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FRIDAY Vol. XXXVI No. 9954 January 1, 2016 Rabia I 21, 1437 AH

GULF TIMES www. gulf-times.com 2 Riyals Hopes on the horizon Blaze engulfs

GULF TIMES WISHES ITS Dubai hotel READERS A HAPPY NEW YEAR near world’s In brief tallest tower

Reuters QATAR | Offi cial Dubai Emir exchanges ire engulfed a 63-storey sky- New Year greetings scraper in downtown Dubai near HH the Emir Sheikh Tamim bin Fthe world’s tallest building last Hamad al-Thani exchanged cables of night, but the block was successfully congratulations with Their Majesties evacuated and there were only light and Highnesses the leaders of injuries, the emirate’s police chief friendly countries on the occasion said. of the New Year, wishing them the Tongues of fl ame shot skywards best of health and happiness and The sun sets on 2015 as people enjoy a pleasant winter evening in Doha’s Aspire Park yesterday. An eventful year for Qatar from one side of the luxury Address their peoples further progress and and the rest of the world has gone down in history. The New Year, 2016, brings with it many hopes and challenges. Downtown Dubai hotel and residen- prosperity. HH the Deputy Emir PICTURE: Noushad Thekkayil Page 20 tial block, which stands across a plaza Sheikh Abdullah bin Hamad al-Thani from the 830m Burj Khalifa tower exchanged cables of congratulations where people were gathering for a with the crown princes and deputy spectacular fi reworks display due to presidents of friendly countries on mark the start of the New Year. Televi- the New Year. HE the Prime Minister sion pictures showing pieces of blaz- and Minister of Interior Sheikh ing debris raining down. Abdullah bin Nasser bin Khalifa al- The Dubai government’s media of- Thani exchanged New Year greeting RasGas, Petronet fi ce said the blaze was 90% under with the heads of governments of control. Police chief Major General friendly countries. Khamis Matar told Al Arabiya televi- sion: “All residents of the hotel were evacuated and there are 14 injured, REGION | Military with light injuries.” Iran-US tensions A medic on the scene who declined sign LNG supply to be identifi ed told Reuters: “There over sanctions threat are more than 60 people injured with Iran accused the US of lying yesterday light injuries from smoke inhalation Flames rip through the Address about alleged test-firing of rockets and from crowding while in the stairs Downtown hotel after it was hit by a near an American warship and anger evacuating the building.” massive fire, near the world’s tallest rose in Tehran at the spectre of new One resident staying on the 15th tower, Burj Khalifa, in Dubai, yesterday. sanctions from Washington. Iran’s deal for India fl oor of the tower, completed in 2008, Revolutionary Guards denied that its told Britain’s Sky News of “absolute fi ce said the blaze had started on the naval forces had been involved in a asGas and Petronet have en- current level of oil indexation with the RasGas acts as the operating com- pandemonium” as those inside real- 20th fl oor, on the outside of the 300m December 26 incident in which the tered into a “binding” sale and oil index more closely refl ecting the pany for and on behalf of the owners of ised the building was ablaze. tower, and that internal fi re-fi ghting US said rockets came close to the USS Rpurchase agreement (SPA) for prevailing oil prices. the LNG projects - RL, RL (II) and RL3. “The alarms went off when the systems were operating to try to pre- Harry S Truman aircraft carrier in the supply of an additional 1mn tonnes RasGas CEO Hamad Mubarak al- With operations facilities based in building was already properly on fi re,” vent it getting inside the hotel. Four fi re strategic Strait of Hormuz. The naval per year (tpy) of liquefi ed natural gas Muhannadi said: “These positive de- Ras Laff an Industrial City RasGas’ he said. brigade teams were at the site. unit is responsible for securing Iranian (LNG) to India. velopments, including the new SPA, principal activities are to extract, proc- A Reuters correspondent saw po- Dubai is a trade, tourism and invest- interests in the Strait. Page 3 The additional quantity of LNG will demonstrate the strength of our long- ess, liquefy, store and export LNG and lice evacuating a viewing area near the ment hub for the Gulf region, and is be utilised for “onward sale” to four term relationship with Petronet and its derivatives from the North Field. base of the Burj Khalifa, where tourists one of seven emirates that make up the Indian entities- Indian Oil Corpora- commitment to growing sales into In- RasGas exports to countries across and Dubai residents were set to enjoy United Arab Emirates (UAE). ARAB WORLD | Confl ict tion, Bharat Petroleum Corporation, dia to meet its expanding clean energy Asia, Europe and the Americas with a one of the world’s largest pyrotechnic The 160-storey Burj Khalifa tower War on IS ‘starting GAIL (India) and Gujarat State Petro- needs”. total LNG production capacity of ap- displays to usher in 2016. opened in 2010 and stands almost leum Corporation. Petronet CEO, Prabhat Singh said: proximately 37mn tonnes per year. The Dubai government’s media of- 830m (2,722ft) tall. to pay off ’: Le Drian Further, RasGas and Petronet LNG “These developments highlight both Petronet is promoted by ONGC, French Defence Minister Jean-Yves Limited have entered into a “binding parties confi dence in the Indian mar- GAIL (India), IOCL and BPCL for im- Dubai lit by spectacular fi reworks despite fi re Le Drian told forces on an aircraft agreement” to adjust some aspects of ket and our commitment to LNG as a port, storage and regasifi cation of carrier in the Gulf yesterday that the their existing long term LNG sale and cleaner, more effi cient source of en- LNG. Petronet LNG started commer- war against the Islamic State group purchase agreement (SPA) of 7.5mn ergy”. cial operations of its fi rst LNG termi- A spectacular fi reworks display lit up the 63-storey Address Downtown hotel. was starting to bear its fruit. “The tonnes per year, signed by the parties RasGas is one of the main suppliers nal at Dahej, Gujarat (India) in Janu- the sky above Dubai yesterday, centred Burj Khalifa was lit up with the fl ags of war (against IS) is being played out in 1999, which laid the foundation for of LNG into India and has been sup- ary 2004, which is operating at 10mn on the iconic Burj Khalifa tower close to the six Gulf Co-operation Council states, here,” he said aboard the Charles LNG business in India. plying Petronet since 2004. Petronet tonnes per year (tpy) and is currently where a huge fi re in a luxury hotel injured of which the United Arab Emirates is a de Gaulle, which is participating in “Such adjustments will protect and is the largest importer of LNG into under expansion to 15mn tpy. 16 people hours earlier. member, witnesses said. the US-led coalition carrying out preserve the overall value of the con- India and is the owner and operator of The second LNG terminal of 5mn The display was most elaborate at the “From @BurjKhalifa to the world: Happy air strikes on IS in Syria and Iraq. tract,” a joint statement said. the country’s largest receiving termi- tpy was commissioned in August 2013 828m (2,700ft ) Burj, where blasts of New Year 2016,” tweeted the Dubai “The strategy is starting to pay off . As per such agreement, LNG vol- nal at Dahej (Gujarat) and also the Ko- at Kochi, Kerala. colour and light exploded as the clock government media offi ce. Everywhere our sensors show that umes not taken by Petronet from Ras- chi LNG terminal in Kerala state. LNG bunkering, storage, reload and struck midnight. Other fi reworks were seen at the sail- Daesh is going on the defensive... Gas during 2015 will be taken and paid RasGas is a Qatari joint stock com- gassing up and cooling down services Lasers fl ashed through the skies over the shaped landmark Burj al-Arab hotel, in as shown in the loss of Ramadi,” he for by Petronet during the remaining pany established in 2001 by Qatar Pe- are also being provided at the Kochi chic district surrounding the tower, close addition to various spots across the city said, using an Arabic acronym for IS. term of the SPA and will maintain its troleum and ExxonMobil RasGas Inc. terminal. Business Page 1 to where fl ames were still billowing from as spectators cheered on. Prime Minister visits schools World greets New Year AFP people were gathering to watch New ments that help the stu- QNA Dubai Year’s Eve celebrations. All residents Doha dents to perform their ex- were safely evacuated, police said, aminations smoothly and and the celebrations went ahead as easily. he world greeted 2016 with planned. E the Prime Min- He also paid a visit to cheers, but tightened security The chimes of midnight will move ister and Minister Doha Preparatory Inde- Tput a damper on the party in Eu- across Asia, the Middle East, Africa, Hof Interior, Sheikh pendent School for Boys rope and a spectacular fi re at a hotel in Europe and fi nally the Americas. Abdullah bin Nasser bin where he was briefed on Dubai scared gathering revellers. In the heart of Europe, more than Khalifa al-Thani, visited the course of the school Fireworks were cancelled in Brussels 100,000 police were to be deployed yesterday a number of the day. and Paris as November’s terror attacks throughout France to guard celebra- State’s schools. During the visits the cast a pall. tions that come six weeks after the ji- The Prime Minister, prime minister met with Yet at the stroke of midnight the hadist attacks in Paris. who is also Chairman of the students as well as the skies still lit up with pyrotechnics Annual festivities and fi reworks in the Supreme Education administrative and teach- in Sydney, traditionally the first to Brussels were cancelled as the Belgian host a major New Year’s bash, as capital - home to Nato and the Euro- Council (SEC), visited ing staff of the two schools. crowds thronged to waterside van- pean Union - remains on high alert. He was accompanied Doha Independent Sec- tage points. “It’s better not to take any risks,” ondary School for Boys during the visits by HE Tens of thousands of revellers gath- Brussels mayor Yvan Mayeur said. where he was briefed on Dr Mohamed bin Abdul ered on either side of Hong Kong’s Belgian offi cials are battling terror the progress of examina- Wahed Ali al-Hammadi, iconic Victoria Harbour, which was on two fronts - with police yesterday tion of the physics subject Minister of Education and bathed in a dazzling fi reworks display. holding fi ve people over an alleged New for Class 10 and Class 11 Higher Education and Sec- In Dubai, a huge fi re ripped through Year attack plot in Brussels as well as and reassured on the study retary General of the Su- a luxury hotel, the Address Downtown, arresting a tenth suspect over the Paris atmosphere and arrange- preme Education Council. near the world’s tallest tower where attacks. Pages 8, 10 & 15 Gulf Times 2 Friday, January 1, 2016 QATAR Calls for stringent steps to rein in rash drivers

By Ramesh Mathew Staff Reporter

cross-section of Qa- tar residents, particu- Alarly representatives of Temporary closure near a number of government and private companies, called upon the traffi c authorities to put in Huwaila interchange place more stringent measures to discipline those indulging in rash driving and causing acci- temporary closure will directions (to and from Doha), dents. be in place for about four with two lanes in each direc- The appeal was made at a Amonths from Sunday tion. well-attended seminar on traffi c (January 3) on the south-bound The speed limit will be re- awareness and safety, held yes- carriageway of Al Shamal Ex- duced to 60kmh throughout the terday at the headquarters of the pressway to Doha for approxi- diversion route to reduce risks Traffi c Department by the Min- mately 500m at Al Huwaila In- to road users and the project’s istry of Interior (MoI). terchange (N66), as shown in the workforce, according to an Ash- While calling upon the au- map. ghal communique. thorities to set in place stronger During the period, traffi c is This closure is required to car- rules for controlling perennial to be diverted to the opposite ry out the construction works of violators of the country’s traf- side of the road (north-bound a proposed bridge which forms fi c rules, community members carriageway), which will be part of the North Road enhance- felt such stringent punishments divided to accommodate both ment project. would go a long way to not only reduce traffi c accidents but also help reduce fatalities on account of traffi c accidents. Some of the companies’ rep- resentatives explained what they Two charged for off ering have done in recent months to give more traffi c awareness to their staff and said the results of bribe to Customs offi cer their campaigns have been re- Lt Adil Salim al-Sulaiteen addressing the meeting yesterday. Below: Lt Adil, Lt Fahd and other speakers at the meeting. markably encouraging. PICTURES:Shemeer Rasheed. They said their companies Doha Criminal Court is of QR20,000 in exchange for are too happy to continue to hearing a case in which an facilitating the entry of the said such initiatives in coming years AEgyptian expatriate, who goods. on a regular basis so that they works as a Customs clearance He reported the matter to his could contribute signifi cantly agent, and his Indian manager administration, which instruct- to reduce traffi c fatalities on are accused of trying to bribe a ed him to pretend that he was the country’s roads and work Customs offi cer at the Abu Sam- accepting the bribe off er. sites. ra border post. The offi cer agreed to meet A health, safety and environ- According to a report in lo- the Customs clearance agents at ment offi cial from a major gov- cal Arabic daily Arrayah, the a local cafe, where he received ernment company said screening accused have been charged QR8,000 as advance payment of diff erent videos highlighting with off ering a sum of for the deal. The meeting was accidents, use of simulators, and QR20,000 to the Abu Samra under the surveillance of the po- regular deliberations on such Customs offi cer to facilitate lice. violations as the use of mobile the entry of cargo with Cus- The court was also told that phones while driving have yield- toms charges lower than the the accused had two cargoes, ed encouraging results among stipulated amount. which they tried to bring into the the company’s staff ers and their The offi cer testifi ed before the country without paying the due family members. court that he was off ered a sum Customs charges. The offi cial also advocated the use of wall posters, pamphlets and electronic messages wher- ever and whenever possible on a regular basis. He said many of his colleagues Poor visibility due to fog are travelling long distance daily to reach their work place but the campaigns carried out by the in most parts of country company over the recent months helped them change their driv- ing habits in a big way. oor visibility is expected in conditions. Off shore areas will An offi cial of a well known most areas of the country remain partly cloudy during the joint venture construction com- alities with diff erent attitudes, in the country,” he said. Continental Doha The City. In MoI programmes to raise traffi c Pin the early hours today day. pany employing several hun- and culture, most road users For spreading better aware- all, the company covered more awareness and traffi c safety, held due to fog, the Qatar Met depart- The wind speed in these areas dreds of workers for its running are simply forgetting that all are ness among its workers, the than 1,000 people as part of the at regular intervals. ment has said. may go up to 18 knots towards projects in Qatar, said the fi rm using the same roads for their company held campaigns in campaigns to promote traffi c and Issa Darwish (Qatar Fertiliser The visibility may drop to 1km the east. held more than four programmes travels. Hindi and Bengali for more than road safety. Company), Sameh Zulfi (QDVC) or less in these places, according The minimum and maximum in the last four months, involv- “As most of us are aware, 500 of them on Al Shamal Ex- Earlier, MoI offi cials Lt Adil and J Eldhos (Al Jabor Cements) to the weather report. temperatures in the country to- ing its own staff ers and others one of the main reasons for a pressway. Similar awareness Salim al-Sulaiteen and Lt Fahd were among those that ex- The forecast for inshore ar- day are expected to be 17C and working in their projects. number of road accidents in events were hosted at Ras Laff an Sheridha al-Abdulla called plained the initiatives made by eas says it will be misty/foggy at 27C, respectively, with the fore- The offi cial said though Qatar Qatar is the large volume and Industrial City, Lusail Light Rail upon the community members their companies to reduce traffi c fi rst, followed by partly cloudy cast for Doha being 20C and 25C. was home to so many nation- high density of private vehicles Transit site, and also at Inter- to closely associate with the accidents on the country’s roads.

Rota, Msheireb Properties honour volunteers , Digital Champions

each Out to Asia (Rota), a member of Qatar Foun- Rdation for Education, Science and Community De- velopment (QF), and Msheireb Properties, a subsidiary of QF, have honoured volunteers and ‘Digital Champions’ from their landmark ‘Better Connections’ programme. Initiated by ictQATAR, the project aims to educate low-in- come workers in Qatar by teach- ing them essential Information and Communication Technol- ogy (ICT) skills. Rota works towards empow- ering human capabilities to fos- ter a progressive and sustainable society in line with the Human and Social Development Pil- lars of the Qatar National Vision 2030. The volunteers and ‘Digital Champions’ are seen with off icials at the honouring ceremony. Since Rota joined the Better Connections programme at the educated and empowered to Qatar. The programme aims to pions,’ we are not only provid- population in Qatar. The Bet- fully endorse any activity that The Better Connections pro- beginning of April 2015, a total go into their community and bridge the digital gap and help ing key skills, but empowering ter Connections programme contributes to that goal. The gramme is one of the largest of 65 volunteers from the local transfer their skills to other migrant workers acquire key them to share their knowledge will have a huge impact on the development and enhance- public-private partnerships in community have been trained workers in need. Through this technical skills. Rota’s activi- and help shape their commu- lives of transient labourers and ment of skills and the provi- Qatar focused on building the by Rota to educate workers in innovative cascade model of ties are sponsored by Msheireb nities for the future. Hand-in- their families, providing crucial sion of support for all staff are skills of low-income workers various locations in Qatar. The training, the programme is Properties. hand with our partners and communication and IT skills, he synonymous with Msheireb, and providing them with access volunteers have visited worker expected to reach over 4,000 At a special event to hon- volunteers, we will continue to stated. so we welcome with great en- to the internet and other tech- accommodations across Doha low-skilled workers in various our the volunteers and ‘Dig- support low-income workers in Msheireb Properties CEO en- thusiasm the opportunity to nologies. The initiative was fi rst and helped to train more than companies in Qatar. ital Champions’ on Wednesday, Qatar, helping them develop key gineer Abdulla Hassan al-Meh- promote this most vital social launched by ictQATAR in May 300 ‘Digital Champions’ in basic The Better Connections pro- Rota programme manager Arwa skills and stay connected to the shadi said it is an honour to be function. We are certain that 2014, inking MoUs with the Su- computer and Internet commu- gramme is a national initiative Musaaed congratulated and community.” collaborating with Reach Out To the promotion and prolif- preme Committee for Delivery & nication skills. by ictQATAR, organised in col- lauded them for their vision and Rota ICT and technology Asia on such an important ini- eration of these initiatives to Legacy, QF, and CH2M HILL In- These Digital Champions, laboration with Rota, Sheikh commitment in making the Bet- specialist Paul Gerhard ap- tiative. transfer knowledge will have ternational BV. In January 2015, who will be training the low Thani bin Abdullah Al-Thani ter Connections programme a plauded the fantastic eff orts of “As an organisation dedi- a hugely benefi cial eff ect on additional MoUs were signed skilled migrant workers on Foundation for Humanitarian reality. the volunteers in engaging and cated to the fulfi lment of Qa- our community and on Qatar’s with Rota, RAF, and Microsoft computer skills, have been Services (RAF), and Microsoft “By training ‘Digital Cham- educating the migrant worker tar National Vision 2030, we Economy as a whole.” Qatar. Gulf Times Friday, January 1, 2016 3

REGION/ARAB WORLD Bahrain sentences man to death for bomb attack

AFP The court also revoked Hammadi said members killed an elderly Bahraini rorist group” that killed a zenship of all the defendants the US Navy’s Fifth Fleet, Manama the citizenships of the 23 of the group were convicted man. policeman in a bombing in convicted of attempting to across the Gulf from Iran. convicts and fi ned two of carrying out bombings in Both bombings were car- the Shia village of Aker last kill three other policemen. The kingdom has been of them 200,000 dinars two Shia villages last De- ried out by the same “terror- year, Hammadi said. On Tuesday, Bahrain rocked by the Shia-led up- Bahraini court yes- ($530,000), terror crime cember. ist group” formed by the de- The court also confi rmed handed down sentences rising since February 2011. terday sentenced a prosecution chief Ahmed One of the bombings, in fendants and “specialised in stiff jail sentences handed ranging from fi ve years to Scores of opponents have Aman to death and al-Hammadi said in a Damistan village, killed a making explosives to target down in April to 11 other life in prison to 29 people been detained, with many jailed 22 others for life for statement. Jordanian policeman work- policemen,” Hammadi said. members of the group. for the attempted murder facing trial, while others forming a “terrorist group” Judicial sources said that ing in Bahrain under a secu- Meanwhile, an appeals Seven of them have been of a policeman in a bomb- convicted of involvement in that killed two people, in- all the defendants were rity and training exchange court upheld the death sentenced to life, and four ing later in December 2014. violence have been handed cluding a policeman. Shia and that 16 were tried agreement. sentence yesterday against others to 10 years, said Ham- Attacks against police heavy sentences, including This is the second such rul- in absentia, without giving The other one in the a Shia convicted of forming madi. The appeals court also are common in Bahrain, a loss of citizenship and life ing this week in the kingdom. further details. nearby village of Karzakan and leading a similar “ter- approved revoking the citi- Western ally and home to in prison. Egypt’s new parliament to convene on January 10

AFP dates and independents. Cairo The new assembly will also in- clude 28 members appointed by Sisi today. gypt said yesterday the The low turnout came after country’s new parliament authorities launched a deadly Ewill convene on January crackdown on the Muslim Broth- 10, weeks after a legislative elec- erhood. tion that was marred by a low Hundreds of Brotherhood turnout in the absence of any supporters have been killed and A military truck carrying a missile and a picture of Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Khamenei is seen during a parade marking the anniversary of the Iran-Iraq war (1980-88) in opposition. thousands jailed, while hundreds Tehran, in this September 22, 2015 file photo. President Barack Obama’s administration is preparing new sanctions on international companies and individuals over Iran’s ballistic The fi rst parliamentary elec- more have been sentenced to missile programme. tion since the army ousted Is- death. lamist president Mohamed Mur- The group had dominated the si in July 2013 was held in two previous parliamentary election phases between October 17 and held between late 2011 and early December 2, and saw a turnout 2012. That assembly was dis- of only 28.3%. solved months later by a court on “President Abdel Fattah al- technical grounds. Sisi has called for the parliament The Brotherhood faced a to convene on January 10,” presi- strong backlash during Mursi’s Iran says US plans for dential spokesman Alaa Youssef sole year in power, with millions said. taking to the street demanding Analysts say the new his resignation and prompting 596-member parliament is ex- the military to intervene. pected to rubber-stamp govern- Though reviled by Islam- ment decisions in the absence ists and secular dissidents of the main Islamist opposition, who have not been spared the new sanctions illegal Mursi’s now blacklisted Muslim crackdown on dissent, Sisi re- Brotherhood. mains popular with many who Agencies America against its defensive tions on Iran’s missile pro- Iran says the resolution three Western warships in- Lawmakers were elected under say a strong man is needed at Tehran programmes,” said Jaber Ansa- gramme, might block any such would only ban missiles “de- cluding the USS Harry S Tru- a complex system of independ- Egypt’s helm. ri, rejecting any new sanctions actions. signed” to carry a nuclear man aircraft carrier on Decem- ent candidates and party lists. Sisi, the former army chief as “arbitrary and illegal”. Iranian offi cials have said warhead, not “capable of”, so ber 26. All party list seats went to the who ousted Mursi and then won ran yesterday condemned US offi cials have said the the supreme leader would view it would not aff ect its military A French frigate and the USS For Love of Egypt coalition, an presidential elections in 2014, as arbitrary and illegal re- Treasury Department retains such penalties as violating the programme as Tehran does not Bulkeley destroyer were also in alliance of parties and groups had promised the parliamentary Iported US plans for new a right under July’s landmark nuclear accord. pursues nuclear weapons. Iran the area. that support Sisi. election as the last stage in a re- sanctions on international nuclear agreement between A team of UN sanctions has called Emad a “conven- Though the rockets were not The individual seats went to turn to democracy after toppling companies and individuals Iran and six world powers, in- monitors said in a confi dential tional missile”. fi red towards any warship their a mix of party-affi liated candi- his predecessor. over Tehran’s ballistic missile cluding Washington, to black- report that the medium-range Meanwhile, Iran’s Revolu- proximity to the foreign ves- programme. list Iranian entities suspected Emad rocket that Iran tested on tionary Guards denied that sels - and several commercial “As we have declared to of involvement in missile de- October 10 was a ballistic mis- its naval forces had test-fi red ships - was “highly provoca- the American government ... velopment, the Journal said. sile capable of delivering a nu- rockets close to a US aircraft tive”, said the offi cial, who was On the watch Iran’s missile programme has The Treasury is also prepar- clear warhead, making it a vio- carrier in the strategically im- not authorised to be named. no connection to the (nucle- ing to sanction fi ve Iranian of- lation of a UN Security Council portant Strait of Hormuz. Sharif, however, accused the ar) agreement,” state televi- fi cials at the country’s defence resolution. The Guards naval unit is re- US of lying about the incident sion quoted foreign ministry ministry and its subsidiaries Ballistic missile tests by Iran sponsible for securing Iranian - which reportedly occurred spokesman Hossein Jaber An- for work on the ballistic-mis- are banned under Security interests in the Strait, a vital after Iranian naval forces an- sari as saying. sile programme, according to Council resolution 1929, which waterway for a large proportion nounced via radio that the In Washington, sources fa- the newspaper. dates from 2010 and remains of the world’s oil, regularly pa- test-fi ring was to begin. miliar with the situation said The Journal said reasons for valid until the July nuclear deal trolling the area and conduct- “Publishing such lies in the on Wednesday the US govern- the potential sanctions includ- between Iran and world powers ing exercises. current situation is more a psy- ment was preparing the sanc- ed ties the Treasury is alleging goes into eff ect. “The Guards’ naval force had chological operation,” Sharif tions, which the Wall Street between Iran and North Korea Once the deal takes eff ect, no exercise in the past week said on the Guards’ offi cial Journal said would target about on missile development. Iran will still be “called upon” when the Americans claim that website. 12 companies and individu- Diplomats have said it was not to undertake any ballis- a missile or rocket was fi red in “The security and peace of als in Iran, Hong Kong and the possible for the sanctions com- tic missiles work designed to the Hormuz Strait area,” said the Gulf is of serious strategic A French sailor looks through binoculars as he stands on the cap- United Arab Emirates for their mittee to blacklist additional deliver nuclear weapons for a spokesman General Ramezan importance to Iran. The Guards tain’s bridge of the French aircraft carrier Charles De Gaulle which suspected role in developing Iranian individuals or entities period of up to eight years, ac- Sharif. conduct exercises to increase was involved in launching flight missions targeting the Islamic Iran’s missile programme. over the missile launch. But cording to a Security Council A US military offi cial previ- our required preparedness at State, at Bahrain’s Khalifa port north of Manama yesterday. “Iran will resolutely respond they said Russia and China, resolution adopted in July right ously said an Iranian vessel had due times, based on our own to any interfering action by which have opposed the sanc- after the nuclear deal. test-fi red several rockets near schedule.” Senior army commander survives Aden bombing

Agencies Arabian Peninsula, long active in night Wednesday and the gunmen the faculty of engineering at the Sanaa Yemen, and the newly emerged fl ed after the attack, the sources University of Aden for the sec- Islamic State group appear to be said. ond time in a week, and also kid- vying for infl uence in the port Ahmed al-Idrisi’s militia is a napped its dean Saleh Mubarak, senior pro-government city. main ally of the Saudi-led coali- students said. Yemeni army commander It was rocked by months of tion. The gunmen, who arrived Asurvived a car bombing in fi ghting this year between pro- The alliance intervened in the aboard four military vehicles, second city Aden yesterday that government forces and Iran- country’s civil war on March 26 in forced shut the gates to protest left one of his bodyguards dead, a backed rebels who seized the support of President Abd-Rabbu against mixing of the sexes on the military offi cial said. capital Sanaa in September 2014 Mansour Hadi’s government. campus, students said. General Ahmed Saif al-Yafi e, before expanding south. The government has been “No mixing. We had previ- commander of the Fourth Mili- Supported by a Saudi-led coa- struggling to spread its control ously warned the university,” the tary Region, escaped unharmed lition, loyalists have regained over Aden with militant groups students quoted the gunmen as when an explosive device planted control of Aden and four nearby exploiting the confl ict to make saying. in his vehicle blew up killing a provinces in the south since July sweeping gains, particularly in Yesterday, gunmen locked bodyguard, the source said. as deadly battles persist else- southern regions. down the faculties of administra- There was no immediate claim where across the country. The extremists are occupying tive sciences, law, and engineer- Artist Murad Subai paints graff iti depicting a bottle of water, medicine and a loaf of bread on a street in of responsibility for the attack In another sign of increasing government buildings and are ing in an attempt to force students Sanaa yesterday. The graff iti is part of a campaign titled “Wreckage”, which focuses on the issue of the and the military offi cial did not insecurity, unknown gunmen frequently seen patrolling several to observe segregation of the sex- blockade imposed on cities by the warring sides. blame any group for the bomb- shot dead a leading member of the districts of Aden. es on campus. ing. pro-government Popular Resist- They have carried out several Witnesses and local residents Last month, gunmen shut tion of the sexes. Aden in July and paved the way for Aden, declared by the gov- ance militia and two of his body- deadly attacks, assassinated gov- say the radical gunmen are loyal- down the faculty of adminis- Almost 6,000 people have Hadi to return, battle lines across ernment as Yemen’s temporary guards, security offi cials said. ernment offi cials, and intimidat- ists of Ayman Askar, a local militia trative sciences and threatened died in the confl ict and though the country have been stalemated capital, has been the scene of They were killed in a drive-by ed civilians. leader known for his links to both to use force against students if southern militias and Gulf ground for months as a diplomatic reso- growing unrest as Al Qaeda in the shooting in central Aden over- Yesterday, gunmen shut down Al Qaeda and IS. they did not observe segrega- forces pushed the Houthis out of lution remains elusive. Gulf Times 4 Friday, January 1, 2016 ARAB WORLD

Before Mosul, Iraqi army may face fi ght at the gates of Baghdad

Reuters to fall to Islamic State in Janu- sul,” Jabbar al-Yawar, secretary- population of around 300,000 who has worked with the Iraqi lyst at the International Crisis The tribes of Anbar helped Baghdad ary 2014, six months before the general of the peshmerga - the located 70km west of the capital. government. Group, said that despite Falluja’s turn the tide of that insurgency group that emerged from Al forces of the Kurdish regional But there has been no indica- Around 70,000 families have proximity to Baghdad, it was not at its height in 2006, banding Qaeda swept through large parts government fi ghting Islamic tion of if and when a battle will taken refuge around Baghdad, necessarily the next target. together and making common raqi forces may face a big of Iraq and neighbouring Syria. State in northern Iraq - told Al- be launched to take the city, according to Iraq’s High Com- Ramadi’s strong tribal net- cause with US troops to rout Al battle near Baghdad before Abadi said on Monday the Hadath TV. which Baghdad-based analyst mission for Human Rights. works had made it easier for Iraqi Qaeda. Ithey can try to retake the Is- army would head next to Mosul, Ahmed al-Assadi, a spokes- Hisham al-Hashimi said con- Falluja, downstream from Ra- forces to forge alliances and take The group’s resurgence as Is- lamic State stronghold of Mosul: the biggest urban centre under man for the Hashid Shaabi - a co- tains around 1,000 Islamic State madi in the Euphrates River val- control of key areas. “Falluja has lamic State has divided residents Falluja, a long-time bastion of Islamic State control. He said its alition of mostly Iranian-backed fi ghters. ley, is encircled by Iraqi forces, more of an urban structure where of Anbar, where many accuse Muslim militants at the capital’s capture would mark the end of Shia militias set up to fi ght Islam- “There’s a military leadership; according to the international tribes are present but are less a former prime minister Nuri al- western gates. the “caliphate” proclaimed from ic State - said Falluja would likely there’s planning and a military coalition, though some militants structuring element of the city, Maliki of shutting Sunnis out of Prime Minister Haider al- the northern city’s main mosque come before Mosul. “But the fi nal vision,” Brigadier-General Yahya manage to slip past the cordon. so it’s going to be much harder power and being a pawn of Iran. Abadi’s government and the in June 2014. decision is with the commander- Rasool, spokesman for the joint Assadi said the Hashid were to retake and keep the city under Some support the Islamist mili- US-led coalition backing it But with many western and in-chief,” he added, referring to operations command said yes- present south of Falluja, on the control,” she said from Istanbul. tants, or are too fearful to move have been cagey so far in plans northern areas still held by Is- Abadi, to whom the Hashid for- terday. “If a battle starts to liber- road leading to the Shia shrine Known as the “City of Mina- against them. for Falluja, which lies between lamic State, the authorities have mally report. ate the centre of Falluja, Falluja city of Kerbala, as well as in some rets and Mother of Mosques”, Fantappie said any attempt to Baghdad and Ramadi, the capital not made clear what path they Daily military statements itself or any other area, we will eastern and western areas. There Falluja is a focus for Sunni faith retake Falluja could face local re- of western Anbar province that intend to take to Mosul, 400km mention air strikes and attacks announce it offi cially.” they had helped to isolate the and identity in Iraq. It was badly sistance because of a deal struck the Iraqi military recaptured this north of Baghdad. by the Iraqi army and the inter- About 3,000 families remain- city and hold areas, freeing up damaged in two off ensives by US more than two years ago between week from the militants. “The government will need national coalition in and around ing in Falluja could be used as the military to advance. forces against Al Qaeda insur- the militants and the city’s tribal Falluja was the fi rst Iraqi city to control Falluja before Mo- Falluja, a city with a pre-war human shields, said Hashimi, Maria Fantappie, Iraq ana- gents in 2004. and urban elements. Palestinian shot dead after ramming car into troops

Reuters Violence has also been trig- Jerusalem gered by Muslim anger over stepped-up Israeli visits to Je- rusalem’s Al Aqsa mosque com- sraeli troops shot and killed plex. a Palestinian who rammed Israeli leaders say Islamist Ithem with his car in the oc- groups who call for the destruc- cupied West Bank yesterday, the tion of Israel have played a major Israeli military said, as a wave of role in inciting the recent violence. violence approached its fourth z Israel will spend around month. 13bn shekels ($3.3bn) over the Almost daily Palestinian stab- next fi ve years to improve the bings, car-rammings and shoot- standard of living of its Arab mi- ing attacks have killed 21 Israelis nority and narrow gaps with its and a US citizen, raising fears of Jewish population. An injured woman receives treatment inside a hospital in Qamishli yesterday. Twin suicide bombings hit two restaurants in a Kurdish-controlled city in northeastern Syria on a wider escalation a decade af- Arabs comprise nearly 21% of Wednesday, killing or wounding dozens of people, a Kurdish off icial and a group monitoring the war said. ter the last Palestinian uprising Israel’s 8.46mn population. The subsided. Arab Joint list - which combined Since the start of October, four smaller political parties - is Israeli forces or armed civilians the third largest in Israel’s 120- have killed at least 132 Palestin- seat parliament with 13 seats. ians, 82 of whom authorities de- In a plan approved by the cabi- scribed as assailants. Most of the net, investment will be boosted others have been killed in clashes in education, infrastructure, cul- with security forces. ture, sports and transportation Syrian army launches The Israeli military said a Pal- in Arab areas that have long been estinian drove his vehicle into a neglected or are not up to the group of soldiers, injuring one of same standards of Jewish citizens. them, on a road by the village of “This is an attempt to correct Hawara, near the West Bank city a historical wrong,” Eli Groner, of Nablus. director general of the Prime “The assailant was shot by Minister’s Offi ce (PMO), said assault against rebels forces on the site, resulting in yesterday. his death,” the military said in a Groner said that in educa- Reuters Hamdanieh, in the Syrian Go- group, Seif al-Sham. Proxim- south since Russia joined the Sheikh Maskin appears to statement. tion, there is a gap between Jew- Beirut lan Heights, which they lost two ity to the Israeli border makes war on September 30 in sup- be the main objective of the An Israeli civilian stabbed ish and Arab achievements in years ago, according to resi- it diffi cult to use air power ex- port of its ally, Syrian President latest offensive. The town by a Palestinian in an attack school, while Arab men often do dents and rebels. tensively. Bashar al-Assad. Yesterday’s lies on one of the main sup- earlier this month and a Pal- not work in the professions they he Syrian army and al- “They staged a large-scale Israel seized part of the attacks came just days after an ply routes from Damascus estinian in Gaza wounded in a studied, he noted. lied militias launched attack under cover of heavy fog, Golan Heights from Syria in assault on the town of Sheikh to the city of Deraa, close to stone-throwing clash with Is- According to Tel Aviv Univer- Tan off ensive in the Go- where you can hardly see some- the 1967 Arab-Israeli war Maksin that saw Russia’s heavi- the border with Jordan. Tak- raeli soldiers, also died of their sity, Arabs comprise just 13% lan Heights yesterday, in what one only a few metres away and annexed it later. Concern est bombing campaign so far in ing Sheikh Maskin would al- wounds in hospital this week. of Israel’s civilian labour force, rebels said was part of a ma- from you, on the two villages,” is growing in Israel over the the south. low the army to press further The surge in violence has been while fi gures show 75% of Arab jor assault to regain ground in said Abu Yaha, a spokesman presence in Quneitra of the The commander of one rebel south against other mainly fuelled by Palestinians’ frustra- men work and just 33% of Arab southern Syria the government for al-Wiyat al Furqan, a rebel Lebanese militant group Hez- group in the region said Russia rebel-held towns. tion over Israel’s 48-year occupa- women. had lost over the last three group in the area. bollah, an ally of the Syrian had launched at least 100 air Rebels have seized almost tion of land they seek for an inde- “We’re trying to address these years. The attacks came in Quneitra government. raids against its positions over 70% of the countryside over pendent state, and the expansion issues while encouraging them Rebels said the attacks be- province, a sensitive piece of Syrian state media said Samir two days. The air campaign had three years. But this year they of settlements in those territories to better integrate into Israeli so- gan at dawn, when the army territory around 70km south- Qantar, a Hezbollah leader tipped the balance in favour of failed to capture Baath city and which were captured by Israel in ciety,” Groner said. stormed the village of Samdani- west of the capital, Damascus. killed in Damascus two weeks the government, the command- Khan Arnabah, the last remain- the 1967 Middle East war. As part of the plan, there ya al-Gharbiya, near the border It has seen frequent fi ghting be- ago, had been involved in an- er said. But its initial gains were ing major towns in hands of the Palestinian leaders say a will be new industrial zones with Israel. The army said the tween various insurgent groups other off ensive earlier this year lost and the army repelled. government. younger generation sees no hope and sports stadiums, and more village was captured, but rebels and the Syrian military and its in Quneitra. Israel welcomed Before it gained Russia’s help, Baath city, eff ectively the for the future living under Is- spending on transportation, in the area said heavy fi ghting militia allies. Qantar’s death but has not con- the government had mounted provincial capital of Qunei- raeli security restrictions and roads and water supply. continued. The army was mostly rely- fi rmed it carried out the attack an off ensive in the south last tra province, was shelled with with a stifl ed economy. The lat- “It’s a shift in allocating Under cover of rain and fog, ing on ground troops and heavy that killed him. February but failed to make mortars yesterday in response est round of US-brokered peace spending towards these priori- government troops pushed artillery bombardments, said The off ensive in Quneitra was much headway after months of to the army assault, two rebels talks collapsed in April 2014. ties,” Groner said. towards the strategic town of a member of another rebel the government’s fi rst in the attacks. in the area said. Novel about Jewish-Arab love scrapped from Israeli schools

AFP the book, which Israeli media Writing in Haaretz, commen- cess in Israel in 2015 and pub- East Jerusalem, was buying the Jerusalem reported had been recommend- tator Alon Idan said the move lishing rights had already been book in a Jerusalem mall. ed for inclusion by a ministry- was aimed at “protecting the sold in English, French, German “I saw an interview with the backed committee. purity of Jewish blood” and re- and other languages - with pub- author on TV and heard they srael’s education ministry Newspaper Haaretz quoted an fl ected “institutionalised race lications due in 2016. took out the book from the read- has disqualifi ed a book de- education ministry offi cial, Dalia theory”. Rabinyan’s previous two nov- ing list in schools,” she said. “I Ipicting a love story between Penig, as saying one of the rea- Gader Haya, published in els were translated into 20 lan- want to read it and understand an Israeli and a Palestinian from sons for the exclusion was that 2014, is 43-year-old Rabinyan’s guages, Harris said, adding that why.” school curriculums, sparking an the book could undermine the semi-autobiographical story of the controversy would hugely The leftwing Meretz party outcry from cultural fi gures but a “separate identities” of Jews and an Israeli who meets and falls boost sales. called for a demonstration out- boost in sales. Arabs. in love with a Palestinian artist “This is going to be great for side the education ministry over The education ministry said “Intimate relations between in New York. The two later part us. It is terrible for Israel, it is the disqualifi cation, the latest yesterday that Israeli author Jews and non-Jews, and cer- ways as she returns to the Israeli mortifying, beyond what I ever in a series of disputes between Dorit Rabinyan’s Gader Haya tainly the option of formalizing city of Tel Aviv and he to Ramal- thought would happen here. But the government and cultural (translated as Borderlife in Eng- them through marriage and hav- lah in the occupied West Bank. for us it will be a boost.” fi gures. lish) had been rejected for inclu- ing a family - even if it doesn’t It was among the winners of Oria Piccione of Tamir Books In June Education Minister sion in school curriculums. come to fruition in the story - the Bernstein Prize for young in Jerusalem’s upscale German Naftali Bennett, leader of the “Offi cials discussed the mat- are viewed by many in society as writers - an annual Israeli award Colony neighbourhood said the rightwing Jewish Home par- ter of including the book in the a threat to separate identities,” for Hebrew literature. shop had received fi ve or six calls ty, pulled state funding from curriculum,” the ministry said in she said. After requests to include it about the book yesterday, having an Arab play which he alleged a statement. That prompted objections from a number of teachers, a not sold one for weeks. showed a Palestinian attacker in “After it seriously examined all from Israeli cultural fi gures, committee initially backed the “We only had one copy in a sympathetic light. the considerations, and weighed many of whom have long been book’s addition to the curricu- store and it went this morning,” The country’s most famous the advantages and drawbacks, at loggerheads with Prime Min- lum but that was later overruled she said. “We have never had living author, Amos Oz, declared they decided not to include the ister Benjamin Netanyahu, who by two senior ministry offi cials, so much interest in Rabinyan’s in November he will not at- book in the curriculum.” formed a new rightwing govern- Haaretz said. books.” tend events at Israeli embassies The ministry provided no fur- ment following his re-election in Deborah Harris, Rabinyan’s Tamara, a 62-year-old resi- across the globe due to the gov- Israeli author Dorit Rabinyan poses with her Hebrew-language novel ther details on the rejection of May. agent, said the book was a suc- dent of the Gilo settlement in ernment’s “radical” policies. titled Gader Haya at her house in the coastal city of Tel Aviv. Gulf Times Friday, January 1, 2016 5 AFRICA South African king

Buhari answers journalists’ questions during his first presidential media chat in Abuja late on Wednesday. He admitted that he had no new intelligence on the whereabouts of more than 200 schoolgirls kidnapped almost two years ago, and that his government was ready to negotiate with any ‘credible leadership’ starts jail sentence of Boko Haram to secure their release. Reuters/AFP/DPA Prosecutors said that he had themselves before the royal In power since 1989, Dalindye- king, but with a royal council Johannesburg kidnapped subjects and had court. bo is one among 10 traditional tasked with choosing the most homes set ablaze to punish those He is the king of Mandela’s kings whose duties include pre- suitable person to rule and with who refused to do his bidding. clan in a poor, rural region in siding over ceremonies and me- advising him, Nwaila said. Buhari ready to he king of the AbaThembu He was also convicted of pub- South Africa’s Eastern Cape diating in local disputes. Similar structures are in force clan of South Africa’s late licly assaulting three young men province. The fl amboyant king has made in all South African kingdoms. Tanti-apartheid icon Nel- who had already been brutally South Africa recognises sev- headlines by calling President The national legislation stipu- son Mandela has started a 12- beaten by his henchmen, and of eral royal families, who com- Jacob Zuma corrupt and defect- lates that royal authorities may negotiate release year jail sentence for arson, kid- kidnapping a wife and children of mand respect, especially in the ing from the ruling African Na- remove kings on certain condi- napping and assault, local media one of his subjects whom he con- countryside. tional Congress (ANC) to the tions, including a jail conviction reported yesterday. sidered a dissident. Offi cials have described the main opposition Democratic Al- of more than 12 months without Buyelekhaya Dalindyebo, 51, The Supreme Court concluded case as the fi rst of its kind since liance. bail. of Chibok girls was convicted of the off ences in that the king “ruled with fear and the country became a democracy “This is an individual case” The AbaThembu royal coun- 2009 but has been fi ghting the trepidation” and that “his be- in 1994. which is not expected to aff ect cil will now consider whether to verdict in the courts for years. haviour was all the more deplor- King Buyelekhaya Dalindyebo the reputation of the institution temporarily or permanently re- AFP am’s six-year quest to create He turned himself over to the able because the victims of his rules over more than 100,000 of kingship in South Africa, said place King Dalindyebo, Nwaila Lagos an independent Islamic state in Mthatha Correctional Centre in reign of terror were the vulner- AbaThembu in Eastern Cape Charles Nwaila, director general said. Nigeria. the Eastern Cape Province just able rural poor”. province. at the Department of Traditional If it decides to substitute him Last week Buhari said the before midnight on Wednesday, It also accused him of “ob- Dalindyebo waged a lengthy Aff airs. with a new king, it will need to igerian President Mu- Islamist group had been “tech- media reported. structive” action for changing court battle to avoid jail. “The lesson is that we must be get authorisation from Zuma, hammadu Buhari has nically” defeated, but a 48- Manelisi Wolela, a spokes- his lawyers 11 times, causing 34 This week he sought to further cautious and obey the law, irre- who would withdraw Dalindye- Nsaid that he had no wave of Boko Haram attacks man for the Department of Cor- postponements of the case. extend his bail, but a High Court spective of our positions,” he told bo’s certifi cate of recognition and new intelligence on some 200 in northeastern Nigeria that rectional Services, said that the Some of the victims were al- judge in Mthatha, the largest city DPA. grant it to the new ruler. schoolgirls kidnapped almost killed more than 50 people monarch was moved to another legedly beaten up because their near Mandela’s rural home of The AbaThembu royal author- Dalindyebo became king in two years ago, and that his gov- since then has undermined his prison in East London. relatives had not presented Qunu, threw out the request. ity does not rest only with the 1989. ernment would negotiate with claim. any “credible” Boko Haram During two-hour chat with leadership for their release. journalists on Wednesday, A total of 276 girls were he hinted that he could ban taken from their school in the the wearing of hijabs or other northeastern town of Chibok headwear by Muslim women in April 2014 by Boko Haram if insurgents continue to use Vote count begins in Central Africa fi ghters, in a case that made veiled women to carry out sui- global headlines. cide attacks. Several dozen girls managed “Hijab will have to be banned AFP vent any attacks by supporters to escape soon afterwards, but if this continues,” said Buhari, Bangui of disgruntled politicians. nothing has been seen or heard himself a Muslim. The enthusiasm of the elec- from around 200 of them since Buhari also said that his torate with a clear desire for a video released in May 2014. government was doing “quite N troops stood guard peace was hampered by some “We are prepared to negoti- well” in its fi ght against cor- over the main vote- organisational glitches that ate with them (Boko Haram’s ruption, one of the corner- Ucounting centre in Ban- led to delays in polling in some leadership) without precon- stones of his administration. gui yesterday after a peaceful areas, but nobody has de- dition,” Buhari said in his in- The 73-year-old former dic- election in the Central African nounced widespread fraud and augural media chat broadcast tator, who took offi ce in May, Republic aimed at turning the there were no reports of major on radio and television. “We said that his government has page on years of inter-religious violence. wanted to make contact but we found documents “showing violence. A second round of voting is insist on identifying the bon- where public funds were di- Voters turned out in vast to take place on January 31. afi de so-called Boko Haram verted into personal pockets” numbers for Wednesday’s Prominent candidates have leadership.” and other forms of corruption. often-delayed presidential already declared themselves The president said he had no He vowed that nobody, in- and parliamentary elections, pleased with Wednesday’s fi rm intelligence on where the cluding his cabinet ministers, which went off without major polls. girls were or the state of their would be spared in his anti- incident and were hailed as “The results are very, very health, adding: “That is the corruption crusade. “a success” by the head of the satisfying,” one-time prime honest truth.” Buhari also sought to jus- UN mission MINUSCA, Parfait minister Martin Ziguele told Before any negotiations can tify his detention of former na- Onanga-Anyanga. AFP. “My party (the Centrafri- begin “we are looking for a tional security adviser, Sambo UN forces operating in the can People’s Liberation Move- credible Boko Haram leader- Dasuki, and the founder of deeply poor country alongside ment) is getting high scores in ship that will confi rm that the outlawed pirate ‘Radio Biafra’, French troops helped to ensure zones where we’re not deeply girls are alive”, Buhari added. Nnamdi Kanu, despite recent that polling stations stayed rooted, while in ‘our’ regions, “We want to be sure that court orders granting them open late into the night so peo- the scores are Soviet-style!” they (the girls) are complete, bail. ple could vote. Aides to Anicet Georges safe” before holding any talks, He argued that the charges But the country may have to Dologuele, who also served as he added. against both men were too wait at least a week to learn the prime minister, said that he More than 17,000 people weighty to allow them to enjoy Senegalese UN peacekeeping forces stand guard as people wait to vote at a polling station during outcome of the election, which was “largely ahead” in most have been killed in Boko Har- bail or travel out of the country. presidential and legislatives elections in the streets of the Muslim PK-5 district of Bangui on Wednesday. residents hope will restore sta- constituencies in Bangui and bility after three years of bru- in several key provincial towns. tal confl ict that has left tens The last of the three favour- of thousands dead and many ites, Karim Meckassoua, a more homeless. Muslim who served as foreign Three men who have all held minister among other gov- What a diff erence a high political offi ce in previous ernment roles, could not be governments are the front- reached for comment. runners in the 30-strong Archange Touadera, who year makes as Ebola presidential race, but all three was prime minister under previous heads of state were Bozize until Seleka overthrew barred from taking part. him, is now also said to have zone brings in 2016 The mostly Christian coun- emerged as a possible con- try has been rocked by vio- tender for the top job. lence since president Francois The ANE on Wednesday ad- AFP “By this time last year, regular Bozize was ousted in a March mitted to “material errors on Freetown power supply was unheard of as 2013 coup by the mainly Mus- voting slips” in several parts of people worried too much about lim Seleka rebel alliance, which Bangui as well as in the prov- Ebola, so this New Year’s Eve I installed Michel Djotodia, the inces and said that parliamen- anned from gathering in am going to dance and party until fi rst Muslim head of state. tary by-elections will need to public as the death toll the cock crows,” he said, swig- Both now face international take place at an unspecifi ed Bcrept towards fi ve fi gures, ging beer jubilantly. “No more sanctions over the fi ghting date to right the wrongs. the people of west Africa’s Ebo- sadness, no more sorrow – Ebola that pitted mainly Islamic While both UN and French la-hit nations could hardly have is gone.” rebels against vigilantes from troops have turned out in force had a worse New Year’s Eve 2014. Celebrations away from the the Christian majority. to provide security, some units Spool forward 12 months how- beaches will be muted, however, When Djotodia quit in Janu- of the Central African Armed ever and Sierra Leone, Liberia as the country remembers its Entertainers perform during the ‘Bye bye, Au revoir Ebola’ (Bye bye, Goodbye Ebola) memorial concert on ary 2014 under international Forces (FACA) have also de- and Guinea are preparing to par- 4,000 victims from 29,000 Ebola Wednesday in Conakry. International artists Youssou Ndour, Tiken Jah Fakoly, Mory Kante, Aicha Kone and pressure, his Seleka rebels were ployed in unusual strength, ty as they usher in 2016 hoping cases across the region. Guinea’s President Alpha Conde celebrated during the concert, saluting the eff orts of the people of Guinea running amok even as new with the advantage of familiar- to have seen the back of an epi- “We were all tormented as to in the eradication of the Ebola virus, with the end of the epidemic announced on Tuesday by the World president Catherine Samba- ity with the terrain. demic which eventually left more who would be the next Ebola Health Organisation. Panza was sworn in to oversee a At their height, the unprec- than 11,000 dead over two years. victim so this time we must give transition to the new elections. edented murderous attacks on With Guinea declared free of thanks and praise to God for sav- Alfred Wesseh, 25, told AFP Mali extends state of emergency The savagery unleashed by Christian and Muslim com- the outbreak this week, Sierra ing our lives,” said 90-year-old that he would also be attending the mainly Christian “anti- munities alike led to fears of Leone in the clear since Novem- grandmother Sarian Peters. a church service but added that Mali has extended by three months a nationwide state of balaka” (anti-machete) vigi- genocide. ber and Liberia going more than Liberia celebrates New Year he would fi nd time to celebrate emergency initially imposed following a deadly jihadist attack on a lantes in response to atroci- International military inter- a month with no new infections, with hopes high it will be de- in a less pious way afterwards, hotel in the capital in November, off icials said on Wednesday. ties by Seleka forces has cost vention alongside an African the region has much reason for clared free of Ebola transmission with bars that were shuttered last The government on Monday submitted a bill authorising the fresh thousands of lives and driven force already in the country New Year optimism. in mid-January, after discharging New Year’s Eve expecting a roar- extension to March 31 “because of serious threats to the security of a tenth of the 4.8mn popula- was spearheaded by former Sierra Leone’s capital Free- its last two patients on December ing trade. persons and their property”, according to an off icial statement. tion to fl ee their homes in the colonial ruler France. town was shaping up yesterday 3. “From church we are going to The National Assembly passed the bill unanimously in a vote on mainly rural nation. The CAR possesses consid- to reclaim its mantle as host of Francis Karteh, the chief med- a club to wait for the new year to Tuesday, a parliamentary source told AFP. As the National Elections erable mineral wealth but after some of the best New Year’s Eve ical offi cer and head of the Ebola show its face. This is just a prel- Mali initially declared a state of emergency after 20 people, 14 of Authority (ANE) began the years of misrule studded with beach parties in Africa as revel- incident management team, said ude,” he told AFP as he sat drink- them foreigners, were killed in an attack claimed by two jihadist count, a UN armoured car and coups, army mutinies, rebel- lers scared away by Ebola began that the climate of fear gripping ing with friends at a bar in down- groups on the Radisson Blu hotel in Bamako on November 20. cement barriers were placed lions and general strikes, the fl ocking back to its palm-fringed the country 12 months ago was town Monrovia. It was extended twice, and the latest 10-day period was due to outside the main tallying cen- economy is in ruins, propped white sand shoreline. largely absent. Guinea celebrated early with expire yesterday. tre in Bangui yesterday to pre- up by international donors. The city of 1.2mn was deserted “There will be no specifi c “Bye bye, au revoir Ebola”, a con- 12 months ago, with public gath- measures in various places of cert in the former French colo- erings and even church services gathering as it was the case last ny’s capital Conakry on Wednes- banned as people were confi ned year,” he told AFP. day bringing together a host of to their homes amid the worst Churches in Monrovia, closed African stars including Senega- Ebola outbreak in history. last year with the crisis just pass- lese singer-songwriter Youssou Zimbabwe raises traffi c fi nes by up to 400% The national electricity board ing its peak, are expected to be N’Dour. in the power-starved nation has packed in the Christian-majority “Today, after long months of announced its intention to sup- country. relentless work, with the he- DPA in what analysts described as a Fines for failing to signal and ... off ences on roads”. ply the country with a rare 20 “I am going to church tonight roic mobilisation of our Guinean Harare desperate attempt to fi ll empty slowing down, encroaching But analysts said the govern- unbroken hours of electricity with my entire family, fi rst to personnel and the indispensa- state coff ers. white lines at traffi c light stops ment was desperately trying to during the festivities. tell God thank you for saving our ble support of the international Motorists who proceed and verbally abusing other driv- raise money in the country still Franklyn Smith, 35, is among lives during the Ebola crisis, and community, we are beginning to imbabwe will massively against a red traffi c light, over- ers will double to $20. struggling to recover from the an estimated 1,000 migrants to ask God to continue protecting turn the page on Ebola,” Presi- increase traffi c fi nes from take a car across a solid white Chinamasa said the measures 1999-2008 recession, caused expected to return home for the the family from the deadly dis- dent Alpha Conde told the jubi- Ztoday, Finance Minister line or drive without a licence approved by parliament were partly by the expropriation of holidays. ease,” said Mary Bono, 56. lant crowd. Patrick Chinamasa confi rmed, will be fi ned $100, up from $20. aimed to “deter road carnage experienced white farmers. Gulf Times 6 Friday, January 1, 2016 AMERICAS US warily eyes New Year’s threats in cities abroad

By Mark Hosenball, Reuters other US agencies, however, said Belgium and Indonesia in con- the city’s most famous square. Authorities in Turkey on The US Federal Bureau of In- terrorism expert with George Washington they were unaware of any im- nection with alleged plots linked “Security services are rightly Wednesday detained two sus- vestigation (FBI) said it is in- Washington University’s Pro- minent or credible threats by the to the Islamic State. worried that the Islamic State pected members of the Islamic creasing vigilance and called on gramme on Extremism, said both Islamic State or other militants to Brussels, Belgium’s capital and Al Qaeda will try to direct State who they believed were the public to be alert. real and false reports of terrorist S authorities are moni- attack inside the United State or city, cancelled its New Year’s or inspire an attack early in the plotting suicide attacks in An- “While the FBI and Depart- plotting are common at this time toring investigations hit American targets overseas. fi reworks due to a threat, city of- new year to follow up the Paris kara on New Year’s Eve, a senior ment of Homeland Security are of year, in part because the media Uoverseas of alleged plots In New York City, tradition- fi cials said. operation. The plan for an attack Turkish government offi cial told not aware of any specifi c, cred- is more attuned to them. by Islamic State (IS) operatives ally the site of the nation’s largest Belgian police arrested two on Brussels’ iconic grand market Reuters. ible threats to the homeland, we “Obviously this year, with all or sympathisers to launch at- New Year’s Eve celebration, po- individuals connected to a mo- would be just such a spectacu- While US offi cials said they continue to take proactive steps that has happened over the last tacks over the New Year’s holi- lice have seen no credible threat torcycle gang last weekend on the lar assault,” said Bruce Riedel, a have detected no serious plots to ensure personnel and resourc- few months and IS’s clear and day period, US offi cials said on at this time, a New York police suspicion that they were plotting former senior CIA (Central Intel- inside the United States, they es are in place to ensure the safety open intention of bringing the Wednesday. spokesman said. an attack against landmarks in ligence Agency) Middle East ex- said suspected militants always and security of our communi- war to the home of its enemies, Offi cials at the Department of US offi cials noted arrests over- EU headquarters Brussels, pos- pert and sometime policy adviser engage in “chatter” about pos- ties,” it said in a statement. the threat is more severe than Homeland Security (DHS) and seas by authorities in Turkey, sibly including the Grand Place, to President Barack Obama. sible attacks at this time of year. Lorenzo Vidino, a counter- ever,” Vidino said.

SeaWorld sues over Chicago police to reform orca ban

Reuters San Diego after deadly shootings eaWorld is suing Califor- nia authorities, seeking to Reuters ment, already the subject of a said Dean Angelo, president of Soverturn a decision that Chicago federal civil rights investigation Chicago’s Fraternal Order of Po- allows the San Diego theme park over its use of deadly force and lice, Lodge 7. to expand its orca habitat only if other issues, has admitted the Angelo described the outfi t- it stops breeding killer whales in hicago police will get new woman’s death was an accident. ting of squad cars with Tasers captivity. equipment and training The latest shootings came as a positive development but The lawsuit, fi led in San Diego Cto defuse tense situations after protesters had called for cautioned that the devices were Superior Court, argues that the and limit use of lethal force, Emanuel’s resignation after a not a fail-safe answer to every California Coastal Commission Mayor Rahm Emanuel said on video was released last month scenario confronting police. overstepped its authority when Wednesday, following weeks of showing Chicago Police Offi cer The Chicago Police Depart- it imposed the breeding restric- protests calling for him to resign Jason Van Dyke, who is white, ment, with some 12,000 offi c- tion because it does not have ju- over his handling of fatal police shooting 17-year-old African- ers, currently has 700 Tasers, risdiction over the marine mam- shootings. American Laquan McDonald in which fi re dart-like electrodes mals, which are regulated under The number of Tasers, or 2014. that incapacitate but are gener- federal law. electric stun guns that are gen- Van Dyke has pleaded not ally non-lethal. The commission, which over- erally not lethal, will be dou- guilty to murder. None of the eight police offi c- sees development along Califor- bled for the police department That and other shootings ers at the scene of McDonald’s nia’s coast, only had jurisdiction to 1,400 so that every patrol of black men by police offi cers shooting in 2014 had a Taser, al- to approve or reject construction unit going out at night has one, across the country over the past though they had asked for a unit projects at the park and would Emanuel said. 18 months have led to national equipped with a Taser to come to eff ectively end SeaWorld’s “Just because you are trained protests and the issue has fuelled the scene. popular killer whale shows, the that you can use force, doesn’t a civil rights movement under The turmoil after that shoot- complaint said. mean you should,” Emanuel the name Black Lives Matter. ing led Emanuel to fi re the police “The condition forces Sea- told a news conference, fl anked Chicago police shoot more superintendent and create a task World to either agree to the by other top offi cials including than 50 people a year, 74% of force to review police account- eventual demise of its lawful and interim Police Superintendent them black, with an average of ability. federally regulated orca exhibi- John Escalante. 17 fatal shootings a year between While Emanuel was on vaca- tion, or withdraw the permit The head of the police offi cers’ 2007 and 2014, according to the tion, Bettie Jones, 55, and Quin- application and forego the eff ort union in Chicago said that the Independent Police Review Au- Emanuel addresses changes in training and procedures that will take place at the Chicago police tonio LeGrier, 19, were killed on to enhance the orcas’ habitat,” new policy did not signifi cantly thority (IPRA), which examines department in the wake of recent shootings. December 26 by an offi cer re- SeaWorld Entertainment Incor- alter the way offi cers already complaints about the Chicago sponding to a call that LeGrier porated attorneys said. deal with potentially violent police and its use of force. “We expect that every po- shootings will be put on a man- sults in a number of recent cases. was threatening his father with During a contentious seven- situations. Escalante said that the aim lice offi cer develops skills and datory 30-day period of desk The chief of the union rep- a metal baseball bat, another hour hearing in October, the Emanuel ended his Cuba va- was to discourage aggression abilities that allow them to help duty, compared with the current resenting Chicago’s rank-and- situation that critics said po- California Coastal Commission cation early this week to deal and confrontation. dissolve confrontations by the three-day policy. fi le police offi cers said that the lice could have addressed with voted unanimously to give Sea- with fallout from Saturday’s fa- “The goal is to change the way using the least amount of physi- Most US police receive little de-escalation policy outlined a Taser. World permission to double the tal police shooting of a 19-year- offi cers think when they ap- cal or lethal force necessary,” he or no training on how to de-es- on Wednesday was not a major Tasers can be used at a dis- size of its orca pools so long as old college student, who rela- proach a critical incident by es- said. calate crisis situations involving change from current depart- tance of up to 35 feet (11m), de- the park ends its captive breed- tives said had suff ered from tablishing time and distance to The city has already an- the mentally ill or people under ment policy. pending on the model, and some ing programme and does not mental issues, and a 55-year-old allow for more prudent thinking nounced it will add more body the eff ect of drugs or alcohol, “This is not something offi c- can also be pressed onto the transfer any of its marine mam- grandmother. and physical space to promote a cameras to police equipment despite the growing frequency ers will have to get used to doing target’s body without fi ring the mals to other facilities. The Chicago Police Depart- safer environment,” he said. and that offi cers involved in fatal of such encounters and fatal re- because they do it every day,” projectiles. Critics who attended the hearing questioned SeaWorld’s treatment of animals in captivity and demanded the park’s popu- lation of 11 orcas be released into the wild. “The Coastal Commission US Midwest braces process became unhinged,” the complaint states. “Animal rights activists appeared at the Coastal Commission hearing and vilifi ed SeaWorld in their ‘testimony’,” for more fl ooding the lawsuit contends. Offi cials at the commission did not immediately return calls Reuters/AFP of Transportation said yester- of some structures in Missouri for comment about the lawsuit. Washington day. towns. Governor Jay Nixon Freezing temperatures in the spoke with President Barack area in the coming days will Obama on Wednesday and re- issouri, Illinois, Ar- cause some fl ooded areas in ceived a pledge of federal sup- Canada misses kansas and eastern Missouri and Illinois to turn icy, port. refugee target MOklahoma braced for adding to challenges, forecasters “The president thanked the more fl ooding yesterday as rain- said. governor for his leadership dur- Canada will bring in more than swollen rivers, some at record At least 27 people have died in ing this challenging time and 6,000 Syrian refugees by the heights, overfl owed their banks, the region’s fl ooding since the expressed condolences on be- Missouri Highway 141 is seen covered by the Meremac River in Arnold, Missouri. The St Louis area and end of 2015, missing its already washing out hundreds of struc- weekend, mostly from driving half of the First Lady and himself surrounding region are experiencing record flood crests of the Mississippi, Missouri and Meremac delayed target of accepting tures, closing major highways into fl ooded areas after storms for those who lost their lives,” Rivers after days of record rainfall. 10,000 by year-end, the Canadian and leaving thousands of people dropped up to 12” (30cm) of rain, spokesman Eric Schultz said on government said yesterday. displaced from their homes. offi cials said. Wednesday. will continue to cause signifi - Two rivers west of St Louis He said about 2,000 people in Immigration Minister John Days of downpours from a Flooding has destroyed hun- Nixon has pleaded with peo- cant hazards and disruptions – crested at historic levels, fl ood- Eureka were cut off due to ood-fl McCallum said he expects winter storm that set off deadly dreds of homes and businesses ple to heed evacuation orders from Missourians being forced ing towns, disabling sewer ed roads. Canada to reach that goal by tornadoes in Texas and signifi - and overfl owing rivers could and stay off fl ooded roadways, from their homes, to businesses plants and forcing hundreds of The Mississippi River, the mid-January, and meet its larger cant snowfall in New England menace Southern states as the after the body of a motorist who temporarily closing, to traffi c residents from their homes. third longest river in North target of accepting 25,000 has pushed rivers in the US water moves downstream to- was swept off a road was recov- congestion and impacts on in- Some evacuees stayed with America, is expected to crest in refugees by the end of February. Midwest to levels not seen in ward the Gulf of Mexico, the ered on Wednesday. terstate commerce due to the family or friends or went to ho- the next few days in Thebes, Il- Canada’s recently elected Liberal decades, the National Weather NWS said. All but one of the state’s 14 closure of a major trucking cor- tels, while others found refuge in linois, at 47.5’, more than a foot government campaigned on Service (NWS) and local offi cials “Floodwaters will move fatalities were caused by people ridor,” Nixon said in a statement. Red Cross shelters set up in the and a half (46cm) above the 1995 a promise to accept 25,000 aid. downstream over the next cou- driving into the fl oodwaters and “I thank the many Missourians area. record, the NWS said. refugees by the end of 2015. The fl ood has closed sections ple of weeks, with signifi cant Nixon has stationed troops at who are assisting their neigh- Eureka, Missouri, Mayor Several levees, including one But it pushed the target date of Interstate 44 and Interstate river fl ooding expected for the major road closures to help di- bours by providing rooms in Kevin Coff ey said his town had along the Meramec River near St back after the Paris attacks in 55, both major trucking routes, lower Mississippi into mid-Jan- rect traffi c and stop people from their homes, helping with sand- not seen such bad fl ooding in Louis, were at risk of a breach, November, saying it would bring along with many local roads near uary,” the NWS said. driving around barricades. bagging eff orts and countless 150 years and some of its oldest the St Louis Post-Dispatch re- in 10,000 by year-end and 15,000 rivers, the Missouri Department Water rose to the rooftops “This historic fl ooding event other acts of kindness.” businesses have been damaged. ported. by the end of February.

Return of ‘affl uenza’ teen delayed while his mum is jailed in US

Reuters A Mexican court has granted investigation into whether Ethan Tonya Couch, who was wanted Angeles police spokeswoman A lawyer for Tonya Couch did Los Angeles/Mexico City fugitive Ethan Couch, 18, an in- violated the probation deal that on a charge of hindering appre- Jane Kim. not respond to a request to com- junction against his deportation, kept him out of prison after he hension, was fl own out of Mexico Offi cials have not announced a ment. delaying his return by weeks or killed four people with his pickup and landed in Los Angeles early date for the move and there is no If convicted of the hindering he Texas teenager derided months, a Mexican migration of- truck in 2013. yesterday. scheduled court appearance in charge, Tonya Couch could face for a claim of “affl uenza” fi cial said yesterday. Ethan Couch’s case would now She could be seen in video Los Angeles for the mother, Kim two to 10 years in prison, Tarrant Tas a defence for a deadly Couch and his mother, Tonya be subject to immigration pro- coverage being led through the said. County Sheriff Dee Anderson Tonya Couch is seen in an drunken-driving crash, won a Couch, 48, were captured in the ceedings because he entered the airport in handcuff s. The mother could fi ght her said. undated handout picture delay of weeks for a return to Mexican Pacifi c Coast resort city country illegally, but he would She is being held without bail transfer and may not arrive in Sheriff Anderson said he was released by the Tarrant County Texas from Mexico, while his of Puerto Vallarta on Monday. ultimately not be able to stay in in the Metropolitan Detention Tarrant County, local TV broad- not surprised that the pair would Sheriff ’s Off ice in Fort Worth, mother was in a Los Angeles jail They fl ed there after offi cials in the country, said the Mexican of- Centre in Los Angeles and would caster WFAA cited county pros- seek to drag out their return to Texas. yesterday after being deported. Tarrant County, Texas, began an fi cial. be transferred to Texas, said Los ecutors as saying. Texas. Gulf Times Friday, January 1, 2016 7 ASEAN

New Year selfie Najib fund probe report goes to attorney-general

Reuters sion,” the MACC’s deputy chief Kuala Lumpur commissioner of operations, Mohd Shukri Abdull, said in a statement yesterday. alaysia’s anti-graft Najib said in a New Year’s agency said yesterday message that a string of as- Mit had sent two reports set sales combined with other to the attorney-general’s offi ce deals would see 1MDB’s debt about its probes into the trans- cut by about 40.4bn ringgit fer of huge sums of money into ($9.4bn). Prime Minister Najib Razak’s “It is therefore clear that bank accounts and the aff airs of 1MDB’s major challenges are state fund 1MDB. now behind it,” he said. The Malaysian Anti-Cor- The MACC submitted a sepa- ruption Commission (MACC) rate report on SRC International, did not reveal their fi ndings or a former 1MDB subsidiary being say whether any wrongdoing probed for an alleged misap- was involved. It would be up to propriation of funds worth 4bn Attorney-General Mohamed ringgit ($931.32mn). Apandi Ali to decide any further The WSJ report, which Reu- Balinese girls take a selfie during a New Year celebration in Denpasar, on Indonesia’s resort island of Bali yesterday. Various forms of action, it said. Najib Razak ters has not independently veri- dances and music have made Bali’s art and culture one of the most diverse in the world. Najib has weathered months fi ed, had also said that 42mn of calls to resign over alleged Eastern benefactor. ringgit ($9.78mn) of the funds fi nancial mismanagement at The scandal has shaken in- channeled into Najib’s account indebted state fund 1Malaysia vestors in Southeast Asia’s originated from SRC. Development Berhad (1MDB), third-biggest economy and 1MDB is under investigation whose advisory board he chairs. rocked public confi dence in the by law enforcement agencies in Controversy turned to scan- coalition led by Najib’s United Switzerland, Hong Kong and the Indonesia arrests three men dal in July when the Wall Street Malays National Organisation United States, media and sourc- Journal reported that investi- (UMNO) party, which has held es have said. gators looking into 1MDB had power since independence in Opposition leaders and some identifi ed funds worth 2.6bn 1957. establishment fi gures have ringgit ($605.36mn) that had The fund had racked up more called for Najib to step down with suspected links to IS been transferred directly to than $11bn in debt - a burden over the scandal. the prime minister’s bank ac- that had weighed on the ring- However, Najib still enjoys counts. git currency - before beginning the backing of most of UMNO’s Reuters 1,000 sympathisers of the tral Sulawesi. Analysts say that Santoso, Najib has denied any wrong- a restructuring programme this powerful division chiefs, and Jakarta radical jihadist group across A National Police spokesman the fi rst Indonesian to publicly doing and says he did not take year. even his fi ercest internal critics, Indonesia. More than a dozen did not immediately respond to pledge loyalty to Islamic State, any money for personal gain. “The MACC has high hopes such as infl uential former Prime men suspected of planning Reuters requests for comment may be an inspiration for would- The MACC had earlier said that the Attorney-General in his Minister Mahathir Mohamad, ndonesian police yester- bomb attacks over the holi- on the Antara report. be jihadis and militants return- the funds were a political dona- capacity as the public prosecutor accept that he cannot be un- day arrested three men with day period were arrested in Azis said a hunt for Santoso ing from fi ghting with the group tion from an unidentifi ed Middle will make a professional deci- seated. Isuspected links to Islamic a series of raids recently, and and about 30 of his followers in Syria. State as part of an operation the hunt is on for their ring- would conclude on January 9. He However, some believe there in the province of Central Su- leaders. said seven suspected militants is a bigger threat closer to the lawesi to capture the country’s “This morning my team just as well as two policemen and an capital, Jakarta, on the populous most-wanted man, state media reported that they had captured army offi cer had been killed in island of Java, where most of the reported. three more people,” the Antara the operation. recent arrests were made, and Thai junta expands ‘attitude The arrests came as the US news agency quoted Central Su- US authorities on Wednes- say militants could increasingly embassy in Jakarta issued an lawesi police chief Idham Azis as day noted arrests made by target Westerners. “emergency message” for US saying. authorities in Turkey, Bel- The US embassy message did citizens warning of potential se- He gave no details of the ar- gium and Indonesia in con- not spell out the security threat adjustment’ to drunk drivers curity threats at tourist beaches rests or the identities of the nection with suspected plots on Lombok, whose beaches are on the island of Lombok sur- men, but said they are thought by Islamic State operatives or popular with Western holi- rounding the New Year’s cel- to be linked to militant leader sympathisers to launch at- daymakers, but it did mention AFP The Royal Gazette said those at the risk of having their assets ebrations. Santoso, who has eluded cap- tacks over the holiday, and specifi cally Senggigi Beach, the Bangkok caught drunk driving or racing seized. Counter-terrorism offi - ture for years and is holed up in said they were monitoring in- main tourist strip on the west would not be allowed to refuse Prayut has defended his au- cials believe there are at least jungles near Poso town in Cen- vestigations. of the island. the behavioural sessions. thoritarianism as a necessary t is a tool that has been But it added: “They should legislative tool after years of wielded by Thailand’s gen- not be treated as suspects... and what he says was ineff ectual and Ierals to stamp out dissent. their detention is not considered corrupt civilian rule. But now so-called “attitude detention under the criminal Critics say he and his allies adjustment” sessions are tar- law.” within Bangkok’s royalist elite geting a new kind of off ender: and middle classes have stifl ed Jakarta to appeal rejection drunk drivers. Under an executive order, democratic progress. Every year tens of thousands police and security forces Previous Thai governments, are killed on Thailand’s roads, will be able to detain both civilian and military, have some of the world’s most dan- drunk drivers and those certainly struggled to rein in the gerous — a tragedy that spikes caught racing for between kingdom’s shocking road death of $565mn haze lawsuit during New Year week. 7-15 days for compulsory toll. But junta chief Prayut Chan- “behavioural correction” In a 2015 study on global road O-Cha says he has had enough. sessions safety the World Health Organi- AFP make way for palm oil and pulp not break out on their land, but cellations and school closures Under an executive order, po- zation found Thailand had the Jakarta and paper plantations on Su- blazes still occur frequently. across the region. lice and security forces will be Prayut seized power in a May world’s second most dangerous matra and the Indonesian part of Major fi rms have “zero-burn” Bumi Mekar Hijau was one of able to detain drunk drivers and 2014 coup that toppled the dem- roads with 36.2 fatalities per Borneo island. policies and typically insist fi res 20 fi rms who were punished in those caught racing for between ocratically elected government 100,000 people. he Indonesian govern- The damages would have been inside their concessions start an unprecedented move over the 7-15 days for compulsory “be- of Yingluck Shinawatra. The daily carnage spikes ment will appeal a court’s the biggest ever levied against a outside before spreading in, and blazes. havioural correction” sessions. The order is similar to pow- around New Year and the April Trejection of a $565mn fi rm over such burning activities are started by people not work- Activist Riko Kurniawan, from The order, which was pub- ers which the military have since festival of Songkran — weeks lawsuit against a pulp and pa- in Indonesia, and environmen- ing for them. The Indonesian Forum for the lished in the Royal Gazette on used to detain political critics that are both dubbed “The Seven per company accused of failing talists said the rejection was a Authorities accused Bumi Environment, said the lawsuit Wednesday, was made under without charge, a process the Deadly Days”. to prevent fi res that blanketed major setback in eff orts to take Mekar Hijau of failing to prevent rejection set a “bad precedent”. controversial “Section 44” army insists on calling an “in- Yesterday the Interior Minis- Southeast Asia in toxic haze, an on those behind the annual haze widespread fi res in a conces- “We really regret the decision powers Prayut awarded him- vitation” to an “attitude adjust- try said 104 people had already offi cial said yesterday. outbreaks. sion in South Sumatra province of the judges who rejected the self to bypass his own rubber ment” session. been killed in the fi rst two days The court on Sumatra island Environment ministry last year, according to state-run lawsuit, it is another failed at- stamp parliament and issue Most critics are only released of this New Year’s danger week, on Wednesday dismissed the spokesman Eka Widodo Sugiri Antara news agency. tempt to seek justice for victims any law in the name of national once they sign documents vow- with 20% of the accidents due to civil suit brought by authori- said the government would fi le The company is also being in- of the haze,” he said. security. ing not to repeat their off ences drink driving. ties against Bumi Mekar Hijau, a an appeal against the court’s de- vestigated over this year’s fi res, The haze crisis also caused supplier to global giant Asia Pulp cision within two weeks. with its operations frozen in De- huge damage to the Indonesian and Paper, over fi res on planta- “Our nation’s dignity was dis- cember. economy, with the World Bank tion land in 2014, saying there turbed, we received complaints The 2015 blazes, which oc- estimating the cost at $16bn — was insuffi cient evidence. from neighbouring countries,” curred mainly in September more than double the sum spent The haze-belching fi res occur Sugiri said. and October, were the worst for on rebuilding Aceh province Israel apologises after diplomat every year as land is cleared us- Plantation companies are re- years, prompting thousands to after the devastating 2004 tsu- ing slash-and-burn methods to sponsible for ensuring fi res do fall ill, and leading to fl ight can- nami. uses Singapore fl ag as table cloth

AFP It said that the director gen- gapore fl ag is a serious off ence” Singapore eral of Israel’s foreign ministry and welcomed the embassy’s Vietnam warns of ‘toxic’ Web use “has instructed that requisite apology and assurances that the strong disciplinary procedure diplomat concerned would be srael said yesterday it has will be adopted against” the err- punished. Reuters torting and talking bad about our gered by the arrests, intimida- responsibly. Dung was the fi rst apologised for the “deplor- ing diplomat. “All persons, including Hanoi party’s leaders, government and tion and jailing of dozens of among the party elite to advo- Iable behaviour” of a junior diplomats and foreigners in policies,” Truong Minh Tuan, bloggers and activists. cate the use of Facebook by the diplomat at its embassy in the “The Embassy of the State Singapore, must respect and the deputy minister of informa- The Internet is hugely popular government. city-state who allegedly used a of Israel in Singapore abide by our laws and regula- ietnam sought to dis- tion and communications, wrote and used by 49% of the 90-mn- The Communist Party con- Singapore fl ag as a table cloth was appalled to learn of tions,” the foreign ministry courage its Internet-sav- in the Facebook posting. strong population, of which gress will see a new party chief during a party. deplorable behaviour said. Vvy public from reading “We expect more such bad two-thirds is under the age of and powerful politburo elect- Local media said Singapore’s displayed by one of its Neither the Israeli and Sin- Web postings that disparaged its pages appearing around the con- 30, fuelling strong smartphone ed by members of its Central foreign ministry had summoned junior staff members gapore statements gave details Communist Party, warning of an gress and election.” sales. Committee, but the identities the Israeli ambassador after a po- and expresses its sincere of the incident, but local media increase in “toxic” activity just Managing the Internet, espe- of potential leadership can- lice report was fi led about the in- apologies” said it referred to the Singapore weeks away from its scheduled cially social media, has become “These pages are most didates remain a tightly kept cident on Sunday and the identity fl ag being used as a table cloth leadership shakeup. a tricky balancing act for a party distorting and talking bad secret. of the diplomat was revealed. The statement said the disci- during a party hosted by the Using its new Facebook page, that for 40 years has tightly con- about our party’s leaders, Much is riding on the “The Embassy of the State plinary measures refl ected “the diplomat at his condominium in the government vowed to tackle trolled Vietnam but risks upset- government and policies” congress, which is closely of Israel in Singapore was ap- severity with which Israel views Singapore. social media criticism of the ting its public if it introduces watched by foreign govern- palled to learn of deplorable this incident, especially in light A netizen who posted a photo party without interrupting the sweeping China-style Web re- A third of Vietnamese use Fa- ments and investors keen to behaviour displayed by one of of the close and friendly rela- of the fl ag being misused said he Internet ahead its fi ve-yearly strictions. cebook, a fi gure cited by Prime get a read on a process that its junior staff members and tionship between Singapore and was “shocked” to see a group of congress in January, and said Discussion of politics remains Minister Nguyen Tan Dung last could determine Vietnam’s expresses its sincere apolo- Israel”. caucasians who “actually used most attacks originated from strictly taboo and authorities month when he issued a 1,100- foreign policy trajectory and gies,” the Israeli embassy said Singapore’s foreign ministry our Singapore fl ag as a table outside of the country. have dealt harshly with online word open letter appealing to pace and scope of its pro- in a press statement. said that “the misuse of the Sin- cloth!” “These pages are most dis- dissent, with rights groups an- the public to use the platform business reforms. Gulf Times 8 Friday, January 1, 2016 AUSTRALASIA/EAST ASIA

DISASTER ACCIDENT LAW AND ORDER WILDLIFE OFFBEAT Australia evacuates three Tourists injured in Ex-deputy minister to Giant squid makes rare Zoo recovers missing towns as fire risk grows New Zealand bus crash be prosecuted for graft appearance in Japan port panda after frantic search

Hundreds of residents and holidaymakers along A collision between a bus and a van on New Chinese authorities will prosecute a former deputy A giant squid that wandered into a Japanese A Japanese zoo scrambled all of its staff southern Australia’s popular Great Ocean Road Zealand’s South Island yesterday injured at least environment minister for corruption after a probe port has given enthusiasts and experts a rare yesterday to track down a missing red panda, were evacuated yesterday as hot, windy weather 16 people, three of them critically, a media report by the ruling Communist Party found he abused glimpse of the mysterious creature before a zoo spokesman said, finally recovering her in threatened to recharge bushfires that destroyed said. Police confirmed that all 36 people involved his power and took bribes, the party’s anti-graft it was guided back out to sea. The massive a nearby area. About 20 zoo workers and three more than 100 homes. Residents in three coastal in the accident on the Arthur’s Pass road were watchdog said yesterday. The investigation of invertebrate, 13 feet in length, was discovered police dogs joined the hunt for the missing towns in the popular holiday area were advised to tourists, the New Zealand Herald reported. Some Zhang Lijun, who served in his position between by fishermen on December 24 at a port in the creature, called Sumire, after she disappeared leave their homes as temperatures were forecast media reports said that the three people in the 2008-13, began in July. While in off ice, he took gifts city of Toyama on Japan’s northwestern coast. from her enclosure on Wednesday. The zoo to reach a high of almost 40 degrees Celsius. The van were tourists from Europe while the bus party in exchange for promotions, abused his position It was guided by a diver into deeper seas about had warned anyone who spotted her not to try hot summer weather threatened to escalate fires was a tour group from Asia. Helicopters were used for the business interests of family members and seven hours later. “Its suckers were so strong and catch her themselves. “Red pandas are not that have been burning for almost two weeks. to evacuate the injured. The crash occurred on a of unnamed companies, the Central Commission that I felt some pain,” Akinobu Kimura, who violent animals, but they may scratch you or The fires were started by a lightning strike on winding section of State Highway 73, the major link for Discipline Inspection (CCDI) said in a short runs a dive shop in Toyama, said on TV Asahi. bite you when they feel threatened,” it said in a December 19 and continue to burn and spread. between the South Island’s east and west coasts. statement. He has been expelled from the party “Even though I was trying to let it escape (from statement. They finally captured Sumire in an The Country Fire Authority estimates the blazes The road was closed to all traff ic after the accident, and his case handed over to legal authorities, it the port), it wrapped around my body and clung area behind the zoo, which is on the outskirts of have burnt out more than 2,500 hectares of land. causing major disruptions to holiday traff ic. said, meaning he will face prosecution. to my arm.” Mount Fuji.

N Korea New Y ear celebrated leader New aircraft mourns death of top aide carrier being

AFP Pyongyang developed, orth Korean leader Kim Jong-Un has expressed Ndeep sorrow over the death of a top aide, displaying un- usual intimacy towards his “close comrade-in-arms whom nobody can replace”. says Beijing Kim Yang-Gon, a top party of- fi cial and key confi dante to Kim AFP Reactions on social media to strategically vital South China Jong-Un who oversaw relations Beijing the announcement were over- Sea, even waters close to the with the South, died in a traffi c ac- whelming positive and nation- coasts of other states, and has cident on Tuesday, offi cial media alistic. turned a series of reefs and out- said. A state funeral was held early hina is building its sec- “This is a very good New crops in disputed waters into ar- yesterday. ond aircraft carrier, the Year’s gift for the motherland!” tifi cial islands capable of hosting Leader Kim has earned a repu- Cdefence ministry said wrote one user on Sina Weibo, a military facilities. tation for ruthlessness after hav- yesterday, as Beijing expands its Chinese version of Twitter. In recent months, US ships ing his uncle executed and sack- naval capabilities amid maritime Others warned that hav- and planes have approached ing other high-ranking offi cials disputes with neighbours in the ing just two such ships was not the new islands to assert inter- in a purge to consolidate his reign East and South China Seas. enough to counter the naval national rights to freedom of which began in 2011 when he re- “This aircraft carrier is being power of China’s rivals. navigation, with a B-52 bomber placed his father Kim Jong-Il. developed according to entirely “Once we have equipped each on one occasion unintentionally Analysts have said that more domestic designs,” defence min- of our fl eets with aircraft carri- fl ying within two nautical miles foul play in the death of Kim Yang- istry spokesman Yang Yujun told ers, the US and Japan will wake of one of them. Gon could not be ruled out, citing a regular briefi ng, adding it was up from their dream,” another “International seas and air- possible jealousy among political under construction in Dalian, a user wrote. space belong to everyone and are rivals. northeastern port. Beijing’s forces have been in- not the dominion of any single But the tone used in offi cial The offi cial confi rmation volved in sometimes tense con- nation,” US Admiral Harry Har- news reports yesterday was in comes after months of rumours frontations with Japanese and ris said at the Stanford Centre at stark contrast to those announc- and hints from military offi cials. Philippine units over maritime Peking University last month. ing past political purges, with Kim Beijing has rapidly expanded disputes in the East China Sea “Our military will continue to Yang-Gon described in glowing its military in recent years, rat- and South China Sea respec- fl y, sail, and operate whenever terms. tling its neighbours and at- tively, prompting fears that the and wherever international law North Korea’s state-run news- tracting the attention of the US, disputes could result in armed allows. The South China Sea is paper Rodong Sinmun carried which is making a foreign policy clashes. not - and will not - be an excep- a front page picture showing a “pivot” towards Asia. Relations between Japan and tion,” he added, according to a grieving Kim touching the face of China’s fi rst aircraft carrier, China have often been strained transcript. his aide whose remains were laid the Liaoning, is a secondhand over competing claims of the Beijing is seeking to build a on a bier decorated with fl owers. Soviet ship built more than 25 Senkaku islands, or Diaoyu in “blue water” navy capable of “He could hardly repress his years ago. It was commissioned Chinese. Japan regularly scram- operating in distant seas and bitter grief for a long while, his in 2012 after extensive refi ts. bled fi ghter jets in response to has embarked on an extensive hands put on the cold body of the “The design and construction Chinese planes, it says. The US project to modernise its 2mn- revolutionary comrade”, the offi - of the second aircraft absorbed and Japan have mutual defence strong military, the world’s larg- cial news agency KCNA said. the useful experience of research treaty and any confl ict with Chi- est. “Kim Yang-Gon was his faith- and training from the Liaoning,” na could draw both countries in. China legalised overseas coun- ful helper and close comrade-in- Yang said. “In terms of China’s capacity ter-terror operations by its mili- arms whom nobody can replace, “This led to many areas of im- to require other Asian countries, tary this week as part of a con- he said,” it added. Other photos provements and enhancements,” excepting Japan and India, to ac- troversial new law, which stated showed Kim, accompanied by he added, without providing de- cept Chinese naval superiority, that Beijing “may send personnel party and military offi cials, bow- tails. having the new carrier would be outside the border to carry out ing deeply in front of the bier dur- The new vessel will have a dis- valuable,” Steve Tsang, a Chinese anti-terror activities” when the ing their visit on Wednesday. placement of 50,000 tonnes and studies professor at the Univer- “relevant country” agrees. KCNA’s 2013 announcement use “conventional power”, Yang sity of Nottingham, told AFP. The measure applies to the of the death of Jang Song-Thaek said, as opposed to being nucle- But he added that the Chinese People’s Liberation Army, which meanwhile condemned him as a ar-driven. navy was “already superior” to includes the navy, as well as the “traitor” to the nation and derided Fireworks explode over the Sydney Opera House and Harbour Bridge as Australia’s largest It will carry China’s indig- many of its neighbours, and this People’s Armed Police and em- him as “despicable human scum... city ushers in the New Year. enous J-15 aircraft along with would only add to China’s lead. ployees of the country’s public worse than a dog”. other planes, he added. Beijing claims almost all the security organs. Park pleads support for Forced to leave Army offi cer sacked after drink binge death

‘comfort women’ deal Reuters nese reporter at a monthly news Beijing briefi ng, were carried on the min- istry’s website in its transcript AFP Park’s offi ce issued a statement embassy in Seoul. from the press conference. Seoul yesterday arguing it would be The promise drew an angry re- senior Chinese military of- Yang said military leaders “extremely diffi cult” to reach a sponse from some victims who fi cer has been sacked for “must take the initiative to set an deal to satisfy everyone. vowed at a rally Wednesday - at- Aa drinking binge in which example and are certainly not al- outh Korean President Park Urging the public to help tended by hundreds of support- another offi cer died, the defence lowed to ignore notifi cations and Geun-Hye yesterday urged improve ties between the two ers - to fi ght on against Japan in ministry said yesterday, the latest not follow discipline”. Sthe public to support her countries that had remained defi ance of the deal. incident of poor behaviour in the He did not elaborate. latest deal with Japan on wartime deadlocked for years, the state- But Park’s statement warned world’s largest armed forces. The military has been shaken by sex slavery as controversy grew ment asked “for understanding that if “critics can’t accept the Hong Kong media reported this a series of scandals since President over the agreement to settle the by South Koreans and the ‘com- agreement and try to take the week that Zhang Yan, who was Xi Jinping took power three years decades-long dispute. fort women’ victims in a broader issue back to the beginning... the head of the People’s Liberation ago, vowing to root out deeply- Japan on Monday off ered an viewpoint and rally support for there is little we can do further to Army (PLA) 26th army and one of embedded corruption. apology and a one-billion yen the future of the country”. help the survivors while they are its youngest commanders, went Two of the country’s top former ($8.3mn) payment to the 46 The issue of “comfort women” alive”. drinking with two subordinates, offi cers have been felled in graft surviving South Korean women has been a sticking point in ties It defended the deal as achiev- one of whom drank himself to probes, one of whom died of can- who were forced into sexual slav- and a source of long-running ing “suffi cient progress under death. Zhang was then fi red. cer before he could be brought to ery for Japanese soldiers during distrust between the South and the circumstances”, noting that Asked to confi rm the details, the trial, and dozens of others have World War II, under an agree- Japan, which harshly ruled the most victims are at an advanced defence ministry spokesman Yang been caught up too. ment both nations described as Korean peninsula from 1910 to age. Yujun said Zhang was a “typical Yang also announced that Gen- “fi nal and irreversible.” 1945. Seoul has been under growing case” of the sort of poor behaviour eral Liu Yuan, a high-profi le mili- Offi cials from both nations Public opinion in Seoul was pressure from key military ally and lax discipline the ruling Com- tary corruption whistleblower, hailed the deal as a breakthrough sharply divided, with half of Washington to improve ties with munist Party has been trying to who is close to Xi, had retired from but some victims and many ac- South Koreans opposing the deal Japan - another major Asian ally Ursula Gauthier, a reporter for the French current stamp out. Zhang has been “han- his position as political commissar tivists angrily dismissed it as and 43% supporting it, according of the US - in the face of expan- aff airs magazine L’Obs, waits yesterday at Beijing dled in accordance with the rules”, of the PLA’s logistics department. “humiliating”, taking issue with to a survey by Realmeter polling sionist China and threats from international airport before her departure to France. which shows the military’s deter- Liu had served in the position Tokyo’s refusal to accept formal agency published yesterday. nuclear-armed North Korea. Gauthier is being forced to leave China after the mination to come down hard on for a decade and the rules state he legal responsibility. An earlier poll showed 66% Japan has long maintained its government said it would not renew her press those who break discipline, widely has to step down, Yang said, with- Japan refused to describe the of South Koreans oppose Seoul’s disputes with Seoul were fully credentials for the new year in response to a critical supported by other soldiers. out elaborating. Liu at one point 1bn-yen payment as offi cial pledge to Tokyo to remove a settled in a 1965 deal which saw report on Beijing’s policies in the troubled western The details of what Zhang had had been expected to be promoted compensation. statue symbolising the victims Tokyo establish diplomatic ties region of Xinjiang. done and what had happened to to China’s top military decision- As the controversy raged on, erected in front of the Japanese and make a payment of $800mn. him, as had been asked by a Chi- making body. Gulf Times Friday, January 1, 2016 9 BRITAIN

WEATHER LAW AND ORDER LEGAL CRIME VERDICT Spring arrives early after Norfolk farmer Martin Two teens to face trial BBC reports own websites Royal Mint squatters warmest Dec on record held over ‘illegal firearm’ over Auschwitz theft hit by cyber attack ordered to leave complex

Spring has come four months early with this Tony Martin, the Norfolk farmer jailed for Two British teenagers, fined in June on charges The BBC’s online services, including its news A group of anti-capitalist squatters have been December being the warmest on record, according shooting dead a teenage burglar, has been of stealing artefacts from the Nazi death camp website and iPlayer catch-up TV platform, were ordered by the High Court to leave the former to latest figures from the Met Off ice. As storms arrested for possession of an illegal firearm, at Auschwitz, will now face trial for the same taken down yesterday by a large web attack, Royal Mint complex opposite the Tower of and floods continue to batter communities across sources said. Martin, 71, served three years in off ence, a Polish prosecutor said. The two, back the broadcaster reported. The BBC’s sites, which London. The 20-50 strong group said they had northern parts of the UK, experts revealed it had prison for shooting dead Fred Barras, 16, at his in England, had been given a one-year probation rank only behind Google and Facebook in visitor taken over one of the Grade II-listed buildings in been the second wettest December in more than home in Emneth Hungate, Norfolk, in 1999. He along with the fine after pleading guilty in June, numbers in Britain, according to Internet analytics the City of London property on December 28 in 100 years. Across the country an average 211mm was initially found guilty of murder but this was then released by Polish authorities. But they firm comScore, were hit from 0700GMT, with protest over Britain’s homelessness problem. of rain fell during the month. Only December 1929 reduced to manslaughter on appeal. A Norfolk have since reversed their plea to not guilty, many users receiving an error message rather But a judge ruled two companies who are the was wetter, with 213mm of rain. Scotland and Police spokesman said: “As part of a planned prompting the new charges, said Mariusz than content. The broadcaster itself reported it had leaseholders were entitled to possession of Wales both had their wettest December since 1910, operation, a 71-year-old man has been arrested Slomka from the prosecutor’s off ice in Oswiecim, been hit by a “distributed denial of service (DDoS)” the whole of the Royal Mint Court property the earliest year on record - 333.1mm and 321mm in Wisbech yesterday morning on suspicion of the southern city where the Auschwitz camp is attack, citing sources within the organisation. “forthwith”. The judge had been told there were respectively. December temperatures for the possession of an illegal firearm. He remains in located. If found guilty, they could face up to 10 DDoS attackers typically target sites by flooding fears of the buildings being invaded by hundreds whole of the UK reached a spring-like 8C, which is police custody. A police search of a property in years in prison for “stealing objects of historical servers with messages from multiple systems so of more trespassers for a New Year’s Eve rave, 4.1C above the long-term average. Emneth Hungate is currently being undertaken.” value,” said Slomka. they are unable to respond to legitimate traff ic. risking civil disturbance and a huge costs bill. Thatcher failed Sturgeon visits flood-hit areas to declare diamond gifts, reveal papers

Guardian News and Media alerted to the dangers. London Another Downing Street memo said: “I’ve passed this info on to (the press offi cer) but asked diamond and emerald him not to say what gifts have necklace allegedly given actually been received. It could Ato Margaret Thatcher by a be diffi cult if the PM did receive Middle East oil minister but nev- the gifts personally without our er declared as a gift caused con- knowledge and Dr Otaiba was to sternation inside No 10, newly see a denial in the Guardian.” released documents reveal. Downing Street’s fi le does Downing Street press offi cers not state whether Thatcher re- were alerted when a Guardian ceived the necklace. However, a journalist called about the sup- diamond and emerald necklace posed clandestine donation in featured in a Christie’s sale of her October 1985, according to doc- personal possessions in Decem- Scotland’s First Minister Nicola Sturgeon speaks to children during her visit following flooding at Newton Stewart in Scotland yesterday. Torrential rain and gale force uments released by the National ber and fetched £158,000. The winds have battered northern Britain cutting power to thousands of homes and forcing some to evacuate flooded streets in the third major storm in a month. Archives in Kew. sale catalogue did not explain The jewels, said to have in- how it came into her possession. cluded earrings and a bracelet, A Christie’s spokesperson told were allegedly given by the then the Guardian: “We had under- president of Opec, Mana Saeed stood that this was not such an al-Otaiba from the United Arab object (i.e. a gift). However, any Emirates. A No 10 press offi cer gifts which were given to Margaret wrote in a detailed note: “David Thatcher whilst serving as prime Pallister of the Guardian has minister and deemed by the Cabi- been enquiring about certain net Offi ce to be of signifi cant value gifts allegedly made to the prime were purchased … after Thatcher’s Suspended MP sorry minister in March 1982 by Dr tenure as prime minister.” Otaiba. The jewellers Moussaeiff , “The gifts were allegedly which now owns Kutchinsky, presented … in Flood Street said it did not recognise the (Thatcher’s house in Chelsea) Christie’s sale jewellery and add- when Dr Otaiba was on a private ed that Kutchinsky fi les could visit to London at a time when not be accessed easily. over ‘graphic’ texts the oil market was very sensitive. The documents also revealed “The gifts allegedly comprised that then US president Ronald Agencies and admitted “there’s no fool The MP’s personal life has He said the episode with “The concerns that have been a necklace, earrings and bracelet, Reagan urged Thatcher to read London like an old fool”. repeatedly made the headlines Houlihan came when he was at raised will be discussed with him all in diamonds and emeralds; a blockbuster thriller to under- The teenager, who is now 18, over the past year following the an “extremely low point in my and a decision will be reached. and were allegedly purchased stand the Soviet Union’s cold said the Rochdale MP sent her collapse of his marriage to wife life”. But that will be independent, it from the jewellers Kuchinsky war thinking in the run-up to a P Simon Danczuk has numerous messages after she Karen, who was dubbed the self- He tweeted: “My behaviour will not be down to me or any (Kutchinsky in Knightsbridge).” failed arms control summit in apologised “unreserv- contacted him about a job. ie queen after posting numerous was inappropriate & I apologise other individual to decide what Downing Street had no record Reykjavik. Medly” for “inappropri- She told the newspaper: photographs of herself in low- unreservedly to everyone I’ve let happens.” of the meeting but noted that Regan suggested the prime ate” behaviour after being sus- “When I fi rst got in touch I never cut tops. down. I was stupid & there’s no Ken Livingstone, who is on Thatcher had received gifts from minister should read Red Storm pended from the Labour Party expected the messages to get Danczuk said his work to ex- fool like an old fool.” Labour’s NEC, said the claims Otaiba at offi cial meetings in Rising, the second novel by the for sending sexually explicit so graphic. At the time I played pose child sex abuse had left him Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn were “really disturbing”. 1981. At the time, civil service thriller writer Tom Clancy, dur- messages to a teenage girl. along with it, but now I feel like depressed and helped to cause said the decision over Danczuk’s “I just fi nd it so bizarre be- rules said gifts worth more than ing a phone call in prepara- An investigation is being he duped me. the split. He revealed he was future rests with the party’s cause he put himself at the cen- £100 had to be bought by the re- tion for the 1986 meeting with launched by the party’s ruling “I was keen for a career in pol- receiving psychiatric treatment national executive committee, tre of the investigation into sex cipient. Mikhail Gorbachev in the Icelan- body after claims that the back- itics and he is a very high-profi le and would be stepping back which is investigating the alle- abuse of young girls in his area No 10 was told the jewels had dic capital. bencher bombarded Sophena MP and I was in awe of him.” from his campaigning. gations. and so on,” he told LBC. been spotted in a car on their Reagan and the former Soviet Houlihan with lewd texts when Danczuk and the teenager ex- He embarked on a very pub- During a visit to York, Corbyn Livingstone said suspend- way with Otaiba to Flood Street. leader failed to reach an agree- she was 17. changed messages for nearly a lic relationship with a Labour said: “There will now be an in- ing people had been “very rare” Charles Powell, Thatcher’s pri- ment on nuclear disarmament, Danczuk, 49, said the reports month before he asked how old councillor, Claire Hamilton, who dependent investigation. He will when he fi rst sat on the NEC but vate secretary, and Bernard In- but their talks paved the way to in The Sun were “ not entirely she was, according to the news- tweeted after Christmas that she make his case to that investiga- had “almost become an industry gham, her press secretary, were end the cold war. accurate” but issued an apology paper. had “dumped” Danczuk. tion. now” within the Labour Party. Blur frontman Albarn, Cheating by airport actor Elba top honours list shops to be probed Reuters them on to consumers. London “VAT relief at airports is in- AFP 1990s Britpop movement with Oyelowo OBE. On being made a tended to cut prices for those London Blur, was also made an OBE. CBE, screenwriter and playwright travellers - not be a windfall Blur reunited in 2009 and in Peter Morgan said: “I’m surprised, he government is to re- gain for shops,” Finance Minis- April released The Magic Whip, delighted and proud. Even a lit- view airport retail sales ter George Osborne said in the lur frontman Damon Albarn their fi rst studio album in 12 years tle embarrassed. Especially since Tafter some businesses statement. and heart-throb actor Idris and their sixth consecutive one to I opened the brown envelope ex- were found to be pocketing Many people could be paying BElba were rewarded for their top the charts. pecting it to be a speeding ticket.” about half of tax savings meant over the odds for their purchases services to music and drama in A controversial knighthood was Morgan was behind the fi lm for passengers, rather than because the tax concession was Britain’s New Year Honours List. awarded to Lynton Crosby, Prime scripts of The Queen (2006) star- passing on the discount, the not passed on, he said. “This is They led the way in the annual Minister David Cameron’s general ring Helen Mirren, Frost/Nixon government said yesterday. simply unacceptable.” announcement of state honours election strategist, with opposi- (2008) and Rush (2013). Most retailers at British air- A spokesman for WH Smith marking the end of the year. tion MPs feeling it was overtly par- There were three new additions ports, who include WH Smith said it would co-operate fully Albarn and Elba were made tisan and unwarranted. to the Order of Merit, which is in and Dixons Carphone, ask pas- with the review. The company OBEs - offi cers of the Most Excel- The Australian masterminded the personal gift of Queen Eliza- sengers to show boarding cards also said over half of its air- lent Order of the British Empire the Conservatives’ fi rst outright beth II and limited to 24 members. when paying for goods, typi- port sales comprising items like - while other famous names were election victory since 1992, con- It recognises individuals of great cally citing security as the rea- newspapers, books and sand- made commanders (CBE) or regu- founding pollsters. achievement in the fi elds of the son. A newspaper reported in wiches, did not attract VAT. lar members (MBE). “It is degrading the honours arts, learning, literature and sci- August, however, that some use “The limited benefi t that we Golden Globe winner Elba, who system - an insult to the coun- ence. The newcomers are Lord Ara the information to avoid paying obtain in our other product cat- starred in television crime dramas try’s heroes,” said Labour MP John Darzi, one of the world’s leading 20% value-added tax (VAT) on egories, where customers travel The Wire and Luther, and fi lms Mann. But government minister surgeons; Ann Dowling, president goods headed outside the Euro- outside of the EU only, is refl ect- including Mandela: Long Walk to Matthew Hancock defended the of the Royal Academy of Engineer- pean Union. ed in our single pricing policy Freedom and Prometheus, said the award, calling Crosby was a “great ing; and vacuum cleaner innovator The report prompted a back- for all customers, which overall honour was “beyond special”. public servant”. James Dyson. lash from consumers, with provides better value,” a spokes- “Awards and honours come Actress Barbara Windsor, a vet- Several Britons were rewarded many refusing to show their man said. Dixons Carphone said in all shapes and sizes and all as eran of the 1960s Carry On cheeky for their eff orts in fi ghting the Eb- boarding cards to retailers. it had no further comment to signifi cant as the other but this is comedy fi lms and the BBC’s top ola epidemic in west Africa. Announcing the review yes- add. beyond special, as it comes from soap opera EastEnders, was made In total, 1,196 people received terday, the government said The review, which will be con- Queen and country and I couldn’t a dame, the female equivalent of a an award. Cancer fundraiser Jonjo in a statement that some air- ducted by the tax agency and will be more proud for receiving this knighthood. Heuerman, 13, was the youngest, port retailers were keeping up report in early 2016, will consider right now,” the 43-year-old said. Other actors recognised in- while 99 year-old Dorothy Start to an estimated 50 pence of ways to ensure prices refl ect VAT Singer-songwriter Albarn, 47, cluded Dame Sian Phillips, Im- was the oldest, recognised for her every pound of potential sales savings, as well as savings on who was at the forefront of the elda Staunton CBE and David decades of community work. Osborne: retailers’ policy ‘unacceptable’ tax savings, instead of passing duty, the government said. Gulf Times 10 Friday, January 1, 2016 EUROPE Polish parliament okays govt takeover of state media

DPA/AFP TVP and Polish Radio “national measures on Wednesday prior to media governance” in Poland. sition that the changes threaten reforming the Polish media mar- founded by the new government. Warsaw cultural institutes” and removes the vote, and has asked for expla- The media bill, which was only judicial independence. ket. Until now the three have been the current directors, to be re- nation from the Polish govern- submitted to the conservative- The ruling PiS party has de- “In the next phase, we will pass commercial companies run by placed by new executives which ment. dominated parliament on Mon- fended the legislation, said that a law on national media which the state. he Polish Parliament can be appointed by the govern- The European Broadcasting day evening, was easily approved its moves were designed to cut will change the functioning of The Polish opposition said passed measures late on ment. Union (EBU), European Federa- by 232 lawmakers, with 152 vot- costs and boost “professional public media and the rules for that with the new legislation the TWednesday that give the The ruling Law and Justice tion of Journalists (EFJ) and Re- ing against and 34 MPs abstain- standards and ethics”. their fi nancing,” he added. conservatives had simply seized current conservative government Party (PiS) won a majority in Oc- porters Without Borders (RSF) ing. “As the fi rst step, we will The ruling party wants to power over the country’s public more control over public broad- tober to govern alone for the fi rst issued a joint statement voicing On Monday, PiS-backed Pres- change the principles of elect- transform the public radio and media. casters, despite objections from time. outrage at the legislation, say- ident Andrzej Duda passed into ing the public television (TVP) television stations as well as the To take eff ect, the new law the European Commission and Frans Timmermans, European ing that it would abolish exist- law a reform of Poland’s top con- and Polish Radio (PR) offi cials,” PAP news agency into cultural must still be passed by the PiS- media rights groups. Commission fi rst vice-president, ing “safeguards for pluralism and stitutional court, despite mass said Krzysztof Czabanski, deputy institutions overseen by a na- controlled Senate and signed by The law makes broadcasters expressed concerns about the independence of public service protests and claims by the oppo- minister of culture, in charge of tional media council, due to be President Duda. Merkel: Migrant wave is an Three held over ‘opportunity’ for tomorrow AFP plicants, including Syrians, who Berlin had previously benefi tted from simplifi ed procedures. But several former eastern bloc hancellor Angela Merkel countries have so far shown no stood fi rm on her decision signs of relenting, with Czech New Year attack Cto open Germany to refu- President Milos Zeman last week gees despite mounting criticism, calling the current refugee infl ux telling citizens in her New Year’s to Europe “an organised inva- address yesterday that the record sion”. infl ux is “an opportunity for to- Hungarian Prime Minister morrow”. Viktor Orban’s government has Merkel has earned praise at meanwhile fi led a legal challenge home and abroad for her decision against the EU’s plan to distrib- plot in Belgium to allow in a record wave of refu- ute 160,000 asylum-seekers un- gees, about half from war-torn der a quota system. Reuters Syria. Merkel: I am convinced that, “Merkel’s solution for the asy- Brussels But with 1mn asylum seekers handled properly, today’s great lum seeker crisis remains wishful arriving in 2015 alone, opposition task presented by the influx thinking,” Die Welt newspaper and doubts are growing, includ- and the integration of so many said, adding that addressing the elgian police held three ing within her own conservative people is an opportunity for root causes of war and instability people for questioning camp and among the population. tomorrow. that are sending people fl eeing to Byesterday, as part of an Acknowledging the immense Europe is another tough task. investigation into an alleged task of dealing with the massive last year’s total, the Saechsische “2015 was certainly Angela plot to carry out an attack in the infl ux, Merkel braced Germans Zeitung regional daily reported Merkel’s year. But 2016 should be capital on New Year’s Eve. for more challenges ahead and on Wednesday, citing unpub- a decisive year for her,” it said. Authorities on Wednesday made a strong call for unity. lished offi cial fi gures. A European diplomat speak- called off the usual New Year’s “Next year is about one thing Merkel’s unwavering stance on ing on condition of anonymity Eve fi reworks display in the in particular: our cohesion,” she refugees has won her accolades, predicted that “if the number of capital, citing fears of a possible said. “It is important we don’t including from media organisa- refugees falls sharply, it would militant attack. allow ourselves to be divided.” tions like Agence France-Presse, be fi ne, but if it continues at the Police had detained six people “It is crucial not to follow the Financial Times and Time, current rate, it will be very diffi - after searches at six locations in those who, with coldness or even which named her the most infl u- cult for her politically”. the Belgian capital and one just hatred in their hearts, lay a sole ential person of the year. Three regional elections to outside the city. claim to what it means to be Ger- But at home, her usually stellar be held in March would serve as They also seized computers, man and seek to exclude others,” ratings have fallen as opposition key tests, and opinion polls are mobile phones and equipment she urged, in a reference to ring- grows within her conservative already predicting a surge in sup- for airsoft, a sport using guns wing populists and xenophobic camp and popular concerns rise port for the populist anti-refugee that shoot non-lethal plastic street rallies. about the infl ux. movement AfD. pellets. The eff orts put in to cope with In a bid to counter these con- Merkel herself acknowledged Three of the six were released the challenges would be worth cerns, Merkel has vowed steps that “there has rarely been a year later yesterday. it in the end because “countries to reduce refugee numbers next in which we were challenged so Prosecutors said they were have always benefi tted from suc- year. much to follow up our words holding the other three for a A worker dismantles equipment yesterday that would have been used to celebrate New Year in central cessful immigration, both eco- Her plan involves persuad- with deeds”. further 24 hours. Brussels. Authorities in the Belgian capital Brussels on Wednesday called off the city’s traditional New nomically and socially”, she said. ing other EU members to take in “There is no question that the In the same investigation, Year’s Eve fireworks display, citing fears of a militant attack. “I am convinced that, handled more refugees, and an EU deal infl ux of so many people will two Belgian nationals arrested properly, today’s great task pre- with gateway country Turkey to keep demanding much of us. It earlier this week and named as bike stunts which can be seen in level three – which means a pos- district of Molenbeek. sented by the infl ux and the in- better protect its borders. will take time, eff ort and money,” 30-year-old Said S and 27-year- online videos. sible and probable serious threat Two more of the Paris attack- tegration of so many people is an Mindful of security con- she said, thanking volunteers and old Mohammed K, are being Most of the members are of – since the November 13 Paris ers had been living in the Belgian opportunity for tomorrow,” said cerns, Berlin is also tightening police, soldiers and administra- held on suspicion of planning North African origin. attacks. capital. Merkel. its scrutiny of asylum seekers tors for their “outstanding” ac- a terrorist attack, prosecutors Some Belgian media say the The capital itself was on the Federal prosecutors said yes- Germany took in almost 1.1mn by reintroducing individual in- complishments and “doing far, said. group harbours Islamic State maximum alert level four for al- terday that a 10th person had asylum seekers in 2015, fi ve times terviews from today for all ap- far more than their duty”. Yesterday the courts extended (IS) sympathisers and that the most a week last month. been charged with involvement their custody for a month. search for other group members The presumed ringleader of in the attacks after around 10 Both are members of the Ka- had led Brussels to cancel last the Paris terrorist attackers, Ab- mobile phones were found dur- mikaze Riders, a Brussels-based night’s planned fi rework display. delhamid Abaaoud, was Belgian ing a search at a Molenbeek resi- group that carries out motor Belgium has been on alert and grew up in the poor Brussels dence on Wednesday. One dead as storms Power cut More space to good news, please: Pope Light year buff et North Sea rigs in Crimea The media should give more space to positive, inspirational stories to counterbalance the preponderance of evil, violence and hate in the world, Pope Francis said yesterday in his year-end message. AFP British waters and had moved AFP Francis led about 10,000 worshippers in a traditional year-end solemn Oslo to within 14 nautical miles of Kiev “Te Deum” vespers service of thanksgiving in Saint Peter’s Basilica. Valhall, according to Norway’s In his brief homily, Francis said the outgoing year had been marked by search and rescue authority many tragedies. tormy weather buff et- cited by Norway’s NTB news n explosion on Crimea’s “(There has been) violence, death, unspeakable suff ering by so many ing the North Sea has agency. main electricity line from innocent people, refugees forced to leaves their countries, men, women Sbrought havoc to oil- Valhall, whose produc- AUkraine has left parts of and children without homes, food or means of support,” he said. fi elds yesterday, with one tion was temporarily halted, the peninsula annexed by Russia But he said there had also been “so many great gestures of goodness” man reported killed by a giant is 330km (about 200 miles) in the dark, authorities said yes- to help those in need, “even if they are not on television news wave hitting a Statoil rig, and southwest of the Norwegian terday, weeks after power lines programmes (because) good things don’t make news”. hundreds of workers evacu- port city of Stavanger. were sabotaged by anti-Russian ated after a huge barge broke its “The barge has changed activists. Queen urges Danes not to live in fear moorings and began drifting. course and is headed straight The only functional high- Oil services provider Aker for Valhall,” BP Norway’s Jan voltage wires providing electric- Queen Margrethe II of Denmark has urged citizens not to live in fear as Solutions said one of its em- Erik Geirmo said. ity to Crimea was damaged after she touched on the terror attacks that hit Paris and Copenhagen. ployees, a 53-year-old Norwe- “We hope we shall be able to a nearby pylon fell following an “Our reaction must not become one of paralysing fear,” she said in gian, died on Wednesday when moor it,” he added after a tug explosion of an unknown cause, her televised New Year speech. “We must adjust to our conditions as a huge wave hit a rig, operated was sent out in pursuit to im- the Ukrainian police said. they are, we must exercise vigilance. But we must live our ... lives in This long-exposure picture taken in Budapest last night shows for Statoil by COSL, a China mobilise it – a precarious op- The three other power lines confidence and in good spirits – in high spirits, indeed, for fear makes 2016 written with a flashlight in front of a Christmas tree. Oilfi eld Services subsidiary, at eration given the stormy con- supplying the peninsula had us weak.” the Troll oilfi eld. ditions. been damaged by explosions in “Aker Solutions can con- Around 1130 GMT Geirmo November and left Crimeans fi rm one of its employees suc- said the barge had fl oated 1km without electricity for several cumbed to injuries (sustained) from the evacuated platforms. days. when a huge wave hit the COSL “The barge passed some Crimean Prime Minister Innovator platform,” it said. 1,000m from Valhall’s off shore Sergey Aksyonov has denounced Erdogan vows no respite in war on PKK “Two other people were in- installations and is now headed the incident as a “terrorist at- jured and are receiving medi- for waters where there is no tack” and assured that New Year cal treatment ashore. The rig danger,” Geirmo told AFP. celebrations would not be dis- Reuters tonomy in the largely Kurdish dubbed a “synchronised war on in the mountains of northern is now heading to shore under Saying any threat from the rupted, Russian news agencies Istanbul southeast. terror” in July, meant to include Iraq, while thousands of troops its own power, while evacua- barge to facilities in the area reported. The violence has preoccupied a campaign against the Islamic backed by tanks have in recent tion takes place,” Statoil added was minimal he added that Russia’s energy ministry said the Nato member’s armed forces State in Syria as well as Kurdish weeks pressed a campaign with- in a separate statement, adding “the employees will progres- yesterday that more than 1mn urkish President Re- and complicated international militants at home. in Turkey to fl ush out militants that the rig’s accommodation sively return to the platforms residents of the peninsula of cep Tayyip Erdogan has eff orts to fi ght the Islamic State But it has overwhelmingly on the ground. area had suff ered damage. – the situation is returning to 1.9mn had been aff ected by pow- Tvowed no let-up in a mili- (IS) organisation in neighbour- concentrated its eff orts on the Erdogan said 3,100 militants There were no immediate normal”. er cuts. tary campaign which he said had ing Syria, where a Kurdish group PKK. had been killed by the Turk- details on the condition of the BP earlier had evacuated Electricity was sporadic in killed more than 3,000 mostly linked to the PKK is fi ghting the Southeastern Turkey has ish military in and outside the two injured men. about 150 staff by helicopter to diff erent parts of the peninsula, Kurdish militants this year in jihadists. plunged back into some of its country since the start of 2015, Stormy weather in the area neighbouring oil rigs and a fur- according to AFP reporters in some of the heaviest fi ghting Western allies want Turkey worst violence since the 1990s which would be one of the high- has seen waves topping 15m ther 71 were being transferred Crimea. since their insurgency began to focus more squarely on the after a two-year ceasefi re be- est rates of attrition for years. (50’). from the Ekofi sk fi eld operated In Sevastopol – home to Rus- three decades ago. threat from the Islamic State. tween the PKK - designated a Since the PKK launched its Morning saw almost 400 oil by ConocoPhillips, which itself sia’s Black Sea fl eet – authori- In a New Year statement, “Our security forces are con- terrorist group by Turkey, the insurgency, fi ghting has been workers evacuated after a huge evacuated 145 staff . ties were forced yesterday to cut the Turkish president said that tinuing to cleanse every place of United States and European Un- largely in the countryside, but barge broke its moorings and BP has a 36% stake in Val- electricity every three hours to Turkey had “the resources and terrorists, in the mountains and ion – and the state collapsed in the latest violence has focused began drifting towards the Val- hall, where production came save power. determination” to deal with the in the cities, and will continue to July. on urban areas, where the PKK hall and Ekofi sk oilfi elds run by on stream in 1982, with the Annexed by Moscow in March Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK), do so,” Erdogan said, referring to Warplanes have bombed youth wing has set up barri- British energy giant BP and US remainder held by the Norwe- 2014, Crimea still heavily de- which fi rst took up arms in 1984 the PKK. PKK camps in southeastern cades and dug trenches to keep multinational ConocoPhillips. gian subsidy of US fi rm Hess pends on Ukraine for its electric- in order to push for greater au- Turkey launched what it Turkey and across the border security forces out. The barge came adrift in Corporation. ity and water supplies. Gulf Times Friday, January 1, 2016 11 INDIA Haryana village could unlock mystery of Indus civilisation

By Jason Burke fi elds around and under this vil- many perplexing questions re- “The DNA is likely to be in- ties in the region. Experts have India and Pakistan have long The Indus Valley civilisation Rakhigarhi, Haryana lage are set to deliver the answer main unanswered. credibly interesting and it has also debated whether the civili- squabbled over the true centre fl ourished for 3,000 years before to one of the deepest secrets of One has stood out: who ex- the potential to address all sorts sation succumbed to a traumatic of the Indus civilisation, which disappearing suddenly around ancient times. actly were the people of the In- of challenging questions about invasion by so-called “Aryans” straddles the border between the 1500 BC. Theories range from azir Chand is explain- Rakhigarhi is a key site in the dus civilisation? A response may the population history of the whose chariots they were un- countries. the drying up of local rivers to ing life 4,000 years Indus Valley civilisation, which come within weeks. people of the Indus civilisation,” able to resist, or in fact peaceably Shinde said Rakhigarhi was a an epidemic. Recently, research Wago. He points to the ruled a more than 1m sq km “Our research will most defi - said Dr Cameron Petrie, an ex- assimilated a series of waves of bigger city than either Mohenjo- has focused on climate change rocky mounds looming over a swath of the Asian subconti- nitely provide an answer. This pert in south Asian and Iranian migration over many decades or daro or Harrapa, two sites in Pa- undermining the irrigation- huddle of brick houses, a herd of nent during the bronze age and will be a major breakthrough. archaeology at the University of centuries. kistan previously considered the based agriculture on which an black buff alo and a few stunted was as advanced and powerful I am very excited,” said Vasant Cambridge. The new data will provide de- centre of the Indus civilisation. advanced urban society was ul- trees. The rising sun burns off a as its better known contempo- Shinde, a archaeologist leading The origins of the people of fi nitive answers, at least for the Some in India will also be keen timately dependent. chill mist over the north-west rary counterparts in Egypt and current excavations at Rakhi- the Indus Valley civilisation have population of Rakhigarhi. to claim any new research sup- Soil samples around the skel- Indian plains. Mesopotamia. garhi, which was discovered in prompted a long-running argu- “There is already evidence ports their belief that the Rig etons from which samples were A low rise was a fortifi cation, Archaeologists have learned 1965. ment that has lasted for more of intermarriage and mixing Veda, an ancient text sacred to sent for DNA analysis have also Chand says, and a darker patch much about the civilisation since Shinde’s conclusions will be than fi ve decades. through trade and so forth for a Hindus compiled shortly after been despatched. Traces of para- of red earth hides the site of an it was discovered along the In- published this year. They are Some scholars have sug- long time and the DNA will tell the demise of the Indus Valley sites may tell archaeologists what altar. Nimbly stepping around dus river in present day Pakistan based on DNA sequences de- gested that they were originally us for sure,” Shinde said. civilisation, is reliable as an his- the people of the Indus Valley civ- piles of buff alo dung, he points about a century ago. Excavations rived from four skeletons - of migrants from upland plateaus The conclusions from the new torical record. ilisation ate. Three-dimensional to a slight depression. This, ap- have since uncovered huge care- two men, a woman and a child - to the west. Others have main- research on the skeletal DNA The question of links between modelling technology will also al- parently, was a pit that may have fully designed cities with mas- excavated eight months ago and tained the civilisation was made sample - though focused on today’s inhabitants of the area low a reconstruction of the physi- been a reservoir. sive grain stores, metal work- checked against DNA data from up of indigenous local groups, the bronze age - are likely to be and those who lived, farmed, and cal appearance of the dead. To the casual onlooker, Ra- shops, public baths, dockyards tens of thousands of people from while some have said it was a controversial in a region riven by died here millennia ago has also “For the fi rst time we will see khigarhi is unimpressive. Yet and household plumbing, as well all across the subcontinent, cen- mixture of both, and part of a religious, ethnic and nationalist prompted fi erce argument. the face of these people,” Shinde the rubbish-strewn mounds and as stunning distinctive seals. But tral Asia and Iran. network of diff erent communi- tensions. There are other mysteries too. said. Guardian News & Media India mobile phone user base exceeds 1bn subscribers

Agencies Canagaradjou, head of busi- New Delhi ness consulting at Ipsos in Mumbai, said. “It is the fastest-growing ndia notched up its bil- market globally - even China lionth mobile phone sub- is not growing as fast,” he said. Iscriber in October, the The TRAI data showed there country’s telecoms regulator were a total of 26mn landline said, underscoring the impor- connections in India, which tance of its fast-growing mo- has a population of more than bile market, the world’s sec- 1.25bn people. ond largest after China. With more than 200mn In- Mobile phone subscriptions dians mostly in rural areas yet have boomed in India in recent to get their fi rst phone and years as aggressive cost-cut- others rushing to trade up to ting by its 12 hyper-competi- smartphones, growth is un- tive operators has driven down likely to slow down dramati- prices, leading to some of the cally, Canagaradjou said. cheapest tariff s in the world. For many people in India, a The number of mobile sub- mobile phone represents their scribers rose by nearly 7mn in Oc- sole means of accessing the In- tober from the previous month to ternet, with smartphones leap- surpass 1bn, the Telecom Regula- frogging desktops as the most Prime Minister Narendra Modi speaks at a rally after laying the the foundation stone of the Delhi-Dasna-Meerut Expressway in Noida yesterday. tory Authority of India said yes- common way of getting online. terday, hitting a milestone that Cheap, mostly Chinese- China reached in 2012. made smartphone handsets “It is a matter of great pride are available from as little as for us. It shows an empowered around Rs1,000 ($15), with India and an engaged India and many people waiting for free a tech-savvy India,” Commu- Wi-Fi connections to get on- nications and IT Minister Ravi line instead of buying expen- Shankar Prasad told the Times sive data plans. Modi slams Congress of India newspaper. Seeking to capitalise on this, “It will mean more data, Google recently announced more government-to-gov- a plan to install free Wi-Fi at ernment connectivity, more 400 railway stations across broadband,” he said. the country over the next three The fi gures do not indicate years. that India has 1bn individual zTRAI has received more over stalled reforms mobile phone users, however, than 1.8mn responses on dif- as many people have more ferential pricing consultation The prime minister urges Raucous scenes during toriously rowdy, and the BJP He asked the party to make “2015 is ending today, I urge than one connection. paper, its chairman R S Shar- the opposition party to the most recent parliamen- employed similar tactics to a new year’s resolution “to not them (opposition) to pledge “Dual sim” phones are par- ma said, adding that analyses demonstrate responsibility tary session saw heckling and disrupt the former govern- disrupt the parliament”. that in 2016 they will not dis- ticularly popular, allowing showed that a large number towards the people rowdy protests from opposi- ment before coming to power “I am specially appealing rupt the proceedings of parlia- the country’s cost-conscious of them supported Facebook’s tion lawmakers prevent the last year. to all political parties. We are ment and let the country march consumers to use two diff erent Free Basics plans. Agencies passage of several pieces of Modi had taken a conciliatory not allowed to speak in the Lok ahead.” mobile plans to get the cheap- Around 890,000 respond- Noida, Uttar Pradesh legislation. stance during the last parliament Sabha but I am urging them Earlier, Modi laid the founda- est rates for local or national ents were for Free Basics plans, Stalled bills include a key na- session, hoping to win the oppo- from a ‘Jan Sabha’... the peo- tion stone of a 14-lane Delhi- calls, for example. Sharma said. tional goods and services tax sition’s support for his govern- ple have sent us to parliament Meerut expressway, calling it a In poorer states such as Bi- Industrialist Anil Ambani- rime Minister Narendra - which the Congress Party had ment’s reforms. to debate, consult, discuss... national highway to develop- har, “teledensity”- the pen- led Reliance Communications Modi hit out at the main supported when in power - and a But yesterday he went on the to take collective decisions,” he ment. etration of telephone connec- (RCOM) on December 23 said Popposition Congress Party proposed bankruptcy law. off ensive, urging Congress to said. “This is the national highway tions for every hundred people following the telecom regula- yesterday, accusing it of “dis- “Our government is trying to demonstrate “responsibility to- “It is our responsibility to give of development... It will emerge - is as low as 54%, with a stark tor’s directive, the commercial rupting” parliament and stalling take steps for the poor. There wards the people,” who elected priority to the work the people as a major factor for develop- urban-rural divide. launch of Facebook’s Free Ba- key reforms aimed at lifting mil- are many old, outdated laws them as lawmakers in the world’s have given us.” ment of western Uttar Pradesh,” But it still represents re- sics has been put on hold till lions out of poverty. and many new laws are needed,” largest democracy. Modi slammed the Congress, Modi said. markable growth in the market it gets clearance. RCOM is the Modi’s Bharatiya Janata Party Modi told thousands attending a “Those who have been re- saying the party that ruled the He said the people in the vil- since 2000, when there were only telecom service provider government enjoys a comfort- public rally in Noida on the out- jected by the people... are not country for 50-60 years under- lages aspire for good roads, as just 2mn mobile subscribers in off ering Free Basics in India. able majority in the Lok Sabha, skirts of New Delhi. allowing the parliament to func- stood the functioning of parlia- they know it is the key to devel- the country, according to re- The regulator said Face- the lower house of parliament, “But it is our misfortune that tion,” he said. “(They) have a re- ment and the government and opment. search fi rm Ipsos. book’s Free Basics service but needs opposition support the Indian parliament, where sponsibility to not put their po- had no reason to be angry and “The villagers know if they “India is adding 10 to 15mn should remain on hold till the to push through laws in the up- laws are made, is not being al- litical interests before national disruptive. want development, they fi rst mobile subscribers every ruling on diff erential pricing per house Rajya Sabha, where it lowed to function,” he added. interests,” Modi said, referring to He hoped the New Year would need connectivity through good quarter - that’s big,” Bhasker comes up. doesn’t have the numbers. India’s parliament is no- Congress. be diff erent. roads,” he said.

Big poll win Road restrictions for Congress Singer Adnan Sami to The Congress yesterday dealt a severe jolt to the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) in Jharkhand winning seven of the 11 local bodies- elections to which were get Indian citizenship held on Monday. While the BJP, in power in Chhattisgarh for the last 15 years, could manage to IANS today,” Sami, who is of Pakistani variety of musical instruments and win just four Nagar Panchayats, Mumbai origin, told reporters here. is a known name for his distinct the Congress bagged four Nagar Born in Britain and until now a voice, has always maintained that Palika (municipalities) and three Canadian citizen, Sami has been the love he has received from Indian Nagar Panchayat (city councils). oted singer Adnan Sami living in India on visa since March citizens was “everything” for him. “The BJP government has done will become an Indian 2001. He was last given a visa ex- “When my fi rst album came nothing on the issues of paddy Ncitizen today. He says it’s tension in October this year. out, it wasn’t Bollywood. The procurement, bonus, ration a “New Year gift”. The singer, who became love that I received from peo- cards, etc. You can see the result Home ministry offi cials yes- a sensation in the country ple was everything and it still of its inaction in the outcome of terday said Sami will be granted with hit songs like Kabhi to is everything for me. After the local body polls. This victory citizenship today. The Indian nazar milao and Lift karaa 16 years, it is not just the land will boost the confidence of the citizenship was granted after de, spoke to the media where I work, but also my Congress,” said T S Singh Dev, he made a representation to the before leaving for home and my love,” A traff ic policeman stands at an intersection in New Delhi yesterday. Millions of Delhi leader of the opposition in the home ministry on May 26 seek- Mumbai airport to Sami, who has sung in residents will have to find alternative ways to work from today when authorities impose Chattisgarh assembly. Ajit Jogi, ing it on humanitarian grounds. catch a fl ight to New Bollywood movies and draconian restrictions on cars to try to clean up the world’s most polluted capital. Private cars another Congress leader and “This is the New Year gift for Delhi yesterday. even for albums, had will be banned from the roads on alternate days, apart some exceptions such as those that former chief minister, said his me. I am thankful to the Indian Sami, who is said at a conclave here run on CNG, from today. party benefited from dissension government. I am very happy known for playing a earlier this year. in the BJP. Gulf Times 12 Friday, January 1, 2016 INDIA

AVIATION RELIGION ELECTION MILITANCY EVENT ‘Rat on plane’ forces SGPC, ‘Panj Piaras’ Right poll strategy will Pak national among 2 Taj festival to mark flight to turn back head for showdown be finalised: Jayalalithaa rebels killed in Kashmir Kipling birth anniversary

A “suspected rat sighting” in the cabin forced The Shiromani Gurdwara Parbandhak Tamil Nadu Chief Minister J Jayalalithaa, who is also Two separatist guerrillas were killed yesterday A carnival titled “Gulistan-e-Akbarabad” will be an Air India plane carrying more than 200 Committee (SGPC) and the ‘Panj Piaras’ (chosen the All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam in an overnight gunfight between militants and held in Agra today ahead of the third edition passengers to return to Mumbai almost three ones of the Gurus) are heading for a showdown chief, yesterday said she would decide on the right security forces in south Kashmir’s Pulwama district. of the Taj Literature Festival which would hours into a flight to London, the airline said over the issue of removal of jathedar (chief) strategy for assembly elections. Speaking at the “Two militants including Manzoor Ahmad Dar of commemorate Jungle Book author Rudyard yesterday. Air India said it had decided to turn of the Akal Takht and four other high priests. party’s general council meeting, where Jayalalithaa Samboora (Pulwama) and a Pakistani national have Kipling’s 150th birth anniversary. The literature back the flight “keeping passenger safety in The ‘Panj Piaras’ want Akal Takht Jathedar was authorised to take decisions relating to next been killed in Gusoo village encounter,” a senior festival, from February 26 to 28, is touted to be mind”, even though the rodent’s presence Gurbhachan Singh and four other high priests year’s assembly elections, she said diff erent police off icer said in Srinagar yesterday. Security a major inspiration for budding writers. “This was not confirmed. “Air India gives utmost removed by today. SGPC president Avtar Singh strategies have to be chalked out to fight diff erent forces including troops of the 53 Rashtriya Rifles, 183 year we begin the festival celebrations with importance to safety. Our engineering team is Makkar has called for an emergency meeting elections. She would take a correct decision, the battalion of Central Reserve Police Force and special Gulistan-e-Akbarabad to provide a platform to investigating the incident,” an airline statement of its executive committee to discuss the fallout chief minister said. “There is no uniform strategy operations group (SOG) of state police surrounded budding poets,” Harvijay Bahia, chairman of said. “A standby aircraft was made available to of the entire episode. The ‘Panj Piaras’ recently to win elections.” Jayalalithaa urged the party Gusoo village in Pulwama district late Wednesday the organising committee, said. A Nobel Prize fly the passengers to London. The aircraft with called for the removal of the high priests after cadres to work hard so that the AIADMK can come following reports that two to three militants were winner, Kipling was a novelist, story teller and a the suspected rodent will be fumigated as per they ‘pardoned’ controversial Dera Sacha Sauda back to power. The AIADMK party has formed the hiding inside a house. As security forces came journalist. The event is designed to give a boost procedure in such cases of rodent sighting.” chief Gurmeet Ram Rahim Singh in September. government in the state six times. closer to the house, the militants opened fire. to literary and cultural heritage of the Braj region. AAP alleges New Year, new haircut central govt conspiracy in offi cers’ leave

IANS “We are committed to the News Delhi people of Delhi and would make sure nothing stops even if these offi cers go on six months leave,” he Delhi government yes- he said. terday alleged the central Bharatiya Janata Party’s Delhi Tgovernment was sabotag- unit president Satish Upadhyay ing its odd-even number formu- said the suspension amounted la for traffi c management after to harassment of the offi cials and about 200 of its offi cers went demanded Delhi Home Minister on a day’s leave to protest the Satyendra Jain’s resignation. suspension of two of their col- “The suspension of two spe- leagues. cial secretaries is a completely The development comes a wrong administrative decision. day before the Aam Aadmi Party The BJP strongly opposes such (AAP) government’s ‘odd-even harassment of offi cials and de- formula’ - for restricting the mands Jain’s resignation,” he number of vehicles on roads - said. starts its 15-day trial run today. Jain was pressuring offi cials The implementation of the plan under his ministry to sign a fi le is thought to require the full pertaining to the revision of pay strength of the bureaucracy. scale of its standing counsel Ra- “I want to ask why they went hul Mehra, Upadhyay alleged. A man gets a haircut depicting 2016 to welcome the New Year at a barbershop in Ahmedabad, Gujarat India. on mass leave before a day of “When the offi cers refused to odd-even scheme. PMO (of- sign the fi le regarding the un- fi cials) and LG were online art constitutional hike in pay and yesterday’s meeting of DANICS allowances, Jain not only in- association meeting... Thereaf- sulted the offi cers but also sus- ter, the conspiracy was hatched,” pended them,” he said. Delhi’s Deputy Chief Minister Earlier, Chief Minister Arvind Manish Sisodia told reporters. Kejriwal said Prime Minister Subhash Chandra, special Narendra Modi was dictating secretary (prisons), and Yashpal the functioning of Lt Governor Garg, special secretary (pros- Najeeb Jung and civil servants in ecution), were suspended by the Delhi. Govt to crack down city government for allegedly He said the DANICS and the refusing to sign on two cabinet Indian Administrative Service notes about hiking the salaries (IAS) “have become full fl edged of public prosecutors and prison B-teams of the BJP”. staff . He alleged that Modi was us- Following the order, offi cers ing DANICS and IAS offi cers to belonging to the DANICS (Delhi, target the Delhi government. Andaman and Nicobar Islands “The LG personally attended on ‘shadow banks’ Civil Service) cadre - to which DANICS association meet- Chandra and Garg belong - de- ing yesterday through speaker Rules for credit co- ra’s agents and branch offi cials One measure under discus- Under Indian law, credit co- launched an ambitious project cided to go on a strike. phone. LG in turn was in touch operatives to be tightened to tried to persuade them to switch sion is to either have an inde- operatives must be owned by to widen banking services in In- Subsequently, the central gov- with Nripendra Misra (princi- protect investors their matured savings deposits pendent regulator supervise their members, who are also the dia called the Jan Dhan Yojana, ernment declared the suspen- pal secretary to Modi) in Prime to new schemes off ered through credit co-operatives or bring main customers. Co-operatives or People’s Wealth Scheme. sions as invalid. Minister’s Offi ce,” Kejriwal Reuters credit co-operatives run by Sa- them under the purview of an operating across state lines are Since August of last year, it has “The offi cers’ associations tweeted. New Delhi hara. existing regulator, such as the registered not with the central opened 200mn new bank ac- also chose to contact LG who is “Government ready to give Sahara has not responded to Securities and Exchange Board bank, but with the co-opera- counts. on leave in Goa, instead of con- paid leave. Governance will be- requests for comment by Reu- of India, which oversees In- tives division of the agriculture The programme seeks to curb tacting CM or Dy CM!” Sisodia come honest, smooth and effi - ndia will crack down on er- ters. dia’s stock markets, the offi- ministry. the use of cash, limit corruption tweeted. cient,” he said. rant fi nancial fi rms that The federal government plans cial said. Multi-state credit co-opera- and rein in the informal, and Iraise funds, mainly from to penalise co-operatives that Credit co-operatives are tives would be better regulated often illegal, shadow banking millions of rural poor custom- fail to repay investors when de- widely used by the rural poor. A under the Reserve Bank of India activities conducted by some Nursery admissions go online ers, through loosely regulated posits come due or engage in lack of banking services in India (RBI), said Bindu Ananth, head fi rms mostly in rural areas. credit co-operative societies, a other violations of regulations, - nearly two-fi fths of its 1.27bn of the IFMR Finance Founda- Sahara founder Subrata Roy, Applications for admission schools will be announced by senior offi cial in the agriculture a senior offi cial from the ag- people have no bank accounts - tion, a non-profi t group that whose business empire in- to entry level classes for the computerised draw on ministry said. riculture ministry’s credit co- has helped shadow banks such seeks to broaden access to fi - cludes hotels such as the New economically weaker sections February 15, he said. There are This follows an investigation operatives division said. as the credit co-operatives nancial services. York Plaza and a Formula 1 rac- (EWS) and disadvantaged group 27,000 seats available in EWS that revealed an expansion in The offi cial, who has direct thrive for decades in Asia’s “It’s an anomaly that you ing team, has spent the last 21 (DG) will be made online, the and DG category at entry level fund-raising by embattled con- knowledge of the matter, did third-largest economy. have a class of deposit-taking months in jail for not comply- Delhi government announced classes in 1,150 private schools. glomerate Sahara India Pariwar not want to be named as he was “The idea is to make it more institutions that is outside ing with a Supreme Court order yesterday. Deputy Chief Minister “The government has made using four credit co-operatives not authorised to speak to the stringent by giving more teeth the ambit of the RBI,” Ananth to return $5.4bn to investors Manish Sisodia said people can entire admission application in diff erent parts of the country. media. Agriculture Minister so that we are able to eff ectively said. who put money in a 2008-11 fill the form online by visiting process online and centralised, Reuters spoke to dozens of Radha Mohan Singh and Secre- protect investors’ interest,” the The proposed regulatory time deposit plan. The markets Delhi government websites which will reduce corruption savers who said Sahara had not tary Siraj Hussain, the top bu- co-operatives division offi cial changes from the credit co-op- regulator SEBI said it was ille- from today until January 22. The and bring transparency in given them their money when reaucrat in the ministry, did not said. “Various suggestions have eratives division in the agricul- gal because it did not conform first list of admission to nursery nursery admission process,” their deposits matured. In- immediately respond to e-mails been made and the top brass is ture ministry would come after to India’s market disclosure re- classes in various private Sisodia said. stead, they complained, Saha- seeking comment. very serious about this.” Prime Minister Narendra Modi quirements.

India ranks third in Only CPM can off er better Winter wash issuing passports India has ranked third in the world after China and the US for issuing 12mn passports political culture: Yechury this year, an official from the external affairs ministry said yesterday. “In the current IANS weaknesses and meet external Yechury exuded confi dence of financial year, 12mn passports Kolkata challenges. the party off ering the people a either have been issued or “The plenum has adopted “policy alternative, a better po- are ready to be issued against both the draft resolution and the litical culture which fi ghts cor- the last fiscal year’s number he Communist Party of draft report and by doing that we ruption, moral degradation and of 10mn. Five years ago the India (Marxist) yesterday have completed the mandate of degeneration which is there to- number was only 16 lakh,” Tasserted it was the only the 21st party congress (held in day rampant in Indian politics”. Muktesh Kumar Pardeshi, MEA party that can off er a policy al- Vishakhapatnam). “We are the party that will set joint secretary, said. According ternative and a better political “We have redoubled our re- the agenda for India, the peo- to the official, China issued culture, as it called on workers solve to strengthen our party and ple’s agenda in the coming days. about 16mn passports last year to preserve and strengthen inner on that basis to strengthen the That is the resistance against the while the US issued 14mn. “Our party unity. unity of Left forces and on that plunder by the ruling class that target is to increase the number At the conclusion of the basis to forge the Left and demo- we are seeing. of passports to be issued by organisational plenum here cratic front in order to change “There are many challenges 20% more in the next financial CPM general secretary Sita- the correlation of political forces before us, but every period of year and to reach at least the ram Yechury said the party of people’s democracy and so- crisis has a period of new oppor- second position in the world in has successfully completed cialism,” he said. tunities. And the CPM is deter- A woman washes clothes in the river Cauvery on a cold winter morning in Kushalnagar town issuing passports.” According the mandate of redoubling its Describing the CPM as a revo- mined to seize these opportuni- in Karnataka yesterday. to the official, India has now resolve to overcome internal lutionary party with a mass line, ties and march ahead,” he said. around 65mn passport holders. Gulf Times Friday, January 1, 2016 13

LATIN AMERICA

POLICY TRAFFICKING HEALTH DECISION LAW AND ORDER Argentina to stop releasing Asian, African migrants Dengue fever cases soar Colombia declares red Ex-Panama president’s ‘flawed’ economy data found in Costa Rica truck in Rio ahead of Olympics alert over low water levels nephew arrested

Argentina has declared a “national statistical Off icials in Costa Rica discovered 51 migrants Rio de Janeiro has launched an operation to Colombia has declared a red alert because of A nephew of ex-Panamanian President emergency”, saying it will stop releasing data on the from Nepal, Bangladesh, Somalia, Eritrea, wipe out dengue fever-carrying mosquitoes low water levels in two key rivers which supply Ricardo Martinelli was arrested in the economy until the government statistics agency Iraq and Pakistan in a cattle truck driven by after an explosion of cases of the potentially hundreds of towns and cities in the South Caribbean resort town of Cartagena, is overhauled and its numbers can be trusted. The suspected people-smugglers, authorities said. deadly tropical disease hit the 2016 Olympics American country, President Juan Manuel Colombia under an Interpol red notice, National Statistics and Census Institute (Indec) The vehicle was pulled over in the Pacific coast host city. Municipal workers have been deployed Santos said. A fifth of Colombia’s municipalities Colombian police said, as the former politician will suspend publication of off icial data on gross town of Herradura and the migrants, who were across the city to clean up mosquito breeding are already under water rationing measures battles corruption charges. Mayer Mizrachi domestic product, inflation and poverty, said Jorge without visas, were found inside, the public grounds and encourage residents to do the as the El Nino phenomenon cuts down rainfall Matalon is accused in Panama of irregularities Todesca, its new director. The government said security ministry said. The Costa Rican driver of same. In the northern neighbourhood of Tijuca, dramatically. The declaration makes it likely in a public works contract worth millions of the problem has become so bad that it amounts the truck and three other people with him were they broke through the gates of abandoned the government will soon extend rationing dollars, the national police said in a statement. to a national emergency. “Indec was used to lie detained on suspicion of people traff icking, houses to clean up the standing water where measures and impose a limit on water Matalon arrived in Colombia for vacations scandalously to the nation,” said Finance Minister a crime which can result in sentences of two mosquitoes lay their eggs. “There are homeless consumption in homes. The country’s weather from Fort Lauderdale, Florida, authorities Alfonso Prat Gay. Todesca had said two weeks to six years in prison. A ministry spokesman, people who come around here and leave their agency recommended the measure, the said. Panama will have 72 hours to ask for his ago that publication of GDP, inflation and poverty Carlos Hidalgo, said of the migrants: “They litter behind. When it rains, that fills up with president said. “I’m declaring the red alert for extradition. Martinelli is facing half a dozen statistics would be suspended, but the government were crammed in like cattle, it was a terrible water and that’s how an area gets infested,” said low levels in the Magdalena and Cauca rivers in diff erent investigations for spying, bribery and decree now makes the decision off icial. situation.” sanitation worker Luciano Lobo. 23 provinces,” Santos said other crimes. C America deal Flood misery brings hope for stranded Cuba migrants

AFP woman who just a short time ago, San Jose her child fell in and she lost him immediately,” he said. Sousa, almost crying, said that ubans risking all to reach once they made it to America they the US are cheering a deal planned to work hard to be able fl y Cthis week between Cen- their children over to join them. tral American nations to start Like many others, they said fl ying them out of Costa Rica, their pitiful wages in Cuba - $20- where they have been stranded $40 a month - did not cover basic for weeks. necessities and the journey was Offi cials are cautiously de- for economic survival. scribing the operation - due to Sousa said the tough life at start next week - as a “pilot plan” home was “the direct results of involving just 50-200 of the up to the politics in Cuba.” 8,000 migrants who are currently With help from churches and in northern Costa Rica, packed the Red Cross, the Cubans are into dozens of temporary shelters. getting by in the shelters. But the Cubans, and the Costa And life goes on. Sousa and People swim a flooded street in Concordia, Entre Rios province, Argentina. Flooding and mudslides unleashed by torrential rains have killed at least 10 people and driven Rican government, believe the others interrupted a meal they more than 150,000 from their homes in Paraguay, Argentina and Uruguay in recent days. scheme to fl y the Cubans to El were preparing for the migrants Salvador, then put them on buses to race outside when a cheer went to cross Guatemala and Mexico up. to the US border, will soon be “A baby!” exclaimed one wom- broadened to take most, if not all, an, holding up the fi rst ultrasound of them. photo of the baby a pregnant Cu- “There was a lot of happiness. ban woman is carrying. Everyone went running to try to The woman, her distended call Cuba, to say ‘We’re going! belly showing under her white We’ll be getting there (to the US) top, and her partner, wearing a US soon!’,” said Yaniuska Sousa, one baseball t-shirt and cap, hugged Venezuela’s apex court of dozens of Cubans being put up as the migrants clapped. in a church in the Costa Rican city The Cuban migrants have been of Liberia, said of the deal. blocked in Costa Rica since mid- She and her husband sold their November, when Nicaragua, an home in Cuba for $8,000, a quar- ally of the Cuban government, ter of which they spent on air prevented them from crossing its blocks defi ant opposition tickets to Ecuador. Almost all the border. rest of the money was spent in Costa Rica’s city of Liberia, AFP of the law and the strength of the But it removes, at least tem- court challenges contesting the international community to stop Colombia, on “coyotes”, or peo- close to that border, is expected to Caracas people, the 112 MUD lawmakers porarily, some powers Maduro’s election of nine lawmakers. it. ple smugglers, and corrupt police be the point of departure for the will be sworn in,” the Democratic opponents would have had, in- The court did not grant the In an open letter to UN Secre- milking them for bribes. Cubans to be fl own out to bypass Unity Roundtable (MUD) coali- cluding the ability to put legisla- ruling party’s petitions to sus- tary General Ban Ki-moon and The couple had to leave their Nicaragua completely. enezuela’s highest court tion declared, in a statement. tion to a referendum and to call pend the inauguration of the senior international offi cials, two children, an 11-year-old Details, though, are still being has eff ectively blocked It was released shortly after an assembly to draft a new con- other six lawmakers. One PSUV the MUD condemned the legal daughter and nine-year-old son, worked out and not being made Vthe two-thirds major- the Supreme Court of Justice stitution. lawmaker from Amazonas also threat to its two-thirds major- with their parents in Cuba while public, out of what Costa Rican ity that the opposition won in granted a request from embat- Observers have speculated had his inauguration suspended, ity. they made the perilous trip. offi cials said was a need for do- this month’s landmark legisla- tled President Nicolas Maduro’s that the opposition could have as the suit challenges the vote for “The country, the region and The husband, Rene Marti, mestic “discretion” in the partner tive elections by suspending the party to stop the three incom- used those powers to seek to the entire state. the world are facing a procedural said there were kidnap gangs in countries. inauguration of three incoming ing National Assembly members force Maduro from power before The court must now hear ar- coup attempt against the Ven- Colombia and Guatemala that The US has also been involved lawmakers. from taking offi ce on Tuesday, the end of his term in 2019. guments in the case, for which ezuelan people’s decision,” MUD abducted migrant children to in the discussions but is keeping The country’s opposition, pending a legal challenge against The opposition won 112 of 167 there is no timetable. If it rules executive secretary Jesus Torre- demand ransoms, and water a low profi le. It has a policy since however, defi antly insisted its alleged vote irregularities. seats in the December 6 elec- the elections were fraudulent, alba wrote. crossings were especially danger- 1969 of accepting any Cuban legislators will all present them- The decision leaves the op- tions, a dramatic blow to Maduro they will have to be held again in “The ruling party’s irrespon- ous. refugee who steps on its soil. But selves to be sworn in on January position with a still-powerful and to the “revolution” launched the districts involved. sible behaviour is pushing the “A river, or a sea, needed to be at the same time Washington is 5, setting the stage for a tense three-fi fths majority, enabling in 1999 by his late predecessor Before the court’s decision, entire country to the brink of crossed between Panama and Co- working to thaw decades of Cold political standoff . it to remove cabinet ministers Hugo Chavez. the opposition had denounced disaster, which would have grave lombia. In this sea, some Cubans War-era antagonism with Com- “With the strength of the from their posts, among other Maduro’s United Socialist the PSUV’s court challenge as consequences for the entire re- have lost their lives, including a munist-ruled Cuba. Constitution, with the strength powers. Party of Venezuela (PSUV) fi led a “judicial coup” and asked the gion.” Argentine judge stops Staying fit Jailed Cuba dissident in ‘grave’ condition

Macri’s media overhaul government doesn’t want anyone AFP Havana to know about his case,” said lead- AFP The judge ordered the govern- Pena said the government ing dissident Guillermo Farinas. Buenos Aires ment to leave the regulator alone would table a new media law in The US on Tuesday “urgently” pending the outcome of a fed- Congress. jailed Cuban dissident who called on Cuban President Raul eral court challenge against the A prosecutor last week is staging a hunger strike Castro’s government to free Mor- n Argentine judge blocked overhaul. brought charges against the AF- Ais in “grave” condition, era. “The US is deeply concerned President Mauricio Macri Clutching the judge’s ruling, a SCA’s ousted head, Martin Sab- his family said, days after the US about (his) deteriorating physical Afrom scrapping a media group of AFSCA employees op- batella, after he defi ed Macri’s called for his release. condition,” US state department watchdog aimed at preventing posed to Macri’s decree tried to decision to sack him. Vladimir Morera was among a spokesman Mark Toner told jour- monopolies, the conservative storm the regulator’s offi ces. Macri issued a decree replac- group of 53 prisoners freed when nalists. leader’s latest jab at his left- But federal police blocked ing him but Sabbatella, a close the US and Cuba announced their The Cuban government, wing predecessor’s policies. them from the building. Kirchner ally, showed up for historic rapprochement last year, which denies holding political Macri’s chief of staff Marco The controversy revolves work anyway, insisting he could but he was re-arrested in April and prisoners, has not commented Pena kicked off a tumultuous around a 2009 media law intro- not be removed before the end of has been on hunger strike for 80 on Morera’s case. day in the politically loaded duced by Macri’s predecessor his term in 2017. days to protest his detention, ac- Morera, who has been in and out world of Argentine media regu- Cristina Kirchner, which aimed Macri, who has vowed to get cording to his family. of prison over the years and staged lation by announcing that Macri to break up what she described Argentina’s slumping economy Relatives and fellow dissi- several hunger strikes, is serving a had signed a decree creating a as media monopolies. back on track with a business- dents opposed to the commu- four-year sentence for assault. new state telecommunications It established AFSCA to friendly government, has stead- nist regime said Morera had been Fellow dissidents say he was in body. grant and regulate broadcast ily hacked away at Kirchner’s transferred to hospital because of fact the one who was assaulted by The new body would absorb licences. legacy since taking offi ce on De- deteriorating health. regime supporters who stormed the existing AFSCA regula- Argentina’s biggest media cember 10. “He’s in grave condition. We his house after he boycotted Cu- tor that prevents monopolies group, Clarin, condemned the In his fi rst week, he scrapped saw him fi ve days ago. But now ba’s local elections, which dis- by media fi rms and the AFTIC law as an attack on the free the offi cial exchange rate, they say he’s a prisoner and sident groups condemn as un- technology regulator, Pena said. press and private property prompting a sharp devalua- won’t allow us to visit him,” said democratic. “We are launching policies for - a viewpoint Macri’s party tion of the peso, as well as axing his sister Cristina. The release of Morera and the 21st century. The war against shares. heavy export taxes. She said Morera, 44, was “in- dozens of other prisoners was journalism is over,” he told a Clarin, whose newspapers Tens of thousands of people coherent” and had ripped out his a cornerstone of the US-Cuban news conference. and cable channels are sharply demonstrated in Buenos Aires intravenous tube. rapprochement announced on But later, judge Luis Arias critical of Kirchner, has chal- earlier this month to defend Brazil’s President Dilma Rousseff rides her bicycle “His life is in danger. No dis- December 17, 2014, which opened granted an AFSCA offi cial’s re- lenged the law in court. It has so the existing media law and accompanied by bodyguards near the Alvorada Palace in sidents have been allowed to see a new chapter in the countries’ quest to declare the president’s far successfully resisted having protest against Macri’s other Brasilia, Brazil. him, but we know from his family relations after half a century of decree “null and void.” its media empire dismantled. reforms. that he is in critical condition. The Cold War enmity. Gulf Times 14 Friday, January 1, 2016 PAKISTAN/AFGHANISTAN War on terror in Pakistan’s tribal region nears end

Internews tating displaced tribes people, the years after 2001. areas surrounding Rajgal in Khy- aman lashkars as they are com- last quarter, compared to 178 in ghanistan. Groups like the Peshawar introducing reforms in Fata and In 2015 alone, 238 security ber Agency. These areas make up monly known, have now been the third. Uighur-separatist East Turke- strengthening the political ad- personnel were martyred and only 1.5% of the total territory disbanded. Those still function- Even though Tehreek-e- stan Islamic Movement (ETIM) ministration of the tribal areas. 967 were injured, most of the of Fata. This is in sharp con- al have been asked to hand over Taliban Pakistan (TTP) can no are also present in the north- ust 1.5% of the 27,220 square “The purpose of military op- casualties occurring during the trast to 2009 when militants had their weapons. Even the most longer operate openly in Fata ern zone and, reportedly, have kilometres of the Feder- erations is to create a desired ongoing Operation Zarb-e-Azb. hubs in pretty much each of the infl uential peace committee in or Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa, of- sleeper cells in the region. Jally Administered Tribal Ar- eff ect,” a senior security offi cial On the other hand, 2,353 ter- seven tribal regions and wielded Wana, South Waziristan, has fi cials say the group still has the To deal with this threat, a bri- eas (Fata) of Pakistan remains a said. “Clearing an area is not the rorists were killed, 669 more considerable infl uence in neigh- been asked to end their duties, strength to plan and strike from gade has already been deployed ‘contested’ space for militants only goal the deprivation of the were injured, some 1,095 were bouring settled districts. say offi cials. Afghanistan. One main reason to secure the CPEC route near and security forces as the cur- last 68 years is what needs to be arrested and 662 surrendered to “There will be a zero tolerance for the increase is the hostile in- the region, an offi cial said. Still, rent year comes to an end. addressed.” the security forces. “Clearing an area is not the policy for arms and ammuni- tention towards the China-Paki- it will take a while before normal More than six years after ac- Purging the tribal areas of Background briefi ngs by of- only goal the deprivation tion by the returning popula- stan Economic Corridor (CPEC), life returns to Fata. “It’s under- tive military operations in the militants has come at a heavy fi cials concerned reveal that of the last 68 years is what tion [of the tribal areas],” said explained an offi cial. standable that a system which tribal areas began, the long war cost, however. Some 4,401 secu- there are still two pockets of needs to be addressed” one offi cial. Background brief- TTP and its affi liates are has been non-existent for 11 against militancy is now near- rity personnel lost their lives in resistance along the Pakistan- ings show an increase in threats particularly concentrated years will take some time to be- ing its conclusive end with the the line of duty. Afghanistan border Dattakhel, Many of the peace commit- in the last quarter of 2015. Some in Badakshan, the farthest come functional,” the senior of- focus now shifting to rehabili- Another 14,717 were injured in Shawal in North Waziristan and tees set up to tackle militants, or 226 threats were registered in the northeastern province of Af- fi cial said.

Pakistan’s bureaucracy Afghan leader says end to bloated, says Daily

Agencies It observed that poor gov- Islamabad ernance has caused ministries to become redundant. “The Nawaz Sharif govern- akistan’s bureaucracy is ance style remains colonial at terror condition for talks bloated, over paid and best- the state machinery is Pgrossly ineffi cient, a run through a group made up Reuters The United States and China prominent daily has said. of the prime ministers fam- Kabul have both been pressing hard for An editorial “When bigger ily members and close friends. a resumption of talks with the is not better” in The News In- The cabinet has reportedly Taliban but mutual suspicions ternational said that the inef- met only three times in 2015. If fghan President Ashraf between Kabul and Islamabad, fi ciency of the countless min- ministerial duty is just a farce Ghani said international as well as the factional fi ghting istries running the aff airs of then why spend national ex- Ameetings next month to within the Taliban, have held up Pakistan is no secret, but the chequer on these ministries?” lay the groundwork for a pos- the process. sitting government goes a step The editorial went on to say sible resumption of peace talks Afghanistan has long said ahead to set new precedents. that the Finance Ministry has with the Taliban had to seek an Pakistan is harbouring Taliban “The government has failed perfected the art of “conceal- approach to the fractured insur- leaders and sponsoring the in- to appoint permanent heads to ing the true fi nancial position gent movement that ensured a surgency as a means of exerting some 12 ministries and divi- of the government from the rejection of terrorism. control over Kabul, a charge that sions. public and yet no one is held Offi cials from Afghanistan, Pakistan rejects, saying it too is a “How any organisation can accountable for ineffi ciency or Pakistan, China and the United victim of terrorism. function without a strong corruption”. States are due to meet in Islama- For its part, the main fac- leadership and direction is be- It said that the government bad on January 11 to try to revive tion of the Taliban has rejected yond common sense, but af- must prioritise and shake up a peace process that stalled in peace talks as long as foreign fairs are being run, and targets its government structure to July when the news came out troops in Nato’s training and are being met- such are the eliminate the unnecessary. that Taliban leader Mullah Mo- assistance mission remain in offi cial claims. If this is true, “Indian PM Modi cut down hamed Omar had died two years Afghanistan. that we are doing well without his cabinet recently, to stream- earlier. Despite its leadership dis- these missing managers; why line decision making. Prospects of success have been putes, the movement has made do we need so many offi cial “We have too many minis- clouded by bloody infi ghting in big advances this year, infl icting posts to begin with?” try portfolios and departments the Taliban over the leadership heavy casualties on Afghan forc- The daily said that Pakistan - we do not need this many succession which has made it es fi ghting largely on their own is perhaps one of the few coun- ministers and secretaries. The diffi cult to identify which parts since the withdrawal of most tries in the world that requires international standard is to of the movement may be open to foreign combat troops last year. a horde of government offi cials have a smaller cabinet, but in talks and which remain commit- Afghanistan’s President Ashraf Ghani speaks during a news conference in Kabul, yesterday. As well as the brief capture to carry out a simple task. Pakistan these positions are ted to the insurgency. of the northern city of Kunduz “Our bureaucracy is bloat- less about management and The legitimacy of Omar’s to Pakistan are suspicious that conference on Thursday. “The This month’s meeting will in September, the insurgent ed, over paid and grossly inef- more about rewarding party former deputy Mullah Akhtar he hid Omar’s death for so fundamental issue here is the be followed by another en- movement has also threatened fi cient...” members.” Mansour, who assumed the long. choice: choose peace or terror- counter in Kabul, with Af- to take the volatile southern leadership in July, is rejected “It is obvious that there are ism,” he said. ghanistan initially represent- province of Helmand after Pakistan, India cannot live as enemies: Sharif by some militants. Rivals who groups of Taliban, not a unifi ed “There will be no tolerance ed by Deputy Foreign Minister overrunning several district accuse him of being beholden movement,” Ghani told a news for terrorism.” Hekmat Khalil Karzai. centres. Pakistan’s Prime Minister to discuss issues and conflicts Nawaz Sharif has invited between the two countries, India to hold dialogue with according to the Dawn Pakistan on all issues, saying newspaper. the two countries cannot live He said that during Indian Blackberry decides to continue operations in Pakistan as enemies. External Aff airs Minister “Pakistan and India will have Sushma Swaraj’s visit to to resolve all issues amicably Islamabad it had been Reuters quest for access to users’ data. State-run Pakistan Telecom- as Research In Motion Ltd, said Services Intelligence (ISI), and in a comprehensive way,” decided that the two Islamabad The company, which has faced munication Authority had in on Thursday it would not pro- was seeking to dramatically Pakistan’s Prime Minister said countries would restart similar problems in the past in July demanded that the compa- vide access to its BES servers. expand its ability to intercept in statements. dialogue on all issues. India, the United Arab Emirates, ny give access to its BlackBerry A report released in July by communications. Nawaz Sharif said that the “Pakistan and India will lackBerry Ltd said it has Saudi Arabia and Indonesia, had Enterprise Services (BES), which British-based watchdog Pri- Shares of the company were National Security Adviser have to create a friendly decided to continue its said last month it would delay encrypts data such as emails and vacy International said Pa- down 0.46% at C$12.91 yester- Nasser Janjua had held environment to resolve their Boperations in Pakistan as shutting down its operations in instant messages. kistan’s powerful military day on the Toronto Stock Ex- meetings with Indian off icials issues,” he said. the government dropped a re- Pakistan until Dec. 30. BlackBerry, formerly known intelligence agency, the Inter- change. Freed Afghan village reveals key to Taliban ‘success’

AFP cluding a ban on music, shav- fi cial stressed cannot be uproot- being slammed by rockets. Kabul ing of beards and hip Hollywood ed by military force alone. The insurgents escaped on hairstyles. “Insurgency is like a fever,” motorbikes, villagers recalled, But despite their austere vi- said Sarah Chayes, author of planting landmines and booby lanked by shaggy-haired sion of Islam, the Taliban Thieves of State: Why Corruption traps in their homes and back- gunmen, commander shored up support by restoring Threatens Global Security which yards as they fl ed. FGhulam Farooq peered out a modicum of order in the village looks at how Taliban propaganda Joining the Taliban exodus from a hilltop at the biggest mili- through an eff ective Shariah- appeals to graft-weary Afghans. were around 60 families from tary prize of his storied career as inspired judicial system, fi lling “Focusing only on violent in- the village of 2,000 people, a warlord — a mud-walled Af- a vacuum left by a Western- surgents might bring down the which is hemmed between ghan village captured after fi ve backed government seen as in- fever, but unless you treat the caramel-coloured hills that years of Taliban control. ept and corrupt. whole patient — by paying as cut through a hotbed of insur- The village of Qara Ghoily in Unlike the offi cial legal sys- much attention to improving gency. the remote northwestern bad- tem, built with millions of dol- governance — you will never du- Those who stayed back are lands bordering Turkmenistan lars of foreign aid, the Taliban’s rably stabilise the situation.” distrustful of Farooq’s forces, off ers a rare glimpse into life informal court dispensed swift Commander Farooq, 49, is but also fear the wrath of the under Taliban rule and encap- justice on all matters, from adul- part of a constellation of in- Taliban if they return. Pro-gov- sulates governance failures that tery to robbery. formal militia groups seeking ernment forces have a poor track have helped the Islamists gain And one thing in particular set to bolster Afghan forces strug- record of holding territory seized ground against Nato-backed Af- them apart from government of- gling to beat back the lethal in- from the Taliban. ghan forces. fi cials: they never demanded a surgency as they suff er record “I have assured them ‘I will be When Farooq, a powerful an- bribe. casualties and a growing spate of with you when you harvest your ti-Taliban militia commander in “If you go to a city court, the desertions. grapes, when they shrivel into Faryab province, wrested con- judge will take your money, the Unregulated and unaccount- raisins, when you cook the sac- trol of the village in August after clerk will take your clothes and able, such groups are often ac- rifi cial meat of Eid’,” said Farooq, a scorched-earth off ensive, he the guards will take whatever is cused of banditry and predatory sporting a luxuriant silk turban. found a population deeply dis- left,” remarked a village resident, behaviour that in some areas has “We are here to stay.” aff ected with the government requesting anonymity for fear of driven Afghans into the arms of Farooq gazed from the edge of despite years of hardline Taliban retribution. the insurgents, seeking protec- the wind-swept hill, surrounded rule. “People prefer to tolerate the tion. by loyalist gunmen who were “There,” said Farooq, pointing cruelty of the Taliban than be Anti-Taliban armed Afghan commander Farooq (second right) speaks with AFP during an interview at But Farooq, a Soviet-era war- amused as their handheld radio down to a patch of clay dirt sur- robbed of justice and everything his outpost during a patrol against Taliban insurgents at Qara Ghoily in Almar district of northern Faryab rior who fought alongside the crackled with the voice of an rounded by fi elds of wild grape- they own.” province. legendary resistance fi ghter eavesdropping Taliban fi ghter vines and deserted village roads. The testimony highlights the Ahmad Shah Massoud, styles hurling profanities and threats. “The Taliban had no prison. anguished choices faced by a in many rural areas the puritani- a 2001 US-led invasion, with the ment of the insurgency, not its himself as a formidable bulwark “It is hard to gain trust as the They didn’t need one. They be- population seemingly trapped cal movement has entrenched UN estimating that nearly half of eradication”, a Western offi cial in against the Taliban. gap between the people and the headed all their prisoners over between two evils and helps ex- itself among alienated groups, all districts across Afghanistan Kabul said. He managed to do what gov- government grows,” Farooq con- there.” plain the insurgency’s stunning competing directly with the are at risk of falling. The Afghan government has ernment forces could not for ceded, impassive to the chuck- They also kept a chokehold on rise despite a decade of costly government for public loyalty. Nato-backed Afghan secu- frequently lashed out at neigh- fi ve years — dislodge the Taliban ling. social freedoms, a throwback to Western intervention. The Taliban now control more rity operations that claim to kill bouring Pakistan for nurturing from Qara Ghoily in an off ensive “That works to the Taliban’s their 1996-2001 rule that made The Taliban remain largely territory than in any year since scores of militants on a daily the Taliban, while ignoring their that left an entire terraced hill- advantage.” them international pariahs, in- unpopular in urban centres, but they were toppled from power in basis are causing the “displace- local support base, which the of- ock in the village gutted after Gulf Times Friday, January 1, 2016 15 PHILIPPINES US-trained troops kill 10 militants on Jolo isle Eight army commandos focused military operation to free lim rebel factions in the Muslim killed or wounded in the foreign hostages held by the Abu south of the largely Christian clash with 300 Abu Sayyaf Sayyaf.” Philippines. Above: Filipino dealers and traders blow horns during the last militants Tan said that the Abu Sayyaf Two weeks ago, 13 Abu Sayyaf Year-end antics day of trading inside the Philippine Stock Exchange (PSE) in group is holding two Canadians, rebels were killed in a clash on Makati city, metro Manila on Tuesday. Reuters/DPA along with a Dutch citizen, a nearby Basilan island while 14 Manila Norwegian and a Japanese. people died on Christmas eve Below: Barefoot devotees wait for the religious icon Black Last month, they beheaded when another Muslim rebel fac- Nazarene during a thanksgiving procession in Manila yesterday. a Malaysian captive, prompt- tion, Bangsamoro Islamic Free- The thanksgiving procession is a prelude to the bigger Black S-trained army com- ing President Benigno Aquino dom Fighters (BIFF), staged at- Nazarene procession scheduled on January 9. mandos in the Philippines to order intensifi ed operations tacks on Mindanao, the main Ukilled 10 Al Qaeda-linked against the rebels. southern island. militants in a clash on a southern The government signed a island, a military spokesman said Abu Sayyaf militants are peace deal with the largest Mus- yesterday as security forces in- holding hostages including lim rebel group, the Moro Is- tensify a search for foreign hos- two Canadians, one Dutch, lamic Liberation Front (MILF), in tages. one Norwegian and a March, promising autonomy in A lieutenant was among eight Japanese the south and ending a 45-year Philippine soldiers killed or confl ict that killed 120,000 peo- wounded in a clash with about Tan said the US-trained scout ple and displaced 2mn. 300 members of the Abu Sayyaf rangers had assaulted a rebel lair, Both the Abu Sayyaf and Bang- militant group on Jolo island late triggering a three-hour battle. samoro guerrillas are opposed to on Wednesday, spokesman Major Troops later fi red artillery at the peace agreement and have Filemon Tan told reporters. the fl eeing rebels. vowed to set up an Islamic state “Our troops are pursuing the Tan said it was not known if in the southern Philippines. Abu Sayyaf who broke into small any of the captives were with the While long known for links Armed members of the New People’s Army (NPA) aim their groups and withdrew to the in- militants during the fi ghting. with Al Qaeda and its Southeast weapons during an event on Tuesday commemorating the 47th terior of the island,” Tan said, The small but violent Abu Asian affi liates, the Abu Sayyaf anniversary of the founding of the Communist Party of the adding that 15 militants had also Sayyaf, known for kidnappings, group recently swore allegiance Philippines, in Ifugao province, north of Manila. been wounded in the fi ghting in beheadings and bombings, is to Islamic State militants in Iraq Patikul town. “This is part of our one of the most hardline Mus- and Syria. New Year revelry kills one

AFP into two weeks of holidays and mer- The annual tide of New Year injuries Manila rymaking. dropped in 2014, with 351 people hurt Revellers traditionally set off fi re- by fi reworks and three hit by stray bul- crackers, including potentially deadly lets, the lowest in fi ve years. tray bullets and exploding fi re- types with names like “Goodbye Phil- However the number of people who crackers have killed one person ippines”, and shoot guns into the air to had to undergo amputations rose to 14 Sand injured almost 200 others as celebrate the festive season. from eight, including a fi ve-year-old the Philippines plunged into its annual “Our hospitals stand ready with boy who lost his hand. chaotic New Year revelry, authorities manpower and equipment to deal with In the 2013 celebrations, at least two said yesterday. any unusual upsurge of casualties,” people were killed and 793 others were Offi cials said 185 people have been health department spokesman Lyndon left injured. treated for blast-related or gunshot Lee Suy told AFP. Many Filipino civilians keep li- injuries and one person has been shot Police said that fi ve civilians, a sol- censed guns in their homes to protect dead since December 21, when the dier and a policeman were arrested for themselves in a high-crime society mostly-Catholic country launched illegally fi ring their guns. and most fi recrackers are legal. Senate poised to pass ONE SMOKER. 35 bills before holiday TWO PATIENTS.

Congress resumes sessions on chamber will also work on 67 other quorum problem to worsen in January January 18 and has three legislation pending on second reading, because almost all of the members of weeks to work before going on a such as the proposed Bangsamoro Ba- the House of Representatives will be three-month break sic Law or the Basic Law for the Bang- busy campaigning. samoro Autonomous Region (BLBAR) “I’m sure 99% of them (congress- By Jeff erson Antiporda and Public-Private Partnership Act. men) are candidates for one thing or Manila Times BLBAR is still in the period of inter- another so they will be campaigning. pellation but Senator Ferdinand Mar- That’s what happened, I remember cos Jr expressed belief that the cham- last 2013, there was no quorum,” Mar- TOBACCO KILLS he Senate leadership plans to ber will be able to pass the measure on cos earlier said. approve 35 measures, including third reading next year. There are 24 measures that were al- Tthe proposed Bangsamoro Ba- Marcos, who chairs the committee ready approved on third reading by the sic Law (BBL), before it goes on a long on local government, said that he may Senate but these have yet to be acted break. come up with a compromise with the upon by the House. Congress will resume sessions on members of the chamber so that they These include the proposed Armed January 18 and has three weeks to will do away with debates on the pro- Forces of the Philippines (AFP) Mod- tackle priority bills before it goes on a posed amendments in plenary once ernisation Law, the bill that will grant three-month break to give way to the the bill reaches the period of amend- education assistance and benefi ts to 2016 national and local elections. ments. dependents of all military and uni- Senate president Franklin Drilon formed personnel and the measure said the Senate will maximise its re- Senate president Drilon says the that seeks to provide retirement ben- maining months in session to focus on chamber will not allow election efi ts to barangay offi cials, tanods (po- important legislation remaining on the fever to paralyse the body, even lice offi cer), barangay health workers priority agenda list. if seven of its members are in and other employees of barangay units “We will continue to work and ful- campaign mode and the long-pending Freedom of In- fi l our mandate by legislating relevant, formation (FOI) bill. important and much-needed laws for Instead of introducing amendments Drilon said that the Senate will not our people. Even if the 2016 elections on the fl oor, Marcos explained, there is allow election fever to paralyse the are fast approaching, we are not done a suggestion for the senators to send chamber even if seven of its members yet and the public can expect more him all their proposed amendments are running for a higher post and fi ve laws to be passed for their benefi ts and and let the committee propose the others, including Drilon, are seeking to address their most pressing needs,” amendments in order to expedite the reelection. Drilon noted. process. Senators Grace Poe and Miriam San- There are 34 bills up for third and fi - But Marcos noted that even if the tiago are running for president while nal reading. Senate approves its version of the BBL, Senators Francis Escudero, Antonio These include the Salary Standardi- the chances of having the measure Trillanes IV, Alan Peter Cayetano, sation Law IV, the Expanded Mater- enacted into law during the term of Gregorio Honasan II and Marcos are all nity Leave Law of 2015, the Road Speed President Benigno Aquino III remains vice-presidential candidates. Limiters Act, the Foreign Ownership slim because the House of Representa- Aside from Drilon, Senators Ralph Restrictions, and the Customs and tives is having diffi culty in mustering a Recto, Teofi sto Guingona III, Serge Tariff Modernisation Act (CTMA). quorum. Osmena III, and Vicente Sotto III are Issued in Public Interest by GULF TIMES Aside from these measures, the The senator said that he expects the seeking reelection. Gulf Times 16 Friday, January 1, 2016 SRI LANKA/BANGLADESH/NEPAL Rate hike could hurt Sri Lanka’s growth: central bank chief

Reuters However, Mahendran said cial banks’ statutory reserve ra- “We did not think it was ap- picked up to 26.3% in October has fallen around 9% this year. nifi cant diminishing in the credit Colombo monetary tightening could not tio (SRR) by 150 basis points with propriate to raise interest rate at from a year earlier, compared Mahendran said the central bank growth, clearly there would have be ruled out given the faster eff ect from January 16 to reduce this point, because our interest with 13.9% in March. is concerned about “overheat- to be more tightening. I would not growth in private sector lending, excess liquidity in the market. rates are already signifi cantly The central bank imposed some ing” credit growth and expected rule out monetary tightening. I aising Sri Lankan offi cial noting that borrowing used to Mahendran said the statutory higher than the infl ation. In real restrictions on vehicle imports to Wednesday’s monetary policy de- think the key thing is to look at the interest rates would hurt buy imported vehicles was hurt- reserve ratio was raised to ward terms, Sri Lankan interest rates curb dollar outfl ows, but lower cision would subdue lending. infl ationary expectation.” Reconomic growth because ing the rupee exchange rate. off a risk of higher demand-driv- are reasonably high.” policy interest rates have already He said higher credit growth has Another possible US rate hike the rates are already high com- The central bank held policy en infl ation. “Raising the inter- The central bank cut the main resulted in higher imports and already created “some strain on in the fi rst half of 2016 could pared to infl ation, central bank rates steady at record lows for est rate will damage the growth rates by 50 basis points in April heavy pressure on the exchange the balance of payments” because compel the central bank to re- governor Arjuna Mahendran an eighth successive month on of the economy,” Mahendran to record lows. Since then, pri- rate. The rupee currency is hov- much of it was used for vehicle visit its current monetary policy, stressed yesterday. Wednesday, but raised commer- told reporters in Colombo. vate-sector credit growth has ering around record lows and imports. “If we do not see a sig- Mahendran said.

Hasina inspired Two students me to join politics: British MP sentenced

By Mizan Rahman Dhaka to death for ritish Labour MP, Tu- lip Siddiq, says her aunt, BPrime Minister Sheikh Hasina, wants her to play an active role in politics in Bangla- desh, but her mother Sheikh Re- hana is discouraging her. killing blogger “When my aunt saw me, she told me, ‘Come here and take part AFP Timeline of attacks in Bangladesh politics.’ “But my Dhaka mum says you can enjoy holidays Here are some key dates in a yards away from a book fair in (in Bangladesh), but not politics,” series of similar attacks on Dhaka. Roy dies and his wife is Tulip, also the granddaughter Bangladesh court yes- free-thinking bloggers: severely wounded. of Bangladesh’s founding father terday sentenced two March 30, 2015 - Secular Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Astudents to death for the January 14, 2013 - Blogger blogger Washiqur Rahman, Rahman spoke before 350 people, 2013 murder of a secular blogger, Asif Mohiuddin, 31, is attacked 27, is hacked to death in broad mostly students of diff erent pri- delivering the fi rst convictions by a group of unidentified daylight near his home in vate and public universities and over a series of brutal killings young men with machetes in Dhaka’s Tejgaon area. Two of young professionals at an inter- that have rocked the nation. the capital Dhaka. Mohiuddin the attackers, both students, active event in Dhaka. Ahmed Rajib Haider, 35, was is arrested in April 2013 along are arrested at the scene. A non-profi t research organi- hacked to death by machete- with three other secular May 12, 2015 - Secular sation, Centre for Research and wielding attackers in February bloggers for “hurting religious blogger Ananta Bijoy Das, 33, is Information (CRI), organised the 2013, in the fi rst of a string of at- sentiments.” He leaves the hacked to death near his home ‘Let’s Talk - Road to Westmin- tacks targeting secular writers. country for Germany. in northeastern city of Sylhet. ster’ discussion. The judge in the fast-track February 15, 2013 - Secular August 7, 2015 - Secular Curious participants asked court yesterday found both stu- blogger Ahmed Rajib Haider, blogger Niloy Chakrabarti, 40, Siddiq questions on her personal dents and one other man, Mak- 35, who campaigned against who wrote online under the life, politics and future vision. sudul Hasan, guilty of murder Islamist leaders accused of war pen name Niloy Neel, is hacked “My mother did not want me and convicted another fi ve peo- crimes, is hacked to death by to death in his home in central to enter politics due to her per- ple on lesser charges related to machete-wielding attackers Dhaka. sonal experience. Politics de- Haider’s death. Hasan, 23, was near his home in Dhaka’s October 31, 2015 - Publisher stroyed my mother’s life,” she given a life sentence. Pallabi neighbourhood. A Faisal Arefin Dipan, 43, who said recalling her mother had One of the two students, who court sentences two students published a bestselling book by to face many ordeals including attended one of the country’s to death for his murder in murdered writer Avijit Roy, is staying in exile for several years top universities, is on the run December 2015. killed at his off ice in a market in following the killing of Banga- and were sentenced in absentia. February 26, 2015 - Avijit central Dhaka. bandhu Sheikh Mujib in 1975. “Two students of North South Roy, 42, an American- A separate attack seriously Mujib was assassinated along University, Faisal bin Nayem and Bangladeshi writer and the wounds publisher Ahmedur with most of his family. Rezwanul Azad Rana, were sen- moderator of a “free-thinking” Rashid Tutul, blogger Siddiq was born in London tenced to death. Rana has been blogging website, and his wife Ranadipam Basu and poet in 1982. She spent four years in a fugitive since the trial began,” Rafida Ahmed are attacked just Tareq Rahim. Bangladesh. She joined Britain’s prosecutor Mahbubur Rahman Labour Party at the age of 16. She said. said she was overwhelmed by the Rahman said the two students Police say the banned group, of other secular bloggers from ‘love’ showered on her by Bang- had been “inspired” by cleric Ansarullah Bangla Team (ABT), jail while he was being tried for ladeshis. Jashim Uddin Rahmani, 45, who was behind the attacks. Haider’s murder. “People tell me you are our was given fi ve years in prison for Haider, an architect, became These include Avijit Roy, a US pride. But I tell them no, it’s not abetting the murder. a target of the group after he citizen of Bangladeshi origin. He me, it’s our freedom fi ghters who “I am not satisfi ed. The judge helped launch a massive protest was killed in February. Haider’s fought in 1971, they are our pride”. said it was a pre-planned mur- against the leaders of the largest father said the sentences against She said she had learnt ‘pa- der. They should have been given Islamist party, several of whom some of those convicted were tience’ and ‘to be humble’ from harsher punishments,” he added. are accused of war crimes during too lenient. However, a law- her aunt. “Those are the key in Five more secular bloggers Bangladesh’s 1971 independence yer for the defendants said they politics.” She said she had never and a publisher have been bru- struggle against Pakistan. would appeal the verdict. dreamt of being an MP in Britain. tally killed this year, trigger- Police said Haider had angered “In his verdict, the judge ad- Bangabandhu, whom she has ing protests and claims that the the students with his writing on mitted there was no eye-witness never seen, and her aunt had in- government is not doing enough blog sites. to the murder. There was no way spired her into joining politics, to protect dissident writers and They said Rahmani, an ABT the two should get death pen- Siddiq stressed. One of the accused in the Haider murder is escorted from a court in Dhaka after the verdict yesterday. activists. leader, had ordered the murders alty,” Faruque Ahmed said. BNP decision to join Nepal, India leaders discuss border issue municipal polls hailed points, according to Dahal. Agencies Kathmandu/New Delhi He requested Modi to make ar- By Mizan Rahman “That was very regretful,” BNP candidates won in Pan- rangements for smoothening the Dhaka Hasina said chagarh, Dinajpur, Jhaldhaka in Raxaul-Birgunj check-point, the She hoped such incidents Nilphamari, Gabtal, Bogra and epal’s Prime Minister, major trading point between the would not repeat itself and that Santahar in Bogra, Rahanpur in K P Sharma Oli, and two countries. In response, Modi rime Minister Sheikh students in the country would Chaipainawabganj, Naohata and Nhis Indian counterpart, said he was always in favour of Hasina yesterday lauded be able to pursue their studies Tanore in Rajshahi, Gopalpur in Narendra Modi, yesterday dis- easing Indo-Nepal border trad- Pthe opposition Bangladesh without hinderance. The BNP Natore, Kolaroa and Satkhira cussed the months-long border ing points and asserted that India Nationalist Party (BNP) for tak- joined the municipal mayoral in Satkhira, Phulpur in My- blockade between the two coun- was not creating any obstruc- ing part in the municipal elec- election, held on Wednesday, mensingh, Nabiganj, Habiganj tries, which has led to a severe tions in the movement in the bor- tions and shunning the politics along party line for the fi rst and Chunarughat, Barura in fuel shortage in Nepal. der checkpoint, Dahal added. of destruction. time. Comilla, Naogaon, Modi “emphasised the impor- Modi said that his government “At least they (BNP) didn’t Hasina also recalled the de- Charghat and Puthia in Ra- tance of fi nding a durable solution had been directed to airlift es- opt to take the path of arson and structive activities of the BNP- jshahi and Kalihati in Tangail. to the political problems facing sential medicines to Nepal. burning, but instead chose to Jamaat alliance during various Ruling party rebels who con- Nepal” during the conversation, At least 50 people have died fi ght the elections. I appreciate public examinations in 2015 tested the polls as independents India’s external aff airs ministry in the violent anti-constitution them for this,” she said. making students the worst suf- were victorious in Birampur in said. The blockade started three protests in Nepal. The Mad- The prime minister was ferers. “I hope no one will resort Dinajpur, Dhunat and Shibganj months ago amid political protests heshi community in the south, speaking after inaugurating the to destructive activities in the in Bogra, Chatmohar and Pabna, and strikes in southern Nepal over which shares close cultural ties Book Festival at her offi cial resi- name of movement and unleash Gangni in Meherpur, Jibannagar the country’s new constitution. with India, has been demand- dence Ganobhaban. arson-terrorism in future,” she and Chuadanga, Trishal and Ish- According to Oli’s advisor, ing greater autonomy than that Hasina said the BNP has be- hoped. warganj Mymensingh, Madan in Pramod Dahal, the premier asked granted by the new constitution. come more aware and this was Meanwhile, the ruling Awami Netrakona, Karimganj in Kisho- Modi to ease the supply of essen- Several rounds of talks be- why they did not try to destroy League swept the municipal reganj, Manikganj, Boalmari in tial commodities to Nepal, news tween the government and the the future of students by an- elections, bagging 172 mayoral Faridpur, Golapganj in Sylhet, site Setopati reported online. The protesting parties have failed to nouncing any ‘destructive’ posts against BNP’s 21. Awami Kulaura in Moulvibazar, Sonar- vast majority of landlocked Ne- make a breakthrough. programme. League rebels won in 17 munici- gaon in Narayanganj and Kalia in pal’s oil is imported via India. According to Dahal, during Recalling the start of 2015, the palities while independent con- Narail. Oli said he wanted to see Ne- the 20-minute conversation, prime minister said the country testants bagged six, BNP rebel Independents also won in pal-India relations move towards Modi invited Oli to visit India. had to pass through tough times won in one, Jatiya Party contest- Phulbari in Dinajpur, Kotchand- a positive direction while also Oli accepted the invitation and due to the arson and bomb at- ants claimed one post while pro- pur in Jhenidah, Barguna, Goal- drawing Modi’s attention to- said he will pay an offi cial visit to tacks carried out by the BNP- Jamaat candidates was victori- anda in Rajbari and Khagrach- wards the obstructions prevailing India soon after the situation is Jamaat alliance. ous in two municipalities hari Sheikh Hasina: BNP action appreciated in the Nepal-India border check- normalised, Dahal said. Gulf Times Friday, January 1, 2016 17 THE SPIRIT OF TRUTH Knowledge is the foundation of true fear ear is the sensation that results from the anticipation of an expected harm; it Fis also felt when a person loses, or expects to lose something he cherishes. It is the exact opposite of security and can be applied to worldly matters as well as those of the Hereafter. Fear is a state of disturbance of the heart from an evil or harm that may befall a person, or, it can be the sensation it feels when missing out on something that is beloved to it. Imam Ibn Qudamah, may Allah have mercy upon him, said: “Fear is no more than the pain and burning that one fi nds in his heart due to an expected harm; it is like the example of one who committed a crime and was subsequently caught; such a person will fear being sentenced to death, and the pain which his heart will suff er is dependent on how certain he is that he will (or will not) be sentenced, depending on the severity of his crime … sometimes one fears the ruler due to the power of the latter. Thus, when one realises the power of Allah and knows that if Allah wished to destroy all His creation it would Al-Saleh mosque in Yemen’s capital Sanaa. not aff ect Him, nor could anyone stop Him from doing so, and therefore, one would fear Allah to the extent of the sins that he has committed. This is the fear of warning.” There is a certain type of fear that is experienced only by the Free your heart from spite knowledgeable, and it is called Khashyah in Arabic, as Allah The laves of Allah! Islam not appreciate someone not allowing a strong will which enables him to wake again walked in. When the Prophet hold no grudges against anyone. On Almighty Says (which means): encourages making them entry when they visit them, up in the middle of the night to off er left the gathering, ‘Abdullaah Ibn ‘Amr the other hand, it is not an impossible “…Only those among His servants reconciliation between people but since Allah The All-Knowing, optional night prayers, but he may not followed that man and said to him: ‘I mission either, and can be achieved fear Allah who have knowledge…” Sin order to maintain good knows that people might have certain be strong enough to overcome some had a misunderstanding with my father with training, practice and constant (Qur’an, 35:28) relations amongst the Muslims, to circumstances that would not allow of his bad feelings towards his fellow and swore not to stay in his house three striving. This is fear that is based on spread love and to keep the hearts of them to receive visitors, He legislated Muslims. nights, so if you permit me I would like The Companions, may Allah be knowledge. Ordinary believers Muslims free from spite. Allah Says this to protect people’s hearts from Undoubtedly, this quality is a to spend these three nights with you.’ pleased with them, were very keen experience a general fear of Allah The (what means): “So fear Allah and holding grudges due to this. praiseworthy one indeed; Allah The man said: ‘Yes, I permit you.’” to remove any bad feelings from the Almighty whilst Khashyah is only amend that which is between you” Allah Says (what means): “And if it praised the Ansaar (i.e. the residents of Anas, may Allah be pleased with hearts of their brothers towards them. experienced by the devout believers [Qur’an 8: 1]. Additionally, Islam is said to you, ‘Go back (Or a similar Madinah) for possessing such a quality him, added: “ ‘Abdullaah Ibn ‘Amr ‘Aa’ith Ibn ‘Amr al-Muzani, may Allah and the scholars from among them; ordains all that which spreads mutual expression showing that the occupants saying (which means): “They [i.e. told us that he spent three nights and be pleased with him, reported: “Abu the more knowledge one has regarding love and frees the hearts from spite, are not prepared to receive visitors)’ the Ansaar] fi nd not any [ill] feelings did not notice that the man prayed the Sufyaan passed by Salmaan, Suhayb Allah The Almighty, the more he will as in the narration of Abu Hurairah, then go back; it is purer for you” [Qur’an in their chests [i.e. hearts] of what optional night prayers during any of and Bilaal and some other Companions fear Him. When one fears a person may Allah be pleased, with him who 24: 28]. This is a way to condole the they were given [i.e. the Muhaajireen these nights, but if he woke up during (after the conquest of Makkah, when who may or may not apprehend him reported that the Prophet, sallallaahu person who was not granted permission – emigrants from Makkah] but give the night, he would simply mention he was still a disbeliever). They said then this is an ordinary fear, whereas ‘alaihi wa sallam (may Allah exalt his to enter, lest he feels insulted or [them] preference over themselves, Allah. Nonetheless, I never heard him to him: “The swords of Allah did not if he is absolutely sure that this person mention), said: “You will not enter saddened, and a means to protect the even though they are in privation.” utter except good things, so when the exact their due from the foes of Allah?’’ can seize him and infl ict harm upon Paradise until you believe, and you will hearts from spite. This is why some of [Qur’an 59: 9] When Allah favoured the three nights fi nished, I almost belittled Abu Bakr, may Allah be pleased with him, then it is Khashyah. not believe until you love one another. the Salaf, may Allah have mercy upon Muhaajireen with certain things, the his deeds (as they were insignifi cant) him, said to them: “Do you speak like Fear, with its various diff erent Shall I guide to that which would make them, used to be happy when they Ansaar did not feel any objection to this, and I said to him: ‘O slave of Allah! this to the chief of the Quraysh and meanings, is mentioned in many you love one another? Spread greetings went visiting someone and were not nor did they harbour any ill feelings or There was not dispute between me their master?’’ Then he went to the places in the Qur’an, and its causes are (Salaam) abundantly amongst permitted in, because they sought the envy towards their brothers in faith for and my father or anger, but I heard the Prophet, sallallaahu ‘alaihi wa sallam, varied: yourselves” [Muslim] consequence of returning mentioned in being distinguished with these favours. Prophet, sallallaahu ‘alaihi wa sallam, and related this to him. He, sallallaahu Fear of being killed or defeated; The Prophet, sallallaahu ‘alaihi the above verse – which is the promise Instead, they favoured them over their saying thrice: “A man from the dwellers ‘alaihi wa sallam, said: “O Abu Bakr! Allah The Almighty Says (what wa sallam, was asked: “Who are the of becoming purer (i.e. in their hearts). own selves with whatever they had, of Paradise will walk in now” and you Perhaps you have angered them. If so, means): best type of people?” He replied: “A Having pure hearts that are free from even if they themselves were in need of walked in all three times, so I wanted to you have angered your Lord”. Abu Bakr, “And when there comes to them person who is truthful in his speech spite is a bounty and a blessing from what they off ered. sleep in your place to see what you do may Allah be pleased with him, rushed something [i.e., information] about and Makhmoom in his heart.” People Allah which He grants to the dwellers The following great story refl ects the in order to imitate you, but I did not see back to them and said: “O my brothers! [public] security or fear…” (Qur’an, asked: “We know what is truthful of Paradise upon their entry into it. rank of possessing a pure heart that is that you exert extra eff ort in performing Did I off end you?’’ They replied: 4:83) speech, but what is a Makhmoom Allah Says (what means): “And We will free from spite, and that it is a blessing any extra deeds. How did you reach “No. May Allah forgive you, brother”. Fear during war and hostility; Allah heart?” The Prophet, sallallaahu ‘alaihi remove whatever is in their chests of from Allah. Anas Ibn Maalik, may such status to deserve what the [Muslim] The Almighty Says (what means): wa sallam, responded saying: “It is a resentment (i.e. ill will or ill feelings Allah be pleased with him, narrated: Prophet, sallallaahu ‘alaihi wa sallam, , This proves that a person must rush “… And when fear comes, you pure pious heart that does not have towards one another), [so they will be] “We were sitting with the Prophet, said about you?’ He replied: ‘My deeds to make amends and apologise for his see them looking at you, their eyes envy, evil or spite.” [Ibn Maajah] brothers, on thrones facing each other.” sallallaahu ‘alaihi wa sallam, once are nothing more than what you saw.’ actions, if he fears that a fellow Muslim revolving like one being overcome by Spite has greatly increased [Qur’an 15: 47] when he said: ‘A man from the dwellers Then when I left, he called me back in was off ended or his feelings were death. But when fear departs, they lash amongst people today, resulting In addition to a pure heart being of Paradise will walk in now’ so a man and said: ‘My deeds are nothing more hurt, to make sure his brother’s heart you with sharp tongues…” (Qur’an, 33: in the severing of relations and in a blessing and a bounty from Allah, from the Ansaar (i.e. residents of than what you saw, but the only thing remains pure towards him. The one 19) ‘Fear’ in this verse refers to war. people holding grudges against each it is also a source of comfort. This is Madinah) walked in whose beard was I do is that I do not hold any grudge who is being apologised to must accept Fear resulting from knowledge, other. This is in spite of the fact that why Islam puts great emphasis on dripping from the eff ect of ablution against any Muslim or envy anyone for without delay and comfort his brother, as Allah The Almighty Says (which Allah has made legislations, which purifi cation of the heart from spite, so and who held his slippers with his what bounties Allah has granted them’; and assure him that he is not holding means): would prevent this from happening. that people can live together in peace left hand. The next day the Prophet, thereupon ‘Abdullaah Ibn ‘Amr said to any grudge against him and supplicate {“But if one fears from the For example, a Muslim is allowed to and harmony. sallallaahu ‘alaihi wa sallam, said the him: “This diffi cult quality to obtain is for him as the Companions did with bequeather [some] error…”} (Qur’an, request a fellow Muslim who wants The great importance attached to this same thing, and the same man walked what granted you this rank”. [Ahmad] Abu Bakr. 2 :182) to visit him to return at a later time. issue is because it is a diffi cult state to in. On the third day, the Prophet said It is not an easy task for someone to Article source: http://www. Allah The Almighty also Says (what In normal situations, people would achieve all the time. A person may have the same thing, and the same man once maintain a heart free from spite and islamweb.net/emainpage/ means): “…Unless both fear that they will not be able to keep [within] the limits of Allah…” (Qur’an, 2: 229) ‘Fear’ in this verse is due to one’s knowledge. Fear due to decrease in numbers, as Allah The Almighty Says (what Beware of spite, dispute and envy means): “Or that He would not seize them gradually [in a state of dread].” (Qur’an, 16: 47) This is the fear that hen people went to visit of my imprisonment”. (of Allah) is granted forgiveness (of other. Would one of you like to eat the There is another matter that people people feel regarding a decrease in Abu Dujaanah, may Allah Not only that, but Allah Willed minor sins) if he does not associate fl esh of his dead brother? You would neglect, which has a direct connection their numbers, which would be the be pleased with him, in that Sultan An-Naasir, may Allah anything with Allah in worship. But detest it” [Qur’an 49: 12] to this issue: straightening the rows result of them being killed, or facing Whis death sickness, they have mercy upon him, became the the person in whose heart there is Another matter that results in during prayer. Nu’maan Ibn Basheer, death in any other way. saw him happy and his face radiant; Caliph and wanted to take revenge rancour against his brother, will not be spite is disputes and arguments, thus may Allah be pleased with him, Fear of punishment, as Allah The they asked him about the reason, to from the people who were the cause pardoned. With regard to them, it is people must beware of this bad quality. reported that the Messenger of Allah, Almighty Says (what means): which he may Allah be pleased with of his imprisonment, but Imaam Ibn said twice: ‘Hold these two until they People can hold diff erent opinions but sallallaahu ‘alaihi wa sallam, said: “…They [i.e., the believers] him replied: “I have two qualities I Taymiyyah, may Allah mercy upon are reconciled’. ‘Hold these two until do not have to become enemies due “Straighten your rows (during prayer) or supplicate their Lord in fear…” possessed in my life; one is that I never him, refused and continued to talk to they are reconciled.’” [Muslim] In fact, to this. Yoosuf As-Sadafi , may Allah Allah would create dissension amongst (Qur’an, 32:16) interfered in that which did not concern the Caliph and admonish him about the this was the reason why the exact night have mercy upon him, said: “I never you”. [Al-Bukhari and Muslim] Imam Ibn Qudamah, may Allah me, and the second is that I always had quality of forgiveness and tolerance, on which the night of Al-Qadr falls was saw anyone wiser than Imaam Ash- Joking too much with people and have mercy upon him, said: “Know a pure heart, free from spite towards my until he changed his mind and let them not disclosed to the people. Shaafi ’ee. I argued with him once about two people talking in seclusion in the that fear is the whip by which Allah fellow Muslims”. go unharmed. The matter is even graver than this, a matter but we could not come to an presence of a third are more reasons for controls His slaves so that they may Imaam Ibn Taymiyyah, may Allah Jaabir, may Allah be pleased with as indicated in the following narration. agreement, so when he saw me later, he spite amongst Muslims, which we must continue exerting eff ort in order to mercy upon him, was another great him, said: “I heard the Messenger of Abu Hurairah, may Allah be pleased took hold of my hand and said: ‘O Abu be careful to avoid. come close to their Lord; fear is the example in this matter. Some people Allah, sallallaahu ‘alaihi wa sallam, with him, said that the Messenger of Moosaa! Can’t we disagree and remain There are certain things a person light which illuminates the heart and of knowledge of his time who envied saying: “The devil has despaired of Allah, sallallaahu ‘alaihi wa sallam, said: brothers?’” Prejudice and partiality can do to prevent spite and spread love enables it to distinguish good from him, spoke ill of him to the Caliph who being worshipped by those who engage “It is not lawful for a Muslim to forsake – whether to one’s opinion, a group or a instead, like supplicating for others and evil.” When a person fears another, he commanded him to be imprisoned; yet in prayer in the Arabian Peninsula his (Muslim) brother beyond three days; person – also lead to spite creeping into giving them gifts. will attempt to fl ee from him, and this while he was in prison he, may Allah but (has not lost hope) in creating and whosoever does so for more than the heart. Finally, we must diff erentiate is the case for everyone except Allah; mercy upon him, sent a letter to his dissension among them.” [Muslim] three days, and then dies, will certainly Competing over worldly matters between being kind hearted and simple one escapes from Him by fl eeing to students saying: “You know very well This was a statement made by the enter the Hell.” [Abu Daawood] We ask results in spite in most cases; this is why minded and naive. Not knowing what Him. that I do not like to see anyone from Messenger of Allah while addressing his Allah to purify our hearts from spite and Islam forbade a person from attempting is plotted against you is not being Fear does not depart from one’s the common Muslims getting hurt Companions. Satan strives very hard to grudges. to buy something that his Muslim kind, as this could make a person fall heart except that it causes its ruin, because of me, let alone the people instill spite in the hearts of the believers One of the main things that leads to brother has already started negotiating in the trap of others, like those who because when fear is present in one’s of knowledge. People are three types: towards one another, hence, we must having a spiteful heart is backbiting and about, or proposing to a woman who a propagate drugs and immorality. Many heart, it burns all desires and expels one who strives to do what is correct avoid anything that could be the means tale bearing. These two evil qualities fellow Muslim has approached earlier. people have been dragged into drugs, the pleasures of this life from it. Fear but fails, and such will be rewarded for or cause of enmity or spite. We must often result in hatred and severing The reason for this is that Islam tries immorality and other harmful habits causes a person to wake up from his striving to do what is right and will be know that Satan is the source of spite of ties amongst people. Therefore, a to prevent all the possible reasons that due to their naivete. As Imaam Ibn heedlessness and puts him back on pardoned for failing as he tried; another and envy. Muslim must control his tongue and could engender spite and hatred. Al-Qayyim, may Allah have mercy upon the right path after he has diverted is one who strives to do what is correct Moreover, spite, dispute and envy are not allow himself to talk about others, The zeal of attaining high posts and him, stated: “Recognising the evil and from it. Being fearful is not an and succeeds, and such will be rewarded the reasons for one’s good deeds being backbite or slander them. positions makes a person envious; not indulging in it is not the same as objective in itself, meaning, we do not twice, once for striving to do what is rejected: Abu Hurairah, may Allah be Some people refrain from eating Al-Fudhayl Ibn ‘Iyaadh, may Allah being naive”. feel fear due to any contentment that right and another for achieving such a pleased with him, narrated that the certain types of meat before have mercy upon him, said: “Striving Article source: http://www. comes with being afraid, but rather, goal; the third type is a person who is a Messenger of Allah, sallallaahu ‘alaihi ascertaining their permissibility, yet to reach high posts and positions and islamweb.net/emainpage/ it should be a means to rectify our sinner, and we ask Allah to forgive him. wa sallam, said: “People’s deeds are they have no problems eating the fl esh leadership makes people envious and condition. I will not forgive any of you if you start presented before Allah on Mondays of their fellow Muslim; Allah Says (what leads them to transgressing other Article source: http://www. talking about anyone who was the cause and Thursdays, and then every slave means): “And do not backbite each people’s rights.” islamweb.net/emainpage/ Gulf Times 18 Friday, January 1, 2016 COMMENT

Chairman: Abdullah bin Khalifa al-Attiyah Editor-in-Chief : Darwish S Ahmed Production Editor: Amjad Khan New Polish leader seems

P.O.Box 2888 Doha, Qatar hungry for total control [email protected] Telephone 44350478 (news), The shackling of Poland’s the legislation, said its enactment about why his party wants direct have leverage over Warsaw. The EU 44466404 (sport), 44466636 (home delivery) top court is the latest signalled the “end of democracy in control of public media. “If the remains popular among Poles, with Fax 44350474 Poland “. media imagine that for the next 86% backing membership. Hardly troubling sign that But for PiS leader Jarosaw Kaczyski, few weeks they will be absorbing surprising considering Poland is the the constitutional tribunal is merely a Poles’ attention with criticism of largest recipient of EU development Jarosaw Kaczyski is taking “political organ” of the former ruling our changes or policies, then that funds, used to build highways, roads his country in Hungary’s party, Civic Platform. It wants Poland has to be stopped,” he stated. PiS has and other infrastructure serving to to “continue being plundered by ex- also passed legislation enabling it to modernise the country. illiberal direction communists and their buddies so it easily fi re civil service offi cials and Polish citizens see tangible GULF TIMES would have blocked our plans to give has introduced bills that would give benefi ts from EU membership and By Remi Adekoya cash-handouts to parents as it doesn’t the police and intelligence services won’t tolerate those benefi ts being Warsaw want ordinary Poles to get anything”. increased surveillance powers on jeopardised by any government. Hence the pre-emptive strike. citizens - despite the fact Poland Moreover, Poles, especially urban- Kaczyski holds no formal position in hardly faces any credible terrorist dwellers, want Poland to be associated A climate event on emocracy is under threat government but few in Poland doubt threat. Critics fear these will be used with that exclusive club dubbed in Poland, the European it is the veteran politician, in fi rm to monitor “unfriendly” journalists “the west” with the connotation Union’s sixth-largest control of his party, who is issuing and NGOs. that brings of development and Dmember state. Just two orders to Duda and the prime minister, Kaczynski once vowed to “bring advanced societies. If key EU players the planet that keeps months after the nationalist Law and Beata Szydlo, both loyal proteges. Budapest to Warsaw”, expressing speak out categorically against PiS’s Justice (PiS) party won parliamentary Kaczyski believes post-communist admiration for authoritarian undemocratic practises, emphasising elections and took over government, Poland was, at the onset, appropriated Hungarian PM Viktor Orban who this is not the way western this is a view shared by more than half by cliques of unpatriotic and amoral favours “illiberal” democracy. Though democracies function, this will surely scientists guessing of the Polish people (56%). cynics who sold the country to the he focused on bread-and-butter issues have an eff ect on Polish public opinion On Monday, despite protests from highest bidder and placed their friends during the parliamentary campaign, - something PiS must take account of. the European commission and tens of in key institutions to ensure the lion’s once power was captured, Kaczynski Washington, meanwhile, has El Nino is one of the most predictable climate events thousands of Poles who have taken to share of benefi ts from the country’s wasted no time adopting Orbanesque considerable leverage over PiS fi rstly on the planet, according the US National Oceanic and the streets in recent weeks, the Polish economic transformation were shared tactics of removing any eff ective because the party is generally very President, Andrzej Duda, signed into among a privileged elite. Wresting checks to his rule between now and pro-American, and secondly because Atmospheric Administration, but it also has a way of law a controversial bill undermining the state back from these unpatriotic the next elections. But the more PiS it considers the US the only viable keeping the climate scientists guessing. the ability of Poland’s judiciary forces, in Kaczyski’s view, will require fl outs the rules of democracy, the guarantor of Polish security in the In March the oceanographers predicted the current to eff ectively maintain checks on revolutionary determination. “They more reluctant its leaders will be event of aggression from its feared parliament. [the constitutional tribunal] don’t to lose power for fear of the future neighbour, Russia. PiS’s foreign policy event could be the weakest on record, but in August the The bill requires Poland’s want us to chase away the clique of prosecution that could await them. priority is securing a permanent same agency warned it could be the strongest. 15-member constitutional tribunal, cronies who’ve taken over the state, “Reforming” Poland’s electoral laws Nato base in Poland. This won’t which assesses the constitutionality but you can count on us, we will (as Orban did in Hungary) in a way happen without strong support Right now it still looks strong, says Nasa’s Jet of bills passed by parliament, to reach prevail,” says Kaczynski. that would make it hard to unseat PiS from Washington so Obama should Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) in Pasadena, California. a two-thirds majority before it can For PiS, those taking part in street from power could thus also be on the use US infl uence to ensure Poland’s Using satellite data, meteorologists keep a steady block legislation, arbitrarily raising protests against the curbs on the cards. government does not continue the threshold from a simple majority tribunal are either frustrated at So what can be done? Only fi erce wantonly fl outing the rules of liberal watch on El Nino because it can play out demurely, - while at the same time the PiS is “losing their privileges” as Szydlo resistance from Poles themselves, democracy. or it can bring catastrophe. It has been linked to trying to stack the tribunal with party claimed, or “don’t have brains which as well as intensifi ed pressure from The message to PiS needs to drought and harvest failures on the African continent, loyalists. function properly” as Kaczynski Brussels and Washington, could curb be crystal clear. If Brussels and The amendment also includes observed. Rendering judicial oversight Kaczynski’s increasing appetite for Washington stop at half-hearted devastating fi res in the normally moist rainforests of other curbs on the tribunal’s judicial over parliament ineff ective was just total control. The EU allowed Orban protests against what PiS is doing, the Indonesian archipelago, both drought and fl ood oversight. Lech Wasa, leader of the a warm-up though. Yesterday, PiS to get away with rubbishing liberal Kaczynski and his party will simply in Australia, damaging fl oods in the Americas, and pro-democracy Solidarity movement passed a bill enabling the treasury democracy in Hungary, a mistake shrug them off and continue to that ended communism in Poland, minister to directly appoint the heads that set a dangerous precedent. Why dismantle liberal democracy in unusually mild winters in Europe. said the PiS was “acting against of Poland’s state-owned TV and shouldn’t Kaczynski believe he can get Poland one parliamentary bill at a Last month, tens of thousands of people had been democracy” and “ ridicules us in the radio stations instead of the National away with it as well? time. The nation which produced world “. Broadcasting Commission. That’s like Europe must not let that happen. the Solidarity movement does not forced to fl ee their homes in the border areas of Mateusz Kijowski, head of the George Osborne getting to decide who Poland is too big and important deserve such a future. The people of Paraguay, Uruguay, Brazil and Argentina due to severe Committee for the Defence of runs the BBC. an EU member to be allowed stray Poland should not be abandoned in fl ooding in the wake of heavy summer rains brought on Democracy (KOD), which organised Ryszard Terlecki, head of PiS’s into the “illiberal” democracy these trying times. – Guardian News the nationwide protests against parliamentary club, was forthright camp. Brussels and Washington & Media by El Nino. Paraguay’s national emergencies offi ce has said the fl ooding is “directly infl uenced by the El Nino phenomenon, which has intensifi ed the frequency and intensity of rains”. El Nino is a blister of sea surface heat that every few years fl oats eastwards across the tropical Pacifi c Ocean. The shift of warm seas leaves the The release of western Pacifi c cooler, greenhouse and both temperature shifts seem to play out gases could in disruption of global make El Nino weather patterns. more frequent The last great El Nino, in 1997-98, helped to make 1998 the then-warmest year on record - that too was accompanied by a series of devastating events around the world, among them ice storms in North America, fl oods on the west coasts of the Americas and forest fi res in Borneo. It also delayed the monsoon rains in India, warmed tropical waters so severely that coral reefs started to “bleach” and die, and signalled a record-breaking season of typhoons and tropical cyclones in the eastern Pacifi c. Although researchers are fairly sure that climate change as a consequence of the combustion of fossil fuels, and the release of greenhouse gases, could make El Nino more frequent, or more devastating, or both, it remains a natural, cyclic event. Climate historians have Poland’s President Andrzej Duda speaks during his announcement at Presidential Palace in Warsaw on December 28. Duda signed into law an amendment to how its linked it, with sometimes faltering levels of confi dence, constitutional court makes rulings, a move critics say will erode checks and balances in government powers and paralyse the highest judicial body. to historic events, among them the epidemic of Spanish infl uenza that claimed millions of lives in 1918. Sometimes oceanographers watch an El Nino develop, and then fade gently. And sometimes it develops powerfully, with consequences for the rest The downside of cheap oil of the globe. Oxfam has already warned that this time millions could face famine as a consequence. By Steve Yetiv eventually, the price of derivatives, Finally, although the Middle East On the other hand, American However, as the rains fail in Africa, Californians Los Angeles such as gasoline and heating oil. That’s is a political mess, its oil supplies are frackers will probably (fi nally) cut back not happening now because traders relatively secure. The Iran nuclear production in the coming months. But - still in the grip of a prolonged and damaging are pessimistic. agreement has removed, for now, the that alone can only push prices up so drought - may see a silver lining. In 1997 and 1998 il prices have fallen What usually happens in such most likely chance of the type of war much. storms slammed into the US west coast, crossed the dramatically to the mid- circumstances is that Saudi Arabia – an attack on Iran – that could really All this pressure on oil prices $30s on the New York attacks the supply side – that is, it spook markets. is just fine for the American and mountains, drenched Texas and even hit Florida. This OMercantile Exchange from cuts production to boost prices. But Even the Islamic State is not a global economy, if not for oil time, El Nino may be seen as bringing relief. more than $105 per barrel in 2014. the Saudis have decided not to do so, signifi cant military threat to major oil producers. But there is a downside Such extraordinarily low prices are probably because they believe that low fi elds. Sure, the terrorist organisation to this story. aff ecting global stock markets, big oil oil prices have still not done enough is stealing oil, but what it pumps from The negotiators who struck the exporters and consumers worldwide. to undermine the North American the areas it controls is just a drop in recent climate change agreement in How can we explain this crash and energy boom. the global bucket of oil, even though it Paris want to send a message to the To Advertise where are oil prices headed? Meanwhile, US shale oil producers makes tens of millions doing it. markets; they want to convey that The global economy is in the haven’t cut back as much as expected. Can oil prices rebound? burning fossil fuels is an increasingly [email protected] doldrums, and China, the world’s In fact, they are overfl owing with oil China’s economy won’t bounce costly habit. Unfortunately, low oil Display biggest oil importer, appears plagued and are building caverns in which to back overnight, nor will that of other prices are sending the exact opposite Telephone 44466621 Fax 44418811 by structural political and economic store hundreds of millions of barrels countries. The Saudis may decide message. problems that it may or may not for when demand returns. Traders see to cut production in the coming The upshot is that low oil prices Classified overcome in the next few years. Energy such oversupply as a bearish sign for months, but only if they believe that aren’t something to celebrate. Over Telephone 44466609 Fax 44418811 agencies have therefore lowered global prices. other Opec countries will follow time, long investment horizons tend oil demand forecasts. Adding to the mix, the US Federal suit. to generate boom and bust cycles in Subscription These problems have rattled traders Reserve is likely to raise interest rates As for the US dollar, it’s pretty oil production and prices. But if prices [email protected] on markets such as the NYMEX. repeatedly in the coming years, which stable. So long as America is seen as a remain low for too long, that will hurt When traders believe that oil prices should buoy an already strong US safer bet for foreign investments than eff orts to address climate change, will rise, they buy futures in hopes of dollar. Since oil is traded in US dollars, most other places, and so long as the especially in the US, where citizens 2014 Gulf Times. All rights reserved selling them later for a profi t. Their its strength translates into even lower Fed follows through on raising interest largely oppose raising oil taxes. – actions increase the price of oil and, oil prices. rates, the dollar will remain strong. Tribune News Service Gulf Times Friday, January 1, 2016 19 COMMENT Beyond the ‘revolving door’

It is a cycle that often And yet dangers arise when Economic Forum, where business resembles the fox guarding business gets too close to government. leaders and governments talk tough Sometimes the risk entails the on panels and make nice in back the henhouse, with those proverbial “revolving door” between rooms. And the need to do both has who regulate too close to government and business, through become more obvious than ever in which personnel glide from senior an era of slow economic growth and those whom they regulate private-sector jobs to top offi cial privatisation of services once provided posts and back again. It is a cycle that by the public sector. The working By Lucy P Marcus often resembles the fox guarding the relationship is important and should London henhouse, with those who regulate too not be condemned, but it must be close to those whom they regulate. recognised openly. The most obvious example of this This brings us back to Gates, who onestly,” said Bill Gates is fi nance and banking, where former announced in Paris an initiative to during the COP21 meeting employees of a single fi rm, Goldman spend a total of $20bn on climate- in Paris earlier last month, Sachs, hold some of the most senior related R&D over the next fi ve years. H“I’ve been a bit surprised regulatory and monetary positions Gates’ plan highlights a frequently that the climate talks historically – and not just in the US. Mario noted component of the relationship haven’t had R&D on the agenda in Draghi, the president of the European between government and business: any way, shape, or form.” So am I, Central Bank was Vice Chairman and governments’ vital role in funding and the question Gates raises goes to Managing Director of Goldman Sachs early experimental research, which the heart of the relationship between International, and Mark Carney, the business then often turns into business and government in solving governor of the Bank of England, commercially viable solutions. All our societies’ toughest problems, worked for Goldman Sachs for 13 of this is necessary to build stronger from ensuring the planet’s continued years. economies. habitability to fostering stable and But simply closing the revolving But, though Gates was right to ask inclusive economic growth. door in fi nance is not a solution. why climate-change negotiations have To be sure, in some areas, Research by the Federal Reserve Bank not included R&D, let’s not pretend government authorities simply of New York has shown that regulation that any of this is simple. The need for don’t consider making business a and legislation in this area must strike revolving doors, whether of personnel part of the solution early on. The a balance, lest it undermine “the or ideas, between government and most striking recent example is the ability of regulatory agencies to seek business cannot be a reason to allow ongoing refugee crisis: Governments and retain talent.” companies to gain undue infl uence in Europe and around the world still In areas like defence, the revolving on public policy or for regulators to don’t fully include business in early- door moves swiftly. According to the be kept weak. Nor can it be a reason stage thinking about how to manage Boston Globe, from 2004 through to give failing businesses a safety net the fl ow of asylum-seekers. Granted, 2008, some four-fi fths of retiring for their own bad behaviour or poor in many cases business leaders have three- and four-star US generals went decisions. chosen to remain on the sideline; but to work as consultants or defence This is especially true at a time both they and governments need to executives. Likewise, the US-based when public trust is at a low ebb. adjust their thinking. group Citizens for Responsibility and Rather than pretending that this But in other areas, companies are Ethics has shown the extent to which Bill Gates: initiative to spend a total of $20bn on climate-related R&D over the next five years. symbiotic relationship doesn’t exist more than eager to step up, be seen careers lead from the US Department or, worse, that it isn’t necessary, both and heard, and exercise infl uence. of Defence to the defence industry. with the German government has businesses and strong trade, and and reputation that the government business and government must err When it comes to technology, R&D, Corporate scandals often reveal led to accusations that regulators that requires good relationships with cannot regulate them properly. They on the side of transparency. As Gates’ trade talks, and the like, the benefi t where business and government are went easy on the company, setting policymakers. When government are given excessive leeway because question made clear, in our fear of for companies’ bottom line is direct too close for comfort, as when senior the stage for the emissions-testing offi cials travel abroad to encourage they, like many fi nancial fi rms, are too allowing the relationship to go too and clear, and here Gates’ surprise is members of Toshiba’s executive scandal in which the carmaker is economic co-operation, CEOs of some important to fail. far, we risk not allowing it to go far understandable, because corporate team and board, for example, sit now embroiled. of the country’s biggest companies This complex dance between enough. – Project Syndicate leaders typically lobby to participate on Japanese government panels But close ties between business should go along. The question is business and government is never- and change the way governments and commissions. Likewise, and government are also necessary. whether such companies are so ending and always evolving. It is the zLucy P Marcus is CEO of Marcus think and act. Volkswagen’s close relationship Strong economies need strong important to the country’s economy stuff of gatherings like the World Venture Consulting. Weather report A med student in Silicon Valley Three-day forecast TODAY High: 25 C “resident”). After the emotional snacks, yoga classes and Uber rides and the colossal burden of medical Low : 20 C By Rich Joseph Expected poor visibility due to fog at Los Angeles and physical toll of overnight duty, after late nights at the offi ce. school debt. “Get out now,” former most areas at first emergency calls or lengthy surgeries, Now, as I interview for my clinical residents warned me. “Go into weary residents fi nd little to support residency – the most intense phase industry.” Not only may medicine be growing number of medical their health and performance. of medical training – I’m excited yet losing tremendous talent, it is also SATURDAY students today are tacking Hospital cafeterias sell greasy foods, troubled. I wonder: How are medical losing vitality – the vitality that our High: 24 C on a business degree. Since sodas and candy scarfed by sleep- trainees expected to restore the health patients desire and deserve. Low : 18 C A1993 the number of MD/ deprived residents to allay mounting of others without the means to care for At least some residency M Sunny MBA programmes has ballooned from stress. At the county hospital in San ourselves? programmes have begun to integrate six to about 65, representing nearly Jose, where I worked last summer, we Tech companies, with their wellness programs. At Stanford, for half of all US medical schools. updated patient records on computers generous benefi ts, blur the example, the general surgery residents SUNDAY The majority of MD/MBA students in cramped, dusty, sun-starved boundary between one’s personal participate in a programme called High: 20 C will complete a medical residency rooms. On-site fi tness facilities at and professional life in order to Balance in Life that addresses their Low : 13 C and use their business training to lead such hospitals, if they exist, are often recruit and retain a healthy and professional, physical, psychological Cloudy physicians and manage hospitals or inaccessible or insuffi cient. productive workforce. The medical and social well-being. Incoming other healthcare systems. Yet here Quiet contemplation centres establishment, by contrast, attempts anaesthesia residents receive lectures at Stanford, where I am one of 18 to escape the fl uorescent lights, to inject a “healthy balance” by on sleep and participate in weekend Fishermen’s forecast limiting one’s hours at work. The wellness retreats. Emergency medicine such dual-degree candidates, some incessant paging and the stale smell OFFSHORE DOHA of my peers are considering joining of sickness? In our dreams. The rooms Accreditation Council for Graduate residents attend group sessions Wind: SE 05-15/18 KT digital health startups instead. We are where residents nap during overnight Medical Education constrains fi rst- on mental health; counselling and Waves: 2-4/5 Feet surrounded by an explosion of such shifts look and feel like jail cells. After year residents to 80 hours a week. support services are available. INSHORE DOHA Wind: SE-SW 04-13 KT opportunities, propelled by more than 14 hours plus on call, I would drive Ignore for the moment whether Our technology neighbours can Waves: 1-2 Feet $2bn of venture capital funding in the home with the windows down and that’s too much or within reason: My teach us a valuable lesson: To realise fi rst half of 2015. music blasting to stay awake. complaint is that an exclusive focus the potential of your workforce, Around the region Doximity, a professional network for Meanwhile, classmates from on hours sharpens the divide between integrate work and life by creating an Weather Weather physicians, reported in 2011 that only business school rode on cushy work and life and reinforces their environment that encourages holistic today Max/min tomorrow Max/min 68% of Stanford medical students go commuter buses to their internships incompatibility. Indeed, studies have self-care. Ultimately, that should be Abu Dhabi Sunny 31/17 Sunny 30/20 on to pursue clinical residency, a lower at tech companies that served free shown that duty-hour reform has the hallmark not just of residencies Baghdad S Showers 15/04 Sunny 11/-1 Dubai share than all but six medical schools gourmet meals. They had ergonomic not signifi cantly reduced burnout, but the entire medical profession. Sunny 30/19 Sunny 29/22 Kuwait City P Cloudy 21/12 Sunny 17/08 in the country. work stations and top-of-the-line substance abuse or suicide. A global Doctors don’t need open vacation Manama P Cloudy 24/18 Showers 21/17 As I alternate between these two gyms. Those at the Googleplex study published recently in the Journal policy, arcade rooms or bring-your- Muscat Sunny 28/21 Sunny 29/21 worlds – the hospital and Silicon enjoyed massages. When deadlines of the American Medical Assn. found pet-to-work days. But we do need Riyadh P Cloudy 24/13 P Cloudy 17/07 Valley – to complete my degrees, I approached, they could take advantage that 29% of residents experience healthful food to sustain energy, Tehran S Showers 11/04 Showers 08/-2 see an obvious reason why medical of on-site oil changes, or laundry and depression during their residencies. gyms to stay sharp and relieve professionals may be lured into dry cleaning. Friends at Facebook Cynicism infects many residents stress, reimagined workspaces that business and away from patient commented on the benefi ts of who feel downtrodden by the gruelling improve communication and time to care: the contrast between the work standing desks, on-site barbers and a schedule, the hours spent glued to decompress, laugh, be human. These environments. bike repair shop. Even those at smaller electronic health records, the pitiful benefi ts will make us more whole. And Doctors in training eff ectively companies, such as Airbnb and salary (barely above minimum wage our patients will thank us. – Tribune live at the hospital (hence the term Square, raved about the free organic when counting total hours worked) News Service Live issues Stressed Greeks rediscover worry beads

By Kim Willsher here looking for komboloi.” Athenian Stelios Kouletakis is serving Nafplio, Greece Humans have long been fascinated tables to pay for his theatre studies at with beads, whether bone, clay, stone Nafplio university. Around the world or semi-precious jewel. The Old “Lots of elderly people have kom- Weather Weather n a cafe terrace in the English word bede means prayer, and boloi because it’s an old tradition. today Max/min tomorrow Max/min Peloponnese port of Nafplio many religions use them to worship. They’re passed on from father to son. Athens Sunny 07/04 P Cloudy 11/08 a grey-haired Greek man Greek komboloi are thought to date I bought a cheap komboloi to give up Beirut Rain 10/07 P Cloudy 11/07 Sunny Sunny 33/22 worries a string of beads as back 800 years to the monks of Mount smoking and it worked a bit, but not Bangkok 33/22 O Berlin Fog 04/01 P Cloudy 02/-6 he stares out to sea. Athos, who fi rst knotted string to enough because I started again. I’m Cairo M Cloudy 13/08 P Cloudy 15/07 Click click. Click click. The beads Rallou Gromitsari is surrounded by count their prayers, then used what- going to get them out and try again. Cape Town Sunny 30/19 Sunny 29/20 fall in twos down the loop of thread; strings of glistening multi-coloured ever they could fi nd - wood, shells, It’s a good distraction,” he said. Colombo S T Storms 33/23 S T Storms 33/23 for hundreds of years, the hypnotic beads. olive stones - to make beads. Today, At the Metropolis hotel, a short walk Dhaka Sunny 27/16 Sunny 27/16 Hong Kong M Sunny 18/15 S Showers 19/16 sound of the komboloi has regulated “People are looking for something however, komboloi have no religious from the Acropolis, owner Thomas Istanbul S Showers 02/-2 P Cloudy 02/01 the rhythm of Greek life. simpler,” she says, passing a string of signifi cance and come in all shapes, Tsiaktanis swung a komboloi around Jakarta S T Storms 32/25 T Storms 31/25 As Greece lurches from economic 10 hand-cut pieces of amber strung on sizes, colours and materials. his hand and through his fi ngers like Karachi Sunny 31/14 Sunny 31/14 crisis to bank bailout, the click-click silk from one hand to the other. “I tell visitors looking for a kom- a professional magician performing a London Showers 09/07 Showers 11/07 S Showers P Cloudy 31/23 of the traditional worry beads has “There is a problem in Greece with boloi to start with the colour,” says card trick. His son Kostas watched and Manila 30/23 Moscow Cloudy -12/-14 Cloudy -13/-17 become a reassuring constant, even - money and many of us are scared of Gromitsari. “To go outside and turn looked to the ceiling. New Delhi P Cloudy 23/07 Sunny 23/08 perhaps especially - for the young. the future. The work situation is not them in the light, then touch the “Of course everyone has them,” said New York M Sunny 07/00 Sunny 06/00 What was once regarded as an out- good, and we are trying every day to beads, feel them, play with them; the Kostas. “But they are part of the stere- Paris Cloudy 10/07 S Showers 12/08 dated habit practised by the elderly with pay the money the government wants komboloi must be comfortable in their otypical image of Greece. Men sitting Sao Paulo T Storms 27/20 S Showers 24/18 Seoul P Cloudy 07/01 P Cloudy 10/-1 plenty of time on their hands, komboloi from us. Times are diffi cult and this hands. Then I say, listen to the sound over a coff ee or ouzo, playing with Singapore Rain 30/26 T Storms 30/26 are now enjoying a comeback. has made people very stressed. of the beads, the clicking. This is the beads when they should be working. Sydney P Cloudy 25/16 P Cloudy 23/18 At her desk in the world’s only kom- “Because of this pressure, more music of the komboloi.” It’s not the image Greece needs.” – Tokyo Clear 1 2 / 0 6 Clear 13/03 boloi museum, owner and co-founder and more young people are coming In a nearby taverna, 21-year-old Guardian News & Media Gulf Times 20 Friday, January 1, 2016 QATAR

Cherishing the last moments of 2015

A citizen takes in the last sunset of 2015 on the way to Abu Samra. PICTURE: Nasar T K

A couple taking a selfie in the background of the last sunset of 2015 at the Museum of A water scooter rider performs a stunt near Doha Corniche as the sun sets on the last Islamic Art in Doha. PICTURE: Thajudheen day of 2015. PICTURE: Sajin Orma Children enjoy a ride through the Aspire Park in Doha as the sun sets on 2015. PICTURE: Noushad Thekkayil HDC celebrates opening of Waffl emeister in Doha

ospitality Development Com- ing children and the popular Minions fantastic customer service and under- pany (HDC), a wholly-owned characters making an appearance. stands the Meister’s promise.” Hsubsidiary of United Develop- As a popular international brand Although the brand’s main focus is ment Company (UDC), has celebrated and with rapid expansion all over the waffl es, it also caters to customers who the opening of its latest off ering to the globe, Waffl emeister’s arrival has cer- wish to indulge in an array of authentic Qatari market, the UK-based chain tainly been eagerly awaited, according Italian ice-cream (gelato), thick shakes, Waffl emeister, at Lagoona Mall. to a press statement, which notes that sorbets and gourmet coff ee. “Servicing Abdullatif al-Yafei, UDC execu- UDC is “proud to have brought such an its clients in a casual and fun atmos- tive director, portfolio investment, exciting concept to Doha’s diners”. phere, the café later on welcomed the led the ribbon-cutting ceremony. He “We are truly excited and honoured general public, who found it appealing was joined by Abdul Shukoor, HDC to have joined forces with Hospitality as the ‘go-to place’ for a true everyday general manager, and corporate and Development Company to bring Waf- indulgence,” the statement adds. special guests. fl emeister to Doha,” said Alexander HDC has said it will soon celebrate A fun-fi lled atmosphere prevailed Troullier, CEO and founder of Waf- more Waffl emeister openings in malls at the launch of the new dining expe- fl emeister UK. “We could not have across Qatar in addition to several rience, with stilt walkers enthralling hoped for a better partner who shares new concepts evolving soon at The the crowd, a balloon artist entertain- the passion for great-tasting waffl es, Pearl-Qatar.

Abdullatif al-Yafei (centre), leading the ribbon-cutting ceremony as Abdul Shukoor (left) and corporate and special guests look on.