BUSINESS | Page 1
INDEX
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4 – 11, 32
28, 29
COMMENT
1 – 6, 17 – 20
REGION
12
BUSINESS
ARAB WORLD
13
CLASSIFIED
7 – 17
SPORTS
1 – 12
INTERNATIONAL 14 – 27
German duo
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way to
win Qatar
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Saleh rejects
UN sanctions
Yemen’s former president Ali
Abdullah Saleh yesterday rejected
UN Security Council sanctions
imposed on him for obstructing
peace, and his party walked out
of the newly formed cabinet. The
UN sanctions, including a visa ban
and asset freezing, are “rejected”,
Saleh told members of his General
People’s Congress in Sanaa, a day
after the US-proposed measures
were adopted. The GPC, meanwhile,
said it was not consulted in forming
the long-awaited cabinet, and urged
party nominees to turn down their
assigned ministries. Page 12
US air strikes destroyed a moving,
10-vehicle Islamic State convoy
near the Iraqi city of Mosul but
US officials said yesterday it was
unclear whether the group’s top
commander Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi
was present at the time. Col Patrick
Ryder, a spokesman at the US
military’s Central Command, said
the US military had reason to believe
that the convoy was the product of
a gathering of Islamic State leaders.
The convoy consisted of 10 Islamic
State armed trucks. Page 13
EUROPE | Tension
Gorbachev warns
of new Cold War
The Soviet Union’s last leader
Mikhail Gorbachev yesterday
warned that the world was on the
“brink of a new Cold War” at an
event to mark 25 years since the
Berlin Wall’s fall, the German news
agency DPA reported. “The world
is on the brink of a new Cold War.
Some are even saying that it has
already begun,” the 83-year-old
said, amid tensions between the
West and Russia over Ukraine. He
complained of a “breakdown of
trust” in recent months. Page 20
ASIA | Investment
Arab youths clashing with Israeli police at the entrance to the town of Kfar Kanna, near Nazareth, yesterday. Thousands took
to the streets yesterday hours after Israeli police shot and killed an Arab youth in the town. Israeli police claimed the 22-yearold was shot after trying to stab an officer. But a video footage of the shooting, posted online by several websites, raised
questions about the police account of events, and by the afternoon, more than 2,500 people, many waving Palestinian flags,
had taken to the streets to protest. Masked youths later gathered at the entrance to the town, burnt tyres and threw stones
and Molotov cocktails. The incident is the latest violence between Israeli security forces and Palestinians, which in recent
weeks has been largely focused on clashes around Jerusalem and nearby areas of the West Bank. Meanwhile, the top EU
diplomat has appealed for the establishment of a Palestinian state. Federica Mogherini, the European Union’s new foreign
affairs chief, said the world “cannot afford” another war in the Gaza Strip. “We need a Palestinian state - that is the ultimate
goal and this is the position of all the European Union,” Mogherini said during a trip to Gaza, devastated by its third conflict in
six years. Page 13
Ministry and QF sign MoU to
improve working conditions
QNA
Doha
T
he Ministry of Labour and
Social Affairs has signed a
memorandum of understanding (MoU) with Qatar Foundation for
Education, Science and Community
Development (QF), aimed at improving working conditions of migrant labourers in the state.
Under the agreement, the two parties will work together to encourage organisations and residents to be
more respectful to migrant workers
while seeking to improve sponsorship
laws in Qatar.
QF has been actively involved with
initiatives in recent months to improve the welfare of workers across its
construction sites.
The MoU was signed by Khalid alGhanim, director of the Inspection
Department at the Ministry of Labour, and Jassim Telefat, QF Capital
Projects and Facilities Management
group executive director.
HE the Minister of Labour and Social Affairs Dr Abdullah Saleh Mu-
China to establish
$40bn Silk Road fund
China will contribute $40bn to set
up a Silk Road infrastructure fund
to boost connectivity across Asia,
President Xi Jinping announced
yesterday, the latest Chinese project
to spread the largesse of its own
economic growth. The goal of the
fund is to “break the connectivity
bottleneck” in Asia, state media
quoted Xi as saying during a
meeting in Beijing with leaders
from Bangladesh, Cambodia, Laos,
Mongolia, Myanmar, Pakistan and
Tajikistan. Business Page 6
SUNDAY
HE the Minister of Labour and Social Affairs Dr Abdullah Saleh Mubarak al-Khulaifi
and QF president Saad bin Ibrahim al-Muhannadi witnessing the MoU signing.
barak al-Khulaiﬁ, QF president Saad
bin Ibrahim al-Muhannadi and QF
health, safety, security and environment executive director Sheikha Amal
bint Thamir al-Thani attended the
signing ceremony.
Al-Khulaiﬁ praised Qatar Foundation’s efforts to improve the welfare of
workers in Qatar.
He said: “Qatar is facing a number
of signiﬁcant challenges related to
migrant workers. Local organisations
will be required to make a concerted
effort to solve these issues, so we applaud Qatar Foundation’s dedication
to improving the welfare of workers in
Qatar.”
Al-Muhannadi said Qatar Foundation was delighted to be partnering with the Ministry of Labour and
Social Affairs “as this agreement
represents a signiﬁcant step towards improving the labour laws in
Qatar”.
He said: “Qatar Foundation hopes
to become a role model for the public
in the treatment of migrant workers
and to lead by example. And, in doing so, Qatar Foundation is helping
develop the community and working
towards overcoming challenges to unlocking human potential.”
Vol. XXXV No. 9536
November 9, 2014
Moharram 16, 1436 AH
www. gulf-times.com 2 Riyals
Qatar’s
projects
‘unaffected
by oil fall’
Qatar is implementing a large
infrastructure investment
programme in the run-up to the
2022 World Cup and in line with
its 2030 Vision
IRAQ | Crisis
US strikes
IS convoy
in
YEMEN | Politics
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In brief
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is A R 8
7
AT 19
Q since
Clashes erupt after Israeli police kill Arab youth
bl
GULF TIMES
NYMEX
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Qapco sees 500%
LDPE production
capacity jump
SPORT | Page 1
Q
atar has the capacity to ﬁnance
its infrastructure investment
programme although the oil
price has fallen 30% since June, QNB
has said in a report.
Based on the 2013 data, QNB estimates that the ﬁscal breakeven price
- the oil price at which government
expenditure would equal government
revenue - was $67 a barrel.
The bank’s estimates are based on
the impact of a change in oil prices
while everything else remains constant
(such as hydrocarbon production) with
the exception of gas prices, which it assumes fall in line with oil prices.
Even if oil prices did fall below $67 a
barrel, they would have to remain depressed for some time to have an impact on the investment programme.
Qatar has the resources to draw on
before being forced to make any signiﬁcant cut-backs to domestic investment.
However, should oil prices remain low
for a considerable time; a prioritisation
process is likely to be implemented to
ensure the completion of key projects.
According to QNB, Qatar’s large infrastructure investment programme
would be sustainable, even if oil prices
fell considerably further.
Brent crude oil prices have dropped
from a peak of $115 a barrel in June 2014
to about $82 currently. This, it said, has
raised speculation about the impact of
falling oil prices on hydrocarbon exporting countries.
In Qatar, oil prices would have to fall
considerably further to have any impact on the infrastructure investment
programme that is expected to drive
economic growth over the next few
years. QNB’s assessment is based on
ﬁscal breakeven prices (the oil prices
at which the government budget would
be in balance), which is estimated to be
well below current oil prices.
Qatar is currently implementing a
large infrastructure investment programme in the run-up to the 2022
World Cup and in line with its 2030
Vision to diversify the economy away
from dependence on hydrocarbons.
The government has recently announced $182bn for project implementation outside the oil and gas sector over the next ﬁve years. The largest
projects include several major real estate developments (Lusail, The Pearl
Qatar and Musheireb for example), a
new metro and rail network as well as
new roads and highways. These major
projects are creating large numbers of
jobs leading to high population growth
(annual average of 9.2% in the ﬁrst 10
months of 2014).
This is expected to drive GDP growth
throughout the non-hydrocarbon sector, thereby supporting diversiﬁcation.
The government expects to ﬁnance
infrastructure investments predominantly through revenue from hydrocarbon exports. With ﬁscal and current
account surpluses of 15.6% and 30.9%
of GDP respectively in 2013, ample resources should be available. The question is how far would oil prices have
to fall to push the ﬁscal balance into
deﬁcit and force the government to cut
back on its investment plans?
Even though oil prices have fallen almost 30% since their June highs, Qatar
retains the capacity to ﬁnance its infrastructure investment programme.
Therefore, it is expected that strong
economic growth will continue, driven
by the infrastructure investment programme, QNB added.
1,900 students barred from exams
Some 1,900 students have been
barred from taking the first mid-term
examinations for being absent for
seven days or more without a proper
excuse, local Arabic daily Arrayah has
reported.
The tests are scheduled to begin today
in independent schools.
The step has been taken by the
Education Institute at the Supreme
Education Council (SEC) based on a
behavioural assessment policy that lays
stress on discipline and commitment to
attendance, according to the report.
The SEC had earlier warned that it
would take a harder stance on students
who missed school without a plausible
reason.
The number of students being absent
from classes at local independent
schools was at an unacceptable
level and reflected negatively on the
outcome of the learning process, HE
the Minister of Education Dr Mohamed
Abdulwahid al-Hammadi had observed,
as reported by Gulf Times in September.
WCMC-Q restructures curriculum into integrated six-year programme
W
eill Cornell Medical College
in Qatar (WCMC-Q) has announced a restructuring of
its curriculum that will see its premedical and medical programmes integrated
into one cohesive six-year medical education programme.
As a result of this integration, students will no longer have to go through
a separate admission process to make
the transition from the two-year premedical programme to the four-year
one. Instead, a single admission process will determine entrance to a sixyear medical education programme
and students will progress through
the course according to advancement
criteria, which include academic performance, professionalism and commitment to the profession of medicine.
Students who successfully complete
the six-year programme are awarded
the Cornell University Doctor of Medicine degree – the same qualiﬁcation
awarded to Cornell students who complete their studies in the United States.
Explaining the beneﬁts to students
of the new, integrated programme,
Dr Javaid Sheikh, Dean of WCMC-Q,
said: “This important innovation preserves the content, academic rigour
and quality of our highly-regarded
premedical and medical programmes,
while providing additional ﬂexibility
to our students and at the same time
advancing their preparedness for the
medical profession.
“We are moving into a new era of
both medicine and medical education, characterised by extremely rapid
Members of the Class of 2018 Med 1 students taking part in the First Responders
Course at Hamad Hospital’s training centre. A variety of emergency response first
aid is taught to the new medical students.
scientiﬁc development and increased
specialisation. As such, we have ﬁnetuned our curriculum in order to offer
the highly individualised support and
education required to produce doctors
who are able to excel in the fast-mov-
ing, technologically advanced world of
21st century medicine.”
One of the aims of the integrated
programme is to build upon and enhance WCMC-Q’s already strong reputation for producing medical graduates who are able to gain acceptance
to post-graduation residency training
programmes at elite hospitals all over
the world, a statement issued by the
college said.
WCMC-Q graduates have placed
on residency programmes at top-level
institutions that include Johns Hopkins Hospital, New York-Presbyterian
Hospital, Cleveland Clinic and Hamad
Medical Corporation, among many
others.
Students at WCMC-Q beneﬁt from a
wide network of academic and personal
support mechanisms, which allow the
college to offer a personalised education that meets the needs and interests
of each individual.
Dr Sheikh added: “We believe these
measures will result in an extremely
high level of academic performance
and a high retention rate of students
through the six-year programme. This
is a very exciting time for WCMC-Q
and we are looking forward to seeing
our next intake of students ﬂourish on
the new six-year medical programme.”
Students who are applying now to
the WCMC-Q premedical programme
will automatically be reviewed for admission to the new, integrated six-year
curriculum. Additional details will be
available soon on the WCMC-Q website.
4
Gulf Times
Sunday, November 9 , 2014
QATAR
Third batch of Lekhwiya search and rescue team graduates
T
he Internal Security
Force (Lekhwiya) celebrated the graduation of
the third batch of the national
search and rescue team, which
oversees the training of the
National Academy of specialist
training.
The ceremony was held under
the patronage of the Commander of the Private Operations
Group Brigadier Ali Mohamed
al-Rashid in the presence of a
number of directors and commanders of groups and Director
General and Chief Executive Ofﬁcer of the National Academy of
Specialist Training Masoud Mo-
hamed al-Khaldi
A total of 32 trainees, including officers, non-commissioned
officers and privates, graduated
in the third batch of the national
search and rescue team.
The programme included
training courses in different
international institutes that
covered ﬁreﬁghting, free parachuting, medical aid, rescue
by ropes, diving, urban rescue,
A store where counterfeit sportswear items were found.
Fake sportswear
seized in Al Khor
I
nspectors from the Ministry of Economy and
Commerce (MEC) have
detected some 476 pieces of
counterfeit sportswear at an
outlet in Al Khor.
This came as part of the
MEC’s routine inspection
campaigns at commercial
outlets around the country
to ensure compliance with
the consumer protection law
and relevant regulations,
and spot any potential at-
tempts of fraud or counterfeiting.
The seized goods will be
kept by the MEC until appropriate legal steps are
taken against the said outlet,
which has been issued a violation report.
Fines for such violations
range from QR6,000 to
QR1mn, depending on the
nature of the offence and
based on applicable laws and
regulations.
disposal of hazardous materials
and land and maritime navigation.
At a press conference, the
Search and Rescue Officer Major Abdullah al-Muhannadi said
that the third batch of the search
and rescue team started their
course on 27 January, 2014, and
received training at the highest
level from renowned institutions.
6
Gulf Times
Sunday, November 9, 2014
QATAR
SCH launches dental health pogramme
T
he
Supreme
Council
of
Health (SCH) has
launched the national
orthodontic health programme, “A bright smile
for a bright future”.
The programme is being conducted for the
third consecutive year in
co-operation with Colgate Palmolive Arabia.
The programme will
run for eight weeks to
raise awareness among
some 8,796 students
(Class I and II) in 43
schools.
Three major road projects in
Qatar to cost over QR9.4bn
By Ramesh Mathew
Staff Reporter
T
hree major ongoing
road
development
projects in the country
will cost the exchequer over
QR9.4bn, according to the
annual report of the Public
Works Authority (Ashghal)
published recently.
These three projects are
the 9.9km Dukhan Road
(East) between Bani Hajer
interchange and Tilted interchange (near Sidra), the Lusail Expressway project and
the North Road corridor between Duhail and Al Shamal.
Construction of Dukhan
Road (East) between Bani
Hajer interchange and Tilted interchange is being done
at more than QR3.70bn. The
work includes the construction of approximately 6.5km
of the dual carriageway road
as the mainline of Dukhan
Road (East) and 3.4km of Al
Gharafa Road, it reported.
The mainline for Dukhan
Road (East) consists of eight
lanes with service roads
and auxiliary lanes. Dukhan
Road (East), along with
Dukhan Road (Central), will
pave the way for the ambitious eight-lane East-West
highway, which includes six
multi-level interchanges on
the route, it is pointed out.
The project, expected to
be completed in 2017, also
includes the laying of nearly
10km of micro tunnel for
drainage, the report said.
Similarly, the Lusail Expressway project being executed along West Bay and
covering
approximately
5.3km, will cost the government QR3.57bn.
The road being built with
An artist’s impression of Lusail Expressway project.
four lanes in each direction
has provisions for three interchanges at Onaiza, Al
Wahdah (near Exhibition
Centre) and on the access
towards The Pearl-Qatar.
The
highway,
when
completed, will ease trafﬁc movement towards The
Pearl-Qatar, Katara – the
Cultural Village, Lusail City
and Diplomatic Club.
The work that began in
2012 is expected to be over in
the second quarter of 2017.
The enhancements being made on the North Road
corridor between Duhail
and Al Shamal will get over
in the last quarter of 2016.
The main carriageway of
the road will be increased
from the present four to ﬁve
lanes between Duhail and
Al Khartiyat. There will be
dedicated cycle tracks and
pedestrian access bridges
along the route, according
to the construction plans.
Improvements will be
made at 11 existing junctions
and two new interchanges
will also be developed.
The project is expected to
cost QR2.16bn.
Gulf Times
Sunday, November 9, 2014
8
QATAR
SUV catches fire
An SUV is seen in flames after it caught fire on the Doha Expressway, in the Al Saad police station area, yesterday
afternoon. After the Civil Defence personnel doused the fire, policemen towed the vehicle away.
Qatar condemns Israel’s policy
of intimidation in Gaza Strip
QNA
New York
T
he State of Qatar expressed deep concern
over Israel’s continued policy of intimidation
and imposition of collective punishment on the
residents of the Gaza Strip
through the repeated aggression and the siege imposed on the Strip for more
than six years.
Referring to the latest
Israeli aggression against
Gaza in August, Qatar renewed the call to create a
platform for dialogue and
reach a ﬁnal solution for the
Israeli-Palestinian conﬂict
based on the two-state so-
lution. It said that the biggest concern is the strategy pursued by the Israeli
government strangling the
Palestinian economy and
threatening the vital interests of the Palestinian communities by depriving them
of water.
It also said that the exploitation of natural resources in the occupied Syrian Golan by Israel is illegal
under international law.
This came in a statement delivered by Sheikh
Mohamed bin Hamad alThani, a member of Qatar’s
delegation participating in
the 69th session of the UN
General Assembly before
the UN Fourth Committeethe Special Political and
Decolonisation Committee,
which met to consider the
report of the Special Committee to Investigate Israeli
Practices Affecting the Human Rights of the Palestinian People and Other Arabs
of the Occupied Territories.
The statement said that
the most dangerous and
unlawful Israeli practices
are the assaults on religious sites and the lack
of respect for freedom of
worship, including attempts to break into the
Haram al-Sharif and prevention of worshippers
from entering the site.
The statement expressed
Qatar’s condemnation of
the violation of the holy
sites and freedom of wor-
ship in Palestine by the Israeli authorities.
Qatar also strongly condemned storming of Al Aqsa
Mosque, preventing worshippers from entering the
mosque, the repeated assaults on the Holy Al Aqsa
Mosque and settler groups’
provocative visits to Al Aqsa
Mosque compound, saying
the Israeli government is responsible for any damage to
the Haram al-Sharif.
The statement stressed
that such practices constitute a clear violation of
international law and are
inconsistent with the relevant Security Council resolutions, calling on Israel to
immediately stop all illegal
settlement activities.
Gulf Times
Sunday, November 9, 2014
9
QATAR
Dr Seetharaman explains a point as al-Mannai and Bishoy look on. PICTURE: Najeer Feroke
‘Moral values are vital in
shaping society’s destiny’
By Ramesh Mathew
Staff Reporter
T
he importance of moral values
in shaping one’s life as well as
determining the destiny of a
society was highlighted at a meeting
yesterday.
Residents of different nationalities
and religions participated in the deliberations held as part of the Fourth
Roundtable for Local Communities,
organised under the aegis of the Doha
International Centre for Interfaith
Dialogue.
The meeting was chaired by Aisha al-Mannai, head of the Faculty of
Islamic Studies, Hamad Bin Khalifa
University.
Speaking at the inaugural session,
Doha Bank Group CEO Dr R Seetharaman said though the lack of ethical
and moral commitments was generally
felt across the world these days, there
was still a strong perception that those
who possessed strong moral values in
life were able to produce better results
for mankind.
“The work done by elder generations would certainly reﬂect on the
performance of the succeeding generations and the collective efforts of
different groups would have a positive
impact on the future of any society,”
he said, stressing that the economic
prosperity this country’s citizens are
enjoying these days is the result of the
work initiated by their forefathers.
“Some two decades ago, this country borrowed heavily from the world
markets. But now, it has become one
of the major lenders to help revive
the global economy,” Dr Seetharaman
said, explaining that this was possible
only because of the good deeds initiated by its leaders who demonstrated
great vision and farsightedness.
More than 50% of people in the
world are under 35 years and “the work
we carry out today will have its inﬂuence on the lives of those who will be
born in the coming years”, he said and
reiterated that character and commitment were not only interdependent
but also played a major role in shaping
the destiny of the world.
Governance, he said, began in-
side every person and demonstrating
more accountability together with a
considerable degree of responsibility
would make one a good human being.
“Good people eventually contribute to
the making of good societies and good
societies would lead each nation to the
making of a one, single world,” said the
speaker.
Dr Seetharaman also highlighted
the necessity of inculcating more
transparency to achieve greater success in one’s life.
Speaking earlier, Bisanty Anba
Bishoy, president of the Churches
Steering Committee of Qatar, said
God has created every human being to
deliver to the society in which she/he
lives and each individual is assigned a
role to perform.
The Coptic priest called upon the
media to play a more important role
in spreading the importance of moral values in everyday life so that the
world would remain happy and peaceful. “The media’s efforts in highlighting the issue would have a positive
impact on the lives of every human being,” he said.
10
Gulf Times
Sunday, November 9, 2014
QATAR
More people
now aware
of diabetes,
says survey
By Joseph Varghese
Staff Reporter
T
Ali al-Fadala inaugurating Qatar Insurance Company’s (QIC) new full-service branch at Muaither.
QIC opens Muaither branch
I
nsurance major Qatar Insurance Company (QIC) has
expanded its country-wide
network with a new branch at
Muaither.
The new branch will provide the full range of QIC’s
personal line products such
as car, home care and travel
insurance to existing and new
customers.
Business/working hours for
QIC’s Muaither branch are from
9am to 9pm, Sunday through
Thursday and on Saturday.
The branch was inaugurated
by QIC senior deputy group
president and CEO Ali al-Fadala in the presence of several dignitaries.
On the strategy behind
the new branch opening, alFadala said: “I am very excited
about expanding our services
in Muaither. The new branch
opening is a part of our strategic initiative to expand our
reach to new customers and
grow our existing customer
base in Muaither. This branch
will also be processing motor
claims requests, thus enhancing our service levels and becoming more accessible to our
customers residing in Muaither.
We look forward to growing this
new branch with our customers
in the years ahead.
“The branch was opened to
meet the demand for QIC’s insurance products in Muaither.
Opening of this branch is in line
with QIC’s ‘channel strategy’
of reaching out to customers
across Qatar by being part of
the local business life.
“QIC has always been innovative in reaching out to
its customers. First we introduced the ‘automated insurance machines’, and now the
home delivery system, where
our customers can now renew
or purchase insurance policies
and have it delivered to their
homes for a small fee.”
Infected agriculture
products destroyed
The agricultural quarantine section
at the Ministry of Environment (MoE)
confiscated and destroyed some 10
cargoes of imported products, weighing
6.6 tonnes, last month as they were found
infested with various bugs.
The section inspected and passed 5,143
cargoes of various imported agricultural
products during the same period. These
weighed around 75,171 tonnes.
Besides, some eight such cargoes weighing around 385 tonnes - were
inspected and exported outside the
country.
he number of people in
Qatar who are aware of the
causes, risks and complications associated with diabetes
has grown signiﬁcantly, a survey
commissioned by Action on Diabetes (AoD) and conducted by
IPSOS Healthcare, says.
The survey results, made
available exclusively to Gulf
Times, clearly point out that
diabetes awareness is on the
increase in the country, but
suggest that more education,
increased awareness and early
diagnosis are needed to counter
the menace.
As November 14 is marked as
World Diabetes Day, the ﬁndings
can be extremely useful to spread
awareness among the people in
the country.
This is the second survey conducted by the agency on similar
lines in Qatar. The Qatar Diabetes Awareness Study compares
results from an identical survey
in 2011 and will be used to inform
diabetes research, education,
awareness and screening programmes in the future.
The survey found that 62% of
those people surveyed in Qatar
are now aware of the two types of
diabetes, an increase of 6% from
the 2011 survey.
When asked about risk factors,
89% of people now recognise
that being overweight increases
the chances of developing diabetes, compared to 73% in 2011,
while 80% now recognises the
role of inactivity.
The study has also found out
that 79% understand that if they
have diabetes, their children
have a higher risk of developing
diabetes, compared to just 61%
in 2011. There has been an increase in people who view diabetes as serious, if not worse, than
obesity, up 17% to 87% of the respondents.
Herluf Nis Thomsen, senior
project manager at AoD, said:
“The results from the study are
encouraging and show that education, awareness and screening
programmes run by AoD and our
partners have an effect. However, with one in ﬁve people in
Qatar now living with diabetes,
it is already ﬁrmly established as
one of the biggest health threats
in our community. Unless we
continue to address it and help
people modify lifestyles, at the
current growth rate, a quarter of
all Qataris could have diabetes
by 2030.”
The study has also revealed
worrying results that pointed
to misconceptions about the
role of family history in developing diabetes. The majority of
respondents (66%) view family
history as the main contributing factor - above diet, weight
and exercise - even for Type 2
Diabetes.
Dr Mahmoud Zirie of Hamad
Medical Corporation, said: “The
results of this study show that
the seriousness of diabetes as a
condition, its symptoms and its
complications are ﬁnally being
recognised. However, despite
this progress, greater education
and awareness are critical if we
are to collectively meet the diabetes challenge in Qatar.”
However he pointed out that
while family history certainly
plays a role in developing diabetes, lifestyle factors like diet and
exercise are far more prominent
than the survey results suggest.
One out of 10 in Mena has diabetes
A total of 282,533 adults in Qatar
have diabetes while 250,184
adults have impaired glucose
tolerance and 114,991 adults
have undiagnosed diabetes.
They are in the age category of
20-79, according to the Action on
Diabetes. It also says one out of
ten in Mena region has diabetes,
making it the most diabetes
affected regions. AoD had hired
IPSOS Healthcare to conduct
a survey to find out diabetes
awareness among the people of
Qatar. It was done among 300
people between the ages of
20 and 60. Of the respondents
8% had pre-existing diabetes.
Fifty-five percent of the people
who took part in the survey
were from Doha while 30% were
from Al Rayyan and 10% from Al
Khor. The respondents included
15 % Qataris, 35% Arabs, 40%
from Asian countries and 10%
Westerners. The survey has
found out people with diabetes
have also shifted their perception
of their condition in the last few
years, with 48% of them viewing
their condition as more serious
than obesity.
QU, Hitachi sign R&D agreement
Q
atar University (QU),
Hitachi Ltd and Hitachi Plant Qatar
have signed a comprehensive
university-industry
agreement to collaborate
on environmental and energy efficiency technologies
in the area of infrastructure
systems.
The
agreement
was
signed by QU President Prof
Sheikha Abdulla al-Misnad,
Hitachi President and CEO
of Infrastructure Systems
Company Kunizo Sakai, and
Hitachi Plant Qatar CEO
Hideyuki Ariyasu at Hitachi
headquarters in Japan.
The three parties agreed
to collaborate on the review
and selection of research and
development (R&D) themes
concerning advanced technologies that are suited to the
environment and the needs
Prof al-Misnad (right) , Kunizo Sakai and Hideyuki Ariyasu
at the agreement signing ceremony
of Qatar and the Middle East
region over the next three
years. They will conduct
technology
development,
ﬁeld trials and other activities based on selected R&D
themes in order to put the resulting technologies into use
in the Middle East as early as
possible.
As the ﬁrst activity, collaborative R&D concerning
energy-efficient air conditioning system technologies
will be initiated from the beginning of 2015.
The agreement is guided
by the objectives outlined
in the Qatar National Vision 2030 by which Qatar is
seeking to spur further economic development towards
achieving a sustainable society.
To address solutions to the
country’s energy-related issues, the three parties will
review and select joint R&D
themes primarily in three
ﬁelds: energy-efficient air
conditioning, water treatment and recycling, and energy efficient management.
The framework of the
agreement also includes
interaction and exchanges
whereby QU students and
Hitachi engineers will participate in internship and
other activities.
Prof al-Misnad said: “Qatar University is pleased to
work with Hitachi through
this collaboration on contributing to energy efficiency and water conservation strategies in Qatar. The
partnership will serve a wide
range of ongoing and planned
development projects in Qa-
tar, and as such is very much
in line with QU’s commitment to addressing national
priorities while offering opportunities for students to
gain knowledge, experience
and skills that empower
them to drive the country’s
development and progress in
the future”.
Sakai said: “Hitachi is
honoured to enter into this
comprehensive
industryuniversity
collaboration
agreement with Qatar University, which is conducting
a host of innovative initiatives in Qatar. Besides making effective use of the joint
research achievements, we
intend to demonstrate the
collective capabilities of the
Hitachi Group in order to
develop business activities
closely tied to customers and
the region as One Hitachi.”
Gulf Times
Sunday, November 9, 2014
QATAR
Campaign to stop roadside
display of vehicles by dealers
T
he Inspection and Control
Unit of the Traffic Department and Al Rayyan Municipality have launched a campaign to stop car dealers from
violating the law by exhibiting
vehicles outside showrooms,
which causes traffic congestion
and affects nearby shops.
The campaign started at
showrooms on Salwa Road,
which use footpaths and side
roads to park and display their
vehicles meant for sale. The authorities emphasised that this
was in violation of the law and
infringed on the rights of others.
The officials conducted the
campaign to educate car dealers that indulging in such a
practice would lead to legal action, including shutting down
of showrooms for one month to
three months, depending on the
nature of the offence.
Officials who led the campaign
T
Officials during the campaign.
included the head of the Traffic
Inspection and Control Unit, Maj
Saif al-Mohannadi, Traffic officer Lt Ahmad Jassim al-Mohaiza
and head of the General Control
Section at Al Rayyan Municipality, Bakhit al-Marri.
The officials stressed that the
campaign would be intensiﬁed
to eliminate this practice, which
breaches the rights of others,
pointing out that the public can
contact the Traffic Department
or send photographs through
Metrash2 if they notice any violations.
Vodafone introduces new data plans
V
odafone Qatar is introducing its new Data Plans
with increased data allowances and special promotional offers which include Unlimited data and discounts for
life.
The new Data Plans range from
Vodafone Data Plan 50 with 1 GB
data bundled to Data Plan 400
with an Unlimited data bundle.
Additionally, existing and new
Postpaid customers will get 50 %
off for life on Data Plans.
Customers, who are not on a
Vodafone Postpaid plan, will get
30 % off for life on all Data Plans
except Data Plan 50. The promotion offers customers a life-time
discount promise if they subscribe to a Vodafone Data Plan
up to 31 December 2014.
HMC opens clinic
in Sealine area
Existing postpaid customers and those who take it along
with a new postpaid line get
50% discount for life in the new
Data Plans promotion, which
include: Data Plan 50 offering 1
GB of data at QR25/ month instead of QR50; Data Plan 70 offering 2.5 GB of data at QR35/
month instead of QR70; Data
Plan 100 offering 7 GB of data at
QR50/ month instead of QR100;
Data Plan 200 offering 15 GB of
data at QR100/ month instead of
QR200; Data Plan 300 offering
25 GB of data at QR50/ month
instead of QR300; and Data Plan
400 offering unlimited data
at QR200/ month instead of
QR400.
As part of this promotion customers who don’t have a Vodafone postpaid line can enjoy 30
% monthly discount for life on
these Data Plans, except Data
Plan 50, with the following fees:
Data Plan 70 at QR49; Data Plan
100 at QR70; Data Plan 200 at
QR140; Data Plan 300 at QR210;
and Data Plan 400 at QR280.
Customers can use these data
plans to power their tablets,
smartphones, USB hotspots and
other smart devices with high
speed Internet including 4G
network.
he Hamad Medical Corporation
(HMC)
has
opened a clinic in the
Sealine area, ahead of this year’s
camping season.
The clinic has capacity to include two additional emergency
staff members from the HMC
Ambulance Service who will be
available on site round the clock.
They are supported by a doctor and nurse team as well as the
regular service provided to the
Sealine area by the Ambulance
Service.
The clinic, located on the main
road and close to the airstrip will
facilitate easy transfer of patients in serious conditions to
hospital.
Urgent cases will be transferred to a HMC hospital by the
HMC ambulance service or helicopter.
Equipped with clinical equipment and medication to treat
simple injuries, the centre will
operate on a weekly basis from
3pm every Thursday until 5pm
every Saturday during the
camping season.
Three 4X4 ambulance vehicles as well as three ambulance
units, an emergency supervision
unit, one advanced critical care
paramedic team and a LifeFlight
air ambulance unit will be available at the site.
Two ambulances will be on
standby throughout the week to
serve as backup support for the
clinic.
There will also be more 4X4
vehicles and an advanced ambulance unit provided for patients
in a critical condition as well
as three more ambulance units
dedicated to serving the North
of the country during the camping season.
HMC officials and guests at the opening of the clinic. Below: A view of the clinic
11
12
Gulf Times
Sunday, November 9, 2014
REGION
Rebels reject
new Yemen
government,
seek reshuffle
The Houthi rebels demand
the dismissal of ministers
they consider unqualified or
corrupt
AFP
Sanaa
A
l Qaeda claimed yesterday it killed dozens of
Shia rebels in Yemen and
tried to assassinate the US ambassador, as the rebels rejected
a new government announced
for the strife-torn country.
The cabinet was formed on
Friday shortly before the UN
Security Council slapped sanctions against influential former
president Ali Abdullah Saleh
and two rebel commanders for
threatening peace.
In apparent retaliation yesterday, Saleh’s General People’s
Congress party sacked from its
leadership Yemeni President
Abd-Rabbu Mansour Hadi, following accusations he solicited
the sanctions.
And the Houthi rebels rejected the new government welcomed by Washington, instead
demanding a reshuffle to dismiss ministers they consider
unqualified or corrupt.
Yemen has been dogged
Hadi: loses party position
by instability since an Arab
Spring-inspired
uprising
forced Saleh from power in
February 2012, and the rebels
and Al Qaeda have sought to fill
the power vacuum.
Al Qaeda claimed twin attacks early yesterday that it
said killed “dozens” of Houthis
in the central region of Rada,
where the Sunni militants have
halted a rapid territorial advance by their Shia rivals.
The turmoil has raised fears
that the nation, which lies on
the key shipping route from the
Suez Canal to the Gulf, may become a failed state.
Al Qaeda also said it had
tried to kill US ambassador
Matthew Tueller, but the two
bombs were detected “minutes
before their detonation”.
The devices were planted
Thursday outside Hadi’s residence, the media arm of Al
Qaeda’s Yemen branch said in a
statement on Twitter.
There was no official confirmation of the failed plot.
Washington, which sees Hadi
as a key ally in the fight against
Al Qaeda, welcomed the launch
of the new 36-member cabinet.
“This multi-party cabinet
must represent the strength
of Yemeni unity over individual and partisan interests that
may seek to derail the goals of
a nation,” US National Security
Council spokeswoman Bernadette Meehan said.
The new government was
formed as part of a UN-brokered peace deal under which
the Houthis are supposed to
withdraw from the capital
Sanaa, which they seized on
September 21.
Though the rebels, also
known as Ansarullah, are not
directly represented in the new
government, six of the new
cabinet’s members are considered close to the insurgents.
Despite this, the rebels issued a statement yesterday
saying the new government “is
in violation of the peace agree-
Bahrain
orders
probe into
death of
prisoner
AFP
Manama
B
A man reads a newspaper headline announcing the formation of a new government in Sanaa yesterday.
ment... and a clear obstruction to the political process in
favour of private and narrow
interests”.
They said the cabinet should
be reshuffled to “remove those
not meeting the criteria”
spelled out in the peace accord.
Such criteria, they said, include “qualifications, integrity
and neutrality in managing the
country”.
On November 1, the main
parties signed an agreement
brokered by UN envoy to
Yemen Jamal Benomar for the
formation of a government of
technocrats.
Under the accord, rebel representatives and their rivals,
the Sunni Al Islah (Reform) Islamic party, mandated Hadi to
form a government and committed to support it.
Benomar warned in an interview with AFP that without
the rapid formation of a government, tensions between
Shias and Sunnis were likely to
increase, sinking the country
deeper into crisis.
Al Qaeda said yesterday
it had launched two attacks
against Houthi posts in Rada.
“Dozens of Houthis were
killed and wounded,” it said,
when a militant rammed his
explosives-laden car into a
medical centre converted by
Houthis into a barracks, in the
Manaseh region.
It was not immediately possible to verify the report.
In another attack, Al Qaeda
militants fired on a rebel-occupied school in Jarrah valley,
also near Rada, tribal sources
and the militant group said.
An Al Qaeda statement posted online said four militants
stormed the building.
On Friday, the UN Security Council slapped a USproposed visa ban and assets
freeze on Saleh and two allied
Shia rebel commanders for
threatening peace in the impoverished country.
The Houthis are widely
thought to be backed by Saleh.
Washington said Saleh “was
behind the attempts to cause
chaos throughout Yemen” by
using the Houthis to weaken
the government and “create
enough instability to stage a
coup”.
The top UN body in August
called on the Houthis to end
their uprising and warned of
sanctions against those who
threaten Yemen’s stability.
Nuclear deal failure
danger to world: Iran
AFP
Tehran
A
failure by Iran and
world powers to reach
a
comprehensive
agreement over Tehran’s
nuclear programme would
be dangerous “for the entire
world”, a senior Iranian negotiator said yesterday.
Iran and six world powers
are seeking a landmark deal
by November 24 that would
see Iran scale back its nuclear
activities in order to ease longheld fears it might develop
atomic weapons, in return for
a lifting of international sanctions.
“A nuclear deal is in the interest of both parties and the
region,” deputy foreign minister Abbas Araqchi said in an interview with Iranian television
the day before talks between
Tehran and the so-called P5+1
group of nations resume in
Oman ahead of a ﬁnal deadline
this month.
“No one wants to return to
the situation there was before
the Geneva accord, as that
would be a dangerous sce-
nario for the entire world,” he
said, referring to an interim
agreement Iran signed last
year that traded curbs on its
nuclear programme for limited sanctions relief.
The West wants to close all
avenues to Tehran developing
an atomic bomb, by cutting
back its nuclear enrichment
programme, shutting down
suspect facilities and imposing tough international inspections.
Iran denies it wants nuclear weapons but insists
on having “industrial-level
enrichment” for its civilian
energy programme. It wants
all sanctions lifted and no restrictions on its existing nuclear technology.
US Secretary of State John
Kerry will meet today and tomorrow with Iran’s Foreign
Minister Mohamed Javad Zarif
in Oman along with EU former
head of diplomacy Catherine
Ashton in an attempt to bring
the two sides closer together.
“Negotiations have almost
stopped on one or two issues
and we hope that talks in Oman
will allow us to make progress”
on a ﬁnal deal, Araqchi said.
ahraini authorities
ordered
yesterday
an investigation into
the “beating and death” of
an inmate in custody, the
interior ministry said.
The ministry did not reveal the name of the prisoner but Shia activists
named him online as Hassan al-Sheikh, saying that
he died of torture at Jaw
Prison.
Interior Minister Sheikh
Rashid bin Abdullah alKhalifah has ordered an
“internal review after the
public prosecution’s investigation into the beating
and death of an inmate”,
said a statement.
The review will include
all policies and procedures
followed in prisons, it said.
“The death of the man,
thought to have been at
the hands of three ministry
personnel, was irresponsible, unjustified and unacceptable,” a statement cited the minister as saying,
insisting that it was an “individual and isolated act”.
Hundreds of Shias have
been arrested and faced
trial after a month-long
uprising was quelled in
March 2011. Jaw Prison is
known to host scores of
them.
Shia protesters continue
to frequently clash with
security forces in villages
outside the capital Manama.
Possible violation of
pact by Tehran seen
AFP
Tehran
A
US think tank says
Iran may have violated last year’s interim nuclear deal with
world powers by stepping up
efforts to develop a machine
that could enrich uranium
faster, but another expert
group said it saw no breach.
Western officials were
not immediately available to
comment on the allegation
by the Washington-based
Institute for Science and International Security (ISIS),
which closely tracks Iran’s
nuclear programme. There
was no immediate comment
from Tehran.
ISIS cited a ﬁnding in a new
report by the International
Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA)
about Iran.
The conﬁdential document, issued to IAEA member states on Friday, said Iran
since the UN agency’s previous report in September had
“intermittently” been feeding natural uranium gas into
a single so-called IR-5 cen-
trifuge at a research facility.
The IR-5 is one of several
new models that Iran has
been seeking to develop to
replace the erratic, 1970s
vintage IR-1 centrifuge that
it now uses to produce reﬁned uranium.
But unlike other advanced
models under development
- IR-2m, IR-4 and IR-6 - at a
research site at its Natanz enrichment plant, Iran had until
now not fed the IR-5 with uranium gas.
“Iran may have violated
(the interim deal) by starting to feed (natural uranium
gas) into one of its advanced
centrifuges, namely the IR-5
centrifuge,” ISIS said in an
analysis of the IAEA report.
“Under the interim deal, this
centrifuge should not have
been fed with (gas) as reported
in this safeguards report.”
But the Washington-based
Arms Control Association
said it did not believe it violated the deal. “The latest IAEA
report says clearly that no enriched uranium is being withdrawn from the machine,” the
research and advocacy group
said in an e-mail.
Omani Minister Responsible for Foreign Affairs, Yousef bin Alawi Abdullah greets Iranian Foreign Minister Mohamed Javad
Zarif upon arrival in Muscat yesterday. Zarif, US Secretary of State John Kerry and EU former head of diplomacy Catherine
Ashton will meet in the Omani capital today and tomorrow.
Gulf Times
Sunday, November 9, 2014
13
ARAB WORLD
Rebels say South Sudan army breaks truce deal
Reuters
Addis Ababa
S
outh Sudanese rebels accused the government
yesterday of violating their
latest ceaseﬁre deal, just hours
after both sides pledged to end
almost a year of ﬁghting.
The European Union and the
United States, desperate to prevent the world’s newest state
sliding back into chaos, have
already imposed sanctions on
both sides for frequent breaches
of a ﬁrst peace agreement signed
in January, and threatened more.
The internal conﬂict in South
Sudan, which declared independence from Sudan in 2011,
has killed more than 10,000
people, driven 1mn from their
homes and raised the spectre of
famine.
Taban Deng Gai, negotiator
for the ethnic Nuer rebels loyal
to former vice president Riek
Machar, said government troops
had “advanced from Bentiu and
Pariang and attacked our positions at Tor and Hofra in Unity
state”.
Unity is South Sudan’s oil hub
and saw ﬁghting last month.
Neither the government of President Salva Kiir, an ethnic Dinka,
nor the eight-nation regional
bloc IGAD, was available for
comment.
Seyoum Mesﬁn, chief mediator in the conﬂict, had announced in the early hours, after
two days of talks in the Ethiopian
capital Addis Ababa, that both
sides had agreed to cease hostilities unconditionally and bring
the war to an end.
“The parties commit to an
unconditional, complete and
immediate end to all hostilities,
and to bring the war to an end,”
said Seyoum, adding that they
had also pledged to stop recruiting and mobilising civilians.
The former Ethiopian foreign minister told reporters that
IGAD had granted the two sides
15 days to conduct further consultations, and said it had agreed
to punish any party that violated
the agreement with asset freezes
and travel bans, among other
measures.
He said IGAD would also stop
the supply of arms and ammunition to any side that carried on
ﬁghting.
“The IGAD region shall, without further reference to the warring parties, take the necessary
measures to directly intervene in
South Sudan to protect life and
restore peace and stability,” he
said.
Machar welcomed the deal,
saying: “We do not want any
soldier or any civilian to die
again after this progress in Addis
Ababa.”
Kiir, for his part, ordered
troops from the national army to
stay in their barracks in compliance with the agreement.
“Should they be attacked from
any direction, they should only
ﬁght in self-defence,” Kiir said.
The US delegation to the United Nations has announced plans
for a draft resolution to establish
a “mechanism for targeting individuals” undermining South
Sudan’s stability and abusing
human rights, an official said on
Tuesday.
Australia’s UN ambassador
Gary Quinlan, president of the
Security Council this month,
said his country and several
other council members backed
the idea of making an arms embargo part of any South Sudan
sanctions regime. He declined
to comment on the timing of any
sanctions.
Air strikes
target IS
leaders in
Iraq: report
Reuters
Baghdad
U
S-led air strikes have targeted a gathering of Islamic State leaders in Iraq
in a town near the Syrian border,
possibly including the group’s
top commander Abu Bakr alBaghdadi, Al Hadath television
channel said yesterday.
Iraqi security officials were
not immediately available for
comment on the report from the
station, part of Saudi-owned Al
Arabiya television, but two witnesses said an air strike targeted a
house where senior Islamic State
officers were meeting, near the
western Iraqi border town of Al
Qaim.
They said Islamic State ﬁghters had cleared a hospital so that
their wounded could be treated.
Residents said there were unconﬁrmed reports that Islamic
State’s local leader in the western
Iraqi province of Anbar and his
deputy were killed.
US officials would not conﬁrm
or deny whether Baghdadi, the
group’s overall leader, had been
targeted.
One US official said that air
strikes were carried out against
a convoy near the northern city
of Mosul, about 280km from Al
Qaim, and against small Islamic
State units elsewhere, but the
US-led air strikes had not targeted an Islamic State gathering.
Al Hadath said dozens of people were killed and wounded in
the strike in Al Qaim, and that
Baghdadi’s fate was unclear. Al
Qaim and the neighbouring Syrian town of Albukamal are on a
strategic supply route linking territory held by Islamic State in Iraq
and Syria.
Western and Iraqi officials say
US-led air strikes are not enough
to defeat the Al Qaeda offshoot
and Iraq must improve the performance of its security forces
to eliminate the threat from the
group, which wants to redraw the
map of the Middle East.
President Barack Obama has
approved sending up to 1,500
more troops to Iraq, roughly doubling the number of US forces on
the ground, to advise and retrain
Iraqis in their battle against Islamic State.
The Iraqi prime minister’s media office said the additional US
trainers were welcome but the
move, ﬁve months after Islamic
State seized much of northern
Iraq, was belated, state television
reported.
The United States spent $25bn
on the Iraqi military during the
US occupation that toppled
Saddam Hussain in 2003, and
triggered an insurgency that included Al Qaeda.
Washington wants Iraq’s Shialed government to revive an alliance with Sunni tribesmen in
Anbar province which helped US
Marines defeat Al Qaeda.
Such an alliance would face a
more formidable enemy in Islamic State, which has more ﬁrepower and funding.
Baghdad blasts in Shia areas kill at least 33
A wave of car bombs struck
Shia-majority areas of Baghdad
yesterday, killing at least 33
people, security and medical
officials said.
The six car bombs, which hit
five different areas of the Iraqi
capital, also wounded more
than 100 people.
The deadliest single attack
was in Sinaa Street in the city’s
central Karrada district, and
killed at least 10 people.
Two car bombs also hit the Amil
area of south Baghdad, and one
each exploded in Ameen in the
east, Zafraniyah in the centre
and Sadr City in the north.
EU foreign affairs chief Federica Mogherini meets Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas at the headquarters of the Palestinian Authority in Ramallah yesterday.
EU calls for Palestinian
state, sharing of capital
Jerusalem should be the
capital of two states, the new
EU foreign policy chief says
AFP
Ramallah
E
urope’s top diplomat yesterday called for a Palestinian state sharing Jerusalem as its capital with Israel,
hours after the police killing of
an Arab-Israeli further fanned
tensions.
The appeal by the European
Union’s Federica Mogherini followed the dawn killing of the
man by police in northern Israel, with his family saying he
was killed “in cold blood” and
a video showing he was shot in
the back.
“I think Jerusalem can be
and should be the capital of
two states,” the new EU foreign
policy chief told reporters in the
Israeli-occupied West Bank city
of Ramallah.
The status of Jerusalem is a
sensitive issue that has blocked
peace efforts for decades.
Palestinians are seeking to
achieve statehood in Gaza and
the West Bank with annexed
East Jerusalem as their capital.
Israel claims Jerusalem as its
undivided and eternal capital.
In recent weeks tensions have
soared, with Israel pushing
plans to build new Jewish settlements in East Jerusalem and
Jewish extremists demanding
the right to pray at the Al Aqsa
mosque compound.
Also yesterday, Mogherini
visited the Gaza Strip, the
coastal enclave devastated by
a 50-day summer war with Israel, before talks in Ramallah
with Palestinian Prime Minister
Rami Hamdallah.
In the latest violence, Israeli
security forces shot dead an Ar-
ab-Israeli man who threatened
them with a knife as he tried to
prevent a relative being arrested, police said.
But the family of Kheir Hamdan, 22, said he was “shot dead
in cold blood” in the north Israel village of Kfar Kana.
Police said Hamdan was
killed after they ﬁred warning
shots.
But an Internet video link police provided shows the young
man running after trying to attack security forces. As he ﬂees
a police officer is seen shooting
him in the back.
Hamdan’s death triggered a
peaceful protest in his village,
but on the outskirts dozens of
youths erected barricades and
set ﬁre to tyres as police deployed reinforcements.
Arab Israelis, who account for
about 20% of Israel’s population, are the descendants of Palestinian Arabs who remained on
their land when the Jewish state
was established in 1948.
The shooting followed another night of clashes in East
Jerusalem between youths hurling stones and ﬁrecrackers and
police who retaliated with rubber bullets, stun grenades and
teargas.
Mogherini has been pushing
for ways of reviving the peace
process that has been frozen
since April, since beginning her
ﬁrst official visit to Israel and
the Palestinian territories on
Friday.
The world “cannot afford”
another war in Gaza, she said
there early yesterday, and also
appealed for the creation of a
“Palestinian state”.
“We need a Palestinian
state—that is the ultimate goal
and this is the position of all the
European Union,” she said during a trip to the territory devastated by its third conﬂict in
six years. Palestinian President
Mahmoud Abbas said yesterday that a draft resolution was
on course to be submitted to
the UN Security Council this
month calling for an end date
for Israeli occupation.
The text is expected to be vetoed by the United States.
On Friday, Mogherini met Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin
Netanyahu, who dismissed her
criticism of Israeli settlement
building in East Jerusalem and
the West Bank.
“I reject the ﬁctitious claim
that the root of the continuous
conﬂict is this or that settlement,” he said. “Jerusalem is
our capital and as such is not a
settlement.”
Netanyahu has ordered the
security forces to either seal or
demolish the homes of any Palestinian involved in anti-Israeli
attacks, an official said on Friday.
Friends of American
hostage issue appeal
AFP
Tripoli, Lebanon
F
Colleagues of US aid worker Peter Kassig, who converted to Islam and took the name Abdul Rahman, carry signs during a news conference
calling for his release in the northern Lebanese city of Tripoli yesterday.
riends and former colleagues of a US aid worker
whom the Islamic State (IS)
group has threatened to execute
appealed yesterday for his release.
Twenty-six-year-old
Peter
Kassig, who converted to Islam
and took the name Abdul Rahman, has been an IS captive since
2013.
“We call on IS... to free Abdel
Rahman,” Firas Agha, a Syrian refugee living in Tripoli who shared a
ﬂat with Kassig when he lived and
worked in the northern Lebanese
coastal city, told a news conference.
“Islam does not allow Muslim
to kill Muslim, especially if the
Muslim in question has done good
work,” he said.
In an October 3 video showing
British aid worker Alan Henning’s
beheading, the threat was made
that Kassig would be next.
The group says its brutal executions are in retaliation for US-led
air strikes targeting militants in
Syria and Iraq.
Before travelling to rebel-held
areas in Syria, Kassig worked in
hospitals and clinics treating Syrians forced to ﬂee their war-torn
country to neighbouring Lebanon
and Turkey.
He made two separate trips into
rebel-held areas of Syria before
travelling to the eastern province
of Deir al-Zor in autumn 2013,
when he was taken hostage.
Kassig “was a very enthusiastic young man, so much that he
would help refugees out of his own
pocket”, said Agha.
The former US soldier left the
army after ﬁghting in Iraq.
“He told us many times about
his dismay over what he saw, both
in terms of the killing and destruction,” said Agha.
Another Syrian, Dr Ahmed
Obeid, told reporters Kassig
“cared a lot about giving humanitarian and medical aid to Syrian
refugees”.
A third refugee, who identiﬁed himself only as Mohamed
and who now lives in Switzerland,
made an emotional appeal.
With the green, black, red and
white ﬂag Syrians opposed to
President Bashar al-Assad’s regime have adopted behind him,
Mohamed said he warned Kassig
about returning to Syria because
he sensed his life would be in danger.
“But Abdel Rahman was convinced of the need to help the
Syrians inside Syria, because they
need that,” he said.
Hostages threatened at the end
of four previous IS videos have all
subsequently been murdered.
Activists say the militants are
holding hundreds of hostages,
mostly Syrians.
14
Gulf Times
Sunday, November 9, 2014
AFRICA
Burkina army declines to join transition talks
AFP/Reuters
Ouagadougou
B
urkina Faso’s army declined to join talks with
the opposition and civilian
groups on a transition government yesterday, while ousted
leader Blaise Compaore blamed
the military and his political opponents of jointly plotting his
overthrow.
Representatives of political
parties and civil society groups
held a meeting again in the capital Ouagadougou to hammer out
a handover plan, after Compaore
ﬂed following a mass uprising
against his bid to revise the constitution and extend his 27-year
rule.
The army’s power grab in the
landlocked west African country
has attracted international condemnation and threats of sanctions from the African Union un-
less it hands over power within
two weeks.
US Deputy Assistant Secretary
for African Affairs Bisa Williams
reiterated calls for a democratic
transition after talks yesterday
with the army-named leader
Lieutenant-Colonel Isaac Zida in
Ouagadougou.
“We’re counting on respect
for the (army’s) promise to put
in place a democratic transition
government which is led by a civilian,” Williams said in French.
Washington and Paris, Burkina
Faso’s two main allies and donors, have been pressuring the
military to quickly carry out
elections.
Around 60 representatives of
the opposition, civil society, as
well as religious and traditional
groups met brieﬂy yesterday
morning and were due to meet
again after consultations later in
the day.
A participant in the talks, who
requested anonymity, said the
conference was seeking to convince the army to send delegates
to sign a joint declaration.
The groups have already
agreed that the transition should
last one year and that it should be
led by a civilian before presidential and legislative elections take
place by November 2015.
But there was no agreement on
the person to head the transition.
The proposals were due to be
presented tomorrow to mediators from the United Nations, the
African Union and the west African regional bloc ECOWAS.
From his exile in the neighbouring Ivory Coast, Compaore
meanwhile accused the opposition of plotting a coup with the
army, in an interview published
yesterday.
“We knew for a long time that
part of the opposition was working with the army. Their aim: to
prepare a coup d’etat,” Compaore
told Jeune Afrique magazine.
“They wanted me to leave. I
left. History will tell us if they
were right,” said the 63-year-old
who ﬁrst took power in a 1987
coup.
As for Zida, Compaore said the
lieutenant-colonel was in a position that he would “not wish for
his worst enemy”.
The West African regional bloc
ECOWAS has called on the international community not to impose sanctions on Burkina Faso.
At an extraordinary summit
in the Ghanaian capital Accra on
Thursday, ECOWAS welcomed
statements by the new head of
state Zida that he would hand
power to a civilian transitional
government soon.
ECOWAS, which has called for
a year-long transition to elections in November 2015, named
Senegalese President Macky
Sall as its lead mediator with the
transitional government, ac-
cording to a statement issued after the meeting.
The Peace and Security Council of the 54-nation African
Union (AU) – which imposes
sanctions for breaches of democratic process – on Monday gave
the military a two-week deadline
to return power to civilians or
face punishment.
“The summit appeals to the
International Community and
partners not to impose sanctions
on Burkina Faso in the light of the
on-going regional efforts and to
continue supporting the country at these delicate times,” read
the statement, published on the
ECOWAS website.
The United States said last
week it had not decided if the
military takeover constituted a
coup, a distinction that would
lead to an automatic suspension of military aid to one of the
West’s key allies against Islamist
groups in the region.
US Deputy Assistant Secretary for African Affairs Bisa Williams with
Lieutenant-Colonel Zida after their meeting in Ouagadougou. The
meeting came as political parties, the army and civil society groups
were due to discuss a plan for a transitional government in the west
African country.
Africa’s wealthy join
battle against Ebola
Reuters/DPA
Addis Ababa
T
Members of the Fofah family peek through the door as they observe
quarantine at home in Takila Road in Freetown.
he African Union (AU)
raised $28.5mn yesterday from the continent’s
wealthiest individuals and ﬁrms
for a fund to ﬁght the Ebola outbreak ravaging three west African
nations.
AU officials and business executives gathered in the Ethiopian
capital to launch the emergency
response fund said the money
committed would be disbursed
immediately.
AU Commission chairwoman
Nkosazana Dlamini Zuma said
the business executives were
responding to an AU plea for a
continent-wide response to the
Ebola epidemic, which she said
required urgent action.
“It was a very successful meeting,” Zuma told reporters. “They
(business leaders) ... bring different skills to this response.”
“This is a unique initiative,”
said AfDB president Donald Kaberuka. “I salute the business
people for bringing the competence of business to deal with this
epidemic.”
“Our immediate concern is to
respond to the appeal for 1,000
health care workers,” Strive
Masiyiwa, chairman of Econet
Wireless, an African telecoms
operator, told reporters. “We
Liberia rights commission calls for compensation for quarantine shooting
Liberia’s human rights commission has called on the
government to pay compensation to the family of a
boy shot dead during a protest over Ebola quarantine
in August, saying officers had not fired in the air as
they claimed but directly on the crowd.
The West African nation’s rights watchdog condemned
the deployment of soldiers and armed police to
quell the protest in the West Point neighbourhood of
Monrovia.
Residents took to the streets after the government
quarantined the waterfront slum of 75,000 people following an attack on an Ebola holding centre.
Liberia has been the country hardest-hit by the worst
outbreak of Ebola on record, which has killed nearly
5,000 people since it was detected in the remote forest region of neighbouring Guinea in March.
The Independent National Commission on Human
Rights (INCHR) urged President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf
to make a public apology to the family of Shaki
Kamara, who died after being shot in the legs after
protesters had tried to break out of the quarantine.
have also received considerable
contributions in kind, which may
well ... exceed what we have received in cash.”
“This is not about big business,” he said. “It is about Africans contributing funds for
a response to additional health
workers.”
India’s Bharti Airtel and another telecommunications ﬁrm
from Switzerland also agreed
to join the campaign to bring in
contributions from India and
across Europe.
Boko Haram ‘seizes another Nigeria town’
AFP
Niamey/Yaoundé
I
slamist extremist group
Boko Haram has seized control of a Nigerian town near
the Niger border, leading soldiers to ﬂee and adding to its expanding reach in the region, an
official said yesterday.
The insurgents were said to
have taken control of Malam
Fatori in Nigeria’s northeastern Borno state after ﬁghting
on Wednesday and Thursday, a
senior official in the Niger town
of Diffa near Nigeria told AFP on
condition of anonymity.
The ﬁghting killed dozens and
wounded about 30 people in the
a commercial hub known for
ﬁshing and farming, the Anfani
radio station in Diffa reported.
“The town of Malam Fatori
was taken by Boko Haram after
violent ﬁghting with the Nigerian army overnight Wednesday
to Thursday,” said the official in
Diffa, where thousands of refugees from the conﬂict have ﬂed
to.
According to the official, 315
Nigerian soldiers ﬂed over the
border to Diffa. Thirteen who
were wounded were treated in a
Diffa hospital, while the others
have been repatriated.
The official’s version of events
differed from the one given
by a Nigerian senator, who on
Thursday spoke of the attack
but did not say that the town
had been taken.
Senator Maina Maaji Lawan
said the insurgents met stiff resistance from soldiers from a
multi-national task force in the
region that includes troops from
Nigeria, Chad and Niger.
Lawan however also said that
soldiers were later forced to ﬂee
after being overpowered by the
insurgents.
He said that 21 civilians were
killed.
Boko Haram has killed thousands in its ﬁve-year insurgency
in Nigeria, and it has in recent
months taken control of a growing number of areas in the country’s northeast.
It has occasionally carried out
cross-border attacks, and another such raid occurred yesterday in Cameroon.
In that attack, Boko Haram
members attacked a Cameroon
border town, leading to six
hours of ﬁghting that killed a
soldier and several insurgents,
authorities said.
The attack occurred in Kerawa, near areas of Nigeria recently taken over by Boko Haram.
The nearby Mandara mountains have been used as a hide-
out by Boko Haram members.
“Boko Haram attacked Kerawa around 4am (0300 GMT),”
a police officer in the region said
on condition of anonymity. “A
man from the BIR (elite army
unit) was killed. Several assailants were also killed.”
He said gun battles between
the extremists and soldiers
rocked the area until around
10am.
Cameroon has reinforced its
military presence in the region
in a bid to stop an escalation in
attacks by Boko Haram.
On October 17, the military
claimed to have killed 107 Islamists during intense ﬁghting
that also left eight soldiers dead.
Ten Chinese and 17 local hostages were kidnapped earlier
this year in Cameroon in raids
blamed on Boko Haram.
They were released last
month.
Musician pleads guilty in terror trial
Right-wingers convicted of treason
A popular Rwandan musician appealed for leniency this week after
pleading guilty at the opening of his trial to plotting attacks on the
country’s leaders. Kizito Mihigo is on trial along with three co-accused
on charges including conspiracy to murder, complicity in a terrorist
act and conspiring against the government of Rwandan strongman
and President Paul Kagame.
“I plead guilty to all charges, like I did from the first day I was arrested,
and I ask for forgiveness,” Mihigo told the court on Thursday.
However, his lawyer John Bigaraba said there was no evidence for all
the charges.
His co-accused, demobilised soldier Jean Paul Dukuzumuremyi and
Cassien Ntamuhanga, a journalist, as well as Agnes Niyibizi, all denied
the charges.
A South African court has sentenced two members of a right-wing
group convicted of high treason for plotting to kill President Jacob
Zuma to eight years in prison, state prosecutors said this week.
The men were arrested in December 2012 on suspicion of targeting
top African National Congress (ANC) leaders including Zuma during
the party’s conference.
National Prosecuting Authority spokesman Nathi Mncube said that
the High Court on Thursday convicted Johan Prinsloo of “high treason
and possession of ammunition” and jailed him for eight years.
His co-accused Mark Trollip had last year pleaded guilty to a charge of
conspiracy and was also handed an eight-year jail term.
A third defendant, Martin Keevy, was found mentally unfit to stand
trial and charges against him were withdrawn.
“A bullet shot in the air cannot fall from above and
shatter somebody’s legs, especially a person standing
up as was Shaki Kamara’s position,” read the report,
dismissing the army’s version of events. “The INCHR
... strongly recommends monetary compensation to
the family, with the amount to be determined by the
government in collaboration with the inter-religious
council.”
The report noted that the president had ordered
military top brass to penalise officers involved in the
August 20 shooting.
The commission urged the Liberian government to
improve the desperate living standards in West Point
and other poor Monrovia neighbourhoods by providing proper housing, health centres, public toilets and
schools.
The rapid spread of Ebola had caused panic in many
parts of Monrovia as infection rates accelerated in
August but the government and the World Health
Organisation (WHO) noted this week that the pace of
the epidemic in Liberia appears to be in decline.
“We want to give everybody
across the world a chance to help
us overcome this challenge,”
Masiyiwa said.
South African businessman
Patrice Motsepe praised the
roundtable for mobilising business leaders, who he said had
been slow to respond to the outbreak because they weren’t engaged at the earliest opportunity.
Motsepe, the chairman of African Rainbow Minerals, said
that his ﬁrm would contribute $500,000 immediately and
pledged $1mn afterwards.
“We are here to conﬁrm that
Ebola is a big challenge,” Motsepe said. “The negative perception it is creating is a concern to
all businesses throughout Africa
... we will defeat it.”
Ebola has killed 4,950 people
of the 13,241 infected since the
outbreak started earlier this year,
according to the World Health
Organisation (WHO), mostly in
Sierra Leone, Liberia and Guinea.
While countries from the United States to China and Cuba have
ANC-aligned
union body
expels critic
Reuters
Johannesburg
S
outh Africa’s African National Congress (ANC)aligned labour federation
expelled its biggest and most
politically vocal trade union yesterday, in a move that may stir
worker unrest and hurt the coalition that has ruled since apartheid ended in 1994.
After meeting through the
night, delegates from the Congress of South African Trade
Unions (COSATU) voted 33-24 in
favour of expelling the National
Union of Metalworkers of South
Africa (NUMSA).
NUMSA, previously the biggest member of COSATU, has
regularly criticised President
Jacob Zuma’s administration.
COSATU is in a three-way
governing alliance with the ANC
and the South African Communist party.
The workers’ federation is
seen as a vote-winning machine
which also makes signiﬁcant ﬁnancial contributions for polls.
“We were expelled this morning, a predetermined decision
was evident, the reasons for them
kicking us out were not enough,”
NUMSA’s treasurer Mphumzi
Maqungo said.
“It was painful, it was as if
someone had died,” he said of
the split in a 27-year relationship
forged in the ﬁght against racial
oppression, which eventually
brought down white minority
rule in South Africa.
The expulsion has been on the
cards for months after the union
said last December that it would
not campaign for the ANC in
the May general elections and
accused Zuma’s government of
promoting business instead of
workers’ interests.
It also said it would form a
political movement called the
“United Front” to advance a socialist agenda.
NUMSA’s expulsion is likely
to add to labour unrest, analysts
said.
South Africa’s economy, the
continent’s most developed, has
been hamstrung by strikes this
year, including a damaging ﬁve-
deployed resources and health
personnel in a UN-led aid surge,
fast-growing African states and
institutions have faced questions
about the level and speed of their
own contributions.
The AU and the African Development Bank (AfDB) will guide
the legal set-up of the new fund,
which will be administered by
a board of trustees drawn from
corporate Africa.
At the meeting, African telecoms ﬁrms also agreed an initiative to provide a platform for
their customers to give at least $1
each, with the potential of reaching 700mmn mobile phone users,
he added.
The platform, which will use
one short code across all networks, is expected to be ready
early next month.
Mustapha Sidiki Kaloko, the
African Union’s Commissioner
for Social Affairs, said the priority was to secure transport for
the 1,000 extra health workers
required.
“If somebody could help us
with the transportation of the
workers to Liberia, Sierra Leone
and Guinea ... that would be very,
very helpful to us,” Kaloko told
Reuters after the meeting.
The commissioner said they
had 103 health workers on the
ground but the number could go
up to 2,000 by the end of December.
Zuma: his administration has
been regularly criticised by
NUMSA.
month stoppage in the platinum
sector.
“NUMSA expulsion will drive
labour instability and make upcoming public sector wage negotiations more difficult,” said
Eurasia Group Africa director
Mark Rosenberg.
“Public sector union leaders have backed the ANC. They
expect to be rewarded for their
loyalty and will need to counter
NUMSA accusations that COSATU is merely a labour desk of
the ANC,” Rosenberg added.
In a last ditch attempt to stave
off expulsion, NUMSA’s general secretary Irvin Jim told COSATU’s top leaders on Friday that
the federation that once struck
fear into South Africa’s apartheid-era bosses was now in a
state of “paralysis”.
Jim said that COSATU wanted
to expel NUMSA because it had
spoken out against rising levels of corruption and “political
bankruptcy” in the ANC under
Zuma.
Most of NUMSA’s members
are black workers in key sectors
such as car manufacturing.
Gulf Times
Sunday, November 9, 2014
15
AMERICAS
Two Americans freed by N Korea, returning home
Reuters
Washington
N
orth Korea has freed two
US citizens, Kenneth Bae
and Matthew Todd Miller, who are returning home after
spending months in detention in
the secretive Asian state, the US
government said yesterday.
Bae and Miller were being accompanied back to the US by
James Clapper, the director of na-
tional intelligence, his office said.
Their release comes less than
three weeks after another American was freed by Pyongyang.
Bae, a missionary from Washington state, was arrested in
North Korea in November 2012
and sentenced to 15 years hard labour for crimes against the state.
Miller, who reportedly was tried
on an espionage charge, had been
in custody since April this year
and sentenced to six years of hard
labour.
“It’s a wonderful day for them
and their families,” President
Barack Obama said at the White
House. “Obviously we are very
grateful for their safe return and
I appreciate Director Clapper doing a great job on what was obviously a challenging mission.”
The US had frequently called
for the men to be freed for humanitarian reasons, especially
since Bae was said to have health
problems.
Clapper’s role in their release
was unexpected and his trip to
North Korea had been kept secret. The US government gave no
other details about how he became involved in the case.
The release came just hours
before Obama was set to travel
to Asia for a trip that will include
talks with Chinese leaders about
how Beijing can use its inﬂuence with North Korea to rein in
its nuclear program, US officials
have said. Bae’s delighted son,
Jonathan, told Reuters from Ari-
zona that he received a call on Friday night and spoke to his father.
“The brief time on the phone, he
sounded good,” Jonathan said.
“I’m sure he will be back to his old
self in no time.
“It came out of the blue. One
minute he was doing farm labour
and the next minute they are saying, ‘You are going home.’ Just like
everyone else, he was surprised.”
The US State Department issued a statement thanking Sweden for its part in the release of
Bae and Miller. Sweden serves
as a diplomatic intermediary for
the US in North Korea because
Washington has no diplomatic
ties with Pyongyang.
North Korea has been on a
diplomatic campaign to counter
charges by a UN body that highlighted widespread human rights
abuses and a move by some UN
members to refer the state to an
international tribunal.
“North Korean policy continues to zig-zag,” said Stephan
Haggard, a North Korea expert
at the University of California in
San Diego.
“After pursuing a charm offensive aimed at restarting NorthSouth talks and even a human
rights dialogue, North Korea shut
those initiatives down following
the tabling of a strongly worded
human rights resolution at the
UN General Assembly. But the
release of Miller and Bae suggests
an effort to keep channels for dialogue open.”
Detroit wins
court approval
for plan to exit
bankruptcy
Reuters
Detroit
D
US Attorney General nominee Loretta Lynch speaks next to President Barack Obama in the Roosevelt Room at the White House in Washington yesterday.
NY prosecutor picked
for attorney general
Agencies
Washington
P
resident Barack Obama
yesterday picked Brooklyn
federal prosecutor Loretta
Lynch to be the next US attorney
general, praising her as someone
who would bring a commitment
to criminal justice reform and
other key administration priorities.
If conﬁrmed, Lynch, 55, would
be the ﬁrst black woman to serve
in the post, bringing with her a
family history that stretches back
generations to great-great grandparents who were slaves.
Obama said he hoped the Senate would conﬁrm Lynch, who he
said had distinguished herself as
tough and fair in her two stints
as the US attorney in the Eastern District of New York, which
covers Brooklyn, Long Island,
Queens and Staten Island, without delay.
Lynch would replace Eric
Holder, the ﬁrst black attorney
general, who has held the job
since Obama took office in 2009.
She was among several candidates Holder had recommended
to succeed him.
“Loretta might be the only
lawyer in America who battles
mobsters and drug lords and terrorists and still has the reputation
for being a charming people person,” Obama said in announcing
the nomination.
The announcement, made
in the White House’s Roosevelt
room, was unusual both for its
timing and for Obama’s selection of someone for a top job with
whom he has little personal history.
The White House had planned
to announce the selection later
this month after Obama returned
from his trip to Asia but the timing was moved up after her selection leaked out to the media. The
president leaves today for a trip to
China, Myanmar, and Australia.
Holder announced earlier this
year that he was stepping down.
Lynch’s nomination is the ﬁrst
big personnel change Obama has
announced since Republicans
won control of the Senate in congressional elections on Tuesday.
Lynch’s conﬁrmation potentially could be difficult after Republicans seized control of the
Senate. But she is not seen as a
member of Obama’s inner circle
- which may help her in the conﬁrmation process.
“Ms Lynch is a strong, independent prosecutor who has
twice led one of the most important US attorney’s offices in the
country,” spokesman Josh Earnest said in a statement.
The spokesman praised Holder
- a close friend of Obama - saying his “tenure has been marked
by historic gains in the areas of
criminal justice reform and civil
rights enforcement.”
Lynch is in her second stint
as the top federal prosecutor for
the Eastern District of New York.
She earned Senate conﬁrmation
under president Bill Clinton and
again in 2010 under Obama.
Lynch oversees federal prosecutions in three New York boroughs - Brooklyn, Queens, Staten
Island - as well as two suburban
counties on Long Island.
Senate Republican Leader
Mitch McConnell said: “Ms.
Lynch will receive fair consideration by the Senate. And her
nomination should be considered
in the new Congress through regular order.”
Chuck Grassley, the top Republican on the Senate Judiciary
Committee, added: “I’m hopeful
Dallas marks Ebola end
with ‘selﬁes’ with Bush
No drugs found in
Williams suicide
AFP
Los Angeles
R
obin Williams had recently
become more paranoid
when he committed suicide
by hanging himself, coroners said
on Friday, adding that he had no
alcohol or illicit drugs in his system.
There were also signs that the
comic actor - who had recently
been diagnosed with Parkinson’s
Disease - had tried to cut his left
wrist, according to an autopsy report.
No suicide note or other indication that he planned to take his
own life was found at the scene, it
said. The 63-year-old, known for
high-energy, rapid-ﬁre improvisation and clowning, was found
dead on August 11 at his home in
Marin County, north of San Francisco.
The coroner for Marin County,
Robert Doyle, said the investiga-
tion into his death had concluded,
giving the cause as “asphyxia due
to hanging” and the manner of
death as “suicide.”
“Toxicological evaluation revealed the absence of alcohol or
illicit drugs. Prescription medications were detected in therapeutic
concentrations,” it added in a brief
statement.
“His prior medical history reportedly included depression,
Parkinson’s Disease and a recent
increase in paranoia,” said a longer
coroners’ report, which was obtained by AFP.
The report included other details about Williams’ medical history, including that he had shown
symptoms of Parkinson’s since
2011, including a left arm tremor
and slowing of left hand movements. He was diagnosed with the
disease in November 2013.
“The clinical history is notable
for depression, with components
of paranoia, compulsiveness and
anxiety,” it said.
that her tenure, if conﬁrmed, will
restore conﬁdence in the attorney
general as a politically independent voice for the American people.”
Lynch ﬁrst came to prominence as a member of the legal
team that prosecuted and won
convictions in a high-proﬁle
case against uniformed New York
City police officers who beat and
sexually assaulted Haitian immigrant Abner Louima after arresting him.
The North Carolina native has
both undergraduate and law degrees from Harvard University.
Before her return to the US
Attorney’s office in Brooklyn,
Lynch was a partner in the New
York office of law ﬁrm Hogan &
Hartson LLP, where she focused
her practice on commercial litigation, white-collar criminal
defense and corporate compliance issues.
etroit won US Bankruptcy Court approval
on Friday for a road map
to end its ﬁscal free fall and revitalise a city sinking under a huge
debt load and dysfunctional
government.
Judge Steven Rhodes conﬁrmed the city’s plan to shed
about $7bn of its $18bn of debt
and obligations and plow $1.7bn
into improvements, ﬁnding it
both fair to creditors and feasible to implement.
“The city has worked honestly, diligently, and tirelessly to
accomplish precisely the remedy that the bankruptcy code
establishes for municipalities,”
Rhodes said in the ruling he read
from the bench.
He acknowledged the anger
the bankruptcy fuelled among
many Detroit residents and
urged them to look forward.
“And so I ask you, for the
good of the city’s fresh start,
to move past your anger. Move
past it and join in the work that
is necessary to ﬁx this city,” he
said.
He also called Detroit’s inability to provide adequate services to its residents “inhumane
and intolerable,” saying that the
city’s plan aims to ﬁx that problem.
Once the proud symbol of US
industrial strength, Detroit fell
on hard times after decades of
population loss, rampant debt
and ﬁnancial mismanagement
left it struggling to provide basic services to residents. During
the 15-1/2-month bankruptcy
process, the city’s historic collection at the Detroit Institute
of Arts (DIA) came into play as a
potential pot of assets to satisfy
creditors.
The journey through Chapter 9 municipal bankruptcy began on July 18, 2013, with major
creditors girding for battle, and
has wound down in a ﬂurry of
settlements. A so-called Grand
Bargain taps in to $816mn from
foundations, the DIA and the
state of Michigan to ease pension cuts and protect cityowned art work from sale.
In his ruling, Rhodes said
that settlement, which was key
in winning the support for the
plan from Detroit’s two retirement systems and scores of city
workers and retirees, “borders
on miraculous.” Bigger cuts to
retiree healthcare were justiﬁed because that beneﬁt, unlike pensions, was not protected
under Michigan’s constitution,
he said.
However, a deal that granted
unsecured holders of the city’s
unlimited tax general obligation
bonds a 74% recovery was possibly at the top range of reasonableness, Rhodes said.
Richard Ciccarone, head of
Merritt Research Services, said
Detroit changed the risk proﬁle
for municipal bonds.
“It’s a milestone for municipal credit risk. If we look back
over the past 50 years, this
stands out as evidence that
municipal bonds are not riskfree.”
Two companies that guaranteed payments on Detroit
bonds and were the last major
holdout creditors in the case,
Syncora Guarantee Inc and Financial Guaranty Insurance Co
, received options to develop
parcels of land. Rhodes imposed
the plan on two classes of miscellaneous creditors.
With the cost of Detroit’s
consultants and lawyers topping $140mn, Rhodes said a
process will be established to
determine if those fees are reasonable.
Attending Rhodes’ ruling
were Detroit’s state-appointed
emergency manager, Kevyn
Orr, who took Michigan’s biggest city to bankruptcy court,
and Mayor Mike Duggan, who
is now tasked with carrying out
the plan. Orr came under ﬁre
from many Detroit constituents
and city-elected leaders when
he was appointed by Michigan
Governor Rick Snyder to turn
the city around.
Reuters
Dallas
A
Former US President George W Bush hugs nurse and Ebola
survivor Amber Vinson at Texas Health Presbyterian Hospital
in Dallas on Friday. A relieved Dallas got the US government’s
all-clear from Ebola, and Bush marked the event by visiting the
hospital.
relieved Dallas got the US
government’s all-clear on
Friday from Ebola, and
former President George W Bush
marked the event by visiting the
hospital that was at the centre of
ﬁghting the virus and the origin
of an American scare over the
disease.
“It’s official,” the Texas Department of State Health Services said in a tweet announcing
the ﬁnal monitoring check on
Friday evening of the last of the
177 people who had been considered at risk of catching the virus.
“No symptoms. We are happy
to close this Ebola chapter with
Dallas tonight,” the department
said.
The announcement came four
hours after the US Centers for
Disease Control and Prevention
said that, as of Friday, 176 of the
177 people in Texas it had been
checking for possible Ebola exposure had been cleared. They
had been monitored for symptoms of Ebola for 21 days, the
disease’s maximum incubation
period. Ebola causes fever, vomiting, diarrhoea and bleeding.
The Texas city’s Ebola worries began on Sept. 30 when a
visiting Liberian man, Thomas
Eric Duncan, was taken by ambulance to Texas Health Presbyterian Hospital, where he was
diagnosed with the disease.
The ﬁrst case on US soil of the
virus, in the middle of an Ebola
epidemic that has killed more
than 4,950 people in three poor
West African countries, prompted questions about whether
the US government was doing
enough to prevent the disease
from entering the country.
“The last ﬁve weeks have been
a trying time for the city and residents of Dallas and especially
the people of Texas Health Presbyterian Hospital Dallas,” Bush
told hospital staff.
The former president, who
lives a few miles from the hospital, hugged now-Ebola-free
nurse Amber Vinson, who contracted the virus after treating
Duncan. He also posed for “selfies” with staff at the medical facility where he himself has underwent care.
No one else in Texas has contracted Ebola since nurses Nina
Pham and Vinson became infected while caring for Duncan,
who became ill while visiting
relatives in Dallas. He died on
Oct. 8. Both nurses eventually
made a full recovery.
16
Gulf Times
Sunday, November 9, 2014
ASEAN/EAST ASIA
On the catwalk!
Protection boost for
migratory mammals
in Central Asia
DPA
Quito
T
he migratory mammals of
Central Asia need to see
their protection improved
from development threats and
poaching, a UN-backed conservation organisation has said.
The Mongolian and Tibetan
gazelles, saiga antelope, and giant argali sheep are just some
of the 15 large mammals whose
ways of life are in danger, the
Convention on Migratory Species (CMS) declared on Friday in
the Lima capital, Quito, at its 11th
conference of the parties.
The threats include poaching,
industrial development such as
mining, and linear infrastructure
such as roads, railways and fences that cut migration routes, the
CMS said online.
The ﬁrst step of the initiative
was the commissioning of a report
titled Guidelines on Linear Infrastructure, to help governments and
businesses avoid building things
that can harm migratory species.
“A single Mongolian gazelle
can use over 25,000 square kilometres,” said Peter Zahler, Asia
programme deputy director of
the World Conservation Society
and co-author of the report.
“Keeping these enormous
Central Asian landscapes intact
and fully functional will be the
key to protecting these globally
signiﬁcant wildlife species.”
Myanmar govt woos foreign workers
with permanent residency
Models display creations by Tube Gallery designers Phisit Jongnarangsin and Saksit Pisalasupongs during the Bangkok International Fashion Week 2014 in Bangkok.
Ten collections by leading Thai designers are being presented at the fashion week that concludes today.
Apec ministers pledge
to step up graft ﬁght
AFP
Beijing
C
hina yesterday secured backing from Asia-Paciﬁc ministers
to deepen anti-graft efforts, in a
move that dovetails with a high-proﬁle
Communist Party “fox hunt” for corrupt
officials who have ﬂed abroad.
The anti-corruption proposal is said to
have been pushed by China and backed
by the US at the Asia-Paciﬁc Economic
Co-operation (Apec) gathering in Beijing,
which culminates in a two-day summit
of leaders from 21 member-economies
starting tomorrow.
But it remained unclear how effective
the move would be, amid apprehension in
some countries over returning suspects
to China due to fears they could be subject to abuse and denied legal due process.
China in July launched its so-called
“Fox Hunt” - a campaign to bring back
corrupt officials or their family members
who have moved abroad, taking ill-gotten
gains with them.
Since taking office last year, President
Xi Jinping has made the graft ﬁght a central theme of his administration as public
anger swells over widespread corruption.
A report attributed to China’s central
bank and leaked three years ago said that
as many as 18,000 corrupt officials had
left the country over between the 1990s
and 2008, taking as much as $123bn with
them.
In a statement, Apec ministers pledged
to step up nascent anti-graft efforts with
a regional commitment to “deny safe haven to those engaged in corruption, including through extradition”.
But they stressed that such moves
would be “subject to domestic laws and
policies” and needed to be carried out “in
accordance with fundamental legal principles of each economy”.
“We, Apec member economies, recognise that corruption impedes economic
sustainability and development, threatens social security and fairness, undermines the rule of law, and erodes government accountability, as well as public
trust,” the statement said.
It pledged to establish an office for the
day-to-day running of the Apec Network
of Anti-Corruption Authorities and Law
Enforcement Agencies (ACT-NET), a
body co-ordinating anti-corruption efforts that was launched by Chinese and
US officials in August.
The office will “assist in detecting, investigating and prosecuting corruption,
bribery, money laundering, and illicit
trade” and seek cooperation on tracking
cases across borders.
China has recently announced
stepped-up efforts to extradite former
officials suspected of corruption from
countries including Australia, New Zealand and Canada.
Australian police said last month that
they would work with their Chinese
counterparts to track down and seize illegal assets, but foreign concerns over the
country’s legal system linger.
Anti-corruption efforts with the ruling
Communist Party are carried out by an
internal body which operates without any
legal oversight, and there is concern that
the crackdown may be used for political
faction-ﬁghting.
Apec Secretariat Executive Director
Alan Bollard said Thursday the proposal
had been championed by China and the
US.
Bollard said any anti-corruption effort
“needs to happen within the different
laws and legal structures” of Apec members, but the statement did not spell out
how this would work.
“Corruption impedes economic sustainability and development, threatens
social security and fairness,” the ministers added.
M
yanmar will introduce,
for the ﬁrst time, a permanent residence system for foreigners, officials said
yesterday.
According to the officials, this
system will enable the people to
work, invest and live in the country, Xinhua reported.
“The system is the one that will
strengthen the favourable conditions of Myanmar at right time
and it will enable scholars, experts,
intellectuals and investors from
other countries as well as former
Myanmar citizens to contribute to
the national development,” Vice
President U Nyan Tun said.
Myanmar also introduced the
visa-on-arrival system June 1,
2012, and since then travellers
from 67 nations, including Asean
countries, have beneﬁted.
Since the civilian government
took over in 2011, tourist arrivals
in Myanmar reached 1.06mn in
2012 and rose to 2.04mn in 2013.
Myanmar is targeting 3mn
tourist arrivals by the end of
2014.
Unsafe fare
A woman sells prawns at a market in Hanoi. According to animal
rights organisation Wakker Dier, half of fish and prawns sold
across Asia have been found to contain bacteria resistant to
antibiotics.
As Obama visits Asia, old alliances face new strains
Reuters
Washington/Jakarta
I
n November 2011, with the
Arab Spring uprisings in full
tilt and Europe rocked by
a debt crisis, President Barack
Obama ﬂew to Asia to promote a
shift of America’s military, diplomatic and business assets to
the region. His then Secretary of
State, Hillary Clinton, declared
in the same year that the 21st
century would be “America’s Paciﬁc century”.
Fast-forward to today: as
Obama ﬂies to Asia today, Washington’s “pivot” to the region is
becoming more visible. It includes
deployment of American Marines
in Darwin, Australia, stepped up
US naval visits to the Philippines
and many more joint drills with
that nation’s armed forces, as well
as the lifting of a ban on lethal
weapons sales to Vietnam.
But just as Washington seeks
to expand American interests in
Asia as a counterpoint to China’s growing inﬂuence, some
US partners have shown less
willingness to challenge Beijing.
That may mean China will have a
freer hand to assert its authority
in the resource-rich South China
Sea, where its territorial claims
overlap those of Taiwan and four
Southeast Asian countries.
The drubbing Obama’s Democrats took in this week’s midterm elections, defeats that were
blamed by many on his leadership, will hardly strengthen his
position in discussions with China or with allies in the region.
Obama will have less room for
manoeuvre on foreign policy now
he has a Republican-controlled
Senate to deal with, and the political focus in Washington is already starting to turn to the 2016
presidential election.
Protesters hold banners and signs in front of the Sydney Opera House during a demonstration against the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP)
trade agreement. A small group of demonstrators voiced their opposition to the TPP currently being negotiated between the US, Australia
and ten Pacific-Rim countries.
Although several countries,
notably the Philippines and Vietnam, have sought closer US
ties as a defence against what
they see as China’s aggression
in pursuit of its claims in the
South China Sea, other long-established alliances have become
less robust.
Beijing’s increasing economic inﬂuence is a major reason.
Southeast Asia’s trade with China is up four-fold over the past
decade to $350bn last year and is
forecast to reach $1tn by 2020.
Indonesia, traditionally a leading voice and strong US ally in
Southeast Asia, has signalled a
foreign policy shift away from
international activism following
this year’s election of a populist
President Joko Widodo, who said
in his election campaign that his
focus would be on domestic affairs.
Rizal Sukma, a foreign policy
adviser to Widodo, told Reuters
there would be a shift in priorities from high-proﬁle diplomacy,
though Indonesia would continue to play a role in the South
China Sea and support freedom
of navigation and trade.
On the South China Sea,
Widodo is unlikely to act without a crisis, said Greg Fealy, an
Indonesia expert at the Australian National University. “The US
may well ﬁnd it much more difficult to get any leverage,” he said.
In Thailand, a military coup in
May has shaken up its relationship with the US. Since the coup,
Washington has scaled back dip-
lomatic contacts and reduced
joint military exercises.
And Malaysia, next year’s chair
of the 10-nation Association of
Southeast Asian Nations, has
seen a wave of Chinese trade and
investment and is working with
Beijing on upgrading an AseanChina free-trade agreement.
“I think there is every reason
to be concerned,” over whether
Asean will stand up to China, said
Joseph Liow, a Southeast Asia expert at Washington’s Brookings
Institution think tank.
During his trip, Obama will
attend the November 10-11 Asia
Paciﬁc Economic Cooperation
forum in Beijing and the Nov.
13 East Asia Summit in Myanmar. Perhaps most importantly,
he will hold talks with Chinese
President Xi Jinping on November 11-12.
US officials say he plans to
press Xi about China’s aggressive
behavior in pursuit of maritime
claims in Asia. “We are going to
have to speak very directly and
candidly about some of our concerns and our areas of disagreement,” a senior US administration official told Reuters.
Washington has had its recent
successes in the region.
In April, the US and the Philippines signed a new 10-year security pact allowing for a larger US
military presence.
In July, another US ally, Japan,
revised its interpretation of a
paciﬁst postwar constitution to
allow Japanese troops to assist a
friendly state under attack.
And Washington has also
agreed to boost defence ties with
Australia and agreed with India
to negotiate a 10-year extension
of a bilateral military co-operation deal.
Perhaps most eye-catching of
all, nearly 40 years after the end
of the Vietnam War, the US last
month partially lifted a longtime ban on lethal weapon sales
to Vietnam to help Hanoi improve maritime security.
That followed tensions between China and Vietnam that
ﬂared in May after China’s staterun CNOOC oil company parked
a deepwater rig off Vietnam’s
coast in what Hanoi said was its
exclusive economic zone, sparking the worst breakdown in ties
between the two since a border
war in 1979.
Joint US-Philippine drills and
exercises have more than quadrupled in the past two years, the
Philippine military said. Its Subic
Bay port saw 100 US naval ship
visits in the ﬁrst 10 months of
this year, up from 54 in 2011.
The Pentagon says it now
has 1,150 Marines in Darwin, in
northern Australia, up from an
initial 200 in April 2012. It plans
to lift that force to 2,500 in two
years, pending an agreement
with the Australian government.
A vital component of Obama’s
rebalance - a 12-country TransPaciﬁc Partnership trade pact has yet to be concluded.
Obama has said he wants to
see TPP progress as a result of
his trip, but US officials say they
do not expect a deal given major
outstanding issues. China is not
one of those negotiating the TPP,
but is open to joining one day.
“There’s no country in the region, given China’s rise ... who
isn’t essentially a strong supporter of America remaining
strategically engaged in the region,” said Russell Trood, an adjunct professor of US studies at
the University of Sydney.
“And yet when you ask them to
stand up and nail their colours to
the masthead, as it were, few are
prepared to do it to the degree
to which Washington would no
doubt be reassured.”
Gulf Times
Sunday, November 9, 2014
17
AUSTRALASIA/EAST ASIA
China, Japan ministers meet
after deal to curb tensions
AFP
Beijing
T
he foreign ministers of
China and Japan yesterday
held their ﬁrst formal talks
in more than two years, a day after the Asian powers agreed to reduce tensions over territorial and
historical disputes.
Chinese foreign minister Wang
Yi and Japanese counterpart
Fumio Kishida met on the sidelines of the annual Asia-Paciﬁc
Economic Cooperation (Apec)
forum, reports in both countries
said.
The meeting, the ﬁrst at such a
level since September 2012, just
before ties soured over an escalating territorial dispute, came
after Tokyo and Beijing agreed on
a four-point accord to improve
their relationship.
Wang called the agreement “a
major step” in talks with Kishida,
Xinhua said.
Kishida, meanwhile, said the
talks were meaningful. “This created an important momentum to
shift gears to bring Japan-China
relations back to a normal track,”
he said in remarks shown on Japanese national broadcaster NHK.
He said he had stressed the
importance of a meeting between
Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo
Abe and Chinese President Xi
Jinping, Japan’s Kyodo news
agency reported.
Friday’s agreement was widely
seen as setting the stage for a
summit between the two leaders
on the sidelines of the upcoming
Apec summit in Beijing, though
no official announcement had yet
been made.
The neighbours have not
held a summit since December
2011 when then-prime minister
Yoshihiko Noda visited Beijing.
Wang and Kishida only held
informal meetings in August on
the sidelines of a regional gathering in Myanmar, and during the
UN General Assembly in New
York in September.
US Secretary of State John
Kerry, speaking to reporters,
welcomed the Asian powers’ Friday deal.
“We think that any steps that
the two countries can take to improve the relationship and reduce
the tensions is helpful not just to
those two countries but it’s helpful to the region,” Kerry said yesterday.
Relations between the world’s
second- and third-largest economies have plunged in the face
of rows over disputed islands in
the East China Sea and Japan’s
20th-century aggression against
China.
A key point of contention is
that Tokyo has long refused to
formally acknowledge that there
is a sovereignty dispute over the
islands, which it controls and
calls the Senkakus, but which
are claimed by Beijing as the Diaoyus.
The Chinese statement Friday
said the two “acknowledged that
different positions exist between
them regarding the tensions”
over the islands, while the Japanese text said they “recognised
that they had different views as
to the emergence of tense situations”.
Each used only their own name
for the outcrops but both said
they would set up a “crisis management mechanism” to keep the
situation at bay.
Visits by Japanese politicians including Abe to Tokyo’s
Yasukuni shrine, which honours Japan’s war dead including
convicted war criminals, are another issue, and the statements
said they would make efforts to
“overcome political difficulties”
rooted in historical issues.
An editorial yesterday in China’s nationalistic Global Times
tabloid, which is controlled by
the Communist Party, said the
agreement amounted to Tokyo
“admitting that the disputes over
the Diaoyu Islands’ sovereignty
have become the new reality”.
But Friday’s statements were
carefully worded, and Japanese
media insisted that they did not
amount to a recognition of a dispute over the islands.
The conservative Yomiuri
Shimbun paper argued that Tokyo’s reference to “different
views” did “not impair Japan’s
position so far that ‘there is no
territorial dispute’”.
It quoted an anonymous “foreign ministry executive” as saying: “The Japanese side has not
made any concession on territory.”
Speaking to reporters before
meeting Kishida, Wang suggested that any summit depended
on Japan’s actions regarding the
agreement.
“We hope that the Japanese side
could seriously treat this consensus, implement it faithfully and
honour its commitment and create the necessary and favourable
atmosphere for a meeting between
the two leaders,” he said.
The long simmering tensions
between the two nations erupted
two years ago when the Japanese
government purchased from private owners the islets in the chain
it did not already own, prompting
vehement protests by Beijing and
anti-Japanese demonstrations in
China.
Increased patrols by ships and
aircraft from the two sides in the
seas and skies around the rocky
islets have raised fears of armed
clashes between the two powers.
Kerry cautioned that the two
sides have plenty of work cut out
for them to make the deal work.
“It’s the outline of steps that
now need to be taken in order to
really deﬁne how certain tensions
are going to really be resolved,”
Kerry said.
The US is Japan’s key security
ally and treaty bound to defend it
in case of attack.
Anti-Occupy Central protesters sing while holding luminous balloons and Chinese flags during a rally in Hong Kong late on Friday.
Amnesty seeks release of mainland activists supporting pro-democracy protesters in Hong Kong
China should release at least 76
people, detained on the mainland
for supporting Hong Kong’s prodemocracy protests, before the start
of next week’s Asia-Pacific leaders
summit in Beijing, rights group
Amnesty International has said.
Students calling for full democracy for Chinese-ruled Hong Kong
have blocked roads leading into
three of the city’s most economically and politically important
districts for weeks, drawing condemnation from Beijing and the
Hong Kong government.
Leaders including US President
Barack Obama, Japanese Prime
Minister Shinzo Abe and Chinese
President Xi Jinping will gather for
the November 10-11 Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation (Apec) summit
in the Chinese capital. Preliminary
meetings are already underway.
“Apec leaders must end their
recent silence on the crackdown
against mainland Chinese activists
expressing support for Hong Kong
pro-democracy protesters. Political convenience should not trump
principled action,” said Roseann
Rife, East Asia Research Director at
Amnesty International.
“The leaders should take this
opportunity to speak out and urge
President Xi to ensure all those
detained solely for exercising their
right to freedom of expression and
peaceful assembly are immediately and unconditionally released,”
she said in a statement.
China’s foreign ministry, in a
statement faxed to Reuters, said
Amnesty was a group “prejudiced”
towards China which often made
irresponsible statements and
interfered in the country’s internal
affairs. “We are resolutely opposed
to this,” it added.
Beijing has ruled Hong Kong
since 1997 through a “one country,
two systems” formula that allows
wide-ranging autonomy and
freedoms not enjoyed on the
mainland.
The protesters are demanding fully democratic elections for
the city’s next chief executive in
2017, not the vote between prescreened candidates that Beijing
has said it would allow.
Amnesty said the detentions in
China have been especially concentrated in Beijing, as well as the
southern cities of Guangzhou and
Shenzhen that abut Hong Kong.
People have been held for
putting pictures online with messages of support, planning to go
to Hong Kong to take part in the
protests or shaving their heads in
solidarity, it said.
The government has stepped
up security in Beijing ahead of the
summit. Amnesty said some activists had been forced to leave the
city, including prominent dissident
Hu Shigen.
Xi has presided over a sweeping
crackdown on the rights community since taking office two years
ago and, while he has promised to
improve the rule of law, the Communist Party will remain firmly in
charge of the judicial system.
“The latest wave of detentions
is part of a concerted attack on
fundamental freedoms since
President Xi took office. It makes a
mockery of Xi’s recent claims that
the rule of law and human rights
will be fully respected in China by
2020,” Rife said.
Australian
PM to have
‘robust’ talk
with Putin
AFP
Canberra
A
People hold a banner during a protest in Tokyo yesterday against nuclear power plants being restarted in Japan.
Japan to reactivate nuclear reactors
IANS
Tokyo
T
he governor of Japan’s Kagoshima prefecture has approved the reactivation of
two nuclear reactors at the Sendai plant.
Sendai was the ﬁrst plant in Japan on
which new regulations were imposed by Japan’s Nuclear Regulation Authority (NRA)
after the accident at the Fukushima plant
triggered by an earthquake and tsunami on
March 11, 2011.
The plant is expected to start its com-
mercial activities from 2015 after the NRA
completes its last security reviews in Sendai.
The approval granted late on Friday is
almost the final step for the reactivation
of the power stations, whose 48 commercial use reactors are currently non-
functional until they adopt the NRA
norms.
The Fukushima accident was the worst
since the Chernobyl meltdown in Ukraine in
1986.
Some 300,000 people had evacuated the
area to avoid the after effects of the accident.
ustralian Prime
Minister
Tony
Abbott said yesterday he would have a
“robust” conversation
about downed Malaysia Airlines Flight MH17
with Russian President
Vladimir Putin when
they meet in Beijing.
The Kremlin conﬁrmed on Friday that
Putin will meet Abbott,
who last month promised to confront the Russian president over the
downing of the plane, at
a summit in the Chinese
capital.
“I am going to have a
very robust conversation
with him,” Abbott told
reporters in Melbourne.
“But the conversation will be, as I have
said, about our absolute
expectation that Russia will be as good as its
word, that it will fully
cooperate with the investigations that are under way and that it will
do what it can to ensure
that justice is done.”
The meeting is expected to be on November 11, the second
day of the Asia-Paciﬁc
Economic Cooperation
(Apec) summit in Beijing.
“It will be short,” Putin’s top foreign policy
adviser Yury Ushakov
told reporters.
Last month Abbott
vowed to “shirtfront”
Putin over the downing
of the passenger jet over
rebel-held Ukraine in
July, in which 38 Australian citizens and residents
died. “Shirtfront” is an
Australian Rules Football
term in which a player
charges an opponent.
Abbott said yesterday he would be seeking
Putin’s personal assurance that “this is not an
issue which Russia now
expects to be forgotten,
that this is not an atrocity which Russia thinks
can be swept under the
carpet”.
“Thirty-eight
Australians were murdered
and I will speak for our
dead, I will speak for our
nation, I will speak for
decency and for humanity in stating to the Russian president he owes
it to us, he owes it to
our common humanity
to ensure that justice is
done,” Abbott said.
Australia and the US
have accused Russianbacked rebels of shooting down Flight MH17
using a missile supplied
by Moscow.
Russia has repeatedly
denied the claim and
pointed the ﬁnger at Kiev
over the disaster, which
killed all 298 people on
board.
18
Gulf Times
Sunday, November 9, 2014
BRITAIN
Kate shows off healthy
glow at official event
Evening Standard
London
S
he was not seen on an official public
engagement for almost two months
while she battled with extreme
morning sickness.
But the duchess of Cambridge, who is
15 weeks pregnant, looked the picture of
health yesterday when she braved the wind
and rain to tour an oil reﬁnery in Wales.
Wearing a light blue Matthew Williamson coat and heeled black boots, she joked
and laughed with well-wishers outside the
Valero Pembroke Reﬁnery on the Pembrokeshire coast.
The duchess also battled with this condition while she was pregnant with prince
George and she was admitted to hospital to
receive treatment.
She returned to royal duties last month
as part of the state visit by the president of
Singapore.
It has been announced that the duchess
is expected to give birth in April.
For the ﬁrst few years of their marriage,
William and Kate lived a secluded fourbedroom cottage in Anglesey on the north
west coast of Wales.
The oil reﬁnery which is celebrating
its 50th anniversary said their visit was a
“huge honour”.
The royal couple met with workers and
apprentices and looked at a display cel-
Catherine and William pose with apprentices during a visit to Pembroke Refinery
ebrating the last 50 years.
They were ushered into a minibus to
travel to the 1,270-acre site’s control room
where they met shipping and blending
workers.
“Nicely spruced up for our arrival,” Wil-
liam joked as they entered the room. “I can
smell the paint.”
Both William and Kate sat in front
of screens and pressed a button to
create their own gasoline blend.
“Shall I do one and you can do the
other one?” Kate told William.
After she pressed the button William laughingly told workers: “We are
waiting for the red light to go off.”
The group clapped loudly after
William had also pressed his button
and told the couple it would take 15
hours to create the blend. William replied: “We will do the night shift.”
He asked whether anyone would
be watching the rugby match later,
which the royal couple will attend. “I
am sure one of these (monitors) can
be turned into a big screen,” he told
them.
Valero vice president and reﬁnery general manager Ed Tomp said it
was a recognition of the role the plant
‘continues to play supporting our
economy and communities here in
west Wales.’
‘I know the entire community is
looking forward to welcoming the
duke and duchess to the reﬁnery,
which looks set to be a wonderful opportunity for everyone in Pembrokeshire to celebrate.’
The Pembroke reﬁnery was officially opened in 1964 by the Queen
Mother and employs 1,200 people.
Built in a deep natural harbour at
Rhoscrowther, it processes 270,000
barrels a day, has a pipeline stretching as far as Manchester and supplies
more than 10% of the UK’s fuel.
Lord Mayor’s show
Participants parade outside the Courts of Justice during the Lord Mayor’s show in London yesterday.
War widows
who remarry
will not lose
pensions
Evening Standard
London
W
ar widows who
choose to remarry
will no longer lose
their pensions, the prime minister announced yesterday.
For decades the wives of
fallen servicemen have had to
choose between ﬁnding new
love and ﬁnancial stability under a complex scheme introduced in 1975 that stopped the
pensions of military widows
who remarried or cohabited
with someone after the death
of their spouse.
This morning David Cameron abolished the “absolutely
wrong” loophole before joining the Military Wives Choir
in central London on the eve of
Remembrance Sunday.
It comes as campaigners threatened to walk down
Downing Street in what would
have been an embarrassing
prelude to today’s services.
Speaking of the change,
Cameron said: “This is a longstanding grievance and I think
one which is very justiﬁed people who were married to
someone in the armed services
and that person died and so
they lost their pension if they
married again.
“I think that wasn’t fair and
I’m delighted that because we
have a strong economy we can
afford to make this change and
give justice to these people.”
He added: “This reﬂects our
clear commitment to uphold
the Armed Forces Covenant
which we enshrined in law.”
Previously, he said the rules
forced widows into an “agonising choice between loneliness
and ﬁnancial security”, the
Times reports.
Defence secretary Michael
Fallon said: “It’s vital that
we do right by those who put
their lives on the line for their
country - that’s why this Government enshrined the Armed
Forces Covenant in law.”
The move was welcomed by
the War Widows’ Association,
representatives of which joined
Cameron at No 10 this morning.
Irene Wills, chairman of
the association, said: ‘We’re
delighted that Cameron and
Fallon have been courageous
enough to correct this injustice.
“After campaigning for this
amendment, which will beneﬁt
a small number of war widows
whose partners died in service
to their country, we are delighted that the Government
has decided to provide pensions for life.
“It is absolutely wrong that
some armed forces widows lose
their pension if they choose to
remarry.’
Others
highlighted
the
plight of military spouses who,
they said, were often prevented
from earning a pension themselves by having to move across
the country at the request of
the forces.
Widows were forced into
an “agonising choice
between loneliness and
financial security”
“As the spouse of a member
of the British Armed Forces
your career can take a back
seat as a result of relocation
and frequent moves, therefore
many miss out on the chance
to build up an independent
pension pot,” Chris Simpkins,
director general of the Royal
British Legion said.
‘The Armed Forces Covenant recognises that no one
should suffer a disadvantage
due to service, and that the bereaved are entitled to special
consideration.
“‘That is why today’s announcement, that all widows
and widowers will retain their
pension for life, is so important.
“We congratulate the government on recognising that
this is a Covenant issue and
enabling armed forces widows
and widowers to live on.”
The change comes after
years of campaigning by the
association to secure pensions
for around 4,000 widows deprived of stately income once
remarried.
While anyone whose military spouse died after April 5
2005 or before 31 March 1973 is
allowed to keep their pension,
thousands in between would
have to go without under the
previous rules.
The new rules will come into
effect on April 5, 2015, meaning
anyone war widows or widowers who remarry after that date
will still be eligible to claim
military pensions.
Widows or widowers who
are already remarried or plan
to marry before that date will
not be able to reclaim money
they would have been entitled
to under the new rules, however.
While the change has been
widely welcomed, campaigners are calling for the same
rules to now apply to widows
of police and emergency service workers.
Decorated soldier told to ditch medals in court
Evening Standard
London
A
n Army hero who was savagely
beaten after returning to the UK
from ﬁghting in Afghanistan
was banned from wearing his medals at
their trial in case his bravery inﬂuenced
the jury.
Corporal Mark Kershaw, 27, had just
got back from his third tour of duty
in Helmand province with Operation
Herrick 18 when he was head-butted
and kicked to the ground in the cowardly attack.
He was targeted after trying to stop a
woman and two drunken men who were
verbally abusing a senior taxi warden
on George Street in Hull town centre.
The suspects were subsequently arrested and during their trial at Hull
Crown Court this week, Kershaw was
told by defence barrister Ian StuartBrook that he should remove his Afghanistan campaign medal and Jubilee
medal from “public sight”.
The lawyer argued that he should not be
wearing them in public because “it would
have an unfair effect on the jury underlining his status as a decorated soldier”.
Judge Mark Bury, agreed, despite
Kershaw’s protest that he had been given permission to wear the medals by a
senior officer at his Household Cavalry
unit in Windsor in the seven days before Remembrance Sunday.
Corporal Mark Kershaw
Kershaw, who was commended for his
bravery in Afghanistan, arrived each day
with his medals but was forced to take
them off and put them in his pocket after
the judge ruled the ban should remain in
place for the entire four days of the trial.
Despite the ban on his medals, the
two defendants who kicked the soldier
to the ground were allowed to wear
poppies in court during the trial.
The decision sparked outrage among
Kershaw’s family and war veterans.
Kershaw told the court from the witness stand how his was attacked on his
ﬁrst night out after returning from a
seven-month tour of duty of Afghanistan on November 23 last year.
The special unit solider had completed tours of Afghanistan in 2007,
2009 and 2013 - a total of 22 months and had been commended for bravery.
During the conﬂict, he was caught up
in a bomb explosion and now has shrapnel embedded next to his spine. Four of
his friends also died during the tours.
The corporal said he was waiting in a
taxi queue in Hull town centre when he
was head-butted by a woman and then
jumped on by two men who were with her.
He said he had been waiting in the
taxi queue when the woman, Beverley
Logen, 27, began abusing a taxi marshal.
“People were watching what was
happening and doing nothing,” Kershaw told the court.
“I was trying to be a peacemaker. I
saw him getting verbally abused. I told
her to let him do his job.
“The next thing I knew, was she
turned around and head-butted me in
the face. My nose exploded. I went to
the ground and people stamped on my
head and kicked me.”
Logen, who has previous convictions
for assault, pleaded guilty on her ﬁrst
appearance in court.
However, her husband Craig Hood,
27, of Burton-upon-Stather, near
Scunthorpe, and Lee Wareham, 34, of
Gateshead, both denied causing Kershaw actual bodily harm and went on
trial this week.Taxi marshall Alistair
Storey told the jury. “I have never in my
life witnessed anything like it.
“The woman just put her head back and
head-butted him. His nose just exploded.
“All three of them started kicking
him and raining punches. They were
screaming: “Let’s have him!”
‘All three of them stamped on him
and kicked him. Both males stamped on
him when he was on the ﬂoor. It was a
cowardly trick.’
Eyewitness Lewis Foster said: ‘All he
said was “let him do his job”.
“The girl head-butted Mark in the
face. The two men came round ﬁsts ﬂying in Mark’s direction.”
Both men were unanimously convicted after the four-day trial and Judge
Bury told them: ‘You have both been
convicted of a nasty attack on a man
who was concerned about the level of
abuse Beverley Logen was using on a
person doing his public duty.
“I am satisﬁed, that although Beverley
Logen started this, you both played a part.
“In particular this involved punching and kicking someone who was doing nothing more than standing up for
someone else.
“You Hood have a conviction for
threatening behaviour. You must both
understand you are at risk of being sent
to prison. That must follow when there
was this level of violence.” The judge
deferred sentencing until December 12.
After the trial, Kershaw revealed how
he had been asked not to speak to the
press because of security concerns for
his unit’s future operations in the wake
of the heightened terror threat.
Hull Royal British Legion veteran
Charles Jenneson said it was a disgrace
the corporal had been banned from
wearing his medals.
He said: ‘They are the Queen’s medals and he was giving evidence in the
Queen’s Court.
“The Judge was wrong to make
him take them off. He would not have
dreamed of asking a World War Two
veteran to remove them.’
Kershaw’s uncle, Alan Kershaw, 47,
said he was also outraged that his nephew had been told to remove his medals.
“It’s an absolute disgrace,’ the lorry
driver said.
“Mark has earned those medals and
he fully expected to be able to wear
them in court.
“He has been shot at, blown up, and
seen four of his friends killed in Afghanistan. He has given ﬁrst-aid to
wounded Afghans and been mentioned
in dispatches for his bravery.
“Yet the jury was told none of this. He
came to the court as a victim of crime
and he was treated like this. This man has
fought for his country and has seen men
die. He should be allowed to wear them.
“I know he wanted to show his support to the old boys who are wearing
them. He won’t be able to return to his
Remembrance parade in Windsor, this
Sunday because he has been in court
all week, so he got permission to wear
them in court.
“He doesn’t wear them in the street.
It has just added insult to injury. I was
livid when I heard he was attacked on
his ﬁrst night out from Afghanistan.
“The word cowardly rightly sums
them up. I am glad they got him when
he was on the ground. He would have
made a real mess of them if he had
wanted to ﬁght.’
Shipley Tory MP Philip Davies added: “It is appalling that a judge ordered
a war hero to remove the medals he won
so bravely serving his country.
“Soldiers should be free to wear their
war medals at all times. This soldier
was not on trial, he was the victim of
a crime, and the wearing of his medals
had no bearing on the guilt or innocence of the defendant.
“If the judge thinks that the jury are
so stupid that they cannot see past the
medals of a victim to determine the
guilt or innocence of someone else then
perhaps he shouldn’t be a judge at all.’
Meanwhile Beverley and Holderness
MP Graham Stuart agreed the judge’s
decision was wrong.
He said: “If it is true that the thugs
were allowed to wear poppies, while a
soldier, a victim, was forced to hide the
symbols of his heroism in open court,
then it is a disgrace.
“We can’t allow this perversion where
thugs rights are sacrosanct and decent
people’s rights are trampled upon. If
that is the culture in some court then it
needs to change and change urgently.
Gulf Times
Sunday, November 9, 2014
19
BRITAIN
Queen is to attend Cenotaph
rites despite ‘plot to kill her’
Evening Standard
London
T
he Queen has vowed to attend
the Remembrance Day centenary ceremony at The Cenotaph
despite police arresting four Islamist
terror suspects plotting to kill her on
the day.
The 88-year-old monarch insisted
she will carry on with tradition - laying the ﬁrst wreath following the twominute silence at 11am on November 11.
A source told the Sun: “Whatever
the security assessment, Her Majesty
would not shirk from her responsibility
and duty - and this Remembrance Sunday is no different.”
The Queen’s tribute will be followed
as normal by salutes from prime minister David Cameron, cabinet members
and opposition leaders.
Yesterday armed officers seized
the four men, aged 19 to 27, following
months of surveillance.
Last night police were said to be interrogating the suspects - who are
thought to have hatched a plot assassinate the Queen with a knife.
Police had already stepped up security after a terrorist shot a soldier
guarding a war memorial at Canada’s
parliament.
A ring of steel will be thrown around
Whitehall today as the Queen leads
events at the Cenotaph marking the
centenary of the start of the First World
War.
Although police would not discuss
whether the suspects had a speciﬁc target, the timing of the raids raised fears
of a Remembrance Day outrage.
Islamic State militants have called on
“self-starter” followers to target highproﬁle commemorative events.
Police marksmen from its SO15 terrorism command arrested the youngest
suspect on Thursday night at 8.31pm at
Queen Elizabeth II places a wreath of poppies at the new Flanders Field WW1 Memorial outside the Guards Chapel in
Westminster in London, on Thursday.
the £160,000 home he shares with his
mother in High Wycombe, Buckinghamshire. He is said to have recently
returned from Pakistan.
Fourteen minutes later a 22-year-old
was seized by armed officers at a house
in Hounslow.
In an unusual move, the eldest suspect was stopped at gunpoint in his car
in Southall, West London, but no shots
were ﬁred.
The fourth man was arrested in Uxbridge and searches were taking place
in Greenford and Hayes, also in West
London.
The suspects were all arrested on
suspicion of being concerned in the
commission, preparation or instigation
of acts of terrorism.
It was reported the allegations are
linked to a UK plot - not travelling to
Syria to join ISIS.
The use of armed officers for the arrests suggests police chiefs fear the
suspects may have acquired weapons.
None were found, however.
The Metropolitan Police said the operation involved its counter-terrorism
command, MI5 agents and officers from
other constabularies.
The home of Yousaf Syed, the
19-year-old suspect, had been raided
before – in April during an investigation into potential jihadists.
Another man arrested in that operation complained his passport was
seized by the home office to stop him
travelling to the Middle East.
Neighbours of Syed said he lives with
his 41-year-old mother Somia, who
works as ground crew for an airline.
One said he had had “several runins” with the “angry” teenager.
When he challenged the teenager’s
mother, she told him: “I’m sorry, it’s
my son. He’s young and he’s just discovered his faith.”
The neighbour said the teenager
recently grew a full beard and began
wearing traditional Muslim dress.
Another local resident said: ‘It’s a big
shock to hear what he’s been accused
of.’
Officers were said to have removed
items from the garden shed as forensic
officers combed the house and garden.
Today two police officers wearing
high visibility jackets were posted outside the brown wooden front door of
the brick terraced house in Desborough
Avenue, near the town centre.
A cordon of police tape was placed
around the brick driveway to the home,
on which a police patrol car was also
parked.
All the curtains were closed at the
terraced house where police forensic
staff were combing the home and garden for clues while neighbours stood in
the street and watched.
The neighbour said that he saw a
woman, the teenager, a man aged in
his 20s along with two small children
regularly coming and going from the
address.
He said that he had been out when
the raid took place early this morning
and that he arrived back at his home to
ﬁnd officers removing items from the
family’s shed.
Two other addresses in the town
were being searched, including a rented
ﬂat and a £300,000 house apparently
occupied by Syed’s aunt.
High Wycombe’s remembrance parade is due to take place at 10.30am
tomorrow in the high street before proceeding to All Saints’ Church.
It attracts large crowds, in part due to
the proximity of the town to RAF High
Wycombe in nearby Naphill.
A large contingent of personnel from
the base, which is the home of the
RAF’s Headquarters Air Command,
traditionally marches with veterans
and other community groups.
Germaine Lindsay, who killed 26
people when he detonated a bomb on
the Piccadilly Line in the 7/7 attacks,
has links to High Wycombe.
There are growing concerns that
British jihadists ﬁghting in Syria and
Iraq will return to this country and carry out acts of terrorism.
But detectives do not believe there is
any direct link between the latest arrests and fanatics in the Middle East.
David Cameron ordered a security review last month after the Canadian attack.
Heads of MI5 and Scotland Yard held
talks over the terror threat to Parliament and other landmarks in central
London.
Just a few weeks ago police were
warned to be on their guard over fears
they could become targets.
In London, frontline officers were
warned of intelligence that suggested
terrorists aspired to abduct and murder a policeman. In August the national
terror-threat level was raised from substantial to severe, meaning a terrorist
attack was ‘highly likely’.
A Metropolitan Police spokesman
said the men were being held on suspicion of ‘being concerned in the commission, preparation or instigation of
acts of terrorism’.
He said the arrests were part of an
ongoing investigation by the Met’s
counter terrorism command, colleagues from other forces and MI5.
He added: ‘They have all been taken
to police stations in central London and
remain in custody. Two of the entries to
premises were assisted by ﬁrearms ofﬁcers. No shots were ﬁred.’
On Remembrance Sunday in 1987,
11 people were killed and 68 wounded
when the IRA bombed the cenotaph in
Enniskillen, Northern Ireland.
This year’s Armistice Day will be used
to mark the centenary of the start of the
First World War and the withdrawal of
British troops from Afghanistan.
Osborne
insists he
‘halved’
EU’s bill
Evening Standard
London
G
Visitors look at the Tower of London’s ‘Blood swept Lands and Seas of Red’ poppy installation in the Tower of London.
Cameron announces that some
sections of poppies will remain
Evening Standard
London
D
avid Cameron and his wife Samantha yesterday planted the last two
ceramic poppies at the Tower of
London after announcing a section of the
stunning display will remain in place.
The prime minister was joined by his
wife as thousands more visitors crowded
around the Tower to get a glimpse of Blood
Swept Lands and Seas of Red.
After huge public demand to extend the
installation’s lifespan, David Cameron announced the Weeping Window and the
Wave elements would stay in place until
the end of November.
The sections will then be sent on a tour
around the country until 2018, before going on permanent display at the Imperial
War Museum.
The tour will be funded by penalty ﬁnes
paid by banks over the Libor-ﬁxing scandal, as well as donations from the Backstage
Trust and the Clore Duffield Foundation,
according to Chancellor George Osborne.
Unprecedented interest in display has
seen millions of people descend on the
Tower of London before the installation is
due to be dismantled from November 12.
A team of 8,000 volunteers has been
lined up to start removing and cleaning the
888,246 ceramic poppies —one for each
British and Colonial life lost in the 1914 to
1918 war.
The poppies will then be dispatched
to buyers who have paid £25 each to raise
money for armed forces charities.
Boris Johnson welcomed the extension
as he acknowledged the “challenging” logistics involved.
The mayor said: “When you stand among
the poppies it is easy to appreciate the argu-
ment of the artist, that the life each poppy
represents was ﬂeeting, a reminder of young
men cut down in their prime, and that the
display is transient for that very reason. It’s
a solemn and deeply moving place.
“The logistical issues around keeping
the display in place were always challenging but the idea of extending the time
people can see the Wave segment, whilst
illuminating the poppies late at night and
early in the morning until Armistice Day is
good news. It does at least give more people a last chance to visit and to reﬂect.”
Cameron said the installation, created
to mark the centenary of the start of the
First World War, had become a “much
loved and respected monument” in a short
space of time.
“I think the exhibition of the poppies
has really caught the public imagination,
people have found that incredibly moving,” he said.
“What we’ve managed to do is ﬁnd a
way of saving part of the exhibition for the
nation and making sure it will be seen by
many more people.
“By displaying parts of the installation
around the country and then permanently
in the Imperial War Museum, we have ensured that this poignant memorial will be
saved for the nation.”
General the Lord Dannatt, Constable of
the Tower of London, said: “We are delighted that key elements of Blood Swept
Lands and Seas of Red - the poppies installation at the Tower of London - which
has so captured the heart of the nation, are
to be preserved for many more thousands
of people to see and appreciate over the
coming four years.
“All at the Tower of London and Historic Royal Palaces are most grateful that
this wonderful community art project will
continue for the next four years.”
eorge Osborne yesterday defended a deal
which will see Britain
pay £850mn to the EU as his
claims of a “real win” were
branded a sham.
The chancellor faced criticism after claiming to have
halved the £1.7bn bill demanded by Brussels as it emerged
the reduction was achieved by
bringing forward a rebate Britain was already due to receive.
Shadow chancellor Ed Balls
accused him of using “smoke
and mirrors” to allow him to
boast of a “result for Britain”.
Other EU leaders also cast
doubt on Osborne’s claims as
they insisted Britain was still
paying the full sum demanded
by Brussels as a result of Britain’s strong economic performance.
But Osborne insisted it had
not been clear that the rebate
was going to be applied to the
surcharge to allow the £1.7bn
bill to be cut.
“It took a lot of hard discussion, a lot of hard negotiation
and it shows that when this
government sets out a goal in
Europe it goes and achieves it,”
he told the BBC.
After brokering a deal with
other EU ﬁnance ministers in
Brussels, Osborne said: “It was
a real doubt about whether the
rebate would apply, apply to
the extent it has applied. We
have got this bill halved.”
He added: “I don’t think we
get full value for money for all
those pounds that get sent to
the European Union.”
Labour has claimed the deal
does not save the UK “a single
penny” and accused Osborne
and the prime minister of
Chancellor George Osborne
“trying to take the British people for fools”.
And Ukip leader Nigel
Farage said: “Osborne (is)
trying to spin his way out of
disaster. UK still paying full
£1.7bn, his credibility is about
to nose-dive.
“Borrowing what we are
rightfully owed in the future
to pay an unfair bill being levied now is not a victory. It’s a
sham.”
The chancellor’s European
counterparts also appeared to
contradict the Chancellor’s
account of the deal.
Irish
ﬁnance
minister
Michael Noonan said he believed that the UK “will pay
the whole amount” while
Dutch ﬁnance minister Jeroen
Dijsselbloem said “it’s not as
if the British have been given a
discount”.
Shadow Chancellor Ed Balls
said: “David Cameron and
George Osborne are trying
to take the British people for
fools. Ministers have failed to
get a better deal for the British
taxpayer. Not a single penny
has been saved for the taxpayer compared to two weeks
ago when David Cameron was
blustering in Brussels.
“Nobody will fall for this
smoke and mirrors. The rebate was never in doubt and,
in fact, was conﬁrmed by the
EU Budget Commissioner last
month.”
20
Gulf Times
Sunday, November 9, 2014
EUROPE
CEO conﬁrms strike costing German rail operator more than €100mn
Reuters/DPA
Frankfurt
A
strike by Germany’s train
drivers will cost German
rail operator Deutsche
Bahn more than €100mn, its
chief executive told a German
newspaper.
Germany’s train drivers’ union
said on Friday that it would cut
short a planned four-day strike
and return to work yesterday by
6pm – in time for celebrations
marking the 25th anniversary of
the fall of the Berlin Wall.
The strike, that was originally
planned to last until early tomorrow, has thwarted the travel plans
of Germans planning to travel by
rail to Berlin for today’s celebrations.
“The damage so far adds up to
more than €100mn and will have
an equivalent impact on our annual accounts,” Deutsche Bahn
chief Ruediger Grube told Bild
am Sonntag. “Not to mention the
damage to our image and the loss
of trust.”
The train drivers union, with
20,000 members, is in a dispute
with Deutsche Bahn over negotiating rights and pay. Its members
walked out on Wednesday in the
sixth round of the strike.
Deutsche Bahn transports
5.5mn passengers each day on
commuter trains and high-speed
lines that criss-cross the country. About one-ﬁfth of German
freight is also transported by rail.
Economists estimate a strike
of more than three days could
cost the economy up to €100mn
($130mn) a day if assembly lines
have to shut because of supply
shortages.
German Labour Office chief
Frank-Juergen Weise said the
damage to the economy could be
severe, telling German radio station SWR2 that “a longer strike –
and I have to adjust my forecasts
for the labour market”.
The rail operator said about
60% of its main line traffic would
be back up and running today.
Disruption was felt across
Germany yesterday, while alternative travel options saw a spike
in demand.
A spokesman for the online
car-sharing portal mitfahrgelegenheit.de said 250,000 places
were booked on Friday, compared
with an average Friday booking
rate of 100,000.
Germany’s taxi and car hire as-
sociation reported a 40-50% rise
in business.
“We have heard from members
all over the country that they’re
getting cancellations or special
requests from customers,” said a
spokesman for the German Hotel
and Restaurant Association.
In Dresden, a spokesman for
the International Congress Centre, slated to host a synod of
Germany’s Protestant Evangelical Church, said the strike was a
“nuisance”.
Germans and foreigners
fete fall of the Berlin Wall
AFP/DPA
Berlin
H
undreds of thousands
descended on the German capital yesterday
for festivities to mark the Berlin
Wall’s fall 25 years ago, stirring
emotions and bringing memories
ﬂooding back of its joyous toppling.
In bright but chilly autumnal sunshine, German and foreign visitors ﬂocked to symbolic
points along the Wall’s route
ahead of the anniversary today of
the peaceful revolution in 1989
that led to the border’s opening.
Germany would reunite within
a year, on October 3, 1990.
People posed for photos in
front of the few remaining grafﬁti-daubed slabs of the Wall, or
read information boards about
the grim reality of life under Berlin’s 28-year division.
Others admired a striking
art installation of almost 7,000
gently swaying white balloons,
pegged to the ground and winding 15km along the Wall’s route.
Many watched onstage rehearsals at the iconic Brandenburg Gate, resplendent against
the blue sky, where rock stars and
freedom icons will join a massive
open-air party in today’s culmination of three days of festivities.
At Potsdamer Platz, once
cleaved in two by the detested
Berlin Wall and now a bustling
junction with shiny modern tower blocks, a small crowd watched
East German demonstrators in
video images chant: “We are the
people!”
“I cried. It was so dramatic,”
Italian tourist Juliane Pellegrini,
60, a school headmistress from
South Tyrol, recalled, saying she
had followed events on television
the fateful night the Wall came
down.
Twenty-ﬁve years later in the
city where it took place, she said
she felt emotional all over again.
“It’s the history of central Europe,” she told AFP.
Sixty-eight-year-old Geraldine Bray, visiting from Britain,
also said that the memory of November 9, 1989 had stayed with
her.
“I was at home making the
evening meal and put on the news
... it was very, very memorable.”
Chancellor Angela Merkel,
who grew up in communist East
Germany, said in her weekly podcast yesterday that the reuniﬁed
capital of Berlin had become “almost a symbol of Europe’s uniﬁcation after the Cold War”.
Berlin Mayor Klaus Wowereit
said the landmark event had
stirred “so much emotion”.
“It ﬁlls your heart with joy and
we can be quite proud of that,” he
said at a regional Social Democratic Party meeting.
French President Francois
Hollande said on Bild’s online
news site that 25 years on, the
Wall’s fall was a “joint legacy”
that obliged France, Germany
and Europe to step up, including
outside of the region in places
such as Syria or Iraq.
The last Soviet leader, Mikhail
Gorbachev, whose “perestroika”
and “glasnost” reforms helped
pave the way for the Wall’s fall,
called it a celebratory day “for all
peoples of Europe and other continents”.
His message together with
others by past and present leading ﬁgures, pop stars such as U2’s
Bono, or ﬁlm stars, were printed
in an anniversary edition of Bild
daily.
Sausage, beer and souvenir
stands will likely face brisk business with more than 1mn visitors expected over the weekend,
according to the tourism group
Visit Berlin.
Merkel was due yesterday to
attend a memorial concert at
Bertolt Brecht’s historic Berliner
Ensemble theatre and, today,
she will open a major exhibition
on the once divided Bernauer
Strasse.
Gorbachev and former Polish
president and freedom icon Lech
Walesa, 71, are among those due
today at the Brandenburg Gate,
the symbol of German unity, for
a show to include rock music and
ﬁreworks.
From there, the white balloons
will begin to be released into the
evening sky.
Thrown up in 1961, the Wall
stretched 155km but today only
around 3km of it still stands.
Manfred and Edna Tschepe,
both 72, said they went to bed at
their home in West Berlin on the
night of November 9, 1989 before
hearing the momentous news.
“Unfortunately
we
slept
A
co-operation pact between Italian Prime Minister Matteo Renzi and
opposition leader Silvio Berlusconi is at risk of collapse, possibly
heralding a major realignment in
national politics, political commentators said on Friday.
In January Berlusconi agreed
to help Renzi streamline parliamentary procedures, change
election rules and trim the powers of regional governments, even
if the former premier’s Forza Italia party was going to remain in
the opposition.
On Thursday Renzi said the
agreement was “creaking”.
Renzi’s comments came after
his Democratic Party (PD) joined
forces with the anti-establishment 5-Star Movement (M5S) to
An aerial view on the line comprised of hundreds of illuminated
balloon lanterns tracing the course of the former Berlin Wall past the
main train station (right) in Berlin.
Left: People look at the lanterns in a gap between what remains of the
Berlin Wall, at the Topography of Terror Documentation Centre.
Below: Merkel delivers a speech at the opening of the conference
‘Falling Walls - The International Conference on Future Breakthroughs
in Science and Society’ at the Neue Nationalgalerie gallery in Berlin.
through it,” Manfred, a retired
engineer said, chuckling.
But when he emerged from the
underground train station the
next morning on his way to work,
end a parliamentary stalemate,
and elect a Constitutional Court
judge and a member of a judicial
oversight body.
“What happened shakes up
parliamentary dynamics,” Massimo Franco of the Corriere della
Sera newspaper said.
Stefano Folli, another political
columnist writing for La Repubblica, spoke of a PD-M5S “convergence which frightens Berlusconi”.
A
member of parliament
from Austria’s far-right
Freedom Party (FPO)
called asylum seekers cave men
on Facebook, triggering calls
from other parties for his resignation.
Christian Hoebart’s comments
highlighted a febrile debate on
immigration in the country.
His message criticised a rally
of mostly African asylum seekers
held in the town of Traiskirchen
near Vienna.
“I (could not) show understanding for yesterday’s brouhaha of asylum seekers from Africa,
so I called (them) emotionally...
‘soil and cave men’, who cannot
appreciate how good they’ve got
The last leader of the Soviet
Union, Mikhail Gorbachev, has
criticised Western countries for
their policies since the fall of the
Berlin Wall in 1989.
“The world is on the brink of a
new Cold War. Some say it has already begun,” Gorbachev said in
a reference to the current crisis
over the pro-Russian rebellion in
eastern Ukraine.
Gorbachev, 83, is in Berlin for
Sunday’s 25th anniversary of
crumbling of the Wall, which
hastened the end of communism
in eastern Europe.
His glasnost reforms in the Soviet Union were seen as helping
to pave the way for the fall of the
Wall, and he is considered a hero
by many former East Germans
who joined mass demonstrations in 1989 against their communist rulers.
But yesterday, he accused the
West, and especially the US, of
not keeping the promises it has
made since the Cold War.
Instead, he said, the West has
declared itself to be the winner
of the Cold War and had taken
advantage of Russia’s weakness.
“The events of recent months
are the consequences of shortsighted policies ... ignoring the
interests of partners,” he said.
the street was packed with people, he said.
On hearing the Wall had gone,
he thought “that can’t be. It was
so unlikely. I can’t believe it”.
Renzi is pushing for the approval of a new electoral law by
the end of the year, but Berlusconi is unwilling to give the green
light on such rules, as they could
prepare the way for fresh elections in which his party was expected to fare badly.
Il Giornale, a newspaper
owned by the Berlusconi family,
conﬁrmed that talks on political
reforms had hit a dead end.
It compared Forza Italia-PD
tensions to a “poker game” which
would likely be won by the player
“who can bluff the best”.
Reforms Minister Maria Elena
Boschi accused Forza Italia of
blocking progress.
“They are arguing, they cannot agree among themselves,”
she said of Berlusconi’s party in
a TV interview on Friday. “But
we cannot stop. We will do the
reforms with whoever agrees to
them.”
Politician under ﬁre for calling asylum seekers ‘cave men’
Reuters
Vienna
Gorbachev: The events of
recent months are the
consequences of
short-sighted policies
Gorbachev criticises
the West’s policies
Renzi threatens pact with Berlusconi
DPA
Rome
Local tourism offices reported
drops in city tours, including in
Cologne and Munich.
Ulrich Brandl, the president of
the Bavarian Hotel and Restaurant Association, said some tourists had been unable to get home.
In Berlin, hosting the 25-year
anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall today, many tourists who
had scheduled holiday packages
that included anniversary celebrations were being booked on
last-minute buses.
it with us – their host country
Austria,” he wrote.
Other opposition politicians
called for Hoebart, an FPO leader
in the province of Lower Austria,
to quit his political posts.
“To call humans that maybe
ﬂed from murder and rape of IS
(Islamic State)-murder gangs in
Iraq and Syria ‘soil and cave men’
is open racism, which – similarly to the Nazis – would like to
classify certain humans as Untermenschen (under-humans),”
said Albert Steinhauser from the
Austrian Greens.
US cardinal demoted
AFP/Reuters
Vatican City
T
he Vatican has removed
the former archbishop
of St Louis, Raymond
Leo Burke, from a key post
following his criticism of the
Pope.
Burke, who is the seniormost American prelate in the
Vatican, said in an interview
earlier that many Catholics felt
that the “church was like a ship
without a rudder”.
Burke was stripped of the
headship of the Supreme Tribunal of the Apostolic Signatura, the highest judicial
authority in the church, and
instead named as patron of the
Sovereign Military Order of
Malta, an honoriﬁc post.
Burke was replaced as cardinal prefect of the tribunal by
Frenchman Dominique Memberti, a Vatican statement said.
Britain’s Archbishop Paul
Richard Gallagher replaced
Memberti as Secretary (Relations with States) of the Secretariat of State, equivalent to
the Vatican’s foreign minister.
He was previously Apostolic
Nuncio to Australia.
Burke ruffled feathers in December 2013 by questioning
Pope Francis’s liberalising attitude towards divorce, remarriage and homosexuality.
He was however invited
by the Pope in October to attend a synod where he ﬁercely
opposed any change in the
church’s stance on these and
other sensitive social issue.
The spiritual leader of the
world’s 1.2bn Catholics had
called for the church to take
a more merciful approach to
unmarried mothers, remarried
divorcees and gays.
The move, which the Vatican
announced yesterday without
comment, had been expected.
Burke said last month he
had been told he would move
to a new job but did not know
when.
Gulf Times
Sunday, November 9, 2014
21
EUROPE
Last nine MH17 victims ‘may never be recovered’
AFP
Kiev
T
he remains of the last nine
victims of ﬂight MH17
may never be recovered
from the Ukrainian battleﬁeld
where their plane was downed
four months ago, the Dutch foreign minister said yesterday as
ﬁghting rumbled on in the east of
the country.
Foreign Minister Bert Koenders made the grim assessment
in the city of Kharkiv, where he
attended a memorial service for
ﬁve more sets of human remains
collected from the site of the disaster and ﬂown to The Netherlands.
Another ceremony attended
by some 1,600 friends and relatives was planned to take place in
The Netherlands tomorrow.
“We cannot say at this moment
in any certain way ... at what moment, and even if, we can recover
the last nine” victims, he said of
the air crash that killed all 298 on
Lavrov: If (US State Department spokeswoman Jen) Psaki doesn’t
have it (confirmation of Kiev’s claim of Russian tanks and troops
crossing the border), I don’t.
board, including 193 Dutch.
The shooting down of the Malaysia Airlines Boeing 777 on July
17 was one of the worst tragedies
of a war in which an estimated
4,000 people have died.
So far, the remains of 289 of
those victims have been identiﬁed.
Ukraine and the West blame
Russian-backed separatist ﬁghters using surface-to-air missiles for the catastrophe, while
Moscow has pointed the ﬁnger at
Kiev’s forces, in an incident that
galvanised international shock
over the chaos in a country bordering the European Union.
Ukraine reported more bloody
ﬁghting, with eight of its soldiers killed in the last 24 hours, as
Moscow denied claims it had sent
tanks across the border.
Ukraine’s military said one of
those killed was a paratrooper
shot by a sniper in Donetsk international airport, where government forces are defending a
pocket of territory near the biggest rebel-held city. Seventeen
other soldiers were wounded in
shelling of government positions
around the conﬂict zone, according to updates from the military.
The ﬁghting rumbled on in the
industrial east despite a twomonth-old ceaseﬁre deal that has
halted signiﬁcant offensives, but
failed to stop shelling at strategic
ﬂashpoints.
Donetsk’s city hall and Ukrainian authorities reported the
wounding of three civilians.
After a brief morning calm,
the sound of artillery explosions
started up again, mostly near
the airport, and continued relentlessly into the night, an AFP
journalist said.
Two tanks and two armoured
ﬁghting vehicles could be seen
on the outskirts of the city, while
rebels were digging trenches.
“These are our armoured vehicles changing position to escape the ﬁring by the Ukrainians,” said Zoya, a local resident
who was coming to check on her
house which she’d been forced to
abandon for a safer location with
friends elsewhere in the city.
Not everyone in the neighbourhood had that luxury.
“Where could I go? I have nowhere to go, no one who can give
me shelter. Also, this is where my
house is,” said Vladimir, 78, while
sawing ﬁrewood.
“Whatever happens will happen,” the former miner said. “If
I have to die under the bombs,
then that’s the way it’s meant to
be.”
Russia,
which
annexed
Spain warned not to
disrupt Catalan vote
AFP/Reuters
Barcelona/Madrid
C
atalan leader Artur Mas
has warned that any move
by the Spanish government to disrupt today’s symbolic vote on independence in the
wealthy region would be “a direct
attack on democracy”.
Spain’s Constitutional Court
this week ordered the Catalan
government to suspend the independence vote.
However, Catalonia’s nationalist government has vowed
to press ahead with the ballot,
which will be organised by volunteers without an official electoral roll.
Mas issued a fresh warning
yesterday to Madrid, less than 24
hours before the vote was set to
go ahead.
“I don’t know what they will
do, it does not depend on us, but
if they have a minimum of common sense I think any action out
of the ordinary (to prevent the
vote) would be a direct attack on
democracy and a direct attack on
fundamental rights,” Mas said
during an interview with public
television.
The Spanish government has
not speciﬁed what legal consequences Catalan leaders, poll
workers and voters might face.
But the central government
representative in Catalonia has
warned the Catalan officials that
they cannot use public resources
to carry out the ballot.
Spain’s conservative Prime
Minister Mariano Rajoy says his
country cannot hold an independence referendum like Scotland because, unlike Britain, it
has a written constitution that
forbids it.
But Catalans have pushed
ahead deﬁantly, ﬁred up by Scot-
Rajoy: What we need is a return to sanity.
land’s independence referendum
in September, even though Scots
voted not to break away from
Britain.
Proud of its distinct language
and culture, Catalonia, a region
of 7.5mn people, accounts for
nearly one-ﬁfth of Spain’s economy.
Demands for greater autonomy there have been rumbling for
years, but the latest bid by the region’s president Mas has pushed
the issue further than ever before.
Catalonia took a step towards
greater autonomy in 2006 when
it formally adopted a charter that
assigned it the status of a “nation”.
But in 2010 the Constitutional
Court overruled that nationhood
claim, fuelling pro-independence passions.
Spain’s recent economic crisis has increased unemployment
and hardship in the region and
swelled its debts, but in 2012
Rajoy rejected Mas’s request for
greater powers for Catalonia to
tax and spend.
In response, Mas vowed to
hold an official yet non-binding
vote on independence, but the
Spanish government’s legal challenges forced him to water that
down.
Rajoy called yesterday for renewed dialogue and a “return to
sanity” in Catalonia.
“What we need is a return to
sanity from Monday, and let’s
talk within the realm of the constitution and the law,” Rajoy said
in a speech to members of his
centre-right People’s Party (PP,
Partido Popular, also known as
the Popular Party).
He dismissed today’s planned
vote, saying that it carried no
weight and would have no impact.
“It’s not a referendum or a
consultation or anything that resembles that,” Rajoy said.
While he is not known to have
met with Mas since July, Rajoy
has made recent overtures about
reforms in Catalonia.
The prime minister recently
said that a new “chapter of dialogue” was open with Catalonia.
Rajoy has previously said that
the government has also opened
the door to reviewing next year
the way Spanish regions are ﬁnanced.
Ukraine’s Crimea region in March
and lends close political and humanitarian support to the separatist areas in the east, denied the
latest Ukrainian allegation that it
was dispatching regular troops to
join the ﬁghting.
Ukraine’s military made headlines around the world on Friday
with the claim that columns of
hardware, including 32 tanks, had
poured across the border which is
under the control of Russia and
the pro-Russian rebels.
However, Foreign Minister
Sergei Lavrov laughed off the allegation after US State Department spokeswoman Jen Psaki
said she had no “independent
conﬁrmation” of the report.
“If Psaki doesn’t have it, I
don’t,” Lavrov told journalists
with a chuckle in Beijing, where
he met his US counterpart John
Kerry ahead of an APEC summit.
The conﬂict has sent relations
between Western backers of
Ukraine and Russia to their lowest level in decades.
Russia’s economy is suffering
from European Union and US
sanctions imposed in response to
Moscow’s support for the separatists.
With Russia welcoming last
week’s rebel elections, which
were billed as boosting the separatists’ claim to independence,
new sanctions could be coming.
A ﬂurry of diplomatic activity
is approaching, with the APEC
summit in China and a Group
of 20 meeting in Australia next
week, where President Vladimir
Putin will have the chance to put
his case before world leaders.
Speaking in Beijing, Lavrov
appeared to soften Russia’s position, saying that US involvement
in attempts to resolve the crisis
would be a “step in the right direction”.
But in comments marking the
Berlin Wall anniversary, US President Barack Obama said: “As
Russia’s actions against Ukraine
remind us, we have more work
to do to fully realise our shared
vision of a Europe that is whole,
free and at peace.”
Mas: any action out of the ordinary (to prevent the vote) would be a
direct attack on democracy.
Pro-independence Catalans take part in the final meeting organised by the Catalonia National Assembly
(ANC) and the Omnium Cultural civil society association in Barcelona on Friday night, ahead of a symbolic
vote on independence for Catalonia from Spain today.
A man poses for a picture in front of a screen showing the remaining time until the 9N (November 9) vote,
at Sant Jaume square in Barcelona, in this picture taken on Friday.
Ballot papers and a ballot box are pictured at a school in Barcelona in
preparation for today’s vote.
Hungarian Net tax protesters aim to be new opposition force
By Marton Dunai, Reuters
Budapest
W
ith Hungary’s conservative prime minister
enjoying solid support
and his opposition in disarray,
Hungarians who united against
his plan to tax the Internet believe they have created a new
platform to voice dissent.
The biggest street protests
since he came to power four years
ago forced Viktor Orban last
week to shelve the tax plan – a
stunning U-turn by a man whose
big parliamentary majority and
popular support usually allow
him to wield power unopposed.
The loose collective of students, activists and artists who
organised last month’s protests
believe they have tapped into a
groundswell of a indignation that
could now be channelled against
other Orban policies.
“This is a colourful group
but it is together and it wants to
keep going,” said Balazs Gulyas,
a 28-year-old student activist
who organised the protests via
a Facebook page. “We are in the
process of ﬁnding the way to do
this right.”
Orban, who declared in July
that he wanted to make Hungary
an “illiberal state”, citing his admiration of the political systems
of China and Russia, is viewed
with concern by the rest of the
European Union and by the United States.
But despite taking a tighter
grip over the media and pushing
hundreds of judges into retirement – steps criticised in Brussels and Washington as authoritarian – the political opposition
has been deserted by voters.
That has left a political void
that the protest movement –
which gathered on Gulyas’s Facebook page “One Hundred Thou-
sand against the Internet tax”
– hopes to ﬁll.
“For now there is no movement, there is no organised political resistance,” said Marton
Gulyas, 28, an alternative theatre
company director who joined the
protests.
But, said Gulyas, who is not related to Balazs: “The chance for
one is in the air.”
After at least 50,000 people attended the tax rallies, and
240,000 joined the Facebook
page, the government has not
been able to ignore the movement, but it has accused it of being merely a front for the ﬂailing
Socialist opposition.
“When political will turns
against the government then
that is not civil society,” government spokesman, Zoltan Kovacs
said. “Hiding behind civil society
groups gives a special colour to
the Hungarian opposition. If they
cannot get anywhere with parties
they use civil society groups.
“Election time is the time for
political decisions, and voters
in Hungary made their will very
clear.”
The Socialists welcomed the
tax protest and embraced its
main message. But that sympathy was not mutual: most protest speakers and participants
made clear that their disdain was
aimed at the entire political elite,
not just the ruling party.
“They have a right to reject us,”
Socialist chairman Jozsef Tobias
told Reuters. “We still think they
organised in a legitimate way
and they showed that in a society there must be consequences
when the people raise their voices against totalitarian attempts.”
With a two-thirds majority
in parliament, Orban’s power is
seen as unassailable through the
end of his term in 2018.
But the speed at which the tax
protests came together showed
the power of informal networks
of a few tech-savvy activists.
They are still holding meetings, usually in co-operative-run
bars with names like Frisco, Aurora, or Back Door dotted around
the more bohemian districts of
Budapest.
They have a modest ﬁghting
fund collected from the protesters – a few thousand euros,
according to organiser Karoly
Fuzessi, a bearded 30 year-old
Web designer and philosophy
student.
It was to that alternative
crowd, rather than the political
mainstream where he already had
connections, that Balazs Gulyas
looked for help after being overwhelmed by the response to his
Facebook page.
Gulyas’ mother, Zita Gurmai,
was a Socialist member of the
European Parliament for a decade until this year, and his father,
Mihaly Gulyas, once advised
Socialist prime minister Peter
Medgyessy and still maintains
ties with the party.
The young Gulyas was himself
a member of the Socialist Party,
holding various minor positions
before quitting, disillusioned, in
August.
When 28-year-old alternative
theatre director Marton Gulyas
agreed to ally his small protest
group Human Platform to the
anti-Internet tax rallies, he did
so on the condition that it break
any links with official opposition
parties, including the Socialists,
protest organisers told Reuters.
Balazs Gulyas agreed, and the
protests had no signs of professional politics, such as the party
ﬂags that might normally be
waved at such events.
Beyond the group that organised the Internet tax protests,
several others have formed, aiming to play an active part in the
new opposition activity.
Orban: viewed with concern by
the West.
They do not resemble anything
approaching a coherent group,
let alone a political party, but
they are gathering support from
people opposed to government
policies such as plans to cut the
number of publicly funded high
school places and to replace social security schemes with a public labour programme.
The next protest is planned
for today to demand the removal
of the head of Hungary’s tax authority who has been banned
from entering the United States
over accusations of corruption.
She denies any wrongdoing.
“The Internet tax was only
the trigger of this gathering of
people young and old,” 65 yearold Tamas Sovalvi told Reuters
at the largest protest on October
28. “It’s the straw that broke the
camel’s back.”
22
Gulf Times
Sunday, November 9, 2014
INDIA
CRIME
ASSISTANCE
PEOPLE
APPEAL
HEALTHCARE
Lab assistant held
for molesting girl
Sri Sri to visit
refugee camp in Iraq
Kerala literary critic
Hridayakumari is dead
TN releases Rs2mn to
defend five fishermen
Vardhan calls for steps to
improve Ayurveda services
A lab assistant in a private school was arrested
and sent to judicial custody for allegedly
molesting an eight-year-old girl student more
than three times inside the school premises,
police said yesterday. The incident was
reported on Wednesday after the victim, a
Class 3 student, spoke about her ordeal to her
parents who then approached Rohini South
police station in west Delhi. “The victim was
not going to school for a month by making
excuses like stomach ache and others. When
her parents forced her to go to school, she
told them that her school’s lab assistant would
misbehave with her,” Deputy Commissioner of
Police Vikramjeet Singh said.
Spiritual guru Sri Sri Ravi Shankar will visit Iraq’s
Kurdish capital on November 19 and 20 as part
of efforts to step up assistance to Yazidis who
have been persecuted by Islamic insurgents.
The International Association for Human Values,
a sister concern of Ravi Shankar’s Art of living
along with some NGOs in Iraq, has collected
about 110 tonnes of food supplies to be delivered
to Yazidis. These refugees have taken shelter in
the Sinjar mountains. Ravi Shankar had earlier
called on the governments in Europe, the US and
India to save the thousands of Yazidis trapped in
the mountains In Iraq. Ravi Shankar will visit the
relief camps where a conference will be held in
the Kurdish capital Erbil on November 20.
B Hridayakumari, winner of
the Kerala Sahitya Academy
award and a literary critic,
died at a private hospital
in Thiruvananthapuram
yesterday, her family said.
She was 84. She was suffering
from age related illness. A
respected figure in the social milieu of the state,
she was the former principal of the Government
Women’s College in Thiruvananthapuram.
Hridayakumari headed a committee set up
by the Kerala State Higher Education Council
to suggest improvements and reforms to the
choice-based credit-and-semester system.
The Tamil Nadu government yesterday said it
has sent Rs2mn to the Indian High Commission
in Sri Lanka towards legal expenses to secure
the release of five fishermen sentenced to
death by a Lankan court. The money has been
released on the orders of Chief Minister O
Panneerselvam, a statement said. According
to the statement steps are being taken to file
an appeal against the death sentence in the Sri
Lankan court tomorrow. The five fishermen set
out for fishing from Rameswaram on November
28, 2011, when they were apprehended by the
Sri Lankan Navy on the charge of possessing
narcotics. A Sri Lankan court recently sentenced
the five fishermen to death in the case.
Health Minister Harsh Vardhan yesterday urged
all states to work with the central government
to improve the quality of Ayurveda healthcare
services in the country. “Health for all through a
holistic medicine system was not just the mandate
of the central government, it also needed active
support from all state governments,” Vardhan
said addressing health ministers from various
states who gathered for a plenary session at the
6th World Ayurveda Congress (WAC) being held
in New Delhi. He emphasised that though many
states have made laudable progress in healthcare
delivery, the need of the hour was to work
together and with foresight so that “we can set a
model for the rest of the world.”
Gulf-based
businessman
promises jobs
to 5,000
Kerala nurses
Bollywood
ban on female
makeup artists
to be repealed
IANS
Thiruvananthapuram
T
housands of nurses from
Kerala can hope for a wellpaying job in the Gulf in
the next one year, Abu Dhabibased Indian businessman B R
Shetty said here yesterday.
Shetty, MD and CEO of UAE
Exchange Centre and the owner
of SUT-NMC group of hospitals,
said 5,000 nurses will be placed
in one year.
“The salary and the working
conditions will be the best in
the industry. I have full faith in
the Kerala nurses because their
quality is highly commendable.
The number is immaterial. I will
be able to provide jobs to any
number of nurses and it will be
done without any charge,” Shetty said.
Earlier, he signed an agreement between the Kerala Academy for Skills Excellence (KASE)
and the SUT-NMC group of hospitals for setting up the KASECentre of Excellence in Nursing.
“In this centre we will offer highly specialised training
for qualiﬁed nurses which will
extend up to a maximum of six
months. World-class value addition to their existing skills will
be provided and they will be certiﬁed too, which will be accepted
worldwide,” he said.
Figures provided by the stateowned Kerala State Nursing
Council, the body that gives
registration to nurses, revealed
close to 20,000 nurses are given
registration every year.
Labour Minister Shibu Baby
John said the skills development
programme is the ﬁrst of its kind
initiative being launched by any
state government.
He said: “Today we begin with
the nurses and our government
will now set up 18 similar KASECentre for Excellence in various
sectors in the next one year. Each
and every such programme will
be done with a reputable partner.
The Nurses Centre of Excellence
launched today will very soon tie
up with a foreign university. We
are ﬁnalising the foreign partner
as last minute talks are going on
with two foreign universities.”
John said the efforts of Shetty
come at a time when a nurse’s job
in Kuwait costs Rs1.5mn by way
of agency fees and charges.
The Supreme Court says rule
enforced by film industry
union for almost 60 years is
illegal
By Jason Burke/ Guardian
News & Media
New Delhi
F
Prime Minister Narendra Modi presents a bouquet to BJP veteran L K Advani on his birthday
in New Delhi yesterday.
Modi greets Advani on birthday
IANS
New Delhi
W
ishes
overﬂowed
for Bharatiya Janata
Party veteran L K
Advani on his 87th birthday
yesterday, with Prime Minister Narendra Modi describing
him as “one of the tallest personalities in public life.”
Modi, who was in Varanasi
since Friday, drove down to
Advani’s Prithviraj Road residence soon after his return to
Delhi yesterday.
Home Minister Rajnath
Singh and other BJP leaders
were also present.
Modi presented Advani
with a ﬂoral bouquet, and
both chatted for some time
before the prime minister left.
Earlier, Modi also wished
Advani on microblogging
website Twitter.
“Wishing Advani ji a very
happy birthday. May he be
blessed with a long life and
good health,” he tweeted.
“His unparalleled intellect
and insight make Advani ji
one of the tallest personalities
in public life. All of us have
learnt a lot from him,” Modi
said.
The prime minister added
that Advani’s determination
and hard work has made the
BJP what it is today.
Rajnath Singh also wished
Advani on Twitter.
“Advani ji has been a source
of inspiration to all of us and
his contribution to building
the party can never be forgotten,” he wrote.
Finance and Defence Minister Arun Jaitley said: “I pray
for his good health and I wish
him a long and happy life
ahead.”
BJP spokesman Shahna-
No going back on liquor
ban proposal: Chandy
By Ashraf Padanna
Thiruvananthapuram
K
erala Chief Minister
Oommen Chandy has
vowed to go ahead with
his phased prohibition plan,
despite allegations of bribery
and a blow from courts.
“This is an extremely important decision (to phase out liquor
in 10 years) and it’s quite natural
that such a big move shakes a
few. We heeded the popular demand and the people at large will
beneﬁt from the ban,” Chandy
told reporters yesterday.
The plan has been facing a
series of legal wrangles since it
was announced three months
back. Opposition parties as
well as a section of his own
Congress and its allies were
sceptical about its success.
Last week, a leading hotelier
accused Finance Minister and
Kerala Congress (M) chief KM
Mani of taking a Rs10mn bribe
to get the licences of cloed bars
renewed.
To add to Chandy’s worries,
the Kerala High Court allowed
312 bars to continue functioning until their petitions are
heard and ordered issue of licences to 10 of the 418 bars shut
down in April for failing to meet
standards.
The Kerala Catholic Bishops
Council, championing the prohibition campaign, asked the
government to go tough on the
“liquor lobby” to ensure that it
was not defeated in the court.
“I told you, these allegations
are baseless. They are raising this after so many months
without any proof. Where were
they all these days?” asked
Chandy. “Everybody knows
what their motivation is.”
On Friday, Biju Ramesh,
the working president of the
Kerala Bar Hotels Association
(KBHA), appeared before a special team of Vigilance and AntiCorruption Bureau (VACB) of
the state’s police which is probing his allegations.
Though he insisted that the
minister forced the hoteliers
to pay Rs10mn before the bars
were closed in April and he delayed a cabinet decision against
it demanding
Rs50mn more, reports said
the hotelier failed to produce any
evidence during the three-hour
questioning. “We are not going
to go back on our prohibition
plan,” said the chief minister.
A day after the KBHA backed
Ramesh and formed a ﬁvemember panel to “gather evidence” to substantiate his allegations, the lone hotelier who
supported him on a television
talk, retracted his statement
saying he made it under the inﬂuence of alcohol.
waz Hussain said: “Advani
ji has played a great role in
giving direction not just to
BJP, but to the politics of the
country.”
Other BJP leaders who
wished Advani on Twitter included Information
and Broadcasting Minister
Prakash Javadekar, Parliamentary Affairs Minister M
Venkaiah Naidu, Railway
Minister Sadananda Gowda,
Law Minister Ravi Shankar
Prasad, Gujarat Chief Minister Anandiben Patel, Chhattisgarh Chief Minister Raman
Singh and Madhya Pradesh
Chief Minister Shivraj Singh
Chouhan.
Birthday wishes for the BJP
veteran also came from Congress leader Abhishek Singhvi
and actor Anupam Kher.
Advani was born on November 8, 1927 in Karachi,
now in Pakistan.
or some it is a small revolution. For others, a minor
victory in a long drawnout war of attrition.
Tomorrow, the
Supreme
Court is to end a 59-year-old
de facto ban on women working
as makeup specialists on Bollywood ﬁlm sets.
The change is the result of
a ﬁve-year legal campaign by
Charu Khurana, a makeup artist
from New Delhi.
“Somebody had to take the initiative. This is the 21st century.
All over India women are joining
all spheres on an equal footing,”
the 32-year-old said.
The regulation, which has no
legal basis, had been maintained
to protect the jobs of male makeup artists, ﬁlm workers’ unions
have admitted. Women are permitted to be hairdressers, with a
series of further restrictions on
where and when they can work,
but not makeup artists.
Khurana ﬁled a private petition,
claiming discrimination. Comments by the judges at a hearing
last week indicated they agreed.
“Why should only a male artist be allowed to put on makeup?
How can it be said that only men
can be makeup artists and women
can be hairdressers? We don’t see
a reason to prohibit a woman from
becoming a makeup artist if she is
qualiﬁed … We are in 2014, not in
1935,” Justices Dipak Misra and U
U Lalit were reported as saying.
Khurana’s effort is one of
many by campaigners trying to
force new freedoms for women
Campaign against moral policing
in what is still a deeply conservative society. She launched her
campaign after being ﬁred and
forced to pay a Rs25,000ﬁne to
the union after a raid on the set
of a ﬁlm she was working on as a
makeup artist.
India’s $2bn ﬁlm industry is
the largest in world by ticket
sales, producing between 300
to 325 movies a year. Although
there are no official ﬁgures, trade
analysts say the Hindi-language industry, which is based
in Mumbai, employs more than
250,000 people, most of them
contract workers.
“When I started going to
sets there were often only
four women: the leading
actress, her mum, the
hairdresser and me. There
is a huge change. It really
is a reflection of the new
India”
In terms of its product and
structure, Bollywood is said to
represent and reinforce contemporary India’s concerns, dreams
and values.
“When I started going to sets
there were often only four women: the leading actress, her mum,
the hairdresser and me. There is
a huge change. It really is a reﬂection of the new India,” said
Anupama Chopra, a Mumbaibased ﬁlm critic and expert.
But if women were working as
composers, cinematographers
and “in other previously allmale bastions,” top level jobs remained the preserve of men with
Search still on for
missing sailors
IANS
New Delhi
N
Police intervene as rightwing Hindu activists prevent youths from
kissing each other during a rally for the ‘Kiss of Love’ campaign,
held in protest against moral policing, outside Rashtriya
Swayamsevak Sangh headquarters in New Delhi yesterday. The
Kiss of Love movement, a non-violent protest against moral
policing, started out as a Facebook page campaign and gathered
momentum with youths across the country.
only one female studio owner,
she added.
There is also a signiﬁcant gap
in pay for male and female stars,
with many men now co-producing ﬁlms while women tend to be
“hired.”
Advaita Kala, one of the few
younger women who are successful writers in the industry,
said changes such as allowing
female makeup artists indicated
progress but there “was a long
way to go.”
“This year there have been a
number of ﬁlms with female lead
(characters) and that’s a ﬁrst.
Usually you are lucky if there is
one. It’s still very much a boys’
club,” Kala said.
Many major Bollywood ﬁlms
still feature an “item girl” - a female star who has no connection
to the plot who performs a dance
routine.
“Only (in India) would the
term ‘item girl’ ﬁnd legitimacy.
Cinema is still dominated by the
male gaze. Our ﬁlms are feeding
us the idea of objectiﬁcation as
empowerment. There are still
lots of battles to ﬁght,” said Kala.
A recent UN-sponsored survey analysed gender roles in
popular ﬁlms released across
the 10 most proﬁtable territories
internationally between 2010
and 2013. It found a higher than
average level of female characters in Indian movies shown
semi-nude, with few women
in signiﬁcant speaking roles or
portrayed working. In India, out
of a sample size of 12 scientiﬁc
or engineering jobs portrayed in
Bollywood ﬁlms, 91.7% where
held by men.
Globally, the report said, girls
and women are twice as likely
as boys and men to be shown in
sexually revealing clothing, partially or fully naked, thin, and
ﬁve times as likely to be referenced as attractive.
o survivors have been
found after an accident
involving a torpedo
recovery vessel of the Indian
navy which left one dead and
four missing, navy sources said
yesterday.
Among the missing is an
officer. The vessel sank off
the Visakhapatnam coast on
Thursday evening.
“A full scale search and rescue operation is in progress by
the Indian navy for the four
personnel reported missing,”
an official said.
Day and night search operations are on, involving nine
ships of the eastern ﬂeet and
aircraft including Boeing P8I,
Dorniers, Sea King 42C and
Chetak helicopters, the official
said
One handycam video-camera and two life jackets of the
vessel were recovered on Friday.
A board of inquiry headed
by a captain has been constituted to investigate the circumstances leading to the accident.
The dead sailor was identiﬁed as James Jacob.
According to initial reports,
the probable reason for the
sinking of the vessel seems to
be ingress of sea water (ﬂooding) in the engine room and aft
steering compartment.
Sources said the likely cause
was “material failure.”
The vessel, used to recover
dummy torpedoes ﬁred by
ships and submarines, was
built by Goa Shipyard Limited
in 1983.
The navy has witnessed a
series of accidents over the
past year. Earlier this year, then
navy chief Admiral D K Joshi
resigned taking moral responsibility for “the accidents and
incidents.”
Gulf Times
Sunday, November 9, 2014
23
INDIA
PM to reshuffle cabinet today
The rejig could come as a
relief to several ministers
who have been handling
multiple portfolios
Agencies
New Delhi
P
rime Minister Narendra
Modi is expected to carry
out today the ﬁrst major
reshuffle of his cabinet since
storming to power in May, with
the key defence portfolio likely
to go to Manohar Parrikar, who
resigned as Goa chief minister
yesterday.
Parrikar’s likely appointment
would ease the burden on Arun
Jaitley, who has been juggling
both the defence and ﬁnance
ministries while battling illhealth.
Being relieved of defence
would allow Jaitley to focus on
spurring the ﬂagging economy
by making India more investorfriendly.
A government source said
yesterday that Parrikar had accepted an offer to “head a key
ministry.”
Like Modi, Parrikar has a
strong background in the nationalist Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) organisation,
accused by critics of sometimes
fomenting religious conﬂict in
India.
Modi was due to hold a breakfast for the newcomers with the
swearing-in slated for early afternoon at New Delhi’s Rashtrapati Bhavan presidential palace,
media reported.
Several new faces could be
brought in, while some junior
ministers could be elevated to
full cabinet rank.
Ruling Bharatiya Janata Party
sources said Parrikar may be inducted into the Rajya Sabha, the
upper house of parliament, from
Uttar Pradesh, where the party
has 71 of the 80 Lok Sabha members.
The sources said 16 new faces
will be inducted.
Bandaru Dattatreya from Telangana and Sujana Chowdary
from Andhra Pradesh are likely
to be inducted into the cabinet.
Dattatreya, a national vice
president of the BJP, is a Lok
Sabha member from Secunderabad.
Chowdary belongs to the Telugu Desam Party (TDP) and is a
Rajya Sabha member from Andhra Pradesh.
Modi phoned the two MPs
yesterday morning and asked
them to be in Delhi today morning, sources in the two parties
said.
Dattatreya is the lone BJP parliamentarian from Telangana
and his inclusion will give representation to the newly created
state in the federal ministry.
Chowdary, a businessman, is a
ﬁrst-time parliamentarian and is
considered close to TDP chief N
Chandrababu Naidu.
New ministers may be taken from Rajasthan, Himachal
Pradesh, Uttar Pradesh and Bihar besides Haryana and Maharashtra – the two states where the
BJP assumed power for the ﬁrst
time last month.
Among the names doing the
rounds are J P Nadda (Himachal Pradesh), Jayant Sinha
(Jharkhand), Ram Kripal Yadav,
Girirraj Singh (both Bihar), Vijay
Sampala (Punjab), Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi, Niranjan Jyoti (both
Uttar Pradesh), Sanwar Lal Jat
(Rajasthan) and Birender Singh
(Haryana).
The name of former minister
Suresh Prabhu is also on the list.
However, his party Shiv Sena did
not appear happy about it yesterday.
Modi is believed to be keen to
induct Prabhu - whose performance in critical ministries in the
earlier BJP-led government had
been praised by all parties - and
may give him the responsibility
of the railways portfolio.
“We have many more experienced and deserving MPs who
need to be encouraged. The party is not clear how this will come
(Prabhu’s inclusion in the cabinet) from our (Shiv Sena) quota.
We are still discussing it and will
ﬁnalise the decision shortly,” a
Shiv Sena leader said.
Babul Supriyo, a singerturned-politician from West
Bengal is also expected to be in
the list, with West Bengal BJP
president Rahul Sinha saying
Modi had called Supriyo and
informed him of the decision to
make him a minister.
Olympic medallist Rajyavardhan Singh Rathore also appears
to be on the list, according to the
sources.
Analysts said the rejig could
come as a relief to several of
Modi’s ministers who have been
handling multiple portfolios.
Modi, who is single, is widely
known as a workaholic intent on
shaking India’s economy out of
its doldrums.
But media reports have said
some ministers and bureaucrats
have felt overloaded.
“Jaitley, for example, was given two key portfolios - each of
which required a full-time minister,” said K G Suresh, a senior
fellow with the Delhi-based
Vivekanand International Foundation think-tank.
“Modi was trying to experiment with the idea of having
very few ministers,” Suresh said.
“It seems he has realised that
his ministers are perhaps overburdened and not able to do justice to their work.”
The expected reshuffle follows last month’s big BJP gains
in elections in Maharashtra and
Haryana, which were viewed as
another sign that Modi is still
enjoying a honeymoon period.
Modi wants a strong ministerial team in place ahead of parliament’s winter session, which
begins on November 22.
Goa Governor Mridula Sinha administering the oath of office to the new Chief Minister Laxmikant Parsekar yesterday.
Parsekar sworn in as new Goa CM
IANS
Panaji
G
oa Health Minister
Laxmikant Parsekar was
sworn in as the state’s
11th chief minister yesterday,
beating to the post rivals like
assembly Speaker Rajendra Arlekar and Deputy Chief Minister Francis D’Souza who had
doggedly opposed his candidature.
The diminutive Parsekar, 58,
along with nine cabinet ministers was administered the oath of
office at the Raj Bhavan grounds
yesterday afternoon, shortly after he formally staked claim to
form a government.
Later speaking to reporters
for the ﬁrst time in his new role,
Parsekar, a former Bharatiya Janata Party state chief, unwittingly conceded that the shadow
of his predecessor Manohar Parrikar, who resigned earlier in the
day due to his impending elevation to the central cabinet, would
continue to loom large.
“Manohar Parrikar is going to
return from Delhi on the 13th or
14th (November). We will decide
the portfolios after that,” he told
reporters.
Parrikar will be sworn in as a
central cabinet minister today.
Manohar Parrikar gets emotional while speaking to reporters after
resigning as the chief minister.
He is likely to get the defence
portfolio.
D’Souza, Dayanand Mandrekar, Ramesh Tawadkar, Mahadev Naik, Dilip Parulekar,
Milind Naik, Alina Saldanha (all
BJP) and Sudin Dhavalikar and
Pandurang Dhavalikar (both
Maharashtrawadi
Gomantak
Party) were also sworn in as
cabinet ministers yesterday. The
two remaining vacancies in the
cabinet are expected to be ﬁlled
up later this month.
Earlier in the day, BJP state
leaders as well as central ob-
Modi takes clean-up
mission to Varanasi
IANS
Varanasi
P
rime Minister Narendra
Modi yesterday took his
cleanliness drive to the
‘ghats’ of Varanasi where he took
up a spade and cleaned an area
on the banks of river Ganges as a
part of the Clean Ganga Mission.
In the morning, the prime
minister went to the Assi Ghat
and performed religious rituals
amid chanting of hymns, on the
second day of his maiden visit
to his Varanasi parliamentary
constituency after winning the
Lok Sabha election from there
in May.
He later picked up a spade and
did ‘shram daan’ along with over
two dozen labourers at the ghat
as he kicked off the Nirmal Ganga mission.
The prime minister dug the silt
mound left behind by the surging river during monsoons at
the ghat and cleared it for more
than 10 minutes. Local Bharatiya
Janata Party (BJP) workers also
joined him.
“I have started the cleanliness
drive here and the social organisations have assured me that this
entire ghat will be cleaned with-
in a month,” he said.
Modi nominated nine more
people, including Uttar Pradesh
Chief Minister Akhilesh Yadav,
cricketers Suresh Raina and Mohamed Kaif, and singer Kailash
Kher, to take forward the message to clean India.
The other nominees are Chitrakoot Specially Abled University Chancellor Ram Bhadracharya, Bhojpuri singer and
BJP MP Manoj Tiwari, Manu
Sharma, known for his ‘Krishna
Atma Katha’, Sanskrit scholar
Devi Prasad Dwivedi and comedian Raju Srivastava. Modi’s
last engagement of the day, before returning to New Delhi,
was a close-door event at the
Ma Anandmayi Sangh where he
visited a hospital on the campus
and interacted with members
and staff of the Sangh which is
acclaimed for its work in health
and education.
On Friday, the ﬁrst day of his
visit, the prime minister laid the
foundation stone of a trade facilitation centre at Bada Lalpur and
adopted Jayapur village.
The visit of the prime minister had its share of politics too.
While Chief Minister Yadav ﬂew
down from Lucknow to receive
him on Friday, he did not accom-
pany Modi in the events thereafter.
Modi rued at a function that
the Uttar Pradesh government
had not ceded to the central government’s demand to allot land
for the trade facilitation centre,
forcing it to pick land which was
a little away from the city.
Yadav responded to prime
minister’s allegations and said if
he did not like the land where the
foundation stone was being laid
for the trade facilitation centre,
the state was willing to give the
land initially sought by the textiles ministry.
Modi, who stayed at the Diesel Locomotive Works (DLW)
premises here, said it had
brought back memories of his
childhood when he was closely
associated with trains.
Writing in the visitors’ book,
the prime minister, giving expression to his feelings, said his
stay at DLW had been an emotional experience.
“From childhood, I have been
related to the railways, railway
stations and train compartments. I have been staying at this
(DLW) premises since yesterday.
The atmosphere about railways
on all sides has connected me to
my childhood,” Modi said.
servers Rajeev Pratap Rudy and
Purshottam Rupala were busy
fire-fighting dissent sparked
by D’Souza who since Friday
had insisted on refusing to
work with Parsekar or Arlekar,
claiming both were junior to
him.
“I am still in the race for
chief minister. I will speak to
the party’s observers and make
my point clear. I will quit government and will stay away
from the swearing in ceremony
today. I am OK with being an
ordinary MLA,” D’Souza told
reporters before a meeting of
the party legislators.
D’Souza, one of the oldest minority faces in the Goa BJP, also
claimed the support of 15 legislators.
What followed was a series
of group and individual interactions at the BJP’s state headquarters spread over nearly three
hours between Parrikar, state
party president Vinay Tendulkar,
and the central observers on the
one hand and the BJP legislators
on the other.
Even as the BJP failed to resolve the crisis, precipitated by
D’Souza and his band of members namely Vishnu Wagh and
Mandrekar, Raj Bhavan authorities issued formal invitations for
the swearing-in ceremony leav-
ing the name of the chief minister blank.
The
breakthrough
was
achieved an hour-and-a-half
before the swearing-in ceremony after a final meeting
between D’Souza, Arlekar,
Parsekar and Parrikar and the
two party observers. Emerging
from the meeting, D’Souza did
a volte face on his earlier defiant position.
“I thought Parsekar was being
imposed on us. Today I was told
that majority of the MLAs were
supporting him,” he said.
Party sources said that apart
from being made deputy chief
minister again, D’Souza would
be allotted one additional key
portfolio, namely ﬁnance or
home.
D’Souza however said: “I will
be happy with what I am offered.”
Rudy sought to paper over the
cracks.
“There was a complete unanimity as far as the choice of
leader of the legislature party
was concerned. And it was a
unanimous decision when the
name of Laxmikant Parsekar
was proposed by Manohar Parrikar and seconded by Francis
D’Souza who has been elected as
the deputy leader of the party,”
he said after the meeting.
Socialist front has
no chance: Paswan
IANS
Patna
C
Prime Minister Narendra Modi cleans an area on the banks of river
Ganges as a part of the Clean Ganga Mission.
onsumer Affairs Minister and the Lok Janshakti Party leader
Ram Vilas Paswan yesterday
ridiculed a new front ﬂoated
by socialist leaders including
Lalu Prasad Yadav and Nitish
Kumar.
Both Paswan and Minister
of State for Rural Development Upendra Kushwaha said
the new front stood no chance
of making a mark in national
politics.
Its leaders, they said, were
“selﬁsh” and had lost credibility among the people.
“It is nothing but an attempt by a group of selﬁsh
leaders to form a united front
for survival,” Paswan said.
Kushwaha said the new
front showed its leaders had
been rejected by the people.
“They are all dejected and
frustrated.”
The ministers said there
was no match for Prime Minister Narendra Modi - even
if the proposed front of socialist parties became a reality. “No one can stop Modi’s
wave.”
Paswan heads the LJP and
Kushwaha is president of the
Rashtriya Lok Samta Party.
Both are allies of the Bharatiya
Janata Party.
Ahead of the winter session
of parliament, leaders of the
Samajwadi Party, Janata DalUnited, Rashtriya Janata Dal
and Janata Dal-Secular have
announced a united front to
counter the Modi government.
In other developments, senior Congress leader V Narayanasamy describing the BJP-led
government as “inefficient,”
and said Chinese intrusions
and Pakistan’s ceaseﬁre violations have become “regular”
since the new government
took charge.
“When they were in the
opposition, they called our
government a spineless one
while we were diplomatically
tackling Chinese intrusion and
Pakistan. But now, the situation on the India-China and
India-Pakistan border is much
grave,” he said.
“Almost every day there is
shelling by Pakistan and intrusion by China’s People Liberation Army into our territory.
Villagers residing near the
border have to relocate themselves to army camps. During
the Congress regime, there
were such incidents but these
were minimal and not an everyday affair,” he said.
24
Gulf Times
Sunday, November 9, 2014
LATIN AMERICA
43 Mexican
students
are feared
massacred
AFP
Mexico City
M
exico was confronted
yesterday with possibly
one of the grisliest massacres in years of drug violence
after gang suspects confessed
to incinerating the bodies of 43
missing students and dumping
them in a river.
The disappearance of the students six weeks ago has gripped
and horriﬁed Mexico.
Gang-linked police attacked
the young men in the southern
state of Guerrero on September
26, in violence that left six other
people dead.
The confessions may have
brought a tragic end to the mystery, which has sparked international outrage and triggered
protests in the biggest crisis of
President Enrique Pena Nieto’s
administration.
But at the young men’s Ayotzinapa teacher-training college,
exhausted parents of the victims
refuse to accept they are dead un-
7 troops jailed awaiting trial over June killings
A Mexican judge has formally
placed seven soldiers under
pre-trial detention over the June
killing of suspected criminals in a
case denounced by human rights
groups, authorities said on Friday.
Three of the soldiers will
face a civilian trial on homicide
charges while all seven have been
accused of crimes against public
service, the Federal Judicial Council said in a statement.
The three murder suspects
have also been charged with
altering a crime scene.
The army announced on June
til DNA tests conﬁrm their identities, saying the government has
repeatedly fed them lies.
“It appears that the federal
government, with great irresponsibility, is interested in
closing this matter because it’s
all based in testimony. There is
nothing deﬁnitive,” Meliton Ortega, uncle of a missing student,
told AFP.
30 that soldiers had killed 22 gang
suspects in a shootout in Tlatlaya,
240km south of Mexico City.
But a witness later told Esquire
magazine that the soldiers had
executed 21 of the suspects,
including her teenage daughter,
after they surrendered.
The governmental National
Human Rights Commission said
last month that at least 12 of the
suspects were killed after giving
themselves up and that the crime
scene had been fiddled with to
make it look like they died in a
shootout.
Some parents said the announcement was aimed at allowing Pena Nieto to leave today on a
major trip to China and Australia,
which has been shortened due to
the crisis.
“They want Pena Nieto to go
on this trip,” said Felipe de la
Cruz, a spokesman for the families.
Three suspected Guerreros
Parents of missing students from a teacher’s training college address the media at their college in Ayotzinapa.
Unidos gang members told investigators that local police handed
them the students between the
southern towns of Iguala and
Cocula.
In taped confessions, the suspects said they bundled the 43 in
the back of two trucks, took them
to a nearby landﬁll, killed them and
used fuel, wood, tires and plastic to
burn their bodies for 14 hours.
The students had travelled to
the city of Iguala to raise funds
but hijacked four buses to return
home, a common practice among
the young men from a school
known as a bastion of left-wing
activism.
Authorities say the city’s
mayor, worried that they would
interrupt a speech by his wife,
ordered the police to confront
them. The officers shot at several
buses, leaving three students and
three bystanders dead.
25 new lawsuits over
forced debt default
AFP
New York
A
rgentina told a New York
judge on Friday that its
court-forced bond default
has spurred a raft of new lawsuits
against the country, threatening to
further tie it up in litigation.
In a letter to Judge Thomas
Griesa, whose ruling blocking the
country from making a debt payment forced it into default in July,
Buenos Aires complained that the
result has been 25 new lawsuits
from creditors.
The “practical effect” of Greisa’s
injunctions on the country servicing its debt to its main creditors,
Argentina said, “has become clear
since they went into effect this past
June. They did not ‘end’ the litigation.”
“The injunctions have had only
a negative effect: they have created
more litigation.”
Griesa had ruled that the country
could not make a $539mn interest
payment to holders of its restructured bonds on June 30, unless it
ﬁrst pays off a group of “holdouts”
who refused to take part in its 2005
and 2010 debt restructurings.
But Argentina has refused to pay
the holdouts, led by two US hedge
funds which sued the country for
full payment on the defaulted Argentine bonds they hold.
In October, the hedge funds assured the court in a letter that
other claims on Argentina like their
own could be consolidated to make
a settlement more easily reached.
In the letter on Friday, Argentina
said that instead the claims have
exploded, from other holdouts and
now from holders of restructured
bonds, “thereby exacerbating further the situation.”
The letter said it had put the
country in “an impossible situation”.
“There can be no equitable basis
for seeking to compel the Republic... to do the impossible by paying in full its holdout debt, much
of which was purchased at a deep
discount in the secondary market
with the aim of extracting through
litigation better terms than the vast
majority of the Republic’s creditors
who participated in the Republic’s
debt restructuring,” it said.
In response, Robert Cohen, a
lawyer for NML Capital, one of the
two hedge fund “holdouts”, suggested in a statement that Buenos
Aires was simply continuing to
avoid a negotiated settlement over
the issue.
“Since June, when the Supreme
Court declined to hear its appeal,
the government of Argentina has
consistently said that it wants to
resolve its debt dispute with all of
its creditors,” he said.
“The motions outlined in our
(October) letter to Judge Griesa
provide a constructive vehicle to
reach that resolution.”
The hedge funds maintain that
Argentina is stalling to avoid settling with them, which would
mean paying $1.6bn in principal
and accrued interest on the bonds
they hold.
Authorities have arrested 74
people, including the ousted
mayor, Jose Luis Abarca, his wife
Maria de los Angeles Pineda, 36
police officers and several Guerreros Unidos operatives.
If the confessions are true, the
mass murder would rank among
the worst massacres in a drug war
that has killed more than 80,000
people and left 22,000 others
missing since 2006.
The Iguala case has undermined Pena Nieto’s assurances
that authorities were ﬁnally
reducing the cycle of murders
plaguing the country.
Late on Friday, some 300 protesters lit candles on the steps
of Mexico City’s Angel of Independence monument before
heading to the attorney general’s
office, where they spray-painted
#I’mTiredOfFear.
“I feel helpless, angry, incred-
ulous at what the government
said. I’m fed up,” said Judit Urena, mother of a seven-year-old
girl.
The hashtag #I’mTired became a trending topic on Twitter after Attorney General Jesus
Murillo Karam uttered the words
during a somber news conference
announcing the apparent massacre on Friday.
The radical CETEG teachers
union in Guerrero threatened to
lead new protests in the state,
where demonstrators torched
part of the regional government
headquarters last month.
Murillo Karam stopped short
on Friday of declaring the 43 dead
and said an Austrian university
would help identify the remains.
But the chief prosecutor added that there was “a lot of evidence... that could indicate it was
them.”
Murillo Karam presented
gruesome details of the killing,
with videos of small pieces of
charcoal-like remains that were
found in black plastic bags in a
river.
After incinerating the remains,
the suspects say crushed them
into pieces and burned their own
clothes to hide evidence.
Parents of the missing say
they will not accept they are
dead until independent Argentine forensic experts deliver
DNA results.
Last month, two hitmen had
already confessed to killing 17 of
the students and dumping them
in a mass grave near Iguala.
But authorities said tests
showed none of them were
among 28 bodies found in the pit.
Murillo Karam said Friday the
grave contained men and women
who were killed in August.
7 Farc guerrillas face ‘indigenous’ justice
AFP
Bogota
S
even suspected Farc guerrillas will
be tried today by an indigenous
court for murdering two leaders of
the Nasa tribe in western Colombia, officials said.
The leftist rebel ﬁghters face penalties
including lashes, expulsion from the territory, forced labour or prison, Northern
Cauca indigenous councils association
leader Gabriel Pavi said.
When crimes are committed in aboriginal territory, the punishment for the
accused is decided by the community and
not the ordinary justice system.
An assembly of about 5,000 members
of the indigenous reserve in the Cauca
province town of Toribio will debated for
six hours whether the captured guerrillas were guilty and what sanctions they
should face.
“An investigating committee will report to
the council authorities. The authorities will
put it up for consideration by the assembly,
which will determine the remedy to be applied to those who were caught,” said Pavi.
The suspected rebel ﬁghters on
Wednesday attacked two native leaders
who were removing billboards praising
the late leader of the Revolutionary Armed
Forces of Colombia, Guillermo Leon
Saenz, also known as Alfonso Cano.
A man puts a candle over the coffin of Daniel Coicue, a member of the indigenous
Nasa tribe recently killed by alleged rebels, during his funeral in El Flayo, a rural area
of Toribio, department of Cauca, Colombia.
Pavi said the guerrillas were captured
“in uniform and with riﬂes” and that “all
are indigenous.”
The Colombian constitution gives indigenous authorities jurisdiction over
their own territory, unless this contra-
venes the national constitution or the
laws of the country.
Colombia’s indigenous population
reached 1.4mn in 2005, the latest official ﬁgures, out of a total population of
48.3mn.
Dead ﬁsh in Rio Olympic bay baffle scientists
By Claire de Oliveira Neto, AFP
Rio de Janeiro
T
Dead fish wash ashore on a beach in Paqueta Island at Guanabara
bay in Rio de Janeiro.
housands of dead ﬁsh have
begun mysteriously washing up in the polluted Rio
bay that will host sailing events
at the 2016 Olympics - and experts are at a loss to explain why.
Guanabara Bay has already
been the subject of concern
amongst sailors who are to compete in Rio because of the human
sewage that gets pumped into its
waters.
The International Olympic
Committee (IOC) has expressed
conﬁdence that Guanabara will
be ﬁt for purpose by the time of
the games.
But the recent appearance of
thousands of dead ﬁsh, and the
foul stench of their rotting carcasses, has attracted further
scrutiny with the Olympics less
than two years away.
Scientists are baffled by the
phenomenon but say there is no
evidence so far to suggest pollution is the cause.
The foul odour ﬁrst took over the
usually peaceful Paqueta Island,
where cars are banned and the
population of 4,500 people travels
on horseback or bicycle among the
only baobab trees in Brazil.
With the help of a bulldozer,
a municipal company has removed 20 tonnes of dead sabalo
ﬁsh - from the Clupeidae family
of herrings and sardines - as well
as four dead sea turtles.
“Tests showed that this is not a
matter of chemical or toxic water
pollution,” Rio do Janeiro State
University oceanographer David
Zee told AFP.
Leandro Daemon of the National Institute for the Environment, or INEA, agreed that water
testing had not identiﬁed any
toxic chemicals or any unusual
change in the water’s pH (potential of hydrogen), salinity or
oxygen.
“We have no answer yet about
what happened, but we can certainly exclude the hypothesis of
a chemical pollution killing the
ﬁsh,” he said.
But not everyone is so sure.
Worried ﬁshermen and islanders are pointing the ﬁnger at the
petrochemical activities of state
giant Petrobras.
“We want to know why so
many ﬁsh have died. The rotten smell is horrible and there
are many ﬂies on the island. The
authorities tell us nothing,” said
Vilma Leocadio of the Paqueta
citizens’ association. “We are
afraid, we do not bathe in the
sea anymore and do not buy ﬁsh
here.”
Rosimere Figueiredo, 52, said
Paqueta was in distress.
“I do not encourage you to step
in the water with all those dead
bodies of ﬁsh. We see them dying,” she said.
Five of the ﬁsh were sent last
week to the Federal University of
Rio de Janeiro’s biology department for analysis, and the results
will be announced in a week. Experts want to know if there are
any signs of pollution or disease
in the entrails or gills.
One hypothesis is that the culprit is predatory ﬁshing. At this
time of year, ﬁshing is prohibited,
but it is common for ﬁshermen
to still work, catching ﬁsh like
sabalo that have a lower market
value, Zee said.
But the expert said the likeliest
scenario was that the deaths are
caused by “thermal pollution” of
the water.
“Sabalo are very sensitive to
any lack of oxygen. Warm water
temperatures such as those recorded several days ago - ranging from 27 to 30 degrees Celsius - in shallow water decrease
the solubility of oxygen,” Zee
said.
He noted that Paqueta is located at the bottom of the Rio
bay, where water circulation and
exchange is more difficult, a phenomenon exacerbated by the low
tide.
“What is striking is the duration of this mortality and also the
high temperature of the water,”
said biologist Mario Moscatelli,
who has studied the bay’s waters
for 20 years.
“I ﬂew over the area in early
October, and ﬁsh were ﬂoating.
At ﬁrst, we thought they were
thrown into the sea by ﬁshermen.
But before too long, I saw them
dying in a way that seemed they
were missing oxygen.”
He said the sabalo, being more
sensitive, are the ﬁrst ﬁsh to die
in the Rodrigo de Freitas Lagoon,
which contains sea water carried
through a canal in Rio’s southern
zone.
“But in case of chemical contamination, other species will
die,” he said. “We have more
questions than answers. We must
wait for the results of the analysis.”
Gulf Times
Sunday, November 9, 2014
25
PAKISTAN/AFGHANISTAN
Court summons
Musharraf over
cleric’s death
AFP
Islamabad
A
Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif and Chinese President Xi Jinping chair a meeting at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing yesterday.
Pakistan to help China
ﬁght Xinjiang militants
Pakistan Prime Minister
Nawaz Sharif meets Chinese
President Xi Jinping
Islamabad promises to help
Beijing fight a terrorist threat
in its far-west ; Pakistan wins
Chinese investment worth
$42bn
Reuters
Beijing
P
akistan will help China
with its ﬁght against extremists Beijing says are
active in its unruly far western
region of Xinjiang, the country’s
prime minister said yesterday
during a meeting with Chinese
President Xi Jinping.
China blames the East Turkestan Islamic Movement for carrying out attacks in Xinjiang,
home to the Muslim Uighur
people, though many foreign
experts doubt the group’s existence in a cohesive group.
China, Pakistan’s only major
ally in the region, has long urged
Islamabad to weed out what it
says are militants from Xinjiang,
who are holed up in a lawless
tribal belt, home to a lethal mix
of militant groups, including the
Taliban and Al Qaeda.
Hundreds have died in unrest
in Xinjiang in the last two years
or so. Exiles and activists say
Chinese controls on the religion
and culture of the Uighur people
is more a cause of the violence
than well-organised militant
groups.
Pakistan Prime Minister Mohamed Nawaz Sharif told Xi that
his country would “continue to
resolutely ﬁght the East Turkestan Islamic Movement terrorist
forces”, China’s foreign ministry
said in a statement following the
meeting in Beijing.
Pakistan will increase its coordination with China on Afghanistan too, so as to “jointly
maintain regional peace and stability”, Sharif said.
Pakistan will also do all it can
to guarantee the safety of Chinese companies and workers in
the country, he added, who have
in the past been attacked by militants.
China and Pakistan call each
other “all-weather friends” and
their close ties have been underpinned by long-standing wariness of their common neighbour, India, and a desire to hedge
against US inﬂuence across the
region.
China’s foreign ministry said
the two countries had signed
more than 20 agreements on
Sharif’s trip, including on nuclear power and on the deepwater
port of Gwadar, which China is
developing. It provided no details.
An official said China has
promised Pakistan investment
worth $42bn, an official said.
Pakistan suffers from chronic
electricity shortages and Islamabad has long sought investment in coal-ﬁred power
stations which it sees as a solution to the problem.
The new agreements pave
the way for Chinese stateowned companies to help build
at least four new power stations
in Pakistan, while the deals also
cover the supply and mining of
coal, the prime minister’s press
office said.
“The deals being signed between China and Pakistan are
worth $42bn. The whole investment is being made by China,” said Amir Zamir, spokesman for Pakistan’s ministry of
planning and development.
“There is no loan or aid for
the energy projects, but pure
investment by the Chinese,” he
said.
The agreements signed between the two countries include solar power production
at Quaid-e Azam Solar Park,
easy loan for laying optic ﬁbre
between the two countries,
mining of 65,00,000 metric
tonnes of coal in Thar Block-2,
870 MW Sukhi Kinari hydropower project, 1320 MW Sahiwal power project and MoU for
100 MW Jhimpir wind power
project.
L
t Gen Rizwan Akhtar has
taken over as the head of
powerful Inter-Services
Intelligence (ISI), succeeding
retired Lt Gen Zaheerul Islam.
“Gen Akhtar has taken over
as the next director general of
ISI,” a military official conﬁrmed
the change at ISI headquarters,
commonly known as Aabpara.
Gen Akhtar, known to be a
close ally of Army Chief Gen
Raheel Sharif, was named as
director general of the ISI by
Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif in
September, more than a month
in advance, in an attempt to
avoid controversy over the appointment at a time when civilmilitary relationship was passing through a critical phase.
With Gen Akhtar assuming
the office of ISI chief, all promotions of two to three star generals made by the army chief in the
latest phase have taken effect.
This makes the army chief more
powerful than when he took
over the command last December as he is now believed to have
consolidated his grip over.
The new spy chief has assumed office at a time when the
country is faced with grave external and internal challenges.
The landscape of militancy
in the country is changing with
the Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan
getting weaker and is forming
new alliances for its survival
and Middle East-based terrorist group Islamic State (Daesh)
making entry into Pakistan.
Gen Akhtar had advocated
“rapprochement
with India”, “greater
transparency in the
(country’s) nuclear
programme” and limiting
the military’s role to
national security from
external threats
At the same time law and order situation in Karachi, where
Gen Akhtar till recently headed
Sindh Rangers, is still bad, if not
getting worse and Balochistan
insurgency continues to threaten the integrity of the country.
The change comes at a time
when civil-military relations are
being re-deﬁned and the ISI is
yet to clear itself of allegations
of supporting sit-ins of the Pa-
kistan Tehreek-e-Insaf and the
Pakistan Awami Tehreek, which
had brought the government to a
standstill for weeks.
On the external front, tensions with India have heightened and terrorist sanctuaries in Afghanistan pose
serious threat to the progress
made by security forces in
their counter-terrorism operations in tribal areas.
All these challenges aside,
the job of leading the ISI, an
intelligence agency which has
expanded its domain much
beyond the traditional role of
a spy outﬁt to all spheres of
governance, is itself a no mean
task.
Many expect Gen Akhtar to
fundamentally transform the
ISI’s working. The ISI chief may
be one of the most powerful
persons in the country, but still
he has only an implementation
role with policies decided at the
General Headquarters.
Therefore, the nuances can
change with more focus on
counter-militancy, but the
basic policy framework will
broadly remain unchanged.
While not much is known
about Gen Akhtar’s thinking,
Pervez Musharraf
satisﬁed with the security arrangements for the hearing,
adding that the court has now
ordered police to provide details for the ex-army chief’s
appearance in the court.
“We had requested the court
to exempt General Musharraf for appearance in the court
on medical grounds and security fears, because Islamabad’s
police have not responded to
our request about security arrangements,” said Musharraf’s
lawyer Akhtar Shah.
“The judge rejected our plea
but also ordered police to provide security details.”
Musharraf also faces treason charges over his imposition of emergency rule in 2007
-- a historic ﬁrst in a country
ruled for half its existence by
the military.
He further faces murder accusations over the 2006 death
of Baluch rebel leader Nawab
Akbar Bugti and the 2007 assassination of former Prime
Minister Benazir Bhutto.
In June, Pakistan’s Supreme
Court suspended a decision
which would have allowed
Musharraf to leave the country.
17 insurgents
killed in Khyber
tribal district
AFP
Islamabad
P
Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif shakes hands with China’s President
Xi Jinping before a meeting at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing
yesterday.
Rizwan Akhtar assumes
charge as new ISI chief
Internews
Islamabad
Pakistani court yesterday said former
military ruler Pervez
Musharraf must appear at a
hearing in December over a
cleric’s death during a bloody
mosque siege, rejecting his
fears over security.
Musharraf faces a string
of court cases dating back to
his 1999-2008 rule, including over the death of radical
cleric Abdul Rashid Ghazi, one
of more than 100 people killed
after Pakistani troops stormed
the Red Mosque in Islamabad
on July 10, 2007.
The mosque was the scene
of a week-long military siege
against radicals that unleashed a wave of Islamist attacks across Pakistan.
Musharraf’s legal team has
fought to avoid a court appearance over the case being
pursued by Ghazi’s family,
citing ill health — he has been
receiving treatment for heart
problems — and security fears.
The former president narrowly escaped an apparent
assassination attempt in Islamabad in April as a roadside
bomb went off shortly before
his convoy was due to pass.
“The court has rejected
the exemption plea of General Pervez Musharraf in
the case regarding killing of
Abdul Rashid Ghazi and ordered him to appear on the
next hearing of December 6,”
Abdul Haq Malik, the lawyer
representing the cleric’s son
Haron-ur-Rashid Ghazi, told
AFP.
Musharraf’s lawyer said the
former leader had not been
an academic dissertation he
authored in 2008 while studying at the US Army War College
is used by analysts to read his
mind.
In the dissertation, Gen
Akhtar had advocated “rapprochement
with
India”,
“greater
transparency
in
the (country’s) nuclear programme” and limiting the military’s role to national security
from external threats. He had
suggested that the army should
be used for internal security
only as a last resort.
Gen Akhtar’s parent regiment is Frontier Force. Before
his Sindh Rangers assignment
(2012-2014), he remained general officer commanding in
South Waziristan from 2010 to
2012.
His postings in Karachi and
South Waziristan provide him
a good background in counterterrorism, which is currently
the focus of the ISI.
Although, Gen Sharif picked
a relatively younger general to
head the premier intelligence
agency, he was the senior most
among the batch of six two star
generals promoted in September.
Hazaras protest
against girl’s murder
Hundreds of Pakistanis from the
Hazara ethnic group staged a
protest yesterday against the
murder of a six-year-old girl,
found dumped near a garbage
heap after apparently being subjected to rape attempts.
Sahar Batool, who was from
the minority Hazara group, was
found dead last week in Quetta.
Around 500 protesters
gathered outside the office of
Baluchistan’s police chief and
staged a sit-in for around an
hour, demanding the immediate
arrests of the girl’s killers.
akistani security forces
killed at least 17 militants in heavy overnight
shelling in a restive northwestern tribal area, officials
said yesterday.
The militants were killed
in Bara town, Khyber tribal
district, after security forces
repulsed an attack on a checkpost.
“We have captured 17 dead
bodies of Lashkar-e-Islam
and Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan militants after killing
them in overnight action in
Khyber tribal district,” a senior security official said.
“Our forces had responded
to a joint attack by these two
militant outﬁts. We are now
handing over these dead bodies to the local administration
for identiﬁcation.”
Another official on the
ground in Bara conﬁrmed the
killings.
In a separate incident, three
members of a local peace
committee — a volunteer pa-
trol force backed by the government to assist in the ﬁght
against the Taliban — were
killed in an IED explosion.
A local administration ofﬁcial in the Landi Kotal area
of Khyber said that the three
were on a routine patrol when
they were hit by the blast.
Khyber is one of seven semiautonomous tribal districts
on the Afghan border, where
Pakistan has been battling Islamist groups for a decade.
Militants have taken sanctuary in Khyber after ﬂeeing strongholds in North
Waziristan, where the military
launched a large-scale offensive in June following a bloody
raid on Karachi Airport that
ended faltering peace talks between the government and the
Taliban.
Pakistan’s army says it has
killed more than 1,100 militants and lost around 100
soldiers since the start of the
operation.
The number and identity
of those killed is difficult to
verify as there is little regular
media access to the conﬂict
zone.
Empowering women
Afghan First Lady Rula Ghani, also known as Bibi Gul, speaks during an event for empowering
Afghan women at the US embassy in Kabul yesterday. The event was organised by the US
embassy to promote a long-term support programme for Afghan women and girls.
26
Gulf Times
Sunday, November 9, 2014
PHILIPPINES
Day of tears and prayers as
victims mourn at mass graves
Slow progress in relief works may
prolong the misery
Agencies
Tacloban, Philippines
S
urvivors of the strongest typhoon
ever to hit land wept at mass
graves yesterday during ceremonies to mark one year since the storm
devastated the central Philippines and
condemned millions to deeper poverty.
Super typhoon Yolanda (Haiyan)
claimed more than 7,350 lives as it
swept in off the Paciﬁc Ocean, with
its record winds and once-in-a-generation storm surges ﬂattening entire
towns.
The typhoon tore across a corridor of
islands where about 14mn people lived
in farming and ﬁshing communities
that were already among the nation’s
poorest.
The rebuilding effort has been painfully slow for most survivors, with
millions poorer and many dangerously
exposed to the next big storm as they
still live in shanty homes along coastal
areas.
In an outpouring of grief, thousands
marched to mass grave sites scattered
across the typhoon zone yesterday
to offer ﬂowers, light candles and say
prayers.
Josephine Crisostomo, 41, whose
three children died during the storm,
was among a big crowd at a site on the
outskirts of badly hit Tacloban city
where more than 2,000 people were
buried.
“I miss my children terribly, especially John Dave who would have celebrated his birthday tomorrow . . . I miss
you, son, I love you so much,” Crisostomo said.
Using felt-tip pens, mourners wrote
names of those who died on the hundreds of white crosses planted on
Residents and survivors release lanterns as part of the memorial service to commemorate the first year anniversary of typhoon Haiyan in Tacloban City.
parched earth in symbolic gestures
as many of those buried there had not
been identiﬁed.
“I am looking for my brother, but his
name is not on the list of those buried
here,” Elena Olendan, 50, told Agence
France-Presse, her eyes welling with
tears, as she wandered around the grave
site, about the size of six basketball
courts.
Olendan then found a cross at the
far end of the mass grave and wrote her
brother’s name, Antonio, on it.
The Philippines is a mainly Catholic country and many people in the
typhoon zones, as well as across the
nation, attended special church services.
At the Tacloban grave site, white
doves and balloons were released after
a bishop gave a mass.
Tacloban city mayor Alfred Romualdez, who attended the ceremony, said
yesterday’s solemn rites gave the sur-
vivors an opportunity to let emotions
come out.
“It’s bittersweet because while they
survived, they lost their loved ones,
their livelihood and their homes. Now
is really the time for them to grieve,”
Romualdez told Agence France-Presse.
The build-up to the anniversary had
focused renewed attention on the pace
of the reconstruction effort, with president Benigno Aquino’s government
criticised by many for a perceived lack
of urgency.
Roughly 1mn people need to be
moved away from coastal areas that are
deemed vulnerable to storm surges, according to a P160bn ($3.6bn) government master plan for rebuilding the
typhoon zones.
However those plans have already
fallen behind schedule, delayed by problems in ﬁnding new land that is safe and
suitable for 205,000 new homes.
Across the typhoon-hit islands,
schools, health centres, gymnasiums
and other important community buildings are also yet to be rebuilt or repaired.
In a speech at the typhoon-hit town
of Guiuan on Friday, Aquino defended
the pace of the reconstruction and recovery programme, saying he was determined to ensure it was carried out
correctly rather than rushing.
“Curse me, criticise me but I believe
I must do the right thing,” Aquino said.
“I am impatient like everyone else
but I have to stress that we can’t rebuild
haphazardly. We have to build back
better… let’s get it right the ﬁrst time
and the beneﬁts should be permanent.”
And while millions are enduring
Haiyan-exacerbated poverty, there has
been some remarkable progress from a
year ago, partly due to international aid
agencies pumping hundreds of millions
of dollars into the region.
Some of the big successes of the
campaign have been the restoration of
electricity within a few months, quick
replanting of rice crops and sanitation programmes that prevented major
outbreaks of killer diseases. Tacloban,
home to 240,000 people, again resembles many other chaotic Philippine cities, with traffic jams, busy market stalls
and packed shopping malls.
Accuser is
using fuzzy
math, says
VP’s lawyer
Manila Times
Makati
V
Filipino protesters light candles for the victims and survivors of super typhoon Haiyan during a protest at Mendiola Bridge, near the Malacanang presidential palace in Manila.
Govt way below housing targets
Manila Times
Makati
T
housands of Yolanda survivors won’t have permanent homes until 2016.
If the pace of construction of
permanent houses for survivors
of Super Typhoon Yolanda (Haiyan) does not pick up, thousands
of families will still be living in
temporary shelters when president Benigno Aquino 3rd steps
down in 2016.
This is because as of November
5, only 1,252 of the 205,128 housing units the government plans
to build for the typhoon victims
have been completed.
The government target for this
year is 8,629 houses. It expects
to ﬁnish 7,377 houses by March
2015.
For next year, the target is
85,128 housing units, and another 85,128 houses in 2016.
A year after the killer typhoon
struck Eastern Visayas, thou-
sands of survivors are still living in tents or in their damaged
houses.
The shortage of shelter is
palpable in Tacloban City
where thousands of survivors
are crammed in tent communities.
The city government said less
than 200 permanent houses
have been built and half of that
number was constructed by nongovernment organisations.
Tacloban
Mayor
Alfred
Romualdez said they need 14,500
permanent shelters for Yolanda
victims.
The slow construction of
permanent shelters prompted
Romualdez to urge government
to study a mechanism to better
address disaster-related issues.
“I think it is important to come
up with a mechanism to address
these issues because we are hit
by strong typhoons every year,”
he said.
“There was Sendong, Pablo,
and others. If we say recovery
should be fast, it should be really
fast. We should have learned our
lessons from past disasters,” he
said.
“I am just saying we have to
ask ourselves do we really have
the right mechanisms and system in place to address issues
like these? If we don’t, we should
make systems and mechanisms
to speed things up,” the mayor
said.
Romualdez also pointed out
that the government should not
“divert” the deﬁnition of the
“build back better” programme.
He explained that “build back
better” should mean “building
their [victims] lives back better
not building infrastructure better.”
“Based on the feedback that
we are getting, the people are
saying that they should be the
priority because they need help,
their lives were ruined,” Romualdez said.
“They feel that if the focus
then was humanitarian response
by giving food, the response
should be the same in giving
shelter, it should be among the
priorities. But apparently they
feel giving shelter is [the] lesser
priority,” he added.
In addition to the construction
of 1,252 housing units, the national government reported that
it ﬁnished construction of 26km
of national roads, 57.69km of
farm-to-market roads, 158.5km
bridges, 2 ﬂood control structures, 101 new classrooms, renovated 833 classrooms, 28 airports, 29 public markets, 3 health
facilities in government hospitals
and 25 health facilities in regional
health units.
The Department of Education
said more than 17,000 damaged
classrooms have been repaired.
As of November 4, more than half
of the targeted 2,313 classrooms
are ongoing construction.
Social eelfare secretary Corazon Dinky Soliman said the government is doing its best so that
by December 30, families liv-
ing in tent cities will have been
transferred to better homes.
“The task of rebuilding is indeed a challenge but with the
private sector, our partner nongovernment and international
humanitarian organizations, and
the survivors themselves working together, we have no doubt
that the areas devastated by
‘Yolanda’ will rise again,” Soliman said.
As of last June, there were
3,219 families staying in tents
and makeshift houses in Leyte
and Samar.
Last week, Soliman visited
Barangays 88, 89, and 90 in Tacloban to check on the condition of families staying in tents.
She also consulted the barangay
chairmen to discuss the residents’ transfer to transitional
shelters.
The DSWD, in partnership
with the International Organization for Migration (IOM), has
been relocating hundreds of
families to transition sites.
ice president Jejomar
Binay’s camp on Friday slammed lawyer
Renato Bondal for reportedly
using ﬂawed logic and fuzzy
math once again in alleging
that the Makati Science High
School is overpriced.
Joey
Salgado,
Binay’s
spokesperson said Bondal
conveniently overlooked the
fact that the total construction cost includes the cost of
the school’s foundation, ﬁnishing and facilities. “If we
go by his fuzzy math, then all
public school buildings are
overpriced,” Salgado said.
He added that Bondal had
earlier cited data from the National Statistics Office (NSO)
in claiming that Makati City
Hall Building 2 was overpriced, even if the NSO itself
clariﬁed that the data is based
on building permit applications and not actual construction costs.
“Remember this is the same
person who has perjured himself before the Senate. Bondal claimed that the birthday
cakes given by Makati to senior citizens were overpriced
at P1,000, only to admit later
Jejomar Binay
that the amount was just a
‘guess’,” Salgado said.
“His claim of overpricing in
Makati Building 2 and Makati
Science High School falls into
the same category. It’s guesswork or ‘hula-hula’ that won’t
pass scrutiny in a court of law
but is being encouraged by the
Senate,” he added.
The
vice
president’s
spokesperson further said that
all Makati projects comply
with the process required by
law and undergo audit by the
Commission on Audit (COA).
“Both Building 2 and Makati
Science have passed COA review. If Bondal and the senate
are conﬁdent in their latest
allegations, then they should
ﬁle a case before the courts,”
he said.
Salgado also hit former
Makati City bids and award
committee head Mario Hechanova for continuing to drag
the name of former city engineer Nelson Morales in making false testimonies before
the senate.
“The family and relatives of
former city engineer Nelson
Morales are still grieving from
his tragic death and Hechanova should spare them the agony of hearing the name of their
lost kin being besmirched,”
Salgado said.
Gulf Times
Sunday, November 9, 2014
27
SRI LANKA/BANGLADESH/NEPAL
Bangladeshi Chinese leader invites
chief of terror Dhaka to join bank
cell arrested C
in India
IANS
Beijing
IANS
Kolkata
I
n a major breakthrough in
the Burdwan blast case, India’s West Bengal state police yesterday arrested Bangladeshi citizen Rahamatulla alias
Sajid, described as the chief
of the Burdwan module, from
near the Dum Dum airport in
Kolkata.
“We arrested Rahamatullah
alias Sajid from Jessore Road
(under the airport police station). He is a resident of Narayanganj in Bangladesh. Preliminary interrogation revealed
he was heading the Burdwan
module. The NIA has also said
so and had announced a Rs1mn
reward for information leading
to his arrest,” Bidhannagar police commissioner Rajiv Kumar
said.
The 33-year-old Sajid is a
senior leader of the Jamaat-ulMujahideen Bangladesh (JMB).
“According to unconﬁrmed
reports, he is also a member
of the majlis-e-shura (central
committee) of the JMB,” he
said.
Sajid was picked up around
2.30pm after police intercepted
BNP calls
nationwide
protest
rallies
By Mizan Rahman
Dhaka
D
enied permission to stage
rally yesterday in Dhaka,
the Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) announced
a countrywide demonstration
programme for today, protesting what it said the government’s
undemocratic attitude.
Mirza Fakhrul Islam Alamgir,
acting secretary general, BNP,
said: “We didn’t cancel our rally. We’ve been prevented from
holding it. We strongly protest
and condemn the government’s
autocratic attitude.”
Fakhrul said they will stage
demonstrations in all cities,
including Dhaka, and district
towns to register their protest for
denial of permission for the rally.
In Dhaka city, the BNP leader
said every unit of the city BNP
will stage demonstrations in
their respective areas.
The BNP was scheduled to
hold a rally at the Suhrawardy
Udyan yesterday afternoon
marking the National Revolution
and Solidarity Day. BNP chairperson Khaleda Zia was slated to
address the rally.
Earlier on October 29, BNP
sought permission from Public
Works Department (PWD) for
holding the rally at Suhrawardy
Udyan as well as from the Dhaka
Metropolitan Police (DMP) ofﬁce for using the loudspeakers at
the rally.
However, the authorities denied it the permission for the
programme.
DMP authorities said they
would allow BNP to hold an indoor rally in the city if the party
wanted to do so.
Fakhrul said the government has closed all the spaces
for democratic practice in the
country. “Now there’s no democracy in the country. Democracy has now been crushed under
police boots.”
BNP Dhaka city unit convener
Mirza Abbas urged the government to refrain from obstructing their peaceful democratic
programmes.
a courier who was supposed to
hand over Rs100,00 to him.
“The anti-terrorism squad
team was following information about some illegal monetary transaction. Our men
intercepted a courier when he
was receiving the money. They
managed to convince him to
call Sajid. We laid a trap and
rounded him,” the police chief
said.
Sajid would be handed over
to the India’s National Investigation Agency, which is probing the October 2 blast in the
semi-urban locality of Khagragarh, about 100km from
Kolkata, in Burdwan town of
Burdwan district.
The accidental blast inside
a house killed two suspected
JMB militants and injured
another.
Sajid’s arrest comes a day
after the NIA nabbed his close
associate Zia-ul-Haque from
northern West Bengal’s Malda
district in connection with the
blast.
Indian police yesterday said
they have arrested a 36-yearold woman suspected of being
involved in a plot to assassinate
the prime minister of Bangladesh and carry out a coup.
The arrest came days after
Indian security officials said
they had uncovered a plot by
members of the JMB, accused
of carrying out scores of attacks in Bangladesh, targeting
Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina.
The group also planned to
assassinate the country’s main
opposition leader, Khaleda Zia,
Indian officials said.
Pallab Bhattacharjee, additional director general of police
in the northeastern Indian state
of Assam, said the woman had
been also charged with collecting arms with an intention of
waging war against India.
“She has been arrested by
the special operations unit of
the Assam police and will be
produced in court today,” he
said.
The alleged assassination
conspiracy was discovered after two members of the outlawed group were killed in
an explosion while building
homemade bombs at a house
in Burdwan town of Burdwan
district in West Bengal last
month.
Indian police say the militants were Bangladeshis and
were using India as a safe haven
to plan the attacks.
hinese President Xi Jinping said Bangladesh
is welcome to join the
Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB) as a founding
member, and the two countries
must enhance co-operation in
trade, agriculture, infrastructure development and maritime
industry.
Xi made the remarks yesterday morning during his
meeting with visiting Bangladesh President Abdul Hamid, who is in Beijing for a
dialogue on strengthening
connectivity
partnership,
Xinhua reported.
Xi said China’s vision to build
the Silk Road Economic Belt
and the 21st Century Maritime
Silk Road will create chances for
both countries.
The two countries should
work together to push the
building of an economic corridor linking Bangladesh, China,
India and Myanmar, Xi said.
Describing Bangladesh as an
important partner of China in
South Asia and Indian Ocean
region, Xi said the bilateral relationship features friendship,
trust and cooperation.
China appreciates Bangladesh’s support in issues concerning China’s core interests
and will as always support its
cause to safeguard independence and sovereignty and realize stability and development,
he said.
At the meeting, Hamid said
Bangladesh expects to learn
from China’s experience in
poverty alleviation and seize
the chance brought by the Silk
Road Economic Belt and the 21st
China’s President Xi Jinping, right, shaking hands with Bangladesh’s President Abdul Hamid prior to the
Dialogue On Strengthening Connectivity Partnership at the Diaoyutai State Guesthouse in Beijing yesterday.
Twenty-ﬁrst Asian countries
signed the memorandum of understanding on establishing AIIB
last month in Beijing, including
Bangladesh, Brunei, Cambodia, China, India, Kazakhstan,
Kuwait, Laos, Malaysia, Mongolia, Myanmar, Nepal, Oman,
Pakistan, the Philippines, Qatar,
Century Maritime Silk Road to
promote trade and connectivity.
Bangladesh will work with
China in climate change and
disaster control while helping
promote co-operation between
China and the South Asian Association for Regional Co-operation, he said.
Singapore, Sri Lanka, Thailand,
Uzbekistan and Vietnam.
The dialogue on strengthening
connectivity partnership scheduled yesterday in Beijing would
be attended by leaders from China, Bangladesh, Cambodia, Laos,
Mongolia, Myanmar, Pakistan
and Tajikistan.
Lanka rejects UN allegations over war probe
AFP
Colombo
S
ri Lanka yesterday angrily
rejected accusations by
the UN rights chief that
it was sabotaging a war crimes
probe into the country’s brutal separatist war, calling the
charges “extremely regrettable.”
UN High Commissioner for
Human Rights Zeid Ra’ad Al
Hussein on Friday accused Colombo of creating “a wall of
fear” and repression to scuttle the UN-mandated probe by
subjecting civil society groups
and rights activists to surveillance, harassment and other
forms of intimidation.
But yesterday Sri Lanka
denied the charge.
“The Government of Sri
Lanka, its departments and
agencies made no attempt
whatsoever to prevent bona ﬁde
witnesses from submitting information to the investigation
team,” Colombo’s ambassador
to the UN in Geneva, Ravinatha
Aryasinha, said in a statement.
“Neither was any attempt
made to deter and intimidate
individuals from submitting
evidence. The submissions that
the Investigation would have
received by now would stand to
prove this fact,” he added.
The UN Human Rights Council last March ordered an international investigation into allegations that up to 40,000 ethnic
Tamil civilians were killed by
government troops in the ﬁnal
months of ﬁghting in the civil
war, which ended in 2009.
Sri Lanka, which denies any
civilian was killed by its security
forces, has repeatedly refused to
cooperate with the probe, insisting a domestic commission
of inquiry can do the job.
“The government of Sri
Lanka has refused point blank
to co-operate with the investigation despite being explicitly
requested by the Human Rights
Council to do so,” Zeid said.
In his statement, Aryasin-
ha said that his government’s
“categorical rejection of the
investigation established by
the Human Rights Council is
not tantamount to concealing
information.”
“The Government of Sri Lanka has steadfastly maintained
that it owes to the country’s dignity not to subject its people to
an investigation that does not
conform to even the minimum
requisites of justice and fair play.
“This position has been overwhelmingly endorsed by the
national Parliament. It is a principled position which the Government chose to take that was
supported by many countries in
the Council.”
The Sri Lankan government
charged earlier this week that
the probe had been “unprofessional” and that its approach
was “selective and biased”,
accusations Zeid ﬂatly rejected.
The UN has estimated up to
100,000 people may have been
killed in the separatist conﬂict
between 1972 and 2009.
Youths in Nepal take pride in
preserving ancient dance form
India to
provide
vehicles for
summit
IANS
Kathmandu
India will provide six
sophisticated armoured vehicles
to ferry the world leaders during
the 18th Saarc summit to be held
in Kathmandu later this month.
India had offered to provide these
bullet proof vehicles to Nepal free of
charge, foreign ministry sources said.
The vehicles will be utilised to
ferry heads of the government
or heads of the state during
the summit being held from
November 26-27, the sources said.
The bullet-proof Mercedes-Benz
cars are scheduled to land in
Kathmandu in a special cargo
flight on November 15. These
bullet-proof cars will be at the
disposal of six, out of eight,
participating heads of state of
Saarc member states during the
two-day jamboree.
According to officials, Indian
Prime Minister Narendra Modi
will himself bring one such car
with him during his travel while
Nepal’s Prime Minister Sushil
Koirala already has one. During
Modi’s last visit to Nepal in
August, the Indian government
had brought such two bulletproof BMWs in Nepal.
Besides, additional 32 high-end
Mercedes Benz sedans, which the
Nepal government has arranged
to rent from India’s private firms
for the summit, will be arriving
in Kathmandu via land routes on
November 19.
F
or the past 12 consecutive nights, Nepali
youths converged in the
historic Patan Durbar Square
in Kathmandu to join in the
preservation of Kartik Naach, a
dance-drama performed since
ancient times.
To the accompaniment of
throbbing music, the youths
try to safeguard the unique
form of 17th century narrative
dance and attune it to modern
choreography, Xinhua reported.
It is believed that the narrative dance is based on stories
from Hindu mythology. The
underlying theme of the whole
performance is the triumph of
god over evil forces.
Ravi Krishna, 45, plays the
lead. He has been playing the
role of Varaga Avatar for the
past eight years.
“It gives me immense pleasure to act like a hero in front of
the audience. My father and
grandfather used to perform in
this legendary show, and now,
I am continuing this tradition.
I am preserving this culture for
the future generation,” he said.
This sophisticated annual
dance-drama was ﬁrst performed during the Malla period
Artists performing during the Kartik Naach festival in the ancient courtyard of Patan Durbar Square in Lalitpur, near Kathmandu.
when Nepal was ruled by king
Siddhi Narsingh Malla. The Malla period is regarded as the Golden Age of Nepali culture. Since
then, the dance-drama has been
performed every year by young
Nepali actors and dancers.
Kiran Chitrakar, an artist and
chairman of Kartik Naach preservation committee, said that
he has been involved in Kartik
Naach for the past 23 years. “It’s
not merely a dance or a cultural
performance. It is a symbol of
our identity as a people. Over the
years, Kartih Naach never lost its
beauty and meaning,” he said.
According to cultural experts,
during the ancient times, the
dance-drama used to be staged
in the open for a whole month.
Now, the period for the performance has been shortened
with some stories removed.
This historical dance-drama
has only two or three major
characters but there are around
40 artists involved in the show
and most of them are young
performers.
“It’s a matter of pride to continue this dance culture as a tribute to our forebears. I would continue to perform until I get old,”
said Bibek Shrestha, a 21-yearold student who has been performing for the past four years.
Despite the chilling autumn
evening, Patan Durbar Square
has been ﬁlled with spectators
during the performances.
“I have been watching Kartik
Naach since childhood, it’s just
awesome. It’s a unique type of
entertainment for young people”, Smriti Silpakar, 24, said.
This dance-drama is named
Kartik Naach because it is being performed on the Nepali
month of Kartik, which falls in
October or November.
Kartik Naach is a cultural
heritage that the Nepali people
would continue to perform and
preserve even with the onslaught
of Western entertainment.
28
Gulf Times
Sunday, November 9, 2014
COMMENT
Chairman: Abdullah bin Khalifa al-Attiyah
Editor-in-Chief : Darwish S Ahmed
Production Editor: C P Ravindran
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GULF TIMES
Qatar Airways joins
global efforts to
boost travel security
Qatar Airways’ decision to use the Interpol database to
screen the passports of its passengers will go a long way in
realising a global initiative to make air travel even safer.
As part of efforts to enhance international travel
security, Qatar Airways recently signed an agreement with
International Criminal Police Organisation (Interpol) to
use the world police body’s “I-Checkit” system to screen
the passports of its passengers against Interpol’s Stolen
and Lost Travel Documents (SLTD) database.
With the agreement, the national carrier has become the
ﬁrst full-service airline to use I-Checkit, joining regional
low-cost carrier AirAsia in piloting the Interpol initiative,
which allows select partners in the travel, hotel and
banking industries to send their clients’ travel document
information to be screened against the SLTD database.
Through I-Checkit, partners such as Qatar Airways
send the passport numbers of passengers through secure
channels to be compared against Interpol’s SLTD database,
which contains more than 43mn records of lost or stolen
travel documents from some 168 countries.
The International Air Transport Association (IATA), the
global body of airlines, has launched a global initiative
on in-ﬂight tracking of passenger aircraft since the
mysterious disappearance of Malaysia Airlines Flight 370
from Kuala Lumpur to
Beijing with 239 people
on board in March this
year.
“We cannot let another
aircraft simply vanish,”
said Tony Tyler, IATA
director general at a
media event in Doha on
the sidelines of the global
body’s annual general
meeting this year.
Tyler had also urged
governments to make better use of information sources
like Interpol’s lost or stolen passports database.
Some 240 member airlines of IATA carry nearly 85% of
all passengers and cargo worldwide.
The global airline body had set up a task force that will
make recommendations by end-2014 on how commercial
aircraft can be tracked continuously.
Qatar Airways CEO Akbar al-Baker said the airline
always placed “great importance” on the safety and
security of its passengers and added that the national
carrier viewed Interpol’s I-Checkit as an opportunity
to “further enhance its stringent safety and security
measures”.
IATA had also called upon governments to step up the
use of passenger databases such as the one operated
by Interpol to determine if a passport has been stolen.
Interpol has a database of 43mn stolen or lost travel
documents, but most countries don’t run passports
through its computer system.
But the global initiative led by IATA, Interpol and
supported by airlines such as Qatar Airways may soon
change that.
Recently, the European Union called on its member
countries to systematically check all passports against
Interpol’s SLTD database at their borders and to ensure
their records of lost and stolen passports are promptly
shared with Interpol.
This, according to Interpol secretary general Ronald
K Noble, was a very positive development. “Nothing
short of a co-ordinated global approach uniting the
law enforcement community and private industry via
I-Checkit will be sufficient for preventing criminals and
terrorists from moving between countries undetected to
carry out their illicit activities,” he said.
Challenges as Eastern Europe
completes 25 years of transition
Several Central European
countries have achieved
per capita GDP levels that
place them on the lower
rungs of the eurozone’s
income ladder
By David Lipton
Washington
W
hat a difference 25 years
can make. In 1989,
Central and Eastern
Europe embarked
upon a historic transformation,
from authoritarian communism
to democratic capitalism. With
memories of the old system
already beginning to fade, it seems
ﬁtting to look back at the region’s
achievements, review the lessons
learned and examine the challenges
ahead.
It would be a mistake to assume
that the success of the region’s
transformation was inevitable. At the
close of the Cold War, Central and
Eastern Europe’s economies were
burdened by pervasive state ownership
and concentrated investments in
heavy industry.
Fiscal and monetary policies had
focused on boosting industrial growth,
without regard to macroeconomic
balance, resulting in chronically
excessive demand and widespread
shortages. To make matters worse,
most of the region – Czechoslovakia
being a notable exception – was
plagued by unsustainable external
debt and soaring inﬂation.
Meanwhile, few economists or
policymakers had the background
needed to tackle the complex tasks
ahead. Such was the scale of the
necessary transition that neither
modern macroeconomics, nor the
International Monetary Fund’s nearly
50 years of experience, offered much
guidance.
The challenges to be overcome were
daunting, and many thought it would
be impossible.
Instead, four key ingredients
contributed to successful transitions.
First, courageous politicians and
policymakers took on the challenge
of designing crucial reforms and
explaining their consequences to a
public that was understandably wary.
They understood the historic nature of
the task and embraced the challenge.
Some countries,
especially in the
Balkans and the
Commonwealth
of Independent
States, are far from
completing the
transition
Second, the reform strategies
focused squarely on the essential:
the liberalisation of prices to reﬂect
scarcity and facilitate the allocation
of resources; stabilisation of ﬁnances
to end shortages and inﬂation;
and privatisation of state-owned
companies and assets in order to
improve corporate governance
and performance. Countries that
implemented these policies generally
made the quickest and most complete
progress.
Third, the allure of rejoining Europe
after years of isolation, together with
the European Union’s commitment to
enlargement, provided a gravitational
pull – and a legislative template –
that helped policymakers justify
and implement difficult reforms.
Unpopular laws sometimes brought
down governments, but the ultimate
litmus test for any new policy
remained: “Will it lead us back to
Europe?”
Finally, external support helped the
region’s heavily indebted countries
face the twin tasks of implementing
structural reforms and coping with
ﬁnancial instability. Financing
from the IMF, the World Bank, the
European Bank for Reconstruction and
Development and bilateral lenders,
along with debt relief from official
and commercial bank creditors,
helped relieve the pressure. Technical
assistance, capacity building, and
support for privatisation – of banks,
in particular – further smoothed the
way.
Overall, the progress has been
impressive. Several Central European
countries have achieved per capita
GDP levels (measured in terms of
purchasing power parity) that place
them on the lower rungs of the
eurozone’s income ladder. Standards
of living in the region have improved
dramatically – even if full convergence
with Western Europe is far from
achieved.
Unsurprisingly, however, the
picture is far from rosy everywhere.
Some countries, especially in the
Balkans and the Commonwealth
of Independent States, are far from
completing the transition and have
gone through repeated cycles of hope
and crisis.
As elsewhere in the world, growth
in the region has slowed sharply
since the global financial crisis
erupted in 2008. The pace of reform
has slowed in many countries –
and reversed in a few. Geopolitical
considerations have complicated
matters further, as the conflict in
Ukraine demonstrates.
Looking ahead, one can envision
two broad scenarios. In the ﬁrst, the
region risks a cycle of weak growth,
retreat from market-oriented policies
xand increasing disillusionment.
As a result, convergence with
Western Europe could slow, with
many countries lagging far behind
– a far different outcome from that
envisioned during the boom of the
mid-2000s, when convergence within
a generation seemed almost like a
birthright.
In the second, brighter scenario,
rapid convergence to advancedeconomy income levels continues,
supported by a focus on two priorities,
detailed in a new IMF report.
A renewed commitment to
macroeconomic and ﬁnancial
stability allows governments to rein
in persistent deﬁcits and growing
debts and address their economies’
increasing volume of bad loans.
Meanwhile, deeper structural
reforms improve the business and
investment climate, strengthen
corporate governance, expand access
to credit, free up labour markets,
control public expenditure, and
bolster tax administration – all of
which puts their economies on track
for sustained rapid growth.
The IMF, for its part, has been a
committed partner to Central and
Eastern Europe and its transformation
throughout the past 25 years. It stands
ready to help countries in the region
make the next quarter-century just as
impressive. - Project Syndicate
zDavid Lipton, ﬁrst deputy managing
director at the International
Monetary Fund, was senior director
at the US National Economic Council
and National Security Council
during President Barack Obama’s
administration and under-secretary of
the Treasury for International Affairs
under President Bill Clinton.
With the
agreement,
Qatar Airways
has become the
first full-service
airline to use
I-Checkit
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A general view of the installation “Lichtgrenze” (Border of Light) on a foot bridge along a former Berlin Wall location near Bornholmer Strasse. A part of the inner
city of Berlin is being temporarily divided, with a light installation featuring 8,000 luminous white balloons, following the 15.3km path the Berlin Wall once occupied,
to commemorate the 25th anniversary of the fall of the wall. In 1989, Central and Eastern Europe embarked upon a historic transformation, from authoritarian
communism to democratic capitalism.
Israel’s ex-army officers call for peace initiative
By Dr Cesar Chelala
New York
M
ore than a hundred
former high-ranking
Israeli members of the
armed forces and police
and intelligence officers have called
on Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin
Netanyahu to make a strong move for
peace with the Palestinians.
In a letter to Netanyahu, the 106
former army and police officers said
that he should seriously pursue peace
with the Palestinians stating: “We, the
undersigned, reserve Israel Defence
Forces (IDF) commanders and retired
police officers, who have fought in
Israel’s military campaigns, know
ﬁrst-hand of the heavy and painful
price exacted by wars.”
The officers called on Netanyahu to
embark on a “courageous initiative”
and make peace with the Palestinians
and other Arab countries.
The letter came at a time when the
situation is rapidly deteriorating in
Gaza and in Jerusalem. Following an
October 24 suicide attack in the Sinai
Peninsula where some 30 policemen
were killed, Egypt closed the Rafah
crossing, a 12-km long border between
Gaza and Egypt.
The situation worsened last
weekend when Israel also closed its
two main border crossings after an
anonymous group launched a mortar
shell at Israel –the second incident
after the August 27 truce.
“We expect a show of
courageous initiative
and leadership from
you”
As a result of those actions by
Egypt and Israel, the Gaza Strip is
now totally sealed off, leaving its
inhabitants, foreigners and sick people
totally isolated, even those in need of
medical care. “Gaza had turned into a
big prison, and now it will turn into a
huge graveyard,” said Fatima Hassan,
a 56-year-old breast cancer patient
from the town of Khan Younis in the
southern Gaza Strip.
In the letter addressed to
Netanyahu, the Israeli officials state:
“We fought bravely for the country
in the hope that our children would
live here in peace, but we got a sharp
reality check, and here we are again
sending our children out into the
battleﬁeld. This is not a question of
left or right. What we have here is
an alternative option for resolving
the conﬂict that is not based solely
on bilateral negotiations with the
Palestinians, which have failed time
and again.”
The letter is the brainchild of
major general Amnon Reshef, a
former armored corps commander.
According to the Ynet news website,
Reshef, who had fought in the Battle
of the Chinese Farm, which took
place in 1973 between the Egyptian
Army and the Israeli forces, as part
of the Yom Kippur War, was sick and
tired of repeated fighting instead
of adopting one of the Arab peace
initiatives such as the Saudi proposal
of 2002.
The Saudi Initiative, also called
the Arab Peace Initiative, is a
comprehensive peace proposal ﬁrst
put forward in 2002 at the Beirut
Summit of the Arab League by the
then crown prince, King Abdullah of
Saudi Arabia and re-endorsed at the
Riyadh Summit in 2007.
The initiative intended to end the
Arab-Israeli conﬂict and bring peace
to the region. The normalisation of
relations between the Arab countries
and Israel was conditioned on the
complete Israeli withdrawal from
all occupied territories and a just
settlement of the Palestinian refugee
situation based on UN resolution
194 (which calls for a diplomatic
resolution to the conﬂict and resolves
that any refugees “wishing to return
to their homes and live at peace with
their neighbours” should be able to do
so or, if they otherwise wish, should be
provided with compensation.)
George Mitchell, then the
US special envoy to the Middle
East, announced in March 2009
that President Barack Obama’s
administration intended to
“incorporate” the initiative into its
Middle East policy. This opinion
wasn’t supported by later events.
Prime Minister Netanyahu’s refusal
to take a more active role to end the
conﬂict was severely criticised by
several of the letter-signers who
stated that Israel had the means to
reach a two-state solution without
jeopardising the country’s security
but had failed to do so because of weak
leadership.
As the signers of the letter wrote
to Netanyahu: “We expect a show of
courageous initiative and leadership
from you. Lead – and we will stand
behind you.”
zDr Cesar Chelala is a winner of an
Overseas Press Club of America award.
Gulf Times
Sunday, November 9, 2014
29
COMMENT
The changing face of communism in Vietnam
Nearly 25 years after the fall
of the Berlin Wall,
communism lives on in
brand-loving Vietnam, but
in a form far removed from
its origins
By Marianne Brown and Pham Bac
Hanoi/DPA
A
t a fashionable cafe in central
Hanoi, Van sips a $3 latte
and taps the screen of her
iPhone 5.
Dressed in a designer cardigan
and skinny jeans, the 28-year-old
Communist Party member can speak
English, but responds to questions in
Vietnamese.
“I joined (the party) because of my
job,” says Van, who works for a staterun media outlet and did not want to
give her real name.
Being a member gives her a stronger
chance of promotion, she explains.
In many ways, Van is typical of
those born into prosperous families of
the post-war period, a generation that
has embraced consumer culture, and
is too young to remember Vietnam’s
years of grinding poverty.
The persistent survival of the
Communist Party in Vietnam may
jar with the widespread adoption
of global brands like Starbucks and
McDonalds, at least to Western eyes.
But Van’s pragmatism reﬂects how
the Vietnamese Communist Party has
weathered the past decades.
Its durability depends partly on how
you deﬁne communism. If examined
in the economic sense, “then the
answer is it is dead in Vietnam”, says
Vietnam expert Carl Thayer, emeritus
professor at the University of New
South Wales in Australia.
Communist parties took root in
the 20th century across South-East
Asia, where some scholars argue that
Confucianism, a philosophy of order,
Motorcyclists riding past a statue of the Russian communist leader Vladimir I Lenin with bunches of flowers placed by local communist party and government’s
organisations on the occasion of the 97th anniversary of the Russia’s October Revolution in downtown Hanoi.
hierarchy and strict moral codes,
made it easier for people to accept the
principles of communism in countries
historically under China’s inﬂuence.
Ho Chi Minh, the revolutionary
who would lead the Vietnamese
against colonial France, “understood
the importance of reconciling
communism with Confucian culture”,
author David Priestland writes in The
Red Flag: Communism and the Making
of the Modern World.
Today, the Vietnamese government
continues to promote the “morals and
virtues of Ho Chi Minh” at schools, in
the media and banners decorating the
streets.
But some argue this is mostly
window-dressing. The current
Communist Party “has no
understanding about Confucianism
and little about communism,” says
former government advisor Professor
Tuong Lai, who has been a member of
the Communist Party for 56 years.
Instead of ideology, the legitimacy
of the Vietnam Communist Party
today “rests on its ability to deliver the
economic goods to society at large and
not on moral grounds”, Thayer says.
This began in 1986 when the
Communist Party abandoned its
Soviet-style doctrinaire approach to
centralised planning with economic
reforms known as “doi moi” and the
approval of foreign direct investment.
Over the years consistent economic
growth and foreign investment
has led to rising living standards
and the upgrading of the country
to middle income status. As long
as this trend continues, capitalism
and globalisation allow the party to
continue too.
“If Vietnam’s communists had not
done away with the Stalinist system of
central planning and priority to heavy
industry, foreign investors would
have stayed away. The capitalist world
would have had no incentive to invest
in Vietnam,” Thayer says.
But that does not mean that old
school values are dead. Despite
speaking out against corruption and
being sidelined for his views, Tuong
Lai says he would not consider giving
up his party membership.
“Some people ask me why I remain
in the party,” he says. “I tell them that
I stay to clean up the leaders so as to
push the country forward. I believe
that in the party there are many
patriots.”
But his optimism does not resonate
with many Vietnamese.
Farmer Nguyen Van Hien, 53, from
Hai Duong province was a soldier
posted at the border with China
during heightened tensions in the
early 1980s.
“The current party is very
different to the one which ruled
the country during the American
(Vietnam) War and war against
China,” he said. “At that time, they
really cared for the life of people.
Now they only care for themselves.
Support for the party has decreased
very fast among farmers.”
Media worker Van says she would
drop her party membership if she
worked for a foreign company.
“Maybe in the future it won’t matter
for my job, but not yet,” she says.
“The majority of Vietnamese
people my age don’t care about
Ho Chi Minh’s teaching,” Van
says. “They just read it or repeat it
because it’s become habit.”
Weather report
Letters
Three-day forecast
The importance of
a second opinion
Dear Sir,
After reading quite a handful of
letters in Gulf Times on hospitalrelated issues, I would like to suggest
that unless it’s an emergency medical
situation, it’s always advisable to
take a second opinion, because
doctors are also human beings and
to err, as they say, is human. (This is
applicable not only to medical issues
but also to any task that requires
some level of decision-making and
planning, such as buying something
and planning for school admissions,
jobs, marriages, etc.) To support my
comment, let me narrate two of my
experiences here.
The ﬁrst one was related to a top
hospital in Doha. I was admitted there
a few years ago with severe nausea
and vomiting. I thought it was a case
of food poisoning and conveyed my
feelings to my doctor. But he suggested
a few tests and an abdominal
ultrasound and came to the conclusion
that I needed an urgent surgery to
remove my gallbladder since he had
spotted “something black” there.
I was confused and afraid on
hearing this. I didn’t know what to do.
But I soon got hold of myself. I told
the doctor that I would come back for
the surgery at a later date as my family
wasn’t there now to support me. I was,
therefore, discharged at my own risk.
Later I went to India and consulted
with two gastroenterologists at
Lakeshore Hospital in Kochi and LF
hospital in Angamaly (both in the
southern India state of Kerala) and
did an endoscopy. Both the doctors
assured me that there was nothing
wrong with my gallbladder or any
other organs, to that matter.
By God’s grace, I have been ﬁne ever
since with all my organs intact and in
place.
One of my colleagues had done
the gallbladder removal surgery from
the same Doha hospital almost the
same time I was admitted there and,
after hearing my story later, was quite
shocked. Now, every time we run into
each other, the ﬁrst thing he asks me
is: “How’s your gallbladder?”
He is having some digestive
problems like heartburn, etc and
suspects that these are all because
of his surgery. Though some doctors
may tell you that gallbladder is an
“unwanted” organ in our body, I
strongly believe there is a purpose for
everything created by God.
I used to think why God had given
us two kidneys when actually we
required only one to survive. Maybe,
God wants to test us whether we are
willing to donate the spare one to a
needy person.
My second experience, which also
proves that second opinions are quite
important, was related to mobile
phones.
It was when smartphones ﬁrst came
to the market. I had just bought one
of the latest models but was not fully
familiar with the general interface
or the functionalities of the phone’s
screen. I was ignorant of the fact that
I should swipe the screen to the right
in order to receive incoming calls.
So, whenever I received a call, I just
pressed the icon as I would usually do
with my regular handset before. But
this was apparently of no use.
Thinking of it as a manufacturing
defect, I took the phone to its
authorised service centre. Guess what!
The “authorised service person” also
didn’t know of this feature either!
He tried the same way as I did on
receiving calls and ﬁnally suggested
it needed a complete reinstallation of
the software! But doing this, I would
end up losing all the data which I had
stored so far, he warned me.
I replied that I would come back
to him after copying all the data and
left the workshop. On the way back
I visited a mobile phone showroom
close to the dealer’s outlet and
for a second opinion I showed the
instrument to a Filipino sales person
and explained my problem. (Filipinos,
I feel, are often smarter than
smartphones themselves!) And presto,
he demonstrated to me the way how
to take calls in a smartphone. Problem
solved!
So, you see, a “second opinion” is
always useful in this confused world.
K John Johnson
(Address supplied)
TODAY
Oil price
decline riddle
High: 28 C
Low: 20 C
Slight dust with scattered clouds with
chance of rain at places at times and
relatively cold by night
Dear Sir,
MONDAY
High: 29 C
Low : 22 C
I am really surprised by the sudden
drop in crude oil prices in the world
commodity market. When the prices
were going up, experts said it was due
to speculation and future trading.
Now that the prices are falling
drastically, one would think
speculation and future trading are
again at play. But the question is: who
are behind the speculation, the oil
producing companies or middle men?
P Cloudy
TUESDAY
High: 28 C
Low : 20 C
Clear
Fishermen’s forecast
KN
(Full name and address supplied)
OFFSHORE DOHA
Wind: NW-NE 05-15 KT
Waves: 1-3/4 Feet
INSHORE DOHA
Wind: NW-NE 06-16 KT
Waves: 1-2/3 Feet
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Live issues
Roller-coaster of parenthood driven by love
By Barton Goldsmith
MCT
N
ot every man or woman
is cut out to be a parent.
Some people are unable to
deal with the emotional
roller coaster of raising a family. It
is also a very tough job physically,
m1entally and ﬁnancially, so if you
aren’t internally prepared with a ton of
desire, being a parent may not be your
thing, and that’s just ﬁne.
I love family and enjoy having
all kinds of people around, from
grandparents to tiny tots. I just like
the energy and all the love that comes
with having those I care for - whether
related to me or not - close by.
But not everyone feels that way,
and it can cause a lot of emotional
discomfort if you have to be around
kids but don’t really enjoy the
experience.
If you are in a serious relationship
and thinking about tying the knot, you
and your partner should discuss your
feelings about children and family.
Unfortunately, most couples forget to
talk about this before their wedding
day, which sometimes can lead to
upsetting discoveries down the road.
Parenting is a
complete give
Many people who are great at being
parents when the kids are young
may ﬁnd the teenage years to be far
more challenging. When you are
attempting to get your teenager to take
out the trash, help with the dishes or
ﬁnish homework, it may be hard to
remember that your child was ever an
adorable toddler.
When kids are as strong-willed
as the parents, the home wars can
become pretty ugly, and it can bring
out the dark side of an overly-stressed
mother or father.
If you are wondering if you fall
into this category, ask yourself this
question: have you ever wanted to
punch your child? If the answer is
yes, then you must look into what is
being triggered inside you. There is no
reason to ever hit your children, even if
they are bigger than you are.
Parenting is a complete give. If you
get anything back, consider it a gift.
But never take the love for granted,
because not every family has it. Those
close and loving relationships require
nurturing and an ability to catch
yourself before you go off.
I always recommend that if you
need to say something and it may
come off as criticism, say it to yourself
ﬁrst to make sure there is nothing
hurtful in your words.
On the other hand, when your kid
says he hates you or she rolls her eyes at
just about everything you say, it can cut
deeply. The proper response is to say
to your child: “I understand how you
feel, but I love you anyway.” This simple
statement can disarm any rancour that
may be lurking around the corner.
Remember that we all get
stressed out, and this includes
children. We also all can
overreact, rather than properly
respond, when we have too much
on our plates.
Having a family discussion is
something that few families do, but
the results can change things in an
amazing way. The goal is to reach a
common understanding about how to
have a loving home.
Children respond to love and
kindness. So do we all. The best
way to teach your kids the value of a
supportive family is to set the example
for them.
zDr Barton Goldsmith, a
psychotherapist in Westlake
Village, California, is the author
of The Happy Couple: How to
Make Happiness a Habit One Little
Loving Thing at a Time. Follow
his daily insights on Twitter at @
BartonGoldsmith, or e-mail him at
[email protected]
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30
Gulf Times
Sunday, November 9, 2014
QATAR
Hand-made ‘Market at Katara an
opportunity for entrepreneurs’
By Joey Aguilar
Staff Reporter
Q
atarArt’s
Hand-made
Market at Katara - the
Cultural Village provides
an opportunity for entrepreneurs to showcase their products, group’s head Dominika Bozic told Gulf Times.
Members of QatarArt showcase a variety of handcrafts
and products at the Katara Art
Studio courtyard every two
weeks. These include jewellery, accessories, paintings, illustrations, graphic designs,
craft kits, bags, clothes, home
decors, handcrafted cards
and boxes, party supplies and
homemade food.
“Everything is hand-made.
We only allow members who
are making hand-made stuff
here in Qatar; they cannot import anything only supplies
(raw materials),” said Bozic.
“They cannot buy abroad and
resell here.”
Since the venue can only accommodate a limited number of
stalls, QatarArt tries to rotate its
members to the activity.
Products with unique and colourful designs are a big hit among the young clients.
The market started in March
with the same concept and continued until April. It temporarily stopped during summer and
continued in October.
Bozic said prices also vary,
some are cheaper while others are
expensive but of good quality.
“You can also order cus-
tomised items. If you want
something different or personalised, you can always
ask because here you can ﬁnd
members who are artists,” she
noted. “We are also trying to
bring new stuff,”
QatarArt uses various social
media to promote their products
such as Facebook, Twitter and
Instagram.
Bozic said they got a positive response from the market in
Doha with the full support of Katara. Founded in 2011, the group
became active only in October
last year. The bi-monthly activity started in March this year in
QC to host
CSR meet
in Dec
Q
atar Chamber will be
hosting the “Second CSR
Qatar 2014”, on December 1-3 at the Marriott Marquis
City Center, Doha.
Remy Rowhani, director-general, QC, said the country will be
hosting the event as it prepares
“for the next step in its journey
toward inclusive growth.”
“CSR Qatar 2014 will play a
pivotal role in catalysing business orientation towards corporate social responsibility (CSR)
and sustainability, which we believe are evolving concepts that
are yet to be fully-understood
or implemented by businesses,”
Rowhani said.
He added: “Cultivating a culture of corporate responsibility
and transparency and promoting businesses’ role in driving
social progress is one of the focus areas for the chamber and
we believe forums such as CSR
Qatar can provide a platform
for stakeholders to share ideas
and strategies on how to build a
better future for all.”
Launched last year with the
aim of aligning CSR initiatives
with the Qatar National Vision
2030, the conference provides an
opportunity for CSR professionals to network with high-level
experts from across the region.
The programme will have
360-degree stakeholder involvement, gathering policymakers,
business leaders, CSR practitioners, academics, and key representatives from NGOs (nongovernment
organisations),
foundations, and think-tanks.
“CSR Qatar provides a dynamic
platform for organisations in Qatar
and the region to unite for a common cause – of creating shared
value and making a difference to
the community at large,” said conference director Hoda Abdelhay.
Abdelhay said the conference
aims to enhance stakeholder collaboration and develop sustainable
CSR strategies that are based on
proven global models but adapted
to accommodate regional business
sensibilities and practices.
“With a programme agenda
geared towards catalysing corporate involvement in the community, this year’s conference will
discuss innovative ideas and ways
to enhance business contribution
to sustainable development. This
involves encouraging organisations to continually-improve
their positive impact on society
while remaining committed to reducing their ecological footprint
through energy-efficient and
environmentally-friendly practices,” Abdelhay added.
During the conference, leading organisations will share their
strategy development practices,
how they overcame challenges,
as well as statistical measurable
outcomes or Social Return on
Investment (SROI).
Dominika Bozic and some of QatArt members showcase their products at the Hand-made Market
yesterday. PICTURES: Shaji Kayamkulam.
collaboration with Katara Art
Studio.
From a small online group,
QatarArt grew to 60 members now from 30 countries. It
is now organising marketing
workshops for its members in a
bid to improve their marketing
skills such as branding, prod-
uct photography, and use of
social media.
Members also meet regularly
in most of the parties and gettogether they organise.
An artist herself, Bozic sells
customised paintings, cards, gift
tags, bookmarks, among others. “I think I was born an artist,
I cannot live without creating,”
she said. Besides the “QatarArt’s
Hand-made Market,” its members also participate in different activities in Qatar. Bozic has
urged residents to support their
group saying they should “pick
up unique products and get
inspired.”
Centre uses cutting-edge therapy
to treat cervical cancer patients
A
The PCDAA meeting in progress.
Drugs and alcohol affairs
committee holds meeting
T
he Permanent Committee for Drugs and
Alcohol Affairs has held
a consultative meeting of the
co-ordinators of National Drug
Control Strategy (2010-2015)
at its headquarters in Sailiya.
The meeting was attended
by representative of different
agencies, including Drug Enforcement Administration at
the Ministry of Interior, the Supreme Education Council, the
Supreme Council of Health, the
Ministry of Labour and Social
Affairs, the Ministry of Culture,
Arts and Heritage, Qatar Media
Corporation, the Ministry of
Endowments and Islamic Affairs, Ministry of Justice, Qatar
Foundation for Social Protection and Rehabilitation, General Authority of Customs, Eid
Charity and Raf with a number
of departments at MoI and rehabilitation institutions.
Lt Col Ibrahim Mohamed
Rashid al-Somaih, secretary,
PCDAA, said this consultative
meeting was the conclusion of
the previous meetings held to
discuss the implementation of
National Drug Control Strategy
(2010-2015), especially the recommendations of the Council
of Ministers with respect to the
third phase of the implementation of the strategy.
He added that the committee will submit its fourth report
to the Council of Ministers on
what has been accomplished in
the third stage of the strategy
and proposals for the duration
of the fourth stage.
The official noted that the
strategy has achieved a number
of accomplishments including
facilities provided for psychiatric
treatments and centres for social
rehabilitation, in addition to the
centres under other establishments like Eid Charity and Raf.
He added that the upcoming
Naufar project will contribute
a lot in this ﬁeld as it will provide state-of-the-art healthcare and treatment facilities for
substance abuse therapy and
rehabilitation.
team from the department of radiation oncology at the National
Center for Cancer Care and
Research (NCCCR) has successfully implemented a sophisticated initiative – magnetic resonance image-guided
adaptive brachytherapy (MRIGABT) – for the treatment of
patients with advanced cervical cancer.
The project is led by department’s chairperson Dr Noora
Mohammed al-Hammadi and
Dr Primoz Petric, a senior consultant.
Brachytherapy is an interventional
radio-oncological
procedure, representing an essential treatment component
for cervical cancer. The historical or conventional method
of brachytherapy is based on a
two-dimensional (2D) system
of points, deﬁned on pelvic
radiographs or computed tomography (CT) images. There are
several limitations of the conventional approach, reﬂected
in its suboptimal dosimetric
(measurement of the absorbed
dose delivered by ionising radi-
Expert advises caution on
selection of artiﬁcial turf
P
lanners who choose artiﬁcial turf should ensure that they are using
environmentally
regulated
artiﬁcial grass, an expert has
stressed.
This and other key observations were made at the Future
Landscape and Public Realm
Qatar conference held recently
in Doha. QPM, the leading Qatari project management company, participated in and supported the event as a partner,
with landscape architect Hala
Shiblaq addressing the challenges related to artiﬁcial and
natural grass in a presentation
titled “Plastic vs Green”.
During the presentation,
Shiblaq highlighted the basic challenges landscape architects face when designing
projects.
“We must be wary of the
rubber inﬁll used in some lowgrade artiﬁcial grass ﬁelds,
which are often made out of
pulverised tyires with traces
of heavy metals such as lead
and could also contain traces
of carcinogens,” she said, adding that the dust produced by
constant contact with rubber
inﬁll could be inhaled or ingested by those who play on it.
Using sand inﬁll is a better
Hala Shiblaq, landscape architect
option as sand doesn’t absorb
as much heat as rubber. It is
also preferable to use an underlay, which acts as a shock
pad and reduces possible skin
abrasion during play due to
athletes sliding on the turf.
A number of high-quality
turf variations are available. So,
while choosing artiﬁcial turf,
planners should ensure that
they are using environmentally
regulated artiﬁcial grass.
Qatar uses environmentally
regulated artiﬁcial grass and
the option of using toxin-free
inﬁll is available in the country. There are lots of organic
alternatives to rubber in-
ﬁll, such as dune sand, walnut shells, coconut shells or
even cork.
One of the disadvantages of
selecting the artiﬁcial route
is the heat factor. The surface
temperature of natural grass is
similar to atmospheric temperature, while the surface
temperature of artiﬁcial grass
can be 20 degrees higher. This
makes cooling a necessity with
artiﬁcial grass.
Shiblaq said developers
and designers should refrain
from using artiﬁcial grass in
residential and educational
facilities, sports ﬁelds or playgrounds until the health and
environmental impacts are
resolved.
On the other hand, artiﬁcial grass has its merits
when used wisely. They are
good for highways and medians, roundabouts or airport
grounds where they remain
verdant and use zero water.
“We also tend to change our
behavioural habits when driving next to a green space,” said
Shiblaq. “People slow down
or remain cautious when they
drive in green areas. So, this is
one of the things we need to
think about when creating future master plans.”
She concluded that from a
landscape architect’s perspective, local identity must be
protected, ecological diversity
embraced and artiﬁcial treatments chosen wisely.
The summit, part of the
Project Qatar conference series, organised by Advanced
Conferences & Meetings, provided an opportunity for landscaping and exterior design
professionals, urban planners
and high-level decision-makers to discuss the latest trends,
key
challenges,
ongoing
projects and upcoming opportunities in Qatar’s landscaping
and outdoor design industry.
ation) and clinical results. The
implementation of the modern
state-of-the-art MR-IGABT
project aimed to reform the
brachytherapy practice in the
department to improve clinical
outcomes.
Initiated by the team in February 2013, MR-IGABT is an
evidence-based
treatment
technique that can signiﬁcantly improve the results of
treatment in cases of inoperable cervical cancer. With the
use of MR-IGABT in advanced
cervical cancer, cure rates of up
to 90% can be achieved. This
represents a 20-30% improvement compared to conventional brachytherapy techniques.
This innovative method of
treatment is also proven to reduce the rate of complications
and allow an improved quality
of life for patients.
The MR-IGABT initiative
was one of 10 clinical practice
improvement focused projects
that were recently recognised
at HMC’s Stars of Excellence
Awards.
“Our project was developed using evidence-based
limitations of conventional
brachytherapy and advantages
of MR-IGABT. Since its successful implementation, the
project has shown clear advantages over the conventional approach,” says Dr Petric.
He recalls that between October 2013 and June 2014, the
ﬁrst six patients with locally
advanced cervical cancer were
included in the new MR-IGABT
programme. To date, a total of
19 procedures have been successfully conducted.
According to Dr Al-Hammadi, MR-IGABT is a complex
procedure that requires subspecialised medical expertise
and sophisticated technology and infrastructure. “The
successful
implementation
of MR-IGABT was critically
dependent on a systematic
multidisciplinary approach.
With this procedure, we were
able to achieve a safe and clinically signiﬁcant rise in the radiotherapy dose administered
to the primary tumor in our
patients. This improved their
chance of a straightforward
cure.”
Some of the contestants of the ECQ 2014 in a meeting.
18 teams to take
part in ECQ 2014
A total of 18 teams from nine
universities will take part in the
‘Enterprise Challenge Qatar’ 2014
(ECQ), grand final competition to
be held on November 15 at Hamad
Bin Khalifa University.
The ECQ is an annual competition
that encourages and inspires
the entrepreneurial spirit among
young people in Qatar. The
competition was launched in
October, with more than 700
students from schools and
universities from across Qatar.
The teams in the final competition
are: Team Illusion and Tigers (Qatar
University), The Entrepreneurs
and Hawameet (Texas A&M
University at Qatar), UCLQatar1
and UCLQatar2 (University
College London Qatar), Smart
Circle and Horizon (Stenden
University Qatar), The Analysts
and The Jockeys (Carnegie
Mellon University Qatar), NUQ
Wildcats and The Qatar Edge
(Northwestern University Qatar),
ALA and Unicorns (College of the
North Atlantic – Qatar), Ibn Adam
and GU Team One (Georgetown
University Qatar), and Athena and
SODA (Virginia Commonwealth
University Qatar).
Since the launch of this year’s
challenge, more than 100 volunteer
mentors, the vast majority of
whom are Qatari, have delivered
coaching sessions on core business
concepts, focusing on the computerbased business simulation, which
evaluates the teams’ performance
as a business in a competitive
marketplace over a three-year period.
Students also received mentoring
on ethical business, which tests
participants’ ability to balance the
economic, environmental and social
performance of their company.
Winners of the ECQ Universities
Challenge will be honoured and
awarded at the upcoming Global
Entrepreneurship Week (GEW)
gala dinner on November 16. This
year, GEW-Qatar is being held
under the patronage of HE Sheikh
Ahmed bin Jassim bin Mohamed
al-Thani, Minister of Economy and
Commerce.
32
Gulf Times
Sunday, November 9, 2014
QATAR
Noted artist
Neshat’s show
at Mathaf
M
athaf: Arab Museum of
Modern Art in Doha is
presenting “Shirin Neshat: Afterwards”, the ﬁrst solo
exhibition in the Middle East by
internationally-acclaimed artist
Neshat, from today until February 15, 2015.
Presented by Qatar Museums
under the leadership of its chairperson, HE Sheikha al-Mayassa
bint Hamad bin Khalifa al-Thani, the exhibition is curated by
Abdellah Karroum, director of
Mathaf.
HE Dr Hamad bin Abdul Aziz
al-Kuwari, Minister of Culture,
Arts and Heritage, officially
opened the exhibition at Mathaf
yesterday evening, accompanied
by dignitaries and officials.
Occupying the entire ground
ﬂoor galleries, the exhibition
features existing and newly produced works.
The show includes the major
photographic series “The Book
‘Speechless’ by Shirin Neshat,
1996, courtesy of Gladstone
Gallery, New York and Brussels.
of Kings” (2012) inspired by the
poem “Shahnameh” (The Book
of Kings) by Persian poet Ferdowsi, written between c 977 and
1010 CE, as well as a selection of
video installations, “OverRuled”
(2012) and “Turbulent” (1998)
that collectively comment on
historical, cultural and political
realities on which the artist has
focused for the past 30 years.
As Neshat said in her interview
with Karroum: “‘The Book of
Kings’ is a conceptual and artistic approach to narrating history,
questioning the notion of ‘heroism’ and capturing the emotional
and human realities behind the
faces of those who stand in the
intersection of love, devotion and
sacriﬁce, yet violence, atrocity
and death.”
The exhibition is conceived as
a visual and sonorous experience
that unfolds in the spaces of the
museum. Composed of layers of
information, images, references
and concepts, it is an experience
that, through the artist’s interrogation of history and acts of
building and destroying life and
relationships, addresses the contradictions inherent to humanity.
HE Dr al-Kuwari at the official opening of the exhibition yesterday, accompanied by HE Sheikh Hassan bin Mohamed bin Ali al-Thani, vice-chairperson
of Qatar Museums; HE Sheikh Abdulla bin Ali al-Thani, vice-president of education at Qatar Foundation; French Ambassador Eric Chevallier; and
Abdellah Karroum, director of Mathaf.
Karroum said: “This exceptional body of work reveals Shirin Neshat’s intention to build
relationships between ancient
mythologies and contemporary
events that challenge our lives.
Her vivid poetic expression repeatedly manifests itself in her
signature visual vocabulary,
which comprises photography,
calligraphy, poetry and ﬁlm-
making. With these elements,
she creates powerful narratives
that require viewers to decrypt,
interpret and position themselves within the work in order to
fully grasp its meaning.”
Neshat joins Karroum for a
one-off public conversation at
3pm today. This takes place as
part of the CIMAM 2014 annual
conference, a forum for commu-
nication and exchange between
museums, professionals and artists in the modern and contemporary art world. This conversation takes place at Mathaf, Qatar
Foundation.
A fully illustrated bilingual
Arabic-English catalogue will be
released by Mathaf. The publication will contain an interview by
Karroum and essays by several
other contributors, providing
insight into the artistic process
of Neshat.
Mathaf also opened its doors
to a new permanent presentation
of its collection on November 1.
“Mathaf Collection, Summary,
Part 1” includes work from Qatar
and the Arab world, Iran, Turkey,
and other regions historically
connected to the Arab Peninsula.
QTA showcases Qatar at
global event in London
Q
atar Tourism Authority (QTA)
showcased Qatar’s credentials as
a leading destination in the Gulf
region for business and leisure travel at
World Travel Market (WTM), the leading
global event for the travel industry.
WTM took place in London from
November 3 to 6, gathering more than
50,000 senior travel professionals, government officials and international media
to discover the latest industry opinion
and trends.
On the sidelines of the event, QTA
chairman Issa bin Mohamed al-Mohannadi participated in the UNWTO/WTM
Tourism Ministers’ Summit, where discussions addressed the essential connections between tourism and mega
events.
During the tradeshow, QTA focused on
holding buyer meetings and interacting
with counterparts in the UK and European tourism industry to increase interest in Qatar as a destination for business
and leisure travel, as well as conducting
interviews with British and international
media to promote the destination.
QTA officials at WTM, London.
Qatar-branded taxis in London.
“Britain is a signiﬁcant tourism market
for us; it represents one of Qatar’s largest
source markets for tourists. We are serious about the British market and have an
established on-the-ground Qatar representative office in London. We believe
Britain provides substantial opportunities for further growth,” said Rashed alQurese, acting chief marketing and promotions officer.
“The presence of government
organisations and companies
from the private sector showcases
the important role of both sectors
to boost business and leisure
tourism as an industry in Qatar’s
diversified economy”
The Qatari stand was led by QTA and
more than 30 hotels, destination management companies and other industry
suppliers.
QTA showcased Qatar’s credentials
as a leading destination in the Gulf region for business and leisure travel with
quality hotels, world-class conference
centres and unique cultural activities. At
the stand, visitors were able to see and
experience some of the characteristic elements of Qatar, including artisans making Qatari arts and crafts, henna tattooing
and falcons.
“We thank all our partners for joining
us in the Qatar stand at WTM,” added
al-Qurese. “The presence of government
organisations and companies from the
private sector showcases the important
role of both sectors to boost business and
leisure tourism as an industry in Qatar’s
diversiﬁed economy.”
Running parallel to WTM - and to help
highlight Qatar’s participation at the
event - QTA has launched an innovative
campaign for the British public through
20 Qatar-branded taxis, which will ply
London’s streets over the next three
months.
Total visitor arrivals to Qatar grew
by 7% in the ﬁrst half of 2014, reaching
1.42mn. Some 72,877 visitors from the
UK visited Qatar in the ﬁrst half of 2014,
representing the largest number of tourists to Qatar from Europe.
Kulluna holds Child
Passenger Safety
Training course
K
ulluna recently completed
its sixth Child Passenger
Safety Training (CPST)
course at Hamad International
Training Centre (HITC).
The initiative was launched in
2013 in partnership with HITC
and Safe Kids Worldwide.
The training was held over
four days and focused on teaching participants to become child
passenger safety technicians so
that they can teach parents and
caregivers about how to choose
and correctly instal the appropriate car seat for their children.
Dr Khalid Abdulnoor Saifeldeen, director of HITC, said:
“Until now, we have trained
more than 45 people to become
CPST technicians and are committed to hold this training more
frequently. Car-related injuries
are preventable accidents and
by educating these participants,
we are able to spread awareness
among the general public about
the importance of car seats.”
He added that car seats are
recommended for all children.
Gary Sykes, ConocoPhillips
Qatar president, said: “As the
founding sponsor of Kulluna,
we are extremely proud at how
well the CPST course has been
received, especially given the
amount of time and commitment
required to complete it. We thank
all the participants for taking part
and joining the Kulluna family.
“This goes to show the impact
of Kulluna’s ongoing safety initiatives on members of the society,
who help us reach out to a wider
circle of families. At ConocoPhillips, safety is the ultimate core
value and it is our collective goal to
eliminate injuries and incidents.”
Some of the participants during the CPST course.
A still from Ilo Ilo.
Katara-DFI Cinema to
present award-winning
Singaporean drama
K
atara-Doha Film Institute (DFI)
Cinema will present the highly
acclaimed Singaporean drama,
Ilo Ilo, from November 15-17 at Katara
Drama Theatre, building 16, at 7pm.
Singapore’s official entry for the
Oscars in 2013, the ﬁlm marks the directorial debut of Anthony Chen.
The ﬁlm has won more than 10 major
awards, including the “Camera d’Or”
at the Cannes Film Festival. Time Out
New York magazine deﬁned the ﬁlm as
a satisfying beam of compassion.
Ilo Ilo (2013, 95 minutes) narrates
the story of a family of three and their
relationship with their newly arrived
maid, Teresa, who like many other
Filipina women has come in search of
a better life.
The entire family needs to adapt
to the presence of this stranger,
which further threatens their already
strained relationship. Still, Teresa and
Jiale, the young and troublesome boy
she cares for, soon form a bond.
Their unique connection continues
to develop and she becomes an unspoken part of the family. But this is
1997 and the Asian ﬁnancial crisis is
starting to be felt in the region.
Katara-DFI Cinema brings monthly screenings of the ﬁnest ﬁlms from
around the world and is part of the
creative collaboration between DFI
and Katara – the Cultural Village to
further strengthen the appreciation of
good ﬁlms among the public.
Tickets are on sale at www.dohaﬁlminstitute.com and at the Katara
Drama Theatre ticket outlet, (Katara
building 16) from 2pm until 8pm.
Tickets are priced at QR35 for the general public and at a special discounted
rate of QR25 for students (who must
present a valid student ID to receive a
discount; there is a maximum of two
discounted tickets per person).
For Box Office timings and full ﬁlm
listings, visit www.dohaﬁlminstitute.
com
ANOTHER NAIL | Page 4
DOLLAR BOND | Page 5
India bourses to
suspend trade
in Kingfisher
Pakistan plans
$500mn sukuk
this month
7TH GENERATION MODEL : Page 20
Sunday, November 9, 2014
Moharram 16, 1436 AH
GULF TIMES
BUSINESS
National Car Co launches
all-new Hyundai Sonata
An aerial view of Qapco facilities in Mesaieed. Right: HH the Father Emir, Sheikh Hamad bin Khalifa al-Thani, HE the Minister of Energy and Industry, Dr Mohamed bin Saleh al-Sada with Total chairman and CEO Patrick Pouyanne and al-Mulla during Qapco
LDPE3 inauguration in 2012.
Qapco sees 500% LDPE capacity jump
Petrochemical major celebrates its 40th
anniversary
Q
atar Petrochemical Company (Qapco)
has seen its low-density polyethylene
production capacity increase ﬁve-fold
since 1974 as the petrochemical major currently
celebrates its 40th anniversary.
From humble beginnings as the ﬁrst petrochemical plant established in the Middle East in
1974, Qapco has transformed itself into a global
and leading petrochemical powerhouse.
Qapco was established on November 9, 1974
through Emiri Decree Number 109. From a staff
strength of 20 in 1978, the number of employees at Qapco grew to 700 in the early 1980s and
reached 1,324 in 2014.
Today, with Qatarisation standing at 30.2%,
national leadership is one of the driving forces
of Qapco and gives the company its cultural
identity.
A joint venture between Industries Qatar
(80%) and Total Petrochemicals France (20%),
Qapco is currently one of the largest producers
of low density polyethylene (LDPE) in the region besides producing ethylene, sulphur and
other petrochemical products.
Qapco is involved in a number of joint ventures that include Qatoﬁn, QVC, and QPPC.
LDPE is considered the most widely used
type of plastic, with applications such as food
packaging, agricultural ﬁlms, cables and wires,
coating, lamination and many other products
Qapco plant inauguration in February 1981.
broadly used all over the planet. Low-density
polyethylene produced by Qapco is a “high
quality food-contact safe” grade polymer and
complies with local, European Union and US’
FDA (Food and Drug Administration) standards.
Qapco started commercial production in
1981, with an annual output of 132,679 tonnes
of ethylene. The plant also had the capacity to
produce 140,000 tonnes of low density polyethylene and minor amounts of sulphur, generated as a by-product.
Qapco chairman Hamad Rashid al-Mohannadi said, “I am incredibly proud of our 40 years
of growth and excellence, inspired by our pioneers. Our successful and extraordinary journey rests on the minds and brilliance of many.
“It ﬁrst started with a dream in 1974. By
QDB supporting 33 Qatar firms at Dubai construction expo
Qatar Development Bank (QDB) has
announced its participation in this year’s
edition of “Big 5,” a major international
building and construction trade exhibition starting on November 17 at the
World Trade Centre in Dubai.
QDB’s export promotion arm, Tasdeer,
will host the Qatari pavilion consisting
of 33 local companies from various segments of the construction and building
industries.
The bank’s participation in Big 5 is its
latest initiative in an ongoing effort to
support local industries through export
and trade promotion and opening new
markets for products made in Qatar.
QDB recently hosted 10 companies from
Qatar’s food and agriculture industries
at SIAL, the “International Exhibition for
Food and Food Industries” held in Paris.
Also recently, QDB supported 10 local
companies by organising joint meetings
between Qatari exporters and potential
importers in Tunisia and Morocco.
QDB chief executive Abdulaziz bin
Nasser al-Khalifa said, “Supporting local
companies at international exhibitions
provides key exposure and access to
compete and succeed in strategic markets for Qatari products.”
He added, “We are proud of the highquality and competitive Qatari prod-
QDB’s booth for the “Big 5” construction expo in Dubai.
ucts on display at Big 5. Our measure
of success is the amount of deals and
business generated for Qatar’s private
sector and we are proud to see that
business grow with each of these successful initiatives.”
Al-Khalifa also stressed that joining
similar events forms a “key pillar” of
QDB’s export promotion strategy and
underscores the bank’s commitment to
growing non-hydrocarbon exports and
Qatar’s private sector. Big 5 provides a
platform for growing business in building and construction markets across
the Mena region. Exhibitors and visitors
will have the opportunity to network
with industry peers and stay on top of
the latest trends, goods, and services
from all segments of the region’s rapidly
growing construction market.
transforming a visionary idea into a reality,
making the most of what we have been given, by
further optimising our hydrocarbon resources,
Qapco broke new grounds and paved the way to
an entirely new and promising industry in the
GCC, petrochemicals.
“Our success story has been made possible
through the visionary leadership of HH the
Emir, Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad al-Thani and
with the wise guidance of HE the Minister of
Energy and Industry, Dr Mohamed bin Saleh
al-Sada. Our shareholders are also drivers of
progress and their contribution has been essential to our four decades of growth. I would like
to thank Qatar Petroleum and our shareholders, Industries Qatar and Total Petrochemicals
France, as they are the foundation of our success. They have left their mark, inﬂuenced our
corporate culture and propelled Qapco into
new eras of development thanks to their focus
on assertive growth and sustainability,” al-Mohannadi said.
Qapco vice-chairman and CEO Dr Mohamed
Youssef al-Mulla acknowledged the contribution of all the employees and said, “40 years
is a journey and ours has been extraordinary,
marked by many milestones and unprecedented
achievements. It is truly the men and women of
Qapco who have driven us where we are today.
“From our humble beginnings as the ﬁrst
petrochemical plant established in the Middle
East in 1974, we got transformed into a global
and leading petrochemical powerhouse. Our
employees’ expertise, loyalty and hard work
along with their unwavering commitment to
the highest standards of performance and excellence made us who we are. The Qapco family is at the heart of everything we do and a vital
force that has always propelled us forward.”
As part of its 40th anniversary celebrations,
Qapco is paying tribute to all its employees and
holding celebrations in their honour at its Mesaieed facility today.
2
Gulf Times
Sunday, November 9, 2014
BUSINESS
Egypt received $10.6bn from Gulf last ﬁscal year
Reuters
Cairo
E
gypt received $10.6bn in
aid from Gulf states in the
last ﬁscal year, the ﬁnance
minister said yesterday, the ﬁrst
time the government has put a
total ﬁgure on how much its oilrich allies spent to prop up the
economy.
Of about 74bn Egyptian
pounds of aid received in the
2013-14 ﬁscal year, 53bn pounds
was in the form of petroleum
products, with the remaining
21bn pounds coming as cash
grants, Hany Kadry Dimian told
a news conference.
Saudi Arabia, the UAE and
Kuwait have provided Egypt
with political and economic
support since then-army chief
Abdel Fattah al-Sisi ousted
elected president Mohamed
Mursi in July last year and led a
crackdown on his supporters.
Sisi went on to win a presidential election in May and has
promised to restore stability and
growth to a country convulsed
by turmoil since the 2011 overthrow of Hosni Mubarak.
Soon after Mursi’s removal,
some Gulf states pledged Egypt
about $12bn aid. In September
2013, the Egyptian central bank
chief said about $7bn of that had
been received. But yesterday’s ﬁgures are the most concrete to date.
Although his critics say political freedoms have been eroded
under Sisi, the government has
passed a raft of reforms from
subsidy cuts to tax hikes that
have impressed business leaders.
Egypt’s government deﬁcit
shrank as a percentage of gross
domestic product last year,
Dimian said, a positive sign for
a government that is trying to
balance cutting its deﬁcit and
reviving growth.
The deﬁcit was 255.4bn
pounds, or about 12.8% of GDP,
in 2013-14, he said, compared
to 13.7% of GDP, or 239.7bn
pounds, in the previous year.
Egypt’s spending on a gen-
erous subsidy system that is
weighing on government ﬁnances rose by 10% last year, however, to 187.7bn pounds. Most of
last year’s subsidies bill, 126bn
pounds, was for fuel, the minister said. The government cut
energy subsidies in July, the start
of the current ﬁscal year, in a bid
to better balance its books. But
the move raised prices of gasoline, diesel and natural gas by
up to 78% and caused a spike in
inﬂation.
Egypt’s foreign reserves rose
to $16.909bn at the end of October from $16.872bn the previous
month, the central bank said on
Thursday. Foreign reserves fell
sharply after the 2011 uprising
that ousted Mubarak but have
risen again on the back of billions of dollars of Gulf Arab aid
that has ﬂooded into Egypt.
Mobily drop
wipes $4.4bn
from shares
on audit error
Bloomberg
Dubai
The shadows of investors are seen cast on a screen as they monitor stock prices at the Falcom investment bank in Riyadh. Investors may pump between $8bn and $10bn back into stocks when National
Commercial Bank’s returns the excess funds it received in subscriptions to the record share sale, according to an expert.
Record IPO set to fuel $10bn
Saudi stock market windfall
Bloomberg
Dubai
S
audi Arabia’s stock market,
coming off its worst month in
more than two years, is poised
to beneﬁt from a $10bn windfall following National Commercial Bank’s
record share sale.
Investors may pump between $8bn
and $10bn back into stocks when
the lender returns the excess funds
it received in subscriptions for the
sale, according to Ahmed Badr, chief
executive officer and head of MENA
equities at Renaissance Capital Ltd
in Dubai. Investors might have borrowed as much as ﬁve times their own
money to bid in the offering, he said.
The bank got requests for $83bn of
shares, 23 times the amount sold to
Saudi citizens.
“It was such a large IPO, it sucked
the liquidity out of the market,”
Amer Khan, senior executive officer
at Shuaa Asset Management, said by
phone from Dubai on Tuesday. “The
impact will be immediate when the
liquidity returns,” with banks, retail
and consumer stocks likely to beneﬁt,
he said.
Saudi Arabia’s benchmark stock
index tumbled 7.6% in October as
NCB started offering shares valued
at 13.5bn riyals ($3.6bn) to nationals. The bank, which according to
its prospectus, will return the excess cash today, sold shares as the
kingdom prepares to open its $527bn
Iraqi Kurdistan daily
oil exports approach
300,000 barrels
Reuters
Arbil
I
raqi Kurdistan has increased
its oil exports to almost
300,000 bpd, the semiautonomous region’s natural
resource minister has said, adding he expected them to rise to
around 500,000 bpd early next
year.
“We are now close to exporting 300,000 bpd through Ceyhan in Turkey,” the Kurdistan
Regional Government’s Ashti
Hawrami told a conference in the
regional capital Arbil. “Probably
this week it will be that ﬁgure.”
He added that three more oilﬁelds in the region were due to
start production in the next two
to three months, and said he saw
exports rising to 500,000 bpd in
January or February.
In late October, the KRG’s
pipeline to Ceyhan was pumping
280,000 bpd, according industry sources and Turkish officials.
The KRG has been ramping up
its oil exports through Turkey’s
Mediterranean port of Ceyhan
since May, despite legal threats
from Baghdad that says the sales
are illegal. The KRG says they
are allowed under Iraqi’s constitution. Baghdad has cut the
region’s budget over the dispute.
Hawrami struck a deﬁant note
at the conference, saying the
KRG had already sold around
20mn barrels of oil at prices
similar to those achieved by the
Iraqi central government’s state
marketer SOMO.
“We compete with SOMO’s
price,” Hawrami said.
“We have no problems with
selling the oil. There is more demand than we are able to supply,” he added.
Hawrami said 25 to 26 ships
had sailed from Ceyhan and that
the KRG had already been paid
for the oil it has delivered.
“We got paid for that and indeed we got paid for another 10
ships we haven’t yet loaded.”
As Baghdad has threatened legal action against anyone buying
oil from the KRG, the Kurdish
tanker sales have often involved
a cat-and-mouse game with
ship-to-ship transfers, covert
deliveries and vessels turning
off satellite tanker tracking. A
number of cargoes have gone to
Israel, industry sources say and
ship-tracking data indicates,
while others have sailed to Asia.
stock market and bond trading to
foreigners.All 15 industry measures
in the Tadawul All Share Index declined last month. The petrochemicals gauge racked up the biggest loss,
with a 14% slump, as oil prices slid
amid concern that the global economy is faltering. Saudi Arabia is the
world’s biggest crude exporter.
The benchmark, up 13% this year,
trades at an estimated price-to-earnings multiple of 13.9 compared with
13.6 for Dubai’s gauge and 15.9 for the
Standard & Poor’s 500 Index.
“Valuations in Saudi Arabia aren’t
uniformly attractive but we still see
plenty of opportunity selectively,”
said Khan at Shuaa. “It’s still the biggest economy in the region and regardless of oil prices there seems to
be staunch commitment to spending
and growth by the government.”
Saudi Arabia is beneﬁting from a
stimulus programme started by King
Abdullah to boost employment and
diversify the economy. Growth is
forecast at 4.4% this year, the second-fastest pace along with the UAE
in the six-nation Gulf Co-operation
Council after Qatar, according to data
compiled by Bloomberg.
The kingdom said it will open its
stock market to foreign investors next
year. The country is working on rules
to allow foreigners to invest in the debt
markets, three people with knowledge
of the matter said in September.
NCB offered 500mn shares, or a
25% stake, at 45 riyals apiece, raising
$6bn and valuing the lender at about
$24bn. The bank offered 300mn
shares to citizens and allocated
200mn shares to the country’s Public
Pension Fund.
Saudi listings usually rise by the
daily limit of 10% for the ﬁrst couple
of weeks so most of the money that’s
returned “will go into other stocks,”
Ahmed Badr said.
The bank’s trailing 12-month
price-to-earnings ratio is 10.6 compared with a multiple of 17.2 for banking shares, Ramez Merhi, director for
asset management at Al Masah Capital Ltd, said by e-mail on Tuesday.
The shares were sold at a discount
to peers and “will be limit-up” until
its valuations adjust “to at least the
market averages if not higher,” Merhi
said.
A three-day slump in Etihad Etisalat Co
has wiped 16.5bn riyals ($4.4bn) from
shares of the largest Saudi telecom
company after auditing errors led to a
drop in quarterly results.
The phone operator, also known as
Mobily, lost 10% to 58.50 riyals, the
lowest since July 2012, bringing its
retreat since trading resumed on
November 4 after a three-day halt to
27%. Volume reached 36.1mn shares,
more than 22- times the three-month
average. Mobily was the biggest decliner
on the Tadawul All Share Index, which
rose 0.2% on Thursday.
The market regulator started procedures
to determine if Mobily violated rules
after the company sought a trading
halt to provide more time for its audit
committee to work on the results. The
phone operator reported a decline of
more than 70% in third-quarter profit,
missing the average of seven analyst
estimates.
“There is a risk now that the dividends
would be impacted and investors
don’t like it,” Sebastien Henin, who
oversees $100mn as the head of asset
management at the National Investor
in Abu Dhabi, said by telephone. “It was
a darling of investors, especially the
foreign investors, but the governance
issues and profits have disappointed
them.”
Mobily distributed a cash dividend of
1.25 riyals in the last three quarters,
data compiled by Bloomberg show.
The company is set to pay the same
dividend to shareholders in the next
quarter, according to analyst estimates
on Bloomberg.
Mobily, citing a chartered accountant’s
report, said last Monday an error in
timing of revenue recognition of a
promotional programme affected
the interim consolidated financial
statements for 2013 and the first half of
this year. The period ended June 30 was
also impacted by an error in revenue
relating to leasing elements of the fibreoptic communication network because
of a lack of readiness for use in full by the
end user of the service, Mobily said.
The UAE’s Emirates Telecommunications
Corp, which owns about 27% of Mobily,
said in a statement on Thursday that it
is providing technical and management
support to its affiliate.
Libya protesters stop oil exports from Hariga port
A general view of the Hariga oil seaport in the city of Tobruk, Libya. Libyan state security guards have started a protest at the 120,000 bpd Hariga oil port in the east,
halting any oil exports, a Libyan oil official said yesterday. The port closure is the second blow to Libya’s oil industry within days after gunmen forced the closure of the
southern El Sharara oilfield which used to pump at least 200,000 bpd. A tanker had been waiting for three days to lift oil Hariga, located in Tobruk, but the guards did
not allow it to, the official said, asking not to be named. The port was only open for fuel imports, he added. The closure will lower Libya’s output to around 500,000 bpd,
based on previous published figures. State firm National Oil Corp (NOC) has not given a production update for a month. The protesters at Hariga were part of a state
security oil force which had gone several times on strike this year to complain about allegedly missing salary payments.
Gulf Times
Sunday, November 9, 2014
3
BUSINESS
Saudi oil market ﬁght shifting to US
Bloomberg
Singapore/Seoul
S
audi Arabia’s increase in oil prices for Asia signals the world’s
biggest crude exporter is shifting
the focus of its ﬁght for market share
on US buyers.
While Saudi Arabian Oil Co boosted
differentials for supplies to Asia next
month after cutting some November
prices to the lowest in almost six years,
American buyers will get another
month of reductions. The Middle East
producer isn’t prepared to surrender
sales in the US, where a shale boom
has lifted output to the highest in more
than 30 years, according to Idemitsu
Kosan Co, Japan’s third-largest reﬁner,
and Elements Capital Inc, a Tokyobased hedge fund that focuses on energy.
Global oil prices slid into a bear market last month on speculation the biggest Opec producers were discounting
their crude to maintain market share,
resisting calls to cut output amid slowing demand growth. West Texas Intermediate futures slumped to the lowest in three years on Tuesday on signs
Saudi Arabia is prepared to go even
lower to shore up US demand.
“Asia needs to buy the crude from
Saudi Arabia regardless of price ﬂuctuations,” Ken Hasegawa, an energy
trading manager at Newedge Group in
Tokyo, said by phone. “On the other
side of the world, they’re trying to expand their share of the US market and
lowered prices.”
Saudi Arabia can count on sales to
Asia for revenues as most customers
hold long-term contracts that require
them to take deliveries, Hasegawa said.
The country shipped 68% of its crude
exports to Asia and 19% to the US last
year, data from the US Energy Information Administration show.
The biggest oil consumers in Asia including China, Japan, India and South
Korea count Saudi Arabia as their largest supplier. The region accounts for
about one-third of global oil demand,
according to the International Energy
Agency in Paris.
“Asia’s demand for Saudi crude has
Current gas prices are displayed as a customer fuels a vehicle at a Mobil gas station in Peoria, Illinois, US (file). Saudi Arabia isn’t prepared to surrender sales in the US, where a shale boom has lifted output to the
highest in more than 30 years, according to Idemitsu Kosan Co, Japan’s third-largest refiner, and Elements Capital Inc, a Tokyo-based hedge fund that focuses on energy.
been relatively stable, so Saudi Arabia can raise prices slightly to improve
their proﬁts,” Gao Jian, an oil analyst
with Shandong-based consultant SCI
International, said by phone. “Meanwhile, they have to cut their prices to
the US further so as to be competitive
against crude produced domestically.”
Arab Light, the biggest Saudi crude
stream, will sell in Asia next month at
10 cents a barrel below the average of
Oman and Dubai grades, compared
with a discount of $1.05 for November,
Aramco’s statement showed. That is
still attractive to reﬁners given current product crack spreads, according
to Setoh Shohei, a former crude trader
who is currently a Tokyo-based manager at Japan Biofuels Supply, a joint
venture of Japanese reﬁners. He estimated its value at a premium of 45
cents.
“The Saudis probably adjusted prices for the US market to compete with
shale oil, their big rival,” Sagishima
Toshiaki, an official in the Treasury
department at Idemitsu Kosan, said in
Tokyo. “Asia is a premium market for
them.”
While the increase in Saudi prices
to Asia was higher than expected, it
shouldn’t be viewed as a reluctance
to keep market share, according to
Bernard Leung, an oil strategist for
Bloomberg First Word who traded
crude for 15 years.
Saudi Arabia’s share in China increased to 17.2% in September from
15.7% a month earlier, he said. A rise in
freight rates from the Gulf to Asia indicates that demand is improving, according to Leung.
The increase in official selling prices
will be followed by other Middle East
producers, which may keep supplies
from Saudi Arabia competitive, he
said.
State-run National Iranian Oil Co
may raise the December official selling prices of its crude to Asia for the
ﬁrst time in ﬁve months, according
to a quarterly formula based on Saudi
prices that the Tehran-based company
has used previously.
“The Saudis didn’t lower price differentials for Asia because they know
well that they won’t lose the Asian
market,” Takashi Hayashida, the chief
executive officer of Elements Capital,
said by phone.
The US is pumping oil at the fastest
pace in more than three decades as a
combination of horizontal drilling and
hydraulic fracturing, or fracking, has
unlocked supplies from shale formations in the central US, including the
Bakken in North Dakota and the Eagle
Ford in Texas.
Production expanded to 8.97mn
bpd in the week ended October 24,
according to the EIA, the Energy Department’s statistical arm. That is the
most in data going back to January 14,
1983.
“It’s now a game of chicken between
Opec members and the US to ﬁght for
market share” in the world’s biggest
oil-consuming nation, Will Yun, a
commodities analyst at Hyundai Futures Co in Seoul, said by phone.
4
Gulf Times
Sunday, November 9, 2014
BUSINESS
India’s Kingﬁsher
faces trading ban
AFP
Mumbai
T
rading in the shares of bankrupt Kingﬁsher
Airlines will be suspended, India’s two main
trading exchanges announced yesterday,
putting another nail in the coffin of the carrier
founded by self-crowned “King of Good Times”
tycoon Vijay Mallya.
The grounded carrier, once India’s second-largest airline by passenger market share, never turned
a proﬁt since its launch in 2005, and owners of its
planes have taken them back.
The decision to suspend trading in shares of
Kingﬁsher Airlines from December 1 is due to the
company’s failure to declare its ﬁnancial results
for two successive ﬁnancial quarters in March and
in June. The exchanges will also suspend trading
in the shares of Mallya Group Company UB Engineering from December 1, the bourses said.
“Trading in the securities of the companies
would be suspended with effect from December
1, 2014 and the suspension will continue till such
time the company complies (with ﬁnancial reporting requirements),” the Bombay Stock Exchange
said in a website notice yesterday.
The National Stock Exchange made a similar announcement.
The full-service Kingﬁsher, which used to boast its
treated ﬂyers as “guests”, never returned to the skies
after pilots went on strike in 2012 over unpaid wages.
While India’s passenger aviation market is one of
world’s fastest-growing, analysts say Kingﬁsher was
a casualty of cut-throat fare wars in the congested
sector where most carriers are losing money.
The move by the stock exchanges comes two
months after the United Bank of India declared
Mallya a “wilful defaulter” over his indebted airline
– a term the central bank deﬁnes as someone failing to pay debts even when they have the capacity.
Mallya, known for his lavish lifestyle, made his
fortune through an inherited liquor business –
branching out with the launch of Kingﬁsher Airlines, named after his company’s popular beer that
is a household name in India.
Kingﬁsher shares fell more than 2.5% on Friday
on the Bombay Stock Exchange to Rs1.94, down
from a peak price in December 2007 of Rs335.
Mallya objected to the tag “as a wrongful decision”, and a court hearing on his challenge is expected tomorrow in the eastern city of Kolkata,
according to a company statement.
The court’s decision is important as the defaulter label could prevent Mallya from getting
new loans and might mean he has to quit corporate
directorships.
Kuroda’s stimulus
makes won a loser,
rupee a winner
Bloomberg
Tokyo
Bank of Japan Governor Haruhiko Kuroda’s expanded
stimulus is highlighting the split in Asia’s foreignexchange market.
On one side are South Korea’s won and Taiwan’s
dollar, which ING Groep and Westpac Banking say will
weaken as policy makers look to intervene to offset
the impact of the falling yen, a result of Kuroda’s
policies. On the other are Indonesia’s rupiah and
India’s rupee, which they see gaining as investors flee
Japan in search of higher yields.
The divergence follows the BoJ’s decision on October
31 to lift the annual target for enlarging Japan’s
monetary base to ¥80tn ($698bn), from ¥60tn
to ¥70tn. Korea competes with Japan to export
electronics, ships and cars, making the won most
exposed to Kuroda’s policy. Taiwan is home to the
world’s biggest contract chipmakers and producers of
notebook computers.
“The won is most vulnerable because its
manufacturing sector matches Japan’s so closely,”
Tim Condon, ING’s Singapore-based head of Asia
research, said on Friday by phone. “After Korea comes
Taiwan for the same reason.”
After the yen, the won posted the biggest jump in
three-month implied volatility among 11 Asian peers
over the past five days, data compiled by Bloomberg
show. Taiwan’s dollar climbed to a seven-month high,
while the rupee and rupiah were little changed.
The yen had Asia’s biggest decline versus the US
dollar this year, with its 8.5% slide followed by
drops of more than 2% for the won and Taiwan and
Singapore dollars. The rupee and rupiah were the
only gainers, climbing less than 1%.
The weaker yen threatens to make exporters such
as Samsung Electronics and HTC less competitive
compared with their Japanese rivals, stoking
speculation Korea and Taiwan will buy foreign
currency to depress their exchange rates. The won
faces “the clearest headwinds” from the yen with
Taiwan’s local dollar also coming under pressure,
according to a report from Goldman Sachs on Friday.
The bank forecast the won will weaken 4.2% to 1,140
per dollar in a year.
“The yen’s weakness is certainly a risk,” Jonathan
Cavenagh, a strategist at Westpac in Singapore, said
by e-mail. “The yen’s move threatens competitiveness
in these two economies and clouds the profit outlook.
Intervention is likely.”
The Bank of Korea said in a November 3 statement it
will monitor the impact of the weak yen on exports
and financial stability. Harry Yen, deputy directorgeneral of foreign exchange at Taiwan’s central
bank, said in a phone interview yesterday that policy
makers will curb excessive volatility.
The yen weakened to 9.3933 won on November 3, the
lowest level since August 2008, and reached a sevenyear low of 3.773 per Taiwan dollar on Friday. The won
slid yesterday to a 14-month low of 1,096.88 versus
the greenback, and was at 1,093.43 on Friday. Taiwan’s
dollar dropped to 30.716, the lowest since 2010.
While any gains in the Korean and Taiwanese
currencies may be stymied by central-bank
intervention, the rupee and rupiah may have more
scope to advance. India and Indonesia’s new leaders,
Prime Minister Narendra Modi and President Joko
Widodo, are modernising their economies and foreign
investment is pouring in.
Overseas investors placed a net $36.8bn in Indian
bonds and stocks in 2014, the most in four years,
while Indonesian assets lured $26bn of inflows, the
most since the nation’s exchange started tracking the
data in 2010.
Investors are attracted by India and Indonesia
having the highest bond yields among investmentgrade Asian sovereigns. While inflows have driven
the rates to the lowest in at least six months, their
10-year securities both still pay more than 8 percent,
compared with about 2.5% for Korea and the US and
less than 0.5% for Japan.
The economies of India and Indonesia will both
grow about 5.5% next year, while Taiwan, Korea and
Singapore will expand less than 4%, economists
surveyed by Bloomberg predict. South Korea’s record
$7.5bn trade surplus in October reflected a slowdown
in domestic demand and drop in imports.
Australia & New Zealand Banking Group predicts
India’s rupee will trade at 61.8 per dollar by the end
of March, little changed from where it is now. The
median prediction of 30 strategists surveyed by
Bloomberg puts it at 61.5. ANZ also sees the rupiah at
12,150 per dollar, compared with 12,170 on Friday.
Mallya: At the receiving end.
Gulf Times
Sunday, November 9, 2014
5
BUSINESS
Pakistan to issue
$500mn sukuk
Reuters
Dubai
P
akistan plans to issue a US dollar-denominated Islamic bond worth at least $500mn
this month and also hopes to obtain $1.1bn
from the International Monetary Fund soon, Finance Minister Ishaq Dar said yesterday.
After a successful eurobond issue in April, Pakistan said it planned an international sovereign
sukuk issue, and in early September it revealed
it had selected four banks – Citigroup, Deutsche
Bank, Dubai Islamic Bank and Standard Chartered – as bookrunners.
But the issue did not happen as soon as the
market expected, apparently because of political instability in the country, as Pakistani Prime
Minister Nawaz Sharif came under pressure from
weeks of demonstrations calling for him to resign.
“Hopefully in the last week of this month the
sukuk, God willing, will be available to the industry, Islamic banking institutions,” Dar told a joint
press conference with the IMF in the United Arab
Emirates.
“The indicative size for a sovereign bond, we
have $500mn. We will see...what is the book
building...but we had a very good response when
we issued the sovereign conventional paper,” he
said without giving further details.
The Pakistani government now also hopes to
receive $1.1bn in funding from the IMF to bolster
its foreign currency reserves, after completing the
fourth and ﬁfth reviews of a $6.6bn IMF ﬁnancing
programme originally agreed in September last year.
The IMF’s executive board will consider in December whether to release the funds, its mission
chief Jeffrey Franks said, adding that the Fund
was encouraged by Pakistan’s overall progress in
strengthening its macroeconomic stability and
output growth. The IMF usually disburses ﬁnancing from the programme in $550mn tranches, but
completion of the fourth review was delayed by
differences of opinion over some of the targets in
the plan, Franks said without elaborating on those
differences.
Dar: Expecting $1.1bn IMF funding to bolster foreign currency reserves.
“Economic indicators are improving, with
growth expected to reach 4.3% in ﬁscal year
2014/2015, inﬂation on a downward trajectory,
and credit to the private sector expanding at a robust pace,” he said.
The rapid build-up of Pakistan’s gross reserves,
which jumped to $9.1bn at the end of June from
$5.4bn in March, stalled because of delays in state
asset sales and the sukuk issue, as well as the effects of political uncertainty on capital ﬂows.
“However, going forward reserves are expected
to surpass three months of imports by the end of
the ﬁscal year 2014/2015,” Franks said.
The IMF saved Pakistan from possible default
by agreeing last year on its three-year lending
programme. The Fund disburses loan tranches
after conﬁrming a country is on track with the
conditions of the bailout.
The cash ﬂows could stop if Pakistan fails to
institute changes such as cracking down on tax
evasion and privatising loss-making state companies. A recent drop in global oil prices, which
touched four-year lows beneath $82 per barrel
this week, will help Pakistan to slash its oil import
bill substantially.
“We are now forecasting that the oil import
bill for Pakistan compared to what we thought a
few months ago is going to be over a billion dollars less. That’s 0.3, 0.4% of GDP saved by a lower
petroleum import bill,” Franks said.
Islamabad scraps
plan to sell shares
Bloomberg
Karachi
P
akistan scrapped its biggest share sale in eight years
as a slump in crude oil prices and political opposition to reducing a government stake in oil explorer
Oil and Gas Development Co damped investor interest.
The government received bids for 52% of the 311mn
shares Oil and Gas offered at a ﬂoor price of Rs216 each,
the ﬁnance ministry said in an e-mailed statement
yesterday. The sale, through a book-building process
that began on November 5, would have raised Rs67.2bn
($656mn) at the minimum price.
Pakistan is seeking to raise funds through the sale of
government holdings in companies to meet conditions
attached to a $6.6bn International Monetary Fund loan.
The Privatisation Commission sold shares in Pakistan
Petroleum, the second-biggest fuel explorer, and United
Bank in June. Oil has slumped into a bear market amid
signs that global supply growth is outpacing consumption with West Texas Intermediate tumbling 20% this
year.
“Oil prices came down by the time of the offer,” Mohammad Zubair, chairman of Privatisation Commission
said by phone from Islamabad. “We would have gone
forward if the offer was fully subscribed.” Pakistan opposition leader Imran Khan’s protests against Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif’s government since mid-August and
a court case ﬁled by the provincial government of Khyber- Pakhtunkhwa also led to low investor response, the
ministry said.
Airbus signs deal
with Chinese firm
European aerospace
giant Airbus announced
yesterday it had
signed a preliminary
deal to supply the
China Aircraft Leasing
Company with 100
planes, a contract worth
around $10.2bn (€8.1bn)
at catalogue prices.
The Chinese leasing
firm wants 74
A320neos, 16 A320ceos
and 10 A321ceos,
according to the Airbus
statement. The A320
family is a range of
medium-range aircraft,
with the A320neo
designed to consume
15% less fuel.
The deal “confirms the
aircraft’s popularity
and appeal,” said
the chief executive
of the leasing firm,
while Airbus Chief
Operating Officer John
Leahy said it was “a
strong signal of the
continuing long-term
success of our bestselling product line.”
Indian economy likely to
grow 6.6% in 2016: OECD
IANS
Chennai
Indian economy is expected to log 6.4%
growth in 2015 and 6.6% in 2016, states
the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD).
Growth in emerging economies will
remain stronger. It will be slow in China,
pick up in India and remain sluggish
in Brazil and Russia, states the OECD
Economic Outlook report.
According to the report, global growth is
projected to strengthen but will remain
modest by past standards.
“There are important differences across
countries: the US recovery looks more
robust, but the euro area faces an increasing
risk of stagnation, and Japan’s escape from
deflation is not yet assured,” the report said.
According to the report, China’s GDP
growth rate will slow down in a controlled
fashion to 7.3% in 2014, 7.1% in 2015 and to
6.9% in 2016 due to its rebalancing efforts
to have a sustainable growth.
On the other hand, India’s growth rate is
expected to go up 5.4% in 2014, 6.4% in
2015 and 6.6% in 2016.
According to the OECD report, there are
substantial downside risks to the outlook.
“Risks of financial instability remain high,
while volatility may increase, notably for
emerging markets, as monetary policy
and economic activity differ across the
major economies,” the report states.
Debt levels are high by past standards
and some emerging economies have
significantly increased external financial
exposure. Because the growth of potential
output has slowed in major economies
since the crisis, future trend growth may
be weaker than anticipated. Modest global
growth and the slowdown in potential
growth call for ambitious structural
reforms to boost investment, trade and
job creation, the report states.
According to the report global growth
has been subdued, but is projected to
accelerate from the second half of 2014
onwards as improved financial conditions,
continued monetary policy stimulus and a
slower pace of fiscal consolidation facilitate
stronger activity in advanced economies.
World GDP growth rates in 2015 and 2016
will nevertheless remain modest relative
to the strong pre-crisis expansion and
somewhat below the long-term average.
Emerging economies will continue to
outpace the advanced economies but less
than in past decades, the report states.
“In India, the pick-up in growth after the
sharp slowdown in 2012 -13 will continue
despite the tight monetary and fiscal
stance. Investment will be the main growth
engine, after several quarters of subdued
growth,” the report said.
According to the report, improved
business sentiment resulting from reduced
political uncertainty, deregulation, and the
government commitment to cut red tape
should boost growth.
Over the next year or so economic growth
should be supported by the recovering
U.S. economy that would provide a market
for Indian merchandise and service
exports. Private investment is expected
to pick up thanks to the government’s
business orientation, and declining
oil prices should boost private sector
competitiveness. But economic reforms
will be needed for India to achieve its full
long-term growth potential, the report
argued.
6
Gulf Times
Sunday, November 9, 2014
BUSINESS
Beijing to set
up $40bn
Silk Road fund
Apec cautiously supports
China-backed trade zone C
Reuters
Beijing
AFP
Beijing
A
Paciﬁc Rim summit yesterday voiced cautious support for a vast free-trade zone
proposal being pushed by China in the face
of reported resistance from the United States,
which is promoting its own regional trade pact.
China’s promotion of the Free Trade Area of the
Asia-Paciﬁc (FTAAP) idea – and the narrative of
Sino-US trade rivalry on the issue – has loomed as
a major agenda item at the diplomatic gathering in
Beijing.
A joint statement by foreign ministers of the
21-member Asia-Paciﬁc Economic Co-operation
(Apec) forum called for steps to be taken to “translate the FTAAP from a vision to reality”.
But it agreed to launch a “strategic study” on
FTAAP, avoiding China’s calls for a “feasibility
study” on the concept.
The wording of next week’s ﬁnal summit communique has been toned down in a compromise by
Beijing after the United States objected to use of
the term, according to a report by the Hong Kong’s
South China Morning Post (SCMP).
It quoted a US official saying Washington objected “because when you use the word feasibility study, it’s used in trade talks as implying
the launch of a negotiation towards a free-trade
agreement.”
The ministers’ statement also made no mention of a 2025 target date for realising the FTAAP,
which had been ﬂoated earlier.
The same language is expected in the joint communique on Tuesday at the end of a two-day summit of top leaders hosted by Chinese host President Xi Jinping and including US President Barack
Obama plus his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin. The FTAAP will be mentioned only in an annex to the communique, and not the main statement, the SCMP said.
Beijing is hosting Apec – which accounts for
40% of the world’s population, almost half its
trade, and more than half its GDP – for the ﬁrst
time since 2001, and is using the gathering to underline its growing global economic clout.
China is now the world’s second-largest economy following the United States, and is increasingly
pushing for a greater say over the global trade and
economic architecture.
In the run-up to the Apec gathering, Chinese
media have aggressively pushed for the FTAAP to
Canada’s Trade Minister Ed Fast (left) shakes hands with a Chinese official as Canada’s Prime Minister Stephen Harper (2nd from left) and China’s Premier
Li Keqiang (right) applaud during a signing ceremony on the sidelines of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation Summit at the Great Hall of the People in
Beijing yesterday.
be accelerated as a solution to the current “spaghetti bowl” of competing regional free-trade
proposals, an apparent swipe at the US-backed
Trans-Paciﬁc Partnership (TPP).
The US has been trying to secure agreement on
the TPP, a grouping of 12 nations including Japan,
Australia, Malaysia and Mexico – but notably excluding China.
All 12 also belong to Apec, and the TPP constitutes the economic component of Washington’s
much-touted “rebalance” of strategic attention to
the Asia-Paciﬁc. The SCMP quoted an unnamed
Chinese official as saying: “The US wants to impede FTAAP, and they want to promote TPP during Apec. This is really annoying for us.”
Some Chinese analysts have viewed the US effort as a way to thwart the FTAAP and thus counter Beijing’s growing inﬂuence in the Paciﬁc Rim
– concerns Washington has dismissed.
The Apec ministers statement endorsed “a
step-by-step approach, with the goal of establishing the FTAAP as early as possible by building
on ongoing regional undertakings”, but also referring to its “eventual realisation” and couching it in
cautious and vague diplomatic language.
It instructed that the “strategic study” be completed by end-2016.
The Chinese official quoted by the paper said
Washington had insisted on holding TPP talks on
the sidelines of Apec but had eventually agreed to
keep such efforts low-proﬁle.
Wang Shouwen, an assistant commerce minister, had said in April that China wanted an FTAAP
“feasibility study”, but added there “will be no
conﬂict” between the proposal and other freetrade initiatives in the region.
PBoC, Canada agree to currency swap worth $32bn
Reuters
Beijing
The central banks of China and
Canada have agreed to a currency
swap worth 200bn yuan ($32.67bn)
or C$30bn, according to a Canadian
government statement issued at
a meeting of Asia Pacific nations
yesterday.
The swap will be effective for three
years, according to a separate
$113bn
projects
approved
Reuters
Beijing
C
hina approved more than
$100bn worth of infrastructure projects in late
October and early November,
state media said yesterday, in a
bid to bolster slowing growth in
the world’s second largest economy.
China’s top economic planning body, the National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC), approved
21 infrastructure investment
projects between October 16
and November 5 with a total investment value of 693.3bn yuan
($113.24bn), the official Xinhua
news agency said yesterday, citing state radio.
The projects included 16 railways and ﬁve airports, with the
aim of propping up a decline in
real estate investment, Xinhua
said.
Annual growth slowed to 7.3%
in the third quarter – the weakest since the height of the global
ﬁnancial crisis – as a cooling
property sector weighed on domestic demand.
Annual growth in China’s exports and imports also slowed in
October, data showed yesterday,
reinforcing signs of fragility that
could prompt policymakers to
roll out more stimulus measures.
statement from China’s central bank.
The agreement was announced after
Canadian Prime Minister Stephen
Harper met Chinese Premier Li
Keqiang.
China’s central bank, the People’s
Bank of China, will also appoint a
clearing bank in Canada for yuan –
or renminbi, as the currency is also
called – as part of a Memorandum of
Understanding, said the statement.
It did not say which bank would be
appointed as the clearing bank, but
it is likely to be one of China’s four
largest banks.
China’s central bank said in its
statement that the yuan clearing bank
would be in Toronto.
The currency swap will help set up
the clearing bank, and allow the two
banks to swap currencies if needed
to ease trade and investment. The
yuan clearing bank would be the first
in the Americas, and allow Canadian
financial institutions to use the
clearing bank to process payments for
their customers in yuan.
The move is in line with Beijing’s
ambition to promote its currency
to more international investors and
eventually turn the “redback” into a
global reserve currency, while at the
same time expanding China’s already
considerable political and economic
clout.
“This is a fantastic announcement for
Canada and China relations, a terrific
move for Canadian businesses to be
able to compete more abroad, not
only direct-to-China investment but
... as more RMB/CNY activity takes
place around the world,” said CJ
Gavsie, managing director of foreign
exchange sales at BMO Capital
Markets.
China will additionally give Canadian
investors the right to invest up to
50bn yuan initially in China’s capital
markets. The quota will be granted
under the Renminbi Qualified Foreign
Institutional Investor (RQFII) scheme.
That programme, launched in 2011,
hina will contribute $40bn to
set up a Silk Road infrastructure fund to boost connectivity across Asia, President Xi Jinping
announced yesterday, the latest Chinese project to spread the largesse of
its own economic growth.
China has dangled ﬁnancial and
trade incentives before, mostly to
Central Asia but also to countries in
South Asia, backing efforts to resurrect the old Silk Road trading route
that once carried treasures between
China and the Mediterranean.
The fund will be for investing in
infrastructure, resources and industrial and ﬁnancial cooperation,
among other projects, Xi said, according to Xinhua.
The goal of the fund is to “break
the connectivity bottleneck” in Asia,
state media quoted Xi as saying during a meeting in Beijing with leaders
from Bangladesh, Cambodia, Laos,
Mongolia, Myanmar, Pakistan and
Tajikistan. The Silk Road Fund will
be “open” and welcome investors
from Asia and beyond to “actively”
take part in the project, Xi was cited
as saying, ahead of a separate summit
of the Asia Paciﬁc Economic Cooperation (Apec) grouping, also being
held in the Chinese capital.
It was not immediately clear precisely how the fund would work,
when it would start operations or
where it would be based, though in
all likelihood it would be China.
But Xinhua said it would focus on
China’s Silk Road Economic Belt and
the 21st Century Maritime Silk Road
initiative, which aim to build roads,
railways, ports and airports across
Central Asia and South Asia.
“Such a framework accommodates the needs of various countries
and covers both land and sea-related
projects,” Xi said, adding China is
ready to welcome its neighbours “to
get on board the train of China’s development.”
China will also provide neighbouring countries with 20,000 places for
training “connectivity professionals” over the next ﬁve years, Xi said.
China has sought to address fears
in the region – and globally – that
its bounding economic growth will
inevitably bring about a more assertive, muscular diplomatic and military approach to issues such as territorial disputes.
One of the ways it has done this
is to offer large loans to places like
Southeast Asia and Africa, to show
that China is a benign growing power
only interested in helping others escape poverty in the way it has itself
over the past three decades.
Last month, Xi unveiled the $50bn
China-backed Asian Infrastructure
Investment Bank, seen as a challenge to the World Bank and Asian
Development Bank, both multilateral lenders that count Washington
and its allies as their biggest ﬁnancial
backers.
China’s annual trade growth slows in Oct
Reuters
Beijing
A
nnual growth in China’s exports
and imports slowed in October,
data showed yesterday, reinforcing signs of fragility in the world’s second-largest economy that could prompt
policymakers to roll out more stimulus
measures.
Exports have been the lone bright spot
in the last few months, perhaps helping to offset soft domestic demand, but
there are doubts about the accuracy of
the official numbers amid signs of a resurgence of speculative currency ﬂows
through inﬂated trade receipts.
Exports rose 11.6% in October from a
year earlier, slowing from a 15.3% jump
in September, the General Administration of Customs said. The ﬁgure was
slightly above market expectations in a
Reuters poll of a 10.6% rise.
A decline in China’s leading index on
exports in October pointed to weaker
export growth in the next two to three
months, the administration said.
“The economy still faces relatively big
downward pressure as exports face uncertainties while weak imports indicate
sluggish domestic demand,” said Nie
Wen, an economist at Hwabao Trust in
Shanghai.
“The central bank may continue to
ease policy in a targeted way.”
Imports rose an annual 4.6% in October, pulling back from a 7% rise in September, and were weaker than expected.
That left the country with a trade surplus of $45.4bn for the month, which
was near record highs.
Annual growth slowed to 7.3% in the
third quarter – the weakest since the
height of the global ﬁnancial crisis – as
Buses wait to be exported in Lianyungang port. China’s exports-imports annual growth slowed in October, data showed yesterday.
a cooling property sector weighs on domestic demand.
Recent purchasing managers’ surveys
on factory and services showed the economy lost further momentum heading into
the fourth quarter as the property market
weighed and export demand softened,
putting Beijing’s official growth target for
the year at even greater risk.
September’s surprisingly strong export growth led some analysts to ques-
tion the accuracy of the official data
amid signs of hot money inﬂows as ﬁrms
tried to evade capital controls by overinvoicing precious metal sales.
The latest trade data indicated a
cooldown in such speculative activity
amid fears of an official crackdown.
“It’s impossible to control hot money
ﬂows. Hot money may distort trade data
but it won’t affect the trend,” said Li Huiyong, an economist at Shenyin & Wan-
guo Securities in Shanghai. Customs
data showed China’s exports of precious
metals and jewellery rose 187% in October from a year earlier. The pace eased
from a 678% jump in September. China’s
exports to Hong Kong, where over-invoicing is typically most pronounced,
rose 24% in October from a year earlier,
slowing from September’s 34% increase.
Exports to the United States, China’s top export destination, rose 10.9%
in October from a year earlier, largely
matching September’s rise, while exports to the European Union, the second-biggest market, grew 4.1%, slowing
sharply from a 14.9% jump in September.
China’s external trade environment
may slightly improve in 2015 but still
faced uncertainties, the Ministry of
Commerce said in a report published
yesterday.
“It’s difficult for external demand to
show a signiﬁcant rebound,” the ministry said.
China’s combined exports and imports rose 3.8% in the ﬁrst ten months
from a year earlier, the administration
said. That suggests China will miss its
trade growth target for a third consecutive year.
The government missed its targets of
8% in 2013 and 10% in 2012 and aims for
7.5% growth this year.
A deluge of China data over the coming week, including factory output and
investment, is likely to show a persistent cooling in the economy, reinforcing
views that authorities may need to do
more to ﬁght slackening growth.
China’s reform-minded leaders have
refrained from acting forcefully, such
as by cutting interest rates. That has
caused concerns among some analysts
that the modest policy measures may
not be enough to prevent a sharper
slowdown.
A Reuters poll published last month
forecast the economy could grow an annual 7.3% in the fourth quarter, leaving
the full-year pace at 7.4% – the weakest
in 24 years. China’s cabinet unveiled detailed measures on Thursday to support
imports of high-tech equipment, resource products and consumer goods, in
its latest efforts to support the economy
and rebalance trade.
Gulf Times
Sunday, November 9, 2014
17
BUSINESS
WEEKLY COMMODITIES REVIEW
Gold prices touch four-year low on strong dollar
AFP
London
Gold prices hit a four-year low, hit by
persistent dollar strength, while crude
oil plumbed multi-year troughs on
fears over Saudi price cuts and plentiful
supplies.
A rebounding greenback makes
dollar-priced commodities more
expensive for buyers using weaker
currencies. That tends to dent
demand and prices.
“The precious metal sector was the
hardest hit for a second week in a row
with both gold and silver continuing
to be sold,” said Saxo Bank analyst Ole
Hansen.
PRECIOUS METALS: Gold plunged
Friday to $1,131.24 per ounce—its lowest
level since mid-April 2010 - while silver
touched a similar nadir at $15.06 an
ounce.
The euro meanwhile sank to $1.2358,
a level last seen on August 21, 2012,
before bouncing back above $1.24 on
mixed US non-farm payrolls data.
The Department of Labour reported
the US economy added 214,000 jobs in
October, below the 235,000 expected
by analysts. However, it also revised
upward the number of jobs created in
the previous two months.
“The US labour report for October
doesn’t really change the positive
story on the US economy,” said ING
economist James Knightley.
The euro also sank this week after the
European Central Bank (ECB) president
Mario Draghi signalled it was ready to
introduce fresh measures to counter
deflation and boost growth in the ailing
eurozone.
The dollar has rallied ever since the US
Federal Reserve signalled last week
that it will end its quantitative easing
(QE) stimulus, boosting confidence
over the health of the world’s largest
economy and key commodity
consumer.
The US unit gained further traction
after Republicans cruised to victory in
US midterm elections on Wednesday,
taking control of the Senate in a
stinging setback for US President
Barack Obama and his fellow
Democrats.
Trustnet Direct analyst Tony Cross
said the Republican win boosted the
dollar because there was a market
“assumption that the party’s policies
are more pro-business, so better for the
economy”.
Separately on Friday, oversight of
London’s scandal-hit gold price setting
process was awarded to a division of
US group Intercontinental Exchange
(ICE). Industry body the London Bullion
Market Association (LBMA) announced
that ICE Benchmark Administration
had been selected as third party
administrator for a new mechanism for
setting gold prices.
OIL: In a rollercoaster week for the oil
market, prices plunged on Tuesday
after leading producer Saudi Arabia
cut its prices for crude sold to the US
market.
New York crude tumbled to its lowest
close since October 2011 and Brent to
its lowest since October 2010.
Analysts interpreted the Saudi move
as an effort to maintain market share
in North America against cheaper oil
flooding from US shale fields.
New York crude then rebounded
Wednesday after the US Energy
Gold prices plunged on Friday to $1,131.24 per ounce — its lowest
level since mid-April 2010
Information Administration (EIA)
revealed a smaller-than-expected
increase in crude oil supplies.
The EIA reported that US crude
inventories grew by 500,000 barrels in
the week ending October 31.
That was much less than the 2.2mn
barrel increase expected by analysts.
Over the four previous weeks, crude
inventories had climbed by roughly
23mn barrels.
The market also rallied Wednesday
following reports of a pipeline blast in
Saudi Arabia. However, state-owned
oil firm Saudi Aramco said operations
were unaffected.
Crude futures then sank on Thursday
after Opec, supplier of a third of the
world’s crude, cut its longer-term
production forecasts in the face of
rising North American shale output.
The Organization of the Petroleum
Exporting Countries estimated in
its annual world outlook that global
demand for Opec crude oil will fall
from just above 30mn barrels per
day in 2013 to 28.2mn barrels a day
in 2017, before starting to rise again
in 2018.
Opec highlighted that the US and
Canada are the primary drivers of
non-Opec output growth, in part due to
shale-oil production.
Since mid-June, both Brent and New
York oil prices have also fallen by
almost 30% in value amid concerns
of a global supply glut. By Friday on
London’s Intercontinental Exchange,
Brent North Sea crude for delivery in
December slid to $83.64 a barrel from
$85.36 one week earlier.
BASE METALS: Base or industrial metal
prices held steady, with gains limited by
the strong dollar.
“The market steadied today after the
ECB signalled it was ready to take
further measures if needed to revive
the euro economies,” said Triland
Metals analysts.
By Friday on the London Metal
Exchange, copper for delivery in three
months increased to $6,682 a tonne
from $6,720 a week earlier.
Three-month aluminium firmed to
$2,069 a tonne from $2,031.50.
Three-month lead inched up to
$2,017.50 a tonne from $2,014.
Three-month tin advanced to $20,076 a
tonne from $19,955.
Three-month nickel fell to $15,450 a
tonne from $15,768.
Three-month zinc decreased to $2,249
a tonne from $2,313.
COCOA: The market continued to
decline on easing output worries over
the Ebola epidemic in West Africa,
which is home to most of the world’s
cocoa production.
Prices had soared in September to
3.5-year peaks on worries that Ebola
could reach key producers Ivory Coast
and Ghana.
By Friday on LIFFE, cocoa for delivery
in March dropped to £1,905 a tonne
from £1,933 for the December contract
a week earlier.
On the ICE Futures US exchange, cocoa
for March declined to $2,893 a tonne
from $2,936 for the December contract
a week earlier.
SUGAR: Prices dived in London to a
four-year trough of $409.10 per tonne
on the back of abundant supplies.
“Sugar was lower on ... big world
supplies and on the stronger US dollar,”
said Price Futures Group analyst Jack
Scoville.
By Friday on LIFFE, the price of a tonne
of white sugar for delivery in March
traded at $413.20 compared with
$427.40 a week earlier.
On ICE Futures US, the price of
unrefined sugar for March dipped to
15.69 US cents a pound from 16.30 US
cents a week earlier.
COFFEE: Arabica recoiled to a six-week
low at 182.10 US cents on favourable
growing conditions in Brazil.
“Ever since mid-October, the price
has been driven down by favourable
weather forecasts in Brazil, the most
important growing country,” said
Commerzbank analysts.
“All the same, it is still unclear whether
the rainfall will prove sufficient for the
coffee berries to develop well once the
blossoming phase has come to an end.”
By Friday on ICE Futures US, Arabica for
delivery in December dipped to 183.65
US cents a pound from 186.10 cents a
week earlier.
On LIFFE, London’s futures exchange,
Robusta for January fell to $2,010 a
tonne from $2,032 a week earlier.
RUBBER: Kuala Lumpur rubber prices
pushed lower amid a report that
Indonesian rubber exporters were
exercising caution and holding on to
stocks. The Malaysian Rubber Board’s
benchmark SMR20 fell to 151US cents a
kilo on Friday, from 160.20 US cents the
previous week.
18
Gulf Times
Sunday, November 9, 2014
BUSINESS
T
he Qatar Stock Exchange (QSE)
Index gained 91.63 points, or
0.68%, during the week, to close
at 13,590.49 points. Market capitalisation increased by 0.76% to reach
QR733.8bn compared to QR728.3bn
at the end of the previous week. Of
the 43 listed companies, 23 companies ended the week higher, while 19
fell and 1 remained unchanged. Islamic Holding Group (IHGS) was the
best performing stock for the week,
with a gain of 14.9% on 1.3mn shares
traded; the stock is up 278.3% yearto-date (YTD). On the other hand, after reporting weaker-than expected
results, Vodafone Qatar (VFQS) was
the worst performing stock, with a decline of 4.2% on 7.6 mn shares traded;
the stock is still up 85.2% YTD.
Industries Qatar (IQCD), QNB Group
(QNBK) and Gulf International Services (GISS) were the biggest contributors to the weekly index gain. IQCD
contributed 55.7 points to the index’s
gain of 91.6 points. QNBK contributed
38.6 points. GISS was the third biggest contributor, contributing 32.0
points. On the other hand, within the
QSE index, Ooredoo (ORDS), Masraf
Al Rayan (MARK) and Qatar Islamic
Bank (QIBK) pulled the index down.
ORDS ended the week shaving 22.9
points off the index. MARK dragged
the index down by 20.1 points during
the week.
Trading value during the week decreased by 25.1% to reach QR2.9bn vs
QR3.9bn in the prior week. The banks
and financial services sector led trading value during the week, accounting
for 32.7% of the total. The real estate
sector was the second biggest contributor, accounting for 21.3% of the
total trading value. Barwa Real Estate
(BRES) was the top value traded stock
during the week with total traded value of QR260.9mn.
Trading volume decreased by 36.3%
to reach 60.1mn shares vs 94.4mn
shares in the prior week. The number
of transactions fell by 19.6% to reach
30,307 versus 37,685 in the prior
week. The real estate sector led the
trading volume, accounting for 37.7%,
followed by the banks and financial
services sector, which accounted for
18.6%. ERES was the top volume traded stock during the week with total
traded volume of 10.3mn shares.
Foreign institutions remained bullish during the week with net buying of QR67.3mn vs net buying of
QR164.5mn in the prior week. Qatari
institutions turned bearish with net
selling of QR3.8mn vs net purchases
of QR114.7mn the week before. Foreign retail investors remained bearish for the week with net selling of
QR45.6mn vs net selling of QR43.6mn
in the prior week. Qatari retail investors remained bearish, albeit on a
lower scale, with net divestments of
QR17.6mn vs QR236.0mn in net selling the week before. Thus far in 2014,
the QSE has already witnessed net
foreign portfolio investment inflow of
$2.3bn.
QSE Index and Volume
Weekly Market Report
Source: Qatar Exchange (QE)
Weekly Index Performance
Source: Qatar Exchange (QE)
Source: Bloomberg
Source: Qatar Exchange (QE)
DISCLAIMER
This report expresses the views and opinions of Qatar National Bank Financial Services SPC (“QNBFS”)
at a given time only. It is not an offer, promotion or recommendation to buy or sell securities or other
investments, nor is it intended to constitute legal, tax, accounting, or financial advice. We therefore strongly
advise potential investors to seek independent professional advice before making any investment decision.
Although the information in this report has been obtained from sources that QNBFS believes to be reliable,
we have not independently verified such information and it may not be accurate or complete. Gulf Times and
QNBFS hereby disclaim any responsibility or any direct or indirect claim resulting from using this report.
Qatar Stock Exchange
Top Five Gainers
Top Five Decliners
Most Active Shares by Value (QR Million)
Most Active Shares by Volume (Million)
Investor Trading Percentage to Total Value Traded
Net Traded Value by Nationality (QR Million)
Source: Bloomberg
Technical analysis of the QSE index
T
he QSE Index extended its winning streak for
the third straight week and gained around
92 points. It was a good week for the bulls, as
the index moved higher on every trading session
except on Wednesday, when it witnessed severe
profit-booking, trimming the majority of its gains.
Meanwhile, the index recaptured the 21-day moving
average and the 13,584.0 level, making further headway. However, volumes were comparatively less
compared to the prior week, which casts a doubt
on this bullish momentum. The index will come
under a firm bull-grip only if it manages to surpass
and sustain above the 13,700.0 level along with the
55-day moving average on a weekly closing basis.
Otherwise, the index will slip back toward the 21-day
moving average or possibly even lower. For now,
both the momentum indicators are stalling, which
indicates a lack of clarity in the direction of the index.
The QSE Index continued its southbound journey for the third straight week and ended lower
losing around 889 points, caving under sustained
selling pressure. Moreover, the index penetrated
below 13,000.0 for the first time since July providing a bearish signal. Meanwhile, the sharp losses
registered on Sunday, Wednesday and Thursday
were mainly responsible for dragging the index below many important psychological supports along
with the 55-day moving average. This shows that
the index is indicating a clear intermediate corrective trend, as it has been recording lower tops and
lower bottoms since mid-September. On the downside, the index has its important psychological support at 12,900.0 which should not be breached, if it
attempts to rebound. However, any sustained weakness below 12,900.0 may result in additional selling
pressure, which will drag the index toward 12,770.0,
followed by the 12,680.0 level. We believe the bulls
have now been trapped, and the bears may continue
to dominate until the index stays below the 13,000.0
level. Further, both the momentum indicators are in
downtrend mode with no immediate trend reversal
signs, suggesting the continuation of this weakness.
Definitions of key terms used in technical analysis
C
andlestick chart – A candlestick chart is a price
chart that displays the high, low, open, and
close for a security. The ‘body’ of the chart is
portion between the open and close price, while the
high and low intraday movements form the ‘shadow’. The candlestick may represent any time frame.
We use a one-day candlestick chart (every candle-
stick represents one trading day) in our analysis.
Doji candlestick pattern – A Doji candlestick is
formed when a security’s open and close are practically equal. The pattern indicates indecisiveness,
and based on preceding price actions and future
confirmation, may indicate a bullish or bearish
trend reversal.
Gulf Times
Sunday, November 9, 2014
19
BUSINESS
Upbeat corporate
results to cheer
Wall St investors
Reuters
New York
W
Traders use telephones as they work on the trading floor at the London Metal Exchange. The proposed rule changes represent the latest step in the LME’s efforts to reduce wait
times for receiving metal.
LME proposes rules
to prevent market
abuse at metal depots
Bloomberg
London
T
he London Metal Exchange (LME)
proposed changes designed to
strengthen its powers to investigate and prevent market abuse at warehouses amid scrutiny of delivery backlogs.
The proposed rule changes represent
the latest step in the LME’s efforts to reduce wait times for receiving metal. The
exchange, which monitors a network of
about 700 depots, plans to require warehouses to submit more information to
ensure companies aren’t distorting the
market, according to an e-mailed statement on Friday.
Aluminum consumers including MillerCoors last year complained that LMEauthorised warehouse operators were
constraining supply and inﬂating costs,
drawing attention of US lawmakers and
regulators.
The proposals add to earlier reforms to
reduce logjams at some LME-approved
warehouses and are part of a broader effort to step up regulation of banks owning physical commodities.
“It’s a question of cleaning up the
shadowy things that are going on,” Edward Meir, an analyst at INTL FCStone
Inc in New York, said by phone. “It’s going to be a lot more work for warehouses.
I’m sure these banks that still have warehouses will be more inclined to get rid of
them.”
The reform proposals come after the
LME’s court victory last month over
United Co Rusal, which sought to block
rules aimed at reducing warehouse logjams.
The Moscow-based company said in
October it was seeking to increase transparency in the market and that the appeal court’s ruling “will do little to address the problems caused by disparities
between the LME price and premiums or
the general lack of transparency.”
Charles Watenphul, a spokesman for
Glencore, owner of the warehousing
business Pacorini Metals, declined to
comment. Michael DuVally, a spokes-
Traders seek clues on
stocks from Internet
employee forums
Reuters
London
When digging for insight on
a complex retail story such
as Tesco, whose shares are at
decade lows after profit warnings and boardroom upheaval,
every little helps investors –
even comments in employee
chatrooms.
While it may be far removed
from stockbrokers’ traditional
balance-sheet analysis, and
often less well-written, traders
and fund managers are scouring online message boards and
forums to gauge mood, morale
and management success –
information easily overlooked
by busy investors.
One of these troves of gossip has been Tesco employee
forum verylittlehelps.com, for
example, where one anonymous writer posted: “I hope
that the new boss takes this
opportunity to ensure that
systems are worked properly.
Stock is written off. Staff are
employed. Waste is recorded.
Shelves are filled.”
That does not mean investors will take these comments
at face value without filtering
them, but there is a sense that
unofficial sources and social
media are being taken more
seriously as a way to go beyond
broker research and company
disclosure.
“In general, I think it’s a very
good idea to look at employee
opinions which will give you inside information that you would
not get from banks’ research
notes, but you would have to be
careful to filter out the noise,”
said Hendrik Klein, head of
Swiss high frequency trading
firm Da Vinci.
Ex-Morgan Stanley banker
Emmett Kilduff, whose firm
Eagle Alpha helps investors analyse the Internet
and Twitter for clues on the
financial market environment,
said there had been growing
demand from fund managers
for analysis of employee views
online.
Tesco was a prominent
request in the wake of its announcement in September that
it had a bigger-than-expected
hole in its finances.
Tesco is conducting a probe
into the matter. Another was
postal operator Royal Mail,
which in March announced
plans to cut a net total of 1,300
jobs, prompting the threat of
industrial action from a trade
union.
Employee forums were used
in order to gauge the risk of
strike action.
Even official corporate
videos posted online can give
investors insight, such as those
of US electric car maker Tesla
Motors, whose videos were
analysed by Eagle Alpha for
investors which might have
otherwise missed them.
In several of these, Tesla Motors - whose shares have risen
by nearly 60% since the start of
2014 – gave “behind the scenes”
tours of production lines and
product demonstrations.
man for New York-based Goldman Sachs
Group Inc, wasn’t immediately available
to comment.
The New York-based bank owns Metro International Trade Services. Elena
Morenko of Rusal didn’t return an e-mail
sent after normal business hours on Friday.
The wait time to remove aluminum
from Metro-operated warehouses in Detroit was 702 days in September while
the removal time from Pacorini’s depots
at the Dutch port of Vlissingen was 625
days, according to LME’s report published last month on its website.
The LME said last month that it will
require warehouses with waits exceeding
50 days to load out more metal than they
take in, starting in February.
The minimum metal delivery requirement for warehouses with the biggest
stockpiles is 3,000 metric tons a day,
with extra rates applying to nickel and
tin. The bourse said yesterday that it
wants to require storage companies to
release an additional 500 tons of aluminum alloy a day, which will help bring
contract prices closer to the physical
market, the notice said.
The exchange will also require warehouses to appoint an independent auditor to count all of the stock each company holds in bourse-approved depots,
according to the proposal. It currently
tracks 10%.
Counting all stockpiles will give “an
additional level of assurance that all warrants are backed by physical metal” after
the Qingdao port probe, the LME said in
a notice to members.
Chinese authorities earlier this year
discovered the same metal in the port of
Qingdao was pledged multiples times to
secure different loans.
The LME said it wants to add a code
of conduct that bans behaviour to manipulate the market, such as creating or
maintaining a queue for metal delivery.
It also plans to take disciplinary action
against any price-distorting behaviour.
The exchange said the consultation on
the proposed reforms and changes to its
rules for approving warehouses will run
until February.
ith the US third-quarter earnings season almost at an end, many
investors are breathing a sigh of
relief as more companies surpassed proﬁt expectations than
in any quarter since 2010.
But some analysts say investors may be brushing off their
worries about corporate proﬁts a
little too soon.
While most Standard & Poor’s
500 companies beat analysts’
expectations for third-quarter earnings, many just barely
topped estimates, said Pankaj
Patel, head of quantitative research at Evercore ISI in New
York.
Of the S&P 500 companies
that had reported results as of
early this week, 66% exceeded
expectations, according to Evercore’s data analysis. But that ﬁgure falls to just 43% after stripping away companies that beat
expectations by 5% or less, Patel’s research shows.
The ﬁgure excluding beats of
5% or less is also well below the
percentage of beats according to
data based on Thomson Reuters
I/B/E/S polls of analysts. On
that data, 74% of S&P 500 companies so far have exceeded analysts’ expectations, which is the
highest for any quarter since the
second quarter of 2010.
Results have come in from
88% of the S&P 500. The results
could mean that an increasing
number of companies are trying
to “manage their beat rate,” possibly to mask proﬁt weakness,
Patel said, noting that companies that exceed expectations
by 5% or less typically see their
share prices decline in the three
days following results.
“The beat rate is artiﬁcially
high, but people still watch
that%,” Patel said. “They keep
buying and the market goes
higher.” The S&P 500 has risen
more than 3% since October 8,
roughly when this earnings season began. The index is up 9.1%
from its October 15 low.
In addition, analysts’ keep
trimming their proﬁt forecasts.
Estimates for fourth-quarter
earnings are down from the start
of the quarter, along with estimates for the ﬁrst part of 2015.
Earnings growth for the
fourth quarter now is estimated
at 7.6% compared with an October 1 forecast for 11.1% growth,
Thomson Reuters data showed.
For the 2015 ﬁrst quarter, proﬁt
growth is seen at 8.8%, down
from an October 1 forecast for
11.5% growth.
Moreover, the magnitude by
which fourth-quarter estimates
are falling has increased compared with the previous quarter,
said Nick Raich, chief executive
officer of The Earnings Scout,
a Cleveland-based independent research ﬁrm specializing in
earnings trends.
In outlooks given by companies themselves – done by only
a minority of companies – the
news is not good.
Negative outlooks outnumber positive ones for the fourth
quarter so far by a ratio of 3.9 to
1, up from the third quarter’s ratio of 3.3 to 1, Thomson Reuters
data showed.
The NYSE building in New York. With the US third-quarter earnings
season almost at an end, many investors are breathing a sigh of
relief as more companies surpassed profit expectations than in any
quarter since 2010.
Sainsbury’s takes various savings
initiatives to get competitive edge
Reuters
London
C
utting costs, investment, prices and dividends are likely to be
among the initiatives announced
by new Sainsbury’s boss Mike Coupe on
Wednesday, when he reveals his plan for
coping with the toughest market conditions for decades.
With Sainsbury’s share price down a
third in the last year, Coupe, who was
promoted to succeed Justin King in July,
is under pressure to come up with a strategy that convinces investors it can avoid
the even deeper problems experienced
by market leader Tesco and smaller rival
Morrisons.
He said last month market conditions
were the most challenging he had experienced in his 30-year career in retail – a
“perfect storm” of price deﬂation, customers shopping around more than ever
and a post-recession trend of people eating out more often.
Up until the fourth quarter of its 201314 ﬁscal year, Sainsbury’s had been outperforming rivals, with nine unbroken
years of sales growth. It has since had
three straight quarters of falling sales,
culminating in a like-for-like sales drop of
2.8%, excluding fuel, in its second quarter
to September 27.
On Wednesday, Sainsbury’s is forecast
by analysts to post a ﬁrst-half underlying
pretax proﬁt of about £350mn ($554mn),
down 12.5% on the same period last year.
Like “big four” rivals Tesco, Wal-Mart’s
Asda and Morrisons, Sainsbury’s has been
losing market share to discounters Aldi
and Lidl as well as upmarket Waitrose and
Marks & Spencer, and in October cut its
sales forecast for the 2014-15 ﬁscal year.
Customers enter and exit a Sainsbury’s supermarket store in Godalming, the UK.
Cutting costs, investment, prices and dividends are likely to be among the initiatives
announced by new Sainsbury’s boss Mike Coupe this week, when he reveals his plan for
coping with the toughest market conditions for decades.
All of the big four have responded by
cutting prices and new Tesco boss Dave
Lewis, who is also grappling with an accounting scandal, is expected to shake-up
the market further with more price reductions.
Coupe promised his review would look
at all aspects of Sainsbury’s business,
leaving “no stone unturned”.
He has previously said Sainsbury’s can
set itself apart from rivals with a strategy
that focuses on own-brand products, on
the quality, provenance and ethical credentials of its food, and on expanding
its fast-growing convenience and online
businesses.
But analysts and investors think more
price cuts may be needed and to do that
Coupe needs to ﬁnd money.
“The big things that people are looking
for in the strategic review are very good
shepherding of the cash ﬂow, so probably
reducing the plans they might have had for
increased space and reducing the capital
expenditure,” one investor in Sainsbury’s
told Reuters, adding he did not want to see
a dividend cut.
However, Exane BNP Paribas analyst
John Kershaw expects the dividend, which
amounted to £320mn in 2013-14, to be cut
by 30% for 2014-15. He forecasts an interim dividend of 3.5 pence a share, down
from 5.0 pence last year.
Any dividend cut is unlikely to go down
well with Sainsbury’s shareholders. Some
26% of its equity is owned by the Qatar Investment Authority, which walked
away from a possible takeover in 2007,
while the different parts of the Sainsbury
family own around 11%.
In May, Sainsbury’s guided that core
capital expenditure in 2014-15 would be
at a similar level to the £888mn spent in
2013-14 that gave a capex/sales ratio of
3.4%.
The ﬁrm also guided to a capex/sales
ratio below 3% from 2015-16 onwards.
Shore Capital analyst Clive Black reckons Sainsbury’s may further cut capex
guidance to £550-£600mn a year, focusing spending on the fast-growing convenience store sector until the wider grocery market improves.
Exane’s Kershaw expects Sainsbury’s to
open less than 500,000 square feet of new
selling space in the 2015-16 year, down
from the 750,000 square feet it expects to
open in 2014-15.
Shore Capital’s Black also expects
further cost cutting beyond the current
guidance of 120-130mn pounds of savings
for 2014-15. He said this process may involve substantial restructuring costs.
Analysts also reckon Sainsbury’s could
write down the value of its development
properties and trading assets.
Coupe has already made some strategic
moves since taking the helm. He has simpliﬁed the grocer’s “Brand Match” price
matching scheme to focus on prices at
Asda rather than Tesco and made changes
to its Nectar loyalty card programme.
He is also tackling the rise of the discounters by teaming up with Denmark’s
Dansk Supermarked to bring the Netto
brand back to the UK.
A ﬁrst store opened in Leeds, northern
England, on Thursday.
Sunday, November 9, 2014
BUSINESS
GULF TIMES
QBIC launches
monthly speaker
series with Swatch
co-inventor
T
Dignitaries at the launch of the all-new Hyundai Sonata. The improved 7th generation model is the result of three years of research and development conducted by Hyundai.
National Car Co launches
all-new Hyundai Sonata
N
ational Car Company, the
sole distributor for Hyundai
vehicles in Qatar has officially
launched the all-new Sonata midsize sedan at a well attended event at
the Ezdan Mall, Gharaffa.
Staying true to Hyundai’s acclaimed ‘Modern Premium’ brand direction, the new Sonata is the second
Hyundai model to feature the brand’s
Fluidic Sculpture 2.0 design concept,
while also offering modern styling,
excellent performance, and the practical application of the Hyundai’s latest technologies such as Smart Trunk
function and Blind Spot Detection.
The improved 7th generation
model is the result of three years of
research and development conducted
by Hyundai in the Middle East and
around the globe, in order to maximize product competitiveness and
satisfy the diverse needs of the Middle East market.
Currently on display at the two
Hyundai showrooms in Doha and
Aziziya, Sonata is expected to continue the popularity of a model that has
traditionally been one of Hyundai’s
best-selling models in the Middle
East since it was ﬁrst introduced. In
2013, the Sonata sold over 26,000
units across the Middle East – a region that is set to become Hyundai’s
biggest market after the US. Since its
introduction in 1985, cumulative global sales of the Sonata have reached
almost seven million units.
Sheikh Ahmad bin Nasser alThani, President Director, National
Car Company said: “We are proud
to present the all-new Sonata which
has gone through rigorous performance tests and quality enhancements
especially in the tough conditions in
our region and I am conﬁdent that it
will be a new bench mark in mid-size
sedan segment in Qatar.
It has already achieved top-class
safety ratings and we strongly feel
that car lovers in Qatar will be delighted to accept the new Sonata
with enthusiasm.” The all-new Sonata is the second model to have been
designed using Hyundai’s Fluidic
Sculpture 2.0 philosophy, following
in the footsteps of the all-new Genesis which was launched in Qatar in
May 2014. It boasts a dramatic new
exterior look, as well as a new and improved interior, and a design concept
that focuses on ‘Inner Force’: a theme
that points to evolved aesthetics and
conﬁdent perfection.
The new model aims to deliver
maximum driver conﬁdence through
the inclusion of top safety features
and a new suspension, which will
provide the driver with a smoother
overall ride. Pioneering safety technology such as Vehicle Stability
Management, Hill Assist Control and
Electric Parking Brake are all included.
An impressive 51% of the new
Sonata’s steel is Advanced High
Strength Steel (AHSS), increasing
stiffness and protecting passengers
more effectively with improved body
structure rigidity. This has helped the
vehicle to achieve a 2014 Top Safety
Pick+ award from the Insurance Institute of Highway Safety (IIHS) in
the United States.
The new Sonata also beneﬁts
from improved interior ergonomics, resulting in a completely driverfocused cabin that incorporates Hyundai Motor’s core interior design
principles of safety, intuitiveness and
simplicity.
Multiple comforts include a panoramic sunroof, manual rear side window curtains, electrical backlite glass
curtain, integrated driving mode system (normal, sports and eco) and an
Integrated Memory System (IMS) for
the driver seating position.
The Smart Trunk feature also allows drivers to open the trunk remotely if their hands are full. Puddle
lamps projected from outside mirrors
and HID Xenon headlamps add to the
premium feel of the vehicle.
The all-new Sonata also offers a
top-of-the-line multi-media sound
system, with an option of an impressive 4.3” colour TFT – LCD screen
with Rear Camera Viewing for high
audio or a 3.8” Negative Mono LCD
for basic audio, both of which are
accompanied by MP3, bluetooth
hands-free and My Music Functions.
The high quality sound system is
linked to eight optimally tuned highperformance speakers and subwoofers, offering live multi-dimensional
sound. The new Sonata also supports
AUX & USB ports and iPod bundle
cable connection.
The all-new Hyundai Sonata is
available in Supreme (equipped with
all the special features mentioned
above), Classic, Mid & Entry grades
varying in features and speciﬁcations.
The new Hyundai Sonata available
in Qatar is equipped with a 2.4 L MPI
engine coupled with 6-speed automatic transmission.
he Qatar Business Incubation Centre (QBIC) has launched the ﬁrst
session of its monthly “Speaker Series” with guest speaker Elmar Mock, the
co-inventor of the original Swatch watch.
In line with QBIC’s mission of developing Qatar’s next QR100mn companies,
the Speaker Series is one of a number of
programmes and activities that encourage and support aspiring entrepreneurs to
overcome external obstacles and focus on
their start-up ideas.
The Speaker Series sessions are held periodically and were designed to appeal to a
broad spectrum of aspiring entrepreneurs,
Small and Medium-sized Enterprise
(SME) owners, and anyone interested in
business.
Selected speakers are chosen on the
basis of their personal achievements
as entrepreneurs, especially those who
achieved success after leaving their fulltime jobs to pursue their business ideas.
Qatar Development Bank CEO and
QBIC chairman Abdulaziz bin Nasser alKhalifa said, “Elmar Mock’s talk puts in
perspective a lot of what we try to teach
participants partaking in QBIC’s programmes; the key to a successful startup
idea is practical innovation.”
QBIC CEO Aysha al-Mudahka said,
“We believe our speakers will be a source
of inspiration as they have overcome many
of the same challenges facing our aspiring
entrepreneurs today. We are also selecting
speakers on their ability to share practiced
strategies and knowledge to help our entrepreneurs achieve tangible results.”
Mock’s topic, “The Innovation Factory,”
centred on how to successfully manage
innovation using practical examples such
as the Swatch story. He also discussed the
hidden consequences of innovation and
the contradiction between innovation and
renovation.
Mock is a serial innovator and is wellknown as the inventor of the original
Swatch watch. Following Swatch, he designed Tissot’s Rock watch and then left
the company to establish his own engineering and technical consultation company in Switzerland.
Since starting his own company in
1986, Mock has completed more than 600
projects for numerous companies, created several spin-offs, and generated more
than 150 patents in various ﬁelds.
Elmar Mock and QBIC chairman
Abdulaziz bin Nasser al-Khalifa.
QPM to chair ‘6th Annual Middle
East District Cooling Summit’
Q
Officials from Al-Attiya Motors and Trading Co and Renault Trucks at the opening ceremony.
Opening ceremony held for QR26mn
Renault Trucks Qatar workshop
To mark its 40th anniversary, Al-Attiya Motors and Trading Co
(AMTC) recently held an opening ceremony for the launch of
its “state-of-the-art”, QR26mn Renault Trucks (RT) workshop
in the Industrial Area.
The 4,500sqm facility features full air-conditioning, a
comfortable reception area, modern tooling equipment and
expanded work stations to be able to provide a professional
and timely service and maintenance experience for clients,
according to a statement.
Over 2,000 Renault Trucks are currently in operation
across Qatar and the new workshop will help significantly in
accommodating the increasing demand for repair, service,
body work and maintenance.
According to a report from Renault Trucks Middle East, AMTC
is one of the best performing importers in the region.
As a result, Renault Trucks is a strong player when it comes
to the medium duty range and one of the best brands when
it comes to the heavy duty range, the statement adds. The
RT Qatar workshop is located on Street 6 (Al Kassarat St),
Industrial Area.
The workshop capacity has been raised from 150 to 300
job cards per month, with state-of-the-art tooling and extra
parking spaces as an added convenience. In addition, the
warehouse storage space is capable of accommodating over
QR10mn worth of parts stock.
Abdul Aziz al-Attiya, chairman of AMTC, said: “The new
Renault Trucks Qatar service centre is in line with our
company vision in setting a standard for professional aftersales support and professionalism.
We are devoted to continuously invest in human and capital
resources for the welfare of our individual and corporate
customers.”
Mohamed Maali, CEO of AMTC, added: “We are excited to
inaugurate the new workshop as this will provide us with the
opportunity to strengthen our relationships with existing and
potential customers.”
atar Project Management
(QPM) will be representing
the country as Project Management Partner and Chair of the
“6th Annual Middle East District
Cooling Summit” to be held from
November 10 to 11 at the Ritz-Carlton Doha.
This year’s designated Chair, QPM
director for Corporate Sustainability
Salah Nezar, will also head several
high-proﬁle panel discussions during the two-day summit.
Nezar will also deliver the keynote
presentation during the opening
session focusing on “Solar outdoor
cooling opportunities” as a “new
and viable” option to lead countries
in the region to a “new age of sustainability” in the energy and waterintensive district cooling sector.
“There are only a few days in the
region when direct sunlight is low.
Therefore, the practical applications of harnessing solar energy in
the region are massive and much
more lucrative in terms of sustainability factors than anywhere else in
the world. This solution can drive
the massive demand growth for
cooling in our expanding cities,”
Nezar said.
The research to be presented by
QPM was co-authored by Nezar
on behalf of QPM, in partnership
with Dirk Krüger and Jürgen Dersch from the German Aerospace
Centre, which is headquartered in
Cologne.
The paper explains how the sun
can be an innovative and sustainable
answer to a scalable and affordable
outdoor cooling solution in Qatar.
The “groundbreaking solution” aims
to rebrand the outdoor environment
Salah Nezar, QPM director for
corporate sustainability.
in Qatar during the summer so it is
comfortable and appealing for people to experience open-air activities
rather than staying indoors.
Some of the proposed solutions
being presented during the keynote session include the cooling of
a playground in Lusail City as a case
study performed in collaboration
with QPM partners involved in the
project.
The presentation will also cover
several other key topics related to
the challenges and opportunities in
producing a reduced scale prototype
to corroborate results obtained from
a Computational Fluid Dynamics
(CFD) simulation.
The results of the techno-economic study will be shared with the
audience to demonstrate the costeffectiveness of the proposed solution.
QPM is currently managing mega
projects in various locations worldwide while cultivating potential
markets and playing an integral role
in the development of international
communities.
QPM also invests in state-of-theart project management technologies that bring projects to life by articulating problem areas, avoiding
construction and ecological clashes,
and reducing costs through the use
of sustainable technologies and systems.
QPM’s technology leadership
was enhanced by an international
team with global experience in mega
projects that were built on the highest Health, Safety, and Environmental (HSE) standards.
FORMULA ONE Page 7
CRICKET | Page 5
Rosberg edges
Hamilton to
take pole in
Brazil
Pakistan roll
out spin trap for
New Zealand
in Abu Dhabi
Sunday, November 9, 2014
Moharram 16, 1436 AH
FOOTBALL
GULF TIMES
Costa fells
Liverpool, Mata
revives United
SPORT
BEACH VOLLEYBALL
German duo
go all the
way to win
Qatar Open
‘First we were in qualification then with a bit of luck we
made the main draw. This is just incredible’
The winning German pair (yellow) pose with runners-up Canada (in green) and third-placed France (in blue) at the
medals ceremony yesterday. PICTURE: Thajudeen
By Yash Mudgal
Doha
T
im Holler and Jonas Schroder made a dream debut at
the FIVB Beach Volleyball
Tour, defeating Canada’s
Josh Binstock and Sam Schachter
2-0 (21-18, 21-13) to win inaugural
Qatar Open yesterday.
The German pair thus capped a
perfect few days after first coming
through the qualifers and going all
the way to win the championship.
“We didn’t expect anything,”
Holler said. “First we were in qualification then with a bit of luck we
made the main draw and the fact we
played that well is incredible.
“This is just incredible, to be on
the World Tour and win a gold medal. Just give me a second because I
just can’t believe it.”
The pair combined well in the final as Holler dominated the net and
Schroder was full of energy at the
back of the court.
“I’m very lucky, I guess,” Schroder said. “He played an almost perfect tournament, we had an almost
perfect week and what a finish. It
was a great atmosphere and great
playing here.”
Holler and Schroder had never
previously played on the World
Tour, but they have now set themselves a high bar to match in the
future after a powerful run to the
final.
Their previous best came earlier in the year when they won the
University Beach Volleyball World
Championships and they also added
one gold, two silvers and one bronze
on the German National Tour.
Binstock and Schachter’s silver
was their second World Tour medal
in seven days. Last Sunday they defeated Chilean cousin’s Marco and
Esteban Grimalt in the Parana Open
final to win their first World Tour
medals.
Here they impressed throughout
the week, but were unable to overcome the Germans in the final.
“We were both a little tired, it has
been quite a long couple of weeks,”
Schachter said. “They played great
and were siding out very effectively.
“They served unbelievably well
and we struggled a little with passing, but I’m just proud with the way
we competed and played during the
tournament. It is a new level of performance for us and I’m still happy
with the overall two weeks.”
Earlier, France’s Edouard Rowlandson and Youssef Krou won the
bronze medal defeating Russia’s
Bykanov and Serguei Prokopiev 2-0
(21-15, 21-15).
The pair controlled the match
from start to finish and used their
greater experience to maintain their
grip on proceedings after they took
an early lead.
“We are really pleased with this
match. I was saying to Youssef
that we needed a really, really great
match to finish this competition,”
Rowlandson said.
It is the pair’s second medal of
the season after they won gold at
the Xiamen Open.
Nonetheless, with only the Mangaung Open in South Africa remaining on the 2014 World Tour,
the pair are determined to add yet
another medal to their trophy collections.
“We are not finished yet,” Krou
added. “We have one more tournament for this season and hoping to
finish on the podium again.”
Page 2
Lee Chong Wei believed
to have failed dope test
Kuala Lumpur, AFP: Malaysian
officials yesterday said an unnamed
badminton player, widely believed to
be world number one Lee Chong Wei,
had failed a drugs test—but leapt to
his defence, saying he would never
take “shortcuts” to boost his career.
Reports of a failed drugs test by the
long-time top player with a reputation for humility and diligence have
shocked followers of what is one of
Asia’s most popular sports.
“I want to stress this is not a performance enhancing drug. It shouldn’t
affect (the public’s) perception of
badminton. This is not (sprinter)
Ben Johnson or (cyclist) Lance
Armstrong,” sports minister Khairy
Jamaluddin was quoted by The Star
as saying.
His aide confirmed the comments.
Norza Zakaria, deputy president of the
Badminton Association of Malaysia
(BAM), told a press conference that
a player had been temporarily suspended after his B-sample tested positive for the banned anti-inflammatory
dexamethasone.
Lee reportedly flew to Norway to
witness a second test this week at a
laboratory there, following a positive
result in an initial test in late August.
Norza said the player could not be
named citing due process, with the
Badminton World Federation set to
hold a hearing.
The date for that hearing has not been
set, he said. Lee, who has been widely
named by Malaysian media, faces a
suspension of up to two years over
the doping offence.
“I would like to inform you that we
believe that this player is a very hardworking player and an exceptional
individual,” Norza said.
“We also believe that this player has
never resorted to shortcuts in his
pursuit of success.”
Norza said officials were still probing
how the substance could get into the
shuttler’s system.
He said the player had denied taking
the drug on purpose but received
treatment in July for a thigh injury.
Lee, 32, received stem cell injections
for a thigh injury in July.
“From our side, we have some justification that the player is innocent,”
Norza said.
“The main priority is to assist the
player... because he is a part of the
BAM family. He has done a lot for the
country.”
Badminton is not used to doping
scandals, with previous controversies
mainly stemming up from judging
inconsistencies and attempts to throw
matches.
2
Gulf Times
Sunday, November 9, 2014
FOOTBALL
EPL
FOCUS
‘Chelsea won’t
match Arsenal’s
‘Invincibles’’
Chelsea edge past
Liverpool; City slip
Reuters
Liverpool, England
C
Diego Costa’s second-half goal won it for the Chelsea, United win against Crystal
helsea will not go
through the season
undefeated, manager
Jose Mourinho said
yesterday, after watching his
side maintain their stranglehold on the Premier League
with victory over Liverpool.
Defender Gary Cahill and
Spain forward Diego Costa
were on target for Chelsea, who
secured their ninth league victory this campaign with a 2-1
win at last season’s runnersup Liverpool, to extend their
unbeaten start to 11 games.
Yet just as talk had started to
turn to matching Arsenal’s ‘Invincibles’, who went undefeated throughout the 2003/2004
season, Mourinho sought to
play down expectations and
said his team will not remain
unbeaten.
“I think it is possible to be
champions and we had in mind
before the season that we considered ourself title contenders
but in modern football and especially in the Premier League,
I don’t believe an unbeaten run
can happen,” the Portuguese
coach told reporters. “This is
England, and every match is
difficult, every match you can
lose points.”
Chelsea have a four-point
lead over second-place Southampton and a 15-point advantage over Liverpool, though
Mourinho dismissed sugges-
“I think it is possible to be
champions and we had in
mind before the season
that we considered
ourself title contenders
but in modern football
and especially in the
Premier League, I don’t
believe an unbeaten run
can happen”
tions that the Merseysiders are
now out of the title race.
“If this is Portugal, the
Spanish league or the German
league where you have two
teams to be champion, and if
you leave one 15 points behind,
you are almost there, but this is
England,” said Mourinho.
Mourinho said the way his
side fought back after falling
behind early on to a deﬂected
goal from Liverpool midﬁelder
Emre Can showed they had the
character of Premier League
title contenders. “Of course,
you don’t want to go behind,
but when we do, I am very
comfortable because the team
is very stable,” said Mourinho.
“When they scored, it was not
a drama for me, it was not a
drama for the team.”
The Chelsea boss also revealed that despite starting the
match, midﬁelders Ramires
and Cesc Fabregas both played
with injuries.
“Fabregas is a fantastic professional, he gambled,” said
Mourinho, who added that he
does not think the Spaniard
will be ﬁt for international
duty next week.
POINTS TABLE
Read as: Played, won, drawn, lost, goals
for, goals against, points
Chelsea’s Diego Costa (centre) takes an unsuccessful shot past Liverpool’s Steven Gerrard (left) and Martin Skrtel. (AFP)
DPA
London
C
helsea manager Jose Mourinho
hailed his team as “fantastic”
after the leaders won 2-1 at Liverpool yesterday to further emphasise their status as favourites for the
Premier League title.
Diego Costa’s second-half goal won it
for the London side, maintaining their
four-point lead over Southampton at the
top. Southampton stayed in touch with
a 2-0 win over Leicester but champions
Manchester City lost ground as they were
held to a 2-2 draw by struggling Queens
Park Rangers and are now eight points off
the top.
Chelsea were at their ruthless best as
they came from behind to hand Liverpool
their third defeat in a week. “It was a fantastic performance,” Mourinho said. “The
players as individuals all had a great performance and as team they were in control. “One point at Anﬁeld, most teams
would accept that as a great result, this
team did not accept that and I am really,
really pleased.”
Liverpool took the lead after just nine
minutes when Emre Can’s shot deﬂected
off Gary Cahill but Chelsea equalized ﬁve
minutes later when Cahill bundled the
ball over the line, conﬁrmed by goalline
technology. Costa hammered in a low shot
on 67 minutes to put Chelsea in front and
they held the advantage, though Liverpool
were aggrieved not to be awarded a late
penalty when Cahill handled the ball in
the area.
Chelsea have dropped just four points
in their ﬁrst 11 matches but Mourinho
dismissed suggestions they could emulate the Arsenal team of 2001-2 by going
through the whole league season unbeaten. Liverpool dropped to eighth and could
fall further later in the weekend, but manager Brendan Rodgers was left to rue the
penalty decision.
Southampton were frustrated by
Leicester for 75 minutes but two late goals
by Shane Long maintained their stunning
start to the season.
Manchester City’s problems continued
as they could only draw 2-2 at QPR, despite an early goal by Sergio Aguero for the
visitors. Charlie Austin equalized for QPR
and then an own goal from Martin Demichelis put the home side in front before
Aguero scored his second seven minutes
from time.
Burnley secured their ﬁrst Premier
League win 1-0 over Hull, with Ashley
Barnes scoring ﬁve minutes into the second half. The result was not enough to lift
Burnley off the bottom of the table but
they are now just one point behind QPR.
A second-half goal by substitute Juan
Mata was enough lift Manchester United
1-0 over Crystal Palace and into the top
six. “I was thinking if I come on I would
try to change the game and luckily I did it,”
Mata said.
“The most important thing is that we
won and the three points will help us to
carry on this good run. Hopefully now in
the international break we can recover our
injuries.”
Fourth-placed West Ham drew 0-0
with Aston Villa in the other match, Villa
ending a six-match losing streak.
Chelsea
Southampton
Man City
West Ham
Arsenal
Man Utd
Swansea
Liverpool
Tottenham
Everton
West Brom
Newcastle
Stoke City
Hull City
Sunderland
Aston Villa
Crystal Palace
Leicester
QPR
Burnley
11
11
11
11
10
11
10
11
10
10
10
10
10
11
10
11
11
11
11
11
9
8
6
5
4
4
4
4
4
3
3
3
3
2
2
3
2
2
2
1
2
1
3
3
5
4
3
2
2
4
4
4
3
5
5
2
3
3
2
4
0
2
2
3
1
3
3
5
4
3
3
3
4
4
3
6
6
6
7
6
28
23
22
19
18
17
13
14
13
19
13
11
10
13
11
5
14
11
11
6
11
5
12
14
11
14
10
15
14
17
13
15
12
15
18
16
20
18
22
19
29
25
21
18
17
16
15
14
14
13
13
13
12
11
11
11
9
9
8
7
RESULTS
Burnley 1 (Barnes 50) Hull 0; Liverpool
1 (Can 9) Chelsea 2 (Cahill 14, Costa 67);
Manchester United 1 (Mata 67) Crystal
Palace 0; QPR 2 (Austin 21, Demichelis
76-og) Manchester City 2 (Aguero
32, 83); Southampton 2 (Long 75, 80)
Leicester 0; West Ham 0 Aston Villa 0
Liverpool manager Brendan Rodgers (right) and his Chelsea
counterpart Jose Mourinho react during the English Premier
League match at Anfield in Liverpool, yesterday. (EPA)
SPOTLIGHT
Wenger expects Arsenal to bounce back
AFP
London
A
rsene Wenger believes Arsenal will make an immediate
recovery from their European
meltdown when they return to
Premier League action at Swansea today. Wenger’s side squandered a threegoal lead as they crumbled in spectacular fashion in the ﬁnal 29 minutes
against unheralded Belgians Anderlecht on Tuesday. The woeful collapse
once again exposed the soft centre of
Arsenal’s defence and sparked a torrent
of criticism for Wenger and his players.
But the Gunners boss says his team’s
morale has not been affected by either
the result or the abuse and he is conﬁdent of returning to winning ways
at the Liberty Stadium this weekend.
“I have managed 2000 games and can
anticipate what people will say. If you
defend and get back to 3-3, people will
ask why you defend and not continue to
play a normal game. If you continue to
attack, people ask why you attack. It is
so predictable,” Wenger said.
“We can learn a lot from what happened on Tuesday. We have special incidents. Some things we can correct,
like the second and third goals. We are
very positive inside the camp. We are
not touched by that (the negativity).
When we do not win, we are not happy.
The rest, we can live with.”
Arsenal’s defence has come under criticism. (AFP)
Wenger will adopt a cautious approach by carefully managing Theo
Walcott’s return to ﬁrst-team action
following a long-term injury. The England winger has just returned from a
serious cruciate knee ligament injury
which he sustained in the Gunners’ FA
Cup third round win over Tottenham
back in January.
Long lay-off -Walcott has sat on
the substitutes bench for the wins
over Sunderland and then Burnley
last weekend, where he was able to
make an eye-catching comeback at the
Emirates. And Wenger won’t rush the
25-year-old straight back into his starting line-up after such a length lay-off.
“In our job, every time you have a big
injury, there is a bigger chance of having another,” Wenger said. “He is now
ready to play again and we just have
to leave him in peace and give him the
time needed to come back. He is in the
squad. His ability to start is that if I decide to start him he can start.”
Meanwhile, Swansea striker Wilfried
Bony, who interested both Tottenham
and Liverpool in the close-season, is
set to extend his stay in south Wales.
And Swansea manager Garry Monk has
revealed the Ivory Coast forward could
even sign a new deal before the ﬁxture
with Arsenal.
“Hopefully we can get it done before
Arsenal - it has to go through the legal
procedures but ﬁngers crossed it can be
done,” Monk said.
“We’ve had a great relationship. We
spoke a lot over the summer and I know
how committed he is and how much he
enjoys it here. This contact is a symbol of that. It would be a very big thing
for the club, the player and his teammates. It’s good for them to see a big
player commit to the club. Hopefully
it’s a boost for everyone.”
Monk denied the move to tie Bony to
a longer deal, which could see his release clause taken over, was a move to
keep the 25-year-old from the clutches
of Premier League rivals. “It’s not why
we’re doing it, it’s just about having
good players here and on contracts that
suit the club,” he added.
“It’s a sign of how committed he is.
That’s the biggest message, his commitment to the club and his teammates. Speculation over the summer
saw Ashley Williams and Wilf linked
away but they gave their commitment
to the club and team-mates which is
great for them to see. Speculation will
always happen.
“In the times we’re in and the players
we have, they will attract attention. I’m
sure he’ll be linked again but that’s not
a concern.”
Rodgers fumes
over Liverpool
penalty claim
London: Liverpool manager
Brendan Rodgers complained
that his team were denied
what he called a “clear penalty” during their 2-1 loss at
home to Premier League leaders Chelsea.
Chelsea took the spoils
thanks to a close-range strike
by Diego Costa in the 67th
minute, after Emre Can’s early
opener for Liverpool had been
cancelled out by Gary Cahill.
Rodgers felt that his side
should have been awarded
a penalty after a late Steven
Gerrard strike appeared to
catch Cahill on the arm inside
the box. “It was a clear one,”
Rodgers told BT Sport. “We
worked so hard in the game,
we need those decisions.
“It was quite obvious. It hits
his hand, it was a clear, clear
penalty, and the referee has
a clear view of it. The players
gave everything and we deserved at least a point.”
Liverpool have now lost five
league games this season
- just one less than they
recorded in the whole of the
previous campaign - and
Rodgers hopes the return
from injury of striker
Daniel Sturrige will give them
a boost.
Gulf Times
Sunday, November 9, 2014
3
SPORT
SPOTLIGHT
Ferguson’s exit hit me hard, says van Persie
By Ed Aarons and Bart Vlietstra
theguardian.com
R
obin van Persie has revealed he
was surprised by Sir Alex Ferguson’s departure from Manchester
United, while the Dutch striker also
admitted he is not satisﬁed with his recent
performances under new manager Louis van
Gaal. In September, former United teammate Rio Ferdinand stated that Ferguson’s
decision to retire after 27 years at Old Trafford “took the wind out of everyone’s sails”
but “the person it hit more than anyone was
Robin”.
Speaking to Dutch newspaper De Volkskrant, Van Persie admitted he had been
shocked by the departure of the man who
persuaded him to leave Arsenal in August
2012. “Rio is a great guy. He talks a lot but
there is some truth in that,” said Van Persie.
“My decision to come to Manchester was
partly because of the presence of Ferguson,
or excuse me, Sir Alex. And he told me he’d
SPANISH LEAGUE
“My decision to come to Manchester
was partly because of the presence
of Ferguson, or excuse me, Sir Alex.
And he told me he’d stay for another
three years. I enjoyed his approach.
We were once 18 points clear of City
but we lost at home 2-1. We were still
15 points ahead but he was furious.
Then I realised: he’s a winner”
stay for another three years. I enjoyed his
approach. We were once 18 points clear of
City but we lost at home 2-1. We were still 15
points ahead but he was furious. Then I realised: he’s a winner.”
Van Persie has so far struggled to replicate
the form that saw him ﬁnish his debut season in Manchester as the Premier League’s
top scorer with 26 goals as United won their
20th title. An injury-hit campaign under
David Moyes saw the 31-year-old ﬁnd the
net just 12 times in the league, while he has
managed three from nine appearances this
term under compatriot Van Gaal.
“Three goals in nine games is not enough,”
he said. “Against Chelsea I had a nice chance
and I had three options: chip it, go round the
keeper or just (shoot) straight at the goal. I
chose the last and safest. If I wouldn’t have
thought it over I would just chip it. I just
have to trust again in my intuition.”
Despite United recording their worst start
to a season since 1986 under the former Holland coach, Van Persie has faith that they
can turn things around and revealed some.
He said: “We train more and more intensely
than in previous years. We have to get used
to that.”
Van Persie also revealed that he has discussed recent criticism of his performances
by BBC and BT Sport pundit Robbie Savage
with the former Wales midﬁelder. “My kids
go to the same school as Robbie Savage, a
great lad,” he said.
“I once asked him why he was so harsh in
his judgements. He told me it had to do with
the competition in the media landscape,
between television stations. He admitted to
sometimes judging harder than is reasonable, but also that he has a mortgage to pay.”
FOCUS
Suarez inspires
Barca revival
Neymar and Jordi Alba score of assists from Suarez as Barca beat Almeria
City’s Aguero vows to win
Champions League
AFP
London
M
anchester City may be on the brink
of another early exit from the Champions League but striker Sergio
Aguero has vowed to stay at the club
until they are crowned European champions. The
Premier League champions are without a win in
this season’s edition of Europe’s elite club competition, bottom of their group with just two
points from their opening four games.
City have never made it further than the last
16 of the tournament and must now beat Bayern
Munich at home and AS Roma away in their remaining group games to stand a chance of emulating their best European campaign.
Argentina striker Aguero, City’s top scorer
with 12 goals in all competitions this season, says
that he is willing to stay beyond the new ﬁve-year
contract he signed in the close season to ensure
the team win Europe’s biggest trophy.
“Not only will I stay the four (remaining) years
to make it eight here in total, I’ll stay beyond
that—until we win it,” he told reporters at the
launch of his autobiography “Born To Rise”. “We
could still be able to put things right (this season)
but clearly the group table is not where we want
to be and not what we would have expected.
“None of the games have been the real City and
I guess that if we don’t turn it around in these last
two games you would consider it to be the worst
Champions League campaign the club has had.
What we have to try and ensure is that the real
City turn up for the games against Bayern Munich
and Roma.”
City manager Manuel Pellegrini oversaw the
club’s best European campaign last season, their
ﬁrst foray into the last 16 ended in defeat over two
legs to Barcelona. Aguero believes that it is unfair
that pressure is piling on the Chilean coach after
City’s indifferent start to this campaign and that
the players should shoulder some of the blame.
“It’s easy for everyone to suddenly decide it’s
the man at the helm who is to blame, but I would
say in situations like this, when we haven’t played
well as a group, we are all in it together,” the 26
year-old said. “It is not just the manager, and not
just the players—we are all to blame as a group
and we need to work our way out of this situation
as a group.”
City’s torrid travels around Europe have been
matched with a stuttering start to their title defence in the Premier League.
FRENCH LIGUE
Jeers turn to
tears as Sagnol’s
Bordeaux win
Almeria’s Ximo Navarro (left) vies for the ball with Barcelona’s Neymar da Silva during the Spanish league match yesterday. (AFP)
AFP
Barcelona
T
wo assists from Luis Suarez inspired
Barcelona to come from behind and
snap a two-game losing streak in La
Liga with a 2-1 win at Almeria yesterday. Suarez had started the game on the bench
alongside Neymar as Barca boss Luis Enrique
made ﬁve changes from the side that defeated
Ajax 2-0 in midweek.
However, both men were called into action
at half-time after Thievy Bifouma had ﬁred
Almeria into the lead eight minutes before
the break. Suarez squared for Neymar to level
the scores 18 minutes from time and his cross
then teed up Jordi Alba to seal the three points
nine minutes later. Victory takes Barca a point
ahead of Real Madrid at the top of La Liga, but
Los Blancos can reclaim top spot when they
host Rayo Vallecano later last night.
Yet, despite his team’s reaction after the
break, Enrique was less than impressed by
their display. “The second-half was better for
the ambition and attitude shown by the players rather than for good football,” he said.
“To have a good season, though, you have
to win even when you don’t play well in games
like today.”
Enrique’s decision to make a host of changes handed Pedro Rodriguez and Munir El
Haddadi a start alongside Lionel Messi in attack. But they did little to justify their selec-
POINTS TABLE
Read as: Played, won, drawn, lost, goals for,
goals against, points
Barcelona
Real Madrid
Valencia
Atletico Madrid
Sevilla
Celta Vigo
Malaga
Villarreal
Eibar
Getafe
Athletic Bilbao
Rayo Vallecano
Espanyol
Almeria
DLa Coruna
Grenade
Elche
Levante
Real Sociedad
Cordoba
11
10
10
10
10
10
10
10
10
10
10
10
10
11
11
10
10
10
10
11
8
8
7
7
7
5
5
4
3
4
3
3
2
2
2
2
2
2
1
0
1
0
2
2
1
4
3
2
4
1
2
2
4
3
3
3
2
2
3
6
2
2
1
1
2
1
2
4
3
5
5
5
4
6
6
5
6
6
6
5
25
37
23
19
17
17
12
14
12
8
7
13
10
9
12
6
10
6
10
8
5
10
9
9
10
11
8
12
13
14
12
19
12
14
21
17
22
24
15
18
25
24
23
23
22
19
18
14
13
13
11
11
10
9
9
9
8
8
6
6
tion, although Munir did force Ruben Martinez into a low save after the Almeria ‘keeper
had blocked Messi’s effort from close range.
Martinez had to be at his best to stop Barca taking the lead just before the half hour
mark as he scrambled to keep out Ivan Rakitic’s downward header and from the rebound
Messi nodded onto the crossbar.
However, the visitors were caught out eight
minutes before half-time as Messi lost possession deep inside the Almeria half and with
one pass Barca were undone as Jonathan Soriano released Thievy and he raced past Bartra
before calmly slotting past Bravo.
Enrique had seen enough in the ﬁrst 45
minutes and swiftly introduced Suarez and
Neymar for Munir and Pedro at the break.
It took 15 minutes for the substitutes to
make an impact as Suarez acrobatically volleyed against the bar at the back post from a
corner. Suarez was the creator when Barca
did eventually level as he turned his marker
just inside the area and squared for Neymar to
turn the ball home via a deﬂection off Ximo
Navarro.
The Uruguayan was inches away from his
ﬁrst Barca goal moments later as he spun and
sent a low shot just beyond Martinez’s far
post. Suarez then teed up Messi to sent another looping header off the crossbar as the
pressure from the Catalans continued.
And they found the winner eight minutes
from the end when after another burst from
Suarez down the right he picked out the late
arriving Alba from left-back to bundle home
his ﬁrst goal of the season.
Messi’s quest to become the joint top goalscorer in La Liga history was frustrated once
more by Martinez in stoppage time, but Barca
saw the game out to return to winning ways
after back-to-back league defeats against
Real Madrid and Celta Vigo.
AFP
Paris
I
n a week he faced claims
of racism, Bordeaux
coach Willy Sagnol
was moved to tears in
Ligue 1 yesterday when African striker Cheick Diabate
hugged him after sealing a 2-1
win at Lens.
The victory lifts Bordeaux
to third position, level on 24
points with second-placed
Paris Saint Germain, who on
Sunday host Ligue 1 leaders
Marseille. Lens are fourth
from bottom with three wins
from 13 games.
Sagnol had been forced
to apologise this week after
appearing to suggest African players may be lacking
in “discipline” and “intelligence” in a newspaper interview. The former French
international was also mercilessly whistled by home fans
as he walked onto the Lens
pitch.
So when 26-year-old Malian striker Diabate scored
Bordeaux’s second goal just
before half-time and ran
over to hug Sagnol, the gesture left the coach wiping
tears from his eyes. Wahbi
Khazri opened Bordeaux’s
account with a powerful shot
on 24 minutes before Diabate
rounded the ‘keeper to double the tally on 41 minutes.
The striker refused point
blank to be drawn of the subject. “I didn’t see that (the
crying). I’m just focussed
on winning the game and
getting the points,” he told
French television at halftime.
Lens coach Antoine Kombouare, a Kanak from New
Caledonia, shook Sagnol’s
hand before the game as fans
at the Stade Felix-Bollaert
subjected the Bordeaux
coach to a barrage of jeers.
A Yoann Touzghar penalty gave Lens hope and
brought the score back to
2-1 with 15 minutes to play,
setting up a nervy closing
spell for Bordeaux. Rennes,
meanwhile, are comfortably
settled in the top third of
the table after edging lowly
Lorient 1-0 in the Brittany
derby on Friday evening.
Later last night, Bastia start
life without sacked coach
Claude Makelele by hosting Montpellier, high-ﬂying
Nantes travel to Normandy
outﬁt Caen, Evian host Nice,
and Toulouse take on Metz.
Ibrahimovic
returns to
face Marseille
Paris: Paris Saint-Germain
striker Zlatan Ibrahimovic
has been included in Laurent Blanc’s squad to face
Marseille today in the Ligue
1 top-of-the-table clash at
the Parc des Princes.
The Sweden captain, has
been out of action since
September 21 with a heel
injury, but only returned to
full training on Friday.
“He has been out seven
weeks but of course he
wants to play but we have
to consider our decision
carefully,” Blanc said on
whether last season’s top
scorer would play against
Marseille who come into
the high-octane clash with
a four-point lead over their
arch-rivals. “He cannot
sprint at 100 per cent and
between doing cycling and
‘ab’ work to flat out sprinting, there is a big difference,”
added Blanc, who played
as a defender for Marseille
between 1997 and 1999.
“If he is ready, the question remains whether he can
start the match. Is it reasonable to throw him into such
a big match? The answer
is no! But when it’s Zlatan,
reason doesn’t come into it
because he is a player who
is out of the ordinary.”
Lucas and Marco Verratti are also in the 20-player
squad despite carrying
knocks while key defender
Thiago Motta and Gregory
Van der Wiel are suspended.
4
Gulf Times
Sunday, November 9, 2014
FOOTBALL
BUNDESLIGA
SPOTLIGHT
Mueller’s hat-trick
extends Bayern lead
Guardiola’s men register their eighth win in 11 league games
POINTS TABLE
AFP
Munich
D
efending champions Bayern Munich opened a seven-point lead
at the top of the Bundesliga yesterday as Thomas Mueller netted
a hat-trick in their 4-0 romp at Eintracht
Frankfurt. With main rivals VfL Wolfsburg
and Gladbach playing Sunday, Pep Guardiola’s Bayern made sure of their eighth
win in 11 league games to pull clear of the
chasing pack.
Having been rested for Wednesday’s
2-0 home win over Roma which conﬁrmed
Bayern’s place in the Champions League’s
last 16 as group winners, Mueller opened
the scoring in Frankfurt when he converted a Franck Ribery pass at the second attempt on 23 minutes.
The 25-year-old then boosted his tally with two goals in three minutes after
converting another Ribery pass after the
Frenchman sprinted though the defence
with Poland striker Robert Lewandowski
also queueing up to score on 64 minutes.
Mueller bagged his third to leave him
with nine goals in all competitions and the
league’s joint top scorer when he ﬁnished
off a move from a quick Ribery throw-in to
claim his sixth Bundesliga goal.
Xherdan Shaqiri grabbed Bayern’s
fourth on 86 minutes after fellow secondhalf replacement Arjen Robben had pulled
the Frankfurt defence to pieces to leave the
Swiss winger to tap into an empty net.
Werder Bremen can move off the bottom, and leave last season’s runners-up
Borussia Dortmund last before hosting
third-placed Borussia Moenchengladbach
today, with just a point at VfB Stuttgart.
Hoffenheim dropped to ﬁfth after a
lively 4-3 defeat at home to Cologne with
Nigeria striker Anthony Ujah netting his
third goal of the season for the visitors and
Poland defender Pawel Olkowski scoring
twice, including the 83rd-minute winner.
Leverkusen, who won 2-1 at Zenit St
Petersburg on Tuesday to stay top of their
Champions League group, were held to a
goalless draw at home to Mainz and drop
to sixth having suffered a shock 1-0 league
defeat at Hamburg last weekend.
Robert di Matteo suffered his second
consecutive defeat as Schalke coach when
his side lost 2-0 at Freiburg, who pulled
clear of the relegation places to move up to
13th with Christian Guenter and Jonathan
Schmid scoring their goals.
The 44-year-old Di Matteo has now
lost three and won three of his six games
since taking charge of the Royal Blues last
month and his side drop to 11th in the table—exactly where they were when he
took charge.
Augsburg moved up to seventh with a
3-0 win at mid-table Paderborn as midﬁelder Tobias Werner scoring twice.
Second-placed Wolfsburg can pick up
their eighth straight win when they host
strugglers Hamburg today.
FOCUS
M
emories of Germany’s World
Cup triumph will be rekindled tomorrow when ‘Die
Mannschaft’ (The Team) hits
cinemas and Joachim Loew’s squad receive the country’s highest sports award.
After the 25th anniversary of the fall of
the Berlin Wall today, Germany’s capital is
preparing to relive the football-mad nation’s Brazil 2014 triumph. The 90-minute
long movie gets its premiere when the
behind-the-scenes story of Germany’s
fourth World Cup triumph is told.
Earlier tomorrow , the 23-man squad,
who clinched the title in Brazil, will receive the Silver Laurel Leaf—the country’s
top award for sports success—from president Joachim Gauck at his Schloss Bellevue residence.
Loew’s squad will also receive their ofﬁcial World Cup winners badge from football’s governing body FIFA which they will
wear for their Euro 2016 qualiﬁer against
Gibraltar on November 14 and away
Bayern Munich 11
VfL Wolfsburg
10
M’gladbach
10
Hanover
11
Hoffenheim
11
Bayer Leverkusen 11
FC Augsburg
11
Mainz 05
11
SC Paderborn
10
FC Cologne
11
Schalke 04
11
Eintr. Frankfurt
11
SC Freiburg
11
Hertha Berlin
11
Hamburg
10
VfB Stuttgart
10
Dortmund
10
Werder Bremen 10
8
6
5
6
4
4
5
3
4
4
4
3
2
3
2
2
2
1
3
2
5
1
5
5
0
6
3
3
2
3
5
2
3
3
1
4
0
2
0
4
2
2
6
2
4
4
5
5
4
6
5
5
7
5
27
20
15
9
17
17
14
13
16
11
14
17
11
15
4
14
11
12
3 27
9 20
5 20
11 19
14 17
15 17
12 15
12 15
16 15
11 15
15 14
23 12
14 11
21 11
12 9
23 9
17 7
24 7
dinese veteran striker
Antonio Di Natale
revealed he would
have loved to play for
Liverpool as he bids to write
another page in his impressive
personal history in Italy’s top
ﬂight.
Di Natale, one of Serie A’s
most successful ever strikers,
will take his league goals tally
to 200 if he scores away to Palermo on what will be his 400th
league appearance today.
Had he followed through
with a decision to retire at the
end of last season, the 37-yearold
Napolitan’s
200-goal
dream would have died along
with his faint hopes of a ﬁnal
World Cup appearance with
Italy in Brazil last summer.
Instead, Di Natale—who
scored 11 goals in 42 appearances for the Azzurri—has
turned his attention to at least
matching the 205-goal tally of
Italian great Roberto Baggio.
Having spent his entire career
in Italy with only two clubs,
Empoli and Udinese, Di Natale
admits a spell at Liverpool was
among his few regrets.
“The only team that I would
have loved to play for, for the
atmosphere and the stadium, is
Liverpool,” Di Natale said in an
interview with Gazzetta dello
Sport’s Sportweek magazine.
“When they took (Andrea)
Dossena to Liverpool in 2008,
there was talk of me going as
well. But then nothing happened.”
Alongside Roma playmaker
Francesco Totti, Juventus goalkeeper Gianluigi Buffon and
Verona striker Luca Toni, Di
Natale is among a handful of
‘golden oldies’ still plying their
trade in Serie A.
Di Natale admits trying to
match Totti’s current mark of
237 goals is beyond him. Silvio Piola, who retired in 1954,
holds Serie A’s all-time goals
record of 274. “Totti and I are
the only players born in 1977
still playing in the league. He’s
doing great, I couldn’t imagine
matching him,” he said.
A “huge admirer” of Diego
Maradona, Di Natale says he
has been dreaming of matching
Baggio’s 205-goal mark since
he went back on a decision to
retire at the end of last season.
Di Natale explained: “I returned home last January and
told my wife, ‘it’s time to retire’. She didn’t seem very convinced. And then my son Filippo just laughed at me. Maybe
he had an idea how it would
end up. Since our ﬁrst training
session this summer I’ve been
dreaming of equalling Baggio’s
tally of 205 goals.”
For Serie A aﬁcionados, Baggio’s achievement—the bulk of
his goals came in a ﬁve-year
spell with Juventus—may carry
more prestige. But Di Natale
said: “When a player like Baggio looks you in the eye and
tells you you’re at his level, I
can be satisﬁed with what I’ve
achieved.”
Despite playing for Udinese,
a club that has neither won the
Italian league or Cup, Di Natale
has won Serie A’s ‘Capocannoniere’ top scorer award two
years in succession. In 2010 he
scored 29 league goals to leave
Inter’s Diego Milito (22) a distant second and then hit the
net 28 times to leave Uruguayan Edinson Cavani, then of Napoli, second by just two goals.
Although he said he owes
“everything to Silvio Baldini,
who gave me my ﬁrst chance at
Empoli”, he admits Maradona
has been his idol since childhood. “I’ve always admired
him, even though his lifestyle
has been totally different from
mine. But Diego is a top player,
and when you’re among the
best everything is allowed,”
added Di Natale.
“In saying that, there’s a
message written on the wall at
my football school which says,
‘any parent who thinks they
have a little Diego, please take
them straight back home.”
RESULTS
Bayer Leverkusen 0 Mainz 05 0
Augsburg 3 (Werner 7, 47, Callsen-Bracker
68) Paderborn 0
Hoffenheim 3 (Szalai 2, Firmino 39, 45)
Cologne 4 (Olkowski 5, 83, Lehmann 12,
Ujah 35) Eintracht Frankfurt 0 Bayern
Munich 4 (Mueller 23, 64, 67, Shaqiri 86)
Freiburg 2 (Guenter 22, Schmid 68)
Schalke 04 0
Hanover 96 moved up to fourth in the
table with a 2-0 win at Hertha Berlin on
Friday, but both top six sides Hoffenheim
and Bayer Leverkusen both lost ground to
Bayern.
Udinese’s Antonio Di Natale will take his league goals tally to 200
if he scores away to Palermo on what will be his 400th league
appearance today.
ROUND-UP
Germany’s World Cup heroes
take to silver screen
AFP
Berlin
AFP
Milan
U
Read as: Played, won, drawn, lost, goals
for, goals against, points
Bayern Munich’s Thomas Mueller (right)
and Eintracht Frankfurt’s Bamba Anderson
and Bastian Oczipka (left) vie for the ball
during a Bundesliga match at Commerzbank
Arena in Frankfurt. (EPA)
Landmark
looms for
Di Natale
The documentary, which goes on
general release next Wednesday,
promises to tell the story from
Germany’s pre-World Cup training
camp in north Italy through to their
extra-time victory over Argentina
friendly in Spain four days later.
The documentary, which goes on general release next Wednesday, promises to
tell the story from Germany’s pre-World
Cup training camp in north Italy through
to their extra-time victory over Argentina
at Rio de Janeiro’s iconic Maracana.
The project was ﬁlmed by the German Football Federation (DFB), who had
planned to use the footage for motivation
purposes, but was turned into a documentary after Germany’s triumph.
“Brazil have Neymar, Argentina have
Messi, Portugal have Ronaldo, Germany
have a team,” is the quote from England
captain Steven Gerrard following Germany’s 7-1 semi-ﬁnal drubbing of hosts Brazil which opens ‘Die Mannschaft’.
As well as footage of team talks, motivational sessions and player interviews,
the ﬁlm promises to capture some of the
pranks and humour from within the squad.
A teaser clip shows winger Thomas Mueller wearing a traditional Bavarian Dirndl
dress as a forfeit at a team breakfast.
“Abroad, everyone calls us ‘The
Mannschaft’,” explained team manager
Oliver Bierhoff. “The ﬁlm gets across all
the emotions we experienced during the
World Cup. I told the crew to shoot it as if
we would become world champions.
“We hope to bring the World Cup closer
to our fans again and show a different side
of how the team experienced the World
Cup. And, of course, we want to show a
few goals.”
Oliver Bierhoff, the team manager, has
promised there will be a “few ﬁreworks”
at the premiere and the ﬁlm will be on sale
as a DVD just before Christmas. The proceeds will go to the foundations of both
the DFB and FIFA, who waived their right
to the material in order for the ﬁlm to be
made. The documentary of Germany’s
2006 World Cup campaign as hosts made
4.1 million euros when the ﬁlm “Germany,
a summer fairytale” went on release and
the majority of the money went to a children’s charity.
City’s Toure up for fourth
African player title
AFP
Cape Town
M
anchester City’s Yaya
Toure is one of 25 candidates in the running
to be crowned African
player of the year, the Confederation of African Football announced.
Toure has won the past three
awards in a list that also features
his Ivory Coast teammate Gervinho of Roma, but not Cameroon’s
four-time winner Samuel Eto’o or
double winner Didier Drogba of
Chelsea.
Eto’o is the only player to win
four awards and achieved that feat
in 2003, 2004, 2005 and 2010. Algeria, who reached the World Cup
second round for the ﬁrst time in
Brazil in July, have the most candidates with four players.
Sporting Lisbons’s Islam Slimani, Rais Mbolhi of the Philadelphia Union as well as Valencia’s, Soﬁane Feghouli and Porto
star Yacine Brahimi all feature in
the list of 25. Nigerian goalkeeper
Vincent Enyeama of Lille is the
only Ligue 1 player nominated.
DRUGS CHARGE AGAINST
ADRIANO THROWN OUT
A Rio de Janeiro judge has dismissed charges laid against
former Brazilian international
Adriano that accused him of involvement with drug-traffickers,
a court spokesman said.
The former Inter Milan, Fiorentina, Parma and Roma striker, 32,
who is trying to revive his career
in France, was charged Tuesday
with buying two motorbikes between 2008 and 2009 that were
later used by drug dealers in Rio’s
Vila Cruzeiro favela, where he
grew up. Judge Maria Tereza Donatti threw out the charge, partly
because of evidence irregularities.
Sources in the prosecutor’s office
in Rio de Janeiro told AFP that attorneys will appeal the ruling.
In a statement, the former international, who scored 27 goals
in 48 appearances for Brazil, said
he had never been worried. “I
knew everything would be okay...
I’m honest, I pay my taxes and I’m
proud of my origins,” he said.
He faced up to 15 years in prison
if found guilty. Adriano’s last contract, with Atletico Paranaense,
was terminated six months ago
after he missed several training
sessions.
BRAZIL TO PLAY FRIENDLY
IN NIGERIA
Nigeria will host ﬁve-time world
champions Brazil in a high-proﬁle
friendly on March 29 at a new provincial stadium that was opened
on Friday, officials said.
“Brazil will ﬁeld the full complement of its stars for the match,
including Barcelona star Neymar,” Akwa Ibom state governor Godswill Akpabio said at the
opening of the Akwa Ibom Stadium in the southeast of the country. Nigeria hosted Brazil in 2003
in Abuja when the World Cup
holders won 3-0.
Gulf Times
Sunday, November 9, 2014
5
SPORT
CRICKET
Pakistan roll out
spin trap for NZ
India’s cricket captain Virat Kohli
THIRD ONE-DAYER
We will be
ruthless,
says Kohli
IANS
Hyderabad
A
fter two resounding
victories, India will be
“ruthless” when they
meet Sri Lanka in the
third One-Day International
(ODI) of the ﬁve-match cricket
series here today.
Indian skipper Virat Kohli
yesterday said they will be ruthless and try to win every game
they play.
“What we are trying to achieve
is being ruthless rather than letting the situations be. In the past
it happened a lot when we had
got eight wickets then let the last
two players get away with it,” he
told reporters after the practice
session at the Rajiv Gandhi Stadium here.
“If you want to be ruthless, want to have big and
convincing wins it is important to address the issues that
happen in resounding win as
well,” he said when asked if
the team is looking to work
on weak areas.
“That’s the kind of hunger and
vision that we are trying to instil
in this team going into the 2015
World Cup so that every game
we play we want to be ruthless,
we want to win by big margin,”
he added.
Kohli said the team is treating every match like a knock-out
game and looking to win every
one of them.
“Not really thinking about
being 2-0 up. This is about one
game at a time. Looking to execute the plan we make before
every game. That’s the kind of
mindset we want to build before going into the World Cup,”
said the middle-order batsman.
“It doesn’t really matter what
the other team is feeling like and
what their strengths and weaknesses are,” Kohli said when
asked about the statements
made by some Sri Lankan players that they were not prepared
for the series.
“We want to more focussed on
what we want to do rather than
who we are playing against,” he
added.
“We are taking this series and
the tri-series (involving Australia and England) to test ourselves
and create targets for ourselves
rather than worrying about the
opposition.”
‘No changes have been made to the side that won the second Test against Australia’
Reuters
Abu Dhabi
T
he leaden-footed Australians found themselves bamboozled by
Pakistan’s wily spinners and their trans-Tasman
rivals New Zealand can expect
similar treatment from Misbah-ul-Haq and his men in a
three-test series starting in Abu
Dhabi today.
Left-arm spinner Zulfiqar
Babar (14) and leggie Yasir
Shah (12) shared 26 of the 40
Australian wickets between
them to help Pakistan secure
a comprehensive 2-0 win on
the slow, turning wickets in
the United Arab Emirates last
week.
By retaining the same 16
who gave them their ﬁrst test
series victory over Australia
in 20 years, Pakistan have suggested they would employ the
same tried-and-tested formula
against the Brendon McCullum-led Black Caps.
“No changes have been
made to the side that won the
second test against Australia. This is to ensure there is
consistency, which will bring
more stability and strengthen
team bonding and combination,” chief selector Moin
Khan said.
The slow nature of tracks
in the UAE negated much of
the threat posed by Australian pacemen, including Ashes
hero Mitchell Johnson, while
run-machine Younus Khan
and his nimble-footed batting
colleagues milked the touring
spinners dry.
Brendon McCullum and Misbah-ul-Haq pose with the series trophy ahead of the first Test in Abu Dhabi.
Australia’s specialist slow
bowler Nathan Lyon bled 422
runs for his three wickets in
the series that saw Younus hit
two centuries and a double ton
while Misbah and top order
batsman Azhar Ali hit hundreds in both innings of the
Abu Dhabi test.
Misbah also equalled West
Indies great Viv Richards’s fast-
est test century record by blasting his second hundred in 56
balls in the Abu Dhabi contest.
New Zealand coach Mike
Hesson knows what it would
take to upstage a formidable
Pakistan team eying a second
successive whitewash to close
their current 12-point gap on
second-placed Australia in test
rankings.
“I’d like to see us develop in
two areas on this tour,” Hesson
wrote on his blog on New Zealand Cricket website.
“The ﬁrst is our ability to
take wickets on un-responsive
surfaces, and the second is that
our batsmen all have a method
to cope when the ball starts
turning, to both defend and to
score.”
Leggie Ish Sodhi and offspinner Mark Craig will have
to be at the best of their craft
against a Pakistani batting order who play spin extremely
well.
“Australia struggled to take
wickets and it’s going to be
hard. It’s important that we
stick to our plan,” Craig, who
has played only three tests, said.
SPOTLIGHT
Zimbabwe spinner
Waller reported for
suspect action
Reuters
Dhaka
Z
imbabwe
off-spinner
Malcolm Waller has
been reported for a suspected illegal bowling
action, joining a fast-growing
list of spinners to have fallen
foul of the International Cricket
Council’s (ICC) rules against
throwing.
The 30-year-old part-time
bowler, whose action was reported after Zimbabwe’s defeat
in the second test against Bangladesh on Friday, had 21 days to
undergo testing, the ICC said
yesterday.
Off-spinners Sachithra Senanayake (Sri Lanka), Kane Williamson (New Zealand), Prosper
Utseya (Zimbabwe), Sohag Gazi
(Bangladesh) and Saeed Ajmal
(Pakistan) have all been reported
for suspect bowling actions in
recent months.
Three of them—Senanayake,
Williamson and Ajmal—were
subsequently banned from
bowling.
ICC poised to clear way for Aamer return
DUBAI: Pakistan seamer
Mohammad Aamer (pictured),
banned and jailed for spot fixing in one of cricket’s darkest
episodes, is set to be handed a
dramatic return to the sport.
The International Cricket
Council (ICC) is expected to
revise its anti-corruption code
at a two-day board meeting
starting in Dubai today, allowing
all banned players to feature in
domestic matches before their
suspensions expire.
Sources told AFP that the ICC
chief executives’ committee has
already approved the new provision and has recommended
the full board to do the same.
Although the revised code will
apply to all banned players, it
could specifically benefit the
22-year-old Aamer, who was
BOTTOM LINE
Tendulkar urges Indian players
to follow his English example
AFP
London
S
achin Tendulkar may
have written off England’s chances of winning next year’s World
Cup but that hasn’t stopped
the India great urging his compatriots to broaden their horizons with a spell in English
county cricket.
England have never won the
World Cup in nearly 40 years
of trying and, having lost ﬁve
out of their last six one-day
international series, few expect them to end that sequence
in Australia and New Zealand
next year.
Tendulkar, who retired from
cricket last year having become
the ﬁrst man to score 100 international centuries and been India’s leading run-scorer during
their march to the 2011 World
Cup title, was among the sceptics when it came to assessing
England’s chances.
“I think Australia, South Af-
rica, New Zealand are a dark
horse, and India—these four
should be my semi-ﬁnalists,”
Tendulkar said at a press conference at London’s Lord’s Cricket
Ground on Friday, where he was
promoting his autobiography,
‘Playing It My Way’. “Do England have a chance? Not really. I
don’t think so.
“Anything is possible in this
sport but going on current form
I don’t think England will be
that competitive.
“I feel India can surprise a lot
of people and I also believe the
spinners will come into play.
“People talk about the pitches
for fast bowlers but because of
the size of the grounds, I think
spinners could be important.”
India have long proved tough to
beat in home conditions but have
often struggled on their travels,
particularly in recent times, and
were beaten 3-1 in a ﬁve-Test series in England earlier this year.
Tendulkar said he thought
increased exposure to English
conditions would beneﬁt Indian players, citing his own ex-
perience as a 19-year-old when
he became Yorkshire’s ﬁrst
overseas cricketer in 1992.
“I grew up watching cricket
being played in England and
the reason I wanted to start
playing cricket was because of
the 1983 World Cup (that India
won in England),” the 41-yearold Tendulkar said.
“My ﬁrst Test 100 also took
place in England at Old Trafford, which was a big moment
for me. “And in 1992, the ﬁrst
time I played for Yorkshire was
a turning point in my career
because it taught me about the
conditions but it also taught
me a lot as a person.
“I thoroughly enjoyed my
time at Yorkshire—they were
all very supportive and welcoming and I can never forget
that experience, the warmth I
felt there.”
“England will always have a
special place in my heart and
my mother-in-law is English,
so I have to be careful what I
say about England!,” added
Tendulkar.
exiled from cricket after a spotfixing scandal during Pakistan’s
tour of England in 2010.
Aamer and pace partner Mohammad Asif, along with then
Pakistan captain Salman Butt,
orchestrated deliberate no-balls
in return for money during the
Lord’s Test against England four
years ago.
In February 2011, ICC anti-corruption tribunal chief Michael
Beloff QC, a senior English
lawyer, banned the players but
also raised questions over the
code and said he would recommend a revision in cases where
the minimum punishment was
five years.
Left-arm paceman Aamer was
banned for five years, Butt for
10, with five suspended, and
Asif for seven, with two sus-
pended. All three also served
prison sentences.
“The ICC Board will discuss the
recommendations from the
executive committee, including
in respect of a revised anticorruption code and a revised
ICC anti-doping code,” said an
ICC statement.
ICC chief executive David Richardson hinted last month that
the revision to the code would
feature at the November 9-10
meeting.
“There is a provision now in the
revised code which will allow
a player who has been banned
internationally to play domestic
cricket for a certain period from
his ban coming to an end,” said
former South Africa wicketkeeper Richardson, without mentioning the length of the period.
The ICC formed a five-man
committee last year to consider
the details of the code after
the Pakistan Cricket Board
(PCB) requested a relaxation of
certain conditions relating to
Aamer’s ban.
If the revised code is approved, a banned player will
have to apply to the ICC to
get permission to feature in
domestic cricket.
The ICC will seek recommendations from its Anti-Corruption
and Security Unit as well as
from the home board concerned and the ICC board
before clearing the player to
feature in domestic matches.
The PCB is likely to make an
appeal on behalf of Aamer but
let Butt and Asif’s bans stand as
they are.
Meanwhile the ICC board will
also discuss matters relating to
the Future Tours Programme
from 2015-2023, playing conditions for the 2015 World Cup
and suspected illegal bowling
actions.
Qatar Endurance Cup winners
The winners of the Qatar Endurance Cup pose with their trophies after the presentation ceremony yesterday. Al Sadd Endurance Team’s
Gaje Singh Hari Singh riding Tarifa, took the first place in the 100km category ahead of Bin Shaqer Endurance Team’s Mohammed Nasser
Salem Bugnaim astride Ithlien Arwen, while Jassim Mohammed Ali al-Meadadi, riding Shabbab finished third. In the 80km category,
Bin Shaqer Endurance Team’s Hamad Saad Saleh al-Nabit (astride El Real) was a clear winner, while Soud Ahmad Mubarak Buhammad
(astride Afour) and Hamad Abdulla al-Jumaily (Maver Issona) were second and third respectively.
6
Gulf Times
Sunday, November 9, 2014
RUGBY
FOUR NATIONS LEAGUE
New Zealand down England, secure final berth
AFP
Dunedin
N
ew Zealand secured their berth
in the ﬁnal of the Four Nations
rugby league tournament when
they scraped home 16-14 over
England in their ﬁnal pool match in Dunedin yesterday.
There were three tries apiece at Forsyth-Barr Stadium with two goals by
Shaun Johnson to one by Gareth Widdop
making the difference.
The Kiwis go into the ﬁnal as the only
unbeaten team in the tournament after
earlier wins over Australia and Samoa.
England, who came up short of their initial target of needing to beat New Zealand
by 10 or more points to make the ﬁnal,
must now wait on the outcome of today’s
Australia-Samoa clash at Wollongong.
Australia will make the ﬁnal if they win,
Samoa will qualify if they beat Australia
by eight or more points, and England will
sneak through if Samoa win by fewer than
eight points. “It’s out of our hands now,”
a disappointed England skipper Sean
O’Loughlin said.
“We wanted to come here and get that
win and get there (the ﬁnal) in our own
right. But we knew it was going to be
tough to get the win and get the 10 points
we were chasing.”
England had their moments to close out
the game and New Zealand captain Simon
Mannering acknowledged his side were
pushed to the limit.
“They played some great footy, shifted
the ball and chanced their arm and defensively put us under a lot of pressure,”
he said. “I thought we scrambled pretty
well but I thought we let some tries in we
should have stopped.”
New Zealand made a huge start to the
crunch game with a try to Jason Nightingale
at the end of the ﬁrst set when he beat Ryan
Hall in the air to score off a Johnson bomb.
Hall immediately made amends with a
try in the corner and Josh Charnley then
stepped around Manu Vatuvei for England’s second try as the tourists dominated play early to lead 8-6 after 24 minutes.
The negative scoreline was enough to
reignite the Kiwis who found another
gear to regain the lead before half-time.
Nightingale, who had been taken from
the ﬁeld with blood streaming from his
head, returned to the battle swathed in
bandages to score his second try for New
Zealand and hold a 12-8 lead at the break.
After Hall lost a chance to equalise
when he lost the ball diving for the line
when play resumed, Vatuvei extended
New Zealand’s lead to 16-8 when he
scored wide out.
As play swung from one end of the ﬁeld
to the other, Hall scored his second try
and Widdop, who hit the posts with his
ﬁrst two goal attempts, was successful
with his third to narrow the gap to 16-14.
In a frantic ﬁnal quarter to the ﬁrst
rugby league Test in Dunedin in 86 years,
both sides ﬂung the ball about only to be
let down by misdirected kicking options.
BRIVE PILE ON MONTPELLIER MISERY,
END LONG WAIT FOR AWAY VICTORY
Brive claimed their first French Top
14 away victory since February 2012
when they defeated Montpellier
25-10 on Friday.
Montpellier could have gone into
the top four with a win but their
fourth successive loss in all competitions was greeted by a chorus of
boos from their disgruntled fans.
“We lost and we have nothing to
complain about. We were weak,”
said Montpellier coach Fabien
Galthie. “We were poor from start
to finish. But since the beginning
of the season it has been like this.
Even when we have won, we have
snatched victories without being
convincing.”
It took Montpellier an hour to
get on the scoreboard through a
penalty from replacement Teddy
Iribaren and their lone try scored
by No. 8 Alexandre Bias came nine
minutes from time.
In contrast, Brive never looked
back from the moment that Fijian
winger Benito Masilevu sprinted
and weaved his way to a fifthminute try for his sixth score of the
season after being released by a
sharp pass from Nicolas Bezy.
Brive extended their lead to 13-0
by the interval with Gaetan Germain
kicking the conversion and two penalties as he went through the 100-point
barrier for the Top 14 season.
ROUND-UP
Montpellier’s scrum-half
Jonathan Pelissie was handed
kicking duties and he missed two
comfortable kicks in the first half,
the rustiness of having only booted
seven previous attempts this season
cruelly exposed.
The home side once again missed
regular kicker Francois Trinh-Duc
is out for between three and four
months with a broken leg.
Bezy added two drop goals after
the break with Germain succeeding
with another brace of penalties as
Brive moved up to mid-table.
“It was a fine performance, I am
happy and proud of the boys,” said
Brive boss Nicolas Godignon.
FOCUS
All Blacks grind
out narrow win
Australians
win to extend
Wales misery
‘It felt like we had control for most of the game, bar those last few minutes’
A
England’s Dave Attwood wins the line up against New Zealand’ Kieran Read during their international rugby union match at Twickenham in London yesterday. (Reuters)
AFP
Twickenham
N
ew Zealand started the European
leg of their November tour with a
hard-fought 24-21 win over England at Twickenham yesterday.
In a match billed by some as a potential World Cup ﬁnal between the reigning champions (New Zealand) and the
2015 tournament hosts (England), the All
Blacks’ greater rugby ‘nous’ told as they
recorded their ﬁfth straight win over the
Red Rose brigade following a 3-0 home
series victory in June.
England were 14-11 up at half-time but
New Zealand, with captain Richie McCaw
scoring a try, hit back in the rain-lashed
second half before a last-minute penalty
try for the hosts narrowed the score.
“It felt like we had control for most of
the game, bar those last few minutes,”
McCaw told Sky Sports.
“We are just happy that our last visit to
Twickenham of the season is a win,” manof-the-match McCaw added.
“Ten months is a long time in rugby
though, we will have to see if it has any affect at the World Cup.”
Disappointed England captain Chris
Robshaw, like McCaw an openside ﬂanker, said: “The ﬁrst half we played really
well in the right areas.
“Unfortunately in the second half the
conditions came down and we could not
get ﬁeld position.”
England kicked-off buoyed by the
memory of their record 38-21 win over
New Zealand at Twickenham in 2012 and
they gave a Test debut to Fiji-born wing
Semesa Rokoduguni, a serving British
Army soldier.
But their task on Saturday was not
helped by the absence of seven injured
British and Irish Lions—Dan Cole, Alex
Corbisiero, Mako Vunipola, Tom Youngs,
Geoff Parling Tom Croft and Manu Tuilagi, as well as lock Joe Launchbury and
centre Luther Burrell.
New Zealand’s matchday 23 boasted
more than double the number of caps than
England’s squad, while All Blacks wing
Julian Savea, with 29 tries in 30 Tests had
scored more than England (20 tries) had
managed between them.
Yet despite their relative lack of experience, it took England just four minutes to
open the scoring in dramatic style.
The ball was worked wide to left wing
Jonny May, who promptly went round
New Zealand centre Conrad Smith and
then went past Israel Dagg, when it
seemed the full-back had lined him up,
for his ﬁrst Test try.
Owen Farrell then missed the difficult
conversion.
England nearly had another try soon
afterwards but fullback Mike Brown
knocked on a pass from centre Kyle East-
mond just metres from the line.
It was a miss that was punished by New
Zealand when they hit back in the 14th
minute following their ﬁrst visit to England’s 22.
All Blacks wing Ben Smith beat May in
an aerial challenge and the ball was then
spun wide, with blindside ﬂanker Jerome
Kaino bursting between Robshaw and
Courtney Lawes.
From a close-range ruck, referee Nigel
Owens ruled ﬂy-half Aaron Cruden had
just done enough to touch the try-line.
Cruden couldn’t convert but the match
was now all square. Farrell then kicked two
penalties to take England into an 11-5 lead.
Next weekend England face in-form
South Africa at Twickenham while New
Zealand play Scotland at Murrayﬁeld.
Haimona inspires Italy
comeback against Samoa
New Zealand-born ﬂy-half Kelly Haimona kicked 14 points to inspire Italy to a
hard-fought 24-13 victory over Samoa as
the Azzurri ended a nine-match string of
defeats in Ascoli yesterday.
Haimona was making his full Azzurri
debut after being called up for the November tests two weeks ago alongside Fijian Samuela Vunisa.
And the Zebre ﬂy-half proved a useful
addition to Jacques Brunel’s stuttering
side as they look to put a disastrous Six
Nations and summer tour of the South
Paciﬁc behind them.
“Kelly proved what a top quality player
he is,” said Brunel of the New Zealander.
“He helped us turn the game around
and took a lot of individual initiatives. He
set up (Sergio) Parisse’s try with a textbook move that is not so easy to execute.”
Italy will face Argentina and South Africa later this month and Brunel’s men,
whose last victory was a 37-31 win over
Fiji last November, will take some heart
from a performance that nevertheless
took time to come together.
Brunel added: “The ﬁrst half we seemed
a little confused, we couldn’t keep possession and we lacked organisation.
“But the boys had faith in themselves,
especially in the second half.”
A shaky Italy went in for the half-time
interval trailing 3-10 after ﬂanker Jack
Lam touched down for the Samoans just
after the half hour, with ﬂy-half Tusi Pisi
converting having levelled Haimona’s
third-minute penalty with a penalty on
26 minutes.
It looked as though the Italians might
suffer their third consecutive defeat to the
Samoans, who whitewashed the Azzurri
15-0 in Apia last June after a crushing 3910 defeat a year earlier in Nelspruit. Italy’s
last beat Samoa in Ascoli in 2009 and a
much-improved second half performance
revived memories of that 24-6 victory.
AFP
Cardiff
ustralia edged Wales
33-28
to
extend
Wales’s losing streak
to southern hemisphere teams to 21 at Cardiff’s
Millennium Stadium yesterday.
The Wallabies’ victory
stretched their own winning
streak over Wales to 10 matches since 2009 and the result
was the ninth successive time
the winning margin was in
single digits.
In a World Cup pool dress
rehearsal, it really was a game
of two halves, with the teams
going in at half-time locked at
21-21 having each scored three
converted tries, virtually unheard of in professional rugby.
Australian ﬂy-half Bernard
Foley ﬁnished with a personal
tally of 18 points as he booted
three second-half penalties
and a nonchalantly-taken
drop-goal to Wales’ converted
penalty try.
“It was a squad effort today,”
the faultless Foley told BBC.
“The guys were relentless in
their efforts and it was a true
team effort.”
Wales coach Warren Gatland dubbed the result “frustrating”, adding: “I’m not
happy with the result, but I’m
happy with the performance.
“We missed two one-on-one
tackles and they’ve scored and
then we’ve thrown an intercept pass. We showed a huge
amount of positives, there’s a
lot of things to build on.”
While the opening 40 minutes made for an entertaining
match, it certainly was not
one for the purists, both sides
offering wave after wave of attack while the defence was at
best run-of-the-mill, at worst
completely porous, notably
down Wales’ right ﬂank.
An electrifying start saw
Rhys Webb open the scoring in
just the second minute, a perfect beginning for a Welsh side
whose last victory over a SANZAR side came in a 21-18 win
against the Wallabies in 2008.
The scrum-half, preferred
to benched Racing-Metro veteran Mike Phillips, dummied a
static Australian defence from
a ruck set up after a break by
skipper Sam Warburton and
darted over from the 22m line,
Leigh Halfpenny kicking the
conversion.
Australia came roaring back,
the towering ﬁgure of fullback Israel Folau crossing for a
try between the posts after irrepressible ﬂanker and captain
Michael Hooper busted Dan
Biggar’s tackle and managed
the offload.
Foley hit the extras and was
on target again ﬁve minutes
later when, with Wales pressing, Folau intercepted an ambitious Webb pass and sprinted 80 metres for his 17th try in
26 Tests since crossing codes
from rugby league.
Wales drew level almost immediately after George North,
playing in the centre instead
of his preferred wing position,
split the defence and played in
winger Alex Cuthbert in a simple two-on-one for a try Halfpenny converted.
But the drama was not over
as Australia turned over Halfpenny, who immediately went
off concussed, and span the
ball left, Fiji-born centre Tevita Kuridrani easily busting
an attempted double tackle
from lock Alun Wyn Jones and
Cuthbert to cross for a third
Wallaby try in 15 minutes.
Jones was on hand to wrap
up a see-saw half when he
burrowed over from close
range to justify Warburton’s
decision to spur two kickable
penalties. Biggar converted to
leave the sides tied at 21 points
apiece.
Australia’s Tevita Kuidrani breaks through the Welsh defence to score
a try against Wales during their Autumn International rugby union
match at the Millennium Stadium in Cardiff yesterday. (Reuters)
Gulf Times
Sunday, November 9, 2014
7
MOTORSPORT
SPOTLIGHT
Ecclestone rejects Caterham ‘begging bowl’
Reuters
Sao Paulo
F
ormula One supremo Bernie Ecclestone
yesterday slammed Caterham’s plan to
raise funds from fans as a disaster for the
sport and ruled out putting any money of
his own in the “begging bowl”.
British-based Caterham, who have not scored
a point since their debut in 2010, went into administration last month and are absent from this
weekend’s Brazilian Grand Prix after missing the
previous race in Texas.
The administrator and interim principal announced a crowd-funding scheme on Friday to
raise 2.35 million pounds ($3.73 million) from fans
and companies to get the team to Abu Dhabi for
the ﬁnal race on Nov 23.
The website (www.crowdcube.com/caterham)
showed 512,263 pounds had been contributed by
yesterday afternoon.
“I think it’s a disaster,” Ecclestone told reporters. “We don’t want begging bowls. If people can’t
afford to be in Formula One, they have to ﬁnd
something else to do.”
Asked whether he was ready to help the team if
they were slightly short of target when the deadline
expired, he offered a one word reply: “No.”
“If I sit in a poker game and I can’t afford to be
there with the other people, I get killed and have to
leave,” the 84-year-old added when pressed.
Ecclestone gave both Caterham and tail-end rivals Marussia, who have now folded and made all
their 200 staff redundant, a special dispensation
to miss the US and Brazil races but he made clear
that did not apply to Abu Dhabi.
Asked whether the usual “rules of the game”
applied, he replied: “Yes, absolutely.”
“The trouble is they haven’t really understood,”
continued the British billionaire. “People want to
win, all the teams here want to win. Some teams
have got more money and they spend it.
“When I had a race team a few years ago, in fact
a few hundred years ago, I used to run the team according to how much money we could spend and
we won the world championship.
“That’s what they don’t do. They don’t seem to
understand that somebody is going to be last.”
The absence of Caterham and Marussia has
left just nine teams competing in Brazil, with the
smaller independent outﬁts calling for the sport
to change the way the revenues are distributed to
help them survive.
Sauber, Force India and Lotus all have big ﬁnancial challenges and are looking for a base payment
that would ensure they too did not have to close
their doors.
Ecclestone ducked questions about the progress
of talks between them and the commercial rights
holder and said the teams as a whole received
nearly $900 million a year.
“They have a contract until 2020. They know
exactly what the terms are. So they have to run
their business according to their income. If they
spend more than they get, it’s not a good way to
run a business,” he added.
Former team owner Eddie Jordan, now a pundit
for BBC television, said at the last race that the
treatment of smaller teams was a ‘disgrace’ and
pointed the ﬁnger of blame at Ecclestone and others.
Asked whether he agreed with Jordan, Ecclestone cut the questioner short: “I never agree with
Eddie Jordan,” he said.
MALLYA DENIES FORCE INDIA
EVER CONSIDERED F1 BOYCOTT
Force India principal and co-owner Vijay
Mallya has silenced any further talk of a
Formula One boycott, saying his team never
intended to do anything other than race.
“Here I am fighting with McLaren. I want
to beat McLaren. If I park my car, I might
as well just accept that I am where I am in
the championship and go home,” he told
reporters at the Brazilian Grand Prix.
“Why would I come here, or for that
matter have gone to Austin or gone to Sao
Paulo, or go to Abu Dhabi, with the whole
shooting match if I didn’t want to compete?
Teams arrived in Brazil after a Texan race
weekend dominated by talk of financial failure and a possible protest gesture by those
demanding a bigger share of the $900
million pot of revenues.
Force India deputy principal Bob Fernley
had said in Austin before the race, when
there was talk of a possible boycott by
teams determined to make others aware of
the gravity of the situation, that nothing had
been ruled out.
In the end, the race proceeded normally.
FORMULA ONE
Since then Marussia have gone out of
business while Caterham are trying to raise
money through crowd-funding to compete in Abu Dhabi. Both teams went into
administration last month and were absent
from Austin.
“Who said that we wanted to boycott
the race? Please tell me. If I am wrong, you
educate me,” said Mallya, speaking in his
paddock office at the Interlagos circuit,
when asked about Austin.
“I speak on behalf of Force India. I have
never said that we are going to boycott,”
he added. “Why would we? We have come
to go racing. I may as well have stayed in
England and saved all the expense.
“We are racing all the way down to the
wire. From my perspective you can kill it off
(the boycott talk),” he added.
Meanwhile, Mallya confirmed that Sergio
Perez will remain at Force India to again
partner German Nico Huelkenberg for
the 2015 season. “The possibility came of
extending Checo’s contract for 2016 as well
and that is under negotiation,” he said.
MOTO GP
Rosberg beats
Hamilton to pole
‘Congratulations to Nico. He drove a really great lap and it was a truly thrilling session’
Rossi on pole as
Marquez crashes
Reuters
Valencia
I
talian Valentino Rossi won
his ﬁrst pole position for
over four years in qualifying
for the ﬁnal MotoGP grand
prix of the season in Valencia
yesterday while newly-crowned
world champion Marc Marquez
is on the second row of the grid.
Rossi maintained his recent
good form with the fastest lap
of one minute 30.843 seconds,
ahead of fellow Italian Andrea
Iannone on his Ducati and Honda
rider Dani Pedrosa behind him.
Rossi has not had a pole position since Le Mans in 2010.
“We were still in black and
white I think (when he was last
on pole),” Rossi joked with reporters. “On the last lap I felt
that I could improve and then
to look up at the screen and see
I was on pole was fantastic.”
Pedrosa is looking to rebound
after failing to ﬁnish the last
two grands prix, which has seen
him fall down to fourth place in
the rider’s championship.
“There was a good pace and
the wind played a big part as it
made it more difficult for us,”
Pedrosa told reporters. “It got
more windy as the sessions went
on and it is not easy to deal with
on the bike. I did a strong lap
where I could improve a bit but
third place is still not the best.”
Marquez, who is aiming to
break the record of 12 wins in a
season he shares with Australian great Mick Doohan, was
looking strong but crashed in
his ﬁnal lap and is ﬁfth on the
grid. The battle is on for second
place in the riders’ championship with Rossi on 275 points
and his Yamaha team mate
Jorge Lorenzo 12 points behind.
NASCAR
Domestic assault
charge against Busch
Reuters
Dover
P
Mercedes’ Nico Rosberg (right) and teammate Lewis Hamilton wave after the former clocked the pole for today’s Brazilian Grand Prix, at the Interlagos racetrack in Sao Paulo. (AFP)
AFP
Sao Paulo
N
ico Rosberg secured pole position
for today’s Brazilian Grand Prix
and his 10th this season by the narrowest of margins yesterday when
he outpaced world championship leader and
Mercedes teammate Lewis Hamilton.
In a tense and dramatic qualifying session, both men broke the Interlagos lap
record several times as Rosberg ﬁnally
topped the times with a best lap in one
minute and 10.023 seconds.
This was just 0.033 seconds faster than
Hamilton’s best lap and enabled him to
complete a clean sweep, having topped
the times in all three practice sessions. It
was the 14th pole position of his career.
The previous best qualifying lap at Interlagos was set by Brazilian Rubens Barrichello who clocked 1:10.646 in 2004 for Ferrari.
Rosberg’s success earned him the Pole
Position Trophy as best qualiﬁer of the
season and earned Mercedes their recordequalling 18th pole of the year, drawing level with Red Bull. It was also the
team’s seventh consecutive clean sweep
of the front row this season.
Hamilton had done his best to outpace
his title rival, but knew too that with a lead
of 24 points in the championship he can afford to ﬁnish second on Sunday and in the
season-ending race in Abu Dhabi, where
double points will be scored, to take his
second world title. “That was good and I
am happy to be on pole,” said Rosberg. “It
is the best place to start the race, but I have
to do better than I did last week in Austin
last week and convert this into a win.”
Hamilton said: “Congratulations to
Nico. He drove a really great lap and it was
a truly thrilling session—just what qualifying is all about. Every time I went out I had
to go faster and improve and so did Nico. I
hope everyone enjoyed watching that.”
Brazilian Felipe Massa was third fastest for Williams and greeted by a standing ovation from the fanatical Interlagos
crowd. His Williams teammate Valtteri
Bottas was fourth quickest.
“That was very emotional for me,” said
Massa, who missed out on winning the
world title in dramatic circumstances at
the same venue in 2008. “I really felt the
crowd with me today.”
Jenson Button, without a conﬁrmed
drive or seat in Formula One next year,
proved his enduring talent by qualifying
ﬁfth for McLaren ahead of four-time world
champion Sebastian Vettel of Red Bull.
Kimi Raikkonen qualiﬁed seventh for
Ferrari ahead of Australian Daniel Ricciardo in the second Red Bull, Kevin Magnussen of McLaren and 10th placed Fernando Alonso in the second Ferrari.
On a warm, overcast day with an air
temperature of 25 degrees and a track
temperature of 36, conditions were perfect for fast times. It worked out that way,
too, as Rosberg topped the times ahead of
Hamilton, both of them setting record lap
times for the circuit.
The demands of the circuit, with the
new asphalt surface, encouraged that
speed, but also spelt problems for other
teams, including struggling Lotus who
saw both of their drivers eliminated in Q1.
Out from that session went Frenchman
Romain Grosjean of Lotus, compatriot
Jean-Eric Vergne of Toro Rosso, Sergio
Perez, who had no running time in his
Force India on Friday, and Pastor Maldonado in the second Lotus.
Much the same pattern followed in Q2 as
another four men went out, failing to make
STARTING GRID
1. Nico Rosberg (Germany) Mercedes
2. Lewis Hamilton (Britain) Mercedes
3. Felipe Massa (Brazil) Williams
4. Valtteri Bottas (Finland) Williams
5. Jenson Button (Britain) McLaren
6. Sebastian Vettel (Germany) RedBull
7. Kevin Magnussen (Denmark) McLaren
8. Fernando Alonso (Spain) Ferrari
9. Daniel Ricciardo (Australia) RedBull
10. Kimi Raikkonen (Finland) Ferrari
11. Esteban Gutierrez (Mexico) Sauber
12. Nico Huelkenberg (Germany) Force India
13. Adrian Sutil (Germany) Sauber
14. Romain Grosjean (France) Lotus
15. Jean-Eric Vergne (France) Toro Rosso
16. Pastor Maldonado (Venezuela) Lotus
17. Daniil Kvyat (Russia) Toro Rosso
18. Sergio Perez (Mexico) Force India
the cut to the top ten shootout, as Rosberg
cut his best lap time to 1:10.303, 0.409 seconds clear of Hamilton’s best effort. The
championship leader was fourth, separated
from his team-mate by the two Williams.
Out this time went Esteban Gutierrez of
Sauber, Germans Nico Hulkenberg of Force
India and Adrian Sutil of Sauber.
olice in Dover, Delaware, said on Friday
they are investigating
an allegation of domestic assault made against
star NASCAR driver Kurt
Busch, but his lawyer called
the accusation a “complete
fabrication.”
Busch, 36, becomes the latest US sports ﬁgure accused
of domestic violence. He won
the NASCAR championship in
2004 and has won 25 NASCAR
races including one this year.
Police in Dover, the state
capital, declined to give any
details about the alleged incident or the accuser.
Busch’s lawyer, Rusty Hardin, said in a statement that
Busch “expects to be vindicated when the entire truth of the
situation comes to light”.
“This allegation is a complete fabrication by a woman
who has refused to accept the
end of a relationship and Mr.
Busch vehemently denies her
allegations in every respect,”
Hardin said.
The Dover Police Department said in a statement that
it “can conﬁrm that an investigation is being conducted
based on an allegation of domestic assault that is alleged
to have occurred in the City of
Dover involving Mr. Busch.”
Police ﬁrst learned of the allegations on Wednesday and
“will not have any further
comment on this matter in order to preserve the integrity of
the case,” the statement said.
NASCAR, which holds two
major races a year in Dover, issued a statement saying it was
aware of the investigation.
“We recognize the seriousness of this matter and are actively gathering information
from all parties, including law
enforcement authorities and
(Busch’s race team) StewartHaas Racing,” NASCAR Senior
Vice-President Brett Jewkes
said. “It would be inappropriate for NASCAR to comment
further on this matter until we
have more information.”
Busch practiced on Friday
in Phoenix for the second-tolast race in the NASCAR premier series.
Busch’s team is co-owned
by Tony Stewart, who was
investigated by police after
his car fatally struck another
driver in an open-wheel sprint
car race in upstate New York in
August. A grand jury declined
to bring criminal charges
against Stewart in that case.
Busch’s younger brother
Kyle also races on the NASCAR
circuit.
Prior to this, the most recent NASCAR premier series
driver to be accused of domestic violence was Travis Kvapil,
who pleaded guilty in January in North Carolina’s Iredell
County and was given probation, ﬁned and sentenced to 72
hours of community service.
Kvapil, 38, has raced in 21
races in NASCAR’s top series
this year. The National Football League has been rocked by
a recent series of domestic violence allegations against star
players including Ray Rice,
Greg Hardy and Adrian Peterson, who was also represented
by Hardin.
8
Gulf Times
Sunday, November 9, 2014
SPORT
McDowell,
Poulter angry
at ‘ridiculous’
pace of play
SHANGHAI: Graeme McDowell lashed the snail-like
pace of play yesterday at the
WGC-HSBC Champions as “ridiculous” after a third round
of one-under-par 71 reduced
his lead to a single shot.
McDowell has led for all three
days of the $8.5mn Shanghai
event known as “Asia’s Major”,
but he and playing partner
Ian Poulter were angered by
having to spend more than
five and a half hours on the
course in cold and damp
conditions.
“Ridiculous,” McDowell
told AFP after finishing in
near-darkness, having teed
off at 10.50am (0250 GMT).
Play ended in the gloom at
4.30pm, just a few minutes
before sunset.
“We got to the fourth tee,
the par three, and there
was already a group on it,”
McDowell lamented.
“We’ve got threeballs, a lot of
people out there and a couple
of driveable par fours and a
couple of two-shot par fives.
Just a slow golf course. A long
day,” said McDowell, the 2010
US Open champion.
Ryder Cup star Poulter was
less diplomatic in his assessment of the day after a levelpar 72 left him four behind
McDowell.
“There’s no excuses. We need
to be pressing and making
sure people are keeping up to
pace,” Poulter told AFP.
“Five and a half hours is
too long to play golf. End of
story.”
American Rickie Fowler, who
finished in the top five in all
four majors this year, was bewildered as to why the round
took an hour longer than the
first two days.
“Yeah, it was too long,” Fowler
told AFP.
“I’m not sure what it was. The
first two days didn’t take as
long. We didn’t have as many
waits.
“Today was a bit cooler and
the rough did play tough with
the rain and the moisture. I
guess it just shows you what
a little bit of weather conditions can do.”
The two major tours, the US
PGA Tour and the European
Tour, do have regulations
governing slow play and can
impose penalties, but it rarely
happens.
The US PGA Tour last handed
out a one-stroke penalty for
slow play to 14-year-old amateur Guan Tianlang of China
at the 2013 US Masters. It was
the first such penalty on the
Tour for 18 years.
GOLF
McDowell stays ahead
as pack gathers behind
‘Maybe tomorrow coming up the last few holes, I might get a little bit nervous, but so far I’m calm’
Americans Toms and Rollins
share lead in Jackson
AFP
Shanghai
G
raeme McDowell will
take a one-shot lead
into the ﬁnal round
of the WGC-HSBC
Champions today as a host of
top players gather behind ready
to capitalise on any slip-up.
The Northern Irishman shot
a one-under-par 71 in cold,
windy and damp conditions
in Shanghai yesterday to stay
ahead of a pack of seven players
within four shots, including US
Open champion Martin Kaymer
and Masters champion Bubba
Watson.
In second place, though,
is the tournament’s surprise
package, Hiroshi Iwata of Japan, and McDowell confessed
he knew “nothing” about the
man who qualiﬁed by ﬁnishing
third on the Japan Tour order of
merit.
“I saw him make one golf
swing. I never heard of him,”
said McDowell. “Looked like a
beautiful golf swing. But genuinely I’ve never heard of him. No
disrespect meant, just looking
forward to seeing him tomorrow.”
Iwata is 33 years old and despite playing his ﬁrst WGC
event, having notched one victory in Japan this year, showed
few nerves among such exulted
company.
He rolled home a 30-foot
birdie putt at the 18th for a
round of 68 to follow his 65 on
Friday, the low round of the
week.
“Maybe tomorrow coming up
the last few holes, I might get a
little bit nervous, but so far I’m
calm. So I think I’m doing OK,”
Iwata told reporters.
Watson and Kaymer are back
at nine-under after shooting 69
and 66 respectively.
Watson was thrilling and
frustrating in equal measure. He
hit the shot of the week on the
long par-ﬁve eighth only to follow with a contender for worst
putt of the tournament.
Faced with all of 240 yards to
a tight pin at the front left of the
Graeme McDowell of Northern Ireland hits the ball on the ninth hole during the third round of the WGC-HSBC Champions golf tournament
in Shanghai yesterday.
green, Watson cut a high threewood left to right across the water and was an inch from seeing it
drop for an albatross two as it ran
two and half feet past the hole.
The left-hander then tugged
the putt for eagle horribly right.
“It was a great shot. I could
tell by the reaction of the crowd
it almost went in” said Watson.
“But then I missed the putt. But
let’s don’t bring that up.”
And on the 10th, faced with
around 80 yards to the pin after an imperious drive, Watson
inexplicably dropped his sand
wedge short into the front bunker resulting in a ‘fried egg’ lie.
His sand shot ran all the way
to the back of the green.
McDowell, meanwhile hammered home a 30-footer for a
birdie and Watson three-putted
for a double bogey and in an in-
stant fell ﬁve behind.
That stretched to six when
Watson bogeyed the short 12th.
But the man from Bagdad,
Florida, closed the gap to two
with four birdies and a bogey in
his last ﬁve holes as McDowell
dropped back to 11-under with
a bogey at 17.
US Open champion Kaymer
was quietly putting together
the round of the day as only 15
TENNIS
Fed Cup
Fatherhood fires Djokovic
bid for Tour Finals treble
AFP
London
N
ovak Djokovic believes
the thrill of becoming
a father has provided
him with the perfect
motivation to win yet another
ATP World Tour Finals title
and end the year as the world
number one.
Djokovic became a father last
month when his wife Jelena
gave birth to a baby boy named
Stefan.
While some ﬁrst-time parents initially ﬁnd raising a child
a bewildering blur of nappy
changing and sleepless nights,
Djokovic has adapted to the new
arrival with few problems.
The Serb celebrated the birth
by returning to the court just a
few days later and embarking
on a triumphant run to the Paris
Masters title—a success that
extended his run of consecutive victories in indoor tournaments to 27 matches and left
him ﬁrmly on course to hold off
Roger Federer in the race to secure top spot in the end of year
world rankings.
After such an emphatic victory in France, the world number
one arrives at London’s O2 Arena for the Tour Finals, which get
underway on Sunday, as strong
favourite to become the ﬁrst
player to win the prestigious
event three times in a row since
Ivan Lendl in the 1980s.
players in the elite 78-man ﬁeld
broke 70 on the 7,261-yard par
72 layout.
The German notched four
birdies on the front nine and
three more coming home with a
lone bogey at the 15th.
“Finally I could make some
putts today,” Kaymer said. “The
ﬁrst two days I played already
really well but the putter was a
little cold.”
David Toms, seeking his ﬁrst
PGA Tour win since 2011, played
to his strengths of accuracy and
patience as he charged into a
tie for the lead on Friday in the
second round of the Sanderson
Farms Championship in Jackson, Mississippi.
The 47-year-old American
piled up six birdies, including
four in his last six holes, to card
a ﬂawless six-under-par 66 after teeing off on a chilly morning
at the Country Club of Jackson.
Toms signed off by sinking
a ﬁve-footer to birdie his ﬁnal
hole, the ninth, for a 10-under
total of 134 and ﬁnish level with
compatriot John Rollins, who
also returned a 66.
Rollins brieﬂy got to 11 under with his eighth birdie of the
round, at the 15th, but slipped
back with a bogey at the parfour 17th where he missed the
green with his approach.
Canadian Nick Taylor was
alone at eight under after
shooting a 69 before play was
suspended due to fading light
with 15 players still on the
course. They will complete the
second round on Saturday.
Toms was delighted with
his course management after
covering his back nine in fourunder 32.
“I’m playing really solid,” the
13-times PGA Tour winner told
Golf Channel. “I’m being real patient on the golf course. I’m playing to my strengths, trying to get
the ball in the fairway (off the tee).
“My iron game is pretty good
right now if I have a good (yardage) number. And if I don’t have
a good number, I play conservative. I am starting to putt a little
bit better so that helps as well.”
Toms relished being grouped
with fellow American Lucas
Glover and triple major winner
Padraig Harrington of Ireland
for the ﬁrst two rounds.
“We probably had more conversation than I’ve had in a long
time,” said Toms. “We have a lot
in common, have played a lot of
golf together, all three of us. We
had a good time.”
Tomas Berdych (right) takes a ‘selfie’ with fellow tennis players (left to right) Roger Federer, Stan
Wawrinka, Novak Djokovic, Kei Nishikori, Andy Murray, Milos Raonic and Marin Cilic at the O2 Arena in
London on Friday.
“My wife and I had the blessing of becoming parents recently and it’s the most beautiful thing we can experience.
First tournament after that
happened was Paris and I won
it without dropping a set,” said
Djokovic, who opens his campaign against US Open champion Marin Cilic on Monday.
“We should be making more
kids I guess! It was a fantastic
week and hopefully I can follow
it up. “Of course things change
psychologically when you’re
playing for someone.”
Djokovic and Federer have
had a sometimes prickly relationship in the past, but they
have bonded over parenthood,
with the Swiss father-of-four
offering his rival advice on how
to balance family commitments
with a desire to remain competitive on the court.
“He was one of the ﬁrst players who congratulated me. Of
course he can identify with
what I’m going through,” Djokovic said.
“We talked in China and in
Paris about travelling and so
forth. I took some advice from
him and hopefully I can organise my life as well as he does.”
Any distraction Federer feels
as he bids for a record seventh
title at the eight-man tournament will stem not from childcare, though, but an extra addition to his season.
Switzerland have made it to
the Davis Cup ﬁnal for the ﬁrst
time and a victory over France
later this month would ﬁll one
of the few remaining gaps in Federer’s CV.
“The only time where I could
potentially see that slightly
creeping into my mind would be
if I make it to the semis or ﬁnal
here,” said Federer, whose ﬁrst
match is against Canada’s Milos
Raonic on Sunday.
“Then the Davis Cup is close.
But right now I feel like it’s still
somewhat far away and during the round-robin matches
there’s no way it’s going to distract me.”
With French Open champion Rafael Nadal recovering
after surgery on his appendix,
the remaining places in Djokovic’s group are taken by Tomas
Berdych, Stan Wawrinka, while
Andy Murray and Kei Nishikori
complete Federer’s group.
The honour of playing the ﬁrst
match of the tournament falls
to home favourite Murray, who
faces Nishikori after embarking on a lengthy battle to secure
enough ranking points to qualify.
Murray fell out of the top 10
for the ﬁrst time in six years after failing to win a tournament
since his historic Wimbledon
triumph in 2013, but he has
climbed back up sixth thanks to
recent titles in Shenzhen, Vienna and Valencia.
“After New York I wanted to
play tournaments and get back
to winning matches,” Murray said. “I really wanted to be
competing against the top players and get as many of those
matches in as possible so that it
would set me up for the beginning of next year.”
Czechs lead
Germany 2-0 in
Fed Cup final
AFP
Prague
P
etra Kvitova and Lucie
Safarova gave the Czech
Republic a 2-0 lead over
Germany in the Fed Cup
ﬁnal in Prague yesterday after
winning their opening rubbers
in straight sets.
Kvitova, the Czech number one
player and world number four,
overcame Germany’s number
two Andrea Petkovic 6-2, 6-4 in
an hour and 17 minutes.
Safarova then needed an hour
and 28 minutes to beat Germany’s Angelique Kerber 6-4, 6-4.
The Czechs, who won the trophy in 2011 and 2012, are within
a point of making it three in four
years. Germany last won the Fed
Cup in 1992.
On the superfast hardcourt of
Prague’s O2 Arena, Wimbledon
champion Kvitova leaned on her
serve and aggressive play in the
ﬁrst set.
The 24-year-old Czech ﬁrst
broke Petkovic’s serve in game
two after the German world
number 14 produced two double
faults, then snatched another
break for a 5-1 lead.
Serving for the set, Kvitova
lost concentration, squandered a
set point and let the 27-year-old
German break her serve, before
breaking back for 6-2.
In the second set, both players allowed a break apiece, then
held on to their serves until game
10, in which Kvitova snatched a
break point and converted it as
Petkovic ﬁred long from Kvitova’s backhand slice. “I’m just
glad that I did everything well,”
Kvitova said after the game.
“She tried to play a little bit
better at the end of the ﬁrst set
and it was just important that I
had a break back.
“It was really tight in the second set and I was looking for the
moment when it was going to be
very close and that’s going to be
my chance.”
Petkovic admitted she was
“obviously more nervous in Fed
Cup than in normal matches” but
paid a tribute to Kvitova for her
performance. “I wasn’t playing
badly, she was just so much better
in each and every department.”
In a clash of two left-handers,
Safarova, the world number 17,
and 10th-ranked Kerber had a
break each in the ﬁrst set until
the 27-year-old Safarova earned
two break points in game 10.
She converted the second
spectacularly to win the set as
the 26-year-old German blasted
the ball into a corner, yelled in
celebration and was penalised
for hindrance as a diving Safarova
miraculously returned the ball.
Both had two breaks in the second set before Safarova took a 5-4
lead and earned three match points,
converting the last one to ﬁnish a
rubber in which she had 32 unforced
errors against Kerber’s 23.
Gulf Times
Sunday, November 9, 2014
9
SPORT
NBA
Conley shoots undefeated
Grizzlies past Thunder
‘This team is very good. We want to play every game like it is the 82nd game going into the playoffs’
Agencies
New York
M
ike Conley ﬁnished
with 20 points and
ﬁve assists as the
Memphis
Grizzlies defeated the short-handed
Oklahoma City Thunder 91-89
Friday to post their franchise
record sixth straight win to start
the season.
Courtney Lee scored 17 points
and Zach Randolph had 16
points and seven boards for the
Grizzlies, who started their NBA
existence in Vancouver before
moving to Memphis in 2001.
“I am happy with what we
are doing but we know we have
a long way to go,” Conley said.
“We know this is only six games.
We are still striving to be great.”
The Grizzlies had lost three
straight and seven of the last 10
games in Oklahoma City heading
into Friday’s contest.
Reggie Jackson scored a gamehigh 22 points for the injury-depleted Thunder who are without
superstars Kevin Durant and
Russell Westbrook. Durant has a
foot injury and Westbrook is out
with a hand injury.
Jeremy Lamb had a solid season debut with 17 points while
Steven Adams ﬁnished with 13
points and 11 rebounds in front
of a crowd of 18,203 at the Chesapeake Energy Arena.
In a rematch of last season’s
ﬁrst round playoff series that the
Thunder won in seven games,
Memphis led for the entire game
until late in the fourth.
“We tried to play our game,”
Conley said. “They tried to force
us to make outside shots and we
told our guys ‘You have to make
them if we are going to win.’”
The Grizzlies led 22-19 after
one quarter and led by as many
as nine in the second, taking a
49-40 lead into halftime.
Memphis couldn’t shake the
pesky Thunder as it took a 6662 lead into the fourth.
Lamb nailed a three pointer
with just over four minutes to
go in the fourth to tie it 81-81.
Thunder guard Jackson hit a
jump shot that was sandwiched
between a pair of Memphis three
pointers to stretch the Grizzlies
lead to four points.
The Thunder took their only
lead of the game with 53 seconds
remaining on back-to-back
threes by Serge Ibaka and Jackson.
Memphis Grizzlies guard Mike Conley handles the ball against Oklahoma City Thunder guard Reggie Jackson during the second quarter at Chesapeake Energy Arena on Friday.
But on the next Memphis possession, Conley responded with
a three-pointer for a 90-89 lead.
After an empty possession
from each team, Oklahoma City
was whistled for a ﬁve-second
turnover on the inbounds. But
Lee made just one-of-two free
throws with just three seconds
on the clock.
Ibaka then ﬁred long on the
potential game-winning threepointer at the buzzer.
“This team is very good. We
want to play every game like it
is the 82nd game going into the
playoffs,” Conley said.
The Grizzlies’ next game is a
visit to Milwaukee where they
will try to win their ﬁfth straight
road game.
Elsewhere, Mike Dunleavy
scored a season-high 27 points,
including 12 in the pivotal third
quarter, as the Chicago Bulls
held off the winless Philadelphia
76ers 118-115.
Jimmy Butler added 23 points
for Chicago (5-1), who were
without All-Star guard Derrick
Rose for the third time in four
games because of sprained ankles.
Hollis Thompson added 21
points for the Sixers (0-6), who
because of injuries had nine
players in uniform.
Deron Williams scored a
game-high 29 points, leading the
Brooklyn Nets to a 110-99 victory over the New York Knicks.
Joe Johnson and Mirza Teletovic each added 18 off the bench
for Brooklyn (3-2), who took the
lead midway through the ﬁrst
quarter and never looked back.
Carmelo Anthony paced the
Knicks (2-4) with 19 points but
made just ﬁve of 20 shots.
Lance Stephenson banked in
a three-pointer at the buzzer to
give the Charlotte Hornets a dramatic double-overtime 122-119
win over the Atlanta Hawks.
Stephenson’s heroics came
after he inbounded with 2.7 seconds left to Kemba Walker, who
went back to Stephenson immediately and he banked in the
winner from about 25 feet.
NHL
Results
Charlotte ...............122 Atlanta ..................119
Orlando ...................112 Minnesota........ 103
Chicago...................118 Philadelphia ......115
Boston .....................101 Indiana .................. 98
Brooklyn................110 NY Knicks........... 99
Detroit.......................98 Milwaukee ..........95
Toronto ..................103 Washington.......84
Memphis ................ 91 Oklahoma City 89
Sacramento........114 Phoenix .................112
Dallas .......................105 Utah ..........................82
Cleveland .............110 Denver...................101
BASEBALL
Caps score three goals late in
second to beat Blackhawks
Agencies
Chicago
T
he Washington Capitals
rallied from a two-goal
deﬁcit to earn a win
against the Chicago
Blackhawks on Friday.
Andre Burakovsky, Marcus
Johansson and Joel Ward scored
for the Capitals (5-5-3), who
snapped a ﬁve-game skid in
which they went 0-4-1.
Johansson and Ward scored
within a 42-second span in the
ﬁnal minute of the second period to quiet a sell-out Chicago
crowd.
Capitals goaltender Braden
Holtby turned aside 38 of 40
shots for the win.
The Blackhawks (7-6-1) lost
for the sixth time in the past
nine games despite goals from
Results
Edmonton ...................3
Carolina..........................3
Detroit..............................4
Washington ...............3
Arizona ...........................3
Al Jefferson led the Hornets
with a season-high 34 points.
The Boston Celtics beat Indiana 101-98 but lost rookie Marcus Smart to what appeared to be
a serious left ankle injury.
Smart, the sixth pick in the
2014 NBA draft, was fouled in
the fourth quarter and left the
court on a stretcher, his left leg
being held in the air by the team
doctor.
Jared Sullinger had 17 points
for the Celtics (2-3). Indiana fell
to 1-5.
Buffalo.....................2
Columbus ...........2
New Jersey........2
Chicago .................2
Anaheim...............2
Brandon Saad and Duncan
Keith.
‘’Chicago is a very good
hockey team and they made
us look pretty normal,’’ Washington coach Barry Trotz said.
‘’But we were resilient.
‘’Holts was good in net and
we got some timely goals,
finally.
Back-to-back-toback.’’
And for the first time since
their last victory, the Capitals allowed fewer than four
goals.
‘’It felt like this got switched
over for us,’’ said Ward, whose
deﬂection with 5 seconds left in
the second turned out to be the
game-winner. ‘’We were up 2-0
in a couple of games and had the
lead slip away.
‘’Shows you how fast there
can be a turn of events.’’
For the Blackhawks, that
turn was in the wrong direction.
‘’I thought we played a perfect 35 minutes, then basically
shot ourselves in the foot with
mental mistakes,’’ Chicago
coach Joel Quenneville said. ‘’A
couple of plays that are totally
unacceptable.’’
Elsewhere, Niklas Kronwall
Washington Capitals’ Andre Burakovsky of Austria, scores a goal
against Chicago Blackhawks goalie Corey Crawford during the
second period of an NHL hockey game in Chicago on Friday.
had a goal and an assist as the
Detroit Red Wings beat the New
Jersey Devils 4-2.
Jakub Kindl, Brendan Smith
and Johan Franzen also scored
for Detroit (7-3-4), while goaltender Jimmy Howard made 15
saves.
Steve Bernier and Jordin
Tootoo scored for New Jersey
(6-6-2). Goalie Cory Schneider
stopped 20 shots before being pulled after the second period. Keith Kinkaid made seven
saves.
Boyd Gordon scored with 4:15
remaining to lead the Edmonton Oilers to a 3-2 win over the
Buffalo Sabres.
Gordon finished off a terrific play by Teddy Purcell, who skated to his right
around Sabres defenseman
Nikita Zadorov before finding a wide-open Gordon to
his left.
Mark Arcobello and Iiro Pakarinen also scored for the
Oilers (5-8-1), who snapped a
four-game losing streak.
Drew Stafford and Matt
Moulson scored for the Sabres (3-10-2) while goaltender
Michal Neuvirth made 49
saves.
McGehee, Young
win comeback
player awards
AFP
New York
M
iami Marlins third
baseman
Casey
McGehee and Seattle Mariners pitcher
Chris Young were named the
National League and American
League Comeback Players of the
Year on Friday.
The award is based on a vote of
30 beat reporters, one from each
major-league team.
McGehee, ﬁfth in the National
League Rookie of the Year voting while with the Milwaukee
Brewers in 2009, played for the
Tohoku Rakuten Golden Eagles
in Japan in 2013. He returned to
major leagues in 2014 with the
Marlins and hit .287 with four
homers, 29 doubles with 76 RBIs.
Young was named to the AllStar team in 2007 while with the
San Diego Padres. But he did not
pitch in the major leagues at all
in 2013 after being plagued by a
series of injuries.
Meanwhile, third baseman
Pablo Sandoval, who rejected a
$15.3mn qualifying offer from
the San Francisco Giants, is
seeking at least a six-year deal.
Sandoval’s agent, Gustavo
Vasquez, told the San Francisco
Chronicle he has spoken to a “few
teams” since free agency began
Tuesday, including the Giants.
According to ESPN.com, general manager Brian Sabean has
told free agent starting pitchers
Jake Peavy and Ryan Vogelsong
that the World Series champions
need time to try to re-sign Sandoval before turning their attention to any other position.
St. Louis Cardinals center
ﬁelder Peter Bourjos had surgery to repair a hip impingement,
MLB.com reported. He is expected to be ready for spring training.
Bourjos is an outstanding defensive center ﬁelder who began
the 2014 season sharing time
with Jon Jay. By season’s end,
however, Jay was getting nearly
all the playing time in center
ﬁeld, with Bourjos spending
most of his time on the bench.
The full squad for the MLB
All-Star Team was announced
for the upcoming ﬁve-game AllStar Series in Japan.
Boston Red Sox manager John
Farrell’s 29-man roster includes
Salvador Perez of Kansas City,
Evan Longoria of Tampa Bay,
Robinson Cano of Seattle and
Yasiel Puig of the Los Angeles
Dodgers.
10
Gulf Times
Sunday, November 9, 2014
SPORT
FIVB BEACH VOLLEYBALL WORLD TOUR CONCLUDES
Qatar Volleyball Association (QVA) President Khalid Ali al-Mawlawi and QVA General Secretary Mohamed al-Mohannadi with the winners, runners-up and third-placed team at the closing ceremony of the Qatar Open Beach Volleyball
Tournament which concluded at the Gharafa Sports Complex yesterday. PICTURES: Thajudheen
The winning German team of Tim Holler and Jonas Schroder and snaps of the crowd from the stands.
El-Bayoumy & Khalfan win QAFCO Open doubles title
Hamed al-Marwani, Chief Administration Officer at QAFCO and Chairman of the QAFCO Open organising committee, with the winners at
the closing ceremony of the event. Right: Al-Marwani poses with Men’s Doubles winners Amir el-Bayoumy and Sultan Khalfan.
Mesaieed: The pair of Amir el-Bayoumy and
Sultan Khalfan held aloft the QAFCO Open
tennis championship men’s doubles title on
the final day of the fortnight-long event. They
defeated Cliff Anthony Acaso & Reynaldo Amazona 4-6, 6-3, 10-5 in Friday’s final.
The sporting gala, with more than 280 players participating in more than 300 matches,
came to a close amidst much fanfare. The event
was held at Mesaieed which was attended by
many tennis enthusiasts from Qatar.
Speaking during the closing ceremony,
Hamed al-Marwani, Chief Administration Officer
at QAFCO and Chairman of the Organising
Committee, said: “QAFCO Open has been a
fertile ground for many a budding talents who
made their names at the national circuits. I
hope these children who are playing now will
make a mark in the years to come. Putting it
into perspective, when Qatar is hosting quite a
number of international tournaments, tournaments such as these go a long way in expressing the zeal for sports in young Qatari minds.
The closing ceremony was attended by Mohamed Abdulaziz al-Subaie, Board member with
Qatar Tennis Federation, Mohamed al-Fakhri,
acting Chief Financial Officer with QAFCO, Ali
Jama, Projects Manager at QAFCO, apart from
other distinguished guests. The closing function ended with a fantastic display of fire dance.
Results (all finals)
Girls U-10: Harini Natarajan bt Alix Dhooge 4-0, 4-0;
Boys U-10: Nasser Alyazidi bt Zaid Mohd S al-Mashni 5-3,
4-2; Girls U-12: Krisal Kirthi Olivera bt Bianca Lorentz 6-1,
6-0; Boys U-12: Taym Alazmeh bt Ibrahim Alsuliti 6-0,
6-0; Girls U-14: Vipasha Mehra bt Mubaraka Abdulla Alnaimi 6-4, 3-6, 10-5; Boys U-14: Joud al-Azmeh bt Rayyan
Abdulla Aljufairi 3-6, 6-0, 6-4; Boys U-18: Issa Alharrasi bt
Siddharth Ramesh 6-2, 6-0; Boys Doubles: Khalifa Mohamed al-Mahmoud & Mohamed Abdulla al-Mohannadi
bt Joud Alazmeh & Siddharth Ramesh 7-6, 3-6, 10-8;
Ladies Doubles: Sarah Meghoufel & Rebecca Marie
Franklin bt Debra Lynn Mace & Robie Lou Santos 6-2,
6-3; Mixed Doubles: Mubaraka Abdulla Alnaimi & Amir
al-Bayoumy bt Debra Lynn Mace & Eleftherios Christou
6-2, 6-4; Ladies Singles: Sarah Meghoufel bt Rebecca
Marie Franklin 6-0, 6-1; Men’s Singles: Amir al-Bayoumy
bt Eleftherios Christou 6-3, 6-1; Men’s Veteran Doubles:
Raymono el-Hayek & Robert el-Hayek bt Raed Hassan &
Ahmed Askar 6-2, 6-3; Men’s Veteran Singles: Manuel
Lucas bt Obay Soliman MH Elsettawy 6-1, 6-2
Gulf Times
Sunday, November 9, 2014
11
SPORT
FERRARIS AT LOSAIL
Drivers pose with their Ferraris at the Emozoine in Pista, a Ferrari driving event, which was held at the Losail International Circuit on Friday night. Around 40 Ferrari cars took part in the event organsied by Alfardan Sports Motors.
SPOTLIGHT
FOCUS
2024 is ‘right time’
for US Olympic
bid, says OCA chief
Baku gung
ho over
Euro Games
readiness
‘I think this is the best time for the States to come back with a nice bid’
B
Reuters
Bangkok
O
ne of the most powerful men in the Olympic
movement has urged
the United States to
push ahead with its plans to bid
for the 2024 Summer Olympics,
saying it is the “right time”.
The US has not hosted the
Summer Olympics since 1996,
partly because of a long-running feud over television rights
and sponsorship, but the president of the Association of National Olympic Committees
(ANOC), believes the US now
has a great chance.
“I think this is the right time
to come forward for 2024,”
Sheikh Ahmad al-Fahad alSabah said yesterday.
“I don’t know what city, I
don’t know the other competitor, I’m not saying anything because I don’t know who’s showing interest.
“But I think this is the best
time for the States to come
back with a nice bid because
2024, maybe they will have a
good chance.” Sheikh Ahmad,
a former Kuwaiti oil minister
who is also president of the Olympic Council of Asia, is one of
the most inﬂuential members of
the IOC.
Earlier this week, he was
re-elected unopposed to serve
four more years as president of
ANOC, which represents more
than 200 National Olympic
Committees (NOCs).
During the ANOC general assembly in Bangkok, he also succeeded in getting approval to
start the World Beach Games—a
multi-sports event he pioneered
in Asia for countries that can’t
afford to host the Olympics—as
President of the Olympic Council of Asia (OCA) and head of the Association of National Olympic Committees (ANOC) , Sheikh Ahmad
Fahad al-Sabah, speaks in Bangkok.
well as a resolution supporting
IOC president Thomas Bach’s
40-point plan to modernise the
Olympics.
The 2018, 2020 and 2022 Olympics (summer and winter)
will all be held in Asia but the
U.S. is planning to bid for 2024.
ANOC has provided the U.S.
Olympic Committee (USOC)
with a golden opportunity to
press its claims by awarding the
2015 general assembly to Washington DC.
“It will be very nice to be back
in the United States because we
have not been back there for a
long time,” Sheikh Ahmad told
a news conference at the end of
this year’s general assembly yesterday.
“I hope this will be the return
of the United States in the sport
movement—they are in the
sports movement of course, but
you understand what I mean.
“(Their) return back after the
problems of Salt Lake City and
all the cities that didn’t have the
chance to host the Games.”
The US has not hosted the
general assembly since 1994,
two years before it last staged
the Summer Olympics in Atlanta. The last time the US hosted
the Winter Olympics was in
2002 at Salt Lake City, which
became the centre of a scandal
in vote buying.
Subsequent US bids for the
Summer Games have all been
rejected but the mood has softened since the USOC and the
IOC reached an agreement two
years ago on revenue sharing.
Washington DC, along with
Los Angeles, Boston and San
Francisco, is one of four cities
shortlisted to be the US candidate for 2024, adding possibly
even more importance to next
year’s ANOC meeting.
“I hope this will be the return
because you see today at our
general assembly, there were 40
IOC members, the (IOC) President was there, 204 NOC’s, 14
IFs (international federations)
from the sport programme,
SportsAccord, a lot of Olympic sport IF presidents, WADA
(World Anti-Doping Agency),
CAS (Court of Arbitration for
Sport), athletes, media... it’s almost a full house,” he said.
“Those will also be in Washington and I think it’s a very
good opportunity for the United States Olympic Committee, with their co-ordination
commission, to build that trust
again.”
Reuters
Bangkok
aku is facing a race
against time to be ready
to host next year’s inaugural European Games
with thousands of construction
workers scrambling around the
clock to get all the facilities ﬁnished.
Just a quarter of the 16 venues
have been completed but organisers are conﬁdent everything
will be ready before the opening
ceremony on June 12, 2015.
Given less than three years to
prepare for the Games after the
European Olympic Committee
awarded the rights to Baku in
December 2012, the Azerbaijan
capital was always facing a Herculean task.
But with 4,000 people currently working 24 hours a day
just on the 68,000-seater new
national stadium, organisers say
they have no doubts Baku will
meet the deadline.
“I’m incredibly conﬁdent,”
Baku 2015 Chief Operating Ofﬁcer Simon Clegg said before
a presentation on the city’s
progress to the Association of
National Olympic Committees
(ANOC) yesterday.
“This is not an issue, I have no
concerns at all.
“Let’s just say they lay concrete very quickly in Azerbaijan.”
Clegg, formerly the British
Olympic Association’s ﬁrst chief
executive, said the former Soviet republic was one of the few
countries that had the money
and the will to organise a major
multi-sports event at short notice but future hosts would be
given more time.
Although he would not say
which cities had indicated they
wanted to stage the 2019 edition, he said the host city would
be announced early next year
and would not have to spend as
much as oil and gas-producing
Azerbaijan has.
“We needed a country that
had signiﬁcant resources and
also sufficient vision and motivation for hosting these Games,
which Europe has never had up
until now,” he said.
“So this is the big-bang moment for the European Games.
“The ﬁgure has not been made
public but what I can tell you is
that we’re spending more on
these Games than subsequent
organisers will need to because
of the fact no-one knows about
this, so we’re spending a lot
more on marketing and promotion of the event that future
events will have to.”
Despite the time constraints,
Clegg said all the early signs
were positive for the European
Just a quarter of the 16
venues have been
completed but organisers
are confident everything
will be ready before the
opening ceremony on June
12, 2015
Games. Organisers had to turn
away 14 different sports that
wanted to be involved after deciding to put a cap of 20 for the
ﬁrst edition.
They have already signed up
six major sponsors and are a
close to a deal on a seventh, leaving just one more spot available
after deciding to limit the toplevel partnerships to eight.
Organisers have also completed most of their television
broadcast details, not only in
Europe, and are in advanced
stages of negotiating with future
hosts.
“This is no small undertaking,” Clegg said. “We had to go
to the market place to sell commercial sponsorship based upon
a concept and promises.
“We have already sold broadcasting deals outside of Europe
and this is really important
for the future of the European
Games.
“To be fair, we’ve had to muscle our way into an already congested sports programme... but
there have been some very positive discussions.”
Sunday, November 9, 2014
SPORT
GULF TIMES
Al Rayyan win Arab clubs basketball
Al Rayyan captain Yaseen Ismail Moosa holds aloft the trophy after the Qatar club beat Morocco’s Association Sale 85-78 to land the Arab Clubs Basketball Championship title for the first time in their history. Sporting Al Riyadi Beirut won the third
place by beating Egypt’s Al Ahly 91-68 in a game that took place ahead of the final. Qatar Olympic Committee Secretary General HE Sheikh Saoud bin Abdulrahman al-Thani, who is also chairman of the Qatar Basketball Federation, congratulated Al
Rayyan on their victory in a phone call with the club’s Vice President Rashid bin Nasser al-Khalifa. Sheikh Saoud bin Abdulrahman said Al Rayyan’s win was an honour for Qatar and a huge achievement for the Qatari sport. He also praised the strong
performance of the team and the role of the technical and administrative staff in the achievement. (QNA)
AGREEMENT
SPOTLIGHT
Aspetar signed
as medical partner
of Qatar 2015
The hospital will also provide services to spectators at all venues
By Sports Reporter
Doha
By Sports Reporter
Doha
T
T
he Qatar 2015 Organising Committee has announced Aspetar as a
Business Partner and
‘Official Medical Partner’ of the
Qatar 2015 – 24th Men’s Handball World Championship.
As the Gulf region’s ﬁrst specialised Orthopaedic and Sports
Medicine Hospital, Aspetar has
been specially chosen by the
Organising Committee following its successful partnership
during the IHF Super Globe
Championship 2014 and will
offer the 24th Men’s Handball
World Championship a range
of services for athletes including physical therapy and sports
massages. The hospital will also
provide fully-equipped clinics, ambulance and healthcare
services for spectators across
the venues.
Mohamed Jabor al-Mulla,
Assistant Director General,
Qatar 2015, said: “The Qatar
2015 Organising Committee
and under the management
of Dr Thani Abdulrahman alKuwari considers the health of
the athletes and the spectators
of the championship as one of
the top priorities for us and we
are proud to partner with Aspetar to ensure that participants
have professional medical help
and care available to them at all
times.
“Sports medicine is a specialised ﬁeld and we are happy to
work with the best doctors and
consultants at Aspetar who are
speciﬁcally qualiﬁed to handle
physiotherapy, sports injuries,
physical training and rehabilitation for athletes and sport professionals.”
Abdul Rahman al-Qahtani,
Aspire
Congress
hosts
athletics
experts
Jabor al-Mulla and Abdul Rahman al-Qahtani at the signing ceremony.
Assistant Executive Director
of the NSMP (National Sports
Medicine Program) said: “We
are honoured to extend our
services to athletes and visitors
of the championship and would
like to thank the Organising
Committee for the opportunity to be the exclusive medical partner for the event. This
partnership demonstrates our
ability to provide world-class
medical care to elite athletes
and our commitment to help
them reach their maximum potential, which is a key objective
of the hospital.”
Aspetar has a state-of-theart facility and was accredited
by F-MARC as a FIFA Medical
Centre of Excellence in 2009,
in addition to being the ﬁrst
“Reference Centre” in the ﬁeld
of sports medicine in the Gulf
region. It services the needs of
sports clubs and federations
throughout the state of Qatar
and strives to meet the highest
international standards obtainable in its treatment to guide
athletes from diagnosis through
rehabilitation and recovery.
The 24th Men’s Handball
World Championship will take
place in Doha from 15 January to
1 February 2015.
With the participation of
24 countries from all over
the world, the biennial Men’s
Handball World Championship
is the biggest and one of the
most important international
events in Olympic sport. Handball is one of the most dynamically developing Olympic sports
and enjoys a continuously increasing fan base worldwide.
In alignment with the Qatar
National Vision 2030, the state
of Qatar has geared up to become one of the leading states
in the ﬁelds of sports legacy
development and sports events
in the world. Qatar aims to create awareness for the sport of
handball and further increase
the global proﬁle of the sport,
through the successful organisation of this high proﬁle
sporting event under the leadership of HE Sheikh Joaan bin
Hamad al-Thani, President of
the Organising Committee and
in close collaboration with the
International Handball Federation (IHF).
The Committee’s vision,
goals and key milestones include ensuring community
participation, upholding the
traditions of Qatar and promoting a healthy and active lifestyle
by engaging the current and
next generations in Qatar in the
“Game of Fast”, the future of the
sport of handball.
he “Youth Athletics
Coaching Congress”, an
event hosted by Aspire
Academy and the Qatar
Athletics Federation, will bring
together a large panel of internationally recognised coaching and
sport science speakers today and
tomorrow.
The event starts today with
the official welcome of all participants by Dahlan al-Hamad,
President of the Qatar Athletics
Federation, and Ivan Bravo, Director General of Aspire Academy, at 8:15 am at the auditorium
of Aspire Academy.
This congress is another way
of Aspire Academy to gather international experts in order to
share their know-how with each
other. The ones that should speciﬁcally beneﬁt from this event
are, of course, athletics coaches
from Qatar and the registration
proves that they are taking on
the offer. Among the 270 registered people are 56 club coaches
from Qatar and 20 QAF coaches.
Besides local participants, the
coaches in the audience include
delegates from all over the world
from Australia over Slovakia to
Singapore.
“We are all gathering at Aspire
Academy in the spirit of cooperation to learn from one another
about the subtle intricacies of
developing youth athletes,” says
Chris Earle, Director of Sport at
Aspire Academy.
“In partnership with the Qatar Athletics Federation, we are
proud to host this conference
that includes an outstanding
panel of internationally respected coach educators from around
the world.”
The presenters all work, or
have worked extensively with
athletes from all ages and have
The congress is another way
of Aspire Academy to gather
international experts in
order to share their
know-how with each other
produced many medals at all international events and include
names such as Paddy Upton, a
World Champion cricket coach,
who is going to give the keynote
speech, John Godina, a fourtimes World Champion in shot
put and CEO of the “World Athletics Centre” or Kevin Tyler, the
former Head of Coaching at UK
Athletics.
“I’m very excited to come and
present at the world-leading
Aspire Academy in Doha. Coach
education is an important step
for all of us coaches. When you
can learn a few things to incorporate within your own coaching
practice, your athletes immediately beneﬁt,” says Tyler.
Furthermore Qatar Middle Distance Coach Jama Aden,
coach of world record holders as well as World and Olympic Champions, is going to be
part of the congress. “I’d like
to thank Aspire Academy for
giving me the opportunity to
share my coaching experiences
at this conference,” says Coach
Aden, who will be speaking
about the organization of training for teenage distance runners
as well as endurance technique.
“I’m looking forward to spending time over the two days with
my coaching colleagues and to
discuss the newest methods of
training athletes.”
In addition, the congress also
includes presentations of Aspire
Academy experts with the goal to
communicate complex information into simple information that
will be easy to use for coaches.
The congress is also using some
of their expertise to run parallel sessions designed for Aspetar
and football audiences.