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GULF TIMES
pu
Shipyard celebrates its
100th LNG carrier repair
SPORT | Page 11
TUESDAY
Vol. XXXV No. 9622
February 3, 2015
Rabia II 14, 1436 AH
www. gulf-times.com 2 Riyals
Family joy
InIn
brief
Brief
WORLD | Climate
2014 ‘hottest year
on record’, says UN
The year 2014 was the hottest on
record, part of a “warming trend”
that appeared set to continue,
the UN’s weather agency said in
Geneva yesterday. Average global
air temperatures in 2014 were
0.57 degrees Celsius (1.03 degree
Fahrenheit) higher than the longterm average of 14 C (57.2 F) for
a 1961-1990 reference period, the
World Meteorological Organization
(WMO) said in a statement. Page 21
BRITAIN | Ties
PM acknowledges
Saudi Arabia help
Saudi Arabia has given information
which helped save British lives,
Prime Minister David Cameron said
in London yesterday. “We have
a relationship with Saudi Arabia
partly over things like trying to
achieve peace in the Middle East
but crucially over fighting terrorism
... Since I have been prime minister
a piece of information that we have
been given by that country has
saved potentially hundreds of lives
here in Britain,” he said during a
question and answer session on
Sky news.
SPORT | Post
Four candidates for
FIFA presidency
Incumbent Joseph Blatter and
three challengers are bidding for
the FIFA presidency after Jerome
Champagne became the second
man to drop out. FIFA said in a
statement yesterday that Blatter,
Jordan’s Prince Ali bin al-Hussein,
former World Player of the Year
Luis Figo of Portugal and Dutch
football supremo Michael van
Praag have been proposed by the
member federations. Sport page 12
BUSINESS | America
Obama proposes
$3.99tn budget
President Barack Obama yesterday
proposed a $3.99tn budget that
drew scorn from Republicans and
set up battles over tax reform,
infrastructure spending and the
quest to prove which party best
represents the middle class.
Business page 20
Juris Greste, left, the father of Australian journalist Peter Greste, Peter’s brother
Andrew Greste and his mother Lois Greste smiling after holding a press conference
in Brisbane yesterday after Egypt deported Peter, the award-winning correspondent
for Al Jazeera English television, on Sunday after more than 400 days in detention
on charges of backing the Muslim Brotherhood. The Greste family expressed
their joy at Peter’s release from an Egyptian jail, but said his two colleagues still in
prison would not be forgotten. Peter Greste himself urged Egypt to free his jailed
colleagues at Al Jazeera, describing his “angst” at having to leave them behind after
being released. Greste, 49, was arrested in December 2013, along with colleagues
Canadian-Egyptian Mohamed Fahmy and Baher Mohamed of Egypt, in moves that
sparked worldwide condemnation. Page 11
Qatar expects
tourism boom
Q
atar’s tourism sector contributed
QR13.6bn (about $3.7bn) to the
country’s gross domestic product (GDP) in 2013, representing 4% of
“Qatar’s non-extraction economy”.
The sector also generated 61,000 jobs
in the same year, according to the annual
report by the Qatar Tourism Authority
(QTA).
“The economic impact of tourism”,
including indirect contributions, totalled QR 28bn (about $7.6bn), comprising 8.3% of Qatar’s non-extraction GDP.
QTA noted that more than 2.8mn
visitors entered the country in 2014, an
8.2% increase compared with the figures
in 2013.
QTA recorded a 91% increase in foreign visitors since 2009 with an average
annual growth rate of 13.8%.
“The tourism industry shows a continued strong performance in 2014
with all key indicators demonstrating
improvement and growth compared to
2013,” it added.
QTA chairman Issa bin Mohamed
al-Mohannadi said Qatar managed to
attract visitors from several key markets, including GCC countries, which
contributed 40% of the tourists visiting
Qatar in 2014.
Another 28% of the visitors originated from various parts of Asia and
Oceania while 15% of tourists came from
European countries.
“These impressive results would not
have been achieved without the hard
work of QTA and its public and private
sector partners, based on the principles
and objectives set out by the National
Tourism Sector Strategy 2030,” said alMohannadi.
He expressed confidence that the
tourism sector’s achievements would
continue to reach greater heights this
year through newly-launched initiatives
and products.
According to the report, visits from all
regions of the world have increased substantially over the past five years with
Asia Oceania and GCC visitor markets
expanding by 107% and 102% respectively since 2009.
Visitors from Europe have surged by
82% over the past five years.
The report noted that occupancy rates
in all hotels increased by 73% in 2014
compared to 65% in 2013.
The largest gains were experienced
by the five-star hotels segment, which
posted a 71% surge compared to 61% in
2013.
Al-Mohannadi said the strong increase
in demand translated into revenue increases across the entire industry.
RevPAR (revenue per available room)
increased by 8.3% in 2014 with particularly strong performance in the five and
three-star segments, which gained 9.5%
and 15.5%, respectively.
Economist sees
good chance for
reform in GCC
The current year will witness
a new and rare phenomenon
in the global economy, called
transflation, according to a
forecast
By Santhosh V Perumal
Business Reporter
G
lobal economy will witness a
rare “transflation” and crude
is likely to remain weak in
the short- to medium-term but it is
an opportunity for the Gulf Co-operation Council (GCC) to undertake
structural reforms, according to an
economist.
“Low oil prices represent a great
opportunity for the GCC to implement deep structural reforms to decrease reliance on hydrocarbon revenues and take their economies to the
next level of their growth trajectory,”
said Marie Owens Thomsen, chief
economist, Crédit Agricole Private
Banking.
Highlighting that the dramatic
drop in oil prices is a game-changer,
with respect to the macroeconomic
and market scenarios in 2015 and the
medium term, she said as a result of
this low price scenario, it is crucial
to note that mature countries (as
a group) are no longer in recession
Marie Owens Thomsen: chief
economist, Crédit Agricole.
and demand could undoubtedly be
stronger, but risks to the downside
are manifold.
However, the supply side emerges
as the main cause for the oil prices
drop rather than weak demand, she
said, adding that a “too low” oil price
adds to the macro picture of rising
global instability.
Oil prices are likely to stay relatively low in 2015. But demand could
evolve rapidly as GDP (gross domestic product) growth is likely to accelerate in context of geopolitical and
climatic developments.
In this context, 2015 will witness
a new and rare phenomenon in the
global economy – “transflation”, she
said. In other words, it is a situation
of deflationary expansion where inflation/prices fall and GDP expands
simultaneously.
This will entail higher growth and
lower inflation/prices in oil importing countries but pose “unique”
challenges to oil exporting regions,
she said.
This “transflation” scenario is
expected to be rather short lived,
but 2015 will be the one year during which to take advantage of the
unique constellation of stronger
growth, lower inflation, and low interest rates – a favourable environment for all risk-asset classes.
“Volatility is likely to be greater in
2015 as markets struggle to come to
terms with this new environment.
Investors who dislike marked-tomarket fluctuations would need to
adjust their allocations to the new
environment,” Thomsen said.
In case of a scenario of prolonged
decline in oil prices, the GCC region has less to worry as it has solid
buffers in terms of foreign exchange
reserves and the huge assets of its
sovereign wealth funds, according
to Christiane Nasr, head of Mena
(Middle East and North Africa) Fixed
Income and director at the Dubai office, Crédit Agricole Private Banking.
Gulf Times
Tuesday, February 3, 2015
3
QATAR
Sports Minister holds meetings
HE the Minister of Youth and Sports Salah bin Ghanem bin Nasser al-Ali held separate meetings with Serbian Minister of
Youth and Sports Vanja Udovicic, and Polish Sport Minister Andrzej Biernat in Doha yesterday. The two ministers were in
Qatar to attend the final of the 24th Men’s Handball World Championship (Qatar 2015). During the two meetings,
co-operation in sports and ways of enhancing relations were discussed.
Taxi drivers
on strike
70% of residents
in 25-64 age group A
M
ore than 70%
of the country’s
population are
in the 25-64 age group,
according to the latest
figures of the Ministry of
Development Planning &
Statistics.
The report says that
out of the population of
2,269,672 (which is based
on November 2014 figures), the age group 25-64
consisted of 1,604,491
people. It said 14.24 % of
the residents are in the age
group of under-15 and almost 14.04% are in the 1524 age group.
The report also said
a little over 25% of the
country’s
population
consisted
of
women
(571,945), based on the
November figures, which
were the highest.
A little over 1% are in
the 65 or above age group,
it said.
It was also reported
that 547 babies were born
to Qatari parents in the
month of November and
568 in December last year.
The report also said 696
and 658 babies were born
in November and December to non-Qatari parents.
In the two months of
November and December,
a total of 575 baby boys
and 540 baby girls were
born to the citizens.
Among the foreigners,
1,426 and 1,433 babies were
born in the two months.
Among them, 1,505 were
boys and 1,354 were girls.
Similarly, a total of 397
people died in the two
months of November and
December. Among them 117
were Qataris and 280 were
non-Qataris. There were 39
(or one-third of the total)
women among the Qataris
who died during the period.
Among the 280 for-
eigners, there were 74
women.
The report also said
there were 228 deaths in
the month of December
against 169 in November.
It was reported that
a total of 307 marriages
took place in the country
in December 2014, and of
which 166 bridegrooms
were Qataris and 141 were
non-Qataris.
Among the brides, 156
were Qataris and 151 were
non-Qataris, it said.
According to the ministry reports there were
94 divorces in the month
of December and it included 64 cases of Qatari
husbands and 56 cases of
Qatari women. Among
non-Qataris, there were
30 divorces. In the previous month also, there
were 64 cases of divorces
among the citizens and 42
non-Qataris, it is found.
large number of cars belonging to the fleet of Cars
Taxis, one of the Karwa
franchisees, have been off the
road for the last 48 hours as the
drivers have gone on a flash strike.
Their strike was in protest
against the service conditions at
the company, it is understood.
However, a handful of the company’s taxis, with yellow roof, were
seen on the roads despite the protest by a majority of the drivers.
It is understood that the drivers
were asking for a hike in their commission based on the revenues.
It is reportedly the first ‘tools
down’ strike by the drivers of the
taxi firm, which started operations in October 2014.
However, when contacted, a
senior official of the taxi firm said
there was ‘no strike’ by their drivers and the company’s taxi operations were not paralysed, a claim
which was disputed by the drivers.
The Cars Taxis, which is one of
the four franchisees of Karwa, reportedly has around 450 taxis.
The strike has only minimal
effect on the public as a large
number of private ‘limousine’
services are available these days.
Gulf Times
Tuesday, February 3, 2015
4
QATAR
Commerce Ministry holds workshop
Around 50 employees of different government entities took part in a workshop on “Trade and
environment agreements at the World Trade Organisation (WTO)” held on February 1 and 2 in
Doha. The workshop was organised by the Ministry of Economy and Commerce (MEC) in
co-operation with the training centre of WTO. The participating entities included the Ministry of
Environment, the Ministry of Municipality and Urban Planning, Qatar Chamber, Qatari
Businessmen Association, Qatar Foundation, the Ministry of Energy and Industry, Qatar Petroleum,
Qatar University and Friends of the Environment Centre. WTO international experts briefed the
participants on the main principles of WTO current trade and environment negotiations, and how
to implement them properly. The workshop also tackled a number of related topics such as trade
in environmental goods, environment related disputes and the relation between trade and climate
change, among other issues.
Qatar Biobank conference to
discuss personalised healthcare
Q
atar Biobank, a member
of Qatar Foundation,
will host its inaugural
conference that will explore the
development of Qatar’s healthcare and medical research community, at Qatar National Convention Centre on 8th and 9th of
this month.
The
conference
entitled
‘Biobanking in the Context of
Personalised Healthcare’ will
gather local, regional and international experts to discuss the
future of personalised healthcare
in integration with Biobanking
worldwide.
Qatar Biobank supports Qatar Foundation’s mission to enhance national innovation and
technology through medical
research, regarding prevalent
health issues in Qatar. Through
its collection of samples and
information on the health and
lifestyles of large numbers of
the national population, Qatar
Biobank is making vital medical
research possible for scientists in
Qatar, the region, and the world.
“Biobanks are a key component in today’s healthcare sector
because they allow us to revolutionise the practice of medicine through personalised care.
Qatar Biobank’s continued work
to collect quality samples and
information will no doubt allow
researchers in Qatar and across
the region to advance their understanding of human health
and diseases to tackle Qatar’s
prevailing health issues,” said
Dr Hanan al-Kuwari, chairperson of Qatar Biobank’s Board of
Trustees.
The event will feature indepth sessions about the importance of biobanking and its role
in improving healthcare services.
The conference will also lay the
foundations for future co-operation between leading Qatari and
global medical institutions that
will contribute to the advancement of local and regional science and medical discovery.
“With Qatar’s continued
economic and demographic
expansion in recent years, it is
important to ensure continued
health for the local population
to safeguard the sustainability of
future generations in Qatar, and
personalised medicine through
biobanking will enable us to do
just that,” added Dr Hadi Abderrahim, managing director of Qatar Biobank.
Third QA daily
Singapore flight
from June 1
Q
atar Airways is to
launch an additional
daily flight to Singapore from June 1, 2015, as part
of its global expansion drive
and to cater to the increase in
passenger demand.
An airline communique said
it will be operating the new additional flight and the existing
two daily flights to Singapore
with its third, fourth and fifth
A350 XWB aircraft, commencing service in June, July and
August 2015.
With this, Qatar Airways
will become the first airline to
operate the A350 XWB to Singapore and the Asia Pacific.
Global launch customer Qatar Airways’ first A350 XWB,
which is one of 80 on order,
is currently operating on the
Doha–Frankfurt route. The airline’s second A350, joining the
fleet later this month, will also
commence operations on the
Frankfurt route from March 1.
With the additional frequency and by operating the world’s
newest wide-body aircraft to
Singapore, Qatar Airways will
further strengthen its position
in one of the leading business
cities in the Asia Pacific region
as a world-class airline providing passengers with a premium
travel experience.
The new daily flight will
depart Doha at 20:25 hrs and
arrive in Singapore the next
day at 09:15 hrs, followed by a
quick turnaround from Singapore at 10:40 hrs and returning
to Doha the same day at 13:15
hrs.
“Qatar Airways is proud to
be the first airline in the world
to introduce the next generation A350 XWB aircraft to Asia,
redefining the travel experience of our passengers,” said
Qatar Airways Group Chief
Executive Akbar al-Baker.
“We are also delighted to add
another flight to this important
and strategic route which will
provide our Singapore-based
passengers with even more options when they travel on business or leisure to key destinations
in Europe and the Americas that
include London, Paris, Frankfurt, Rome, Milan, New York,
Chicago and Houston.”
Passengers will benefit from
the new boarding experience
achieved by the unique domedesign entrance with welcome
light distribution, added the
airline statement.
The business class cabin has
36 seats in a 1-2-1 configuration featuring an 80” full flat
bed and 17” HD in-flight entertainment screen. The economy class features 247 18-inch
wide seats in a 3-3-3 configuration, each with a 10.6” inflight entertainment screen,
and more space at shoulder
level for passengers in window
seats due to the vertical side
wall panel design.
Doha – Singapore Schedules
from June 1, 2015:
Departure (Doha) QR944 at
02:25am, arriving in Singapore
at 15:15
Departure
(Singapore)
QR945 02:30, arriving in Doha
at 05:05
Departure ( Doha) QR938 at
07:00, arriving in Singapore at
19:50
Departure
(Singapore)
QR939 at 21:20, arriving in
Doha at 23:55
Departure (Doha) QR942 at
20:25, arriving in Singapore at
09:15 (next day)
Departure
(Singapore)
QR943 10:40, arriving in Doha
at 13:15.
Official
Emir endorses Cabinet decisions
HH the Emir Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad al-Thani endorsed the following
Cabinet decisions yesterday:
1. Decision No 2 of 2015 enforcing provisions of Law No 24 on
retirement and pensions on Qataris working at the Behavioral Health
Support Centre.
2. Decision No 3 of 2015 setting up the Tenders Committee at the
Ministry of Youth and Sports.
3. Decision No 4 of 2015 setting up the Tenders Committee at the
Ministry of Communications and Information Technology.
4. Decision No 5 of 2015 setting up the Tenders Committee at the
Ministry of Transport.
5. Decision No 6 of 2015 setting up the Tenders Committee at the
Ministry of Justice.
Emir issues decrees
HH the Emir Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad al-Thani yesterday issued the
following decrees:
1. Emiri Decree No 5 of 2015 endorsing an air transport agreement
between the governments of Qatar and Argentina, signed in Buenos
Aires on 18.1.2010.
2. Emiri Decree No 7 of 2015 endorsing a co-operation agreement in the
legal field between the Ministry of Justice of Qatar and the Ministry of
Justice of Georgia signed in Doha on 22.4.2014.
3. Emiri Decree No 8 of 2015 endorsing a Memorandum of
Understanding on co-operation in the field of energy technology
between the Ministry of Energy and Industry of Qatar and the Ministry
of Energy of Croatia signed in Zagreb on 5.12.2013.
Qatar condoles former German leader
HH the Emir Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad al-Thani, HH the Deputy Emir
Sheikh Abdullah bin Hamad al-Thani and HE Prime Minister and Minister
of Interior Sheikh Abdullah bin Nasser bin Khalifa al-Thani have sent
cables to German President Joachim Gauck and German Chancellor
Angela Merkel condoling the death of former German president
Richard von Weizsaecker.
Advisory Council holds meeting
The Advisory Council yesterday held its weekly meeting under HE the
Advisory Council Speaker Mohamed bin Mubarak al-Khulaifi.
Later, the council discussed amending some of the provisions of law No.
19 of 2007. They agreed to present the law to the Committee of Internal
and Foreign Affairs to examine and present a report at a later date.
Meanwhile, Advisory Council’s Interior and External Affairs Committee
held its 34th regular session yesterday.
The committee unanimously re-elected Mohamed Abdullah al-Sulaiti as
its rapporteur. Then the committee studied a draft law amending some
provisions of the traffic law issued by Decree No 19 of 2007 and decided
to submit its report thereon to the Advisory Council.
Speaker meets UK ambassador
Speaker of the Advisory Council Mohamed bin Mubarak al-Khulaifi
yesterday held a meeting with Ambassador of the United Kingdom in
Doha Nicolas Dasinter Hopton. They discussed bilateral relations in the
parliamentary field. HE the Advisory Council Secretary-General Fahad
bin Mubarak al-Khayareen attended the meeting.
6
Gulf Times
Tuesday, February 3, 2015
QATAR
Online registration for
healthcare event begins
Hamad Medical Corporation
(HMC) has started online registration for this year’s Middle
East Forum on Quality and
Safety in Healthcare to be
held at the Qatar National
Convention Centre from
May 29.
The three-day annual forum
has become a showcase for
healthcare improvement
where renowned experts
present innovative methods
to improve healthcare quality
and safety that have proved
to be successful in clinical
environments around the
world.
This year’s forum focuses
on enhancing patient
engagement practices and
establishing better patient
flows across healthcare
delivery systems, as well as
implementing specialised
intervention programmes
to deliver improved patient
outcomes.
Held in partnership with the
Institute for Healthcare Improvement (IHI), the Middle
East Forum provides hospital
administrators, doctors, nurses, allied health professionals, and students in health
disciplines with a unique
opportunity to network and
collaborate on a large scale,
with more than 30 workshop
sessions and several keynote
addresses.
To register online, participants can log on to the
http://ihimeforum.hamad.qa
website.
Dr Abdullatif al-Khal, HMC’s
deputy chief, said the forum
has grown significantly year
on year, and that the number
of available places in the different sessions is limited.
“The Middle East Forum has
become an important event
for healthcare professionals
in Qatar and the region, so
it is important that those
hoping to attend the Forum
register early to ensure they
can select the sessions that
interest them most. Many of
the sessions are designed to
be interactive and consequently space is limited,” said
Dr al-Khal.
Officials at the opening session of the training workshop.
Workshop discusses
topics on UN Congress
A
workshop on the preparations for the 13th UN Congress on Crime Prevention
and Criminal Justice has started
at the Civil Defence officers’ club
in Doha.
The congress will be held in Qatar from April 12 to 19.
The four-day training workshop
was inaugurated by Maj Gen Abdullah Yusuf al-Mal, Adviser to HE
Minister of Interior.
Maj Gen al-Mal is also the chairman of the preparatory committee
of the UN Congress, which is held
in a GCC country for the first time
in over 60 years.
The inaugural ceremony on
Sunday was attended by Dr Ahmad
Hassan al-Hamadi, vice chairman
of the committee and Brig Badr Ibrahim al-Ghanim, director of the
Technical Office of the Minister of
Interior.
The participants include members of the organising committee,
officers from MoI and representatives from the Foreign Ministry,
Public Prosecution and General
Secretariat of the Council of Ministers.
Speaking at the opening session,
Maj Gen al-Mal said that the topics
involved in the preparation of the
congress were prepared in accordance with joint studies done by the
concerned bodies from the Interior
and Foreign Ministries.
He added that Qatar had made
all preparations for the success-
ful holding of the congress in accordance with the decisions of the
ministries of Interior, Justice and
Foreign Affairs along with Qatar
Foundation and Public Prosecution.
He pointed that Qatar had presented two initiatives concerned
with the conference. The first one
is the youth forum to be held on
April 7-9 that precedes the congress. A high-level meet also will
be held for the first time during
April 12-14 which will be attended
by the heads of many countries and
delegates of the Foreign and Justice
ministries and Public Prosecutions
from different states.
An introductory presentation
was made in the workshop by an
officer from the United Nations
Office on Drugs and Crime on the
activities of the UNODC and UN
policy-making in the field of crime
prevention and criminal justice.
The second presentation dealt
with the Vienna convention which
works to put forward policies and
standards to combat crime and
criminal justice.
Recommendations have been
submitted at the opening of the
UN session in accordance with the
different levels to approve all matters relating to the fight against
corruption and human trafficking,
illegal immigration and trafficking
in drugs.
He added that these decisions
are based on what has been dis-
cussed in Vienna, referring to the
importance of the Doha Declaration.
The second session dealt with
the conference and its preparatory phase with reference to the
regional preparatory meetings,
and provisional agenda and topics
under discussion and the structure
of the preliminary procedures and
consultations for the conference
and other important sessions and
meetings.
The workshop will conclude
tomorrow. The final day’s session will discuss the United Nations conventions on international
crime and logistics and issues
related to preparing the 13th UN
Congress.
Nojoom loyalty programme has
Jumbo Electronics as new partner
O
oredoo loyalty programme Nojoom has added its newest partner, Jumbo Electronics, as the
company looks to continue to expand
its range of partners in 2015.
With the new partnership, Nojoom
members will be able to earn and redeem Nojoom Points with Jumbo Electronics’ shops across Qatar.
As an added bonus to commemorate the launch, members who earn or
redeem points from now until March
4 will be automatically entered into a
special draw where 10 lucky members
will win a range of incredible prizes including smart TVs, home theatre systems, smartphones and more.
Ahmed Ali al-Mohannadi, director
(Customer experience and segmentation) Ooredoo, said: “Nojoom is making sure we kick off 2015 with new
partners offers, deals and competitions
that truly reward our customers. We
want this year to be our best-ever and
teaming with Jumbo Electronics will
mean our range of rewards just got even
bigger.”
C V Rappai, Jumbo Electronics CEO
said: “Jumbo Electronics and Ooredoo
both believe in the power of technology, which is why we are delighted to
partner with Nojoom to give customers the best deals in Qatar on quality
electronic such as mobile phones and
household appliances.”
Al-Mohannadi with Rappai after signing an agreement adding Jumbo Electronics as
Nojoom’s newest partner.
Jumbo Electronics offers innovative, world-class electronics, communication and digital solutions, with 16
branches available in locations such as
the Al Nasser, City Center, Salwa Road
and Airport Road.
This addition to the growing list of
Nojoom partners expands the range
of electronic and digital service options available, giving members an
abundance of choices to shop around
and find the best deals. Members will
earn 1 Nojoom point for every QR6
spent at Jumbo Electronics.
Moreover, members can choose
to redeem their points towards their
purchase at Jumbo Electronics from
voucher denominations starting at
QR50.
Every Ooredoo customer with a Qatar ID can enrol into Nojoom, and redemptions can be made following Nojoom’s redemption channels by logging
into their account at www.ooredoo.qa/
nojoom or by downloading the Ooredoo App.
Alfardan Automobiles celebrates
al-Attiyah’s Dakar Rally victory
J
ust days after winning this year’s
Dakar Rally, one of the greatest and
toughest motor races in the world,
Nasser al-Attiyah has returned from
South America to join Alfardan Automobiles in celebrating his epic victory
in the MINI ALL4 Racing car.
Alfardan Group president and CEO
Omar Alfardan and Alfardan Group Automotive Operations chief operating
officer Mohamed Kandeel personally
welcomed al-Attiyah at a cake cutting
ceremony held yesterday at the BMW
Group importer’s new MINI-dedicated
showroom.
Alfardan said he was proud that
MINI ALL4 Racing had continued its
success story at one of the toughest
races in motorsport - with 2015 being
its fourth consecutive win - and that it
Alfardan Group president and CEO Omar
Alfardan (right) and Qatari champion
Nasser al-Attiyah led the cake cutting
ceremony to celebrate the latter’s Dakar
Rally win recently.
illustrated the scale of the brand’s ability to build incredible cars.
“We are honoured to welcome Nasser
al-Attiyah to our new MINI showroom to
commemorate his hard fought win at the
Dakar Rally,” he noted. “We believe he is a
true inspiration to the State of Qatar, becoming an idol to many young Qataris to
strive towards success and victory.”
“His perseverance and dedication
continue to echo long after the competition’s conclusion,” added Alfardan.
Al-Attiyah said the MINI ALL4 Racing itself has proven its ability against
some of the top rally cars and on some
of the toughest roads in the world.
Al-Attiyah and his French co-driver
Mathieu Baumel clinched victory after
a gruelling 9,000km race spanning Argentina, Chile and Bolivia.
8
Gulf Times
Tuesday, February 3, 2015
QATAR
Envoy hints at lifting
of Brazilian beef ban
Phantom Coupe
By Joey Aguilar
Staff Reporter
Rolls-Royce Bespoke
models will be on
display at Doha show
T
R
olls-Royce Motor Cars
Doha, the sole authorised
dealer of Rolls-Royce cars
in Qatar, is set to display two
exceptional Bespoke vehicles
at the 2015 Qatar Motor Show,
beginning on February 6.
Phantom Coupé and Wraith
will take centrestage at the fifth
edition of the country’s premier
motoring event.
“The Rolls-Royce Bespoke
Programme proved to be a popular choice for our discerning clientele in 2014 and the two vehicles we have selected to display
complement the discerning taste
of our Qatari luxury connoisseurs,” said Mohamed Kandeel,
chief operating officer, Alfardan
Group (automotive operations).
The Phantom Coupé has a
two-tone theme, combining
Arabian Blue colour with an
English White bonnet and roof,
and a Crème Light coachline.
The interior of the vehicle
features luxurious Crème Light
leather seats with Navy Blue seat
piping, steering wheel and headrest monograms. The Phantom
Coupé also features a stunning
Star Headliner, completing the
ultra-luxury aura of the car.
Alongside the Bespoke Phan-
tom Coupé will be the most
powerful and dynamic car ever
produced by the ultra-luxury
marque: the Rolls-Royce Wraith.
Since its introduction to the
market in the fourth quarter of
2013, Wraith has experienced
an exceptional popularity on a
global, regional and local level,
attracting a diverse clientele.
Wraith combines automotive
and engineering excellence with
the pinnacle of luxury, capturing
the interest of a younger, more
dynamic audience.
The vehicle comes with English White Exterior and Consort
Red coachline.
The bespoke theme is carried
on throughout the interior of
Wraith. It combines Consort Red
leather with Seashell Piping and
headrest monograms, and features Canadel Panelling in beautiful open grain wood throughout the cabin, delicately curved
around the contours of the door.
Each piece is orientated at 55
degrees then carefully bookmatched to create a flawless mirror image through the centre line
of the car, further displaying the
Bespoke artistry and attention
to detail applied by the ultraluxury marque.
he “imminent” lifting of
the ban on Brazilian beef
in Saudi Arabia is a good
indication that Qatar and other GCC countries may follow
suit, Brazilian charge d’affaires
Viviane Rios Balbino has said.
Late last year, a high-level
delegation from Brazil, including the minister of agriculture
and livestock, called on the
Saudi Arabia agriculture minister and executive president of
Saudi Food and Drugs Authority
(SFDA).
The embassy official said
both have agreed on the SFDA
health certificate for export
of meat and meat products to
Saudi Arabia and on the additional steps to reopen the Saudi
market for Brazilian beef.
“It may be that the GCC authorities are trying to coordinate a unified position towards
the ban,” said the embassy official, reiterating that “the meat
is absolutely safe.”
“We believe that lifting of the
ban in Saudi will pave the way
for a GCC-wide reopening of
the market.”
In Qatar, the ban was placed
in 2013 following the announcement by the Brazilian government of one isolated case of a
typical bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE). It was detected in the brain of an animal
that died of other causes.
Balbino noted that despite the
World Animal Health Organisa-
Viviane Rios Balbino
tion declaring Brazil clear of
the disease, some governments
at the time decided to take
measures to ban Brazilian beef.
The embassy in Doha also
provided the needed technical information to Qatari authorities concerned to prove
that there is no reason for fear
against the quality of Brazilian
beef, according to the embassy
official.
“We are looking forward to
working with Qatar’s Ministry
of the Environment and the Supreme Council of Health to provide any additional information
about the meat,” she said.
Balbino pointed out that Brazilian beef is internationally
recognised for its quality. “Our
cattle are grass-fed, therefore
the protein in the meat is high.
The country is equipped with
fully certified halal facilities,
which makes Brazil a ready
competitor for the regional
market.”
“In March 2013, a delegation
of specialists from the Brazilian
ministry of agriculture and live-
stock met with officials of Qatar’s Ministry of Environment.
They were satisfied that the incident was an isolated one,” said
Balbino, adding: “The case in
question was of specialists call
‘a typical BSE,’ which is a noncontagious form of the disease.
It is not caused by the ingestion
of contaminated food, nor does
it contaminate the beef and milk
from the animal.”
Brazil is also a major exporter
of poultry and beef to all GCC
countries, it is learnt.
Brazil
exported
36,000
tonnes of chicken meat to Qatar from January to October last
year amounting to $60mn.
The poultry being offered in
most supermarkets in Qatar are
from Brazil, holding about 70%
of the local market.
Commercial Bank unveils campaign for new customers
C
ommercial Bank has announced an “exciting”
new campaign for its
‘Life in Qatar’ customers following the “continued success
and popularity” of this tailored
banking proposition for expatriates who are soon to arrive in, or
have recently relocated to, Qatar.
‘Life in Qatar’, the bank said, is
designed to reduce the stress of
relocation by helping expatriates
settle in faster while providing a
wide-range of rewards that now
include a “free gift voucher” to
furnish their new house.
‘Life in Qatar’ customers with
a monthly salary over QR15,000
who open a Commercial Bank
account with a credit card will
receive a free gift voucher worth
up to QR1,000 to help furnishing their new house, redeemable
at selected furniture stores. Customers with a monthly salary over
QR7,500 a month with an account
and credit card are entitled for a
furniture voucher worth QR500.
With “Life in Qatar”, the
process for getting a loan is
even easier for new arrivals as
they can receive immediate approvals on vehicle and personal
loan applications to help them
cover essential initial expenses
entailed by relocation.
‘Life in Qatar’ provides a
unique opportunity for salaried expatriates to ease the
burden of moving prior, during
and after arrival. Before arrival,
expatriates can open their account through online Commercial Bank banking services for
remittance services.
Commercial Bank’s dedicated
website, www.lifeinqatar.com
provides reliable information
to answer the most frequently
asked questions by those intending to relocate and it’s constantly
updated to help new residents
adapt to living in Qatar.
Upon arrival, Commercial
Bank debit cards are readily
available for collection. ‘Life in
Qatar’ also helps customers get
instantly connected by providing them a free phone and SIM
card; they are also applicable for
hotel discounts in Doha.
Customers get a free executive service to find a house; up to
30% discount on car rental and
various discounts at B/Attitude
spa in Doha. For Sadara eligible customers are entitled for
airport pickup to a destination
of their choice upon arrival.
Dean Proctor, executive general manager and head of retail
and enterprise, said: “Com-
mercial Bank is the original and
the leading bank in the market
providing a specialised proposition for new arrivals to Qatar.
The bank also offers the most
comprehensive range of benefits
available for salaried expatriates
who are about to move and / or
have recently relocated to Qatar.
“We are extending our rewards even further to cover
home furnishing. Geographical transfer from one country
to another is always a daunting
process, but ‘Life in Qatar’ is
designed to smoothen and facilitate expatriates experience
before even arriving.”
Participants at the concluding function of the QCF winter camp.
QCF winter camp ends
Q
atar Career Fair (QCF), a member of the Qatar Foundation for
Education, Science and Community Development, has concluded
its first Winter Career Camp 2015.
QCF focused on engaging young
Qatari students and providing them
with a range of practical skills and
tools to help them choose the academic path that best suits their interest
and potential.
All 30 students who participated in
the camp were given certificates.
Fahad Saad al-Qahtani, group executive director, QF administration,
said: “Since its establishment 20 years
ago, the Qatar Foundation dedicates
its efforts to develop education, research and society in Qatar, in order to
realise the Qatar National Vision 2030.
It places Qatar at the forefront of nations, as a knowledge-based economy,
by unleashing the talents of Qataris
and putting them to great service
within society.”
Abdulla Ahmed al-Mansoori, executive director of Qatar Career Fair,
said: “The career fair hopes that the
participating students at the Winter
Career Camp have benefited from the
activities and that they now have a
better perspective of the future career
they wish to take, assisted by the skills
acquired at the different interactive
workshops and field visits.”
Aisha Mandi al-Tamimi, mother of
one of the participants, praised the
camp saying: “I was able to examine
the programmes at the QCF’s Winter
Career Fair and found it outstanding
in terms of activities and workshops
offered. Therefore, I registered two of
my daughters. What has really excited
me about this camp other than the
workshops, are the field visits to some
of the largest companies in Qatar, as
it will be useful for my daughters’ in
deciding on a future career path.”
Physiotherapists attend training course
R
umailah Hospital, in collaboration with Australia-based Neurodynamic Solutions, organised a
training course to develop the neurodynamic skills of physiotherapy specialists
at Hamad Medical Corporation (HMC).
Neurodynamic relates communication between different parts of the
nervous system and is also known for
relieving pressures off the limb nerve.
Neurodynamic is also a type of hand
treatment for pains resulting from the
pinch of the limb nerve.
About 27 physiotherapy specialists
from HMC attended the pioneering
four-day workshop held at Medical
City. The lecturer at the workshop was
Swiss-based physiotherapy specialist
Alfio Albasini.
Noora al-Mathahika, chief of physiotherapy at HMC, said: “The neurodynamic method is the latest advancement in physiotherapy treatment
procedures that relies on releasing the
tension of the nerve to eliminate pain.”
She stressed that the department is
very keen to improve the skills of its
physiotherapy specialists by facilitating training courses on new treatment
Participants at the training course.
techniques. “The workshop was organised for a selection of specialists
who handle treatment of joints, spinal cord and muscles,” al-Mathahika
added.
She said that neurodynamic technique is proving successful in the
treatment of back pain, which currently affects more than 60% of all
cases, both male and female, admitted
by the department.
The female clinic receives around
150 to 180 cases daily while the male
clinic sees between 250 and 280 cases
among those aged from 14 years and
above.
Al-Mathahika said back pain cases
could occur due to accidents or injuries including all kinds of fractures,
slip disks, joint replacements, spine
correction, joint removal and some
movement challenges due to accidents. It can also occur due to sports
injuries such as damaged cruciate
ligaments.
Aymen Ibrahim Rafat, physiotherapy
orthopaedics supervisor of male outpatient clinics, Rumailah Hospital said
the workshop was within the framework of HMC’s goal of improving and
developing its physiotherapy services into best practice through training
courses on methods of diagnosis as well
as inspection of types of injury.
Gulf Times
Tuesday, February 3, 2015
9
QATAR
Qatar Charity helps
thousands in Sudan
Q
atar Charity has implemented projects worth
QR28.1mn for the Republic of Sudan in 2014. The projects
benefitted 152,000 persons in
ten states, covering areas such as
health, relief, water, education,
orphanages, shelter and support
for women and children.
About QR10mn was spent on
support for women and the family, with the number of sponsored
children rising by 27% to 3481,
2,980 of whom are orphans, as
well as 153 poor families, 38 people with disabilities, 207 students and 103 teachers.
A variety of activities are carried out for the benefit of the
sponsored orphans, benefiting
more than 3,000 orphans. They
have taken part in recreational
trips and health days, in addition
to the global orphan event which
was attended by more than 1,000
orphans, under the supervision
of the Qatars ambassador in Sudan and officials from the Ministry of Social Welfare.
Qatar Charity is also building nine homes at a total cost of
QR303,000, within the framework of supporting poor families.
A total of QR1.1mn was spent
on seasonal projects which benefited 71,686 people, including orphans, needy families,
people with disabilities and
students. These projects have
covered several regions of Sudan, and included breakfasts for
those fasting, benefitting around
52,892 beneficiaries at a cost of
QR677,000, Zakat al-Fitr, for the
benefit of 629 people at a cost of
QR90,000, sacrificial animals at
a cost of QR304,000.
Qatar Charity has also intervened in the field of relief, contributing effectively to the flood
disaster efforts after the recent
QNB exceeds 50% Qatarisation ratio
By Peter Alagos
Business Reporter
Q
NB’s Qatarisation ratio in 2014
has exceeded 50% of domestic
employees at all levels, including senior leadership positions, QNB
Group chairman Ali Shareef al-Emadi
has said.
“One of QNB’s goals for 2015 is to
prioritise the bank’s strategic nationalisation initiative by continuing to
lead the banking sector’s efforts to
hire Qatari nationals,” al-Emadi announced during the bank’s Ordinary
General Assembly on Sunday.
Having breached the 50% mark last
year, al-Emadi maintained that QNB’s
Qatarisation programme has “strong
representation of nationals at all levels, which includes senior leadership
positions.”
In its 2014 annual report, the QNB
Group Human Capital Division (GHC)
continued to execute “defined strategic initiatives” within the context of
the Group’s five-year strategic plan.
This led to a growth in workforce
with more than 14,500 employees by
the end of December 2014, of which,
over 2,150 are based in Qatar.
“In 2014, GHC focus has been on
improving the service to QNB Group
employees and strengthening the talent pool to ensure the right people are
QNB Group chairman al-Emadi.
in the right job at the right time to support the global growth of QNB Group,”
the report said.
Similar to last year, QNB’s “Global
Leadership and Talent Management
Programme continued to address ongoing leadership development needs
across QNB Group’s expanding international network.
The programme was launched in Sudan, South Sudan, Mauritania, Kuwait,
and Lebanon. The GHC also installed
the Halogen Integrated Talent Management System software, providing
inputs for implementing global best
practices in employee talent management.
QNB’s “Ambassador Programme”
also opened opportunities for employees in representing the bank in international operations as part of their
career development.
“Growing on the previous successes,
2014 saw Qatari nationals deployed to
countries such as Singapore, Kuwait,
Oman, and Indonesia as part of the
Ambassador Programme, the report
said.
It added, “Individuals from previous placements returned to Qatar and
secured roles with increased responsibilities, applying both their overseas
experiences to the overall value of QNB
Group.”
In 2014, the QNB Learning & Development Department increased its
focus on supporting employees to gain
internationally-recognised certifications as part of QNB Group’s employee
value proposition.
Successful employees have been certified in a wide range of accreditations,
including credit risk, financial analysis,
securities and investments, and project
management, among others.
To further boost its strategic nationalisation initiative, the GHC team attended 10 major career events in 2014,
including a UK Career Fair, events at
local universities, activities in partnership with the Labour Department, and
by hosting QNB Recruitment Open
Day.
Toyota global stand design for motor show
A
bdullah Abdulghani
and Bros, the authorised dealer of Toyota
in Qatar, will feature the
company’s new global stand
design in the form of a ‘wave
in motion’ at the 5th edition
of the Qatar Motor Show
that begins on Friday.
The stand design is dynamic and simple, energetic
and pure and is an illustration of the Japanese principle of Seijaku, meaning “active calm” or serenity in the
midst of activity.
The stand will create an
immersive environment that
guides the visitors on an exciting journey through stateof-the-art technology: from
the large, impressive staging
to the small playful design
details to a tangible experience of the product itself.
A range of Toyota vehicles
will be showcased at Exhibition Hall No 8 to promote
latest vehicles from its bestselling SUV and sedan range
including the latest versions
of the FJ TRD, Land Cruiser,
Avanza, Yaris Hatchback,
Avalon, Camry RZ and 86.
Toyota will also display the 86 open concept,
which features an automatic
multi-layered fabric roof
together with a glass rear
screen. It folds away neatly
behind the fixed rear seats,
maintaining the 2 2 layout.
Abdullah
Abdulghani
and Bros. will showcase the
FJ Cruiser TRD to focus on
Toyota brand campaign ‘The
Way I Ride’ to connect with
a more youthful audience
across the region.
The new theme marks
the evolution of the Toyota
brand and acknowledges
its versatility in providing a
platform for self-expression
to customers across the
region. It also highlights
their individuality and their
uniqueness in the world.
The new campaign also
marks the second phase of
the brand campaign which
is based on Toyota’s “brand
promise” of Waku Doki and
Peace of Mind.
The Toyota Land Cruiser
will give visitors an opportunity to appreciate its legendary on-road as well as
off-road capabilities. It is
equipped with a multi-terrain select system offering
five modes, which allows the
vehicle to adapt to various
road conditions for excellent off-road ground covering performance, which also
controls Wheel Spin and
Wheel Lockup.
Some of the beneficiaries of Qatar Charity projects.
rains that flooded the River Nile
State.
In addition, Qatar Charity
completed the reconstruction to
areas affected by floods that hit
Khartoum in 2013, building 21
classrooms and 40 toilets, benefitting over 2,000 students.
The total budget for these programmes exceeded QR1.1mn.
In the area of income-generating projects, Qatar Charity
has implemented 227 projects at
a total cost of QR773,000, benefitting 1,589 Sudanese, through
interest free loans, in partnership
with experienced and efficient
local organisations.
In the field of health, Qatar Charity spent more than
QR1.3mn, that helped over
24,600, and consisted of the
construction of three health centres and the organization of a polio vaccination campaign in cooperation with the Arab League.
Qatar Charity also arranged
the drilling of nine water wells
with a further seven currently
being implemented, in addition
to the distribution of 16 water
coolers to hospitals. A total of
QR842,055 was spent on water
projects, benefiting 8,000 people.
Qatar Charity has also implemented projects in the field of
education, including projects in
mosques and memorisation centres, with a further 19 projects
under construction. A project for
the distribution of school bags
was implemented in the state of
North Darfur, benefitting more
than 1,000 students. More than
QR2.7mn was spent on education projects that benefited some
7,200 people.
Qatar Charity’s initiative for
the development of Darfur has
included a service complex,
completed in 2014 and consisting
of two schools of basic and secondary education, in addition to
a health centre, 15 staff homes, a
mosque, a police station, a water
point and athletic fields.
As part of the Darfur initiative,
Qatar Charity has also carried
out a number of social harmony
projects, as well as economic empowerment, the construction of
30 housing units, part of a social
housing project, at a total cost
of QR9.3mn, benefiting 10,000
people.
10
Gulf Times
Tuesday, February 3, 2015
REGION
Yemen drone strike kills four Al Qaeda suspects
AFP
Sanaa
A
drone strike killed at
least four Al Qaeda suspects in Yemen yesterday, tribal sources said, the
third attack in a week after
Washington vowed to pursue
its anti-militant campaign
there.
The unmanned aircraft, which
only the United States operates
in the region, targeted a car carrying “at least four” suspects in
Baida province, the sources said.
They said the bodies inside the
car were left charred.
“Loud explosions were heard
after the attack,” one source told
AFP, saying this could mean the
car had been “loaded with arms
and explosives”.
This was the third such strike
since US President Barack Obama
on January 25 vowed no let-up in
Washington’s campaign against
militants in Yemen.
Four suspected militants were
killed in a similar strike on Saturday, while another raid left
three alleged Al Qaeda militants
dead on January 26.
Both of those attacks were
in the southern province of
Shabwa.
Obama had dismissed suggestions that deepening chaos
in Yemen since last month’s
resignation of Western-backed
President Abd-Rabbu Mansour
Hadi had forced a change in
Washington’s campaign against
Al Qaeda.
Obama ruled out US troop
deployment in Yemen but said
Washington would continue “to
go after high value targets inside
Yemen”, admitting however that
this was “a long, arduous process”.
According to the New America
Foundation, the United States
has carried out more than 110
strikes on targets in Yemen since
2009, mostly using drones.
One such attack in September 2011 killed US-Yemeni cleric
Anwar al-Awlaki, a leader of Al
Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula
Tehran in
first launch
of satellite
since 2012
News channel
off air hours
after launch
Agencies
Manama
P
rogramming at a pan-Arab
news channel owned by
Saudi Prince Alwaleed bin
Talal was unavailable yesterday,
hours after its first transmission
from Bahrain.
The satellite feed of Alarab
News Channel showed only promotional material, and an Alarab
executive declined to comment.
The channel later said on its
Twitter account that broadcasting has “stopped for technical
and administrative reasons and
that it will be back soon”.
The head of media at Bahrain’s
information ministry, Yusuf
Mohamed, said “co-operation
with Alarab’s administration is
ongoing, in order to resume its
broadcasts and complete necessary measures as soon as possible.”
His statement, carried by the
official BNA news agency, did
not elaborate on the causes of
the interruption.
The channel took to the air at
1300 GMT on Sunday.
One of its first segments included a Shia opponent of Bahrain’s rulers, sparking criticism
in pro-government daily Akhbar
al-Khaleej.
The newspaper said it learnt
that Alarab was stopped for “not
adhering to the norms prevalent
in Gulf countries”.
In a column in the same newspaper, editor-in-chief Anwar
Abdulrahman asked: “Is Alarab
really Arab?” He condemned
the channel for hosting former
member of parliament Khalil
Marzouq, who is “radical to the
core”.
“Resorting to muscle flexing
in news coverage, with the hope
of proving that you are an independent channel, is not going to
work,” he wrote.
Alarab entered a crowded field
that includes the first regional
broadcaster, 19-year-old Al
Jazeera.
It is also a rival for Dubaibased Al Arabiya, established
in 2003 and owned by Saudi
Sheikh Waleed al-Ibrahim.
Alarab had vowed to be evenhanded in its coverage.
“We are not going to take
sides,” Jamal Khashoggi, the
general manager, said in an interview before the launch.
“I think a news channel should
not have a political agenda... We
should just be a news channel
that provides accurate, objective
information.”
Speaking in 2012 in the wake
of the Arab Spring revolts in
some Arab countries, Prince
Alwaleed told CNN the planned
channel was an attempt to fill
“an opening for a more pragmatic and logical channel that
really takes the centre’s point
of view”.
Bahrain faced protests in 2011
led by mainly Shia Muslim citizens demanding reforms and
more of a share in the government.
Authorities have quelled the
protests but the kingdom continues to face protests and attacks using home-made explosives from time to time.
AFP
Tehran
I
A handout picture released by the Iranian defence ministry shows the launch of the Fajr (Dawn)
observation satellite early yesterday.
Iran nuclear deal faces mounting hurdles
Agencies
Tehran
T
here are some in Tehran
convinced a final nuclear
deal between Iran and
world powers has already been
sealed. Others are adamant there
will never be a pact.
But as uncertainty persists
over talks aimed at ending the
12-year standoff on Iran’s disputed atomic programme, hurdles to an agreement are stacking up.
In Washington, lawmakers
are considering imposing new
sanctions on Tehran despite calls
from the White House to give the
negotiations more time.
Hardline Iranian MPs have
responded with threats of their
own and are drafting two bills
that would undermine the talks.
With the going already
tough—the level of uranium enrichment Iran can conduct and
a timetable for lifting sanctions
are said to be blocking a deal—
analysts say pressure is being
ratcheted up.
“Those who oppose any diplomacy between Iran and the
West are already seeking to end
the process,” said Ellie Geranmayeh, an Iran specialist at the
European Council on Foreign
Relations.
“With time, they will gain further ammunition.”
Although the June 30 deadline
for a final agreement between
Iran and the P5+1 powers—Britain, China, France, Russia and
the United States plus Germany—is some way off, two earlier
deadlines were missed.
In the Iranian capital, officials
say the United States and other
world powers need to show more
flexibility in nailing down the
hard details of a deal.
Iran’s negotiators have given
no indication a compromise is in
the offing and Supreme Leader
Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, who
has the final word, last month
voiced doubt that the US could
be trusted.
Israel is lobbying hard against a
final deal and Saudi Arabia is also
wary, analysts say, and the negotiations could be scuttled if there
is no definitive progress soon.
The biggest threat, they say, is
the possibility of new US sanctions on Iran, which Foreign
Minister Mohamed Javad Zarif
has said would effectively “torpedo” the talks.
“Those who oppose any
diplomacy between Iran
and the West are already
seeking to end the process”
Such an outcome is likely the
aim of Israeli Prime Minister
Benjamin Netanyahu’s address
to the US Congress about Iran’s
nuclear efforts on March 3.
In a signal of White House
disapproval at such a high-profile and untimely intervention an outline agreement with Iran
is due on March 31 - President
Barack Obama will not meet
Netanyahu.
Two US senators, Republican
accused of instigating a string
of attacks against the United
States.
AQAP, which Washington
considers the most dangerous
branch of the global terror network, also claimed responsibility for the deadly January 7 attack on French satirical weekly
Charlie Hebdo.
Mark Kirk and Democrat Robert
Menendez, have said they will
decide by March 24 whether to
table new legislation.
If they can convince enough
Democrats in the Republicancontrolled Congress to back
sanctions, they could have the
super-majority needed to pass
veto-proof legislation.
“(Menendez) will have an
easier time collecting sponsors
if there is no movement in the
talks,” Geranmayeh said.
In Tehran, MPs are considering two bills, one tearing up an
interim deal that has reined in
Tehran’s nuclear activities and
another allowing the Islamic
Republic’s atomic scientists to
speed up their operations.
Evidence of the souring atmosphere was clear when 21
hardline lawmakers recently
condemned Zarif for taking a
15-minute stroll with US Secretary of State John Kerry during a
break at negotiations in Geneva.
“Aversion to the deal has always had robust and noisy con-
stituencies in Tehran and Washington, but both governments
need to rise above the din if they
want an agreement,” said Siavush Randjbar-Daemi, a lecturer
on Iran and the Middle East at
Manchester University.
Kerry and Zarif may meet
again this week in Munich and
the two “need to thrash this out
directly, hopefully through less
controversial walks”, RandjbarDaemi said.
Amir Mohebbian, a Tehranbased analyst close to hardliners
and several top figures, said the
growing pressure could actually
push the discussions forward.
But too much delay could cost
President Hassan Rouhani—who
raised hopes of a return to prosperity via a nuclear deal—vital
public support.
When past deadlines were
missed, Rouhani, a moderate in
stark contrast to his hardline predecessor Mahmoud Ahmadinejad,
went on state television to insist
the talks were close to a result.
Iranians will now be look-
Jail term for
Kuwait online
activist upheld
Kuwait appeals court
yesterday upheld a fouryear jail sentence against an
online activist for insulting
judges on Twitter.
A lower court in October
handed the jail term to
Ahmed Fadhel who was
charged with writing
comments on Twitter
deemed offensive to a
number of judges, who then
sued him.
Yesterday’s verdict is not final
as it can still be challenged in
the supreme court.
Dozens of tweeters have
been sentenced to jail terms,
mainly for insulting the
emir. Dozens of others are
still awaiting trial on similar
charges.
A number of jail terms
against online and stateless
activists have been issued
since the start of 2015.
ing for signs of more concrete
progress, Mohebbian said.
“With the anniversary of the
Islamic revolution on February 11,
it would be a good time to send a
positive signal to Iran’s people.”
Rouhani accused opponents on
Saturday of effectively “cheering
on” the other side in the negotiations with world powers.
Rouhani, faced with rising
popular concern over his unfulfilled election pledges to fix the
economy, blamed hardline interference in part for the talks’
halting progress.
“The other side applauds their
own, but here in our country, it
is not clear what (the critics) are
doing. It is as if they are cheering on the rival team,” he told a
public gathering, quoted by the
official Irna news agency.
“And when we ask them what
they are going, they answer: ‘We
are criticising and criticism is a
good thing ... This is not criticism, it is sabotage of national
interests and favour for partisan
politics,” he said.
ran launched an observation
satellite yesterday - its first
since 2012 - with President
Hassan Rouhani declaring it safely
entered orbit and that he had personally ordered the mission.
The Fajr (Dawn) satellite was
successfully placed 450km
above Earth, said Al Alam television, an Arabic-language station
owned by the Islamic Republic.
It is the fourth such satellite
launch by Iran, after three others
between 2009 and 2012.
The satellite was locally made,
said the official Irna news agency, as was its launcher, according
to Rouhani who noted Iran’s aim
is to have no reliance on foreign
space technology.
“Our scientists have entered a
new phase for conquering space.
We will continue on this path,”
Rouhani said in a short statement on state television.
Al Alam said the Fajr satellite,
weighing 52kg, would be able
to take accurate pictures from
space. It took eight minutes to
reach orbit and is now linked
with its ground-based controllers, state media said.
The launch came as Iran started 10 days of celebrations for the
36th anniversary of the Islamic
revolution, culminating on February 11, “Victory Day,” when the
US-backed shah’s reign officially
ended in 1979.
Defence Minister General Hossein Dehgan echoed Rouhani’s
comments, stating that the 21m
and 26 tonne launcher, named
Safir-Fajr, shows “the ability of
Iran to build satellite launchers”.
In February 2010, Iran launched
a satellite containing a rat, turtles
and insects. Separate missions
under Iran’s space programme
have seen two capsules launched.
One, in January 2013, included a
monkey that was recovered alive.
Iran’s space activities, however, have sent alarm bells ringing in the international community amid concern over Tehran’s
development of technology that
could have military purposes.
Some Western countries suspect Iran of secretly trying to
build an atomic bomb and fear
the technology used to launch
space rockets could be diverted
into developing long-range ballistic missiles, potentially capable of carrying atomic warheads.
Tehran has long denied having military goals for its space
programme or its nuclear drive,
and is currently engaged in talks
with the United States and other
leading powers to end the standoff over its disputed atomic activities.
Embassy resumes services
Syrians living in Kuwait wait to renew their passports at their embassy in Kuwait
City yesterday after it resumed consular services. The embassy closed its doors
after Kuwait joined other Gulf countries in expelling Syrian envoys in February
2012 amid tensions with President Bashar al-Assad’s regime.
Gulf Times
Tuesday, February 3, 2015
11
ARAB WORLD
New Tunisia coalition cabinet includes Islamists
AFP
Tunis
T
unisia yesterday presented its new coalition government, dominated by
the secular Nidaa Tounes party
but also including its Islamist
rivals, as it prepares to tackle security problems and a faltering
economy.
Prime Minister Habib Essid
announced the make-up of his
cabinet, which had initially been
abandoned after the moderate
Islamist Ennahda party warned it
would vote against a line-up that
excluded its members.
“We have made changes... to
widen the composition of the
government with the participation of other political parties,”
Essid said.
The new team, which includes
a minister and three state secretaries from Ennahda, will be put
before parliament for a vote of
confidence tomorrow.
“We have no more time to lose,
we are in a race against the clock,”
Essid said as he announced the
line-up at the presidency.
His government will be the
first since landmark parliamentary and presidential elections
last year that were the first freely
contested polls in the country’s
history.
The
anti-Islamist
Nidaa
Tounes of President Beji Caid Essebsi won the largest number of
seats in October’s general election, with Ennahda coming second.
But Nidaa Tounes did not secure a majority and Ennahda,
which holds 69 of parliament’s
217 seats, had rejected a cabinet
in which it was not represented.
Political scientist Ahmed Ma-
nai said the “almost symbolic”
representation of Ennahda would
ensure a majority for the government in parliamentary votes and
allow Essebsi to “neutralise” the
Islamists.
Tunisia has struggled to form
a stable government since it became the birthplace of the Arab
Spring uprisings by ousting
long-time dictator Zine El Abidine Ben Ali in 2011.
It received international praise
for its transition to democracy, in
stark contrast to other countries
in the region now battling instability after similar revolts.
However, the country is mired
with a sluggish economy, and
unemployment remains stubbornly high, especially among
young people.
Essebsi has vowed to address
economic problems to “realise
the promises of the revolution:
dignity, employment, health and
regional equality”.
In addition, security forces
continue to battle militants who
have claimed responsibility for
a series of attacks on police and
soldiers that have killed dozens
of people since Ben Ali’s ouster.
Yesterday’s cabinet allotted six
ministerial posts to Nidaa Tounes
members, including that of foreign affairs. The portfolios of interior, defence and justice were
assigned to independents.
The Free Patriotic Union
party—headed by football club
magnate and former presidential hopeful Slim Riahi—and the
liberal Afek Tounes will also be
represented.
Several Nidaa Tounes officials fought for weeks against
the inclusion of Ennahda members, accusing them of bringing Tunisia to the brink during
their time in office as part of an
interim government.
“It is normal that the primary
party is in power and the second
in opposition,” Nidaa Tounes
general secretary Taieb Baccouche wrote in La Presse newspaper.
He added that keeping Ennahda out of government had been “a
promise to voters” made by the
secularists.
The far-left Popular Front coalition, which won 15 seats in parliament, said yesterday it would
vote against the new cabinet
make-up because of the presence
of Islamists.
Freed Jazeera
reporter calls
for release of
his colleagues
Greste says he felt mixed
emotions about being
released because it meant
leaving behind “my brothers”
AFP
Nicosia
A
ustralian journalist Peter
Greste yesterday urged
Egypt to free his jailed
colleagues at Al Jazeera, describing his “angst” at having
to leave them behind after being
released.
Greste, 49, was arrested for
allegedly aiding the blacklisted
Muslim Brotherhood, along
with colleagues CanadianEgyptian Mohamed Fahmy and
Baher Mohamed of Egypt, in
moves that sparked worldwide
condemnation.
The award-winning correspondent was freed and deported on Sunday after more
than 400 days behind bars,
and he immediately flew with
his brother Michael to Cyprus,
where he has been resting before
returning to Australia.
“This is a massive step forward... I just hope that Egypt
keeps going down that path with
the others,” Greste told Al Jazeera
in his first interview since leaving
prison.
Greste said he felt a “real mix
of emotions boiling inside” upon
hearing that he was to be released
because it meant leaving behind
“my brothers” Fahmy and Mohamed.
“I had gone out for a run... the
prison warden called me and said:
‘It is time to get your stuff and
go,’” he told the pan-Arab television network.
“I feel incredible angst about
my colleagues, leaving them behind,” he said.
“Amidst all this relief, I still
feel a sense of concern and worry.
If it’s appropriate for me to be
free, it’s right for all of them to be
freed.”
Greste said he was overwhelmed by the level of support
for the campaign for his release,
and that he now looked forward
to “watching a few sunsets” and
“feeling sand under my toes”.
Fahmy’s relatives expect him to
also be deported under a decree
passed by Egypt’s President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi that allows for
the transfer of foreigners on trial.
His fiancee, Marwa Omara,
said in Cairo: “We are expecting
Mohamed to be released in the
coming days.”
Canada said Greste’s release
was “positive” news and that it
remained “very hopeful” that
Fahmy would also be freed soon.
Greste’s family expressed their
joy after speaking to him on the
phone.
The Australian’s mother, Lois,
told a news conference in their
hometown of Brisbane: “I’m ecstatic. I just can’t say how happy
I am about it.”
Father Juris said it was not clear
when he would arrive home.
“He is gathering his thoughts
for the trip home,” said his brother Andrew. “He is safe, healthy,
very, very happy to be on his way
home.”
Australian Prime Minister Tony
Abbott spoke of his “personal delight and our nation’s relief” at
Greste’s release.
He also voiced support for a
free media and thanked Sisi.
Al Jazeera also vowed to pursue
the campaign to free the other two
journalists.
But Heather Allan, head of
newsgathering at the channel,
admitted she wasn’t confident
that Mohamed would be released.
“I can’t say I am confident, no. I
just don’t know, honestly. Are we
going to keep on fighting it? Absolutely—we are not going to leave
him there,” she said.
Mohamed’s family has pinned
their hopes on a presidential pardon or his acquittal on appeal.
Amnesty International said
Greste’s release should not overshadow the ongoing imprisonment of Fahmy and Mohamed.
“All three men are facing
trumped up charges and were
forced to endure a farcical trial
marred by irregularities,” said
Amnesty’s Hassiba Hadj Sahraoui.
The Committee to Protect
Journalists, a media watchdog,
welcomed the release and called
on Sisi to pardon and free Fahmy
and Mohamed “and the other
journalists still behind bars for
doing their work”.
The European Union also
described Greste’s release as a
“positive step” but called for his
colleagues’ to be freed, adding
that “journalists must be able to
work in a safe working environment”.
The high-profile trial, at which
Greste and Fahmy were sentenced
to seven years in prison and Mohamed to 10, proved a public relations nightmare for Sisi, who has
cracked down on Islamists since
toppling president Mohamed
Mursi in July 2013.
The verdict was overturned and
a court in January ordered a retrial
for the three.
Greste worked for multiple
news organisations before joining
Al Jazeera English.
Muslim Brotherhood supporters convicted of playing a role in the killing of 13 policemen in August 2013 stand behind bars during their trial in
Cairo yesterday.
Egypt confirms mass death
sentences for police killings
AFP
Cairo
A
n Egyptian court yesterday confirmed death sentences against 183 men
convicted of killing 13 policemen,
in a verdict slammed as “outrageous” by rights group Amnesty
International.
The verdict came as another
court announced that deposed
Islamist president Mohamed
Mursi would stand trial on February 15 in an espionage case—
the fourth trial he is facing.
The policemen were killed in
an attack on a police station in
Kerdasa, a town on the outskirts
of Cairo, on August 14, 2013.
The attack took place on the
same day that security forces
killed hundreds of demonstrators
in clashes as they dismantled two
massive protest camps in Cairo
supporting Mursi.
The court had in December
issued a preliminary verdict
against 188 defendants in a mass
S
udan’s mainstream opposition called yesterday for a
nationwide boycott of upcoming presidential and parliamentary elections that they say are
guaranteed to lead to a renewal of
the 25-year rule of President Omar
Hassan al-Bashir.
Nearly all of Sudan’s opposition
parties have said they will shun the
April vote, citing deteriorating political and press freedoms, as well
as worsening insurgencies in Darfur and the southern states of Blue
Nile and South Kordofan.
At a news conference, opposition leaders asked all Sudanese
to join the boycott and explicitly
called for Bashir’s removal.
Opposition party representatives said they would hold some
20 political symposiums across
Sudan to encourage citizens to
join their boycott, starting with
one in Khartoum tomorrow.
It is not clear if the Bashir government, which maintains tight
control over political activity in
the country, will allow the symposiums to take place.
Abu-Bakr Youssef, a spokesman
for the main opposition coalition,
said that the campaign’s title “leave” - sent a clear message that
the election will not be free or fair.
“We do not advocate an alternative to the elections, but a boycott of them, and say to Bashir and
his party: Leave,” said Rabah alMahdi, daughter of exiled Umma
party leader Sadiq al-Mahdi.
A ruling party spokesman dismissed the boycott campaign as a
political stunt made necessary by
the opposition’s lack of popularity. “Elections are the most important constitutional duty and
necessary to achieve democracy
and the peaceful transfer of power,” said Yasser Youssef.
“It was up to them to build
their parties to compete in this
election...I expect the failure of
this negative campaign.”
“Issuing mass death sentences
whenever the case involves the
killing of police officers now appears to be near-routine policy,
regardless of facts and with no
attempt to establish individual
responsibility,” said Amnesty’s
Hassiba Hadj Sahraoui.
Rights groups and critics of
President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi,
the former army chief who ousted
Mursi, say authorities are using
the judiciary as an arm to repress
any form of dissent, including
from secular activists.
Mursi and several top leaders
of his blacklisted Muslim Brotherhood are in custody and facing
several trials on charges punishable by death.
Egypt’s first freely elected
president is already facing three
trials and the fourth will open on
February 15 for allegedly leaking
“classified documents”.
Last week a court set May 16
for a verdict in another espionage case in which Mursi and 35
others are accused of conspiring
with foreign powers, including
Iran, to destabilise Egypt.
Separately, another court is to
deliver a verdict on April 21 in the
trial of Mursi and 14 others for inciting the killing of protesters in
clashes outside the presidential
palace in December 2012.
He is also on trial over a jailbreak and attacks on police stations during the 2011 uprising that
ousted president Hosni Mubarak.
Also yesterday, an appeals
court ordered a retrial in a case involving the murder of a police officer during a firefight with Islamists in Kerdasa in September 2013
when security forces stormed the
town to flush out Islamists who
had taken control of it.
In August 2014, a lower court
had confirmed death sentences
on 12 of the 23 defendants tried on
charges of killing Major General
Nabil Faraj.
The court said seven of those
sentenced to death, and who are
in custody, will be retried along
with four of those who were given
life. The other convicted men are
fugitives.
South Sudan rivals
sign new truce deal
Sudanese opposition
urges boycott of poll
Reuters
Khartoum
trial, of whom two were acquitted yesterday while one, a minor, was sentenced to 10 years in
prison.
Charges against the remaining
two were dropped after the court
found that they were dead.
Yesterday’s verdict, which
can be appealed, came after the
initial sentences were sent to the
grand mufti, the government’s
official interpreter of Islamic law,
for ratification.
Since the army deposed Mursi
on July 3, 2013, at least 1,400
people have been killed in a police crackdown on protests,
mostly Islamists supporting the
ousted leader.
Hundreds of his supporters
have been sentenced to death in
swift mass trials which the United
Nations says were “unprecedented in recent history”.
In a statement after yesterday’s
verdict Amnesty International
said the court’s decision was
“outrageous” and “an example of
the bias of the Egyptian criminal
justice system”.
AFP
Addis Ababa
S
Kiir and Machar exchange documents after signing the ceasefire
agreement in Addis Ababa yesterday.
outh Sudan President
Salva Kiir and rebel leader
Riek Machar late Sunday
signed a new agreement to end
more than 13 months of fighting
in a civil war that has left tens of
thousands dead.
“Complete cessation of hostilities in South Sudan is expected as of this morning (Monday),”
Seyoum Mesfin, a negotiator
from the regional IGAD bloc,
told reporters in Addis Ababa
where the ceasefire deal was
signed.
The two leaders have signed—
and then broken—at least six
previous ceasefire agreements
since fighting began in December 2013.
The eight-member East African bloc IGAD, which has in the
past threatened sanctions over
violations but never taken action, says this time it will take
any ceasefire violations to the
UN Security Council and the
African Union’s Peace and Security Council and ask for “tough
measures” against them, Mesfin
said.
After four days of difficult negotiations in the Ethiopian capital, Kiir and Machar have however failed to reach agreement
on the conflict settlement proposed by IGAD which provides
for a power-sharing arrangement between the two men.
“This is a partial agreement
because we have not solved some
of the most critical issues,” Machar said after the signing, citing
disagreements on the “transitional government structure” to
set up and divide responsibilities
within the administration.
Negotiations will resume on
February 20 with IGAD giving the warring sides one last
chance to reach a final agreement by March 5.
IGAD mediators did not try
to hide their frustrations after
meeting for an eighth summit to
try to resolve the crisis.
Kenyan President Uhuru Kenyatta told Kiir and Machar this
was not what the people of South
Sudan expected from their leaders after years of struggle.
South Sudan gained independence from Sudan in 2011
after decades of armed conflict.
Ethiopian Prime Minister
Hailemariam Desalegn warned
that failure to reach an agreement would have serious consequences for all of them, especially the leaders of South
Sudan.
A Western diplomat involved
in the talks played down Sunday’s interim agreement, saying:
“This is not a significant breakthrough, this is a small step at
the most.”
12
Gulf Times
Tuesday, February 3, 2015
ARAB WORLD
Recalled Amman ambassador to return to Israel
AFP
Amman
J
ordan announced yesterday
that its ambassador to Israel
would return to his post in
Tel Aviv three months after being recalled over “violations” at
Jerusalem’s Al Aqsa mosque.
“We have asked ambassador
Walid Obeidat to return to Tel
Aviv,” government spokesman
Mohamed al-Momani said.
Israeli Prime Minister Ben-
jamin Netanyahu welcomed the
announcement in a statement issued by his office.
“This is an important step
which reflects the common interests of Israel and Jordan, above
all stability, security and peace,”
Netanyahu said.
Amman recalled Obeidat
on November 5 after police
clashed with stone-throwing
Palestinians inside the Al Aqsa
compound, with Foreign Minister Nasser Judeh describing
Israeli actions as “violations”
and “way beyond the limits”.
Momani, who is also minister of state for information, said
the decision to return Obeidat
to Israel comes after the government “felt that the situation (at
Al Aqsa) is in the right direction”.
Obeidat’s recall had put enormous pressure on already frosty
ties between Israel and Jordan,
the only Arab country apart from
Egypt to have a peace treaty with
the Jewish state.
Tensions soared to a new level
in early November when Israeli
police entered several metres
inside Al Aqsa mosque during
clashes triggered by a vow by
Jewish far-right groups to visit
the holy site.
The compound, holy to both
Muslims and Jews, is one of the
most sensitive spots in the Middle East.
Jordan, where almost half the
population of 7mn is of Palestinian origin, has historical custodianship over the flashpoint site
and other Muslim holy sites in
Jerusalem.
Amman is also seen as a key
player in Israeli-Palestinian
peace talks, and King Abdullah
II has repeatedly called on Israel
to end “its unilateral action and
repeated attacks” against Jerusalem’s holy sites.
After Obeidat was recalled,
Netanyahu made a rare visit to
Jordan for tripartite talks with
Abdullah and US Secretary of
State John Kerry to contain the
diplomatic fallout.
Momani said Jordan’s decision to return its envoy to Tel
Aviv also comes after Amman
noted that Israel has been allowing more Muslim worshippers to
pray at Al Aqsa after having set
limits.
“Israel has received the message that holy sites in Jerusalem
are a red line,” a government official said, speaking on condition
of anonymity.
Obeidat, a career diplomat,
first went to Tel Aviv in October 2012, filling a position that
had been vacant since mid2010 when his predecessor was
named to a cabinet post in Amman.
Despite pressure from main
aid donor the United States,
Jordan was reluctant to fill the
position because of Israeli policies towards the conflict with the
Palestinians, officials said at the
time.
Obeidat’s appointment in
September 2012 had angered his
tribe, one of the largest in Jordan,
as well as the Muslim Brotherhood, the country’s main opposition group.
Syria Kurds
‘push back’
Islamic State
near Kobane
Reuters
Beirut
K
A man gives medical assistance to an injured man as two wounded children wait nearby at a field hospital after what activists said was an air strike by regime forces in the Douma
neighbourhood of Damascus yesterday.
44 killed in air strikes
across Syria: monitor
The strikes come in response
to a major rebel offensive
that has been under way in
southern Syria for months
AFP
Beirut
S
yrian
government
air
strikes on opposition-held
towns across the country
killed at least 44 people yesterday and wounded more than 100,
a monitoring group said.
In Jassem in the southern
province of Daraa, 16 civilians
were killed in four air strikes,
while 25 were wounded, said the
Syrian Observatory for Human
Rights.
The strikes came in response
to a major rebel offensive that has
been under way in southern Syria
for months.
“As usual, the regime is striking populated areas in order to
make civilian supporters of opposition fighters turn against
them,” Observatory director
Rami Abdel Rahman said.
Rebels fighting to oust President Bashar al-Assad have suffered a spate of defeats at the
hands of his forces, but they still
have the upper hand in Daraa.
“Opposition fighters are making steady progress in Daraa
province. The vast majority of
the west of the province has
completely fallen out of government control, and that is where
Jassem is located,” Abdel Rahman said.
Rebels in the area benefit from
“the fact that supply lines from
Jordan are still open”, he added.
The involvement of experienced fighters from Syria’s Al
Qaeda affiliate, the Al Nusra
Front, has also helped the rebels
to gain territory in Daraa.
Elsewhere, air strikes on Douma, the besieged rebel-held town
east of Damascus, killed at least
10 civilians and wounded dozens
more, the Observatory said.
An AFP photographer in Douma said the strikes hit residential areas and that most of the
wounded were children.
At Khan Sheikhun in the
northwestern province of Idlib,
15 people were killed, including a
former army officer who had defected from loyalist ranks to join
opposition forces, the Observatory said.
Another three people were
killed in strikes elsewhere in
Syria—one in Aleppo province,
a second in Damascus province
and a third in Busra al-Sham in
Daraa province.
The regime first deployed warplanes in the Syrian conflict in
July 2012.
Now, nearly four years into the
war, there are air strikes every
day, despite repeated warnings
from the international commu-
nity that such tactics fail to discriminate between civilian and
military targets.
The Syrian conflict began as a
peaceful uprising in March 2011
but escalated into a civil war after
the government unleashed a brutal crackdown on dissent.
More than 200,000 people
have been killed since then, and
nearly half of the population has
fled their homes.
Despite the raging war, Syria
has kept in place subsidies for
electricity and basic foods, the
prime minister said yesterday, as
the regime tries to drum up support in areas it controls.
“The government continues to
subsidise staple food products,
as well as the electricity sector,”
Prime Minister Wael al-Halqi
told parliament.
He said rice, bread and sugar—key staples subsidised by the
government—have cost the state
180mn Syrian pounds ($900mn)
despite soaring, war-induced inflation.
Another 418bn pounds ($2bn)
go towards funding electricity
subsidies, Halqi said.
Analysts and officials have
warned that the war and international sanctions imposed on
Syria have set back the economy
by more than 30 years.
More than half of the population is unemployed, and gross
domestic product has shrunk by
nearly 50%.
Nearly 4mn people have been
forced by war to flee Syria altogether, and millions more are living in misery in areas that have
fallen out of government control.
Pro-regime daily Al Watan recently said government subsidies
on oil products had shrunk by
nearly 80% by the end of 2014.
In October, the government
stopped subsidising fuel for
businesses for the first time in
decades.
urdish militia backed by
US-led air strikes are
making rapid advances
against Islamic State forces in
rural areas around Kobane after
driving the group from the Syrian border town last week, the
Kurdish militia and a monitoring
group said yesterday.
A spokesman for the Syrian Kurdish YPG militia said IS
forces were collapsing around
Kobane. The Syrian Observatory
for Human Rights, the monitoring organisation, said IS fighters
were putting up little resistance
in the face of the Kurdish advance and may be pushed back
even further.
“The fighting organisation
of Daesh ... is in a state of complete collapse at present and
cannot hold ground,” Redur Xelil, spokesman for the YPG, told
Reuters by telephone, using a
pejorative Arabic acronym for IS.
The battle for Kobane, a predominantly Kurdish town known
as Ain al-Arab in Arabic, became
a focal point for the US-led air
campaign against IS in Syria. The
Syrian Kurds, who also received
military support from Iraqi
Kurdish peshmerga forces, drove
IS from the town last week.
IS controls wide areas of
northern and eastern Syria, including a strip of territory across
the northern Aleppo countryside
and a corridor stretching southeast from Raqa province to the
border with Iraq.
Although the town has little strategic value, the battle for
Kobane marked the first example
of direct US support for ground
forces fighting IS in Syria.
As part of its strategy to roll
back IS in Syria, the United
States is also planning to train
and equip non-jihadist rebels,
who account for only a modest
part of the fighters battling President Bashar al-Assad.
Active recruitment of Syrian trainees has yet to start. The
United States has ruled out the
idea of co-operating with Assad
in the fight against IS, describing
him as part of the problem.
The YPG says it has 50,000
fighters deployed in three predominantly Kurdish areas of
northern Syria. It has said it is
willing to be a partner in the USled campaign against IS.
Nine of 27 air strikes by the
United States and its allies on
IS in Iraq and Syria in a 24-hour
period were concentrated near
Kobane, the Combined Joint
Task Force said in a statement
yesterday.
Rami Abdel Rahman, who runs
the Observatory, said IS fighters
who were some 4 to 5km from
the town on Sunday, were now
at least 10km away. “There is no
large-scale resistance,” he said.
He said the Kurds were advancing with help from Syrian
Arab armed groups from Raqa.
Xelil said IS had withdrawn 10km
in the last day alone and was
more than 25km from Kobane.
He said US-led air strikes continued, as did support from the
Iraqi peshmerga who entered the
town via Turkey. But he warned
IS could open new fronts in
Kurdish areas in northeast Syria.
“There are daily clashes and
perhaps these battles and clashes
will increase, particularly in the
Jazeera region, because Daesh
will turn to other areas to recover
what is left of its standing,” he
said. The Jazeera region is the
Kurdish name for northeastern
Syria.
Abdel Rahman said that IS,
having lost 2,000 fighters battling for Kobane, was unable to
open new fronts. “I expect a continued retreat in the Kobane rural
area, after that there might be
clashes in the outskirts of Raqa,”
he said.
Jordan death row prisoner is militants’ heroine
Reuters
Amman/Baghdad
W
hen her husband blew
himself up in a luxury
hotel during a wedding
in Amman a decade ago, Sajida
al-Rishawi was meant to die too,
but her suicide bomb belt did
not go off. Today, as a death-row
prisoner in Jordan, she is a heroine to Islamist militants in the region, who may be willing to swap
a Jordanian pilot for her.
Rishawi, now in her mid-40s,
has an influential background in
militant circles: she hails from a
powerful Sunni clan in western
Iraq, and her brother was a top
lieutenant of Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, the founder of Al Qaeda’s
Iraq branch. Today, that group
has since transformed itself into
Islamic State (IS), breaking off
from Al Qaeda and controlling
swathes of Iraq and Syria.
One of her cousins, Abdul Sittar Abu Risha, was a major figure
in establishing the Sunni Awakening, a tribal movement that
joined forces with the US military
and turned against Al Qaeda.
Although she is just one of
thousands of suicide bomb-
ers and would-be bombers who
have been sent to kill and die by
Al Qaeda and its offshoots, her
background has helped turn her
into a symbol to militants, who
would make the most of her release.
“She is an old woman, she does
not have that much importance,”
said Sheikh Mehdi Abdel Sittar
Abu Risha, another cousin and
senior figure in her prominent
Abu Risha tribe in Iraq’s Anbar
province. “But (IS) has used this
as a political matter to say, ‘We
take pride in our people more
than you take pride in yours.’”
Winning her freedom would be
an important victory for IS leader
Abu Bakr al-Baghdad, Zarqawi’s
successor, whose aim is to show
that his organisation is the foremost protector of Sunni militants
across the Middle East, particularly among Iraq’s tribes.
He has evoked her personally,
vowing in a rare public address in
the newly captured Iraqi city of
Mosul in July to win freedom for
female jihadist prisoners.
“He made the name of Sajida
synonymous with the name of
Baghdadi,” said an Iraqi security
source.
It is still far from clear that
any prisoner swap can be negotiated. In statements released last
week a Japanese journalist said
his captors wanted to swap him
for Rishawi, but any negotiations
failed and he was beheaded.
Jordan has offered to free
Rishawi in return for its pilot
Maaz al-Kassasbeh who was
captured in December after his
jet crashed in territory controlled by the militants in Syria. IS
has called for Rishawi’s release in
exchange for Kassasbeh’s life but
has not said it will free him. Jordanian officials say they have not
been sent proof he is alive.
Rishawi was sentenced to
death in 2006 after surviving
the attack on the Radisson Hotel
in Amman, part of an operation
that targeted four hotels across
the city and killed 60 people.
She confessed on Jordanian
television days after the bombings but then pleaded not guilty
at her trial.
“I have no one ... I am alone
with Allah protecting me,”
Rishawi told the judge at the
trial in 2006 where she appeared
dressed in a long black coat and
headscarf.
Her lawyer Hussein Masri told
Reuters she had begged him to
Sajida al-Rishawi stands inside a military court at Jweideh prison in Amman in this April 24, 2006 file photo.
defend her staunchly, saying she
would hold him “accountable in
front of God in the day of reckoning” if he failed her.
Her importance to IS stems
from the links she had to late
Iraqi Al Qaeda leader Zarqawi,
who was killed by a US air strike
in 2006 after leading the Sunni
Muslim insurgency against US
occupation forces. The hotel attack with her husband was the
first ordered by Zarqawi outside
Iraq.
“Zarqawi made a vow to free
Sajida. Whoever fulfils this vow
will win the sympathy of all the jihadists loyal to Zarqawi. This will
be a point for (IS) against Al Qaeda,” the Iraqi security official said.
Since breaking away from Al
Qaeda, IS fighters have sought to
establish themselves as the main
jihadist force in the Middle East,
declaring a caliphate last year
in land they control in Syria and
Iraq.
Attempts to free her are also
aimed at embarrassing Jordanian
intelligence, widely seen as one
of the most sophisticated agencies of its kind in the Arab world,
the official added.
She is classed as a high security
detainee and has been in solitary
confinement in Jweideh prison
since she was arrested, a Jordanian security official said. None
of her relatives have ever asked
to see her, another source added.
The Rishawis hail from the city
of Al Khalidiya in Iraq’s central
Anbar province. Her brother Haji
Thamer, who was killed in Fallujah in 2004, was said to be a leading aide of Zarqawi. Two other
brothers also died in Fallujah
in 2004, site of seminal battles
against the US Marines.
Rishawi and members of her
Abu Risha family were treated as
“VIPs” in IS circles, a US government source following the case
said. The Jordanians are worried
about releasing her because of
her importance to the group and
the fear the pilot would remain in
captivity, the US source added.
Her release could win support
from her tribe in Anbar, an important constituency for jihadists in Iraq.
“All her family are a jihadist
family that gave many sacrifices
and who are still in the Islamic
State in Anbar. So she is a potent
symbol from the first generation
of Al Qaeda in Iraq who formed
the nucleus of present day Islamic State,” Jordanian scholar
Hassan Abu Hanieh said.
Gulf Times
Tuesday, February 3, 2015
13
AFRICA
Uganda may
have found
body of LRA
deputy chief
AFP
Kampala
U
A man throws a container of water towards a burning car after a bomb explosion outside Gombe stadium.
Blast hits Nigeria town
after presidential rally
AFP
Gombe, Nigeria
A
suspected suicide bombing
rocked a presidential campaign rally in northeast Nigeria, as the country braced yesterday for fresh Boko Haram attacks
before polling in just under two
weeks time.
President Goodluck Jonathan,
who had been addressing supporters of his ruling Peoples Democratic
Party (PDP) in Gombe city, had just
left the venue when the blast happened in a car park outside.
Rescue workers and health officials said the bodies of two women
were brought to the Gombe State
Specialist Hospital with 18 people
who were injured.
“We have evacuated two bodies
of females we believe were suicide
bombers behind the blast,” said the
rescue official, who asked to remain
anonymous because he was not authorised to speak to media.
The blast, confirmed by eyewitnesses including a local reporter
following the presidential convoy,
came a day after two explosions on
Sunday in Gombe city blamed on
Boko Haram militants.
Sunday’s attacks left at least five
people dead in a weekend of deadly
violence that also saw the Islamists
attack the key city of Maiduguri for
the second time in a week.
Nigerian troops, aided by civilian
vigilantes, repelled the attack while
Chad and Cameroon bombed the
Boko Haram-held town of Gamboru,
on the eastern fringe of Borno State.
Security analysts believe Maiduguri, the Borno state capital, will
likely be hit again before polling day,
given its symbolism for the group
and because it would undermine the
February 14 vote.
The election is expected to be the
closest since Nigeria returned to
civilian rule in 1999, with the prospect of the PDP being dumped out of
power for the first time in 16 years.
Nnamdi Obasi, Nigeria researcher
at the International Crisis Group,
said the upsurge in violence was
“predictable” and that another strike
on Maiduguri was on the cards.
Boko Haram is in control of most of
Borno and has effectively surrounded
Maiduguri, which is seen as one of
the few places left in the state where
voting could feasibly still take place.
Turnout could be affected if large
numbers of people, many of them
displaced by six years of violence,
desert the city, which with other areas in the northeast is a main opposition stronghold.
Capturing Maiduguri would not
only be a morale-booster for the
rebels but also likely sink Jonathan’s
Nigerian President Goodluck Jonathan waves to party supporters during a
campaign rally in Gombe yesterday.
re-election bid once and for all, said
Obasi.
Chad’s offensive comes after the
African Union and UN last week
backed a new 7,500-strong, fivenation force to tackle Boko Haram.
Nigeria’s military maintains that
N’Djamena’s involvement is part of
the existing agreement with Chad
and Niger for their troops to assist in
the counter-insurgency.
Chad and Niger had withdrawn
their troops from the multi-national
base at Baga, in northern Borno, last
year, leaving only Nigerian soldiers
to defend the town when it was attacked on January 3.
That led some to assume the existing force was dead in the water
but the devastating strike on Baga, in
which hundreds or more were feared
killed, appears to have jolted it into
action.
Jonathan, who has been criticised
for failing to end the violence, could be
hoping for a political bounce from any
military successes in the tight election
campaign, even at this late stage.
But Mark Schroeder, from security
and political analysts Stratfor, believes
that allowing foreign forces to operate
on Nigerian soil would be counterproductive to him and the country.
“This is essentially absolving Nigeria of its long-standing geopolitical strength as the region’s hegemon
able to assist internal and pan-West
African security stability,” he said.
Schroeder, the group’s vice-president for Africa analysis, also considered Nigerian Army operations
no more than “forays”, adding that a
sustained effort was needed to claw
back territory.
Boko Haram’s attacks on Maiduguri may be designed to draw the
Nigerian army to defend the city,
allowing the group to mount strikes
elsewhere in the northeast and defend eastern positions.
Ryan Cummings, chief Africa analyst at risk consultants Red24, suggested the last two strikes may have
been preliminary tests of the city’s
defences.
“Boko Haram is currently in its
most advantageous tactical position
to launch a large-scale offensive on
Maiduguri, with the intent of actually capturing the city,” he said.
“This could be the preamble to
such a push. I still remain sceptical
as to whether Boko Haram has the
resources to either capture or hold
a city the size of Maiduguri. But the
sect may well be planning to give it
a go.”
ganda said yesterday it was conducting
DNA tests to determine whether a body
discovered is that of the wanted deputy
of Uganda’s murderous Lord’s Resistance Army
rebels. Army spokesman Paddy Ankunda said
what was believed to be the grave of Okot Odhiambo, the No 2 of LRA leader Joseph Kony, had
been found - although details about its location
and the timing of DNA tests remain classified.
Like Kony, who is still at large, Odhiambo has
been indicted by The Hague-based International
Criminal Court (ICC) on charges of butchering
and kidnapping civilians.
“We have recovered the body,” Ankunda told
AFP. “We have exhumed the parts. We are conducting DNA to ascertain whether it’s the one.”
Odhiambo is thought to have been hiding out
with a group of hardcore fighters in the remote
jungles of Central African Republic, in northeast
Democratic Republic of Congo or South Sudan, but
may have been killed in fighting about a year ago.
Odhiambo is widely suspected to have directed
the killing of some 300 civilians during a February
2004 attack on the Barlonyo internally displaced
persons camp in northern Uganda, one of the single largest massacres in the LRA’s brutal history.
The news comes only weeks after the surprise
surrender of Dominic Ongwen, a former child
soldier and top LRA warlord, to US troops who
have been helping Uganda track down the rebels.
Ongwen made his first appearance before the
ICC accused of war crimes and crimes against
humanity a week ago.
SA to repatriate
last of Nigerian
church victims
AFP
Johannesburg
S
outh Africa said yesterday it will this week
bring back the remaining bodies of its nationals killed in a Nigerian church building
collapse four months ago.
Minister Jeff Radebe told reporters that a
South African Air Force C130 aircraft would be
dispatched to Lagos “to bring the mortal remains
of those that have been positively identified.”
Of the 81 bodies, 70 were repatriated in November, two months after a multi-storey building
collapsed at the Lagos church of the influential
Nigerian preacher TB Joshua. The outstanding 11
were still undergoing DNA identification.
“Our repatriation team is departing this afternoon for Lagos,” said Radebe, and “when they
land, we will know precisely how many South
Africans will be repatriated.”
Nigerian authorities have been driving the
testing and verification process. A delayed rescue
operation, “climatic conditions” and the sheer
number of victims that had to be identified were
responsible for the prolonged wait for the bodies,
said Radebe. The disaster killed 116 people in all,
including Nigerians and other foreign nationals.
The Lagos state coroner is carrying out an inquest into the causes of the collapse at a guesthouse within the Synagogue Church of All Nations (SCOAN) church’s compound.
The self-proclaimed ‘prophet’ has claimed the
building collapse may have been sabotage and
has on three occasions ignored summonses to
testify. He is now challenging the coroner’s powers to call him as a witness and the case is still
pending in the High Court.
Liberia begins clinical trial for Ebola vaccines
Reuters
Monrovia
L
iberia yesterday began a trial
of experimental Ebola vaccines, involving thousands
of volunteers as part of an effort
to slow the spread of the deadly
haemorrhagic fever and prevent
future outbreaks.
The epidemic has killed more
than 8,800 people in West Africa
since it began more than a year ago,
overwhelming weak healthcare systems in Guinea, Liberia and Sierra
Leone. Its spread now appears to be
slowing, especially in Liberia which
currently has just a handful of cases.
The trial to test two vaccines
from GlaxoSmithKline and New
Link/Merck began at the government-run Redemption Hospital
in Monrovia, a cluster of cement
blocks in the teeming New Kru
Town neighbourhood that was one
of the first parts of the capital to be
struck by the disease.
“I do not want for Ebola to affect my family and so I have come
to volunteer,” said Zolu McGill,
among the first batch of four volunteers seen at the hospital by a
Reuters reporter.
Scientists say the study, a final
stage trial which hopes to involve
27,000 volunteers at the heart of
the epidemic after earlier safety
trials in the UK, US and other African countries, could be a turning
point in the fight against the deadly
virus, which has no known cure.
But given relatively few new
cases in the dwindling outbreak,
researchers are concerned the trial
in Liberia, plus another planned
in Sierra Leone, may not have the
statistical power needed to show
whether the shots work.
Volunteers will receive a small
compensation package. Each of the
vaccines contains a small harmless portion of the Ebola virus and
may cause side effects in some
people such as pain, redness, fever,
headaches, mouth sores, tiredness,
muscle, joint pain and loss of appetite.
The Partnership for Research
on Ebola Vaccines (Prevail) says
healthy volunteers above 18 years
old who have no previous history of
the virus will be selected.
Vice President Joseph Boakai
said in a speech on Sunday attended by dignitaries that he hoped the
successful development of drugs
would prevent any other country
from suffering the devastation experienced by Liberia.
“It’s our conviction that from
this worthy exercise humankind
will prevail over the deadly killer of
man,” he said.
The slowdown in the epidemic
is already hampering drug development. Chimerix Inc said on Friday it was stopping participation
in clinical studies in Liberia of a
drug, brincidofovir, to treat people
who already have Ebola, citing the
slump in new cases.
With that in mind, and looking ahead to future potential
outbreaks, scientists are thinking about how to develop and test
second-generation Ebola vaccines,
which could be used to prevent
more strains of the disease than the
current fast-tracked shots.
Some scientists and aid workers are calling for trials to begin
promptly in neighbouring Sierra Leone where transmission
hotspots exist around the capital
Freetown.
The US ambassador to Liberia,
Deborah Malac, said that cooperation on the vaccines represented an
opportunity for greater cooperation between the two countries on
clinical research and developing
the Liberian health system.
“It’s fantastic that large-scale
trials of the first candidate Ebola
vaccine are getting underway in
Liberia, a country that has suffered
enormously at the hands of this
disease,” said Jeremy Farrar, Director of the Wellcome Trust, which is
funding a trial of the GSK vaccine
in Britain and Mali.
A health worker injects a volunteer with an Ebola vaccine during a trial in Monrovia.
14
Gulf Times
Tuesday, February 3, 2015
AMERICAS
Court weighs use of
lethal injection drug
Several convicts have suffered great
pain during execution
AFP
Washington
T
he US supreme court is due to review the use of lethal injection
drugs following several bungled executions that saw inmates gasping for air
during prolonged killings.
The court will revisit the 2008 “Baze vs.
Daze” ruling that deemed lethal injection
does not violate the Eighth Amendment
to the US Constitution, which prohibits
“cruel and unusual punishment”.
The court could ban the use of the controversial midazolam sedative, which was
used in three botched executions in the
United States last year and is not approved
by the US Food and Drug Administration
to be used as an anaesthetic.
The case was brought by four Oklahoma
inmates scheduled to be killed on death
row, but one was killed before this week’s
decision to stay all executions using the
disputed drug in the state.
Drug companies have refused to produce drugs to be used for executions and
the 32 US states where capital punishment
remains legal are facing shortages.
Some facts about the case and what
it could mean for lethal injection in the
United States:
Strictly speaking, the court on January
23 agreed to consider the use of midazolam
in lethal injections in Oklahoma.
Last April, Oklahoma death row inmate
US supreme court justices, John Roberts, Anthony Kennedy, Ruth Bader Ginsburg,
Stephen Breyer, Sonia Sotomayor and Elena Kagan at the State of the Union speech.
Clayton Lockett took an agonising 43 minutes to die and could be seen writhing in
pain during the prolonged execution.
Now, the court has agreed to consider —
likely at the end of April — whether it can
authorise the use of the lethal injection
cocktail.
The court will decide whether the drug
fully sedates the inmate to ensure he does
not feel pain from the other drugs used to
paralyse and kill him.
The nine judges will also consider
whether a death row inmate has to prove
that a better alternative execution method
is available, even if the existing lethal injection method is deemed unconstitutional.
Midazolam is used in Oklahoma and
other states as an anaesthetic that is
meant to render the inmate completely
unconscious before he is injected with lethal drugs.
But the drug is not 100%.
Experts say that if the dosage is incor-
rect, the inmate can feel excruciating pain
after being put into a state of paralysis,
which opponents have said violates Eighth
Amendment rights.
Midazolam has been used in three executions in 2014 where inmates are believed
to have suffered, including in Lockett’s
prolonged death.
On January 16, 2014, Ohio inmate Dennis McGuire took 26 minutes to die, and
Arizona death row convict Joseph Wood
took 117 minutes to die on July 23.
Lethal injection executions are expected
to take 10 minutes, and in all three cases,
the men could be seen gasping for air.
The US Supreme Court can at minimum
ban all lethal injections using midazolam,
if the court finds the drug causes pain that
it deems unconstitutional.
But it could go even further by reversing the 2008 ruling that lethal injection
was constitutional in a chaotic landscape
where each state uses different drugs produced by compounding pharmacies.
Florida and Oklahoma use midazolam
combined with two other drugs, while
Ohio and Arizona have used it in combination with only one other substance.
Missouri has administered the drug as a
sedative before the official lethal injection
protocol. These five states are responsible
for half of all 41 executions carried out so
far this year and last.
But other states — including Alabama,
Kentucky, Louisiana and Virginia — are
currently considering using midazolam in
lethal injection executions.
The case was brought forward after
Lockett’s botched killing by four other
death row inmates: plaintiffs Charles
Warner, Richard Glossip, Benjamin Cole
and John Grant.
The case was originally dubbed “Warner vs. Gross,” but Warner was executed on
January 15 after the Supreme Court rejected his last-minute appeal for clemency.
The case is now referred to as “Glossip
vs. Gross,” and the executions of the three
plaintiffs have been stayed while the court
considers the issue.
Only four of the nine Supreme Court
justices voted to stay Warner’s execution. It requires five votes, but according
to court protocol, only four votes are required to consider a case and the court has
now agreed to take up “Glossip vs. Gross”.
Likely with the four same votes that would
have granted Warner’s stay.
Not everyone agrees with this Supreme
Court rule, however. Hofstra University
constitutional law professor Eric Freedman said the court should “stop permitting executions when four justices object”.
Toronto blizzard
A Toronto Transit Commission (TTC) Streetcar stops while the engineer attempts to clear snow during a blizzard in Toronto, Canada.
After Paris
attacks, call
to tighten
visa rules
AFP
Washington
U
S politicians are calling for changes to a law
that allows Europeans
and other foreigners to enter
the country without visas, citing fears that jihadists could
exploit the rules to stage attacks on American soil.
The visa waiver programme,
which covers tourists from
38 countries, represents the
“Achilles’ heel of America”,
said senator Dianne Feinstein,
who is urging a tightening of
the rules.
The attacks against the
French satirical magazine
Charlie Hebdo in Paris this
month have renewed concerns
in Washington that extremists
with Western passports will
slip into the United States under the cover of the visa-free
travel programme.
Feinstein, former head of
the Senate Intelligence Committee, is working on a bill to
reform the rules that will be
proposed soon, her aides said.
Other lawmakers also are
eyeing changes to the law, including Candice Miller, a Republican from Michigan, who
introduced a bill that would
enable the department of
homeland security (DHS) to
suspend countries from the
programme if they fail to provide key information on potential suspects.
The Paris attacks, carried
out by men with French passports, and the growing number
of Europeans volunteering to
fight with jihadists in Syria and
Iraq — an estimated 3,000 to
5,000 — offers a chilling reminder for Americans of dangerous terror plots.
Zacarias Moussaoui, known
as the “20th hijacker” in the
September 11, 2001 attacks,
travelled to the United States
simply by presenting his
French passport. And Richard
Reid, who tried to blow up a
US-bound airliner in December 2001 with an explosive
hidden in his shoe, needed no
visa with his British passport.
However, the US government has dramatically revised
procedures for the visa-free
travel programme since the
9/11 attacks. Starting in 2008,
passengers planning to travel
under the visa waiver rules
have to fill out a special form
beforehand, known as the
Electronic System for Travel
Authorization (ESTA).
The electronic forms are an
important tool, allowing US
authorities to see well in advance who is trying to enter
the United States, said Christian Beckner, deputy director
at the Center for Cyber and
Homeland Security at George
Washington University.
Homeland security secretary Jeh Johnson on Thursday
warned it would be “a mistake”
to scrap the visa waiver programme, but he acknowledged
that security for the programme could be “improved.”
“We are engaging our allies
in Europe and elsewhere to encourage them to maintain and
share travel information about
individuals of suspicion,”
Johnson said.
Some US lawmakers have
complained that countries that
take part in the programme are
not fulfilling their obligation to
share information on potential
extremists.
Zacarias Moussaoui - the
“20th hijacker” in the 9/11
attacks, travelled to the US
simply by presenting his
French passport
“While DHS continuously
vets all visa applicants against
our terrorism databases, we
do not routinely get the critical information we need to
identify and stop foreign fighters bound for the US from our
overseas partners in the programme,” Miller said.
The best way to address the
security risks is to insist on
more intelligence sharing, according to Nathan Sales, associate professor of law at Syracuse University.
“The solution is not to scrap
the visa waiver programme,
but to implement fully the intelligence sharing agreements
that are already required by
law, and extend further the
scope of these intelligence
sharing agreements,” he said.
Only about half of the countries in the programme have
fully complied with the requirement to share information, and many provisions
have not been implemented,
according to the Government
Accountability Office, the investigative arm of Congress.
To improve the vetting effort, the DHS has added more
questions to the ESTA system.
Since November, for example,
the electronic form asks for the
name of the passenger’s parents, aliases used and personal
contacts in the United States.
Experts say the visa exemption, which began in 1986,
plays a vital role in boosting lucrative tourism and trade with
prosperous countries.
In 2012, 19.1mn people entered the United States under
the visa waiver rules.
Punxsutawney Phil predicts six more weeks of winter
Reuters
Punxsutawney, Pa
P
unxsutawney Phil, the American
groundhog famous for his weather
predictions, saw his shadow after
emerging from his burrow atop Gobbler’s
Knob in Pennsylvania yesterday, forecasting
six more weeks of winter.
Phil’s prediction came at about 7.25am
EST in the Western Pennsylvania borough of
Punxsutawney, where some in his audience
chanted “six more weeks, six more weeks” as
they waited.
Legend has it that if the groundhog sees
his shadow, North America will experience
six more weeks of winter and if he does not,
spring will come early.
“Six more weeks of winter means more
potential for snow days so I am not exactly
heartbroken,” said Robin Amador, 39, an educator from Lorain, Ohio. “I could kiss that
little guy for that.”
The history of groundhogs, also known as
woodchucks, as weather prognosticators in
the United States dates to the 1800s, according to the Punxsutawney Groundhog Club’s
website.
Celebrations of the holiday take place
throughout the United States but thanks in
part to Groundhog Day, the 1993 film starring Bill Murray and set in Punxsutawney,
Phil’s burrow is the epicenter of celebration.
Each year on February 2, the borough of
about 6,000 people swells to as many as
30,000 revelers, who come decked out in
groundhog hats and scarves and holding
signs begging for winter’s hasty exit.
Hank Zaborniak, 29, used the occasion to
propose to his girlfriend, Jaquelynn Kestner,
31. The Ohio couple described themselves as
big Murray fans.
“He said he wouldn’t mind spending the
rest of his life with me or the same day over
and over,” Kestner said.
In New York City’s take on the tradition,
officials tried a new arms-length approach
on a snowy, slushy Monday at the Staten
Island Zoo. A groundhog bit the hand of
the previous mayor, Michael Bloomberg,
in 2009 and last year, Mayor Bill de Blasio
dropped a groundhog, which died a few days
later.
This time, a specially built rodent-sized
elevator lifted the groundhog known as
Staten Island Chuck into what zoo officials
called “an innovative Groundhog Day viewing unit”: a box with clear plastic sides and
fake turf.
“I think we got Nasa involved,” de Blasio
said.
Despite the shadows cast by the strong
halogen lights pointing at the groundhog,
the creature’s handlers had warmer news
than that coming out of Pennsylvania.
“Spring is coming,” the mayor announced,
looking relieved.
No mayors or groundhogs were harmed.
New York city mayor Bill de Blasio, public advocate Letitia James and students watch Staten Island Chuck at the Staten Island Zoo yesterday.
Gulf Times
Tuesday, February 3, 2015
15
ASEAN
Anniversary celebration
Investigators say
no evidence jet
captain left his seat
Reuters
Jakarta
I
Children perform during a ceremony to mark the 85th foundation of the Communist Party of Vietnam in Hanoi yesterday. Vietnam celebrated the 85th anniversary of its
ruling party, which the late revolutionary leader Ho Chi Minh founded in Hong Kong on February 3, 1930.
Aussies ‘among next group
to be executed in Indonesia’
AFP
Jakarta
T
wo Australians on death
row in Bali will be among
the next group of prisoners to be executed in Indonesia,
an official said yesterday, as Jakarta takes an increasingly hard
line against drug traffickers.
Attorney General H M Prasetyo did not say when or where
Andrew Chan and Myuran Sukumaran, the leaders of the
so-called “Bali Nine” drugsmuggling gang, would be put to
death by firing squad, only that
“they will be included” in the
next batch.
Indonesia last month executed six drug traffickers including
five foreigners, triggering a diplomatic storm as Brazil and the
Netherlands - whose citizens
were among those killed - withdrew their ambassadors.
Indonesian President Joko
Widodo has been a vocal supporter of capital punishment,
and had already rejected clemency appeals from Sukumaran
and Chan.
File photo shows convicted Australian drug smugglers Myuran Sukumaran (left) and Andrew Chan, the leaders
of the so-called “Bali Nine” drug-smuggling gang, gesture as they sit inside Kerobokan prison in Denpasar, Bali.
The pair were arrested in Bali
in 2005 and sentenced to death
the following year for attempting to smuggle eight kilograms
of heroin out of the Indonesian
holiday island. Apart from confirming the men would be in the
next group to be executed, the
attorney general did not give any
further details to reporters, or
say who else would be included
in the group.
In December Sukumaran lost
his appeal for presidential clemency, the last chance by a death
row convict to avoid the firing
squad. Chan’s appeal was rejected last month, removing the
final hurdle for Jakarta to push
ahead with executing the pair.
Authorities have insisted they
be put to death together as they
committed their crime together.
On Friday they applied for
a fresh judicial review of their
cases but the attorney general’s office has insisted there are
no more legal avenues open to
them.
Jakarta said last week it was
ready to execute seven foreign
drug convicts on death row, including the Australians.
Widodo, known as Jokowi, has
shocked rights groups with his
support for executions, as they
had hoped he would take a softer
line on capital punishment.
Australian Prime Minister
Tony Abbott has urged Indonesia to show mercy to the pair.
“We were surprised -- and
dismayed -- that Jokowi decided
to make the death penalty a signature issue of the early part of
his administration,” said Phelim
Kine, deputy director Asia for
Human Rights Watch.
ndonesian air crash investigators said yesterday they
had not so far found evidence that the pilot of an AirAsia jet had left his seat, or that
power to an automated control
system was shut off, shortly
before the aircraft plunged into
the sea.
Two sources familiar with
the investigation had told Reuters that Captain Iriyanto was
out of his seat carrying out the
unusual procedure of pulling
the circuit-breaker on a flight
computer when his co-pilot
apparently lost control of the
Airbus A320.
AirAsia flight QZ8501 vanished from radar screens on
Dec 28, less than half-way into
a two-hour flight from Indonesia’s second-biggest city of
Surabaya to Singapore. All 162
people on board were killed.
“Up until today, there is no
indication yet that the captain
left his seat as reported by Reuters,” Ertata Lananggalih, an
investigator with the National
Transportation Safety Committee (NTSC), told Reuters
at the team’s office in Jakarta,
referring to the story published
on Saturday.
People familiar with the investigation had earlier said
that investigators were examining maintenance records of
one of the plane’s automated
systems, the Flight Augmentation Computer (FAC), and how
the pilots may have reacted to
any outage.
Bloomberg News reported
on Friday that the pilots of the
crashed plane had tried to reset the FAC during the flight,
and had then pulled a circuitbreaker to cut power to the device.
People familiar with the
matter told Reuters it was the
Indonesian captain who took
this step, rather than his less
experienced French co-pilot,
Remy Plesel, who was flying
the plane.
NTSC investigators disputed yesterday that the circuit
breaker was pulled.
“Up until today, there is no
indication or evidence yet that
the circuit breaker was pulled,”
Lananggalih said.
The NTSC declined to elaborate further, saying the accident was still under investigation.
However, a document prepared by the investigation
team and reviewed by Reuters
indicated the FAC system and
the cockpit circuit breakers
were among the issues of interest to the probe.
The schedule document
listed more than 30 items for
discussion. Along with more
general points such as “wreckage recovery” and “maintenance review”, it included the
entry “FAC engagement and
failure understanding” and
another entry related to pulling “CB”, a common abbreviation for circuit-breakers.
“This is .. just inventory. It
is to make the investigation
easier. There are maybe 40 or
35 things that have to be discussed,” said Tatang Kurniadi,
chief of the NTSC, when asked
about the list.
Malaysia focuses on real-time tracking
Malaysia, which had two air
disasters last year after one jet
disappeared and another was
shot down over Ukraine, said
yesterday that real-time aircraft
tracking must become a
priority for the industry. While
real-time tracking of commercial planes would have a
financial impact, it is too vital
to ignore, Malaysia said in a
paper to the United Nations’
International Civil Aviation
Organisation safety conference, which opened yesterday.
“We believe, based on our
unfortunate experience, (it)
will be offset by the benefits of
enhancing the effectiveness
of the alerting and search and
rescue services,” the paper
said. Malaysian Airlines Flight
MH370 disappeared last
March shortly after taking off
from Kuala Lumpur for Beijing
with 239 people on board. A
nearly yearlong search, now
focused on the seabed off
Australia’s western coast, has
failed to turn up any sign of
the aircraft or its flight record-
ers, known as black boxes.
“The disappearance of MH370
demonstrates the crucial need
to improve aircraft tracking
systems for the sake of safety
and security,” Malaysia said in
its paper. “In this day and age,
the fact that an airplane could
go missing and that the flight
recorders could be so difficult
to recover is unacceptable.”
The airline industry is divided
over the costs of installing
new tracking systems. The
ICAO conference, which runs
through Thursday, is likely to
call for planes to send tracking
signals at regular intervals in
normal flight and to speed
them up when they get into
trouble.
It is also looking at ejectable
black boxes as one way to aid
searches and solve mysteries
like that of MH370. A strong
ICAO mandate to impose flight
tracking would also need national measures to take effect. The
European Union is expected to
move quickly to make them law,
an EU official has said.
POLITICS
12,000 skulls exhumed
at prison: ex-inmate
AFP
Phnom Penh
C
ambodia’s
UN-backed
court yesterday heard a
former prisoner say he
helped dig up more than 12,000
skulls in mass graves outside
Phnom Penh, as the genocide trial
of two Khmer Rouge leaders continued.
Nuon Chea, 88, known as
“Brother Number Two”, and
former head of state Khieu Samphan, 83, face charges over the
killing of ethnic Vietnamese and
Muslim minorities, forced marriage and rape during the 19751979 regime.
In August the pair were given
life sentences for crimes against
humanity — the first top Khmer
Rouge figures to be jailed — after
a two-year trial focused on the
forced evacuation of Cambodians from Phnom Penh into rural
labour camps and murders at an
execution site. The pair have been
accused of playing a critical role in
the “Killing Fields” era, a genocide
which left up to 2mn people dead
in the late 1970s.
Former prisoner Keo Chandara,
63, said he helped exhume more
than 12,100 skulls from eight mass
graves at Kraing Ta Chan prison
in Takeo province, around 80
kilometres south of Phnom Penh
shortly after the regime fell in
1979. “We did not excavate all the
pits. I was ordered to dig up the
pits... I did the excavation at those
eight pits,” he said.
The prosecution witness also
gave graphic testimony of Khmer
Rouge cadres torturing prisoners including a woman with metal
pincers and then sulphuric acid.
“She was screaming and there
were about 10 prisoners who were
ordered to sit and watch the torture,” Keo Chandara said.
“At that time they didn’t take
people through a court like this
court. They just simply killed people,” he added.
When the court resumed the
genocide trial last month, the
prosecution’s first witness told
judges that Khmer Rouge soldiers
slit the throats of hundreds of inmates at the prison and ate their
gall bladders.
The complex case against Nuon
Chea and Khieu Samphan was
split into a series of smaller trials in 2011 to try to obtain a faster
verdict against the pair given their
advanced ages and frail health.
Thai junta steps up security
after Bangkok pipe bombs
AFP
Bangkok
T
hailand’s junta vowed
yesterday to tighten security after two homemade pipe bombs detonated
near a Bangkok shopping mall,
the first major disruption to an
uneasy peace imposed under
martial law since last May’s
coup.
Authorities declined to
speculate whether the small
bombs — which caused minor injuries to two passers-by
when they exploded near the
downtown Paragon mall on
Sunday evening — were linked
to the nation’s turbulent politics.
But deputy prime Minister
Prawit Wongsuwon warned
the public will now face
stepped up security.
“We will strictly enforce
security across the country.
We need to have high security
checks in some areas,” he told
reporters.
“We can’t say who is be-
Police forensic experts work at the site of a blast on an elevated
walkway linking the overhead rail line to the mall in central Bangkok.
hind this... it could be people
who have bad intentions, or
are linked to politics or people
who think differently,” he added, without elaborating.
A team of forensic police
yesterday sifted through the
debris created by the blasts,
which struck at around 8 pm
(1300 GMT) on Sunday on a
walkway leading to the busy
Paragon shopping centre.
“They were pipe bombs...
low pressure explosive devices,” national police spokesman Prawut Thavornsiri told
reporters.
“They did not aim to cause
major damage... they were
used to create trouble,” he
added.
Thailand has been under
martial law since the coup toppled the elected government
last year, despite growing calls
from rights groups and the in-
ternational community for the
junta to rescind the draconian
law. Political gatherings and
criticism of the coup are forbidden under the law, with the
junta responding aggressively
to any form of protest.
Martial law also allows civilians to be tried in military
courts, with verdicts not subject to appeal.
The Thai junta has repeatedly justified martial law by
saying Thailand’s bitter political divisions need more time
to heal, while they set about
remodelling the kingdom’s
political structure.
Thailand has endured nearly
a decade of political turmoil
sincebnaire former premier
Thaksin Shinawatra rattled
the establishment by winning
elections with his populist
politics.
Parties led by Thaksin, his
family or affiliates have won
every election since 2001, in
the process facing two coups
and the disposal of three premiers by Thailand’s interventionist courts.
Cambodia’s ruling
party promotes
premier’s sons
Cambodia’s ruling party named
three sons of long-time Prime
Minister Hun Sen to its upper ranks
yesterday as part of a bid to rejuvenate its leadership and claw back
support lost at the last general
election. The elevation of Hun Sen’s
sons within the Cambodian People’s Party (CPP) has fuelled speculation the 62-year-old strongman is
positioning his dynasty to succeed
him after 30 years in power and
triggered at least one accusation of
nepotism. Rights groups also said
some of 306 members added to
the CPP’s central committee might
have played a role in the violent
anti-government protests after the
disputed 2013 election. The CPP
has governed the country since
1979, but was returned to power in
2013 with a greatly reduced majority, losing many seats to the opposition Cambodia National Rescue
Party (CNRP). The next election,
scheduled for 2018, is expected to
be closely fought. CPP spokesman
and Information Minister Khieu
Kanharith said the party’s decisionmaking body needed younger
members to increase its appeal in
a country where half the population is under 30. The CPP also
increased the number of women
on its central committee, according to a list obtained by Reuters
yesterday after a three-day party
congress ended on Sunday.
2014 TOURISM PERFORMANCE SUMMARY
WORD FROM THE CHAIRMAN
INTERNATIONAL VISITS TO QATAR*
Qatar grew by 8.2% from 2013, and
the longer run trend is even more
impressive with an average annual
growth of 13.8% over the past five
years.
Issa bin Mohammed Al Mohannadi
Chairman of QTA
It is my pleasure to announce
that the tourism industry in Qatar
continued its strong performance
in 2014. All key indicators
demonstrated improvement
and growth. Qatar is rapidly
becoming an important destination
for international travelers, with
continued major investments in the
tourism sector. Visitor arrivals to
Major Achievements
In 2014, the QTA worked tirelessly
toward implementing the Qatar
National Tourism Sector Strategy.
We opened satellite offices in Saudi
Arabia, Singapore, and Germany, in
addition to our existing two offices
in the UK and France, as one
means for expanding our footprint
and achieving our goal of 7 to 9
million visitors by 2030.
QTA also continued work with
the United Nations World Tourism
Organization (UNWTO) to upgrade
our policies and regulations to the
highest international standards
and to develop human capital for
the tourism sector, both here in
Qatar and across the region. QTA
generates 8.3% of non-extraction
GDP. These figures are encouraging,
prompting all of us to exert additional
effort and undertake further initiatives
to develop the tourism sector.
signed the Global Code of Ethics for
Tourism, intended to minimize the
negative impacts of tourism on the
environment and cultural heritage,
while maximizing the benefits for
residents of tourism destinations.
In addition, QTA organized a variety
of successful events and festivals,
including the Eid festivals and the
Summer Festival, which attracted
huge numbers from Qatar and
GCC.
Bright Prospects for the Industry
Prospects for the industry are bright
as developers see the tremendous
opportunity and are rapidly planning
and constructing hotels, resorts, and
other attractions to accommodate
the expected demand from
international markets. QTA is working
to support this growth through a
wide range of strategic marketing
activities and initiatives, the provision
of improved data and information to
industry stakeholders, and a more
robust and supportive regulatory
environment. Let us continue our
journey of success in 2015 by
working together to further develop
and expand Qatar’s tourism sector.
Establishment of Contribution to
the GDP
In line with the objectives set by
the Qatar National Vision 2030 and
the Qatar National Tourism Sector
Strategy 2030, tourism is becoming
a vital pillar in Qatar’s development
and a key driver of economic
growth in the country. New QTA
research implementing the Tourism
Satellite Account measurement
system estimates that tourism
3.0
milions
2.5
2.0
Other Asia inc. Oceania
GCC
1.0
0
2009
2010
2011
2012
2013
2014
2014
Hotels experienced strong performance in 2014. Occupancy rates increased across all classes of hotels last year. Average hotel occupancy reached 73%
in 2014 compared to 65% in 2013. The largest gains were experienced in the 5 star segment which realized a jump to 71% last year from 61% in 2013.
These strong gains in demand translated into revenue increases across the entire industry. RevPAR (revenue per available room) increased 8.3% in 2014 with
particularly strong performance in the 5 and 3 star segments which saw RevPAR gains of 9.5% and 15.5%, respectively.
HOTEL REVPAR (REVENUE PER AVAILABLE ROOM)
2014 VS. 2013 % CHANGE
HOTEL OCCUPANCY RATES
2013
2014
10%
10%
2%
QAR
13.6
billion
28
61,000
6%
0%
5 star
4 star
3 star
1 & 2 star
All Classes
5 star
4 star
3 star
1 & 2 star
2014
65%
73%
average hotel
occupancy rate
0%
6%
3%
2013
jobs were directly
supported by the
industry
billion
9%
6%
All Classes
QAR
8%
9%
0%
8.3%
4.0%
15%
40%
20%
The total contribution
to GDP was
15%
12%
60%
TOURISM SHARE OF NON-EXTRACTION GDP IN 2013*
The direct contribution
to GDP was
came from
Europe
…DRIVING STRONG HOTEL PERFORMANCE
30%
4%
15%
originated from
various parts
of Asia and
Oceania
*Source: Ministry of Interior, Tourism Economics
50%
Direct Tourism
industry share
of visitors
came from
other GCC
countries
0.5
Tourism represents an important part of a diversified Qatar economy. Although still in its early stages of development, the tourism sector already directly
contributes QAR 13.6 billion to GDP, representing 4% of non-extraction economy. The total economic impact of tourism, including indirect impacts, tallies QAR
28 billion and comprises 8.3% of total non-extraction GDP. Tourism also contributes substantially to the Qatar job market with 61,000 jobs directly supported by
the industry.
6%
13.8%
40% 28%
Other Arab
70%
8%
growth
over 2013
Annual rate of
growth
Other Africa
1.5
TOURISM IS AN ECONOMIC ENGINE…
In
2013
million
visitors in
2014
Europe
80%
Total tourism
impact share
2.8 8.2%
Americas
average hotel
occupancy rate
*Source: Qatar Tourism Economics
…AS INTERNATIONAL TRAVELERS VISIT QATAR IN INCREASING NUMBERS
Qatar continues to emerge as a destination for international travelers. Our country received more than 2.8 million visitors in 2014, representing 8.2% growth over
2013. Since 2009, international visits to Qatar have increased 91% with an average annual rate of growth of 13.8%.
The Qatar visitor market is diverse. In 2014, 40% of visitors came from other GCC countries, while 28% originated from various parts of Asia and Oceania, and
15% came from Europe. Visits from all world regions have grown substantially over the past five years. Asian and GCC visitor markets have expanded 107% and
102%, respectively, since 2009. Visits from Europe have also surged 82% over the past five years.
Arrivals to Qatar by Region
…WITH MORE DEVELOPMENT ON THE WAY
Qatar was home to nearly 16,000 hotel and hotel apartment rooms on average throughout 2014. This includes 85 hotel properties and 22 hotel apartment entities.
Five star hotel properties lead the way with 7,748 rooms across 33 properties.
As Qatar anticipates continued increases in international visitation and prepares for major events, such as the World Cup in 2022, significant hotel capacity is under
development. Room supply is set to more than double in the coming years with 66 hotels and 14 hotel apartments planned for opening in the next five years. In
2015 alone, QTA anticipates the opening of 20 new properties, which would add nearly 4000 rooms to Qatar’s accommodation portfolio in the coming year. Aside
from properties currently under construction, there are proposals for nearly 50 additional properties, under varying degrees of development, for additional expansion
in future years.
HOTEL ROOM SUPPLY
% change,
2013–14
CAGR*,
2009–14
Cumulative
growth,
2009–14
16,000
2009
2010
2011
2012
2013
2014
1,481,688
1,699,886
2,057,157
2,346,358
2,611,451
2,826,257
8%
14%
91%
14,000
GCC
556,264
643,550
845,705
952,865
1,090,263
1,124,329
3%
15%
102%
12,000
Other Arab
207,537
226,351
271,344
287,265
293,034
319,418
9%
9%
54%
10,000
Other Africa
20,485
23,917
24,879
31,640
35,027
34,702
-1%
11%
69%
Other Asia inc. Oceania
378,619
448,881
511,557
591,648
653,549
782,904
20%
16%
107%
Europe
231,310
265,069
301,843
365,840
409,140
421,171
3%
13%
82%
87,473
92,118
101,829
117,100
130,438
143,733
10%
10%
64%
TOTAL
Americas
NUMBER OF PROPERTIES
Existing rooms
Rooms under development
107
8,000
6,000
hotels and hotel
apartments
4,000
2,000
0
5 star
CAGR*: Compound Annual Growth Rate
Existing
4 star
3 star
1 & 2 star
Hotel
Not yet
classed apartments
Next 5 years
80
hotels and hotel
apartments
Expected
openings 2015
20
hotels and hotel
apartments
18
Gulf Times
Tuesday, February 3, 2015
AUSTRALASIA/EAST ASIA
Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov, left,
Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi, centre, and
Indian Foreign Minister Sushma Swaraj pose
for photographs before their meeting in Beijing
yesterday.
DIPLOMACY
ROW
WEATHER WOES
LOCALS DISADVANTAGED
Calls for louder global
‘voice’ at China talks
Prosecutor wants Korea
‘nut rage’ woman jailed
Japan deploys troops as
blizzard hits Hokkaido
Australia to review property
purchases by foreigners
Chinese President Xi Jinping yesterday hailed
his country’s relations with India and Russia
during meetings that heard calls for developing
economies to have more say on the global stage.
The visits by New Delhi’s foreign minister Sushma
Swaraj and Sergei Lavrov from Moscow come on
the heels of a trip to India by US President Barack
Obama. Following the meetings in Beijing, Swaraj
said: “We have shared interests in governance
reform of the international financial system.”
Chinese foreign minister Wang Yi added: “We
call for the improvement of global economic
governance and to increase the voice and
representation of developing countries.” Page 24
South Korea’s public prosecutor is
seeking a three-year prison term for
the daughter of the boss of Korean Air
following an incident involving a bag of
nuts, the official Yonhap news agency
reported yesterday. Cho Hyun Ah, 40,
flew into a rage on board a Korean Air
flight on December 5 when the attendant
gave her a bag of macadamia nuts in a bag
rather than on a plate. Cho was a vice-president
of the airline at the time. A blazing row ensued
in which Cho ordered the pilots to return the
aircraft to the gate where she had the chief
steward thrown off.
A blizzard battered Japan’s northern island of
Hokkaido yesterday as soldiers were dispatched
to hard-hit areas, local media reported. The troops
were sent to Rausu town on the eastern tip of
Hokkaido, as snow accumulation reached a record
179cm in the region where wind gusts reached
120kph, Hokkaido newspaper reported. Snow
accumulation also reached 41cm in Shari town
over a 24-hour period and 37cm in Nakashibetsu
town. More than 200 schools were closed on
the island yesterday. With a low-pressure system
stalled over eastern Hokkaido, the Meteorological
Agency warned of blizzard conditions, high waves
and avalanche risk through today.
Australian Prime Minister Tony Abbott said
yesterday he had ordered a review of foreign
investment rules to ensure locals were not
disadvantaged, media reports said. “The
government will shortly put in place better
scrutiny and reporting of foreign purchases
of agricultural land,” Abbott reportedly said
in a broad speech to the National Press Club.
“And better enforcement of the rules against
foreign purchases of existing homes so that
young people are not priced out of the market.”
Restrictions apply to temporary foreign
residents that are subject to approval by the
Foreign Investment Review Board.
Abe: Working
with the world
only way to
fight terrorism
Reuters
Tokyo
J
apanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe
said yesterday he wanted to debate the
possibility of Japan’s military rescuing Japanese citizens abroad, a day after
Islamic State militants said they had beheaded a Japanese journalist.
The militants said on Sunday they had
beheaded Kenji Goto, a veteran war reporter, after international efforts to secure
his release through a prisoner swap failed.
They killed another Japanese hostage,
Haruna Yukawa, a week before.
Abe reiterated his denunciation of the
militants and said Japan was firmly committed to fulfilling its responsibility as a
member of the global community in fighting terrorism and that it needed to be able
to protect its citizens.
“Preserving the safety of Japanese nationals is the responsibility of the government, and I am the person who holds
the most responsibility,” Abe told a parliamentary committee, adding that he
wanted to discuss a framework for rescuing Japanese in danger.
In a show of defiance on Sunday, Abe
vowed to boost Japan’s humanitarian aid
to the Middle East.
The hardline Islamist group, which
controls large parts of Syria and Iraq, released a video purporting to show the beheading of Goto, 47, who was captured in
late October.
The video was released a week after
footage was issued appearing to show
the beheaded body of Yukawa, who the
militants seized in August after he went to
Syria to launch a security company.
The killings are fanning calls for Japan’s
long-constrained military to be allowed to
conduct overseas rescue missions as part
of Abe’s push for a more muscular security posture.
Abe told a parliamentary panel that
Japan, whose military has long been con-
strained by the post-World War II pacifist
constitution, could not take part in USled air strikes on Islamic State, nor would
it provide logistical support.
Scope for the military to mount rescue
missions is limited by law but the government already plans to submit revisions to
parliament to ease restrictions.
Even some advocates of changes to
make rescues possible, however, say Japan’s military faces difficulty in acquiring
the capacity to conduct such missions.
Critics say sending troops overseas would
just increase the risk.
An internal briefing paper for top government officials, seen by Reuters last
week, said cases like Islamic State crisis
did not meet proposed conditions for Japan to send troops to join allies in combat.
It dodged the question of whether
planned legal changes would allow rescue
missions in such cases, but a Japanese defence official said it would not. Abe’s government had put high priority on saving
Goto, who was captured when he went to
Syria to try to seek Yukawa’s release.
Speaking to reporters yesterday,
chief cabinet secretary Yoshihide Suga
shrugged off speculation that Japan was
ready to pay a ransom, adding that the
government had no intention of negotiating with the militants.
Goto’s wife, Rinko, who had appealed
for his release, said she and the rest of the
family were devastated.
“I remain extremely proud of my husband, who reported the plight of people in
conflict areas like Iraq, Somalia and Syria,”
she said in a statement posted on the Rory
Peck Trust, a London-based organisation
supporting freelance journalists.
“It was his passion to highlight the
effects on ordinary people, especially
through the eyes of children, and to inform the rest of us of the tragedies of war.”
An opinion poll by Kyodo news agency on January 25, just after Yukawa was
killed, found 61% of respondents supportive of the government’s response.
Snow flavoured!
Calls for louder global
‘voice’
as China, India, Russia
meet
Giant panda Weiwei sticks his tongue out during snowfall at a zoo in Wuhan, Hubei province.
Under-fire Abbott
vows not to resign
AFP
Canberra
A
Chief cabinet secretary Yoshihide Suga speaks next to the Japanese national flag,
attached with a black ribbon to mourn Japanese hostage victims, at a news conference
in Tokyo.
ustralian Prime Minister Tony
Abbott said yesterday he had
not contemplated stepping
down, as pressure mounted on his
leadership following a controversial
decision to make Britain’s Prince
Philip a knight.
Abbott faced ridicule after naming
the nonagenarian consort of Queen
Elizabeth II a knight of the Order
of Australia last month, incensing
members of his ruling coalition who
were already dealing with falling poll
numbers, policy backflips and an unpopular budget.
When asked by reporters if he had
considered resigning, Abbott said
“no” - but admitted: “I accept that I
probably overdid it on awards.”
“I have listened, I have learned, I
have acted...” he said, in reference to
the adverse public reaction.
The honour for Prince Philip bemused Australians, many of whom
want to cut ties with the British monarchy and become a republic. The
media dubbed the award for the non-
resident a “knightmare” for Abbott.
Abbott insisted he was the right
person to lead the government, after
reports that some colleagues were
under pressure to challenge him.
“Let me make it absolutely crystal
clear, we were elected in 2013 because the Australian people rejected
chaos. And we are not going to take
them back to that chaos,” he told the
National Press Club in Canberra.
“It’s the people that hire and frankly
it’s the people that should fire.”
Abbott’s Liberal-National coalition romped to power in a September
2013 election but is now trailing the
opposition Labor Party 46 to 54%,
a Fairfax-Ipsos poll in the Sydney
Morning Herald showed yesterday.
The poll of 1,400 people questioned at the end of last week also
found that Abbott’s rating as preferred prime minister had slipped
from 39 to 34%, while Labor leader
Bill Shorten had climbed to 50%.
“I never came into politics to be
popular,” said Abbott, after being
asked why people did not seem to
like him.
The dire polling follows a dismal
result in a Queensland state election,
which still hangs in the balance, but
which delivered a huge swing against
the ruling conservative administration.
Abbott conceded the government had struggled to get its message across. He promised a more
consultative style of leadership and
confirmed he would not be making
decisions on knighthoods in the future - leaving it entirely to the Order
of Australia Council.
Outlining his government’s agenda for 2015, Abbott said the focus
would be jobs, families, roads, national security and small business as
he flagged a new crackdown on extremist groups.
He said his “signature” policy for
a paid parental leave scheme, which
would have paid new mothers 26
weeks of their actual wage capped at
A$100,000 (US$77,810) and which
has long been criticised as too expensive, was “off the table”.
Abbott’s troubles have raised the
prospect of a mid-term leadership
challenge. Reports have suggested
Communications Minister Malcolm
Turnbull, Foreign Minister Julie
Bishop, or Social Services Minister
Scott Morrison could be contenders.
But as The Australian’s editor-atlarge Paul Kelly noted, there were
“still no serious candidates”.
“Look, we’ve had a rough couple of
months, I accept that,” Abbott said.
Bishop said she had had a “delightful meeting” with Abbott on
Sunday night, adding that she supported him. She refused to confirm
whether they had spoken about her
challenging him for the leadership.
“I don’t reveal the details of private
conversations I have with any leaders, let alone my own prime minister,” she said.
A leadership challenge would revive memories of the sudden removal
of Labor prime minister Kevin Rudd
in 2010 in a party room coup by his
deputy Julia Gillard. Gillard was herself ousted by Rudd in 2013.
Current Labor leader Shorten described Abbott’s comments as “a
desperate speech from a politically
drowning man” only interested in
hanging on to his job.
“This man has got the wrong policies for Australia in the 21st century.
He’s more focused on Buckingham
Palace than Beijing,” Shorten said.
NZ PM hits back after author’s jibe
Melbourne’s climate change plan sparks arbour ardour
Reuters
Melbourne
T
rees in the Australian city
of Melbourne are replying
to emails from the public
as authorities seek to highlight
the impact of climate change in
a country where rising temperatures are expected to outpace
global warming worldwide.
The city council initiative,
which spotlights each of Melbourne’s 77,000 trees on an interactive map, invites visitors to
email a tree to report problems
such as low-hanging branches or
insufficient watering.
But it has had an unexpected
outcome, with dozens of Melbournians writing to express affection for their favourite trees.
“Dear Tree, If you are that big,
round, beautiful, low-hanging
tree, I think you are my favourite
tree ... Keep up the good work,”
wrote one correspondent using
only the initial “N”.
The quirky emails, to which staff
respond on behalf of the trees, are
building awareness of climate
change in Melbourne, regarded
as Australia’s most European city,
thanks to its architecture and wide
tree-lined boulevards.
But almost a quarter of its
trees, including oaks, elms and
planes, are set to die off by the
end of the decade, and that figure
will rise to almost 40% by 2030,
speeded by a devastating 13-year
drought that broke in 2012.
“As our climate becomes more
and more extreme, we’re going to
have to look at trees that are fit for
purpose,” Councillor Arron Wood
told Reuters. “We now have a tar-
get of having no more than 5% of
one tree species in the city.”
Australia faces a rise in temperature of potentially more than
five degrees Celsius by the end of
the century, the national science
agency says.
The business district is dominated by plane trees, which are
drought resilient and have broad
canopies, but are now being
scaled back because they shed
leaves during long periods of
high temperatures, an aspect of
the weather expected to worsen.
The council plans to plant
3,000 trees a year to double
the forest canopy by 2040 and
so cool the city by 4 degrees. It
hopes residents will pay attention to the city’s future appearance, while enjoying the trees as
long as they can.
“Dear beautiful Platanus London Plane,” wrote another fan,
using the moniker “e”.
“I pass you every time I’m in
Melbourne. You are so fabulous.
And it saddens me that your
passing will be sooner than my
own. I can’t wait to see you next.
Love you.”
New Zealand prime minister John Key yesterday hit back at criticism of his
government by the country’s Man Booker Prize winner Eleanor Catton, saying she had no more political insight than All Blacks captain Richie McCaw.
‘The Luminaries’ author sparked uproar last week at a literary festival
in India when she said she was angry with New Zealand’s treatment of
the arts. Her claim that New Zealand was dominated by “neo-liberal,
profit-obsessed, very shallow, very money-hungry politicians who do
not care about culture” provoked debate across the country.
Key said yesterday the 2013 Man Booker Prize winner’s political views
carried no more credence than those of McCaw or prominent businessman Peter Leitch, who started a chain of butcheries and trades under
the name of ‘The Mad Butcher’.
“She has no particular great insights into politics, she is a fictional
writer,” Key told Television New Zealand, adding he had read some but
not all of ‘The Luminaries’.
“Obviously it’s done phenomenally well and I’m really proud of her,
but it would be no different from Richie McCaw or the Mad Butcher or
anybody else having a view on politics. “They’re absolutely entitled
to do that, but her views on politics are no more authoritative than
anybody else’s.”
Gulf Times
Tuesday, February 3, 2015
19
BRITAIN
ANNOUNCEMENT
APPEAL
ART
EDUCATION
DEBATE
Bronze statues ‘may
be by Michelangelo’
Mayor urges support for
second air ambulance
Database lets artists
exhibit for free
Labour warned
over tuition fees cut
MPs to vote on
‘3-parent’ babies
Two sculptures that languished in obscurity
for more than a century may be the only
surviving bronze works by Michelangelo,
researchers announced in Britain yesterday.
The international research team led by Britain’s
University of Cambridge and the Fitzwilliam
Museum uncovered new evidence linking the
two nude works to Michelangelo, whose famed
works include the painted ceiling of the Sistine
Chapel. Standing at a metre tall, the sculptures
are of a young man and an older man riding
panthers, and if confirmed the discovery would
make them only surviving Michelangelo bronzes
in the world.
Boris Johnson yesterday urged Londoners to
back a £4.4mn appeal for a second emergency
medical helicopter for the capital. The charity
that operates London’s air ambulance wants
a second machine because its only helicopter
was unavailable for 55 days last year as it
underwent essential maintenance. The mayor
said: “We rightly rally together to rapidly raise
millions for disasters in other countries around
the world but on this occasion the need is right
here on our doorstep. Please rally together and
support this fantastic campaign.” To donate to
the Your London, Your Helicopter appeal, visit
yourhelicopter.london.
An online database of London spaces where
artists can exhibit for free has launched. ArtMap
London’s Free Spaces aims to help combat the
lack of exhibition space for up-and-coming
artists who face rents of up to £2,000 a week.
It will act as the contact point for artists and
venue owners. Founder Jenny Judova, 26, said:
“There are extortionate prices to rent a space
for an exhibition and I found that so unfair when
there are restaurants and coffee shops with
space for free. The craziest place we have listed
is the Spitalfields Farm, who are really open to
installations.” Other venues include Rolling Stock
in Hoxton, a burger joint in a railway arch.
Twenty university bosses warned the opposition
Labour Party yesterday that it should not
cut student tuition fees if it wins the May 7
election. In a letter to The Times newspaper,
vice chancellors from universities including
Exeter and Bristol, said a possible Labour plan
to reduce tuition fees to £6,000 from £9,000
would open up a £10bn funding gap. “The result
would be cuts to universities that would damage
the economy, affect the quality of students’
education, and set back work on widening
access to higher education,” the letter, signed by
University of Surrey Vice-Chancellor Christopher
Snowden said.
MPs will today be asked to make Britain the first
country in the world to sanction the creation of
IVF babies with DNA from three different people.
If they vote «yes» mitochondrial donation
techniques aimed at preventing serious
inherited diseases will be legalised. The historic
debate due to take place today afternoon has
divided opinion between experts backing the
treatments and opponents who say the move
marks the start of a slippery slope towards
«designer» babies. Research has shown that
mitochondrial donation could potentially help
almost 2,500 women of reproductive age in the
UK.
Plan to ban
extremist
speakers at
universities
criticised
Writer’s claim
that Queen
‘fears’ Charles
rule rubbished
Guardian News and Media
London
T
he former head of the
civil service has criticised the government
for treating universities as if
they were schools, before an
attempt by peers to stop Home
Secretary Theresa May’s plans
to ban extremists from speaking on university campuses.
Lord Butler of Brockwell,
who led Whitehall for a decade
and was master of an Oxford
university college for another,
said the government was going too far towards limiting
free speech and young adults
should be able to have the freedom to hear different opinions.
“Universities have got a duty
of care to their students to
stop them breaking the law,”
he said. “But they’ve also got
a legal obligation to encourage free speech within the law
… The government is really
treating universities as if they
are schools. Schools have got
a duty to teach children what’s
right and what’s wrong … but
universities are dealing with
young adults. The whole point
of university is that they should
have a good deal of freedom to
hear different opinions and
make up their own minds on
what’s right or wrong.
“As somebody said, the radicalisation is much more likely
to go on over coffee in students’ rooms rather than at
public meetings … I think it’s
very likely that this week there
will be an amendment to exclude universities … I hope that
the government will write into
the law alongside it the duty
to allow free speech, and that
they will look extremely carefully at the directions they are
giving under this new law.”
The former head of MI5 ,
senior Tories, academics and
legal peers have already made
it clear that they want to see
the clause about universities
removed from the counter-terrorism and security bill when a
key vote takes place next week.
London Evening Standard
London
T
Queen Elizabeth smiles as she officially opens the new South Lynn fire station, at King’s Lynn in Norfolk,
eastern England, yesterday.
he Queen has complete confidence in
Prince Charles’s ability to reign despite claims
in an “unhelpful” biography
that questions his suitability
as king, sources have told the
Standard.
They say reports that
the Queen and palace aides
“fear” Britain is not ready for
Charles’s radical new style of
monarchy are “wide of the
mark”.
The Prince’s lawyers are
preparing to scrutinise claims
made in Catherine Mayer’s
new book Charles: The Heart
Of A King, to be published this
Thursday and serialised in The
Times.
Mayer — a journalist whose
claims of close access to the
prince have been forthrightly
rejected by his spokeswoman
Kristina Kyriacou — writes
that the heir to the throne
intends to be a campaigning
monarch.
She says the Queen, who will
be 89 in April, and her courtiers
feel that the UK is not ready for
“shock of the new”.
Mayer, a writer for Time
magazine, claims Prince Philip
is one of his son’s harshest
critics and thinks him guilty of
“selfish behaviour”.
But a senior aide said: “This
is simply not the case. The
Queen and the prince know the
position. He has talked to the
Queen about what sort of king
he should be.
“These reports are wide
of the mark. As prince of
Wales, Charles has served
the Queen and the institu-
School spending pledge
First ticket offices shut in
mayor’s Tube shake-up
London Evening Standard
London
U
nion bosses claimed
passengers would suffer as Queensway and
South Wimbledon became the
first stations yesterday to have
their ticket offices closed under Boris Johnson’s Tube reforms.
Critics said the closures,
which will see more ticket machines installed instead, were
being rushed through without
thought for safety concerns.
It also emerged that the online system for people to manage Oyster cards was creaking
under pressure from increased
use. But Johnson dismissed the
attacks, claiming it was time to
“quietly get on” with his plans.
In a phased station-by-station programme, offices will
now be closed with staff moved
to ticket halls, gate lines and
platforms.
Manuel Cortes, leader of the
Transport Salaried Staffs Association, said this was John-
son’s “biggest and most expensive vanity project to date.”
He added: “Talks on the
safety implications of closures
at over 250 stations have not
even been concluded. The
mayor doesn’t seem concerned
about how millions of tourists
will cope with fewer staff to
help them on their way.”
Labour’s London Assembly
transport spokesperson, Val
Shawcross, claimed Johnson
had reneged on promises to
protect ticket offices.
She said: “Not only that, he is
now intent on axing almost 900
Tube station staff in the process.
“Whilst there is obviously a
big role for ticket machines to
play, there is no substitute for
a member of staff, particularly
when you have a query more
complex than a ticket purchase.”
Critics say the reforms will
cost £150mn, but TfL says the
plans will have net savings of
£270mn in total up to 2021.
In all, 150 new ticket machines will be installed on the
Underground as well as new
visitor centres at larger sta-
tions such as Victoria, Euston
and King’s Cross.
TfL says stations will remain
staffed at all times while train
services are operating.
Meanwhile, a written answer to City Hall LibDems from
Johnson’s office confirmed that
“the increasing popularity” of
managing Oyster cards online
had led to “quality issues”.
It is being used by 1.1mn customers, with over half a million
journey statements provided
each month.
Johnson said on BBC news
yesterday: “We’ve put in a huge
amount of work with this with
London Underground staff and
to alert the travelling public as
to what is going on.”
He added: “We have been
round this an awful lot now.
We’ve had lots and lots of consultation, I think we should just
quietly get on with it.”
Stations that already operate without ticket windows
include Cannon Street, Embankment, Regent’s Park, Tottenham Court Road and Wood
Lane.
tion of the monarchy all his
life.
“He is a serious-thinking
man and he more than anyone
knows what is expected of him
as king.
“Of course when and if the
time comes he will have his
own style, but he understands
and appreciates the importance of continuity and tradition more than anyone.
“These reports are wide
of the mark. As prince
of Wales, Charles has
served the Queen and
the institution of the
monarchy all his life”
“A lot of the so called new
revelations in this book are
frankly rehashed. I feel I have
read most of it before. In other
areas it appears to be very creative.”
Lawyers for Charles, 66,
will scrutinise the book when
it is published on Thursday
after expressing concern that
the author used “artistic licence” over her claims about
meetings with the prince. It
will be the first chance they
will have had to read the book
in full.
Kyriacou, Charles’s head
of media, said: “It is not an
official book. The author
did not have the access she
claimed.”
Clarence House lawyers
are poised to take action
if there is anything they
believe to be “grossly
untrue” and “detrimental to the prince”,
although no complaints
have been made
about the extracts so far.
Because
Govt ‘feared terrorists
could weaponise Ebola’
Guardian News and Media
London
B
Prime Minister David Cameron delivers a speech on
education at a Conservative Party event in a school in
Enfield, north London, yesterday. The prime minister
announced that spending per pupil will not be cut, but
will not rise in line with inflation under Tory plans. He
insisted that this will mean more money for schools
overall because of rising pupil numbers.
the book is unauthorised, no
advance copies were provided
to Clarence House. However,
in most cases, such books are
sent to palace aides to read informally.
Sources close to Charles
say there is “no one” other
than the Queen with whom
he would talk about his plans
for the monarchy. When such
discussions have taken place,
they say, nobody else has been
present.
The prince’s future is also
likely to be discussed in a second book, due to be published
later this month, by former
Downing Street communications secretary Alastair Campbell.
Winners And How They
Succeed is understood to include a chapter on the Queen,
based on Campbell’s experiences in No 10 and on more recent conversations with royal
aides.
Mayer, who met the prince
while researching her biography and spoke to some of his
closest aides, claims the prince
is “joylessly” taking over more
and more of the Queen’s duties.
She writes that he feels so
passionate about the many
causes he champions that - in
the words of one courtier - ascending the throne will be like
“prison shades” closing for
him.
In an article for Time,
written as she researched
the book, Mayer said
that: “Far from itching
to assume the crown,
he is already feeling its
weight and worrying
about its impact
on the job he has
been doing.”
ritish military experts
were asked to draw up
guidance at the height of
the Ebola outbreak in West Africa late last year on the feasibility
and potential impact of terrorists ‘weaponising’ the virus.
The ministry of defence has released a heavily redacted report,
prepared in October, that identified three different scenarios regarding the exploitation of Ebola
for bio-terrorism.
Details of the first scenario are
entirely blacked out, as are most of
those of the second, which is described as “logistically and technically challenging for a non-state
group to undertake”.
It adds: “Clearly there are practical issues involved with such a
scenario that of themselves are
often not insurmountable but taken together add to the complexity
of successfully undertaking this
attack.”
The third scenario - details of
which were also heavily redacted was described as the “most technically challenging”.
The advice was drawn up by the
MoD’s defence science and technology laboratory (DSTL) in early
October at a time when concern
was increasing about the spread
of Ebola in West Africa and plans
were being put in place to carry
out testing of travellers at UK airports.
It’s not clear who sought the
guidance - and whether it was
senior civil servant or a minister
- but the report states that it was
sought following a phone conversation on “the feasibility of a nonstate actor (NSA) exploiting the
Ebola outbreak in West Africa for
bio-terrorism”.
The document was released
by the MoD on Friday following a
Freedom of Information request.
Jennifer Cole, a senior research
fellow at the Royal United Services Institute for Defence and
Security Studies (RUSI), said she
wasn’t surprised the report had
been drawn up. “The US and UK
military have been carrying out
research for some time into infectious diseases,” she said. “The
fact that vaccines are so far along
in development is because of concerns that the US has had about
the virus being weaponised .”
20
Gulf Times
Tuesday, February 3, 2015
BRITAIN
OUTBREAK
REVEALED
TRAGEDY
CRIME
PEOPLE
Second health worker
tested for Ebola in London
Briton is world’s
deadliest sniper
Pensioner dies in
yacht sea plunge
Footballer’s home
targeted by thieves
Disabled woman ‘left
trapped’ on train
A military healthcare worker has been flown
back to England from Sierra Leone following the
likely exposure to the Ebola virus, a government
agency said. Public Health England said the
worker had likely been exposed to the virus from
a needle injury while treating a patient with Ebola.
The worker has not been diagnosed with the
virus and does not have any symptoms. Another
healthcare worker was flown back on Saturday
following a similar injury and both are being
tested at the Royal Free hospital in London. “Although we have had two similar incidents within a
short space of time both appear to be unrelated,”
minister for the Armed Forces Mark Francois said
The world’s most lethal military sniper is
understood to be a Royal Marine. The Sun
said the Briton, who has not been named, had
served in the Royal Navy’s elite unit for more
than a decade and recorded most of his 173
confirmed kills during tours of Afghanistan in
2006-07, having also served in Iraq. The figure puts the corporal, reportedly married and
from southern England, ahead of US Navy
SEAL commando Chris Kyle, who had 160
confirmed kills to make him the most lethal
US sniper. Kyle’s exploits are the subject of
a new film called American Sniper, starring
Bradley Cooper.
A pensioner has died after falling from a yacht
into the sea. The 72-year-old was on a leisure trip
in the Bristol Channel when he fell overboard
off Lavernock Point, Penarth around 12.15pm on
Sunday. RNLI lifeboat crews rescued the sailor
from the water and emergency services took
him to University Hospital of Wales in Cardiff,
where he later died, South Wales Police said. An
RAF Sea King helicopter was also called but was
not involved in the rescue. The man, who is from
the Gwent area and has not been named, was
thought to have been among a crew of around
eight people aboard the yacht when the incident
occurred, police said.
Burglars made an unsuccessful attempt to break
into the home of Manchester United winger Angel di Maria at the weekend, according to media
reports. The Sun said Di Maria, 26, was having dinner with his family at his home in Prestbury when
a group of thieves tried to smash through the
patio doors with scaffolding poles. They fled when
an alarm sounded. “At 7.30pm on Saturday, police
received reports of a burglary at a house in the
Chelford Road area of Prestbury,” said a Cheshire
Police spokesperson. “A number of offenders tried
to gain access to the property by trying to smash
the back door. The alarm was raised before the
men got inside and they fled the scene.”
A disabled Tube passenger said she was forced to
pull the emergency lever for help after becoming
“trapped” on a train - only to be told off by the
driver. Lisa Bennett, 51, who uses a heavy electric
wheelchair, was travelling from Hounslow East to
Caledonian Road. Staff at Hounslow East normally
call to make sure there will be a ramp to help her
get off at her destination. But Bennett, a motherof-five, said when she arrived at Caledonian Road
“no one was there and I was shouting down the
platform”. “The train pulled away and for the first
time in my life I pulled the emergency lever. I told
the driver I was trapped... but he said I should
have called ahead, which someone should have.”
Mugged
pensioner to
buy new house
with donations
Guardian News and Media
London
A
disabled pensioner who
was violently mugged
outside his home has
spoken of his amazement after
well-wishers raised more than
£220,000 for him to move house.
Alan Barnes, 67, who is 4ft 6in
and visually impaired, suffered
a broken collarbone when he
was attacked on his doorstep in
Gateshead, Tyne and Wear, last
Sunday.
The attacker rifled through his
pockets after shoving him to the
ground and demanding money,
but ran off when his frail victim
called for help.
After reports of the attack, a
local beautician, Katie Cutler,
set up a fundraising page aiming to raise £500 - but donations
quickly flooded in from 17,000
well-wishers as far afield as Canada, Holland and New Zealand.
Donations topped £220,000
on Sunday - 48 hours after the
page was launched - as Barnes
said he planned to use the money
to buy a new house.
The pensioner, who has lived
with disabilities all his life after
his mother contracted German
measles when she was pregnant,
lived independently in the Low
Fell area of Gateshead but was
too afraid to return home after
the attack.
“I’m not going back there, I
decided that instant I wouldn’t
go back to that house,” he said.
“You would remember it every
time you went past that footpath, wouldn’t you?”
Speaking
to
Newcastle’s
Chronicle, Barnes said he was
“absolutely amazed” at
the donations and said
he was feeling okay,
describing his broken
collarbone as merely
an inconvenience.
He added: “I’m really
grateful and a thank
you doesn’t seem to
be enough for how
I feel. I’ve heard of
people getting get-well cards but
not this.”
He met Cutler, who has been
nicknamed the “Angel of the
North” for her fundraising efforts,
for the first time on Sunday. “It
doesn’t feel real, I’m so over the
moon,” the 21-year-old said. “I
think now he could probably buy
a nice little bungalow for himself
with a nice little garden.
“Also I’ve had people contact
me with regards to donating
kitchens, bathrooms, carpets,
offering plumbing services and
electrical services, so I think he is
going to have a nice place to live.”
Barnes is a popular figure in
Low Fell and is renowned for being able to quickly calculate how
many days old someone is from
their date of birth.
As of 3pm on Sunday, more
than 17,000 people had pledged
donations from £5 to £1,000,
taking the total to £220,760. One
well-wisher, donating £500,
wrote: “Your attackers are cowards. They deserve nothing more
than being locked up and having
the key thrown away.”
Another, Douglas Smith, gave
£250 and said: “From a Scotsman
in Singapore. This situation brings
tears to my eyes. I really wish you
all the best in the future Alan,
you’re a star. And well done Katie
for highlighting this, you’re also a
star.”
Northumbria police have issued
an appeal for anyone with information about the attacker.
Officer Chris Neil, of Gateshead CID, said: “This was a cowardly assault on a vulnerable man
who wasn’t able to defend himself. His disability means he is
partially sighted and quite short,
and it’s disgraceful that someone
would target him.
“The victim is quite a wellknown man in the area and this has
left him extremely distressed.
“We’re doing everything we
can to trace the suspect and I
would urge anyone who saw this
attempted robbery or who
has information about
the person responsible
to get in touch.”
Bus roof torn off
A bus sits with its roof ripped off on the Kingsway in central London. A number 91 double-decker bus had its roof ripped off after hitting a tree, causing injury to
passengers and passers-by, local media reported.
Magna Carta originals
reunited for first time
AFP
London
T
he four surviving original Magna Carta copies
yesterday went on display together for the first time
as Britain marks the 800th anniversary of a manuscript which
has defined rights and liberties
around the world.
Considered the cornerstone
of freedom, modern democracy,
justice and the rule of law, the
English document forms the basis for legal systems across the
globe, the Universal Declaration
of Human Rights and the US
constitution.
In June 1215, the wayward king
John agreed to the demands of
rebellious barons to curb his
Four-year-old among 38
children suspected of rape
London Evening Standard
London
N
early 40 children aged
under 10 have been identified as rape suspects
in London during the past three
years, official police figures revealed yesterday.
The Scotland Yard statistics
show that the youngest child
was aged only four and that there
were other rape suspects aged
five, six and seven.
They were among a total of 38
children under the age of criminal responsibility - which begins
at 10 - recorded as rape suspects
by the Met.
The figures, which were provided in response to a Freedom
of Information request by the
Evening Standard and cover the
years 2012, 2013 and 2014, also
show there were another 194
sexual offences in London during
that period in which the suspect
was under 10.
Details of the individual cases
have not been revealed. But experts have warned that such
offending is being triggered in
some cases by children watching
online porn and trying to copy
adult activity.
Other cases are thought to involve inappropriate touching or
perpetrators who have suffered
abuse themselves repeating the
actions.
Detective
superintendent
Steve Williams, the head of the
Met’s child abuse command,
said: “There are children who
are behaving in an overly sexualised way. It could be exposure to
the Internet or exposure to child
abuse that is causing it, but there
are a number of different causes.
“Our priority is to try to address what is causing this behaviour.”
Yesterday’s figures show that
22 of the suspected child rapists under the age of criminal
responsibility committed the
offence last year. A further 10
child suspects were identified
in 2013 and six in 2012. The total for “other sexual offences”
- which include crimes such as
sexual assault - was also highest last year, with 89 suspects
who were under 10. That compares with figures of 68 and 37
for the years before.
In some cases, the alleged
crimes were carried out by more
than one child aged under 10.
The increase in child rape
suspects mirrors a similar rise
in recorded adult sexual offending over the past year. The
Home Office has attributed this
partly to heightened reporting
in the wake of the Jimmy Savile
scandal.
Many of the child cases are understood to have been referred to
police by social workers, teachers
or family.
The Met emphasised that
none of the children identified
in yesterday’s statistics had been
proved guilty because their age
meant charges were not possible.
The force said other action was
taken, with some children placed
under the supervision of social
workers.
A Met spokeswoman added:
“Every allegation is recorded by
police as a crime and allocated
for investigation. Close liaison
with social services follows.”
powers and sealed the charter at
Runnymede, a meadow by the
River Thames west of London.
At the British Library in London, the two priceless copies
held by the institution were
joined by those from Lincoln and
Salisbury Cathedrals for a unification event this week that few
will get to witness.
A total of 1,215 people - drawn
from a ballot of more than
40,000 people from 20-plus
countries - have won the chance
to see the four originals together
today. World-leading Magna
Carta experts get the chance to
study them side by side tomorrow.
“This is a really exciting
day: the first time ever we have
brought together the four surviving original copies of Magna
Carta,” Claire Breay, the library’s
head of medieval manuscripts,
said.
“It established that the king
was subject to the law and it’s
been used in the centuries since
it was granted as a defence
against arbitrary and unjust rulers.
“And, of course, it has enormous symbolic importance as a
symbol of rights and justice and
freedom around the world.”
With each copy framed in individual glass cases, the four
manuscripts were installed together behind thick glass on
Sunday in the British Library’s
Treasures gallery.
The four parchments will be
moved to parliament for a private
display on Thursday, before returning to their respective homes
Brown spells out plan
for a year of celebrations honouring a document that still has resonance eight centuries on.
Nearly a third of the text was
dropped or substantially rewritten within 10 years and almost
all the 63 clauses have been repealed, with three remaining in
English law.
However, the principles that
justice should be available to all,
the law applies equally to all and
leaders can only exercise power
in accordance with the law continue to be fought for in many
parts of the world.
The Magna Carta Trust,
which looks after the memorial
site in Runnymede, believes the
charter’s importance is growing.
“800 years on, Magna Carta’s
best days lie ahead,” it said.
Lawyer David Wootton, a
Miliband warns
Boots boss on taxes
Reuters
London
T
Former prime minister Gordon Brown laughs as
he delivers his speech on powers for the Scottish
Parliament, in Edinburgh, Scotland, yesterday.
former lord mayor of London—a
role representing the city’s business heartland—said English law
was the “common currency” of
global business deals precisely
due to the safeguards derived
from Magna Carta.
“Investors regard their money
as safe here (in London) because
of the protections in the legal
system,” he said.
Events are being held across
England throughout 2015 to
mark the anniversary, including
a major international commemoration event at Runnymede on
June 15.
Exhibitions, debates, conferences, church services, lectures,
charity dinners, theatre performances, tourist trails, village
fetes, and even a national peal of
bells are planned.
he Labour Party yesterday
said businesses’ biggest
worry about an upcoming
election was that it could lead to
an exit from the European Union,
rejecting criticism from a chief
executive who said a Labour win
would be a “catastrophe”.
On Sunday Stefano Pessina,
the head of international pharmacy chain Wallgreens Boots
Alliance said the left-leaning
party’s policies were unhelpful
to businesses and that a Labour
government after the May election would be a “catastrophe” for
the country.
Pessina also said that it would
be a “big mistake” for Britain to
leave the EU.
Labour leader Ed Miliband
said that Monaco-based Stefano
Pessina should stop lecturing voters and “start paying his taxes”.
Miliband said: “It turns out that
the chairman of Boots lives in Monaco and is actually avoiding his
taxes. I’ve just got to say to you, I
don’t think people in Britain are
going to take kindly to being lec-
tured by someone who is avoiding
his taxes on how they should be
voting in the UK general election.”
Earlier Labour’s economic
spokesman Ed Balls, the man
who would become finance minister if they win the election,
seized upon Pessina’s comment,
turning the fire on Prime Minister David Cameron’s Conservatives by saying the real danger
for businesses came from Cameron’s plan to hold a referendum
on Britain’s EU membership.
“The only tangible thing he
(Pessina) says ... was his fear is of
Britain leaving the European Union,” Balls told BBC radio.
“That’s what I hear from businesses up and down the country all the time ... when I was in
Washington a couple of weeks
ago, the big fear of American
policymakers is a Tory (Conservative) government taking Britain
out of Europe.”
Cameron has promised the referendum by 2017 to win back Eurosceptic voters who have defected
to the anti-EU UK Independence
Party (Ukip). He wants to negotiate
reformed ties with Europe and, if
successful, says he would campaign
for Britain to stay in the bloc.
Gulf Times
Tuesday, February 3, 2015
21
EUROPE
2014 was ‘hottest year on record’: UN agency
AFP
Geneva
T
he year 2014 was the hottest on record, part of a
“warming trend” that appeared set to continue, the UN’s
weather agency said yesterday.
Average global air temperatures in 2014 were 0.57 degrees
Celsius (1.03 degree Fahrenheit)
higher than the long-term average of 14°C (57.2°F) for a 19611990 reference period, the World
Cleric appeals
relocation ruling
A Kurdish Islamic cleric who
was imprisoned for threatening
Norwegian politicians appealed
a court decision yesterday that
forces him to move from Oslo to
a remote rural area.
Iraqi-born Najmuddin Faraj
Ahmad, also known as Mullah
Krekar, served two years and
10 months in prison for making
death threats against Prime
Minister Erna Solberg in 2010,
then an opposition leader, along
with other politicians and three
Kurds.
Before his release last month,
police said Krekar remained
a threat to society and
recommended he be relocated
to an asylum centre more than
500km northwest of Oslo.
The relocation to rural
Kyrksaeterora, ordered by
the Oslo District Court earlier
yesterday, is expected to limit
Krekar’s personal meetings with
supporters.
Sweden indicts
Syrian ex-rebel
Swedish prosecutors have
indicted a former Syrian rebel
accused of beating a pro-regime
fighter in 2012 after a video of the
attack was posted on Facebook.
The 28-year-old is accused
of violating international
law – including the Geneva
Conventions which govern the
treatment of prisoners of war
– and of aggravated assault, in
what is believed to be the first
case in Sweden linked to the
conflict in Syria.
A video of the beating posted
on the defendant’s Facebook
account has been cited as
evidence against the former Free
Syrian Army fighter who has lived
in Sweden since 2013.
“To my knowledge, there has
never been a trial like this,”
prosecutor Henrik Soederman
told AFP.
Meteorological
Organisation
(WMO) said in a statement.
“Fourteen of the 15 hottest
years have all been this century,”
said WMO secretary general
Michel Jarraud. “In 2014, recordbreaking heat combined with
torrential rainfall and floods in
many countries and drought in
some others – consistent with
the expectation of a changing
climate.”
Global sea-surface temperatures also reached record levels,
the agency said.
United Nations members will
meet in Geneva next week for
talks on a global climate pact that
must be signed in Paris in December for curbing greenhouse
gas emissions.
The UN seeks to limit warming to no more than 2°C over
pre-Industrial Revolution levels,
but scientists warn the Earth is
on target for double that target
– a scenario that could be catastrophic.
“We expect global warming to
continue, given that rising levels
of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere and the increasing heat
content of the oceans are committing us to a warmer future,”
said Jarraud.
The WMO said that only a few
hundredths of a degree separated
the warmest years.
Average global air temperatures in 2010 were 0.55°C above
average, compared to 2014’s
0.57°C, and 0.54°C in 2005.
Also notable was that the 2014
record occurred in the absence of
a fully-developed El Nino system
Reuters/DPA
Budapest
G
erman Chancellor Angela
Merkel told Hungarian
Prime Minister Viktor
Orban yesterday that he should
give space to opponents of his
rule, a nod to critics who say
Orban has eroded democratic
freedoms.
Merkel was on a one-day visit
to Hungary, which is a major
manufacturing base for German
industries but also irks some
in Europe with its close ties to
Moscow and policies that often
stray from the European mainstream.
“We talked about the development of our civil societies,
and I pointed out that even when
you have a broad majority, as the
Hungarian prime minister does,
it is important to value the role
of the opposition, of civil society, of the media,” Merkel said at
a joint news conference with Orban. “Our societies thrive when
these groups wrestle with each
other to find the best way forward and I think this is also an
important model for Hungary.”
Orban said last year that he
wanted Hungary to be “an illiberal state”, explaining that
he meant a system of rule that
still embraced freedom, but put
Hungary first and did not try to
emulate the Western consensus
A
93-year-old
former
Auschwitz death camp
officer will go on trial in
Germany in April charged with
at least 300,000 counts of accessory to murder, a court said
yesterday.
The German defendant, Oskar Groening, will face charges
over the 425,000 people believed to have been deported to
the camp in occupied Poland
between May and July 1944, at
least 300,000 of whom were
killed in the gas chambers.
The regional court in the
northern city of Lueneburg
said the trial would start on
April 21.
the very fundamentals.
Countries have committed to
make emissions-curbing pledges before the Paris gathering –
starting next month for those
nations that are in a position to
do so.
Emissions must be slashed by
40-70% by 2050 from 2010 levels and to near zero or below by
2100 for a good chance of reaching two-degree warming, the
UN’s Intergovernmental Panel on
Climate Change said in a report
last year.
Merkel and Orban discuss before a joint news conference that followed their meeting in Budapest yesterday.
about how a country should be
run.
In Budapest yesterday, Merkel
expressed her discomfort with
Orban’s phrase.
“I cannot understand the
word ‘illiberal’ in connection
with democracy,” she said. “We
talked about democracy and
what constitutes democracy.
This discussion must be deepened. I personally pointed out
that for me, the roots of democracy are always liberal, though
not only.”
Orban’s opponents say he has
forced independent judges into
retirement, stacked state in-
stitutions with his supporters,
and turned public media into an
obedient mouthpiece.
Orban denies those allegations, saying that he has a mandate from voters to end years of
misrule under his predecessors.
In front of reporters, Merkel
did not criticise Orban’s friendly
ties with Russia.
These have caused friction
with other European states
who believe Russian President
Vladimir Putin must be isolated
over his intervention in Ukraine.
Putin is scheduled to visit
Hungary later this month.
Merkel said that a ceasefire
between Russian-backed separatists and Ukrainian forces in
eastern Ukraine must be implemented immediately, but
that Germany would not supply
weapons to Kiev.
Merkel did call for a united
front over the crisis in Ukraine.
Unity in all the steps taken by
Europe thus far is “a high priority”, she said.
Addressing Europe’s energy
dependence on Russia, which
stands accused of supporting
the separatists in Ukraine, Merkel said new suppliers had to be
found.
Orban said there was only
one solution in Ukraine, namely
“one that leads to peace”, not
one that deepens the conflict.
Later in the day Merkel met
representatives of civil society
groups and visited a Budapest
synagogue – a visit that her entourage says she will use to highlight the dangers of racial and
ethnic hatred around Europe.
At home, Merkel has spoken
out against Germany’s PEGIDA
movement, which has held mass
rallies against immigration,
while in Hungary the secondbiggest party, Jobbik, has been
accused of anti-Semitic and
anti-Roma rhetoric.
Earlier,
Hungary’s
antiterrorism police had banned a
planned human rights demonstration outside the Germanspeaking Andrassy University,
where Merkel was due to meet
and talk with students.
The protest would be allowed
to take place a block away, at a
location where the chancellor
would not be able to see it, the
group Most Mi! (Now Us) said
on Facebook.
Several thousand demonstrators had gathered in Budapest on
Sunday to protest Orban’s “unEuropean” policies.
Ahead of the visit, several
rights organisations called on
Merkel to tackle Orban’s heavyhanded policies.
Amnesty International called
on her to speak out against what
it called Orban’s “witch hunt”
against non-governmental organisations, while Reporters
Without Borders urged her to
demand greater press freedom
for journalists.
Meanwhile, Germany’s Society for Threatened Peoples called
on her to speak out for the rights
of persecuted minorities.
“We want the chancellor to
talk openly about the problem
of the racist baiting of the Roma
people and also to offer aid to
improve their situation,” Jasna
Causevic, an official with the organisation, told the Neue Osnabruecker daily.
Soldiers deployed to rescue
villagers from Balkans floods
Reuters
Tirana/Skopje
S
Farmers transport sheep to higher ground after heavy rain caused the Vjosa River to burst its banks
and flood their village of Darzeze, near the city of Fier in Albania.
German, 93, to face trial
over Auschwitz deaths
AFP
Berlin
Some of the data goes back to
1850.
Scientists warn that a 4°C
warmer Earth would be hit by
more catastrophic droughts,
floods, rising seas and storms,
with wars likely fought over everscarcer resources like water.
Fraught UN negotiations for
a climate-saving pact, scheduled to enter into force from
2020, are at a difficult phase and
campaigners and observers fear
a weak compromise as nations
continue to disagree of some of
Merkel urges Hungary
to safeguard democracy
Man held near
EU Parliament
Belgian police arrested a man
who had a chainsaw and gun
in his car near the European
Parliament yesterday, prompting
the evacuation of several
buildings, prosecutors said.
The 32-year-old Slovakian,
dressed in military fatigues, said
that he wanted to meet European
Parliament President Martin
Schulz, Belgian media reported.
Police later lifted the bomb
alert after finding there were no
explosives in his car, prosecutors
told the Belga news agency.
The man later appeared
before a magistrate accused of
threatening an attack, possessing
a prohibited weapon and having
a firearm requiring a permit.
– a periodic weather phenomenon that has an overall warming
impact on Earth’s climate.
High temperatures in 1998 –
the hottest year before the 21st
century – occurred during a
strong El Nino.
The WMO report is a consolidation of leading international
datasets, including research by
Nasa, the US National Oceanic
and Atmospheric Administration
(NOAA), the Met Office’s Hadley
Centre and the University of East
Anglia’s Climatic Research Unit.
Groening, then a member
of the Nazi Waffen-SS, was
tasked with counting the banknotes gathered from prisoners’ luggage and passing them
on to the SS authorities in Berlin, prosecutors in the northern
city of Hanover said when he
was charged in September.
Groening told German daily
Bild in 2005 that he regretted
working at Auschwitz, saying
he still heard the screams from
the gas chamber decades later.
“I was ashamed for decades
and I am still ashamed today,”
said Groening, who was employed from the age of 21 at the
camp. “Not of my acts, because
I never killed anyone. But I offered my aid. I was a cog in the
killing machine that eliminated
millions of innocent people.”
oldiers were deployed in
Albania and Macedonia
yesterday to help rescue
villagers and strengthen flood
barriers after rivers burst their
banks under heavy rain forecast
to continue through the week.
A state of emergency was in
place in much of eastern Macedonia and parts of northern and
central Greece, where the 19th
century Plaka Bridge – one of the
largest single-arch stone bridges
in Europe – was damaged over
the weekend by raging floodwaters in the northwestern region
of Epirus.
No casualties were reported.
In Albania, rescue services and
army helicopters rushed to the
aid of villagers after a river that
flows from Greece into Albania –
known as the Aous in Greece and
Vjosa in Albania – burst its banks
over the weekend.
Near the Unesco-protected
south-central Albanian city of
Berat, some of those trapped by
the floodwaters called Albanian
television stations to appeal for
help, including two brothers who
had sought refuge in a communist-era bunker.
In Macedonia, crisis-response
authorities called on residents to
join the army and local authorities in tackling the threat from
swollen rivers.
Worst-affected was the town
of Stip, some 90km southeast of
the capital Skopje.
There, the level of the River
Bregalnica had risen by almost
2m.
Ex-IMF chief Strauss-Kahn goes on trial for pimping
AFP
Lille
F
ormer International Monetary Fund (IMF) chief
Dominique Strauss-Kahn
went on trial yesterday for pimping as part of a prostitution ring,
four years after a sex scandal
cost him his job and a shot at the
French presidency.
The disgraced 65-year-old
economist found himself back in
the dock – this time in the northern French city of Lille – accused
of being at the centre of a vice
ring which hired prostitutes for
sex parties in Brussels, Paris and
Washington.
A silver-haired Strauss-Kahn,
dressed in a dark suit, slipped
past a throng of journalists to arrive early in the wood-panelled
courtroom, where he paced up
and down with his hands in his
pockets in front of the imposing
stone bench, where over 40 massive files were stacked.
He appeared on edge as he
sat, arms folded, while presiding judge Bernard Lemaire read
out the charges against him and
13 co-accused, a colourful cast of
characters including luxury hotel
managers, police, and a brothel
owner nicknamed “Dodo the
Pimp”.
“You are accused of aiding and
abetting the prostitution of seven
persons between March 29, 2008
and October 4, 2011, and of hiring
and encouraging the prostitution
of these same persons,” Lemaire
told Strauss-Kahn.
Procedural applications, such
as a request by a lawyer for the
former prostitutes involved for
hearings to take place behind
closed doors, were expected to
dominate the first day of the trial.
Lurid details of group sex and
high-end prostitution are likely
to emerge in the trial for “aggravated pimping in an organised
group”, a charge punishable by up
to 10 years in prison and a fine of
up to €1.5mn ($1.7mn).
The trial will be the latest in
a series of legal woes offering a
peek behind the bedroom door
of a man once tipped as a potential challenger to former French
president Nicolas Sarkozy.
The former IMF head, known
in France as DSK, saw his career
implode in 2011 when he was paraded handcuffed in front of the
world’s cameras after a New York
hotel maid accused him of sexual
assault.
Those criminal charges were
dropped and the case settled in
a civil suit, but six months later
Strauss-Kahn’s name cropped up
in an investigation into a prostitution ring in northern France
and Belgium.
Investigators probing the
“Carlton Affair” – named after
one of the swish hotels in Lille
where local businessmen and
police officials organised sex parties – found some of the prostitutes involved had been hired to
participate in soirees attended by
Strauss-Kahn.
Prostitution is legal in France
but procuring – the legal term for
pimping which includes encouraging, benefiting from or organising prostitution – is punishable
by a hefty jail term.
The crux of the case against the
former IMF managing director
is whether he knew the women
lavishing their attention on him
were prostitutes and whether he
played a role in organising their
presence.
DSK admits to being a “libertine” who enjoys orgies but has
steadfastly denied knowing the
women were paid.
Strauss-Kahn: was once
considered a potential candidate
for the French presidency.
22
Gulf Times
Tuesday, February 3, 2015
EUROPE
Berlusconi’s community
service sentence slashed
Reuters/AFP/DPA
Milan
F
ormer Italian prime minister Silvio Berlusconi was
granted a request yesterday to end his community service sentence for tax fraud 45 days
early for good behaviour, making
him a free agent from early next
month.
Last year, the 78-year-old
media magnate had a four-year
jail sentence commuted into
an order to spend four hours a
week for a year at a centre for
Alzheimer’s patients, the Sacra
Famiglia (Sacred Family) care
home at Cesano Boscone near
Milan, restricting his movements and political activities.
Berlusconi’s petition to have
the sentence reduced was filed
last month and approved yesterday by Milan judge Beatrice
Crosti, over the objection of
prosecutors, legal sources said.
According to the online edition of daily La Repubblica, the
judge agreed to an earlier end of
the sentence – from April 23 to
March 8 – after recognising that,
apart from an episode in which
Berlusconi criticised the judiciary while providing evidence in
a trial in Naples, Berlusconi had
demonstrated good behaviour.
From March 8, the four-time
prime minister, still the most
influential politician in Italy’s
centre-right, will get his passport back and no longer have any
restriction on his movement.
A close aide said however that
Belusconi, who is 78 himself,
would continue to visit the elderly patients.
“It is very good news, his good
behaviour was there for everyone to see,” Giovanni Toti told
TGCOM 24 television. “He performed his social service very
seriously and accepted a conviction we continue to regard as
unjust. He has purged his sentence and will continue to visit
the Sacra Famiglia.”
Berlusconi’s conviction cost
him his seat in the Senate and
prevented him from running for
election for six years, restrictions that he is still battling to
have removed.
He has appealed to the European Court of Human Rights in
Strasbourg and is also hoping
for a legislative reprieve from
Prime Minister Matteo Renzi,
with whom he has been working closely to draft electoral and
constitutional reforms.
A political storm blew up last
month when Italian media discovered a last-minute government amendment to a tax bill
Berlusconi: will no longer have any restriction on his movement
from March 8.
that would have de-criminalised
balance sheet fraud for any sum
below 3% of a company’s annual
income.
The amendment would have
wiped out Berlusconi’s conviction and meant he was once
more eligible for office.
Renzi backed down after an
outcry from much of his own
centre-left Democratic Party
but, rather than just scrap the
amendment, he put the whole
bill on ice and said he would review it at the end of this month.
Media magnate Berlusconi
was ousted from his seat in the
upper-house Senate in November 2013 and banned from public
office for six years under 2012
anti-corruption legislation.
The “Severino” law provides
for such bans for any politician
sentenced to prison for two or
more years.
After a series of appeals, Berlusconi was definitively convicted of tax fraud in August 2013
and sentenced to four years in
prison.
That was later reduced to the
community service order in line
with Italian judicial practice of
not sending non-violent criminals over 70 to jail.
As his Forza Italia party essentially revolves around him
with the backing of his media
empire, Berlusconi was able to
retain its leadership.
The centre-right grouping retains considerable influence in
parliament but has slipped badly
in the opinion polls over the time
its leader has been making his
visits to the care home.
Under the terms of the community service, Berlusconi
needed permission to leave his
residence over weekends and
was subject to a nightly curfew.
That did not prevent him
travelling regularly to Rome for
negotiations with Renzi, with
whom he concluded a co-operation “pact” in June 2014.
That deal ensured that Berlusconi delivered vital votes to
help Renzi steer a shake-up of
Italy’s labour laws onto the statute book and a new electoral law
through the Senate.
Renzi was however widely
seen as having betrayed the
pact last week by ignoring Berlusconi’s reservations when he
successfully pushed for his candidate, Sergio Mattarella, to be-
come Italy’s new president.
Mattarella, who once resigned
as a minister over a law favouring Berlusconi’s media empire, is
due to be sworn in today.
Berlusconi was widely seen as
wanting a more accommodating
figure in the hope that his ban
from the Senate could be overturned by a presidential pardon.
The tax case was only one of
a series of legal cases in which
Berlusconi has been embroiled
for years.
He was convicted in 2013 of
paying for sex with a minor, a
17-year-old dancer nicknamed
“Ruby the Heartstealer” who allegedly attended what became
known as “bunga-bunga” parties at his villa in Milan and other residences.
An appeal court overturned
that conviction last year, saying
there was insufficient evidence
that Berlusconi knew Ruby was
under age.
The case will finally be concluded in the Court of Cassation
in a fresh hearing due to start in
March.
Also still rumbling through
the legal system is a case in
which Berlusconi is charged
with bribing a Senator to join his
party in 2006 as part of a plot to
destabilise the centre-left government of the time.
Bank error in your
favour: Monopoly
with real banknotes
By Paul Aubriat, AFP
Saint-Avold, France
T
here can’t be a Monopoly
fan in the world who has
not dreamed of one day
playing a round with real money.
Now, for the 80th anniversary
of the game’s first appearance in
France, manufacturers are providing exactly that – at least for
80 lucky buyers.
Only one set will land the major jackpot, in which every game
note is replaced by real money
– for a total windfall of €20,580
($23,268).
In addition, 10 sets will contain five real €20 notes, two €50
notes and one €100 note.
A lesser prize can be scooped
in 69 sets, which will have five
€10 notes and five €20 notes.
“We wanted to do something
unique,” said Florence Gaillard,
brand manager at Hasbro France,
which rolled out the prize sets
yesterday.
“When we asked our French
customers, they told us they
wanted to find real money in their
Monopoly boxes,” she added.
The operation to switch the
Iceland
to build
first Norse
temple
in 1,000
years
Reuters
Reykjavik
I
celanders will soon be able to
publicly worship at a shrine
to Thor, Odin and Frigg with
construction starting this month
on the island’s first major temple
to the Norse gods since the Viking age.
Worship of the gods in Scandinavia gave way to Christian-
notes was carried out in secret,
in the small eastern town of
Creutzwald, where the games are
packed up before being shipped
throughout France.
“First of all, it wasn’t easy to
get the notes. They had to be
escorted discretely,” explained
Gaillard.
Appropriately for a game
where players try to cruelly
bankrupt their opponents, Monopoly even roped in a bailiff
to count and re-count the real
notes.
“When they asked me, I was
giddy as a child,” said the bailiff
in question, Patrice Wimmer, an
aficionado of the game.
However, they discovered a
problem: the sets with the real
notes expanded the box ever so
slightly, making the packaging
out of kilter – a tell-tale sign.
As for the weight, there was
no discernable difference between the real notes and the fake
money.
“The difference is marginal,
unless you turn up at the shop
with precision scales,” said
Wimmer.
The board game of Monopoly
was created after the Great De-
pression in the United States and
has been tearing families and
friends apart ever since.
Fiercely competitive, the object of the game is to buy property around the board of varying
quality, then build “houses” and
“hotels” on one’s property empire, charging opponents rent if
they are unfortunate enough to
land on your square.
The winner is the last person
standing after everyone else is
left penniless and destitute.
Even a short game can last several hours as the eventual winner
grinds down opponents note by
note until they have nothing left.
The longest game in history
lasted 70 straight days, according to the Hasbro website.
“The rules are simple, everyone knows them, anyone can
play,” said Gaillard.
Hasbro says that its moneyspinning board game is available
in 111 countries and in 43 languages.
There are 500,000 sets sold
each year in France alone.
The 80 lucky sets are hidden
within 30,000 boxes of different
types of game – classic, junior,
electronic and “vintage”.
High priest Hilmar Orn Hilmarsson leads a procession of fellow
members of the Asatru Association, a contemporary Icelandic pagan
society, at the Pingvellir National Park near Reykjavik, in this June 21,
2012 file picture. Construction of the first major Norse Pagan temple
since the Viking age will begin in Reykjavik in end of this month.
ity around 1,000 years ago but a
modern version of Norse paganism has been gaining popularity.
“I don’t believe anyone believes in a one-eyed man who is
riding about on a horse with eight
feet,” said Hilmar Orn Hilmarsson, high priest of “Asatruarfelagid” (Asatru Association), an
association that promotes faith
in the Norse gods. “We see the
stories as poetic metaphors and
a manifestation of the forces of
nature and human psychology.”
Membership in Asatruarfelagid has tripled in Iceland in the
last decade to 2,400 members
last year, out of a total population
of 330,000, data from Statistics
Iceland showed.
€500 banknotes are seen on a Monopoly game board as Hasbro employees prepare envelopes with
cash in Saint-Avold, eastern France. Toy maker Hasbro, celebrating the 80th anniversary of the iconic
board game, is offering real money inside some game boxes. The biggest prize is over €20,000.
Erdogan
vows to
eradicate
‘cancer
cells’ in
judiciary
AFP
Istanbul
T
urkish President Recep
Tayyip Erdogan has vowed
to eradicate “cancer cells”
in the judiciary, launching a
new attack against the supporters of his rival, US-based imam
Fethullah Gulen.
Erdogan accuses Gulen’s powerful movement of being behind
a sweeping corruption probe
that rocked his government in
December 2013 while he was
prime minister.
Firing a new salvo against Gulen’s supporters in the judiciary,
Erdogan said: “A gang has attempted to stage a coup against
the government with the help of
resources provided to them for
the security of the country and
the interest of justice.”
Gulen, an Erdogan allyturned-foe, has vehemently denied Erdogan’s suggestions he
instigated the probe.
Thousands of his supporters
have held influential jobs in high
places in the police and judiciary.
But the Turkish strongman
has struck back, sacking scores
of judges and prosecutors as well
as pushing through laws in a bid
to tighten his grip over the judiciary.
In December, the country’s
top judicial body dismissed four
prosecutors who oversaw the
corruption investigation.
“In the new Turkey, we will
work hand in hand to make sure
we can eradicate these cancer
cells that have invaded the whole
society,” he said in a speech at
the Turkish Justice Academy in
Ankara.
“It is not possible for judges
and prosecutors who act upon
the order of others instead of law
to serve justice,” he added, calling the launch of the corruption
probe “a catastrophe”.
The
corruption
scandal,
which dragged down four of his
cabinet ministers, posed one of
the most serious challenges to
Erdogan’s 11-year rule as prime
minister.
Erdogan, who came out fighting from the crisis and became
president last August, labelled
the graft probe an attempted
“judicial coup”.
Sarkozy under pressure to block FN
candidate in French election run-off
Reuters
Paris
N
icolas Sarkozy, the
former president now
heading France’s main
conservative opposition, came
under pressure from allies and
foes yesterday to endorse rival
Socialists in a by-election runoff to ensure the defeat of the
National Front (FN).
The anti-immigrant farright party came out ahead with
32.6% in Sunday’s first round
vote for the parliamentary seat
in the eastern Le Doubs constituency left vacant by Pierre Moscovici, a Socialist deputy named
EU commissioner.
The Socialist candidate came
in second with 28.9% ahead of
the conservative UMP candidate, setting the stage for Socialist-National Front duel next
Sunday.
France’s mainstream parties
have in the past put differences
aside to endorse whichever of
their candidates stood the better chance of defeating the FN in
run-off votes.
But Europe 1 radio said that
Sarkozy – who has said he wants
to lure their voters back to the
UMP – was reluctant to back either candidate this time.
“The National Front would
disfigure France,” UMP deputy
president Nathalie KosciuskoMorizet said on BFM TV, adding
she was in favour of endorsing
the Socialist candidate.
Senior Socialists also called
on Sarkozy to set aside traditional political rivalries.
“Why does Nicolas Sarkozy
not make a call for the vote?
Because he wants to steal votes
from the National Front in the
(2017) presidential election,”
Socialist Party chief JeanChristophe Cambadelis said on
LCI television. “But now it’s the
National Front that’s stealing
votes from the UMP.
“I call on the UMP to collec-
Sarkozy: reluctant to back a
non-UMP candidate.
tively take up its responsibilities.”
Sarkozy and other UMP bosses are set to make their decision
at a meeting today.
Some conservatives have
acknowledged that Sarkozy’s
return to politics late last year
has not given the divided, cashstrapped UMP the boost he had
promised.
It is still unclear whether he
or a rival will secure the party’s
ticket for the 2017 presidential
election.
The Socialist Party has seen
its ratings improve after President Francois Hollande was seen
to handle well the aftermath of
Islamist attacks last month that
left 17 people dead in three days
of bloodshed.
But it still needs a further
boost ahead of local elections
in March and regional elections
later in the year, in which they
risk heavy losses to the National
Front.
The loss of the parliamentary
seat in the Doubs, an industrial
district struggling with high
unemployment, would weaken
further their control of the National Assembly after the defection of one of their lawmakers to
the far-left last month deprived
them of an absolute majority.
Poorest Croatians to get their debts wiped out under new government scheme
Tens of thousands of Croatia’s poorest
citizens could have their debts wiped out
under a new government scheme which
came into effect yesterday.
Dubbed “fresh start”, the one-time scheme,
adopted by Prime Minister Zoran Milanovic’s
centre-left government last month, affects
some 60,000 people in the country of 4.2mn.
The measure concerns Croats whose bank
accounts have been blocked for more than
a year and whose debt is lower than 35,000
kunas (€4,500, $5,300).
Under the deal, debts will be written off
by telecoms operators, major banks, the
country’s four main cities, several public
firms, such as HEP electricity company, and
tax authorities.
“This is a social measure of which we
are proud,” Milanovic, who faces general
elections later this year amid major
discontent with his government, said earlier.
“This is an emergency measure, the system
cannot rely constantly on such moves .... (but)
we are doing everything possible to facilitate
the lives of people affected by this long and
exhausting crisis.”
To be eligible, citizens should be either
receiving social welfare or have a monthly
income of no more than €166.
They must also have no savings or second
home.
Applications must be submitted by the end
of June.
In December more than 322,000 Croatians
had their bank accounts blocked due to
unpaid bill while their debts amounted to
€4.1bn ($4.6bn).
The new measure could cost up to €46mn,
according to official figures.
Gulf Times
Tuesday, February 3, 2015
23
EUROPE
Russian conscripts fear Ukraine deployment: activists
AFP
Moscow
R
A pro-Russian fighter guards a maimed Ukrainian soldier at a hospital in Donetsk. Russian conscripts are
coming under growing pressure to sign up as professional soldiers and fear they might be sent to fight
alongside separatists in Ukraine, rights activists said.
West must
be ready
for long
stand-off,
says Nato
official
Reuters
Oslo
T
he West must be ready
for a long stand-off with
Russia over Ukraine and
not quickly resume normal ties
as it did after the 2008 Georgian
war, a top Nato official said yesterday.
“Our strategy has to be one
of patience and consistency.
Russia expects us to give up the
sanctions and go back to business as usual, without changing its own conduct,” Deputy
Secretary General Alexander
Vershbow said in a speech to the
Leangkollen foreign policy conference in Oslo.
“That is basically what we did
after the war in Georgia in 2008.
But this time around, having
chosen our course, we must stick
to it,” Vershbow, Nato’s number
two civilian official and a former
US ambassador to Moscow, said.
Russia and Georgia fought a
war in 2008 over the breakaway
regions of Abkhazia and South
Ossetia.
The war severely damaged relations between Moscow and the
West, but drew no direct sanctions, and the European Union
and Nato quickly went back to
business as usual with Moscow.
Just three months after the
Georgian war, the EU relaunched
talks with Russia on a partnership pact, and seven months after the war Nato resumed formal
ties with Moscow.
Vershbow said that Nato did
not seek confrontation with
Russia and was not looking for
regime change.
“What we do want is for Moscow to change its behaviour ...
and to return to the spirit of cooperation ... this may be a long
time coming, and will call for
strategic patience, but I don’t
think we have any alternative,”
he said.
Following Moscow’s annexation of Ukraine’s Crimea region last March and what Nato
says is the direct involvement
of Russian troops in supporting
separatists fighting in eastern
Ukraine, the West’s response has
been tougher.
The EU and the United States
have imposed economic sanctions on Russia, and Nato has
suspended all practical co-operation with Moscow.
Vershbow said Russia has appeared determined to detach itself from Europe since Vladimir
Putin’s return to the presidency
in 2012, to assert itself in its own
neighbourhood, and to seek to
build alternative groupings to
the West.
With frequent snap military
exercises, like one currently
under way in the Kaliningrad
region, Moscow seemed determined to “surprise, shock and
intimidate”, he said.
ussian conscripts are coming under new pressure to
sign up as professional soldiers and fear being dispatched to
fight in Ukraine alongside Moscow-backed separatists, rights
activists said yesterday.
Activists sounded the alarm
after a new spike in complaints
from recruits doing compulsory
military service and their families, as peace talks have broken
down and fresh fighting is erupting in eastern Ukraine.
Activists and family members
fear that once the conscripts
sign up to become professional
soldiers, they could be sent to
eastern Ukraine where fighting
has killed more than 5,000 since
April.
Ella Polyakova, head of the
Soldiers’ Mothers of Saint Petersburg, said that her group,
which campaigns against abuses
in the army, had received some
two dozen complaints since December.
According to the complaints,
most of them anonymous, once
conscripts sign contracts to become professional soldiers, they
risk being sent to take part in
drills in the southern Rostov region, on the border with Ukraine.
“People are very afraid,”
Polyakova told AFP. “They don’t
say directly what they are afraid
of but their fear is obvious.”
Among those who have come
under pressure to sign contracts
are soldiers serving in Siberia,
Saint Petersburg, the northern
Murmansk region and Nizhny
Novgorod in central Russia.
Alexei
Usharev,
whose
20-year-old son serves in motorised rifle troops, is among
the concerned parents who have
turned to Polyakova’s group.
In December, his son and fellow conscripts serving outside
Saint Petersburg were told to
sign a contract to become professional soldiers so that they could
go on three-month drills in the
Rostov region, said Usharev.
“They were assembled in a hall
and given papers,” he told AFP.
Usharev quoted his son as
saying: “Everyone signed, and I
signed.”
“He yielded to mob mentality,”
Usharev said of his son, stressing he did not want him to sign
the contract because he may be
deployed to Ukraine. “In 10 days
they are going to the Rostov region.”
Sergei Krivenko, head of Citizen and the Army, said that his
Moscow-based group had received some 10 similar complaints since November.
He said that there is no presidential decree on the deployment
of troops abroad, meaning that it
is illegal to send both conscripts
and professional soldiers across
the border.
However, draftees are better
able to refuse to perform an illegal order than career soldiers,
Krivenko said.
The Kremlin insists it is not a
party to the conflict and denies
Russian troops are on the ground
in eastern Ukraine.
Irina Paikacheva, a Murmansk-based activist working with servicemen and their
families, said contract soldiers
serving in the region were being
prepared to be dispatched on a
mission, apparently to the border
with Ukraine “and further”.
President Vladimir Putin said
in December that any Russians
fighting in Ukraine had gone
there as volunteers “following
the call of the heart”.
Activists complain their attempts to get the authorities to
probe soldiers’ deaths have been
stonewalled.
The defence ministry declined
comment.
Some observers say Russian
society is now more polarised
than at any time in the country’s
post-Soviet history.
Opinion polls show that Russians are increasingly concerned
with the effects of the economic
crisis and growing instability
next door.
According to a new study by
state-controlled pollster VTsIOM, more than a quarter of Russians (26%) said fighting between
Russia and Ukraine was possible,
up from 17% last October.
Fifty-four per cent said a war
between Russia and Ukraine was
either unlikely or impossible,
down from 70% last October.
Ten per cent said the war was
already under way.
Separatists vow to boost
forces to 100,000 troops
Reuters/AFP
Donetsk
S
eparatist rockets streaked
across hills in eastern
Ukraine yesterday as rebels
pounded the positions of Ukrainian government troops holding a
strategic rail town while both
sides pressed ahead with mobilising more forces for combat.
The separatists, whom the
West says are armed by Russia
and supported by several thousand Russian troops, have also
defiantly announced a general
mobilisation plan which they
said would boost their fighting
forces to 100,000 men.
The pledge to dramatically
escalate a nine-month conflict
that has already left at least 5,100
people dead came as the rebels
battled to encircle the beleaguered transport hub of Debaltseve.
“There will be general mobilisation in the (separatist) ‘Donetsk People’s Republic’ in 10 days’
time, we plan on mobilising up to
100,000 men,” rebel leader Alexander Zakharchenko told the
separatist news agency DAN.
Ukrainian army spokesman
Andriy Lysenko said the rebel
call-up meant they “don’t have
the human resources and haven’t
achieved their objectives, that is
taking the strategic town” of Debaltseve.
Kiev authorities announced at
the end of January that they also
were calling up 50,000 troops in
the face of the latest rebel offensive.
Kiev’s military said five more
Ukrainian soldiers were killed in
clashes while municipal authorities in the big rebel-controlled
city of Donetsk said 15 civilians
were killed at the weekend by
shelling in a surge of violence
following the collapse of a new
peace effort on Saturday.
Talks between Ukraine, Russia
and rebel officials in Minsk, Belarus, had raised hopes of a new
ceasefire to stem the violence
in a conflict which has claimed
more than 5,000 lives. But they
broke up without progress with
Ukraine and the separatists accusing each other of sabotaging
the meeting.
A man gestures at a staircase at a multi-storey block of flats damaged by shelling in Yenakieve town, northeast from Donetsk.
Donetsk reverberated to the
thud of artillery and mortar fire
through the night and several
homes were destroyed with at
least one civilian death yesterday.
But separatists kept up attacks
on Debaltseve, to the northeast
of Donetsk, in an attempt to dislodge government forces there.
The outskirts of Yenakieve and
Vuhlegirsk, both on the main
highway to Debaltseve, were
under heavy fire as rebel multiple rocket launchers and artillery pummelled the positions of
Ukrainian troops in the area.
At one point, a salvo of around
three dozen rockets fired from
rebel positions screamed across
surrounding hills towards Debaltseve. It was followed 15 minutes later by incoming fire from
government forces.
“The toughest situation is
around Debaltseve where the illegal armed formations are con-
tinuing to storm the positions
of Ukrainian military,” military
spokesman Andriy Lutsenko told
a briefing. But he said Ukraine’s
forces in the town were enough to
hold it and he denied government
forces were encircled.
The Western powers support
Kiev’s view that a peace deal
reached last September, which
included a ceasefire and a commitment for foreign fighters and
military equipment to be withdrawn from Ukraine, is the only
viable roadmap to ending the
conflict.
But the separatists, who have
declared their own “people’s republics” and have notched up
several military successes since
then including taking Donetsk
airport from government troops,
now appear to want to negotiate a
new blueprint.
German Chancellor Angela
Merkel appealed for a ceasefire to
be urgently restored in Ukraine,
under the terms of the Minsk
peace plan, and said that Germany would not support Kiev’s
military forces through deliveries
of weapons.
The New York Times reported
on Sunday that President Barack
Obama’s administration was
however taking a new look at
providing Ukrainian forces with
defensive weapons and equipment in the face of the rebel offensive.
“A comprehensive approach
is warranted, and we agree that
defensive equipment and weapons should be part of that discussion,” a Pentagon official told the
Times.
US Secretary of State John
Kerry is set to jet into Kiev on
Thursday to pledge Washington’s support during talks with
Poroshenko and Prime Minister
Arseniy Yatseniuk.
The separatist rebellion erupted last April after Russia annexed
Ukraine’s Crimea in response the
ousting of a Moscow-back president by street protests in Kiev
which ushered in a government
committed to integration with
Europe.
Moscow denies it has any
regular troops in Ukraine despite
what the West and Kiev say is incontrovertible proof.
In a street on Yenakieve outskirts, a shell landed directly onto
a 3rd floor apartment of a ninestorey building, killing a woman
and wounding her husband.
“We had to climb across the
balcony to evacuate the man,
and we left her lying in the rubble. She was picked up later by
a sanitary team,” said Anatoly
Pomazanov, 42, who owns a grocery shop in the building. “It is
like this every day. The shelling
is incessant. We keep children
in cellars. We let them out only
during lulls in shelling, for about
30 minutes at most. I want to ask
President (Petro) Poroshenko:
are we also Ukrainians or simply
targets?”
Several residents were seen
loading bags in cars and hastily
leaving the neighbourhood.
Natalya, 68, who with her
daughter lives in an apartment
a floor below the one destroyed,
was weeping. “Tell me what do I
do now? This is all I had, the soldiers are 2km away, there are no
targets here.”
Dmytro Boichuk, 78, a retired
miner said people were already
immune to the shelling. “We are
numb. We go about our businesses. Someone gets killed, someone
gets wounded, but we carry on.”
Over the past three days
Ukrainian forces had evacuated
1,872 people from three towns
worst hit by fighting, including
Debaltseve.
In the self-proclaimed rebel
capital Donetsk, military-aged
males met the separatist leader’s
call-up announcement with
scepticism.
“I wouldn’t give it too much
credence,” said Alexander, 28.
“Either it’s wrong or they’re
saying it for Ukrainian media,”
said the pro-separatist transport
manager.
“But if it’s true, the aim is
to kill the entire population of
Donetsk,” he said, adding that
Zakharchenko was “losing the
support of those who supported
him”.
Web-designer Vitaly, 24, said
the call-up would lead nowhere.
“Every day, I feel a little bit
more a hostage” of the separatist
authorities, he said.
The latest attempt at a negotiated ceasefire collapsed on Saturday, with the Organisation for
Security and Co-operation in
Europe (OSCE), which is involved
in the talks along with Russia,
saying that rebels “were not even
prepared to discuss implementation of a ceasefire and withdrawal
of heavy weapons”.
The rebels say they now want
to redraw the demarcation line
between the two sides to include
gains they have made since ripping up a shaky truce and pushing into Ukrainian territory.
Dutch expert team back at MH17 crash site
AFP
The Hague
A
Dutch team is at the MH17
crash site in war-torn
Ukraine to collect more
remains of the 298 people killed
when the Malaysia Airlines jetliner crashed in July, officials said
yesterday.
“At the moment there’s a
small team at the crash site,”
Dutch defence ministry spokes-
woman Marloes Visser told AFP.
“They’re there to pick up body
parts which have been collected
by local authorities at a particular spot.”
Most of those on board the
Boeing 777 when it was shot
down over eastern Ukraine on
July 17 were Dutch, and just three
of the dead have yet to be identified by forensics experts in the
Netherlands.
Experts hoped the latest remains could help with the iden-
tification of the final three, Dutch
news reports said.
Winter conditions meant the
team will not search the area and
the remains are to be flown back
to the Netherlands on Saturday,
Visser said.
Their job has also been complicated by heavy fighting in
the nearby key Ukrainian town
of Debaltseve, in the escalating conflict that has left at least
5,100 people dead since April.
Visser said the Dutch team “is
not armed as they aren’t part of
the conflict”.
Kiev and the West have
claimed that the airliner was shot
down in the conflict-torn area by
separatist fighters using a BUK
surface-to-air missile supplied
by Russia.
Moscow denies the charges,
pointing the finger at Kiev.
Dutch experts last year repatriated parts of the plane to be
reconstructed as part of a probe
into what caused the crash.
A file photo taken on November 16 last year shows members of a
Dutch expert team watching as parts of the wreckage of the Malaysia
Airlines Flight MH17 are removed and loaded onto a truck at the
crash site near the village of Hrabove in eastern Ukraine.
24
Gulf Times
Tuesday, February 3, 2015
INDIA
TRAGEDY
ELECTRICITY
EMPLOYMENT
CRIME
TECHNOLOGY
Netball player dies
at National Games
Punjab’s urban areas to
have underground cables
Scheme has cut down
rural migration: minister
‘People-friendly but
tough police needed’
Village adopts French
model for safe water
Tragedy struck the 35th National Games when a
young netball player from Maharashtra suddenly
collapsed and died during a practice session in
Thiruvananthapuram yesterday, according to
the organisers. Mayuresh Pawar, 21, representing
the netball team of his home state, suffered
dizziness and fell unconscious around 1pm. His
teammates rushed him to a hospital but by that
time he died, according to an official. A Games
official said Pawar’s team had played against
Chandigarh in the morning. The body has
been kept at the Thiruvananthapuram Medical
College Hospital where an autopsy will be done
and the real cause of death would be known, the
official said.
All urban areas in Punjab will have underground
cables for power supply to ensure wire-free
roads, a spokesman said yesterday. The project
will be executed at a cost of Rs20bn within
the next two years, he said. “With a view to
conserving energy, Punjab has adopted various
technical measures and innovative initiatives
that resulted in dropping of considerable peak
demand by about 1,000 MW and savings of 1,200
MUs (million units) annually besides ensuring
cutting down transmission and distribution
(T&D) losses and checking theft of energy,” the
spokesman said. “Punjab will also be the first
state in the country to have all urban areas with
underground power cables network,” he added.
The rural employment guarantee act has
lessened people’s migration from villages to
cities for work and the government would
work towards strengthening the scheme,
Rural Development Minister Birender Singh
said yesterday. “The Mahatma Gandhi Rural
Employment Guarantee Act (MGNREGA) is a
scheme which will be strengthened. We will not
do anything to dilute it,” Birender Singh said in
New Delhi. The scheme was launched by the
Congress-led United Progressive Alliance (UPA)
government during its first term to tremendous
electoral advantage. Singh said that for his
ministry, the biggest job of MGNREGA is to
generate employment among the rural poor.
Home Minister Rajnath Singh yesterday said
“people-friendly but tough” police were needed
to tackle criminals and terrorists. Speaking to
police officials in Bengaluru after reviewing
the law and order situation in Karnataka, Singh
instructed the authorities to take action on
reports of discrimination against people from the
northeastern states living there, the ministry said
in a statement. The home minister also asked the
state administration to remain vigilant on illegal
migration from Bangladesh. Action against the
sale of pre-activated SIM cards in the state was
also discussed. Singh asked Karnataka police to
fill up all its vacancies - which was nearly 20% of
its total strength - on a priority basis.
Thanks to an innovative French technology that
purifies contaminated water from lakes and
ponds, residents of an arsenic-contaminated
village in West Bengal now have access to safe
drinking water. Not only that, inhabitants of
Madhusudan Kanti village in Gaighata block of
North 24 Parganas district are also packaging the
safe water and selling it to neighbouring villages,
a release said. “This is an innovative model from a
joint venture of Sulabh International and French
organisation 1001 Fontaines, which through
various stages of purification provides safe
drinking water from any water body like rivers or
ponds,” Sulabh founder Bindeshwar Pathak said
in the statement.
Eradicate
evils, say
Muslim
scholars
India-China
ties at a new
phase, says
Xi Jinping
IANS
Hyderabad
M
uslim leaders and organisations from various schools of thought
came together on a common
platform to launch a campaign
here to eradicate evils from the
society.
The eight-day “Eradication of
evils” campaign was launched
with a public meeting here on
Sunday night.
Addressing a huge gathering
of men and women at Khilwat
Ground in the old city, the Islamic
scholars voiced concern over the
fast spreading evils like alcohol,
drug addiction, interest, dowry,
and immorality.
The speakers called on all
Muslims, especially the youth, to
not only protect themselves from
this “flood of evils” but also save
others by participating in such
movements.
Expressing concern over misuse of social networking sites
by youth to indulge in immoral
activities, they felt that instead
of using technology as a tool for
development, the new generation
itself has become a tool in the
hands of such sites.
They underlined the need to
evolve a mechanism with the
participation of all to help poor
Muslims and thus save them from
exploitation by financers.
Renowned Islamic scholar
Maulana Mufti Sadiq Mohiuddin
Faheem, who presided over the
meeting, advised parents to ensure that their children are educated and trained in accordance
with the teachings of the Holy
Qur’an.
Khaja Arifuddin, president
of Jamaat-e-Islami, Andhra
Pradesh and Odisha units, said
that the Qu’ran describes Muslim
ummah as the best nation produced for mankind, who enjoin
what is right and forbid what is
wrong.
He said it was high time that the
community realised its responsibility and worked to fulfil it.
M K M Zafar, president of
Jamaat’s Greater Hyderabad unit,
said they made the campaign a
collective effort by involving all
sects of the community.
IANS
Beijing
C
External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj and Chinese President Xi Jinping face the media as they
greet each other before a meeting at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing yesterday.
Don’t use judicial forums for
political agenda, SC tells VS
IANS
New Delhi
T
he Supreme Court yesterday criticised former
Kerala chief minister V S
Achuthanandan for using judicial forums to drag on his fight
against political rivals.
The court threatened to impose exemplary costs if it found
that the matter being raised before it was devoid of merits and
he was using judicial forums for
political agenda.
“Have you made any allegation
of corruption against the present
chief minister (Oommen Chandy
of Kerala)? You are not taking any
responsibility. Are you fishing in
troubled water?” said the apex
court bench of Justice T S Thakur
and Justice Adarsh Kumar Goel as
Achuthanandan’s counsel sought
the adjournment of the hearing.
Asking
Achuthanandan’s
counsel if his client was ready to
file an affidavit alleging corruption against Chandy, the court
said it would impose heavy costs
if it found him to be using judicial
forums for political agenda.
Achuthanandan’s
counsel
wanted to take instruction on
this count.
Noting that Achuthanandan
was a former chief minister and
the present leader of opposition
in the Kerala assembly, the court
said: “You will not let this issue rest. You want this matter in
press. You want to keep it alive.
You want to take political mileage.”
Noting that even the Kerala High Court had said that
Achuthanandan was only dragging on the matter, the court
said: “The high court says that
you are only dragging on. You get
political mileage in keeping the
issue alive.”
Giving Achuthanandan’s lawyer two weeks’ time to place before it the judgment of the high
court which was pronounced on
January 30, the court said: “You
argue it on next date. We will not
allow you to drag it. We will not
allow you to use judicial forums
for settling political scores.”
The court made it clear that if
it was not persuaded about the
contention for further investigation in the palm oil import scam
being sought by the Communist
Party of India (Marxist) veteran,
it would impose a “heavy cost.”
The counsel wanted to place
before the court the Kerala
High Court judgment rejecting Achuthanandan’s plea challenging the Kerala government
order of September 13, 2013,
withdrawing prosecution in the
alleged corruption in import of
palmolein oil during 1991-92.
While
dismissing
Achuthanandan’s plea, the high
court held that since the application for the withdrawal of prosecution by the state government
had already been declined by the
vigilence court and the same order had been upheld by the high
court on January 8, the Kerala
government order of September
13, 2013, for withdrawing prosecution in palm oil case was of no
consequence.
The case relates to the import
of palm oil during 1991-92 at
“inflated” price by the then Congress government headed by late
K Karunakaran, from a Malaysian
firm, allegedly causing a loss of
Rs23mn to the state exchequer.
Chandy was then finance minister.
hinese President Xi Jinping
yesterday met India’s External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj here, and expressed
confidence in the growth of bilateral relations during the year.
Xi met the Indian minister
in the Great Hall of the People,
where the two sides agreed to focus on a positive bilateral agenda
for the year.
The Chinese leader observed
that bilateral ties had achieved a
turnaround and entered a “new
phase” of partnership after his visit to India in September last year.
“Since my visit to India, the relations between our two countries
have entered a new phase. The
positive side of China-India relations has been growing,” Xi said.
He also said major steps were
being taken to implement the
agreements inked during his India
visit.
“I have full confidence on the
future of China and India relations. I believe the good process
will be achieved in the growth of
bilateral relations.”
Xi also recalled his visit to
Ahmedabad where he was hosted
by Prime Minister Narendra Modi
on the Sabarmati riverfront.
“I still cherish the fresh memories in my mind about the gracious hospitality extended to me
by the government and people
and particularly I cherish the fond
memories of my trip to Prime
Minister Modi’s hometown in
Gujarat state,” he said.
Xi mentioned in particular the
special gesture shown by Modi in
personally accompanying him to
Celebrity event
the Sabarmati ashram and also
walking together with him along
the riverfront.
The external affairs minister’s
Beijing visit comes days after
the visit of US President Barack
Obama to India that saw both
sides announce a joint strategic
vision for Asia-Pacific and the
Indian Ocean.
Swaraj’s visit is also aimed to
lay the ground work for Modi’s
visit to China, set to take place on
May 26.
Swaraj on Sunday launched the
Second India-China Media Forum.
Meanwhile, Russia and China
expressed support for India joining the Shanghai Co-operation
Organisation during a meeting of
the trilateral Russia-India-China
foreign ministers meeting here.
Swaraj, along with Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov and
their Chinese counterpart Wang
Yi, held political consultations
during the ministerial trilateral in
the Chinese capital.
The meeting acknowledged
India’s importance in growth and
welcomed Indian participation in
Asia-Pacific Economic Co-operation (APEC), a forum for 21 Pacific Rim member economies that
seeks to promote free trade and
economic co-operation throughout the Asia-Pacific region.
India is not a member of APEC.
The three ministers also called for
early conclusion of the Comprehensive Convention on International Terrorism by the UN.
Modi in his maiden address to
the UN General Assembly last
September had called for all the
nations to put aside their differences and mount a concerted
international effort to combat
Kerala CPM to get
new state secretary
IANS
Thiruvananthapuram
F
Bollywood actresses Dia Mirza (left) and Neha Dhupia hug
as they attend an event organised by the Rotary Club of
Bombay in Mumbai on February on Sunday.
terrorism and extremism. He had
urged the nations to adopt the
Comprehensive Convention on
International Terrorism.
The ministers also called to
“bring to justice perpetrators, organisers, financiers and sponsors
of terrorist acts,” external affairs
ministry spokesman Syed Akbaruddin said.
The three ministers also called
for synergy of various initiatives
to improve regional connectivity
in Asia.
The SCO, during its summit in
Dushanbe in September last year
had set the ball rolling to grant
membership to India and also
Pakistan and Iran to the Chinadominated security grouping.
The SCO, which is increasingly
seen as a counter to Nato, comprises China, Russia, Kazakhstan,
Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan. It has Afghanistan, India, Iran, Mongolia and Pakistan
as observers and Belarus, Turkey
and Sri Lanka as dialogue partners. India has been an observer
at the SCO since 2005.
z Modi said that India and China
share age-old ties and it is necessary for both to boost people-topeople links through tourism in
order to know each other better.
In a video message on the occasion of launch of the “Visit India
Year 2015” in China, the prime
minister said that in 2016, India
will celebrate ‘Visit China Year’.
Inviting the Chinese to retrace
the steps of ancient Chinese travellers Hiuen Tsang and and Fa Shien who came to India hundreds
of years ago, he asked the Chinese
to visit Buddhist religious sites
like Bodhgaya, Sarnath, Nalanda
and Kushinagar and turn the pages of history.
or the first time since 1998,
the Communist Party Of
India (Marxist) will elect
a new ‘captain’ in Kerala, one of
the communists’ last bastions.
This will happen when the
party elects a secretary of the
Kerala unit during its state conference from February 20 to 23 a powerful post in the party. The
party recently re-wrote its constitution to say no office-bearer
should get three terms in succession.
As a result, Pinarayi Vijayan,
who has been at the helm of party
affairs in Kerala since 1998, will
bow out this month.
CPM sources say that Vijayan
can take credit for putting an end
to the factionalism that plagued
the party for a long time when
he was pitted against his arch rival and former chief minister V S
Achuthanandan.
Both have clashed openly
on numerous occasions, often embarrassing the party.
Achuthanandan’s clout has been
weakened considerably.
Vijayan has been able not only
to dominate the 14 district units
of the party in Kerala but also
push out from the district committees leaders who owe their allegiance to Achuthanandan.
With Vijayan now consolidating his position in the district committees by removing
Achuthanandan supporters, all
eyes are on who the next state
secretary will be.
The leading contenders appear to be legislators Kodiyeri
Balakrishnan and M A Baby, who
are also politburo members.
The others are Elamaram Kareem, a legislator and a former
minister, and E P Jayarajan.
Over the years, apart from the
Vijayan and Achuthanandan factions, the party also had a Kannur lobby.
Kannur has been the CPM citadel. Vijayan and Balakrishnan
are from Kannur. Kareem hails
from neighbouring Kozhikode
district.
The fortunes of Baby, often
seen as a moderate in the party,
plunged after he was routed by
his former state cabinet colleague N K Premachandran in the
2014 Lok Sabha polls.
Gulf Times
Tuesday, February 3, 2015
25
INDIA
Kiran Bedi’s
aide returns
to BJP hours
after quitting
IANS
New Delhi
H
ours after resigning from
the Bharatiya Janata
Party (BJP), the political
aide of the party’s chief ministerial candidate Kiran Bedi joined
back, terming his previous decision as “emotional.”
Narendra Tandon, Bedi’s election assistant, said his resignation was an “emotional decision”
and after being counselled by BJP
president Amit Shah he decided
to join back to ensure her win.
In his resignation letter, addressed to Shah, Tandon had
accused Bedi of having “dictatorial” ways and that he was
“hurt” by the way she was made
the chief ministerial candidate.
Tandon, who claimed to have
been associated with the party
for 30 years, said: “...The way
she was giving dictation to us,
had become intolerable. Her associate would insult me on everything.”
“I worked hard for 11 days, but
cannot do it anymore,” his resignation letter said. But later, Tandon said he took back his resignation from the party and would
work to make Bedi win.
“I have taken my resignation
back,” Tandon said. “Party president Amit Shah met me along
with Dharmendra Pradhan ji
(petroleum minister), they heard
me out...I got emotional, and so
I sent that resignation.”
Asked about the reason for
becoming “emotional”, Tandon
said: “Things happen while you
are working.”
He added that Shah asked him
to get back to election work.
“I will make all efforts for
Bediji to win. She is our leader,”
he said.
In his resignation letter, Tandon, who has been a member of
the BJP’s state executive, also
alleged that the BJP workers in
Delhi were interested only in
“women and money” and urged
Shah to probe it.
Meanwhile, the row over Aad
Aadmi Party chief Arvind Kejriwal being shown of “upadravi
gotra” - or destructive sub-caste
- has led the party and the BJP
locking horns, with both gearing
up to lodge complaints against
each other with the Election
Commission.
Kejriwal said he, while following social activist Anna Hazare’s
ideals that one must have the capacity to tolerate insult, ignored
many insulting acts of the BJP but
they “crossed limits” and his party
will now approach the poll panel.
“What has happened to the
BJP, first they targeted my children, but I tolerated it. Annaji
has said we must have capacity to
tolerate insult,” Kejriwal tweeted.
“In social life, I never complained against personal insult.
But this advertisement crosses
the limit. They are calling the
whole Agrawal caste destructive.
They say I belong to a destructive sub-caste,” he said.
However, the BJP denied having made any caste reference in
an election advertisement that
mocked Kejriwal and accused
the AAP of giving it a religious
and cast connotation.
“It is extremely sad that certain political parties are trying
to convert a political statement.
An expression, used to represent
that political party’s ideology, has
been sought to be converted on
religious ground,” BJP leader and
Power Minister Piyush Goyal said.
“This is a political commentary on their (AAP) ideology,
that is anarchy. The term has
been metaphorically used but it
is being twisted and misused by
the AAP,” he said.
“It is a conspiracy of the AAP
to give religious and casteist tone
to the election process,” the BJP
leader said, adding that the BJP
will approach the Election Commission on the issue.
The advertisement featured
a caricature of Kejriwal, saying
he will disrupt the Republic Day
parade, and also ask for a VIP
pass next year. It used the term
“upadravi gotra” or destructive
sub-caste alluding to Kejriwal,
the former Delhi chief minister.
In a related development, a New
Delhi court deferred the hearing
on a plea for action against Kejriwal for exhorting voters in his
election speeches to take bribes
if offered by the BJP and Congress
but to vote for his party.
BJP warns Sadhvi over remarks
The Bharatiya Janata Party
yesterday warned Sadhvi Prachi,
one of its rightwing Hindu
leaders in Uttar Pradesh, after
she made a comment derisive
of other communities and asked
her to show restraint. Sadhvi
Prachi said at on Sunday that she
had done no wrong in asking
Hindu women to have four
children as she was not asking
them to “give birth to 30-40 pups
like others.” BJP Uttar Pradesh
president Laxmikant Bajpayi said
the comment was uncalled for
and Sadhvi Prachi cannot behave
like a Vishwa Hindu Parishad
worker while being in the party.
“The BJP does not support such
statements. It would be better
that Sadhvi Prachi realises that
she cannot give a statement on
the lines of VHP while being a
BJP leader.”
BJP’s chief ministerial candidate Kiran Bedi with the party’s candidate from New Delhi Nupur Sharma takes part in an election campaign yesterday.
AAP accused of getting
funds from bogus firms
IANS
New Delhi
A
breakaway group yesterday accused the Aam
Aadmi Party (AAP) of
receiving
donations
worth
Rs20mn from bogus companies.
The Bharatiya Janata Party
questioned the funding but the
AAP rejected the allegation as
“malicious and false propaganda” unleashed by “mysterious
fronts” created by the BJP.
With assembly polls in Delhi
less than a week away, the AAP
also challenged the BJP-led central government to probe the
source of funding which, it said,
has already been investigated
twice earlier.
Gopal Goyal, a member of the
AAP Volunteer Action Manch
(AVAM) breakaway group, yesterday said there were four donations each of Rs5mn by four
bogus companies to the AAP.
He claimed that the funds
were received on April 5 at midnight and the companies that
Police free nine caught
in Syria infiltration bid
Agencies
Bengaluru
A
uthorities have released
nine people who had
been deported from
Turkey after allegedly trying to
enter an area of Syria controlled by the Islamic State militant group, police said yesterday.
Police in the southern city of
Bangalore said the nine Indians
were released late Sunday, after
they admitted during questioning that they had planned
to cross over to territory controlled by IS but denied being
members of the organisation,
which is banned in India.
“We set them free as no incriminating material or any
evidence was found against
them,” Bangalore Police Commissioner M N Reddi told reporters yesterday.
“No case was registered but
they were warned against making such attempts in future,” he
said.
Turkish authorities detained
the nine people - a family of
seven and two engineers who
were in the country on tourist
visas - as they were trying to
enter Syria on Friday.
Police quoted the group as
telling their interrogators that
they had only wanted to help
civilians who had been affected by the fighting in Syria and
Iraq, large parts of which are
also controlled by IS.
Reddi said the members
“were influenced by religious
books and believed that they
would go to heaven if they fight
and die for Islam.”
Of those deported were
46-year-old Mohamed Abdul
Ahad, his wife and five children from Chennai, 24-yearold Javed Baba from Khammam district of Telangana and
24-year-old Ibrahim Nowfal
from Hassan in Karnataka.
Ahad, who has a master’s degree in computer science from
Kennedy-Western University
in California, worked in the US
for over a decade, while Javeed
and Nowfal are engineers.
Thousands of foreign jihadists are believed to have joined
IS which has seized swathes of
territory in Iraq and Syria, ruling with a brutal version of Islamic law.
The group has murdered a
number of foreigners, including American, British and Japanese hostages.
India banned the Islamic
State group in December after
police found a sympathiser who
was running a Twitter account
and was suspected of online recruitment.
Although India has the third
largest number of Muslims in
the world, only a few are so far
reported to have joined the militant group.
made the donations were bogus.
The AVAM was formed by
some AAP members in 2014 over
the demand for decentralisation
of power in the party.
Addressing a press conference
here, Goyal said none of the donor companies had earned even a
single rupee, but donated such a
huge amount.
“Where do they get their
money from,” asked Goyal, saying he was ready to face punishment if his charges were found to
be false.
The AAP said in a statement
that it was the only political party in India whose entire donations were in public domain and
fully transparent. It said every
rupee donated to the party was
declared on its website for public
scrutiny.
“It has been wrongly alleged
that the AAP has accepted funds
from dubious sources on 5 April
2014,” the statement said.
Describing the BJP as “frustrated and desperate,” the AAP
said it was spreading lies.
“The BJP and some mysteri-
ous fronts created by it close to
the Delhi assembly elections
have unleashed a malicious and
false propaganda on the funding
of the AAP,” the statement said.
“Since today morning, a defamatory smear campaign is
being run against the AAP to
confuse the people and divert
attention from important issues
concerning the people of Delhi,”
the AAP statement added.
It also said the party funding
has already been probed twice by
the previous Congress-led government and now the BJP-led
government.
“The party also challenges the
government to probe its funding from any of the agencies at
its command as many times as it
wants,” the statement added.
The BJP, meanwhile, said the
AAP had no right to question the
funding of other parties until it
revealed its own.
“Four fake companies, with
same directors, and made within
a period of 10-11 days, donated
Rs50 lakh each to the AAP on the
same day,” BJP leader and Power
Irani at Jamia Millia Islamia
Minister Piyush Goyal said.
Citing the donation rules,
Goyal said a company can donate
only 7.5% of its average annual
profit plus tax for three years as
political donation.
Another BJP leader, Nirmala
Sitharaman, who is also the
commerce and industry minister, said: “AAP ... till you give
specific answers, stop telling
other political parties what high
ground you are seated on.”
Sitharaman meanwhile posed
the BJP’s fifth set of questions
for AAP leader Arvind Kejriwal
asking him to explain his relations with convicted Maoists as
well as private power distribution companies.
The BJP leader asked the former
chief minister to answer why
convicted Maoists are important
members of his party committees,
and are given tickets.
“Binayak Sen, convicted by
court for Naxal (Moaist) activities, is an important member of
AAP internal committees. Kejriwal should explain this relationship,” she said.
91 escape from
detention centre
AFP
Lucknow
S
Minister for Human Resource Development Smriti Irani is
seen with Gujarati businessman Zafar Sareshwala during the
symposium ‘Educating and Mainstreaming of Indian Muslims’
at Jamia Millia Islamia university in New Delhi yesterday.
Similarly, she accused AAP of
having close connections with
private electricity companies.
“First you give them subsidies
by diverting money from SC/ST
welfare and then to further deceive Delhi voters, you announce
an infructuous audit against
them knowing full well the statute limitation that such audit is
time barred.
“Will you explain this special partnership with discoms?”
asked Sitharaman.
Thirdly, the BJP asked Kejriwal
to explain why he and his party
members were attacking and
threatening the media.
Sitharaman, in her fourth
question asked why Kejriwal
could not contest elections
without allying with Maoists
and other forces inimical to India’s interests.
In its final question, the BJP
asked why Kejriwal was misleading the traders of Delhi by claiming that no VAT raids were conducted against them during his
49-day rule in Delhi whereas over
150 raids took place in his tenure.
cores of inmates staged
a mass breakout from a
young offenders detention
centre yesterday by tying bedsheets together and then scaling
down the walls of the three-storey building, police said.
A total of 91 out of 135 inmates, including several convicted murderers, managed
to flee the facility in Meerut
overnight, although 45 have
since been recaptured, the
city’s superintendent of police
Om Prakash said.
“They removed an iron grille
from a window at the back of
the building while police were
guarding the front,” Prakash
said in Meerut in the northern
state of Uttar Pradesh. “This was
done so professionally that no
one got a whiff,” Prakash added.
Those still on the run include inmates convicted of
crimes such as murder, rape,
theft and banditry, Prakash
added. All are aged under 18.
Police say the break-out was
staged some time between 1am
and 3am and the alarm was
only raised when officers patrolling near the centre spotted
some of the fugitives trying to
flag down public transport.
Prakash said that the local authorities were confident
that they would recapture the
others who had escaped.
“Even earlier inmates from
this facility have made several attempts to escape. Once
in the past around 40 of them
even managed to escape,” Prakash said.
Inmates from the same centre beat a policeman to death
in December after he objected
to their lewd behaviour with a
woman during a court hearing.
There are more than 31,000
inmates in India’s young offenders’ institutes, according
to the latest official statistics,
and there is an ongoing debate
about the treatment of juveniles
charged with serious crimes like
rape, murder and robbery.
26
Gulf Times
Tuesday, February 3, 2015
LATIN AMERICA
DIALOGUE
DISASTER
CRIME
SETBACK
Colombian guerrillas,
government resume talks
6.3-magnitude quake hits
western Argentina: USGS
Slain students’ parents
seek justice from UN
Congress elects Rousseff
critic as speaker
An earthquake with a magnitude of 6.3
rocked a sparsely populated area in western
Argentina yesterday, but there were no
immediate reports of damage or casualties.
The US Geological Survey said the quake
struck about 85kms northwest of La Punta at
1049 GMT. It put the quake’s intensity at 6.3
on the Moment Magnitude scale. Argentina’s
National Institute of Seismic Prevention gave
a reading of 6.1 on the Richter scale. It was
the second strongest quake in Latin America
this year, surpassed only by a 6.6-magnitude
tremor on January 7 in Panama, according to
the USGS.
The parents of Mexican students believed
murdered by a drugs gang appealed to the United
Nations yesterday for help in seeking justice,
saying they had no faith in the government’s
ability to investigate the crime. President Enrique
Pena Nieto’s government said last week that the
43 trainee teachers who disappeared four months
ago were killed on the orders of a drug cartel who
mistook them for members of a rival gang. The
killings, which shocked a nation already suffering
from endemic crime-related bloodshed, have led
to mass protests against the government and
fuelled the widely held belief that organised crime
and certain politicians have close links.
Brazil’s Congress elected a conservative as
speaker of the Chamber of Deputies in a setback
for the ruling Workers’ Party that split President
Dilma Rousseff’s coalition and will complicate her
legislative agenda. Eduardo Cunha belongs to
Brazil’s largest party, the PMDB, Rousseff’s main
ally in the governing coalition, but he defeated
a Workers’ Party candidate by advocating for
a legislature that was less subservient to the
government. Cunha backs a bill that would make
it harder for the federal government to block
spending proposed by lawmakers, which would
counter Rousseff’s efforts to eliminate Brazil’s
fiscal deficit with austerity measures.
Leftist Farc guerrillas resumed peace talks with
the Colombian government in Cuba yesterday,
after a year-end break. The Bogota government
and the Revolutionary Armed Forces of
Colombia have been negotiating for more
than two years in Havana to bring an end to
the 50-year insurgency, but key issues remain
unresolved, including disarmament and how
any agreement should be ratified. “We resumed
the talks, and are hoping to continue to seek an
agreement in the terms known by the people
of Colombia and the whole world,” said a
Farc negotiator Joaquin Gomez speaks to the media statement from the guerrillas read to the press
while flanked by fellow Farc members in Havana.
by commander Joaquin Gomez.
Rio slum
families
win high
payout
‘Marry me’ carnival
US firms in
Venezuela
facing huge
losses: study
London Evening Standard
Rio de Janeiro
A
fter years of opposition
and protest, three-quarters of the 583 families in a
Rio de Janeiro favela (slum) community have agreed to make way
for 2016 Olympic building work.
In what has been described as
an unprecedented move, authorities have now offered remaining residents at Vila Autodromo
market-rate compensation to
give up their homes.
But many in the 40-year-old
community feel they have lost
out. Earlier this year, resident
Altair Antunes Guimaraes told a
public hearing that the community was “living a war of poverty
against money, against power”.
A construction worker who
has been displaced twice before,
Guimaraes, 59, was speaking out
about the removals. According to the city’s Official Gazette,
families have received offers of
sums of up to $2.3mn for the expropriation of their houses on
the prime real estate land.
Previously, favela residents
would be offered as little as
a tenth, with compensation
packages amounting to around
$200,000.
“If a resident gets R$150,000,
R$200,000 to go and buy a
house, they won’t be able to,”
said Maria da Penha Marcena,
who lives in Vila Autodromo, at
the same hearing in front of the
Defence Commission of Human
Rights and Citizenship.
“There are no longer homes for
R$200,000 in a legalised place. So
they will get R$200,000 and buy
a home in another favela? Soon,
we’ll hit the same problem.”
The high settlements now being offered are testament to the
community’s hard-fought opposition. While the majority of families agreed to compensation or a
new apartment in a £26mn social
housing condominium half a mile
away, a core of residents refused to
be swayed or “short-changed”.
Since the City Hall announced
the removal of Vila Autodromo
in 2009, the defiant community
became a byword for the popular struggle of those in the path
of last year’s World Cup and the
2016 Olympics.
AFP
Washington
A
Revellers take part in the annual carnival block party known as ‘Casas comigo’ or ‘Marry
me’ at the Vila Madalena neighbourhood in Sao Paulo, Brazil. The sign reads, ‘Looking
for a Husband’.
t least 40 major US companies have substantial
exposure to Venezuela’s
deepening economic crisis, and
could collectively be forced to
take billions of dollars of write
downs, a Reuters analysis shows.
The companies, all members
of the S&P 500, and including
some of the biggest names in
Corporate America such as autos
giant General Motors and drug
maker Merck & Co, together carry at least $11bn of monetary assets in the Venezuelan currency,
the bolivar, on their books.
The official rate is at 6.3 bolivars to the dollar and there are
two other rates in the government system - known as SICAD 1
and SICAD 2 - at about 12 and 50.
The black market rate, though,
was at about 190 bolivars to the
dollar on Sunday, according to
the website dolartoday.com.
The problem is that the dollar
value of the assets as disclosed
in many of the companies’ accounts is based on either the
rates at 6.3 or 12 and only a limited number of transactions are
allowed at those rates. The assets
would be worth a lot fewer dollars at the 50 rate in the government system and the dollar value
would almost be wiped out at the
black market rate.
The currency system is also
about to be shaken up following
an announcement by Venezuela
President Nicolas Maduro on
January 21, leading to fears of a
further devaluation.
American companies will also
have additional exposure to the
bolivar that isn’t disclosed because they don’t see the size of
V
enezuela has jailed the
owners of an unnamed
chain of shops accused
of engineering queues to whip
up anger with the socialist government, President Nicolas
Maduro said.
Chronic shortages of basic
goods, including flour, chicken
and diapers, have triggered
massive lines that sometimes
stretch around blocks and have
become a nightmare to navigate for Venezuelans.
Most economists blame the
scarcity on currency controls
that restrict dollars for imports, as well as falling domestic production.
Maduro, however, accuses
a rapacious business elite of
waging an “economic war” to
bring down his administration.
“We have detected that a famous chain of stores was conspiring, irritating the people,”
Maduro told a crowd of redclad supporters and soldiers.
“We came, we normalised
sales, we summoned the owners, we arrested them and
they’re prisoners for having
provoked the people,” he said
to cheers, adding that the state
would take over the food stores.
The stores purposefully reduced the number of cashiers to create lines, Maduro
said, likening the strategy to a
“guerrilla tactic.”
“We came, we normalised
sales, we summoned the
owners, we arrested them
and they’re prisoners
for having provoked the
people”
Authorities are also pressing charges against Venezuelan
pharmacy chain Farmatodo for
not opening enough check-out
counters. Its executives have
been summoned for questioning.
The government has jailed
businessmen in the past for
raising prices, and has launched
several campaigns designed to
combat contraband of pricecontrolled goods flowing to
neighbouring Colombia.
“Those who use their stores
to hurt the people will pay
with jail time,” said Maduro,
donning a tracksuit with his
name sewn on and a camouflage hat.
Critics say cracking down on
businesses risks aggravating
shortages and further deters
investment.
They have also lampooned Maduro for not pushing through major structural
changes to combat the country’s recession, over 60% inflation, and shaky finances.
Maduro, who won an election to replace his mentor, the
late Hugo Chavez, in 2013, added he secretly toured the capital
Caracas for four hours on Saturday with his wife and close
adviser Cilia Floresto to survey
the situation at stores.
leaving companies with growing
quantities of bolivars trapped by
currency controls.
“It’s a huge deal and companies will get hit big,” said Ali
Dibadji, an analyst at Sanford C.
Bernstein & Co Inc. “Take a look
at what Kimberly-Clark did last
week and what Clorox did a few
months ago by getting out of
Venezuela.”
Cleaning
and
household
products maker Clorox last year
decided to exit Venezuela altogether. Its CEO Don Knauss said
at the time: “We saw no hope
that we could create a sustaining
business in that country.”
The currency issues are hurting many US companies much
more than their sales might suggest. Many of the companies in
the analysis have been getting
between 1%-3% of their global
revenue from Venezuela.
Ford Motor Co and oil services company Schlumberger
NV took big-ticket hits to their
quarterly profits because of their
Venezuelan operations. Ford
took a fourth-quarter charge
of $800mn and Schlumberger
$472mn.
A Ford spokeswoman said that
it still values its Venezuela assets
at about 12 bolivars per US dollar. But for Ford, the currency
system and other conditions are
so tough in the South American
country that it has made an accounting change that will allow
it to ring fence its Venezuela
business so that it doesn’t have a
direct impact on the company’s
operating results.
Schlumberger, which previously used the 6.3 rate, said it is
now using the SICAD 2 rate of 50
as it “best represents the economics of Schlumberger’s business activity in Venezuela.”
Uribe backs spy chief
in wiretap scandal
Store owners accused of
engineering queues jailed
Reuters
Caracas
that exposure as material to their
results. The Reuters analysis also
doesn’t look at the thousands
of publicly traded and private
American companies that aren’t
in the S&P 500 and will in some
cases have bolivar assets.
Some leading American companies have already decided that
the stronger exchange rates - the
official rate at 6.3 and the SICAD
1 exchange market at 12 - are not
reflective of the currency conditions they face in the South
American country.
Diaper and tissue maker
Kimberly-Clark
Corporation
recently announced a charge of
$462mn for its Venezuelan business, leading to a fourth-quarter
loss for the company, after it
concluded that the appropriate
exchange rate was the SICAD 2
exchange rate at 50 rather than
the 6.3 it had previously used.
Using the stronger exchange
rates is unrealistic because of
how hard it is to repatriate profits earned in Venezuela back to
the US at any rate, let alone those
rates, securities analysts say.
Citigroup says it has not been
able to buy US dollars from the
Venezuelan government since
2008.
Companies can seek dollars at
the official rate if they are using
those dollars to import raw materials for production of priority
goods such as food and medicine, and some can buy dollars
at the SICAD 1 rate at around 12
bolivars to the dollar through
auctions that are typically held
several times per month but are
only targeted at specific sectors.
As tumbling oil prices have left
Venezuela with fewer dollars, its
currency board has steadily reduced approval for repatriation
of dividends at the official rate -
AFP
Bogota
C
People queue outside a supermarket to buy soap powder in Caracas
yesterday. The price of the family shopping basket in Venezuela
increased 93.2% in 2014, almost reaching the equivalent to $5,000
at the official rate, the teachers’ union Centre for Documentation and
Social Analysis reported.
olombia’s former president Alvaro Uribe yesterday denied that his onetime intelligence chief had done
anything illegal after she was
flown home to face charges of
spying on his political opponents.
Maria del Pilar Hurtado, the
former intelligence chief, was
arrested on Saturday after surrendering in Panama, where
she had lived for more than four
years under political asylum.
“Neither she, nor the presidency, nor did I order illegal actions,” Uribe said on his Twitter
account.
Defending Hurtado as an
“upright official” with a good
reputation, Uribe insisted that
wiretaps she had ordered were
legitimate “national security
operations.”
Uribe specifically claimed as
legal a wiretap on former senator
and Bogota mayor Gustavo Petro
that touched off the scandal.
Hurtado, 51, is accused of or-
dering wiretaps on Petro, other
leftist politicians, judges and
journalists when she led the
now-defunct administrative department of security (DAS) from
2007 to 2008.
“Neither she, nor the
presidency, nor did I order
illegal actions”
The DAS, as it was known,
reported directly to the presidency, which Uribe held from
2002 to 2010. Uribe’s successor
President Juan Manuel Santos
disbanded the agency after a series of scandals.
Attorney General Eduardo
Montealegre said over the weekend that “there is convincing
evidence that she ordered illegal
surveillance of Supreme Court
justices, against opposition
leaders” and others.
Gulf Times
Tuesday, February 3, 2015
27
PAKISTAN/AFGHANISTAN
Drop in fuel prices, a Godsend opportunity for Pakistan
Internews
Islamabad
T
here is not a soul who
could have foreseen the
price of oil rolling down
from $115 a barrel eight months
ago to just around $45 last week.
And fewer still could have predicted State Bank of Pakistan’s
basic interest rate to dip to a 10year low of 8.5%.
Most economists, corporate
executives and market analysts
watching the phenomenon with
disbelief term it a ‘Godsend opportunity’ and a ‘windfall gain,’
which could infuse new life into
the country’s moribund economy. But many of them also
added caveats, and are not sure
that the opportunity would not
be squandered.
“For the corporate sector,
these windfalls would translate into a much needed decline
in the cost of doing business,”
Kamran Y Mirza, CEO of the Pakistan Business Council, said on
Thursday. He believed that the
government had received the
‘fiscal space’ to rationalise every
aspect of the economy.
“It is one more chance for the
PML-N government to fulfil the
promises made in its election
manifesto about reforms and restructuring of the economy.” He
affirmed that the oil price plunge
and the interest rate cut was a
‘win-win’ situation for all.
The ease in inflation which the
SBP now projects at 4.5%, down
from the 5.5% for the current fiscal would increase consumers’
purchasing power, eventually
leading to higher industrial output and strong bottom lines for
corporates.
With lower interest rates,
private sector borrowing would
pick up pace, providing industries with cheaper capital.
Nasim Beg, vice-chairman of
Arif Habib Savings, endorsed
that view. He pointed out that
the cost of short-term borrowing by corporates for their working capital requirement would
decrease with the decline in interest rates.
And companies with stalled
plans could go for expanding and
modernising their plants. This
would inevitably provide employment opportunities to the
country’s bulging youth population.
Beg, however, expressed some
anxiety over the possibility of a
slowdown in remittances if jobs
in the Gulf countries are lost due
to the slump in oil prices.
Meanwhile, along with a decrease in the cost of fuel, the
drop in interest rates would help
leveraged companies trim down
the biggest expenditure item on
their balance sheets, he said.
He did not believe that the
country’s stock market had
touched its peak, but also cautioned that the KSE-100 index,
Malala among Britain’s
most influential people
Internews
Islamabad
N
obel Peace Prize winner
Malala Yousafzai of Pakistan has been named
among 500 most influential
people in Britain 2015.
The Debrett’s 500 covers
24 categories across society,
including politics, advertising, architecture, food, sport,
education and journalism. Established personalities such as
Tony Blair and Richard Branson
are joined by new faces such as
Oscar hopeful Eddie Redmayne.
Seventeen-year-old Malala
was named in the list of ‘Philanthropists and Activists’
among 20 other personalities
which include Emma Watson
Malala Yousafzai
and Prince Henry of Wales,
as reported by The Telegraph.
Malala, the youngest person
ever to win the Nobel Peace
School massacre
survivors leave
on ‘healing trip’
AFP
Islamabad
A
group of students and
teachers who survived
a Taliban massacre at
a Pakistani school left yesterday for a trip to China aimed at
healing the mental scars of their
ordeal.
Heavily-armed
militants
stormed the Army Public School
in the northwestern city of Peshawar in December, killing 150
people, most of them children,
in Pakistan’s bloodiest-ever terror attack.
The carnage horrified the
world and left many survivors
badly traumatised. Now 10
students and two teachers who
escaped the bloodshed have
been sent on a 10-day trip to
help them recover.
“The basic aim of the visit is to
divert the attention of the survivors,” from the nightmare, a security official said.
An official at the Army Public
School confirmed the visit and
said that “more survivors will
be sent in coming days to other
countries”.
Both the officials spoke on
condition of anonymity.
The officials said the decision
was taken after psychiatrists
suggested that survivors need
long-term therapy and mental
health counselling.
The security official in Peshawar said the parents of children killed in the attack would
be sent to on pilgrimage Saudi
Arabia — home to some of Islam’s most holy sites — in the
coming days.
Prize, is also the youngest in the
Debrett’s rankings.
The annual Debrett’s 500,
which began in 1769, extend
recognition to the most influential, inspiring and achieving
individuals across Britain.
Joanne Milner, chief executive at Debrett’s, said: “We are
delighted to announce this
year’s Debrett’s 500. It’s a fascinating mix of people, and not
entirely who you might expect.”
Malala was 15 when a Taliban
gunman shot her in the head as
she travelled on a school bus in
response to her campaign for
girls’ education.
Last year she received the
Nobel Peace Prize alongside India’s Kailash Satyarthi for risking their lives to fight for children’s rights.
Saudi prince to
visit Baluchistan
for Houbara hunt
Pakistani authorities are
finalising arrangements
for a Saudi prince to visit
its southwestern desert
region to hunt the Houbara
bustard, a bird supposedly
protected by law, officials
said yesterday.
An advance party has already
reached the Yak Much desert
in the province of Baluchistan
along with falcons which will
be used to catch the bustard,
officials said.
Saudi Prince Fahd bin Sultan
bin Abdulaziz is expected
to join the group in coming
days.
He led a hunting party to
Baluchistan last year that
officials said killed more than
2,000 bustards. Saifullah
Zehri, district forest officer for
wildlife in Chagai district of
which Yak Much is a part, said
the advance party arrived on
Sunday in a C-130 transport
plane.
“They were fully equipped
and had all the material which
is required for bird hunting,”
Zehri said.
being heavily tilted towards energy stocks, was not the best
measurement for the market’s
performance, and suggested that
investors go for stocks of fundamentally strong companies.
“Over the long run, stocks and
real estate have historically given
out the best returns,” he noted.
“For the corporate sector,
these windfalls would
translate into a much
needed decline in the cost
of doing business”
Raza Jafri, head of research at
AKD Securities, admitted that
the government being the biggest borrower would have to pay
lower interest rates on Pakistan
Investment Bonds and Treasury
bills.
With debt servicing being one
of two (the other being defence)
major items on the expenditure
side, the decrease in interest expenditure would have a salutary
effect on the fiscal deficit, which
would then be reflected in other
major economic indicators.
Yet, Raza believes that lower
fuel costs and interest rates are
not enough, and that more is
required for industrialisation
to pick up pace. “The perennial
problems of circular debt and
power outages will have to be
solved before we expect corporates to expand, raise the level of
profitability and distribute higher dividends.”
Low interest rates could also
lure consumers to increase their
spending, further spoiling the
savings-to-spending ratio. For
some, the decrease in fuel costs
together with low instalments
on leasing, may provide an ideal
opportunity to spend on luxury
items like automobiles.
Other analysts believed that as
the cost of furnace oil has gone
down, industries dependent on
the costly fuel, such as cement
and independent power pro-
ducers, could see higher capacity utilisation, translating into
growth in their top and bottom
lines.
Some analysts believe that the
heavy cut in the price of petrol
would reduce transportation
costs.
But Muzammil Aslam, MD of
Emerging Economics Research,
argued that the transportation
cost could decrease more for
people with their own conveyance, which is no more than 10%
of the population.
But he admitted that with the
expected increase in consumer
financing, spending on automobiles, electrical appliances
and other non-essential goods
would increase, which could
boost the profitability of these
industries.
He added that $15bn oil import
bill would be sizably reduced,
leading to a positive impact on
the balance of payment position. It will also lead to higher
reserves, lower inflation and still
lower interest rates. However,
there is a darker side to the tale.
“The country had to pay
higher subsidies when oil prices
were sky high, and these subsidies will recede. Yet its revenues
would take a big hit in the form
of lower import duty,” he said.
He elaborated that at $115 a
barrel, the duty worked out at
$28; meanwhile, with oil at $50
a barrel, the duty has dropped
to $15 a barrel. This is why the
government has booked a loss of
around Rs100bn in six months
from the decrease in revenue
from the import duty on oil.
Aslam also recommended that
the government strike a balance
for macroeconomic stability
so that consumerism does not
mitigate the advantages of these
developments, as had happened
during the era of former prime
minister Shaukat Aziz, when
interest rates had also slipped to
single digits.
Pakistan test-fires
N-capable missile
Ra’ad (Thunder) is a “lowflying, terrain-hugging
missile” which can deliver
nuclear or conventional
warheads to targets up to
350km away with “pinpoint
accuracy”
Agencies
Islamabad
P
akistan yesterday conducted a test of Air
Launched Cruise Missile
(ALCM) that is capable of carrying nuclear and conventional
warheads to a range of 350km, a
military statement said.
The military described the
domestically-developed Ra’ad
(Thunder) as a “low-flying, terrain-hugging missile” which can
deliver nuclear or conventional
warheads to targets up to 350km
away with “pinpoint accuracy”.
The Inter Services Public Reactions (ISPR), the mouth piece
of Pakistan army, said the successful launch of the Ra’ad missile enables Pakistan to achieve
Strategic Standoff Capability on
land and at sea.
“Cruise Technology is extremely complex and has been
developed by only a few countries in the world. Pakistan’s
Strategic pursuits are aimed at
achieving Strategic Stability in
the region,” the statement said.
The cruise missile can be used in
an anti-shipping role via aircraft
against the ground/static targets.
This handout image released yesterday by Pakistan’s Inter-Services Public Relations (ISPR) office shows a
Pakistani nuclear-capable Ra’ad cruise missile after being launched from a jet fighter during a test firing at
an undisclosed location in Pakistan.
Director General Strategic Plans Division, Lieutenant
General Zubair Mahmood Hayat, congratulated the Pakistani
scientists and engineers on
achieving the milestone of historic significance, and termed it
a major step towards strengthening Pakistan’s Full spectrum
Credible Minimum Deterrence
capability.
Pakistani President Mamnoon
Hussain and Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif also commended the
successful launch of the missile
and congratulated the scientists
and engineers on their outstanding achievement.
The test comes just over a
week after India reached a new
civilian nuclear accord with the
United States.
The agreement reached during President Barack Obama’s
visit to New Delhi broke a deadlock that stalled a civilian atomic
power agreement for years.
But it drew condemnation
from Pakistan, which said the
deal could destabilise South
Asian security.
The US and India in 2008
signed a landmark deal giving
India access to civilian nuclear
technology. But it had been held
up since then by US concerns
over India’s strict laws on liability in the event of a nuclear accident.
India and Pakistan are both
nuclear-armed in addition to
operating civilian atomic plants.
They have fought three wars
since independence from Britain
in 1947.
Taliban kill seven Afghan policemen in two attacks
AFP
Kabul
T
aliban killed seven policemen in separate attacks on
police checkpoints in Afghanistan, officials said.
In the western province of
Herat, insurgents attacked a
checkpoint in Chesht-e-Sharif
district, killing three officers and
injuring three others on Sunday
night, said the province’s police
spokesman Abdul Raouf Ahmadi. Nobody claimed responsibil-
ity immediately.
Taliban
insurgents
have
stepped up attacks since Afghan
troops took over full responsibility for the country’s security on
January 1. Also Sunday, at least
four policemen were killed in the
southern province of Kandahar
when Taliban attacked a police
checkpoint, said Zia-ul-Rahman Durani, police spokesman
for that province.
Violence
in
Afghanistan
surged in 2014 as the Nato-led
alliance ended its combat campaign.
Pakistan, India to share pavilion at Venice art fest
Indian philanthropic
organisation funds show
bringing together two
stars of the countries’
contemporary art scenes
Guardian News & Media
New Delhi
W
here the politicians
and diplomats have
failed, the artists hope
to succeed. Pakistan and India
are to be united at the Venice
Biennale this year when a top
contemporary artist from each
nation will share a pavilion, in an
unprecedented initiative aimed
at bringing the two neighbours
closer together.
The show, entitled My East is
Your West, has been funded by a
Indian private philanthropic or-
ganisation. The respective governments, which have been exchanging intermittent artillery
fire and verbal barbs for months,
are not involved.
“We just thought, let’s stop
complaining about what others
should be doing, let’s just do our
best and say that from a common past and a divided present,
we would like a peaceful future,”
said Feroze Gujral, cofounder of
the Gujral Foundation.
The two participating artists
are both stars of the burgeoning
contemporary art scenes in their
respective countries. Mumbaibased Shilpa Gupta has exhibited
at the Tate Modern, the Serpentine Gallery and the Guggenheim. Rashid Rana, who lives and
works in Lahore, is considered
one of the most important current Pakistani artists.
“This is something coming
from the art world. We have just
had [Barack] Obama in Delhi
watching a huge parade of weapons and talking about nuclear
power. So it’s wonderful to have
this unofficial dream of peace,”
Gupta said.
India and Pakistan were divided in 1947 when Britain was
forced to give up its south Asian
empire. The two nuclear powers have fought three major wars
since and have skirmished, militarily and diplomatically, continually. A nascent peace process
has been frozen since 2008 after
Pakistan-based militants attacked India’s commercial capital, Mumbai.
At least 14mn people were displaced in the partition of the two
countries 68 years ago as Muslims
fled to Pakistan and Hindus and
Sikhs headed to India. Up to a million were killed in mob violence.
“Partition hasn’t really been
addressed at all in either nation,”
said Gupta, whose previous work
has investigated ideas of nationhood and frontiers.
Gujral said this shared his-
“We just thought, let’s stop
complaining about what
others should be doing, let’s
just do our best and say that
from a common past and a
divided present, we would
like a peaceful future”
tory was one reason for her decision to organise the joint show
in Venice. Her father-in-law,
Satish Gujral, one of the most
important Indian artists of recent decades, was born in Jhelum, in modern Pakistan, and
fled to India in 1947, narrowly
escaping death.
“His losses were irreplaceable
… so this is a very special project.
There is never any healing but
there can be a celebration, a
cultural conversation, that can
cross borders,” she said.
India exhibited at the Venice Biennale for the first time four years
ago. Pakistan last did in 1956.
That artists and patrons
should pick up where officials
have failed is less surprising than
it may seem to outsiders. Despite
poverty, political instability and
sometimes violence, artists from
south Asia are beginning to make
a global name for themselves,
attracting interest from international buyers, curators and museum directors.
This weekend thousands of
visitors attended the India Art
Fair, now in its seventh year. The
event has attracted artists and
dealers from across the world,
all keen to get a slice of the still
booming Indian market.
British and European artists
have proved popular among India’s new wealthy art collectors ,
though bureaucratic restrictions
mean some gallery owners prefer to bring works to show rather
than sell.
This year’s event, with 85 galleries, is more focused on local artists and those in smaller
towns beyond India’s sprawling
cities.
One Pakistani gallery, from
the southern port city of Karachi, has surmounted a series
of logistical obstacles to show
at the event. “It is special being
here, there’s a lot of history obviously, though getting visas is
tough,” said Camilla Chaudhary,
of ArtChowk .
Rashid Rana, who will share
the Venice Biennale pavilion with
Gupta, said the exhibition would
be more about the south Asian
region as a whole rather than
just the complex relationship between India and Pakistan.
“I am interested in messing
with time and location … As artists we can defy these borders,”
Rana said.
The venture has been greeted
with some scepticism. Kanwal
Sibal, a former foreign secretary
of India, said cultural initiatives
could help “form a pool of public opinion “that could help improve relations between states,
but little more”.
He said: “It has some value,
but in terms of true impact on
policy it is less than marginal.”
28
Gulf Times
Tuesday, February 3, 2015
PHILIPPINES
Govt says rebels must prove
sincerity after bloodbath
President Benigno Aquino’s
spokesman Edwin Lacierda
has hinted that this might
even involve calling on the
Moro Islamic Liberation
Front (MILF) to turn over
some members to face
criminal charges
AFP
Cotabato
A
AFP
Manila
R
ebels who signed a ceasefire with the Philippine
government must co-operate with an investigation into
the killing of 44 policemen by
some of their fighters, a presidential official said yesterday.
President Benigno Aquino’s
spokesman Edwin Lacierda
hinted that this might even involve calling on the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) to
turn over some members to face
criminal charges.
“We have said that the MILF
must demonstrate its sincerity
that they are full partners in the
peace process. We certainly will
encourage them to help us find
things that we need to search for
the truth,” Lacierda told reporters.
He said Justice Secretary Leila de Lima has been preparing
charges against those responsible for the January 25 killings.
“We would hope that part of
their good faith is to show us...
the truth. We want to seek justice. That kind of justice that
we want is a justice that seeks
File photo shows Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) rebels shouting slogans while gathered inside their camp at Camp Darapanan in the town of
Sultan Kudarat in the southern island of Mindanao.
accountability,” he said Lacierda stopped short of stating the
MILF must give up its fighters
but said it should return the firearms it captured from the slain
policemen.
A police board of inquiry is
already investigating the killing
of the police commandos, who
were on a mission in the southern island of Mindanao to capture or kill Malaysian bombmaker Zulkifli bin Hir, alias Marwan.
Marwan, a leading member of the Jemaah Islamiyah
group which staged the 2002
Bali bombings in Indonesia, is
believed by authorities to have
been killed in the raid.
But the commandos were later
ambushed by armed groups -including fighters of the MILF
which signed a peace agreement
with the government last March.
MILF officials said they were
acting in self-defence and the
raid should have been co-ordinated with them under the terms
of the ceasefire. However the
killings have angered the nation and threatened efforts to
pass a law that would create a
Muslim autonomous area as
part of the peace process.
Legislators are seeking their
own investigation of the incident before they will act on
the bill, which Aquino wants
passed before his term ends in
Political prisoners want
visitation rights restored
Agencies
Manila
F
ive of the 37 political
prisoners who staged
a hunger strike during
Pope Francis’ recent visit to
the country, have gone to court
to stop what they said was the
ongoing violation of their human rights by the jail warden, a
newspaper reported.
In separate manifestations
with urgent motions filed in
the Taguig Regional Trial Court
where they are facing criminal
charges, Tirso Alcantara and
the group of Alan Jazmines, Rolando Laylo, Edward Lanzanas
and Alex Arias asked Branches
271 and 266, respectively, to
“require warden Michelle Ng
Bonto to refrain” from violating their rights, particularly
their “basic right to be visited
Carnage scaring
away investors:
business group
by (their) family or relatives,
counsel and chosen doctor,”
Philippine Daily Inquirer reported.
The filing of the cases on Jan
28 through human rights group
Karapatan was prompted by
Bonto’s continued refusal to
let them receive visitors at the
Special Intensive Care Area
(Sica) 1 in Camp Bagong Diwa,
Taguig City, where they are detained despite Republic Act No.
7438, they said.
According to RA No 7438,
“any person arrested or detained or under custodial investigation shall be allowed
visits by or conferences with
any member of his immediate
family or any medical doctor or
priest,” the petitioners added.
They said that Bonto violated their rights on Jan 1315, when she refused entry to
several individuals, includ-
ing Dr Julie Caguiat; Bernard
Zamora, a Karapatan paralegal
staffer; Julian Oliva Jr of the
National Union of People’s
Lawyers who is their counsel;
Bagong Alyansang Makabayan Chair Carol Araullo and
former Gabriela representative Liza Maza.
These visitors, they added,
went to Sica 1 to “look into the
reported deteriorating physical
condition” of several of the 37
inmates who went on a hunger
strike starting on January 10.
The mass action was aimed
at drawing the Pope’s attention
to their plight.
Karapatan secretary general
Cristina Palabay said the hunger strike ended on Jan 19, the
day Pope Francis left the country.
“Hence, (we) respectfully
(ask) the honourable court to
immediately order (Bonto) to
explain the reported violations
of (our) rights and those of (our)
fellow political prisoners and to
desist from committing further
violations of (our) rights,” they
said. “She must be reminded of
the rights of detained persons
and to accord herein (to us) and
(our) fellow political prisoners
full respect… at all times,” they
added.
All the political prisoners, including the five petitioners, told
the court that they were “consultants” in the peace process
between the government and
the National Democratic Front
of the Philippines.
They said that the cases filed
against them in different courts
by the government, which has
accused them of being members of the Communist Party
of the Philippines, were based
on “false and trumped-up
charges.”
2016. Lacierda stressed that
the peace process could not be
abandoned, saying that nearly
120,000 people had died since
the separatist insurgency began
in 1972.
“This is a period of grief. It’s
a period of mourning. It’s a period of rending our garments
out of anger, out of frustration.
But... there is no alternative to
peace. It’s too costly for us,”
he said.
bloodbath in the southern Philippines has
placed at risk billions of
pesos in potential investment,
a business leader in the region
said yesterday.
At least three foreign firms
looking to partner with local
businessmen have put investments on hold after a deadly
clash between Philippine forces and rebels, said Mohamed
Omar Pasigan, president of the
Bangsamoro Business Club.
The botched anti-terror operation on January 25 left 44
police commandos dead in the
southern island of Mindanao,
along with at least 11 rebels.
“Security is everything for
businessmen out to make a
profit... They know when to
take a risk and when to pull
out,” Pasigan said. “They are
willing to come here and invest, but then this fighting
happened.”
The value of investments on
hold due to the fighting, in the
real estate and agriculture sectors, is estimated at “billions”
of pesos, he said.
Malaysian businessmen due
to arrive yesterday to inspect
sites in Cotabato city have
cancelled their trip, Pasigan
said. The group was looking to
build small hotels and department stores.
Jordanian
businessmen
looking to invest in up to 123
acres of banana farms left
abruptly on Sunday without
finalising a deal, he added,
while Singaporean and Malaysian partners seeking to replicate their mini shopping mall
business in Johor Baru said
they were postponing their investment. Pasigan declined to
name the businessmen since
their plans were not finalised.
He said his group was helping
foreigners find local partners.
Philippine laws prohibit
foreign nationals from owning
a majority of local businesses.
The firefight between police
commandos and rebels on January 25 broke a long-standing
ceasefire and endangered a
peace treaty signed in March
2013. Economic planning secretary Arsenio Balisacan acknowledged that the government must quickly bring calm
to the region.
“The perception of risk
is bad for business... At this
point, (the fighting) doesn’t
have any significant impact
but again it’s closure we need,”
he told reporters recently.
Balisacan said the south,
wracked by decades of conflict
that has left tens of thousands
dead, had the potential to be a
growth driver, given its fertile
land for agriculture and rich
mineral deposits.
“It’s a missed opportunity if
we don’t resolve this problem
at the soonest time possible,”
he said.
Street dance contest
Children join a street dancing competition during the opening parade of the 20th Panagbenga
Festival. The month-long festivities will be capped by a spectacular float parade on March 1.
Philippines opens mammoth casino-resort, seeking high-rollers
AFP
Manila
A
new mega-casino opened
in the Philippines yesterday as the fast-growing
southeast Asian nation ups its
bid to become a world gaming
destination.
Manila aims to rival Macau
and Las Vegas in terms of gaming revenues, and the ‘City of
Dreams’ is the latest in a string
of casinos that have opened in
recent years.
The new casino is an imposing structure on Manila Bay with
six gleaming golden towers surrounding a giant egg-shaped
dome, and industry and government leaders hope that it will
attract cashed-up tourists from
other parts of Asia.
The casino is a joint venture
between the country’s richest
man Henry Sy, Australian billionaire James Packer and Lawrence Ho, son of Macau casino
mogul Stanley Ho.
“The goal is to find the best
(sites) in Asia... The Philippines is one of the fastest growing economies anywhere in the
world. We’ve seen the market
really pick up,” Ho told reporters.
Ho also acknowledged the
huge cost of building the resort.
Visitors walk near the golden dome called the “Fortune Egg” of the newly-opened City of Dreams mega-casino in Manila yesterday. Right: Lawrence Ho (right), son of Macau gaming tycoon Stanley Ho, and co-chairman of
Melco Crown, with his wife Sharen, and his co-chairman, Australian billionaire James Packer arrive at the grand opening of the City of Dreams mega-casino.
The Philippine government requires a minimum $1bn investment for new casinos built in the
area. Packer said jokingly that
the resort was inspired by Hollywood movies Casino and Oceans
Eleven, and Robert de Niro, Martin Scorsese and Leonardo DiCaprio have appeared on giant
billboards and TV commercials
to promote the casino.
The 15-acre complex is the
second of four mega resorts to
open on reclaimed portions of
the bay, just a few hundred metres from the city’s slum communities.
The City of Dreams’ golden
dome, called the “Fortune Egg”,
houses two exclusive nightclubs,
including Pangaea, where Picasso copies hang beside pictures of
safari animals on walls covered
in fake snakeskin.
Yesterday’s glittering opening
for City of Dreams is to be capped
off with a concert by American
music stars Ne-Yo and Kelly Rowland.
The Philippines economy grew
at more than six% in 2014 for the
third straight year, prompting
economic planning secretary Arsenio Balisacan to comment that
the country has shaken off its reputation as the “sick man” of Asia.
Gulf Times
Tuesday, February 3, 2015
29
SRI LANKA/BANGLADESH/NEPAL
TV station boss held in
Bangladesh crackdown
AFP
Dhaka
AFP
Dhaka
T
he owner of a leading
Bangladeshi
television
station has been arrested
as part of a wider crackdown
on the opposition in a deepening political crisis that has left
nearly 50 people dead, police
said yesterday.
Several networks broadcast
footage of a police officer getting into the car of Mosaddek Ali
Falu, chairman of private station
Ntv, after he came out of the office of opposition leader Khaleda
Zia on Sunday night.
“He was arrested on charges
of arson attack on a vehicle,”
Dhaka police spokesman Masudur Rahman said yesterday.
Falu has been one of the closest aides of Zia and was her political secretary when she was
premier from 2001-06. He owns
an array of businesses, including
a new online news portal which
launched on Sunday.
Last month Abdus Salam, the
owner of Bangladesh’s oldest
private TV station, was arrested
after his channel aired a speech
of Zia’s fugitive son live from
London. Salam has since been
charged with sedition, which
could see him sentenced to life
in jail for airing the speech.
Salam’s arrest came as the
government launched a massive
crackdown on the opposition in
an effort to quell its month-long
protests.
More than 10,000 opposition
activists have been arrested,
including dozens of front-rank
officials. Others have gone into
hiding.
Khaleda Zia
faces murder
case probe
A
PROTEST AGAINST STRIKE: Shop owners protest against the nationwide strike called by the Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP)-led
opposition alliance in Dhaka yesterday.
Zia called the protests early
last month, urging supporters to
enforce a nationwide blockade of
roads, railways and waterways in
an effort to force Prime Minister
Sheikh Hasina to call new polls.
The protests have triggered
widespread violence that left
at least 46 people dead —
most victims of firebombing
attacks on buses and lorries.
In the latest deaths, two activists from the Islamist Jamaat-eIslami party were shot dead by
police, including a 23-year-old
student.
Suspected
saboteurs,
meanwhile, removed clips
from railway tracks, forcing
a packed train to derail as the
blockade entered a fifth week.
State-run Bangladesh Railway
officials said the locomotive and
two coaches came off the tracks
in the southeast, snapping the
rail link between the port city
of Chittagong and rest of the
country.
“It was an act of sabotage by
the protesters. No one has been
arrested,” BR’s spokesman Syed
Zahurul Islam said.
Local media said 15 people
suffered minor bruises and cuts.
The accident occurred despite the government’s deployment last month of more than
8,000 village police guards along
the 3,000km (1,875 mile) rail
network.
Bangladeshi court yesterday ordered an investigation
into
an
allegation of murder against opposition leader Khaleda Zia over
the death of dozens of people
in petrol bomb attacks during a
continuing transport blockade.
The order from a lower court
in the capital Dhaka comes after
a pro-government activist, A
B Siddiqi, filed a private complaint against Zia, the leader of
the main opposition Bangladesh
Nationalist Party (BNP).
“Metropolitan
Magistrate
Atiqur Rahman ordered the
Gulshan police in Dhaka to investigate the complaint and
submit a report by March
1,” Ashiqur Rahman, a court
official, said.
A lawyer for the plaintiff
said Zia was responsible for the
death of 42 people killed after
opposition activists firebombed
buses and trucks as part of a
new wave of anti-government
protests.
“She is to blame for the death
of 42 innocent people as she ordered her supporters to attack
vehicles with petrol bombs,”
said lawyer Roushonara Sikder
Daizy.
Experts said it was extremely
unlikely that a private complaint would result in a criminal
prosecution. But they said the
case was designed to intimidate
Zia, who launched the blockade as part of her campaign to
topple the government.
The 69-year-old leader, who
Khaleda Zia ... in legal tangle
has been holed up in her office
since January 3, has already been
charged by police with lesser
crimes including “abetting” and
“instigating” the firebombings.
Zia called the protests early
last month. She urged supporters to enforce a nationwide
blockade of roads, railways and
waterways to try to force Prime
Minister Sheikh Hasina to call a
fresh general election.
The opposition boycotted
the last poll in January 2014 on
the grounds the result would be
rigged.
The protests have triggered
widespread violence that left at
least 46 people dead — mostly
victims of firebombing attacks
on buses and lorries.
In the latest deaths, two activists from the BNP-allied Islamist Jamaat-e-Islami party were
shot dead allegedly by police,
including a 23-year-old student.
More than 10,000 opposition
activists have been arrested,
including dozens of front-rank
officials. Others have gone into
hiding.
US pledges friendship to
new Lanka government
AFP
Colombo
A
top US diplomat promised yesterday that Washington would be a friend
and partner of Colombo as she
made the first visit by a senior
American official since the toppling of Sri Lanka’s long-time
strongman.
In the build-up to last month’s
presidential elections, a top lieutenant to then president Mahinda Rajapakse accused the United
States of trying to bring about
“regime change”, marking a new
low in bilateral relations.
But since Rajapakse was beaten at the ballot box, the United
States has moved swiftly to rebuild ties with a country that
has become increasingly close to
China over the past decade.
Speaking on a visit to Colombo, Assistant Secretary of
State Nisha Biswal said the US
was ready to help Sri Lanka on
a range of issues, including its
human rights record, which
was hugely contentious under
Rajapakse.
“I am indeed excited to be in
Sri Lanka and see for myself the
energy that has the world talking about Sri Lanka and about
Sri Lanka’s democracy and for all
the right reasons,” Biswal said.
“Sri Lanka can count on the
US to be a partner and a friend
in the way forward, whether it
is on rebuilding the economy,
on preventing corruption, and
advancing good governance
and ensuring human rights and
democratic participation for all
of its citizens.”
Speaking to reporters after talks with Foreign Minister
Mangala Samaraweera, Biswal
stressed the new government
could count on US support
to meet “difficult challenges
ahead”.
“Sri Lanka can count on the US
to be a partner and a friend in
the way forward, whether it
is on rebuilding the economy,
on preventing corruption, and
advancing good governance
and ensuring human rights
and democratic participation
for all of its citizens”
She did not directly refer
to the pending US-initiated
probe into allegations that up to
40,000 ethnic Tamil civilians
were killed by Sri Lankan forces
while defeating Tamil separatists
in 2009.
However, she said Washington
wanted to work with Colombo to
“find constructive ways forward
on all the areas of interest between our two nations”.
Samaraweera said he would
be travelling to Washington for
talks with Secretary of State John
Kerry next week.
“We want to raise the relationship between our two countries
to a new level of cordiality and I
hope to continue this dialogue in
Washington,” he said.
Rajapakse, who ruled the island for a decade, alienated
many foreign leaders by refusing
to co-operate with an international probe into alleged abuses
in the final stages of a 37-year
civil war that ended in 2009.
Kerry had voiced appreciation
for Rajapakse’s early concession
of defeat in the January 8 vote,
although there have since been
allegations that he tried to hold
onto power by staging a coup.
Nisha Desai Biswal shaking hands with Ranil Wickremesinghe during their meeting in Colombo yesterday.
China demand threatens tiger protection: experts
AFP
Kathmandu
S
This handout photograph received from the World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF) yesterday shows WWF staff demonstrating an unmanned aerial
vehicle, used to monitor tiger and rhino activity, at Bardia National Park within Nepal’s Terai Arc region. Nepal’s success in turning tiger-fearing
villagers into their protectors has seen none of the endangered cats killed for almost three years, offering key lessons for an anti-poaching summit
which opened in Kathmandu yesterday.
oaring demand for tiger
parts in China has emptied
Asia’s forests, frustrating
efforts to protect the big cats,
wildlife experts said as an antipoaching conference opened in
Kathmandu yesterday.
Around 100 experts, government and law enforcement officials from 13 nations are attending the five-day summit,
co-hosted by Nepal and conservation group WWF to hammer out a regional plan to fight
poaching.
Anil Manandhar from WWF
Nepal said conservationists’
goals should not limited to “zero
poaching but (include) zero
demand as well”.
Mike Baltzer, leader of WWF
Tigers Alive Initiative, praised
Beijing for its efforts to save the
wild cats from extinction and
said: “China is doing a lot but
the demand (for tiger parts) is
so huge that it’s very difficult to
address the issue.”
“When you have a cultural
perception among wealthy people in China that owning a tiger
is a matter of prestige, you can’t
change it overnight,” Baltzer
said on the sidelines of the
conference.
“Dealing with demand will
take a long time, poaching needs
to be the focus otherwise it will
be too late to save the tiger,” he
said.
“When you have a cultural
perception among wealthy
people in China that
owning a tiger is a matter of
prestige, you can’t change it
overnight”
Decades of trafficking and
habitat
destruction
have
slashed the global tiger population from 100,000 a century
ago to approximately 3,000,
according to the International
Union for the Conservation of
Nature.
Tiger bones have long been
an ingredient of traditional
Chinese medicine, supposedly
for a capacity to strengthen the
human body.
The animal is also hunted
for its pelt, which can fetch
up to $16,000 on the black
market, and for its penis, believed to increase male sexual
performance.
Conservationists
singled
out India and Nepal for their
strong performance and urged
other countries attending the
summit to prioritise wildlife
protection.
India in January reported a
30% jump in its tiger population since 2010, while Nepal saw
numbers rise almost two-thirds
between 2009 and 2013.
Countries with tiger populations — Bangladesh, Bhutan,
China, Cambodia, India, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, Nepal, Russia, Thailand and Vietnam — in 2010
launched a plan to double their
numbers by 2022.
30
Gulf Times
Tuesday, February 3, 2015
COMMENT
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Editor-in-Chief : Darwish S Ahmed
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editor@gulf-times.com
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GULF TIMES
Djokovic, Serena
live up to top billing
at Australian Open
Novak Djokovic and Serena Williams lived up to their
billing as the world’s best players at the Australian Open,
but it was a tournament to forget for Swiss maestro Roger
Federer.
The opening Grand Slam of the season, played in
milder conditions than Melbourne usually delivers and to
record crowds, largely followed the script, although there
were some shocks along the way.
Djokovic maintained his formidable record on the
tournament hardcourts, winning his fifth title for his
eighth Grand Slam crown, overcoming sixth seed Andy
Murray in the final 7-6 (7/5), 6-7 (4/7), 6-3, 6-0.
He said the win had more meaning since becoming a
husband and father last year.
“I think it has deeper meaning, more intrinsic value
now to my life because I’m a father and a husband,” he
said.
“It’s the first Grand Slam title I won as a father and a
husband and I just feel very, very proud of it.”
The irrepressible Williams consolidated her place
among the game’s legends at age 33, overwhelming archrival Maria Sharapova 6-3, 7-6 (7/5) -- the dominant
American’s 16th consecutive win over the Russian.
Williams now has 19 Grand Slams, overtaking 18-time
major champions Martina Navratilova and Chris Evert
on the all-time Openera winners’ list, three
behind Steffi Graf.
And she is already
targeting number 20 at
the French Open.
“I would love to get to
22,” she said. “I mean 19
was very difficult to get
to. Took me 33 years to
get here, so I would love
to get there.”
While there are some
promising young players in action, the widely-touted
generational change largely failed to materialise in the
first major test of the new season.
American teenager Madison Keys was the exception,
striking a blow for the new brigade by defeating
childhood idol Venus Williams in the quarter-finals
before falling to Serena in the semis. Her reward is a place
in the top 20.
But no one else stepped up sufficiently.
Canadian Eugenie Bouchard and Spain’s Garbine
Muguruza were ousted by old stagers like Serena and
Sharapova, while Sloane Stephens was sent packing by
Victoria Azarenka who is on the comeback trail from
injury and depression.
It was a similar scenario among the men where none of
the young guns such as Japan’s Kei Nishikori, Canadian
Milos Raonic and Bulgaria’s Grigor Dimitrov were in
contention at the bitter end.
The biggest upset saw Federer make his Melbourne
earliest exit in 14 years, beaten by 46th ranked Italian
veteran Andreas Seppi in the third round.
The defeat meant the 33-year-old has now not won a
major since Wimbledon in 2012, raising fresh doubts as
to whether he can add to his record 17 Grand Slams.
The world number two insisted it was simply a blip and
several of his rivals backed him to bounce back.
A lesser upset saw Federer’s long-time rival Rafael
Nadal bundled out in a straight sets quarter-final
mauling by Czech veteran Tomas Berdych, a man he had
beaten on all 17 previous times they had met.
The fiercely proud Nadal, who suffered his first 6-0
“bagel” at a Slam since 2006, came into the tournament
recovering from injury but made no excuses.
Veterans Martina Hingis and Leander Paes clinched the
mixed doubles in another boost for the old guard.
The lemmings of
quantitative easing
In the QE era, monetary
policy has lost any
semblance of discipline and
coherence
By Stephen S Roach
New Haven
P
redictably, the European
Central Bank (ECB) has joined
the world’s other major
monetary authorities in the
greatest experiment in the history of
central banking. By now, the pattern
is all too familiar. First, central banks
take the conventional policy rate down
to the dreaded “zero bound”. Facing
continued economic weakness, but
having run out of conventional tools,
they then embrace the unconventional
approach of quantitative easing (QE).
The theory behind this strategy
is simple: unable to cut the price of
credit further, central banks shift their
focus to expanding its quantity. The
implicit argument is that this move
from price to quantity adjustments is
the functional equivalent of additional
monetary-policy easing. Thus, even
at the zero bound of nominal interest
rates, it is argued, central banks still
have weapons in their arsenal.
But are those weapons up to the
task? For the ECB and the Bank of
Japan (BOJ), both of which are facing
formidable downside risks to their
economies and aggregate price levels,
this is hardly an idle question. For the
US, where the ultimate consequences
of QE remain to be seen, the answer is
just as consequential.
QE’s impact hinges on the “three
Ts” of monetary policy: transmission
(the channels by which monetary
policy affects the real economy);
traction (the responsiveness of
economies to policy actions); and
time consistency (the unwavering
credibility of the authorities’ promise
to reach specified targets like full
employment and price stability).
Notwithstanding financial markets’
celebration of QE, not to mention the
US Federal Reserve’s hearty selfcongratulation, an analysis based
on the three Ts should give the ECB
pause.
The real sticking
point for QE relates to
traction
In terms of transmission, the Fed
has focused on the so-called wealth
effect. First, the balance-sheet
expansion of some $3.6tn since late
2008 – which far exceeded the $2.5tn
in nominal GDP growth over the QE
period – boosted asset markets. It
was assumed that the improvement
in investors’ portfolio performance –
reflected in a more than threefold rise
in the S&P 500 from its crisis-induced
low in March 2009 – would spur a
burst of spending by increasingly
wealthy consumers. The BOJ has
used a similar justification for its own
policy of quantitative and qualitative
easing (QQE).
The ECB, however, will have a
harder time making the case for
wealth effects, largely because equity
ownership by individuals (either direct
or through their pension accounts) is
far lower in Europe than in the US or
Japan. For Europe, monetary policy
seems more likely to be transmitted
through banks, as well as through the
currency channel, as a weaker euro – it
has fallen some 15% against the dollar
over the last year – boosts exports.
The real sticking point for QE
relates to traction. The US, where
consumption accounts for the bulk
of the shortfall in the post-crisis
recovery, is a case in point. In an
environment of excess debt and
inadequate savings, wealth effects
have done very little to ameliorate
the balance-sheet recession that
clobbered US households when the
property and credit bubbles burst.
Indeed, annualised real consumption
growth has averaged just 1.3% since
early 2008. With the current recovery
in real GDP on a trajectory of 2.3%
annual growth – two percentage
points below the norm of past cycles
– it is tough to justify the widespread
praise of QE.
Japan’s massive QQE campaign has
faced similar traction problems.
After expanding its balance sheet
to nearly 60% of GDP – double the
size of the Fed’s – the BOJ is finding
that its campaign to end deflation is
increasingly ineffective. Japan has
lapsed back into recession, and the
BOJ has just cut the inflation target for
this year from 1.7% to 1%.
Finally, QE also disappoints in
terms of time consistency. The
Fed has long qualified its post-QE
normalisation strategy with a host of
data-dependent conditions pertaining
to the state of the economy and/or
inflation risks. Moreover, it is now
relying on ambiguous adjectives to
provide guidance to financial markets,
having recently shifted from stating
that it would maintain low rates for a
“considerable” time to pledging to be
“patient” in determining when to raise
rates.
But it is the Swiss National Bank,
which printed money to prevent
excessive appreciation after pegging
its currency to the euro in 2011,
that has thrust the sharpest dagger
into QE’s heart. By unexpectedly
abandoning the euro peg on January
15 – just a month after reiterating
a commitment to it – the oncedisciplined SNB has run roughshod
over the credibility requirements of
time consistency.
With the SNB’s assets amounting to
nearly 90% of Switzerland’s GDP, the
reversal raises serious questions about
both the limits and repercussions of
open-ended QE. And it serves as a
chilling reminder of the fundamental
fragility of promises like that of
ECB president Mario Draghi to do
“whatever it takes” to save the euro.
In the QE era, monetary policy
has lost any semblance of discipline
and coherence. As Draghi attempts
to deliver on his nearly two-and-ahalf-year-old commitment, the limits
of his promise – like comparable
assurances by the Fed and the BOJ –
could become glaringly apparent. Like
lemmings at the cliff ’s edge, central
banks seem steeped in denial of the
risks they face. - Project Syndicate
zStephen S Roach, a faculty member
at Yale University and former
Chairman of Morgan Stanley Asia,
is the author of Unbalanced: The
Codependency of America and China.
The
irrepressible
Williams
consolidated
her place among
the game’s
legends at age 33
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Bernard Sabiiti, the author of the first Uglish dictionary, posing with his book at his office in Kampala. The Uglish language is Uganda’s strange, often funny, localised
type of English.
‘Spewing buffalos’: understanding ‘Uglish’
By Amy Fallon
Kampala/AFP
A
“detoother” or a “dentist”
is a gold-digger looking for
a wealthy partner, while
“spewing out buffalos”
means you can’t speak proper English.
And a “side-dish” isn’t served by a
waiter.
Those and other terms are articles
in Uganda’s strange, often funny
locally-adapted English known as
“Uglish,” which is now published for
the first time in dictionary form.
“It is so entrenched right now that,
even when you think you cannot use
it, you actually find yourself speaking
Uglish,” Bernard Sabiiti, the author of
the first Uglish dictionary, told AFP.
“Even as I was researching, I was
surprised that these words are not
English because they were the only
ones I knew. A word like a “campuser”
- a university student - I used to think
was an English word.”
Uglish: A Dictionary of Ugandan
English, which went on sale in
bookshops across the east African
country late last year, contains
hundreds of popular Uglish terms,
some coined by Ugandans as far back
as the colonial period.
Sabiiti, 32, said the informal patois
was greatly influenced by the local
Luganda language, and is a “symptom
of a serious problem with our
education system” that he claims has
been deteriorating since the 1990s.
Uglish is largely dependent on
sentences being literally translated,
word for word, from local dialects
with little regard for context, while
vocabulary used is derived from
standard English.
“MPs are almost
notorious at using
Uglish”
Meantime, Sabiiti says, influence
from the Internet, local media and
musicians have seen additional words
and phrases created and slowly enter
the lexicon.
The result is colourful but at times
confounding expressions. If you
haven’t seen someone for a while, for
example, you’re “lost”, while if you
“design well”, you are snappy dresser.
And if you’re a “side-dish”, you are
someone’s mistress.
Today, Uglish is used by people
from all walks of life, but particularly
popular with youths.
English is the working language
in Uganda, and it remains the only
medium of instruction in schools and
in official business.
But Sabiiti said everyone from
the president to simple farmers
speak at least some Uglish, which
varies according to region, tribe
and gender, and is regularly seen on
signposts.
“MPs are almost notorious at using
Uglish, you see it in parliamentary
debates,” said Sabiiti.
But it wasn’t until 2011, a year after
the term Uglish - pronounced “Youglish” - had been coined on social
media, that Sabiiti began keeping
newspaper cuttings, conducting
interviews and searching online for
material for his book.
“I knew that people talked a lot
about this, and my friends used
to laugh about it,” said the author,
whose fulltime job with a think tank
has taken him to different regions
of Uganda, and exposed him to the
different types of Uglish.
His book contains a brief history of
Uglish, and a glossary of terms relating
to education, telecommunications,
society and lifestyle, food, transport
and relationships.
Sabiiti’s book has proven popular
among the middle class, including
academics, and with locals and
foreigners alike. To date he’s sold
about a thousand copies.
“I’ve had incredible feedback
from professional linguists, ordinary
readers - some even suggesting more
phrases - so I’ll be doing another
edition,” said Sabiiti.
“I don’t see it disappearing. I’m
looking forward to seeing five years
from now how many new words and
phrases have joined the lexicon,”
he said, adding some teachers,
particularly in state schools, are
passing Uglish on to their students.
But, as the author stresses in
the final chapter of his book, there
comes a point when Uglish stops
being funny.
In 1997 Uganda introduced
universal primary school education,
which eliminated official school fees
and made education accessible to
millions more children.
But literacy rates remain low: more
than a quarter of the population
cannot read or write, according to the
UN, and critics say standards remain
low in many schools.
“Uglish is not something that
should be encouraged, particularly
for young, impressionable children.
They really should learn what they call
proper standard English.”
Gulf Times
Tuesday, February 3, 2015
31
COMMENT
Tips to help you keep your customers
Never take your clients for
granted
By Ahmed al-Akber
Manama
W
inning
a client
is a
battle
on its own. Once you
have acquired a client, you also need
to ensure you keep them. The financial
rewards associated with keeping
your clients can be astonishing:
according to Harvard Business School,
increasing customer retention rates by
5% increases profits by 25% to 95%.
Other research shows that it costs as
much as six times as much to acquire
a new customer as it does to retain an
existing one. So in other words, once
you have won a client, do what you can
to keep them!
In order to help you improve your
client retention rates, here is a list of
several things you should be doing at
any point in time with your clients to
nurture and improve your relationship
with them:
1) Avoid over-promising and
under-delivering. All right, so you
have won the contract with the new
client. Now you have to deliver on
what you have promised. This is where
a lot of client relationships can go
pear-shaped. In selling your service,
if you promised a lot, you now have
a client with expectations that are
sky high. Even if you do a good job,
if its anything under what you have
promised, they are disappointed.
This situation comes with
promising miracles, which is a
consequence of over-selling and
hype. Its far more effective to be
genuine with what you promise. If you
believe that the client needs to hear
that you will provide the moon and
the stars with your service, then the
client probably isn’t worth acquiring
anyway.
When you win a new client, your
“job” starts there as far as the client
is concerned. In their eyes, you have
simply earned the right to prove
yourself. The client has assumed
the risk of choosing you, and is now
waiting for you to deliver. So make
sure you do.
Similarly, the risk you take on by
acquiring a new client is that if they
are not happy, they are likely to tell
others about their bad experience
with you, which is basically bad
for business. Deliver on what you
promise, and you will be fine.
2) Say “thank you” often. Never
take your clients for granted. Saying
thank you doesn’t mean that you
need to buy them expensive gifts or
treat them to the most expensive
restaurants. It does mean that
you need to show them that you
appreciate their custom. Take them
out for breakfast and pick up the
cheque. Send them a hand-written
letter, saying thank you and what
your relationship with them means
to you. Simple things like this go a
long way with clients, and making
sure that they feel appreciated will
mean they will go out of their way to
reciprocate when deciding whether
to stick with your company or
choose another.
3) Ask how they are doing.
Make sure to ask about their own
business. What’s happening in their
department, their recent challenges
and other news. This will keep you
abreast of changes that may affect
the work that you are already doing
for them. It will also help you identify
other opportunities that you could
sell in. It’s a great situation to mention
that you offer a new type of service or
one that the client hasn’t purchased
before. Using language as simple as
“Did you know that we also do this…”
is the way to go.
are working on, the new clients that
you have acquired, recent recognition
you have received, case studies you
have developed, and results you have
generated for other clients.
5) Keep in touch with clients that
move to new organisations. This
is a wonderful by-product of offering
a great service – people will want to
continue using you, even after they
move to other organisations. They
will want to make sure they use tried
and tested service providers – such as
yours – to get the job done. Make sure
you keep in touch with individuals
that move to new organisations
(simply by congratulating them and
asking them to meet for coffee and a
catch up).
6) Have some service standards
in place. Having service standards
in place ensures your clients get a
consistent experience from you each
time they work with you. Typical
service standards include returning
phone calls within a certain time
(say within two hours) or answering
e-mails within the same business
day.
Keeping your clients is an essential
part of running your business. Make
sure to think about what you’re
doing to maintain the relationships
you’ve built and how you will
continue to benefit from them in the
future.
4) Let them know how you are
doing. Keeping clients updated with
what’s going on with your business is
just as important. Why? Relationship
maintenance has a lot to do with
keeping your business top of mind.
And if you are out of sight, you are
definitely out of mind. Keep them
informed of the new projects that you
zAhmed al-Akber is the managing
director of ACK Solutions, a firm
that helps companies to improve
their marketing and sales results by
offering more effective ways attracting
customers and significantly better
products and services. Ahmed has
worked internationally in marketing,
sales, and strategic planning at
companies such as the Coca-Cola
Company, Philip Morris International
and Dell. Questions or comments can
be sent to Ahmed on
ahmed@acksolutions.com
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Letters
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Stop dog-fouling
on pavements
Dear Sir,
I am a tenant in one of the
residential complexes in the Al Waab
area. Our neighbourhood has many
gated communities.
It is sad that some residents who go
out to walk their dogs let them foul on
pavements in the area without thinking
about others who also have the right to
enjoy walking and jogging around.
We have been suffering from this
problem for long now and because
of that have almost stopped walking
outside. The municipality has done a
great job in providing wide and clean
pavements and planting the area to
facilitate walking. But we cannot
enjoy them properly because of these
uncaring dog owners.
I hope the municipality will find a
way to stop this uncivilised behaviour
on the part of some residents.
A resident
(Name and address supplied)
Republic of Ireland
not part of the UK
Dear Sir,
I refer to the photograph of antiausterity protesters in Dublin, featured
in yesterday’s Gulf Times, under the
headline, “Austerity policies decried”.
The photograph appeared on page 14
of the paper, as part of a two-page
section on Britain.
Dublin is the capital city of the
Republic of Ireland, of which I am a
citizen. The Republic of Ireland is not
part of the United Kingdom, nor is it
part of Britain. It has not been for 99
years.
On previous occasions, when
articles concerning the Republic of
Ireland have featured, this section
of the paper has borne the title,
Britain and Ireland - a title which is
geographically and politically correct
and therefore preferable.
With such a large expatriate
readership to consider, I would ask you
to be more accurate with your banners
in future.
Clodagh Flynn
(e-mail address supplied)
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Around the region
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Turn your anger into productive action
By Judi Light Hopson, Emma H
Hopson and Ted Hagen
Tribune News Service
A
re you one of those people
who gets extremely upset
over small things? Do you
dwell on negative situations
way too much?
If so, you need to consider the cost
of this lifestyle.
For example, you can spend hours
a day thinking about someone who’s
cheating on you. Or you can spend
years trying to get over a bad marriage
or getting fired.
Having a full range of emotions,
which means you can feel everything
from giddy love to intense anger,
is actually indicative of a mentally
healthy person. So be thankful if you
do feel many types of feelings.
But if your emotions are taking over
your life, try managing them wisely.
These tips can help:
zLearn to speak or describe what
you’re feeling. Do this instead of
acting out emotions. You might learn
to say, “This makes me very angry”,
rather than raging and acting a little
crazy. Acting out negative feelings
hurts people around you.
zSet aside time to cool your stress.
Take a break for half an hour to make a
few notes about your feelings. Put your
anger and frustrations down on paper.
Write in code or use abbreviations that
no one else can read.
zPlan some small actions to reverse
your stress. This usually involves
looking hard for some help from other
people. For example, ask your husband
to take care of certain calls to get your
home repaired. Or ask your sister to
help you locate a cleaning person for
your elderly father’s home.
zDecide how to take the high road.
If you feel like screaming at someone,
resist the temptation. You can always
kick and rage later, if it’s justified. But
initially, try to take some sort of action
that will actually get the desired
results you’re after.
A friend of ours that we’ll call
Katie, for example, was the victim of
neighbourhood gossip. Her husband’s
ex-wife had moved in at the end of
the block, and the ex was spreading
malicious lies about Katie.
“I really thought about going house
to house to tell my neighbours what a
lying nut my husband’s ex-wife was!”
Katie told us.
Katie needed to cool down and think
straight. After all, her reputation was
being smeared. Should she threaten
the ex with a character defamation
suit? Should she call out the ex for a
slugging match on the front lawn?
“I decided to take over a cake I’d
baked to my husband’s ex,” Katie
told us. “I told her I’d put her down
to help me with the neighbourhood
association’s quarterly meetings for
the coming year. I was going to make
her sqirm.”
Katie waited about a month. “My
husband’s ex-wife suddenly moved,”
says Katie. “When she saw she wasn’t
going to get a dogfight out of me, she
pulled up stakes and left.”
It takes an enormous amount of
willpower not to react to cruelty
and character defamation. Katie, for
example, would have been justified in
sending the ex a warning letter signed
by an attorney. But Katie has three
stepchildren who might suffer in the
process of fanning the flames.
Wasting emotional energy can steal
your time, destroy your relationships
and throw your life off track.
Losing your cool affects how other
people perceive you as well. If you
really want a promotion, a marriage
proposal or friends with class, make
sure others know you can control
your emotions under the worst of
circumstances.
zJudi Light Hopson is the executive
director of the stress management
website USA Wellness Cafe at
www.usawellnesscafe.com . Emma
Hopson is an author and a nurse
educator. Ted Hagen is a family
psychologist.
Dubai
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32
Gulf Times
Tuesday, February 3, 2015
QATAR
Teyseer Motors launches
two new Suzuki vehicles
T
eyseer Motors, the official
distributor for Suzuki vehicles in Qatar, launched
two new models, the Ciaz sedan
and the 7-seater Ertiga at a special ceremony at its showroom
yesterday.
The GLX models of both the
cars are priced at QR52,000 and
Ertiga standard model begins at
QR 49,900.
“The new Suzuki Ciaz, with
its elegant design, aerodynamic
styling and stunning looks is
definitely destined to capture
the hearts of youngsters in Qatar.
This 1.4-litre automotive sensation is a real ‘value-for-money’
deal as it is packed with highly
advanced features,” said Adnan
Mannai, group administration
director, Teyseer Group of Companies.
Koichi Suzuki, general manager of Middle East & Africa
Automobile Marketing Group of
Suzuki Motor Corporation said
that the Ciaz has an ergonomically designed, spacious and relaxing cabin with ample storage
space. He said: “Suzuki recorded
12% growth in Qatar in 2014
compared to the previous year.
We sold 1,300 units out of which
Suzuki Swift had a great share.”
The Suzuki Ciaz has several
features such as camera assisted
reverse parking, keyless push
start system, smart key, rear A/C
vents, personal reading lamps
and rear sunshade, among a host
of other class-leading features.
Its wooden garnish combines
with the chrome surrounds on
the dash to reflect a premium
appeal. Built on Suzuki Total
Effective Control Technology,
with effective use of high tensile
strength steel, the body of Ciaz is
very strong. This combines with
dual airbags, seat belt preten-
Officials of Teyseer Motors and Suzuki Motor Corporation at the press conference.
sioners and force limiters, ABS
with EBD and rear parking sensors to ensure maximum safety
for its passengers.
“The 7-seater Ertiga was conceived, designed and developed
with the ‘family’ in mind. Powered by a 1.4-litre engine, the
Ertiga is a true combination of
power and comfort as it is capable of overcoming the toughest
terrains and the harshest weathers,” said Medhat Greiss, general
manager of Teyseer Motors.
Designed to carry 7 people in a
3-row layout, the Ertiga ensures
maximum comfort and space to
every passenger, with its long
wheelbase, high headroom and
intelligent seat positioning.
This combines with the foldable
second and third row to ensure
there is flexibility and space for
everyone and everything one
needs to bring along.
The launch ceremony was
The new Suzuki vehicles launched in Qatar yesterday.
attended by the Japanese Ambassador Shingo Tsuda , promi-
nent officials of Teyseer Group
of Companies, officials of Su-
zuki Motor Corporation and a
number of invitees and guests.
Global luminaries
to attend GU-Q’s
conference today
S
ome of the world’s most
distinguished
experts
in the fields of culture,
politics, and Islamic law and
history will be among an array
of global scholars participating in Georgetown University
in Qatar’s (GU-Q) ‘Scapes of
Power’ conference starting
from today.
The two-day conference
is organised to celebrate the
university’s 10 year anniversary in Doha. Dr Laura
Doyle, from the University of
Massachusetts-Amherst, Dr.
Sherman Jackson, from the
University of Southern California, and Dr John Esposito,
from Georgetown University
in Washington DC, will be
featured at the public conference, recognising a decade of
academic and research excellence of GU-Q.
While scholars often attend
conferences in their chosen
fields, this anniversary conference will uniquely bring
together a wide variety of
specialists-from historians,
to economists, to sociologists
and more-to discuss a concept that invariably connects
all the various academic disciplines.
What is power? How is it
exercised and by whom? What
changes over space and time?
These are the central questions
that will be the highlight of the
lively and engaging two-day
public forum.
Each day of the conference
will be launched with a lecture from a different keynote
speaker.
The first day will feature
Dr Laura Doyle, a professor
of English at the University
of Massachusetts-Amherst,
who will present “Inter-im-
Dr Laura Doyle Jackson
perial Powerscapes”.
The prolific author and codirector of the World Studies Interdisciplinary Project,
which seeks to foster scholarship and teaching informed by
non-eurocentric world history, will appraise how empires
operate as co-operative units,
and as such, influence a global
environment, rather than focusing solely on empire as the
specific areas of a state’s national interests.
Named among the top 500
most influential Muslims in
the world by The Royal Islamic
Strategic Studies Centre in
Amman, Jordan and the Prince
Alwaleed Bin Talal Centre for
Muslim-Christian
Understanding at Georgetown University in Washington DC, Dr
Sherman Jackson, a professor
at the University of Southern
California, will present the
second keynote address of the
conference.
His presentation, “Islam
and Power: Between Shari’ah
and the Islamic Secular”, will
launch an important panel
discussion titled “Muslims in a
Global Perspective”.
The conference will also include an array of topics spanning history from ancient
Rome to modern China, as
well as charting the globe from
Latin America to Europe, Africa and Asia.
Deadline for Vodafone
literary contest nears
V
odafone has announced that there
are only 10 days remaining before it closes
its second literary contest, which boasts of a
QR145,000 prize pot, the
telecommunications network said in a statement.
Under the patronage of
HE the Minister of Culture
and Heritage Dr Hamad bin
Abdul Aziz al-Kuwari, the
competition was launched
last December 14 with the
theme “I treated you with
honesty, guidance, and integrity,” culled from a poem
by Qatar founder Sheikh
Jassim bin Mohamed alThani.
Vodafone said Qatar citizens and residents have until the February 13, 2015 to
take part in one of the competition’s two categories:
Category 1: Taking inspiration from the competition’s title “I treated you
with honesty, guidance, and
integrity”, entries should
be one short story between
500 to 1,000 words.
The prizes for this category are QR20,000 for the
first prize, QR15,000 (2nd
prize), and QR10,000 (3rd
prize).
Category
2:
Entries
should be a collection of
stories on any subject matter with a minimum of 10
stories or 100 pages. The
prizes include, QR50,000
for the first prize, QR30,000
(2nd prize), and QR20,000
(3rd prize).
To understand the full
terms and conditions and
details on how to submit
literary entries, visit twww.
vodafone.qa.
Vodafone and government officials during the launching ceremony.
Aspire to host Sport Day events
of 24 organisations, companies
A
spire Zone Foundation, which manages exceptional and
world-class sports facilities, will host the National
Sport Day (NSD) celebrations of 24 organisations
and companies.
For the fourth year, RasGas Company and the National Human Rights Committee (NHRC) have chosen
Aspire Zone to celebrate the
NSD. Both companies have
lined up a series of funfilled activities and sport
competitions for their em-
ployees and their families.
Lekhwiya, Qatar Petroleum (QP) and Qatar Stocks
Exchange (QSE) will also
converge at Aspire Zone to
mark this year’s NSD.
Aspire Zone offers 2.5sq
km of space for sporting
venues and facilities, allowing thousands of participants and visitors to engage
in sports and other physical
activities.
Fourteen companies and
organisations are planning
a wide range of activities
for the public. These in-
clude Lekhwiya, Maersk
Oil, Action on Diabetes,
Al-Ta’adhod Group (GREE
Air Conditioners), Qatar
Cycling Federation, Qatar Development Bank,
Al-Noor Institute for the
Blind, Ministry of Energy
and Industry, Qatar Women’s Sports Committee,
Qatar Football Association,
Sidra Medical and Research
Center — a member of Qatar Foundation, the Cultural and Social Center for
People with Special Needs,
Sports Corner and Abdul-
lah Abdulghani & Bros. Co.
W.L.L.
Ten organisations and
companies will hold activities for their staff members
and their families. These
include QP, RasGas, QSE,
NHRC, Hemaya Security
Services, Qatar Chemical
and Petrochemical Marketing and Distribution Company (Muntajat), ORYX
GTL, Msheireb Properties, the Supreme Council
of Health and the Supreme
Committee for Delivery &
Legacy.
HIGHER VALUE | Page 15
REFORM PLAN | Page 20
Ma regains
spot as Asia’s
richest man
Obama unveils
$3.99tn budget;
$474bn deficit
Tuesday, February 3, 2015
Rabia II 14, 1436 AH
GULF TIMES
LONG-TERM VISION: Page 3
QNB named ‘most
valuable banking
brand’ in MEA
BUSINESS
N-KOM celebrates 100th LNG carrier repair
N
The Erhama Bin Jaber Al Jalahma Shipyard celebrating 100th LNG carrier repair yesterday. N-KOM’s strengths include the might of its
leading parent companies - Qatar’s Nakilat and Singapore’s Keppel Offshore & Marine - a high level of LNG carrier expertise and Erhama
Bin Jaber Al Jalahma Shipyard’s strategic location in Ras Laffan Industrial City.
GIS 2014 net profit jumps to QR1.4bn
Gulf International Services (GIS) posted a net profit of
QR1.4bn last year compared with QR677mn in 2013, the
company announced in Doha yesterday.
GIS board of directors’ has proposed a dividend payment
of QR5.50 a share, representing 55% of the nominal
share value. This will be presented before the company’s
ordinary general assembly meeting at the Marriott on
February 18.
GIS’ earnings per share stood at QR7.59 in 2014 compared
to an EPS of QR3.64 for the year that ended on December
31, 2013.
The election to and the “re-composition” of the board
of directors for the period from 2015 to 2018 will also be
held at the ordinary general assembly.
GIS was incorporated as a Qatari shareholding company
in 2008, by Qatar Petroleum (QP). In May, 2008, QP listed
70% of the company’s issued capital on the then Doha
Securities Market. Prior to the IPO, GIS was fully owned
by QP.
GIS has significant investments in national and
international oil and gas industry, including well
support services, offshore and onshore drilling services,
helicopter maintenance and transportation services,
insurance and reinsurance services.
Currently, GIS acts as a holding company which owns and
controls stakes in the following companies:
100% ownership of Al Koot Insurance and Reinsurance
Company, 100% ownership of Gulf Drilling International,
100% ownership of Gulf Helicopters Company and 100%
ownership of Amwaj Catering Services.
Deflation alarms ring as
EU, Chinese factories
struggle; US steady
Reuters
London/Sydney
E
uropean and Chinese factories
slashed prices in January as
production flatlined, heightening global deflation risks that point to
another wave of central bank stimulus in the coming year.
While the pulse of activity was livelier in other parts of Asia - Japan, India and South Korea - they too shared
a common condition of slowing inflation. Central banks from Switzerland
to Turkey, Canada and Singapore
have already loosened monetary policy in the past few weeks.
The European Central Bank also
announced a near trillion-euro quantitative easing programme in a bid to
revive inflation and drive up growth,
though much of the bloc’s manufacturing purchasing managers’ index
(PMI) survey was collated before that
announcement.
“There are a lot of places where
central banks are focusing on easing
rather than anything else. In the eurozone, the ECB is going all-out now,”
said Jacqui Douglas, senior global
strategist at TD Securities.
The final manufacturing PMI for
the eurozone from financial data provider Markit, published yesterday,
was 51.0, in line with the preliminary
estimate. Although at a six-month
high, it was only just above the 50
mark that separates growth from
contraction. In December, the index
came in at 50.6.
Worryingly for policymakers, firms
cut prices in January at the steepest rate since mid-2013. Data on Friday showed annual inflation was a
record-equalling low of -0.6% in
January across the 19 nations using
the euro.
In Britain, manufacturing grew
slightly faster but factories cut prices
at the fastest pace since 2009. The
Bank of England will keep interest
rates at a record low until at least October, later than previously thought, a
Reuters poll found last week.
Earlier yesterday, surveys from
China showed manufacturing struggling at the start of 2015 in the world’s
second biggest economy.
The Chinese HSBC/Markit PMI
inched up a fraction to 49.7. But of
more concern the official PMI, which
is biased towards large factories, unexpectedly showed activity shrank for
the first time in nearly 2-1/2 years.
The reading of 49.8 in January
was down from December’s 50.1 and
missed a median forecast of 50.2. The
report showed input costs sliding at
their fastest rate since March 2009,
with lower prices for oil and steel
playing major roles.
The final Markit/JMMA PMI edged
up in January as the sustained weak-
ness of the yen drove up exports. Improving exports were also a feature of
South Korea’s PMI which returned to
growth for the first time in five months.
India’s manufacturing activity
continued to grow, though the headline index eased slightly but importantly for the prospect of more policy
stimulus, cost pressures were the
mildest in 70 months as commodity
prices fell.
In the Americas, the US manufacturing sector expanded in January at
roughly the same pace as in December which was the slowest rate in a
year, according to Markit.
Markit’s January final US manufacturing purchasing managers index
was unchanged from December 53.9.
Markit noted that some goods producers noticed “weaker spending
patterns among clients in the oil and
gas sector,” which caused new business growth to weaken.
An alternative gauge of US manufacturing from the Institute of Supply Management showed the pace of
growth slowed in January with the
index falling to 53.5 from 55.1.
Manufacturing sector activity
also slowed in Canada in January to
its slowest pace in over a year-anda-half. The RBC/Markit Canadian
manufacturing PMI fell to a seasonally adjusted 51.0 last month from 53.9
in December, the lowest level since
April 2013.
akilat-Keppel Offshore & Marine (N-KOM)
celebrated its 100th LNG carrier repair at Erhama Bin Jaber Al Jalahma Shipyard in Qatar.
The milestone is confirmation of N-KOM’s position
as a leading provider of repairs and maintenance to
LNG carriers in the region.
N-KOM’s strengths include the might of its leading
parent companies — Qatar’s Nakilat and Singapore’s
Keppel Offshore & Marine — a high level of LNG carrier
expertise and Erhama Bin Jaber Al Jalahma Shipyard’s
strategic location in Ras Laffan Industrial City.
Abdullah Fadhalah al-Sulaiti, N-KOM chairman
and Nakilat managing director said, “Nakilat is a
world-leader in global gas transportation and we are
proud that Nakilat’s joint venture with Keppel Offshore & Marine has grown to become a leader in the
repair of LNG carriers.
“The shipyard’s continued success is part of our
commitment to the sustainable diversification of Qatar’s economy and to the Qatar National Vision 2030.
On the occasion of this important milestone, we are
deeply thankful to HE the Minister of Energy and Industry, Dr Mohamed bin Saleh al-Sada for his invaluable guidance. We are also grateful to our stakeholders
including QP for their ongoing support of Erhama Bin
Jaber Al Jalahma Shipyard.”
N-KOM CEO Chandru Rajwani added: “N-KOM
has successfully established itself as the region’s leading service provider for gas carrier repairs and gas-related solutions within a short span of four years. This
achievement today is testament to that. “Moving forward, N-KOM will continue to deliver in a safe, quality
and timely manner to our customers as we strive towards becoming not only a centre of excellence for gas
carrier repairs but also the preferred shipyard delivering solutions.”
The shipyard counts major industry players such
as MOL, NYK, “K”-Line, Teekay, Pronav and Shell
amongst its growing clientele today. In an effort to
strengthen its service offering for sustainable solutions, the shipyard has signed an agreement to co-operate on LNG and gas solution projects.
N-KOM is set to undertake the first ME-GI (electronically controlled–gas) conversion of a Q-Max LNG
carrier later this year, and is also involved in other engine retrofit projects for vessels to run on LNG fuel.
Established in 2007, N-KOM is a joint venture between Nakilat and leading offshore rig constructor and
ship repairer Keppel Offshore & Marine.
Nakilat is a Qatari marine transport company providing the essential transportation link in Qatar’s LNG
supply chain. Its LNG shipping fleet is the largest in the
world, comprising 61 LNG vessels.
The company also manages and operates four large
LPG carriers and four LNG carriers. Through two
strategic joint ventures, N-KOM and NDSQ, Nakilat
operates the ship repair and construction facilities at
Erhama Bin Jaber Al Jalahma Shipyard.
Nakilat also offers a full range of marine support
services to vessels operating in Qatari waters.
Gulf Times
Tuesday, February 3, 2015
3
BUSINESS
Doha Bank wins ‘Golden Peacock Global Award’ for CSR
D
oha Bank has been
awarded the “Golden
Peacock Global Award
2014 for Corporate Social Responsibility” during the 9th International Conference on CSR
held in Mumbai, India. “This
milestone award symbolises
Doha Bank’s superior ability to
balance its financial targets, economic value addition, and social
welfare. We, at Doha Bank, always believe in promoting positive social and environmental
changes,” said Doha Bank Group
CEO Dr R Seetharaman.
He added, “This award is in
recognition of Doha Bank’s customer-driven initiatives such as
educational and health benefits
and involvement in social causes. As a result, Doha Bank has
been able to introduce new and
innovative products even during
tough market conditions.
“We take great pride in being a
dynamic entity with strong values and a customer-centric approach that has sustained over
a period of time. Our functional
model with economic, environmental, and social initiatives,
contributing towards the welfare
of the public has always been a
welcomed approach towards a
bright future”.
Seetharaman said Doha Bank
has committed to a long-term
partnership through its “EcoSchool Programme,” which includes creating a platform for
schools to contribute to the
socio-environmental improvement and intellectual development of human society in Qatar
and globally.
The programme, he added,
integrates the “green culture”
through schools to become
eco-friendly institutions us-
ing practical steps towards a
greener path, leaving less carbon
footprint, and expansion of the
programme across Doha Bank’s
footprint.
He also said the bank maintains a “well-defined” environmental policy: “reduce, reuse,
and recycle.”
Doha Bank runs various initiatives to support Qatar’s “Go
Green Qatar” drive such as beach
clean-up, dedicated Green Bank
website, environment-friendly
and biodegradable credit cards,
paperless banking, Green Bank
Task Force Committee, annual Al Dana Green Run, public
awareness campaigns through
ATMs, and participation in the
Earth Hour.
“Doha Bank is and continues to be one of the pioneers of
‘green banking’ in the Middle
East region and has reached out
to the larger community through
its long-standing CSR endeavours. The bank remains committed to advocating awareness on
environmental issues and focusing on the economic and social
challenges both regionally and
across international borders,”
Seetharaman said.
Doha Bank has now established a “dominant position” in
Middle East banking landscape
with 31 state-of-art branches, 22
e-branches, including pay-offices, and two mobile units with
125 ATMs.
Its operations are spread
across 14 countries including
Qatar, UAE, Kuwait, India, Turkey, Japan, Singapore, China,
South Korea, Hong Kong, Australia, Canada, UK, and Germany with a strong network of
correspondent banking relationships.
Doha Bank representatives receive the “Golden Peacock Global Award 2014 for Corporate Social
Responsibility” during the 9th International Conference on CSR held in Mumbai, India.
QNB named ‘best bank
brand’ in MEA for 2015
Q
NB has been named “most
valuable banking brand” in
the Middle East and Africa
(MEA) region by Brand Finance in
its annual survey published by The
Banker Magazine, an affiliate of Financial Times newspaper.
The bank’s performance in
2015 increased its brand value to
QR9.476bn ($2.603bn), up 44%
compared to 2014 levels, which saw
QNB rise to 79th place in the list of
World’s top 500 banking brands.
QNB said moving 22 places up the
2014 Rankings “was testament to
the combination of continuing robust financial performance and successful international expansion of a
brand that now operates in 26 countries across three continents.”
Group communication general
manager Yousef Darwish said, “To be
considered the most valuable banking
brand in the Middle East and Africa is
a significant geographical achievement. Over the last 12 months, QNB
has gained QR2.9bn ($792mn) to our
brand value and this is more than any
other bank in the industry.
“We have come a long way from
our brand value of QR2.5bn ($703mn)
in 2010 but there is still a great deal of
work to be done if we want to achieve
our future vision of becoming a ‘MEA
icon’ by 2017. The importance of
our brand and how it is perceived by
our diverse range of stakeholders is
paramount across our domestic and
international network of operations
and this prestigious accolade from
Brand Finance proves that we are
making impressive progress.”
Brand Finance chief executive
David High said, “QNB’s vision to
QNB’s “AA” brand rating given by Brand Finance for 2015 was in recognition of the bank’s “strong and robust” financial performance in 2014.
become an iconic brand across the
Middle East and Africa is clearly
bearing fruit. It is the most valuable bank brand in the region and
is pulling ahead of the field having
added more brand value this year
than any of its regional rivals. Now
ranked 79th globally, the QNB brand
is clearly gaining traction worldwide
and in due course it could become
an iconic bank brand not just in the
Middle East and Africa but globally.”
Brand Finance used stringent
judging criteria in the value assessment process of banking brands. The
factors considered included size of
operations, geographical presence,
global and regional reputation, and
brand classification.
QNB’s “AA” brand rating given by
Brand Finance for 2015 was in recognition of the bank’s “strong and robust” financial performance in 2014.
Net profit for the year ending
December 31, 2014 was $2.9bn (up
10.3% on 2013 levels), total assets
reached a record high of $133.6bn
(up 9.7%), and credit ratings remained “among the highest” experienced across the Mena region.
In 2014, QNB also took a 19.4%
stake in Ecobank Transnational Incorporated, a leading pan-African
bank with a presence in 36 countries
across the African continent.
The partnership was part of QNB’s
international expansion plans and
a significant contribution towards
QNB’s vision to become a MEA icon
by 2017, the bank said.
Qafco awards
6-year service
contract to GE
joint venture
Industries Qatar subsidiary Qatar Fertiliser
Company (Qafco) has awarded a six-year,
long-term service contract to downstream
technology solutions (DTS) arm of GE Oil and
Gas to help optimise the performance of its
plant in Mesaieed.
The deal covers the standard maintenance
and repair of existing GE on-site power and
compression equipment as well as training
for Qafco workers and site operators. Qafco’s
Mesaieed facility produces ammonia and urea
contributing to the total Qafco annual production capacity of 3.8mn MT of ammonia and
5.6mn MT of urea. he new service agreement
includes six Frame 6 gas turbines, 33 centrifugal compressors (various models), 17 steam
turbines, and 16 centrifugal pumps at Mesaieed.
The actual agreement is between Qafco and
GE’s joint venture with Qatar Petroleum, Al
Shaheen GE Services Company, which supports
GE’s regionalisation strategy of deploying
capability and resources closer to its customers
around the world.
“A key priority for us is to optimise the longterm availability and efficiency of our Mesaieed
plant’s existing fertiliser production facilities,”
Khalifa A al-Sowaidi, Qafco CEO said.
Not only is GE Oil and Gas the original equipment manufacturer for the gas and steam
turbines, centrifugal compressors and associated equipment, but it also has the proven local
customer services capabilities Qafco needs to
help it meet the production targets, he added.
“This agreement with Qafco further builds on
our strong partnership with the organisation
and our long-term presence in Qatar,” according to Rami Qasem, president & CEO of GE Oil
and Gas for the Middle East, North Africa and
Turkey. The existing equipment will bring the
cutting edge in GE’s innovative technology, assuring higher efficiency, reliability and will support the optimal performance of the company’s
fertiliser plant in Mesaieed, Qatar, he said.
“Our long-term service agreement with Qafco
illustrates the many advantages that we can
offer our customers in the fertiliser and other
downstream industries through our collaborations with local project partners,” said Hasan
Dandashly, vice president of DTS, GE Oil and
Gas.
Doha entrepreneurship forum to Oil rally lifts Saudi
highlight key drivers of growth
market; property
T
he staging of the “2nd Entrepreneurship in Economic Development Forum” on March 2 and 3 is expected to
highlight key drivers of sustainable economic growth, the Interactive Business Network
(IBN) said in a statement.
IBN said the forum also aims to emphasise the importance of developing the private
sector and small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), investing in an entrepreneurial ecosystem and human capital, as well as
creating a knowledge economy to support
economic development in line the Qatar National Vision 2030.
Organised by Qatar University in collaboration with the Ministry of Economy and
Commerce and IBN, the forum highlights
the significance of active involvement and
collaboration among organisations within
the private and public sectors that actively
promote and encourage entrepreneurship.
This also includes entrepreneurship centres, the Ministry of Economy and Trade,
and a host of other private and public sector
organisations.
During the forum, to be held at the Sheraton Doha Resort & Convention Hotel, four
interactive sessions and several keynote
messages will be delivered by a host of international speakers.
The keynote messages include “Investment in entrepreneurship to shape a new
company,” “Entrepreneurship practices: Investing in the human capital of the company,” and “Economic restructuring and shift
from a manufacturing sector towards the
service sector.”
Meanwhile, the sessions will revolve on
“Developing the private sector in Qatar and
other GCC countries to diversify the economic pillars,” “Developing an entrepreneurial eco system,” “Knowledge economy
and the new know-how: New forms and
competitiveness for SMEs,” and “Social entrepreneurship and innovation: the growing
importance of social innovation.”
IBN CEO Raed Chehaib said, “The forum,
which carries the theme “Fostering the new
generation of entrepreneurs in Qatar and the
Gulf,” will be the first-of-its-kind platform
in the region for defining the issues, assessing the prevailing entrepreneurial culture in
Qatar and the wider Gulf.
He added, “We are hoping to inspire and
encourage the young generation in Qatar and
other GCC countries to develop their entrepreneurial skills. At the same time, we are
also aiming to emphasise the importance of a
cohesive and well-coordinated action among
key public and private sector organisations in
facilitating entrepreneurship.
“We are therefore aiming to attract wide interest and participation of officials and policy
makers, major public and private institutions
involved in education and youth development, business leaders, banks and specialised
financial institutions, economists and experts in various fields, as well as the academic
community in Qatar, and the rest of the Gulf
countries and internationally.”
stocks boost Egypt
Reuters
Dubai
A
Chehaib: First-of-its-kind platform in the
region.
rebound in global oil prices and decisions
by state-controlled companies to pay cash
bonuses to employees boosted Saudi Arabia’s stock market yesterday, while other Gulf
bourses were mixed in choppy trading.
Brent crude fell in early trade on news of a US
refinery strike and weak Chinese manufacturing
data, but bounced back later in the day and traded
above $54 per barrel by the time Saudi Arabia’s
market closed.
Qatar’s benchmark added 0.5%, largely on the
back of Islamic lender Masraf Al Rayan, which
jumped 3.9%. The bank reported estimate-beating fourth-quarter results and a dividend hike
last week.
The Saudi stock index rose 0.8% as petrochemicals firm Saudi Basic Industries, the kingdom’s
largest listed company, jumped 2.4%; other
stocks in the sector also climbed. Petrochemical
prices are linked to oil and the sector was hit hard
in a sell-off triggered by oil’s plunge last year.
Retailers also performed well yesterday: Fawaz Alhokair surged 8.8% and Jarir Marketing
jumped 2.6%. This followed announcements by
large companies such as Saudi Electricity and
Saudi Telecom that they would pay out hundreds
of millions of dollars in bonuses to their workers,
following last Thursday’s order by the new king
that Saudi state employees would receive two
months of extra salary to mark his accession.
Part of the corporate bonuses is expected to be
spent on consumer goods, boosting the retailers’
revenues and profits.
Investors were less enthusiastic about the
companies which will use their resources to pay
out the cash; shares in Saudi Electricity edged up
0.6%, while Saudi Telecom fell 0.8%.
Other Gulf markets had closed when oil was still
in the red and their performances were mixed.
Dubai’s index fell 1.1%; the benchmark had
surged 4.5% in the previous session. But shares in
property developer DAMAC shot up 6.8% after it
reported an 11% rise in fourth-quarter profit yesterday, according to Reuters calculations.
Abu Dhabi’s index edged down 0.6% as most
blue chips pulled back.
Egypt’s bourse edged up 0.5% as property developers continued to gain on hopes that Egyptians will use real estate as a hedge against the
weakening pound. Talaat Moustafa Group rose
1.2%, Amer Group added 0.8% and Palm Hills
Development gained 0.2%.
Elsewhere in the Gulf, Kuwait’s index edged up
0.3% to 6,654 points; Oman’s index inched up
0.02% to 6,574 points, while Bahrain’s measure
edged up 0.4% to 1,423 points.
4
Gulf Times
Tuesday, February 3, 2015
BUSINESS
IDB unit
provides
Islamic
risk
cover for
Apache’s
Egypt
projects
Reuters
Cairo
A
MV UBC OTTAWA, the world’s largest sugar carrying vessel, calls at DP World’s flagship Jebel Ali Port (file). Al Khaleej has 1.5mn metric tonnes of sugar stockpiled at or in transit to its refinery in Dubai, managing
director Jamal al-Ghurair said in an interview at the Platts Kingsman sugar conference in Dubai.
Khaleej holds ‘near record’
sugar on hand amid surplus
New refinery to start operations in Saudi
A new sugar refinery is due
to start operations in Jizan in
southwest Saudi Arabia by the
end of 2017, adding to a stream
of projects that will significantly
raise the Middle East’s refining
capacity.
“At the moment the design is
complete and financing is ready
and we will start scratching the
ground in April this year to hopefully produce sugar by the end
of 2017,” Sufian Ibrahim, project
manager of Al Reef Sugar Refinery, told Reuters on the sidelines
of the Platts Kingsman Dubai
Sugar Conference. Substantial
new capacity for sugar refining
is expected to come on stream in
the next few years with projects
planned in Oman, Saudi Arabia,
Iraq and Algeria. The region’s
consumption stands at 15mn
tonnes a year, with a refining
capacity of 12.5mn tonnes. At
full capacity, Al Reef is expected
to refine 3,000 tonnes of sugar
a day, and plans to export two
thirds of its production elsewhere
in the Middle East. The company
plans to go public after five years
of production. Al Reef will initially
refine raw imported sugar, but in
the long term it plans to acquire
agricultural land in East Africa to
grow its own cane sugar crop.
Bloomberg
Dubai
A
l Khaleej Sugar Co, the Dubai-based
refiner, has enough supply on hand
to meet demand for most of this year
amid signs that global oversupply will cap
price gains this year.
Al Khaleej has 1.5mn metric tonnes of
sugar stockpiled at or in transit to its refinery in Dubai, managing director Jamal
al-Ghurair said in an interview at the Platts
Kingsman sugar conference in Dubai. The
plant is operating at 60% of capacity, he
said.
“There is a lot of supply,” and inventories
are “near a record,” al-Ghurair said on Sunday. “We’re getting shipments all the time.”
Sugar surpluses have prevailed for most
of the past five years, causing futures to fall
59% from a 30-year high in 2011. Supply
will fall short of demand by 122,000 tonnes
for the 2014-15 season that started on October 1, after a surplus of 5.6mn tonnes a year
earlier, Platts Kingsman said on Sunday.
Raw sugar futures dropped 0.3% to 14.74
cents a pound at 12.34pm Dubai time yesterday on ICE Futures US in New York.
Prices probably won’t trade any more than
2 cents up or down for the rest of the year as
oversupply will limit gains and buyers will
keep prices from falling too low, al-Ghurair
said.
Prices decreased almost 12% last year as
the global glut pushed prices to the lowest
since 2008.
Global sugar production will drop to
177.1mn tonnes in 2015-2016 from 179.1mn
tonnes a year earlier, according to Platts
Kingsman. Consumption will advance 1.7%
to 182.3mn tonnes, below the 10-year aver-
age of 2%, partly because low crude prices
will curb demand for imports by some oil
producers, Claudiu Covrig, a Platts Kingsman analyst, said on Saturday. That would
leave the biggest shortage in six years, at
5.2mn tons, according to Covrig in a report.
Low oil prices have had “no effect” on demand at Al Khaleej, al-Ghurair said. Brent
crude has tumbled 51% in the past year amid
a global supply glut.
Al Khaleej is ready to consider buying
more sugar from India, al-Ghurair said.
About 80% of its raw sugar comes from
Brazil, the world’s biggest supplier, he said.
India is said to be considering an export
subsidy of 4,000 rupees ($65) a tonne on raw
sugar, according to two government officials
on January 27 who asked not to be identified
because the proposal is confidential.
“We are waiting for India,” al-Ghurair
said. “It all depends on the price.”
unit of the Jeddah-based
Islamic
Development
Bank, a multilateral
lending institution, has provided $80mn worth of Shariahcompliant reinsurance to cover
political risk for oil and gas
projects in Egypt.
Such credit guarantees by reinsurers like the Islamic Corp
for the Insurance of Investment
& Export Credit (ICIEC) are
gaining traction and attracting
a wider range of firms to the Islamic capital markets.
The deal covers the Overseas
Private Investment Corp for its
own insurance policy on the exploration projects of Houstonbased Apache Corp, ICIEC said
in a statement on Sunday.
The announcement comes as
Egypt is seeking new sources
of energy to cope with its worst
The deal covers the
Overseas Private
Investment Corp for its
own insurance policy on
the exploration projects
of Houston-based Apache
Corp, ICIEC said in a
statement on Sunday
energy crisis in decades, caused
by declining gas production and
rising consumption.
The policy would allow the
country to retain foreign direct
investment during a “critical
transitional period”, said Hani
Salem Sonbol, ICIEC’s acting
chief executive.
Apache is the largest US investor in Egypt and the largest
producer of natural gas in the
Western Desert, where it has
been granted several concessions by the government.
In December, Apache and
Shell Egypt signed the first
fracking contract in the country,
a process that involves pumping
water, sand and chemicals into
a well to extract more oil or gas.
The firm maintains about
$1bn worth of political risk
coverage for nationalisation,
expropriation and currency inconvertibility.
CORPORATE RESULTS
DAMAC profit rises 11% in Q4, sees property price pause in 2015
Dubai developer DAMAC expects the emirate’s
property sector to steady in 2015 before supply
shortages boost prices in 2016-17, its chief executive
said yesterday, after the company reported an 11%
rise in fourth-quarter profit.
Dubai house prices fell 49% from a peak in the third
quarter of 2008 to the market bottom in the second
quarter of 2009, according to consultants Cluttons,
following a supply glut and the emirate’s debt crisis.
Prices subsequently recovered as an influx of cash
and people from troubled parts of the Middle East
helped spark a rebound, although Cluttons estimates
house prices remain about 18% below 2008 peaks.
DAMAC made a profit of $249.8mn in the three
months to December 31, according to Reuters calculations based on a company statement. This was up
from $225.1mn a year earlier.
DAMAC’s 2014 full-year profit was $937mn, up from
$641.5mn, the company said in a filing to London’s
bourse.
“I see Dubai’s property marketing stabilising in 2015,
but 2016-17 there could be some shortage in supply,”
DAMAC chief executive Hussain Sajwani told Reuters.
“After consolidating, we see the market nosing up.”
The consensus view is for prices to fall slightly in
2015 as increased property sales taxes, stricter
mortgage rules and a lack of affordability reverses
market momentum.
Sajwani said four developers now controlled 90% of
Dubai’s property sector—DAMAC, plus governmentlinked trio Dubai Properties, Emaar Properties and
Nakheel.
“These are all long-established companies with
strong cash flows and that is helping the market
mature,” said Sajwani.
DAMAC’s fourth-quarter revenue was $440.4mn
versus $431.8mn a year earlier, Reuters calculations
showed.
The firm booked sales worth $3.1bn in 2014, up from
$2.5bn in 2013. It delivered 3,553 units last year.
“If you look at our balance sheet, cash flows and
growth requirements, I don’t see a huge need for additional capital,” said Adil Taki, DAMAC chief financial
officer.
DAMAC’s value of properties under construction
rose by 20% to $2.33bn at 2014-end, largely due to
increases in its land bank.
“I don’t expect we will buy a huge amount of land
this year, although there will also always be some depending on location and availability,” added Sajwani.
DAMAC will also de-list its global depository receipts
(GDRs) from London by mid-March, having bought
out 97.4% of holders.
Shares in DAMAC, which joined Dubai’s main bourse
in January, ended 6.8% higher.
Dubai Financial Market
Dubai Financial Market (DFM), the Gulf’s only listed
stock exchange, reported a 31% rise in fourth-quarter
net profit yesterday as trading volumes increased.
The firm, which runs securities trading in Dubai,
made a net profit of 138.2mn dirhams ($37.63mn)
in the three months to December 31, up from a net
profit of 105.4mn dirhams in the year-ago period,
Reuters calculated using company figures.
Global Investment House had forecast DFM would
fourth-quarter net profit of 120mn dirhams.
DFM’s full-year profit rose 167% to 759.3mn dirhams,
it said in a statement.
Trading commissions are the main source of income
for DFM and daily trading activity rose to 639.5mn
shares in 2014 from 510.7mn shares in 2013.
DFM’s board has proposed paying a cash dividend
of 7 fils per share for 2014, up from 5 fils per share in
2013. There are 100 fils in a dirham.
Dubai’s government, which has a majority stake
in DFM through holding company Borse Dubai,
had been in protracted talks with neighbouring
Abu Dhabi about merging the two emirates’ main
exchanges.
The planned merger had been shelved for the foreseeable future as terms for the politically sensitive
move could not be agreed, sources told Reuters in
July.
Investcorp
Alternative investment fund Investcorp posted a 5%
rise in net income for the first half of its fiscal year, it
said yesterday.
The Bahrain-based company made a net income of
$45.3mn in the six months to December, compared
with $43.34mn a year earlier, the company said in a
statement.
It completed the $1.43bn sale of Berlin Packaging to
Oak Hill Capital Partners in October, having bought a
majority stake in the maker of rigid plastic, glass and
metal containers in 2007.
Founded in 1982, making it one of the oldest Middle
Eastern private equity houses, Investcorp is best
known in the global space for listing luxury goods
brands, such as Gucci and Tiffany & Co, but has
increasingly branched out into other sectors too.
Yapi Kredi Bank
Turkish lender Yapi Kredi yesterday announced a net
profit of 1.84bn lira ($1.44bn) in 2014, in line with a
Reuters poll forecasting the bank’s net at 1.805bn lira.
Yapi Kredi’s loans and receivables rose to 122bn lira
in 2014, it said in a results statement to the Istanbul
stock exchange. The bank’s profit was 3.203bn in
2013.
Gulf Times
Tuesday, February 3, 2015
5
BUSINESS
Saudi
banks said
to meet
on Mobily
debt after
accounting
errors
Bloomberg
Dubai
Saudi Electricity Co will distribute 545mn riyals ($149mn) among its Saudi employees, it said in a bourse statement yesterday. The government owns 81% of the Gulf’s largest utility, according to Reuters data.
Big Saudi firms to pay bonuses,
imitating lavish royal handout
Reuters
Riyadh/Khobar
S
everal of Saudi Arabia’s largest
listed companies said yesterday
they would pay out hundreds of
millions of dollars in bonuses, days after the new king ordered a handout to
Saudi state employees to mark his accession.
Saudi Arabia has sold minority stakes
in big state firms and listed them on its
bourse partly to expose them to market
discipline. Yesterday’s announcements
illustrated, before the market opens
to direct foreign investment later this
year, that the firms sometimes still act
like government bodies.
“I expect almost all Saudi listed and
non-listed companies to make such
payments, which will have a shortterm impact on their operating profitability,” said Shakeel Sarwar, head of
asset management at Securities & Investment Co in Bahrain. “But the beneficiaries of these payouts will spend the
money and that should help consumer
stocks plus banks, which might see retail loans increase. Overall, this should
benefit the economy.”
Saudi Electricity Co will distribute
545mn riyals ($149mn) among its Saudi
employees, it said in a bourse statement yesterday. Bonuses will not exceed 50,000 riyals per staff member.
The government owns 81% of the Gulf’s
largest utility, according to Reuters data.
Saudi Telecom Co, 70% stateowned, will pay an extra 395mn riyals to
its Saudi employees, it said in a similar
filing, adding that the payout would be
recorded in its first-quarter earnings.
Saudi Basic Industries Corp (Sabic),
the Gulf’s biggest list company and
one of the world’s top petrochemical
producers, will pay two months’ basic
salary to Saudi employees and has recommended its subsidiaries and affiliates do likewise, according to an internal memorandum seen by Reuters and
confirmed by an official source.
Sabic’s units include Saudi Arabia
Fertiliser Co, Saudi Kayan Petrochemical Co and Yanbu National Petrochemical Co.
Southern Province Cement, major-
ity-owned by state funds, revealed it
would pay two months’ salary to Saudi
employees, plus half a month’s pay to
non-Saudis.
Several of the country’s largest banks
will also pay two-month bonuses, according to financial news website Argaam. The government owns major
stakes in National Commercial Bank,
Samba Financial Group and Riyad
Bank, Reuters data shows.
Last week, Saudi Arabia’s newly
crowned King Salman ordered the immediate payment of two months of
bonus salary to all state employees and
pension to retired government workers,
marking his accession after the death of
his brother King Abdullah.
Salman’s announcement did not give
a monetary figure, but analysts said
the payout to state employees could
be worth some 70bn riyals, while additional handouts to pensioners, students and others could make total state
spending much larger.
Government handouts are a tradition in Saudi Arabia at times of political
transition or tension. After uprisings
in some other Arab countries in 2011,
Abdullah announced tens of billions of
dollars of new welfare spending, and
some Saudi companies followed suit
with their own handouts.
“Saudi companies don’t pay income
tax, so these occasional one-off payments can be construed as indirect taxes for the benefit of the overall society
and population,” said Sarwar.
Lenders to Etihad Etisalat
Co are meeting to discuss
the effects of the Saudi
Arabian company’s
accounting errors on 10bn
riyals ($2.7bn) of loans,
according to three people
with knowledge of the
matter.
The group of seven local
banks was set to get
together at 4pm in Riyadh
yesterday, the people said,
asking not to be identified
as the meeting is private.
The lenders were to discuss
whether loan covenants
were breached because of
the accounting errors, two
people said.
A spokesman for Etihad
Etisalat, known as Mobily,
didn’t respond to calls and
an e-mail seeking comment.
The company suspended
chief executive officer
Khalid Omar al-Kaf in
November after revealing
accounting errors that
affected the financial
statements for 2013 and
2014. The disclosure
prompted the Saudi
Arabian market regulator
to begin a probe to
determine if Mobily violated
rules. Serkan Okandan,
chief financial officer
at UAE-based Emirates
Telecommunications Corp,
the largest shareholder
in Mobily, is running
operations at the Saudi
telecoms company.
Mobily reported a 2.3bnriyal loss for the fourth
quarter after a 2bn-riyal
profit a year earlier. The
shares have slumped 56% in
the past 12 months.
Samba Financial Group,
Banque Saudi Fransi,
National Commercial Bank,
Riyad Bank, Saudi British
Bank, Al Rajhi Bank and
Saudi Hollandi Bank signed
the loan with Mobily two
years ago, according to a
statement at the time.
Mobily reported a
2.3bn-riyal loss for the
fourth quarter after a
2bn-riyal profit a year
earlier
Regulation, tight pricing overshadow Gulf’s capital-boosting bonds
Reuters
Dubai
F
ast-growing Gulf Arab
banks plan to bolster their
reserves by issuing capitalboosting bonds, but uncertainty
over regulation and ultra-tight
pricing increase the risks for issuers and investors.
Basel III standards, now being phased in around the world,
will require banks to hold more
capital. While Gulf banks have
very high capital adequacy ratios, their rapid expansion, and
the fact they operate in emerging markets with lower sovereign
ratings than the core developed
economies, mean they will be
hungry for more capital in coming years.
The banking sector of the sixnation Gulf Cooperation Council
(GCC) is expected to need an additional $35bn of capital by 2019,
according to a study by consultants Strategy&.
Retained earnings and equity
issuance will provide some but
not all of that money. So banks
are turning to other instruments,
especially perpetual bonds with
equity-like characteristics that
boost Tier 1, or core, capital.
Contingent capital securities
known as “CoCos”, convertible
into shares in certain circumstances, may also be used.
Kuwait’s Burgan Bank and
Abu Dhabi’s Al Hilal Bank issued
Tier 1 bonds designed to be Basel III-compliant last year. Dubai Islamic Bank (DIB), the UAE’
largest Islamic bank, sold $1bn of
Tier 1 Islamic bonds last month
at 6.75%.
Qatar Islamic Bank, Qatar’s
Doha Bank and Oman’s Bank
Dhofar have all announced plans
to issue Tier 1 bonds since the
start of this year.
Capital-boosting bonds are
good options for banks in the region as they provide efficiency,
flexibility and diversification,
said Christoph Paul, head of
Middle Eastern and North African capital markets at Morgan
Stanley.
But the trend to issue such
bonds has been slower in the Gulf
than in many other parts of the
world, for a good reason: details
of how national regulators will
treat the instruments remain unclear in some countries.
Saudi Arabia, a member of the
committee which drafted Basel
III, as well as Kuwait and Bahrain,
have clarified what conditions
the bonds must meet for their
regulators to count them towards
Tier 1 capital totals.
The UAE, Qatar and Oman
have not yet finalised their
guidelines, however. This creates considerable uncertainty
for the issuing banks - in theory,
they could issue bonds only to
discover months or years later
that their national regulators do
not recognise the instruments as
capital-boosting.
“We are in that limbo where
everybody is trying to figure out
what is required or not to issue
capital instruments,” said a senior banker at a UAE lender, declining to be named because he
was not authorised to speak to
media.
A key issue is loss absorption: unlike the previous Basel II
regulatory regime, Basel III rules
call for all capital instruments to
absorb losses fully when a bank
becomes non-viable, but leave it
to national regulators to decide
exactly how and when investors
would shoulder the losses.
GCC governments have in the
past been very supportive of their
banking systems - most of the big
banks have large state shareholdings - so in some cases, banks
seem to be assuming that their
regulators would never take the
inconvenient step of disallowing
their Tier 1 bonds.
But making such assumptions
is not comfortable for some institutional investors, who tend to
prefer legal and regulatory certainty.
One risk is that an issuer, finding its outstanding bond was not
Basel III-compliant, might decide to try to revise the terms - a
strategy which India’s IDBI Bank
adopted last year, angering investors.
In these circumstances, the
tight pricings being achieved by
GCC issuers of Tier 1 bonds are
remarkable, and not necessarily
healthy.
In developed markets, the
pricing difference between Tier
1 bonds under Basel III and Basel
II has been about 250 to 300 basis
points, bankers said. DIB, however, achieved a tiny difference.
A regional asset manager noted that $1bn of Tier 1 sukuk from
DIB, callable in 2019, were issued
under Basel II rules in 2013 at
6.25%. He calculated that represented a spread of only about
25 bps to the bank’s latest sukuk,
taking into account the fact that
DIB’s latest issue is not callable.
Such a small spread may mean
investors are not fully appreciating the much higher risk of loss
embedded in the new Basel III
structures. The willingness of
some Gulf investors to shoulder
this risk threatens to price international investors out of the
market.
“In reality, these new-style
notes should pay a much higher
premium since they don’t seek
a rating and stand way behind
existing subordinated bonds
because of the loss absorption
trigger,” said one senior Dubai
banker.
“Consequently, they would be
wiped out before the old-style
bonds in the event of bankruptcy,
however unlikely this is.”
Dubai Islamic Bank (DIB), the UAE’ largest Islamic bank, sold $1bn of Tier 1 Islamic bonds
last month at 6.75%
6
Gulf Times
Tuesday, February 3, 2015
BUSINESS
SAUDI ARABIA
Company Name
QATAR
Company Name
Zad Holding Co
Widam Food Co
Vodafone Qatar
United Development Co
Salam International Investme
Qatar & Oman Investment Co
Qatar Navigation
Qatar National Cement Co
Qatar National Bank
Qatar Islamic Insurance
Qatar Industrial Manufactur
Qatar International Islamic
Qatari Investors Group
Qatar Islamic Bank
Qatar Gas Transport(Nakilat)
Qatar General Insurance & Re
Qatar German Co For Medical
Qatar Fuel Co
Qatar Electricity & Water Co
Qatar Cinema & Film Distrib
Qatar Insurance Co
Ooredoo Qsc
National Leasing
Mazaya Qatar Real Estate Dev
Mesaieed Petrochemical Holdi
Al Meera Consumer Goods Co
Medicare Group
Mannai Corporation Qsc
Masraf Al Rayan
Al Khalij Commercial Bank
Industries Qatar
Islamic Holding Group
Gulf Warehousing Company
Gulf International Services
Ezdan Holding Group
Doha Insurance Co
Doha Bank Qsc
Dlala Holding
Commercial Bank Of Qatar Qsc
Barwa Real Estate Co
Al Khaleej Takaful Group
Aamal Co
Lt Price
87.00
60.00
15.30
24.25
16.00
15.65
102.00
134.00
194.00
83.90
46.10
81.50
38.80
108.00
23.90
58.90
9.64
212.80
195.50
43.70
87.90
113.20
20.35
20.45
27.65
202.00
126.90
104.90
47.80
21.47
153.50
117.90
55.90
104.10
14.61
26.80
58.00
42.25
68.50
45.80
52.50
14.41
% Chg
-0.57
-0.33
0.13
-0.94
-0.19
0.71
1.09
0.00
-2.02
1.57
-2.33
1.75
0.78
2.76
1.27
0.00
-0.21
0.33
1.56
0.00
-0.45
-1.57
1.45
0.20
1.10
-0.10
-0.47
0.67
3.91
-1.47
0.52
-2.96
0.00
0.87
-0.61
1.13
-0.17
-1.74
1.48
1.78
-0.94
-1.84
Volume
100
997
1,287,640
114,605
306,575
164,736
114,431
35,114
350,506
32,917
9,882
204,606
46,146
138,804
181,792
13,070
10,665
135,190
40,643
329,045
437,518
336,322
227,170
718
5,865
13,492
1,119,015
2,035
235,138
64,994
21,668
333,502
396,466
29,083
108,597
110,357
147,449
865,839
320,895
151,673
SAUDI ARABIA
Company Name
Saudi Hollandi Bank
Al-Ahsa Development Co.
Al-Baha Development & Invest
Ace Arabia Cooperative Insur
Allied Cooperative Insurance
Arriyadh Development Company
Fitaihi Holding Group
Arabia Insurance Cooperative
Al Abdullatif Industrial Inv
Al-Ahlia Cooperative Insuran
Al Alamiya Cooperative Insur
Dar Al Arkan Real Estate Dev
Al Babtain Power & Telecommu
Bank Albilad
Alujain Corporation (Alco)
Aldrees Petroleum And Transp
Fawaz Abdulaziz Alhokair & C
Alinma Bank
Alinma Tokio Marine
Al Khaleej Training And Educ
Abdullah A.M. Al-Khodari Son
Allianz Saudi Fransi Coopera
Almarai Co
Saudi Integrated Telecom Co
Alsorayai Group
Al Tayyar Travel Group
Amana Cooperative Insurance
Anaam International Holding
Abdullah Al Othaim Markets
Arabian Pipes Co
Advanced Petrochemicals Co
Al Rajhi Co For Co-Operative
Arabian Cement
Arab National Bank
Ash-Sharqiyah Development Co
United Wire Factories Compan
Astra Industrial Group
Alahli Takaful Co
Aseer
Axa Cooperative Insurance
Basic Chemical Industries
Bishah Agriculture
Bank Al-Jazira
Banque Saudi Fransi
United International Transpo
Bupa Arabia For Cooperative
Buruj Cooperative Insurance
Saudi Airlines Catering Co
Methanol Chemicals Co
City Cement Co
Eastern Province Cement Co
Etihad Atheeb Telecommunicat
Etihad Etisalat Co
Emaar Economic City
Saudi Enaya Cooperative Insu
United Electronics Co
Falcom Saudi Equity Etf
Filing & Packing Materials M
Wafrah For Industry And Deve
Falcom Petrochemical Etf
Gulf General Cooperative Ins
Jazan Development Co
Gulf Union Cooperative Insur
Halwani Bros Co
Hail Cement
Herfy Food Services Co
Al Jouf Agriculture Developm
Jarir Marketing Co
Jabal Omar Development Co
Al Jouf Cement
Saudi Kayan Petrochemical Co
Knowledge Economic City
Kingdom Holding Co
Saudi Arabian Mining Co
Malath Cooperative & Reinsur
Makkah Construction & Devepl
Mediterranean & Gulf Insuran
Middle East Specialized Cabl
Mohammad Al Mojil Group Co
Mouwasat Medical Services Co
The National Agriculture Dev
Najran Cement Co
Nama Chemicals Co
National Gypsum
National Gas & Industrializa
National Industrialization C
Maadaniyah
National Shipping Co Of/The
National Petrochemical Co
Rabigh Refining And Petroche
Al Qassim Agricultural Co
Qassim Cement/The
Red Sea Housing Services Co
Saudi Research And Marketing
Riyad Bank
Al Rajhi Bank
Saudi Arabian Amiantit Co
Lt Price
46.60
17.01
13.50
64.30
26.20
23.34
24.14
19.96
37.45
15.74
95.25
10.41
37.73
49.68
23.07
58.28
108.81
23.08
51.59
67.67
33.84
44.69
84.68
24.30
18.10
142.92
15.88
32.97
116.23
21.33
48.94
45.31
80.05
34.03
87.17
38.57
36.86
52.77
28.65
38.73
37.81
69.75
28.38
35.03
79.83
168.84
41.68
194.38
14.04
23.53
61.28
7.97
38.65
15.10
30.52
103.43
31.70
55.30
41.44
28.60
31.75
16.62
20.42
92.03
26.46
116.45
46.93
209.08
57.84
16.62
12.40
20.45
18.47
38.09
34.51
84.74
55.64
25.97
12.55
127.64
39.19
30.23
13.00
30.19
32.88
27.87
36.47
38.35
25.80
20.07
13.98
94.25
41.97
19.10
18.00
58.97
14.59
% Chg
-0.32
2.10
0.00
2.06
-0.83
1.00
0.71
3.21
2.13
2.01
-9.93
1.07
5.21
0.44
-0.09
1.09
9.08
1.27
1.56
0.73
3.36
0.00
-1.29
0.00
2.90
-0.83
-0.06
4.04
1.91
3.39
-0.77
0.18
-0.22
-0.50
0.84
3.74
3.13
1.09
2.87
0.36
-0.21
0.00
1.87
-0.79
0.34
-0.17
0.97
-0.04
8.42
0.73
0.39
3.64
3.26
-0.07
2.28
1.61
0.00
0.99
0.56
0.00
1.37
1.28
2.92
7.32
2.16
-0.38
0.17
2.49
-0.07
0.06
2.06
0.29
0.49
0.47
8.11
0.73
8.25
-0.99
0.00
-0.61
4.09
1.99
9.80
4.54
0.00
2.43
0.86
-0.98
0.62
1.67
4.10
0.53
1.97
-0.78
0.06
-0.32
2.24
Volume
189,437
6,833,587
665,730
858,328
1,665,061
458,004
1,267,153
349,379
1,909,723
217,165
92,801,619
989,826
706,309
1,981,957
624,933
2,385,324
44,685,310
617,031
119,144
4,142,063
450,082
462,876
1,015,262
252,178
1,369,832
1,965,877
244,589
3,594,396
2,175,188
546,178
284,942
882,858
1,148,622
1,417,022
1,852,435
473,002
1,097,889
854,801
173,958
4,853,178
600,325
382,497
87,662
194,926
80,624
10,534,800
1,046,470
240,355
16,394,784
14,386,702
3,709,099
1,399,610
145,530
2,416
1,311,584
831,693
1,189
705,227
1,090,966
1,433,576
324,921
286,431
76,113
390,167
311,954
1,020,072
3,092,754
20,902,221
2,791,157
2,159,728
6,770,747
13,633,083
92,925
2,959,964
4,208,246
61,363
2,383,932
331,534
5,790,039
747,289
121,451
4,079,907
1,287,350
861,015
1,456,212
4,944,477
3,825,150
85,108
316,094
1,350,066
1,067,668
3,010,833
4,217,935
Saudi British Bank
Sabb Takaful
Saudi Basic Industries Corp
Saudi Cement
Sasco
Saudi Dairy & Foodstuff Co
Saudi Arabian Fertilizer Co
Al Sagr Co-Operative Insuran
Saudi Advanced Industries
Saudi Arabian Coop Ins Co
Salama Cooperative Insurance
Samba Financial Group
Sanad Cooperative Insurance
Saudi Public Transport Co
Saudi Arabia Refineries Co
Hsbc Amanah Saudi 20 Etf
Saudi Re For Cooperative Rei
Savola
Saudi Cable Co
Saudi Chemical Company
Saudi Ceramic
Saudi Electricity Co
Saudi Fisheries
Al-Hassan G.I. Shaker Co
Dur Hospitality Co
Arabian Shield Cooperative
Saudi Investment Bank/The
Saudi Industrial Development
Saudi Industrial Export Co
KUWAIT
Lt Price
55.52
36.98
95.21
100.81
28.39
119.74
153.83
32.40
22.58
45.96
31.40
46.81
15.23
27.12
65.70
29.10
10.20
82.48
10.45
61.68
113.98
16.18
31.39
77.26
34.50
43.29
27.69
17.44
51.00
% Chg
0.04
1.34
2.66
0.83
0.89
-1.75
2.07
1.54
1.80
-0.95
3.80
-0.19
0.00
2.69
0.71
0.00
2.93
-0.91
2.25
0.44
0.83
0.81
7.76
0.80
3.26
0.67
-0.36
2.47
0.97
Volume
132,410
729,466
7,523,724
116,428
660,483
118,995
232,443
1,917,081
1,105,294
1,368,685
862,230
1,221,985
1,838,490
365,392
10
4,063,711
402,308
2,423,095
278,737
227,706
3,386,454
1,857,913
138,662
273,689
595,149
701,118
2,851,347
1,763,098
KUWAIT
Company Name
Viva Kuwait Telecom Co
Securities Group Co
Sultan Center Food Products
Kuwait Foundry Co Sak
Kuwait Financial Centre Sak
Ajial Real Estate Entmt
Gulf Glass Manuf Co -Kscc
Kuwait Finance & Investment
National Industries Co
Kuwait Real Estate Holding C
Securities House/The
Boubyan Petrochemicals Co
Al Ahli Bank Of Kuwait
Ahli United Bank (Almutahed)
National Bank Of Kuwait
Commercial Bank Of Kuwait
Kuwait International Bank
Gulf Bank
Al-Massaleh Real Estate Co
Al Arabiya Real Estate Co
Kuwait Remal Real Estate Co
Alkout Industrial Projects C
A’ayan Real Estate Co
Investors Holding Group Co.K
Markaz Real Estate Fund
Al-Mazaya Holding Co
Al-Madar Finance & Invt Co
Gulf Petroleum Investment
Mabanee Co Sakc
City Group
Inovest Co Bsc
Kuwait Gypsum Manufacturing
Al-Deera Holding Co
Alshamel International Hold
Mena Real Estate Co
National Slaughter House
Amar Finance & Leasing Co
United Projects Group Kscc
National Consumer Holding Co
Amwal International Investme
Jeeran Holdings
Equipment Holding Co K.S.C.C
Nafais Holding
Safwan Trading & Contracting
Arkan Al Kuwait Real Estate
Gulf Finance House Ec
Energy House Holding Co Kscc
Kuwait Slaughter House Co
Kuwait Co For Process Plant
Al Maidan Dental Clinic Co K
National Ranges Company
Kuwait Pipes Indus & Oil Ser
Al-Themar Real International
Al Ahleia Insurance Co Sak
Wethaq Takaful Insurance Co
Salbookh Trading Co K.S.C.C
Aqar Real Estate Investments
Hayat Communications
Kuwait Packing Materials Mfg
Soor Fuel Marketing Co Ksc
Alargan International Real
Burgan Co For Well Drilling
Kuwait Resorts Co Kscc
Oula Fuel Marketing Co
Palms Agro Production Co
Ikarus Petroleum Industries
Mubarrad Transport Co
Al Mowasat Health Care Co
Shuaiba Industrial Co
Kuwait Invest Co Holding
Hits Telecom Holding
First Takaful Insurance Co
Kuwaiti Syrian Holding Co
National Cleaning Company
Eyas For High & Technical Ed
United Real Estate Company
Agility
Kuwait & Middle East Fin Inv
Fujairah Cement Industries
Livestock Transport & Tradng
International Resorts Co
National Industries Grp Hold
Marine Services Co
Warba Insurance Co
Kuwait United Poultry Co
First Dubai Real Estate Deve
Al Arabi Group Holding Co
Kuwait Hotels Co
Mobile Telecommunications Co
Al Safat Real Estate Co
Tamdeen Real Estate Co Ksc
Al Mudon Intl Real Estate Co
Kuwait Cement Co Ksc
Sharjah Cement & Indus Devel
Kuwait Portland Cement Co
Educational Holding Group
Bahrain Kuwait Insurance
Kuwait China Investment Co
Kuwait Investment Co
Burgan Bank
Kuwait Projects Co Holdings
Al Madina For Finance And In
Kuwait Insurance Co
Al Masaken Intl Real Estate
Intl Financial Advisors
First Investment Co Kscc
Al Mal Investment Company
Bayan Investment Co Kscc
Egypt Kuwait Holding Co Sae
Coast Investment Development
Privatization Holding Compan
Kuwait Medical Services Co
Injazzat Real State Company
Kuwait Cable Vision Sak
Sanam Real Estate Co Kscc
Ithmaar Bank Bsc
Aviation Lease And Finance C
Arzan Financial Group For Fi
Ajwan Gulf Real Estate Co
Manafae Investment Co
Kuwait Business Town Real Es
Future Kid Entertainment And
Specialities Group Holding C
Abyaar Real Eastate Developm
Dar Al Thuraya Real Estate C
Lt Price
700.00
118.00
91.00
325.00
114.00
206.00
560.00
68.00
212.00
33.50
86.00
590.00
400.00
640.00
900.00
620.00
265.00
300.00
77.00
45.00
73.00
0.00
99.00
33.00
1.54
132.00
22.00
91.00
990.00
460.00
65.00
170.00
12.50
0.00
39.50
152.00
67.00
760.00
0.00
31.50
59.00
110.00
88.00
0.00
130.00
23.50
114.00
206.00
248.00
0.00
33.00
0.00
90.00
495.00
60.00
142.00
0.00
68.00
450.00
138.00
184.00
168.00
91.00
140.00
130.00
150.00
75.00
0.00
255.00
0.00
31.50
0.00
0.00
67.00
310.00
99.00
790.00
38.00
79.00
130.00
38.50
194.00
110.00
116.00
180.00
74.00
158.00
0.00
540.00
23.00
450.00
112.00
375.00
89.00
1,360.00
150.00
0.00
50.00
140.00
460.00
690.00
31.00
290.00
70.00
40.00
0.00
35.00
65.00
200.00
60.00
57.00
85.00
69.00
33.00
62.00
48.50
238.00
48.00
36.50
65.00
36.00
0.00
134.00
32.00
0.00
% Chg
-1.41
0.00
-2.15
1.56
1.79
0.00
9.80
7.94
2.91
-2.90
2.38
1.72
0.00
-1.54
0.00
0.00
1.92
-1.64
1.32
0.00
7.35
0.00
0.00
-2.94
0.00
1.54
-10.20
-1.09
0.00
4.55
0.00
0.00
0.00
0.00
1.28
0.00
0.00
0.00
0.00
0.00
-3.28
3.77
0.00
0.00
0.00
-2.08
1.79
0.00
-4.62
0.00
-2.94
0.00
0.00
2.06
-1.64
7.58
0.00
0.00
0.00
0.00
0.00
0.00
-1.09
0.00
0.00
4.17
-2.60
0.00
3.66
0.00
0.00
0.00
0.00
-1.47
0.00
0.00
-1.25
-2.56
0.00
-1.52
1.32
2.11
0.00
5.45
0.00
-1.33
0.00
0.00
0.00
-2.13
0.00
1.82
0.00
0.00
0.00
0.00
0.00
1.01
-1.41
0.00
-2.82
0.00
0.00
1.45
0.00
0.00
-1.41
-2.99
0.00
0.00
3.64
0.00
4.55
0.00
5.08
-2.02
0.00
0.00
1.39
6.56
1.41
0.00
3.08
-1.54
0.00
Volume
4,183,117
25
70,790
78,211
10
97,631
500
931,791
3,043
10,000
2,125,800
15,840
2,000
250,645
594,579
1,798
398,543
1,309,813
110
850,077
3,314,690
134,244
1,462,761
535,303
3,271,144
4,381,260
52,050
74,580
5,000
500
963,646
444,000
10
10,600
3,500
151,000
27,200
16,424,191
7,500
10
43,847,770
1,415,000
2,449
10,000
6,572,349
421,144
10
1,000
9,434,911
443,511
6,739
28,780
50,000
1,089
277,850
159,287
30,110
640,648
1,223,383
350,020
2,973,790
387,444
50
3,000
737,266
41,990
141,500
2,060
65,110
4,791,498
16
4,008
20,100
2,593,616
2,028
7,853,151
4,785,786
14,001
76,400
2
77,876
10,710
71
83,620
500
506,743
1,616,560
956,031
118,799
361,872
287,559
6,081,330
2,013,253
10,000
3,450,565
7,985,197
100
10
1,500
810
1,937,125
24,648
150,000
1,605,010
59,937
816,000
23,440
563,531
-
Company Name
Al-Dar National Real Estate
Kgl Logistics Company Kscc
Combined Group Contracting
Zima Holding Co Ksc
Qurain Holding Co
Boubyan Intl Industries Hold
Gulf Investment House
Boubyan Bank K.S.C
Ahli United Bank B.S.C
Al-Safat Tec Holding Co
Al-Eid Food Co
Al-Qurain Petrochemicals Co
Advanced Technology Co
Ekttitab Holding Co S.A.K.C
Kout Food Group Ksc
Real Estate Trade Centers Co
Acico Industries Co Kscc
Kipco Asset Management Co
National Petroleum Services
Alimtiaz Investment Co Kscc
Ras Al Khaimah White Cement
Kuwait Reinsurance Co Ksc
Kuwait & Gulf Link Transport
Human Soft Holding Co Ksc
Automated Systems Co
Metal & Recycling Co
Gulf Franchising Holding Co
Al-Enma’a Real Estate Co
National Mobile Telecommuni
Al Bareeq Holding Co Kscc
Union Real Estate Co
Housing Finance Co Sak
Al Salam Group Holding Co
United Foodstuff Industries
Al Aman Investment Company
Mashaer Holdings Co Ksc
Manazel Holding
Mushrif Trading & Contractin
Tijara And Real Estate Inves
Kuwait Building Materials
Jazeera Airways
Commercial Real Estate Co
Future Communications Co
National International Co
Taameer Real Estate Invest C
Gulf Cement Co
Heavy Engineering And Ship B
Refrigeration Industries & S
National Real Estate Co
Al Safat Energy Holding Comp
Kuwait National Cinema Co
Danah Alsafat Foodstuff Co
Independent Petroleum Group
Kuwait Real Estate Co Ksc
Salhia Real Estate Co Ksc
Gulf Cable & Electrical Ind
Al Nawadi Holding Co Ksc
Kuwait Finance House
Gulf North Africa Holding Co
OMAN
Lt Price
25.00
102.00
900.00
100.00
10.50
76.00
60.00
445.00
232.00
55.00
0.00
198.00
910.00
46.00
840.00
33.00
310.00
94.00
610.00
78.00
132.00
200.00
62.00
455.00
425.00
87.00
55.00
74.00
1,420.00
0.00
148.00
0.00
65.00
192.00
81.00
134.00
51.00
71.00
56.00
440.00
475.00
93.00
122.00
69.00
35.50
91.00
134.00
350.00
138.00
23.00
1,040.00
85.00
390.00
71.00
375.00
660.00
118.00
780.00
39.50
% Chg
-1.96
-1.92
0.00
0.00
-8.70
7.04
-1.64
-1.11
-0.85
0.00
0.00
2.06
0.00
1.10
0.00
3.13
3.33
0.00
0.00
0.00
8.20
0.00
-1.59
0.00
0.00
3.57
1.85
0.00
1.43
0.00
0.00
0.00
-1.52
0.00
1.25
-4.29
-1.92
1.43
-1.75
0.00
1.06
1.09
1.67
2.99
-1.39
0.00
-1.47
0.00
-1.43
0.00
0.00
2.41
-1.27
0.00
0.00
0.00
0.00
0.00
-1.25
Volume
7,458,794
107,300
5,000
126,695
1,431,700
2,675,079
1,348,012
967,509
116,290
2,000
103,263
1,500
2,462,561
45,000
150
100
55,900
2,000
1,264,707
33,000
500
261,000
110
6,099
77,500
12
581,500
2,374
50
811,736
3,992
805,100
10,510
3,887,470
4,124,345
133,800
230
51,703
822,944
15,000
8,525,626
1,060,000
137,760
15
280
871,230
2,767,787
2,030,454
3,279,356
45,623
524,768
10
7,306
13,500
972,039
1,489,999
OMAN
Company Name
Voltamp Energy Saog
United Finance Co
United Power Co
United Power/Energy Co- Pref
Al Madina Investment Co
Taageer Finance
Salalah Port Services
A’saffa Foods Saog
Sohar Poultry
Shell Oman Marketing
Shell Oman Marketing - Pref
Smn Power Holding Saog
Al Shurooq Inv Ser
Al Sharqiya Invest Holding
Sohar Power Co
Salalah Beach Resort Saog
Salalah Mills Co
Sahara Hospitality
Renaissance Services Saog
Raysut Cement Co
Port Service Corporation
Packaging Co Ltd
Oman United Insurance Co
Oman Textile Holding Co Saog
Oman Telecommunications Co
Sweets Of Oman
Oman Orix Leasing Co.
Oman Refreshment Co
Oman Packaging
Oman Oil Marketing Company
0Man Oil Marketing Co-Pref
Oman National Investment Co
Oman National Engineering An
Oman National Dairy Products
Ominvest
Oman Medical Projects
Oman Ceramic Com
Oman Intl Marketing
Oman Investment & Finance
Hsbc Bank Oman
Oman Hotels & Tourism Co
Oman Holding International
Oman Fiber Optics
Oman Flour Mills
Oman Filters Industry
Oman Fisheries Co
Oman Education & Training In
Oman & Emirates Inv(Om)50%
Oman & Emirates Inv(Emir)50%
Oman Europe Foods Industries
Oman Cement Co
Oman Chlorine
Oman Chromite
Oman Cables Industry
Oman Agricultural Dev
Omani Qatari Telecommunicati
National Securities
Oman Foods International Soa
National Pharmaceutical-Rts
National Pharmaceutical
National Packaging Fac
National Mineral Water
National Hospitality Institu
National Gas Co
National Finance Co
National Detergents/The
National Carpet Factory
National Bank Of Oman Saog
National Biscuit Industries
National Real Estate Develop
Natl Aluminium Products
Muscat Thread Mills Co
Muscat Insurance Company
Modern Poultry Farms
Muscat National Holding
Musandam Marketing & Invest
Al Maha Petroleum Products M
Muscat Gases Company Saog
Majan Glass Company
Muscat Finance
Al Kamil Power Co
Interior Hotels
Hotels Management Co Interna
Al-Hassan Engineering Co
Gulf Stone
Gulf Mushroom Company
Gulf Invest. Serv. Pref-Shar
Gulf Investments Services
Gulf International Chemicals
Gulf Hotels (Oman) Co Ltd
Global Fin Investment
Galfar Engineering&Contract
Galfar Engineering -Prefer
Financial Services Co.
Flexible Ind Packages
Lt Price
0.40
0.15
1.82
1.00
0.00
0.15
0.65
0.78
0.21
2.00
1.05
0.66
1.04
0.18
0.38
1.38
1.49
2.45
0.47
1.86
0.32
0.48
0.32
0.27
1.75
1.35
0.15
2.45
0.26
2.22
0.25
0.39
0.30
0.00
0.43
0.00
0.45
0.52
0.24
0.00
0.23
0.00
5.51
0.58
0.00
0.07
0.14
0.13
0.00
1.00
0.51
0.56
3.64
2.01
1.45
0.00
0.17
0.52
0.00
0.10
0.00
0.06
2.05
0.56
0.15
0.70
0.00
0.36
3.75
0.00
0.34
0.16
0.00
0.00
1.86
0.00
2.16
0.83
0.24
0.15
0.31
0.00
1.25
0.12
0.08
0.43
0.15
0.16
0.20
10.50
0.11
0.17
0.43
0.16
0.00
% Chg
0.00
-2.56
0.00
0.00
0.00
0.00
0.00
1.03
0.00
0.00
0.00
0.00
0.00
-0.55
0.00
0.00
0.00
0.00
0.00
0.00
0.00
0.00
-0.62
0.00
-0.57
0.00
0.00
0.00
0.00
0.00
0.00
0.51
0.00
0.00
0.00
0.00
0.00
0.00
-1.67
0.00
0.00
0.00
0.00
0.00
0.00
-1.45
0.00
-0.78
0.00
0.00
1.59
0.00
0.00
0.00
0.00
0.00
0.00
0.00
0.00
0.00
0.00
0.00
0.00
-2.77
0.00
0.00
0.00
0.55
0.00
0.00
3.03
0.00
0.00
0.00
0.00
0.00
0.00
0.00
0.00
0.00
0.00
0.00
0.00
2.65
0.00
0.00
0.00
0.00
0.00
0.00
-0.87
-0.59
0.00
0.00
0.00
Volume
3,000
138,100
100
50,000
100,361
75,760
102,000
355,500
225,826
4,500
65,525
89,771
324,540
6,000
167,364
7,610
3,968
18,686
416,806
12,200
262
2,500
469,252
1,843,742
133,356
3,056,510
74,700
-
Company Name
Financial Corp/The
Dhofar Tourism
Dhofar Poultry
Aloula Co
Dhofar Intl Development
Dhofar Insurance
Dhofar University
Dhofar Power Co
Dhofar Power Co-Pfd
Dhofar Fisheries & Food Indu
Dhofar Cattlefeed
Al Batinah Dev & Inv
Dhofar Beverages Co
Computer Stationery Inds
Construction Materials Ind
Cement & Gypsum Pro
Marine Bander Al-Rowdha
Bank Sohar
Bankmuscat Saog
Bank Dhofar Saog
Al Batinah Hotels
Majan College
Areej Vegetable Oils
Al Jazeera Steel Products Co
Al Sallan Food Industry
Acwa Power Barka Saog
Al-Omaniya Financial Service
Taghleef Industries Saog
Gulf Plastic Industries Co
Al Jazeera Services
Al Jazerah Services -Pfd
Al-Fajar Al-Alamia Co
Ahli Bank
Abrasives Manufacturing Co S
Al-Batinah Intl Saog
Lt Price
0.13
0.49
0.18
0.53
0.53
0.23
1.47
0.00
0.00
1.28
0.18
0.20
0.26
0.25
0.04
0.00
0.00
0.23
0.61
0.35
1.13
0.50
5.51
0.34
0.00
0.82
0.33
0.00
0.39
0.34
0.55
0.75
0.22
0.05
0.00
% Chg
0.00
0.00
0.00
0.00
0.00
0.00
0.00
0.00
0.00
0.00
0.00
-1.47
0.00
0.00
0.00
0.00
0.00
0.00
0.00
0.00
0.00
0.00
0.00
0.00
0.00
0.00
0.00
0.00
0.00
0.00
0.00
0.00
0.00
0.00
0.00
Volume
157,305
43,092
39,832
600,407
5,000
9,700
487,633
-
UAE
Company Name
National Takaful Company
Waha Capital Pjsc
Union Insurance Co
Union National Bank/Abu Dhab
United Insurance Company
Union Cement Co
United Arab Bank
Abu Dhabi National Takaful C
Abu Dhabi National Energy Co
#N/A Invalid Security
Sorouh Real Estate Company
Sharjah Insurance Company
Sharjah Cement & Indus Devel
Ras Al Khaima Poultry
Ras Al Khaimah White Cement
Rak Properties
Ras Al-Khaimah National Insu
Ras Al Khaimah Ceramics
Ras Al Khaimah Cement Co
National Bank Of Ras Al-Khai
Ooredoo Qsc
Umm Al Qaiwain Cement Indust
Oman & Emirates Inv(Emir)50%
National Marine Dredging Co
National Corp Tourism & Hote
Sharjah Islamic Bank
National Bank Of Umm Al Qaiw
National Bank Of Fujairah
National Bank Of Abu Dhabi
Methaq Takaful Insurance
#N/A Invalid Security
Gulf Pharmaceutical Ind-Julp
Invest Bank
Insurance House
Gulf Medical Projects
Gulf Livestock Co
Green Crescent Insurance Co
Gulf Cement Co
Foodco Holding
Finance House
First Gulf Bank
Fujairah Cement Industries
Fujairah Building Industries
Emirates Telecom Corporation
Eshraq Properties Co Pjsc
Emirates Insurance Co. (Psc)
Emirates Driving Company
Al Dhafra Insurance Co. P.S.
Dana Gas
Commercial Bank Internationa
Bank Of Sharjah
Abu Dhabi Natl Co For Buildi
Al Wathba National Insurance
Intl Fish Farming Co Pjsc
Arkan Building Materials Co
Aldar Properties Pjsc
Al Ain Ahlia Ins. Co.
Al Khazna Insurance Co
Agthia Group Pjsc
Al Fujairah National Insuran
Abu Dhabi Ship Building Co
Abu Dhabi National Insurance
Abu Dhabi National Hotels
Abu Dhabi Islamic Bank
Abu Dhabi Commercial Bank
Abu Dhabi Aviation
Lt Price
0.82
3.11
1.19
5.76
2.00
1.30
7.00
7.24
0.80
0.00
0.00
3.85
1.20
1.27
1.50
0.75
3.80
2.95
0.96
8.00
143.50
1.23
1.17
6.90
6.30
1.83
3.50
4.85
13.35
0.74
0.00
3.19
3.00
1.00
2.00
2.70
0.72
1.10
4.00
3.45
17.25
1.35
1.45
11.10
0.79
7.00
5.00
7.70
0.47
1.75
1.86
0.78
5.35
7.48
1.10
2.48
60.00
0.40
6.09
300.00
1.73
6.08
3.75
5.25
7.18
3.00
% Chg
3.80
0.00
0.00
0.17
0.00
0.00
4.48
0.00
2.56
0.00
0.00
0.00
0.00
0.00
0.00
-1.32
0.00
-1.67
0.00
-4.19
0.00
0.00
0.00
0.00
0.00
1.67
0.00
0.00
-0.37
1.37
0.00
0.00
0.00
0.00
0.00
0.00
0.00
0.00
0.00
3.29
-1.43
0.00
0.00
0.00
0.00
0.00
0.00
0.00
2.17
0.00
-4.62
0.00
0.00
0.00
0.00
-0.80
0.00
0.00
0.00
0.00
0.00
0.00
0.00
-1.87
0.56
0.00
Volume
12,954
14,482,204
58,001
8,312
2,709,060
11,782,103
6,885
2,000,110
63,604
4,000
875,000
309,387
499,386
40,145
797,714
1,571,133
31,449,305
80,800
8,492,698
147,002
9,000
9,520,840
229,100
5,000
796,623
529,301
-
BAHRAIN
Company Name
United Paper Industries Bsc
United Gulf Investment Corp
United Gulf Bank
United Finance Co
Trafco Group Bsc
Takaful International Co
Taib Bank -$Us
Securities & Investment Co
Seef Properties
#N/A Invalid Security
Al-Salam Bank
Delmon Poultry Co
National Hotels Co
National Bank Of Bahrain
Nass Corp Bsc
Khaleeji Commercial Bank
Ithmaar Bank Bsc
Investcorp Bank -$Us
Inovest Co Bsc
Intl Investment Group-Kuwait
Gulf Monetary Group
Global Investment House Kpsc
Gulf Finance House Ec
Bahrain Family Leisure Co
Esterad Investment Co B.S.C.
Bahrain Duty Free Complex
Bahrain Car Park Co
Bahrain Cinema Co
Bahrain Tourism Co
Bahraini Saudi Bank/The
Bahrain National Holding
Bankmuscat Saog
Bmmi Bsc
Bmb Investment Bank
Bahrain Kuwait Insurance
Bahrain Islamic Bank
Gulf Hotel Group B.S.C
Bahrain Flour Mills Co
Bahrain Commercial Facilitie
Bbk Bsc
Bahrain Telecom Co
Bahrain Ship Repair & Engin
Albaraka Banking Group
Banader Hotels Co
Ahli United Bank B.S.C
Lt Price
0.00
0.00
0.00
0.00
0.22
0.00
0.00
0.00
0.19
0.00
0.13
0.00
0.00
0.85
0.18
0.05
0.16
451.60
0.00
0.00
0.00
0.00
0.00
0.12
0.22
0.88
`
1.54
0.24
0.00
0.48
0.00
0.88
0.00
0.00
0.15
0.85
0.00
0.00
0.00
0.33
0.00
0.81
0.00
0.80
% Chg
0.00
0.00
0.00
0.00
0.00
0.00
0.00
0.00
0.00
0.00
7.44
0.00
0.00
0.00
0.00
2.22
-5.88
0.00
0.00
0.00
0.00
0.00
0.00
0.00
0.00
0.00
0.00
0.00
0.00
0.00
0.00
0.00
0.00
0.00
0.00
0.00
0.00
0.00
0.00
0.00
0.00
0.00
0.00
0.00
1.27
Volume
25,097
54,950
33,076
10,000
10,000
273,807
625,000
10
27,934
6,000
102,460
10,000
5,200
82,534
12,016
1,882
9,093
18,295
15,000
LATEST MARKET CLOSING FIGURES
Gulf Times
Tuesday, February 3, 2015
7
BUSINESS
DJIA
WORLD INDICES
Company Name
Exxon Mobil Corp
Microsoft Corp
Johnson & Johnson
Wal-Mart Stores Inc
General Electric Co
Procter & Gamble Co/The
Jpmorgan Chase & Co
Pfizer Inc
Chevron Corp
Verizon Communications Inc
Coca-Cola Co/The
Merck & Co. Inc.
At&T Inc
Intel Corp
Visa Inc-Class A Shares
Walt Disney Co/The
Intl Business Machines Corp
Home Depot Inc
Cisco Systems Inc
United Technologies Corp
3M Co
Boeing Co/The
Unitedhealth Group Inc
Mcdonald’s Corp
American Express Co
Nike Inc -Cl B
Goldman Sachs Group Inc
Du Pont (E.I.) De Nemours
Caterpillar Inc
Travelers Cos Inc/The
Lt Price
88.67
40.60
100.04
84.84
24.04
84.39
54.68
31.29
104.09
46.40
41.14
60.14
33.33
33.19
253.00
90.84
152.80
102.58
26.32
115.31
162.28
144.68
105.81
92.29
81.45
91.82
173.44
71.07
80.49
102.86
% Chg
1.43
0.48
-0.10
-0.16
0.63
0.12
0.54
0.11
1.52
1.51
-0.07
-0.23
1.23
0.45
-0.75
-0.13
-0.33
-1.76
-0.17
0.46
-0.01
-0.47
-0.41
-0.16
0.94
-0.47
0.60
-0.20
0.65
0.04
6,612,243
16,660,787
2,532,442
2,163,477
10,518,452
2,591,776
6,510,245
6,659,823
3,696,355
6,113,341
4,256,023
2,287,649
11,406,705
13,961,599
1,305,054
2,988,737
1,316,524
1,858,939
9,017,291
807,768
588,933
2,457,866
1,097,420
2,234,907
1,548,506
1,018,036
1,036,718
1,047,055
2,033,245
521,775
FTSE 100
Company Name
Wpp Plc
Wolseley Plc
Wm Morrison Supermarkets
Whitbread Plc
Weir Group Plc/The
Vodafone Group Plc
United Utilities Group Plc
Unilever Plc
Tullow Oil Plc
Tui Ag-New
Tui Ag-Di
Travis Perkins Plc
Tesco Plc
Taylor Wimpey Plc
Standard Life Plc
Standard Chartered Plc
St James’s Place Plc
Sse Plc
Sports Direct International
Smiths Group Plc
Smith & Nephew Plc
Sky Plc
Shire Plc
Severn Trent Plc
Schroders Plc
Sainsbury (J) Plc
Sage Group Plc/The
Sabmiller Plc
Rsa Insurance Group Plc
Royal Mail Plc
Royal Dutch Shell Plc-B Shs
Royal Dutch Shell Plc-A Shs
Royal Bank Of Scotland Group
Rolls-Royce Holdings Plc
Rio Tinto Plc
Reed Elsevier Plc
Reckitt Benckiser Group Plc
Randgold Resources Ltd
Prudential Plc
Persimmon Plc
Pearson Plc
Old Mutual Plc
Next Plc
National Grid Plc
Mondi Plc
Meggitt Plc
Marks & Spencer Group Plc
London Stock Exchange Group
Lloyds Banking Group Plc
Legal & General Group Plc
Land Securities Group Plc
Kingfisher Plc
Johnson Matthey Plc
Itv Plc
Intu Properties Plc
Intl Consolidated Airline-Di
Intertek Group Plc
Intercontinental Hotels Grou
Imperial Tobacco Group Plc
Hsbc Holdings Plc
Hargreaves Lansdown Plc
Hammerson Plc
Glencore Plc
Glaxosmithkline Plc
Gkn Plc
G4s Plc
Friends Life Group Ltd
Fresnillo Plc
Experian Plc
Easyjet Plc
Dixons Carphone Plc
Direct Line Insurance Group
Diageo Plc
Crh Plc
Compass Group Plc
Coca-Cola Hbc Ag-Cdi
Centrica Plc
Carnival Plc
Capita Plc
Burberry Group Plc
Bunzl Plc
Bt Group Plc
British Land Co Plc
British American Tobacco Plc
Bp Plc
Bhp Billiton Plc
Bg Group Plc
Barratt Developments Plc
Barclays Plc
Bae Systems Plc
Babcock Intl Group Plc
Aviva Plc
Astrazeneca Plc
Associated British Foods Plc
Ashtead Group Plc
Arm Holdings Plc
Antofagasta Plc
Anglo American Plc
Aggreko Plc
Admiral Group Plc
Aberdeen Asset Mgmt Plc
3I Group Plc
Lt Price
1,453.00
3,765.00
182.10
4,979.00
1,738.00
232.60
998.00
2,906.00
400.00
1,137.00
1,166.00
1,913.00
227.10
133.00
398.60
878.30
865.50
1,615.00
718.00
1,134.00
1,178.00
924.00
4,884.00
2,101.00
2,895.00
266.50
475.80
3,612.50
450.00
438.80
2,168.50
2,069.00
363.50
882.00
2,962.50
1,151.00
5,625.00
5,595.00
1,606.00
1,570.00
1,357.00
209.10
7,155.00
933.20
1,186.00
542.00
477.00
2,333.00
73.49
266.10
1,287.00
334.10
3,266.00
220.80
367.60
527.50
2,281.00
2,601.00
3,126.00
611.30
994.50
695.00
253.10
1,459.50
370.10
279.40
398.10
884.00
1,167.00
1,734.00
428.50
311.30
1,939.00
1,700.00
1,153.00
1,067.00
292.20
2,915.00
1,112.00
1,743.00
1,880.00
412.00
836.00
3,751.00
436.70
1,484.50
927.50
457.40
235.25
506.50
1,008.00
527.00
4,677.50
3,104.00
1,055.00
1,036.00
671.50
1,124.00
1,600.00
1,456.00
437.80
463.30
% Chg
-0.89
-2.51
1.22
-0.52
3.45
-0.81
-2.82
-0.82
9.59
-0.96
-0.93
-0.47
1.05
-1.77
-1.09
-1.06
0.87
0.37
0.91
0.62
-1.09
-0.43
0.62
-2.37
-0.10
4.35
-0.92
-0.36
-0.95
0.87
3.04
2.53
0.30
-1.07
1.28
-0.43
-0.09
-1.58
-0.86
-1.38
0.44
0.43
-1.11
-0.25
-0.25
0.56
-1.53
-1.35
-0.35
-0.67
1.02
-2.54
0.15
0.36
0.71
-3.12
-0.52
-2.29
0.06
0.28
-1.63
0.94
1.69
-0.51
0.41
-2.03
-0.08
-1.67
-0.51
-6.87
-1.49
-0.38
-1.57
6.05
0.17
-0.37
-0.54
-2.74
-0.54
0.81
-0.90
-1.41
0.78
-0.03
2.89
2.88
4.58
-0.22
0.47
-0.20
0.20
-0.19
-1.38
0.03
-3.03
-0.48
3.31
0.99
2.96
0.55
0.02
0.87
Volume
1,551,001
924,472
9,857,809
370,456
1,901,514
31,408,473
1,408,081
2,458,247
9,851,680
2,573,316
1,157,644
386,485
17,691,908
9,650,387
2,996,727
9,287,245
765,756
2,165,050
745,834
459,043
1,721,148
1,787,191
1,402,311
533,114
223,517
8,895,506
1,701,306
1,795,184
3,712,222
1,646,418
4,406,594
6,274,068
6,291,154
5,485,926
4,008,344
2,464,786
1,136,539
412,639
1,832,032
857,852
4,186,456
5,721,627
421,140
4,597,688
897,822
2,076,073
2,836,165
507,680
96,457,763
5,003,988
828,752
6,649,148
301,504
7,143,243
875,216
12,255,935
1,774,897
286,269
1,432,910
18,456,506
880,510
1,267,830
25,278,480
5,141,521
1,935,055
2,177,519
5,619,872
736,881
1,370,457
3,001,054
3,801,837
2,528,079
3,637,012
11,241,125
2,972,644
456,821
11,154,814
828,545
946,172
941,548
287,974
9,125,133
1,418,068
1,630,133
37,640,457
6,875,787
14,648,404
3,031,765
28,306,753
6,273,579
691,204
11,462,720
2,350,761
332,249
2,727,955
1,705,913
4,205,817
3,542,812
1,037,774
687,984
1,794,017
899,490
TOKYO
Company Name
Inpex Corp
Daiwa House Industry Co Ltd
Sekisui House Ltd
Kirin Holdings Co Ltd
Japan Tobacco Inc
Seven & I Holdings Co Ltd
Toray Industries Inc
Asahi Kasei Corp
Sumitomo Chemical Co Ltd
Shin-Etsu Chemical Co Ltd
Mitsubishi Chemical Holdings
Kao Corp
Takeda Pharmaceutical Co Ltd
Astellas Pharma Inc
Eisai Co Ltd
Daiichi Sankyo Co Ltd
Fujifilm Holdings Corp
Shiseido Co Ltd
Jx Holdings Inc
Lt Price
1,292.50
2,167.00
1,506.50
1,585.00
3,210.00
4,315.50
1,016.50
1,195.00
509.00
7,846.00
614.30
5,149.00
5,888.00
1,852.00
6,116.00
1,749.50
3,920.00
1,796.50
438.20
% Chg
-0.88
-0.89
-1.28
-0.31
-0.70
-0.51
0.69
1.96
8.76
-0.03
0.03
-0.62
-0.25
1.23
3.87
2.13
-1.95
-5.35
0.55
Indices
Volume
Volume
5,310,800
1,274,700
3,808,500
2,202,700
4,530,200
2,014,300
7,774,000
5,135,000
23,009,000
905,000
6,991,000
1,861,400
2,538,400
6,947,100
4,876,400
4,819,100
2,691,300
3,636,000
11,242,800
Lt Price
Change
Dow Jones Indus. Avg
S&P 500 Index
Nasdaq Composite Index
S&P/Tsx Composite Index
Mexico Bolsa Index
Brazil Bovespa Stock Idx
Ftse 100 Index
Cac 40 Index
Dax Index
Ibex 35 Tr
17,175.09
1,998.13
4,632.00
14,773.21
40,950.58
47,319.24
6,765.41
4,619.79
10,782.70
10,296.30
+10.14
+3.14
-3.24
+99.73
-911.75
+411.56
+16.01
+15.54
+88.38
-107.00
Nikkei 225
Japan Topix
Hang Seng Index
All Ordinaries Indx
Nzx All Index
Bse Sensex 30 Index
Nse S&P Cnx Nifty Index
Straits Times Index
Karachi All Share Index
Jakarta Composite Index
17,558.04
1,408.75
24,484.74
5,586.53
1,156.95
29,122.27
8,797.40
3,423.35
24,880.76
5,276.24
-116.35
-6.32
-22.31
+34.95
+1.98
-60.68
-11.50
+32.15
+150.50
-13.17
TOKYO
Company Name
Bridgestone Corp
Asahi Glass Co Ltd
Nippon Steel & Sumitomo Meta
Sumitomo Metal Industries
Kobe Steel Ltd
Jfe Holdings Inc
Sumitomo Metal Mining Co Ltd
Sumitomo Electric Industries
Smc Corp
Komatsu Ltd
Kubota Corp
Daikin Industries Ltd
Hitachi Ltd
Toshiba Corp
Mitsubishi Electric Corp
Nidec Corp
Nec Corp
Fujitsu Ltd
Panasonic Corp
Sharp Corp
Sony Corp
Tdk Corp
Keyence Corp
Denso Corp
Fanuc Corp
Rohm Co Ltd
Kyocera Corp
Murata Manufacturing Co Ltd
Nitto Denko Corp
Mitsubishi Heavy Industries
Nissan Motor Co Ltd
Toyota Motor Corp
Honda Motor Co Ltd
Suzuki Motor Corp
Nikon Corp
Hoya Corp
Canon Inc
Ricoh Co Ltd
Dai Nippon Printing Co Ltd
Nintendo Co Ltd
Itochu Corp
Marubeni Corp
Mitsui & Co Ltd
Tokyo Electron Ltd
Sumitomo Corp
Mitsubishi Corp
Aeon Co Ltd
Mitsubishi Ufj Financial Gro
Resona Holdings Inc
Sumitomo Mitsui Trust Holdin
Sumitomo Mitsui Financial Gr
Bank Of Yokohama Ltd/The
Mizuho Financial Group Inc
Orix Corp
Daiwa Securities Group Inc
Nomura Holdings Inc
Sompo Japan Nipponkoa Holdin
Ms&Ad Insurance Group Holdin
Dai-Ichi Life Insurance
Tokio Marine Holdings Inc
T&D Holdings Inc
Mitsui Fudosan Co Ltd
Mitsubishi Estate Co Ltd
Sumitomo Realty & Developmen
East Japan Railway Co
West Japan Railway Co
Central Japan Railway Co
Ana Holdings Inc
Nippon Telegraph & Telephone
Kddi Corp
Ntt Docomo Inc
Tokyo Electric Power Co Inc
Chubu Electric Power Co Inc
Kansai Electric Power Co Inc
Tohoku Electric Power Co Inc
Kyushu Electric Power Co Inc
Tokyo Gas Co Ltd
Secom Co Ltd
Yamada Denki Co Ltd
Fast Retailing Co Ltd
Softbank Corp
Lt Price
4,632.50
625.00
277.50
0.00
205.00
2,544.50
1,705.00
1,530.00
31,685.00
2,324.00
1,741.50
8,216.00
877.00
468.20
1,384.00
8,089.00
325.00
685.90
1,347.50
232.00
2,698.50
7,830.00
55,980.00
5,251.00
19,920.00
7,550.00
5,169.00
13,035.00
7,450.00
657.90
1,014.00
7,660.00
3,699.50
3,723.00
1,487.00
4,666.50
3,712.50
1,119.50
1,060.00
11,445.00
1,198.50
657.20
1,520.00
8,130.00
1,175.00
2,064.50
1,244.50
625.00
581.70
413.20
3,947.50
628.70
192.40
1,345.00
844.00
631.40
3,246.00
2,856.00
1,545.00
4,070.00
1,308.50
3,008.50
2,376.00
3,784.50
9,373.00
6,386.00
20,175.00
320.70
6,957.00
8,054.00
1,977.00
482.00
1,498.50
1,064.00
1,488.00
1,087.00
720.90
6,848.00
438.00
43,055.00
7,031.00
% Chg
-2.23
-0.79
0.00
0.00
-1.44
-2.57
0.41
0.00
-0.58
-0.34
-1.25
-0.71
-2.26
-1.35
0.54
0.19
-2.69
9.64
-0.33
0.00
-2.72
5.67
0.88
0.00
0.15
-1.31
-1.05
1.68
5.15
0.43
-0.25
0.20
3.31
-0.88
-1.13
1.47
-0.75
-3.24
-0.52
0.13
-0.13
0.57
0.86
-4.08
0.60
-0.17
-0.40
-1.15
-1.14
-0.79
-1.08
-1.73
-0.82
-1.61
-2.14
-0.49
-1.64
-1.16
-3.07
-1.69
-2.31
0.27
-0.31
-0.01
2.66
5.07
-0.71
-1.69
-0.90
-3.69
-1.40
-3.98
-4.07
-6.91
-0.27
-4.90
2.07
-0.38
-0.45
-2.19
0.98
Volume
3,918,400
3,876,000
38,992,000
24,899,000
3,879,500
2,643,000
3,658,700
161,600
4,363,500
3,310,000
915,300
20,707,000
18,145,000
11,486,000
949,200
32,703,000
38,089,000
7,288,500
15,914,000
8,475,500
2,186,100
146,200
1,643,800
968,000
553,100
1,126,100
957,200
2,384,300
13,811,000
9,687,800
7,932,900
9,857,300
1,103,100
3,278,300
2,040,100
3,519,600
9,670,200
1,242,000
704,000
5,938,100
9,278,600
7,875,500
642,500
4,756,500
4,874,000
3,621,400
41,489,300
8,317,200
22,393,000
8,223,800
3,364,000
140,615,800
11,201,800
11,695,000
17,739,200
2,156,600
1,141,400
4,735,400
2,232,800
2,069,000
4,158,000
5,624,000
2,111,000
1,203,900
1,482,600
516,000
18,688,000
2,179,900
2,875,600
5,161,900
40,353,100
5,450,300
4,363,900
1,682,500
3,092,500
9,090,000
433,500
5,038,700
430,700
6,233,400
SENSEX
Company Name
Zee Entertainment Enterprise
Wipro Ltd
Ultratech Cement Ltd
Tech Mahindra Ltd
Tata Steel Ltd
Tata Power Co Ltd
Tata Motors Ltd
Tata Consultancy Svcs Ltd
Sun Pharmaceutical Indus
State Bank Of India
Sesa Sterlite Ltd
Reliance Industries Ltd
Punjab National Bank
Power Grid Corp Of India Ltd
Oil & Natural Gas Corp Ltd
Ntpc Ltd
Nmdc Ltd
Maruti Suzuki India Ltd
Mahindra & Mahindra Ltd
Lupin Ltd
Larsen & Toubro Ltd
Kotak Mahindra Bank Ltd
Jindal Steel & Power Ltd
Itc Ltd
Infosys Ltd
Indusind Bank Ltd
Idfc Ltd
Icici Bank Ltd
Housing Development Finance
Hindustan Unilever Ltd
Hindalco Industries Ltd
Hero Motocorp Ltd
Hdfc Bank Limited
Hcl Technologies Ltd
Grasim Industries Ltd
Gail India Ltd
Dr. Reddy’s Laboratories
Dlf Ltd
Coal India Ltd
Cipla Ltd
Cairn India Ltd
Bharti Airtel Ltd
Bharat Petroleum Corp Ltd
Bharat Heavy Electricals
Bank Of Baroda
Bajaj Auto Ltd
Axis Bank Ltd
Asian Paints Ltd
Ambuja Cements Ltd
Acc Ltd
Lt Price
371.75
625.10
3,087.05
2,895.05
383.85
91.15
592.50
2,514.20
929.10
307.50
198.20
908.05
191.80
147.85
349.85
142.05
141.35
3,669.45
1,241.20
1,554.70
1,735.10
1,352.35
154.75
360.65
2,136.85
874.55
176.25
351.85
1,269.30
908.00
145.25
2,833.20
1,081.60
1,891.00
3,808.30
430.00
3,139.10
172.95
355.10
695.50
235.70
359.30
748.65
293.85
187.85
2,349.30
617.30
808.10
249.25
1,524.95
% Chg
-1.33
3.06
-1.70
0.93
-1.69
0.72
1.26
1.30
1.24
-0.47
-1.86
-0.79
1.13
-0.10
-0.43
-1.11
-0.11
0.61
-1.89
-1.93
2.03
2.28
-2.46
-2.14
-0.24
0.50
2.44
-2.45
0.54
-2.63
3.97
-1.13
0.39
5.54
-1.95
1.65
-2.91
1.80
-1.59
-0.04
1.22
-3.85
-0.03
0.72
-2.74
-1.77
4.97
-5.79
0.20
-2.27
Volume
1,320,196
3,235,752
266,649
2,165,326
3,874,397
5,872,060
4,590,291
1,641,747
1,870,896
19,518,744
3,918,638
5,257,677
5,917,383
1,483,989
2,718,946
8,848,791
1,671,638
357,553
790,695
603,527
1,586,116
1,783,566
3,335,061
5,948,164
2,240,118
731,296
15,122,073
35,290,875
3,319,110
1,920,898
8,394,371
321,326
1,557,329
2,684,269
67,969
1,654,349
414,998
8,337,720
33,733,907
1,021,853
2,495,225
4,011,715
1,793,746
3,217,950
11,069,789
468,728
7,052,864
5,274,754
888,412
262,201
A Ryanair jet taxies at Dublin Airport in Ireland (file). Shares in Ryanair slid 6.01% to €9.78 yesterday as the no-frills Irish
airline gave a cautious outlook after swinging into profit during its third quarter.
Europe markets gain
as Greece talks debt
AFP
London
E
urope’s main stock markets
closed higher yesterday as
Greece’s new anti-austerity
government sought support for a renegotiation of the country’s €240bn
($270bn) bailout in the face of German
opposition.
Greek stocks ended the day up 4.6%,
after Greek Finance Minister Yanis Varoufakis met his British counterpart the latest stop on his European charm
offensive.
US President Barack Obama, who
yesterday put forward a $4.0tn budget
loaded with spending and tax reforms,
warned the world that continued
imposition of tough austerity programmes on Greece could backfire on
its creditors.
“You cannot keep on squeezing
countries that are in the midst of depression,” Obama told CNN.
“At some point, there has to be a
growth strategy in order for them to
pay off their debts to eliminate some of
their deficits.”
European stocks fared well yesterday
as investors appeared to await specific
developments in the Greek diplomatic
dance.
London’s benchmark FTSE 100 index gained 0.49% to 6,6782.55 points
at close.
Frankfurt’s DAX 30 index rose 1.25%
to a record 10,828.01 points at the final
bell, while in Paris the CAC 40 edged
up 0.51% to stand at 4,627.67 compared with Friday’s close.
ING Debt Strategy and Research
warned in a note: “Despite the rhetoric
that Greece is a contained situation...
the fledgling Syriza-led coalition government is still causing ripples across
financial markets and will probably
continue to do so until we have clarity on the debt renegotiation tactics of
(Prime Minister) Alexis Tsipras.”
The euro increased to $1.1334 from
$1.1284 late in New York on Friday.
Wall Street stocks dropped in early
trade yesterday following a weak report on Chinese manufacturing ahead
of a busy week of US data.
About 35 minutes into trade, the
Dow Jones Industrial Average was at
17,090.35, down 75.60 points (0.43%).
HONG KONG
HONG KONG
Company Name
Aluminum Corp Of China Ltd-H
Bank Of East Asia
Bank Of China Ltd-H
Bank Of Communications Co-H
Belle International Holdings
Boc Hong Kong Holdings Ltd
Cathay Pacific Airways
Cheung Kong Holdings Ltd
China Coal Energy Co-H
China Construction Bank-H
China Life Insurance Co-H
China Merchants Hldgs Intl
China Mobile Ltd
China Overseas Land & Invest
China Petroleum & Chemical-H
China Resources Enterprise
China Resources Land Ltd
China Resources Power Holdin
China Shenhua Energy Co-H
China Unicom Hong Kong Ltd
Citic Ltd
Clp Holdings Ltd
Cnooc Ltd
Cosco Pacific Ltd
Esprit Holdings Ltd
Fih Mobile Ltd
Hang Lung Properties Ltd
Hang Seng Bank Ltd
Henderson Land Development
The broad-based S&P 500 fell 7.99
(0.40%) to 1,987.00, while the techrich Nasdaq Composite Index tumbled
42.56 (0.92%) to 4,592.68.
In corporate movement yesterday,
shares in Ryanair slid 6.01% to €9.78
as the no-frills Irish airline gave a cautious outlook after swinging into profit
during its third quarter.
Ryanair said its profit growth expectations were “modest” for next year as
its expects rivals to cut fares because of
cheaper oil prices.
“It is important that analysts are
mindful of this likely increased price
competition when revising their forecasts,” chief executive Michael O’Leary
said in the statement.
The oil market has lost more than
half its value since June last year when
the commodity was sitting at more
than $100 a barrel, largely owing to a
surge in global reserves boosted by robust US shale oil production.
The problem was exacerbated in
November after the Opec oil cartel insisted that it would maintain output
levels despite plunging prices. The
12-nation group pumps about 30% of
global crude.
Lt Price
3.47
32.20
4.29
6.46
8.73
27.45
17.98
149.60
4.16
6.16
29.90
28.50
103.90
22.80
6.07
16.80
19.64
21.60
21.15
11.74
13.30
69.00
10.28
11.16
8.66
3.50
22.85
136.40
56.50
% Chg
-2.53
0.00
-1.15
-0.92
-0.68
0.73
-0.66
0.74
-2.58
-1.12
-2.29
-0.18
1.37
1.56
-0.98
-1.18
-1.21
-1.37
-0.47
0.17
-0.15
-0.29
0.98
-0.89
-1.03
1.16
0.00
0.44
1.99
Volume
30,509,261
1,703,929
269,594,818
25,355,818
13,984,262
16,351,070
2,005,100
8,700,666
21,566,313
309,680,205
46,627,596
2,470,596
16,091,915
16,558,683
101,514,100
2,610,008
13,131,115
5,554,706
9,780,696
29,083,556
10,022,792
3,203,078
57,554,093
4,454,346
4,830,000
9,863,675
4,421,597
1,183,108
4,986,923
Company Name
Hong Kong & China Gas
Hong Kong Exchanges & Clear
Hsbc Holdings Plc
Hutchison Whampoa Ltd
Ind & Comm Bk Of China-H
Li & Fung Ltd
Mtr Corp
New World Development
Petrochina Co Ltd-H
Ping An Insurance Group Co-H
Power Assets Holdings Ltd
Sino Land Co
Sun Hung Kai Properties
Swire Pacific Ltd-A
Tencent Holdings Ltd
Wharf Holdings Ltd
Lt Price
17.82
179.10
71.25
104.70
5.50
7.53
34.00
9.30
8.44
80.70
81.75
13.14
127.40
104.50
135.80
62.80
% Chg
0.11
0.28
-1.66
1.75
-1.43
-2.08
-1.31
0.43
0.60
-2.30
0.55
1.08
0.63
0.38
2.88
-0.32
Volume
4,925,283
3,329,960
20,395,461
9,709,547
295,443,914
22,400,572
4,515,930
36,669,920
65,676,767
26,025,592
3,064,298
7,169,720
4,881,537
836,382
17,654,028
3,391,553
GCC INDICES
Indices
Doha Securities Market
Saudi Tadawul
Kuwait Stocks Exchange
Bahrain Stock Exchage
Oman Stock Market
Abudhabi Stock Market
Dubai Financial Market
Lt Price
12,117.70
9,213.15
6,653.59
1,422.75
6,573.67
4,526.46
3,799.18
Change
+55.60
+69.21
+16.88
+5.04
+1.44
-26.15
-41.04
“Information contained herein is believed to be reliable and had been obtained from sources believed to be reliable. The
accuracy and completeness cannot be guaranteed. This publication is for providing information only and is not intended
as an offer or solicitation for a purchase or sale of any of the financial instruments mentioned. Gulf Times and Doha Bank
or any of their employees shall not be held accountable and will not accept any losses or liabilities for actions based on
this data.”
CURRENCIES
DOLLAR
QATAR RIYAL
SAUDI RIYAL
UAE DIRHAMS
BAHRAINI
DINAR
KUWAITI
DINAR
Gulf Times
Tuesday, February 3, 2015
13
BUSINESS
GM confirms Indonesia
factory plan with SAIC
Reuters
Shanghai
G
eneral Motors said yesterday that one of its Chinese
ventures plans to establish manufacturing operations
in Indonesia to take advantage of
growth in Southeast Asia’s biggest vehicle market.
Confirming a Reuters report
published on Saturday, the US
carmaker said SAIC-GM-Wuling
(SGMW), a joint venture between
GM China, SAIC Motor Corp Ltd
and Wuling Motors, is planning
to establish a manufacturing facility near Jakarta to build Wuling
brand vehicles.
Construction of the facility is
planned to begin this year, subject to government approval, GM
said in a statement posted on its
website.
The vehicles will be sold primarily in Indonesia, with plans to
potentially export them to other
regional markets, it said.
Sources told Reuters that GM
and SAIC would make a joint
push into Indonesia, using their
no-frills Wuling brand to establish a beachhead in Southeast
Asia’s biggest market and from
there tackle other markets in the
region. In a report late on Friday,
officials from Indonesia’s industry ministry told state Antara
news agency that GM and SAIC
would invest $700mn in Indonesia to build vehicles. The GM
statement did not provide the
size of the planned investment.
An official at Wuling confirmed
the venture’s plan to build a factory in Indonesia. SAIC could not
be reached for comment.
General Motors said yesterday that one of its Chinese ventures plans to establish manufacturing operations in Indonesia to take advantage of growth in Southeast Asia’s
biggest vehicle market.
China holds some hope
for LNG producers
By Clyde Russell
Launceston, Australia
Can China ride to the rescue of
producers of liquefied natural gas
(LNG), who are bringing on stream
ever more supply at a time when
prices in Asia have sunk to 4-1/2 year
lows? The world’s largest commodity
consumer has taken some of the
blame for the plunge in the spot price,
which dropped to $7.20 per million
British thermal units (mmBtu) last
week, the lowest since July 2010 and
down almost 65% from the same time
last year.
To be sure, a warmer than usual
winter in North Asia and a wellsupplied market are also major
culprits in LNG’s weakness.
But China’s demand growth in
2014 didn’t come anywhere near to
meeting expectations.
LNG imports rose 10.3% to 19.85mn
tonnes last year, a pace of growth
that was less than half of what was
achieved in 2013.
Slower economic growth and higher
natural gas prices crimped demand
for the cleaner-burning fuel, even as
China tried to limit the use of coal in a
bid to lower pollution.
China’s natural gas demand grew by
5.6% last year to 178.6bn cubic metres
(bcm), which is less than half the
average annual growth rate of 11.7%
between 1995 and 2009.
Of that demand, 127.9 bcm was
produced domestically, while 57.8
bcm was imported by pipeline or as
LNG. The split between the two was
in favour of pipeline, but not by too
large a margin, with LNG imports
amounting to almost 27 bcm.
There is little doubt that China’s
natural gas demand can return to
double-digit growth figures, but
much will depend on the actions of
policymakers.
The authorities will have to continue
a policy of trying to shift away from
coal, and in doing so will have to
actively encourage the use of natural
gas. In practical terms this means
that they will have to reverse last
year’s price increases for natural
gas, to allow the dramatic fall in LNG
prices to be felt by both industrial and
residential consumers.
The price hike in September last year
raised the natural gas price in Tier 1
users to $10.70 per mmBtu and $12.80
for Tier 2, according to calculations by
consultants FGE.
The two-tier system of pricing is
scheduled to be scrapped this year,
proving policymakers with a ready-
made opportunity to lower natural
gas prices in order to boost demand.
This will be essential if China is to
meet its target of increasing natural
gas use to 400 bcm per year by 2020,
which would be more than double last
year’s consumption.
The sharp fall in LNG prices may help
make the super-chilled fuel more
viable against pipeline imports from
other countries. The problem for
LNG has always been that it was too
expensive compared to alternatives,
but the tables appear to have turned.
China buys much of its pipeline gas
on oil-linked contracts, which means
prices are currently falling given crude
has more than halved since June last
year. This doesn’t sound positive for
LNG, but it may be insofar as it makes
future pipeline projects considerably
less viable.
The massive 38 bcm a year deal
between China and Russia, signed
last year, and due to start in 2018
may be a case in point. While pricing
for the deal was never publicly
revealed, it was believed to be about
the equivalent of $10 per mmBtu,
delivered at the Chinese border.
With oil-linked pricing, this may have
dropped to around $8 per mmBtu.
Add to this the cost of transporting
the gas from the border in the
northwest to the main markets in the
northeast, and the price will be closer
to $12 per mmBtu.
This is well below the current spot
price of LNG, meaning there is the
potential for LNG to take market share
from pipeline gas.
Additionally there is the increasing
likelihood that some of the planned
pipeline additions from Russia
and Central Asia to China won’t be
built, or will be delayed, given the
deterioration in the economics.
This gives LNG producers a chance
to increase their penetration of the
Chinese market, and also holds out
some hope that the wave of new
LNG from nearly-completed projects
in Australia will find buyers for the
uncontracted portions of their output.
About 32mn tonnes per annum
of LNG capacity is likely to be
commissioned this year from three
Australian projects, with three more to
come in the following years, as well as
at least three new ventures in the US.
Of course, the caveat is that LNG
prices will have to remain low enough
to compete with pipeline supplies, and
also coal, while China’s policymakers
will also have to play their part.
Clyde Russell is a Reuters columnist.
The views expressed are his own.
Robot
revolution
reaches
Mitsubishi
UFJ Financial
Bloomberg
Tokyo
Meet the latest employee
of Japan’s biggest bank: a
multilingual robot called NAO.
Mitsubishi UFJ Financial
Group Inc unveiled the
58-centimetre (23-inch)
humanoid yesterday
to improve services for
customers in Japan and
become the first bank in
the world to use robots at
branches, it said.
NAO can read emotions
and speak 19 languages, the
bank said in a presentation.
It’s still being tested and
will start working at one
or two locations in Tokyo
around April on a trial basis,
the lender said. The robot,
developed by Paris-based
Aldebaran Robotics SA, a unit
of SoftBank Corp, will greet
customers and ask them what
services they need.
Mitsubishi UFJ’s move
coincides with Prime Minister
Shinzo Abe’s ambition to
achieve a “robot revolution”
as part of his growth strategy
for a nation that’s facing
a shrinking workforce
and declining population.
Financial firms worldwide
are paying attention to
technology and the country’s
lenders need to keep up with
developments, Japanese
Bankers Association
Chairman Nobuyuki Hirano
said in January. “Robots
can supplement services by
performing tasks that our
human workers can’t, such
as 24-hour banking and
multilingual communication,”
said Takuma Nomoto, chief
manager of information
technology initiatives at
Mitsubishi UFJ.
Goldman scans Kaisa fallout for
value in China property debt
Bloomberg
Beijing
T
he risk of the first default by a
Chinese property developer on a
dollar-denominated bond isn’t
unnerving Goldman Sachs Group Inc’s
money managers, as they look for buying opportunities amid the fallout.
Kaisa Group Holdings Ltd missed
a $23mn interest payment earlier this
month, putting it at risk of defaulting
on its dollar-denominated bonds. The
spread on high-yield notes from China
in the currency rose to 1,133 basis points
on January 19, the highest since 2012.
“It is actually creating really some attractive buying opportunities in goodquality assets that are being thrown out
with the bad,” said Philip Moffitt, head
of Asia-Pacific fixed- income at Goldman Sachs Asset Management, which
oversees about $1tn in assets globally.
“The situation in the property market
is precarious, but that isn’t a new phenomenon.” The resignation by Kaisa’s
Chairman Kwok Ying Shing in December was the second surprise exit by a
Chinese property tycoon in six months,
as the government investigates dealings
with local officials. Goldman likes noninvestment debt from higher-quality
developers that focus on first-tier
cities, such as Shanghai and Beijing,
where there is a reasonable supply and
demand outlook, according to Moffitt.
“We adjusted our property exposures
probably 12 months ago,” he said in a telephone interview on Tuesday. “We took
them down a bit and we also increased
concentration in terms of owning assets we like.” Moffitt declined to say if
Goldman held or holds Kaisa bonds.
Goldman hasn’t changed fixed-income
exposures in Chinese real estate, or in
China in general, following Kaisa’s troubles, he said.
Kaisa skipped its coupon payment
on Jan. 8 and failure to settle within a
30-day grace period would result in a
default.
Chinese companies comprised 62%
of all dollar bond sales in the Asia-Pacific region outside Japan last year, issuing
$244.4bn of the $392.5bn total, according to data compiled by Bloomberg.
Kaisa is being investigated over alleged links to Jiang Zunyu, the former
security chief of Shenzhen taken into
custody in a graft probe, two people familiar with the matter said earlier this
month.
Kaisa missed a $23mn interest payment in January, putting it at risk of defaulting on its dollar-denominated bonds.
The company’s $500mn of 10.25%
bonds rallied to 63.7 cents as of 2:30 p.m.
in Hong Kong from a record intraday low
of 26.3 cents on January 7, according to
Bloomberg- compiled prices, after reports the Shenzhen local government is
seeking new investors to take over the
developer based in the southern Chinese
city.
“Over the past three years - postcrisis – we’ve seen a lot of money flow
into high-yielding fixed-income assets,”
Moffitt said. “Part of that capital is there
without knowing what it owns, so when
the lights turn orange there are some
investors at the margins who want to
get out.” The Chinese property market
is broadly playing out to Goldman’s expectations and the lender will add positions where it’s cheap and makes sense,
said Moffitt.
14
Gulf Times
Tuesday, February 3, 2015
BUSINESS
Australian dollar plunge to worsen as RBA seen adding stimulus
Bloomberg
Sydney
Not since 2009 has Australia’s dollar
tumbled so far in the first month of
the year. The world’s biggest foreignexchange trader says the pain is far
from over.
After tumbling 5.1% in January,
Citigroup forecasts the so-called
Aussie will fall an additional 3.6%
in three months to 75 US cents.
Money-market traders give betterthan-even odds the Reserve Bank of
Australia will cut interest rates today
to stimulate an economy ravaged by
the commodities slump, damping the
appeal of the nation’s financial assets
to global investors.
“The market is increasingly
pessimistic on the RBA,” Todd Elmer,
a strategist at Citigroup in Singapore,
said by phone on January 29. “I doubt
that, even if the RBA is relatively
hawkish, investors are going to
back down from this expectation
for easing.” Australia is struggling
with the end of a once-in-a-century
resources boom and a slowdown in
China, which buys more than a third
of its exports. RBA Governor Glenn
Stevens has been trying to talk down
the Aussie for months to make the
economy more competitive, and
identified 75 cents as his preferred
exchange rate in a December
12 interview with the Australian
Financial Review.
The Aussie started weakening in
September, and since then has lost
17% against its US counterpart. It
touched a 5 1/2-year low of 77.20 US
cents on January 29, and bought
77.92 cents as of 7:41am yesterday in
New York.
Options traders are gearing up
for further losses. It costs 2.05
percentage points more to protect
against declines in the Aussie versus
the US dollar for one month than
to do the same for gains, according
to data on risk reversals compiled
by Bloomberg. That’s the biggest
premium since August 2013.
“The Aussie is in the middle of its
period of weakness,” Eric Stein, who
oversees about $13bn at Bostonbased Eaton Vance Corp, said by
e-mail on January 29.
Stein cited “structural weakness in
the Australian economy, the fall in
iron-ore prices, and the slowdown
in the Chinese economy” as well as
“general US dollar strength” as the
Federal Reserve prepares to raise its
benchmark rate. He forecast a decline
in the Aussie to 75 cents, without
giving a timeframe.
A Deutsche Bank AG index tracking
the prices of commodities important
to Australia has tumbled 31% in the
past year.
Growth will slow to 2.6% in 2015, after
growing at a 2.7% annual pace in the
third quarter of 2014, economists
surveyed by Bloomberg predict.
A Chinese manufacturing gauge
unexpectedly signalled contraction
in January for the first time in more
than two years, an official report on
Sunday showed.
While swaps traders are pricing in
an Australian rate cut today, that’s
not the consensus among analysts:
21 of 27 economists surveyed by
Bloomberg predict no change this
week.
The RBA has kept rates on hold for 17
months - the longest period in almost
two decades.
Stevens himself has played down
the prospect of cuts, telling the AFR
in December that high borrowing
costs aren’t “really the problem.” “The
RBA wants to support the economy
via a weaker currency rather than
by cutting rates,” Yukino Yamada,
a strategist at Daiwa Securities Co
in Tokyo, said by phone on January
29. “The market has been overly
aggressive in pricing in further
easing. Downside in the Aussie will be
limited from here.”
Swaps prices suggest a 57% chance
the RBA will reduce Australia’s main
rate from a record-low 2.5% at its first
policy meeting of the year, up from
27% odds at the end of December,
data compiled by Bloomberg show.
Even if there’s no cut today, traders
are positioned for 0.58 percentagepoint of rate reductions over the
next 12 months, according to a Credit
Suisse Group AG swaps index.
By easing policy, the RBA would join
central banks from the euro region
to India, Canada and Russia which
have taken action this year to boost
growth and stave off deflationary
pressures.
The contrast for additional stimulus
across much of the globe contrasts
with the Fed’s plans to raise
borrowing costs this year, which has
fuelled demand for US dollars.
The Aussie is headed lower with
or without rate cuts from the RBA,
according to Joseph Capurso of
Commonwealth Bank of Australia, the
nation’s biggest lender.
“The most important reason we’re
so negative on the Aussie is we think
the US dollar has more upside,”
Capurso said by phone from Sydney
on January 29.
“Aussie will be down to 72 cents
before the middle of the year.”
Asia stock
markets
mostly
lower
Beijing puts yuan back on the
leash as PBoC battles outflows
AFP
Shanghai
Reuters
Shanghai/Hong Kong
S
he People’s Bank of China is using its official guidance rate to
put a floor under the yuan, a
move that suggests Beijing is worried
enough about mounting capital outflows to resume intervention in the forex market.
The new strategy – or more accurately, the return to an old one – represents
a step back from Beijing’s repeated
commitments to meddle less in the foreign exchange market, but the central
bank lacks attractive alternatives.
Letting the yuan slide sharply will
only accelerate capital outflows, which
would put upward pressure on interest
rates just as the central bank wants to
make money cheaper in order to stimulate the slowing economy and ease huge
debt loads at many Chinese companies.
One alternative is to tighten up the
capital account to “trap” money inside
the country. That might relieve some of
the pressure to manage the exchange rate,
but would be a step back from reform.
However, the current strategy is not
costless, traders say.
“Liquidity in the onshore market is
okay so far, but if the central bank continues to lean against the market forces,
transaction volumes could be affected,”
said Wang Ju, senior Asian FX strategist
at HSBC in Hong Kong.
Unlike many other countries with
managed exchange rates, the PBoC does
not buy or sell yuan to defend its band;
it simply throws out any bids outside
the limit.
That makes the band invulnerable to
speculative attacks, but it can cause the
market to flatline if traders refuse to do
business in designated range and try to
outwait the bank.
That happened in late 2012, when the
bank tried – and failed – to hold back a
rally it saw as getting out of hand.
The central bank’s strategy is clear
from the way it sets its official midpoint
rate, a fixed exchange rate set every
morning from which the exchange rate
can rise or fall by 2%.
When the midpoint is set in a way
that expresses median market consensus – as the name implies – the resulting envelope gives the yuan a 4% range
across which it can range all day, and
few fully liberalised currencies will vary
by a wider range in a given day.
But if the midpoint is set far away
hanghai stocks tumbled
yesterday after two gauges
of Chinese manufacturing
activity showed contraction in
January, while some Asian markets were also hit by a sell-off on
Wall Street.
Oil prices plunged again after
enjoying a strong rally on Friday.
The euro ticked up despite falling eurozone prices and continuing concerns about Greece’s
bailout dispute with its international creditors.
Shanghai tumbled 2.56%,
or 82.06 points, to 3,128.30
and Hong Kong closed slightly
lower, giving up 22.31 points
to 24,484.74. Tokyo slipped
0.66%, or 116.35 points, to end
at 17,558.04.
However,
Sydney
added
0.66%, or 36.98 points, to end
at 5,625.30, while Seoul added 0.18%, or 3.42 points, to
1,952.68.
US markets provided a negative lead after the Department
of Commerce said on Friday that
the US economy expanded at an
annual rate of 2.6% in the fourth
quarter, well below the 5% in the
previous three months.
Adding to selling pressure was
news that prices in the eurozone
fell by a record 0.6% in January,
fanning concerns the currency
bloc is facing years of deflation.
The Dow sank 1.45%, the S&P
500 lost 1.30% and the Nasdaq
fell 1.03%.
Traders were also reacting
yesterday to news that China’s
official purchasing managers’
index (PMI) of manufacturing
activity unexpectedly retreated
last month for the first time
since late 2012.
Data Sunday showed its PMI
at 49.8 last month, against 50.1
in December. Anything below 50
points to contraction and anything above indicates growth.
Yesterday HSBC said its
January PMI was 49.7, a tad up
from 49.6 in December but still
showing shrinkage.
The results are the latest to
highlight the weakness of China’s economy, which in 2014
grew at its slowest pace in 24
years. However, it will fan talk of
further monetary easing measures.
“We think demand in the
manufacturing sector remains
weak and more aggressive monetary and fiscal easing measures will be needed to prevent
another sharp slowdown in
growth,” Qu Hongbin, HSBC
chief economist for China, said
in the release announcing the
bank’s figure.
On currency markets the dollar was at 117.62 yen in afternoon
trade against 117.59 yen in New
York late Friday.
The euro bought $1.1314 and
133.01 yen against $1.1284 and
132.70 yen in New York. Gold
fetched $1,274.22 an ounce,
down from $1,264.49 on Friday.
In other markets, Bangkok
edge up 0.09%, or 1.45 points,
to 1,582.70; Jakarta closed down
0.25%, or 13.17 points, to 5,276.24;
Singapore rose 0.95%, or 32.15
points, to 3,423.35; Wellington
added 0.22%, or 12.69 points, to
5,756.69; Taipei rose 0.27%, or
25.08 points, to 9,386.99; Manila
slipped 0.77%, or 59.20 points to
7,630.71 and Kuala Lumpur was
closed for a public holiday.
T
An employee counts yuan banknotes at a bank in Beijing. The yuan has been on a slide against the dollar since a peak struck in January 2014.
from average spot prices, the 4% envelope becomes meaningless, and that is
what is happening now.
Since November the spread between
the spot rate and the midpoint has tripled to record highs; the 14-day moving
average of the spot yuan is around 6.22
per dollar, while the midpoint is 6.12 per
dollar, a record gap.
Yesterday, the spot rate came within
10 points of the edge of the trading
band, its closest since the band was
widened earlier in 2014.
In this case the market – with an eye
on the spectacular rise of the dollar in-
dex, combined with slides in the euro
and the yen – clearly wants the yuan to
weaken.
The yuan has been on a slide against
the dollar since a peak struck in January 2014. That high was followed by a
dramatic crash in the exchange rate –
which many said was engineered by the
central bank to punish speculators.
While the currency recovered
through the summer it began sliding
again in late October in the face of policy easing by the PBoC in the face of surprisingly weak economic fundamentals, and a massive dollar rally in global
markets. Further easing is expected this
year.
Offshore yuan bond yields, particularly at the short end of the yield curve,
have started trading at a higher yield to
their mainland counterparts for the first
time, suggesting investors are demanding higher yields to compensate for
downside exchange rate risk.
In the derivative markets, implied
volatility in one-month offshore dollar/yuan options has also surged in recent weeks, as has the cost of hedging
against a weaker yuan.
While many are calling for the PBoC
to widen the band to allow more movement and to accommodate these bets
– and there are signs some are moving
money on the assumption – the central
bank is showing little sign of indulging
them so far.
“We don’t think China will change
course and join the global devaluation
game for several reasons,” said Sean
Yokota, head of Asia strategy at Skandinaviska Enskilda Banken AB in Singapore.
“China has already been easing monetary policy and there should not be
change in market expectations.”
Sensex loses 60 points; rupee gains 6 paise
IANS
Mumbai
A
The Indian rupee yesterday ended 6 paise higher at 61.80 against the American dollar.
benchmark index of Indian
equities markets yesterday
closed trading 60.68 points or
0.21% down in cautious trade ahead
of Reserve Bank of India’s (RBI) policy review scheduled for today.
Good buying was observed in
capital goods, IT, consumer durables
and auto sectors, while selling pressure was seen in fast-moving consumer goods (FMCG) and oil and gas
sectors.
The 30-scrip Sensitive Index
(Sensex) of the S&P Bombay Stock
Exchange (BSE), which opened at
29,143.63 points, closed at 29,122.27
points, down 60.68 points or 0.21%
from the previous day’s close at
29,182.95 points.
The Sensex touched a high
of 29,268.13 points and a low of
28,958.52 points in intra-day trade.
The S&P BSE capital goods in-
dex surged by 213.44 points, IT
index gained by 111.51 points, consumer durables index moved up by
100.35 points and auto index rose by
91.64 points. However, FMCG index
dropped by 146.22 points and oil and
gas index dipped by 55.19 points.
The wider 50-scrip Nifty of the
National Stock Exchange (NSE) also
closed trading 11.50 points or 0.13%
down at 8,797.40 points.
Meanwhile, the Indian rupee yesterday ended 6 paise higher at 61.80
against the American currency on
fag-end selling pressure from banks
and exporters due to a weak dollar in
the overseas markets.
The rupee resumed lower at 62per
dollar as against last weekend’s level
of 61.86 at the Interbank Foreign
Exchange (Forex). It moved down
further to 62.01 per dollar on initial
dollar demand from banks.
However, it recovered immediately to end at 61.80 per dollar on selling of dollars by banks and exporters,
showing a gain of six paise or 0.10%.
Gulf Times
Tuesday, February 3, 2015
15
BUSINESS
Ma regains spot as
Asia’s richest man
Bloomberg
Beijing
A
libaba Group Holding
chairman Jack Ma regained his spot as Asia’s
richest person with a higher valuation for the company’s finance
affiliate ahead of a stock sale that
also created a dozen new billionaires.
Zhejiang Ant Small & Micro
Financial Services Group Co,
which owns payments processor
Alipay, is valued at about $50bn,
according to people familiar
with the matter. Ant Financial is
weighing a private placement before going public in 2016, and details of the planned fundraising
aren’t finalised, the people said
last week, asking not to be identified because the discussions are
private.
The latest valuation for Ant
Financial boosted Ma’s fortune
by about $10bn to $36.4bn as of
Friday in New York, according to
the Bloomberg Billionaires Index,
overtaking Amazon.com Inc’s
Jeff Bezos. The new billionaires
from the bigger valuation include
the e-commerce giant’s chief executive officer Jonathan Lu and
chief people officer Lucy Peng.
“The entire e-payments market has just started,” said Li Yujie,
an analyst at RHB Research Institute Sdn. in Hong Kong.
“In the future, Alipay will capture a lot of this market. When
it goes public, it will produce
many new billionaires.” Lu and
Peng, both co-founders of Alibaba, each have a fortune valued
Ma: At it again.
at about $1.8bn, based on their
stakes in Ant Financial, according to the Bloomberg Billionaires
Index.
Shao Xiaofeng, who joined
Alibaba in 2005 and has been
its chief risk officer in the past 2
1/2 years, has a fortune of about
$1.2bn, according to the index.
“It’s got formidable room for
growth,” said Cyrus Mewawalla,
managing director of Londonbased CM Research. “As Alibaba
expands in global markets, so
could Alipay. If technology companies do well, then their owners become billionaires.” Bob
Christie, Alibaba’s spokesman,
declined to comment on the new
valuation and billionaires.
Other Alibaba co-founders
and senior executives also emerge
as stakeholders of Ant Financial.
Chief operating officer Daniel
Zhang and the other eight shareholders each have a net worth
of more than $1bn, according to
the index. Zhang and CEO Lu are
among the Alibaba executives
who are on the board, along with
Ma and Vice Chairman Joseph
Tsai, who has a $5.8bn fortune.
The other senior executives
include President Jianhang Jin,
Trudy Dai, Alibaba’s chief customer officer, Jian Wang, chief
technology officer, and his deputy Peng Jiang. Other billionaire
shareholders are Eddie Wu, Zeng
Ming, Tiger Wang and Judy Tong.
The $50bn valuation for Ant
Financial is about twice the minimum threshold required for the
company’s IPO, according to Alibaba’s prospectus. Ma has controlled Ant Financial, including
the Alipay payments business,
since spinning off the finance
operations into a new company
in 2011, citing foreign ownership
restrictions.
Ma was ranked China’s
wealthiest on the Bloomberg Billionaires Index in August, based
on the earlier valuation for Ant
Financial. He briefly overtook
Hong Kong property tycoon Li
Ka-shing for the top spot in Asia
in December.
“I was really not happy in the
past three months when people
say Jack Ma is the richest person
of China,” Ma said in an interview
with Charlie Rose last month.
“When you have $1bn, that’s not
your money – that’s the trust society gives.” Ant Financial hasn’t
hired investment banks, one of
the people said.
The company is planning an
A-share sale in China while not
ruling out a dual listing, another
person said. Alipay, which is
similar to PayPal, has more than
800mn registered users. Its mobile application has 190mn active
users and handles 45mn transactions a day, the company said in
October.
Ant Financial public issue unlikely in 2015, says Ma
Reuters
Hong Kong
Jack Ma, chairman of Chinese
e-commerce giant Alibaba
Group Holding, said yesterday
he hoped the company’s
financial affiliate would list in
Asia at some point, but that
no decision on the timing or
location had been made.
The comments follow a
Bloomberg report last week
quoting unidentified sources
as saying Zhejiang Ant Small
& Micro Financial Services
Group, known as Ant Financial,
was planning an initial public
offering (IPO) next year and
the company had an estimated
value of about $50bn.
“Ant Financial is still a baby
today with great potential. It’s
just too early to talk about who
it’s going to get married to,” Ma
said. Asked if a listing would
happen this year, he responded:
“I don’t think so.”
Set up in 2014, Ant Financial has
been growing rapidly, largely
through targeting smaller
businesses and hundreds of
millions of consumers who are
often underserved by China’s
larger banks. Ant runs the Alipay
online payment platform, the
linked Yu’e Bao money market
fund and other services.
Alibaba spun out Alipay, seen as
a corporate crown jewel, in 2011.
Its executives, including Ma,
maintain control. As part of an
agreement in August between
Alibaba and Ant Financial,
Alibaba shares 37.5% of the
unit’s profit or can in the future
take a direct stake in it.
Alibaba held its own recordbreaking $25bn initial public
offering in September.
In recent days, the issue of
fake goods and other illegal
business on Alibaba platforms
has come under the spotlight
after the State Administration
for Industry and Commerce
(SAIC), a government regulator,
published reports saying the
problem was widespread and
the company wasn’t doing
enough to fight it.
One of the SAIC reports,
published last Wednesday,
sparked concern that Alibaba
had failed to disclose risk
factors to its investors prior to
its bumper listing in September,
and several law firms have said
they will take action.
Alibaba has denied any
wrongdoing.
“If we have the guts to list the
company, we should not be
afraid of lawsuits. This is the
kind courage that a Chinese
company should have,” Ma said.
“We welcome it, and we
will deal with it actively and
transparently.”
Rajan: Set to review monetary policy.
Indian rupee
biggest Asia
gainer in Jan
Bloomberg
New Delhi
I
ndia’s rupee is the bestperforming Asian currency
in January on optimism the
nation’s improving economic
outlook will attract more global funds.
The International Monetary
Fund said in January that India is poised to become the
world’s fastest-growing major
economy in the year to March
2017. Overseas investors, who
net bought a record $42bn of
stocks and bonds last year,
have added another $5.4bn to
their holdings in 2015, the latest exchange data show. India’s central bank cut interest
rates in an unscheduled move
on January 15 as plunging oil
prices helped slow consumer
inflation. Bonds rallied for a
fifth month.
“India remains a favoured
destination for foreign investors,” said NS Venkatesh,
the Mumbai-based head of
treasury at IDBI Bank. “With
inflation under control, the
current account possibly turning a surplus and economic
growth poised to accelerate,
we’ll continue to see inflows.”
The rupee climbed 1.9% this
month to close at 61.8725 a
dollar in Mumbai, the biggest monthly advance since
May, prices from local banks
compiled by Bloomberg show.
A 56% slump in Brent crude
since end-June helped restrict
consumer-price gains below
the Reserve Bank of India’s
6% target for a third month in
December, prompting the first
interest-rate cut since May
2013. Morgan Stanley predicts
India will swing to a currentaccount surplus of $1.5bn in
the fiscal year starting in April,
spurred by the drop in oil and
policy makers’ efforts to curb
gold imports. Asia’s thirdlargest economy imports
about 80% of its oil.
RBI Governor Raghuram
Rajan next reviews monetary
policy today, when he is seen
leaving the benchmark repurchase rate at 7.75% by 27
of 35 economists surveyed by
Bloomberg News.
The rest see a cut to 7.50%.
Three-month
offshore
non-deliverable rupee forwards rose 2.1% this month to
62.84 a dollar, data compiled
by Bloomberg show. Forwards
are agreements to buy or sell
assets at a set price and date.
Non-deliverable contracts are
settled in dollars.
The yield on the local sovereign bonds due July 2024
fell for a fifth month in January, dropping 16 basis points,
or 0.16 percentage point, to
7.69%, according to prices from the RBI’s trading
system.
CEFC beefing China banks in talks to join gold fix replacement
up oil business
C
C
Bloomberg
Beijing
Reuters
Beijing
EFC China Energy, a small chemicals and fuel company,
is beefing up its oil business to get ready for more open
domestic oil markets, hiring trading managers from state
energy giants, building storage tanks and looking to invest in oilfields.
The moves are signs that independent Chinese firms are expecting the government this year to lift at least some restrictions
on the state-dominated oil and gas sector.
China’s approval in December of the launch of crude oil futures
in Shanghai raised the expectation that crude imports would be
freed up to ensure greater participation in the yuan-denominated
oil contracts.
“Dealing crude is what a mature oil trader does. CEFC seems
to be shifting to that role from an earlier image as a commodity
trade financing player,” said a senior Beijing trader, referring to
CEFC’s practice of using mixed aromatics to raise bank loans to
profit from the currency arbitrage.
Besides hiring trading executives from state oil companies,
CEFC is due to start up an 18mn-barrel tank farm on Hainan island this year, its first such asset in China to store mostly crude
oil. Traders with knowledge of CEFC’s activities said the company was also looking to acquire oil producing assets from abroad,
possibly Africa.
Owning upstream assets can be key in winning quotas for crude
oil imports, traders said. Guanghui Energy, an owner of oil and
gas assets in Xinjiang and Kazakhstan, was licensed to import
crude last year.
CEFC has for the past few years been getting import quotas of
about 3mn barrels a year, though any shipments have to fit into
state refiners’ throughput and production plans.
Cui Zhenchu, former head of crude oil trading at Sinopec Corp,
confirmed he is now head of oil trading for CEFC China Energy
based in Shanghai.
Zhang Xincheng, who quit last year as head of products at
Hong Kong-listed Brightoil Petroleum, said he has now joined
CEFC as head of its oil trading office in Singapore.
Before Brightoil, Zhang was Cui’s colleague in Sinopec’s crude
oil department. Liu Lei, a deputy trading manager of oil products
with Chinaoil, trading vehicle of PetroChina, is the latest hire at
CEFC’s Beijing operations, traders said.
hinese banks are among those in
talks to take part in the replacement for the century-old gold fixing benchmark.
There’s a “more diverse pool” of participants, including from China, interested in being part of the LBMA Gold Price,
Ruth Crowell, chief executive of the London Bullion Market Association, said in a
statement yesterday. The LBMA declined
to comment on the number and names of
those in talks for the new mechanism that
will start in March.
No Chinese companies have ever directly participated in the 95-year old
price-setting ritual that takes place twice
daily by phone between four banks. ICE
Benchmark Administration was chosen
in November to run the replacement, after silver, platinum and palladium ditched
daily fixings last year. Chinese gold demand has more than doubled since 2009.
“We are encouraged by the number of
firms who have shown interest in being
participants in the new, electronic auction,” Finbarr Hutcheson, president of
IBA, said in the statement. “Expanding the
number of participants in the auction will
increase the transparency and robustness
of the data” and better represent the market price, he said.
Societe Generale SA, Bank of Nova
Scotia, HSBC Holdings Plc and Barclays
Plc currently conduct the fixings used by
miners to central banks to trade and value
metal.
China overtook India as the largest bullion buyer in 2013. The London-based
World Gold Council said in August that
demand will expand by at least 20% by
the end of 2017 amid rising wealth. About
two-thirds of gold jewellery, bars and
coins were purchased in Asia in 2013, according to the council.
China overtook India as the largest bullion buyer in 2013, the London-based World Gold Council said.
Trading volume on the Shanghai Gold
Exchange climbed to a record last year.
The bourse started bullion trading in the
city’s free-trade zone in September and
exchanges have added more Asian gold
contracts, including a physically-deliv-
ered kilogram bar contract that started in
Hong Kong last month.
The new London benchmark will be
regulated by the UK’s Financial Conduct
Authority from April 1 and will be brought
in line with International Organisation of
Securities Commissions principles, according to the statement.
Gold for immediate delivery in London
gained 7.6% to $1,273.85 an ounce since
the end of December, after slumping 29%
in the previous two years.
16
Gulf Times
Tuesday, February 3, 2015
BUSINESS
Top fund favours sovereign debt as Rajan cuts rates
Bloomberg
New Delhi
India’s best-performing fixed-income
fund manager in 2014 favours
sovereign debt as the central bank
embarks on the most aggressive
policy easing in five years.
“We are very positive,” Rahul
Goswami, chief investment officer
for fixed income at ICICI Prudential
Asset Management Co, which
manages 1.37tn rupees ($22bn), said
in a January 19 interview in Mumbai.
“Our first preference is for long- term
government notes, then long-term
corporate bonds, followed by state
development loans.” Reserve Bank
of India Governor Raghuram Rajan
cut the repurchase rate to 7.75% in
an unscheduled move last week,
Singapore
empty
homes
may climb
to highest
since 1998
Bloomberg
Singapore
S
am King had a pleasant
surprise when the lease
on his Singapore apartment came up for renewal late
last year. For the first time in six
years, King was able to negotiate
a lower rent with his landlord.
“It has turned into a tenant’s
market,” said the 29-year- old
sales director at an aviation
services company, who got a
10% reduction in the rent on his
two-bedroom penthouse in the
east of Singapore. His landlord
also agreed to split some renovation costs, and provide new
curtains and lights.
As Singapore’s property market cools following five years of
price gains, the number of empty
apartments is on the rise, putting
pressure on some landlords and
giving the upper hand to tenants
like King who are renegotiating
their leases.
Vacancy rates for private residential homes rose to 7.1% during
the quarter ended September 30,
up from a low of 4.6% in March
2010 and the highest since March
2006, data from the Urban Redevelopment Authority showed.
Some
landlords,
facing
tighter lending curbs and a
more competitive rental market, have defaulted on their
mortgages, leading to a fivefold
jump in the number of properties put up for auction by the
banks. A total of 159 apartments or houses were auctioned last year, up from 32 in
2013, according to auction data
from real estate broker Colliers
International.
With fewer expatriates coming to live in Singapore due to
controls on immigration, and a
large number of apartments set
to be completed in the next two
years, the vacancy rate could rise
further in 2015, bringing rents
down even more.
“We may hit almost 10% by
end of 2015 as completions are
coming faster than the time now
taken to find a tenant,” said Alan
Cheong, a Singapore-based director at broker Savills Plc. Even
in the depths of the Asian crisis
of 1998, when Singapore property prices plunged 34%, apartment vacancies topped out at
9.7%, Cheong said.
More defaults are also probable, though for the moment it’s
only a small proportion of landlords who are facing difficulties
with their mortgages. Less than
0.5% of all mortgages were in default, according to the Monetary
Authority of Singapore’s latest financial stability report, published
in December. Those in arrears with loans that are more than 30
days past their due - made up less
than 1% of mortgages.
Landlords with multiple
properties are most exposed
to the softening rental market.
With resale prices falling as well,
they often can’t recoup the price
they paid for properties they are
unable to rent out.
“The cooling measures have
affected homeowners’ ability to
sell,” said Sharon Lee, director
and head of auction at the broker
Knight Frank Singapore.
sending the 10-year sovereign bond
yield to 7.70%, its lowest close since
July 2013. ICICI Prudential sees both
the yield and the repo rate at 7.25%
by end-2015 as consumer- price gains
slow.
“While the RBI has started reducing
rates, there’s still a reasonable
opportunity to accumulate for
investors,” Goswami said. “If one
stays invested for the long term, the
risk-reward is inclined in favour of
reward.” The ICICI Prudential Long
Term Fund returned 19.4% in 2014,
the highest among 76 open-ended
fixed-income plans tracked by New
Delhi-based data provider Value
Research India Pvt. ICICI Prudential
Income Plan ranked second with
16.9% and HDFC High Interest Fund
was third with 16.1%.
Ten-year sovereign bonds had their
biggest advance since 2008 last
year, pushing the yield down 97 basis
points, as a near 50% plunge in Brent
crude cooled inflation.
Global banks including Morgan
Stanley and Commerzbank AG
stepped up forecasts for easing
this year following the RBI’s first
rate reduction since May 2013. The
decision came after consumer-price
increases held below the RBI’s 6%
target for a third straight month in
December and as the government
took steps to curb the fiscal deficit.
Rajan had raised the rate three times
since taking office in September 2013.
ICICI Prudential “would have
articulated a view that rates will
definitely come down and positioned
the fund accordingly,” Dhirendra
Kumar, chief executive officer of
Value Research, said in a phone
interview yesterday. “It’s quite an
achievement.”
Goswami’s optimism on bonds also
stems from the impact retreating
oil is seen having on India’s currentaccount deficit as Asia’s third-largest
economy relies on imports for about
80% of its oil needs.
Data last week showed the trade
deficit, a part of the broader current
account, narrowed to $9.43bn
in December, the smallest since
February, as oil imports dropped
28.6% from a year earlier.
The shortfall in the current account
was at $10.1bn for the July-September
quarter, the largest since June 2013,
the latest central bank data show. It
had widened to a record $88.2bn in
the 12 months ended March 2013.
“If oil prices average around $65 a
barrel in the year ending March 2016,
India will see significant savings, with
the current account possibly turning
into surplus,” Goswami said.
“That would boost liquidity and
could have a positive impact on the
currency, which in turn will enable
the RBI to cut interest rates further.”
The rupee sank to a record 68.845 a
dollar in August 2013 amid a sell-off
in emerging-market nations with
current-account deficits after the
Federal Reserve signaled it was ready
to taper US stimulus. A 75-basis
point reduction in the repo rate this
year would be the biggest annual
decrease since 2009.
The currency, which slid 2% in 2014
to complete a fourth straight year of
losses, has strengthened 2.3% this
year to 61.5950 a dollar, the biggest
advance in Asia. The 10-year yield
has fallen 15 basis points, or 0.15
percentage point, to 7.71%.
The ICICI Prudential Long Term Plan
had 98.2% of its assets in government
bonds maturing between 2024 and
2033 as of Dec. 31, according to the
fund’s factsheet.
The 8.60% notes maturing in 2028
made up 75.2% of the assets, the
document showed, while the 8.4%
debt due in 2024, the current Indian
10-year benchmark, formed 11.5%.
Last year’s rally in local bonds was
aided by a record $26bn of foreign
purchases of rupee-denominated
corporate and sovereign debt. Global
funds have added another $2bn to
their holdings this year.
“For a reasonable period of time, we
have continued to remain positive on
duration and with oil prices coming
down, our conviction has only
strengthened,” Goswami said.
Philippines faces threat of
unequal economic growth
Reuters
Manila
T
he Philippines may surpass
China to be Asia’s fastest growing economy this year, but its
bigger challenge is working out how
to sustain and share the gains of the
past five years to secure longer-term
prosperity.
Since President Benigno Aquino
came to power in 2010 and embarked
on a reform and governance push, the
Philippines has become a hot investment favourite and one of the fastestgrowing economies in the world.
Investors now want to know how
the Southeast Asian country will be
able to sustain fiscal and economic
policies that have spurred growth and
reduced poverty after Aquino’s term
ends next year.
“We think that 2016 is critical in
terms of the long-term outlook of the
Philippines,” said Eugenia Victorino
at ANZ bank.
The Philippines defied the region’s
slowdown in the fourth quarter by
regaining momentum, bringing fullyear growth to 6.1% – the fastest expansion in Asia after China.
This year, Aquino is aiming for
growth of 7-8%, while China’s growth
is expected to slow to around 7%.
Aquino has fought corruption
and prioritised infrastructure improvements that are pivotal to raising growth potential. However, the
economy is still mired with high unemployment.
The World Bank has said Philippine growth is now “more inclusive”,
and there are signs benefits are trickling down. More than one million jobs
were created in 2014 and unemployment fell to 6%, the lowest for at least
a decade.
But job creation has still struggled
to match the number of people looking for work; 42% of the population
still live on less than $2 per day.
Vibrant sectors, such as booming
back-office firms, earn foreign exchange but don’t spread a lot of prosperity. “To have one of those jobs,
you need some skills. At a minimum,
decent command of English and computer literacy, but often a bit more
than that,” said Dan Martin at Capital
Economics. Manufacturing, the sec-
High-rise buildings are seen in Manila. The Philippines defied the region’s slowdown in the fourth quarter by regaining momentum, bringing full-year growth to 6.1%, the
fastest expansion in Asia after China.
tor probably best able to raise productivity and the income of low-skilled
workers, could benefit as low wages
and a competitive currency help the
Philippines grab some of the production that is leaving China because of
rising costs.
Aquino, limited by the constitution to a single term in office, has im-
proved public finances and boosted
investment in roads, ports and schools
through public-private partnerships.
Last summer, wrangles with the
Supreme Court caused a seize-up of
government spending, but it resumed
after Congress passed a supplementary budget in December.
“We’re very hopeful that the Aquino
government will be able to release the
funds to continue with its infrastructure programmes,” said Victorino.
The outlook from mid-2016, following the elections for a new president and half of Congress, is far less
certain.
Poor leadership in the past has
sparked uprisings, large-scale pro-
tests and military revolts, and populist politics have weakened national
finances.
Vincent Lazatin, head of the Transparency and Accountability Network,
a think tank in Manila, reckons it will
take longer than a single presidential
term to entrench good governance and
sound policies.
Cheap energy helps Japan firms improve profits
Bloomberg
Tokyo
T
okyo Electric Power Co and other
Japanese utilities are finding solace in plunging energy prices,
which are offsetting a drag on earnings
from a weaker yen and the absence of
nuclear power capacity.
Tokyo Electric, operator of the
wrecked Fukushima Dai-Ichi atomic
station, yesterday said operating profit
rose 29% in the first nine months of
its fiscal year after cutting costs and
fuel expenses. Chubu and Chugoku
regional utilities returned to profit;
Hokkaido’s power provider narrowed
its net loss.
“The purchase of additional fossil
fuels has impacted the utilities greatly,”
said Yutaka Miki, who studies energy
issues at the Japan Research Institute.
“They’d been faced with the weak yen
and high oil cost. So at least the drop in
oil prices, in theory, could help cut their
losses or move into the black.” Lower
fuel costs offer Japan’s regional power
utilities a respite from several years of
mounting losses after turning off nuclear generation since the Fukushima
disaster in March 2011.
All of Japan’s 48 operable reactors remain shuttered pending safety reviews
and approvals.
Underscoring nuclear’s contribution
to the bottom line, Kansai Electric Power Co, the Japanese utility most reliant
on atomic power, reported a widening
of its net loss to 66.6bn yen ($566mn)
from a year earlier when it had two nuclear reactors running. Kansai’s electricity sales fell 5% due to a cooler summer in 2014.
The Osaka-based utility and operator
of the Ohi nuclear plant in western Japan also widened its loss forecast for the
year, saying it now expects a deficit of
¥161bn for the 12 months ending March
31. Kansai cited changes in Japan’s corporate tax rate for the widening.
Kyushu Electric Power Co, which is
edging forward to resume operations
at its Sendai nuclear plant in southern
Japan, widened its net loss to ¥77.8bn
in the period from 59.09bn yen even as
sales rose 5.1% in the period.
Utilities less dependent on nuclear
generation saw results that were markedly better. Net income at Tohoku
Electric Power Co gained fivefold to
¥70.7bn. Hokuriku Electric Power Co’s
profit more than doubled to ¥10bn.
For the nation’s biggest power utility,
known as Tepco, net income fell 77% to
¥180bn from a year ago when it received
a government injection into its fund for
payouts related to the Fukushima disaster in March 2011.
“In spite of the suspension of all nuclear power stations improvements of
thermal efficiency and using less expensive fuel limited the influence of
increasing fuel expenses resulted from
yen depreciation,” Tepco said in a statement. In Tepco’s case, the utility reported a 3.7% drop in electricity sales
volume for the nine months because
customers used their air conditioners
less during Japan’s summer. As a result,
thermal power generation fell, contrib-
uting to a 4.5% drop in fuel expenses.
The utility also improved thermal efficiency, it said. Tepco’s annual profit
forecast was unchanged at ¥521bn.
There’s a good chance Tepco will raise
its annual profit forecast within a couple of months, helped by the lower fuel
prices, said Hidetoshi Shioda, an analyst with SMBC Nikko Securities Inc.
“You have the drop in oil fuel costs coming first,” with a corresponding decline
in electricity tariffs lagging behind,
Shioda said. “The April to June quarter
will be the peak of earnings before they
drop off a bit from July,” a trend that will
become more pronounced as the year
goes on, he said.
Tepco, which serves 29mn customers
in the Tokyo metropolitan area, vowed
in December to reduce costs this fiscal year by ¥837bn through measures
including minimizing its use of oil in
favor of cheaper fuels. Japan’s 10 regional power companies boosted their
consumption of LNG by almost 2% to a
record 5.37mn metric tonnes in December, according to industry data released
earlier this month. Coal use rose 2.6%,
while oil consumption dropped 20%.
Any gains from the decline in oil prices - crude is trading at six year lows are complicated by the fact that the fuel
is traded in US dollars. That means that
while the utility receives a break when
fuel costs drop, it also ends up paying
more when the Japanese currency loses
in value.
The drop in oil prices will echo in
LNG prices, but with a three-month
lag, Tepco Managing Director Katsuyuki Sumiyoshi said at a briefing in
Tokyo. This means the biggest impact
from lower oil prices will translate into
Tepco’s mostly gas-fired generation
next fiscal year starting April 1, he said.
To compensate for the absence of nuclear power, other utilities have raised
rates and embarked on cost cuts.
Tepco, Kansai Electric, Chubu Electric and three other utilities plan to raise
electricity rates because the weaker yen
is having a bigger impact than the reduction in fuel prices, the Mainichi
newspaper reported this week.
Gulf Times
Tuesday, February 3, 2015
17
BUSINESS
Nykredit
not to issue
mortgage
bonds with
negative
rates
Reuters
Copenhagen
D
Lorries queue at the cement dispensing outlet at the CRH quarry in west Dublin. Lafarge and Holcim said the assets to be sold to CRH mainly comprised operations in Europe, Canada, Brazil and the Philippines,
and generated about €5.2bn in revenue and €744mn in earnings last year.
CRH buys $7.3bn assets
from Holcim-Lafarge
Bloomberg
Dublin
C
RH Plc agreed to buy €6.5bn
($7.3bn) of cement assets from
Holcim Ltd and Lafarge SA as
the Irish company saw its rivals’ need
to divest businesses to meet merger demands as an opportunity to grab market share.
The assets to be sold to CRH, mainly
comprised of operations in Europe,
Canada, Brazil and the Philippines,
generated about €5.2bn in revenue and
€744mn in earnings last year, Lafarge
and Holcim said in a joint statement
yesterday.
The deal dwarfs any of CRH’s acquisitions thus far. The Dublin-based
building-materials supplier fine-tuned
a strategy of making bolt-on acquisitions to grow at a steady pace, refraining from the flurry of mega debtfuelled deals in the mid-2000s that
Holcim, Lafarge, Cemex SAB engaged
in to spur rapid growth globally. CRH
stock rose the most in a year.
“It’s really a great fit for us,” chief executive officer Albert Manifold said on
a call. “Not all of these assets are going
to remain long term in our group.”
By holding its nerve and not joining
the spending bonanza that preceded
the financial crisis, CRH has been able
to step in and buy assets when valuations aren’t as overheated as they were
then, the CEO said. It will be required
to take a minority partner in the Philippines, and is talks with KKR & Co regarding some UK assets.
CRH shares gained €1.17, or 5.5%,
to €22.49 as of 8:26am, their biggest
intraday advance since February 25.
Holcim added 2.4%, and Lafarge was
up 1.1%.
The purchase is expected to boost
adjusted earnings per share by about
25%, with a return on equity in the
high-teen percentages in 2016, CRH
said. It’s paying €2bn in cash and planning a 9.99% share placing to institutional investors. The stake sale will
be organized and managed by UBS, JP
Morgan Securities, Merrill Lynch International and J&E Davy.
The Irish company is looking to get
€90mn in savings in the third year of
ownership. It expects net debt to reach
3.2 times Ebitda “in the short term.”
“We really are buying these businesses at the right time,” Manifold
said. “Buying these businesses at this
point of the cycle, with trough margins,
trough earnings and very low cost financing, puts us in a very good position
to create value.”
For Holcim and Lafarge, the sale removes the final major hurdle in the way
of the two companies’ plan to combine
cement- and crushed-rock operations
with $40bn in annual revenue. The
companies expect the merger, agreed
in April last year, to be completed in the
first half, once Holcim shareholders approve the deal at a meeting and Lafarge
investors tender their shares.
They represent “the vast majority of
the divestments” needed for antitrust
approval, Holcim chief executive officer Bernard Fontana said on a conference call today. Holcim and Lafarge are
still waiting for regulatory clearances in
the US, Canada, India, Mauritius and
Ecuador, and can get approval postmerger in Indonesia, he said. The plan
to merge Jona, Switzerland-based Holcim and Paris- based Lafarge to create
the world’s biggest cement maker was
approved last year by the European
Union and subject to the sale of overlapping operations in more than half a
dozen countries.
CRH, which can cut costs from overlapping businesses, competed against
bidders including a group formed by
Cinven and Blackstone Group, people
familiar with the matter have said.
Holcim and Lafarge were advised
by Credit Suisse Group AG and HSBC
Holdings Plc as well as BNP Paribas
and Morgan Stanley. CRH worked with
UBS, Bank of America Merrill Lynch,
JPMorgan Chase & Co, and Davy and
Goodbody.
enmark’s Nykredit said
yesterday it would not
issue new mortgagebacked bonds at negative interest rates because it is unclear
how such bonds should be handled.
Recent central bank actions
taking interest rates well below
zero have raised the question of
whether mortgage borrowers
should receive interest on their
loans if rates turn negative.
“The approach to negative
rates is a question of fundamental mortgage industry principles.
The main question is whether
borrowers should get money for
borrowing money,” divisional
vice-president at Nykredit Sune
Worm Mortensen said in a statement.
“...As the matter remains unresolved, we do not wish to issue one-year and two-year reset
ARMs (adjustable rate mortgages) with negative interest rates.”
Nykredit, one of the largest
private bond issuers in Europe,
called for a market consultation
on how to handle such bonds,
which help finance Danish mortgages. Yields on outstanding
bonds have turned negative after
a series of central bank rate cuts.
Denmark’s central bank cut its
deposit rate three times in January, deeper into negative territory, to -0.5% — effectively charging banks to park their money
securely with the central bank.
The Danish mortgage backed
bond market is Europe’s second
biggest after Germany.
“Nykredit believes that the
question of how to address negative rates is an industry challenge that should also be seen
from a longer-term perspective,”
the lender said. “The objective
must be to find a widely recognised and robust solution covering all loan types.”
On top of cutting deposit
rates three times in less than two
weeks, the Danish central bank
said on Friday it had halted new
government bond sales until
further notice.
Pressure had been building
on Denmark’s crown since the
Swiss National Bank abandoned
its currency cap and let the
franc surge against the euro on
January 15. The European Central Bank’s new bond-buying
scheme has also helped weaken
the euro broadly.
Nykredit stressed that its decision will not affect existing
customers with one-year and
two-year reset adjustable-rate
mortgages, as negative rates are
still not relevant to them because
of the refinancing price spread.
Amazon is breaking out cloud revenue. Why aren’t you?
Bloomberg
New York
A
mazon.com’s plan to divulge its cloud-business
revenue is putting pressure
on competitors to follow suit.
In its next quarterly earnings report, the company plans to make
Amazon Web Services a separate
category, showing investors that
it’s the cloud market leader. The
move follows a shift by Oracle
Corp, which in June began breaking
out results from its cloud-computing offerings.
Cloud, where customers rent
server space to store and run applications on the Internet, is promoted as the future of the technology industry - but companies
haven’t made it easy to gauge the
competition. For some companies, cloud-computing revenue is
counted with unrelated products
and lumped into ambiguouslynamed divisions; others include
hardware sales or metrics that are
tallied separately from income
statements.
“Investors are laser focused on
the health of the cloud business
for larger tech players as this is a
golden market opportunity that
can be a major catalyst to growth,”
said Daniel Ives, an analyst at FBR
& Co Breaking out cloud revenue is
“a major step in the right direction
and has helped with transparency
around this all-important growth
engine.”
Here are how a handful of technology companies report the increasingly important cloud numbers:
AMAZON: Amazon Web Services has traditionally been put into
“North America, Other,” which includes advertising services and cobranded credit card agreements.
Last year, the category produced
$5.4bn in sales, according to a
company statement Thursday.
AWS has become a big deal strategically for the online retailer, embedding its technology with businesses and consumers who need
cloud-computing infrastructure.
While already dubbed the leader by
Synergy Research Group in public
cloud infrastructure, next quarter
Amazon intends to prove with its
standalone cloud number just how
significant a player it is.
“We just think it’s an appropriate way to look at our business in
2015,” Amazon Chief Financial Officer Tom Szkutak said.
ORACLE: the software maker
has arguably given the most clarity on cloud sales among its en-
terprise technology peers - and
it’s not afraid to say so. The company in June began breaking out
infrastructure-as-a-service and a
combined software and platform
offerings delivered as a service.
In the six months after the accounting change ended in Nov. 30,
revenue totaled $698mn for software and platform offerings and
$293mn for infrastructure.
“As the cloud revenue has grown
larger and more significant, we’ve
gone ahead and disclosed them on
the face of our income statements,”
then-CFO Safra Catz said on a June
earnings call, asking analysts and
investors to pull out the financial
document so she could walk them
through the changes.
IBM: International Business
Machines Corp is quick to claim
cloud leadership with a sticker
number of $7bn in sales last year.
“I think that kind of puts us at
the forefront of cloud in the cloud
industry and the cloud space,” CFO
Martin Schroeter said on a January
20 earnings conference call.
That $7bn, which is not reported as a line-item on the income
statement, also includes software,
hardware and services to build private clouds. The “as-a-service”
business, which is only technology
delivered online and more compa-
rable to its peers, had a $3.5bn annual run rate at the end of 2014.
MICROSOFT: Another player
who combines different business
products into one number is Microsoft Corp The Windows Azure
cloud offering, as well as cloudbased Office 365 and Dynamics
CRM, all get lumped in to the same
category.
Similar to IBM, the company
does break out an annualised run
rate metric for its commercial
cloud: $5.5bn.
H E W L E T T- PA C K A R D :
Hewlett-Packard Co sells cloudbased products in what it calls
the Enterprise Group. The company doesn’t give a separate cloud
number in its financial statements.
RACKSPACE: Founded in
1998, managed cloud services
provider Rackspace Hosting Inc
breaks out net revenue for dedicated cloud and public cloud offerings. Respectively, net sales came
in at about $1.2bn and $509mn
in the past four reported quarters
through September.
SALESFORCE: About 94% of
what Salesforce.com sells is cloudbased technology for businesses,
which is tallied as “Subscription
and support” revenue. That totalled $4.7bn in the past four reported quarters through October.
Employees pack items to be shipped from the Amazon.com distribution centre in Phoenix,
Arizona. In its next quarterly earnings report, Amazon.com plans to make web services a
separate category, showing investors that it’s the cloud market leader.
18
Gulf Times
Tuesday, February 3, 2015
BUSINESS
Danish central
bank should
keep euro peg,
says CEO of
Novo Nordisk
Bloomberg
Geneva
A
A customer operates an ATM outside a Bankia branch in Madrid. Intense discussions were continuing between Bankia and its majority shareholder, the Spanish state, on how to
share the burden of an ill-fated share sale in 2011, sources said.
Bankia compensation bill for
IPO losses seen at $570mn
Bill may not be as big as
initially foreseen; Bankia,
state in talks over burden
sharing agreement; treasury
ministry opposes any deal
that costs taxpayers money;
accord expected in next few
days
Reuters
Madrid
T
he bill for compensating
small investors that bought
into Spanish lender Bankia’s ill-fated share sale in 2011
should not be more than €500mn
($570mn) and will probably be
split between the state and the
bank, three sources familiar with
the matter said yesterday.
They said intense discussions
were continuing between Bankia
and its majority shareholder, the
Spanish state, on how to share
the burden and a deal was expected in “the next few days”.
However, a spokeswoman
for the treasury ministry said it
“would oppose anything that
would cost taxpayers money”.
Last week the bank postponed
publication of its 2014 results
while it awaits a decision.
Bankia, created from the
merger of seven regional savings
banks, was floated on the stock
market in July 2011 after raising
some €3bn, including €1.8bn
from the sale of shares to hundreds of thousands of the bank’s
individual customers.
Less than a year later the bank
had to be bailed out by the government, wiping out those investments.
The lender returned to profit
in 2013 but a long-running court
investigation into whether the
flotation prospectus misled potential investors has dogged its
recovery.
According to one of the sources, those Bankia shareholders
still interested in seeking compensation have already sought
a total of about €100mn but the
bill is expected to keep rising to
at least €300mn.
The other two sources, both
involved in the discussions, said
the final cost was not expected
to go beyond €500mn because
many shareholders had already
sold their shares.
The economy ministry, which
controls Spain’s bank restructuring fund FROB, and Bankia
declined to comment.
While the total theoretical
risk for the lender is €1.8bn, the
amount minority shareholders
bought in the flotation, investors’ association Asinver said
only a small portion of investors
would seek compensation.
“Many want to move on and
are not keen to invest time and
money in the judicial process,”
said Javier Flores, head of analysis at Asinver.
He estimates that the final
cost could total €300mn. However, other bodies representing
investors believe the litigation
could yield up to €1bn.
The range of €300mn to
€500mn would translate into a
0.03 to 0.05% hit for Spain’s annual public spending deficit if
the bill was to be fully assumed
by the state.
Bankia, which is on course
to post a €1bn profit for 2014,
would also be able to weather the
hit financially but it would make
it more difficult to complete its
authorised restructuring plan in
2015 and start paying a dividend.
“All in all, a €500mn charge
would have a negative impact of
56 basis points in the bank’s capital (solvency) ratios and may restrain the instatement of a cash
dividend policy for the group in
2015,” said BPI analysts in a note
yesterday.
Shares in Bankia were down
4% yesterday.
decision by the Danish
central bank to drop the
country’s currency peg
would hurt Novo Nordisk and
force the world’s largest insulin
maker to rethink strategy, chief
executive officer Lars Rebien
Soerensen said.
Denmark is under pressure
to cut the link with the euro
after the Swiss National Bank’s
surprise decision on January 15 to abandon the cap on
the franc-euro exchange rate,
which roiled markets. The Nordic country cut its deposit rate
three times in 10 days, seeking to deter speculation it may
abandon the peg.
Doing so would put Danish
companies in a similar situation
to Swiss ones, the Novo Nordisk
CEO said. Novartis, the world’s
biggest drug maker, said earlier this week it will need to cut
costs in its home country as the
franc’s gains threaten to erode
profit in 2015. Costs denominated in francs are 15% higher
now in euro terms than at the
start of the year.
“Any move like we’ve seen
in Switzerland would not be
very advantageous to Novo
Nordisk and we would have
to adjust our outlook,” Rebien
Soerensen said in an interview
with Bloomberg Television on
Sunday. A dropped peg “would
force us to look at our productivity, cost picture and the like.
It would be a replay of the Swiss
situation.”
Geneva-based SGS, the
world’s largest product-inspection company, has said it may
move some operations abroad.
Still, current exchange rates
against the krone are so favourable that Novo Nordisk expects
them to help add 19 percentage
points to operating profit this
year, according to a forecast
made on Monday. The dol-
Soerensen: Apprehensive.
lar has gained 19% against the
krone in the past year, boosting
the value of sales from the US
when translated into the Danish currency.
Separately, the 60-year-old
CEO denied press reports that
said he could step down as soon
as this year. Danish newspaper
Berlingske said December 29
he’s unlikely to remain in the
job through the end of his contract in 2019.
“It’s a non-story,” Rebien
Soerensen said yesterday, calling the reports “rumours.”
“I have all intention of fulfilling my contract,” he said. “I
still have another four years, I
feel reasonably energised and
excited about leading the company. There is no news on that
front.” It’s normal for a board
of directors to discuss succession planning ahead of time, he
added.
Novo Nordisk earlier today
reported fourth-quarter profit
that beat analysts’ estimates,
helped by currency swings and
higher sales of its Victoza diabetes therapies. In a statement,
the Danish drugmaker reiterated a forecast for an increase
of about 10% in operating profit this year, excluding currency
shifts.
“I look forward to the exciting years ahead,” Rebien Soerensen said.
CORPORATE RESULTS
ExxonMobil profits drop on lower oil prices, output
However, costs also fell 18.4% to $78.4bn, reflecting
the benefit of lower crude oil costs to refining.
Exxon’s annual profits were $32.5bn, down 0.2%
from 2013.
Julius Baer
ExxonMobil yesterday reported a fall in quarterly
earnings, weighed down by the big drop in oil
prices as well as lower petroleum output and weak
US refining.
The biggest US oil company said fourth-quarter net
income was $6.6bn, down 21.3% from the year-ago
period.
Drivers of the decline included a 19.4% slide in
exploration and production profits due to lower oil
prices and a 3.8% drop in oil and gas production.
Exxon also reported a $1mn loss in US downstream
earnings, citing poor refining margins in the region.
The weak areas were offset somewhat by a rise in
non-US refining profits and higher global chemical
profits. Those divisions had lower costs due to the
fall in oil prices.
The Exxon earnings came as oil companies such as
Chevron and ConocoPhillips cut drilling budgets
due to a steep decline in oil prices that has pressured earnings. Oil prices have fallen about 60%
since June.
“ExxonMobil’s results illustrate the value of our
proven business model that integrates upstream,
downstream, and chemical businesses,” said Exxon
chief executive Rex Tillerson.
“Our balanced portfolio uniquely positions ExxonMobil to deliver superior results throughout the
commodity price cycle.”
Exxon announced no capital spending cuts yesterday. The company is expected to update the market
on its plans at a March 4 analyst meeting.
Exxon’s earnings translated into $1.56 per share,
above the $1.34 projected by Wall Street analysts.
Revenues dropped more than 20% compared with
last year to $87.3bn, demonstrating the impact from
lower crude prices on oil pumped from the ground.
Swiss bank Julius Baer plans to cut around 100mn
Swiss francs ($107mn) of costs, including about 200
jobs, it said yesterday, blaming the recent surge in
the Swiss currency.
The value of the safe-haven franc rocketed last
month after the Swiss National Bank unexpectedly
ended its currency cap on the euro. Switzerland’s
banks in particular are expected to be hard hit,
because the bulk of their spending is in francs.
Private bank Julius Baer, which employs around
5,250 staff worldwide, said it aimed to cut both
personnel and general costs. It will axe jobs mainly
in mid- and back-office positions, the majority of
them in Switzerland.
It expects to achieve most of its savings this year, it
said, as it published full-year financial results.
Zurich-based Baer said adjusted net profit in 2014
rose 22% to 586mn francs, below expectations of
603mn francs in a Reuters poll of analysts.
Net new money — fresh funds from wealthy clients
— rose 5%, within its target of 4 to 6%. Assets under
management stood at 291bn francs at the end of
2014.
The bank raised its dividend to 1 franc per share
from 0.60 francs and affirmed its medium-term
targets, which include a cost-to-income ratio of
65-70%.
“Despite the miss in net profit ... shareholders will
welcome Julius Baer’s increased payout and management’s commitment to maintain a cost/income
ratio of around 70%,” J Safra Sarasin analyst Rainer
Skierka, who has a “buy” rating on the stock, wrote
in a note.
At 0901 GMT, Julius Baer shares were up 6.9%,
outperforming the European banking index which
was down 0.6%.
The bank also said it had decided to go ahead with
renewing its IT global platforms and had selected
Temenos to begin planning for its core banking
platform replacement.
Julius Baer Chief Executive Boris Collardi said he
expected the renewal would take five years.
The bank will start the process in Asia due to the
importance of market, the complex regulatory
environment there and to begin the renewal in a
non-franc region, he told journalists. Julius Baer has
not disclosed how much the renewal will cost.
Collardi also said he was confident the bank would
resolve this year a US probe for allegedly helping
wealthy Americans to evade taxes with hidden
offshore accounts.
Imperial Oil
Imperial Oil Ltd, Canada’s second-largest integrated
oil producer and refiner, posted a 36.5% fall in
quarterly profit, hurt by lower crude prices as well
as weaker refining and marketing margins.
The company, majority-owned by Exxon Mobil
Corp, expects to spend about C$4bn ($3.2bn) in
2015, 29% less than 2014, and said it would closely
monitor operating costs and capital investments.
Imperial Oil joins a list of Canadian and US oil and
gas producers who have scaled back capital spending plans for 2015, following a sharp decline in oil
prices over the past six months.
Crude prices have tumbled by more than half since
June, with the average price for benchmark Brent
in the October-December quarter down 30% from
a year earlier.
Imperial Oil’s net income also fell to C$671mn, or
79 Canadian cents per share, in the fourth quarter
ended December 31 from C$1.06bn, or C$1.24 per
share, a year earlier.
Profit was, however, higher than the 76¢ per share
analysts on average had estimated. The Calgarybased company’s revenue fell 4% to C$8.03bn.
The company said total production fell 4% to average 315,000 barrels of oil equivalent per day.
Synthetic crude selling prices fell 10.5% to an
average of C$82.04 per barrel, while the average
realized price for bitumen fell about 1.8% to C$52.37
per barrel.
Imperial Oil said it had almost completed the
expansion project at its Kearl oil sands mine in
northern Alberta, and that it now expects start-up
in the third quarter, roughly three months ahead of
its previous forecast.
Bitumen production from the project, which was
recently opened, rose 27% to 66,000 barrels per
day. About 47,000 bpd was Imperial’s share.
However, that is much less than the mine’s capacity
to produce 110,000 bpd, a mark it has often struggled to meet.
The mine was shut for about three weeks in November after a “vibration issue” was detected in the
facility’s ore-crushing unit.
Gulf Times
Tuesday, February 3, 2015
19
BUSINESS
BA owner offers route pledge to Dublin in Aer Lingus bid
Reuters
London
B
IAG yesterday said it would offer legally binding
commitments to continue using the slots operated by Aer
Lingus between London’s Heathrow Airport and Ireland
for five years
ritish Airways’s owner committed to
serving London to Ireland routes for
five years yesterday in a bid to win
backing from the Irish government for its
takeover of partly state-owned airline Aer
Lingus.
Aer Lingus’s board last month recommended an improved €1.36bn ($1.5bn)
offer from International Airlines Group
subject to the agreement of its two largest
shareholders, budget airline Ryanair and
the Irish state.
Under pressure from Aer Lingus’s trade
unions and opponents in parliament, resistance is building within the government
in Dublin to parting with its 25% holding,
with worries that a takeover could reduce
connectivity between Ireland and London.
IAG said in a statement it would offer
legally binding commitments to continue
using the slots operated by Aer Lingus
between London’s capacity constrained-
Heathrow Airport and Ireland for five
years.
The offer appeared to fall short of demands made by Irish Prime Minister Enda
Kenny, who said on Sunday that the suitor
must provide some sort of “cast-iron permanent guarantee” on flights to Ireland for
the government to even consider a bid.
IAG said its proposals would offer a commitment from Aer Lingus that the government was not in a position to secure itself.
“In seeking the support of the Irish
government, we propose to offer it legally
binding commitments that go well beyond
the protections currently available to it,”
IAG’s chief executive Willie Walsh said.
A takeover would give IAG more take-off
and landing slots at Heathrow, BA’s home
base and a major European hub for international flights.
IAG’s commitments, would be subject
to Irish takeover rules and EU competition reviews, the British-based company
added. The IAG statement did not address
government concerns about possible job
losses at Aer Lingus.
Greece PM rules out aid from
Russia, argues case in Europe
Finance minister takes case to Paris,
London; Germany’s Schaeuble
rejects unilateral change to debt
deal; new government vows to keep
election promise to reject austerity
Reuters
Nicosia/London
G
reek Prime Minister Alexis
Tsipras ruled out seeking aid
from Russia and said yesterday
he would pursue negotiations for a new
debt agreement with European partners, but saw little sign of compromise
from Germany.
Tsipras and his finance minister Yanis
Varoufakis are touring European capitals this week in a diplomatic offensive
to replace Greece’s bailout accord with
the European Union, European Central
Bank and International Monetary Fund
“troika”.
After a tumultuous first week during which his left-leaning government
made clear it intends to keep campaign
promises to ditch the tough austerity
conditions imposed under its existing
bailout, the emphasis this week appears
to be on maintaining that a deal is still
possible.
“We are in substantial negotiations
with our partners in Europe and those
that have lent to us. We have obligations
towards them,” Tsipras said at a news
conference in Cyprus during his first
foreign visit as prime minister.
“Right now, there are no other
thoughts on the table,” he said, when
asked whether Greece would seek aid
from Russia, which has suggested it
could be willing to listen to a request for
support from Athens.
The remarks on Russia could reassure
EU partners shocked last week when the
Tsipras government initially appeared to
reject the bloc’s consensus on economic sanctions against Moscow. Greece
eventually signed up last on Thursday
to extending existing sanctions against
Russia for six more months.
Greece, unable to borrow on the
markets and facing pressure to extend
the current support agreement when it
expires on February 28, is looking for a
bridging agreement that would give it
breathing space to propose a new debt
arrangement.
It has so far met a tough line from European partners, above all from Germany. German Finance Minister Wolfgang
Schaeuble told Reuters in an interview
yesterday that Berlin would not accept
any unilateral changes to Greece’s debt
programme.
“We want Greece to continue going
Greece’s Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras (left) with Cypriot President Nicos Anastasiades before a meeting at the presidential palace in Nicosia yesterday. Tsipras and his
finance minister Yanis Varoufakis are touring European capitals this week in a diplomatic offensive to replace Greece’s bailout accord with the European Union, European
Central Bank and International Monetary Fund.
down this successful path in the interests of Greece and the Greeks but we
will not accept one-sided changes to the
programme,” he said at the Reuters Euro
Zone Summit.
Tsipras repeated calls already made
by his finance minister Varoufakis for
the mechanism of inspectors from the
“troika” overseeing Greek finances to be
dismantled and replaced by direct negotiations between Athens and its EU and
IMF partners.
“I believe that this would be a mature
and necessary development for Europe,”
he said.
Germany responded that the troika
controls were agreed as part of the bailout and should remain in place.
“The German government sees no
reason to scrap this mechanism of evaluation by the troika,” Finance Ministry
spokeswoman Christiane Wirtz said in
Berlin.
To some degree, both sides are posturing ahead of what is certain to be difficult negotiations. The Greeks appear
to be searching for more sympathetic
ears first, before meeting the Germans.
Varoufakis, a pugnacious economist
who has likened EU austerity policies to
“waterboarding”, has been arriving for
meetings with besuited European leaders in a black coat and untucked, opencollared shirt. He began in Paris over the
weekend, where the centre-left government is thought to be more sympathetic
than others to the case for relaxing lending conditions.
French Finance Minister Michel Sapin
said after meeting Varoufakis that Athens could not expect a straight debt
write-off, but left the door open to other
options that include giving Athens more
time for repayment.
Varoufakis’s next stop was in London
yesterday, where he was due to meet
about 100 banks and financial institutions. A Greek government source said
he planned to tell the private sector investors that they had nothing to worry
about.
“We will be able to service the Greek
debt on terms that will have no detrimental impact on, especially private,
bond holders,” said the source who
spoke on condition of anonymity due to
the sensitivity of the matter.
Varoufakis also met British officials,
seeking more European allies, although
Britain is not a member of the eurozone.
“It is clear that the stand-off between
Greece and the eurozone is the greatest
risk to the global economy,” Britain’s
finance minister, George Osborne, said
after their meeting.
“I urge the Greek finance minister to
act responsibly but it’s also important
that the eurozone has a better plan for
jobs and growth,” Osborne said.
Today, Tsipras will meet Italy’s Prime
Minister Matteo Renzi, another young
centre-left leader who is thought to be
among those most sympathetic to calls
for leniency.
He sees European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker and French
President Francois Hollande tomorrow.
So far no date has been set for a meeting
with German Chancellor Angela Merkel, although they will meet at a European summit on February 12. Exactly
how much time Greece has to reach a
deal with its creditors remains to be
seen. In theory, there are only weeks
left: once its bailout expires at the end
of February, the European Central Bank
could be obliged to pull the plug on
funding for Greek banks. In practice,
however, an alternative interim funding
mechanism for the banks could possibly be found.
After that, Greece has large debt payments due in March, although officials
say it could have enough cash on hand to
meet them, avoiding a crunch until later
in the spring.
Despite German resistance to the idea
of a new deal on Greece, Tsipras said the
tide of debate in Europe had been unexpectedly encouraging for Athens, with
more and more backing for the idea of a
change of direction in Europe.
“I never expected that there would
be such strong forces helping the new
government create a new framework
and set a new course, not only about
Greece but Europe as a whole, because
Europe is in a crisis,” he said.
Spanish minister
rejects easing debt
rules for Greece
Spain’s Budget Minister Cristobal Montoro yesterday rejected
any notion of the European
Union “changing the rules” over
Greece’s bailout, noting Spain
had respected similar austerity imposed by international
creditors.
The declaration came as
members of Greece’s new leftist
government toured European
capitals to make a plea for renegotiating conditions attached
to its €240bn ($270bn) rescue
package.
Though some countries have
been sympathetic to the new
Greek appeal for debt relief
— with US President Barack
Obama supporting the idea on
Sunday — nations like Germany
and Spain have insisted that
Greece’s new Syriza-led government respect the deal signed by
its predecessors.
“Joining Europe is voluntary,
and we belong to that club on
the condition we respect the
club’s rules, because it is in
everyone’s interest we do so,”
Montoro told Spain’s public
television channel TVE.
“Europe is not the European
Commission, nor the European
Central Bank. We are Europe
— the countries that compose
it — and we are the ones who
established the rules.”
Montoro said Greece needed
to respect the reforms and
austerity bailout terms Athens
had agreed with international
creditors “as we did”.
He said it was too easy for
new governments to come to
power in times of economic
pain with promises to increase
spending that earlier leaders
had renounced with long-term
interest in mind.
“We would all like to govern
that way. But the question is,
where will this money come
from? From Greeks? From other
Europeans? Who will be providing this money? That is the
question,” he insisted.
Spain’s ruling conservatives
have credited their austerity
programme for the return of
modest growth after six years
of brutal recession — a fiscal
hardline the government has
stuck to despite rising public
discontent.
But despite that revival in economic activity, unemployment
in Spain remains at a dizzying
23.7%, and public services like
education and health care have
been hard hit by spending cuts.
Both the government and
opposition Socialists face an
election-packed calendar in
2015 fraught with risk, as the
hard-left Syriza-allied Podemos
party continues to gain backing
in Spanish opinion polls.
ECB bond-buying plan has investors questioning how it works
Bloomberg
Frankfurt
M
ario Draghi’s trillion-euro
puzzle is missing some key
pieces.
When the European Central Bank
president announced a programme on
January 22 to buy €60bn ($68bn) of assets a month for at least 19 months to
avert deflation, he surprised investors
with the size of the stimulus.
He also provided more details than
anticipated. Yet analysts poring over
the ECB’s statements are finding that
several critical points remain unclear.
“The ECB had to present a lot of details right from the beginning as they
wouldn’t have been credible without
them,” said Johannes Gareis, an economist at Natixis in Frankfurt. “What
is missing somewhat is the fine print,
which might have quite an impact on
the implementation.”
Here’s what the ECB has and hasn’t
revealed about Europe-style quantitative easing. What will the asset mix be?
The ECB’s monthly spending will
include its existing programmes to buy
covered bonds and asset-backed secu-
rities. Of the added purchases, Draghi
said 12% will be debt issued by European Union institutions and agencies,
and the rest will be government bonds.
The question is: how much does the
ECB envisage spending on each type of
asset?
Draghi also said officials will buy
bonds with maturities from 2 years to
30 years, without specifying an average
target that could affect yield curves and
borrowing costs.
And while the central bank said eligible debt includes inflation-linked
bonds, floating-rate notes and securities with a negative yield, it hasn’t given
any indication of what the breakdown
of purchases might be. How transparent will the purchasing be?
The ECB hasn’t said much about
the mechanics of QE. When it bought
sovereign debt from 2010 to 2012 under its now-halted, and far smaller,
Securities Markets Program, it dipped
into the market without prior announcement. ABS and covered-bond
purchases are carried out by external
asset managers.
Those strategies contrast with the
Federal Reserve, which issued a calendar for when it would make purchases
under its QE programmes and what
type of securities it would buy.
A public calendar would “ensure
greater transparency and minimize
market distortion,” said Riccardo Barbieri Hermitte, chief European economist at Mizuho International Plc in
London. How transparent will reporting be?
The ECB said transactions “will be
published in a weekly report which will
list holdings at amortized cost by asset
type.” That’s already the case for ABS
and covered-bond buying.
For the sovereign debt and agency
bonds bought under QE, the ECB will
also release a monthly report with the
amounts held and the weighted-average remaining maturity by issuer residence. How will the ECB calculate its
self-imposed limits?
The central bank plans to hold a
maximum of 33% of any country’s outstanding debt and less than 25% of any
specific bond issue. What’s not clear is
how it’ll measure that.
One question is whether it’ll count
the stock of short-term treasury bills
as part of a country’s outstanding debt.
If it does, that increases how much it
can buy before it hits the 33% limit.
How will the ECB treat Greece? Treasury bills are particularly important for
Greece, where the ECB and euro-area
central banks already own about €27bn
of the country’s bonds. That’s 40% of
its outstanding debt excluding treasury
bills, but only 33% if the short-term
debt is included.
Which measure is chosen may be
critical when SMP bonds mature this
year, as it could allow the ECB to buy
Greek debt and help reduce yields in the
nation’s stressed economy.
Even so, this is highly dependent on
how Greece’s newly elected government behaves. Prime Minister Alexis
Tsipras won power on a platform that
includes restructuring the nation’s
debt and rolling back reforms linked to
its bailout package.
Finance Minister Yanis Varoufakis
said late Sunday in Paris that his country won’t take any more aid under its
existing bailout agreement and wants
a new deal with its official creditors.
At the same time, the new government
wants the ECB’s help to keep its banks
afloat, he said, adding that he plans to
travel to Frankfurt to meet with central
bank officials. How will the ECB use the
capital key?
Bond purchases will be made in line
with the ECB’s capital key, or roughly
proportional to the size of each nation’s economy. That means the biggest
share will be German debt, followed by
French, then Italian, and so on.
What is unknown is whether the
capital key will apply to each month, or
over the lifetime of the plan. Might the
ECB choose to front-load purchases
toward particular countries and, if so,
which ones?
In some nations, such as the Baltic countries, the stock of outstanding
debt eligible for QE is small, meaning
the national central bank might not be
able to buy as much as the capital key
allows. Will those countries be able to
buy other national debt, or other asset
classes such as covered bonds?
One consideration is whether the
ECB will let national central banks buy
more than their capital key suggests by
transferring unused allowances from
other countries.
“Much depends on how the ECB sees
the use of capital keys as a flexible upper limit or as a fixed target,” said Lena
Komileva, London-based chief economist at G Plus Economics Ltd How will
QE be evaluated?
While Draghi said QE will run
through September 2016, he also said
it’ll last until the central bank sees “a
sustained adjustment in the path of
inflation” toward the ECB’s goal of just
under 2%. The rate was minus 0.6% in
January, matching the weakest level in
the single currency’s history.
The day after the QE announcement,
Executive Board member Benoit Coeure and Governing Council member
Ignazio Visco said in Bloomberg Television interviews in Davos, Switzerland,
that the programme will be extended if
the results aren’t adequate.
That begs the biggest questions of
all: How will the ECB decide when
enough is enough, and what will it do
when that point is reached? The Fed
‘tapered’ its buying, reducing it over almost a year to ease out of QE as the US
economy improved.
“What matters are the criteria which
will determine whether the ECB accelerates or tapers purchases and there is
very little clarity about that,” said Richard Barwell, an economist at Royal
Bank of Scotland Group Plc. “What
was missing was the sense of urgency in
Draghi’s personal pledge to bring inflation back to the target without delay.”
Tuesday, February 3, 2015
BUSINESS
GULF TIMES
BANKING ON KNOWLEDGE
New easing measures begin as bond yields fall on concerns of growth and inflation
By Dr R Seetharaman
The global bond markets had issues
worth $350bn in 2015. The major issuers in 2015 include Federal Home Loan
Mortgage, Kingdom of Spain, JP Morgan
& Chase and KFW. The total issues were
worth more than $3.77tn and $3.6tn in
2014 and 2013 respectively. Major conventional bond issuers in 2014 included
European Investment bank, KFW and
Republic of Italy.
Treasury yields have been pushing
lower since the beginning of this year,
as negative yields in Europe and worries
about the global economy sinking into
deflation increase the appeal of US debt
as a haven for investors.
The GDP of the US expanded 2.6% in
the fourth quarter, down from 5% in the
third quarter, according to a preliminary
government estimate released by the
Commerce Department. A weaker-than-
expected reading on US economic growth
compressed yields and US 10 year treasury ended last week at 1.64%.
Recently the US Federal Reserve as
reiterated that it will remain patient in
determining when to raise interest rates.
A provisional reading on the eurozone’s
rate of inflation showed it slipped further
into negative territory in January, increasing investors’ fears about deflation.
The yield on the German 10-year bund
lowered to 0.301%, its lowest-ever closing by end of last week. The yield on the
10-year gilt, the United Kingdom’s 10-year
bond, was at a low level of 1.330% by end
of last week.
As part of its Quantitative Easing in
March 2015, the European Central Bank
will become a substantial player in bond
markets, buying €60bn of assets a month
until at least September 2016, or longer
if inflation does not rise. Most of this
will consist of sovereign debt issued by
countries in the eurozone, which can be
close to €5tn.
Debt of countries still in bailout
programmes, such as Greece, can
only be included if they comply with
programme conditions and does not
exceed a cap of 33% of debt issuance. If
banks hold large sums of debt, the ECB
may have a challenge in persuading
them to sell bonds in exchange for cash
when the cash deposit rate is negative.
And if they do opt to sell then what they
do with the proceeds will determine the
success of the scheme. Part of the aim
of the QE is that it encourages investment in riskier assets with higher yields,
such as corporate bonds. But this will
depend on commercial banks increasing their balance sheets and not simply
leaving the proceeds with their national
central banks. The alternative could be
that the ECB approaches asset managers and buys their bonds.
The global sukuk has been so far worth
more than $1.5bn in 2015. The major
Islamic bond issuers in 2015 are Dubai
Islamic Bank and Federal of Malaysia. The
global sukuk market had issues worth
more than $46bn in 2014 and $43bn in
2013 respectively. The major Islamic bond
issuers in 2014 include Islamic development bank, DanaInfra Nassional Bhd and
Tenaq Nasional Bhd.
In 2015 GCC bond issues so far are
worth more than $1bn. The GCC conventional bond issues in 2014 exceeded
$23bn and in 2013 it exceeded $18bn.
In 2015, the GCC sukuk issues are close
to $1bn. The GCC Sukuk issues in 2014
exceeded $18bn and in 2013 it exceeded
$21bn. In 2015 Dubai Islamic Bank issued
$1bn sukuk.
The major conventional bond issues in
2014 were done by Emirate Investment
Authority, Emirate of Abu Dhabi and
Investment Corporation of Dubai. The
Major sukuk issues in 2014 were done
by Saudi Sovereign companies, Emirate of Dubai and National commercial
Bank. Qatar Central Bank issued QR4bn
Conventional bonds in June 2014, which
included a new seven-year tranche for
building a longer yield curve in the riyaldenominated bond market. It had issued
QR4bn sukuks in April 2014, and issued
QR 24bn sukuks and Conventional bonds
in January 2014.
At the end of last week Qatar 5 CDS
was at 80.66 basis points, 5-year Dubai
CDS was at 225.03 basis points, 5-year
Abu Dhabi CDS was at 71.76 basis points,
5-year Saudi Arabia CDS was at 80.010
basis points and 5-year Bahrain CDS was
at 282.550 basis points.
Dr R Seetharaman is Group CEO of Doha
Bank. The views expressed are his own.
Obama proposes $3.99tn
budget; $474bn deficit seen
Reuters
Washington
Reuters
Houston
A
P
resident Barack Obama yesterday
proposed a $3.99tn budget for
fiscal year 2016 that sets up a battle with Republicans over programmes
to boost the middle class that are funded by higher taxes on corporations and
wealthy Americans.
The budget foresees a $474bn deficit, which is 2.5% of US gross domestic
product. It projects deficits stabilising
at that rate over a 10-year period, senior administration officials said.
Obama’s budget fleshes out proposals from his State of the Union address
last month and helps highlight Democratic priorities for the last two years of
his presidency and the beginning of the
2016 presidential campaign.
But it is as much a political document
as a fiscal road map and would require
approval from the Republican-controlled Congress to go into effect.
“There are going to be areas where we
get big disagreements, but what I want
us to focus on is the areas ... we have in
common,” Obama said on NBC’s “Today” show.
“And we’ll have some battles along
the way, but there’s going to be a whole
bunch of stuff that we can do that’s really productive.”
The president is scheduled to speak
about the budget at 11:55am EST (1655
GMT) from the Department of Homeland Security, a site the White House
chose to emphasise its insistence that
Republicans fund the agency charged
with implementing his controversial
executive actions on immigration.
Republicans have said they see room
for compromise in areas such as tax reform and infrastructure, but many of
Obama’s programs, which were rolled
out in the weeks before the budget’s release, have landed with a thud.
“When ... he devotes his time and
energy to talking about the new taxand-spend policies that progressives
like and Republicans universally oppose, he signals to Congress that he is
once again looking to argue rather than
to legislate,” said Keith Hennessey, a
former economic adviser to Republican
President George W Bush.
Democrats, however, viewed the
budget as a statement of their priorities
Refinery
workers’
strike on
2nd day
Customers purchase copies of President Barack Obama’s proposed 2016 budget at the Government Printing Office in Washington yesterday. The $3.99tn budget
foresees a $474bn deficit, which is 2.5% of US gross domestic product.
and a chance to demonstrate that they
represent the party that champions
middle-income Americans.
“(It) affords him an opportunity to
contrast his vision of helping the middle class with the Republican Congress’
approach of exacerbating inequality,
ignoring the middle class and making
the burdens of those who want to enter it even greater,” said Neera Tanden,
president of the Center for American
Progress, which has close ties to the
White House.
The budget achieves some $1.8tn in
deficit reduction over the next 10 years,
officials said, through healthcare, tax
and immigration reform, but the forecast assumes Republican support for
Obama’s programs, which is unlikely.
Republicans have blocked immigration reform legislation in the House
of Representatives, for example, and
Obama’s budget assumes passage of
such a bill.
The administration foresees a continuation of the decline in unemployment, forecasting a rate of 5.4% in 2015.
The rate currently stands at 5.6%.
It also proposes a new infrastructure
bank, a 6% increase in research and
development, and a controversial consolidation of US government agencies.
Obama has previously proposed combining trade agencies, but the proposal
fizzled.
The budget sets aside $14bn to
strengthen US cyber-security defences
after a spate of high-profile hackings.
It calls for a one-time, 14% tax on
an estimated $2.1tn in profits piled up
abroad by companies such as General
Electric and Microsoft, while imposing
a 19% tax on US companies’ future foreign earnings.
It proposes a 7% rise in US domestic
and military spending, ending “sequester” caps with reforms to crop insurance programs and closing tax loopholes
such as one on “carried interest.” Those
moves would help fund investments in
infrastructure and education.
The budget would also reform rules
governing trust funds and raise the
capital gains and dividend rates to 28%
from the current top rates of 23.8%.
In foreign policy, the budget funds
efforts to defeat Islamic State militants
and support NATO and European allies against Russian aggression, the
White House said.
labour strike that some
fear could impact gasoline production at several
of the largest US oil refineries
and chemical plants stretched
into a second day yesterday, as
union workers sought a new national contract. The walkouts
at nine plants with a combined
10% of US refining capacity were
the first since 1980 in support
of a nationwide pact that would
cover 63 refineries.
Contract talks broke down on
Sunday with workers asking for
higher wages against a backdrop
of crude prices that have plunged
nearly 60% since June, prompting
oil companies to cut spending.
One of the affected plants,
Tesoro Corp’s 166,000-barrelper-day Martinez, California,
refinery, was being fully shut
down, since part of it was already in the midst of planned
maintenance work.
The other refineries were running mostly as usual as operators initiated contingency plans,
calling on trained managers as
replacement workers.
While refiners are promising
little or no disruption to production, wholesalers and other buyers
are skittish and snapping up available supplies. “In the short term,
the strikes are definitely driving
prices up,” said Phil Flynn of Price
Futures Group in Chicago.
US gasoline and diesel fuel
prices rose yesterday on concerns over supply, as well as a
slight bounce in US benchmark
crude to about $49 a barrel.
Gasoline futures traded in
New York rose more than $0.05
to $1.53 a gallon, though retail
gasoline prices are still at their
cheapest levels in years after
having fallen about 40% since
the middle of 2014.
The United Steelworkers union
(USW) said Royal Dutch Shell, the
lead industry negotiator, halted
negotiations early Sunday after
the union rejected a fifth proposal
from the company. Shell said it
would like to restart talks.
US consumer spending weakest since 2009; inflation muted
Reuters
Washington
U
S consumer spending recorded its biggest decline since
late 2009 in December, with
households appearing to save the extra cash from cheaper gasoline, which
could support future consumption.
Other data yesterday showed factory activity slowed in January, suggesting economic growth continued
to cool early in the first quarter.
The Commerce Department said
consumer spending, which accounts
for more than two-thirds of US economic activity, fell 0.3% after a 0.5%
gain in November.
It was the largest drop since September 2009 and reflected big declines in spending on both durable
and nondurable goods. When adjusted for inflation, consumer spending
was the weakest since last April.
In a separate report the Institute
for Supply Management said its national factory activity index fell to
53.5 last month from 55.1 in December. A reading above 50 indicates expansion in the manufacturing sector.
US stocks were trading lower on
the reports. Prices for US government
debt fell and the dollar eased against a
basket of currencies.
The spending data was included in
Friday’s fourth-quarter gross domestic product report, which showed the
economy growing at a 2.6% annual
pace, with consumer spending rising
at a brisk 4.3% rate — the fastest since
2006.
Despite ending 2014 on a weak
note, lower gasoline prices and a
firming labor market are expected to
provide a huge tailwind to consumer
spending in the first quarter.
“This all bodes well for consump-
tion growth in early 2015,” said Paul
Diggle, an economist at Capital Economics in London.
Households have so far used much
of the extra income from cheap gasoline to pay down debt and boost savings, according to economists. Gasoline prices have plunged 43% since
June, according to US government
data.
In December, income at the disposal of households after accounting
for inflation increased 0.5%, the largest rise since last March. The saving
rate rose to 4.9% from 4.3% in the
prior month.
Lower gasoline prices put a damper
on price pressures in December, with
key inflation gauges slipping further below the Federal Reserve’s 2%
target. A price index for consumer
spending fell 0.2% after a similar decline in November.
In the 12 months through Decem-
ber, the personal consumption expenditures (PCE) price index rose
0.7%, the weakest reading since October 2009, slowing from a 1.2% increase in November.
Excluding food and energy, prices
were unchanged for a second straight
month. The so-called core PCE price
index increased 1.3% in the 12 months
through December.
While the Fed has repeatedly said
it viewed the oil-driven decline in
inflation as transitory and expected
inflation to move back to its target,
some economists say benign price
pressures could see the US central
bank delaying a much- anticipated
mid-year interest rate increase.
“We continue to think it will be
hard for the Fed to remove ‘patient’
from their policy language in March,
thus signaling a June tightening,” said
Michelle Girard, chief economist at
RBS in Stamford, Connecticut.
The price sign outside the Costco shows gas selling for below $1.90 per gallon in
Westminster, Colorado. US consumer spending recorded its biggest decline since late
2009 in December, with households appearing to save the extra cash from cheaper
gasoline, which could support future consumption.
FORMULA 1 | Page 3
CRICKET | Page 5
NFL | Page 8
Hamilton
close to
£60mn deal
with Mercedes
Clarke ready
to play under
captain Steven
Smith
Patriots win
Super Bowl
thriller over
Seahawks
Tuesday, February 3, 2015
Rabia II 14, 1436 AH
FOOTBALL
GULF TIMES
SPORT
Messi hits winner
as Barca keep up
pressure on Real
Page 10
FOCUS
Qatar surge ahead to make
history on home ground
From 20th in 2013 to second in 2015,
Qatar has grown by leaps and bounds
Q
atar made history by becoming the first country outside
Europe to ever reach the final of a men’s handball world
championship – but were in the end unlucky against France who stopped them
from going all the way on Sunday.
Before the 24th Men’s Handball World
Championship, Qatar had never defeated a European team in a competitive
match.
Slovenia became their first European victims in the group phase, in the
eighth-final Austria were defeated, in
the quarter-final Germany had to bite
the dust, and Poland became the fourth
team to be beaten by the new Qatari
team, who qualified for the final by de-
feating the Poles 31-29 in the semi-final
in the Lusail Multipurpose Hall.
And in the final they were on eye level
with European, Olympic and now again
world champions France. Until the 55th
minute the team of head coach Valero
Rivera had gold in sight, finally the more
experienced French side decided the final.
But a silver medal is quite a change
compared to the last World Championship two years ago in Spain, when the
Qataris finished 20th.
On their way to the final the home
team only lost one match. The decisive
match for first place in their preliminary
group against Spain was lost 28:25, but
still Qatar ended up in the final, while
the Spaniards, defending world champions from 2013, had to play for bronze
instead.
A strong goalkeeper duo played a great
part in Qatar’s success.
Danijel Saric and Goran Stojanovic
supported each other brilliantly over this
competition. If one of them happened to
have an unlucky day, Rivera could without
worries send in the second.
Rivera closely missed his second
straight gold medal after having led
Spain to the winners’ podium two years
ago. But their next target is already in
sight: to qualify for the 2016 Olympic
Games in Rio.
In October Qatar will be hosting the
Asian qualification event – and after
their outstanding performance at the
World Championship they are the clear
favourites. Additionally, they have also
already qualified for the 25th World
Championship in France.
Qatar 2015 All Star
The IHF Analysing Team at Qatar
2015 consisting of Frantisek
Taborsky (Czech Republic), Paul
Landure (France), Zoltan Marczinka (Hungary) and Dietrich Spate
(Germany) have nominated the
following players for the Qatar 2015
All Star Team.
Goalkeeper: Thierry Omeyer (FRA)
Left wing: Valero Rivera (ESP)
Left back: Rafael Capote (QAT)
Centre back: Nikola Karabatic
(FRA)
Right back: Zarko Markovic (QAT)
Right wing: Dragan Gajic (SLO)
Line player: Bartosz Jurecki (POL)
Most Valuable Player: Thierry
Omeyer (FRA)
2
Gulf Times
Tuesday, February 3, 2015
QATAR 2015
FOCUS
Minogue and Cruz close Qatar 2015
S
o how did the French players
celebrate after winning their
fifth handball world title? Among
other things, they had a singalong
with Australian singing star Kylie
Minogue.
Minogue was in Doha yesterday to
perform after the 24th Men’s Handball
World Championship final between
France and Qatar and not only
mesmerised those in attendance, but
was equally impressed with her Doha
crowd.
“WHOAH.... That was so much fun!!!
Thanks Doha, we loved it!” the
46-year-old tweeted with a picture
of her coming off the stage after her
performance.
She then posted another picture with
the world championship winning
French team with the caption: “Congratulations France!!! Thanks for the
singalong!!!”
Other international music artists, who
performed on the final day on Sunday,
were Taio Cruz and Mani Hoffman.
Earlier, a capacity crowd in Lusail
Multipurpose Hall saw the curtain
fall on the 24th Men’s Handball World
Championship on Sunday, as Qatar
dazzled the world once again with an
incredible closing ceremony. Apart
from marking the end of Qatar 2015,
the closing event functioned as a
symbolic handover to France, who will
host the next men’s World Handball
Championship in 2017.
Sheikh Saoud
hails Qatar’s
wise leadership
QNA
Doha
Q
atar Olympic Committee (QOC) secretary
general HE Sheikh
Saoud bin Abdulrahman al-Thani (pictured)
congratulated and expressed
blessings to HH the Emir Sheikh
Tamim bin Hamad al-Thani and
HH the Father Emir Sheikh Hamad bin Khalifa al-Thani over
the great success of the 2015
Men’s Handball World Championship, which concluded in Doha
on Sunday, due to the support of
the wise leadership.
In a press statement, Sheikh
Saoud said that the tournament
has succeeded in all aspects organisationally and technically, thanks
to the distinguished leadership of
the Organising Committee chairman HE Sheikh Joaan bin Hamad
al-Thani, who made a great effort
to make the World Championship
a grand success.
The successful organisation
of the Men’s Handball World
Championship confirms Qatar’s
readiness to host the 2022 FIFA
World Cup.
HE Sheikh Saoud congratulated Qatar Handball Association
(QHA), technical and administrative officials, players of Qatar
national team on finishing second in the tournament.
Instagram/kylieminogue
Instagram/kylieminogue
Instagram/kylieminogue
Instagram/kylieminogue
QNB honours Qatar handball team
Qatar National Bank (QNB) yesterday held a reception to honour the Qatar handball team who took
the second position in the 2015 Men’s World Handball Championship. The team, who are sponsored by
QNB, cut a cake to mark the occasion where players were presented gifts by QNB officials. Qatar finished
second behind France in the prestigious tournament which concluded on Sunday.
Gulf Times
Tuesday, February 3, 2015
3
SPORT
SPOTLIGHT
HIGHLIGHT
Hamilton close to
signing £60mn
Mercedes contract
‘We are in talks and in the near future it will be sorted. We have to make sure it works for
both of us. They want to continue with me and vice versa but it’s been like that for ages’
Lewis Hamilton
adds to impressive
Mercedes mileage in
pre-season testing
AFP
Jerez
W
orld
champion
Lewis Hamilton returned to work yesterday, further piling up the mileage for Mercedes
in the first round of Formula One
pre-season testing.
Hamilton drove 73 laps by 1200
GMT, with more likely to come
later in the day, after Nico Rosberg
had chalked up an impressive 157
laps on day one Sunday.
Mercedes dominated the past
season, winning 16 of the 19 races, 11 of them from Hamilton who
beat Rosberg for the world title.
Hamilton’s three-year contract expires after the season but
neither he nor Mercedes are in a
hurry to sign a new deal because
both want an extension.
“We want to stay together. We
love each other, basically,” Hamilton was quoted as saying in
Jerez, and team boss Toto Wolff
said that “we want him to stay
and he wants to stay.”
Talks were reportedly held
Sunday and it is believed that
a contract renewal, until 2018,
would be finalized before the
March 15 season-opener in Australia.
Sebastian Vettel meanwhile
led the timesheets again as the
four-time world champion posted 1 minute 20.984 seconds from
31 laps until noon after already
dominating Sunday.
Hamilton had a fastest lap
of 1:22.490 by mid-day to rank
ahead of Dutch teenager Max
Verstappen in a Sauber.
Vettel’s successor at Red Bull,
Russian Daniil Kvyat, damaged
his front wing early in the morning and - with no spare part set to
arrive until much later in the day,
set back the preparations of the
former champions.
Jenson Button had a mere five
laps as he was encountering “a
recurring problem,” according
to McLaren, on his first day, after new team-mate Fernando
Alonso could only drive six laps
Sunday.
Eight teams are at the first of
three rounds of pre-season action which runs until tomorrow.
Pastor Maldonado drove for
Lotus who missed Sunday’s action. Not present in Jerez are
Force India who aim to start their
testing in mid-February in Barcelona.
McLaren waiting for sponsors before
changing their livery, says Ron Dennis
McLaren will change the livery
of their new Formula One car
when there are commercial
reasons for doing so, group
chief executive Ron Dennis said
after the MP4-30 made its track
debut in southern Spain.
The former champions have
lacked a title sponsor since
telecoms giant Vodafone
withdrew at the end of 2013
and they turned up for the first
pre-season test at Jerez with
unbranded trucks and a car
painted silver, black and red.
The livery seen so far has not
impressed many fans, who had
hoped for something bolder at
the start of a new partnership
with Honda, on social media.
Dennis told reporters that there
had been discussions within the
team, who have not won a race
since 2012, but they would not
change without reason.
“This is the livery of McLaren,”
he said. “It has always been a
combination of these colours
and it will only change for
commercial reasons.”
IN DISARRAY
Mercedes AMG Petronas F1 Team’s British driver Lewis Hamilton stops in the pit on the second day of the Formula One pre-season tests at Jerez racetrack.
By Paul Weaver
The Guardian
L
ewis Hamilton had talks with
Mercedes’ executive director,
Toto Wolff, at Jerez on Sunday
and is believed to be close to signing a £60mn three-year deal that would
tie him to the team until the end of 2018.
The Formula One world champion’s
existing contract does not expire until the end of this year but a fresh deal is
expected to be finalised before the season gets under way in Melbourne on 15
March.
Hamilton said on Sunday: “We want
to stay together. We love each other,
basically.” Niki Lauda, Mercedes’ nonexecutive chairman, added: “There is no
problem with the contract. He wants to
sign it. We want him to sign it. There is no
rush. We just need to find a time to do it
and then all the speculation can go away.”
Last year it was thought Mercedes were
about to offer him something less than his
current salary, which is about £20mn. But
that is difficult now, because Hamilton had
the best season of his life to beat off the
challenge of his teammate, Nico Rosberg,
and win his second world title.
Hamilton added: “We are in talks and
in the near future it will be sorted. We
have to make sure it works for both of us.
The confidence we give each other is that
they want to continue with me and vice
versa but it’s been like that for ages.
“Last year there was excitement at one
point to get it done around Russia [in October] but I said: ‘Guys, this is the most
important period of my life. I don’t want
to think of anything else.’
“Contracts and stuff can be as stressful as anything, so I was telling them all I
wanted to do was win the championship.
So I said: ‘Let’s leave it to the end. I’m not
speaking to anyone else and I know you’re
being called by a certain individual but
“Contracts and stuff can be as
stressful as anything, so I was
telling them all I wanted to do was
win the championship. So I said:
‘Let’s leave it to the end. I’m not
speaking to anyone else and I know
you’re being called by a certain
individual but I’m solely focused
on things, so I won’t be making
any calls.’ So they said they would
make sure it was not a distraction”
I’m solely focused on things, so I won’t be
making any calls.’ So they said they would
make sure it was not a distraction.”
Fernando Alonso last year identified
Mercedes as the best team to help him
win a third world crown but he joined
McLaren from Ferrari on a three-year
deal and will not be around to challenge
for a seat at Mercedes in the near future.
Hamilton, who is managing his own
affairs, said: “[McLaren’s chairman and
chief executive] Ron Dennis is a very
smart man. He would never sign Fernando for one year and Honda would never
do that either.”
Hamilton is aiming for a third championship that would pull him level with
his hero Ayrton Senna. He said: “The
greats had three championships. I’ve always said since I joined Formula One that
I wanted to emulate Ayrton. And I know
there is no other team that could give me
a greater opportunity.”
Hamilton, 30 last month, said the
Sports Personality of the Year award he
won in December “meant more to me
than any other trophy or award”.
He added: “I can honestly say that I
didn’t have any trophies in my apartment
in Monaco, at all. But I brought that one
home and put it on my mantelpiece. It’s
the first trophy I’ve had at home in the
whole of my career, apart from when I
lived at my parents’ house. I put it up the
other day. Knowing it was the public that
voted was what really hit me.”
Champion Vettel
leaves confusing
legacy at Red Bull
BOTTOMLINE
Ferrari Formula One racing driver Sebastian Vettel of Germany.
MotoGP ready for India: Ezpeleta
“It’s different, Formula One
is another aspirational
level. Motorbikes are
something very popular in
India and are much closer
to normal people,” Ezpeleta
told Reuters in an interview
Reuters
Mumbai
M
otoGP is ready for a
foray into India convinced it has a better
future than Formula
One in the world’s second largest
motorcycle market, the sport’s
commercial chief Carmelo
Ezpeleta said yesterday.
India first hosted a Formula
One grand prix in 2011 to positive reviews from the global
community but was dropped
from the calendar after the third
race in 2013.
Problems over taxation, with
Formula One classified as entertainment rather than a sport in
India, as well as the considerable
bureaucracy in bringing equipment into the country have been
seen as obstacles to the race returning.
Calling India a “very, very
important market” for MotoGP,
Ezpeleta, the chief executive of
Dorna Sports, which holds the
television and commercial rights
leta told Reuters in an interview.
“We need to focus on different things here like we have no
(local) promoter. But the cost of
organising a MotoGP race is less
than Formula One and we have a
manufacturer in Mahindra who
are participating in the Moto3
world championship.
“I think we are putting all our
first steps right to be successful
in India but nothing is easy from
the beginning.”
to the sport, was hopeful they
had the right mix to be successful in India, which is the world’s
second largest motorcycle market after China.
“It’s different, Formula One
is another aspirational level.
Motorbikes are something very
popular in India and are much
closer to normal people,” Ezpe-
MAHINDRA ENTERS
India’s leading utility vehicle
manufacturer Mahindra is entering the 2015 Moto3 world
championship as a constructor and will supply motorcylces
to four teams, including former
MotoGP rider turned team owner Jorge Martinez’s Aspar team.
“We need three things to be
successful in a country like India. First a manufacturer being
part of the deal and in this case
we have Mahindra,” Ezpeleta
said.
“Secondly, we need to have
Indian riders but unfortunately
we have none presently and for
that we have the Asian talent
Cup. And finally we need to have
a grand prix.”
Weekend MotoGP races feature regularly on television
channels in India, which is crucial for the promotion and popularity of the sport in the country, feels Ezpeleta.
Although satisfied with MotoGP’s growth in recent years,
Ezpeleta believes Asia has a lot
more potential.
“We have a lot of demand for
grand prix all around the world
especially from Asia and we are
talking to different countries
here,” he said.
The 2015 MotoGP season will
have 18 races and the target for
the promoters is to increase it to
20 in the next two years.
Reuters
Jerez
R
ed Bull have taken inspiration from one of
Sebastian Vettel’s old
helmets to confuse Formula One rivals seeking a clear
picture of their aerodynamic secrets in pre-season testing.
The former champions, now
without Vettel after the German
moved to Ferrari, have been testing at the Jerez circuit in southern Spain with a car painted in
black and white ‘camouflage’
livery.
Team principal Christian
Horner said Vettel had worn a
helmet with a similar dazzle design at last year’s Italian Grand
Prix and the team thought it
would be interesting to extend
the concept to the whole car.
Horner, who had said last
week that the team were rushing to get the Renault-powered
car ready for Jerez, promised the
livery would be “even stronger”
for the first race in Australia on
March 15.
“Everybody works away over
the winter and once the new
cars come out, then everybody
is looking at what everyone else
has been up to,” Red Bull designer Adrian Newey told Sky Sports
television.
“If we can help to disguise that
a little bit and conceal some of
the shapes we’ve developed over
the winter, then that prevents
them getting as good a knowledge of our shapes as they might
do otherwise.
“How much difference it
makes, we’ll see. But it’s something different.”
Newey repeated his view
that champions Mercedes, who
won all but three races last year,
would be hard to beat this season
and said the regulations favoured
the engines over aerodynamics.
“I think Mercedes should win
it, frankly. They have a power
advantage and certainly in this
relatively
engine-dominated
formula, then that puts them
hugely ahead,” he said.
“Can we make enough of a difference on the chassis to mount
a challenge? I think it will be extremely difficult but we will obviously do our best. A bit more
freedom on the chassis regulations would make that more viable.”
Red Bull won three races last
year and finished as overall runners-up.
4
Gulf Times
Tuesday, February 3, 2015
CRICKET
FOCUS
Johnson hits back at
Morgan’s ‘no pressure
on England’ claims
‘I think they are dreaming if they think they are not under pressure. Every team is going
to be under pressure, you’ve got to win pretty much every game, that’s how I see it’
By Chris Stocks
theguardian.com
A
ustralia’s Mitchell Johnson
has hit back at Eoin Morgan’s
claims that England will not
be under pressure during the
countries’ opening World Cup match
in Melbourne later this month, saying
the Irishman is “dreaming” if he thinks
otherwise.
Morgan, speaking after Johnson’s return of three for 27 powered Australia
to a 112-run victory in the tri-series
final in Perth, attempted mind games
ahead of the 14 February date with the
tournament co-hosts when he said: “I
think the pressure builds on Australia.
They’re the home side at a World Cup
playing against a dangerous side. We’re
going out all guns blazing. There’s no
pressure from our point of view.”
Those words left Johnson distinctly
unimpressed. The fast bowler, whose
efforts in his first game this year helped
Australia to an eighth win in nine oneday internationals against England,
said: “I think every team is under pressure, it is a World Cup. I think they are
dreaming if they think they are not under pressure. Every team is going to be
under pressure, you’ve got to win pretty much every game, that’s how I see it.
“Our plan is to win every game.
There will probably be a little more
pressure on us being a home World Cup
but we are prepared for that.”
Asked if he felt he had a psychological hold over England, Johnson, who
took 37 wickets to inspire Australia
to a 5-0 Ashes whitewash last winter,
added: “It was a final – there is a lot of
pressure in a final.
“It feels nice to do it to any team, to
be honest. My job is to go out and try to
bowl fast, be aggressive and take wickets. So I was pretty close to that. That’s
what really excites me.
“Now we’ve won the final, we move
on and focus on the World Cup. We’ve
got them first game.”
Johnson’s short ball is a potent
weapon in his fast-bowling armoury.
He set Moeen Ali up on Sunday with
a bouncer before taking the England
opener by surprise with another that
saw him depart for 26.
The death of Phillip Hughes, Johnson’s Australia teammate, last November after a freak injury sustained by a
short-pitched delivery during a Shef-
field Shield match in Sydney briefly
changed perceptions about its use.
But Johnson has stated he has
worked through whatever issues that
tragedy had on his approach and is now
back to his aggressive best.
“I’m a fast bowler who likes to bowl
fast,” he said. “I don’t mind bowling
that short ball—that’s always what I’ve
tried to do in all formats of the game.
“It’s probably changed a little since
Phil. Everyone was a bit funny about
it at first. But it’s part of the game. I’m
still going to bowl short balls, that can
set up a wicket for me. I think it is still
important, a very big part of the game.
I’ll continue to bowl it.”
Johnson, when prompted for a reason why he was now so at ease with
roughing up batsmen again, said: “It’s
just been time, really. I’ve just let myself go and over time I’ve just felt better
and better so hopefully I’m feeling better at the right time for the World Cup.”
The Queenslander will hope to continue his hot streak against England
not only in the World Cup but also in
next summer’s Ashes series.
One man who will hope to be fit and
ready to partner Johnson in England
is Ryan Harris after it was announced
that the 35-year-old seamer will be
rested for the remainder of the Australian domestic season.
The injury-prone Harris has been
rested for the World Cup and Cricket
Australia have mapped out a plan to
get him 100 percent fit for the Ashes
tour that involves him training with the
performance squad before setting off
for the UK in June.
Harris, who will miss Australia’s
two-Test tour of the Caribbean earlier
that month, has been a key performer
for Australia in the past two Ashes series, taking 24 wickets in at 19.58 in
England in 2013 and another 22 at 19.31
during last winter’s whitewash.
Pat Howard, Cricket Australia’s performance manager, said: “With Ryan,
our number one priority is to ensure he
is 100 % fit and available for this winter’s Ashes series.”
Harris said: “I want to play as much
cricket as I can as I know you are a long
time retired but I recognise this is the
best approach to ensuring I am absolutely right for the Ashes.
“I have huge ambitions to help us
win a series in the United Kingdom and
that goal is something that will drive
me on over the coming months.”
Australia fast bowler Mitchell Johnson
(left) celebrates after dismissing England
captain Eoin Morgan during Sunday’s
Tri-series final in Perth. (Reuters)
Leg injury rules
Pakistan pacer
Junaid Khan out
of World Cup
Pakistan’s World Cup hopes
were dealt a major blow yesterday with frontline paceman
Junaid Khan ruled out of the
event after failing to pass a fitness test following a leg injury.
The 25-year-old left-armer,
considered one of the country’s
most promising prospects in
recent years, sustained a thigh
injury in training last month that
forced him out of the team’s
current tour of New Zealand.
“Junaid appeared in a fitness
test and was not found fit
enough to play the World Cup,”
a Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB)
spokesman said.
His absence means Pakistan’s
attack will be led by the relatively inexperienced Mohamed
Irfan, following the losses of
veteran paceman Umar Gul to
a knee injury and ace spinner
Saeed Ajmal, who is serving a
suspension for chucking.
All-rounder Mohamed Hafeez
meanwhile faces a race against
time to get his action cleared.
He was suspended in November
last year and will participate in a
reassessment test on Feb 6.
Junaid was included in the
15-man squad last month but he
will now likely be replaced with
another seam bowler Bilawal
Bhatti, a newcomer to international cricket.
Pakistan play the second and
final one-day against New Zealand today before leaving for
Australia where they play their
first World Cup game against
defending champions India in
Adelaide on February 15.
Junaid had suffered a knee
injury in October and was
sidelined for two months. He
returned to field in the domestic
Pentangular one-day Cup and
performed well enough to get
selected for the World Cup.
Junaid said he was saddened
but wished his colleagues well.
“It’s a heartbreak for me,”
said Junaid. “I couldn’t pass the
fitness test and am not able
to play the World Cup. All my
prayers are with the team.”
Pakistan’s bowling attack is
now set to be the least experienced among major teams in
the tournament, with four rookies if Bhatti is picked.
SPOTLIGHT
Seven-foot Irfan targets standout World Cup
AFP
Wellington
P
akistan paceman Mohamed
Irfan aims to make an impression both on the field at
the World Cup as well as off
it, which isn’t hard for a man who
stands at seven feet one inch.
“I know people notice me because
of my height and I always try to oblige
them by posing for a photograph,” Irfan said yesterday. “I will be ready to
pose with fans in Australia and New
Zealand but will remain focused on
my job—to bowl my team to victories
until we win the World Cup.”
When Irfan toured South Africa
with the Pakistan team early in 2013,
fans were desperate to have a photo
with the tallest-ever international
cricketer. “It was big fun,” remembers
32-year-old Irfan. “I had no qualms
as I am very down to earth and when
people request a photo, wanting to
compare their height against mine it
becomes more fun for me.”
On the field, however, Irfan’s top
priority remains to unsettle batsman.
“It (the World Cup) is a big event
and every player has a desire to play,”
said Irfan. “I want to do what Wasim
Akram did for Pakistan in the 1992
World Cup.”
Akram anchored Pakistan’s only
World Cup title in Australia and
New Zealand 23 years ago, finishing as the player of the tournament
with 18 wickets. Pakistan captain
Misbah-ul Haq is confident that Irfan
can provide the X-factor on the fast,
bouncy tracks of Australia.
“Saeed Ajmal’s absence has weakened our bowling,” said Misbah of the
ace off-spinner who had to withdraw
from the event because of an illegal
bowling action. “But I am confident
that with his height Irfan can be the
X-factor for us.”
Irfan knows his strengths which
come as a result of his imposing size.
“It feels good that I perform for
Pakistan. It’s my greatest desire to do
well for Pakistan so that people remember me with good words when I
finish my career.”
His giant stature makes him a dangerous bowler as each ball is released
from a height rarely experienced by
batsmen.
If pitched short, the batsman needs
to tackle it with a jump and if pitched
full, it requires guile to dig it out.
But it hasn’t always been an easy
ride for Irfan. He used to find it difficult to get a pair of shoes to fit while
finding a bed to cater for him was just
as frustrating.
In his younger days, people on the
streets would make fun of this gentle
giant. Unable to make a breakthrough
in the sport, Irfan once made ends meet
by working in a pipe factory, earning
just 300 rupees (30 dollars) a week.
“I had quite a few problems because of my height,” recalls Irfan.
“It was problematic sleeping at
home, whatever kit I used to bring
was not fit and I didn’t get proper
sized shoes. But since playing for
Pakistan these problems have been
sorted out.”
Team managers on tour, however,
still have to make sure hotels supply special beds. When Irfan was selected for the tour of England in 2010,
it was a dream come true, but things
didn’t go his way.
He was instantly discarded as
someone “not ready for international
cricket” after failing to get a single
wicket in his first two one-day internationals.
But his career was revived two
years later and on the tour of India in
December 2012 and South Africa he
became an instant hit.
Irfan took 11 wickets in Pakistan’s
3-2 defeat in South Africa and cemented his place in the team as
spearhead of the attack.
But medical experts warn his
unique body requires proper handling. He played in most of the
matches in Pakistan’s series against
South Africa in the United Arab
Emirates late in 2013 and was left seriously injured.
He missed both the Asia Cup and
World Twenty20 in early 2014. But
extra work in the gym and close attention by medical staff helped him
stage a comeback in the New Zealand series and he was Pakistan’s best
bowler with nine wickets in the 3-2
defeat.
Pakistan fast bowler Mohamed Irfan (left) walks from the field with teammate Ehsan Adil after the end of Pakistan’s innings in the
first ODI against New Zealand at Westpac Stadium in Wellington on Saturday. Pakistan lost the match by seven wickets. (AFP)
Gulf Times
Tuesday, February 3, 2015
5
CRICKET
FOCUS
Clarke ready to play under captain Smith
tional. I speak to all my teammates regularly.”
Clarke was forced to bow out after the first
Test against India in December with the serious hamstring injury, and Smith filled in as
captain for the three remaining Tests.
AFP
Sydney
A
ustralian skipper Michael Clarke,
battling to regain fitness from
hamstring surgery and chronic back
pain, said yesterday he would be prepared to play under the captaincy of young gun
Steve Smith.
Amid reports that the team prefers the
stand-in skipper who has had a sensational
summer at the crease ahead of the World Cup,
Clarke insisted his relationship with his teammates was exceptional.
And asked on Triple M radio if he would play
under Smith’s leadership, the 33-year-old replied: “Most definitely I would.”
Clarke said he had already been in Smith’s
position himself.
“I feel for Smithy because I sat in his shoes
when a lot of the media were calling for
(former captain) Ricky Ponting (to go).
“It’s certainly not personal between Smithy
and I. We’ve been friends for a long time and
we’ll continue to be.”
“The people that sit above both him and
I will make their decisions,” Clarke said.
“Whatever they feel are the best 11 players,
“We’ve been friends for a long
time and we’ll continue to be. The
people that sit above both him and
I will make their decisions. Whoever they feel is the best captain for
the team then they’ll pick that”
Michael Clarke (right) says he is prepared to play under current skipper Steve Smith (left).
they will pick that 11. “Whoever they feel is
the best captain for the team then they’ll pick
that.”
Clarke did his best to bat away reports on
Fairfax media that the players prefer the laidback Smith, who is eight years his junior.
“I’d like to know where it’s coming from,” he
said. “It’s obviously disappointing because I
haven’t been around the team ... for the last seven weeks now I’ve been away from the group.
“I feel like my relationship with Cricket
Australia , especially my teammates, is excep-
Smith last week capped a remarkable season by sweeping the main awards at the annual Allan Border Medal ceremony, including
Australian player of the year.
Cricket Australia has given Clarke until
Australia’s second pool match against Bangladesh on February 21 to prove his fitness for the
World Cup.
He hit 51 for his local Western Suburbs
team on Saturday in his first comeback game,
including two fours and a six, and said medical staff considered his recovery was ahead of
schedule.
Clarke is now set to play for a Cricket Australia XI in a practice one-dayer against Bangladesh in Brisbane on Thursday.
Australia head for World
Cup on top of ODI rankings
Australia will enter the World Cup next week on top
of the world rankings following their convincing
112-run tri-series final victory over England in Perth
on Sunday.
The victory means they currently hold a six-point
advantage over second-placed India, who also featured in the series. India, the defending World Cup
champions, are a point clear of South Africa.
With a number of ODI series concluding in recent
days—the second and final match between New
Zealand and Pakistan is set to be played today, with
the Black Caps holding a 1-0 lead following their
seven-wicket win in Wellington on Saturday.
A victory for sixth-placed New Zealand would
see them reduce England’s lead to two points, while
a win for seventh-placed Pakistan would level the
series 1-1 and reduce the gap on the Black Caps to
three points. The World Cup takes place in Australia
and New Zealand from February 14 until March 29.
Rankings: 1. Australia 120pts, 2. India 114, 3. South Africa 113, 4. Sri Lanka 109, 5. England 104, 6. New Zealand
101, 7. Pakistan 96, 8. West Indies 94, 9. Bangladesh 75,
10. Zimbabwe 53, 11. Afghanistan 41, 12. Ireland 34
SPOTLIGHT
Asian teams confident
despite bookmakers
predicting otherwise
‘Never write India off, they will always be formidable in one-day cricket. This side is capable of repeating 2011’
In Rohit Sharma, the only batsman with two
200s in one-day internationals, Virat Kohli,
Suresh Raina and skipper Mahendra Singh
Dhoni, India possess destructive batting
firepower to tame the world’s best attacks.
Petition filed in
Pak court for life
ban on Aamer
A petition was filed in a Pakistan
court yesterday demanding a
lifetime ban of disgraced paceman Mohamed Aamer after he
was cleared last week to return to
domestic cricket.
Aamer was given permission to play domestic cricket by
the Anti-Corruption Unit of the
International Cricket Council
(ICC), bringing him a step closer
to redemption for his part in one
of the most scandalous episodes
in modern cricket.
But a petition filed yesterday at
the Sindh High Court by lawyer
Rana Faizul Hasan called for the
22-year-old to be banned for life
to stop him damaging the image
of Pakistan and cricket.
“Aamer stained the image of
the country,” Hasan said. “He is a
proven fixer and will do it again if
he is allowed to play.”
The court issued notices to
the deputy attorney general and
Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) for a
hearing on February 16.
Aamer was one of three Pakistani players banned from the
game for at least five years for
arranging no-balls to order in a
Test against England at Lord’s in
2010. He was also jailed in Britain
in 2011, along with former captain
Salman Butt and Mohamed Asif.
Aamer’s ban was due to expire
on September 2, 2015, but the ICC
used its discretionary powers to
allow him to return to domestic
cricket early.
Disappoined
to miss out on
World Cup:
Yuvi, Gambhir
IANS
New Delhi
O
AFP
Melbourne
C
onventional wisdom says
Asian teams usually succumb
on the bouncy wickets of Australia or the seaming pitches in
New Zealand, making them vulnerable
and rank outsiders for the World Cup.
Co-hosts Australia and New Zealand, alongside the mighty South Africa, are the bookmakers’ favourites
to win one-day cricket’s biggest prize,
with Asian teams way down in the
pecking order.
But those already writing off Asia’s
big three—India, Pakistan and Sri Lanka—will do so at their own peril. And
not just because of the unpredictable
nature of the limited-overs game.
The only other time the tournament
was held Down Under, in 1992, it was
Pakistan which won the title beating
England by 22 runs in the final at the
Melbourne Cricket Ground.
Australia did not even make the
knock-out rounds, while the Kiwis, like
the South Africans, crashed out in the
semi-finals.
Home advantage clearly does not
count for much.
Defending champions India are the
only team to have won the World Cup
on home soil, while Sri Lanka won it in
Pakistan as co-hosts of the 1996 event.
Barring major upsets, like in 2007
when India and Pakistan were knocked
out in the first round, Asia should have
three teams—even more if Bangladesh,
Afghanistan or the United Arab Emirates
cause an upset—in the quarter-finals.
After that, three victories will ensure
a team the title—a task easier said than
done but one that gives the eight qualifiers a reasonable shot at the title.
Kapil Dev, under whom India won
its first World Cup in 1983 by shocking
overwhelming favourites West Indies at
Lord’s, said picking a winner was not easy.
“Once you enter the quarter-finals,
anything can happen,” Dev said. “Every
team has a chance, including the ones
from Asia. It all depends on how you
play on that day. But if a side has to have
an off-day, it better be during the first
round where one can recover. Can’t afford that in the knockouts.”
“Once you enter the quarterfinals, anything can happen.
Every team has a chance,
including the ones from
Asia. It all depends on how
you play on that day. But if
a side has to have an offday, it better be during the
first round where one can
recover. Can’t afford that in
the knockouts”
In 2011, India and Sri Lanka finished
second in their respective groups and
yet entered the final as pool A winners
Pakistan fell in the semi-finals and pool
B leaders South Africa went out in the
quarter-finals. While India, Pakistan
and Sri Lanka have the batting to take
on the rest, much will depend on how
their meagre bowling resources are able
to contain the opposition.
Sri Lanka, finalists on the last two
occasions, boast the top three rungetters in one-day cricket among
those still playing in Kumar Sangakkara, Mahela Jayawardene and Tillakaratne Dilshan.
Sangakkara and Jayawardene, members of an exclusive club of five batsmen
with more than 12,000 one-day runs,
are in top form to raise hopes of making their last World Cup appearance a
memorable one.
World bowling record-holder Muttiah Muralitharan believes this could be
Sri Lanka’s World Cup after coming so
near in 2007 and 2011.
“We have been just about the most
consistent side around in major tournaments over the past decade, regularly reaching semi-finals and finals,”
Muralitharan told the tournament’s
official website. “I have faith this group
of players can achieve the dream again
and I hope they have that faith too.”
Pakistan, faced with bowling suspensions of Saeed Ajmal and Mohammad
Hafeez due to faulty actions, will look
to make amends through their batting
which includes captain Misbah-ul Haq,
Younis Khan and Shahid Afridi.
“If we play to our potential, we can
win,” said Misbah, whose 56-ball hundred against Australia last year equalled
Viv Richards’ record for the fastest
Test century. “The boys are focused on
achieving the best result. They have the
hunger and passion to work for it.”
In Rohit Sharma, the only batsman
with two 200s in one-day internationals, Virat Kohli, Suresh Raina and skipper Mahendra Singh Dhoni, India possess destructive batting firepower to
tame the best attacks.
“Never write India off, they will always be formidable in one-day cricket,”
said former skipper Sourav Ganguly.
“This side is capable of repeating 2011.”
ut-of-favour
batsmen
Yuvraj Singh and Gautam
Gambhir, integral members of India’s 2011 World
Cup-winning side, yesterday said
they were disappointed at being
ignored for the team chosen for the
2015 edition of the tournament.
Indian selectors decided to favour
youngsters while selecting the team
at the expense of senior players Yuvraj, Harbhajan Singh, Virender Sehwag, Zaheer Khan, Gambhir, Ashish Nehra and Munaf Patel.
“It was disappointing not being
picked for the World Cup. It’s a decision which you can’t help,” Yuvraj said
at a cricket conclave in New Delhi.
The left-handed batsman also
said that his main focus is to score
the maximum runs for his state
side Punjab. “At the moment, I am
focusing on the Ranji Trophy and
putting in my best efforts to make a
comeback,” Yuvraj said.
Opener Gambhir, also left-handed, expressed his dejection at missing the bus for the World Cup starting on February 14, but said he still
has the hunger to score runs and
succeed at cricket’s topmost level.
“I play cricket to score runs and
win matches. I am still passionate
about winning matches for India,
my state team Delhi or any Twenty
20 franchise,” Gambhir said.
“I am disappointed on not being
part of the team for this World Cup.
We are the defending champions
and it is a proud feeling. I definitely
would have wanted to be part of this
tournament.”
6
Gulf Times
Tuesday, February 3, 2015
SPORT
FOCUS
Budding footballers set to arrive for Al Kass Cup
By Sports Reporter
Doha
S
ome of the world’s best young
footballers will arrive in Qatar
this week for the launch of the
2015 Al Kass International Cup,
beginning on Thursday.
Twelve elite academy teams including Real Madrid, Paris Saint-Germain,
Arsenal and Juventus will compete in the
U-17 tournament to be held at the Aspire
Academy’s outdoor football pitches.
The impressive line-up of players
means football fans in Doha will get the
chance to watch some of the world’s
finest young talents in action during
the 10-day competition that will also
feature Qatari youngsters.
The acclaimed Aspire Qatar team
including 2014 competition winners
Aspire International will compete
against clubs from Spain, Japan, South
America.
Aspire Zone Foundation CEO Khaled Abdullah al-Sulaiteen expressed
his strong belief that the tournament
will provide an opportunity for Qatari
players to enhance their skills and gain
international experience.
“It is a great honour and privilege
to be welcoming some of the world’s
very best young footballing prospects
to Doha for the fourth edition of the Al
Kass International Cup,” he said.
“This tournament presents a tremendous opportunity for young players to display their abilities and prove
themselves at the very highest level.
Our U-17 Aspire Academy students
will gain valuable experience playing
in a competitive tournament in front of
a passionate home crowd at the Aspire
Zone,” he added.
Participating teams are expected to
arrive in Doha over the coming days
and local fans can look forward to
group stage games between some of
the world’s best football clubs. On the
first day of the competition, Arsenal
will face Japanese team Vissel Kobe
while Schalke 04 and AC Milan will play
against Aspire International and Argentinian outfit River Plate, respectively.
Official tournament sponsor Al Kass
TV will be broadcasting all games live
both online and on TV with Arabic and
English commentary.
Looking forward to another exciting
tournament, Essa Abdulla al-Hitmi,
chairman of the Organizing Committee of Al Kass International Cup, said:
“Following on from the huge success
of last year’s competition, Al Kass look
forward to showcasing all the action in
2015 to football fans all over the world.
“In just three years, the Al Kass International Cup has cemented its place
as one of the premier youth football
tournaments globally. This year we will
continue to build on this reputation
with world-class broadcasting of the
outstanding displays of football that we
have come to expect from the Al Kass
International Cup.”
Al Kass International Cup will also
be further proof of Qatar’s ability to
host world-class sporting events after the hugely successful 2015 World
Handball Championships, said Hassan
Abdulla al-Thawadi, Secretary General
of the Supreme Committee for Delivery and Legacy.
“Since its launch in 2012, the Al Kass
International Cup has given the footballing stars of tomorrow the chance to
shine on an international stage, whilst
achieving various goals and ambitions
for the state of Qatar,” al-Thuwadi said.
“With such an impressive array of
teams competing in 2015, we are confident that this tournament will yet
again exceed expectations and confirm
this country’s deep relationship with
football,” he added.
HE Sheikh Hamad bin Khalifa bin
Ahmad al-Thani, president of the Qatar
Football Association, said: “The 2015
edition of the Al Kass International Cup
HORSE RACING
is sure to excite football fans looking for
a glimpse of what to expect from some
of the world’s most beloved clubs.”
“The 10-day competition will also
provide an opportunity for local players to nurture their talents by going
head-to-head with some of the world’s
top youth teams.
“For this reason we are proud to be
supporting such a tournament which
will not only aid the development of
this country’s up and coming football
talents, but also the football community as a whole,” he concluded.
Thursday’s Fixtures
Arsenal vs Vissel Kobe (16.30, Aspire
Pitch 4); Schalke 04 vs Aspire International (18.35, Aspire Pitch 4), AC Milan
vs River Plate (20.40, Aspire Pitch 4)
UNIVERSITY LEAGUE
ExxonMobil Qatar
extend support for
Gold Sword Race
The prominent event in the Qatar racing calender will see the best local bred Pure
Arabians race for top honours and a chance at winning QR1.5 million in prize money
It’s QAC vs
QU for title
By Sports Reporter
Doha
Q
atar
Aeronautical College (QAC)
and Qatar University (QU) will clash
in the final of the University
League after winning their respective semi-final matches
against Northwestern University in Qatar (NU-Q) and College of the North Atlantic Qatar
(CNA-Q), respectively.
University League is a collaboration between Qatar
Football Association (QFA)
and Qatar Foundation for Education, Science and Community Development (QF), bringing together 12 universities
and colleges from across Qatar
to take part in the four-month
long soccer tournament.
QAC and QU will compete
for the title at 7 pm on February 12 at Qatar Foundation,
Pitch 3. The third place decider will take place ahead of
the final match, at 6pm, where
Northwestern University Qatar (NU-Q) will take on College of the North Atlantic Qatar (CNA-Q).
A gala dinner will be held at
Qatar Foundation’s Recreation
Centre in Education City following the awards ceremony
that will honour the winning
teams and best players.
The special awards are: Best
Player, Best Goalkeeper, Top
Scorer, and Fair Play Team.
The champion of this year’s
league will receive a cash prize
of 40,000 Qatari Riyals, while
the second and third place
teams will receive 30,000 Qatari Riyals and 20,000 Qatari
Riyals, respectively.
Mansoor al-Ansari, Secretary General at Qatar Football
Association (QFA), said: “We
are very excited to watch QAC
and QU compete next weekend at the University League
final and are eager to crown the
champions during the closing
ceremony.
“QFA would like to congratulate the teams who made it to
the final stages of the tournament and thank all the teams
that participated in this year’s
league. Organising this tournament with QF showcases
both organisations’ commitment in nurturing the football
culture in Qatar, especially
amongst the youth.”
Mohammed al-Naimi, Director of Community Affairs
at Qatar Foundation, added:
“Qatar Foundation has a dedicated mission to unlock human potential, committed to
providing the resources and
tools to the community to
demonstrate their skills, talent and sporting endeavors in
line with QF’s goal to promote
healthy and active living.
“The University League has
been a great showcase for students to display their talents
and, in doing so, foster community spirit participating in
a great sporting tournament.”
Last year’s competition was
won by Qatar University, while
the University of Calgary and
Qatar Aeronautical College came
second and third, respectively.
VOLLEYBALL LEAGUE
QREC Chairman HE Sheikh Mohamed bin Faleh al-Thani (second from right) shakes hands with President and General Manager of ExxonMobil Qatar, Alistair Routledge, after
signing the sponsorship agreement at the Qatar Racing and Equestrian Club yesterday. QREC general manager Sami Jassim al-Boenain (right) and Exxonmobil’s vice-president
and director of Government and Public Affairs Saleh al-Mana are also seen. PICTURE: Juhaim
By Sports Reporter
Doha
E
xtending its long-standing
support of the Qatar Racing and
Equestrian Club (QREC), ExxonMobil Qatar is once again the
exclusive sponsor of the 2015 Qatar Gold
Sword Race, taking place on February 5.
This prominent event will see the best
local bred Pure Arabians race against one
another for top honours and a chance at
QR1.5 million in prize money.
This event is the precursor to the blue
riband of the season, HH The Emir’s
Sword. HH Sheikh Mohamed bin Khalifa
al-Thani owned Assy (Amer-Margouia)
was the winner of the ExxonMobil Qatar-sponsored Qatar Gold Sword in 2014.
Then Assy went on to create history by
winning HH The Emir’s Sword and becoming the first local bred pure Arabian
to complete a glorious double by winning
the two coveted events of the season.
The press conference highlighting ExxonMobil’s extended sponsorship of Qatar
Gold Sword Race was attended by QREC
Chairman HE Sheikh Mohamed bin Faleh
al-Thani, President and General Manager
of ExxonMobil Qatar Alistair Routledge,
and QREC General Manager Sami Jassim
al-Boenain.
ExxonMobil Qatar’s ongoing sponsorship of the pivotal race speaks volumes to
its commitment to this historically significant element of Qatari heritage, while
also emphasizing the important role horse
racing and equestrian events continue to
play today in Qatar.
ExxonMobil Qatar and the Racing and
Equestrian Club share a long-term relationship, which is based on mutual respect
and understanding, and we are proud to
continue our support for the Club and the
Qatar Gold Sword Race this year,”. President and General Manager for ExxonMobil
Qatar Inc, Alistair Routledge, said
“Under the leadership of Sheikh Mohamed bin Faleh, and thanks to the efforts of Sami al-Boenain and the entire
management of the Racing and Equestrian Club, the Qatar Gold Sword Race has
undoubtedly become one of the most anticipated and prestigious events in Qatar’s
sports calendar.”
“The Qatar Gold Sword Race showcases
a significant part of Qatar’s heritage … the
tradition of equestrian excellence … and
equestrian competition continues to play
an important role in Qatar today.
“Most importantly, the event helps
put Qatar on the world stage, and we are
always proud to be involved in initiatives
which profile Qatar as a global destination
for hosting first-class sporting events.”
“ExxonMobil’s presence in Qatar goes
beyond our core industry of energy development—it is ultimately about supporting
the country as it moves toward achieving
its long-term objectives, as outlined in the
Qatar National Vision 2030.
“One of the ways we do this is by supporting this thriving society. This means
delivering sustainable, long-term development for the benefit of Qatar’s people,
while preserving the country’s unique
heritage. Thank you for this opportunity.
We look forward to another exciting race
this year,” Routledge concluded.
The QREC chairman HE Sheikh Mohamed expressed his appreciation to ExxonMobil Qatar. “ExxonMobil Qatar and
QREC share a long and fruitful partnership”, he said. “We thank ExxonMobil Qatar for its ongoing support for horse racing
in Qatar, which serves to strengthen and
protect a sport fostered by our forefathers.
It is our hope that events like the prestigious Qatar Gold Sword Race further elevate the status of horse racing excellence
not only in Qatar, but also throughout the
region and around the world.”
ExxonMobil Qatar shares Qatar’s view
that elevating the country’s status in the
international sports arena helps highlight
opportunities for long-term investments
in the country and further strengthens
Qatar’s role as an international business
and investment hub.
Events like His Highness The Emir’s
Sword, Qatar Gold Sword Race, the Qatar ExxonMobil Open, and the 2022 FIFA
World Cup all add prominence to Qatar’s
position in the global sports arena, enhancing its reputation as a sporting capital of the world.
QREC general manager Sami Jassim alBoenain was excited at the prospect of another exciting contest this year.
“We saw Assy win this contest last year
in an exciting finish. I am sure that this
year also we will get to witness a great and
thrilling contest. The quality of the Local
Bred Pure Arabians has vastly improved
and one can expect to see racing at its best
in this prestigious race.
“Assy later went on to win HH The
Emir’s Sword in an open class race which
proves that Qatar is best when it comes
to breeding top class Pure Arabians. My
best wishes to all the owners, trainers and
jockeys event who will be a part of the
coveted.
Action from yesterday’s Qatar Volleyball League clash
between El Jaish (brown) and Al Gharafa at the Al Arabi
Sports Club. Jaish won 3-1 (25-19, 25-19, 17-25, 25-19)
Police beat Al Wakrah 3-1 (22-25, 25-23, 26-24, 25-23) in the
other match of the day. After losing the first set, the cops
fought back to clinch the next three. PICTURES: Najeer Sha
Gulf Times
Tuesday, February 3, 2015
7
SPORT
SPOTLIGHT
GOLF
McIlroy’s Dubai
Desert Classic win
fuels Masters hopes
Koepka
wins his first
PGA title in
Phoenix
‘I feel like I can keep this run of form going and there’s no reason why I shouldn’t’
W
By Ewan Murray
The Guardian
Rory McIlroy of Northern Ireland poses with the
winner’s trophy after the final round of the Dubai
Desert Classic. (Reuters)
R
ory McIlroy has cause
to enter the high court
in Dublin today with a
spring in his step after
claiming the Dubai Desert Classic.
McIlroy, who is involved in
a multimillion-pound dispute
with his former management
company, proved again how
such affairs have not impacted
on his professional life with
a second win at the Emirates
Club. He had a final round of 70
for a 22-under-par aggregate,
ensuring a three-shot success
over Alex Noren.
A fascinating spell for the
Northern Irishman awaits. His
high-profile legal battle aside,
he will head to the United States
for what will most likely be three
tournament appearances before
the Masters. Should he prevail
at Augusta National in April,
McIlroy will have achieved a
full set of major championship
successes at the age of just 25.
McIlroy has now been priced up
as short as 6-1 to take the Masters title, which is an acknowledgement of his current touch.
“I’ll keep it ticking over,”
McIlroy said. “It will be nice to
get back in the States, get in my
own house and get into a routine of practice and stuff. I don’t
mind that the Masters is still a
couple of months away. I feel
like I can keep this run of form
going and there’s no reason why
I shouldn’t. I’m comfortable
with my game. I’m happy with
how I’m swinging it and just
a matter of keeping on top of
things and not getting complacent and working hard.
“That was the objective coming to the Middle East just after
the new year. I wanted to get at
least one win going heading to
the States and getting into the
sort of big part of the season. It’s
great to get that win and coming
off a good performance in Abu
Dhabi as well, I have got some
confidence and momentum on
my side heading into the next
couple months.”
McIlroy laughed when the
subject of his upcoming court
appearance was raised. “Let me
enjoy this for a couple of hours,”
he replied. He was fully entitled
to offer that response. McIlroy
rarely looked troubled or under pressure during day four in
Dubai. Stephen Gallacher completed a fine defence of the title
he had won in 2013 and 2014,
finishing third. Martin Kaymer
signed for a 64 to form part of a
five-way tie for fourth. Graeme
McDowell and Lee Westwood
were among those to share ninth.
“I did what I needed to do,”
said McIlroy, who had finished
second in his previous three
European Tour appearances. “It
wasn’t the best round that I’ve
played this year but I got the job
done and that’s the most important thing.
“It’s not a bad thing, I guess,
finishing second, but it’s not really what you want. I had chances to win and wasn’t able to cap-
italise on a couple of them. I sat
here on Wednesday saying that I
didn’t want to finish second any
more, and it’s nice to be able to
get the victory and sort of back
up what I say with my performance on the course.”
McIlroy, asked whether he is
at the peak of his powers, said:
“It’s definitely the most con-
sistent. I haven’t had a run like
this before … Am I at the peak of
my powers? I’d like to think that
I could still get better. I’d like to
think that I can still improve in
certain areas. But right now I’m
very happy with where my game
is, and as I said, I feel like each
week I turn up, I have a chance
to win.”
Reuters
Scottsdale, Arizona
ell-travelled American Brooks Koepka
used an eagle-three
at the 15th hole to
jump ahead of a crowded leaderboard and win the Waste
Management Phoenix Open by
one stroke on Sunday for his first
PGA Tour victory.
The 24-year-old Koepka,
who broke into professional golf
in Europe, rolled in a 51-foot
putt from the fringe short of
the green at the par-five 15th to
vault over four players. Koepka,
ranked 33rd in the world, carded
a five-under-par 66 for a total
of 15-under-par 269, one better
than Masters champion Bubba
Watson (65), 22-year-old Japanese Hideki Matsuyama (67) and
American Ryan Palmer (66).
“It feels amazing,” said Floridian Koepka. “The last few
weeks I put in a lot of hard work,
changed my putting stroke completely and everything seems to
be going right.”
Scotsman Martin Laird, the
54-hole leader, was tied with
Koepka until he bogeyed the
driveable par-four 17th with his
first three-putt after going 95
consecutive holes without one.
Laird then found water with
his drive at 18 and took a double-
bogey to register a 72 for 12-under, a total shared by Spanish
amateur and Arizona State student Jon Rahm, who closed with
a 68. The self-assured Koepka,
who claimed his first European
Tour victory at the Turkish Airlines event in November after
winning four times on the European Challenge Tour, began the
round three shots behind Laird.
It was Matsuyama who made
the first charge.
Matsuyama, who was three
back, got off to a flying start
when he holed out from a sandfilled divot in the fairway 129
yards from the cup for an eagletwo at the first hole to reach
12-under.
Birdies at the third and fifth
lifted Matsuyama, who won last
year’s Memorial Tournament,
into a tie with Laird at 14-under,
and a birdie at the par-five 13th
gave the Japanese a one-shot
lead. One hole later there was a
three-way tie for first at 14-under and another hole later it was
four-way tie with Palmer joining
Matsuyama, Laird and Watson.
Then Koepka rolled in his
eagle putt to vault into first at
15-under, a total matched by
Laird with a birdie at the same
hole before the Scotsman unravelled at the end.
Koepka has now shot par or
better in all 12 rounds on the tour
this season.
Brooks Koepka holds the trophy after winning the Waste
Management Phoenix Open at TPC Scottsdale in Scottsdale, Arizona,
on Sunday. (AFP)
TENNIS
Djokovic relishing win after ‘physical crisis’
AFP
Melbourne
Newly crowned Australian Open champion Novak
Djokovic of Serbia kisses the Australian Open trophy
along the Yarra river in downtown Melbourne. (AFP)
N
ovak Djokovic feels in
the prime of his career with more Grand
Slams beckoning after
winning a gripping Australian
Open final in which he overcame
‘a physical crisis’.
The Serb ironman showed why
he remains the world number
one with an energy-sapping 7-6
(7/5), 6-7 (4/7), 6-3, 6-0 win
over sixth seed Andy Murray on
Sunday evening.
He has now won all five of his
Melbourne Park finals and said it
was perhaps the most satisfying
of his eight Grand Slam titles.
“I think it has deeper meaning, more intrinsic value now to
my life because I’m a father and
a husband,” he said. “It’s the first
Grand Slam title I won as a father and a husband and I just feel
very, very proud of it.”
Djokovic added that as his life
was changing off court, he was
learning to appreciate the big
wins more than ever.
“I try to stay on the right path
and committed to this sport in
every possible way... and try to
use this prime time of my career really where I’m playing and
feeling the best at 27,” he said.
“This is why I play the sport,
to win big titles and to put myself in a position to play also for
the people around me.
“As my life progresses, there
are circumstances, situations,
events that define these beautiful moments.
“Getting married and becoming a father in the last six months
was definitely something that
gave me a new energy, something that I never felt before.
“And right now everything
has been going in such a positive
direction in my life. So I try to
live these moments with all my
heart.”
Only Australian Roy Emerson,
who presented Djokovic with the
trophy, has won more Australian
Opens with six in the 1960s.
Found the strength
Djokovic has now beaten
Murray in three of his four Australian final appearances following earlier wins in 2011 and 2013,
but the Serb admitted it was a
huge struggle to down the Scot.
He hurt the thumb on his racquet hand when he fell in the
first set then appeared to cramp
in the second set and again in
the third. But after trailing by
a break and looking wobbly on
his feet and gasping for breathe
early in the pivotal third set, he
roared back to win 12 of the last
13 games to claim the title.
“It was very physical, very
exhausting. We both of course
went through some tough moments physically,” he said.
“You could see that I had a crisis end of the second, beginning
of the third.
“I just felt very exhausted and
I needed some time to regroup
and recharge and get back on
track. That’s what I’ve done.”
There were suggestions by the
media that it was theatrics to
throw Murray off his game, but
the Serb denied this.
“I went through a physical
crisis in the matter of 20 minutes. And, honestly, I didn’t feel
that too many times in my career,” he said.
“Even though I went through
this moment, I believed that
I’m going to get that necessary
strength. I’m going to have to
earn it, and that’s what I did.”
He now trails only Roger Federer (17), Rafael Nadal (14), Pete
Sampras (14), Emerson (12), Rod
Laver (11), Bjorn Borg (11) and
Bill Tilden (10) on the all-time
Grand Slam leaderboard.
ATP contemplates giving Guillermo
Vilas 1970s number one spot
The ATP is mulling the possibility of belatedly granting Argentina’s
Guillermo Vilas a number one spot in the 1970s, which Vilas himself
has long demanded and the tour had long denied.
“It would be very important for tennis, this is a very serious matter,”
an ATP source told dpa during the recent Australian Open.
The ATP is assessing detailed documents intended to prove that the
world rankings were wrongly calculated and that Vilas was world
number one at some point in the 1970s.
“It looks plausible, this is great work,” the ATP representative said.
He added, however, that it would take a long time to go over all the
documents that have already reached ATP headquarters at Ponte
Vedra Beach, Florida.
“No decision has been made, it is important to stress that. But we
are looking into the documents,” the ATP source said.
The case of Vilas, 62, is similar to that of Australia’s Evonne Goolagong, 63, whom the WTA granted the 1976 number one spot 31 years
late, after confirming that there had been a miscalculation.
Goolagong expressed her support for Vilas.
“I wish him the best of luck, I think this is a player who really deserved to be number one. I hope they confirm that,” she told dpa in
Australia.
Vilas won four Grand Slam tournaments - two editions of the Australian Open, one French Open and one US Open - and he was one
of the stars of 1970s and 1980s tennis, with a total of 62 titles.
Unlike players in his generation such as Bjorn Borg, John McEnroe,
Jimmy Connors and Ivan Lendl, however, he never made it officially
to the top spot in the game, and he only made it to second place.
8
Gulf Times
Tuesday, February 3, 2015
SPORT
SUPER BOWL XLIX
Patriots euphoric after Super
Bowl despite ‘Deflategate’
‘Every year if you’re privileged to get to this game, hard things happen. I’m so proud of (Tom) Brady and (coach
Bill) Belichick for handling things the way they did. I love them. And all our Patriots fans should feel very good’
MY BAD...
Carroll shoulders
blame for Seahawks
Super Bowl defeat
Seattle Seahawks head coach Pete Carroll.
AFP
Glendale, Arizona
H
Quarterback Tom Brady (left) of the New England Patriots and teammates celebrate victory over the Seattle Seahawks in Super Bowl XLIX.
Reuters
Glendale, Arizona
T
he New England Patriots rallied
to beat the Seattle Seahawks on
Sunday in what will go down as
one of the greatest Super Bowls
of all-time but who the real winner is
could well be debated for decades to
come.
The buildup to the Super Bowl had
been dominated by a controversy over
deflated footballs used by the Patriots in
a blowout win over the Indianapolis Colts
in the AFC title game that earned them a
trip to Arizona.
A whiff of scandal continued to hang
over Sunday’s game even as the Vince
Lombardi Trophy was hoisted and confetti fell from the roof of the University
of Phoenix Stadium still trembling from
New England’s heart-stopping win.
“We won that (AFC) game 45-7, we
won today 28-24,” defended a defiant
Patriots owner Robert Kraft through the
celebratory din. “Our people didn’t touch
the balls. I love our team, I’m proud of our
guys.
“We’re going to carry on and hopefully
continue to do well.
“Every year if you’re privileged to get
to this game, hard things happen. I’m so
proud of (Tom) Brady and (coach Bill) Belichick for handling things the way they
did.
“I love them. And all our Patriots fans
should feel very good.”
As the NFL’s investigation into “Deflategate” continues, the spotlight of
suspicion remains firmly fixed on the
Patriots with some fans even questioning
why New England was allowed to play in
the Super Bowl at all.
The controversy has dominated the
sport headlines for two weeks and left
stains on one of the NFL’s most successful franchises and two possible future
Hall of Famers quarterback Brady and
coach Belichick.
In the 20 years since Kraft bought the
franchise, the Patriots have made the
playoffs an eyebrow-raising 15 times and
played in seven Super Bowls winning four.
BRADY MILESTONES
A battling Brady spent Sunday rewriting
the Super Bowl quarterbacking record
books, setting new marks for singlegame completions (37), most career
passing yards (1,605) and career touchdowns (13) to claim a third most valuable
player award.
“It’s just a lot of mental toughness, I
think the whole team had it,” said Brady
when asked how the team was able to
deal with the controversy and focus on
the game. “Coach always says, ignore
the noise and control what you can control.”
But the Patriots and Belichick, the only
coach to take a team to six Super Bowls,
have also developed a reputation as a
team not above a bit of skullduggery.
In 2007, Belichick was fined $500,000
and the Patriots lost a first-round draft
pick after an investigation found New
England had videotaped an opponent’s
signals on the sidelines in what became
known as ‘Spygate’.
‘Deflategate’, however is unlikely to
take any of the air out of the Super Bowl
party and parade in Boston where the
team will return home to a hero’s welcome.
“Congratulations to Patriots and all
of Patriot Nation on a well earned Super Bowl victory. You have made Boston and New England proud - cue the
duck boats!” said Boston mayor Marty
Walsh.
He would lay out plans on Monday for
a celebratory parade featuring the city’s
signature “duck boats”, amphibious vehicles dating back to World War II.
The game represented a last chance for
the NFL to put a scandal-scarred season
behind it, and the Patriots and Seahawks
did their part, providing a game that produced edge-of-the-seat excitement.
“I’m not really concerned about that
(controversy),” said Belichick. “I’ve already spoken on that, so I am not going to
have anything to add to it.
“I’m happy for our team. We won. I
think our team deserved to win.
“We won tonight in a tough game. I
don’t know what more we need to do.
“This team deserves to be champions.”
ead coach Pete Carroll
shouldered the blame
Sunday after the Seattle
Seahawks let Super Bowl
history slip through their grasp.
The Seahawks, seeking a second straight Super Bowl crown,
fell 28-24 to the New England
Patriots—with a late interception sealing their fate as Carroll
opted not to turn to superstar
running back and team talisman
Marshawn Lynch in the crucial
moment.
Trailing 28-24 with 26 seconds remaining, the Seahawks
faced second-and-goal from the
one yard line.
But Carroll didn’t call a play
for the NFL’s most dominant
running back, counting on him
to surge through for a touchdown
and the victory.
Instead, quarterback Russell
Wilson threw a slant pass intended for Ricardo Lockette—and the
unheralded Patriots cornerback
Malcolm Butler intercepted it.
“I told those guys, that’s my
fault totally,” said Carroll, adding
he and Wilson could barely speak
in the moment.
“We just looked at each other
trying to realize the gravity of
what we just witnessed,” Carroll
said. “We didn’t say very much.”
Lynch gained 102 yards on 24
carries before Carroll denied him
a 25th.
“I know you have a million
questions about this, and I’ll
answer them,” Carroll said, explaining that he thought the Patriots defense was expecting a
play for Lynch, and that he could
lull them with a pass “really to
kind of waste that play.”
“I told those guys, that’s my
fault totally,” said Carroll,
adding he and Wilson
could barely speak in the
moment. “We just looked at
each other trying to realize
the gravity of what we just
witnessed,” Carroll said.
“We didn’t say very much”
The Seahawks missed out on
a scintillating final drive, which
very nearly gave them the kind
of stunning come-from-behind
victory they achieved in the NFC
championship game against
Green Bay.
“When they called the call, I
just trusted it like I always do,”
Wilson said. “We were thinking
about throwing the ball, scoring
a touchdown right there.”
Seahawks cornerback Richard Sherman called it an “unfortunate” play. “Their guy
made a heck of a play,” Sherman said. “We gave ourselves a
chance to win, that’s all you can
ask for.”
“At the end of the day, if we
didn’t give ourselves a chance to
win and play up to our potential,
then you could be more disappointed,” he added.
Gulf Times
Tuesday, February 3, 2015
9
SPORT
SPOTLIGHT / SUPER BOWL
HIGHLIGHT
Last play will linger
but Brady’s class
showed in Pats’ win
Seattle’s Matthews
goes from shoe store
to Super Bowl stud
New England quarterback Tom Brady won the MVP despite throwing two interceptions
largely because of his four touchdown passes and 37 of 50 passing for 328 yards
Seattle Seahawks wide receiver Chris Matthews (right) carries
the ball after a catch defended New England Patriots cornerback
Brandon Browner (left) during the third quarter in Super Bowl XLIX at
University of Phoenix Stadium.
Reuters
Glendale, Arizona
S
New England Patriots quarterback Tom Brady (centre) celebrates his team’s win over the Seattle Seahawks in the NFL Super Bowl XLIX football game in Glendale, Arizona.
Reuters
Glendale, Arizona
S
eattle Seahawks head coach Pete
Caroll won plenty of praise for his
brave decision making in the NFC
Championship win that took his
team to the Super Bowl but was facing
the heat after Sunday’s loss to the New
England Patriots.
Just as they did against the Green Bay
Packers two weeks ago, the Seahawks
had come back from a slow start, finding
their rhythm on offense and it looked as
if a second straight Super Bowl win was
on the cards.
Despite being the second-best
throughout the first two quarters, Seattle
went in level 14-14 at half-time, thanks
again to Carroll’s positive approach.
With six seconds remaining in the half,
many teams might have settled for a field
goal but the Seahawks used the opportunity to the full - with Russell Wilson
finding Chris Matthews with an 11-yard
touchdown pass.
But few will remember that call after
the strange decision at the end of the
game which practically gifted the win to
the Patriots.
Trailing by four and on second down,
a yard from goal, the most obvious decision would have been to hand the ball
to Marshawn Lynch, who having put up
102 yards on 24 carries, was averaging 4.3
yards per carry.
Instead Carroll went for a pass play and
quarterback Russell Wilson’s attempt to
reach Ricardo Lockette with a low zipped
pass turned into disaster as undrafted
rookie corner Malcolm Butler showed
brilliant anticipation and agility to make
the interception.
It was game over and to most observers
and the millions watching on television, it
was an inexplicable decision from Carroll.
“There’s really nobody to blame but
me, and I told them that clearly,” said
Carroll. “And I don’t want them to think
anything other than that. They busted
their tails and did everything they needed
to do to put us in position, and unfortunately it didn’t work out,” he said.
Carroll’s explanation was that with
New England’s goal-line defense on the
field and his wide-receiver set, it made
no sense to run the ball on that play—especially with the option of running on
third or fourth down.
Arguments over that logic and the decision that it prompted will no doubt rage
for weeks but it would be unfair if that
crucial call became all that was remembered of what was a great game.
New England quarterback Tom Brady
won the MVP despite throwing two interceptions largely because of his four
touchdown passes and 37 of 50 passing
for 328 yards, but also because of the way
he managed the Patriots offense.
The Patriots have a relatively small receiver corps and their value, especially in
the slot, was amply evident throughout.
Julian Edelman was a livewire throughout, as he put up 109 yards on nine receptions with Shane Vereen adding 64 yards
receiving and Danny Amdendola contributing another 48 yards.
The last offensive drive from the Patriots, which concluded with a three-yard
Brady touchdown pass to Edelman was
New England at their very best.
All nine passes were completed as
Brady took the team 64 yards in four
minutes 50 seconds and the quarterback chose four different receivers on his
march down the field.
While Seattle, with Wilson’s mobility
and awareness vital, showed plenty of
offensive potency themselves they were
rarely able to match the smoothness of
Brady’s offense.
‘TOM DID A GREAT JOB’
“Our offensive line did a great job. Tom
did a great job. Our receivers made a lot
of tough catches and tough yards. That’s
what you’ve got to do against a team like
Seattle. They don’t give anything easy,”
said Patriots coach Bill Belichick.
While Carroll fronted up to his decisionmaking he also noted the quality of the opponent his team had been beaten by.
“They had two great drives and they
controlled the ball going down the field.
Really we didn’t make any major mistakes, they just really played well enough
to get the ball down the field. Tom did a
great job to engineer the win. That’s it,
they’re a great football team. They played
like they were capable of playing.”
eattle Seahawks wide receiver Chris Matthews
was working in a shoe
store a year ago but on
Sunday he was putting together
an MVP-worthy performance in
the Super Bowl that was spoiled
by the New England Patriots.
The unheralded wide receiver
entered the National Football
League’s championship game
without a career reception but
put together the game of his life.
“I don’t care if I don’t even
have one pass, one yard, one
tackle, it wouldn’t have mattered
to me as long as we had won the
game.” said Matthews, who
played only 26 offensive snaps
this season entering the Super
Bowl. “I would have been happy
with a win with no stats.”
Undrafted out of college, Matthews bounced around for a few
teams, including in the Canadian Football League, and was
never able to stick on a roster.
He was out of football and working for Foot Locker, an American
sportswear and footwear retailer,
when he got the call from Seattle.
Matthews initially told them
he did not finish work until later
that night and could not make
the tryout but his agent convinced him to get on a plane.
The decision changed his life.
With Seattle trailing 7-0 midway through the second quarter,
Matthews jumped and twisted
around to complete an incredible
Matthews was out of football
and working for Foot Locker,
an American sportswear
and footwear retailer, when
he got the call from Seattle.
Matthews initially told them
he did not finish work until
later that night and could not
make the tryout but his agent
convinced him to get on a
plane. The decision changed
his life
44-yard catch that put Seattle at
the Patriots’ 11-yard line. Three
plays later, Marshawn Lynch
scored a game-tying touchdown.
Then, when it appeared the
Patriots would take a lead into
halftime, Matthews found himself on the receiving end of an
11-yard touchdown pass that tied
the score at 14-14 with two seconds left in the half.
Three plays into the third
quarter Matthews was at it again
as he hauled in a 45-yard Russell Wilson pass that set up a goahead field goal to make it 17-14.
Seattle went on to build a 24-14
lead but were unable to hang on
as the Patriots scored two touchdowns to pull ahead and sealed
the win after intercepting a Russell
Wilson pass in the end zone.
Matthews
finished
Sunday’s game with four receptions
for 109 yards. “I just think the
coaches prepared me in the best
possible way they can in practice,” said Matthews. “Making
sure that I was well prepared for
what was to come, regardless
of whether it was this year, next
year or the year after that.”
NHL
Penguins shut out
by Predators, 4-0
NBA
Melo’s 31 helps Knicks beat Lakers
DPA
Los Angeles
C
armelo Anthony caught
fire, and the Los Angeles
Lakers never heated up.
Anthony dropped in
18 of his 31 points in the third
quarter Sunday, and the New
York Knicks pulled away for a
92-80 victory over the coldshooting Lakers.
“We came out ready to play
and played hard,” said Anthony,
who hit 13-of-25 field goals.
“Offensively, we got it going
early and got it going again in the
third quarter. I got hot. I got lucky.
Some shots went in for me.”
Langston Galloway contributed 13 points for the hosting Knicks (10-38) winners for
the fifth time in the last seven
games.
Carlos Boozer had 19 points
with 10 rebounds; Jordan Clarkson also netted 19 for the Lakers
(13-35), who shot an icey 35.5 per
cent en route to their ninth loss
in the last 10 games.
New York Knicks forward Carmelo Anthony (left).
“We just got off to a bad start
in the first quarter, and we just
couldn’t make ‘em all night long,”
Lakers coach Byron Scott said.
“I thought New York’s energy
was a whole lot harder than ours
and their effort was a lot better
than ours. They just played better.”
With All-Star guard Kobe
Bryant lost to season-ending
shoulder surgery, the Lakers
firepower was limited, especially
after centre Jordan Hill left in
the opening quarter because of a
right hip flexor.
“I felt it tighten up and like it
was going to pull it,” said Hill,
who could miss up to two weeks.
“Luckily, I caught it before
something major happened.”
In a once marquee match up
between two storied NBA franchises, the rivalry has turned
into a battle of bottom-feeders
in rebuild mode.
The Knicks raced out to a
32-19 lead after holding their
guests to just 5-20 of shooting.
The Lakers pulled to within 4739 at halftime despite shooting
26.8 per cent through the first 24
minutes.
Anthony took over in the third
quarter, with the All-Star forward running off the Knicks’
final dozen points for a 72-57
cushion. The gap grew to 21 in
the final frame en route to the
wire-wire victory.
“We got down early, ‘Melo
got hot in the third quarter, had
it going and gave them a nice
cushion,” Boozer said. “We
tried to fight back a little bit
but it was a little too late. We
never really got over the hump
to give ourselves a chance to
win.”
ELSEWHERE:
Miami Heat 83, Boston Celtics 75: Hassan Whiteside had
10 of 20 points in a pivotal run,
bridging the third and fourth
quarters, Chris Bosh added 18
and the short-handed Heat
beat the Celtics.
The visiting Heat (20-27)
snapped a two-game slide with
just its third win in the last seven
despite the absence of injured
starters Dwyane Wade (right
hamstring strain) and Luol Deng
(calf strain).
Results
New York
Boston
94 LA Lakers
75 Miami
80
83
Nashville Predators goalie Carter Hutton (right) celebrates with
teammates after defeating the Pittsburgh Penguins 4-0.
MCT
Pittsburgh
B
ackup goaltender Carter
Hutton led the Nashville
Predators to a 4-0 shutout of the Penguins yesterday at Consol Energy Center.
The Predators took a 1-0 lead
4:05 into the game. Defenseman
Roman Josi fired one-timer from
the right point through a cluster
of bodies in front of the cage and
beat Marc-Andre Fleury’s glove
hand on the far side.
That lead was doubled at 6:38
of the first period. Penguins defenseman Simon Despre turned
a puck over from his own end
boards to the slot where Predators left winger Gabriel Bourque
hammered a one-timer by
Fleury’s glove hand.
Late in the second, Nashville
took a 3-0 lead. After stealing a
puck form Penguins center Sidney Crosby in the Penguins’ high
slot, Predators left winger Taylor
Beck deal a pass to left winger
Eric Nystrom above the crease.
Nystrom was able to deke Fleury
out of position and scored on a
forehand shot with 41 seconds
remaining in the period.
Nashville poured it on with
another goal at 8:20 of the
third. On a power play following a slashing penalty to Crosby, center Filip Forsberg dealt a
pass to center Mike Fisher in the
right circle. Taking advantage of
a screen by Penguins defenseman Robert Bortuzzo and former
Penguins left winger James Neal,
Fisher snapped off a shot by the
blocker of Fleury.
Fleury finished with 20 saves.
The Penguins have lost six out of
their past eight games.
Results
Blues
Coyotes
Predators
Wild
4
3
4
4
Capitals
Canadiens
Penguins
Canucks
3
2
0
2
10
Gulf Times
Tuesday, February 3, 2015
FOOTBALL
Harry Kane signs new deal
With Tottenham Hotspur
Messi misses training due
to ‘personal reasons’
Coach Blanc will
‘make do’ with PSG squad
Algeria captain Bougherra
quits internationals
Tunisia players face heavy
punishment for ref attack
London: Harry Kane, break-out star of the current Premier League season, has signed a new
five-and-a-half-year contract with Tottenham
Hotspur, the London club announced yesterday.
“The club is delighted to announce that Harry
Kane has signed a new five-and-a-half-year
contract which runs until 2020,” Tottenham announced on their website.
Kane, 21, came through Tottenham’s youth academy and has scored 20 goals in 33 appearances
this season, making him the leading scorer in all
competitions in the English top flight.
Barcelona: Four-time World Player of the Year
Lionel Messi missed training yesterday due to
“personal reasons”, Barcelona have confirmed.
“Messi hasn’t trained today, with the permission of
the club, due to personal reasons,” Barca said in a
statement.
The Argentine continued his fine form with the
winning goal as Barca came from behind twice to
beat Villarreal 3-2 on Sunday.
Yet, it is just over a month since Messi missed
another training session in front of the club’s fans,
claiming to be suffering from gastroenteritis.
Paris: Paris Saint-Germain coach Laurent Blanc
explained yesterday that he would have to ‘make
do’ with his expensively assembled squad as
financial fair play rules had prevented the French
champions from making winter break signings.
“Because of the financial fair play rules we needed
someone to leave before someone else signed,
but nobody wanted to go. It’s as simple as that”
Blanc told a press conference.
“We had thought something might happen but
in the end we couldn’t get any of our projects
started.”
Malabo: Algeria captain Madjid Bougherra has
retired from international football after his country’s elimination from the African Nations Cup
finals on Sunday.
“That was my last official match. In football,
you have to turn the page. I thank the coach
for trusting me, I thank the national team,” he
told reporters as Algeria prepared to go home
after being beaten 3-1 by the Ivory Coast in their
quarter-finals.
“With (coach Christian) Gourcuff, we have a future
in my view,” the 32-year-old added.
Bata, Equatorial Guinea: Tunisia are facing
heavy punishment after their players attacked the
referee at the end of Saturday’s African Nations
Cup quarter-final loss to Equatorial Guinea.
Referee Seechurn Rajindraprasad of Mauritius
was attacked by incensed Tunisia players who
chased him down the tunnel and attempted to
kick and punch him as he was escorted off the
pitch by a phalanx of riot-clad policemen.
CAF will also look at a spitting incident involving
Equatorial Guinea defender Sipoto who could be
suspended for the semi-final.
AFRICA CUP OF NATIONS
Messi hits winner
as Barcelona keep up
pressure on Real
The Catalan side have been looking more resilient in recent weeks
Reuters
Barcelona
Lionel
(L)
with
MaxMessi
Gradel
ofvies
Ivory
Coast
Villarreal’s
Russian
midfielder
celebrates
his goal
against
Denis
Cheryshev
(R) during
Cameroon
in their
Africa Cup
their
ofSpanish
Nations league
Group Dmatch
clash, in
at the
CamponNou
stadium (EPA)
in
Malabo
Wednesday.
Barcelona on Sunday night.
L
ionel Messi struck the winner for Barcelona who twice came
from behind to beat Villarreal 3-2 at home and move a point
behind leaders Real Madrid in La Liga on Sunday.
Barca dominated possession and Luis Suarez had several
early chances but it was Villarreal who took the lead with Denis
Cheryshev redirecting a Mario Gaspar shot past keeper Claudio
Bravo on the half hour.
The Catalan side have been looking more resilient in recent weeks
and in-form Neymar knocked in a rebound before halftime after
Rafinha’s shot had been saved by keeper Sergio Asenjo.
Luciano Vietto restored the visitors’ advantage after being set up
well by Giovani dos Santos but Barca again bounced back.
Rafinha knocked the ball home after Messi’s header had been
blocked by Victor Ruiz and then Messi hit a 20-metre shot into the
top corner with his weaker right foot after 55 minutes.
Barcelona coach Luis Enrique was pleased with the performance
but admitted they lacked concentration for a spell.
“It was a very positive match except for the goals that we conceded,” he told reporters.
“At 1-0 we lost our composure for about ten minutes and gave the
ball away but up until the first goal we didn’t face any danger.
“When the score was at 3-2 we continued to attack as we wanted
to finish the match off. We obviously try to keep hold of the ball but
if the rival leaves you space then you have to attack it.”
Barcelona have 50 points from 21 games while Real, who have also
played a game less, beat Real Sociedad 4-1 on Saturday to stay top.
Villarreal are sixth on 38 points.
Elsewhere, a late Iago Aspas strike gave Sevilla a 3-2 home victory
over Espanyol and moved them up to fourth in La Liga.
Sevilla were seeking revenge for their defeat by Espanyol in the
King’s Cup last week but they went behind to a Christian Stuani
penalty after Salva Sevilla was felled by goalkeeper Beto.
Sevilla, who are yet to lose at home this season, pushed forward
and equalised in sensational style through a 35-metre drive from
Diogo Figueiras after 26 minutes.
Vitolo slotted home from close range for Sevilla 10 minutes before
the break and then Espanyol keeper Kiko Casilla was sent off as he
handled a lob from Aspas outside the area.
Sevilla almost threw away the victory with Victor Sanchez firing
home 15 minutes from the end but there was still time for Aspas, on
loan from Liverpool, to hit the winner a minute from time.
At the Camp Nou, Luis Enrique surprisingly left Xavi and Ivan
Rakitic out of the starting lineup with Rafinha given a chance in
the midfield. Villarreal arrived on an 18-match unbeaten run and
although they were pressed back with Barca’s possession football
they were a constant threat on the counter.
Barca didn’t find it easy to breakdown Villarreal but their quality
in attack eventually shone through.
Neymar was on target again after his double helped Barca knock
Atletico Madrid out of the King’s Cup last Wednesday and Messi
crowned another dangerous performance with his 22nd league goal
of the season. “It is fantastic to have such dangerous players in attack and they (Neymar and Messi) are in special form at the moment,” said Luis Enrique, who said he wasn’t worried that Suarez
continued to struggle in front of goal.
Barca
accused of
tax fraud
in Neymar
signing
AFP
Barcelona
S
panish public prosecutors have
asked for Barcelona and their
former president Sandro Rosell
to be tried for two charges of tax
fraud committed in the signing of Brazilian star Neymar (pictured).
Meanwhile, prosecutors have also
asked for the investigation of current Barcelona president Josep Maria
Bartomeu and the club on an extra tax
charge in 2014, which could rise to 2.85
million euros.
In a judicial file released on Monday,
prosecutor Jose Perals Calleja suggests
that Rosell and Barca declared an inferior fee to that which they paid for Neymar in 2013.
The prosecutors believe that Neymar
cost in excess of the 57 million euros
($64.3 million, £42.7 million) declared
to the Spanish tax man.
They cite the figure at a cost of
82,743,485 euros divided into sperate
contracts that secured the signing.
According to the calculations of the
Spanish tax authorities, Barcelona owe
a total of 12,148,696 million euros in
tax on the deal, which would see the
overall cost of the operation rise to 94.8
million euros.
Rosell resigned as president over
the affair just over a year ago when a
complaint brought by one of the club’s
members for misappropriation of funds
was taken to court.
In his testimony before a judge on the
case in July of 2004, Rosell insisted that
Neymar cost the club 57 million euros,
17 of which went to his former club
Santos and 40 million paid to N&N, a
company owned by the player’s father.
However, following Rosell’s resignation, Barcelona also confirmed a
number of extra agreements including
a 10 million euro signing bonus for the
player and scouting and collaborative
agreements between the two clubs taking the total to 86.2 million euros.
In February of last year, the club announced that they had made a voluntary payment of 13.5 million euros to
the Spanish tax authorities regarding
the transfer.
PREVIEW
Januzaj hopes for Cambridge chance in FA Cup
AFP
London
M
anchester United winger Adnan
Januzaj hopes today’s FA Cup
fourth-round replay at home to
lowly Cambridge United will help
him to prove his worth to manager Louis van
Gaal.
The 19-year-old Belgium international was
one of the few success stories during the disastrous reign of van Gaal’s predecessor, David
Moyes.
At the corresponding stage of last season,
he had made 24 appearances and scored three
goals, including two in a 2-1 victory at Sunderland that heralded his arrival on the Premier
League scene.
But under van Gaal, Januzaj has been involved in only 14 games to date this season, with
his start in Saturday’s 3-1 victory over Leicester
City just his fourth of the campaign and first
since November.
“I’ve not been playing for so long so it was good
to get 90 minutes, even if I was really tired in the
last 15 minutes and got cramp,” said Januzaj.
It was predicted that the
youngster would be allowed to
leave the club on loan during the
January transfer window, but the
United manager has been impressed
by Januzaj’s efforts of late and chose
instead to keep him at Old Trafford
“Of course we want to win the FA Cup and
this is a big chance to win it. We were good going forward against Leicester and could have
scored more than three goals, but hopefully we
can take this into Tuesday night and win the
game.”
Van Gaal was more expansive when discussing the future of Januzaj, who turns 20 this
week.
It was predicted that the youngster would
be allowed to leave the club on loan during the
January transfer window, but the United manager has been impressed by Januzaj’s efforts of
late and chose instead to keep him at Old Trafford.
“He has a lot of talent, but you have to perform that talent in the matches. And also in the
training sessions,” van Gaal told reporters.
“I’m not making the line-up. The players
themselves are making the line-up. You don’t
believe that, I think!
“I look at players every day. I observe and
I communicate with my players what I want.
And the moment I think, ‘OK, he is now ready
to play,’ then maybe I can let them play.”
The FA Cup is the only competition that
United stand a realistic chance of winning and
with Manchester City, Chelsea and Tottenham
Hotspur among the teams to have fallen by the
wayside, the field has opened up.
United, embarrassed by a 0-0 draw in the
first meeting between the sides, therefore
seem certain to field a strong line-up, with
van Gaal claiming he will resist the temptation to hand a debut to new goalkeeper Victor
Valdes.
Perhaps distracted by the prospect of the
trip to Old Trafford, Cambridge’s league form
has not matched their efforts in the cup, with
Richard Money’s side collecting just one point
from their last two League Two games.
Saturday’s 3-2 defeat at Luton Town, which
left Cambridge in the bottom half of the English fourth tier, provided a wake-up call.
The replay will give an opportunity for midfielder Luke Chadwick to return to the club
where he started his career, while winger Ryan
Donaldson also has some experience of the
stadium.
Aged 17, Donaldson sat on the bench at Old
Trafford for his former club Newcastle United.
“Kevin Keegan was the manager. I never
got on, but it was a fantastic atmosphere,” he
recalled. “And the pitch seemed huge. Maybe
that will suit me if I am in a wide role again.
“But no matter what happens, it will be an
incredible night. And the pressure is all on
them, isn’t it?”
The winners of the game will visit either
Preston North End or giant-killers Sheffield
United, who fell to Tottenham in the League
Cup semi-finals last week. The two third-tier
sides meet at Bramall Lane.
In Tuesday’s other replay, Premier League
Sunderland visit Fulham, while Liverpool
travel to second-division Bolton Wanderers on
Wednesday with a fifth-round trip to Crystal
Palace up for grabs.
Fixtures (10.45pm Qatar Time)
Today: Fulham v Sunderland, Manchester
United v Cambridge United, Sheffield United v
Preston North End
Tomorrow: Bolton Wanderers v Liverpool
Gulf Times
Tuesday, February 3, 2015
11
FOOTBALL
SPOTLIGHT
AFRICAN CUP OF NATIONS
Korea’s Cha quits
international game
Ivorian form
ominous for rivals
Cha was to be avoided at all costs, even on the training ground
Ivory Coast’s Kouassi Gervais (L) celebrates his goal against Algeria
during their quarter-final in Malabo on Sunday.
AFP
Bata
A
File photo of South Korea’s
Cha Du-Ri fighting for the
ball with Australia’s Mathew
Leckie during their AFC
Asian Cup final on Sunday.
Korean strongman Cha has
announced his retirement
from international football.
Reuters
Seoul
C
ha Du-ri retired from international football after South Korea’s Asian Cup final defeat to
Australia at the weekend and
while his career never hit the heights of
his legendary father, the destructive defender will be a tough act to follow.
The son of Bundesliga great Cha Bumkun, he began life as a speedster winger
but found his true calling as a galloping
wingback, leaving a trail of destruction
in his wake with trademark wide-eyed,
full-blooded challenges.
Nicknamed “Cha-minator” and the
“human weapon,” Cha was to be avoided at all costs, even on the training
ground where his own teammates and
coaches were left battered and bruised
after tangling with the tattooed tough
guy.
Tributes to Cha’s contribution to the
national team poured in over the week-
end, with teammates past and present
leading the way.
“He was faster than the ball,” said captain Ki Sung-yueng said. “He devoted
himself to the national team and he deserves respect.”
Former national team defender Lee
Young-pyo highlighted Cha’s aggression
and physicality as his biggest assets.
“One of his own coaches damaged his
ribs when he bumped into Cha during
training,” said Lee. “Even German players
weren’t able to overcome him. His physical traits aren’t those of a typical Korean
player.”
Cha’s father, dubbed “Cha Boom” in
Germany for his thunderous shooting
and who is regarded as one of the finest
footballers of the 1980s, said time had
gone by so quickly and he found it hard to
take in his son was retiring.
“I still remember when Du-ri’s mother
was pregnant, the pages of the Frankfurt
newspapers were talking about a ‘zweite
Cha Boom’ (second Cha Boom) about to
be born,” said Cha, who played for Ein-
tracht Frankfurt and Bayer Leverkusen.
“And now he’s putting away the South
Korean uniform,” he told local media.
“I was so proud to have a son who
played for the national football team.”
At club level Cha was a fan favourite
wherever he went, earning cult status
with Scottish champions Celtic, where
the crowd tweaked a Pussycat Dolls song
in his honour by singing: “Don’t Cha
wish your right back was Cha Du-ri,
Don’t Cha?”
Picked for the national team by Guus
Hiddink while still an amateur, Cha was
part of South Korea’s sensational run to
the semi-finals of the 2002 World Cup on
home soil.
He was in and out of the national team
over the next couple of years, missing out
on a place in the 2006 World Cup squad,
but made a big impression in 2010 when
the Koreans reached the last 16, winning
his 50th cap in a 2-1 loss to Uruguay.
Left out of the national squad again
for the 2014 World Cup, Cha looked to
have played his last game for the Taeguek
Warriors until German Uli Stielike took
over as coach late last year.
The two formed an immediate bond,
with German-speaking Cha an invaluable conduit between Stielike and the rest
of the squad.
At 34 he was the most senior member
of the Asian Cup squad but his tireless
energy and lung-bursting runs left defenders for dead and younger team mates
struggling just to keep up.
Two trademark rampaging runs down
the right led to crucial goals against Kuwait and Uzbekistan, while on Saturday
he delivered a more disciplined defensive
performance against Australia’s dangerous wide man Mathew Leckie.
The Koreans fell just short of winning
their first Asian title in 55 years after a 2-1
defeat in Sydney, and while many have
called on him to rethink his international
retirement, Cha said he was leaving on a
high.
“My last soccer journey has ended,” he
wrote on his Twitter page. “I am a really
happy football player.”
BUNDESLIGA
Bayern out to bounce back
against Schalke 04
AFP
Munich
G
erman league leaders
Bayern Munich look
to get their Bundesliga
campaign back on track
against Schalke 04 today following their shock defeat at VfL
Wolfsburg.
Second-placed Wolves cut
Bayern’s lead to eight points on
Friday as Bas Dost and Kevin de
Bruyne both struck twice as the
Bavarian giants suffered their
heaviest league defeat for six
years.
Roberto di Matteo’s Schalke,
who are fourth in the table, are
seeking only their fourth away
league win of the season and
their first at Munich’s Allianz
Arena since 2009.
Bayern’s Gelsenkirchen-born
goalkeeper Manuel Neuer is relishing facing his home town club.
“It would have been worse
if we’d had to wait eight days
for our next game,” said the exSchalke shot-stopper.
“Wolfsburg wasn’t a good
start to the second half of the
season for us, that is obvious, we
had imagine things would go differently.
“It wasn’t a catastrophe, but
we know we still have a lot of
work ahead of us.”
Netherlands winger Arjen
Robben said Pep Guardiola’s
Bayern must respond after their
“wake-up call” against Wolves.
“We have to learn our lessons
Roberto di Matteo’s
Schalke, who are fourth in
the table, are seeking only
their fourth away league
win of the season and their
first at Munich’s Allianz
Arena since 2009
and perhaps it’s not so bad for
the future,” added Robben.
Schalke will be without Netherlands star striker Klaas-Jan
Huntelaar, the league’s top scorer last season, who is suspended
after being sent off for a reckless
tackle in the 1-0 home win over
Hanover 96 last Saturday.
“Klaas is obviously disappointed, it’s a real shame. We’ll
have to see how we can cope with
his loss,” said Di Matteo.
The Schalke coach is also wait-
ing on the fitness of midfielder
Marco Hoeger, who limped off
after scoring Saturday’s winner
with a thigh injury.
Second-placed Wolfsburg are
hoping to include Chelsea’s Andre Schuerrle for Tuesday’s away
match at Eintracht Frankfurt if
they sign the Germany winger
before the transfer window closes. Schuerrle has said he wants
to join Wolves, who are offering
a four-year deal and a transfer
worth 30 million euros, but the
deal is reported to be stalling over
the money offered to Chelsea.
Bottom side Borussia Dortmund have their work cut out as
they chase their first win in six
games when they travel to Augsburg tomorrow.
Augsburg climbed to fifth after
securing their tenth win of the
season with a 3-1 victory over
Hoffenheim on Sunday while
Dortmund have lost 10 of their
first 18 matches. Borussia earned
a precious point with a goalless draw at fellow Champions
League side Bayer Leverkusen
on Saturday, but are only three
points from mid-table.
Fixtures (10pm Qatar Time)
Today: Bayern Munich v Schalke
04, Bor. Moenchengladbach v
Freiburg Hanover 96 v Mainz
05, Eintracht Frankfurt v VfL
Wolfsburg
Tomorrow : Borussia Dortmund
v Augsburg Hoffenheim v
Werder Bremen, Hertha Berlin
v Bayer Leverkusen, Cologne
v VfB Stuttgart, Paderborn v
Hamburg.
fter a clinical performance in beating the
pre-tournament
favourites on Sunday, an
improving Ivory Coast now have
a first Africa Cup of Nations title
in almost a quarter of a century
within grasp.
The Elephants’ coach Herve
Renard described Algeria as “the
best team in the tournament”
immediately after his side beat
them 3-1 in Malabo to clinch a
place in the last four, where they
will face DR Congo tomorrow.
But Renard also showed that
he is surely the competition’s
most tactically astute coach as
he extended his own impressive
unbeaten run in the Cup of Nations.
The Frenchman has suffered
just one defeat in his last 15 Cup
of Nations games, and that came
on penalties at the hands of Nigeria when he was in charge of
Zambia in 2010.
Ivory Coast captain Yaya
Toure, the continent’s leading
player, has yet to perform for
Renard at this tournament as
brilliantly as he so often does for
Manchester City.
He has also constantly played
down his side’s prospects despite
their undoubted quality on paper, but his pragmatic approach
worked for Zambia when they
so memorably won the Cup of
Nations in 2012 at the expense
of the Ivory Coast, and now it is
starting to pay off with a better
team.
Some outstanding performances from his young defence,
the energy of Serey Die in midfield and the decisive contributions of Max-Alain Gradel
have played their part in taking
the Ivory Coast to the last four,
while on Sunday Wilfried Bony
stepped forward with a brace of
headers against the Algerians.
“When I played with Zambia
against the Ivory Coast, they
were much better than us, but
we battled with the weapons we
had and won on penalties. That is
how football is,” said Renard.
“You need to be realistic and
try to put the best tactics in place
to beat your opponent.”
A three-man central defence
marshalled by Kolo Toure wavered for a spell in the second
half up against the pace and
technical ability of the Algerians, but there has been a vast
improvement since the qualifying campaign, when they let in 11
goals in six games.
“Eric Bailly had a great match.
He was really motivated having
just signed for Villarreal. I think
he really deserves it,” said Renard
on Sunday of the 20-year-old.
“And Wilfried Kanon is also a
young player without experience
but luckily we also have Kolo
Toure. It’s a very inexperienced
defence but thanks to Kolo there
is plenty of communication.”
The return of Gervinho on
Sunday after a two-game ban for
his sending-off against Guinea at
the start of the group stage was
an added boost for the Ivorian
attack.
The Roma player scored the
third goal against Algeria in stoppage time, but there is less pressure on him to perform now that
Bony and Gradel are firing on all
cylinders as the Elephants move
on from the Didier Drogba era.
“I think the Ivory Coast is
very lucky to have a big centreforward like Wilfried Bony just
behind Didier Drogba, because I
think you know very well the statistic - he was the best scorer in
England in 2014, so I think that
explains everything,” said Renard
of the squat striker who recently
joined Manchester City.
Gradel, meanwhile, is someone who Renard describes as
“extraordinary to have around
the squad, whether he is playing
or not.”
The bronzed Renard has created an excellent team spirit and
a winning mentality in his side,
meaning a repeat of the 4-3 loss
to DR Congo in October’s qualifying fixture in Abidjan would be
an enormous surprise when the
sides clash again this week.
And with Equatorial Guinea
and Ghana meeting in the other
half of the draw, a first Cup of
Nations title since 1992 looks a
very real prospect indeed for the
post-Drogba Ivorians.
ITALIAN CUP
Roma, Fiorentina
clash in quarters
DPA
Rome
R
oma and Fiorentina meet today in
the quarter-finals of
the Italian Cup after drawing in Serie A action,
which left the Rome Giallorossi particularly disappointed.
The league weekend was positive for Napoli, who won 2-1 at
Chievo and tomorrow tackle
troubled Inter Milan with two
more semi-final places up for
grabs alongside Juventus and
Lazio in the semi-finals.
Fiorentina were pleased
with their 1-1 draw Saturday
at Genoa and had minor complaints for not profiting from
the late dismissal of the hosts’
defender Nicolas Burdisso.
“As (scoring) chances are
concerned, Genoa did a little
more,” La Viola coach Vincenzo
Montella said. “But the game
was even and the result is to
be accepted. We lacked a little
order. Our nerves were a little tired, but it was a point we
gained.”
The mood of Roma boss Rudi
Garcia was gloomier after a 1-1
home draw against minnows
Empoli, the fourth straight in
a run that also included a 1-1
draw with La Viola on January
25.
Argentine
forward
Juan
Iturbe hurt a leg and is to be out
for more than a month to join
Kevin Strootman on the Giallorossi’s injured list.
Also out are forwards Gervinho and new signing Seydou
Doumbia, both at the Africa
Cup of Nations with the Ivory
Coast.
“Unfortunately I have little
choices available,” Garcia said.
“In this moment we must bite
the bullet and do all we can to
get back to winning.
“We only have to look ahead
to the next game in the cup
against Fiorentina. In this moment we have many problems
and only three days to recuperate.”
As Fiorentina stayed sixth
with an Europa League berth
in their sights, second-place
Roma remained seven points
adrift of Juventus, who drew
0-0 at Udinese, but saw Napoli
close within four points.
The Naples side now aim for
second place, which ensures direct Champions League qualification. But with 17 domestic
league games left, coach Rafael
Benitez declined to make longterm plans.
Tuesday, February 3, 2015
SPORT
GULF TIMES
CYCLING
FOCUS
Bronzini, Hosking
lead field at Ladies
Tour of Qatar
Three rivals
take on Blatter
for FIFA
presidency
‘Qatar is always a huge objective for me. I love to race here’
Dutch association chief Michael van Praag (left) and former
Portuguese international football player Luis Figo.
AFP
Lausanne
F
(From left) Qatar Cycling Federation’s (QCF) president Sheikh Khalid bin Ali al-Thani, QCF CEO Ahmed Abdullah al-Hemaidi, Q-Auto managing director Yann Lassade and QCF
director of Sports Operations John Lelangue at a press conference yesterday. PICTURE: Jayaram
By Yash Mudgal
Doha
I
n the absence of defending champion
Kirsten Wild, Wiggle-Honda riders
Giorgia Bronzini and Chloe Hosking
will lead an impressive line-up in the
seventh edition of Ladies Tour of Qatar,
which will commence today from Museum of Islamic Art.
Italian sprinter and two-time world
champion Bronzini along with Dutch star
Wild, who has won four of the previous
six editions of the race, are the only two
riders who have won multiple stages of
the race in the past.
Wild is not taking part this year in the
four-day event — the highest-ranking
UCI stage race of the women’s calendar
of the season — as she is concentrating on
track events.
Bronzini has taken three stages in the
desert race, and finished second in the
first two editions, while Australian Hosking is also a former stage winner, with two
overall podiums to her credit.
Both riders have shown great form in
the Australian summer races, with victories in the Mitchelton Bay Crits and
the Santos Women’s Tour, and both are
focused on the race which is traditionally
dominated by strong riders in the wind.
“Qatar is always a huge objective for
me. I love to race here, I love the wind, I
love echelons,” in-form Hosking told Gulf
Times. “I finished second overall here in
2013 and third overall in 2014. If I’m in the
right position I would love to go for a GC
result this time. The racing here is about
Wiggle-Honda riders Chloe Hosking (left) and Giorgia Bronzini.
being consistent, making the front group
every day and picking up seconds whenever you can.
“We’ve got such a strong team that
we could go for anyone. It’s exciting to
be lining up with such a dynamic squad
which has Giorgia. I think we can have a
serious impact on the race.”
Wild’s countrywoman Ellen Van Dijk
and German Judith Arndt own the two
other victories of the Tour. Van Dijk is
also returning with team Boels-Dolmans,
which also has World Cup overall and
Commonwealth Games winner Lizzie
Armitstead.
Qatar Cycling Federation’s (QCF) director of Sports Operations John Lelangue, said, Wild’s absence is making
the race a little bit different.
“We are on the edge of a pretty open
race. The wind is strong and it will surely
make the difference as Wild is not here to
defend her title,” Lelangue said.
“We have four stages covering a total distance of 389.5km and two bonus
sprints per stage and bonus at every stage
finish makes it very challenging,” he said.
Addressing a press conference on the eve
of the inaugural stage of the tour QCF president Sheikh Khalid bin Ali al-Thani said
this year’s race would be very interesting.
“I think start of stage three from Souq
Waqif will be quite interesting. It is a very
popular area of the city and we feel it is
important to show this historical place
to the people. We are taking races to the
busy place with people around to make it
more interesting,” Sheikh Khalid said.
“Wind will again play an important
role again and I think in Wild’s absence,
those who will handle the wind well will
be successful,” he added.
Talking about increasing the number of
stages, he said there is no such plan as of
now.“We started the race with three stages
and later increased it to four. It will remain
at four, at least until next year,” he said.
With one year to go before the World
Road Championships come to Qatar for
the first time, 90 riders (15 teams of 6) will
be present at the Tour. This race is also
important for many riders as they have
signed up for new teams and they are excited and waiting for the season to start.
Orica-AIS, the best team from the last
edition, has Emma Johansson, world
number one in 2013, and Valentina Scandolara, who is in form after winning the
2015 Santos Women’s Tour in January.
World time trial champion Lisa Brennauer will also participate, along with her
newly-formed Velocio-SRAM team.
Last year’s stage two winner Amy Pieters — the only rider to win a stage in 2014
other than Wild — will lead Team LivPlantur with Lucy Garner, while American Shelley Olds will lead the Bigla team.
LADIES TOUR OF QATAR
(FEBRUARY 3 TO 6)
Stage 1 (98.5km): Museum of Islamic Art
to Dukhan Beach
Stage 2 (112.5km): Al Zubarah Fort to
Madinat Al Shamal
Stage 3 (93.5km): Souq Waqif to Al Khor
Corniche
Stage 4 (85km): Sealine Beach Resort to
Doha Corniche
Total Prize Money: Euro 21,630
Winner’s purse: Euro 1,200
ootball’s world governing body FIFA announced
yesterday that four candidates are bidding to
become its president, including
long-time incumbent Sepp Blatter.
The three others who have
thrown their hat into the ring
are Asian Football Confederation vice-president Prince Ali
bin al-Hussein of Jordan, former
Portugal international Luis Figo
and Dutch football chief Michael
van Praag.
Two others who had been considering making bids — former
France international forward
David Ginola and ex-FIFA executive official Jerome Champagne
— both failed to get the necessary
backing from five national associations.
A FIFA statement said that
the candidature dossiers would
next go before the investigatory chamber of an independent
Ethics Committee to carry out
integrity checks on the four men
within ten days.
“Upon receipt of the results of
the integrity checks, the (FIFA)
Ad-hoc Electoral Committee will
reconvene in order to review all
of the submissions and validate
their compliance with the applicable FIFA regulatory provisions.
“Following this process, the
Ad-hoc Electoral Committee
will formally admit and declare
the candidates who are eligible
for the office of FIFA President.”
After that the FIFA executive
committee will meet in Zurich on
May 29 and decide if Blatter will
get a fifth term as president or
bring in a new man.
The 78-year-old Swiss bureaucrat is seen as an outstanding favourite to win a new term
despite a storm of protest over
the way he runs the organisation.
His reign has notably been
tarnished by accusations of corruption stemming from the bidding process for the 2018 and
2022 World Cups, which were
awarded to Russia and Qatar respectively.
The controversies have seriously eroded his support and
tarnished his reputation in European strongholds like England,
Germany and the Netherlands,
but he still enjoys wide support
in Asia, Africa and Oceania.
On top of that the success
of last summer’s World Cup in
Brazil, despite earlier fears over
the state of the organisation, has
further boosted his status.
Champagne, a former FIFA
deputy general secretary, was for
a long time the only man to declare his intention to challenge
Blatter for the post.
But yesterday he announced
his withdrawal from the contest
in a letter to national associations where he blamed European-governing body UEFA and
the “institutions” mobilising to
eliminate him.
He said he had secured three
nominations but other associations feared reprisals if they
backed him.
“The reasons were numerous.
Because they feared reprisals
from their confederations having
issued ‘recommendations’.”
“Because their federations
were candidates to host continental competitions. Because
they relied too heavily on the
financial support. Because they
were committed to defend a
united continental front.”
Ginola, whose late entry as a
potential candidate took many
by surprise, ended his bid on Friday after he failed to receive the
required five nominations from
football associations needed to
continue.
Figo and van Praag both announced their candidatures last
week while Prince Ali launched
his campaign at the start of the
year.
INTROSPECTION
FIFA probe West Ham, Sakho over AFCON no-show
AFP
London
W
orld governing body FIFA
yesterday announced disciplinary proceedings against
West Ham United and Diafra Sakho (pictured) over the striker’s
failure to play for Senegal at the Africa
Cup of Nations.
Sakho was ruled out of the tournament
in Equatorial Guinea with a back injury,
but came off the bench to score for West
Ham in their FA Cup fourth-round win
over Bristol City on January 25.
West Ham have maintained that they
followed the correct procedures, but Sakho
was left out of their squad for Saturday’s
2-0 loss at Liverpool in the Premier League.
“We can confirm, that disciplinary
proceedings were initiated against the
player Diafra Sakho (SEN) and the club
West Ham United for a potential violation of the FIFA Regulations on the Status and Transfer of Players,” FIFA said in
a statement. “At this stage we can’t make
any further comments.”
If FIFA’s case is proven, Sakho could
face a domestic suspension and West
Ham a fine, but the club said the charge
was “unfounded” and called for it to be
thrown out.
“Diafra Sakho and West Ham United
vigorously deny that they have acted
in breach of FIFA regulations,” the club
said in a statement.
“They regard the proceedings as clearly
unfounded and are requesting their dismissal. At this stage, neither the player nor
the club can make any further comments.”
Sakho travelled to West Ham’s game
against Bristol City by limousine, rather
than by plane, in a bid to avoid aggravating his back injury.
West Ham manager Sam Allardyce
confirmed that Sakho had been omitted
from his squad for the Liverpool game
due to the affair.
“With Sakho it is down to the situation we are in with FIFA,” he said. “While
it is happening it is not conducive for us
to be putting him on the field until it is
resolved, sadly.
“If you speak to the lad, you would
know how angry and disappointed he is
at being denied the opportunity to play
football when it is not our fault. We have
covered all the rules and regulations, but
at this moment in time it is sensible to do
the right thing and not get involved any
more.”
Sakho, 25, joined West Ham from
French side Metz last year and is the east
London club’s top scorer this season
with 10 goals.
Jordan’s Prince Ali bin al-Hussein and FIFA president Sepp Blatter.
Cruyff backs Van Praag for FIFA job
The Hague: Football legend Johan Cruyff has thrown his weight
behind fellow Dutchman Michael van Praag in the race for FIFA’s
presidency, saying his friend was somebody “you can count on”.
Writing for popular daily tabloid De Telegraaf yesterday, Cruyff
said if Van Praag “ever asked for my support, he’s got it”.
“I’ve known him for fifty years and we remain good friends. He’s
someone you can count on.”
Dutch football chief Van Praag a week ago threw his hat in the
ring in the bid to dethrone FIFA president Sepp Blatter, saying he
would stand for one term only.
Van Praag said he wanted to modernise football’s world governing
body “which has lost all credibility”.
The former Ajax chairman presented backing from the Dutch,
Belgian, Swedish, Scottish, Romanian and Faroe Islands’ football
federations.
He is among four candidates announced yesterday for the FIFA
candidacy including Blatter himself, considered to be the favourite.
Another candidate is former Portugal international Luis Figo,
who Cruyff described as an “excellent candidate” but one lacking
management experience.
“Therefore it would be good for Figo to support Van Praag,” this
time, Cruyff writes.

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Qatar to take on France in world handball final