NEWS THURSDAY, OCTOBER 30, 2014

A pair of horses stands together in a pasture near Illinois Route 8 east of Elmwood, Illinois as the sun sets on Tuesday. — AFP

Scott becomes Africa’s first white... $22.5bn Riyadh metro a ‘race against time’ Continued from Page 1 Sata had not been seen in public since returning from the UN General Assembly last month, where he failed to make a Continued from Page 1 sections” and areas for single men. In the Riyadh Metro Sata had named Defence Minister as acting scheduled speech. Even before Sata’s death, analysts had said offices, a two-metre train model shows that the railway president before he left for Britain, despite doubts about the a power struggle for ’s top job was already well under Large American-model cars rule the city’s multi-lane carriages will be split in a similar way, with the addition of a constitutionality of that move. But it later emerged that vice- way within the . They now face a divisive pri- roads where thousands of people die every year. Some first-class compartment. In the world’s only country where President Guy Scott, 70, will take the reins until elections are mary battle, before a possible general election challenge Riyadh residents think the metro will appeal more to women are not allowed to drive, the transport system will held within 90 days. from former president , who is facing graft Riyadh’s foreign workers, while Saudis would be reluctant provide them mobility, but Allohaidan said planners hope Scott - whose parents came from Scotland - becomes the charges, has hinted at a possible return to active politics. “I riders. Allohaidan says he can understand that perception, the metro will also attract the large under-20 population. first white president of an African nation since FW de Klerk am legally eligible to stand,” he told AFP early this month, cit- because the system will be something new to the king- Civic authorities are looking at how to encourage the ruled more than 20 years ago. But he ing calls from his supporters to return to the political fray. dom. But he believes people, “especially Saudis”, will use it. use of public transportation, while research is also being is not eligible to stand in upcoming elections, thanks to a British Foreign Secretary Philip Hammond said Sata The network will have a capacity of about three million done about possible restrictions on the use of cars. About constitutional rule barring presidential candidates whose “played a commanding role in the public life of his country passengers per day, and will even offer home pickups to 40 percent of the metro will be underground and half will parents were born outside Zambia, a former British colony. In over three decades”. African leaders also paid rich tributes. transfer commuters living far from the nearest bus stop. use viaducts in what is the biggest infrastructure project in an address to the nation Scott vowed to uphold the constitu- Kenya’s President Uhuru Kenyatta hailed him as an “outstand- In ultra-conservative Saudi Arabia men and women are Riyadh’s history. “This is a world-class metro,” Allohaidan tion and announced a period of mourning. “We will miss our ing son of Africa”. “He was gifted with unique, admirable abili- strictly segregated. Restaurants are divided into “family said. “We are rebuilding the city.” — AFP beloved president and comrade,” he said. ties and strong values,” Kenyatta said in a statement. South Scott is a lively character who has caused diplomatic con- Africa’s ruling ANC said: “Zambia has lost not only a president troversy in the past, describing South Africans as “backward” who prioritised the poor, but also led the Zambian govern- in an interview with Britain’s Guardian newspaper last year. “I ment at a time when the continent is working to reclaim its like a lot of South Africans but they really think they’re the place in the global governance and economy.” bees’ knees and actually they’ve been the cause of so much Scott stands out as the only white politician in a govern- trouble in this part of the world,” he said. “He is a black man in ment of a country whose population of whites is less than a white man’s skin,” said Nathan Phiri, a bus driver. “The very one percent. He described his elevation to the country’s top fact we accepted him as vice-president shows that we con- job as a “bit of a shock to the system”. sider him as one of us.” The colourful interim president is known for his undiplo- Sata was elected in 2011 to preside over his landlocked, matic candour, once branding South Africans as “backward” southern African nation of 15 million people. It was a tri- and the Indian city of Jaipur “a terrible dump.” “I hate South umphant post for a man who rose from sweeping London Africans. I dislike South Africa for the same reason that Latin railway stations, through to being a policeman and trade Americans dislike the United States, I think. It’s just too big unionist. Once in power, though, he proved to be an authori- and too unsubtle,” he told London’s Guardian newspaper last tarian populist who inveighed against political foes, the year. In an interview with the same newspaper he said that media and sometimes even allies, earning him his snaky Sata once asked him “what would you be if you weren’t sobriquet. His admirers saw him more as a no-nonsense man white?” “I said, ‘The president?’ That shut him up,” Scott of action. recalled. — Agencies Pro-government MPs want return of... Continued from Page 1 from the central bedoon agency. Maayouf asked about the ministry’s mechanism of dealing with the issue and if In another development, MP Maayouf asked the new a committee has been formed to study the problem. Education Minister Bader Al-Essa about the problem of Separately, the new foreign relations committee yes- stateless children who are barred from attending school terday elected MP Hamad Al-Harashani as head of the and whose relatives have been organizing a sit in out- panel and MP Madhi Al-Hajeri as its rapporteur. The legal side the education ministry. According to activists, and legislative committee also elected MP Mubarak Al- around 600 bedoon children were barred from school Harees as its chairman and MP Abdulhameed Dashti as RIYADH: Abdullah Allohaidan, assistant of the director of the Riyadh Metro, points to a metro project map at because their fathers do not carry the required ID issued rapporteur. the company’s operation building in the Saudi capital yesterday. — AFP