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TUESDAY
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DECEMBER 01
Truthful, Factual and Unbiased
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Eye on the News
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2015 -Qaus 10, 1394 HS
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AT News Report
KABUL: Constitution has been
constantly violated by all three
pillars of the state, said the Second Vice President Sarwar Danish.
While introducing a member-designate of the Supreme Court High
Council and six member-designates of the Independent Commission for Overseeing the Implementation of Constitution to the Wolesi Jirga on Tuesday, Danish said
that the government has failed to
The Médecins Sans Frontières
(MSF) has sharply criticized the
U.S over their findings following
the investigation into the airstrike
0708954626
enforce rule of law. “Just having a
constitution is not enough for the
rule of law and democracy,” he
said. Danish stressed on serous
oversight on implementation of
the constitution.
“It is a bitter reality that we
failed to oversee implementation
of the constriction and enforce
rule of law. The constitution has
not been violated by people, but
was usually violated by government officials and all three pillars
of the state,” he said.
He added that most of the responsibility for violation of constitution falls on the executive.
Danish stressed on impartiality of the independent oversight
commission, and said that members of the body should consider
national interest and should oversee performance of the government and should not allow anyone to violate the constitution.
However, a number of legal
experts said that the former members of the commission failed to
prevent government officials from
violating the constitution. They
said that members of the commission should be unbiased.
that destroyed their hospital in
Kunduz last month.
Speaking to TOLOnews,
MSF country director for Afghanistan Gilliam Mulini said the organization had been shocked by
the statement made by Gen. John
F. Campbell the Resolute Support
mission’s commander in Afghanistan. Mulini asked how it was
possible to dismiss the deaths of
30 people as a “mistake” and to
say that the bombing was attributed to “human error” and a lack
of coordination.
PARIS: Prime Minister Muhammad Nawaz Sharif and Afghan
President Ashraf Ghani Monday
held discussion on the resumption of peace and reconciliation
process in Afghanistan, with the
former offering Pakistan’s good
offices to support an Afghanowned and Afghan-led peace process. The two leaders, who met
here on the sidelines of 21st UN
Climate Change Conference,
lease of the hostages with higherups and it was up to Kabul how it
could make possible the soldiers’
rescue. Soon after the private
company’schopper made the emergency landing, the Taliban attacked
the soldiers and three crew members. The chopper was flying from
Mazar-i-Sharif to Maimana airport.
The Ministry of Defence (MoD)
says one Afghan National Army
(ANA) soldier and a foreign militant were killed in the ensuing clash.
At least 18 soldiers are in Taliban’s
custody. Qari Yousuf Ahmadi, the
Taliban spokesman, told Pajhwok
Afghan News the captive security
men had been shifted to a safe place.
13 militants
arrested in Nangarhar
AT News Report
KABUL: The National Directorate of Security (NDS) on Monday said that 13 militants were arrested in
eastern Nangarhar
province.
In a media statement issued here, the
NDS said that its operatives arrested 13
militants in multiple
operations launched in Batikoat,
Nazian, Chaparhar and Ghanikhil
districts of Nangarhar province.
The detained insurgents belonged to Daesh and Taliban militant groups, who were involved
in different subversive activities
in the province, added the release.
Twenty kilograms explosives,
an anti-vehicle mine, one cannon
bullet with some other ammunition were recovered from the detained rebels.
a request from Pakistani Prime
Minister Nawaz Sharif, requesting a meeting between the two
leaders to be conducted on the sidelines of the climate change conference in Paris,” Abdullah Abdullah
said.The meeting is taking place
amid strained bilateral relations
between the two countries following a barrage of deadly attacks on
the capital Kabul a few months
ago – attacks that Afghan officials
AT Monitoring Desk
AT News Report
KABUL: China signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU)
with the Ministry of Education
on Monday to establish a vocational institute in Kabul.
The MoU was signed between the Ministry of Education
and group of Chinese engineers.
The Minister of Education,
Assadullah Hanif Balkhi, said that
the institute will offer a variety of
vocational course to some 2,000
The air raid was carried out
by U.S troops on the Kunduz
MSF trauma facility on October
3 and lasted 29 minutes. Campbell said the building had been
mistaken for that of a nearby government facility that was thought
to have been under Taliban control. Campbell said: “US forces
Afghanistan is currently working
hand in hand with MSF to identify the injured and families of those
who lost loved ones in order that
we may offer appropriate condolences.
...P2
“The chopper was flying from Mazar-i-Sharif to Maimana airport. The Ministry of Defence (MoD)
says one Afghan National Army (ANA) soldier and a foreign militant were killed in the ensuing clash.
MAIMANA: Security personnel
are still trying for release of the
soldiers kidnapped by Taliban after a helicopter crash in northwestern Faryab province, an official
said on Monday. The Taliban
claimed shifting the captive soldiers they seized after their copter
made an emergency landing on the
outskirts of the provincial capital
last week to an area under their
control. Gen. Sakhi Dad, a commander of 209th Shaheen Military
Corps, told Pajhwok Afghan News
efforts were still underway for the
safe release of service members. He
said they had provided details of
efforts for negotiationson the re-
agreed to work with all those who
would enter such a process as legitimate political actors and act
along side the Afghan government,
against those who refuse to take
the path of peace.
Abdullah Abdullah the Chief
Executive Officer on Monday said
the meeting was at the request of
Pakistani Prime Minister, Nawaz
Sharif. “A delegation of Pakistan’s
National Awami Party dispatched
He said the soldiers were
being investigated by the
Taliban’s military wing. Residents
of locality said the Taliban had hit
the helicopter with a rocket after a
brief clash with the soldiers. On
the other hand, Syed Abdul Baqi
Hashimi, former provincial council chief, said the militants had
shifted the soldiers to Qaisar district, where they were being kept
separately in insurgents’ homes.
He said: “We don’t know the fate
of the soldiers and the Taliban’s
conditions for their release.” He
urged the captors to behave well
with the soldiers under the laws of
war. (Pajhwok)
students. He hoped that the institute will also raise the standard of
vocational education in the country. “The building will be built on
a 15,000 square meter land. It will
have 65 classrooms and will accommodate around 1,720 students both male and female,” he
said. He added that institute will
also have separate hostels for male
and female students, conference
rooms, computer labs and so on.
The project will be competed
at the total cost of $35 million.
AT Monitoring Desk
KABUL: Nearly 20 Taliban militants have been killed in northern
Kunduz and Jawzjan provinces,
said security officials on Monday.
In addition 10 insurgents were
wounded.
A spokesman for the Afghan
National Army (ANA), Major
Ghulam Hazrat Karimi, told Pajhwok Afghan News that the military helicopters struck the Taliban insurgents’ sanctuaries in Arbab Hashim area of Chardara district on Sunday in which Taliban
suffered casualties. Chardara is
considered most insecure district
of Kunduz province.
Meanwhile, a statement issued by ANA said that three armored vehicles in Kunduz were
also destroyed by the Afghan Air
Force in which several Taliban
were killed and wounded. However, the statement did not provide information about the identities of the Taliban insurgents. A
resident of Nehr Sufi area of Chardara, Abdul Karim, said that the
government is not taking stern
action against the insurgents to
ensure security. He further added
that the Taliban militants are parking their vehicles in the civilian
houses and the civilians fear that
their houses could become target
of the airstrikes. Meanwhile, five
militants were killed and five others injured in Jawzjan province.
Taliban’s shadow judge
killed in Sar-e-Pul
AT News Report
KABUL: Unidentified gunmen
killed a shadow judge of the Taliban militant group in northern Sare-Pul province the other day, an
official said on Monday. The deputy chief of the provincial council, Sayed Assadullah Danesh, told
media that the militant group’s
shadow judge Mawlawi Ajmal
was ambushed and killed in Sozma Qala district on Sunday night
when he was going to somewhere.
The Taliban insurgents who are
active in different parts of Sar-ePul and Jawzjan province have not
commented on the incident. However, it seems to be a work of the
rival faction. The Taliban were divided into two main factions after
death reports of Mullah Omer
were leaked. A group of the Taliban led by Mansoor Dadullah opposed the new supreme commander of the group, Akhtar Mansoor.
Since then fierce infighting broke
out between the two rivals.
KABUL: The foreign ministers of
NATO countries have gathered in
the Belgium’s capital city Brussels to discuss important security
issues including the Syrian war
and Afghan mission also called the
“Resolute Support”. Addressing
the pre-ministerial press conference, NATO Secretary General
Jens Stoltenberg said on Monday
that the US and other partner countries decided to have presence in
Afghanistan throughout 2016.
According to Pajhwok Afghan
News, the NATO member and
partner countries would discuss a
wide range of pressing internation-
say were planned in Pakistan.
Annoyed by Pakistan’s controversial role in the war against insurgency, some Afghan political
commentators have stressed the
need for a firm stance to be adopted by the Afghan government
against Pakistan, asking Ghani to
raise Afghanistan’s concerns with
the Pakistani side. “Government
must only negotiate with those
who do not intend to cheat us and
follow tricks,” MP Abdul Rauf
Enaami said. “The president must
focus on clear interventions of Pakistan and presence of Pakistani
military generals in the battlefields
and settle the issue,” MP Mohammad Azim Hussaini said. “I believe
that the U.S has already realized
that it should press Pakistan to
endorse the peace process, because
the peace is in the interests of both
of us,” MP Naqibullah Fayeq said.
al issues in the meeting which
would be held today (on Monday).
A source close to the NATO’s civilian office in the war-hit country
told Pajhwok that the foreign ministers of 40 countries would attend
the today’s summit. Afghanistan’s
Foreign Minister Salahuddin Rabbani and the NATO’s civilian representative in the country Ismael
Armaz have left for Brussels already to attend the meeting. US
Commander of NATO Forces in
Afghanistan, Gen. John Campbell,
would address the summit via video conference to brief the participants over the security situation
in the country. In the two-day
meeting, the NATO foreign minis-
ters would also discuss Afghanistan’s security and extension of the
“Resolute Support” mission beyond 2016. Jens Stoltenberg and
Turkish Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoðlu met on Monday and discussed the crisis in Syria and last
week’s incident which led to the
downing of Russian Air Force aircraft. “All Allies fully support
Turkey’s right to defend its territorial integrity and its airspace. I welcome Turkey’s efforts to establish
contacts with Moscow and through
its contacts with Russia, to de-escalate the situation. It is important
to stay calm and to calm tensions,”
the NATO’s secretary general said
after the meeting.
Stricter immigration
regulations in Norway –
important information!
Immigration to Norway is strictly regulated.
If you wish to work or study in Norway, you must apply for the relevant permit(s) before you
travel to Norway.
Persons who do not qualify for a permit in Norway and whose applications are denied must
return to their country of origin or country habitual residence. If you do not leave voluntarily,
you will be returned by force.
People from safe areas of Afghanistan or who have been granted residence in another country
will have their application rejected and will be deported. People from areas that are not considered
safe may be returned to other parts of Afghanistan. Very many Afghans who have their application
rejected will be referred for “internal flight” to Kabul. In 2014/2015 more than 500 people have
been returned from Norway to Afghanistan.
The government intends to:
1. Reduce benefits for people living in reception centres. Furthermore, the benefits will as
far as possible consist of food and clothing, instead of cash. The purpose is to avoid
that cash allowance are spend on repayments of debts to human traffickers instead of
buying food and clothes for themselves.
2. Introduce new temporary residence permits, which may remain temporary regardless of
how long the foreigner resides in Norway. Permanent residence will only be given after
at least five years, if the foreigner is still in need of protection. If the situation in the
foreigners home country changes during this time, the foreigner will be obliged to
return.
3. Use integration criteria for the granting of applications for permanent residence.
4. Limit family reunification and family establishment rights for refugees.
5. Reconsider the level of social benefits for refugees. Hereunder, require activity and
earnings for receiving special social benefits for refugees.
More information: www.government.no/asylumregulations
67.50
66.10
71.25
69.30
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.
TUESDAY DECEMBER 01, 2015
AFGHANISTAN TIMES
The drug trade in Afghanistan:
Understanding motives behind farmers’
decision to cultivate opium poppies
An Afghan family has drowned in
river while trying to reach to Europe for a better life. The fivemember family belonging to 4th
sector of Kandahar city, capital of
southern Kandahar province, left
hometown for Europe about a
month before. Head of the family
was Naweed who made it to Tur-
key with his wife and three children after going through severe
hardship. But on their way ahead
the tragic incident took place after
their boat sank in the river. Dead
bodies of Naweed, his wife and a
child were laid to rest in Kandahar
late on Sunday but his two kids
are still missing in the water.
Due to lack of job opportunities and rapid increase in insecurity, thousands of Afghans leave
country to Europe for a better life
every month.
But some of them lose their
lives when their boats sink in the
water. In several other cases they
have become the target of border
security forces while illegally
crossing the border into other countries, having traffic accidents or
suffocation inside the shipping
containers.
Minister of Foreign Affairs
Salahudin Rabbani said earlier this
month that 146,000 Afghans had
left country for Europe this year.
7,00 0 Helm a n d gr ow er s set
t o get im p r oved w h ea t seed s
In addition, farmers were earning
more than they would have with
other jobs, and were slightly
above the subsistence level, Indeed, the United Nations published a report in 2008 titled “Is
poverty driving the Afghan opium boom?” “It rejected the idea
that farmers would starve without the poppy, concluding that
‘poverty does not appear to have
been the main driving factor in the
expansion of opium poppy cultivation in recent years”.[19] As
the years passed and the drug
trade developed, the geography of
poppy cultivation evolved too,
being limited to southern areas
were institutions were the weakest and instability was very high.
With the increase of fellow
Muslims’ addiction to heroin, the
justification for allowing opium
cultivation could obviously not be
considered valid anymore. We
could understand the constant
growth in poppy cultivation as
an illustration of many farmers’
alienation from their religion and
culture. The social and spiritual
link between farmers and their fellow Muslims, taken into account
at the beginning of the flourishing
of poppy cultivation, was broken,
as they were cultivating what
would be detrimental to many fellow Afghans and Muslims. Farmers were also under much pressure from traffickers to continue
cultivating opium and for many,
leaving the cultivation of opium
for another job was now an almost impossible choice to make.
Individuals’ needs satisfaction—the farmers and their families—became separated from their
community fulfillment, leading to
a vicious cycle. The gap between
the different groups involved in
the drug trade—traffickers, farmers, and consumers—grew, further
dividing Afghan society.
A vicious cycle for development aid
The drug trade is now imbedded in all parts of Afghan politics,
and maintains the corruption at
very high levels. In 2012, Transparency International ranked Afghanistan 174 out of 176 countries in its Corruption Perceptions
Index.[20] The revenues from the
drug trade permeate all factions
involved in the conflict. As government officials, warlords and the
Taliban are involved the drug
trade, its profits in turn fuel the
conflict.
Mainstream media tend to focus on the ways the Taliban profit from the drug trade. Indeed, as
Thom Shanker, a correspondent
for The New York Times, writes:
“United Nations figures show
that Afghan insurgents reap at least
$100 million a year from the drug
trade, although some estimates put
the figure at five times as
much”.[21] In addition to revenues from the drug trade, many
eradication programs have had
grave consequences on the poorest farmer’s livelihoods. Farmers
view the implementation of such
programs as unfair, and this in
turn decreases the level of trust
for future programs, leading the
Taliban to recruit more people.
Yet, the Taliban receive only a
small portion of the benefits generated by the drug trade. Indeed,
as explained by Jonathan
Caulkins, Jonathan Kulick and
Mark Kleiman in Foreign Policy:
“The Taliban take 2 to 12 percent
of a $4 billion industry; farmers,
traffickers, smugglers, and corrupt officials collectively earn
much more”.[22]
Poppy cultivation also permeates Karzai government,
which.was criticized for being kind
to poppy farmers and drug lords,
trying to maintain its popularity
in areas where the population was
heavily dependent on the drug
trade. This leads Thomas Schweich to write that, as a result, “more
that 95 percent of the residents of
… the poppy-growing provinces—voted
for
President
Karzai”.[23] At all levels, the
Karzai administration was involved in the trade: “a lot of intelligence … indicated that senior
Afghan officials were deeply involved in the narcotics trade. Narco-traffickers were buying off
hundreds of police chiefs, judges
and other officials. Narco-corruption went to the top of the Afghan government”.[24]Ahmed
Wali Karzai, President Karzai’s
half-brother, was repeatedly accused of profiting from the drug
trade.[25]
After the election of the new
President Ashraf Ghani in 2014,
some hopes started to emerge due
to Ghani’s promises to fight corruption and poverty, and to
strengthen institutions. Talking
about the government of Afghanistan, the Bureau of International
Narcotics and Law Enforcement
Affairs writes that it “does not
encourage or facilitate illicit drug
production or distribution, nor is
it involved in laundering proceeds
from the sale of illicit drugs. However, there are credible allegations
that many central, provincial, and
district level government officials
directly engage in and benefit from
the drug trade”.[26] Rampant corruption is a main obstacle in fighting against illicit drugs and implementing programs. Moreover, authorities have little access to very
rural areas, where farmers grow
opium.
Hence major research on eradication programs now advise to
maintain them only in areas where
legal economy dominates and
where institutions are strong. In
areas where instability is still very
high, other programs should be
prioritized, focusing first on weakening the insurgency and implementing better governance and
security.[27] Projects should be
better monitored so as to ensure
that the money does not fuel the
Taliban nor government officials
and warlords.
While legitimate economic
sector has been destroyed by the
long-lasting conflict, the illicit sector has developed to unprecedented levels. As funding was not available in the licit economy, politicians came to rely on the illicit
sector in order to secure
funding.[28] This, in turn,
strengthened the illicit economy,
while weakening the legal sector.
According to Rod Nordland, an
international correspondent
for The New York Times, “drug
trafficking suffocates the normal
economic sector”, leaving the economy “heavily dependent on criminal enterprises, rising corruption
that undermines efforts to promote democracy”.[29]Indeed,
“the World Bank reports that the
estimated opium GDP of Afghanistan is between $2.6 and $ 2.7
billion, which amounts to 27 percent of the country’s total GDP
(both licit and illicit)”.[30]
This directly impacts development aid and its attempts to
fight the drug trade. Development
programs had to rely on traffickers in order to be carried out. The
result, as stated by Ahmed Rashid was that “drug money paralyzed the building of a legal economy, as no industry, agriculture,
or trade could compete with drug
profits. People could not be persuaded to take ordinary jobs because the drug industry provided
better salaries”.[31] Programs
aimed at providing farmers with
other alternatives to answer their
physiological needs failed. While
growing opium enabled farmers to
better satisfy their basic human
needs, by bringing them more
money and more protection, farmers were rarely convinced to give
up poppy cultivation for programs which would not fulfill their
families’ needs as well as growing
opium. In addition, since most of
the money from these programs
was redirected to traffickers, farmers were very distrustful of their
implementation.
Adapting the theories of Herbert C. Kelman, Director of the
Program on International Conflict
Analysis and Resolution at Harvard’s Weatherhead Center for
International Affaires from 1993
to 2003, to the present case, being able to help farmers answer
their basic human needs through
the legal system is of primary
importance for social and political institutions to function. Programs should put more emphasis
on other basic needs, such as social ones. Since farmers cannot
hold on to the justification that
heroin is only consumed by nonbelievers anymore, this deprives
them from answering their need
for identity, belonging and religion.
Programs aimed at decreasing
opium cultivation should therefore, while still focusing on the
satisfaction of physiological
needs, focus on what Kelman calls
“collective psychological needs”,
which include the “needs for identity, security, recognition, participation, dignity, and justice
”.[32] He adds that “failure to
fulfill these needs or threats to
them contribute significantly to
the causes of conflict, and perhaps even more so the escalation
and
perpetuation
of
conflicts”.[33] By being alienated
from their culture and religion,
farmers are further separated from
their culture and identity. Programs facilitating their reconnection to values important to them
should be developed. The fight
against opium cultivation needs to
happen on many fronts including
through enhancing democratic participation, improving access to
justice, increasing security, and
restoring human dignity through,
amongst others, reconnecting to
religion.
As we have seen, the Taliban’s
statement that opium cultivation
was allowed only if not consumed
by believers was appealing to
farmers who engaged in poppy
cultivation. Highlighting the failure of such reasoning, by raising
awareness in rural areas about the
impact of drug addiction on fellow Muslim, could enhance farmers’ desire to dissociate themselves
from poppy cultivation. Such
programs could also involve farmers who decided not to take part
in the trade since the beginning, as
they would be the best advocates
for the cause. Indeed, Matthew
Lacouture, from Wayne State
University, writes that “drug use,
and by extension its production,
is prohibited in the Quran, and
this prohibition serves as one of
the most common reasons given
by those who choose to not cultivate opium”.[34]Hence, according
to Liana Rosen and Kenneth Katzman, the importance of “dissemination of public information programming, community engagement efforts, and media campaigns
designed to inform, educate, deter, and dissuade the general population as well as those identified
as potential opium poppy farmers, from involvement in the drug
trade”.[35]
The failure of the present enforcement regime also brings the
issue drug legalization. While rejected by U.S. officials, several
British officials have advanced
arguments in favor of legalizing
drugs. Following William Patey,
British ambassador to Afghanistan
from 2010 to 2012, “if we cannot
deal effectively with supply, then
the only alternative would seem
to be to try to limit the demand
for illicit drugs by making a supply of them available from a legally regulated market”.[36] This
would help provide drug addicts
with a better healthcare, while
empowering the Afghan government through a better control of
the drug trade. This, in turn would
provide drug addicts with better
healthcare, since, still according to
William Patey, “in the unregulated prohibited market, there is no
quality control, no purity guide,
and no safer use advice”.[37]
Yet, this raises once again the
issue of corruption. Indeed, since
many government officials personally benefit from the illicit drug
trade, we could expect them to
strongly oppose drug legalization.
Conclusion
As the drug trade flourished,
farmers cultivating opium were
taken into a vicious cycle ultimately affecting all parts of Afghan
society, politics and economy.
Defusing such a cycle requires
providing alternatives to satisfy
physiological needs, as has been
the focus of most programs. Yet,
it should also involve reconnecting farmers to their society, culture and religion and thus rely more
heavily on the satisfaction of social basic needs, which have often
been overlooked by such programs. Most discussions regarding the drug trade in Afghanistan
state that stopping the cultivation
of opium would defuse the conflict by reducing the Taliban’s
funding. Yet, this statement is
only partly true, as it minimizes
the role of the trade in fueling other warlords and in increasing corruption within the Afghan government. We should think of the implementation of the legalization of
drugs, as well as of the empowerment of the Afghan government
in implementing such programs,
as top priorities.
This would ultimately enable
to better tackle traffickers and
corruption, while still providing
farmers with viable alternatives.
(Concluded)
LASHKARGAH: The process of
distributingimproved wheat seeds
to growers has been set in motion
in southern Helmand province,
officials said on Monday.
Acting Director of Agriculture
Shukrullah Shakiri told Pajhwok
Afghan News the seeds had been
processed on the Research Farm
in Lashkargah, the provincial capital.
He said one key objective behind the seed distribution was to
prevent poppy cultivation in the
province, known as the world’s
drug capital, and to improve the
economic condition of the people.
“They farmers would get assistance on the basis of a list prepared earlier in accordance with the
procedure outlined by the Agriculture Ministry,” Shakiri added.
Meanwhile, the administrative
head of governor’s office, Naqibullah Sikandari, said 350 tonnes of
seeds would be distributed this
year, with each farmer getting50
kilograms by paying 40 percent of
the cost. The agriculture extension
officer, Azizullah, said there were
no security problems during the
distribution of improved wheat
seeds. A farmer from Nad Ali district, Bismillah, said the seeds were
not sufficient. He asked the government to distribute the improved
seeds on the basis of land holding.
(Pajhwok)
Bo o s tin g d e m o cracy
th ro u gh d e bate in Afgh an is tan
Even t s en co u r a ge yo u n g p eo p le t o t a k e p a r t in t h e p o lit ica l p r o cess.
IWPR’s debates are proving an effective way for ordinary people
to hold local officials to account,
according to participants in events
held in October. Nearly 1,500
young men and women participated in debates organised as part of
IWPR’s Youth and Elections
Project, which encourages Afghans
to take an active part in their country’s political future. Civil society
activist Mina Sadat said these discussions were an excellent way to
strengthen democratic processes.
“The IWPR debates are a good
example of civil activism and democratic principles. Through these
debates, officials understand that
they bear a responsibility to the
public, that they are the servants
of the people rather than their
masters, and that people can ask
them questions at any time,” she
said. People across eight provinces including Laghman, Balkh and
Faryab, discussed the effects of a
ten per cent telecommunications
tax imposed by presidential decree. (See Afghans Alarmed by
New Telecoms Tax.)
Humayun Shams, head of the
department for telecommunications and IT in Laghman, a province northeast of Kabul, said the
discussion provided a good forum
for discussing this important issue.
“If we tried to communicate
with people about this telecommunications tax, it wouldn’t be as
effective as it was via the IWPR
debate, which enables members of
the public themselves to put questions to officials and get answers
directly,” he said.
Another set of discussions focusing on people’s expectations of
the current government were held
in Balkh, Kapisa and Faryab provinces. (See Harsh Words for Af-
I will resign if fail . . .
MSF s h o cke d by U S in ve s tigatio n
...P12 If the Afghan government
loses the world’s trust, then the
international aid would fade way
from Afghanistan,” About Zahir
Qadir’s recent speech, she said:
“The Wolesi Jirga deputy speaker should solve the issue during a
session; otherwise Afghanistan’s
enemies may use his speech
against our country,” However,
Qadir had claimed having credible
evidence to prove his claims. Gulalai Noor Safi, another Wolesi Jirga member, said the lower house
should appoint a delegation to
assess Qadir’s claims and prevent
regional intelligence agencies from
misusing the issue as an opportunity. Zahir Qadir, while talking to
lawmakers, said: “Some people
should ignore their personal interests for defending some circles, we
are representatives of the people
and we should not defend some
specific individuals. My claims are
well-founded and I can prove
them with evidences.” “Who
would defend me. I have evidences but if I share them who would
guarantee my protection. Our security forces are like our family
members. I have mentioned the
National Security Council (NSC)
in my allegations.
I have specified the person, if
there is a system, I can share all
the evidences,” Qadir said. He
added lawmakers should defend
their people, not some specific
individuals. Qadir assured that he
would resign if failed to prove his
claims. (Pajhwok)
..P1 Based upon the information
learned during the investigation,
the report determined that the approximate cause of this tragedy
was the direct result of avoidable
human error, compounded by
process and equipment failures.”
However the results of the
investigation and Campbell’s remarks have raised other questions
for MSF officials who are concerned the incident will be forgotten. Mulini said that unless something is done, a global protest will
take place. He said: “We still have
no explanation. We still didn’t re-
ghan Unity Government.)
The events heard fierce criticism of the government’s performance to date, and pessimism
about its prospects over the coming four years.
The debates provided a forum
for participants to ask important
questions about issues that affected their day-to-day lives.
Zahra, who took part in the
debate in Kapisa province, north
of Kabul, said she arrived full of
concerns about the security situation.
“When I shared my fears with
officials in Kapisa and received
answers from them, I became much
more confident that our security
services were able to resist attacks
from the enemy,” she said. “The
debate gave me a feeling of spiritual comfort.”
Hamidullah, a resident of Pashtunkot district in the northwest-
ceive the report. There is no transparency and accountability that
was promised is not there. The
public couldn’t access this report
and so we still don’t know how,
we still don’t know in a way why
this incident was not avoided by
these people.”
However, he went on to say
that despite everything, they are
glad that the initial rumors of them
having harbored Taliban insurgents in their hospital could now
be put to rest as this had undermined the activities of the organization in Afghanistan.
ern Faryab province, also got a
chance to ask questions about security.
“We talked to officials about
the security situation. We
wouldn’t have been able to share
the necessary information with
each other without this debate,”
he said. “People from different areas are brought together at these
events. These meetings and exchanges of opinion not only help
resolve problems but also build
friendly relationships.”
Elsewhere, in debates organised in Farah, Ghazni and Nangarhar provinces, people discussed
problems with the way police stop
motorists on Afghanistan’s roads.
(See Afghan Police Accused of
Highway Abuses.)
This report is based on an ongoing series of debates conducted
as part of IWPR’s Afghan Youth
and Elections programme.
He added: “Positive impact of
this press conference is that all
the allegations that the hospital
could have been used for any military activity was actually untrue
and is not confirmed by the US,
NATO and Afghan reports so that
is the first thing that we are in a
way happy that now the truth is
coming [out].”
The deadly attack on the MSF
hospital in Kunduz claimed the
lives of 30 people, including doctors, staff, patients and visitors.
The hospital was completely destroyed in the attack.
D ah la D am lo s in g 2 0 0 MSM o f w ate r e ve ry ye ar
..P12 Attai said the dam irrigated
agriculture land in seven districts
of the province including Shah Wali
Kot, Arghandab, Zheri, Panjwai,
Maiwand, Dand and Daman. He
said the dam had previously the
capacity to store 500 MCM of
water, but during the past 64 years,
the siltation in the reservoir had
resulted in reduction of the storage capacity by 300 MSM. This
was the reason, he said, the dam
lost each year 200 MSM of water,
depriving farmers of satisfactory
irrigation. He said the issue had
severely affected the agriculture
sector of Kandahar. Attai said he
had repeatedly recommended the
construction of a new dam in the
same area or raising Dahla Dam’s
walls. He said the new dam would
require sufficient budget and therefore Dahla Dam’s rehabilitation was
approved in two phases --- technical and raising walls. He said the first
phase, which was launched with $71
million American aid, had been 98
percent completed and the rest would
be completed over the next three
months. A Turkish firm “77” has
launched the reconstruction works
that include repairs to canals, replacement of water valves, erecting
small gates to improve control over
the flow of water supplying to farm
fields. He also mentioned Saifuddin
canal to Takhta Pul district, Pashmol canal to Zheri district, the main
canal and some works which had either been completed or would be
launched. He said the rehabilitation
works had been done in good quality and the dam was ready to undertake the second phase.
The official said Dahla Dam’s current walls would be raised by up to
eight metres and six supporting
dams would also be constructed at a
total cost of $308 million to be jointly provided by the Afghan Ministry of Finance ($37 million) and the
United States Agency for International Development (USAID) (the
rest). (Pajhwok)
Mu b a r iz, Ed iev figh t p o st p o n ed t o 2 0 t h Decem b er
Excitements are on the rise as the
Afghan Mixed Martial Art
(MMA) fighter Baz Mohammad
Mubariz is facing his opponent
from Russia Rasul Ediev in a rescheduled fight expected to be held
in Tajikistan later next month.
Mubariz was expecting to face
Ediev in Chechnya on 28th November however the fight was rescheduled as his opponent entered
into another fight with a fighter
from Brazil. Ediev defeated his
Brazilian opponent in the first
round of the fight, adding more
thrill to the upcoming fight by adding another win in his record.
Mubariz has appeared in 8 fights
which includes 5 wins and 3 losses with a victory over Michal Vostry in his last fight on 22nd Au-
gust. However, Ediev’s records include 8 fights with 6 wins and 2
losses only. This will be the first
appearance of Mubariz in Absolute Championship Berkut (ACB)
after securing first place in “Striking Eagles” fighting contest, organized last month to find the talented fighters.
Mubariz received 7,516 votes
during the contest which was held
for a period of two weeks in the
month of October. was selected
among the 30 fighters of the world
by ACB during the initial phases
of the contest where 450 fighters
from different countries participated.
ACB had earlier announced
that three fighters who receives the
most votes will sign a contract with
ACB League where two fighters
on the jury’s choice will fight at
Absolute Championship Berkut
international tournaments.
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TUESDAY DECEMBER 01, 2015
AFGHANISTAN TIMES
KABUL: “Not only working in
police and army was a pride for
women, but whatever services
they offered for the government
and people were praised”, recalls
a female general the women’s situation in Afghanistan four decades ago. In an exclusive interview with Pajhwok Afghan News,
a female general who has been
serving for more than 40 years as
a military doctor in Sardar Mohammad Daud Hospital, Brig.
Gen. Razia Rahimi, the director
of nursing for the Afghan Office
of the Surgeon General, said the
decades of war pushed the country backward mainly because
women in uniform were disrespected. Four decades ago, she recalled, more value would be given
to professions because there had
been no war in the country and it
was a time when enemies could
not interfere in Afghanistan’s domestic and foreign affairs. She remembered there had been no corruption in government departments and women would proudly and honestly perform their
professional jobs in police and
army. “As the security situation
is today not good, there is the need
for ladies to join police because
they are required for searching
women and houses. If our sisters
shy away from working with their
brothers in uniform, the morale of
the enemies of the country will go
high,” she said. Currently, there
are nearly 13,00 female employees in the Ministry of Defence and
nearly 22,00 policewomen with
the Ministry of Interior and the
numbers would be increased to
10,000 in the next five years. Rahimi said the Afghan women were subjected to violence and discrimination both in homes and at workplaces. Some families did not allow
their girls to work in security forces
and insult them by using harsh language. Rahimi was born in 1956 in
Kabul. She has five brothers and two
sisters. She did not marry and de-
voted her entire life to social activities. In her 41 years service, she has
not taken a single day leave and has
been looking after sick people and
injured persons in hospitals of Mazar-i-Sharif, Kandahar and Paktia and
instructs related officials for treatment. “It makes me happy when
critically injured persons are discharged from hospital after getting
well,” she said. (Pajhwok)
EMERGENCY
CALLS
Police
100 - 119
number of residents of
southern Ghazni prov
ince on Monday said job
lessness and other problems were forcing the youth into
fleeing to foreign countries through
smuggling routes. A resident of old
city of Adnar district, Mohammad
Akram, told Pajhwok Afghan
News he had twice attempted to
reach Europe through Iran. “I
spent two years in Iran to earn
some money and go to Europe. I
gave a lot of money to the human
smugglers, but they left me in the
midway.” Akram said the money
the youth paid to human smugglers could be used to start a reasonable business. “We faced a lot
of problems on the way to Europe. Our boat nearly capsized
twice, but God saved us.”
Similarly, a resident of Deh
Yak district’s Ali Qala area, Izzatullah, said his brother died after
their boat capsized in Turkey’s
waters on the way to Europe.
“My brother was jobless and
we feared he might join the insur-
gency so we sent him abroad. We
paid $5,000 to the human smugglers, but the boat sank in Turkey
and my brother died in that.”
Izzatullah urged the Ghazni
youth to never choose illegal ways
for reaching Europe because the
journey was full of risks.
These individuals and a tribal
elder in Ghazni City, Haji Abdul
Ahad, said the youth in Ghazni
were forced by unemployment
and security problems into embarking on the journey to foreign
countries through smuggling
routes. Abdul Ahad said if the government provided jobs to the
youth, they would never attempt
to go aboard. “We can see there is
not a single factory in Ghazni to
employ at least 20 people. People are compelled to find bread
and support their families by travelling abroad.”
The elder said a number of
youth had joined the insurgency
and were fighting against government forces due to joblessness.
Youth Affairs official Abdul
Ahad Marjankhel told Pajhwok
Afghan News joblessness had
forced the youth to flee the country. “According to our evaluation,
joblessness and illiteracy are the
main factors behind the youth
migration to foreign countries.”
Marjankhel said their department last year introduced 300
youth to universities for higher
studies and the same would be
done this year.
He urged families to introduce
to them their children who had left
their studies incomplete. He also
called on families not to let their
sons fall into the hands of human
smugglers.
Thousands of Afghans have
left the country through illegal
ways to reach Europe.
According to the German
Embassy in Kabul, 83,000 Afghans
had applied for asylum in Germany during the past 10 months and
so far 43 percent of the migrants
had been accepted, the rest being
investigated and seven persons
had been deported. (Pajhwok)
Hospitals
FMIC Hospital
Behind Kabul Medical
University:
0202500200-+93793275595
Rabia-i-Balkhi Hospital
Pule Bagh-e- Umomi
070263672
Khairkhana Hospital
0799-321007
2401352
Indira Gandhi Children
Hospital, Wazir Akbar
Khan, Kabul 2301372
Experts dissuade militia groups formation
Military experts on Sunday
warned that unless the establishment of militia groups is stopped,
the practice could lead to the collapse of government. But the Interior Ministry has assured the nation that it will prevent the formation of such groups, stating they
can negatively impact rule of law
and nation building efforts. The
recent formation of militia groups
in the country has sparked public
concern. People believe that if they
are not stopped, they could pose
a problem in the future.
Jawid Kohistani, a military
analyst said: "It has been seen in
the past that militias have resulted
in the collapse of governments
therefore the Afghan government
should take this issue very seriously in order to prevent problems
in future."
An MP Safiullah Muslim said:
"I think if creating militia groups
continues it will become a problem for security - like the Taliban."
Meanwhile the Interior Ministry is aware of the issue and is
reportedly working on a strategy
to stop the practice.
MoI spokesman Sediq Sediqqi said: "Establishing militia groups
will not have any place in Afghanistan because such groups can
harm security, nation building and
governance."
This comes after the first deputy speaker in the Wolesi Jirga
(Lower House of Parliament) Abdul Zaher Qadir recently accused
government of supporting Daesh.
He also said he had established a
militia group to fight Daesh in
Nangarhar.
Meanwhile, deputy spokesman for President Ashraf Ghani,
Sayed Zafar Hashemi said: "After
the first deputy's accusation President [Ashraf] Ghani appointed a
delegation to investigate his [Qadir's] claims."
Many people believe that the
establishment of militia groups will
not be in the best interests of the
country and many think there is
no guarantee that such groups will
not start fighting government forces, which will ultimately lead to
more insecurity in the country.
Ibn-e- Seena
Pul-e-Artan, Kabul
2100359
Wazir Akbar Khan
Hospital
2301741, 2301743
Ali Abad
Shahrara, Kabul
2100439
Malalai Maternity
Hospital
2201377/ 2301743
Banks
A number of Nangarhar provincial
council members along with residents on Sunday expressed their
concerns over the rampant landgrabbing practice currently being
witnessed in the province.
They say that numerous influential people in the province are
usurping privately-owned and
government property – including
mosques and public parks.
However the mayor of Jalalabad rejected claims that mosques
and public picnic areas have been
seized.
The mayor, Hamidullah Afghan, said: "This area is 23 meters
in length including 13 meters
which is related to public park.
The area is under construction. A
greenery area will be built in front
of the park which is part of the
contract and there is no grounds
for grabbing the lands."
According to local officials,
more than 300,000 acres of land
has been grabbed illegally in the
province over the past few years.
One resident of Jalalabad,
Jamila, claims that influential people have illegally seized four acres
of her land. She has appealed to
the authorities to ensure those
guilty are brought to book.
She said: "I have at least two
acres of land but this man wants
to grab it because he is powerful.
It is six months that I am working
with the Attorney General Office
[AGO]. I have a letter from Nangarhar provincial council which has
mentioned that the man has
grabbed my land but the AGO is
giving me the run around and every time they tell me to come back
another day."
However she is not the only
Nangarhar resident who has fallen
victim to this problem. Residents
say it is a common occurrence
throughout the province.
"This area was once a public
park and people used it for different purposes including sports but
now it has been grabbed and I have
no idea whether they have the permission of the municipality or not,"
a resident of Nangarhar said.
A number of provincial council members have also expressed
their concerns over this issue.
One member Zabihullah Zemarai said: "Lots of properties have
been grabbed or are on the verge of
being grabbed. The former president [Hamid Karzai], the current
president [Ashraf Ghani] and the
Chief Executive Abdullah Abdullah have not taken any steps in
this regard and I think they do not
have any will to do so."
Another provincial council
member, Suhrab Qaderi said:
"They build houses or shops
where there are green areas. This
is illegal and it should not be done."
Deminers on Sunday found human
remains buried in a mass grave in
Taza Umid village of Shortepa district in northern Balkh province,
officials confirmed.
According to them, the remains of about 13 people were
found – ten of whom had turbans
on when buried.
"This is the area where we
work. We were on our way to
Mazar-e-Sharif when a resident
informed us about the existence of
a mass grave," Abdul Hadi, a deminer said on Sunday. However, it
is unclear how the deceased died
or what the circumstances were.
But officials said early indications
point towards them having been
killed by the Taliban. Meanwhile,
the Afghanistan Independent Human Rights Commission (AIHRC)
has expressed deep concerns over
the discovery of the mass grave
and called on government to ensure an investigation into the matter is carried out and those responsible are brought to justice.
"Elements who are involved in
such crimes must be removed from
the government structure. A documentary needs to be prepared
Da Afghanistan Bank
2100302, 2100303
Kabul Bank
222666, 070285285
Azizi Bank
0799 700900
Pashtany Bank
2102908, 2103868
Air Services
Safi Airways
020 22 22 222
about the events. We have general
information about such things, but
we face a lack of information which
is authentic," head of AIHRC site
office in Balkh, Taqi Wahidi said.
Meanwhile, the deputy head
of Balkh provincial council has said
that the discovery of the mass grave
shows the level of violence the
country has been subjected to over
the past thirty years. He called on
government to ensure those responsible pay for their crimes.
"Unforgivable crimes have
been committed over the past three
decades and the mass grave proves
this fact. These crimes are unpardonable," Shujauddin Shuja, deputy head of Balkh provincial council said.
"We expect government to take
effective steps in this respect to
detect the perpetrators involved in
such crimes," he said.
Three decades of violence and
war has dominated the country and
devastated Afghanistan's economy.
It has also taken its toll on the infrastructure and claimed the lives
of thousands of people.
Ariana
020-2100270
Kam Air
0799974422
Hotels
Safi Landmark
020-2203131
SERENA
0799654000
New Rumi Restaurant
0776351347
Internet Services
UA Telecom
0796701701 / 0796702702
Exchange Rate
Purchase:
FAIZABAD: Officials in northeastern Badakhshan province said
on Monday they were investigating the beating of a private television channel’s reporter.
At least one person was killed
and two others were slightly injuredon Sunday in firing on people receiving aid provided by the
United Arab Emirates (UAE).
According to a doctor at the
provincial hospital, three wounded people were shifted to the hospital. One old man succumbed to
his injuries later on, said Ahmad
Navid Frotan, the governor’s
spokesman. Meanwhile, Moham-
mad Munir Hamidi, in charge of
Mehar Television channel, said he
was beaten up by a provincial
council member who wanted move
the aid to another place.
The Journalist Protection
Committee (JPC) condemned the
incident and asked provincial officials to investigate the issue and
inform the reporter’sfamily of
their findings.
But the governor’s spokesman said he had no information
about the incident involving the
TV reporter. The journalist had
not contacted them so far, Frotan
added. (Pajhwok)
One US$ =
66.53Afs
One Pound Sterling=
99.07Afs
One Euro =
70.41Afs
1000 Pak Rs =
616Afs
Sale:
A young mother and her child at the refugee camp outside Herat city. In rural Afghanistan, girls as young as nine
are given in marriages. The curse of child marriages affects mothers’ health. Photo: Aref Karimi
One US$ =
66.73 Afs
One Pound Sterling=
100.50Afs
One Euro=
71.01 Afs
1000 Pak Rs= 624Afs
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TUESDAY DECEMBER 01 2015
AFGHANISTAN TIMES
Nawaz, Modi meet
on sidelines of Paris
climate summit
PARIS: Prime Minister Nawaz
Sharif and his Indian counterpart
Narendra Modi on Monday exchanged pleasantries on the sidelines of the 21st UN Climate
Change Conference.
Modi approached Sharif and
had a brief chat with him, said a
statement from the PM Office.
"Both appeared in a friendly
mood and the Indian PM left the
meeting with a warm handshake
with the Pakistani PM," the statement added.
Diplomatic observers at the
summit say there was great
warmth between the two leaders.
Details of the conversation were
not immediately known, but government officials described it as a
"courtesy meeting."
The brief meeting between the
two heads comes amidst heightened tensions between the rivals
countries, including cross-border
violations and cancelled talks.
Earlier this year, the muchhyped security adviser-level talks
between the two countries were
cancelled after India insisted Kashmir should not be included on the
agenda, with Pakistan maintaining
it will not accept any pre-conditions.
Both countries blame the other of promoting terror in the other's territory. India accuses Pakistan of not doing enough to tackle
extremists planning attacks on its
territory.
Pakistan, on the other hand,
says Indian spy agency – RAW –
is supporting extremist elements
in Pakistan, especially in the restive province of Balochistan.
This has also led to souring
cricketing ties, with an Indo-Pak
cricket series scheduled for December this year in doldrums.
India has rejected Pakistan's
offer to play in the UAE, while
Pakistan says it will not play the
series in India after several Pakistani nationals were threatened by
Indian right-wing political party,
Shiv Sena.
Nawaz and Modi last met on
the sidelines of Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) Summit
in Russia, where the Indian premier accepted Nawaz's invitation
to Pakistan for the South Asian
Association of Regional Cooperation (Saarc) summit in 2016.
Media reactions
Sections of foreign media, including Indian, presented interesting accounts of the brief meeting
between Sharif and Modi.
The Wall Street Journal blog
described the meeting as '...Modi
gets upper hand over Pakistan’s
Nawaz Sharif...' because of the Indian premier's "double handshake."
NDTV went with a clever 'climate change' inuendo: 'Climate
change' in Paris? PM Narendra
Modi-Nawaz Sharif handshake
sparks buzz.'
The Indian Express however
played down the meeting, making
it seem a coincident: Narendra
Modi bumps into Nawaz Sharif at
UN climate summit in Paris.
The Hindu called it a 'brief
surprise meeting' between the two
premiers, adding that it may help
ease tensions – including cricketing ties.
French president, UN chief
receive PM Nawaz
Earlier today, President of
France Francois Hollande and UN
Secretary General Ban Ki Moon
received Prime Minister Nawaz
Sharif when he arrived at La Bourget on Monday to attend the opening ceremony of the 21st UN Climate Change Conference.
Around 147 leaders from
across the world including the Presidents of US, China and Russia are
attending the major UN climate
change conference to reach a global deal for reducing greenhouse
carbon omissions.
Prime Minister Sharif is due
to deliver speech at the leaders
event later in evening besides holding some bilateral meetings on the
sidelines.
Nawaz Sharif will address conference to highlight Pakistan's efforts in tackling challenge of climate change.
Prime Minister Muhammad
Nawaz Sharif had ealrier said Pakistan is ready to contribute to the
global efforts to tackle the climate
change issues.
He was talking to newsmen in
Paris where he will represent Pakistan at the UN Climate Change
Conference beginning on Monday.
The Prime Minister said the
developed countries have more responsibility in this respect.
To a question, he said Pakistan will not let come any hurdle
in its development process.
On the sidelines of the conference, he will hold separate meetings with world leaders, including
French President President Francois Hollande. Prime Minister
Nawaz Sharif is also expected to
meet Afghan President Ashraf
Ghani.
BEIJING: China on Monday called
for discussions on whether "India
and other countries" who have not
signed the Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) can join the Nuclear Suppliers Group (NSG), amid new
diplomatic push by influential
members of the 48-member grouping to admit India.
Follow @ETDefence Twitter
handle for comprehensive coverage on other buzzing Defence stories Replying to a question about
a media report in Pakistan stating
that China has assured that it will
push for Islamabad's membership
into the group if India is admitted,
Foreign Ministry spokesperson
Hua Chunying said that whether
or not Non-NPT countries be admitted should be subjected to
"through discussion" among the
NSG members.
"We quite understand the aspiration of the Indian side of taking part in the NSG," she said.
"China's principle is that the
NSG is an important part of the
non-proliferation regime. This regime is built upon the NPT" following a long time consensus by
the international community, she
said. China is part of 48-member
NSG group.
NSG chairman Rafael Grossi
had visited India this month and
held talks with top leaders there
about India's admission as part of
efforts to build consensus to admit New Delhi.
India's case is being pressed by
the US and other influential countries based on its record in nonproliferation and the India-US civil
nuclear accord.
China's call for talks among
NSG members about "India and
other Non-NPT" members indicate that Beijing may push for the
case of Pakistan, which in the past
has been accused of passing of
nuclear technology to Iran and other countries.
China has been carrying on
with its own civil nuclear technology collaboration with Pakistan,
building many nuclear plants including a new 1100 mw plant with
USD 6.5 billion assistance in Karachi which drew criticism from
NSG members. It earlier assisted
Pakistan building 4 nuclear power
plants, two with 300 mw capacity and two other with 320 mw
capacity.
Besides seeking US and others countries' support, Prime
Minister Narendra Modi has urged
China to back India's case for admission in the NSG during his visit here in May.
Justifying China's stand, Hua
said, "the NPT review conference
this year reaffirmed this consensus" about its importance to global non-proliferation of nuclear
technology. "That is the reason
why whether a country is a state
party to the NPT is prerequisite
of joining the NSG." "We have
noted that apart from India, there
(are) other countries (who have)
expressed the willingness to join
the NSG," Hua said, without directly mentioning Pakistan. "It has
raised the question to the international community whether or not
the non-NPT country can join the
NSG. We have also noted efforts
by India and other non-NPT parties in the process of international
non-proliferation. "But the issue
concerning whether the non-NPT
Ex-Bangladesh PM Khaleda Zia
granted bail in $1.76b graft case
countries can join the NSG should be subjected to thorough discussion by NSG members in accordance with the relevant rules so as to make a
decision on based on consensus through consultation," Hua said. "I need to stress that China's position is not targeted against specific country. It
applies to all the non-NPT countries," she said. Pressed further whether an assurance has been given to Pakistan in this regard, the spokesperson
said, "I would like (to) stress that India and other non-NPT countries expressed their aspiration of joining the NSG." In June, Hua had said China
has noted Pakistan's aspirations for NSG membership. "Pakistan has taken steps towards its mainstreaming into the global non-proliferation
regime," she had said when asked about Pakistan's aspiration to join NSG. "We support Pakistan's engagement with the NSG, and hope such efforts
could be conducive to the authority and effectiveness of the international non-proliferation regime. We wish to strengthen communication and
coordination with Pakistan," she had said on June 4.
Pakistan rejects assertions of
'complicity in Bangladesh w ar crimes'
ISLAMABAD: The Foreign Office summoned on Monday the
acting high commissioner of Bangladesh, and rejected assertions of
“complicity in committing crimes
or war atrocities.”
“The Government of Pakistan
rejects the baseless and unfounded assertions of the Bangladesh
government, a statement said, adding ”Nothing could be further from
the truth.”
Earlier, Pakistan had lodged a
protest and conveyed its concerns
over the recent executions of two
opposition members in Bangladesh.
Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf’s
Shireen Mazari also asked the government to call back Pakistan’s
ambassador from Dhaka in protest.
Pakistan voices anguished concern at Dhaka hangings
Salauddin Quadir Chowdhury,
leader of the Bangladesh National
Party, and Ali Ahsan Mojaheed of
the Jamaat-e-Islami, were hanged
on November 22 in Dhaka’s Central Jail, after which the FO expressed ‘shock and anguish’ over
the ‘unfortunate executions’ – a
move that invited the wrath of the
Bangladeshi government that called
it ‘unacceptable interference’ in its
internal affairs.
Pakistan also reiterated its resolve for friendly relations with
Bangladesh.
Bangladesh to hang opposition
leaders in hours
“It is regrettable that attempts
have been made by the Government of Bangladesh to malign Pakistan, despite our ardent desire
to develop brotherly relations with
Bangladesh,” the statement said.
“Pakistan believes the peoples
of both countries not only want to
maintain but also further strengthen the bonds of friendship and
brotherhood. However, sadly, the
Government of Bangladesh does
not seem to respect these sentiments.”
It said that as part of the 1974
Tripartite Agreement, the bedrock
of relations between the two countries, Pakistan emphasised in its
statement that Bangladesh had
“decided not to proceed with the
trials as an act of clemency.”
Bangladesh opposition leaders
on death row seek pardon
“It is important for the two
countries not to forget the role
played by their people in the
struggle for the establishment of a
separate homeland for the Muslims of the South Asian sub-continent. It is, therefore, imperative to
move forward in the spirit of goodwill, friendship and harmony for
the collective good of the peoples
of Pakistan and Bangladesh,” the
statement concluded.
Pakistan Navy ship reaches Sri Lanka
Dhaka: A court here on Monday
granted bail to former Bangladesh
prime minister Khaleda Zia in a
case filed by the anti-graft body.
Judge Aminul Islam gave the
bail after Zia surrendered before
the Special Judge's Court. She has
been accused of awarding a contract to a foreign firm causing huge
loss to the exchequer, reports Xinhua news agency.
File photo. Image courtesy:
ReutersFile photo. Image courtesy: Reuters On 18 June, a High
Court division bench cleared the
way for the trial proceedings to
resume and ordered Zia, head of
the Bangladesh Nationalist Party
(BNP), to surrender before the trial court within two months.
When Zia's motorcade reached
the court premises, thousands of
BNP members had gathered to
welcome her.
Sanaullah Miah, a counsel for
Zia, said 28 December had been
fixed as the next date for hearing
the case which was stuck for the
last seven years until Bangladesh's
Anti-Corruption Commission
(ACC) moved to revive it earlier
this year.
ACC filed the Niko graft case
in 2007 after the BNP chief was
arrested by the then militarybacked caretaker government.
A total of 11 people, including
Zia, were charged on 5 May, 2008
for allegedly causing a loss of $1.76
billion to the exchequer by awarding gas exploration job to a Canadian company.
Zia earlier said political vendetta was to blame for the cases
against her and her sons.
ISLAMABAD: In a manifestation
of the strong political, diplomatic,
economic, cultural, and defence
ties between the two friendly countries, Pakistan Navy ship Shamsheer will reach Sri Lanka on a fourday goodwill visit from November 30 to December 3.
Pakistan Navy ships pay port
calls to Sri Lanka on frequent basis, with the aim to further
strengthen the existing strong relationship between the two countries, said a statement issued on
Sunday. Shamsheer is a special
type of sabre with a 5-15 degree
curve from top to tip. Swords are
considered a symbol of valour for
Muslims. The first ship of the
class inducted in the Pakistan Navy
was HMPS Shamsheer (F-252),
which was inherited at the time of
independence.
It served Pakistan Navy as an
anti-submarine frigate as well as
training ship for cadets and sailors
till 1960. The second ship was a
Leander class ASW Frigates (F263) acquired from the British
Royal Navy in July 1988 and
served the Pakistan Navy till July
2002. The present naval ship was
launched on October 31, 2008 and
was commissioned in the Pakistan
Navy on December 19, 2009. The
ship sailed for her maiden passage
for the homeland on December 25,
2009. During their stay at Colombo, the officers and men of the
Pakistan Navy would also take part in various professional activities with the Sri Lanka Navy.
Pakistan and Sri Lanka have strong defence ties and both navies engage in multifaceted cooperation. The
Pakistan Navy personnel provide a number of conventional training courses to their Sri Lankan counterparts,
while the Sri Lanka Navy shares its experience and expertise with regard to anti-terrorism operations at sea.
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TUESDAY DECEMBER 01, 2015
AFGHANISTAN TIMES
News-in-Brief
At NATO, Turkey
defiant over downing
of Russian jet
BRUSSELS : Turkey's premier dismissed on Monday
any suggestion that Ankara
should apologize for shooting
down a Russian warplane in
its airspace last week, after
winning strong NATO support for the right to defend itself.
No country should ask us
to apologize," Prime Minister
Ahmet Davutoglu told reporters following a meeting with
NATO's secretary general at
the alliance headquarters in
Brussels.
He also warned that such
incidents continued to be a risk
as long as Russia and the U.Sled coalition bombing Islamic
State in Syria worked separately.
Shelling from Yemen
rocks Saudi border
Shelling from Yemen has killed
a border guard trooper and two
residents in Saudi Arabia’s border region, officials said, in the
deadliest barrages in weeks
along the frontier.
The border guard died on
Sunday after “heavy firing
from inside Yemeni territory”
at Dahran al-Janub, the interior ministry announced.
Also Sunday, in the Jazan
region, two Yemeni residents
died in shelling from over the
border, the Civil Defense agency said.
Another Yemeni, among
hundreds of thousands living
in Saudi Arabia, died on Saturday when attackers from Yemen opened fire on Saudi Arabia’s Najran border zone, Civil
Defense said.
Close to 80 people have
been killed in border shelling
and skirmishes since an Arab
coalition launched a military
intervention against Houthi
Shiite militias in its southern
neighbor in March.
Algeria ex-presidential guard chief
charged: Report
The former head of Algeria’s
presidential guard has been
charged over a shooting at a
presidential residence outside the capital in July, the
El Watan newspaper reported on Monday.
General Mejdoub Kehal,
better known as Djamel, had
already been dismissed from
his post in August and last
month he was prevented
from boarding a flight to Paris.
He had been chief of security for President Abdelaziz Bouteflika from
2004 until the July shooting
in the seaside resort of Zeralda, 30 kilometres (20
miles) west of Algiers.
Four of his aides are also
to face prosecution in the
military court in Blida, the
headquarters of the first military district which includes
the capital. Djamel was one
of three senior army officers
who were replaced in July.
There has never been
any official explanation of
the reasons but press reports at the time said they
had been accused of negligence over the incident at
Bouteflika’s residence in
which two security guards
sparked panic by firing
shots.
The director for internal
security, Ali Bendaoud, and
the head of the Republican
Guard, Ahmed Moulay Meliani, were also replaced.
Since his election to a
fourth term in April 2014,
Bouteflika and his aides have
pushed through major changes in Algeria’s shadowy intelligence and security apparatus, which some considered
a “parallel state” within the
North African nation.
On Thursday, Algeria’s
former counterterrorism
chief Abdelkader Ait-Ouarabi, better known as General
Hassan, was sentenced to
five years in prison on charges of destroying documents
and disobeying military orders.
His closed door trial was
the country’s first ever prosecution of a high-ranking secret service officer.
In September, the president also replaced General
Mohamed Mediene - better
known as General Toufik after 25 years at the head of
the powerful DRS intelligence agency.
Iraq’s military command has told
civilians in the ISIS-held Ramadi
to leave the city, a sign that an
operation may soon be underway
to retake the provincial capital.
Monday’s statement, broadcast
on Iraqi state TV, says the Ramadi families are requested to leave
the city from its southern, Himaira area. No further instructions
or details were given. It’s unclear
if the long-awaited operation to
recapture Ramadi is imminent.
The U.S.-led alliance carried out
seven airstrikes near Ramadi on
Saturday, targeting ISIS fighters,
key positions and weapons caches. ISIS captured Ramadi in May,
after government forces abandoned their posts. The provincial
capital of Anbar province is located about 115 km west of Baghdad. The extremist group controls
large swaths of territory in Iraq
and neighboring Syria.
Polish Muslims rally against
racism and terrorism
Hundreds of people protested in
the Polish city of Poznan on Sunday against terrorism and racism,
in one of the first such demonstrations called by Muslim leaders in the overwhelmingly Catholic country. Around 300 demonstrators gathered in the centre of
the western city carrying banners
reading “Muslims against terrorism” and “Stop racism”.
Poland, where 90 percent of
the 38 million population is Catholic, is estimated to have around
15,000 to 25,000 Muslims.
“We condemn all forms of terrorism and we express our solidarity with the French people and
all victims of terrorist attacks
around the world,” said Youssef
Chadid, the imam of Poznan who
organised the rally.
He said some Polish people
were “very racist” and thought all
Muslims were terrorists.
“So we are protesting today
against terrorism and racism,” he
said. Poland’s new conservative
government has taken a tough
stance on Europe’s migrant crisis,
refusing to take in refugees under
the EU’s redistribution pro-
German Chancellor Angela Merkel confirmed after an EU-Turkey
summit on Sunday that the European Union has offered Ankara
three billion euros ($3.2-billion) to
help Syrian refugees in Turkey in
return for Turkish help in stemming migrant flows. Merkel also
confirmed that the EU would open
Chapter 17 of Turkey’s accession
negotiations with Turkey this year
gramme. Incoming foreign minister Witold Waszczykowski said earlier this month that Europe needed to
“approach in a different fashion the Muslim community living in Europe which hates this continent and
wishes to destroy it.”
and would speed up visa-free travel for Turks if existing conditions
are met. The chancellor said a
meeting she held with some other
EU leaders in the hours before the
Brussels summit had discussed resettling some Syrian refugees from
Turkey directly to their countries
but no figures had been discussed.
Meanwhile,
EU president Donald Tusk told a
press conference with Turkish
Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu
after the summit in Brussels that
“our agreement sets out a clear
plan for the timely re-establishment of order at our shared frontier.
We will also step up our assistance to Syrian refugees in Turkey through a new refugee facility
of three billion euros.” The Turk-
ish premier also slammed the “failure” of the U.N. system to deal
with Syria crisis when he said “we
are paying the price of the failure
of the U.N.
system not to solve the problem
of the Syrian crisis at the earlier
stages of the crisis.” Speaking
alongside EU leaders, Davotoglu
said Turkey has taken in 2 million
to 2.2 million refugees.
World leaders
launch bid for
climate breakthrough in Paris
PARIS : World leaders will launch
an ambitious attempt on Monday
to hold back the earth's rising temperatures, seeking common cause
in two weeks of bargaining to steer
the global economy away from dependence on fossil fuels.
Some 150 heads of state, including U.S. President Barack
Obama and his Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping, were arriving at
United Nations climate change
talks in Paris armed with promises and accompanied by high expectations.
After decades of struggling
negotiations and the failure of a
previous summit in Copenhagen
six years ago, some form of landmark agreement appears all but
assured by mid-December.
Warnings from climate scientists, demands from activists and
exhortations from religious leaders
like Pope Francis, coupled with
major advances in cleaner energy
sources like solar power, have all
added to pressure to cut the carbon emissions held responsible for
warming the planet.
Most scientists say failure to
agree on strong measures in Paris
would doom the world to everhotter average temperatures, bringing with them deadlier storms,
more frequent droughts and rising
sea levels as polar ice caps melt.
Facing such alarming projections, the leaders of nations responsible for about 90 percent of
the world's greenhouse gas emissions have come bearing pledges
to reduce their national carbon output, though by different rates.
For some, it has already become a pressing issue at home. As
the summit opened in Paris, the
capitals of the world's two most
populous nations, China and India, were blanketed in hazardous,
choking smog, with regulators in
Beijing asking factories to limit
output and halting construction
work.
Success in agreeing what would
be by far the strongest international pact yet to commit both rich
and developing nations to the fight
against global warming "is not yet
achieved, but it is within reach,”
French Foreign Minister Laurent
Fabius, chairman of the meeting,
told delegates.
On the eve of the summit, hundreds of thousands of people from
Australia to Paraguay joined the
biggest day of climate change activism in history, telling world leaders there was "No Planet B" in the
fight against global warming.
“This past year has been a turning point," Christiana Figueres, the
U.N.’s climate chief, told delegates.
The leaders will gather in a
vast conference center at Le Bourget airfield, near where Charles
Lindbergh landed his Spirit of St.
Louis aircraft in 1927 after making
the first solo trans-Atlantic flight,
a feat that helped bring nations closer. Whether a similar spirit of unity can be incubated in Le Bourget
this time is uncertain. In all, 195
countries are part of the unwieldy
negotiating process, espousing a
variety of leadership styles and
ideologies that has made consensus elusive in the past. Key issues,
notably how to divide the global
bill to pay for a shift to renewable
energy, are still contentious.
Signaling their determination
to resolve the most intractable
points, senior negotiators sat down
on Sunday, a day earlier than originally planned, to begin thrashing
out an agreement. They hope to
avoid the last-minute scramble and
all-nighters that marked past meetings. The last attempt to get a global deal collapsed in chaos and acrimony in Copenhagen in 2009. It
ended with Obama forcing his way
into a closed meeting of China and
other countries on the gathering's
last day and emerging with a mod-
est concession to limit rising emissions until 2020 that they attempted to impose on the rest of the
world. Anxious to avoid a re-run
of the Copenhagen disaster, major
powers have tried this time to
smooth some of the bumps in the
way of an agreement before they
arrive. For one thing, the presidents, prime ministers and princes will make their cameo appearances at the outset of the conference rather than swooping in at the
end. Arriving in a somber city
where security has been tightened
after Islamist militant attacks that
killed 130 people on Nov. 13, each
leader will be allowed a brief opening speech, just a few minutes long.
The goal is to build momentum for
consensus and avoid the messiness
of past talks when diplomats put
off the hard political choices until
their bosses arrived. But there are
other significant changes in approach.
The old goal of seeking a legally binding international treaty, certain to be dead on arrival in the
Republican-controlled U.S. Congress, has been replaced by a system of national pledges to reduce
emissions.
Some are presented as best intentions, others as measures legally enforced by domestic laws and
regulations.
The biggest difference may be
the partnership between the United States and China. The world's
two biggest carbon emitters, once
on opposite sides on climate issues, agreed in 2014 to jointly kickstart a transition away from fossil
fuels, each at their own speed and
in their own way.
The U.S. and China "have both
determined that it is our responsibility to take action," Obama said
after meeting Xi. "Our leadership
on this issue has been absolutely
vital."
That partnership has been a
balm for the main source of tension that characterized previous
talks, in which the developing
world argued that countries that
grew rich by industrializing on fossil fuels should pay the cost of
shifting all economies to a renewable energy future.
Now even China, once a leading voice of that club, has agreed
to contribute to an internationally
administered Green Climate Fund
that hopes to dispense $100 billion a year after 2020 as a way to
finance the developing world's shift
towards renewables.
If a signed deal now appears
likely, so too is the prospect that
it will not be enough to prevent
the world's average temperature
from rising beyond 2 degrees Celsius (3.6 Fahrenheit) above preindustrial levels.
That is widely viewed as a
threshold for dangerous and potentially catastrophic changes in
the planet's climate system.
Instead, the summit will produce a "long-term framework" for
additional reductions down the
road, Obama said in a Facebook
posting on Sunday, with "targets
set by each nation, but transparent enough to be verified by other
nations." How and when nations
should review their goals - and then
set higher, more ambitious ones must still be hammered out.
One sign of optimism was that
Indian Prime Minster Narendra
Modi, a key player because of his
country's size and its heavy dependence on coal, will announce
an international solar alliance of
more than 100 sun-kissed countries, with the aim of raising India's profile on solar power.
A handful of the world's other
richest entrepreneurs, including
Bill Gates, have pledged to double
the $10 billion they collectively
spend on clean energy research and
development in the next five years.
EU official says close to data deal with US:Report
VIENNA : The European Union
and United States should reach
agreement next month on a new
framework to replace the Safe Harbour pact enabling data transfers
from Europe to the United States,
European Justice Commissioner
Vera Jourova told a newspaper.
Related Stories
EU, US reach data protection
deal allowing Europeans to sue
over privacy breaches AFP
France rejects Google appeal
on cleaning up search results globally Reuters
France rejects Google appeal
over 'right to be forgotten' AFP
EU strikes data-sharing deal
with U.S. for security, terrorism
cases Reuters
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Brussels and Washington are
locked in negotiations to forge a
new agreement for the transfer of
data, which would otherwise be
subject to cumbersome and lengthy
legal processes under EU data protection law.
Safe Harbour, which was used
by more than 4,000 U.S. and European companies, was declared
invalid by the European Court of
Justice in October because U.S.
national security needs trumped
the privacy of Europeans' data.
"We have to build a bridge between our data protection authorities and those of the USA and put
it into a legally binding text,"
Jourova told Austrian newspaper
Wirtschaftsblatt in an interview
published on Monday.
"We should manage that by the
next meeting on Dec. 17."
To address the court's concerns, particularly that Europeans
do not have legal channels to challenge misuse of their data, the
Commission is looking for ways
to involve European privacy
watchdogs more deeply, Jourova
said.
"The main problem is the responsibilities of the European data
protection authorities and of the
U.S. counterpart, the Federal
Trade Commission: they should
implement the requirements and
deal with the complaints of citizens," she said. The U.S. Federal
Trade Commission (FTC) was responsible for monitoring companies' compliance with the Safe Harbour privacy principles, although
it does not deal with complaints
from individuals.
A bigger role for European
watchdogs would allow citizens to
complain directly to their national
authorities, people familiar with the
matter said last week.
A similar mechanism existed in
the old Safe Harbour framework for
human resources data which are
often sensitive.
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TUESDAY DECEMBER 01 2015
AFGHANISTANTIMES
We a r e a n a t io n a l in st it u t io n a n d n o t t h e v o ice o f a go v t o r a p r iv a t e o r ga n iza t io n
AFGHANISTAN TIMES
Editor: Abdul Saboor Sarir
Phone No: +93-772364666
E-mail: saboorsarir1@gmail.com
Email: afgtimes@yahoo.com
www.afghanistantimes.af
Photojournalist: M. Sadiq Yusufi
Advisory editorial board
Saduddin Shpoon, Dr. Sharif Fayez, Dr. Sultana Parvanta, Dr. Sharifa Sharif,
Dr. Omar Zakhilwal, Setara Delawari, Ahmad Takal
Graphic-Designers:
Mansoor Faizy and Edriss Akbari
Marketing & Advertising:
Mohammad Parwiz Arian, 0708954626, 0778894038
Mailing address: P.O. Box: 371, Kabul, Afghanistan
Our Bank Accounts: Azizi Bank: 000101100258091 / 000101200895656
Printed at Afghanistan Times Printing Press
The constitution says
Article 79
During the recess of the House of Representatives, the Government shall, in case
of an immediate need, issue legislative decrees, except in matters related to
budget and financial affairs. Legislative decrees, after endorsement by the
President, shall acquire the force of law. Legislative decrees shall be presented to
the National Assembly within thirty days of convening its first session, and if
rejected by the National Assembly, they become void.
Drowning of an
Afghan family
In quest of a better and secure future, an Afghan family along with
their dreams has drowned in the deep waters while trying to reach
Europe. This family is not alone that met a tragic end. Hundreds
of families have been drowned. They include Afghans and Arabs.
A few months back a photo of a three-year old Syrian child, Aylan, who was washed up on a Turkish beach, went viral on media
and ignited outcry against what is happening in Syria. Many of the
asylum-seeking families take the dangerous road to Europe when
their hopes give way at home and don’t see any ray of hope. They
are usually well aware of the challenges on the route to Europe,
but they don’t hesitate. Sometimes their final journey is tragic. The
sufferings of the refugees, from across the most insecure parts of
the world, including Afghanistan, reveal the world is a mess. The
ill-fated five-member family, that fled Kandahar, in search of a
secure and better future, may have thought of the lurking death on
the route, yet it must have some hopes, which compelled them on
taking the road to Europe. If the government doesn’t take up the
issue of illegal migration, many more families will meet the same
tragic end. Turkey, as a gateway to Europe, has been flooded by
refugees. Macedonia is yet another stop over swarmed by refugees. But can Turkey stem the tide of refugees when European
countries to end the 20-year old free-border bond, known as Schengen. Turkey and EU finalized the refugee deal. Europe has been
faced with a biggest ever challenge as refugees are streaming in,
nearly 5,000 a day. To successfully address the issue of refugeeinflux, Europe will have to convince those nations that are responsible for the displacement of millions of people from their respective lands, to stop their proxy wars and interferences. Europe and
other leading nations should work concertedly to enable the weaker governments in those parts of the world, which are faced with
terrorism and political instability, to develop good governance so
that their citizens don’t flee their homelands for safer places. When
Turkey and EU struck a deal on refugees, the next day a group of
jihadists killed 130 people in Paris. When they came to know that
one of the attackers had apparently posed as a Syrian refugee, it
unleashed a hill of troubles for asylum seekers in Europe. Governments in EU must not be trapped by sentiments and shouldn’t
deny refugees their fundamental rights on the basis of suspicion
that there would be potential terrorists among them. The EU must
not burn down the entire house to exterminate one louse or punish
the million of troubled refugees for a few bad apples. Given the
humiliations the refugees come across with on the route, no one
will choose it to be a refugee by choice, but the flood of troubles
at their respective homelands pushes them on taking this extreme
step. Therefore, they need to be treated humanely. Their fundamental rights ensured and protected.
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By Shamim Shahid
In order to pay tribute to late
Pukhtun nationalist Mohammad Afzal Khan, commonly
known as Khan Lala, the Afghan government arranged a
conference in Kabul on Saturday. Many politicians including Asfandyar Wali Khan,
Mahmood Khan Achakzai and
Aftab Ahmad Khan Sherpao
along with a number of tribal
leaders and intellectuals were
invited to attend the conference.
The conference was held
at a time the political scenario
between Islamabad and Kabul
is ripe with tension. Hot button issues ANP Central Secretary General Mian Iftikhar Hussain attached a great deal of
significance to the three leader’s visit to Kabul. He termed
the conference, “an event that
could lead to a major breakthrough in the deadlock that
erupted last August-July between the neighbouring countries.” According to reports in
Afghan media, Asfandyar,
Achakzai and Sherpao managed to persuade Afghan President Ashraf Ghani to meet Pakistan’s Prime Minister Nawaz
Sharif. However, the time and
venue has yet to be finalised.
Talking to The Express Tri-
bune, Iftikhar said Pak-Afghan
relations and the merger of the
Federally Administered Tribal
Areas with K-P are two extremely important issues at this stage
and time. “Both these problems would remain at the top of
the agenda in Kabul – regardless of whether the talks are
formal or informal,” he said.
Mian Iftikhar remarked that except for the future of Fata, the
three leading Pukhtun politicians had similar points of view
regarding all regional and international issues. “If dialogues
are held between Kabul and
Islamabad, many crises can be
resolved peacefully and politically,” he added.
Geopolitics
In order to end terrorism
and militancy, and perhaps
more importantly, save trillions
of US dollars invested in wardevastated Afghanistan after 9/
11, the world community, particularly US-led allies, seems to
be reaching some sort of consensus regarding Fata’s merger with K-P. However, the same
cannot be said about Asdfandyar, Achakzai and Sherpao who
are willing to stand united on
topic of the long-standing Afghan conflict but refuse to work
together for the future of Fata.
What they fail to realise is that
both these issues are not only
inter-linked but Afghanistan
has a very high stake in it.
While Asfandyar and Sherpao’s parties favour the merger of Fata with K-P, Achakzai
wishes the people of Fata to
decide the future of their territory. According to historical
agreements of 1893 and 1905,
Pakistan is bound to take Afghan government into confidence regarding the status of
Fata.
Reaching common ground
Though Achakzai’s Pakhtunkhwa Milli Awami Party is
part of PML-N-led coalition
government, Asfandyar and
Sherpao have also reached an
understanding with PM Nawaz
Sharif. Before departing to Kabul, Asfandyar held an exclusive
meeting with Nawaz and discussed matters of high significance. The two leaders debated about the China-Pakistan
Economic Corridor and the ongoing situation in Afghanistan,
in particular about tense relations between Islamabad and
Kabul. Asfandyar also proposed talks at a high level between Pakistan and Afghanistan, suggesting Nawaz and
COAS General Raheel Sharif
meet President Dr Ashraf Ghani
and Chief Executive Dr Abdullah Abdullah from Afghanistan.
Looking back
After assuming office in
2014, Ghani had been very
hopeful about good terms between Afghanistan and Pakistan. He travelled to Pakistan
to meet Nawaz and Raheel and
upon his return to Kabul, assured his people of an era of
peace and tranquility.
However, these hopes were
shattered when Afghan militants not only refused to hold
peace talks but also revolted in
Kunduz and engaged in unprecedented violence in Khost,
Nangarhar and several others
regions in Afghanistan. Militancy not only fuelled hardships for Ghani and Abdullah’s
unity government but also created uncertainty in the international arena where many countries had invested heavily in
reconstructing Afghanistan.
Time to act
At a time when leaders,
technocrats and analysts are
attaching great significance to
events in both neighbouring
countries and casting light on
their inter-related affairs, it is
the time to take steps to initiate
and maintain stability. Continuous distrust between Islamabad and Kabul is not only detrimental to the very interests of
both countries but enables war
mongers to exploit the situation.—(Express Tribune)
Showdown on the Syrian border
By VIJAY PRASHAD
Impossible to ignore the grave implications of this event – a Russian jet shot down by the Turks
around the Syrian-Turkish border.
Stern faces all round as
NATO’s military council meets to
discuss the first time in decades
that a member nation has shot
down a Russian plane.
Russia’s President Putin calls
the Turkish government “accomplices of terrorism”.
Tensions mount and uncertainty prevails. Will the Russians retaliate? If so, how?
Further clashes between Turkey and Russia would not be wise.
Even NATO called for calm. Such
tensions would play directly into
the hands of the Islamic State
group. The more distractions in its
compass, the easier for IS to regroup for its next assault in IraqSyria. Too many great powers are
now involved in Iraq and Syria,
with far too little coordination. The
French flagship aircraft carrier –
Charles De Gaulle – is in the eastern Mediterranean Sea. It has
launched missile strikes on IS-held
regions in Iraq. US airstrikes have
been launched from Turkey, from
the Gulf states and from the Indian Ocean. The Russians have been
hitting IS and regional proxies from
their Syrian bases and from naval
vessels in the Caspian Sea.
The flight path of these deadly weapons and their aircraft crisscross in the skies above Iraq and
Syria. The fate of the Sukhoi SU24 had been sealed earlier, not merely by Turkish warnings, but by
congestion. De-escalation talks
between the US and the Russians
have been useful, but not foolproof.
The great powers might not
agree on the fate of Assad, but they
are in agreement about the prob-
lem of IS. During Obama and Putin’s 35-minute powwow at the
G20 summit in Antalya, Turkey,
they agreed that the threat of IS
united them – but they disagreed
on tactics.
“Tactics” has come to mean
Assad – what is the assessment of
his role in the near term? Russia
and Iran insist that Assad’s regime
must have a place in the political
process. The US, with its Gulf
partners and Turkey, say that this
should not be the case.
The question of Assad is only
part of the problem. Even more
grave is the planetary conflict between the West and Eurasia.
This is exemplified in the eastward march of NATO and the tension in the South China Sea between the US and China.
The way the Chinese and the
Russians see it, the West is committed to an encirclement of Eurasia. This is seen in Beijing and
Moscow as a provocation. Tension over that encirclement deters
any easy management of the problem in Syria. Anti-Russian, or at
least anti-Putin, sentiment is high
in the West.
Syria has become the battleground of these ambitions. It is a
reminder of the Cold War era, when
hot wars took place in the darker
nations – against the wider interests of the people in the region.
No Syrian has gained from this
conflict. It has spiralled out of the
ledger of Syrian history and into
that of great power history.
( Turkey’s imbroglio(
Turkey, meanwhile, remains
ambivalent in its commitment to
the war against IS. It too has fighter aircraft in the air, but not to
bomb IS.
Turkey has been bombing the
bases of the Kurdish militias which
have had the most battlefield suc-
cess against IS. The Turkish border, now closed to Syrian refugees
– as reported by Human Rights
Watch – is not closed to IS fighters or to fighters of the extremist
proxy armies, some overtly supported by Turkey and the Gulf
states.
Turkey had taken the most
extreme position on the Syrian
conflict in 2011 – calling very early for Assad to go. Turkish intelligence knew then that it would not
be easy for the rebels – however
well armed – to break the Syrian
military and its political apparatus.
Defections had been few from
both the army and the political side.
US Ambassador to Syria Robert
Ford’s presence at the rallies, including in Hama, sent a message
that the US would back the rebellion to the hilt.
It was, however, clear – after
the NATO bombing of Libya –
that such a US campaign was not
to happen. Without massive US
bombing, the Syrian government
would not be defeated. At that
time, the sensible option – in terms
of loss of life – would have been
to seek an immediate political solution.
But Turkey went to the next
level with support to armed extremist proxies. It has not been
able to back down since.
On Turkish television, the new
term of art is “moderate jihadist”
(ilimli cihatcilar). In the TurkishSyrian borderlands, where the
Sukhoi was brought down, operates the Sultan Abdülhamit Brigade.
This Brigade is a Turkmen detachment, trained by the Turkish
Special Forces. It is known for its
collaboration with the Army of
Conquest and with al-Qaeda’s
Nusra Front. This is one of the
Turkish proxies.
Syria’s army has advanced
with Russian airstrikes on their
redoubts in northwestern Syria.
The Brigade has called upon Turkey to help them. The Russian
pilots parachuted into the arms of
these fighters, who reportedly shot
them dead as they drifted down.
Could it be that Turkey indeed
tried to come to their aid? This will
need further investigation.
It is feasible to suggest that
Turkey’s threats to Russian aircraft and its warning at October’s
NATO council meeting set the
stage for an ultimatum to the United States.
If Turkey calls for the implementation of a Chapter V resolution based on the NATO Charter,
then the US has to come to its defence. In 1961, the CIA – under
Allen Dulles – sent a ragtag bunch
of Cuban rebels to the Bay of Pigs.
The CIA knew that the rebels
would be defeated. The point was
to use the rebels as a mean to pressure President John F Kennedy to
launch a full-scale aerial assault and
marine landing on Cuba.
Kennedy held fast against the
pressure. He refused to start
World War III. Turkey might be
reckless enough to try a Bay of
Pigs on its border. Obama – as sober as Kennedy – would likely not
be drawn in once again. He had
stayed away after the chemical
weapon attack; he will stay away
now. In his brief statement, he
backed Turkey’s right to defend
itself, but then asked for calm.
Putin called for a UN Security
Council meeting. Jordan is the only
Arab country on the council. Jordan’s King Abdullah met with Putin at Sochi on Tuesday. The
UNSC will wade into this dispute.
It needs to counsel peace. (Counter
punch)
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TUESDAY DECEMBER 01 2015
AFGHANISTANTIMES
An eventual break-up of the Arab world into sectarian splinters is a self-fulfilling prophesy.
Paris recently experienced humanity at its
worst. The climate summit will be an
opportunity to show it at its best.
By Christine Lagarde
BY Lamis Andoni
As if the severe damage inflicted by the US-led invasion of
Iraq and the Israeli occupation
of Palestine were not enough,
the Arab world is now engaged
in a self-destructive process of
sectarian polarisation and violence.
While it is true that the 2003
Iraq War triggered the rise of
sectarian groups, many Arab
political leaders, religious
preachers and even some intellectuals have been fanning sectarian hatred and bigotry to
serve what is essentially a
struggle for power and influence.
What we are witnessing is
an ugly sectarianisation of Arab
societies that is affecting people’s outlook, terminology and
attitude as people get trapped
in superficial trenches that
cloud minds and close hearts.
The ensuing state of confusion and fear compel many
to accept “sectarian-wrapped”
myths that demonise one sect
or another, and even condone,
in the case of ISIL, horrific
crimes against Christian minorities and Iraq’s Yazidis.
Sectarian language
Sectarian language is no
longer the specialty of openly
sectarian parties, but is steadily penetrating the mainstream
lingo - expressed either in specific terminology or in supposedly neutral “analyses” of political developments in the region and beyond.
For example, some now see
Iran as behind all catastrophes
- this was recently evident
when Iranian pilgrims were accused of having deliberately
caused the stampede in Mecca
last September and in the enduring claim that the Iran-Iraq
war was sparked by a sinister
Shia plan to control the Sunnis
in the Arab World.
The fact that more than 450
Iranians were killed in the stampede or the fact that the 1981
war started when the late Iraqi
President Saddam Hussein abrogated the 1975 Algiers agreement over border disputes are
conveniently overlooked.
A sectarian anti-Shia language was not dominant in the
Arab collective psyche which
was more shaped by the legacy of the anti-colonialist struggle and commitment to the Palestinian cause.
Predicting Putin's next move
By Luke Coffey
As world leaders gather in Paris
this week to discuss climate
change, many were wondering if a
possible meeting between the
Turkish President Recep Tayyip
Erdogan and his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin would take
place.
According to Putin's spokesman it will not.
After the downing of the Russian SU-24 jet last week in southern Turkey, relations between
Moscow and Ankara have been
tense. According to the Kremlin,
Erdogan must first apologise before Putin will meet him.
Right now Russia and Turkey
are engaged in a war of words.
Putin says that Russia was
"stabbed in the back" by Turkey
when it shot down the warplane.
Russia has since placed visa restrictions and limited economic
sanctions on Turkey. Moscow has
also demanded an apology, but
Mevlut Cavusoglu, the Turkish
foreign minister, said that his government will not "apologise on an
occasion when we are right".
Can Turkey and Russia resolve their dispute?
Even so, Erdogan has said that
he was "saddened" by the event
but suggested that Moscow would
be "playing with fire" if it retaliates on Turkish nationals living and
working in Russia. Complex relations The West might view recent
events between Russia and Tur-
key as a new phenomenon, but this
fails to understand the complex
and fraught relationship both countries share.
The downing of the Russian
jet is simply the latest drama in a
saga that has been playing out since
the middle of the 16th century.
In one form or another, Russia
has driven Turkish foreign and defence policy for centuries. Since
1568, Turkey and Russia have
been to war 12 times. At least nine
of the occasions have been over
Crimea - which Russia illegally
annexed last year.
Imperial Russia and the Ottoman Empire have contested regions
in the Black Sea, the South Caucasus and the Balkans for centuries.
In one form or another, Russia
has driven Turkish foreign and defence policy for centuries. Since
1568, Turkey and Russia have
been to war 12 times.
In 1772, Russian troops raided and briefly occupied Ottoman
territory in the Levant. Even during World War I, Russian troops
got within 160 kilometres of Ottoman-controlled Baghdad. The
ensuing friction led to a lot of
bloodshed. After World War II, Joseph Stalin's designs on Turkey's
Eastern Anatolia Region and Soviet Russia's wish to control the
Turkish Straits were what originally drove Turkey into NATO's
arms. Continue backing Turkey
Although NATO members have
been steadfast in their support for
Turkey's actions shooting down
the Russian plane, there is no telling how long this support will last.
Turkey has long been considered a troublesome ally inside
NATO. As countries such as
France start calling for a broader
coalition to confront the Islamic
State of Iraq and the Levant that
includes Russia, Turkey runs the
risk of being left out to dry. This
would be a shame. Turkey has been
securing NATO's southern flank
for decades. It also has the second
largest military in NATO after the
United States and it has been willing to use it.
During the Korean war, Turkey sent 15,000 troops as part of
the United Nations Command, of
whom about 20 percent were killed,
wounded, or captured. It has participated in NATO-led peacekeeping missions in the Balkans. Since
2001, Turkey has twice commanded the NATO mission in Afghanistan and has deployed thousands of troops there. Turkey's
President Recep Tayyip Erdogan
[AP] While Turkey can be a bothersome ally at times, especially under Erdogan's leadership, it is, on
balance, an important member of
the Alliance. NATO's leaders
would be short-sighted if they
marginalised Turkey for perceived
closer cooperation with Russia in
the fight against ISIL. Even if the
Kremlin changed course and Erdogan and Putin met in Paris this
week, it would not have changed
the animosity that now exists between the two leaders. Russia's
revenge Erdogan can hold a grudge
- as seen with his relationship with
the Syrian President Bashar alAssad. That went in just a few
short years from the two families
holidaying together to Assad becoming enemy No 1. For Putin, a
leader always thinking strategically and a few moves ahead of his
opponents, the downing of a Russian jet presents an opportunity
to act aggressively and expand
Russian influence elsewhere. Russia will seek revenge - and no brief
encounter in Paris between Putin
and Erdogan is going to change this.
But Putin might seek his revenge
elsewhere. He could focus on the
Baltic States, with Moscow taking another 500 metres of territory in Georgia. Putin could encourage pro-Russian separatists to
breakaway in Moldova's ethnic
Turkic region of Gagauzia. Or the
Kremlin could back rebels in the
Donbas region to bring about a
breakdown of the Minsk II ceasefire agreement in Ukraine. In one
way or another, all of these could
cause problems for NATO and the
West.
Russia regularly illegally
probes the airspace of other NATO
members, especially the Baltic
States and the United Kingdom.
But last week Moscow bullied the
wrong kid in the playground and
Lieutenant t Colonel Oleg Peshkov, a father of two, needlessly lost
his life. If Russia would have only
stayed outside Turkish airspace
this would have never happened.
LETTER TO THE EDITOR
Reopen closed schools
Six governors of different provinces during their recent visit to Kabul while talking to a number of reporters raised the problems
faced residents of their respective provinces. They said that a large number of schools in some remote districts of the provinces
remain closed. They blamed mounting insecurity for closure of the schools. As we now that the children and youth are considered
as the future of the country. Thus, the government should exert its utmost efforts to reopen the closed schools.
The first and most effective option that the government can use is seeking cooperation from the tribal elders. The government
should convince tribal elders and religious scholars to negotiate with the Taliban to let children go to schools.
The government should also improve quality of education in remote areas.
Ali Jan, Khairkhana, Kabul
Letter to editor will be edited for policy, content and clarity. All letters must have the writer’s name and
address. You may send your letters to: afghanistantimes@gmail.com
Disclaimer:
The views and opinions expressed in the articles are those of the author(s)
and do not reflect the views or opinions of the Afghanistan Times.
When world leaders convene in Paris this week for
the United Nations Climate
Change Conference, their
task will be to reach a global
agreement on curbing
greenhouse-gas emissions.
A successful outcome,
demonstrating that countries
can work together for the
good of the planet, would
send a powerful message of
hope to the world - and to
the people of Paris, who remain unbowed after the recent terrorist attacks.
Climate pledges will be
made on the basis of Intended Nationally Determined
Contributions, or commitments to the reduction of
emissions worldwide. I believe that the price of emissions should be at the centre
of these pledges.
Achieving a decline in
greenhouse-gas emissions at
the lowest possible cost requires a revolution in energy
use and production. Gradual, predictable, and reliable
increases in energy prices
would provide strong incentives for consumers to reduce their energy bills.
At the same time, the
right carbon price would enable a smooth transition
away from fossil fuels by
encouraging investments in
technological innovation.
That is why the International Monetary Fund’s staff
have recommended a threepart strategy on carbon fuel:
“Price it right, tax it smart,
and do it now.” Each component is essential.
First, setting the right
price for fossil fuels means
taking into account their true
environmental costs. Prices
should pass on to end users
the full cost not only of production and acquisition, but
also of the damage - including air pollution and climate
change - caused by intensive
reliance on fossil fuels. A
fairer carbon price will drive
energy savings and boost
demand for cleaner fuels and
“greener” investments.
Second, the necessary
change in prices would be
achieved by taxing energy,
using tools that are both
practical and efficient. The
best option is to build a carbon charge into existing fuel
taxes and apply similar
charges to coal, natural gas,
and other petroleum products.
The revenue implications
would be significant. If large
emitting countries were to
impose carbon prices of $30
per tonne of CO2, they
could generate fiscal revenues amounting to about one
percent of their GDP.
These revenues could be
used to manage the overall
fiscal burden of climate action, as well as to finance
cuts in taxes on labour and
capital that distort economic activity and harm growth,
or to reduce deficits where
needed.
In short, carbon pricing is
about “smart” taxes, not
higher taxes. Smart taxes
should be phased in gradually to allow households and
firms time to adjust and for
new technologies to come on
stream. Gradual and tailored
adjustment is particularly
important for developing
economies, many of which
make little contribution to
global emissions.
Time may be necessary,
in many cases, to ensure
that social safety nets are in
place to protect low-income
households and to provide
retraining programmes for
workers in energy-intensive
industries. This approach
would also allow for climate
investments to be financed
through private capital
flows.
Third, there is no time to
lose: policymakers need to
act immediately. Given the
slump in energy prices, there
has never been a better time
to undertake the transition to
smart, credible, and effective carbon pricing.
Nor should countries wait
for others to move first.
Work at the IMF has shown
that a fair amount of carbon
pricing is in many countries’
national interest - even ignoring adverse climate effects on other countries because it would help resolve major domestic environmental problems.
According to the World
Health Organization, outdoor air pollution causes
more than three million premature deaths a year. And
early action is essential to
avoid the need for much
more drastic - and costly efforts later.
In advance of the Paris
summit, more than 160
countries submitted emissions mitigation pledges. By
implementing these commitments, countries will substantially reduce projected
future global warming.
The challenge now is to
deliver on these pledges.
This is why we need a concerted push for carbon pricing. In Paris, a select group
of leaders who are true
champions of carbon pricing
will issue a call for action.
The Carbon Pricing Panel, led by the IMF and World
Bank, will further increase
the policy momentum at the
national, regional, and municipal levels.
In addition to public-sector efforts, we also need the
robust engagement of financial institutions and markets.
Hedging instruments such
as so-called catastrophe
bonds can help insure
against the increasing risk
posed by natural disasters.
Other financial instruments, such as “green”
stock indices and “green”
bonds, can help reallocate
investment to sectors that
support environmentally sustainable growth. Here, too,
carbon prices that are predictable and sufficiently high
will be essential to guide investment choices.
There is a lot at stake this
week in the City of Light.
Paris recently experienced
humanity at its worst. The
climate summit will be an
opportunity to show it at its
best.
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TUESDAY DECEMBER 01, 2015
AFGHANISTANTIMES
On November 14, the day after the
attacks on Paris that left 130 people dead and as some of the suspected attackers remained at large,
President Francois Hollande declared a nationwide state of emergency, approving warrantless
searches and the sealing of the
country's borders.
Less than a week later, he
asked France's two houses of parliament to support an extension of
emergency measures from the usual 12 days to three months, citing
exceptional circumstances.
He called for a "spirit of sacrifice" in the name of security, before claiming that the April 3, 1955,
law governing the state of emergency - created in the context of
the Algerian war, when riots in the
suburbs shook the capital - was
insufficient to deal with "the kind
of technologies and threats that we
face today".
France approved and adopted
the extension, with the new laws
giving sweeping powers to the
police.
Under the rule, which lasts
until February, warrantless searches of electronic devices are allowed;
those convicted of terrorism-related crimes or offences punishable
by 10 years or more imprisonment
must submit to a decade of electronic surveillance after his or her
sentence has ended; and websites
deemed to support or incite terrorism can be blocked without the
intervention of a judge.
France's main press freedom
organisation, Reporters Without
Borders, welcomed one silver lining: the elimination of media controls from the state of emergency
law.
"As well as imposing controls
on the media, the law [had] allowed
the police to search the offices of
journalists, judges and elected officials without having to request
permission from a court. This provision has also been eliminated,"
the group said in a statement, adding that it would continue to monitor media freedom issues during
the state of emergency.
Other rights groups, however,
have criticised alleged press freedom abuses since the law was enacted, and laid out their fears. The
Index on Censorship said it poses
a "threat to press freedom", citing
the recent cancellation of a regular
radio segment by journalist Tho-
mas Guenole. Human Rights
Watch, meanwhile, made an impassioned plea to protect encryption.
'I have nothing to hide'
On November 14, the day after the attacks on Paris, President
Francois Hollande declared a nationwide state of emergency, approving warrantless searches and
the sealing of the country's borders. Days after, the country approved and adopted an extension
with new laws giving sweeping
powers to the police [AP Photo/
Francois Mori]
But while some fear that freedom of speech and some activists
and members of the Muslim minority are at risk under the law,
others are ready to accept any surveillance measures the government
says are needed to ensure the country's security.
"I think I want so hard to help
the government to find potential
terrorists that I accept this reality," says Alice Rampelberg, a Parisian mother of one who lives a
stone's throw from the Bataclan
concert hall where 89 people died
on November 13. "I know I have
nothing to hide so, just because I
know it is not going to last, I accept it even if I don't really like the
idea."
Another Parisian, a first-generation immigrant to France who
requested anonymity, also accepted the extraordinary measures with
resignation.
"Normally, I would have been
against such measures. Normally,
I'm even against CCTV cameras. I
think [they're] a breach of citizens'
liberté de circulation [freedom of
movement]," she explains. "But
that is normally, in a normal democracy, where young people are
not slaughtered in the streets by
their own compatriots, sent to
death by a fanatical sect."
And with several events and
festivities coming up, some believe
such measures are necessary.
"So after the attacks, because
of COP21, because of Christmas
and New Year's Eve, because of
the one-year anniversary of [the]
January attacks, because of possible wannabe and copycat jihadis,
I'm OK with the state of emergency, but not for ever. Three months
is enough," she adds.
But already, some are calling
for a longer state of emergency. Eric
Ciotti, a right-wing member of the
National Assembly, is one politician who has called for the rule to
last for at least six months.
'Mission creep'
Experts, however, have
warned that the key to maintaining public trust is to ensure that
emergency rule is only temporary.
"The experience of repressive
regimes such as [Nicolae] Ceausescu's Romania is that increasing
surveillance decreases the level of
trust that people have for their
government and makes them less
cooperative and less supportive of
the government," Paul Bernal, a
law professor at Britain's University of East Anglia and the author
of Internet Privacy Rights: Rights
to Protect Autonomy, explains.
"Emergency' powers need to
be maintained only for emergencies: the longer these kinds of
powers are kept after an obvious
emergency, the easier it is for trust
Au s tralia: ‘Sh e d ie d be cau s e
s h e w as a black w o m an ’
In q u est in t o t h e d ea t h o f Ab o r igin a l w o m a n in p o lice
cu st o d y u n d er sco r es A u st r a lia 's in d igen o u s im p r iso n m en t p r o b lem .
to be damaged."
He adds that powers introduced for one reason could be used
for others - a "prime danger usually known as 'function creep' or
'mission creep'".
"Right now, in Paris, some of
the powers brought in to combat
terrorism seem to be being used to
control protesters and others at the
climate change conference, for example. Powers might be used to
stifle dissent, to clamp down on
people like environmental campaigners, students and so forth. It
needs a huge amount of care to
avoid this problem - in practice it
seems to happen all the time."
"Clampdowns on [internet]
privacy mainly have negative effects," says Bernal. "They lower
levels of trust, chill free speech and
free assembly and association, and
encourage the development of
tools to evade government surveil-
lance - tools which might end up
being used by exactly the people
that governments want to find."
So, what should France, and
others, do to combat the security
threat?
"Make it [counterterrorism]
more targeted and more 'humanled'. That's the real key," advises
Bernal.
"Privacy is a positive thing and
important for communities to
function. It should be supported
rather than undermined. The current trend is for governments to be
more oppressive and using more
surveillance. Unfortunately we can
probably expect this to continue."
The S-Files
Many fear that freedom of
speech and the media are at risk
under emergency rule [Pascal Le
Segretain/Getty Images]
In the immediate aftermath of
the attacks, attention turned to the
limitations of French intelligence
and what many view as its surveillance on a shoestring.
Former top judge Marc Trevidic, who until the summer led
France's counterterrorism investigations and remains part of the judiciary, was quick to admit to deep
security flaws after November 13,
saying that the intelligence agencies are so stretched that they cannot cope, and that some previous
foils were down to luck, rather than
skill.
Roughly 3,300 people are employed in the domestic security
service to monitor at least 10,500
people – a number confirmed by
Prime Minister Manual Valls in
the aftermath of the recent attacks
– with so-called 'fiche S' files, identifying them as possible dangers
to the safety of the state.
The 's' stands for Sûreté de
l'Etat (state security) and the file
signals the highest warning level
for those who are considered a
threat but have not done anything
to warrant an arrest.
Frenchman Omar Ismail
Mostefa, one of the suspected
November 13 attackers, had been
the subject of an S-file for radicalisation in 2010. The three killers
in the January attacks, including
at the offices of the Charlie Hebdo
magazine, were also on the S-files.
So, too, was Mohammed
Merah - the 'lone wolf' who killed
seven people in Toulouse and
Montauban, southern France in
2012, and Ayoub El-Khazzani,
who recently allegedly tried to kill
passengers aboard a train from
Amsterdam to Paris.
"There are not enough policemen to control all communications
and the media," says Yanis Warrach, an imam at a prison chapel in
Alanse, Normandy.
B u r k in a Fa s o el ec t io n s :
N o t a o n e-ma n r a c e
Election results pending with powerful candidates
from the old and new political establishments in contention.
Dhu's grandmother Carol Roe (left) broke down in tears
during the proceedings last week [Royce Kurmelovs/Al Jazeera]
Perth, Australia - Shaun Harris
watched the lawyers and court officials gathered together outside
Court 51 on level five of the Central Law Courts in Perth. For the
last 14 months, he travelled
30,000km around Australia to
work for this moment.
"All these people," he said with
a pause, "here for my niece."
On August 4, 2014, his niece
Dhu died while being held in police custody in Port Hedland, an
iron-ore mining town about
1,600km north of Australia's main
western city of Perth. Respecting
indigenous Australian culture, her
full name cannot be written or spoken after death. Dhu's uncle Harris was the public spokesman for
the family as they waited more
than a year to find out the circumstances of how the 22-year-old
Yamatji Aboriginal woman died
from severe staphylococcal septicaemia and pneumonia, developed
as a result of complications from a
broken rib. Aboriginal youth at a
greater risk of suicide Two days
prior to her death, she was arrested on a warrant for $3,600 in unpaid fines relating to seven offences, including assaulting a police
officer. She was taken into custody at the South Hedland Police
Station. On the first night in lockup, Dhu began to complain about
severe pain in her right side. CCTV
footage played for the court at the
start of the inquest on November
23, showed her moaning in pain
for an hour before she was taken
to hospital. Evidence given at the
inquest suggests police believed
Dhu was "faking" her pain. When
Dhu later arrived at South Hedland Health Campus, she was considered low-priority. She was seen
by Dr Anne Lang, who failed to
make a diagnosis. Instead, Lang
wrote "behavioural issues" in her
brief notes as the cause of the health
problem, and Dhu returned with
police to her jail cell. The next night
when Dhu returned to the hospital, she was seen by Dr Vafa Naderi, who again attributed the severity of her pain to "behavioural
issues". Again, no formal diagno-
sis was made. Finally, on August
4, Dhu awoke in the final stages of
severe septic shock. CCTV footage showed her being handcuffed,
dragged to the door of her cell, and
carried by police to the back of a
police vehicle. An hour later, she
was declared dead. "In the end she
died because she was a black woman, which is one of the worst
things to be in this country," Harris told Al Jazeera. Sandra Thompson, an expert on indigenous people's health, told the court that Dhu
would have gotten better care had
she been "a white, middle class
woman". But Dr Ganesan Sakarapani, the senior medical officer at
South Hedland Health Campus,
strongly denied the accusation. "I
would categorically reject that," he
said. "We do not have a culture of
institutional racism at our hospital." Ros Weatherall, a Western
Australia police spokesperson,
told Al Jazeera the department was
not at liberty to discuss a matter
before the court. It was a rough
week for Dhu's family, who were
already struggling with the "lonely" wait between her death and the
inquest's start. Such delays are not
unusual in Western Australia state.
Eight other families are currently
waiting for their own inquests,
some for more than three years.
RELATED: Shutting down Australia's Aboriginal areas Dhu's inquest was only brought forward
by a public campaign that made
her death the most high-profile
Aboriginal death in police custody since Ward, an Aboriginal elder, was "cooked to death" in the
back of a police vehicle in 2008.
Deaths in custody of indigenous
Australians has been an ongoing
issue since the 1980s and is broadly comparable to the Black Lives
Matter movement in the United
States. For many, the death and
final days of Dhu have touched
upon every issue currently facing
Western Australia's Aboriginal people. As of 2014, Aborigines made
up only three percent of the population, but represented 40 percent
of the state's prisoners. This explosion in numbers has been the
result of several controversial policies by the Western Australian
government, such as the state's
"three strikes" laws for home burglaries and the policy of allowing
those with unpaid fines to pay
them off at a rate of $250 a day by
serving time. Statistics collected by
the Western Australia Labor Party
show the number of Aboriginal
women arrested for defaulting on
a fine has increased 576 percent
since 2008. In addition, young Aboriginal people in the state are being introduced to the prison system in larger numbers, with those
aged 10 to 17 53 times more likely
to end up in police custody than
their non-Aboriginal peers. This is
twice the national average. Combined with Western Australia government's push to close remote
Aboriginal communities and other
policies that have slashed funding
for Aboriginal-specific health services, there are fears the rate of
imprisonment - and the number of
deaths - will grow further. If it does,
many more may find themselves
in the same position as Dhu's family who spent last week sitting
through an emotionally difficult
court process as medical staff from
the South Hedland Health Campus testified on her treatment. The
court ruled that 10 involved police
officers scheduled to testify last
week would instead appear in
March 2016. The news was too
much for Harris, who walked out
of court and told Al Jazeera the
delay was a "betrayal". "It's degrading," Harris said. "We feel
massively, hugely betrayed." "By
March the police are going to be
testifying that they 'don't recall'.
We've already heard it all this week
and it's been 14 months. Imagine
four more months? It's a massive
insult to the family after what
they've done to [Dhu]." Dhu's
grandmother, Carol Roe, broke
down during the testimony from
Dr Naderi and left the courtroom
in tears.For the woman who had
raised Dhu, the proceedings were
just too much. "I just want to go
home," Roe said.
Al Jazeera
Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso - The
posters, just a few hundred,
sprayed on the walls across downtown will not change much in
Burkina Faso's history of democracy. Nonetheless, graffiti artist
Deri Issaka, 31, decided to take
time off from his work to run a
mini graffiti campaign in the preelections week. Along with a
couple of friends, Issaka put up
large white posters with stencilled
messages that declared: "No more
dictatorships", and "Mr President,
keep your word." Nothing partisan - just pro-democracy lines.
Issaka explained: "For me, it's a
priority to contribute as much as
possible to this election. We have
fought hard for it," he told Al
Jazeera. "I'll worry about bills and
clients later on." Isaaka, or Deris,
his artist name, is used to taking it
to the streets. In October 2014, he
was part of the uprising that
brought an end to the 27-year rule
of Blaise Compaore. Today, he
will be voting in a historic election
that will determine the future of
Burkina Faso's fragile democracy.
A transitional authority, led by
Michel Kafando and LieutenantColonel Yacouba Isaac Zida, was
appointed to pave the way to the
much-desired free elections after
the uprising. But the road to democracy was nearly lost when,
last September, General Gilbert
Diendere and his Regime for Presidential Security (RSP), a powerful military elite loyal to
Compaore, staged a short-lived
coup. The power swung back to
the transitional authorities after
just one week, following another
mass uprising and the retaliation
of the national army. RELATED:
Why are coups common in Africa?
Divided across party lines Today,
Deris prefers not to say for whom
he will vote. "During the protests,
we all felt like one. But now, the
youth are wrongly becoming divided across party lines," he said.
"To avoid being put in a box, I'll
keep my decision [on whom to
vote for] a secret." However, Deris
had no problem disclosing that he
will "certainly … not vote for the
MPP", in reference to the Movement of People for Progress. The
MPP is the favourite political
party in this year's elections. But,
Deris and many observers deem
its political leader, Roch Marc
Kabore, to be the closest politician to the previous regime out of
the 14 candidates. With Kabore at
the very centre of the ousted regime, the Congress for Democracy
and Progress (CDP) since day one,
critics do not expect major political or economic changes from him.
Voting begins in Burkina Faso
Kabore was, for many years,
Compaore's heir apparent. He
served as prime minister and president of the National Assembly of
Burkina Faso, and for 11 years, he
headed the CDP, Compaore's political party. His critics point out
that he switched to the opposition only 10 months before the
2014 uprising. "Voters don't need
a brand new political virginity,"
MPP parliamentary candidate Eric
Bougamou told Al Jazeera. "Instead, they appreciate how Kabore
guarded our democracy by abandoning the ruling party [CDP]
when it crossed the line," with its
attempt to amend the constitutional term limits for the president,
Bougamou said. "Now, what matters to the population are the experience and the popularity of our
leadership." RELATED: Burkina
Faso elections: Why historic vote
matters The MPP proved to be
the most resourced and structured
party in the country by dwarfing
the electoral campaigns of its rivals. Kabore's finely designed posters, billboards and flyers are disseminated around every corner of
the country. For the closing rally
of the campaign, his party filled
up the 35,000-seat 4th August stadium. At the end of the event, Jean,
an MPP supporter, overjoyed by
the grandeur of the gathering,
pointed out to Al Jazeera that "rival parties could not come close
to" what Kabore had done in his
campaign. Yet, the elections are not
a one-man race. The other
favourite is Zephirin Diabre, with
his Union for Progress and Change
party (UPC). His opposition credentials appear stronger than
Kabore's - after founding his political party in 2010, he became the
main opposition leader to
Compaore just two years later.
Diabre is also part of the establishment inside and outside of the
country. A former finance as well
as economy minister, he also held
high-profile posts abroad - first
with the United Nations Development Programme in New York, and
then at a Paris-based nuclear energy company. According to local
polls, no party is likely to get over
50 percent of the vote and snatch
a victory on the first round. The
two candidates with the most
votes would then face each other
in an election run-off, where the
backing of the smaller candidates for example, Benewende Sankara
of the left-wing Union for the Renaissance-Sankarist Party (UNIRPS), would become crucial. Sankara
represents by far the clearest opposition to the past regime. His
reference point is Thomas Sankara
(no relation), the late leader of
Burkina Faso who was killed in
1987. The former Marxist president, Thomas Sankara had ruled
for only four years, but his antiimperialist position, integrity, and
successful
socioeconomic
programmes marked him as a national hero in Burkina Faso, and as
a respected figure in the whole of
Africa. The circumstances of his
death have yet to be clarified, but
many suspect the instigator was
his right-hand man, Compaore,
who came to power after Sankara's
death. RELATED: Burkina Faso:
Ghost of 'Africa's Che Guevara'
Benewende Sankara was the lawyer for Thomas Sankara's family
in the 1990s, as they tried to shed
light on the death of the former
leader in what the Compaore regime ruled out to be a case of natu-
ral death. In his blog, Bruno Jaffa,
Thomas Sankara's French biographer, reckons that Benewende
does not fully capitalise on his
merits to become a leading candidate because "he is handicapped
by smaller financial capabilities in
comparison with the other two".
Burkina Faso: Uprising or military
coup? After the fall of the regime,
the Sankara family was on the
front-lines, pushing for a state inquiry into the assassination. The
current transitional leader,
Kafando, eventually launched an
inquiry into the death last March,
though the findings of the investigation have yet to be released. The
foundations of the current political scene are at stake, with a large
section of the current elite also
being a part of the old regime which
allegedly hid the truth surrounding Sankara's death for 27 years.
But for the young citizens of
Burkina Faso, like Deris and his
friends, hope abounds that change
is on the way. Like many of his
fellow activists, Deris also finds
inspiration in Thomas Sankara. He
hopes that the time of truth will
come soon and there will be, as
one of his stencil messages declares, "No More Martyrs."
"Let's try to get these elections
right: free, fair and without postvote shambles," he says. "If we
get that, we can be happy with
what the transitional government
has achieved in just a year."
With over 17,000 local and
foreign observers monitoring the
polls, and some 5.5 million voters,
perhaps a few hundred election
posters will ring true. The electoral
commission expects to publish
preliminary results as early as
Monday. Al Jazeera
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TUESDAY DECEMBER 01, 2015
AFGHANISTANTIMES
THIS ought to have been an excruciatingly embarrassing time for
Najib Razak, Malaysia’s scandalengulfed prime minister, to meet
the leaders of the free and notquite-so free world. The development fund he helped set up, 1Malaysia Development Berhad, is
linked with multiple international
probes into suspicious transactions. Weighed down by $11bn in
debt, it is fighting to stay afloat.
Instead, Mr Najib, fresh from
the glow of finding $700m from an
unnamed Middle Eastern donor in
his personal bank account, appeared to relish the chance of hosting the US president and Chinese
premier, both of whom were in
Kuala Lumpur last week to attend
regional gatherings.
As well he might. Barack
Obama, who badly needs Mr Najib to support a broad agenda, from
counter-terrorism to free trade,
went decidedly easy on a leader
who stands accused of misappropriating state funds on a massive
scale. Among other things, Mr
Obama praised Malaysia as being
‘extraordinarily helpful’ in fighting Isis with a counter-narrative of
moderate Islam. He also acknowledged Malaysia’s importance as a
signatory of the Trans-Pacific Partnership, a trade pact that Washington hopes will bind it to the
world’s most dynamic region and
complement its much-discussed
(though not-so-much enacted) military pivot to the Pacific. Li Keqiang, the Chinese leader, went one
better. He showered Mr Najib with
gifts — as if $700m was not
BlackBerry
confirms
Pakistan exit,
rejects govt
demand to
monitor data
Clim a t e-r ela t ed h a za r d s ca u sed $1.5t r d a m a ge
ISLAMABAD: BlackBerry will
not operate in Pakistan after Nov
30, Chief Operating Officer Marty
Beard confirmed in a statement
posted to the smartphone makers'
website.
"Pakistan’s demand for open
access to monitor a significant
swath of our customers’ communications within its borders left us
no choice but to exit the country
entirely," Beard said.
The COO said the company
made the move because "remaining in Pakistan would have meant
forfeiting our commitment to protect our users’ privacy".
Beard said: "In July, the Pakistan Telecommunications Authority notified the country’s mobile
phone operators that BlackBerry’s
BES servers would no longer be
allowed to operate in the country
starting in December 'for security
reasons'."
PTA spokesman Khurram
Mehran told Dawn.com: "We are
still in contact with BlackBerry
Limited to find out a solution.
BlackBerry was earlier asked to
provide access to BlackBerry Enterprise Services(BES) till Nov 30,
2015."
PTA officials earlier told
Dawn.com that BlackBerry had
been sent a notice in July 2015 regarding security concerns related
to the company's BES offering and
that the company had been given a
deadline of Nov 30 for discontinuation of the service.
They said that BlackBerry has
been cooperating with security
agencies of other countries, but
despite requests from Pakistani
authorities, they were not cooperating in accordance with the National Action Plan formulated after the Dec 16 Taliban attacks on
Peshawar's Army Public School.
'Unfettered access to user data'
He goes on to say the Pakistani government wanted the ability to monitor all BlackBerry Enterprise Service (BES) traffic in the
country, including emails and
BlackBerry Messenger messages.
"Pakistan’s demand was not a
question of public safety; we are
more than happy to assist law enforcement agencies in investigations of criminal activity. Rather,
Pakistan was essentially demanding unfettered access to all of our
BES customers’ information," the
COO said.
Director BoloBhi and digital
rights activist Farieha Aziz said the
situation in Pakistan was getting
worse, not better, as companies to
whom privacy of data and protection of speech is important would
be wary of establishing a presence
in the country. Aziz said that
BlackBerry's stance would put
other companies on the civil society organisation's radar regarding
compliance with the Pakistani government. Chief Executive Officer
(CEO) Compunode Software and
Technology Advisor for Dawn
Aleem Bawany says, "BlackBerry
has seen its stock prices plummet
so it is surprising to see it move
out of the lucrative Pakistani market over something it has complied
with in the past. Five years ago,
BlackBerry faced a temporary ban
in Saudi Arabia until it complied
with monitoring demands." The
PTA in July had issued a notification saying, "Due to serious concerns expressed by security agencies, Mobilink, Ufone and Telenor
are requested to give their BES
customers 90 days notice for closing their connections by or before
Nov 30, 2015." Citing security reasons, the first notice about the discontinuation of BlackBerry services was issued earlier in 2015.
But PTA clarified in a statement
that other BlackBerry services such
as messenger and BlackBerry
Internet services (BIS) could continue.
Citing example that the 2010
floods in Pakistan affected 4.5 million workers, two-third of whom
were employed in agriculture, and
over 70 per cent of farmers lost
more than half of their expected
income, a new report of Food and
Agriculture Organisation says the
total worldwide economic damage
caused by climate change-related
disasters is estimated at $1.5 trillion.
Many Asian countries are particularly vulnerable to the impact
of floods and storms. The crop
production losses caused by the
enough. State-owned China General Nuclear Power Group coughed
up $2.3bn to buy energy assets
belonging to 1MDB, thereby relieving its debt misery. Mr Li talked
glowingly about the potential for
other big Chinese investments, including a planned high-speed rail
link from Kuala Lumpur to Singapore. The two traded purchases
in each other’s debt as lovers might
trade poems. This sort of soft commercial tussle, though less headline-grabbing than scraps over artificial islands in the South China
Sea, may turn out to be more significant. If Washington has the
TPP, Beijing has the Regional
Comprehensive Economic Partnership The usual view of China’s
rise is that it presents Asian countries with a tough choice. How, for
2010 floods in Pakistan directly
affected cotton ginning, rice processing and flour and sugar milling, while cotton and rice imports
surged. In this case, some 50pc of
the $10bn in total damages and
losses fell on the agriculture sector. Worldwide, between 2003 and
2013, according to the FAO study,
the average annual number of disasters caused by all types of natural hazards, including climate-related events almost doubled since
the 1980s, points out the study:
“The impact of disasters on agriculture and food security”.
example, should Australia balance
its commercial interests with China, by far its biggest trading partner, against its deep security interests with the US? The answer
is that it is not always easy. Australia, whose 24 years of recessionfree growth owes much to China’s
hitherto voracious demand for
commodities, has a sometimes
tetchy relationship with its economic benefactor. Sydney has been
wary about Chinese investments
in farmland, telecommunications
and minerals. Yet for less well-off
countries there may be an alternative: play one off against the other
for the best possible deal. A case
in point is Pakistan. An on-again,
off-again ally of Washington, Islamabad has consistently stuck
close to Beijing. It has been reward-
Droughts, floods, storms and other disasters triggered by climate
change have risen in frequency and
severity over the last three decades,
increasing the damage caused to the
agricultural sectors of many developing countries and putting them
at risk of growing food insecurity,
FAO warned. Focusing specifically on the impact of climate-related
disasters in developing countries,
some 25pc of the negative economic impacts were borne by the crop,
livestock, fisheries and forestry
sectors alone. In the case of
drought, over 80pc of the damage
ed with the promise of huge investments in its rickety power and
transport sectors. China has talked
grandiosely of building an 1,800
mile-long corridor linking Pakistan’s deep-sea port at Gwadar to
its own restless Xinjiang region. If
even a fraction of the $46bn Beijing
has flashed comes good, it could
be transformative. Indonesia, too,
has been canny. Recently, it played
off China against not the US but
Japan. After years of talking to Tokyo about a $5bn bullet train, at
the last minute Jakarta took the
Chinese shilling. Beijing offered a
financing deal too good to pass up.
Wrongfooted Japanese diplomats
promised to redouble efforts to
win the Kuala Lumpur-Singapore
rail link also in Beijing’s sights. This
sort of soft commercial tussle,
and losses affected the agriculture
sector, especially livestock and
crop production. The report clearly demonstrates that natural hazards - particularly extreme weather events - regularly impact heavily on agriculture and hamper the
eradication of hunger, poverty and
the achievement of sustainable development. The situation is likely
to worsen unless measures are taken to strengthen the resilience of
the agriculture sector and increase
investments to boost food security and productivity and also curb
the harmful effects of climate
J apan’s econom y: Uptick in output,
retail sales raise hopes of a rebound
Japan's industrial output rose for a second consecutive m onth. Pictured: A hum anoid robot w orks side by side w ith em ploy ees in the assem bly line at a factory of Glory Ltd., in Kazo, north of Toky o, Japan . Reuters/ Issei Kato
Japan’s economy showed initial
signs of a recovery as the production of electronic devices and cars
boosted industrial output in October, according to preliminary
trade ministry data released Monday. Industrial output rose for the
second consecutive month while
monthly retail sales in the island
nation also showed a modest
uptick.
The data showed October factory output rose 1.4 percent from
September, driven by a higher demand for Japanese cars and electronics, and underlining analysts’
expectations that the economy is
reportedly headed for a minor re-
bound in the October-December
quarter.
Japan’s economy slid into a
technical recession after its GDP
shrank for a second straight quarter in September -- the country’s
second in as many years. According to data released last week,
household spending and consumer
inflation also weakened, piling
pressure on the Bank of Japan
(BoJ) to ramp up its already massive stimulus. While the growth in
industrial production indicated that
Japan’s recession may be temporary, the trade ministry was cautious in its forecast for the rest of
the year. Manufacturers surveyed
by the ministry expect output to
rise 0.2 percent in November and
decrease 0.9 percent in December.
Retail sales proved to be another bright spot in October, separate data released Monday
showed. Retail sales were up 1.8
percent in the year to October as
sales of clothes, food and drink,
cars and home appliances drove
growth.
"Fine weather and a rise in Chinese tourists helped spur retail
sales, which have held firm since
summer despite some weakness in
items such as home appliances,"
Junichi Makino, chief economist
at SMBC Nikko Securities, told
Majority of Canadians see clim ate
change as econom ic threat: Survey
A majority also agrees that Canada’s reputation on the global stage has been
hurt by our previous record on climate change. Nanos surveyed 1,000 Canadians between Nov. 21 and Nov. 24, asking several questions about climate change
and how it’s affecting the economy.
The majority of Canadians see climate change as a significant threat
to Canada’s economic future, according to a new Nanos Research
survey conducted for CTV News
and The Globe and Mail.
A majority also agrees that
Canada’s reputation on the global
stage has been hurt by our previous record on climate change.
Nanos surveyed 1,000 Canadians between Nov. 21 and Nov.
24, asking several questions about
climate change and how it’s affecting the economy.
The majority of Canadians see
climate change as a significant
threat to Canada’s economic future, according to a new Nanos
Research survey conducted for
CTV News and The Globe and
Mail. The survey found that: 73
per cent of Canadians either agree
or somewhat agree that climate
change represents a significant
threat to our economic future. That
sentiment was strongest in British
Columbia, where 82 per cent of
respondents agreed with the statement. Just under 70 per cent agreed
or somewhat agreed that Canada’s
reputation on the global stage has
been hurt by our previous approach to climate change. Eighteen
per cent said they disagreed with
that statement, while the rest were
neutral.
72 per cent believe that the science of climate change is irrefutable, with half saying they agree
and 22 per cent saying they somewhat agree.
The majority of respondents,
or 66 per cent, said they support
Canada going forward with new
climate change targets, even if they
result in significant job losses in
the oil patch. About 30 per cent
are opposed to the idea.
Support for ramped up climate
change targets was lowest in the
Prairies, where only 45 per cent
agreed or somewhat agreed that
targets are needed regardless of job
losses in the oil industry.
When it comes to doing their
part, 63 per cent of Canadians said
they are willing to pay more for
certain product in order to help the
country meet its environmental
commitments. Just under 25 per
cent disagreed with the idea.
Survey methodology: Based
on a RDD dual-frame (land-and
cell-line) hybrid telephone and
online random survey of 1,000 Canadians between Nov. 21, and 24,
2015 as part of an omnibus survey. The margin of error for a survey of 1,000 Canadians is ±3.1
percentage points, 19 times out of
20.
Reuters.
Government data released Friday showed that while unemployment in the country fell to a twodecade low in October, tight labor
markets restricted wage growth -a key influencer of consumer
spending and inflation. The data
on wages cast doubts over the
BoJ’s inflation target of 2 percent
by early 2017. It has also raised
questions over the viability of the
“Abenomics” approach to recovery -- named after Prime Minister
Shinzo Abe ’s policies -- which
involves pumping large quantities
of cash into the economy to boost
spending.
though less headline-grabbing than
scraps over artificial islands in the
South China Sea, may turn out to
be more significant. If Washington
has the TPP, Beijing has the Regional Comprehensive Economic
Partnership. The US has the World
Bank and Asian Development
Bank. Now Beijing has the Asian
Infrastructure Investment Bank,
which could start funding projects
next year. Beijing’s trump card may
be its One Belt, One Road plan to
link China to Europe and the Middle East via railways, roads and
ports spanning central Asia and the
Pacific and Indian oceans. For the
multiple countries that lie along
those routes, from Myanmar and
Kazakhstan to Indonesia and Sri
Lanka, there is money and concrete
to be had. And money talks. Even
change. Floods cause more than
half of the total damage and loss to
crops which are also very vulnerable to storms and drought. Around
85pc of the damage caused to livestock is due to drought, while fisheries are overwhelmingly affected
by tsunamis and storms such as
hurricanes and cyclones. Most of
the negative economic impact to
forestry is caused by storms and
floods. The FAO study stresses
that aid should better reflect the
impact of disasters on the agriculture sector, while the report concludes that investments into disas-
the UK is not immune to the pull
of China’s red dollar. Money can
only buy you so much. Myanmar,
Sri Lanka and the Philippines have
each resisted the gravitational pull
of China. Myanmar’s political reform and overtures to Washington
were driven by the generals’ fear
of being beholden to Beijing. Sri
Lanka’s voters kicked out former
president Mahinda Rajapaksa because he was seen to have cosied
up too closely to China. And the
Philippines has put its security
concerns ahead of its economic
ones, risking Chinese wrath (and
banana boycotts) by taking Beijing
to international court over a sovereignty dispute. Yet the battle is
on for the hearts and minds of Asia.
It will be won as much by engineers as by military strategists.
ter response and recovery should
also build resilience to future shocks
through risk reduction and management measures particularly in
countries facing recurrent disasters. Worldwide, the livelihoods of
2.5 billion people depend on agriculture, yet only 4.2pc of total official development assistance was
spent on agriculture between 2003
and 2012 -- less than half the United Nations target of 10pc investment in disaster risk reduction is
extremely low: only around 0.4pc
of official development aid in 2010
and 2011.
What do 9 months of
manufacturing decline mean
to Singapore economy?
The current period of contraction
beats global financial crisis records.
Singapore’s Industrial Production (IP) declined 5.4% y/y in October. This is the 9th consecutive
contraction in Singapore’s manufacturing sector as weak external
demand had added on to the woes
of manufacturers in Singapore. Excluding biomedical manufacturing,
IP fell 6.4% y/y. Looking at the
time series of IP since 2003, the
current period of contraction is
longer than the six months of consecutive contraction back during
the global financial crisis (Oct 2008
to Mar 2009). However, the magnitude of decline this time round is
relatively smaller than during the
08/09 crisis period; The average IP
contraction during this period is
5%, whereas during the crisis, the
decline averaged 17% y/y. Similar
to previous months, October’s
manufacturing decline was broadbased, with the exception of the
chemicals cluster that rose 5.5%
y/y. At the opposite end of the
performance spectrum, electronics
output decline 14.0% y/y, as semiconductor output declined for the
9th consecutive month to register
-16.6% y/y. Singapore’s manufacturing sector is not out of the doldrums yet.
The sector continues to be
weighed down by very weak external demand amid the global deflationary environment. Economic
and political uncertainties plaguing the Eurozone, US and China
(our top exporting destinations)
remains and will continue to drag
on the confidence of manufacturers and exporters. In addition,
Singapore’s still-tight domestic
labour market remains a supplyside constraint for production.
Within the manufacturing clusters,
uncertainty plagues the transport
engineering, electronics, and precision engineering sectors. However, we remain optimistic that
there could be some pickup in
manufacturing growth in 2016.
First, we expect the economic conditions in the US to continue on an
improving path. Better jobs numbers, stronger wage gains due to
the tighter labour market, and a
stronger USD will see the rise of
consumption demand from the
average American. Second, the basis effects from the low base in
2015 will provide some support
for growth. We further downgrade
our 2015 industrial production
forecast growth to -4.0%, from 2.0% earlier, while forecast 2016
industrial production to grow 2.5%
on the back of the reasons above.
Disappointing October industrial
production reinforces our expectation that manufacturing will
likely stay weak in the fourth quarter.
IP contracted a deeper 5.4%
yoy in Oct, vs. -4.7% (revised
from previous -4.8%) in Sep. Excluding biomedical manufacturing
(-1.6%), output fell 6.4%, still
weak but better than the 10.1%
decline in the previous month.
IP weakness was led by electronics and precision engineering.
Electronics output declined 14%
from a year ago, vs. -8.6% in Sep.
This is despite gains for data storage and other electronic modules
& components segments.
U K e co n o m y to co n tin u e
to face s tro n g h e ad w in d s
Especially at a tim e when the euro is depreciatin g as the ECB looks to ease m on etary policy
fu r th er , a BoE r ate h ike on top wou ld exacer bate th e str on g cur r en cy issu e even fu r th er .
While investors in the U.S. do return from the Thanksgiving bank
holiday on Friday, we can expect
light trade again today with many
taking an extra day off and turning
it into a long weekend break. That
is often the case, particularly when
the bank holiday falls so close to
the weekend. The quieter schedule probably won’t help matters
either, particularly from a U.S.
standpoint, although there is some
data scheduled for release this
morning that will be of interest.
The first revision of U.K. third
quarter GDP is due early on in the
European session and is expected
to remain unchanged at 0.5%. The
U.K. economy is continuing to face
a number of headwinds at the moment which are likely to persist
into next year, most notably the
strong pound and anaemic growth
in the eurozone, it’s largest trading
partner. In the absence of either of
these pressures easing, we could
see growth remain at these decent,
albeit uninspiring, levels in the
coming quarters, which explains
why the Bank of England is in no
rush to raise interest rates. Especially at a time when the euro is
depreciating as the ECB looks to
ease monetary policy further, a
BoE rate hike on top would exacerbate the strong currency issue
even further. Pressure is building
on the Bank of Japan to boost its
bond buying program in the coming months despite clear resistance
within, as another batch of inflation and spending data points to a
prolonged period of weakness.
Despite unemployment falling to
3.1%, the latest core CPI data
which strips out volatile food pric-
es fell by 0.1% while possibly more
worryingly, household spending
fell by 2.4%. It’s the same old story wages not growing and therefore consumers not spending.
While low energy prices do distort the data to an extent, price
pressures are still very weak and
the situation is showing little sign
of changing as wages just aren’t
rising, despite corporate profits
being a record levels. With the
country falling back into recession
in the third quarter, the BoJ needs
to seriously consider further stimulus options as the current program isn’t working and any hope
of hitting its 2% inflation target is
quickly fading. Prime Minister
Shinzo Abe also needs to rethink
his strategy as Abenomics is currently failing and little appear to
be being done to resolve that.
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TUESDAY DECEMBER 01, 2015
AFGHANISTANTIMES
Fashion Pakistan Week Winter Fiesta 2015 took flight with high
hopes. The designer lineup looked
promising, fashion week brunch
and lunch invitations helped build
hype and social media buzzed with
exuberant sneak peeks and
Snapchat videos.
Karachi was already in full
swing with the onset of winter
party festivities, bolstered by the
promise of high fashion glamour
British singer Kelly Osbourne was
petrified her plane would come
down during a rocky flight from
Australia to Los Angeles.
The 31-year-old star and her
travel companion Melinda Varga
gripped each other's hands and
at the supposed ‘it’ event of the
season.
These hopes plummeted dismally with the first day of FPW
2015.
A designer line-up that seemed
stellar on paper veered often towards the disappointing, the mundane and occasionally, the downright ghastly. It seemed implausible that some of these collections
had been edited at all by the Fash-
panicked during the 15-hour long
flight to Los Angeles, after experiencing the "worst turbulence ever",
and she was convinced it would be
her "last day on earth", reports
femalefirst.co.uk. "Never been so
scared in our lives! @melindavar-
ion Pakistan Council before being
allowed out on the runway.
Much better than the fashion
was the celebrity quotient on the
catwalk: Ayesha Omar for Shehla
Chatoor, Imran Abbas and Syra
Shehroz for Sania Maskatiya, Sarwat Gillani for Gulabo and Maria
Wasti and Zhalay Sarhadi for Tena
Durrani.
The front row, unfortunately,
was not as star-studded. With the
gainoz & I just experienced the
worst turbulence EVER! We held
hands so tight our hands swelled
up and I think my wrist is
sprained," Osbourne posted on
Instagram. "I genuinely thought
this would be my last day on earth.
exception of the political celeb factor provided by the Bhutto-Zardari siblings, the front rows seated
a milieu of journalists, bloggers and
sponsors’ friends. Where were the
rock-stars and the movie stars and
starlets that make fashion week
fun?
It’s a good thing social media
has developed a predilection for
photographing themselves. FPW’s
Instagram feed is currently littered
with some very well-heeled journalists and bloggers on the red carpet. In the absence of celebrities,
just click at yourself! Moving back
to the catwalk, here’s the lowdown
on Day One Celebrating her twodecade long career, Shehla Chatoor
put her best foot forward with ‘All
the Raj’, a bridal line inspired by
pre-partition British rule and ranging from classic silhouettes to the
slinky and the cutting-edge. The
Actor Leonardo DiCaprio's eyes froze shut while working on the set of
his latest movie "The Revenant".
Leonardo Dicaprio
eyes froze on set
Actresses-designers Mary-Kate
and Ashley Olsen will not act in
"Fuller House", a sequel to the
popular sitcom "Full House" that
featured the twins.
Lori Loughlin, who played
Aunt Becky on the sitcoms, shared
that the filming on "Fuller House"
has wrapped and the Olsens
"didn't come in", as many suspected would be the case, reports
eonline.com.
When it was announced that
"Fuller House", which stars Candace Cameron Bure, Jodie Sweetin and Andrea Barber, was in the
works with a reunion of the original cast planned, all eyes went to
the Olsen twins.
The fashion designers said
they hadn't heard about the project
and after some back and forth with
John Stamos (who plays Uncle
Jesse on the shows and an executive producer on the new series), a
firm statement was made by pro-
ducers.
But then in July, Netflix's Ted
Sarandos seemed to hint the Olsen
twins could be swayed.
The cast includes Louglin, Stamos, Barber, Cameron Bure, Bob
Saget, Scott Weinger, Dave Coulier, and Blake and Dylan TuomyWilhoit. What about future episodes?
"No, I don't think they're going to make a cameo. They didn't
this season," said Loughlin.
Actress-entrepreneur Shilpa Shetty, who seems to have taken a
backseat from acting, says she has
explored various genres as an actress and now she wants to do a
comedy film.
"It's not that I don't get interesting scripts. For me I have been
part of this industry for very long,
so I have done a lot of roles in
women-centric films, love stories
and actioners," Shilpa told IANS.
"But if you ask me now, then I
would say I really want to do a
comedy film. Comedy would be
fun to perform at this point of
time," she added.
However, the actress also confessed that she does miss acting.
"I love acting and I miss it and
I won't deny that. But I did a music video, a single for Bhushan
Kumar which will release soon, so
that is what I do to gratify the inner actress in me. I would love to
get back but it has to be worthwhile," she added.
Shilpa was last seen in an item
number in "Dostana" which was
released in 2008.
right) With remarkable flair, Shehla put forward multiple tiered
leather skirts, off-shoulder blouses with exaggerated bell-shaped
sleeves, shimmering saris, elaborate tunics with wavering hemlines,
dhoti shalwars, slinky halter tops,
trailing capes, fur wraps for a wintry effect and lehngas, constructed from embellished net stitched
over a quilted cotton lining in order to create the requisite fall.
7 ways to meet
your Mr Right
Thank god we were together and
we have landed safely! All I want
is my mum right now," she added.
Osbourne has been busy filming scenes in Australia for the upcoming series of "Australia's Got
Talent".
Actor Leonardo DiCaprio's eyes
froze shut while working on the
set of his latest movie "The Revenant".
The 41-year-old actor was
working on the Alejandro G. Iñarritu directorial when the crew got
caught in horrific weather conditions which lasted for an hour in
temperatures that dropped to minus 40, reports femalefirst.co.uk.
He said: "We were doing an
emotional scene, and then this
windstorm came, and it was just
brutal. We were out there for an
hour, and I said, 'Alejandro, what
the hell are we doing?'"
designer had hitherto refrained
from showcasing her bridals in order to retain exclusivity and it is
good to see her step into the limelight with what is, quite evidently,
her forte. In Shehla Chatoor's collection, what stood out was this
off-shoulder choli with billowing
sleeves (extreme right) In Shehla
Chatoor's collection, what stood
out was this off-shoulder choli
with billowing sleeves (extreme
Despite the weather conditions, Iñarritu encouraged the cast
of the thriller to forget about the
cold climate.
He said: "It's a mental state.
Weather doesn't exist."
DiCaprio admitted he was extremely grateful for a hot air blower on set which he nicknamed "the
octopus".
Speaking at a question and answer session here, he added: "We
actually had a machine on set, I
nicknamed it the octopus because
it was like a giant hot air blower
with eight tentacles, and we'd all
rush up to it and thaw our hands."
Being single may have its perks,
but many women want to settle
down with a nice guy and start a
new chapter. For some, arranged
marriage works, but there are some
who are determined to find their
Mr Right themselves.
For those single ladies, here
are seven steps on the journey to
finding your soul mate:
1. Stop waiting
If you are still living with the
idea that the right man will come
to you without you having to put
in any effort, please stop. How
likely is it that a man will take interest in you if you are sitting in
your house? Go out and look for
your Mr Right! Don’t scrutinise
every guy you meet, be open to
meeting new people and getting to
know them.
4 things to discuss with your
partner before you get married
2. Have patience
On the quest for Mr Right,
you will often meet many Mr
Wrongs, but don’t get disappointed, the wrong man (or men) will
take you closer to figuring out your
Mr Right. So don’t expect your
first effort to bear fruit, keep trying without letting it get to you.
10 things men do that make
women fall deeper in love
3. Think about what you want
Apart from chiselled good
looks, what do you want in your
Mr Right? Are there any specific
qualities you looking for in your
man? What is it that you enjoy
and want him to enjoy with you?
Thinking about these things is important because they may determine where you would find such a
guy. If you want a guy with a sense
of humour, you might find him at
a stand-up comedy gig.
Why women leave men they
love
4. Be confident
Low self-confidence is something that will prove to be a hindrance in your path to the right
guy. Men find confident women
attractive. So love yourself the
way you are and exude confidence.
Mr Right will surely notice.
5. Emphasise your natural
beauty
Let’s face it, no woman is completely satisfied with the way she
looks – some want to be thinner,
whereas some want to be more
curvaceous. Just accept that no
one is perfect and focus on your
natural beauty. Men love it when
their women are happy with their
appearances. Accentuate your best
features, but don’t overdo it. The
right man will find you attractive
even when you’re without make
up.
7 small ways you cheat on
your partner without realising it
6. Don’t be too afraid to make
the first move
If you like someone but he
hasn’t approached you, it won’t
hurt to get to know him better and
let him know that you like him in
the process. Only if you let a guy
know will you find out if he likes
you too. Maybe he’s too shy to
approach you. Read the signs –
how he looks at you, if he is single
or not – and then make the first
move. If he follows up, great. If
not, you can start focusing on someone else instead of waiting around.
‘Hot’ political conversation
can hamper love life
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TUESDAY DECEMBER 01, 2015
AFGHANISTANTIMES
Tyson Fury says he would rather
give up one of his belts than fight
former heavyweight champion
David Haye. Fury claimed the
WBA, IBF and WBO titles with a
points victory over Wladimir Klitschko on Saturday in Dusseldorf
and talk soon turned to who the
new champion might defend
against. Haye's name was among
those mentioned, with the 35year-old having announced last
week that he would be returning
to the ring after more than two
years in apparent retirement. We
assess the contenders to next face
the new champ But Fury is unwilling to forgive Haye for pulling
out of two scheduled bouts, the
last in February 2013 when he
underwent serious shoulder surgery that appeared to have ended
his career. "Absolutely pointblank, I will say Haye will never
get a chance after what he did to
me," he said in The Guardian. Haye
(left) wllk fight Mark de Mori in
his comeback fight early next year
Haye (left) wllk fight Mark de
Mori in his comeback fight early
next year "I will never give him a
pay day. If he gets mandatory for
the WBA, he can have the WBA.
Let him go and fight Fred Flintstone or Joe Bloggs and make no
money. "Whatever title he gets
mandatory for, I will vacate. Let
him fight the next challenger. I'm
not giving him a pay day. "I don't
care if he says I can make £10m,
it's not about money for me. I'm
not here about the money, because,
let's face it, the next fight with
Wladimir Klitschko is going to be
for a lot of money. He is getting no
opportunities from us.he is a pretender, a fraud." Klitschko has already outlined his desire for a rematch, while WBC champion Deontay Wilder called out to Fury
soon after his win over Klitschko,
but the Briton also dismissed the
American's claims to be his next
challenger. "Why do we need to
mention Deontay Wilder?" he
asked. "Let's laugh at his name,
shall we? "Wladimir Klitschko
was the number one in the division. Probably the pound-forpound king, whatever that means.
This man has been on top of the
world and reigned for nine years.
Tyson Fury paid tribute to former
champion Wladimir Klitschko but
said God gave him victory on the
night Yyson Fury paid tribute to
former champion Wladimir Klitschko but said God gave him victory on the night "With Floyd
Mayweather gone, Wlad took his
place and I just took him out. So
why would I be bothered about a
novice like Wilder? "He's a basketball player who took up boxing
a couple of years ago. I'm a true
natural fighter. I've been doing it
all my life. You get horses and dogs
and it's bred into them to be what
they are, whether it's racehorses
or show dogs. And it's bred into
me to be a fighter. "So, if Deontay
Wilder wants a unification fight he
is going to have to wait, because
Wladimir Klitschko has a round
two... ding ding ding!"
2 0 15 FIFA Ba llo n d 'Or t h r e e -m a n s h o r t lis t a n n o u n ce d t o d a y
The final three-man shortlist for
the 2015 FIFA Ballon d'Or will be
revealed on Monday afternoon.
Twenty-three players were
nominated for the prestigious
award by world football's governing body and France Football magazine in October. Only one Briton, Real Madrid's Gareth Bale, and
five Premier League-based players
- Sergio Aguero, Kevin De Bruyne,
Yaya Toure, Alexis Sanchez and
Eden Hazard - were on that list.
However, they will now be reduced to just three names, with the
announcement made in a show
broadcast
on
FIFA.com,
www.francefootball.fr and FIFA's
YouTube channel at 1pm on Monday. Sky Sports News HQ's Kate
Abdo will make the announcement,
when the nominees for several other individual awards will be revealed, including Women's World
Player of the Year, World Coach
of the Year for Women's Football
and the Puskas Award for the best
goal of the year. Meanwhile, a threeman shortlist for the FIFA World
Coach of the Year for Men's Football will also be named on Monday. The winners of those prizes,
as well as the Ballon d'Or itself,
will be revealed in a ceremony in
Zurich on January 11 2016, and
here are Sky Bet's main contenders for this year's award: Barcelona playmaker Lionel Messi has
been crowned the Ballon d'Or winner on four previous occasions
Barcelona playmaker Lionel Messi has been crowned the Ballon
d'Or winner on four previous occasions Messi has already won the
award four times and if Sky Bet
are right then an unprecedented
fifth is coming his way. The Argentine led Barcelona to a La Liga,
Champions League and Copa del
Rey treble, scoring a remarkable
28 goals in the second half of the
league season. However, Messi
made less of an impression in the
latter stages of Barca's European
triumph, scoring just twice since
the turn of the year, while he netted just once as Argentina lost in
the Copa America final to Chile.
Cristiano Ronaldo (Real Madrid):
8/1 Ronaldo is looking to complete
a hat-trick of Ballon d'Or awards
after edging Messi in 2013 and
2014, but is up against the odds
after ending the 2014/15 season
empty handed. The Portuguese
star has, however, been the leading scorer in European Cup competitions in 2015, finding the net
in both legs of Madrid's Champions League semi-final defeat to
Juventus. Neymar has enjoyed a
fantastic year in front of goal for
Barcelona Neymar has enjoyed a
fantastic year in front of goal for
Barcelona Neymar has proved an
increasingly important player for
Barcelona and with Messi missing
for much of this season with injury, the 23-year-old is currently the
top scorer in La Liga. Robert Lewandowski (Bayern Munich): 20/
1 Bayern Munich striker Robert
Lewandowski has been in lethal
form for both club and country so
far this campaign Bayern Munich
striker Robert Lewandowski has
been in lethal form for both club
and country so far this campaign
The Poland international might be
wishing the award was run over
the regular season, rather than the
calendar year, with the striker having been in red-hot form in front of
goal for club and country since the
summer. However, while Bayern
swept aside all in their path do-
mestically last season, they were
outclassed by Barcelona in the
Champions League semi-finals,
while Lewandowski's goal tally was
well shy of Messi's and Ronaldo's
in the first half of the year. Luis
Suarez (Barcelona): 20/1 Barcelona's Luis Suarez is rated the 20/1
joint-fourth favourite by Sky Bet
to win the 2015 Ballon d'Or Barcelona's Luis Suarez is rated the 20/1
joint-fourth favourite by Sky Bet
to win the 2015 Ballon d'Or The
third Barcelona player on the list
has adapted impressively to life in
La Liga, putting his World Cup troubles aside to help form the most
deadly attack in world football.
And with 12 goals to his name
in La Liga so far this campaign second only to team-mate Neymar
- Suarez is currently enjoying another impressive goalscoring season
for the Catalans.
Cr ick et w it h In d ia :
Mia n d a d u r ges P CB
n o t t o r u sh a s BCCI
ca n ’t b e t r u st ed
ISLAMABAD: Former Pakistan
batsman Javed Miandad on Sunday advised the Pakistan Cricket
Board (PCB) not to rush into preparations for the series with India
in Sri Lanka this December as according to him "India could not be
trusted to keep its commitment".
The Board of Control for
Cricket in India (BCCI) officials
had been continuously changing
their stance on the matter and they
might again back out at any moment, he said while talking to APP.
PCB has been pursuing BCCI
to honour its commitment under
the memorandum of understanding (MoU) in return for their support for the 'Big Three' set-up in
the International Cricket Council
(ICC) and play a (Pakistan's)
home series, but the Indian counterparts have been avoiding on one
pretext or the other.
After consensus between the
two boards to play the series in
Sri Lanka, the PCB have got approval from Prime Minister Nawaz
Sharif and now the ball is in BCCI's court.
Miandad said first the Indian
board seemed ready to play the
series and when the PCB got the
government's approval the BCCI
officials started hyping that they
required their government's permission.
“What kind of attitude has
been adopted by India? It is always India that has created problems for cricketing ties between the
two countries,” said the former
great.
Miandad said the BCCI officials wanted to get things done their
way, but such stubborn attitude
was unacceptable.
“Despite their commitment,
the PCB officials tried their best
to settle the matter with mutual
understanding,” he said.
The 58-year-old said he was
not sure that India would play the
series as ‘they had always tried to
let down Pakistan’.
He said the PCB should not
be in hurry.
“Both the PCB and the Sri
Lanka Cricket (board) must first
get India's consent in black and
white and if they back out of the
agreement then they should be
penalised,” said Miandad.
Arrangements for the series,
Miandad said, should be made after India's written commitment.
Speaking about the third T20
match with England on Monday,
he said the coach and management
should not tinker with the team
combination for the final game of
the tour.
“I don't know why Waqar
Younis kept Ahmed Shahzad out
of the first T20. It's time to stop
experiments and start planning for
the T20 World Cup next year.”
Miandad said had skipper Shahid Afridi played sensibly in the
second T20 Pakistan would have
won it.
“A six or four cannot be hit on
every ball and a batsman should
know it, but why doesn't he understand this?” he questioned.
He urged the selectors to monitor the domestic games for talented players.
“By picking up players for
one or two matches and then discarding them shatters their confidence,” added Miandad.
Gre at Britain
w in D avis Cu p
Leon Smith's side take
u n as s ailable 3 -1 le ad fo r fam o u s victo ry
Arctic Fire cuts Ma r ch a n t
r elish in g co m p et it io n
down rivals
Arctic Fire gained a well-deserved
first Grade One win with an authoritative success in the Bar One
Racing Hatton's Grace Hurdle at
Fairyhouse.
Placed at the top level in the
past behind such smart performers as his stablemates Faugheeen
and Hurricane Fly, last season's
Champion Hurdle runner-up Arctic Fire followed up his Grade Two
Lismullen Hurdle victory in style.
However, trainer Willie Mullins had expressed concerns over
the weather for his runner beforehand and the betting market picked
up on those vibes as he drifted right
out to even-money before returning at 4/5, despite looking to have
plenty in hand on official ratings.
Ruby Walsh settled the favourite towards the rear as Willie
Mullins' other runner, the hitherto-unbeaten Clondaw Court, set
the pace.
Alpha Des Obeaux went on
before the second-last flight but
Arctic Fire travelled strongly on
the outside of the pack and cruised
ahead before the final obstacle to
score by an eased-down four
lengths.
It was a quick Grade One double for Walsh and Mullins following Long Dog's win in the Bar One
Racing Royal Bond Novice Hurdle. Fast, secure racing tickets: Ex-
clusive racing offers near you Uullins said: "The ratings tell the story and he was entitled to win. He
took a keen hold but has always
been that way. "He'll run over two
miles at Christmas, and I'd say he
will stay at home (Leopardstown).
I don't think he'd want to go any
further than that the way he pulls.
"Maybe with a stronger pace he'd
settle better. I think he'll improve
again from this as I was a little
worried when I saw him beforehand. He looked a bit big but he
seems to race with a bit of a tummy. There is a race for Clondaw
Court at Punchestown on New
Year's Eve. Fingers crossed he's
okay after this." Talking to At The
Races, Walsh added: "I suppose
people were looking at the ground
and the trip and he got very free
when he felt the wind in his face,
but he was the genuine Grade One
horse in the race against horses who
were maybe potential Grade One
horses. "Where does he go next?
He's going to take on either
Faugheen or Nichols Canyon now.
"It's hard to believe that at the start
of the season, he was only the winner of two, so it's good that he has
doubled his winning tally. He was
just running into good horses. He
wasn't running into Faugheen,
Hurricane Fly or Jezki today and
that made it easier for him."
Katy Marchant is hoping the competition among female British
sprinters will give Great Britain the
edge as they build up to the Rio
Olympics with round two of the
UCI Track Cycling World Cup in
New Zealand this weekend.
Marchant, 22, hopes to ride at
next summer's Games but is competing with Becky James and Jessica Varnish for a spot in the team.
"With Jess, Becky and myself all
riding in that same category it
means we are always pushing each
other and we are all fighting for
those spots," said Marchant. Bet
nowBet £5 get £20 free It's great
to ride alongside these girls and I've
no doubt it is helping me to get better. Rio is the ultimate dream for me
and I'm doing everything at this
moment in time to make sure I'm on
that plane." James has not ridden
for Great Britain at a major event
since the 2014 World Championships due to a knee injury, but will
make her return from December 4-6
in Cambridge. "It's great to have
Becky back on the team. I love having her around and she's great in
training and to be alongside," Marchant said. "We are competitive with
each other because we are effectively battling out for the same spot in
the team sprint, but I think that
helps us both to benefit from training and racing and I think we are both
getting stronger and stronger." Round
one of the World Cup in Colombia
saw Marchant and Varnish finish a
disappointing ninth in the team
sprint and with every competition
meaning Rio is a little bit closer,
Marchant is keen to ensure the pair
improve. "We are hoping to finish a
little higher than we did in Cali,"
Marchant continued. "Our preparations have been going really well, Jess
and myself are back riding the team
sprint and we are happy with
groundwork we have in place.
Andy Murray ended Great Britain's 79-year wait for a 10th Davis
Cup title by defeating Belgium's
David Goffin 6-3 7-5 6-3 in Ghent
on Sunday. Despite the fact that
Goffin was playing on clay - his
preferred surface - and in front of
a boisterous 13,000 capacity
crowd at the Flanders Expo centre, two-time major winner Murray put his opponent to the sword
to complete victory for Leon
Smith's side. Dunblane-born Murray has already restored British
tennis pride with his US Open triumph in 2012 - the first Grand Slam
title for a British player since Fred
Perry in 1936 - and his momentous Wimbledon victory the following year. He also became the
first British winner of Olympics
singles gold in 2012, but a Davis
Cup clincher on Sunday, handing
Britain an unassailable 3-1 lead in
the final, completed a remarkable
turnaround for a team that have
risen from the brink of relegation
to Europe/Africa Group III in
2010. World No 2 Murray has now
won all 11 rubbers he has played
in - eight singles and three doubles
- after Britain powered past
heavyweights United States,
France and Australia before seeing
off upstarts Belgium en route to
glory. Andy Murray says Great
Britain's Davis Cup win will take
a few days to sink in Andy Murray says Great Britain's Davis Cup
win will take a few days to sink in
"It's been an incredible few years,"
said an emotional Murray, who
became the first man to win three
live rubbers in a Davis Cup final
since American Pete Sampras in
1995. "I can't believe we did it, I
never thought we would. I play
my best tennis when I play for
my country. "The atmosphere was
phenomenal. I imagine we'll have a
party tonight." The 28-year-old
Scot, who had never lost a set to
Goffin and in their last meeting in
the Paris Masters three weeks ago
won in under an hour for the loss
of just one game, broke to love for
a 4-2 lead before serving out the
opening set on his next service
game. Murray was in world-beating form against Belgium in Ghent
Murray was in world-beating form
against Belgium in Ghent More
concerning news for Goffin was
that Murray had enjoyed a perfect 61-0 record for the season having won the first set. World No 16
Goffin, who made his name by
reaching the last 16 at the French
Open three years ago as a lucky
loser, somehow found a way to
cling on after a handful of lungbusting rallies in the third game of
the next set. At 5-5, some heavy
hitting on the forehand side handed Murray a break-point chance
which he gratefully accepted as a
weary Goffin could only find the
net. Murray celebrates with Great
Britain captain Leon Smith (right)
Murray celebrates with Great Britain captain Leon Smith (right) And
despite falling 0-30 behind, the 28year-old summoned his remarkable
powers of recovery to bring up a
set point after 75 minutes, and
sealed it with a blistering crosscourt forehand winner on the run
following a 25-shot rally. The Belgians, who were looking to bounce
back and win the competition for
the first time in its 115-year history, knew the writing was on the
wall for their man Goffin, who won
a five-set thriller against 20-yearold debutant Kyle Edmund on Friday. But Goffin saved two break
points in the first game of the third
set before breaking Murray for the
first time in the next. Murray, however, hit straight back thanks to a
show-reel of winners from the
back of the court, and a break to
love in the seventh game put Britain on the brink of glory.
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TUESDAY
.
DECEMBER 01
.
2015-Qaus 10, 1394 H.S
Vol:X Issue No:123 Price: Afs.15
By Farhad Naibkhel
KABUL: Ministry of Foreign
Affairs (MoFA) on Monday organized a day long regional seminar on development of the small
and medium-sized enterprises.
The seminar titled “Small and
Medium-sized
Enterprises
(SMEs) Development in the Heart
of Asia” was aimed to boost up
the SMEs development process
in the country.
The seminar was attended by
regional experts, representatives
of embassies of the Heart of Asia
countries in Kabul, Afghan ministers, researchers, universities professors and members of the civil
society organizations to discuss
challenges and outgoing ways in
order to speed up the SMEs development process.
Deputy Foreign Minister,
Hekmat Khalil Karzai, said that
organizing of the seminar is aimed
to support SMEs in the country
for further development. He said
the seminar would also pave the
ground to learn from experiences
of other countries and help each
other. “Conclusive plan is on the
table to lead the discussion from
military to political and economic
dialogue, and it will be followed
by such seminars to achieve Af-
AT Monitoring Desk
KABUL: As many as 1,400 cadets graduated from the Kabul
Military Training Academy the
other day. The Afghan National
Army (ANA) on Sunday gained
the additional troops after completion of a two-month training
program. Tolonews reported that
the troops would soon be de-
KABUL: A number of Wolesi Jirga members have criticised lawmaker Zahir Qadir for accusing the
National Security Advisor of supporting Islamic State (IS) or
Daesh, but Qadir said he would
resign if failed to prove his allegations.
On November 23, Zahir Qadir, the first deputy speaker of
the lower house, told a general
session that Daesh or the selfstyled Islamic State leaders were
living in Kabul under the patronage of the National Security Coun-
cil (NSC). He had also accused the
government of supporting the
militant outfit.
Qadir had also rejected claims
that Afghan forces had killed a
large number of Daesh fighters in
eastern Nangarhar province, saying the IS rebels had been killed
by local people. But his claims
were rejected by the NSC and the
Ministry of Interior while President Ghani appointed a delegation
to investigate his assertions. The
president through a decree has directed the NSC, the government
minister’s office in parliamentary
affairs, the Ministry of Information and Culture, the National
Directorate of Security (NDS)
and the ministries of interior and
defense to cooperate with the
team during its investigation.
A number of lawmakers during Monday’s Wolesi Jirga session
criticised Qadir’s allegations and
asked the government to thoroughly investigate his claims. Shinkai Karokhel, who represents
Kabul people in the Wolesi Jirga,
said, “Anytime if the government
collapses, it would be caused by
the parliament. We know all countries in the world are united in
their support for Afghanistan to
...P2
fight Daesh.
ghanistan’s previous economic
position once again in the region,”
he added. He said that this plan
would include training programs,
capacity building and relations of
Afghanistan’s SMEs in the region.
“As it is clear that Afghanistan
could impact the region and the
region could impact Afghanistan.
Thus, Afghanistan itself is willing
to create opportunities for economic development,” he main-
tained. Pointing to insecurity, the
deputy minister said that no doubt
security and economic are interlinked, so it is essential to keep
balance between the two. While
voicing pleasure over running of
the seminar on SMEs development, the head of International
Relations Committee of Afghanistan Chamber of Commerce and
Industries (ACCI) Azrakhsh
Hafizi slammed the government
for not providing the required support to the SMEs in the past.
He said, “SMEs create around
95 percent job opportunities.
Therefore, these enterprises need
government’s support.”
He came up with an example,
saying that Afghan handicrafts
particularly animal skin products
were very famous in the pre-war
era in the country and abroad, but
after wars this industry is com-
pletely destroyed.
Currently, Afghanistan is a
consumer country, importing everything from abroad. Around
1,024 factories are nearly to be
closed due to lack of facilities and
supportive programs in the country, he noted.
It is required of government
and relevant ministries to support
SMEs and provide them facilities
such as soft loans, he said.
ployed to the battlefields to fight
insurgents. According to the trainers at the military academy, the
newly graduated batch of the
troops would play important role
in improvement of security. The
graduates are ready to fight against
the militant groups and defend the
Afghan soil. “Our request to antigovernment groups is to join the
peace process or else we are ready
for any kind of defense against
their moves,” Tolonews quoted
Abdul Wasi, a fresh graduate of
the military academy. The local
news channel quoted another graduate, Mohammad Asif, as saying:
“We will not let the enemies [to]
destabilize our country until we
have spilt the last drop of our
blood.” Bahruddin, another officer, said that they were ready to
serve the people in any circumstances and defend the country.
“The country’s enemies-led by
Inter-Services Intelligence ISI [of
Pakistan] - is not staying calm and
push them [militants] to go to
battle in order to keep the Afghan
security forces busy but the ISI
of Pakistan is unaware about the
fact that we are always ready to
thwart their plots,” Mohammad
Amin Wahidi, a trainer in the academy, was quoted by Tolonews.
After the security transition in
December 2014, Afghan security
forces are independently fighting
the Taliban and other insurgent
groups. However, they still rely
on US air support in the battlefields because the Afghan Air
Force lacks modern gunship helicopters and fighter jets.
ceived U.S. and foreign interests.
Attacks may target official government convoys and compounds,
including Afghan and U.S. government facilities, foreign embassies
and military installations, as well
as restaurants, hotels, airports,
non-governmental organization
(NGO) offices, international organizations, religious institutions,
educational centers, foreign guest
houses, and other commercial entities.” The embassy said that security situation in Afghanistan
was “extremely unstable, and the
threat to all U.S. citizens in Afghanistan remains critical.” The
embassy asked the US citizens living in the war-hit country or visiting, to leave. “Kabul remains at
high risk for militant attacks, including vehicle-borne improvised
explosive devices (VBIED), direct
and indirect fire, and suicide
bombings. The same risks also
exist in other major cities in Afghanistan, to include, but not limited to, Herat, Mazar-e-Sharif,
Kunduz, Lashkar Gah, Maimana,
Ghazni, and Jalalabad.
KANDAHAR CITY: Dahla Dam
in southern Kandahar province, the
second largest in Afghanistan, has
been losing 200 million cubic metres (MCM) of water each year
due to siltation, an official said on
Monday.
Arghandab River Authority
head Sher Mohammad Attai told
Pajhwok Afghan News during an
interview that the dam was 40 kilometres north of Kandahar City,
the provincial capital.
The dam was first built 64
years ago during the reign of Zahir
Shah, the last king of Afghanistan,
with financial support from the
United States.
...P2
Head of a private TV
channel killed in Kabul
AT Monitoring Desk
KABUL: Unknown gunmen have
killed the chief executive of a private television channel in the capital city, Kabul. Amanullah Ataee,
head of the Asia Television Channel, was killed in front of his house
in Kart-e-Naw area in the eight
police jurisdiction of Kabul city.
Chief of Crimes Investigation
Department, Faridoon Obaidi,
said that two suspects have been
apprehended in a link to the murder case. He added the suspects
are relatives of the deceased.
Obaidi said that the reason
behind the incident is yet to be
investigated. An investigation has
been launched in a bid to bring the
culprits to the book, he added.
There has been increase in
murderous attacks on media-persons in Kabul for the past one
week.
Ahmad Saeedi, a political analyst, came under an attack in
Shahr-e-Naw area of the capital
last week. However, he survived
and still receiving treatment in
Kabul.
AT News Report
KABUL: The United States embassy in Kabul has issued a travel
advisory on Monday warning the
US citizens of imminent attack
within the next two days in Afghanistan’s capital city. However, the embassy has not provided
further details on the timing or
targets of the possible terror attack in Kabul city. “U.S. Embassy Kabul has received credible reports of an imminent attack in
Kabul City, Kabul Province, Afghanistan within the next 48
hours. During this period of
heightened threat, the U.S. Embassy strongly urges U.S. citizens
to exercise extreme caution if moving around the city. There were
no further details regarding the
targets, timing, or method of the
planned attack,” the US embassy
said. The embassy said that the
US government “remains highly
concerned about possible attacks
on U.S. citizens (whether visiting
or residing in Afghanistan), U.S.
facilities, businesses, and per-
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