAAGE (TELUGU) From Friday 20th onwardsSEEF (I): 3.00 PM

RAASHI KHANNA, SATHYARAJ, SAI DHARAM TEJ

13 MONDAY, DECEMBER 23, 2019

M O V I E R E V I E W

DON’T MISS IT

Flying stormtroopers, lightsaber duels and a resurrected evil lord … the hugely entertaining

final episode in the nine-film saga brims with euphoric energy

Adam Driver as Kylo Ren and Daisy Ridley as Rey in ‘Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker’

14 MONDAY, DECEMBER 23, 2019

I, SHIVADASAN PILLAI VENUGOPAL,

S/O SHIVADASAN PILLAI, holding Indian passport No.

Z4842879, issued at Manama, Bahrain, currently residing at

Flat 1, Building 1392, Road 1234, Manama 312,

Kingdom of Bahrain. Permanent Address:

KANNACHAMKATTU HOUSE, KURUPPAMKULANGARA P.O., CHERTHALA TALUK,

DIST:ALAPPUZHA, KERALA 688539, INDIA will be

henceforth be known as (given names) Venugopal Shivadasan, (surname) Pillai. Objection(s), if

any, may contact Embassy of India, P.O Box 26106,

Al Seef, Kingdom of Bahrain

C L A S S I F I E D SNAME CHANGE

Actress Lysette Anthony accuses Weinstein of multiple rape

London

Actress Lysette Anthony has accused disgraced for-mer film executive Harvey

Weinstein of raping her more than once.

The 56-year-old, who stars in the soap “Holly-oaks”, spoke out against the disgraced movie mogul back in 2017, telling The Sunday Times newspaper she was at-

tacked by Weinstein in London in the 1980s, reports aceshowbiz.com.

In her first TV interview about the incident on December 20, she said that he raped her

on two occasions -- first in her home here and then in a hotel during the

Cannes Film Festival.The TV actress also feared

not being believed and thought she might lose her husband if she came for-ward.

However, Anthony now wants to see her former “so-called friend”, who has been accused of sex-ual misconduct by over 70

women, found guilty of rape when he faces trial on multi-ple sexual assault charges on

January 6, 2020.

Hilary Duff marries fiance Matthew Koma

Los Angeles

Singer-actress Hilary Duff mar-ried Matthew Koma in an in-timate ceremony at their Los

Angeles house after a seven-month engagement.

“It was a love-fest - a small and intimate ceremony at her house with friends and family,” a source told Just Jared of their wedding ceremony on Saturday, reports dailymail.co.uk.

The actress’’ hair stylist Jessica Paster teased a

wedding on Instagram the day they said “I

do”. She posted a bouquet of flowers writing: “Winter sol-stice...A day of luv.”

Duff began dating the songwriter in January 2017, a year after her divorce from Mike Comrie was finalised, two years after separating. She and Comrie have a son named Luca.

Duff and Koma welcomed a daughter, Banks, in October 2018 and announced their engagement in May this year.

Elizabeth Hurley keeps her body fit by doing manual labourLondon

Actress Elizabeth Hurley relies on manual labour to keep body her fit and healthy even after 50.

The “Permanent Midnight” actress says her fit body has nothing to do with hitting the gym and is instead the result of per-forming all kinds of chores inside and out-side the house, reports aceshowbiz.com.

“To be honest, I don’t do any exercise, per se, but I’m extremely active, be-cause for me, I’ve always found when you look around, the best bodies are on manual labourers,” Hurley said on the US breakfast show “Good Morning America”.

“I use a chainsaw, I use a hedge trim-mer,” the 54-year-old said.

“You burn a ton of calories, and you’’re using everything (every muscle in your body), and you’ve cut the hedge, so I recommend people just being more active: run up the stairs a lot, never take the elevator,” she added.

Katy Perry looks

divine on Vogue India’s coverLos Angeles

American singer-song-writer Katy Perry stole

the show as the cover girl of Vogue India’s January 2020 edition.

A proud Katty Perry shared a motion poster of the cov-er on her Twitter handle on Sunday along with a caption that read, “2020 is a l r e a d y so bright - not every gal gets to com-memorate their trip to India with a cover of @VOGUEIndia Proud to be part of the January sustainability issue!”

The motion poster saw the 35-year-old singer in state-ment jewellery and a heavily studded outfit, with her mid-dle-parted hair braided with colourful ribbons.

Los Angeles

The private couple Joshua Jackson and

Jodie Turner-Smith’s relationship status has now officially been confirmed as husband and wife.

US Weekly con-f irmed the news about the couple’s marriage whose

relationship got to see the light of the

day back in August this year when the British mod-el-actor posted an intimate Instagram photo of herself with the Canadian actor, along with the caption: “Two people who only fancy each other a little bit.”

The couple officially con-firmed their relationship with their red carpet debut last month at the Queen & Slim premiere in Holly-wood.

The pair who got spotted earlier in summer reported-ly got what appeared to be a marriage license that they carried out of the building in a yellow envelope.

Los An-geles

Ac t o r L i a m Hemsworth is reportedly enjoy-

ing spending time with model Gabriella Brooks, and that the “Hunger Games” star is “hap-py to be moving on” amid his divorce from singer-actress Miley Cyrus.

“Liam feels comfortable with Gabriella,” a source told usmagazine.com of the 21-year-old Aus-tralian model who was spotted having lunch with Liam and his par-

ents in Australia on De-cember 13.

In photos, the actor’s parents, Craig and Leo-

nie Hemsworth, were

spotted greeting Brooks with hugs and smiles. “His family approves of her and really likes her, which is very important to him,” the source added.

The sighting comes two months after Liam was spotted making out

with Maddison Brown during a date night in New York on October 11.

“Liam and Maddison weren’t that serious and were mainly having fun together,” the

source said.Liam and Cyrus had split in August after being married for almost

eight months. Liam filed for divorce from Cyrus just 11 days after she confirmed their break-up. “He’s not upset with

Miley, but is happy to be moving on,” the source said.Harvey Weinstein

Gabriella Brooks

Hilary Duff and Matthew Koma

SITUATION VACANT

C o o k s f o r K e r a l a , Indian Chinese, Tandoori, Chapatti and Cleaners for a Multicuisine Restaurant required. Send your CV to: [email protected]/ 36045118.

Joshua Jackson and Jodie Turner-Smith

Liam Hemsworth

Ilicic nets twice as Atalanta destroy AC MilanAFP | Milan

Slovenia international Josip Ilicic scored two terrific

goals as Atalanta demolished AC Milan 5-0 in Serie A yesterday to climb up to fifth and hand the fallen Italian giants their heavi-est defeat since 1998.

It was an “embarrassing ” performance by the seven-time European champions, said club manager Zvonimir Boban.

Atalanta fans taunted Milan with shouts of ‘Serie B, Serie B’, confidently predicting relega-tion for their rivals this season.

Atalanta captain Papu Gomez fired the hosts ahead on 10 min-utes when he gathered the ball on the left wing and drifted into the area before blasting beyond Gianluigi Donnarumma.

Mario Pasalic, on loan from Chelsea, added a second on the hour in Bergamo when he flicked in a flashing drive from Robin Gosens.

Ilicic made it 3-0 with a clin-ical finish after a Pasalic assist and the Slovenian attacker struck again on 72 minutes when he curled a majestic strike into the top corner from 20 yards.

Luis Muriel then replaced Il-icic and scored with minutes of his introduction, pouncing on hesitancy from Donnarumma to round out a resounding victory.

Atalanta have scored a league-best 43 goals this season and trail Roma by four points in the race for the final Champions League spot.

The Bergamo side are com-peting in the Champions League for the first time this season and were drawn against Valencia in the last 16 after scraping through the group stage.

The defeat was Milan’s worst loss since going down 5-0 to Roma in 1998.

“We have to work and im-prove. We entered the pitch with too little technical and tac-tical clarity. It’s a terribly insuf-ficient performance,” admitted Milan coach Stefano Pioli.

Milan club manager Boban, a former midfield great with the club, said it will be a miserable holiday period.

“It was an embarrassing per-formance. We will have to wake up and react. It will not be a good Christmas,” said the Cro-

atian.In other early matches yester-

day, eighth-placed Bologna saw off Lecce 3-2 wile Mario Balotel-li came off the bench to score in Brescia’s 1-1 draw at Parma.

Napoli travel to Sassuolo later searching for a first victory in the league since October 19.

They have gone eight matches without a win in Serie A and were beaten 2-1 by Parma last weekend in Gennaro Gattuso’s first game in charge.

The former AC Milan and Ita-ly international replaced Carlo Ancelotti, who was appointed Everton manager on Saturday -- just over after he was sacked by Napoli.

Inter Milan and reigning champions Juventus are locked on 42 points at the top as the Italian league prepares to head into a two-week winter recess.

Romelu Lukaku scored twice as Inter beat Genoa 4-0 on Sat-urday while Juventus, who over-came Sampdoria 2-1 on Wednes-day, were to take on Lazio in the Italian Super Cup in Saudi Arabia later yesterday.

KNOW

BETTER

15

sports


We have to work and improve. We entered

the pitch with too little technical and

tactical clarity. It’s a terribly insufficient

performanceSTEFANO PIOLI

BIC hosts twice the thrills with Drag and Drift NightsTDT | Manama

Motorsport fans can once again enjoy dou-ble the thrills on today

as Bahrain International Circuit (BIC) hosts the latest edition of the Ebrahim K Kanoo Drag and Drift Nights at its premises in Sakhir.

One of the most popular ac-tivities on offer at “The Home of Motorsport in the Middle East”, Drag and Drift Nights give par-ticipants the chance to take their very own cars or motorbikes and push them to their limit. This can be done either down BIC’s world-class drag strip or around the circuit’s Vehicle Dynamics Area, or even both.

BIC’s drag strip is a member of the prestigious National Hot Rod Association (NHRA) World-

wide Network, and it is where some of the region’s best drag racers go head to head in the national championship.

The Vehicle Dynamics Area, meanwhile, is a specially con-figured facility at BIC’s car park that has been surround-

ed by safety barriers. It is the largest open tarmac area in Bahrain.

Both the drag and the drifting can be enjoyed for a single fee of BD10.500. Participation in just the drag racing or just the drift-ing costs BD7.500. Registration

can be done on site from 5pm, and the action will be held from 6pm to 11pm.

Those who would like to ex-perience the drag or drift as a passenger can get into a partic-ipant’s car for an additional BD4. Spectators can purchase tickets for BD2 apiece.

Also as part of the evening’s drag racing programme, BIC is offering the immensely thrilling Dragster Xperience. This is one of the circuit’s most unique and ultimate-adrenaline activities, as it gives participants a taste of pure speed as they are taken from zero to 100kph in just one second while seated in a Top Dragster. The Dragster Experi-ence costs BD42.

Safety standards of the high-est level are followed at all times during the evening’s events for both drivers and spectators alike.

A car in action at BIC

A car on track at BIC

The Vehicle Dynamics Area is a specially con-figured facility at BIC’s car park that has been surrounded by safety barriers. It is the larg-

est open tarmac area in Bahrain

Josip Ilicic (R) of Atalanta BC celebrates after scoring

Kohli stars as India hold nerve to win ODI seriesAFP | Cuttack, India

Skipper Virat Kohli smashed 85 to help India pull off a

nervous chase of 316 to win the third one-day international by four wickets against West Indies and clinch the series on Sunday.

India relied on a key 58-run sixth-wicket stand between Kohli and Ravindra Jadeja, unbeaten on 39 off 31 balls, to achieve their target with eight balls to spare in Cuttack.

Pa c e m a n Ke e m o Pa u l claimed three wickets, includ-ing that of Kohli in the 47th over, before Jadeja and Shardul Thakur, 17 not out, took the team home and to a 2-1 series win.

“Having done it so many times, you obviously have a bit more calmness and you un-derstand how the dew is play-ing and all you need is a short partnership,” said Kohli, who was named man of the match.

“It was outstanding to see others finishing the game. I had a nervous look when I walked back, but when I watched ‘Jaddu’ (Jadeja) he looked very confident.”

Rohit Sharma, who made 63, and KL Rahul, on 77, laid the foundation of the team’s chase with an opening partnership of 122 after the West Indies posted 315 for five.

West Indies skipper Kieron Pollard and Nicholas Pooran put together 135 runs for the fifth wicket to lift their side from 144 for four to a fighting total.

Pollard remained unbeat-en on 74 off 51 deliveries after

Pooran hit an attacking 89 to pulverise the Indian bowling in the last 10 overs that produced 118 runs for the West Indies.

In response Kohli, who made India bowl first after winning the toss, batted with conviction despite wickets falling from the other end to make the sec-ond-ranked ODI side finish the year on a high.

Jason Holder got Sharma caught behind and Alzarri Jo-seph sent Rahul trudging back to the pavilion after his second successive score of 50 plus. He made 102 in India’s series-lev-elling second ODI.

But Kohli kept up the at-tack during his 81-ball knock despite wickets falling at the other end before chopping a wide delivery on the off side onto his stumps.

Thakur then hit two fours and a six in his six-ball cameo to bring the packed house back to life as he celebrated the win with Jadeja.

India’s captain Virat Kohli plays a shot

Mendy vows Man City won’t give up title fightAFP | London

Manchester City defender Benja-min Mendy said

the defending champions were not prepared to sur-render the Premier League title to Liverpool despite trailing the leaders by 11 points.

Pep Guardiola ’s s ide moved to within a point of second-placed Leicester City following an impressive 3-1 victory over the Foxes at the Etihad Stadium on Sat-urday.

However, Liverpool still have a game in hand on both clubs as they return home following their victory over Brazilian club Flamengo in the Club World Cup final in Doha.

The Reds have won 16 of 17 league games this season but Mendy hopes Leicester can slow their title charge when the top two meet on Boxing Day.

Asked if Liverpool can still be caught, Mendy said: “Of course. If not we would stop playing now and give the cup to Liverpool. We need to try to fight until the end and we will see what happens.

Bahrain1 set World RecordNHRA champions Bahrain1 set World Record in national drag racing’s second round at BIC

TDT | Manama

NHRA champions Bahrain1 Racing set a new World Record to headline an ac-

tion-packed second round in the 2019/2020 Bahrain Drag Racing Championship, held at Bahrain International Circuit’s (BIC) NHRA Drag Strip in Sakhir.

Competing in the Pro Mod category behind the wheel of a 2019 Chevy Camaro powered by a Pro Line Racing Engines twin-turbocharged Hemi, Bah-rain1’s Emirati driver Khalid Al Balooshi posted a world best time for the quickest twin-tur-bo NHRA trim of 5.676 seconds down a quarter-mile.

Al Balooshi was one of 104 participants in the cars cate-gories this round. There were also 39 riders competing in the motorbikes classes, making for a total of 143 hopefuls of various nationalities.

The meeting was organised by BIC in cooperation with the Bah-rain Drag Racing Club (BDRC), the Bahrain Motorcycle Club (BMC) and the Bahrain Motor Federation (BMF). BIC is a mem-ber of the prestigious National Hot Rod Association (NHRA) Worldwide Network.

Al Balooshi powered to his mark during testing, and he was able to maintain his fine form all through to Race Day when he eventually secured the victo-ry for the meeting. Al Balooshi won in the final head-to-head, held over an eighth-mile of the strip, against Bahraini Hani Ali after coasting to a time of 3.739s to beat Ali, who had a mark of 3.922s.

Other drivers flying the Bah-rain flag to victory were Salah Salahuddin in the Street V8 class, Yousif Al Zayani in the Outlaw 6-Cylinder category, Ahmed Al Saeei in the Outlaw FWD, Hussain Mohammed in the Super Street V8 and Ali Ab-dulaziz in the Index 10.5.

Salahuddin claimed his victo-ry after clocking a mark of 7.677s in the Street V8 final, where he was up against Mohammed Suli-man of Kuwait.

Al Zayani was also in impres-sive form, winning the Out-

law 6-Cylinder final in 4.557s, beating fellow-Bahraini Hamad Al Merbati who had a time of 11.580s.

Al Saeei was the Outlaw FWD victor after beating Zakariya Alkuwari, also from Bahrain, in the final. Al Saeei had a mark of 8.821s while Alkuwari finished in 11.582s.

Mohammed followed suit in the Super Street V8 final, which he won with a narrow margin. Mohammed clocked a time of 4.392s, doing just enough to beat Abdulla Alshamsi from Saudi

Arabia who had a mark of 4.555s. Abdulaziz rounded out the

winning Bahraini contingent in the Index 10.5 final against countryman Ali Rabee. Abdu-laziz triumphed with a 10.560s mark while Rabee had to settle for the runner-up spot with a break out.

All of the Bahraini drivers’ vic-tories came in the cars classes.

In the other cars categories, Kuwaiti Mubarak Alawad won the Competition 4.5 class in 4.511s. He beat Bahrain’s Ali Haji who had a red light.

Mohammed al Kokhadri took the victory in the Index 9.5 cat-egory in 9.523s. He beat Ali Al Qallaf of Kuwait, who had a break out.

Abdulla Al Oqab, also from Kuwait, won the Index 8.5 cate-gory in 8.538s, just barely beat-ing Naif Alesawi of Saudi by a mere 0.01s.

Meanwhile, Saudi riders won three of the four bikes classes.

Theeb Alqahtani took first place in the Street Fight Bikes with a 9.547s elapsed time, beat-ing Bahrain’s Sayed Yousif Faisal by 0.03s. Khalid Aldoseri won the Index 8.5 Bike category with a 9.397s final pass, beating the 10.152s run of fellow-Saudi rid-er Abdulla Al Muneef. Mishari Alturki was then the victory amongst the Super Street Bikes in 4.532s, beating Jehad Al Jamal in the final.

Mohammed Alawwad of Ku-

wait triumphed in the Pro Bikes class, which was the fourth mo-torbike category. He had a time of 4.047s in the final, beating Christopher Dominique of the USA, who had a red light.

At the end of all the round’s action, the winners of the night were presented their respective trophies in the podium ceremo-ny, attended by BIC, BDRC, BMC and BMF officials.

The 2019/2020 season is composed of five rounds, to be held until February of next year. Drag racers return to the strip for Round Three from January 14 to 17, while Round Four will be from February 4 to 7. The championship finale will then be held from February 25 to 28.


Bahrain1’s Emirati driver Khalid Al Ba-

looshi posted a world best time for the

quickest twin-turbo NHRA trim of 5.676

seconds down a quar-ter-mile

Al Balooshi, kneeling second from right, with Bahrain1 team members after the podium ceremony

Al Balooshi in action in his Chevy Camaro

z A car in action at the start line

Bahrain’s Salahuddin, centre, celebrates on top of the podium

Man Utd implode against feisty WatfordAFP | Watford, United Kingdom

Manchester United collapsed to a humiliating 2-0 defeat against

Premier League bottom side Watford on Sunday after a David de Gea howler, bringing their recent revival to a shud-dering halt.

Not even the returning Paul Pogba, on as a second-half substitute, could save his misfiring team, who again struggled to impose themselves against one of the league’s lesser lights.

The key moment in the match came in the 50th minute when De Gea some-how allowed a tame, spinning effort from Ismaila Sarr to creep through his hands and in at the near post.

Watford doubled their lead four

minutes later when Troy Deeney fired home from the penalty spot after the otherwise impressive Aaron Wan-Bis-saka brought down Sarr with a mis-judged sliding tackle.

Nigel Pearson coaxed a battling per-formance from Watford in his first home game in charge and they de-servedly won just their second league match of the season to give themselves hope of survival.

But for United it was another story of failing to make the most of their domination of possession.

Under Solskjaer, they have won 73 per cent of the Premier League games in which they have had less possession than their opponents, compared to just 36pc when they have enjoyed more.

“We were sloppy and gave the ball away numerous times, especially in the first half,” United defender Harry Maguire told Sky Sports.

“I felt in the first half the game was there to be won. We should have scored in the first half. We have to be better against these so-called lower opposi-tion sides who have a deep block.”

There was no hint of the drama to come in a largely uneventful first half.

Anthony Martial scuffed a shot wide as United, backed by vocal away sup-port, enjoyed the bulk of early pos-session while Watford looked a threat when they came forward.

The home side had the ball in the net, but the goal was ruled out for a foul on De Gea.

Manchester United’s David De Gea watches in horror after letting the ball slip through his hands allowing Ismaila Sarr to give Watford the lead

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