AIIB to invest in Afghanistan

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MONDAY JUNE 27 2016 -Saratan 07, 1395 HS
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11 members of
Haqqani
Network
arrested
AT News Report
KABUL: Eleven fighters of the
Haqqani terrorist network were
arrested in Khost province, the
intelligence agency said.
The National Directorate of
Security said Sunday that its operatives busted Haqqani Network
militants before to carry out attack during the holy month of Ramadan.
Eleven AK-47 rifles, 26 other
types of weapons, 18 rounds of
82mm rockets, five pistols and
6000 different ammunition were
also confiscated from the insurgents, the statement added.
Haqqani militants were involved in a number of terrorist attacks against civilians and security forces in the province.
Moreover, three key members
of the terrorist group of Haqqani
Network were arrested by security forces in southeastern Paktika
province.
According to the sources, the
hideout belonged to Sardar, a designated district chief of the Taliban for Geyan district, but during
the operation Sardar was not at the
compound.
Weapon depot belonged to the
insurgents was recovered in the
operation.
Thirteen suicide vests, a number of bombs, light and heavy
weapons and ammunition were
recovered from the depot. In addition to that nine Pakistani identification cards were also found in the
depot.
Haqqani network is responsible for several deadly attacks in
the country.
By Farhad Naibkhel
KABUL: At least 131 Daesh fighters were killed in fighting with the
security forces in eastern Nangarhar province, officials said Sunday.
“They were killed in Kot district,” provincial governor Salim
Kunduzi said, adding that 39 of
the terrorists were killed in ground
battle while the airstrikes killed 95
more. Twelve people including civilians and security forces were
also killed and 18 others wounded
during, he added.
Kunduzi insisted that “there
is no doubt that Daesh fighter never
respect to law of wars and will do
whatever is possible. Daesh fighters will kill children, women, torch
schools and Mosque.”
Provincial police chief Zerawar
Zahid said that 200 local police
were on duty in Kot district and
200 additional ones would be deployed soon.
General Dad Mohammad, intelligence chief in the province,
called the clash more a propaganda war, not as big as broadcast.
He said that a key commander
of Daesh named Kamran was also
killed in the clashes.
Head of the public uprising in
the district Hajji Hayat Khan said
that a number of families had left
their houses to escape the war.
He ensured that Kot residents
will defend bravely from their villages against Daesh in the district.
Meanwhile Federation of Afghanistan’s Civil Society (FACS)
strongly condemned cruelty attack
and torching of houses in Nangarhar province. They asked the government to take serious step
against Daesh in the district and
all over the country. FACS members blamed thatDaesh re- advent
in Nangarhar provinces is a clear
weakness of central and locality
officials.
FACS by releasing a resolution
said that according to report Daesh
fighters, which included Panjabi
insurgents attacked civilian houses and killed children by Knife on
Friday night.
FACS also said that Daesh
fighters torched houses and took
hostage 50 people including aged
and children.
An Indian war veteran and strategic analyst has said India should
supply heavy military equipment
to the Afghan armed forces, including tanks and field artillery.
In an Op-Ed published in New
Indian Express newspaper, Maj.
Gen. (Retd) G D Bakhshi, said ”
Rapidly do capacity building of the
Afghan army, so that it has a military edge over the Taliban and can
defend its territory against Pakistan’s incursions.”
The Retired Indian General
further added that India should
“Complete the Chabahar-ZaranjDelaram road and beltway via Iran.
Till then, supply tanks, artillery
guns, attack helicopters and trainer jets via Russia.”
“Once the Chabahar beltway
opens up, it can supply large
numbers of T-54/T-55 tanks and
105 mm field guns lying in our depot stocks and salvage yards,”
Gen. Bakhshi added.
The Op-Ed by Gen. Bakhshi
was published days after a bloody
clash erupted among the Afghan
and Pakistani forces in Torkham
over the construction of border gate
by the Pakistani forces.
Harshly criticizing the Pakistani step to seal the Durand Line
which has not been accepted as
formal border line by Afghanistan,
Gen. Bakhshi raised the issue of
the Afghan militant groups sanctuaries in Pakistan, including the
Taliban group leadership.
Pakistan insists that the step
to construct gates along the crossings and fencing the Durand Line
is an attempt by the country’s security forces to prevent the movement of the terrorists.
However, the Afghan officials
insist on a regional fight against the
terrorist groups, including the
steps to be taken against the leadership councils of the Taliban and
Haqqani network based in Quetta
and Peshawar cities of Pakistan.
KP
AIIB to invest in
Afghanistan
AT News Report
Police official to be tried
for facilitating Taliban
After 2 years, US jets pound
Taliban in eastern Afghanistan
KABUL: For the first time after
the approval of a broader role for
US forces in Afghanistan, US
troops have conducted airstrikes
against the Taliban in the east
Pentagon Spokesman Peter
Cock said the air raids had been
conducted on target in eastern Afghanistan after a two-year break.
He would not give the exact location of the strikes and the number
of the Taliban killed.
On June 11, President Barack
Obama gave the go-ahead to a
broader role for American troops
to help Afghan forces effectively
conduct anti-terrorism operations
in the country.
AT News Report
KABUL: Police official Khalil
Andarabi is to be tried for helping
a Taliban fighter, an official said
Sunday.
Adarabi serving as Wardak
police chief is accused in supporting Qari Zahir, Taliban’s intelligence head for northern Baghlan
Senior Taliban
commander
killed in Kunduz
AT News Report
KABUL: A key commander of the
Taliban insurgents was killed along
with his six associates in an airstrike carried out in Sarak Payin
village of the Chahar Dara district
of northern Kunduz province, the
Ministry of Interior said Sunday.
The ministry in a statement
identified the commander as Jannat, whose group was involved in
several terrorist and destructive
activities in the district.
“The security situation of the
district would improve after eliminating Taliban insurgents,” the
statement said.
However, Taliban insurgents
have not commented into the matter.
This comes after a key commander of the militants Gul Khan
was killed in a drone strike in the
Imam Saheb district.
Earlier, another key figure of
the Taliban was killed along with
seven comrades in an airstrike in
the same province. The commander identified as Qari Ali and was
killed along with his seven fighters
in an airstrike carried in Taraki area
of Dasht-e-Archi district of the
same province.
In that time the Ministry of
Defense said that the group was
involved in different terrorist and
subversive activities in the district,
so after they killed security situation will be improved in the district.
province. Zahir was arrested while
being transported in the police vehicle belonged to Andarabi some
two weeks ago in Wardak province.
“Assessment over Andarabi’s
case has been completed and is to
be handed over to the judiciary
organs,” presidential spokesman
Haroon Chakahnsoori said.
Afterwards Adarabi was detained in connection with the cases. Qari Zahir is known as most
criminal of Taliban in Baghlan province.
He was accused of organizing
of conflicts against the security
forces and killing civilians.
The transfer of the Taliban
leader in the Andarabi’s vehicle has
sparked a strong reaction from different circles, demanding immediate investigations into the incident.
The parliament came hard on the
government, with lawmakers seeking credible investigations.
Interior Minister Taj Mohammad Jahid said in the parliament
session that a commission had
been tasked to investigate the issue seriously.
“The commission will submit
a comprehensive report to president before they took a final decision,” Jahid said.
KABUL: The Asian Investment
Infrastructure Bank is interested
in investing in Afghanistan, head
of the bank has told Afghan officials. In a meeting with finance minister Eklil Hakimi, JinLiqun, head
of the bank also talked on the Afghanistan, China, Kazakhstan,
Tajikistan and Iran railway project.
Hakimi demanded the bank to
invest in big projects including railways in Afghanistan.
“There are several projects in
Afghanistan where the Asian Investment Infrastructure Bank’s
TEHRAN: A new decree issued by
Iran’s Interior Ministry will enable
Afghan expatriates in the country
to get schooling for their children
free of charge.
Afghan families residing in Iran
will no more have to pay any fee
to sign up their children in Iranian
schools, the Interior Ministry of-
Kunduz govt owes DABS
millions in power arrears
KUNDUZ ITY : Some government
institutions and powerful individuals in northern Kunduz province
owe 170 million afghanis to De
Afghanistan Breshna Shirkat
(DABS) in unpaid electricity bills,
an official said on Saturday.
Eng. Hameedullah, head of
DABS for Kunduz, saidthe individuals who did not pay electricity duesfor the past few years were
powerful and the defaulting institutions were government entities.
“Theseinfluential people have
to pay the power utility 68 million afghanis. Police and the Na-
tional Directorate of Security
(NDS) have repeatedly been asked
for help, but no one is ready to
assist us,” he complained.
Hameedullah said government
institutions such as the police headquarters and military units, owed
more than 100 million afghanis in
dues. A letter had been sent to the
National Security Council (NSC)
to help the DABS recover the arrears.” But Brig. Gen. Qasim Jangalbagh, meanwhile, claimed the
police headquarters paid its electricity dues a year after he took
charge of the office. (Pajhwok)
26 militants
killed in
Faryab clashes
funding support would be significant,” Hakimi said.
Hakimi invited Jin to visit Afghanistan in the near future in and
attend in Brussels Conference.
Jin expressed his support for
Afghanistan’s application to join
the China-based bank as a full
member, and assured that Afghanistan’s membership will be discussed in September this year.
He also assured that the bank
would review and consider all
projects proposed by Afghanistan
for funding support.
Iranian schools enroll Afghan
students free of charge
ficials announced.
Leader of the Islamic Revolution Ayatollah Seyed Ali Khamenei issued an order last year stressing that all Afghan children, even
children of the undocumented migrants living in the country illegally, have the right to register and
study in Iran's schools.
Back in May 2015, Afghan
Minister of Refugees and Repatriation Seyed Hussain Alemi Balkhi
lauded Iran for providing Afghan
children with the opportunity to
receive education on Imam Khamenei's orders.
In January 2016, Afghanistan’s
Chief Executive Officer Abdullah
Abdullah hailed the decision to give
the Afghan children the opportunity to go to school in Iran as a
“historic measure.”
“We are grateful”, he said, adding that Ayatollah Khamenei’s order has given some 50,000 Afghan
students the opportunity to get
education in Iran.
(Tasnim)
In 2014, the US combat mission in Afghanistan came to an end,
but theAmerican military personnel reserve the right to hit terrorist
positions where they were fired
from.
According to Cock, the US air
raids would be beneficial for the
Afghan security forces. Currently, 9,800 US troops are stationed
in Afghanistan but the number will
fall to 5,500 at the end of this year.
(Pajhwok)
AT Monitoring Desk
Appellate court
judge killed, NDS
officer hanged by
Taliban
24 uplift projects
completed in
Parwan
FARAH CITY: The Taliban have
killed the provincial appellate court
judge who they kidnapped a week
back in western Farah province,
an official said.
Farah’s deputy police chief,
Col. Mohammad Ghaus Malyar,
said the insurgents had held captive Judge Shamsur Rahman since
last Wednesday when he was got
off a passenger bus on its way to
Farah from western Herat province in the Kansak village of Balablok district. He said Shamur Rahman was killed on Friday night in
the Diwal Surkh village of Khak
Safaid district. Malyar told reporters the corpse of the judge was
found in Surkh Diwal and would
soon be handed over to his family
with the help of the International
Committee of the Red Cross
(ICRC). Shamsur Rahman was a
resident of Farah City, the provincial capital. Meanwhile, the Taliban hanged the National Directorate of Security (NDS) former chief
for Posht Koh district and his
bodyguard in the same village on
Friday. (Pajhwok)
KABUL: Twenty-four development projects were completed and
put in utilization in different districts of Parwan province, the National Solidarity Program said Sunday.
The program in a statement to
the media on Sunday said that
these projects include: construction of irrigational canals, social
centers, (1,253 meters) protection
walls, (5,319) strengthen walls,
bridge, (3,621) gravelling a rural and
excavation of 12 deep wells.
These projects were implemented in the districts of Sayed
Khil, Bagram. Jabul Saraj, Koh-eSafi, Salang and outskirts of
Charikar capital of Parwan province. 5,708 families would benefited form these uplift projects in
the province. The total cost of
these projects estimated 23 million Afghan and covered 832 villages. According to the statement,
NSP is still working over 324
projects in this province.
AT News Report
KABUL: At least 26 Taliban insurgents were killed in clashes with
the security forces in northern
Faryab province, local officials
said Sunday.
Provincial police chief Sayed
Aqa Andarabi said that clash
brooked after dozens of militants
attacked security forces outpost
in the Gurzaiwan district.
“A public uprising commander, who was supporting security
forces was also killed,” he said,
asserting that tens of Taliban insurgents and five public uprising
members were wounded in the attack.
This comes when the security
forces with support of the local
militiamen had killed at least 14
Taliban insurgents in the same district.
“They were killed after around
hundreds of Taliban insurgents in
the past two days conducted a
complex attacks on Afghan security and public uprising force (progovernment militia) in the district,”
provincial police chief Sayed Aqa
Andrai said.
He added that with the deploying of fresh local police and
resistance of public uprising force,
14 Taliban insurgents were killed.
“The Taliban militants were driven out from the district. The insurgents suffered heavy causalities.
Key Taliban leaders including, Faizullah, Qari Yousifullah and Qair
Atiqullah were amng the killed
Taliban,” he said, adding that five
others revived bullet injuries.
However, he said that three
public uprising members were also
killed and two others wounded in
the attack.
.
MONDAY JUNE 27, 2016
AFGHANISTAN TIMES
Afghanistan’s Destiny and the
Eastern Pashtoons (1880-1980)
By Dr. Waris Mohammad Wazir
Chapter Four
The Growth of Socio-Political Struggle in the Afghan East before the Uprising
In the 2nd half of 1960s, even in
the governmental publications in
Afghanistan, there appeared remarkable critical writings about the
need of changes in admin affairs at
village level, the changes in qariadari (village head or chieftainship)
and the enhancement of the role of
progressive element in socio-economic development in rural areas
and provision of legal opportunity. This was meant to enhance the
role of new entrepreneurial segments at the expense of weakening the regional leaders.37. In the
private press, the criticism on the
power drawbacks, especially in
the TR, was ever sharper. One of
the leaders of the Wish Zalmyan
movement, Gul Pacha Ulfat, wrote
two articles in the journal of “Afghan” about the role of maliks.
There was a complaint that
while mediating disputes and pleas,
maliks themselves provoke enmity among different groups of inhabitants. Likewise, they interfere
in the private lives of the people,
influence the election to parliament
in favour of rich and famous, loot
the people and oppress. The writers of the articles asserted that
without divesting the power of
malik-hood, every reform in favour
of the people was bound to fail.38.
In the beginning, the government was beating the old path of
convincing the maliks on the need
of cooperating with the village
uplift. For instance, the meeting
of 75 maliks held in Khost in February 1966 drew the attention. In
the meeting, the Paktia Governor
Mohammad Azeem made a speech
whereby he said that village chiefs
enjoyed confidence among the people and they could play important
role in encouraging the cooperative
movement, promoting the modern
methods of agricultural production,
protecting and promoting the education and health systems and activating those projects which were
being planned by the Village Up-
lift Department.39
In a similar meeting of maliks
such a resolution was adopted that
indicates the peculiarity of village
elders’ segment. In the approved
resolution, they pledged to work
for the purpose of unity among all
Afghan people, to help implement
precisely all the requirements of
the byelaws with respect to the
duties of village qariadars, to struggle against the factionalism among
the people, to cooperate with the
development of education and cooperatives, to make efforts for the
prosperity and blossoming of
the villages, to help eradicate
bribery and unhelpful customs
among the people, to abandon the
practice of getting money from
the people under different pretexts
and that they would inform the
competent authorities if someone
else committed such a crime. They
pledged to form 5-10 people’s advisory shuras in the villages, which
would implement the decisions
and would shoulder the responsibility of ensuring the cooperation
of the people with the government.40. In this way, the special
jirgas of tribal representatives, including the jirgas for protection of
jungles, were also being held.41
Afterwards, the law about village and sub-district jirgas was also
drafted. The democratic character
of such jirga as a new initiative was
also envisaged in the 1964 constitution. It is to be mentioned that
the said jirgas were stipulated to
be as local elected bodies of power, but in view of the mentioned
advice they actually had to turn
into bodies of implementing village uplift programme.42 The
said draft of legislation and similarly the legislation about the duties of qariadars were subsequently approved by the Parliament.43
The sharp political struggle
and the confrontational politics of
left and right, as well as the resistance to the very moderate initia-
tives on the part of the right forces
about the draft of law prepared by
the government aimed at doing
away with the qaraidari system by
weakening the malik-hood, was
rejected by the parliament.44 This
fact is also worth mentioning that
after 1969 autumn elections, the
number of liberal and democratic
lawmakers was reduced from 50
to 23 and their place was filled by
tribal elders and religious figures
of the tribes, especially of Durrani
tribal chieftains and clergy.45 Prior to April uprising, the MPs composition of 13th session of Parliament (dissolved after 1973 coup),
including Wulusi Jirga (Lower
House) and Masharano Jirga (Senate) shows that the number of rich
and clergy representatives as well
as of governmental employees was
more from the provinces of TR.46
To show that what problems of
their provinces were concerned in
the speeches of MPs from TR
during the the last parliament from
17 to 20 December, 1969 (with
regard to vote of confidence to the
Cabinet of Noor Ahmad Etimadi);
and in 6-27 July, 1971 (with regard to vote of confidence to Cabinet of Dr. Abdul Zahir) before
uprising, are found in the parliamentary debates and analysed
hereby in the bok..47
In 1969, plenty of lawmakers
of the TR were stressing upon the
government in their speeches to
parliament to pay attention to the
socio-economic problems of eastern frontier regions, to construct
roads, schools, hospitals, electric
power stations, initiate plans of
lessening the burden of unemployment, prepare irrigation schemes
and distribute the reclaimed land
among peasants on cheaper rates,
encourage investment. For this
purpose, they suggested to reduce
the percentage of interest on bank
loans and credits, solve the problem of pastures for koochis and
wipe out smuggling and so on.
Nearly all legislators criticised the
government for inadequate measures for the promotion of Pashto
language and were emphasising the
need to increase support to down
(Lar) Pashtoons with regard to the
issue of Pashtunistan.
For example, the MP of Tani
district of Paktia province, Sher
Khan, declared, “The Pashtoons
in Pakistan are not availing their
due rights and the people of our
province help them in many regards under the conditions that we
ourselves live a hard life.”
In the speeches of Paktia legislators, there was often criticism
over the lack of results from the
Paktia project (Khost was part of
the province at the time-). The
lawmaker of said Karam, Shehbaz
Ahmad Ahmadzai, said, “The Paktia province project is not of much
use for the people. Plenty of
German Marks and Afghanis are
spent on purchasing the vehicles,
constructing buildings, hosting
various types of parties and buying fuel, which do not benefit the
people at all.” The pleas were
made to lift the emergency promulgated in the province with regard to the conflict between Zazis
and Mangals. MP Mohammad
Iqbal put forward a proposal to
construct an international route
through Paktia and to take steps
for the improvement of health service system to the people. MP
Mira Jan told that the whole province of Paktia and, especially the
Zazi Maidan district faced with
hard problems. Illiteracy, ignorance, lack of hospitals and medicine and rampant diseases confront
the district.
The people even do not know
what the word doctor was for.
Most of the lawmakers of Kunar,
Nuristan, Nangarhar and Kandahar paid their attention to land deprivation and food hunger among
their people. For instance, the
Shorawak legislator declared, “...in
the century of Moon conquest the
people of Shorawak have not seen
a car yet.” He proposed to set aside
4-5 million Afghanis to construct
the dam so that, in his view, to
reduce the rush of people to Pakistan and other countries.
It is worth mentioning that in
many speeches the demand of eradicating the scourge of smuggling
was made, but koochi representatives like Mohammad Anwar from
Kalat and Abdul Razzaq Sulaiman
Kheil from Katawaz, defended it
for being in the interest of the people as the stimulator of economic
life in the country. (koochis are
mostly involved in smuggling).
They also strongly criticised the
government of Pakistan for creating hurdles in the way of migration of Afghans. In the speeches
of clergy representatives the stress
was on the need of training and
educating youth in the spirit of
Islamic values and tribal traditions,
decisive fighting against bribery,
theft and anti-national ideas. Only
in the speech of Shinwari representative, Mohammad Azam, the
call was made to shorten the military service in the armed forces.
Two years later in 1971 summer parliamentary session, the
same problems were again touched
upon by the lawmakers of TR. But
at this time, the augmentation of
the role of Islam against the ‘dangerous customs and ideas’, adoption of development way under the
principle of- Afghanistan for Afghans - was more pronounced in
their speeches.
The issue of the destiny of
koochis was more seriously taken
upon. For instance, the MP from
Kalat koochis said, “the bar on the
movement of koochis on Afghanistan-Pakistan border, which destroys the centuries-old natural lifestyle, creates plenty of difficulties to Sulaiman Kheil, Kharoti and
other koochi tribes.”
To be continued
Used Japanese
backpacks bring
smiles, hope to
Afghan children
The ubiquitous “randoseru” backpacks carried by elementary
school pupils in Japan have become a symbol of hope and peace
in a faraway country where most
of the children have only known
war.
So far, more than 160,000 used
randoseru have been shipped from
Japan to Afghanistan under a
project spearheaded by a Japanese
man who was appalled by the illiteracy created under the brutal
regime of the Taliban and was determined to take measures that
could save future generations.
Hideyuki Takahashi from Japanese Organization for International Cooperation in Family Planning
(JOICFP) overcame difficulties and
pessimism to send the durable retired school backpacks to help
teach parents in Afghanistan that
education is important for all age
groups, even adults.
But he also learned that in the
strife-torn country in central Asia,
the sturdy backpacks from Japan
have taken on a wider meaning.
In 2002, as the Taliban regime
had been ousted year before, Takahashi and JOICFP, which has
been working to support families
in Asia and Africa, entered Afghanistan to see if there was anything
they could do to help.
Under Taliban rule, girls were
denied education, and Afghanistan’s literacy rate among women
fell to among the lowest in the
world.
Takahashi saw how Afghan
women who could not read were
unable to gain accurate information
about health and hygiene. That led
to high death rates among mothers
during pregnancy and after childbirth.
After Takahashi returned to
Japan, he began exploring ways to
support child education and promote mothers’ ability to read and
write in Afghanistan.
In 2003, Takahashi was contacted by Kuraray Co., a manufacturer of artificial leather for
school randoseru. The company
was trying to find a way to reuse
the thousands of backpacks that
become disused every year after
students graduate from elementary school.
Kuraray initially intended to
donate the backpacks to African
nations, but Takahashi suggested
Afghanistan instead.
“The backpacks are symbols
of children going to school,” Takahashi said he thought at the time.
“It may help (Afghan) children
realize it is their natural right to go
to school with a satchel on their
back.”
Some opposed his idea.
Kuraray and even Takahashi’s
JOICFP colleagues were unconvinced they could deliver the randoseru to such a troubled area.
Takahashi received cooperation from a medical organization
in Afghanistan after explaining how
the backpacks could improve
health standards among the population in the long term.
“It may be a mere backpack,
but education will provide hope
that would lead to the future of
Afghanistan,” Takahashi preached
to the organization.
The first shipment of 2,200
school backpacks was sent to Afghanistan in 2004.
Under the arrangement, the
medical organization received the
cargo of Japanese backpacks from
a ship in Pakistan and delivered
them to elementary schools in eastern Afghanistan.
The organization also showed
a randoseru to Afghanistan’s education ministry and arranged for a
tax exemption on the donated
goods before the shipment arrived.
The project has since expanded to levels that Takahashi had
never anticipated.
Streams of donations kept
pouring in, and they have grown
larger year on year for past 12
years. In March this year, Tokyo’s
Toshima Ward became the first local government to cooperate in the
project. It donated 500 backpacks
collected from residents in the
ward. Takahashi said a friend in
Afghanistan told him that the backpacks are actually contributing to
peace in areas of distribution, while
other parts of the country continue to be suppressed by force and
conflict. The friend explained that
parents begin to understand the
importance of education by seeing
their smiling children going to
school with the randoseru on their
backs every day. Such a small
show of happiness in the children’s
everyday life leads to stability in
the area, the friend said, adding that
the backpacks are mightier than
weapons. On June 4, at a warehouse in Yokohama’s Tsuzuki
Ward, volunteers inspected and
placed notebooks and pencils in
about 7,500 donated backpacks.
The cargo is scheduled to be
shipped from the port of Yokohama on June 26 to Afghanistan
about 6,000 kilometers away.
asahi
.
MONDAY JUNE 27, 2016
AFGHANISTAN TIMES
Nepal has sought answers from
Canada on how and under what
circumstance Nepali security
guards employed by its embassy
in Kabul, Afghanistan, were killed
in a terrorist attack on June 20.
The Nepali side has also requested Canadian authorities to
ensure the safety and security of
other Nepalis still working with
Canadian diplomatic facilities in
war-torn Afghanistan.
Thirteen Nepali migrant workers were killed and six were seri-
ously wounded when they became
a bomber’s target while being ferried to the embassy in an unprotected minibus.
Nepal’s Ambassador to Canada Kali Prasad Pokhrel yesterday
met with Canadian High Commissioner to India Nadir Patel and other foreign ministry officials in Ottawa and sought to know their take
on the incident and apparent security breaches, said Foreign Ministry Spokesperson Bharat Raj
Paudyal.
Patel, who is also Canada’s
non-residential ambassador to Nepal, was currently in Ottawa.
During his conversation with
Patel, Ambassador Pokhrel expressed concern about visible security lapses while ferrying Nepali guards from their camps to the
embassy in a minibus without any
security escort.
The Nepali side has asked Canadian authorities to conduct a
thorough investigation into the incident and share the findings.
Following the attack, Nepali
lawmakers and the public have
raised questions why westerners
in Afghanistan are heavily protected but those who are hired to guard
them are not.
It’s understood that Nepal’s
envoy also reminded the Canadian
government to look into the situation of bereaved families and provide financial support to the dependants of the deceased and injured ones on humanitarian ground.
“It’s a moral responsibility of
the Canadian government to provide support for dependants of the
victims,” said a foreign ministry
official.
A total of 147 Nepali security
guards used to work at the Canadian mission in Kabul before the
attack. They were hired by a British security consultancy firm, Sabre International.
At least 24 of them returned
home in the same flight which airlifted the mortal remains of the
deceased of the Kabul attack on
Thursday.
One of the returnees, Satya
Narayan Shrestha of Lamjung told
The Himalayan Times that other
Nepalis working in the Kabulbased Canadian mission also wanted to return home as soon as possible because of security risks.
He claimed that the Taliban —
which has claimed responsibility
for the attack — had asked money
from Sabre International and
warned they would ‘eliminate’ the
Nepali guards in case they failed
to get it. “They targeted us because
the company refused to give money and took their warnings very
lightly,” he said.
Meanwhile, Charge d’Affaires
of Nepal to Pakistan Tirtha Raj
Aryal, who concurrently looks after Afghanistan as well, today met
diplomats of the Canadian Embassy in Kabul and expressed concern
regarding the attack.
thehimalayantimes
Afghanistan: Where
birth can bring death
Balkhab woman
tortured by husband
for 15 years
SAR-I-PUL: Khairun Nisa, a 35
years old woman from the Balkhab
district of northern Sar-i-Pul province claims she was tortured for
15 years by her husband, but no
one listened to her complaints.
A mother of four, who is currently living in the provincial capital, told Pajhwok Afghan News
17 years ago, she married a man
named Syed Yaqoot in her native
village Tarkhoj in Balkhab district.
Nisa acknowledged her husband’s behaviour was fine in the
first two years after their marriage.
But later on, he started beating her
on different pretexts and forced her
to complain to district officials
several times.
“Whenever I went to the authorities to register my complaint,
I was told influential figures are
mediating. As a consequence, I had
to accept torture at the hands of
my husband,” the woman added.
She was expelled from home
by her hubby and was beaten along
with her father in front of Aqa Mir,
the district crime branch
chief.“My complaint has not been
heard so far because the Balkhab
crime branch chief is the uncle of
my husband and he is supporting
his nephew.”
Syed Reza, father of Nisa, confirmed that he and his daughter had
been warned of being killed if they
complained. The warning was issued by a man who once mediated
between Nisa and her spouse.
“I was obliged to come to Sari-Pul City in quest of justice, because no one in Balkhab listens to
us,” he remarked, askingthe officials concerned to pay attention
to their problem.
Women Affairs Director
Nasim Arzo said Nisa had shared
her complaint with the department
and she was currently kept in a
shelter house. Nisa was suffering
from psychological problems as
she has been tortured for a long
time, Arzo added.
Insecurity and lack of cooperation from the district crime branch
have caused most of people to take
cases of violence against women
to the capital of the province, she
said.
Pajhwok tried to talk to security officials on the issue, but no
contact could be established.
However, the Balkhab crime
branch chief said he was ready to
act according to the law.
He said Nisa was his cousin
and Syed Yaqoot was his uncle.
He denied of being biased to the
woman.“It is a family problem, but
some people are trying to make it
a political issue.” (Pajhwok)
Govt to build cold storage
unit at Karzai airport
KABUL: The Civil Aviation Independent Authority said Sunday that it
would construct a cold storage house at the Hamid Karzai International
Airport in Kabul, the capital city. The authority said in a statement that
the construction of the warehouse was ordered by President Ashraf
Ghani. The construction of a stock is aimed at support farmers in
protecting their fresh fruits and agriculture harvests in the country. Civil
Aviation Independent Authority will allocate 1760 meter square inside
custom office of the airport. This cold stack will have the capacity to
accommodate 700-100 metric tons of agriculture products.
The warehouse will be constructed at a total cost of over three million
afs.
Civil Aviation Independent Authority plans to establish cold stacks
in Kandahar, Herat and Mazar-e-Sharif airport as well.
REFUGEE
SPONSORSHIP
GROUP
REUNITES
FAMILY FROM
AFGHANISTAN
It had taken almost four years, but
the day finally arrived. A family
was reunited and all were now safe
in Canada.
Shakeba Hakam, her husband
Mirwis and their four children,
along with Shakeba’s sister, Maleha Nejrabi, her husband Ahmad
and their four children, arrived in
Ottawa on Friday June 17 after a
long, and at times delayed, flight
from Tajikistan, where they had
spent years as refugees from Afghanistan.
They had to leave their homeland due to threats from the Taliban and other ongoing violence directed toward them in part because
of their involvement in providing
medical assistance during the time
Canada and other western nations
deployed forces in Afghanistan.
Their family members here in
Ottawa had first approached the
Kanata Stittsville Refugee Sponsorship Group (KSRSG) in 2012
asking for assistance in sponsoring them as refugees to Canada.
The KSRSG has been sponsoring
refugees for two decades, and has
eight member churches in Sittsville
and Kanata. (Kanata, Glen Cairn
and Stittsville United, St. John’s
South March, St. Paul’s and St.
Thomas Anglican and St. Andrew’s
and Trinity Presbyterian Churches.)
After months of collecting information and documents, the decision was made to proceed with
their sponsorship applications,
which were submitted to Citizenship and Immigration Canada
through the Anglican Diocese of
Ottawa as the KSRSG Sponsorship Agreement Holder.
Though the families received
notice almost a year ago that their
sponsorship applications had been
approved, it took several months
to complete the required medical
and security checks and have their
visas processed by Canadian Immigration officials.
Word came on June 13 that the
families would be arriving in Ottawa in just four days. On the evening
of Friday June 17, eight members
of the KSRSG along with ten family members living in Ottawa gathered at the bottom of the escalators of the arrivals area at the airport in Ottawa. There were cheers
and tears when the 12 family
members appeared at the top of
the escalators and hugs all around
once they reached the bottom.
Though they were exhausted
from many hours of travel, not to
mention years of waiting, there
was a tremendous outpouring of
gratitude offered to everyone involved. Finally they were safe, and
reunited with other family members whom they had not seen for
years.
The KSRSG has also been informed that a person they have
sponsored as a refugee from Syria
will be arriving in Ottawa before
the end of June. They also await
the arrival of others from Syria and
Afghanistan whom they have
sponsored.
Hundreds of women are dying in
childbirth in the southeastern Afghan province of Paktika each year
due to a severe lack of antenatal
and neonatal care, an IWPR investigation can reveal.
There is only one female doctor in the entire province, and conservative traditions mean that most
pregnant women cannot seek help
from male health care professionals.
In the absence of any official
figures for maternal mortality rates
in Paktika, an IWPR reporter spent
eight months travelling round the
province to collect anecdotal data,
carrying out at least two-dozen
interviews with local residents in
six districts.
Each person interviewed said
that they knew of between ten and
30 women who had died in labour
or soon after giving birth in the last
year.
Girls in Afghanistan risk death
during pregnancy and childbirth.
(Photo: AP)
Local health care officials acknowledge the severity of the situation, but argue there is little they
can do. Out of Paktika’s 22 districts, only six have even minimal
these deaths were not officially
recorded.
The director of a district clinic
told IWPR that they were reluctant to report deaths of pregnant
women to the health ministry for
fear of the consequences.
“Officials in Kabul will dismiss
us from our duties for incompetence,” he said.
TALES OF SORROW
Khiyali Jan, a 35-year-old driver from the village of ZmariKoot
in Yusuf Khel district, told IWPR
that in April 2013 his wife Gul
Pama was heavily pregnant with
their fourth child.
“It was dark when I got home
from work. I was so tired. I suddenly realised that Gul Pam, who
was in her ninth month, was
shouting in pain. I didn’t take her
to a doctor because there weren’t
any women doctors in the Yusuf
Khel clinic, so I found an experienced woman in the village and
took her to my home to help my
wife deliver.”
Mother with her newborn
baby in Afghanistan
Mother with her newborn
baby in Afghanistan. (Photo: http:/
/sbfphc.wordpress.com/2013/03/
ready dead.
“Overcome by sorrow, I took
Ghuncha back home and buried her
in the village’s graveyard,” Abdullah said.
STATE RESPONSIBILITY
Paktika lawmaker Najiha
Babkarkhel said that the government was not fulfilling its responsibilities under Article 52 of the
constitution, which mandates that
medical care must be available to
all.
“The government has been
completely unsuccessful and has
failed to provide health services to
the residents of Paktika,” she said.
“I agree with claims that Paktika has just imaginary doctors and
hospitals. In Paktika, we have high
level of corruption and this means
that many children and pregnant
women lose their lives.”
IWPR asked Wali Gul, head of
public health in Paktika, if he was
aware of the high death rate as a
result of the government failure to
provide adequate medical facilities.
“I must admit that we don’t
have any female obstetricians except Dr Homa in Paktika and this
is the biggest problem faced by
pregnant women,” Gul said.
EMERGENCY
CALLS
Police
100 - 119
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
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
Da Afghanistan Bank
2100302, 2100303
Bakhtar Bank
0776777000
Azizi Bank
0799 700900
Pashtany Bank
2102908, 2103868
Air Services
Safi Airways
020 22 22 222
Ariana
security.
The province, 170 kilometres
southeast of the capital Kabul, has
a population of about 550,000 but
is served by just three hospitals,
five clinics and 18 primary health
care centres providing basic treatment.
Most of the facilities are run
and funded by Afghan healthcare
NGOs, with the government playing a limited role.
Homa, the sole female doctor
in Paktika, works in the government hospital in the provincial
capital Sharana.
Afghanistan has one of the
highest maternal mortality rates in
the world.
According to the World Bank
figures for 2011-2015, 396 out of
every 10,000 pregnancies ended in
the mother’s death.
But due to a lack of formal statistics, especially in less secure
parts of the country, it is impossible to accurately gauge.
Provincial council member
Hanifa Kattawazai said that even
IWPR’s assessment of Paktika’s
maternal mortality rate was an understatement.
“I know about the problems
of Paktika’s women better than
anyone else and I am sure that conditions for women in the province
are worse than what reporters suggest,” she said.
“If we were to investigate accurately to calculate the mortality
rate, there’s no doubt it would be
higher.”
Medical staff and health officials were reluctant to be interviewed on the record.
Speaking anonymously, they
too estimated that between 20 and
30 women died during delivery in
each of the provinces’ 22 districts
each year.
However, they made clear that
13/making-misoprostol-widelyavailable-for-home-births-in-afghanistan-new-policy-initiative/)
Khiyali Jan, his voice cracking
with grief, continued, “It was midnight when my sister-in-law came
intomy room and told me, ‘Brother, GulPama has died, but your
baby is alive.’ In the morning, I
went to the village’s cemetery and
dug a grave for Gul Pama. Before
the sun rose, I buried her with the
help of some villagers.”
Khiyali Jan was left to raise
his new daughter Amina alone,
feeding her on formula milk.
He has spent the last three
years devoted to her, and said that
he had no plans to remarry.
Sometimes, even seeking help
at a local health clinic is not enough
to save women in labour.
Ghuncha, a 25-year old from
the village of Painda Khel in
KhairKoot district, already had
two daughters with her husband
Yaar Mohammad.
When she went into labour
with her third child, Ghuncha’s
brother Abdullah defied tradition
to take her to the Khair Koot district clinic 10 kilometers away.
“When I reached the clinic, I
noticed that there was just one
male doctor and a nurse. The doctor told me, ‘I am not an obstetrician. We don’t have any beds and
we know nothing about how to
help your patient, so it’s better you
seek help at another clinic.’”
Abdullah said that he continued to beg the doctor to try to save
his sisters’ life, but to no avail.
“When the doctor refused me
I decided to take my sister somewhere else, but suddenly I noted
that Ghuncha’s hands were really
cold and she was not responding
to my voice. When I shook her,
she didn’t move.”
The young woman was al-
“I agree that the mortality rate
for women during delivery is high
in Paktika due to a lack of primary
health care facilities. However, I
cannot say exactly that 200 or 300
pregnant women die each year because Paktika’s public health department doesn’t have accurate figures for maternal mortality rates.”
Gula said that the main obstacles to improving the mortality rate
were the poor standards of education among local girls, and ongoing
instability in the province that
made it hard to attract medical staff
from outside.
“You cannot find a single
schoolgirl in all Paktika who could
graduate from 12thgrade,” he said.
“Moreover, doctors from other
provinces are afraid of the lack of
security in Paktika, so they lack
the courage to travel here. What
should the government do?”
There are efforts underway to
improve maternal care in the province, such a midwifery scheme established in Sharana.
And there are girls who hope
for the chance to help serve their
community, if given the opportunity. Helai, a 10-year-old from the
village of Malizois a student at the
Bibi Ayesha secondary school in
KhairKoot district.
Due to a lack of medical care,
her mother died shortly giving after birth to Helai, her first child.
Helai is a model student who
is dedicated to her studies, and is
clear about her motivation.
“I want to become a doctor,”
she said. “Had there been a female
doctor in our village’s clinic, my
mother would be right next to me
today. This report was produced
under IWPR’s Promoting Human
Rights and Good Governance in
Afghanistan initiative, funded by
the European Union Delegation to
Afghanistan. RAWA
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:
One US$ =
68.99Afs
One Pound Sterling=
99.12Afs
One Euro =
77.79Afs
1000 Pak Rs =
647Afs
Sale:
One US$ =
69.19 Afs
One Pound Sterling=
99.92Afs
One Euro=
78.39 Afs
1000 Pak Rs= 655
.
MONDAY JUNE 27, 2016
AFGHANISTAN TIMES
Nisar rejects
demand for PM’s
resignation
ISLAMABAD: Interior Minister
Chaudhry Nisar Ali Khan on Saturday rejected the demand for the
resignation of Prime Minister
Nawaz Sharif, asking political opponents to respect the mandate
given to the ruling party by the
people.
Talking to reporters at Kallar
Syedan, he said the British prime
minister’s decision to resign after
an unfavourable outcome of the
Brexit referendum should be welcomed democratically, but the situation in Pakistan was entirely different. He pointed out that two
chief election commissioners of the
Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf (PTI) had
resigned, but none from the PTI
leadership accepted responsibility.
He also referred to the resignations tendered by the Ehtesab
commissioner and a top official of
energy department of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa on the basis of corruption, saying that nobody from the
PTI stepped down.
He said the people of the country voted the PML-N to power in
the 2013 general elections and gave
their verdict in its favour through
the power of ballot in various byelections. “Democratic principles
must be followed,” he remarked.
Asked as to what would be the
government’s strategy over the reference filed by the PTI seeking disqualification of prime minister for
alleged concealment of assets, including offshore companies, the
minister in a lighter tone said: “Information Minister Pervez Rashid alone is enough to counter the
WASHINGTON: The US has said
there is "a path forward" for India
to become a full member of the
Nuclear Suppliers Group, which
will come by the end of this year.
The statement came hours after the
group's plenary meeting ended in
Seoul with no decision on India's
membership in face of strong China-led opposition.
"We are confident that we have
got a path forward by the end of
this year," a top Obama administration official said on Friday. "It
needs some work. But we are confident that India would be a full
member of the (NSG) regime by
the end of the year," the official
told on condition of anonymity.
Refusing to divulge the discussions and opposition to India's
membership within the 48-member grouping, the official said details of the internal deliberations
are confidential. "But the US
strongly believes in India's membership in the NSG and the Obama
administration has worked closely with New Delhi and other countries on this issue," the official said.
The NSG ended its plenary
meeting in Seoul with no decision
on India's membership. China succeeded in scuttling India's bid despite a significant majority backing the Indian case. Thirty-eight
countries supported India, according to Indian officials.
Stay updated on the go with
Times of India News App. Click
here to download it for your device.
move.”
About recent incidents in Karachi, including assassination of qawwal Amjad Sabri and kidnapping
of the son of the Sindh High Court
chief justice, he made it clear that
these isolated incidents were condemnable, but must not undermine
the efforts of security agencies
working diligently to stamp out
terrorism.
“The objective behind targeting such people was to frighten and
harass the people so that they raise
fingers at the performance of security and intelligence agencies,”
he remarked.
He said the Karachi operation
was progressing well and the graph
of crimes and incidents of terrorism had substantially gone down.
He said the war on terror
would continue till its logical conclusion and stressed that terrorism
could only be defeated through a
strong resolve and not by a message of weakness. He said effective actions were being taken in
Karachi and other parts of the country against terrorists and hardened
criminals.
Answering a question about
model Ayyan Ali, the interior minister said her name had been put
on the exit control list on the recommendation of the FBR’s vigilance wing.
Meanwhile, the interior minister would attend an important
meeting in Karachi on Sunday. The
meeting will take stock of the recent incidents of terrorism in Karachi and review the overall law and
order situation in the province.
Bangladesh and Slovenia yesterday agreed to cooperate in areas of trade,
energy, science and technology, agriculture and light industries.
Praising Bangladesh's spectacular growth in agriculture, textiles,
pharmaceuticals and energy, Slovenian leaders underlined that the two
countries could collaborate in renewable energy and power generation,
small scale high-tech industries and other sectors.
State Minister for Foreign Affairs Md Shahriar Alam, who is now
on a three-day official visit to Slovenia, yesterday called on Deputy
Prime Minister and Minister of Foreign Affairs of Slovenia Karl Erjavee
and President of the Slovenian National Assembly Milan Brglez.
He exchanged views with a group of Slovenian businessmen and
investors who were already in the process of exploring business opportunities in Bangladesh.
During his meeting, Slovenian Foreign Minister Karl Erjavee termed
the visit by the Bangladesh state minister and the signing of the MoU
important milestones to consolidate further the relationship between
the two friendly countries in the political, economic and other fields.
The Slovenian minister requested Bangladesh to explore using Slovenian port which is a gateway to the Central Europe.
The “Copper Port” of Slovenia is currently being used by Asian
countries.
Bangladesh Ambassador to Vienna Mohammed Abu Zafar was
present during the meetings.
NEW DELHI – India cleared the
purchase of 145 Ultra Light Howitzers at a cost of around $750
million from US, as well as bulk
production of home-grown 18
Dhanush artillery guns and several other defense deals.
Defense Minister Manohar
Parrikar, who chaired the June 25
Defence Acquisition Council
(DAC), reviewed multiple defense
proposals, including new defense
schemes valued at $4.1 billion, a
Ministry of Defense (MoD) official said.
Earlier this month, US issued
a letter of acceptance, and today
DAC reviewed the terms and conditions and approved the program.
MoD will soon send India's response and the process for the
payment of the first installment
will begin.
BAE Systems of the US will
also discharge offsets valued at
$200 million, taken up independently.
In 2013, MoD issued a letter
of request to the US government,
showing interest in procuring the
M777 artillery guns to be uses in
high altitude terrains near the China border. The India Army will receive 25 ultra light howitzers in
fly-away condition. BAE Systems
will assemble the remaining guns
in India in partnership with private company Mahindra Defence
Systems, the two setting up an
The Sri Lankan government has
denied reports of the discovery of
cluster bombs in formerly war-hit
areas of the country by questioning the evidence and rejecting the
suggestion that government forces
used the weapons.
Responding to questions over
a Guardian report, which produced
for the first time pictures of the
bomb casings and cluster munitions, a cabinet spokesman denied
any connection to Sri Lankan government forces.
“How do you know that the
sites, as shown in the pictures, are
in Sri Lanka?” said Rajitha Senaratne, the health minister. “How do
you say that these bombs belong
to the Sri Lanka army? What is the
basis?”
Senaratne also indicated that
the munitions could have been
used by the Liberation Tigers of
Tamil Eelam (LTTE) forces opposed to the government during Sri
Lanka’s long-running civil war.
“There could have been cluster
bombs,” he said. “How do you say
whether they are from the army or
the LTTE forces?”
The pictures revealed by the
Guardian were passed on by an
ex-employee of the Halo Trust, the
world’s biggest de-mining organisation, though the leaks were never sanctioned by the organisation
itself. The devices depicted in the
photographs were subsequently
identified as cluster munitions by
a weapons experts at Human
Rights Watch.
bomb uncovered near Chalai,
Sri Lanka.
Halo confirmed in an exchange
with the Guardian that it had found
a total of 42 cluster munitions in
sites across northern Sri Lanka near
provided by a senior weapons researcher at Human Rights Watch, who identified the material as the remnants of Russian-made cluster bombs and unexploded cluster submunitions.
Pachchilapalli, a location of fierce
fighting between government and
LTTE forces at the end of the war.
It also stated that records of the
discoveries, categorised as A02.5s,
were submitted to a national mine
action centre, run by the government, when they were found.
“Halo submitted this information on completion of clearance of
these areas, in accordance with our
reporting requirements. These
documents are still held by the
national mine action centre in Sri
Lanka today,” the Halo respondent
said. Former staff members at two
other demining organisations also
told the Guardian that they had
found cluster bombs in Sri Lanka
after the conclusion of the civil
war. Speaking on condition of anonymity, they said they had found
cluster munitions in the towns of
Puthukuduyurippu
and
Suthanthirapuram, around the area
of one of the government’s selfdeclared “no fire zones” in which
hundreds of thousands of civilians
were told to gather for their safety
in 2009 as the conflict drew to a
bloody climax.
In 2012, Allan Poston, a technical adviser to the UN development programme (UNDP)’s demining team, wrote in an email that
his team had found “confirmed
unexploded sub-munitions” near
Puthukuduyurippu, an area that
had been reportedly attacked with
the weapons in February 2009.
In a note of apparent frustration with the de-mining groups,
Senaratne added that they ”should
have reported [the weapons discovery] at the time of de-mining.
Why now, after so many years?”
Independent corroboration of
the nature of the weapons has been
assembly integration and test facility for M777 artillery guns near
New Delhi.
In addition, DAC also cleared
bulk production of 18 indigenous
Dhanush artillery guns to be produced in India at a cost of $1.8
million per piece, developed and
manufactured by state-owned
Ordnance Factory Board. Dhanush is an upgraded version of the
original 155 mm howitzer artillery
guns brought in 1987, expanding
the barrel of the gun from 39 mm
to 45 mm caliber.
Since 1989, the Indian Army
has not inducted any type of artillery guns. DAC also gave approval to issue domestic tenders for six
next generation missile vessels under 'Buy Indian' category, valued
at $1.75 billion, and purchase of
five diving support craft from domestic shipyards at a cost of $22
million. The $57 million modernization plan of the Indian Navy's
dockyards and naval ship repair
yards was also approved Saturday.
Regarding another important
project, the Short Range Surface
to Air Missile (SRSAM) systems,
DAC decided to continue the acquisition process as a multi-vendor competition. Saab of Sweden,
Rosoboronexport of Russia and
Rafael of Israel qualified in field
trials in India last year. The Indian
Army intends to procure two regiments of SRSAM systems along
with 800 missiles and complete
technology transfer.
DAC also cleared purchase of
home made simulators for Jaguar
aircraft at a cost of $73.5 million
and development of an electronic
warfare range at a cost of $191
million.
.
MONDAY JUNE 27, 2016
AFGHANISTAN TIMES
News-in-Brief
Death toll surges
in Russian,
regime strikes
on Syria
At least 82 people including 58
civilians were killed in Russian
and regime air strikes on an ISISheld area of eastern Syria, a monitor said Sunday in a new toll.
“Three Russian and Syrian
regime air raids on the region of
Al-Quriyah, southeast of Deir
Ezzor city, killed 58 civilians,”
the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said.
It added that 24 other people were killed, without specifying whether they were civilians or ISIS fighters.
The Britain-based Observatory, which has a network of
sources in Syria, initially reported that 47 people including 31
civilians died in the raids around
Al-Quriyah.
Russian warplanes have been
carrying out an air war in support of President Bashar al-Assad since September 2015.
ISIS holds around 60 percent
of Deir Ezzor city, the capital of
the province of the same name,
which is next to the militant-held
Raqqa province.
More than 280,000 people
have been killed since Syria’s
conflict erupted in March 2011,
after a widespread protest movement evolved into a complex,
multi-front war that has drawn
in global powers.
Iraq declares end
of Fallujah battle
against ISIS
Iraqi forces recaptured the last
remaining district held by ISIS
militants in the city of Fallujah
on Sunday and the general commanding the operation declared
the battle complete.
Prime Minister Haider alAbadi claimed victory over ISIS
in Fallujah more than a week ago
but fighting continued inside the
city, including in the Golan district. "We announce from this
place in central Golan district
that it has been cleaned by the
counter terrorism service and we
convey the good news to the
Iraqi people that the battle of
Fallujah is over," Lieutenant
General Abdul Wahab al-Saidi
told state TV.
At least 1,800 militants
were killed in the operation to
retake Fallujah, he said.
Earlier, Iraqi forces said
they are screening 20,000 people leaving the Fallujah area to
stop militants of the ISIS escaping among civilians displaced by fighting, the army
said on Saturday.
Tens of thousands of people have fled as government
forces fight to oust ISIS from
Fallujah, a city 50 kilometers
west of Baghdad. Some of those
screened have accused security
forces of beating and torturing
them. Of those detained, 2,185
were suspects based on testimonies or other information,
while 11,605 were released and
about 7,000 were still being
checked, said a spokesman for
Iraq's Joint Operations Command. When fleeing civilians
reached government forces,
teenage boys and men were
screened separately, with some
being released after a few hours
while others underwent more
thorough interrogation. Relatives mobbed Iraqi officials at a
camp for displaced last week to
ask about the fate of hundreds
of missing males. One man said
he was held for four days without anything to drink or eat by
the Popular Mobilization forces, an umbrella organization for
volunteer fighters dominated by
Iran-backed Shiite militias.
Israel and Turkey
to hold
normalization
talks
Israeli and Turkish negotiators
will meet on Sunday in Rome
aiming to reach an agreement on
normalizing relations after the
two countries fell out six years
ago, sources said.
Previously, the discussions
had been expected to take place
in Turkey. If an agreement is
reached, it would go before Israel's security cabinet for approval on Wednesday, according to media reports and an Israeli official who requested anonymity.
Analysts say it is very likely that an agreement will be
concluded on Sunday.
Once tight relations between Israel and key NATO
member Turkey were significantly downgraded after Israeli
commandos staged a deadly
pre-dawn raid on a six-ship flotilla in May 2010 as it tried to
run the blockade on Gaza.
Two of Turkey's key conditions for normalization -- an
apology and compensation -have largely been met, leaving
its third demand, that Israel lift
US Secretary of State John Kerry
left Washington on Saturday to
meet Prime Minister Benjamin
Netanyahu ahead of the publication of an international report expected to criticize Israeli settlement building.
Kerry was flying to Rome to
meet the Israeli leader on Sunday
and Monday. Some reports have
suggested he will use the meeting
to assess the possibility of reviving the Israeli-Palestinian peace
process. But US officials have been
careful not to predict any breakthroughs and the meeting is likely
to touch on the imminent release
of a report by the Quartet, which
is seeking to foster a "two-state"
solution to the conflict.
This diplomatic group -- the
United Nations, the European
Union, the United States and Russia -- is concerned that Palestinian
violence and Israel's building on
occupied land is pushing the prospect of peace further away.
This week, ahead of Kerry's
trip, his spokesman John Kirby
said: "There are plenty of issues
coming up that merit Israel and the
United States's discussion."
Kirby said the Quartet's report
"will include recommendations
that will help inform international
discussions on the best way to
advance a two-state solution." The
document will "largely" reflect the
Quartet's previous statement in
September last year, he added.
The September report cited
Israel's "ongoing settlement activity and the high rate of demolition
of Palestinian structures" as "dangerously imperiling the viability"
of a two-state deal.
Washington, the traditional
mediator in Middle East peace efforts, has not taken the lead in recent months, concerned that the
situation is not promising and that
another round of failed talks
would only further embitter both
parties. But France has launched a
diplomatic initiative to build international pressure on both sides.
The United States gave the
French move a cool reception, but
Kerry attended its inaugural meeting in Paris and has called on both
sides to take "affirmative steps"
to calm tempers and preserve the
possibility of peace.
On the ground, however, the
situation remains fraught and sporadic violence since October has
killed at least 210 Palestinians, 32
Israelis, two Americans, an Eritrean and a Sudanese.
Most of the Palestinians were
carrying out knife, gun or car-ramming attacks, according to Israeli
authorities. On Thursday, in an
address to the European Parliament, Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas accused a group of Is-
raeli rabbis of urging their government to poison Palestinian water supplies. Netanyahu in turn furiously accused his opponent of resurrecting the
ancient "blood libel" against Jews, a charge Abbas denies.
Iranian forces clash with Kurds, killing five
Britain's decision to leave the European Union could be the beginning of the disintegration of the
bloc of countries or the United
Kingdom, said economist Nouriel
Roubini on Sunday.
But people should not expect
a recession or financial crisis in the
wake of the "Brexit" vote, said
Roubini, speaking at the World
Economic Forum in China's northern city of Tianjin.
More than two million people
have signed a petition calling for a
second referendum, after the shock
vote to pull Britain out of the EU,
an official website showed Saturday. The website of the parliamentary petition at one point crashed
due to the surge of people adding
their names to the call for another
nationwide poll following Thursday's historic vote.
"We the undersigned call upon
HM Government to implement a
rule that if the remain or leave vote
is less than 60 percent based (on)
a turnout less than 75 percent there
should be another referendum,"
says the petition.
The "Leave" camp won the
support of 51.9 percent of voters,
against 48.1 percent in favour of
remaining in the European Union.
Turnout for Thursday's referendum was 72.2 percent.
Signatories to the petition appeared to be mostly in Edinburgh
and London, both of which voted
heavily in favour of "Remain".
There is no obligation in British legislation for referendums to
have a minimum share of the vote
or a minimum turnout, as in some
other countries.
But EU rules say nothing
about a member state that has already begun negotiations to leave
the bloc changing its mind and reversing that decision under Article
50 of the Lisbon Treaty.
University of Strathclyde professor John Curtice outlined two
hypothetical scenarios in which a
second referendum could take
place. "If Boris Johnson is running
the government and it is taking a
long time to be implemented, two
years down the line we could have
another poll showing people actually want to reverse the decision
and remain in," he said.
"Then there could be a situation where the opposition party
in a general election have a mandate to hold a new referendum,"
he added.
But he said there would be no
immediate effects from the current
petition except for a formal discussion in parliament, which is required for any petitions that have
over 100,000 signatures.
- 'You can't have neverendums'
- The result of Thursday's vote revealed stark divisions between
young and old, north and south,
cities and rural areas, and people
with and without a university degree.
By 1745 GMT on Saturday
some 2,054,000 people had signed
the petition on the official government and parliament website -more than 20 times the number
required for a proposal to be discussed in parliament.
On Friday, a House of Commons spokeswoman said the website had been taken out of action
temporarily due to "exceptionally
high volumes of simultaneous users on a single petition, significantly higher than on any previous
occasion".
Parliament's Petitions Committee, which considers whether
such submissions should be raised
in the House, is to hold its next
meeting on Tuesday.
The idea of a second referendum was raised during campaigning for Thursday's vote.
UK Independence Party leader Nigel Farage suggested last
month that a close Remain win
would build up resentment and not
be the end of the matter.
"In a 52-48 referendum this
would be unfinished business by a
long way," he told the Daily Mirror newspaper.
The Sunday Times newspaper
backed the idea of a second referendum, "once the first has forced
Brussels to undertake a more serious negotiation".
"In a real crisis the EU has always stepped back from the
brink," the "Leave"-supporting
broadsheet wrote last week.
But "Leave" figurehead
Johnson downplayed the idea of a
new vote.
"I'm absolutely clear, a referendum is a referendum. It is a once
in a generation, once in a lifetime
opportunity and the result determines the outcome," he said.
"If we vote to stay, we stay,
and that's it. If we vote to leave,
we vote to leave, that's it. You can't
have neverendums, you have referendums," he added.
Iranian security forces have
clashed with Kurdish separatists
who infiltrated a northwestern village, killing five of them, according
to the country’s powerful Revolutionary Guard.
The Guard’s website said five
“terrorists,” including two “leaders,” were killed in the fighting in
the West Azerbaijan province, near
the Iraqi border, and that a “chase
operation to destroy other terrorists is underway.”
It said no Iranian forces were
wounded in the clashes, and that
they confiscated large amounts of
weapons and ammunition.
The Kurdish group could not
immediately be reached for comment. The Guard clashed with
Kurdish insurgents in West Azerbaijan earlier this month. The
Guard said it killed 12 insurgents
while three of its members died.
The Democratic Party of Iranian
Kurdistan said the Kurds killed
over a dozen Guard members, including a colonel.
Iran faces threats from several
militant groups, ranging from Sunni Arabs in its southern, oil-rich
region, Kurds in its northwest and
Baluch separatists on its eastern
border with Pakistan.
Attacks are rarely publicized
in Iran, but last week authorities
announced that they had broken
up one of the “biggest terrorist
plots” ever on Iranian soil by Sunni extremists planning bombings in
Tehran and elsewhere.
Intelligence Minister Mahmoud Alavi was later quoted by
the semi-official ISNA news agency as saying that 10 suspects had
been arrested in connection to the
plot, which was to involve 50
bombings in the capital.
A Sunni Arab group claimed
an attack on an oil pipeline in
southern Iran last week, while Iranian forces battled the Sunni militant group Jaish al-Adl in the
southeast, according to Stratfor, a
private intelligence firm based in
Austin, Texas.
Syrian and Russian air strikes have
killed at least 58 people in Syria's
eastern Deir Az Zor province, according to a UK-based monitoring
group. Rami Abdel Rahman, the
head of the Syrian Observatory for
Human Rights (SOHR) monitoring group, said Saturday's raids hit
the ISIL-held town of al-Qurayyah
in the suburbs of Deir Az Zor.
It was not immediately clear
whether most of the dead were civilians or fighters of ISIL, the acronym for the Islamic State of Iraq
and the Levant, Abdel Rahman
said.
"ISIL fighters have now set up
a security perimeter around the
residential area, where the town's
mosque is located," Abdel Rahman
said, referring to the group also
known as ISIS.
Russian fighter jets have been
carrying out air raids in support of
President Bashar al-Assad since
September 2015.
Incendiary bombs claim
Elsewere in Syria, activists say
warplanes have dropped incendiary bombs over populated areas
in Aleppo city for the first time.
It is unclear whether the cluster bombs dropped in the northern city's Dahrat Awad district
were from Russian or Syrian government planes.
Al Jazeera cannot independently verify the activist's videos.
Cluster bombs are internationally prohibited due to their indiscriminate impact.
UN asked to probe claims of
Syrian cluster-bombs use in civilian areas
A Human Rights Watch report
released in February found use of
cluster bombs by Russian and Syrian military forces in attacks across
Syria. On yet another front line,
Kurdish and Arab fighters of the
Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF)
overran a key road junction in the
south of Manbij city, an ISIL
stronghold on the eastern plains
of Aleppo, after capturing nearby
grain silos on Saturday, the SOHR
said.
"The grain silos overlook more
than half of Manbij. SDF fighters
can climb to the top and monitor
the city," said Abdel Rahman.
The Raqqa Revolutionaries
Brigades - one of the Arab components of the Kurdish-dominated
alliance - confirmed that SDF forces had seized the silos and pushed
into the city.
The SOHR said ISIL and the
SDF were locked in intense street
fighting as ISIL tried to defend their
positions.
Hundreds of Kurds fleeing villages near Manbij controlled by
ISIL came under fire, amid mass
abductions by the group, according to opposition activists and a
Kurdish official.
The Local Coordination Committees, another activist-run monitoring group, said ISIL also
opened fire at people trying to flee
from Manbij, killing 10 of them,
including children.
The Syria Democratic Council, the political wing of SDF, called
on the international community
and aid groups to supply those fleeing with whatever they need, saying many of them are in open areas.
The SDC called on the world
to help the SDF "prevent the occurrence of a catastrophe or a massacre," saying there were "indications" one might happen.
.
MONDAY JUNE 27, 2016
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: [email protected]
Email: [email protected]
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-Designer:
Edriss Akbari, Bilal Yusufi
Mar k et i ng & Adv er t i s i ng:
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 64:
Article Sixty-Four: The President shall have the following authorities and duties: 1. Supervise the implementation of the Constitution; 2. Determine the fundamental lines of the policy of the country with the approval
of the National Assembly; 3. Being the Commander in Chief of the armed forces of Afghanistan; 4. Declare
war and peace with the endorsement of the National Assembly; 5. Take necessary decisions to defend
territorial integrity and preserve independence; 6. Dispatch armed forces units outside of Afghanistan with
the endorsement of the National Assembly; 7. Convene the Loya Jirga except in the situation prescribed in
Article 69 of this Constitution; 8. Proclaim as well as terminate the state of emergency with the endorsement
of the National Assembly; 9. Inaugurate the sessions of National Assembly and Loya Jirga. To be continued
Life in shadow
The law enforcement agencies are focused on elimination of the insurgent groups and garnering support of the international community. Most
of the security policies revolve around defeat of the Taliban, Haqqani
Network, al-Qaeda, Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan and the Islamic State—
popular as Daesh in the country. Such policies could not be termed comprehensive. This strategy has shortcomings. Fighting anti-state elements
is not the only security responsibility of the provincial and central governments. There are many groups who are disturbing the social structure
by committing heinous crimes and getting away with it. Allowing the rogue
people to create social challenges is the first step towards destabilization.
To end terrorism and militancy, the government should garner support
at home first. If people were on the government’s side only then the security officials would be able to defeat the militant groups. Mere support
of the superpower or some regional countries would not help the cause.
Unfortunately, trust deficit between the government and public is increasing every day. Public want to see the laws implemented in letter and spirit. The nation wants to see equality and justice. Over 50 percent of Afghans live below the poverty line because of the social and economic
injustice.
No one should be above the law. However, the situation is different in
Afghanistan. Influential people make and approve the laws while keeping
their own interests. They take interests in what can help them in satiating
their greed. They have no soft corner for the poor people.
When the government and political pundits are celebrating the news
about resumption of the US airstrikes on the Taliban and Daesh, there are
some media reports which seek immediate attention of the relevant authorities. No doubt that the United States’ decision to target hideouts of
the militant groups is of utmost importance for security and stability of
Afghanistan, however the government cannot turn a blind eye to issues
that are eating the social fabric.
Elimination of 139 Daesh terrorists in Kot district of Nangarhar had
made headlines and the top brasses celebrated it as victory—which is yet
to be achieved. At such a time the news of violence against women is
more depressing because domestic violence is a series challenge. A man
tortured his wife brutally for 15 years in Sar-i-Pul province. Khairun Nisa,
35, was married to Syed Yaqoot around 17 years ago in Balkhab district.
There is no other country where women are tortured so brutally and for
such a long time. Absence of laws to protect women’s rights and impunity culture had made the society corrupt.
If the government kept silence and continued to watch the violence
against girls and women as silent spectator then the day is not far when
people would pray for comeback of the hardliners to save them from
those who speaks of justice and yet commit crimes against poor.
To avoid return of such a period in the history of Afghanistan, the government must send the Law on Elimination of Violence against Women
to the parliament for approval. The lawmakers should approve the law to
restore trust of public over the parliament which had already completed
its term.
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Who should we blame for Brexit —
and where do we go from here?
By Joe Macaré
An unexpected future in which the
United Kingdom no longer remains
a member of the European Union
is suddenly, shockingly imminent.
Moreover, it may no longer be the
“United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland” for
much longer.
The United Kingdom’s referendum on whether to remain in the
European Union was non-binding,
but its consequences have already
been immediate, global and drastic. British Prime Minister David
Cameron has announced he will
step down before October, but
those of us who would like to celebrate the departure of the man
who took an axe to the National
Health Service cannot, since he is
likely to be followed to by someone even worse, from his party’s
further-right wing. Meanwhile,
leaders inScotland and Northern
Ireland, whose residents overwhelmingly voted to remain within the EU, are now openly calling
for independence from the UK,
which in the latter’s case could
mean a united Ireland. And the
British pound has sunk to its weakest value against the US dollar in
more than 31 years.
Americans trying to understand the Brexit dynamic should
know that there’s a very AngloSaxon form of racism at work here,
in which the parameters of AngloSaxon whiteness exclude not only
the refugees from the global South
who are supposedly coming to the
UK via Europe, but also continental Europeans usually understood
to be white by Americans. The
noxious continuum of this longstanding Anglo-Saxon racism is
apparent in everything from The
Sun’s coverage of any football
match against “the Germans” to
the fact that respectable liberal
broadsheets offer a platform for
pundits such as Julie Burchill to
complain about immigrants from
within Europe — specifically Albanians, Poles and other Eastern
Europeans, whose whiteness is
questioned.
This explains why the proBrexit rhetoric tends to bundle together and conflate tropes of “lazy
and irresponsible” Greeks, “Brussels bureaucrats” and “scary” refugees. EU power is antagonistic
to refugees and to the people of
Greece, but these distinctions are
irrelevant to English nativists. The
prospect of the definition of Europe being widened to include Turkey instills even more racist animosity among these nativists, and
this has been exploited and propagated by the “Vote Leave” campaign.
Placing Blame
So, who is responsible? The
generational and regional divides
evident in the results might appear
to point to one answer, but as ever,
more blame lies with those institutions and individuals who hold
more power and influence.
Firstly, we can blame the mainstream parties. This includes not
just the Conservatives — who have
always been a force for nationalism, prejudice and ahistorical nos-
talgic folly even on their best days
— but also the right wing of the
Labour party: in other words, its
dominant wing from the time when
Tony Blair made it “New” until
Jeremy Corbyn clawed back a tenuous hold for its embattled left.
For 20 years, Blairism and the
Tory party have combined xenophobic rhetoric (sometimes dog
whistles, sometimes blatant) with
economic policies that have put the
screws to the British public. Blair
himself really perfected the modern art of scaremongering about
immigrants (“We know we have
to tighten the asylum system
further,” he said in 2005) and about
the EU imposing its allegedly softon-terror human rights laws, while
cozying up to people like Silvio
Berlusconi. Berlusconi was and
remains among the most flagrantly corrupt of Europe’s rich and
powerful: Blair’s closeness to the
then Italian Prime Minister was as
off-putting an example as any of
UK elites working closely with
their continental European equivalents to line the rich’s pockets and
impoverish everyone else. Yet
Blair posed with a sign reading
“I’m voting Remain!” in the runup to the referendum, still shameless as ever about the consequences of his time as prime minister.
Secondly, we can blame the
British media across the political
spectrum that have either tolerated or encouraged racism while obscuring the real causes of economic misery. The “across the political spectrum” part of this statement cannot be emphasized
enough, because while a driving
force for the “Leave” campaign has
been the UK’s powerful right-wing
newspapers (The Sun, owned by
Rupert Murdoch’s News International; The Daily Mail; The Daily
Express), more reputable media
sources often enviously revered by
US progressives have also been
complicit.
The BBC’s international coverage may still be far more reliable
than that of US cable news, but in
reality the BBC has pandered to
Nigel Farage, leader of the nationalist UK Independent Party, as
much as anyone has ever pandered
to Donald Trump, inviting Farage
onto its flagship political discussion show Question Time
more often than any other
politician between 2009 and 2013.
The BBC helped create Farage as
a prominent figure, then claimed
to only be responding to his popularity. Meanwhile, liberal and leftleaning publications like the
Guardian and Independent have
delighted in giving column inches
and pixels to “contrarian” pundits
such as Nick Cohen and Julie
Burchill, eager to tell us that it’s
not actually racist to say that the
UK has too many immigrants and
that we’d better keep an eye on
Muslim immigrants especially, and
so on.
Thirdly, the European Union
itself should not escape blame for
this turn of events. It is an undemocratic, business-class institution
with blood on its hands from im-
posing punitive austerity measures
on member states like Greece. As
George Monbiot puts it, it is “a
festering cesspool of undue influence and opaque lobbying,” though
the alternative offered by the political forces driving Brexit is
worse. Anyone under any illusions
that the EU represents a shiny
beacon of democracy and progress
should have that dispelled by the
petty, punitive response from its
leaders: EU president Donald
Tusk, European Commission chief
Jean-Claude Juncker and
others have saidthe UK must quit
“as soon as possible,” even as
Cameron and Johnson insisted the
actual process of leaving would not
be rushed. Yet it’s the handful of
EU laws that are preferable to
those the UK political class would
impose on its own — health and
safety regulations, some degree of
protection for refugees, and other
human rights laws — to which the
“Leave” camp has most objected,
despite occasional forays into denouncing European bankers.
Finally, of course, we can
blame the rising English nativist
parties and tendencies within parties themselves. From UKIP to
Britain First, these borderline fascist and explicitly fascist groups
are very bound up with anti-EU
sentiment and are demonstrably
violent: They have already claimed
the life of UK parliament memberJo Cox. However, without the
factors above, these groups would
have much less traction. They have
been emboldened every time the
media and mainstream parties
adopted their talking points while
claiming this was necessary to keep
them on the margins.
Lessons for US Onlookers
What lessons can those of us
residing in the United States take
from this?
The first is that it is always a
mistake to underestimate the forces of right-wing nationalism and
nativism.
Much like Donald Trump,
several of the winners in the
“Leave” campaign have previously been dismissed as national jokes,
whilst simultaneously being coddled and celebrated by the media.
Boris Johnson has been called the
British Trump, but he actually
predates Trump in politics — he
became mayor of London after fusing media-savvy and deliberately
clownish antics with very real racism and putting the super-rich first.
Now he may be the next prime
minister. Meanwhile, Farage, once
seen as even more of a fringe outlier than Trump, gave a horrifying
speech claiming the “Leave” vote
as a victory for “the real people,
for the ordinary people, for the
decent people.” The fascism here
is barely coded, and the actual decent people of the UK — those
who oppose this fascistic and antiimmigrant turn — will need to
scramble to protect those defined
by Farage as not “real.”
The second lesson for US onlookers is that when far-right nationalist parties, figures and campaigns are successful, there are
immediate consequences, and it is
extremely reckless for the left not
to oppose them. There is a leftwing case for leaving the EU. That
is not what triumphed yesterday.
Farage, like Trump, sometimes
produces rhetoric that sounds anticorporate: “We have fought against
the multinationals, we have fought
against the big merchant banks,”
he said in his speech on Wednesday night.
But it is not the multinationals who will feel the painful results of an emboldened UKIP and
an emboldened Britain First. Nor
is there any guarantee that the damage this result does to the Conservative Party will create any opportunities for the left in UK, not
when some Labour MPs are already using it as another pretext
to call for Corbyn’s head. There
are lessons here for people on the
left who swallow Trump’s isolationist and protectionist flourishes, for those who would like
Trump to win just to spite the
political establishment and accelerate a political shakeup, and for
the Democrats who cackle over
Trump’s rise, believing that the
GOP is being “destroyed.” All
should pay attention to what happens next in the UK and how it
actually affects the most vulnerable people living there.
Thirdly, and perhaps the
toughest pill to swallow, is the fact
that centrist political parties will
reap what they sow if they pursue a course in which they slyly
invoke nationalist and racist sentiments when it suits them. Voters
will not subsequently be convinced
by professed outrage at the rise of
political demagogues for whom
racism and nationalism are the unchecked primary driving forces.
This is especially true if the political center continues economic
policies that pile on the misery and
increase the likelihood that voters
will be looking around desperately for someone to blame.
How was anyone supposed to
take pro-EU Conservative David
Cameron or the Blairites seriously
as opponents of nationalism, antiimmigrant sentiment and nostalgia
for British imperialism? They had
gone back to that well far too often to credibly claim it was poisoned. The US parallels are clear:
How are US voters supposed to
take it seriously when Democrats
decry Trump’s Islamophobia and
anti-immigrant values as “not
American values,” when the Democrats have been so willing to support policies steeped in xenophobia and fear mongering?
The prospects for both US and
European politics were already
looking bleak before Brexit, but the
urgency is now undeniable. Those
who would oppose white supremacist nativism, imperialistic
nationalism and violent xenophobia on both sides of the Atlantic
will need to move quickly, boldly
and resolutely to protect the people vilified by these resurgent
right-wing forces and avert a truly
grim future.
—(Truthout)
Taliban
.
MONDAY JUNE 27, 2016
AFGHANISTANTIMES
Brexit: The night the UK
became a little island
byRachel Shabi
byLonnie Isabel
This United States presidential
election threatens to splinter
the nation's two-party system,
in place now for almost two
centuries.
Bernie Sanders believes he
can save the Democratic party
from itself, a party he once
called "politically bankrupt"
and a "sham".
The eight years of the
Obama administration has been
a staring down and shouting
match.
A stalemated Washington
reflects an ever-deepening political void that is fuelled by the
country's historic racial, geographical and social divides
and by its current economic
malaise.
US Election: Sanders not
ready to concede defeat to
Clinton
Polls show that voters are
sick of its national politicians,
and this has launched the rise
of two alleged outsiders,
Donald Trump and Sanders.
Both the dubious billionaire
and the maverick senator have
reviled, defied and ridiculed the
two major parties, whose banners they hoped to carry to the
White House. Their successes
have shaken the parties to the
core.
A progressive army
Astoundingly, closed-rank
Republicans have been the
most virulent critics of Trump,
the party's new mostly uncontrollable strongman and the
champion of the suddenly disaffected.
And Hillary Clinton, who
fought a political war to turn
back the insurgent Sanders, is
struggling to pull together a
party that has always teetered
on the brink of dissolution as a
loose coalition of labour, minorities, progressives, centrists
and younger voters.
Trump is good at quick labels, like "Crooked Hillary", but
Sanders has been her most
damaging political critic.
Sanders has made his intentions clear. He wants to reimagine the Democratic party.
He was to re-invigorate it with
a progressive agenda that
doesn't just mouth liberal ideals.
Though Sanders has been
defeated for the Democratic
nomination, the pugnacious
former mayor remains a central
figure in the campaign now little more than a month from the
nominating conventions.
That he is 74, from a small,
homogenous white state, that
he is a socialist and a Jew, both
previously toxic in national
politics, and that he is not even
a member of the party - none of
this has been much of a hindrance. He has drawn millions
of voters and small donors reacting to his call for a "political
revolution".
So now, that he is out of the
running for the nomination,
what does Sanders want?
And how will his progressive army affect the election of
the commander-in-chief of the
world's most powerful military
and the steward of a massive
economy that impacts on the
world with every twitch and
stumble?
And will he be able to defy
history and sustain his group
of virulent supporters to
change the party forever?
Clear intentions
Sanders has made his intentions clear. He wants to reimagine the Democratic party.
He was to re-invigorate it with
a progressive agenda that
doesn't just mouth liberal ideals.
He wants to lurch it forward
from the centrist Clinton-Obama
ideology to represent what he
sees as the true desires of the
people, particularly young people, a large part of his followers.
OPINION: What US elections should look like in a real
democracy
In short he wants to keep
his movement, his revolution,
alive. Ross Perot couldn't do
this with a third party run in
1996; Theodore Roosevelt
couldn't in 1912 when he created the Progressive party after
he lost the Republican nomination; and Ralph Nader faded after running as a third party candidate in 2000.
Unlike those three, Sanders
wants to sustain a movement
within one of the big two parties.
In the closest thing to a
concession speech, without
conceding, Sanders said last
week: "I also look forward to
working with Secretary Clinton
to transform the Democratic
Party so that it becomes a party of working people and young
people, and not just wealthy
campaign contributors."
Sanders arrives at a campaign rally in San Francisco,
June 6 [Reuters]
The implication is that the
party and Clinton have been for
hire, dependent on big money
donors, who dominate US politics.
In 2012, Obama and Mitt
Romney raised a combined
$2bn and this year that number
is expected to rise, if Trump can
close the fundraising gap.
Sanders' comment suggests that neither Clinton nor
Obama - whose two elections
were in large part a result of the
very progressives that Sanders
has rounded up - have led the
party to the benefit of "working people and young people".
Clinton supporters are furious at Sanders. Traditionally,
candidates who lose the nomination endorse the nominee
and stand down, as Clinton
herself did after losing a bitter
race to Obama in 2008.
Sanders has been called a
sexist, an egoist and an obstructionist. Shaping the Democratic Party Sanders forces now are
zeroing in on the Democratic
LETTER TO THE EDITOR
party platform, a working political agenda that is often discarded post-election.
The platforms are the result
of intricate negotiations on the
wording and direction of a list
of priorities on a large range of
issues.
OPINION: The US election
is about the past
Sanders wants the party to
adopt key positions he has
raised on jobs, healthcare, racial justice, free college tuition,
a more sceptical view of Israel
in its relationship with Palestinians and regulation of the financial industry.
The negotiations are to be
conducted with party officials
that Sanders has heavily criticised. If there is to be a showdown at the Democratic convention in Philadelphia next
month, it will be over the platform.
In the end, though, the platform will be a minor skirmish in
the battle for the soul and direction of the party.
Sanders has his large group
of committed voters as his leverage. Though history has
shown that voting blocs are
difficult to sustain to subsequent presidential elections,
Sanders' David v Goliath campaign has given voice to a defiant group that wants to battle
the Republican and Tea Party
obstructionists with a can-do
liberal populism.
Sanders wants to lead in the
Democratic party from the outside. As an outlier, he has
shocked this political campaign
with unexpected success and
proposes a revolution that
promises to change US politics
for generations.
If he makes that happen,
losing to Clinton won't be his
enduring legacy.
Lonnie Isabel is a reporter,
editor and journalism instructor who has covered US politics and foreign affairs for three
decades.
Night raids
Night raids is vital to tame insurgent movements across the country, and it is worth mentioning that Afghan security forces conducted
several night raids in different parts of Kandahar province recently, resulting in improving security situation in the province.
I am the resident of Panjwai district, and I am glad that Afghan forces in their night raids destroyed Taliban’s hideouts and reduced their
activities in the area.
Night raids are significant to eliminate any form of terrorists including the Taliban insurgents. And also it could play important role in
weakening insurgent outfits. Taliban insurgents suffered heavy losses in this raids.
According to him, security situation in Panjwai has improved after security forces conducted few night raids in the district.
Basir Ahmad, Panjwai district of Kandahar, Afghanistan
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: [email protected]
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.
And just like that, over one night,
the country became a little island
again - and also split apart. The
British public voted yesterday to
leave the European Union, a decision that sent heads spinning and
the pound plummeting. For the 48
percent of the population who
voted to remain in the EU, the news
was akin to having your life and
identity mugged: a vote to separate from mainland Europe, disengage and turn ever inwards.
But the stark division lines of
this vote exposed what many have
long warned is a deeply disunited
Britain. Scotland voted resolutely
to remain in the EU - every part of
it voted to remain - making it almost inevitable that the country
will call for another referendum on
its own independence: after all,
why should it stay yoked to an
England that wants to leave?
The future of Northern Ireland
also hangs in the air - it, too, voted
to remain and shares a border with
the Republic of Ireland, an EU
member, prompting Northern Ireland's Deputy First Minister,
Martin McGuinness, to call for a
referendum on reunification.
A disunited UK
London voted resolutely to
stay a part of the EU; its recently
elected Mayor Sadiq Khan swiftly spoke to reassure Europeans living in the capital that they are still
welcome. The capital is starkly out
out. And across the country, the
young voted overwhelmingly to
remain members of the EU, while
the over-65s voted to break away.
This seismic result brought
about the swift resignation of
Prime Minister David Cameron,
with a new Conservative party
leader expected to be in place by
October. For the Labour Party, it
has prompted accusations that its
leader Jeremy Corbyn didn't do
enough to shore up support for
the EU from Labour voters - albeit
from a parliamentary party that
doesn't like the leader anyway,
despite his landslide leadership
victory and popularity among the
party membership.
The immigration debate
The EU itself is now in trouble, because the British vote will
prompt similar elections across
Europe. The Dutch anti-immigration leader Geert Wilders wasted
no time in calling for a referendum
on the EU for the Netherlands and polls suggest that up to a third
of Europeans have turned against
the union.
In Britain - as across Europe the frame for this discussion has
been immigration. Held up as the
decisive factor in Britain's vote,
hostility to migrants has been at
fever pitch, toxic, and whipped up
daily by tabloid newspapers and
Leave campaigners alike. Populations ravaged by austerity cuts and
opportunity to hit back.
Britain's horrifying wealth gap
- food banks and daily struggle at
one end, luxury and boom-time at
the other - has only been exacerbated by savage austerity cuts.
Warnings about economic hardship
creating prime conditions for a nationalist far-right fell on deaf ears.
Calls throughout the referendum campaign to make it less
harsh went unheeded. And the
pleas to roll back the relentless xenophobia of the Leave campaign,
and its demonisation of migrants,
were dismissed as unfair - surreally turning the verbal attackers into
victims.
At its worst, this sentiment
was captured by the populist
UKIP leader Nigel Farage appearing in front of an image of queueing, non-white refugees with the
slogan: "Breaking Point". This
same man declared that the Leave
campaign had been victorious
"without a single bullet being fired"
- just over a week after the Labour
MP Jo Cox was shot and stabbed
to death.
Hard-right nationalists
Among numerous anxieties is
the idea that now, at a time when
Britain needs politicians that can
unite, strengthen and bring cohesion, our fate is bound up with the
victorious Leavers - many of them
hard-right nationalists that have
helped to stoke the hatred and di-
of kilter with its surroundings,
though: chunks of the rest of southern England, along with Wales,
voted to leave the EU.
Across the north, cities voted
to remain while rural areas wanted
decades of economic neglect saw
migrants as the cause of their misery; swaths of people, already
alienated, disempowered and trampled upon by a disdainful ruling
elite, took the referendum as a rare
vision. You can hear the longing to
be better across the country - and
that might yet be possible; it always is - but with it, also, is the
sinking, gut-punching concern: Are
we up to the task?
vivable.
Syria’s neighbors
But all this is hardly making
the news in the West. And it
should. Amid the media kerfuffle
and the rise of xenophobic nationalism in the EU, what is being
missed is that Europe is having to
deal with a negligible burden compared with Syria’s neighbors, and
that if the situation carries on like
this, we’ll not only have to cope
with Syrian and Iraqi refugees, but
before long, Lebanese too.
Amid the media kerfuffle and
the rise of xenophobic nationalism
in the EU, what is being missed is
that Europe is having to deal with
a negligible burden compared with
Syria’s neighbors
Dr. Azeem Ibrahim
Perhaps Jordanian and Kurdish on top, not long after. The countries of Eastern Europe have acted
shamefully in this regard, and are
in effect shoving their heads in the
sand over what is to come. Britain
and Denmark too. The initial response of Germany and Sweden,
unlike it has been described in
Western media, has been no more
than a proportional response in the
right direction, given the magnitude
of the problem.
It was not over-the-top generous. It was what was required by
the humanitarian situation – and
also by the demographic problems
that those countries have. But even
there, reactionary forces have since
blocked further action.
Strangely enough, for all there
is to loathe about Turkish President Erdogan, in this situation he
has done more than anyone for the
refugees. More, even, than Angela
Merkel. The Turks have invested
billions of dollars in building facilities for the refugees – facilities I
have visited myself in 2013, when
I got a private tour by Governor
Dalmaz, the PR special representative for Syrian refugees, to see
some of them.
The cauldron of violence in
Syria and Iraq is still boiling over.
And it will continue to spill over
waves of refugees for some time
to come. Before long, if nothing is
done, the countries who have
borne most of the humanitarian
burden may soon be destabilized
themselves, aggravating the refugee crisis beyond our worst nightmares. How much longer will we
contend to navelgaze about pitiful
numbers in our economies which
can easily absorb these people,
while we stand idly by and allow
the root causes of this crisis to get
worse and worse?
Because as far as genuine solutions are concerned, we have
nothing. No substantial plan to
stem the conflict in Syria and Iraq.
No plan to help Turkey, Lebanon
and Jordan to cope with the financial stresses of the effort they are
putting in. No plan to take some
of the burden off them by taking
in more refugees than those who
can make it to our shores by boat.
Nothing.
And if we choose to be complacent about the consequences
because Lebanon and Jordan are
countries far away, keep in mind
which country is next in line on
the brink of collapse, immediately
after them: Greece.
Lebanon and Jordan may collapse
under a new wave of refugees
Dr. Azeem Ibrahim
While Europe is tearing itself
apart politically over a refugee crisis that they could easily handle if
they agreed to work together, the
countries which have done the actual heavy lifting in helping with
the situation are genuinely suffering.
Turkey has been becoming
more and more unstable over the
past year. Much of that to do with
a renewed Kurdish insurgency
prompted by Ankara’s approach
to Syria, but having to deal with
upwards of 2.7 million refugees is
certainly putting the resources of
the Turkish state under strain. And
much more worryingly, Jordan and
Lebanon are creaking at the seams
and may collapse under the weight
of refugees.
Lebanon in particular has taken in between 1 and 1.5 million, in
a country of less than 5 million –
upwards of one fifth of the people
in that country are now Syrian refugees, a larger proportion than
anywhere else. And in a country
with its own very troubled history of sectarian infighting, the pressure is starting to take its toll. So
much so, that they no longer let
Syrians in the country unless they
can prove that they will move onto
somewhere else next.
As we speak, the Syrian socalled “ceasefire” is melting away,
and renewed violence may yet see
another surge in refugee numbers.
Even as in recent weeks more and
more Syrian refugees have started
contemplating heading back home
in the war zone, as the situation in
the refugee camps have deteriorated to where they are barely sur-
.
MONDAY JUNE 27, 2016
AFGHANISTANTIMES
New Delhi/Greater Noida, India After a year in India, Zaharaddeen
Muhammed, 27, knows enough
Hindi to understand what bander
means. Monkey.
But it isn't even the daily derogatory comments that make him
doubt his decision to swap his
university in Nigeria for a two-year
master's degree programme in
chemistry at Noida International
University. Nor is it the questions
about personal hygiene, the unsolicited touching of his hair or the
endless staring. It is his failure to
interact with Indian people on a
deeper level.
"People often look at me as if
I am different, and hard to be trusted," the tall, softly spoken student
explains. "I try to be friendly. I
speak Hindi and always laugh. But
when I offer biscuits to the neighbours' children, they don't accept."
After a year, one of Zaharaddeen's biggest wishes remains unfulfilled: to be invited to an Indian
wedding.
"I am a big fan of Bollywood,"
he explains about why he wanted
to come to India. "I did not come
for the school because there are
enough good universities back
home. But I wanted to learn about
this other culture and interact with
the people here."
While he speaks with his Indian classmates at the university, a
75-acre campus accommodating
students from more than 20 countries, and some of them also
showed up for an international
cultural event he helped to organise, none of these encounters lead
to friendships.
"I have never been at an Indian
person's home, as a friend. No one
has visited me," Zaharaddeen
says.
Zaharaddeen rents two rooms
on the first floor of a three-storey
house in Greater Noida, a residential area on the outskirts of Noida,
a satellite town east of New Delhi
and part of what is called the National Capital Region. The house
is about an hour's drive south after
crossing the River Yamuna which
runs along Delhi's east side.
Noida International University, one of five private universities
in the city attracting students from
all over the world, is another 20
minutes' drive by bus or auto rickshaw along a newly constructed
expressway, surrounded by barren
fields and opposite a Formula 1
racing circuit that was built in
2011.
The university hostels are all
off-campus. Zaharaddeen opted
out of living in them because he
likes to cook his own meals and
he'd heard that the hostel canteens
only serve vegetarian food.
A friend from Nigeria, who was
already in India, found his current
house for him. The ground floor is
also rented out to a student from
Nigeria.
"My landlord is an extremely
good person," Zaharaddeen says.
Although he has had some bad experiences with Indian people,
many of them are good, he stresses. And he doesn't want to generalise.
"That would be a huge mistake. Because it is Indians often
generalising about all people from
Africa that makes us feel unsafe."
Zaharaddeen Muhammed, a
master's degree student from Nigeria, on the balcony of his home
in Greater Noida, India [Aletta
Andre/Al Jazeera]
'Racism at every turn'
Zaharaddeen is a member of
the Association of African Students in India, which last month
announced a protest rally at New
Delhi's protest street Janter Manter.
"African students no longer
feel safe in India; we have to deal
with racism at every turn," said
the announcement.
The rally was planned after
the Congolese teacher Masonda
Kitanda Olivier died in an attack
in Delhi in May. A week later, six
Africans, including two women
and a priest who was on his way
home with his wife and baby, were
attacked by men with cricket bats.
Earlier this year, a female student from Tanzania was beaten and
stripped in Bangalore by an angry
mob, in response to a fatal accident caused by a Sudanese student
unknown to her.
Zaharaddeen speaks with horror about the attack in Bangalore:
"She was just walking there. It
could have happened to any of us."
In each of the cases, the police
said that racism had nothing to do
with it. But for the student association and the Group of African
Heads of Missions, it had, and the
time had come to take up the issue
at a higher level.
'Followed and harassed'
Zaharaddeen was supposed to
coordinate transport for the students from Greater Noida wishing
to attend the rally, but it was cancelled when the student leaders and
diplomats were invited for talks at
the Ministry of External Affairs
and the police commissioner made
commitments to ensure their safety.
After that, Delhi police organised several community meetings
with residents from African countries and their Indian neighbours
and landlords.
Zaharaddeen attended one of
the meetings in Chattarpur in
southwest Delhi, an area full of
narrow alleys popular with stu-
dents.
"It was very useful," he says.
"Both sides got to raise their issues."
African residents spoke about
the difficulties they often have in
finding accommodation.
"When landlords find out
where you are from, they just say
'no'," explains a female student,
who asked us not to reveal her
name or nationality for security
reasons.
"I don't want to be targeted.
Even when people ask me at parties where I am from, I often lie …
you never know who you are
speaking to. You might be followed
and harassed."
She used to live in an area similar to Chattarpur and says she was
evicted by her landlord without
any notice. "Even if they rent out
their place to you, they remain
suspicious and start asking for the
rent halfway through the month. I
was late with paying once and was
told to leave immediately."
The man bringing electricity to Iraq
Baghdad, Iraq - Before the 2003
invasion of Iraq, the country's national grid supplied the capital,
Baghdad, with between 16 and 20
hours of electricity each day. But
more than a decade after the fall of
Saddam Hussein, electricity supplies have dropped to an average
of only one hour of power for every four hours of the day - that's
six hours over a 24-hour period.
Hadi is known as the "generator man". He makes a living supplying others with electricity.
family and I help them with everything I can," he says. "Some
families receive power for free because I know they cannot pay."
One of his customers, an elderly lady, says the national grid
gives her only one hour of electricity a day - and that can come during the day or the night. "You never know," she says.
"Hadi saved me by giving me
electricity for free," she explains.
"Two days ago, someone cut the
wire and left me without electrici-
"Iraq is a very rich country,
but life here is very difficult," he
says. "We don't have the basic necessities covered to live with a
minimum of dignity. Electricity is
one of our biggest problems. The
lack of energy doesn't let Iraq move
ahead. It's a weird situation. We
have so much oil but we don't have
electricity."
A 10 amp domestic subscription to a private generator can cost
anywhere between $60 and $100
a month. That's a luxury few can
afford. But Hadi has a licence from
the government that allows him to
run a generator and provide electricity to others. In fact, he has
two generators.
When one of his customers
calls, Hadi connects one of the generators to their fuse box. A tangled
web of wires hangs overhead.
"When I switch them on, each
one receives the amps according
to the contract they signed - four
amps, five amps, six amps, it depends," he explains.
In some cases, more than one
family will share the same fuse box,
splitting as little as four amps between two households.
Too poor to pay
Hadi says around 154 to 156
families are his customers. He provides electricity to those who can
afford to pay for it - and often to
those who cannot.
"My neighbours are like my
ty. Poor Hadi, he went crazy fixing it."
Polishing her old sewing machine, she says: "This machine is
so beautiful .... Once I sewed an
abaya for 33 cents. It was a blessing. With this money I had enough
to feed my family and live a good
life. I remember when I spent
nights sewing. I was able to sew
10 abayas in one night."
"I survive as I can," she adds.
"It's shameful to go in the streets
asking for alms."
Much of Hadi's time is spent
balancing the books. "Some [people] come here asking to delay payment because they have no money. Others just don't want to pay
and bring me the money 15, 16
days late, when I am about to cut
off their power."
"Some people ... come and ask:
'Why don't I have power?' I try to
explain to them that maybe there
is a problem with the wiring. They
accuse me of cutting the wires."
"People here have a lot of problems - debts, frustrations, depression - and the generator man is their
punch-bag," he reflects.
'Life depends on God and the
generator'
An old man who lives nearby
complains about the noise the generator makes and the way it shakes
the walls of his house. "Here life
depends on God and on the generator," he says.
A neighbour, Farid, says he
doesn't care about the noise because electricity is more important.
"What do you prefer - to die from
the heat or the noise of the generator?" he asks the older man.
"When I switch on the generator, people can have air conditioning or at least a fan," Hadi explains.
"They can renew the air in their
houses, switch on the lights and
leave the dark behind."
But running the generators
takes its toll on Hadi. "I spend
more time with the generators than
with my wife," he says. "The generator takes all my time."
Hadi's wife shares his frustrations. "I feel very sad when I see
other families going out for a walk
with their children. Because of the
generator, we can't go anywhere
because people will start complaining," she says.
There is always someone calling with a problem - perhaps with
the wiring or the fuse box - and
Hadi must always be ready to
solve it, whatever the time of day.
"Now, with two generators,
my problems have increased," he
says.
Still, Hadi adds, "I don't care
because I feel good helping the
people".
Power cuts do not discriminate
mm Ali is one of Hadi's clients. "Because of the heat, the generator always stops," she says.
She says she feels "sorry for
the generator man".
"It's not easy on him. It's difficult and harmful. The noise of
the generator in the neighbourhood. It's not an easy thing to do."
But electricity is critical for
women like Umm Ali. "The majority of Iraqi women work at
home," she explains. "But we need
electricity. We cook food to sell.
Others are hairdressers or tailors.
All these jobs need power .... All
the money we make goes to [pay
the] fuel costs."
For some, the power cuts can
have even more serious consequences.
Noura and her mother are waiting for another round of physiotherapy at Baghdad's children's
teaching hospital. Noura was injured in shooting between US
troops and Iraqi forces. "Suddenly, Noura fell down," her mother
remembers. "Instantly, her legs
became paralysed."
But power cuts do not discriminate and all power to the hospital shuts down in the middle of
Noura's session.
Rohtas, a young broker who
mediates between landlords and
potential tenants, says he often
gets requests not to show houses
to "black people", because they're
presumed to deal in drugs and be
involved in other criminal activities.
And its not just landlords who
think like that, the female student
explains. "Shopkeepers often
check the money I give them to
make sure it is not fake," she says.
"It is rude and unfair. We are a
happy, cheerful people. But in India we just get angry."
'Demons or drug dealers'
As a secretary of the Nigerian
Citizens' Welfare Association of
Greater Noida, which holds meetings twice a month, Zaharaddeen
encourages other members to "live
peacefully with the host community".
That echoes the stance of the
All India Nigeria Students and
Community Association, which
operates from New Delhi and im-
poses a 1,000-rupee ($15) fine on
its members if they are found to
be dressed "inappropriately".
Witness - African Business in
China
Zaharaddeen does not drink or
smoke, but says he has adjusted
his lifestyle. He has classes from
10am to 4pm, eats lunch on campus, usually with other international students, and goes home afterwards.
He might go to a restaurant or
the grocery shop, and on Fridays
he goes to the local mosque, but,
he says: "I don't go out. In India,
you cannot roam the streets at
night. In Nigeria, I used to hang
out till midnight. Here I make sure
to be at home by 9pm-10pm [at
the] latest."
At a recent meeting organised
by the Africa-India Solidarity Forum, a traditionally dressed Zaharaddeen spoke to an audience of
about 50 mostly Indians about the
generalisations he feels Africans are
subjected to.
This was seconded by Ibrahim
Djiji Adam, a 25-year-old business
student from Libya.
"We are often seen as demons,
drug dealers or prostitutes," Ibrahim said. Unlike Zaharaddeen,
Ibrahim made Indian friends during the three-year programme he
recently completed at Noida International University. He learned
Hindi and even "dated an Indian
girl", he says. This is how he says
he realised that many Indians "are
racist amongst themselves", as
well.
Professor Archin Vanaik, who
retired from teaching international
relations at Delhi University and
also spoke at the forum, agrees with
Ibrahim and links the widespread
racism African people experience
in India to the caste system.
"The caste system makes it
easier for people to accept other
forms of exclusion," he explains.
There might also be what he
calls "psychological compensation" at play for those Indians who
experience prejudice as members
of lower castes or the so-called
"other backward classes". "They
could feel better by looking at African people and thinking 'at least
I am better than that'," he says.
Zaharaddeen felt positive after the
forum. "I am happy that so many
people truly care," he says.
"Thanks to meetings like this, we
can start to feel safe again." He
hopes that India and Nigeria will
continue their decades-old ties,
built during their struggles for independence and strengthened in the
post-colonial years of non-alignment, when thousands of students
and business people would travel
between the two countries.
But would he advise a good
friend from Nigeria to pursue their
higher education in India? "Then I
would perhaps tell him to go elsewhere ... The purpose of studying
abroad is to learn about another
culture. If that cannot be achieved,
then you might as well not go." Al
Jazeera
Yemeni civilians struggle through
‘invisible crisis’ during Ramadan
For most Muslims, the holy fasting month of Ramadan is a time of
peace that brings families together, but not for Yemen’s population of 24 million.
High food prices, little electricity, a humanitarian crisis and nearconstant bombings from a 15month-long conflict are causing
misery in a normally joyful season.
Although people are trying
their best to enjoy Ramadan, Yemen’s “hard and tough” situation
is making life especially difficult,
said Taiz-based human rights activist Ahmed al-Qadhi.
One of the biggest tragedies
this Ramadan is that children have
been deprived of their basic rights,
Qadhi told Al Arabiya English.
Children “used to enjoy Ramadan every year, but this year
they were deprived of safety, of
play and joy.”
Qadhi explained that in his
southwestern hometown, which he
describes as a “city of life and
pain,” civilians find it difficult to
visit scattered families during Ramadan due to a siege on Yemen’s
third-largest city by Houthi militias, which is depriving civilians
of basic humanitarian needs.
Markets in Taiz lack many of
the foods that locals enjoy during
the holy month. With no electricity for more than a year, demand
for gas has drastically increased.
A report published by the
UN’s food agency this month
found that the escalated conflict
has “damaged public and private
infrastructure” and “destabilized
the market system and prices,”
causing dramatic price rises in food
and fuel.
“Gas prices are very high,”
Qadhi said. Prices of gas cylinders
in Taiz have risen this year by 200
percent. Last year, a gas cylinder
cost 1,500 Yemeni riyals ($6). Prices
this year stand at 4,500 ($18).
The average price of commodities in Yemen has increased in
most of the governorates, according to Yemen’s Ministry of Planning & International Cooperation
(MOPIC).
The price of produce such as
wheat flour has increased by 22.25
percent compared to the pre-crisis period of Feb. 2015, according
to MOPIC.
Electricity shortages
Jamie McGoldrick, the U.N.’s
humanitarian chief for Yemen, said
his staff on the ground have reported frequent electricity outages across the country, with many
receiving only a few hours of power a day.
The shortages make Ramadan
“difficult for families, and the lack
of power supplies affect health and
other facilities,” McGoldrick said,
adding that sweltering temperatures in coastal areas make life
there even worse.
Ramadan in Yemen
A university student based in
Yemen’s capital Sanaa told Al Arabiya English that her family had
taken to using solar panels and generators.
“One of the main difficulties
that we face is that without
[enough] electricity we don’t have
a fridge, so we need to go to the
market to get food every day otherwise it won’t keep," Safa Nabeel said. However, she considers
herself lucky - her relatives in the
port city of Aden suffer far more.
Marwa Gamal, a resident in
Aden, told Al Arabiya English that
this Ramadan had become “unbearable” due to the heat, “but we
have hope that things will improve.”
Ramadan deaths
More than 6,400 people have
been killed in Yemen since the Arab
coalition began its campaign
against Houthi militias, which have
controlled Sanaa since Sept. 2014.
With no agreement in sight
between the warring sides, the conflict has had a devastating effect
on Yemenis.
Earlier this month, just days
before Ramadan began, a market
in Taiz bustling with shoppers was
hit by shells, according to a UN
spokeswoman. The attack killed
12 civilians and injured 122.
A series of rocket and mortar
attacks continued over the next few
days, killing six more and injuring
dozens.
According to several victims,
the shelling originated from the
eastern part of the city, which is
under the control of the Houthis
and forces loyal to former President Ali Abdullah Saleh.
“Everyone in Taiz predicts
death anytime due to day-andnight heavy shelling on their houses, buildings and even crowded
markets,” local activist Mohammed al-Rumim told Al Arabiya
English.
The “non-stop shelling” on
residential areas by Houthi militias has killed many children, women and elderly people, Rumim added.
‘Immeasurable’ crisis
Although the fragile ceasefire
that started on April 11 has improved humanitarian access, civilians are still facing an “immeasurable” crisis, the United Nations said
this month.
McGoldrick said the truce,
which began 10 days before the
Houthis and Yemen’s government
began U.N.-brokered peace talks
in Kuwait, had allowed aid to access previously hard-to-reach areas. He called Yemen’s war “an invisible crisis,” voicing regret at the
lack of global concern given to the
country compared to Syria. Limited progress has been made at the
peace talks. Qadhi said Yemenis
just wish for a stable country, especially this Ramadan. “We want
to live peacefully.”
.
MONDAY JUNE 27, 2016
AFGHANISTANTIMES
How will
‘Brexit’ affect
your wallet?
A large contingent of Saudi Arabian officials, led by Deputy Crown
Prince Mohammed bin Salman, has
been busy meeting with major US
firms in a bid to help the kingdom
diversify its economy.
They have entered into several deals, signed memorandum of
understandings (MOUs) and held
talks for future investments.
Saudi Deputy Crown Prince
Mohammed bin Salman, who is
currently in New York, has met
UN chief Ban Ki-moon after a
week of Silicon Valley visits in the
US west coast.
This month, Saudi Arabia has
granted operational license to major US firm Dow Chemical Company and materials manufacturer
3M, with the expectation of Pfizer to follow, according to Saudi
Minister of Commerce and Investment told the state-run Saudi press
agency.
The Dow Chemical Company
became the first foreign firm to be
awarded a trading license from the
Saudi government, with 100 percent ownership.
3M and pharmaceutical giant
Pfizer will add “a lot of value” to
the Saudi market considering their
high stature, the minister said.
In a statement to Al Arabiya
English, a Pfizer spokesperson
said: “We’re honored to be one first
companies to receive fast track
approval of a trading license. This
is yet another step in our long term
commitment to the Kingdom of
Saudi Arabia, and a reflection of
our shared commitment with the
Government to ensure continued
reliable supply of innovative and
essential medicines to Saudi patients.”
Apart from investment deals
and MOUs, Saudi Arabia also brokered a deal with tech giant Microsoft that will see them train
young Saudis and will support
Saudi Arabia in its ambitious digital and knowledge-based innovation transformation under Vision
2030.
Another MOU was signed
with Cisco Systems to help develop the digital infrastructure in the
kingdom.
On another field, Saudi Arabia
has been in talks with theme park
companies in a bid to further investments in culture and entertainment in the kingdom. This included Prince Mohammed bin Salman
meeting with US theme park giant
Six Flags Chief Executive Officer
and President John M. Duffey as
well as meeting SeaWorld’s CEO
Joel Manby.
Boosting Saudi economic interests
The deals were inked during a
visit to the United States by Saudi’s Deputy Crown Prince Mohammed. The prince has so far met with
President Barack Obama and other senior officials.
Prince Mohammed’s visit to
the US comes after the Saudi’s
April rollout of Vision 2030 and
the National Transformation Program, a sweeping series of reforms
designed to wean the kingdom off
oil.
Patrick Ryan, a Gulf affairs
analyst whose consulting firm documents developments in Saudi-US
relations, called this week’s deals
“consistent with long-standing
Saudi interests to attract foreign
investments.”
“Saudis are anxious for business deals that will include technology transfer and business opportunities that boost Saudi employment and opportunities for its
citizens,” Ryan told Al Arabiya
English.
Early this month, Saudi Arabia’s sovereign wealth fund, one
of the cornerstone parts of its National Transformation Plan, announced it was investing $3.5 billion in US-based ride-hailing app
Uber, the largest single investment
ever made in a private company.
Then on Monday, US theme
park giant Six Flags said it would
invest in the kingdom, following a
meeting between its cheif executive and the Saudi deputy crown
prince.
Prince Mohammed also met
with Apple’s CEO Tim Cook in
New York on Friday.
Prince Mohammed’s meeting
with the top technology company
followed his visit to Facebook’s
headquarters on Wednesday and
met with the tech giant’s founder
and president, Mark Zuckerberg.
Indian Point's Unit 2 previously
was shut down for three months
after inspector discovered damaged
bolts
The Indian Point nuclear reactor that was shut down for three
months after inspectors discovered
hundreds of damaged bolts was
taken offline again early Thursday
so workers could fix a leaking pipe.
Indian Point’s owner, Entergy, said the leak of Hudson River
water came from a pipe in a “nonradioactive system” and that it
would not have an impact on safety at the Buchanan plant.
"There is no ongoing leak and
French and German business groups urge EU to 'reunite' after Brexit
regain its strength”.
They urged the leaders of
France and Germany to “solemnly remember their commitment to
European values” and boost European cooperation on foreign poli-
cy and security, especially in the
fight against terrorism.
They also called for “immediate, credible and visible measures
to strengthen the governance” of
the euro area and said their countries should pursue “national reforms to make our economies
stronger and more competitive to
assure the sustainability of our
social model”.
Turning to the looming Brexit
negotiations, they said they hoped
to “chart new ways of cooperating with Britain” but warned that
it risked the loss of its cherished
EU “financial passport”, which
allows financial institutions in onemember state to operate across the
bloc without having to set up shop
locally.
Were it to be deprived of this
privilege, Britain’s London-based
financial services industry could
take a big hit as firms may be
swayed to move their operations
to financial centers on the continent.
The China-led Asian Infrastructure
Investment Bank (AIIB) will be
different from institutions like the
World Bank because it has a greater understanding of the developing world's needs, officials said on
Sunday at its first annual meeting.
Chinese President Xi Jinping
proposed the bank two years ago
and it began operations in January, with 57 founding member
countries and $100 billion in committed capital, which it plans to
invest in projects across the region.
The AIIB, which intends to
invest $1.2 billion this year, has
said it is aiming to meet international standards of governance,
though some members say there is
still work to be done.
Speaking on the final day of
the bank's inaugural annual meeting, Chinese Finance Minister Lou
Jiwei said the AIIB needed to establish its niche.
"The AIIB needs to establish
its comparative advantage relative
to existing multilateral development banks like the World Bank,"
Lou said.
"...Compared with the Asian
Development Bank, World Bank
and other multilateral development banks, the AIIB's advantage
lies in its keener understanding of
the successful experience and lessons of developing countries' years
of development."
The AIIB's board approved its
first four deals worth $509 million
on Friday, with three projects cofinanced with the World Bank, the
Asian Development Bank, the
United Kingdom Department for
International Development and the
European Bank for Reconstruction
and Development.
The co-financed projects are a
slum renovation in Indonesia and
highway construction in Pakistan
and Tajikistan. A power grid upgrade project in Bangladesh will be
solely AIIB financed.
AIIB President Jin Liqun said
it was the focus on infrastructure
that specifically marked out the
bank as different and that they were
committed to the concept of international best practice.
"The question is, how do you
define international best practice?
I will not agree to anything which
could be considered international
best practice unless this kind best
practice incorporates the development experience of China and many
countries in Asia and elsewhere
over the last three or four decades,"
Jin said.
"So our bank would like to
have the development experience,
the so-called international best
practice, reflecting the experience
of China, India (and) so many
countries in Asia. So we should
have a different model of development."
The AIIB is also looking to
expand its numbers this year and
will take applications for new
members through the end of September.
there was no challenge to safety,
however the plant needs to be shut
down for weld repairs to be completed, in accordance with NRC
(Nuclear Regulatory Commission)
regulations," Entergy said.
Gov. Andrew Cuomo, a longtime opponent of Indian Point,
said the leak was part of a pattern
of "repeated and continuing problems" at the plant.
"In the last year alone, there
has been unprecedented degradation of Indian Point Unit 2 baffleformer bolts, groundwater contamination, and increased NRC oversight at Unit 3 due to numerous
unplanned shutdowns," Cuomo
said in a statement. "This is yet
another sign that the aging and
wearing away of important components at the facility are having a
direct and unacceptable impact on
safety, and is further proof that
the plant is not a reliable generation resource."
CLOSINGS: Indian Point
could be one of just two NY nuke
plants if others close
SHUTDOWN: Protesters call
for shutdown of Indian Point
CLIMATE: Indian Point: Unlikely alliance backs plant's future
ENERGY: Shutdown battle: A
Business groups in France and
Germany on Sunday said EU nations should respond to Britain’s
decision to quit the bloc by working even more closely together to
limit the “turbulence” caused by
the Brexit shock.
In a joint appeal published in
the French Journal du Dimanche,
the heads of Germany’s powerful
BDI and BDA industry groups and
the president of France’s MEDEF
employers’ federation made the
case for stronger political and economic cooperation.
“Europe must reunite, recover its confidence and go on the offensive,” wrote the presidents of
the three groups, Ulrich Grillo,
Ingo Krame and Pierre Gattaz.
Noting that the outcome of
Thursday’s referendum in Britain
had plunged the bloc into “an area
of turbulence”, the industry group
leaders said the Franco-German
motor of the European project was
“more than ever indispensable... to
China touts new bank's greater
understanding of developing world
Indian Point 2 shut down over leaking water pipe
tale of 2 nuclear power plants
Unit 2 – one of two functioning reactors at Indian Point – was
taken out of service in March after
NRC inspectors discovered some
278 damaged or cracked bolts during a refueling or “outage,” which
takes place every two years. The
reactor was put back into service
on June 16, over the objections of
local lawmakers and environmental groups who urged the shutdown
of a reactor they view as past its
prime. Indian Point officials defended the reactor’s safety record
and said the three-month shutdown allowed the company to in-
stall an "unprecedented" extra layer
of safety enhancements. While the
reactor is offline, Consolidated
Edison will also test a breaker in a
Con Ed switchyard located near
Indian Point, "thus improving electrical reliability for the area,” said
Brian Harmon, the vice president
for system operation at Con Ed.
Unit 2 had been in operation for
627 days before the March shutdown, providing electricity to
some 1 million homes in Westchester County and New York City.
Its sister reactor, Unit 3, has been
online for more than three months
since its last refueling. The anti-
nuclear group, Friends of the
Earth, recently lost a federal court
challenge to the NRC’s decision to
let Entergy restart Unit 2. Manna
Jo Greene, the environmental action director for Hudson River
Sloop Clearwater, called on federal lawmakers to hold hearings to
determine whether the reactor is
safe. "This eighth unplanned shutdown in a year, following the discovery of the worst-ever incidence
of degraded bolts inside a reactor,
indicates Indian Point is on a trajectory to disaster, with insufficient oversight by the Nuclear Regulatory Commission," Green said.
Global stock markets plunged to
their lowest levels in months Friday after Britain’s surprising decision to leave the European Union,
making an immediate dent in Americans’ 401(k) accounts and sparking concerns about other financial
impacts for the average U.S. consumer.
In the near-term, the ripple
effects of the so-called “Brexit”
may be felt beyond retirement accounts in the form of lower mortgage rates and a stronger dollar that
boosts Americans’ purchasing
power. But in other ways, the
events taking place across the pond
may not lead to much change for
consumers who are already used
to struggling with paltry rates on
savings accounts.
“The Brexit vote just further
delays the day savers see any improvement in their returns,” said
Greg McBride, chief financial analyst for Bankrate.com. “On the
bright side, that European vacation
just got cheaper.”
Here’s a look at the different
ways the vote could affect your
finances.
One clear bright spot for
Americans after the British vote is
that the cheaper pound and euro
will make U.S. tourists’ dollars go
much further on vacations across
the pond.
It may be years before Britain
is fully separated from the E.U.
but Americans may feel some nearterm pain in their retirement accounts.
Market analysts said Friday
that stock markets could continue
to see ups and downs over the next
several weeks as we learn more
about how Britain’s decision will
affect the rest of Europe, and how
much it can influence the economy at home.
Most investors who are decades away from retirement have
plenty of time for their portfolios
to recover from any losses they
might see in the near term.
But for people who expect to
retire sooner, say within the next
five years, it may be a good time
to look at their savings, insurance,
and other parts of their retirement
plan to make sure they’re prepared
to deal with the volatility, said
Christian Weller, a retirement income expert and professor of public policy at the University of
Massachusetts Boston. For instance, some people may want to
make sure they have enough cash
on hand so that they pay for living
expenses in their first few years of
retirement without having to sell
stocks at a time when markets
may be falling.
“Start to think about how can
you get in a comfortable situation
so you can live with the uncertainty,” Mr. Weller said.
Mortgages
Uncertainty over how the global economy will cope with the
changes in Europe may cause the
Federal Reserve to stay cautious
and wait before raising its benchmark interest rate any further this
year. As a result, mortgage rates,
which were initially projected to
rise this year when it was expected that the Fed would raise shortterm rates, may actually fall further. The average rate for a 30-year
mortgage fell slightly, by 0.1 percentage points, after the British
vote’s announcement, according to
Zillow.
For people who have been
waiting to refinance their mortgage,
now may be the time to act.
But the drop in mortgage rates
may not offer much of a break to
people looking to buy homes. With
home prices still high, and inventory still low, prospective buyers
may still have a hard time finding a
house they can afford. Home prices fell slightly this month from
May, but are still near all-time
highs seen in the fall of 2005, according to a report released this
week by Zillow.
“If you couldn’t afford a home
two days ago ... you still won’t be
able to afford a home now,” said
Svenja Gudell a chief economist
with Zillow. “Home prices aren’t
going down.”
For a $160,000 mortgage loan,
a 0.1 percent drop in 30-year mortgage rates would only amount to
savings of $7 on a home buyer’s
monthly mortgage payment, Ms.
Gudell estimates. Some potential
buyers may decide to delay such
major purchases until they know
more about how Britain’s exit will
affect the local economy and their
jobs. And prices on luxury homes
may actually increase at a faster
rate in some major cities, including
New York City and San Francisco,
if foreign investors who were previously planning to buy homes in
England decide to buy homes in
the states instead, Ms. Gudell said.
If the British economy slows
down, buying U.S. homes may be
viewed as less risky than buying
property abroad, she said.
It’s also not clear how long
those lower mortgage rates may
last. The Mortgage Bankers Association predicts that 30-year mortgage rates could reach 4 percent
by the end of this year and 4.8
percent by the end of 2017 if investors are encouraged by brighter
news at home.
Britain’s vote offers little relief for consumers who are tired of
earning next to nothing for the
money they have in the bank, said
Mr. McBride of Bankrate. At an
average yield of 0.08 percent, the
payouts on savings accounts are
still pretty close to three-year
lows, according to Bankrate.
.
MONDAY JUNE 27, 2016
AFGHANISTANTIMES
Trendsetters Victoria Beckham
and Rihanna appeared to be in superior spirits as they stepped out
looking every inch the style icons
they are. Channeling impeccable
fashion techniques, these showstoppers rocked oversized, monochromatic ensembles that radiated
class and composure simultaneously.
Victoria Beckham
Mrs Beckham was as welcome
as the sunshine in a memorable
monochromatic ensemble in Manhattan’s Chelsea neighbourhood on
Thursday. The 43-year-old designer rocked a bright yellow oversized
trenchcoat that comprised chunky
dark buttons, a hefty crisp collar
and relaxed sleeves — all this, over
a matching dress that sealed the
deal! The timeless mother-of-four
wore her brunette bob down in an
unfussy, natural wind-swept style
and showcased a $450 pair of her
favourite Celine sunglasses. The
former Spice Girl jazzed things up
by adding height to her petite
frame; courtesy of a chic pair of
nude stilettos that we wanted to
steal!
Rihanna
The 28-year-old singing sensation was sass personified as she
was spotted in London, having
dinner with a pal on Thursday.
Garbed in an oversized all-black
guise, the Umbrella hit-maker lured
a rain of spectators and awe-struck
fans. Working understated chic to
excellence, the Work star donned
velvet black over-the-knee boots
folded down to reveal a glimpse of
her gym-honed quads. She coordinated the statement-making boots
with a roomy black t-shirt, dressing the ensemble up with a choker
and an endearing Louis Vuitton box
clutch bag. Rocking her trademark
vivid red pout, Rihanna kept her
make-up minimal, letting her arresting green eyes do all the
schmoozing.
DIRECTOR OMAR
HASSAN SET TO
RELEASE
PAKISTAN’S FIRST
DANCE FILM
It is great to see the Pakistani film
industry finally attempting to
break barriers of clichéd storylines
and predictable plots to deliver
something fresh. The country’s
very first dance film, titled Dance
Kahani, is all set to mesmerise audiences with a nationwide release
on August 5. The project is going
to be Omar Hassan’s feature film
directorial debut, and aims to bring
Karachi’s hip hop culture to the
big screen.
Judging by the trailer, the film
appears to be a complete entertainment package and yet, it somehow deviates far from the other
commercial movies that the industry has been churning out lately.
Speaking to The Express Tribune,
Hassan reflected upon the idea of
making a dance film, and attempting to do something different. “The
idea was not just to make the first
dance film, but to make something
truly unique,” he said. “There has
been a trend of military-inspired
or comedy films and I wanted to
go beyond that.”
The film revolves around a
British-born girl who is forced to
abandon her dream of becoming a
professional ballerina when her
family decides to move back to
Pakistan. “In this completely different society she now has to survive. She looks for ways to continue pursuing her dreams and
eventually, comes across an underground hip hop circuit,” explained
Hassan. The lead role is essayed
by Scottish actor and dancer
Madeleine Hannah.
Trailer out:
Harshvardhan
Kapoor set to carry
forward family
legacy with Mirzya
The trailer of Rakeysh Omprakash
Mehra’s highly-anticipated film
Mirzya has been released and it
has left viewers enthralled.
Mirzya — featuring Anil
Kapoor ’s son Harshvardhan
Kapoor and Saiyami Kher in the
lead — marks the debut of both
the actors.
The movie is influenced by the
enduring tale of Mirza-Sahiban.
The action-packed, passionate
love story allegorises two different time periods, the contemporary and the medieval age, drawing
parallels between the two.
‘Udta Punjab’ trailer shows
Shahid Kapoor, Alia Bhatt like
never before
Screengrab from trailer.
Beyonce sued over ‘Lemonade’
trailer
The three-minute trailer starts
with Saiyami’s character reflecting
back on her childhood and her close
friend Monish — played by
Harshvardhan — who cared about
her but went missing.
Subsequently, we witness
Monish’s return, all grown-up.
‘TE3N’ trailer proves Amitabh Bachchan is still the Shehenshah of Bollywood
The lead pair creates on-screen
magic as both the characters manage to come together despite all
hurdles.
The visually enticing trailer
featuring our own Saeen Zahoor’s
overpowering voice and the mesmerising music by Shankar, Ehsaan
and Loy leaves viewers in awe.
Watch: Ranveer
Singh imitates how
girls go gaga over
Fawad Khan
When Iulia made
Salman agree to
something he was
against
Buzz is that the makers of the
upcoming Salman Khan-starrer,
'Sultan', will be launching a line of
langots as part of the film's promotions. The star has worn
langots during the wrestling bouts
in the film. The producers are planning to sell similar langots that he
dons in the film. If the buzz is to
be believed, Sallu was not too keen
on it - remember how he was
miffed when his snapshots in a
langot were leaked online?
But rumoured ladylove Iulia
Vantur thought it was a fun idea
and convinced him to give his nod.
After Fawad Khan swept Deepika Padukone off her feet at the IIFA
Awards in a super romantic interaction, the Queen of Bollywood’s
boyfriend Ranveer Singh went on a mission to figure out why women go
completely gaga over Fawad.
In a hilarious video, Ranveer on seeing Fawad, imitates how girls act
around the Kapoor & Sons heartthrob, as he nervously asks for a hug.
Fawad sweeps Deepika off her feet at IIFA ’16
Ranveer then went on to solve the mystery by asking, “What happens to chicks when they see him? What happens to you all?”
Check it out:
According to Deccan Chronicle, Ranveer went on to sing praises of
Fawad’s performance in Kapoor & Sons, saying, “What a performance?
Unbelievable performances in the film! I was crying and all when I saw
it.”
To which Fawad replied, “It’s so amazing when you are a fan of
someone and they appreciate you.”
OLOMBIAN DESIGNER MAKES FASHION BUSINESS BULLETPROOF
BOGOTA: Miguel Caballero’s designs are not just chic,
they could save your life.
But his creations come at a price. A bulletproof men’s
suit can cost between $6,000 and $8,000 and a blazer up to
$3,500. The Colombian fashion designer, who makes lightweight, bulletproof clothing for dignitaries including the King
of Jordan, says he has a ‘survivors club’ of 20 customers
who owe their lives to wearing his garments.
Colombia nabs record-breaking eight tons of cocaine
“My greatest satisfaction is not earning business, it’s
saving lives,” Caballero, who founded the company bearing
his name 21 years ago, told Reuters following a fashion
show on Friday with models strutting down the runway as
at any other. Caballero counts prime ministers and presidents in Latin America and further afield among his clients
and typically makes his clothing, for both men and women,
to order. He can even offer his clients bulletproof underwear. “It’s amazing, it is discrete, it is lightweight, the innovation is beautiful, you don’t even know that anyone is
wearing it,” said Rasheda Walker, who sells Caballero’s clothing in Nigeria and Kenya.
Caballero, who exports to 23 countries, also makes less
glamorous garments, including de-mining suits and bulletproof vests for military and police forces.
.
MONDAY JUNE 27, 2016
AFGHANISTANTIMES
The Walk Off:
White Sox lose
despite record-tying
homer barrage
Welcome to The Walk Off, the
nightly MLB recap from Big
League Stew. Here we'll look at the
top performers of the night, show
you a must-see highlight and rundown the scoreboard. First, we
start with a game you need to know
about.
If you missed the MLB Free
Game of the Day on Yahoo Sports
on Saturday afternoon, you missed
a wild one.
The Toronto Blue Jays "outslugged" the Chicago White Sox by
a final of 10-8. Though if you look
at the stats closer, you'll actually
find that Chicago did most of the
slugging.
The White Sox actually tied a
team record by hitting seven home
runs. Unfortunately for them, all
seven were of the solo variety,
meaning they couldn't keep up
with Toronto's more well-rounded attack.
Chicago started its barrage in
the most unusual manner. With
two outs in the second inning,
Brett Lawrie hit a long fly ball that
bounced off the top of the wall
and stayed in the park. There was
some confusion on the field about
whether or not it cleared the wall,
but Lawrie removed all doubt by
rounding the bases for an insidethe-park home run.
That started a string of backto-back-to-back home runs with
Dioner Navarro and J.B. Shuck.
Lawrie would homer again in the
fourth. He also drove in Chicago's
only non-homer tally with an RBI
single in the sixth. Tim Anderson,
Alex Avila and Adam Eaton followed with homers in the seventh,
eighth and ninth respectively, with
Eaton's tying the team record.
[Join a Yahoo Daily Fantasy
Baseball contest now]
As for the Blue Jays, they got
a single two-run homer from Devon Travis. Edwin Encarnacion
doubled twice and drove in four
runs.
TOP PERFORMERS
Andrew McCutchen: The Pirates star centerfielder had not
homered at home since May 2.
That changed in a big way on Saturday as McCutchen went deep
not once, but twice in Pittsburgh's
6-1 over the Dodgers. McCutchen
opening the scoring with a solo
shot in the fourth. That was actually the game's first hit. Two innings later, he followed with a
three-run blast that blew the game
open. The multi-homer game is the
11th of McCutchen's career.
Francisco Lindor and Carlos
Carrasco: Lindor homered twice
and Carrasco pitched a four-hitter
to lead the Indians past the Tigers
6-0. For Lindor, the game marked
the first of what should be several
multi-homer games. For Carrasco,
this was his third career shutout.
For the Indians, this makes eight
straight wins overall and moves
their season record to 8-0 against
the Tigers.
Kevin Gausman and Matt
Wieters: The Orioles swept a daynight doubleheader against the
Rays on Saturday, winning the
opener 5-0 and the nightcap 8-6.
Gausman was the star of Game 1,
pitching 7 2/3 scoreless innings
while striking out seven. In Game
2, Wieters did the heavy lifting,
crushing a pair of home runs. Adam
Jones and Chris Davis also homered, as the Rays fell for the 10th
straight game.
Drew Pomeranz: San Diego
starter was a one-man wrecking
crew on Saturday, leading the Padres to a 3-0 win over the Reds
with his arm and his bat. On the
hill, Pomeranz tossed seven scoreless innings, limiting Cincinnati to
three hits while striking out six.
With the bat, Pomeranz had two
hits, which included a solo homer
in the fifth and an RBI single in the
seventh.
MUST-SEE HIGHLIGHT
The Angels suffered another
loss on Saturday, falling 7-3 to the
A's. However, Albert Pujols did
notch another milestone, hitting
career home run No. 574. That
moved him past Hall of Famer
Harmon Killebrew for 11th place
on the all-time home run list.
THE REST OF THE SCOREBOARD
Yankees 2, Twins 1: The Yankees got a much-needed performance from Michael Pineda. In six
innings, the 27-year-old right-hander allowed one run on two hits
while striking out eight. Dellin
Betances, Andrew Miller and
Aroldis Chapman each added a
scoreless inning of relief to bring it
home.
Brewers 6, Nationals 5: Make
that seven straight losses for the
Nationals, who are now on the
verge of being swept by the rebuilding Brewers.
Marlins 9, Cubs 6: Giancarlo
Stanton and Justin Bour each had
two hits and three RBIs as Miami
handed Chicago its fifth loss in six
games.
Rockies 11, Diamondbacks 6:
Shelby Miller's up and down season continued with another clunker. In six innings, he allowed seven
runs on 11 hits, including a pair of
home runs. He's 2-7 on the season
with a 6.79 ERA.
The bombing and privations that
came as part and parcel of the punishment Serbia took during the
Kosovo war taught tennis world
number one Novak Djokovic how
to deal with adversity, he told The
Times.
The 29-year-old -- who is preparing for Wimbledon where he is
the two-time defending champion
and which gets underway on
Monday -- said life had hit rock
bottom during the 1998-99 conflict between Albanian guerillas and
Serbian forces with Nato siding
with the former and bombing Serbia.
"We grew up in harsh conditions, which is the most important factor to understand our journey," said Djokovic, who was 12
at the time and huddled with his
family in a bomb shelter for 78
successive nights.
"Sanctions, war, bombing. The
economic crisis. I skipped many
junior tournaments because my
parents didn't have the money.
"These experiences have
shaped us. I believe we appreciate
things more. We have started from
the very bottom.
"The consequences of those
times, and adversities are deep inside us," added the 12-time Grand
Slam winner.
Djokovic, who on winning the
French Open last month became
the first player since Australian
legend Rod Laver in 1969 to hold
all four Grand Slam titles at the
same time, said it was those experiences which made him impervious to the hostile receptions he
sometimes receives.
"Those difficult times have
made me stronger," said Djokovic,
who on the rare occasions he has
time off resides in Monaco with
his high school sweetheart now
wife Jelena and baby boy Stefan.
"But I am not invincible. I have
weaknesses and sometimes misbehave on court. And I do ask for
forgiveness from the universe for
being who I am, because sometimes the ego controls you.
"I feel there is still immense
room for improvement.
"I am not talking about forehands and backhands. I mean as a
person and this excites me."
Djokovic, who could go on and
secure the Golden Slam with an
Olympic gold medal in Rio in August, said what drives him on is
not the accruing of riches or trophies but to reach out to a wider
audience than the one that follows
tennis.
"We are often taught to think
about motivation in a selfish way,"
he said.
"It is about what we can monetise, what can we get out of my
success for myself.
"But think of Muhammad Ali.
He has left a strong legacy not just
on sports, but the wider society.
Why? Because he had a mission
beyond himself.
"He wanted to reach out to
others."
Melatonin won the $500,000 Gold
Cup by 1 1/2 lengths Saturday at
Santa Anita.
Ridden by Joe Talamo, Melatonin ran 1 1/4 miles in 1:59.79
and paid $5.60, $4 and $3 as the 95 favorite. The 5-year-old gelding
earned an automatic berth into the
$6 million Breeders' Cup Classic
at the track this fall.
Win the Space rallied threewide outside of Melatonin turning
for home and was head-to-head
with the eventual winner inside the
furlong pole. Win the Space returned $24.80 and $9.40 at 24-1
odds.
Defending champion Hard
Aces was another three-quarters
of a length back in third and paid
$5 to show. Hoppertunity finished
fourth.
Trained by David Hofmans,
Melatonin led all the way to win
the Santa Anita Handicap on
March 12 at 16-1 odds.
The victory, worth $300,000,
increased Melatonin's career earnings to $1,218,552, with five wins
in 13 starts. The gelding was limited to earnings of just $132,552
before this year because of a rare
neurological disorder.
Melatonin won the $500,000
Gold Cup by 1 1/2 lengths Saturday at Santa Anita.
Ridden by Joe Talamo, Melatonin ran 1 1/4 miles in 1:59.79
and paid $5.60, $4 and $3 as the 95 favorite. The 5-year-old gelding
earned an automatic berth into the
$6 million Breeders' Cup Classic
at the track this fall.
Win the Space rallied threewide outside of Melatonin turning
for home and was head-to-head
with the eventual winner inside the
furlong pole. Win the Space returned $24.80 and $9.40 at 24-1
odds.
Defending champion Hard
BELLATOR'S SCOTT COKER: ‘WE'RE GOING AFTER
ALL FREE AGENTS,' INCLUDING RORY MACDONALD
Bellator has been very aggressive
in the free agent market, and that's
not something that is going to
change anytime soon.
Following Friday night's Dynamite 2 event, Bellator president
Scott
Coker
told
MMAFighting.com that when it
comes to free agents, Bellator is
looking to corner the market. That
includes UFC welterweight contender Rory MacDonald, who recently lost to Stephen Thompson
in the UFC Ottawa main event.
That was the final bout on MacDonald's current UFC contract.
Yes, Bellator is interested.
“It really comes down to,
we're Bellator, and we're going to
go after all free agents,” Coker told
MMAFighting. “When (MacDonald's) contract is up, and I
think he might have some contingencies in the negotiation period,
and we're not going to breach any
contracts. But when they are ready
to talk, we're here and Rory's somebody we'd definitely be interested
in when he's free.”
Aces was another three-quarters
of a length back in third and paid
$5 to show. Hoppertunity finished
fourth.
Trained by David Hofmans,
Melatonin led all the way to win
the Santa Anita Handicap on
March 12 at 16-1 odds.
''He's a jockey's dream,'' Talamo said. ''He just does his thing.
He does not have to go to the lead.
As you saw, he laid second comfortably. What impressed me the
most about him today was when
Win the Space came to him at the
eighth pole, he just battled back.
He gives you everything he's got.''
The victory, worth $300,000,
increased Melatonin's career earnings to $1,218,552, with five wins
in 13 starts. The gelding was limited to earnings of just $132,552
before this year because of a rare
neurological disorder.
''I think we gave him enough
time to get rid of that awful thing
in his body,'' Hofmans said. ''I think
that held him back and since we
got rid of that, he's developed into
such a nice horse.'' In the $300,000
Triple Bend Stakes, Lord Nelson
defeated Subtle Indian by a halflength under Rafael Bejarano.
Lord Nelson ran seven furlongs
in 1:21.04 and paid $6.20, $3.80
and $2.60 as the 2-1 second choice
in the wagering. Subtle Indian returned $4.60 and $3.40, while
Kobe's Back was another 1 3/4
lengths back in third and paid $2.60
to show. It was the fifth career victory in the Grade 1 race for Hall of
Fame trainer Bob Baffert.
''That was pretty game,'' he
said. ''I didn't think he was going
to get there. It was pretty exciting
to watch, more exciting to win.''
The victory, worth $180,000,
increased Lord Nelson's career
earnings to $598,271, with five
wins in 11 starts.
Greenbrier classic
cancelled due to
'devastating flooding' in
West Virginia
The PGA Tour announced Saturday that the upcoming Greenbrier
Classic has been cancelled do to
'devastating flooding,' after storms
ravaged West Virginia.
In a statement, the Tour and
The Green Brier Resort said Old
White TPC, where the tournament
was set to be held July 7-10, had
sustained 'extensive damage' from
the flooding and is 'beyond reasonable repair' to host the event.
"We are heartbroken by the
devastation that the residents of
West Virginia are experiencing ?at
this time and the reports of lives
lost due to the terrible flooding,"
PGA TOUR Commissioner Tim
Finchem said in a statement on
PGATOUR.com. "Cancelling
The? Greenbrier Classic is certainly the most prudent course of action as our ?foremost concern is
the well-being of those who are
having to live through this tragic
situation.? Our thoughts and
prayers are with them."
MORE: Greenbrier Resort Inundated With Massive West Virginia Floods The Greenbrier and
the PGA Tour have hosted the
event since 2010, and extended
their commitment through 2021.
"We love the PGA TOUR and
our partnership with these fine
people," added Greenbrier owner
Jim Justice. "All of us are united
with only one common goal to help
the people through this terrible
time."
.
MONDAY
Boy, girl shot
dead by
unidentified
gunmen in
Kabul
PUL-I-ALAM: A boy and a girl
have been killed by unidentified
gunmen in the ChaharAsiab district of Kabul, an official said on
Sunday.
Abdul Wali Wakil, a Logar provincial council member, told Pajhwok Afghan News that the double-murder incident took place in
the Namonia area of the district.
He said the boy and girl, having a love affair, had eloped before
being gunned down on Saturday
night.“The teens from Nader Shah
Kot district of Khost provincehad
fled their homes.
“Some gunmen kidnapped
seized from a car in Sang Nushtiarea between Kabul and Logar.
Later, the gunmen took them to
Namonia and gunned down both
of them,” he said.
Wakil said that family members of the victimshad filed a complaint with the Logar provincial
council and accused the girl’s family of involvement in the incident.
Deputy police chief, Col.
Nisar Ahmad Abdur Rahimzai,
confirmed the killings and said
police had launched a search for
the perpetrators.
(Pajhwok)
MAZAR-I-SHARIF: A police officials who has been fasting on daily bases from the past five years
renewed his pledged and said he
would be fasting until peace talks
with Gulbadin Hikmatyar’s ledt
Hizb-i-Islami Afghanistan (HIA)
produced a successful result.
2nd Lt. Nizamuddin Farotan,
spokesman for 3rd unit of public
order police 6th brigade in northern Sar-i-Pul province, said he had
been fasting every day from the
past five years and two months
for peace stability and eradication
of corruption in the country.
Hailing from Baghlan province
the 37-year-old officer had been
discharging during in public order
police unit in the north from the
past two years of his transfer here.
In his previous interview with
Pajhwok Afghan News in 2012,
Farotan said he would continue
fasting until corruption completely eradicated from the country and
peace was prevailed.
In his second interview in 2014
he was disappointed and said the
government was not doing anything
for eradication of corruption. He
said he did not see any tangible
steps being taken for the eradication of corruption.
After over five years of continues fasting Farotan, however,
looked optimistic for peace and
stability in the country, but was
still committed to with fasting.
“I will remain committed to
By Farhad Naibkhel
vation. Afghans brought the idea
of saffron cultivation from Iran and
planted it in Ghoryan district in
Herat Province. Currently, saffron
is growing in over 30 provinces and
it will be expanded all over the
country soon.
Saffron can be cultivated in
many areas. Economically, if each
family had half an acre or one acre
of land for saffron, Afghanistan
would be saved from poverty
Consumers use saffron for
medicine, in foodstuff and cooking, and as a remedy for many ailments. Currently, the price of a
kilogram of Afghanistan’s saffron
in the global markets is around
$2,000. “Saffron can be cultivated in many areas.
Vol:X Issue No:326 Price: Afs.15
The Envoy: From Kabul to the
White House, My Journey
Through a Turbulent World
fast until peace and stability prevails in the country and corruption eradicates,” said Farotan in the
third exclusive interview with Pajhwok Afghan New in five years.
He said he was optimistic to
the good results of peace talks
with HIA and had been hearing
good news about possible government-HIA deal.
The public order police official hailed initiatives of the incumbent government for peace and stability saying his trust was restored
over durable peace in the country.
“Talks with HIA proved to be
beneficial, I am hopeful and pray
that his Excellency Hikmatyar
would put down arm and will join
the reconciliation process on that
day I will leave fasting,” said Farotan.
He asked the government if
deal with Hikmatyar succeeded he
should be provided a chance to
break year-long fasting pledge in
Masjidul Haram, Macca.
He said situation in the country was terrible there was fighting,
corruption that drowned the wartorn country into more crises. “If
the leaders walk the way they talk
situation would improved rapidly,” he hoped.
Farotan said he never faced
with case of corruption, but heard
a lot about corruption even that he
has been told that corruption occupied the entire system of the
country. About his fasting trend
he said initially he faced some problems but with the passage of time
he became accustomed. He said he
had digest problems which was
rehabilitated with fasting.
(Pajhwok)
Saffron production to increase: MAIL
KABUL: The government plans
to increase saffron products to 14
tons in the next five years, agricultural officials said Sunday.
Lotfullah Rashed, spokesman
for the ministry of agriculture said
the ministry worked hard to increase the saffron products.
Afghanistan has the capacity
of producing of 70 tons of saffron
annually, costing $200 million, he
added.
Economists believe that Afghan saffron is the best in the world,
asking the government to ban exporting it with the foreign trade
marks.
Saffron can be a major source
of income for Afghan farmers and
a great alternative to poppy culti-
.
JUNE 27 2016-Saratan 07, 1395 H.S
While Amanullah’s reforms were
discredited in their time, Afghans
of my generation admired him as a
progressive nationalist. When I
was leaving Afghanistan as ambassador in 2005, I was honored that
President Karzai bestowed on me
Afghanistan’s highest medal,
named after King Amanullah.
The issues of state-building
and reform were salient at the time.
In the 1960s, Zahir Shah came into
his own as a ruler. The king was
taking important steps to modernize Afghanistan. He crafted a new
constitution in 1964, which led to
the election of a national parliament the following year. The power
and influence of government institutions, the business community,
and the intellectual class grew relative to landowners and tribes.
Local religious leaders were weakened by their growing financial
dependence on the state and private sector. With foreign assistance,
the government was able to complete important national infrastructure projects—notably the “ring
road” connecting Afghanistan’s
principal cities and major hydroelectric dams on the Kabul River.
Still, cautious by nature, Zahir Shah was careful not to antagonize the traditional religious and
tribal establishment—which was
particularly regressive on women’s
issues.
At a time when I was beginning to see the injustices around
me through a more political lens,
was dissatisfied with the pace of
the king’s reforms. I was already
aware of the sexism the abounded
in Afghanistan. But it was only in
Kabul that I came to appreciate
the country’s deep ethnic divide.
While Afghanistan had four major
ethnic groups and several minor
ones, the Pashtuns and the Tajiks
were dominant.
The Hazaras were always given the hard, lowly jobs. In the national army, Hazara conscripts
would be assigned as servant in the
homes of state officials, there were
Hazaras in my school, and I saw
that there were limits to how high
they could rise.
This was true, albeit to lesser
degree, for Uzbeks, Turkomen,
and other ethnic minorities as well.
In the plains of the north, the
Uzbeks and Torkoman might have
land or considerable wealth. How-
ever, in Kabul, they were regarded
as simpletons. In institutions such
as the military and the diplomatic
service, the highest ranks were reserved exclusively for Pashtuns or
Tajiks.
I never became desensitized to
the plight of the Hazaras. I remember one time I saw a small group of
Hazaras struggling to pull a heavy
carriage up a hill. I approached
them and offered to give them a
hand. I was surprised when they
refused my help. They were afraid
that I would get hurt.
In the tenth grade, I received a
poignant reminder of the advantage that I enjoyed as a male. Class
rank determined ones eligibility to
compete for a place in the coveted
American Field Service (AFS) exchange program to the United
States.
Just like today, each AFS student would live for a year with an
American family and attend a local high school.
I was well positioned, having
finished ninth grade at the top of
my class, and was allowed to take
the written and oral examinations
to join the program. I had known
several students who had been in
the AFS program in previous years
and was eager to go abroad.
To be continued