Pakistan wants durable peace in Afghanistan: Nawaz Sharif

Transcription

Eye on the News
WEDNESDAY
.
MAY 13
.
[email protected]
2015 -Sawr 23, 1394 HS
Truthful, Factual and Unbiased
www.afghanistantimes.af
Vol:IX Issue No:277 Price: Afs.15
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Pakistan wants
durable peace
in Afghanistan:
Nawaz Sharif
Kabul, Islamabad as friends can
stand by each other in difficult
times, says President Ghani
By Akhtar M. Nikzad
KABUL: The ex-President Hamid Karzai talking to the German ambassador Markus Potzel on
Tuesday. The two sides discussed the current situation in Afghanistan and in the region.
Number of drug
Muslimyar and his
addicts rises to 3m in brother has no ties
Afghanistan: Survey w ith terrorists: NDS
Out of three million drug users, 1.4 million are
addicted to drug and 1.6 million others are using
or linked with drug, claims Public Health Minister
By Farhad Naibkhel
KABUL: A survey conducted by
the International Narcotics and
Law Enforcement Affairs (INL)
with oversight by the institutional
Review Board of the Ministry of
Public Health (MoPH) on Tuesday revealed that number of the
illicit drug users rose up to three
million across the country. Briefing media about the survey report
which has not been provided to
the news reporters, Minister of
Public Health, Ferozudin Feroz,
said that out of three million drug
users, 1.4 million are addicted to
drugs and 1.6 million others are
using and linked with drugs. The
children are not using drugs but
they are passive users because their
parents are addicted, the minister
said, adding that the survey was
conducted in two phases: urban
study was conducted in 2012 and
rural study completed this year,
which gives a nationwide profile
of drug use in Afghanistan. He said
that it is the first largest-scale survey based on 100 percent toxicological screening. Results of the
combined urban and rural survey
reveal a national drug use rate of
11 percent—one of the highest rate
in the world. According to the survey in rural areas drugs usage rate
is three times higher than urban
areas. Thirteen percent of the Afghan rural population use drugs,
where in Urban this rate is five
percent. Opium is the most prevalent class of drugs used in Afghanistan, national opiates use rate is
seven percent in rural areas. The
minister said that there is a treatment facility having 2,500 beds,
where the ministry could rehabilitate 35,000 addicted people, annually. “Even if we double the
number of beds, we can rehabilitate 70,000 addicts, which is not
enough. Besides treatment, comprehensive preventable programs
and strategies shall be initiated in
the country to cope with the challenges,” he said. Urging the international community for support
in the anti-narcotics drives, he said
that poppy cultivation and drugs
smuggling is not only a national
phenomenon, but an international
issue. Minister of Counter Narcotics, Salamat Azimi, said that decades of wars encouraged poppy
cultivation and number of drug
users increased in the country. She
said the ministry in collaboration
with the relevant organizations held
efforts to fight against drug trafficking and poppy cultivation in
the country in the past years, adding that the ministry alone could
not resolve the problems. “Poppy cultivation and growing number of drug addicts are major problems and has different dimension.
Therefore, all the relevant organizations shall support the Ministry of Counter Narcotics to cope
with the problem,” she insisted.
Alternative programs for farmers
and awareness campaigns through
mosque and other public institutions are also necessary to keep
people away from the harms of
drugs, she added. According to
surveys, there were 920,000 drug
addicts in 2005, one million in 2009
and 1.3-1.6 million in 2012 across
the country. The drastic surge in
number of the addicts is questionable and raised many eyebrows.
Abdul Zuhoor Qayomi
KABUL: The National Directorate of Security (NDS) on Tuesday
rejected involvement of the chief
of Meshrano Jirga in suicide attacks. Provincial chief of the NDS,
Gen. Dad Muhammad, told senators that neither Fazal Hadi Muslimyar nor his brother provided
shelter to suicide attackers. The
statement came after the deputy
speaker of Wolesi Jirga Zahir
Qadeer, and an MP from Kandahar Lalai Hameedzai, alleged that
Fazul Hadi Muslimyar and his
brother have kept suicide attackers in their homes in Nangarhar
who were detained in a joint operation by the US forces and the second unit of NDS. Gen. Dad Muhammad confirmed that an operation in two phases was conducted
in Nangarhar. The operation was
launched on April 2. He said that
Muslimyar’s brother house was
searched for suspects and a person was arrested, but was released
when proved innocent. “He was
not a suicide attacker. Later, the
second unit of the NDS arrested
two suspects, one was identified
as Inaamullah. A silencer-fitted
pistol and amine were recovered
from his position. He was arrested from Masjid-e-Bilal in Bihsod
district of Nangarhar province,”
the provincial chief of the NDS
said. He added that Inaamullah was
planning to carry out suicide attack on the grand mosque of Nangarhar. After successful interrogation, three other militants were detained who were involved in assassination of Angiza Shinwari, a
member of the provincial council,
in the attack on the Kabul Bank
branch, and attack on police bus,
carrying instructors. He said the
alleged terrorists were from Kot
and Khogiani districts of Nangarhar, and none of them had links
with Muslimyar or his brother.
KABUL: Pakistan’s Prime Minister Muhammad Nawaz Sharif
arrived in Kabul on Tuesday and
delivered his country’s commitments for underpinning durable
peace and stability in Afghanistan.
Premier Nawaz Sharif and other
high-ranking Pakistani officials,
after a formal invitation by the
Afghan government, arrived in
Kabul on Tuesday. On the same
day, Sharif appeared in a joint press
conference with President Ashraf
Ghani. Nawaz reiterated that
building close cooperative relations
with Afghanistan is top priority
of Pakistan. He said that Islamabad is committed to policy of noninterference in other countries’ affairs. He stressed that every effort
guided to weaken and destabilize
Afghanistan would face tough reaction from Pakistan as the two
neighboring countries are committed to support peace and stability
and fight insurgency together.
Both countries planned to conduct
coordinated military operations on
both sides of the Durand Line
against insurgents to eliminate their
safe sanctuaries, Nawaz said, adding that they would try to destroy
shelters of the rebels.
President Ashraf Ghani said the
current war on terror was imposed
on Afghanistan and Pakistan, and
role of the two countries is vital to
fight terrorism. “We are fighting a
war that is imposed on us by the
regional and international terrorism. We are fighting it not just for
our own sake. It is a war imposed
on us and we must defend our country and its people,” Ghani said.
He went on saying that Pakistan
is a country that has suffered so
much from terrorism. “Therefore,
both our nations shall join hands
in fighting terrorism which is a
common threat. With a clear vision, we can win the confidence of
our peoples that the two countries
are working towards a brighter future and not fall victim to their
past,” the Afghan president reiterated. He further said that the countries should join hands to fight terrorism which is a common enemy
and help each other at the difficult
time. Sharif was accompanied by
a high-level delegation which includes the army chief, the prime
minister’s special advisor on foreign affairs Sartaj Aziz, the PM’s
special assistant on foreign affairs
Tariq Fatemi, the foreign secretary
Aizaz Ahmad Chaudhry and other Pakistani officials. Meanwhile,
Afghan senators said the government should urge Islamabad to
stop supporting insurgents. They
said that in the meeting with
Nawaz Sharif, the Afghan president should emphasize on support
for the peace process and elimination of militants’ safe havens.
Though not so optimistic about
outcome of the promises made by
Nawaz Sharif in his visit to Kabul,
the senators said that President
Ashraf Ghani and the chief executive Abdullah Abdullah sincerely
supported the Afghan-led peace
process.
Deputy Chairman of Meshrano
Jirga (MJ), Muhammad Alam Ezidyar, called on the president and
the chief executive to ask Pakistan
to restrain from supporting the Afghan insurgents and push the Afghan reconciliation process towards success.
Security forces
repel Taliban
attack in Ghor’s
Charsada district
AT Monitoring Desk
KABUL: Officials in western
Ghor province said Tuesday that
the Taliban militants have been
pushed back by security forces in
Charsada district, and situation is
normal in the area. According to
local security officials, at least 42
Taliban militants were killed in the
military operation. Quoted by Radio Azadi, Gen. Ghulam Mustafa
Muhseni, said several Taliban
fighters from Faryab, Badghis and
Jawzjan provinces had attacked the
district to take control of it but
their attack was repelled while
bearing the brunt of heavy casualties. He said at least 42 militants
were killed during the operation.
He said the Taliban fighters were
fleeing to Faryab. According to
him, more military operations will
be conducted in the district to clear
the area of militants Lauding the
security forces’ bravery against
militants, the head of Ghor provincial council Fazl-ul-Haq Ehsan
said the rebels will launch more
attacks if concrete and proper measures were not taken by the security agencies. He termed Charsada
as one of main districts, and said
insecurity in the district will be a
threat to security of the Ghor’s
central city.
15 insurgents
vanished in
crackdowns
AT News Report
KABUL: At least 15 armed Taliban fighters were killed and four
others were wounded within past
24 hours in different crackdowns
launched against anti-state elements. In a press release issued
here, Ministry of Interior (MoI)
said that Afghan National Police
(ANP) in collaboration with Afghan National Army (ANA) and
National Directorate of Security
(NDS) has conducted clearance
operations against insurgents in
different areas of Kunar, Nangarhar, Baghlan, Kunduz, Faryab,
Badakhshan, Sar-e-Pul, Jowzjan,
Kandahar, Uruzgan, Ghazni, Herat and Ghor provinces.
10 inmates
released from
Maidan
Wardak prison
AT Monitoring Desk
KABUL: At least 10 prisoners—
not involved in terrorist activities—have been released from
Maidan Wardak jail, said officials
on Tuesday. The decision was
taken after a presidential decree,
which also reduced imprisonment
of several other inmates in the prison. The decree was issued on the
eve of the victory of Mujahideen.
The released individuals were detained on charges of involvement
in traffic accidents and personal
enmity around three years back.
Acting governor of the province,
Zakir Hussain Sultani, called on
the released prisoners not to commit crimes in the future. There are
260 inmates including six children
and 11 women in Maidan Wardak
prison.
Ethnic Rohingya women and children whose boats were washed ashore on Sumatra Island board a military
truck to be taken to a temporary shelter in Seunuddon, Aceh province, Indonesia. (Photo: AP)
59.85
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WEDNESDAY MAY 13, 2015
AFGHANISTAN TIMES
Ministry of Energy and Water
Islamic Republic of Afghanistan
Request for “Expressions of Interest” for Individual Consultants for conducting
various In Country Training Courses
Organization: Project Coordination Unit (PCU)
Project: Irrigation Restoration Development Project (IRDP)
Reference No.: MEW/PCU/IRDP/261/In Country training Course (950)
Date:13-May-2015
Background
Since, 2004, the Ministry of Energy and Water (MEW) has implemented a World Bank funded Emergency Irrigation Rehabilitation Project (EIRP)and is now implementing Irrigation Restoration and Development Project (IRDP). The Project supports activities
that are designed to improve livelihood opportunities in the rural areas through a rehabilitated irrigation system and improved management of national water resources. One of the components of this project is “Institutional Development and Capacity Building”
and as part of its Capacity Building efforts MEW is planning to arrange various short term In-Country Training Courses as listed below. The trainings will be delivered at Kabul to number of participants as given in below table most of whom will be having
Civil Engineering back ground. For this purpose, it is intended to hire the services of Individual Consultants/Trainers/Resource Persons for the period as mentioned below. The home based part of this training is for preparing the training manual/materials.
All the training will be conducted at Kabul for which Training Provider will provide lecture room, computer/Laptop and LCD projector, Practical works at Laboratory, etc. including Lunch.
The training will be given to the participants by using modern training gadgets and methodology and will include:
a) Adequate Interaction with the participants.
b)Practical Examples/Case Studies of relevant activities.
c)Preparation and use of Standard documents and formats.
d)Excel Sheet format for Reporting the result Tests
The trainer will also prepare a comprehensive training manual/material, a soft copy of which will be provided by the trainer at least one week in advance of starting of the training.
At the end of the training, the trainer will take feedback from the participants and other concerned and based on that will prepare a Short Training Completion Report highlighting the need and topics for future training on the related topics.
The curriculum and the required qualifications and experiencefor the trainer, is given below:
Srl
1
Identification number
and name of Training
(with duration)
T-9503 Week training onQuality
Control Testing of
Construction Materials and
Works) for 20 participants
Training Curriculum
The training would provide class-room lectures/ instructions on various
aspects of testing procedures, reporting format in excel sheets,
importance of tests including familiarization with reporting system,
capability of suggestions, recommendations after reports. The training
would include practical work/ tutorials and hands-on-training using
quality control equipment like
1. Soil Tests: Atterberg Limits (Liquid limit, Plasticity index, Shrinkage
limit), Clay content, Deleterious content Test, Classification of Soil for
both coarse grain and fine grain, Hydrometer Analysis CBR, finding
OMC and Maximum dry density, In place density, Field CBR,specific
gravity, sand cone method, pyknometer, Proctor Penetrometer, load ring
penetrometer, Dynamic Penetrometer, swell test apparatus, impact soil
tester, Core drilling machine,
2.Aggregate : Organic impurities, clay lumps and friable particles, specific
gravity and water absorption, unit weight, soundness of aggregate, Los
Angeles, , sand equivalent, surface moisture, flakiness and elongation,
impact value, crushing value, aggregate 10% fine, fractured faces,
sampling, deleterious material, soundness, alkali reactivity,
3.Concrete: Concrete Mix Design,unit weight of Fresh concrete, unit
weight of hardened concrete, Temperature test, Air content of freshly
mixed concrete, mortar mix design,
4. Cement:Compressive strength of Cement, consistency of cement,
setting time of Cement, fineness of Cement, Density of cement,
5.Steel: Tensile and Yield Strength, Elongation, Bend Test
6. Brick and Stone: brick and stone sampling, compressive strength of
brick and stone,water absorption of bricks and stone, sampling of
concrete masonry, compressive strength of concrete masonry, water
absorption of Concrete masonry, C.M.U compressive strength with
capping
Qualification and Experience
of the trainer
The lead trainer shall have at least a
Master ’s degr ee in t h eir sp ecialist
subject from a recognized university
or related institution.
He/ she shall also have a minimum of
1 0 years progressive experience in
performing activities relevant to the
tr ain in g t op ics an d h ave good
experience of conducting similar short
tr aining cour ses in least developed
countries. Fluency in local languages,
also English and good communication
skills are essential.
The Project Coordination Unit (PCU) of Irrigation Restoration and Development Project (IRDP) underthe Ministry of Energy and Water now invites eligible consultants/trainers to indicate their interest in providing the above trainings. Interested eligible
candidates must provide information indicating that they are qualified to perform the services and are invited to submit their CV (Curriculum Vitae), including employment records, description of similar assignments carried out, experience in similar conditions,
availability of appropriate skillsetc.
Separate application letter is required for each training course which should indicate Identification number and name of training and following details:
a)Willingness to conduct the course at Kabul
b)Confirmation that he will be able to cover the training curriculum with reasonable details.
c)Confirmation that he meets all the required qualifications and experience (as mentioned in above table) quoting references to various paragraphs of CV to demonstrate this.
A consultant will be selected in accordance with Section V Selection of Individual Consultants procedures set out in the World Bank’s Guidelines: Selection and Employment of Consultants by World Bank Borrowers (January 2011).
Interested eligible consultants may obtain further information from the address below during the office hours 08:30 am to 16:30 pm from Saturday to Wednesday or by e-mail.
Expressions of interest must be delivered or sent by e-mail to the address below no later than
02-June -2015.
Eng. Nasir Ahmad “Ahadi”
Procurement officer IRDP, Project Coordination Unit PCU.
Mobile:- 0700686110
.
AFGHANISTAN TIMES
AFGHANISTAN’S
floundering billion
dollar drug w ar
Afghan poppy fields are ground zero
in the global war on drugs - a battle
authorities are largely losing.
A young boy harvests opium in Panjwai, Afghanistan [Steve Chao/Al Jazeera]
KABUL: They tell her not to come.
They warn her she'll be killed. But
Laila Haidari keeps returning to the
same dingy, dangerous underpass,
day after day. It's a scene of abject
misery. The Pol-e-Sokhta bridge in
Afghanistan's capital Kabul is home
to thousands of heroin addicts.
They cram together in this small
space, living amid raw sewage and
human faeces that covers the
ground. Most Afghans watch this
horrific scene from the safety of
the bridge above, but Haidari ventures beneath. A social activist trying to help addicts get clean, she
said she's been attacked twice - once
so severely she was hospitalised.
But Haidari is determined to reverse the toll illicit drugs is taking
on her country. "They are human
beings and I want to fight for them,"
Haidari said. "For as long as I'm
alive… I will work to help people
overcome their addiction." Her
fight is at times overwhelming.
Overdoses are common, and it is
Haidari who arranges for the dead
to be brought to the nearest street
for collection by authorities. Sometimes, the bodies are left there for
hours. Most of the heroin produced
in Afghanistan is trafficked out of
the country, accounting for 90 percent of the world's supply. But increasingly, more Afghans are falling prey to the drug. A new survey
funded by the US Department of
State, the results of which were
provided exclusively to Al Jazeera,
estimates there are an estimated 2.9
million drug users in the country one of the highest per capita in the
world.In the southern countryside
of Kandahar and Helmand, Afghanistan's poppy fields are thriving.
Poppy produces opium, the main
ingredient in heroin. Along the roadsides, large, dusty government billboards warn against growing the
crop. But deeper into the countryside, authorities have little control
- and little say on what farmers
grow. Fazel Rehman, a tall, softspoken poppy farmer, said he relies on the crop to feed his family
of 10. "Poppy guarantees cash in
your hands. We make 10 times more
with the drug than other crops,"
Rehman told Al Jazeera. "To be
honest, I would prefer to grow
something else," he said. "But government officials haven't helped us
with alternatives. So what choice
do I have?" He alleged officials also
profit from the trade, saying he paid
local police hundreds of dollars recently to leave his fields alone. Poor
farmers such as Rehman see the
current fragile truce between the
Afghan government and Taliban in
the region as an opportunity to
make up for lost time. For more
than a decade, NATO troops fought
a fierce ground war against the Taliban in these agricultural areas.
Markets and crops were destroyed,
leaving farmers with few ways to
support their families. The US has
pumped $7.6bn in counter-narcotics spending into the country, but
the results have been dismal. Since
the 2001 US-led invasion, Afghanistan's drug production has exploded. Poppy cultivation hit 224,000
hectares in 2014 - a record high.
Just 10km from Rehman's poppy
farm, police commander Nasrullah
Khan prepared his men for a dangerous raid. For someone given the
daunting task of purging the region
of opium poppy fields, he seemed
resigned to his role. His squad is a
ragtag bunch of regular cops, with
some reassigned to drug duty just
for the day. It's a risky task. Khan
said his forces came under fire every time they tried to destroy poppy fields in 2014. "IEDs were exploding around us," Khan said of
his last raid. "Many of my officers were injured or killed." Because
of increasing attacks, police were
only able to destroy nine of out of
an estimated 5,000 hectares of
poppy in the area last year. Back
in the capital, federal drug prose-
cutors face a similar uphill battle,
but it's not for a want of funds.
The US and the UK have spent
billions to create a clandestine drug
court aimed at prosecuting highlevel drug traffickers. Al Jazeera
gained exclusive access to the court
- the first time cameras were allowed inside. The location is secret and its staff are handpicked
and often trained by foreigners.
All this is supposed to ensure
court officials are free from influence and intimidation. But Najla
Temori, a prosecutor of eight
years, said this is far from the reality. "We face extreme danger every
day in our jobs," Temori told Al
Jazeera. "Twice thugs working for
drug lords showed up at my
house." The court has jailed thousands of traffickers, but the real
kingpins continue to elude authorities. In 2014, authorities did capture and jail Lal Jan, a trafficker
who controlled much of the drug
trade in southern Afghanistan. He
was sentenced to 20 years in jail.
But insiders say he bought his escape by paying off officials with
millions of dollars in drug money.
Today, he is nowhere to be found.
Haroon Sherzad, the country's acting minister of counter-narcotics,
admits corruption in the justice
system is still a problem and cases
such as Jan's harm Afghanistan's
reputation and chances of securing international aid. Yet, in explaining why drug production is
skyrocketing despite years of efforts and billions of dollars given
to the cause, Sherzad pointed the
finger back at the international
community. "Their focus was only
on terrorism and other sector development, but counter-narcotics
was an isolated and marginalised
agenda in their programme,"
Sherzad said. Hashim Wahdatyar,
a representative for the UN Office
on Drugs and Crime, said the Afghan government is equally at fault.
After President Ashraf Ghani was
elected last September, hopes
were high that he would list eradicating drugs as a key government
goal in his opening remarks. This
was not to be.
"Afghanistan has 22 national priorities, but counter-narcotics is
none of them," said Wahdatyar.
(AL JAZEERA)
Roadside blast
19 dead as
floods wreck kills five civilians
in Kandahar
havoc in
AT News Report
A roadside bomb blast
DIFFERENT KABUL:
left five people dead in southern
Kandahar province on Tuesday,
PARTS
said an official source. Zia DuraHERAT CITY/QALAT/ FIROZKOH : 19 persons were killed, 13
wounded and seven others went
missing as a result of torrential rains
followed by flash floods in different parts of the country, officials
said on Tuesday. Ten people were
killed and dozens of homes damaged in the Kurkh, Auba and Pashtoon Zarghoon districts of western Herat province, Abdul Hameed
Mubariz, director of Afghanistan
National Disaster Management
Authority (ANDMA) told Pajhwok Afghan News. Five people,
including four women, lost their
lives in Kurkh and two in Auba
districts, he said, adding that the
natural disaster caused injures in
the same districts. In addition, he
said 20 homes and crops on 350 of
acres of land were damaged while
dozens of livestock lost due to
floods. Elsewhere, flash floods left
one person dead and damaged
homes and crops in southern Zabul province, acting Governor
Ashraf Nasiri said. He added the
flood hit Hilal China, Baran China, Kajirkhel, Shah Baran and
some other areas of the province.
He said that the government would
extend assistance to the flood affected families after assessment of
losses and damages. Flash floods
left 11 persons dead, including eight
children, damaging homes and closing Ghor-Herat Highway for traffic, an official said on Tuesday.
Hamidullah Dadfar, director of
Afghanistan National Disaster
Management Authority (ANDMA), said three persons were
killed in the Aliyar locality, four in
Shahrak district and as many in
Dolina district.(Pajhwok)
ni, a spokesman for Kandahar police, said that the incident took
place in the area between Marouf
and Arghistan districts of the province, when a civilian vehicle struck
a roadside bomb. The bomb blast
killed five civilians and wounded
three others, including a woman
and a child, he added.
Durani said that the bomb was
placed by the Taliban. However,
the group hasn’t accepted the reasonability of the blast so far.
UN commissioner
for refugees to
visit Afghanistan
AT News Report
KABUL: The United Nations High
Commissioner for Refugees,
António Guterres, is going to pay
a visit to Afghanistan today (on
Wednesday) to discuss the plight
of refugees with Afghan officials.
The UNHCR in statement
said Guterres will also assess activities of the organization in Afghanistan. “In a bid to explore a
long-term solution to the problems
faced by Afghan refugees, the UN
commissioner for refugees will also
hold meetings with President
Ashraf Ghani, The Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of Afghanistan
Abdullah Abdullah and other officials,” the statement added. It is
worth mentioning that around
three million Afghan refugees living in Pakistan and Iran are faced
with numerous challenges. Pakistan has said to expel all refugees
till end of 2015.
More than 5.7 million Afghan
refugees have repatriated since the
Taliban were ousted from Afghanistan 2001.
Calamity-hit Badakhshan
families w ant assistance
FAIZABAD : Though the Ministry of Defence dispatched food
items and tents through helicopters to the floods-affected families
of northeastern Badakhshan families but the people demanded they
direly needed more assistance, an
official said on Tuesday.
Director Afghanistan National Disaster Management Authority (ANDMA) warned that the affected families would face faminelike situation if they were not provided with food assistance.
Humayun Dehqan told Pajhwok Afghan News the flash floods
damaged a vital bridge, blocking
the main road from Faizabad to the
affected areas. The authorities, he
said were forced to transport food
items and tents through helicopters to the affected community.
He said that Red Crescent, the
International Organization for Mi-
EMERGENCY
CALLS
Police
100 - 119
Hospitals
FMIC Hospital
Behind Kabul Medical
University:
0202500200-+93793275595
Rabia-i-Balkhi Hospital
Pule Bagh-e- Umomi
070263672
gration (IOM), UNICEF and
World Food Program (WFP) provided food assistance and shelter
to the people affected by land sliding. The food and other assistance
included 85 tons of food items, 163
tents, 237 pairs of pillow and beds,
340 blankets, 180 sheets and dresses for 237 persons. Abdullah Naji
Nazari, hed of the provincial council, said the dead bodies buried
under the debris could not be retrieved in the aftermath of the devastating land slide. Local religious
leaders and residents of the locality said they performed collective
funeral prayers for those buried
under the rubbles. (Pajhwok)
Khairkhana Hospital
0799-321007
2401352
Indira Gandhi Children
Hospital, Wazir Akbar
Khan, Kabul 2301372
Ibn-e- Seena
Pul-e-Artan, Kabul
2100359
Women inspired change in Nazir
Noori’s life. His mother, the
strong-willed matriarch who could
barely read or write, never stopped
believing in education. That was
the case even in Afghanistan under
the Taliban. Even in sorrow, after
her husband’s death, when 14year-old Nazir had to quit school
to provide for his family of seven,
her call for learning was not silenced. That “sweet and beautiful
fruit of listening to his mom,” as
Nazir puts it, led him to grow into
the man he is now. His wife, Elham, whose name means “inspiration” in Persian, agreed to meet the
challenges of moving to the United States from their native city of
Herat, Afghanistan. Elham was
seven months pregnant and spoke
little English when she boarded a
plane to Pittsburgh last May with
her husband and 4-year-old daughter. At the time, the city’s Afghan
community consisted of just a few
families. Their daughter, Nadia, in
less than a year spoke English so
well that she now corrects Nazir’s
pronunciation and is one of the top
students in her class at Pittsburgh
Colfax K-8. Nazir may never have
realized her talents had they stayed
in Afghanistan. His friend and
former supervisor, Darcy Zotter,
who used to sit 2 feet away from
Nazir in their office at the U.S.
Consulate in Herat, is a native
Pittsburgher. She suggested Pittsburgh as a place for the Nooris to
start their American life. Darcy’s
sister, Debra Fyock, who met Nazir’s family at Pittsburgh International Airport with a Sponge Bob
Square Pants doll — Nadia’s favorite cartoon character — spent
several early weekends in Pittsburgh with them, helping the family get settled, showing them
around and even helping with tasks
such as co-signing their lease. Nazir calls Darcy and Debra “their
American aunts.” The move to
Pittsburgh meant peace of mind for
the Nooris. Working for the U.S.
government in Afghanistan turned
out to be life-threatening for Nazir
and his family. He began fearing
for his safety. And as a result, his
family was issued a Special Immigrant Visa to move to the U.S. Nazir
is one of 6,000 Afghans to have
received SIVs since Oct. 1, 2013.
Aside from the threats to his security, Nazir says, one of the primary reasons he moved to the U.S.
was that he wanted his children
(including a son born after the
move) to be safe. “My kids could
go to school in Afghanistan, but
my wife and I would have been
very anxious until they got back
home, being scared of kidnappings
or attacks,” he says. “Here, we can
send them to school with peace of
mind and they can take lessons with
peace of mind. … Daniel, for example, was born at Magee [Womens] Hospital [of UPMC]. We were
so relieved. We knew Elham was
in good hands, the facilities were
so great. Compared to our first
child, Nadia, who was delivered in
Afghanistan, the difference was
huge. Back then, I could not sleep
for a week before the due date because I was so scared of what was
going to happen.” There was a lot
to be scared of. When civil war
erupted in Afghanistan in the late
1980s, Nazir’s family escaped to
Iran; he was 18 months old. His
parents and siblings coped with the
change and lived away from Herat
until Nazir turned 9.
When he turned 14, his father died
and Nazir had to quit school to
start working to feed his family,
first assisting his uncle at a grocery store and then developing his
own small business, buying candy
and other sweets wholesale and
then reselling them for a small profit. During the Taliban rule, Nazir’s
mother used to say, “There will be
times in Afghanistan when education will matter,” and her prediction turned out to be prophetic. In
2001, the Taliban regime fell; skills
and knowledge were scarce in Afghanistan, but the demand for highskilled educated workers only increased. At the insistence of his
mother, Nazir started taking
evening courses to learn English.
“International organizations were
desperately looking for some Afghans who knew some English to
help them conduct their projects,”
he said. His success and impeccable track record put Nazir on the
radar of the U.S.
Consulate in Herat. After a competitive interview process, he got
a job in the Public Affairs Section.
After six months, Nazir became a
go-to person: He was the media
assistant working with the press
office and a cultural and education
exchange assistant, managing
grants.
The prestige of the job was high.
Nazir’s visibility increased accordingly. And some people didn’t like
the fact that he was working for
the Americans. Threats felt real,
especially since September 2013,
when insurgents attacked the consulate, and Nazir saw seven of his
colleagues die.
The Taliban sent him several direct threats, he said; immigrating
to the U.S. seemed the only rational choice. (Post-Gazette)
Wazir Akbar Khan
Hospital
2301741, 2301743
Ali Abad
Shahrara, Kabul
2100439
Malalai Maternity
Hospital
2201377/ 2301743
Banks
Da Afghanistan Bank
2100302, 2100303
Kabul Bank
222666, 070285285
Azizi Bank
0799 700900
Pashtany Bank
2102908, 2103868
Air Services
Safi Airways
020 22 22 222
Ariana
020-2100270
Kam Air
0799974422
Hotels
Safi Landmark
020-2203131
SERENA
0799654000
New Rumi Restaurant
0776351347
Internet Services
UA Telecom
0796701701 / 0796702702
Exchange Rate
Purchase:
One US$ =
58.99Afs
One Pound Sterling=
90.25Afs
One Euro =
65.44Afs
1000 Pak Rs =
570Afs
Sale:
People assessing damage at the scene of the accident in Baghlan province after two cars
collided on Tuesday. Road accidents had increased in the recent years as most of the drivers
do not observe traffic rules and are freed soon after arrest due to lack of evidence. The
government should form rapid-response accident investigation teams and direct traffic wardens
to issue violation tickets for over speeding to the drivers.
One US$ =
59.19 Afs
One Pound Sterling=
91.05Afs
One Euro=
66.04 Afs
1000 Pak Rs= 578Afs
.
WEDNESDAY MAY 13 , 2015
AFGHANISTAN TIMES
China likely to
nudge PM Mod i
about bullet
train project
for Ind ia
Another major quake rattles Nepal, killing at least 42
KATHMANDU: A major earthquake hit a remote mountain region of Nepal on Tuesday, killing
at least 42 people, triggering landslides and toppling buildings less
than three weeks after the Himalayan nation was ravaged by its
worst quake in decades.
The magnitude-7.3 quake hit
hardest in districts northeast of the
capital and terrified a nation already shell-shocked and struggling
after a more powerful quake on
April 25 killed more than 8,150
and flattened entire villages, leaving hundreds of thousands homeless.
Information was slow to reach
Kathmandu after Tuesday's quake,
but officials and aid workers said
they expected the death toll to rise.
Within a few hours, the Home
Ministry confirmed that at least
42 people had been killed and at
least 1,117 injured.
Meanwhile, it said rescuers had
managed to pull three people to
safety in the capital, while another nine were rescued in the district
of Dolkha.
Rescue helicopters were sent
to mountain districts where landslides and collapsed buildings may
have buried people, the government said. Home Ministry official
Laxmi Dhakal said the Sindhupalchowk and Dolkha districts were
the hardest hit.
Search parties fanned out to
look for survivors in the wreckage
of collapsed buildings in Sindhulpalchowk's town of Chautara,
which has become a hub for humanitarian aid since the magnitude7.8 quake on April 25 — Nepal's
worst recorded earthquake since
1934.
People Flood Streets of Kathmandu Following Earthq …Play
videoPeople Flood Streets of Kathmandu
Following
Earthq …
Tuesday's quake was deeper,
however, coming from a depth of
18.5 kilometers (11.5 miles) versus the earlier one at 15 kilometers
(9.3 miles). Shallow earthquakes
tend to cause more damage.
The Tuesday quake was followed closely by at least eight
strong aftershocks, according to
the U.S. Geological Survey.
The international airport in
Kathmandu, which has become a
transport hub for international aid,
was closed briefly after Tuesday's
quake, while traffic snarled in the
streets of the capital.
Early reports indicated at least
two buildings had collapsed in
Kathmandu, though at least one had
been unoccupied due to damage it
sustained during the April 25
quake. Experts say the April 25
quake caused extensive structural
damage even in buildings that did
not topple, and that many could
be in danger of future collapse.
Frightened residents who had
returned to their homes only a few
days ago were once again planning
to sleep outdoors in empty fields,
parking lots and on sidewalks
Tuesday night.
"The shaking seemed to go on
and on," Rose Foley, a UNICEF
official based in Kathmandu, said
after the latest quake. "It felt like
being on a boat in rough seas."
Aid agencies were struggling to
get reports from outside of the
capital. "We're thinking about children across the country, and who
are already suffering. This could
make them even more vulnerable,"
Foley said.
Residents of the small town
of Namche Bazaar, about 50 kilometers (35 miles) from the epicenter of the latest quake and a wellknown spot for high-altitude trekkers, said a couple of buildings
damaged in the earlier earthquake
collapsed Tuesday. However,
there were no reports of deaths or
injuries in the town.
Meanwhile, new landslides
blocked mountain roads in the district of Gorkha, one of the most
damaged regions after the April 25
quake.
"People are terribly scared.
Everyone ran out in the streets
because they are afraid of being
inside the houses," Norwegian Red
Cross Secretary-General Asne
Havnelid told Norwegian broadcaster NRK.
At Kathmandu's Norvic Hospital, patients and doctors rushed
to the parking lot.
"I thought I was going to die
this time," said Sulav Singh, who
rushed with his daughter into a
street in the suburban neighborhood of Thapathali. "Things were
just getting back to normal, and we
get this one."
Nepalese have been terrified
by dozens of aftershocks that followed the April 25 quake. The
impoverished country has appealed for billions of dollars in aid
from foreign nations, as well as
medical experts to treat the wounded and helicopters to ferry food
and temporary shelters to hundreds of thousands left homeless
amid unseasonal rains. Paul Dillon, a spokesman with the International Organization for Migration, said he saw a man in Kathmandu who had apparently run
from the shower with shampoo
covering his head. "He was sitting
on the ground, crying," Dillon said.
Strong shaking was also felt across
northern India, with at least three
people killed when rooftops or
walls collapsed on them in the state
of Bihar. The state's disaster management secretary said the deaths
occurred in the districts of Patna,
Vaishali and Darbhanga, just across
from Nepal's southern border.
NEW DELHI: Beijing has been
pushing India to accelerate work
on a multi-billion dollar rail link
from New Delhi to Chennai ahead
of Prime Minister Narendra Modi's
visit to China this week.
China, which is conducting a
feasibility study into a $36 billion
bullet train project from the capital in the north to Chennai in the
south, has asked for work to begin
on a pilot project covering part of
the route, officials said.
The two sides have also agreed
to speed up implementation of a
shorter high-speed rail corridor
from Chennai to Bengaluru, as
China seeks to cash in on PM
Modi's vision of modernising a
creaking train system that 25 million people use daily.
PM Modi's China Agenda Includes Bullet Trains and Other Rail
Projects Mixed Economic Data to
Build Case for Faster Reforms: Poll
Tribals in Chhattisgarh Protest
Against Steel Plant Announced by
PM Narendra Modi Such cooperation could help ease tensions between the neighbours caused by a
border dispute and Chinese naval
forays into the Indian Ocean, as
well as India's strategic tie-ups with
Japan and the United States.
PM Modi and Chinese President Xi Jinping are expected to
address the border issue, which has
proved impossible to resolve despite 13 years of negotiations.
But progress on the economic
front is more likely, officials said,
as China eyes a greater share of
India's $2 trillion economy. Thanks
in part to a statistical revision, India is now the world's fastest growing major economy, outstripping
China. Japan and France are the
other countries bidding for a share
of modernising India's rail system,
the world's fourth largest, in which
India is seeking investment of $137
billion over the next five years.
Indian Railways Minister
Suresh Prabhu said last week that
India and China were finalising
agreements in the rail sector in the
run-up to PM Modi's visit.
Mr Prabhu gave no details, but
a railway official said India was
considering a Chinese proposal for
a pilot project on the Delhi-Agra
stretch of the proposed 1,754 km
high-speed corridor to Chennai
running through the heart of India.
"China has been asking that
they start work up to half-way
along the line even while the feasibility study is going on," the official said, adding that a memorandum of understanding could be
signed during PM Modi's visit.
China has offered to provide
India financing for building the
high-speed network.
A notice on China's national
railway bureau website last month
said a delegation visited India from
April 25-29 at the invitation of
India to talk about accelerating the
Sino-Indian railway cooperation
document.
Talks were positive and the
sides reached broad consensus, it
added.
ISLAMIC REPUBLIC OF AFGHANISTAN
MINISTRY OF ENERGY & WATER
Project Coordination Unit
Rehabilitation Works for Qalai Bust Irrigation Scheme-(Q157)
Irrigation Restoration and Development Project
NATIONAL COMPETITIVE BIDDING
No:MEW/IRDP/HQ/IFB/MIS/ Q157 Date:
13 - May- 2015
Invitation for Bids (IFB)
1.This Invitation for Bids follows the General Procurement Notice for this Project that appeared in Development Business, issue dated11th January, 2011.
2.The Islamic Republic of Afghanistan, Ministry of Energy & Water has received a grant from the International Development Association toward the cost of Irrigation Restoration and Development Project
and it intends to apply part of the proceeds of this “grant” to payments under the Contract for “Rehabilitation Works for Qalai Bust Irrigation Scheme”.
3.The Ministry of Energy & Water, Project Coordination Unit now invites sealed bids from eligible and qualified bidders for the Rehabilitation Works for Qalai Bust Irrigation Scheme Q157) in ¡Lashkarga District
of Helmand Province consisting of:( Intake & PW, Vehicle & Foot Bridge)
4.The Completion Period is 360 days (including slack period of about120 days).
4.The bids must be submitted along with the bid security in the amount of Afs420,000 in the shape of Bank Guarantee as per Bank Guarantee Form attached to the Bidding Documents.
5.Bidding will be conducted through the National Competitive Bidding (NCB) a procedure specified in the World Bank’s Guidelines: Procurement under IBRD Loans and IDA Credits dated January, 2011 and is
open to all bidders from Eligible Source Countries as defined in the Bidding Documents
6.Interested eligible bidders may obtain further information from Eng. Samiullah (email: [email protected] Mobile No: +93(0)700602472), Deputy Director, Project Coordination Unit, Kandahar Regionand
inspect the Bidding Documents at the address given below from 8:00 to 16:30 Hrs from Saturday to Wednesday
7.Qualifications requirements include:
(a) The minimum
required annual volume
of construction work for
the successful bidder in
any of the last five years
(Afs)
20,000,000
(b) Experience as prime
contractor in the construction
of at least one work of nature
and complexity equivalent to
this work during the last five
(5) years (Afs).
12,000,000
(c) Liquid assets and/or credit
facilities, net of other
contractual commitments and
exclusive of any advance
payments which may be made
under the Contract (Afs).
5,000,000
For detailed post qualification verification please refer to Section I. - Instructions to Bidders and Section II- Bid Data Sheet of the bidding documents.
8.
A margin of preference for eligible national contractors/joint ventures shall not be applied.
9.
A complete set of Bidding Documents in English may be purchased by interested bidders on the submission of a written Application to the address below and upon payment of a none refundable fee of Afs.
2500. The method of payment will be Cash/Direct Payment. The Bidding Documents shall be collected by the bidders from the address below.
10.
The bidders or their authorized representatives are invited to attend a pre-bid meeting which will take place on 06 June –2015 at 10:00 Hrs at the address given belowto explain the procedure
of proper preparation and submission of bid, clarify issues and to answer questions on any matter that may be raised at that stage. The minutes of pre-bid meeting will be prepared and sent across to all the
prospective bidders who have brought the bid documents up to date of pre-bid meeting and also immediately after the pre-bid meeting.
11.
Bids must be delivered to the address below at or before 10:00 AM 14 -June- 2015
theDeadline Date for bid Submission (if the submission date is announced an official holiday, then bids must be submitted next working day at the same time and venue). Electronic bidding shall not
be permitted. Late bids will be rejected. Bids will be opened physically in the presence of the bidders’ representatives who choose to attend in person at the address given below at 10:00 AM on the Deadline
Date for bid Submission given above.
12.
The address referred to above is:
1) Deputy Director PCU-Kandahar
Ministry of Energy & Water, PCU Regional office
Front of Aino Mina City, Kandahar National Radio & Television Compound, Arghandab Sub-River Basin office Kandahar, Afghanistan
2) Mr. NasirAhadi, Procurement Officer PCU, Ministry
of Energy and War, Darul-Aman Road, Kabu
Email Address :[email protected]
.
AFGHANISTAN TIMES
Saudi Arabia’s proposed five-day
humanitarian ceasefire in Yemen is
due to start later on Tuesday after
more than six weeks of airstrikes
in the Arab country.
The truce, which was first announced during a mutual press
conference between the Saudi foreign minister and U.S. Secretary
of State, is expected to begin at
11.00 p.m.
"We have made a decision that
the ceasefire will begin this Tuesday, May 12, at 11.00 p.m (2000
GMT) and will last for five days
subject to renewal if it works out,"
Saudi’s Adel al-Jubair said last during the conference. Jubair said the
proposed five-day humanitarian
truce depends on the Houthis respecting the ceasefire.
Houthi militias accepted the
proposed truce to “open the gate
for humanitarian aid,” a spokesman for Yemen’s rebel-controlled
military, Sharaf Luqman, said.
Luqman warned that a breach
of the ceasefire would be met with
a military response.
Saudi coalition spokesman
Brig. Gen. Ahmed Asiri also
warned that any violation by the
Iranian-backed Houthis would end
the ceasefire.
Hours before ceasefire is
scheduled to begin, the Saudi-led
warplanes carried out new strikes
on an arms depot in the rebel-held
Yemeni capital.
It was the second straight day
that the coalition had hit the depot
in a military base on Mount Noqum in the eastern outskirts of
Sanaa.
Kerry to explore
Putin's flexibility
on Ukraine,
Syria
The truce would be the first since the Saudi-led coalition began carrying out airstrikes against the Houthis on March 26. The strikes are aimed at returning President Abed Rabbo
Mansour Hadi, who is in exile in Riyadh, to power.
Scores of Russian
soldiers killed in
east Ukraine: Report
Iran’s nuclear chief, Ali Akbar Salehi, who has played a major role in
recent talks with world powers,
has had emergency surgery for a
perforated bowel, state media reported Tuesday.
Doctors discovered the tear in
the wall of his gut on Monday
evening and operated on it successfully, state television quoted
Health Minister Hassan Hashemi
MOSCOW: Moscow spent more
than 53 billion rubles ($1.04 billion) supplying a separatist rebellion in east Ukraine and at least
220 Russian soldiers have been
killed there, a report by Russian
opposition activists said on Tuesday.
The report was the last project
of murdered Kremlin critic Boris
Nemtsov, who used open source
information and interviews with
families to paint a picture contradicting Moscow's argument that no
serving Russian troops are fighting in Ukraine.
Nemtsov was shot dead in central Moscow in February and
members of his party, the liberal
RPR-Parnas, and several opposition journalists helped finish the
65-page report.
A spokesman for the Kremlin
declined to comment on the report,
saying he was not familiar with it
and could not say if Russian President Vladimir Putin would look
into it.
Ilya Yashin, who was an aide
to Nemtsov, accused Putin of lying to Russians by waging the war
amid denials of involvement.
"The war with Ukraine is an
undeclared war, a vile cynical war
which amounts to a crime against
all of the Russian nation. Putin will
go down in history as the president who made Russians and
Ukrainians foes," he told a news
conference on the report.
The West accuses Russia of
providing arms and troops to the
separatists fighting government
troops, as well as giving them training and intelligence. It stepped up
sanctions on Moscow over the
conflict, which has killed more
than 6,100 people.
The West first imposed sanctions on Russian businessmen and
officials after Moscow annexed
Ukraine's Crimean Peninsula in
March 2014, before unrest spread
to the east of the country.
The report, which Nemtsov
started after families of Russian
troops killed in east Ukraine asked
for his help, said at least 150 Russian servicemen were killed in fighting around the village of Ilovaisk
and elsewhere in the region last
summer.
Their relatives received 3 million rubles in compensation provided they did not speak publicly
about the deaths, according to the
report.
Another surge in violence
killed at least 70 Russian soldiers
in clashes around the town of Debaltseve earlier this year, the report said, adding that the relatives
of these troops were left without
compensation.
Authors said Russian soldiers
were mostly forced to quit the
army officially before heading to
east Ukraine, a move to support
Moscow's argument that there are
no serving Russian troops there,
only volunteers.
They estimated that Russia
spent 53 billion rubles over 10
months to support Russian "volunteers" and local rebels as well as
provide military equipment.
The report said Russians fighting against Kiev troops in east
Ukraine earn up to 90,000 rubles
($1,774) a month.
as saying.
“His condition is satisfactory
and he should be discharged from
hospital in a few days.”
As well as heading the Iranian
Atomic Energy Organization, the
66-year-old is also one of Iran’s
vice presidents.
He holds a doctorate in nuclear engineering from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and
played a major role in the technical talks that helped pave the way
for a framework nuclear deal with
six major powers on April 2.
They included several rounds
of talks with U.S. Energy Secretary Ernest Moniz, a nuclear physicist who taught at MIT.
Further negotiations on the
technical specifications of Iran’s
scaled back enrichment of urani-
um to produce fuel for nuclear reactors will form a key part of efforts to finalize a full agreement
by a June 30 deadline.
Such a deal aims to allay Western concerns that Iran could covertly develop a nuclear weapon.
The Islamic republic denies
seeking the bomb and insists its
nuclear program is for peaceful
energy and medical purposes only.
SOCHI: U.S. Secretary of State
John Kerry hopes to explore Russia's willingness to curb its involvement in Ukraine and its support
for Syria's president at talks on
Tuesday with President Vladimir
Putin.
Kerry flew to the Black Sea
resort of Sochi for the highest-level U.S. visit to Russia in two years,
to discuss issues including the Iran
nuclear talks, Yemen and Libya.
With relations between Russia and the United States at their
lowest level since the Cold War,
the trip appeared designed as much
to maintain contact as anything
else. "It's important for us to keep
these lines of communication open.
It's important to try to talk to the
senior decision-maker," said a senior U.S. State Department official who briefed reporters traveling with Kerry.
"We have a lot of business that
we could do together if there is interest," said the official, who spoke
on condition of anonymity.
Putin's spokesman, Dmitry
Peskov, welcomed the meeting as
a positive step.
"Through dialogue, it is possible to find ways for a normalization, closer coordination in dealing
with international problems," he
Peskov reporters.
But he added: "Russia was
never the initiator of this cooling
of relations."
Kerry is also expected to meet
Russian Foreign Minsiter Sergei
Lavrov while in Sochi.
Relations between Washington
and Moscow have sunk since Russia annexed the Crimea peninsula
in March of last year and backed
pro-Russian rebels in eastern
Ukraine. Moscow accuses Washington of orchestrating last year's
overthrow of a Ukrainian president
who was backed by Russia.
The United States has accused
Russia of failing to withdraw
heavy equipment such as air defense systems, tanks and artillery
from eastern Ukraine in violation
of a peace plan agreed in February
and known as Minsk 2.
Russia denies Western and
Ukrainian accusations that it is
arming the pro-Russian separatists
battling the government and supporting them with its own military forces. More than 6,100 people have been killed since April
2014 in the Ukraine crisis.
The United States and European Union imposed economic
sanctions on Russia after it annexed Crimea and have intensified
them since. The U.S. official dangled the possibility of easing them
if Russia complied with the Minsk plan, which calls for withdrawing heavy weaponry and respecting Ukraine's border.
Washington and Moscow are
also at odds over the civil war in
Syria, where Russia has backed
Syrian President Bashar al-Assad
while the United States wants a
political transition to end his family's four-decade rule.
While there have been no outward signs of a Russian reversal
on Ukraine or Syria, U.S. officials
hope recent defeats to Assad's forces may change Moscow's stance.
Insurgents overran the town of
Jisr al Shughour last month and the
provincial city of Idlib a month
earlier, both in the rich agricultural
province of Idlib.
The senior U.S. official also
said it was important to meet Putin to discuss the Iran nuclear talks,
which aim to reach an agreement
by June 30 under which Tehran
would curb its atomic program in
exchange for the easing of economic sanctions.
Turkey says training of Syrian rebels delayed
Turkey’s foreign minister says the
start of a joint Turkish-U.S. program to train and arm Syrian rebels
fighting the Islamic State group has
been delayed.
Mevlut Cavusoglu said in an
interview on Turkish state television Monday that the program has
been pushed back due to technical
reasons and not because of any
disagreement with the United
States. He did not say when the
program would start.
Turkey and the U.S. reached a
deal on training and arming the
rebels in February after several
months of negotiations. Turkish
officials had previously said training would begin in March but later
pushed the start date to May.
The U.S. Defense Department has said it is aiming to train 5,000 Syrians a year for three years in Turkey, Saudi Arabia and Qatar.
China slams ‘futile’ Philippine
occupation of disputed island
BEIJING : China rebuked the Philippines on Tuesday for taking journalists to a disputed island in the
South China Sea, dismissing its occupation as "futile and illegal" in the
latest war of words between the two
sides. China claims 90 percent of the
South China Sea, which is believed
to be rich in oil and gas. Its claims
overlap with those of Brunei, Malaysia, the Philippines, Vietnam and
Taiwan. The Philippines took foreign and local journalists this week
to Thitu Island, the biggest island
occupied by Manila in the region.
China's Foreign Ministry said the
Philippines was endangering international law. "China has made clear
on many occasions that it opposes the Philippines' futile and illegal occupation," said ministry
spokeswoman Hua Chunying.
"The reality of the situation has
again proven the Philippines to be
a rule-violator and a troublemaker." China has so far not permitted
journalists to visit the islands it
controls in the South China Sea,
through which $5 trillion in shipborne trade passes every year.
Kurdish Peshmerga general
among four killed in Iraq blast
A roadside bomb blast killed a
Kurdish Peshmerga major general
and three of his bodyguards in
Iraq's Daquq region on Tuesday,
senior officers said.
The device exploded as Major
General Salah Dilmani was touring the Peshmerga front against the
Islamic State group south of the
city of Kirkuk, Lieutenant Colonel Ismail Hamid said.
The explosion "led to his martyrdom and that of three of his
bodyguards", peshmerga Colonel
Burhan Sheikha said, adding that
the blast also wounded five people.
.
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-Designers:
Mansoor Faizy and Edriss Akbari
Marketing & Advertising:
Mohammad Parwiz Arian, 0708954626, 0778894038
Mailing address: P.O. Box: 371, Kabul, Afghanistan
Our Bank Accounts: Azizi Bank: 000101100258091 / 000101200895656
Printed at Afghanistan Times Printing Press
The constitution says
Article 135:
If a party in lawsuit does not know the language, the right to know the materials and documents of the case
as well as conversation in the court, shall be provided in the party’s mother tongue through a translator
appointed by the court.
Editorial
Peace still a longcherished dream
Afghanistan and Pakistan on Tuesday reiterated their resolve to work together to
restore peace. Pakistan’s Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif is in Kabul where he held a
joint press conference with President Ashraf Ghani. The Afghan President said the
war is being imposed on both Afghanistan and Pakistan. He also said the two neighboring nations need to fight it off jointly and the enemy of Pakistan is the enemy of
Afghanistan. Nawaz Sharif said that he assured Ghani that no enemy of Afghanistan
can be a friend of Pakistan. To the extent of words the show looks very promising
and beautiful, however, when it comes to ground realities, Haqqani Network has
been untouched in Pakistan and Afghan Taliban are not talked about. Unlike, the
ex-President Hamid Karzai, his successor Ghani is tightlipped on Haqqani Network
Afghan Taliban and Quetta Shura as under his policy he doesn’t ask Pakistan to go
after them militarily rather he eagerly looks forward seeing them on the table of
negotiations. This is not a bad idea at all but given that it works out. The Afghan
peace process is still a long-cherished dream as the Taliban are increasing their violent activities. Though, China has upped its security interests in the region and a
second round of peace talks between the Taliban and Afghan representatives is
expected soon in China, but the problem is the Taliban’s unpredictable nature. Pakistan and China have enjoyed cordial ties ever since whereas Pakistan has no objectives when China is increasing its role in Afghanistan. Pakistan has always remained
touchy about India providing reconstruction, military and humanitarian assistance to
Afghanistan and had made it very clear that it regarded the presence of Indian troops
or military trainers there as an unacceptable act. While now, when Ghani has suspended a military equipment deal with India, how Pakistan defines this act. Moreover, now that China increases its role in Afghanistan, will it reduce Pakistan’s concerns? China’s main objective in the region is to see militancy ended. And the more
China will engage itself in the region, the more Pakistan will be pushed to take a step
against the militants. It means the situation is turning for good in the region and what
is needed is sincerity replacing mistrust. Change in Afghanistan will come via Pakistan and China. Even if Afghanistan opens itself more and more and doesn’t talk
about Quetta Shura, the Afghan Taliban, and the Haqqani Network, the situation will
never heal until Pakistan does something substantial. The problem is Pakistan launched
a huge military operation in North Waziristan, which displaced thousands of tribesmen families, but the end result was peace deal with militants. Pakistan’s army struck
the peace deal with a pro-Pakistan Taliban faction led by Maulvi Halim. Telling
people that the two governments are on the same page but walking on different
paths with different approaches would never restore peace and trust. There is the
need for significant and sincere steps to fight extremism and bring peace and stability
to the two countries. Without extinguishing the fire that is burning the house of Afghans, Pakistan cannot guarantee peace at its very own house. Without Islamabad’s
proactive and supportive role, there is no end to the ongoing war. And if Afghanistan
is not asking Pakistan to dump its support to the Afghan Taliban, doesn’t it feel that
morally it is obligatory upon Islamabad to do so? Moreover, Ghani’s remark that the
enemy of Pakistan is the enemy of Afghanistan has much to ponder over and even if
Pakistan doesn’t bite at the opportunity now, it will never have a guy like him in the
future where Pakistan will have nothing to do but to wring its hands.
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Obama’s lesson in how to not
make peace in Afghanistan
By Brahma Chellaney
The just-concluded exploratory
“peace” talks in Qatar between
Afghan President Ashraf Ghani’s
government and the Taliban militia obscure the continuing combat
role in Afghanistan of the United
States, which facilitated these discussions. Months after U.S. President Barack Obama declared an
end to America’s “combat role” in
Afghanistan, U.S. troops are still
regularly carrying out strikes on
Taliban positions, while U.S. special operations forces continue to
raid suspected insurgent hideouts.
The U.S., after militarily toppling the Taliban from power in
Afghanistan in 2001, has spent 14
years battling this militia in a stillraging war whose goal in recent
time has turned farcically to making peace with the enemy. The result is that America’s longest war
in history is getting even longer,
with Obama’s overtures to the
Taliban exposing fatal flaws in his
Afghan policy.
Amending the name of the
U.S.-led NATO intervention in
Afghanistan from Operation Enduring Freedom to Operation Resolute Support with effect from Jan.
1 has changed little, despite the
Afghan forces shouldering increased warfighting responsibilities.
The White House claims that
U.S. strikes now are essentially for
protection of American soldiers
still stationed in Afghanistan and
for combating al-Qaida remnants.
In truth, it is the Taliban’s advances that are triggering everyday U.S.
combat missions, including warplane and drone attacks and Special Operations raids.
Ghani, who has yet to appoint
a defense minister, allows the U.S.
to run the war, content to play
second fiddle to Gen. John F.
Campbell, the top American commander in Afghanistan.
The Taliban militia, despite its
recent talks with the Afghan government, has stepped up attacks
on members of Afghanistan’s mil-
itary and police. One such attack,
which inflicted heavy casualties on
a police unit in Badakhshan province, occurred while the talks were
under way in Qatar.
Civilians, however, continue to
bear the brunt of the fighting. The
United Nations documented
10,548 civilian casualties — a
record — in increased ground fighting just last year.
Obama has already missed the
2014 deadline he himself laid down
for withdrawal of U.S. forces from
Afghanistan. Now he is set to miss
his revised deadline to pull out
U.S. troops by January 1, 2016.
Scrapping the scheduled halving
by this year-end of the about
10,000 U.S. troops still deployed,
the White House recently decided
to maintain the current force level
into 2016. Indeed, the duration of
U.S. military presence has become
open-ended.
The war, which has left 2,315
American troops killed and 20,000
wounded, has already cost nearly
$1 trillion.
Obama’s premature declaration
that America’s long military campaign against the Taliban is over
will be remembered much like his
predecessor George W. Bush’s
2003 “Mission Accomplished”
speech on the Iraq war. It was
Obama that ended Bush’s Iraq war.
Yet by 2014, Obama was back at
war in Iraq, relying on the same
2002 congressional authorization
that Bush secured for military action there.
In Afghanistan, the main enemy of U.S. forces is the Pakistanbacked Taliban, which has already
inflicted far more casualties among
American and allied forces than alQaida and the Islamic State have
managed to do in the countries
where they operate. Yet Obama
refuses to treat the medieval-theology-hewing Taliban as a terrorist organization. Indeed, the White
House has sought to paint the Taliban as a moderate force that can
be politically accommodated in
Afghanistan’s power structure as
part of a peace deal.
Obama’s plans, however, have
been upset by the Taliban continuing to play for time. The militia,
for example, has rebuffed the idea
of a ceasefire.
Still, Obama’s pursuit of a
peace deal led him to release top
Taliban figures from Guantanamo
Bay last year and to allow the Taliban in 2013 to set up in Qatar’s
capital Doha a virtual embassy in
exile, complete with a flag and other
trappings of a diplomatic mission.
Five hardened Taliban militants (two of them wanted for war
crimes) were freed not so much to
secure the release of a U.S. soldier
— Sergeant Bowe Bergdahl, who
has now been charged with desertion — as to set the stage for talks
with the Taliban, which had sought
their freedom as a precondition for
direct talks. The release of the five
— the “hardest of hard core,” according to Senator John McCain
— belied U.S. claims that it doesn’t
negotiate with militants over hostages or seek a deal with terrorists.
Two of them, Mohammad Fazie
and Mullah Nori, are suspected of
carrying out massacres of Sunni
Tajiks and Shiite Hazaras in Afghanistan.
The Taliban’s Doha office,
which was shut after its opening
angered then Afghan President
Hamid Karzai, has become active
again, as the U.S. has eased some
restrictions on the Taliban leadership, including travel bans.
Tragically, Obama’s overtures
to the Taliban have yielded little
more than talks about talks, with
the militia dragging its feet on negotiating a peace deal. The May 34 “unofficial” talks in Qatar —
hosted by the Qatari government
and the Pugwash Council — produced only broad thoughts, including that “foreign forces have to
leave Afghanistan soon,” that Afghanistan will have an “Islamic”
government, and that more discussions are necessary to sustain the
“peace process.”
The Obama policy has failed
to get the Pakistani military to stop
sheltering Taliban’s top leadership
or to cease treating the militia as
an invaluable asset for gaining
“strategic depth” in Afghanistan
against India. Obama has showered
Pakistan with generous aid to secure its cooperation, unveiling $1
billion recently in new assistance
flow and another $1 billion package of missiles, helicopters and
other weapons.
More fundamentally, Obama’s
faltering strategy to win over the
Taliban serves as a cautionary tale
of how not to make peace with an
enemy. Indeed, in a reflection of
America’s shrinking options, its
success or failure in Afghanistan
now hinges on a limited issue —
whether it can prevent the Taliban
from marching into Kabul.
Despite Obama’s decision to
put off a further drawdown of U.S.
forces, the Taliban continues to
incrementally gain ground. For example, its forces have advanced to
the outskirts of the capital of the
northern province of Kunduz.
The Taliban, with its top leadership ensconced in Pakistan, no
longer has a centralized command
and command. Its field commanders are becoming increasingly autonomous.
Worried about desertions from
its ranks to the ISIS, a new player
in Afghanistan that claimed responsibility for the April 18 series of deadly explosions in the
eastern city of Jalalabad that left
at least 34 people dead, the Taliban knows that a peace deal offering Obama what he wants — a
way to declare victory before his
exit from office — will be its death
knell. In fact, to stop the erosion
in its support, the Taliban is seeking to match the brutal tactics of
the ISIS.
The Taliban’s larger strategy
to return to power is simply to
wait out the Americans.
Before it is too late, Obama
must replace his wishful peace-deal
pursuit with a clear focus on bolstering the Afghan security forces
and finding ways to eliminate the
Taliban’s cross-border sanctuaries
in Pakistan.
AIIB can play useful role in
reconstruction of earthquake-hit Nepal
By Huang Rihan
A massive earthquake of 8.1 magnitude at a depth of 20 kilometers
struck Nepal on April 25, followed
by over 100 aftershocks, centered
in the city of Pokhara. As of Sunday, the death toll caused by the
earthquake has climbed to 8,019,
and 17,866 people have been injured.
Pokhara is the second largest
city of Nepal as well as a famous
tourist resort. This earthquake has
brought the country catastrophic
damage, with its total economic
loss possibly exceeding $5 billion.
According to the Travel and
Tourism Economic Impact 2013
report, the contribution of travel
and tourism to Nepal’s GDP was
$1.6 billion, 8.2 percent of its total GDP. But this time, the country’s rich cultural heritage suffered
a devastating blow from the strong
shock, with 14 ancient buildings
damaged, most of which fully collapsed. At least five to 10 years
are needed for reconstruction. Tourism, one of the country’s most
important industries,was badly hit
and will take quite a long time to
recover.
The UN statistics show that
the quake affected 8 million people in Nepal and at least 2 million
will face a difficult time in the coming three months without shelter,
water, food and medication. Even
worse, the monsoon will arrive by
the end of this month, so temporary housing is desperately needed for the moment.
So far, the Asian Development
Bank has promised to provide a
$300 million loan to Nepal. A number of countries have also made
promises to donate money.
Before the earthquake, the bilateral economic and trade cooperation has been frequent between
China and Nepal. The later has
been actively promoting the establishment of domestic special economic zones, and Chinese non-financial outbound direct investment in Nepal reached $46.09 million in 2013.
There are around 90 Chinese
companies investing in Nepal at
the moment. And with the political climate of Nepal becoming increasingly stable, and the Chinaled “One Belt and One Road” ini-
tiative progressing steadily, Chinese business in Nepal will scale
up gradually in the future, with
broader prospects to participate
in the country’s development in
the fields of road, railway, communication, aviation and irrigation.
After the earthquake, the Chinese rescue team rapidly carried
out disaster relief. Material and
human assistance were soon dispatched to the quake-hit area,
which won China a high reputation.
As an important neighbor of
China, Nepal is one of 57 economies that applied to be founding
members of the Beijing-initiated
Asian Infrastructure Investment
Bank (AIIB). Kathmandu has expressed its strong support for the
AIIB and the “One Belt and One
Road” initiative before. Since the
purpose of establishing the AIIB
is to provide funding for infrastructure construction in Asia. There
might be some discussions with
other funding members over the
terms of the AIIB, but offering aid
to Nepal will definitely be a done
deal.
Nepal is an important nation
Key t o st abilit y in t he region
along the extension line of Qinghai-Tibet railway, as well as a significant country in the “One Belt
and One Road” project. Participating in the reconstruction work of
Nepal is not only a vital part of
fulfilling the responsibilities of a
major country, but also a breakthrough in promoting the “One
Belt and One Road.”
The AIIB has not yet begun
the formal operation, so it will take
some time before it can actually
begin helping with the rehabilitation of Nepal. The AIIB could set
an example in this process, by
building up a conciliation group to
cope with disasters in Asian nations. As a founding member of
the AIIB, China should take the
initiative to help with the infrastructure construction in the Asian
developing countries, while also
coordinating the interests of all
parties. Only in this way can we
lay a solid foundation for establishing a “community of common
destiny.”—(Global Times) The
author is a research fellow with the
Charhar Institute and a research
fellow with the Maritime Silk Road
Institute, Huaqiao University.
.
AFGHANISTANTIMES
The international community and an elusive peace
By Asher Orkaby
After four years on the job, on
April 16, UN Special Envoy to
Yemen Jamal Benomar resigned.
The decision was met with surprise and criticism: Benomar had
been the face of Yemen’s internationally backed post-–Arab Spring
political transition, and his departure is perceived by Yemenis as an
admission of failure and guilt for
the transitional government’s
breakdown into skirmishes with
the Houthis for control of the country. Yemen has witnessed several
such failures over the past five
decades, so the demise of recent
efforts to build a stable government
should not be a surprise. To prevent it from happening again, the
international community should
look to its history of intervention
in Yemen before proceeding with
new mediation efforts.
Benomar was the last of many
UN diplomats who have tried to
orchestrate peaceful transfers of
power from the dictators that the
Arab Spring swept out of office.
As late as 2013, Yemen’s own transition of power was praised as a
model. But the process, orchestrated by the Gulf Cooperation Council and brokered by Benomar, only
delayed eventual turmoil: new Yemeni President Abd Rabbuh Mansur Hadi followed Benomar’s prescriptions, forming a national dialogue council, announcing national
elections, and attempting to enact
overly optimistic political reforms.
Hadi was then forced to flee the
country in the face of military and
political opposition to his government in March.
The UN’s frustrated efforts in
Yemen mirror its past peacekeeping failures during the 1962 Yemen
civil war. In September of that year,
a cadre of young military officers
who called for a Yemeni republic
overthrew the last Yemeni imam,
Muhammad al-Badr. Six years of
civil war ensued, constituting one
of the darkest periods in modern
Yemeni history as Egypt and Saudi Arabia armed opposing sides in
a war that seemed destined to go
By Mario Abou Zeid
The long-planned spring battle of
Qalamoun - between Hezbollah
and Syrian President Bashar alAssad's forces on one hand, and
Syrian rebels on the other hand started last weekend. Though the
Assad regime and Hezbollah are
striving for a victory to regain
momentum, it will be a lengthy and
costly one that will further degrade
their capabilities. Furthermore, it
has exposed the reality of the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant
(ISIL) in Qalamoun; that it is operated by the Syrian regime's intelligence.
Inside Syria - Hezbollah and
Assad: An unbreakable alliance?
on forever. Within months of the
start of hostilities, UN SecretaryGeneral U Thant asked the Nobel
Prize–winning diplomat Ralph
Bunche to serve as a special envoy to Yemen. Bunche then spent
most of his time shuttling between
Cairo and Riyadh to convince
Egypt and Saudi Arabia to withdraw from the conflict. When the
warring parties reached interim
agreement in 1963, the Security
Council commissioned the United
Nations Yemen Observation Mission (UNYOM) to oversee the
withdrawal from Yemen of Egyptian soldiers and Saudi weapons.
KHALED ABDULLAH /
REUTERS Houthi fighters stand
near a damaged guard post at a Presidential Guards barracks they took
over on a mountain overlooking the
Presidential Palace in Sanaa January 20, 2015. UNYOM was
doomed from the start by unrealistic political goals and difficult,
unfamiliar circumstances. Bunche
was prohibited from speaking with
Badr’s tribal opposition forces,
since the UN did not recognize
them as a legitimate political entity. UNYOM personnel were
barred from coordinating operations in territory held by the imam
as well, leaving large swaths of
north Yemen without an international diplomatic presence. Ceasefires were nonstarters, since the
imam’s tribesmen were not included in negotiations and felt no obligation to put down their weapons.
Rather than pursuing a peacekeeping mission, UNYOM’s mandate was limited toobserving the
withdrawal of Egyptian troops and
the cessation of Saudi support to
northern tribes. UN forces from
Canada and Yugoslavia were stationed along the Saudi-Yemeni border to monitor caravan traffic and
prevent the movement of arms.
The mountainous, desert terrain
along the border was unfamiliar to
UN personnel, and they limited
their observation to daylight hours.
Yet given the region’s unbearable
heat, particularly in the summer,
most border tribes always traveled
at night—leaving many crossings
The Qalamoun area is of strategic importance for both camps.
It is a vital supply line between
Syrian and Lebanese territory, at a
tactical proximity of the M5 Damascus-Aleppo highway.
The ability of fighters to control this area would put Damascus,
the stronghold of the regime, at
great imminent risk. In addition, it
would significantly curb Hezbollah's ability to provide logistical
support to the regime and transport fighters to Syrian territory.
With that in mind, both camps
have been reinforcing their positions and scouting this border area
to identify targets during the past
year, and waiting for the right moment to attack.
LETTER TO THE EDITOR
hidden from the gaze of UN observers.
UNYOM withdrew from Yemen in September 1964 after only
14 months in the country. The
mission by this point could not
secure sufficient funding, as the
UN debated which countries were
responsible for financing UN
peacekeeping missions and whether costs were justified given their
limited success. The war would not
come to a political resolution until
1970, after foreign powers and international interests had withdrawn from the country on their
own. Many Yemenis and foreign
observers criticized international
peacekeeping efforts for serving as
a guise for the rearmament of the
two sides in the civil war. Saudi
Arabia managed to shift supply
routes to other border regions outside of the UN observation zone,
while Egypt staged a rouse of a
withdrawal that amounted to little
more than a troop transfer. UN
observers were invited to oversee
the withdrawal of 2,000 Egyptian
soldiers through the port city of
Al Hudaydah yet were asked to
leave the premises before the arrival of 3,000 fresh Egyptian replacements the next week. During
the 1994 civil war in Yemen, the
Security Council sent another envoy, Lakhdar Brahimi, whose
short-lived attempt to broker a
cease-fire was also ineffectual. The
political and territorial complexities of Yemen proved insurmountable obstacles to the diplomatic
proposals of Bunche, Brahimi, and
Benomar.
Anti-Houthi fighters of the
Southern Popular Resistance stand
on a tank in Yemen’s southern port
city of Aden May 10, 2015.
The UN has already announced the appointment of the
Mauritanian diplomat Ismail Ould
Cheikh Ahmed as Benomar’s replacement. And even as Saudi
bombs continue to fall on Houthi
targets in Yemen, there is talk of
another international-brokered
peace conference. It is not clear,
however, whether the UN is determined to reform an agenda in
Qalamoun is crucial
Hezbollah has declared the
Qalamoun battle an existential one.
As a matter of fact, this is one of
the last areas through which
Hezbollah is capable of securing
supply lines from Tehran to Damascus, reaching its strongholds in
Lebanon.
The cross-border fighting has
significantly limited the capabilities of Hezbollah to transfer Iranian weapons to Lebanon. Therefore,
in any potential confrontation on
the southern Lebanese front,
Hezbollah will be cut off from its
Syrian backyard and trapped on
Lebanese soil.
Hezbollah has declared the
Qalamoun battle an existential one.
Swap deal
19 of the 31 abducted passengers were released on Monday—after more than two months of captivity.
President Ghani, sharply after release of the abductees, said no ransom was paid and no prisoner was
swapped to free the kidnapped passengers. However, a number of reports said the 19 abductees were
released after a swap deal which included releasing of 28 family members of rebels—not known yet that
whether they are linked with the Taliban or self-proclaimed Daesh militants.
Poor economy, deteriorated security situation and weak management are main reasons that build the
confidence of militants to kidnap civilians, kill them and destabilize security in this war-weary country.
Though the government tried a lot and launched military operations to release the abducted passengers,
but the swap deal was not required in this regard; rather the government should have launched more rescue
operations for releasing the abductees. Afghan security forces are well capable of thwarting militant
attacks and defeating the country’s enemies, on condition that they are well managed and their capacity is
used thoroughly.
Swap deal will encourage other rebels to commit more kidnappings and demand higher ransoms.
Therefore, in case of such incident in the future, the government should leave no stone unturned to rescue
kidnapped people through military operations—not paying ransom or prisoners’
swap.
Omid Rahmani, Shahrak-i-Arya, Kabul
Letter to editor will be edited for policy, content and clarity. All letters must
have the writer’s name and address. You may send your letters to:
[email protected]
Yemen that has failed for 50 years.
Similar to the predicament of Badr
and his tribesmen, the Houthi
movement and its tribesmen are
not internationally recognized political representatives. The Houthi
movement faces calls for travel
bans and arms embargoes rather
than visits by international diplomats. The porous Saudi Arabia–
Yemen border is again the focus of
troop movements, as sporadic
border clashes between Houthis
and Saudi Arabians increase.
Only days into his tenure,
Ould Cheikh Ahmed had already
visited New York, Paris, and Riyadh to speak with foreign diplomats. He has also spoken with
Hadi, a man who has lost political
legitimacy as he watches and encourages bombing raids over his
own country from Riyadh. Conspicuously missing from Ould
Cheikh Ahmed’s travel agenda is a
visit to Yemen to meet with representatives of the Houthi movement
or the al Hirak movement. Ould
Cheikh Ahmed is in danger of falling into the same cyclical traps of
his predecessors from the 1960s
by neglecting to engage unofficial
yet significant Yemeni political
groups.
Yemen still has the potential
to be the poster child of post–
Arab Spring political transitions,
particularly as other countries in
the region are mired in costly and
long-lasting civil wars. A failure to
address Yemen’s crisis as a local
political issue, however, risks
drawing Saudi Arabia and Iran into
a broader regional conflict. As Yemen’s first civil war during the
1960s was nearing its resolution,
Pavel Demchenko, the senior Middle East correspondent for the Soviet newspaperPravda, observed
that the events of September 1962
were not a revolution but rather “a
centuries-old method of Yemeni
regime change.” The same is true
of Yemen today as the country
struggles to find an alternative to a
defunct republican system.
The UN needs to reconsider
its history in Yemen before undertaking a new peacekeeping effort.
Uninformed and unprepared international interventions can exacerbate and prolong local conflicts
rather than create resolutions. Perhaps it may be time to let Yemenis
solve Yemen’s problems, with the
UN facilitating the nation’s decision rather than implementing an
outsider’s view of a diplomatic
solution.
(Courtesy: Foreign Affairs)
As a matter of fact, this is one of
the last areas through which
Hezbollah is capable of securing
supply lines from Tehran to Damascus...
In addition, since its participation in the Syrian conflict,
Hezbollah has been overstretched
inside Syrian territory. With continuous losses, excessive cost and
increasing casualties in Syria,
Hezbollah has been gradually withdrawing towards the border area.
If Hezbollah does not win this
battle, it will soon lose its direct
and easy access to Syrian soil. For
this reason, it has been mobilising
the Shia community in Lebanon to
recruit more people to join this
fight under the rhetoric of defending themselves against a so-called
Sunni extremist invasion.
Similarly, al-Nusra Front, the
strongest emerging entity in the
Syrian conflict in the past year,
will not give up on the Qalamoun
front, and has been mobilising Sunnis. Nusra has been investing in
Lebanese Sunni neighbourhoods,
border towns and refugee communities to generate more support for
its anti-Assad campaign and antiHezbollah intervention in Syria. It
is showing tremendous flexibility
and pragmatism while learning
from the mistakes of its rival, ISIL.
In the past two weeks, a clear message has been spread to encourage
young Sunnis and refugees in Lebanon to join the fight - notably by
sending mobile phone messages
rallying support for the group.
Also, Nusra has been forging more
alliances to unite the various militant groups in Qalamoun. This is
being done with an aim to better
coordinate their defensive operations and offensive manoeuvres.
Recent developments in Syria have
encouraged Syrian rebels to cooperate together to replicate the successes they had in Idlib province
and Jisr al-Shoughour. This cooperation gave them an upper hand
in the fight against Assad and his
allies for the first time since the
beginning of the conflict. If successful, it would bolster the fighters' chances not only to maintain
their positions in Qalamoun, but
to expand further towards Damascus and the Quneitra area. Children hold portraits of Bashar alAssad to welcome pro-regime soldiers in Qalamoun [AFP] Underhanded tactics Despite the fact
that the Syrian regime and Hezbollah have dedicated overwhelming
combat power towards the Qalamoun front, they have resorted to
another tactic: using residual ISIL
fighters in Qalamoun to test their
capabilities and readiness. As such,
last weekend, the battle did not start
with direct, full-scale confrontations between the two camps. As
a matter of fact, residual ISIL fighters in Qalamoun initiated skirmishes against Free Syrian Army fighters, in an attempt to test their responsive capability and distract
them from the main battle with
Hezbollah and the regime. Based
on my own field research, there is
reason to believe that ISIL fighters
in Qalamoun are operated by the
Syrian intelligence. In previous
months, ISIL forces on the Qalamoun front were redeployed deep
inside Syrian territory and in Iraq.
ISIL's top priority at present is to
defend areas it controls, especially after the losses of Kobane in
northern Syria and Tikrit in Iraq.
Tracing their roots, they were part
of a group of prisoners who were
freed from the Syrian regime jails
back in 2011 by the Syrian intelligence agencies in an attempt to
subvert the opposition. Syrian intelligence operatives have reportedly directed their actions,
using them to divide the opposition from the inside, a tactic that
was also used in Qalamoun. Suffering from divested morale among
its troops, the Assad regime has
been increasingly been resorting to
similar gambits to weaken the opposition.
The Qalamoun battle will not
be a classic confrontation to liberate and control border areas. It is
taking the shape of an intertwined
battle of positions.
A relationship
beyond the realm
of d iplomacy
By Muhammad Nawaz Sharif
Tuesday, May 12, 2015 - IN HIS
latest signed article, Pakistani
Prime Minister Muhammad
Nawaz Sharif reaffirms the great
significance of Chinese President
Xi Jinping’s state visit to Pakistan
from April 20-21 and outlines the
mutually beneficial outcomes arising from it. He maintains that this
occasion will not only lift the two
countries’ bilateral relations to a
new level but also have a far-reaching and positive influence on maintaining regional security and building a more just and reasonable
world order. Beijing Review has
been authorized to publish this
piece.
The recently concluded visit
to Pakistan by President of the
People’s Republic of China Xi Jinping has surely been instrumental
for exponential expansion in the
bilateral relations between the two
countries and has elevated them to
a new level of abiding strategic cooperation that holds the promise
of not only serving the geo-political, economic and security interests of both of them but also the
South Asian region as well
as Central Asia.
We in Pakistan feel proud of
aligning ourselves with the new
Chinese vision for regional connectivity and shared economic prosperity
purported
to
be realized through revival of the
old silk route and the building of
China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC). These are epochmaking initiatives dictated by the
phenomenal economic progress of
China and changing regional and
global realities fraught with throwing open infinite opportunities to
exploit the hitherto untapped resources for shared economic gains.
The completion of the projects
under the umbrella of CPEC will
have a revolutionary impact on the
economic profile of Pakistan and
go a long way in changing the lives
of people belonging to all the four
provinces, as rightly noted and
pointed out by Xi during his visit
to Pakistan. The CPEC will turn
Pakistan into an economic hub for
the region with all the accompanying benefits on perennial basis.
China would also undoubtedly benefit from this undertaking in
many ways and be in a much better position to expand its commercial interests on the global level by
securing shortest possible access
route to the Arabian Sea as well as
to import oil for its industrial machine at a much lesser cost and time.
It would indeed be a beneficial situation for both China and Pakistan and all countries of the region.
Pakistan is a naturally endowed
country. Its geostrategic location
connecting three main subregions
of Asia provides it with a unique
advantage. We feel proud that this
unique factor would help our friend
like China in furthering its economic
and strategic objectives.
Pakistan currently is engaged
in a decisive war against terrorism
that poses a great threat to peace,
security and tranquility in the region affecting almost all the regional
countries in varying degrees. Pakistan being a frontline state in the
war against terrorism, having suffered colossal economic losses in
this battle and having endured its
negative impact on the security
situation in the country, understands and appreciates Chinese
concerns about the security challenges in the Xinjiang [Uygur Autonomous Region] as a consequence of the terrorist activities of
the Eastern Turkistan Islamic
Movement (ETIM). We stand by
China in combating the ETIM
threat. The security interests of
Pakistan and China are interconnected and we appreciate the endorsement and support expressed
by the Chinese President in regard
to our efforts in tackling terrorism
and the resolve to work together
to confront this common challenge
both at the bilateral level and
through cooperative efforts of the
countries of the region.
Pakistan firmly believes in
peace for development, and my
government has been striving hard
to pursue this objective. I am glad
that this initiative has helped in
improving relations with Afghanistan and an ambience of cooperative relations based on mutual trust
has been evolved, especially in regard to combating terrorism. Pakistan supports Afghan-led and Afghan-owned processes of reconciliation in Afghanistan and believes
that peace in Afghanistan is a key
to surmounting security challeng-
es of the region as well as unleashing the economic potential for
shared economic prosperity.
We are of the firm view that
the Chinese interest and participation in rebuilding infrastructure
in Afghanistan and support for the
reconciliation process in that country would greatly enhance the
chances of success in our common
goals of peace and development.
The understanding reached between the two countries during
[President] Xi’s visit to Pakistan
for further strengthening economic and defense ties between the two
countries and the resolve to maintain continued dialogue and consultations on further reinforcing the
strategic cooperation, is a source
of great encouragement for Pakistan.
Equally inspiring for us is the
Chinese endorsement of our quest
in regard to the mainstreaming our
efforts for the cause of non-proliferation, engagement with Nuclear
Suppliers Group and the bid for
full membership of the Shanghai
Cooperation Organization. Our
unanimous
views
on activating and strengthening regional and international mechanisms for peace and security, reforms in the UN in recognition of
the interests of the member countries and the establishment of a
judicious world order provide a
nourishing ingredient to the tree
of friendship between the two
countries. The stability and economic prosperity of Asia, stretching from the plains of the Caucasus to the shores of the Arabian
Sea and the Pacific, to a great extent is dependent on strong and
vibrant ties between Pakistan and
China.
President Xi has inspired not
only the people of China, but also
the developing world, with his visionary enunciation of the Chinese
dream of national rejuvenation. We
share this vision of peace and prosperity for the region and welcome
his emphasis on engaging with
China’s neighboring countries in a
spirit of cooperation. This is why
we are fully supportive of the
Chinese President’s concept of the
New Asian Security. Pakistan feels
that the Chinese initiative to set
up the Asian Infrastructure
Investment Bank (AIIB) is a really positive step toward the realization of that concept.
Infrastructure is the most
important ingredient in kick-starting the process of sustained economic growth in any country.
Most Asian countries do not
have the basic infrastructure to
further their economic ambitions,
and they also lack the necessary
resources to develop it. The AIIB
would greatly contribute to making available resources for infrastructure development on less
stringent conditions than the other international lending institutions.
It would encourage a healthy
competition
among
the
lending financial institutions, and
the borrowing countries would be
in a better bargaining position to
secure the required loans. Pakistan
views this effort on part of China
as an important step toward the
creation of regional linkages, economic interdependence and eventually economic integration of
Asian countries which could prove
a harbinger for peace in the entire
continent. Relations with China are
the cornerstone of Pakistan’s foreign policy. They have withstood
the vicissitudes of time and have
continued to maintain an upward
graph since their inception in 1951.
China has contributed in a big way
to nudging economic progress in
Pakistan, rendered invaluable support and assistance to her to enhance its defense capabilities and
extended unqualified support on
issues of concern to her.
Pakistan has also been instrumental to ending China’s isolation,
rapprochement with the United
States and facilitating its permanent seat in the UN Security Council. It has been an ardent supporter of the One-China policy. The
ties between the two countries are
beyond the realm of normal diplomatic ties. The hallmark of the
bonds between the two countries
is that it is a people-to-people
bonhomie; a relationship of hearts
and minds. The characterization of
Pakistan as Iron Friend by Xi says
it all. The feeling is mutual. Long
live Pakistan-China friendship.
Mohammad Nawaz Sharif is
the Prime Minister of Pakistan.
This column was first seen at
Beijing Review.
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.
.
AFGHANISTANTIMES
BRITEL OUTSKIRTS: On one
of the roads leading back into Britel, a large town nestled at the foot
of Lebanon's eastern mountain
range, small Hezbollah convoys
drove past; some fighters raised
their hands in a victory sign, while
others carried military equipment.
The convoy demonstrated the
significance of Hezbollah's battle
to secure control of the area. Last
Thursday, clashes intensified between Hezbollah and Syrian army
forces on one side, and on the other, a number of armed groups, including Syrian opposition fighters
and al-Qaeda's Syria branch, alNusra Front. Syrian army forces
alongside Hezbollah successfully
pushed these groups further into
the Syrian side of the Qalamoun
mountain range, reclaiming several
key positions.
For the last several months,
skirmishes have unfolded as Syrian opposition groups holed up in
the mountain range launched attacks on Hezbollah and Lebanese
army fixed positions, as the opposition fighters attempted to test
out the strength of their positions.
Last week, the battle entered a
new phase, with Hezbollah and the
Syrian army launching offensive
military operations inside the Syrian territory of Qalamoun in an
effort to push the rebels out. As of
Monday, Hezbollah and the Syrian army have been able to recapture several strategic hilltops, forcing the opposition fighters to flee
and abandon their bases.
Syrian and Hezbollah forces
wrestle for control of Qalamoun
Due to the geography of Qalamoun - which is approximately
1,000 square kilometres of mountainous terrain - it has been increasingly difficult for the media to verify accurate death tolls on both
sides, instead relying on the media
arms of the fighting forces.
Opposition fighters in al-Nusra Front and the newly created Jaysh al-Fatah coalition claimed to
have killed over 40 Hezbollah
fighters, but Hezbollah's media has
put the number at much lower,
saying it has lost four fighters.
Meanwhile, Hezbollah's Al Manar
TV channel claims the group has
killed over 20 Nusra Front and affiliated fighters since Thursday.
RELATED: Lebanon gears up
for spring war against armed
groups Qalamoun is of strategic importance for both sides. The armed
groups that have been holed up in
the area for months aim to take
control of strategic posts to gain
access to key routes into Lebanon,
in an effort to replenish dwindling
supplies. For the Syrian government, the mountain range is key in
RAMTHA, JORDAN: Standing
on a hill overlooking the flat green
plains that stretch between the
northern Jordanian town of
Ramtha and the Syrian border,
Ahmad Abu Sarhan laments the
devastating consequences of the
Syrian war on his hometown.
"Here, we are living in a state
of war - without war," said Abu
Sarhan, a 43-year-old shopkeeper.
Once known as the "Sinbads"
of Jordan due to their relentless
trade and ability to find commercial opportunities abroad, residents
of Ramtha, 90km north of Amman,
relied on the ancient route to Syria
as their lifeline, counting on trade
and transport between the two
countries for income.
But ever since the beginning
of the Syrian uprising in 2011,
thousands of Ramtha families have
lost their livelihoods, and now
struggle to put food on the table.
"Our war is economic. We are fighting to feed our children," Abu Sarhan told Al Jazeera.
RELATED: Syria rebels seize
ancient town near Jordanian border
The final nail in Ramtha's economic coffin was the closure of the
Jaber-Nassib border crossing after
Syrian rebel groups seized it on
April 4. Amid the chaos on the
Syrian side, armed fighters and civilians reportedly looted the Syrian-Jordanian free zone, with losses estimated at 100 million Jordanian dinars ($140m).
"Overnight, I lost all my business and my staff lost their jobs,"
said Abdullah Abu Aqoolah, whose
car dealership was looted. After
boasting a display of 388 cars, he
has only six left to his name now.
The economy in Ramtha was
on life support for the past three
years, but the latest closure has
completely killed it.
Abdul Salam Thunibat, head
of Ramtha's Chamber of Commerce
Nabil Rumman, the manager of
Jordan's free zones, estimates that
some 7,000 Jordanians - working
in logistics, transport and other
services - have lost their jobs since
the Jaber-Nassib border closure.
The majority of those laid off were
from Ramtha, cutting the last
sources of income for the border
town, while others hailed from the
northern Jordanian towns of Irbid
and Mafraq, which are also housing an influx of more than 200,000
Syrian refugees.
"It is a blow for the Jordanian
economy, but it is the work force
Creating the
Kingdom of
North Sudan
connecting Damascus to Homs and
the rest of the Syrian coast. While
this objective is important for
Hezbollah, they also have other
goals, including securing the supply routes in and out of Syria and
preventing armed groups from infiltrating Lebanon, especially the
Hezbollah stronghold of Bekaa. As
a result, Hezbollah not only sees
the Qalamoun battle as a priority
for its survival, but also sees itself
as the first line of defence against a
threat facing the entire country.
"We are not speaking of an assumed threat; we are speaking of a
real aggression that exists every
hour, every day, every night,"
Hezbollah Secretary-General Hassan Nasrallah said in a recent
speech, referring to Qalamoun.
Armed groups have launched continuous attacks inside Lebanese
territories while also holding dozens of Lebanese soldiers and police officers hostage, "so we need a
permanent solution", he added.
"The state is incapable of dealing with this. If it was, it would've
done so by now," Nasrallah said,
noting Hezbollah would address
the situation. While Hezbollah
would not announce any official
position or strategy, "when the
operation begins, it will speak for
itself. It will impose itself and everyone will know it has begun".
Some residents in Bekaa villages, especially those bordering
the eastern mountain range, see
Hezbollah as the only viable force
to protect them from a potential
onslaught by other armed groups.
"If Hezbollah wasn't in Qalamoun
right now, we would cease to exist," said one resident from Nabi
Sheet. "Maybe the people of Beirut
aren't aware of this, but we certainly are."
Other residents in the area are
concerned that Hezbollah's involvement in Qalamoun may create further strife inside Lebanon, a
country that is already reeling from
the influx of more than 1.5 million
Syrian refugees and heightened
political tensions.
For its part, the Lebanese army
has also beefed up its presence
along the border in the last few
months, managing to repel several
infiltration attempts, but has made
it clear it is not participating in the
ongoing operation with Hezbollah
and the Syrian army, except to prevent fighters from fleeing the bat-
tlefield into Lebanon.
According to an army official
who spoke to Al Jazeera on condition of anonymity, "we are here to
repel any attacks or infiltrations,
and we are capable of doing so.
[The army] is not coordinating with
either Hezbollah or the Syrian
army in Qalamoun."
Hezbollah's priority right now
is to secure the entire border area,
prevent infiltrators and bombings
and clashes inside Lebanon. In a
way, it's part homeland security
and part counterinsurgency.
Amal Saad, politics professor
at the Lebanese University
Today there are an estimated
2,000 to 5,000 opposition fighters in Qalamoun, according to a
range of estimates from local media, Hezbollah and the Lebanese
army. While it is unclear how many
Hezbollah fighters are involved in
the Qalamoun operation, it has
been widely circulated through
media reports and political statements that they have been preparing for months, taking advantage
of the winter to train and embed
themselves in key positions inside
the mountains.
But Hezbollah's strategy for
Qalamoun is expected to be different from previous battles. Keen to
minimise its losses due to the fact
that it is already overstretched with
its presence alongside the Syrian
army in Syria - and coupled with
the geographic difficulties of Qalamoun - the group is expected to
carry out limited smaller-scale operations, rather than one huge offensive.
"This war is not the large-scale
offensive that everyone was talking about," Amal Saad, a politics
professor at the Lebanese University, told Al Jazeera. "We are seeing a relatively new strategy, which
is to fight them in a limited area, to
contain them, and starve them off.
"Hezbollah's priority right
now is to secure the entire border
area, prevent infiltrators and bombings and clashes inside Lebanon,"
she added. "In a way, it's part
homeland security and part counterinsurgency."
RELATED: Nasrallah vows to
defeat Syria 'extremists'
According to several informed
sources, Hezbollah is approaching
the Qalamoun battle with the aim
of "neutralising the militant
threat".
"Qalamoun is a huge mountainous area; it is impossible to
have a big battle there," one political source told Al Jazeera. The
source added that Hezbollah aims
to push Syrian opposition fighters into a corner, so that they are
surrounded by the Syrian army on
one side and Hezbollah on the other, in order to weaken them.
Another informed source said
that Hezbollah knows it must clear
the Lebanese side of the border of
Syrian opposition fighters. "Otherwise, if they have the ability to
infiltrate, we'll be seeing car bombs
going off like popcorn across the
country," the source said.
Yet Hezbollah's involvement
in Qalamoun is not supported by
everyone in the country. Saad Hariri, the former Lebanese prime minister currently in self-imposed exile in Saudi Arabia, accused Nasrallah and Hezbollah of "playing
with the fate of Lebanon on the
edge of the abyss".
But for Hezbollah and the Syrian army, if the Qalamoun operation proves to be successful, it will
reverse the string of losses they
have faced in the past few weeks
inside Syria. (AL JAZEERA)
that has been hit hardest," Rumman said. Heavy items such as
wood and construction equipment
survived the looting and have been
transferred to the Zarqa Free Zone,
according to Rumman.
But for the residents of
Ramtha, this was just the latest,
and most devastating, of a series
of attacks that have gradually taken away their livelihoods.
In 2011, Jordanian authorities
closed the Deraa-Ramtha border
crossing, a move that cost 3,500
taxi drivers their jobs, according to
residents and community leaders.
It also gradually blocked the flow
of goods such as cotton, food and
clothing from Syria to Ramtha's
wholesale merchants.
"The economy in Ramtha was
on life support for the past three
years, but the latest closure has
completely killed it," said Abdul
Salam Thunibat, head of Ramtha's
Chamber of Commerce. The number of active merchants in the border town registered with the chamber declined from 6,500 in 2010,
to 1,000 in 2015, according to
Thunibat.
"They cannot afford to pay
rent, taxes, and salaries when there
are no goods coming in," Thunibat
told Al Jazeera, adding that some
merchants have turned to Turkey
and China to import from, shouldering higher transportation costs.
By midday in Ramtha, most
shops remain shuttered, with no
local demand to encourage them to
open. Even the local butcher offers his customers an economic
choice between "fresh meat" or
days-old "leftovers", due to declining demand and purchasing power. The Syrian war has not only
cut off the border town's lifeline.
It has also brought an influx of tens
of thousands of Syrian refugees,
who have strained the local infrastructure in Ramtha and flooded
the labour force with cheap, skilled
labour that out-price Jordanian
workers. Rihab Krasneh, 37, shut
down her 15-year-old hair salon in
Ramtha after her customers turned
to Syrian hairstylists who offered
half-price services in their own
homes. "They do not pay for rent
or taxes, so whatever they earn is
profit," Krasneh said. Locals
blame the Jordanian government
for not doing enough to create job
opportunities or improve the services and infrastructure that have
been burdened by the Syrian crisis. Before the Syrian war,
Ramtha's population stood at
90,000. With the influx of refugees, it has ballooned to 160,000,
according to Ibraheem Saqqar,
head of Ramtha's municipality. The
Jordanian government received
$216m in aid to help the country
cope with the pressure placed on
them by the Syrian crisis. But
Ramtha locals say the government
has not properly allocated the
funds. "We still have [only] one
hospital. No more schools have
been built, and no job opportunities were created with this aid
money they talk about," Saqqar
said. Syrian smugglers' operations
booming in Jordan
The only noteworthy addition
to the town has been the establishment of two new cemeteries
donated by a local charity, after
the war raging a few kilometres
away filled up Ramtha's burial
plots. The only "breathing space
for families", a community garden
known as King Abdullah Gardens,
was long ago converted into a
camp for Syrian refugees. Jordanian officials, however, say that aid
money is not sufficient to solve
the problems caused by the Syrian crisis. With Jordanian border
towns suffering economically and
coping with a doubling of the population, they say their needs are
too great and the donations too
few. With so much need, they say
it is difficult to know where to allocate the limited funds. RELATED: 'We escaped death only to be
humiliated' "Regardless of how
much you do, it is not going to
have an impact because the sheer
numbers [of refugees] are enormous," Hassan Assaf, governor of
Irbid, told Al Jazeera. "If I have a
million dinars, will it be enough to
build a school, hospital, or fix
streets?" Meanwhile, the sounds
of the Syrian war, which has killed
210,000 and displaced 3.7 million
Syrians, continue to echo in
Ramtha.
Every night, the crack of gunfire and the low rumble of shelling
from Syria interrupts their sleep,
while the occasional mortar shell
falls on Jordanian soil. Luckily, the
errant mortars have caused no casualties, but several Ramtha residents have been wounded over the
past four years.
And lately, pictures of civilians and armed groups looting the
free zones have been circulating
over mobile phones. To protect
their children from the echoes of
war, Abu Sarhan and his wife used
to tell them that the sounds of shelling were fireworks from celebrations. But now as the children "go
to school with Syrian children who
tell them horrific stories about the
shelling", the war has crept into
their home as well.
(AL JAZEERA)
On June 16, 2014 - the seventh
birthday of his only daughter - Jeremiah Heaton, a farmer in the US
state of Virginia, planted a blue flag
bearing a golden crown and four
stars into the desert sands of northeast Africa.
The Kingdom of North Sudan
had been established, he soon declared on Facebook, and he was its
monarch.
Earlier that year, Heaton had
told his daughter Emily she could
become a princess and, not wanting to disappoint her, he began researching the plausibility of his
promise.
He soon stumbled across Bir
Tawil - 2,060 square kilometres of
supposedly unclaimed land on the
border between Egypt and Sudan.
It wasn't long before he was on a
plane to Cairo, flag in tow.
Egypt: the Unfolding Crisis
Heaton had not expected many
people to notice his declaration of
independence. But his exploits
went viral.
Reaction ranged from deadpan
- "man plants flag on unclaimed
African land so daughter can be its
princess", headlined TIME's website - to playful: "I guess you could
call this a game of thrones,"
crowed CNN's Don Lemon.
Few people, however, appeared to take the claim too seriously. Yet nearly a year on, Heaton
- together with an assembled team
- is doggedly pursuing his dream.
He has applied to the United
Nations for observer entity status
and appointed ambassadors in
Europe in the hope of gaining recognition there. His kingdom recognised Liberland, another recently self-declared micronation between Croatia and Serbia.
Heaton has reportedly agreed
to a deal for Walt Disney Studios
and Morgan Spurlock, who produced the show Supersize Me, to
make a movie titled The Princess
of North Sudan.
First crowd-funded nation
Meanwhile, he has formulated wildly ambitious plans for the
kingdom: the creation of a stateof-the-art agricultural research centre (ARC) - which he characterises as a modern-day Noah's Ark to solve world hunger.
He is compiling a database of
more than 1,000 scientists he
wants to house there eventually
to advance water conservation and
agricultural science methods.
On May 12, 2015, Heaton will
launch the next stage in his endeavours intended to accelerate his serious intent - an online fundraising
campaign aiming to net as much as
$45m. He estimates the project will
ultimately take at least $2bn to get
off the ground.
We could've sold thousands
and thousands of honorary titles
of nobility and simply pocketed
the money ... [But] we're interested in … improving the world that
we live in.
Jeremiah Heaton
"The Kingdom of North Sudan
will be the world's first crowdfunded nation," Heaton told Al
Jazeera recently.
"Every dollar that will be made
from this campaign will directly
benefit the improvements of how
we grow food here on Earth."
"People can take great pride in
knowing that they're part of funding the world's newest nation," he
added. "And our goals for that nation are to do things differently."
Heaton is offering a range of
incentives for donations: from honorary titles of nobility ($25) and
your face on any eventual national
currency ($50,000), to naming
rights for any future international
airport ($1.5m) and capital city
($1.75m).
Other inducements range from
the banal - a city street named after you ($1,000) - to the bizarre:
"tormenting" Heaton to 48 hours
of continuous Justin Bieber music
in a public forum in New York City
later this year ($2,500).
Heaton said he hopes these
early contributions will prove the
credibility of the project and attract bigger donors. "We could've
sold thousands and thousands of
honorary titles of nobility and simply pocketed the money," Heaton
said. "[But] we're interested in …
improving the world that we live
in." Colonial legacy Bir Tawil which means "deep well" in Arabic - is a slice of land just south of
the border between Egypt and
Sudan that runs primarily in a
straight line along the 22nd parallel. Its fate appears ensnared in that
of the nearby Hala'ib Triangle, a
larger, more strategic territory by
the Red Sea contested by the two
countries. In 1899, British rulers
produced a map that gave Bir Tawil
to then Anglo-Egyptian Sudan and
the Hala'ib Triangle to Egypt. But
in 1902, it produced another map
with the opposite designations.
Historical maps matter in the Middle East, explained Noam Leshem,
a lecturer in political geography at
Durham University. If Heaton succeeds in his extravagant plans, it
will be thanks to this colonial "cartographic flip-flop", he said. Egypt
recognises the 1899 map, which
gives it the more prised Hala'ib
Triangle. Sudan uses the later map
giving it the territory. Neither,
therefore, appears to want Bir
Tawil. (AL JAZEERA)
.
AFGHANISTANTIMES
Global stock markets ruffled by bond gyrations, Greece uncertainty; China and Australia up
SEOUL: Global stock markets
were ruffled Tuesday by gyrations
in bond markets and lack of an
outcome from bailout talks between Greece and its European
creditors as the Greek government
runs low on cash. Chinese stocks
extended gains after an interest rate
cut on the weekend.
KEEPING SCORE: Britain's
FTSE 100 fell 1.6 percent to
6,917.08 and Germany's DAX
sank 2.2 percent to 11,419.52.
France's CAC 40 dropped 1.9 percent to 4,933.01. Futures showed
Wall Street was headed for a down
day. S&P 500 futures dropped 0.7
percent to 2,083.20 and Dow futures fell 0.8 percent to 17,902.00.
VOLATILE BONDS: A selloff in US Treasurys that was preceded by volatile trading in Euro-
pean bonds has rattled stock markets. Weakness in bond prices, if
sustained, could push up borrowing costs and drag on economic
activity, which is already lackluster in many industrialized nations.
Federal Reserve chief Janet Yellen
recently warned that long-term
bond yields, which move in the
opposite direction to bond prices,
could quickly shoot higher once the
Fed begins raising interest rates
from a record low. "Some of the
recent volatility in bond markets
has played a big role in the choppy price action in equities," IG
strategist Stan Shamu said in a
commentary. GREEK TALKS:
Eurozone official Jeroen Dijsselbloem said progress was made at
Monday's meeting among finance
ministers from European countries
but more time and effort was needed to reach a deal on Greece's bailout. Greece wants easier bailout
terms and is facing an acute cash
crunch that many in financial markets think could see the country
default on its debts, impose restrictions on capital flows and possibly leave the euro currency bloc.
THE QUOTE: "A failure to resolve
the Greek funding crisis is adding
to the pressure on local shares,"
Michael McCarthy, chief market
strategist at CMC Markets, said
in a commentary. "While the rest
of the world is now largely economically insulated from
Greece, risks remain." ASIA
SCORECARD: Japan's Nikkei
225 was flat at 19,624.84 and
South Korea's Kospi was also little changed at 2,096.77. Hong
Kong's Hang Seng was down 1.1
percent to 27,407.18. But Australia's S&P/ ASX 200 rose 0.9 percent to 5,674.70 and China's
Shanghai Composite index advanced 1.6 percent to 4,401.22.
CHINA CUT: Chinese stocks continued to get a boost from Sunday's interest rate cut, which was
the third cut in half a year aimed at
shoring up sputtering economic
growth. The central bank's latest
move came after trade data released
on Friday showed imports and
exports declined in April suggesting domestic and foreign demand
are slowing. At the same time, inflation remains low, giving policymakers leeway to ease monetary
policy as they strive to keep
growth from falling below a 7 percent target. ENERGY: Benchmark
U.S. crude gained 46 cents to
$59.72 a barrel in electronic trading on the New York Mercantile
Exchange. The contract fell 14
cents to close at $59.25 a barrel on
Monday. Brent crude, a benchmark for international oils, rose 62
cents to $66.24 in London. CURRENCIES: The dollar fell to 120.08
yen from 120.16 yen in the previous trading session. The euro
strengthened to $1.1258 from
$1.1147.
SINGAPORE : Gold struggled below $1,200 an ounce on Tuesday,
following small overnight losses,
hurt by a firmer dollar and the absence of any robust safe-haven bids
stemming from the Greek debt crisis. Spot gold was little changed at
$1,182.83 an ounce by 0638
GMT, after losing 0.3 percent .
Greece calmed immediate fears of
a default on Monday by making a
crucial 750 million euro ($837 million) payment to the International
Monetary Fund a day early. But
its finance minister said the liquidity situation was "terribly urgent"
and a deal to release further funds
was needed in the next couple of
weeks.
Euro zone finance ministers
welcomed some progress in slowmoving talks on a cash-for-reform
deal between Athens and the IMF,
the European Commission and the
European Central Bank, but said
more work was needed to reach a
deal. Failure to do so could see
Greece leave the euro zone.
"The Greek issue has not
prompted any safe-haven bids.
Even disappointing data last week
from the United States failed to
push gold higher, showing lots of
caution among bullion investors,"
said a trader in Hong Kong.
Gold will probably extend its
losses under $1,200, the trader said.
Strength in the dollar underpinned the bearish sentiment in
gold. A stronger dollar makes gold
more expensive for holders of other currencies, while also diminishing its appeal as a hedge.
The dollar was trading near a
one-week high against the euro on
Monday due to worries over
Greece. Bullion also failed to get a
big lift from last week's U.S. jobs
Visit to Central
Asia: Naw az to
push for early
start of gas,
pow er supply
ISLAMABAD: Prime Minister
Nawaz Sharif will visit Turkmenistan and the Kyrgyz Republic on
May 20 and 21 to push for going
ahead with energy supply in an
effort to address shortages in the
country and integrate with regional economies, officials say.
Apart from the energy cooperation, Pakistan is likely to enter
into agreements with the two countries in other areas as well.
According to officials, the
Foreign Office held a meeting with
the ministries concerned on Monday to prepare the agenda for the
premier’s trip. He will go to Turkmenistan on May 20 and visit the
Kyrgyz Republic on May 21.
The government is currently
in the process of executing gas and
power import agreements with the
two Central Asian nations. From
Turkmenistan, Pakistan will import gas and from the Kyrgyz Republic it will purchase electricity.
During high-level talks, the
prime minister will discuss the
progress on the energy supply
programmes. A strategy will also
come up for review in order to step
up work on the projects as the
Pakistan government wants to end
power crisis by the end of 2018,
when next general elections will be
due. For gas import, a pipeline will
be built that will start from Turkmenistan and reach India after snaking through Afghanistan and Pakistan. The cost of this project, called
Tapi pipeline, may go up to $10
billion because of delay in start of
work. Earlier, the cost was estimated at $7.5 billion.
The above four nations are
locked in negotiations for the
award of a multibillion-dollar contract to French energy giant Total
as well as a Chinese and a Russian
firm. Officials say Turkmenistan
will sign a service contract with
these companies to pave the way
for extraction of gas from the country’s fields. One of the companies
will be picked to lead a consortium that will finance and lay the
gas pipeline.
The prime minister wants all
stakeholders to start work on the
project as swiftly as possible as
the cost will continue to rise. The
pipeline, which will spread over
1,680 km, will have the capacity
to bring 3.2 billion cubic feet of
natural gas per annum from Turkmenistan to Afghanistan, Pakistan
and India.
In the meeting at the Foreign
Office, a representative of the
Ministry of Water and Power recalled that Pakistan and Central
Asian countries had signed the
Master Agreement for the Central
Asia-South Asia (Casa) 1000
project and a related power purchase accord was inked in the third
week of April in Istanbul.
The transmission tariff is estimated at 2.98 cents per kilowatt
hour, energy tariff at 5.51 cents,
Afghan transit fee at 1.25 cents and
transit fee for Tajikistan at 0.1 cent
for the flow of Kyrgyz electricity.
“The prime minister will be
updated on the power supply
project during his visit to the Kyrgyz Republic,” said the official.
The Casa-1000 project involves transportation of surplus
electric power available in summer
months – May 1 to September 30
– from the Kyrgyz Republic and
Tajikistan to Afghanistan and Pakistan. The exporting countries
have suggested that they will be
able to deliver 4,000 gigawatt hours
of energy in a normal year and
4,434 gigawatt hours in a wet year.
data, which tempered views a U.S.
rate rise could come at the Federal
Reserve's next policy meeting in
June. Higher rates could dent demand for non-interest-paying bullion. Holdings in SPDR Gold
Trust, the top gold-backed exchange-traded fund, saw the sharpest decline this year on Friday, a
sign of bearish investor sentiment.
Weakness in equities, due to insufficient progress on talks between debt-strapped Greece and
its creditors, failed to bolster gold.
Gold's price action is bearish and
the metal will fall back toward the
May 1 low of $1,170, said technical analysts at ScotiaMocatta.
Dollar w eakens as debt
market shakeout persists
LONDON: The euro rose against
a broadly weaker dollar in Europe
on Tuesday, with gyrations on the
bond market undermining the
broad story of U.S. currency
strength that has dominated the
past year on foreign exchange markets.
The latest move in a repricing
of risk in the bond market, which
analysts are still struggling to explain, was a move higher in longerdated U.S. Treasury yields overnight, and that should benefit the
dollar.
But German Bund yields have
risen by more and elsewhere there
was more positive housing data
that helped the Australian dollar
higher. That all added up to a 0.4
percent fall in the dollar index. The
euro rose around 0.6 percent to
$1.1220. "My feeling is this is all
broadly a shake out of positioning," Rabobank strategist Jane Fo-
ley said. "The market had got itself very long dollars, very short
euro and very long bonds. There
are some major positions being readjusted and it may take some
weeks or even months before we
get back on track."
There was little clarity in the
euro's moves after Greece made an
early payment to the International Monetary Fund but offered little sign a positive conclusion to its
talks with euro zone creditors was
nearing. The single currency fell in
early trade in Asia before recovering. More broadly, it has stalled
since hitting its highest levels in
more than two months last week
above $1.13. "The political risk
premium is certainly a factor there,
and it's quite volatile there with
the markets going back and forth
with the negotiations," RBC Capital Markets' senior currency strategist, Sue Trinh, said.
"We still like the euro directionally lower over the longer term,
as a mix of independent euro weakness combined with independent
U.S. dollar strength."
Against the yen, the dollar
dipped less than 0.1 percent to
120.005 yen, well above its overnight low of 119.40 and solidly
within its ranges held since midMarch.
Both the Australian and New
Zealand dollars have benefitted
from the bond market moves. The
premium offered by two-year
Australia debt over its U.S. counterpart has widened to 152 basis
points, from as little as 112 basis
points in March, and that of twoyear New Zealand debt has widened to 251 basis points, from 247
basis points on Monday.
The Aussie rose 0.7 percent
to $0.7943. The kiwi gained half
percent to $0.7369.
Oil prices drop on high Saudi output, Goldman expects more falls
SINGAPORE : Oil prices dipped
on Tuesday as Saudi Arabia reported strong crude production figures
and U.S. investment bank Goldman Sachs warned of further oil
price declines.
Tuesday's falls continued
price declines on Monday and the
previous week, and they came after Brent climbed 40 percent from
its January lows, with many analysts saying upward momentum
looks to have come to an end as
production around the world continues to outpace demand.
Top oil exporter Saudi Arabia
pumped 10.308 million barrels of
oil per day in April, slightly less
than in March but still close to
record highs.
Goldman Sachs said in a note
that the recent price rally itself
prevented a reduction of oversupply and would therefore lead to
lower prices going forward.
"While low prices precipitated the market rebalancing, we view
the recent rally as premature with
crude oil prices expensive relative
to current and forecast fundamentals," the investment bank said.
"As a result, we believe that
the recent price rally is premature
(and) that prices need to sequentially weaken, to resume the oil
market rebalancing as well as help
correct the still intact imbalance of
too much capital looking for opportunities in the energy space,"
it added.
June Brent crude was down 20
cents to $64.71 a barrel by 0650
GMT. June West Texas Intermediate (WTI) dipped 8 cents to
$59.17 a barrel.
The price drop was also a response to ongoing debt trouble in
the euro zone and a resulting
strengthening of the dollar.
Greece paid about 750 million
euros ($836.70 million) to the International Monetary Fund late on
Monday, but it was not enough to
stop worries over future payments.
"Just hours before the loan was
due, Greece brought relief to the
markets by ordering payment. But
don't be too happy just yet," brokerage Phillip Futures warned.
"The four-month extension of
Greece's bailout plan...expires next
month. This means for the rest of
May, Greece will be locked into
debating another extension of its
bailout plan." Analysts said prices could fall further on Tuesday if
the Organization of the Petroleum
Exporting Countries' (OPEC)
monthly report due to be released
later on Tuesday showed a rise in
production. The American Petroleum Institute will release its data
on Tuesday at 4:30 p.m. EDT
(2030 GMT), while the Energy
Information Administration
(EIA) will publish its data on
Wednesday at 10:30 a.m. EDT
(1430 GMT).
Investors will also look to the
International Energy
Agency's (IEA) monthly report on Wednesday to assess if oil
demand has improved amid lower
prices. ($1 = 0.8964 euros)
.
AFGHANISTANTIMES
Rocking the
red carpet:
Nad ia Hussain
GOES REGAL
IN BLACK
MUMBAI: Bollywood actor Imran Khan, who is currently working with National Award winner
Kangana Ranaut in Katti Batti,
says it’s important to work with
talented people as it helps one
improve his own craft.
“I believe that your work improves when you work with talented and hardworking people,”
said the actor, who is paired with
Kangana for the first time in their
latest venture.
“You have to work with people who are very talented, who are
very good at what they do because
it instills in you the confidence and
motivation to work harder and give
your best,” he added.
Imran is all praise for the
Queen actress. He said, “She is a
wonderful actress and works so
hard on her character and craft that
I cannot disrespect her. In the process of working with her, my opinion about her has become much
better.”
Huma the new Natalie Portman to play Supreme
COURT JUSTICE IN BIOPIC
godmother
A
of showbiz?
Huma Qureshi recently was in Chandigarh for the Blenders Pride Magical Nights. Huma walked the ramp for aspiring designer Nitya Bajaj.
Before the show she also got a chance to interact with the others designers who were presenting at the show. Huma briefly went through their
collection and interacted with them. They shared details of their collection with Huma and also spoke about varied things they have been
doing. Huma quite liked their work and is keen to go back and check their
entire collection. Huma was really impressed with their work and was
surprised on how Bollywood has not tapped into this market. She feels
there is a lot of potential of budding designers in other cities and she
wants to try and encourage their work.
Actress Natalie Portman will play
Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg in a biopic titled "On
the Basis of Sex". The film will go
on floors by the end of 2015.
It will follow the travails of
Ginsburg as she faced numerous
obstacles to her fight for equal
rights throughout her career, reports deadline.com.
In her personal life, the "Black
Swan" actress admitted that she
also supported women's rights and
some other political issues. It may
help her get deeper in the character she will play. Another similarity between Portman and Ginsburg is that they are both Jewish.
When Ginsburg was 60, she
was appointed by former President Bill Clinton to be the second
female Supreme Court Justice and
the first Jewish female on the Supreme Court.
However, the biopic will not
tell the story about Ginsburg
whom people are familiar with today, but it will focus on Ginburg's
career before she was appointed
to the Supreme Court, which in-
cluded arguing several cases at the Supreme Court on behalf of the US based NGO American Civil Liberties
Union. Other members of the cast who will join the film have not been unveiled. Marielle Heller is in
negotiations to direct the movie.
s a fêted supermodel, she
is almost compelled to look
poised and charming — especially at a prestigious occasion
where she’s serving as a mentor.
Gracing the red carpet of Pond’s
Miracle Mentors event, the star
stunned in a jet-black number and
proved why she is termed timeless.
Hair and make-up
Exhibiting her luminous skin,
Nadia sported flushed dewy makeup paired with a matte nude-cerise
lipstick and precisely lined black
eye-liner coupled with ultra thick
lashes. Primping her hair back in a
neatly braided up-do, the star made
sure all eyes were on her dress.
Outfit
The model struck an arresting
pose in a rich-black jersey gown
that she, in fact, crafted herself.
Featuring a floor-grazing train at
the back and a front-knotted design, the jet number also boasted
an elegant slit. With a cinched
waistline and a strategic V-neck,
the sleeveless dress was a headturner.
Shoojit Sircar's family comedy drama Piku broke records on Saturday in India. The film registered a
massive record breaking jump of
over 65 percent in India registering a mammoth figure of 8.7 Cr
Day 2 against 5.32 Cr on Day 1.
Internationally the film has
emerged as the biggest opener of
2015. The Overseas GBO till 8th
May is estimated to be US$
770,000. Saturday trends internationally indicate that markets as
diverse as Dubai, Singapore, New
York are all sold out! The film is
riding on a massive positive word
of mouth and has ensured that
youth and families throng the cinemas to take a peek into the crazy
world of Piku, Baba and Rana. A
limited screen release, the popular
and critical acclaim of Piku has
been attributed to a number of factors- from Shoojit Sircar's " deft
direction" to Juhi Chaturvedi's "
taut screenplay and dialogues" ;
from Deepika Padukone's "career
best performance.
KARACHI: It seems that the local fashion fraternity is abreast of
the shades that are set to trend this
sweltering summer. Acknowledging that a change of hair colour is
one of the most refreshing ways
you can revamp your look this
season, L’Oréal Paris Excellence
Crème has teamed up with couturier Nomi Ansari to introduce their
Gemstone collection. The colour
range, which is the first collaborative effort of the brand’s ‘Ambassador of Fashion’ platform, was
showcased at a brunch at Café Verde on May 10. The collaboration
took place earlier this January, with
Saba Ansari of Sabs Salon, model
Amna Baber and photographer
Nadir Feroz Khan among those
who were on board with the
project. The television commercial for the campaign features Nomi
creating a look on Amna with one
of the latest shades.
The collection offers three
shades that are inspired by the
Andalusite gemstone, according to
a press release. Created by mixing
cool and warm pigments, the brand
has created the shades, golden
chestnut brown, golden light
brown and chocolate brown, in
collaboration with Nomi as part
of its efforts to promote Pakistani
fashion. “The brand showcases a
colour palette with the vision of
achieving the perfect hair colour.
The collection is tilted towards
browns,” Nomi tells The Express
Tribune. Shahzain Hafeez, junior
product manager at L’Oréal Paris,
claimed, “No other fashion brand
or its associates have done this in
a while.” On why Nomi was cho-
sen for the collaboration, he said,
“Why not him? He is the king of
colours and he was the natural fit
for this campaign.” According to
the press release, Moazzam Ali
Khan, general manager of the consumer products’ division at L’Oréal
Pakistan, said, “As Nomi is renowned for his use of dynamic
colours, he was a natural partner
to collaborate with on the new
Gemstone collection.” Amna Ba-
bar, who is the face of the campaign, said, “When I did this shoot,
I didn’t know it would be such a
big success. It was my first shoot
with them and I really enjoyed it. I
loved the hair colours presented
by them. The golden brown shade
really suits me.” The launch was
attended by fashion heavyweights,
celebrities and media personalities.
It also showcased models sporting bespoke designs for the cam-
paign. Speaking about the launch
of the Ambassador of Fashion platform, Moazzam stated, “With our
association with Nomi, we seek to
further enhance the relationship
between fashion and beauty.”
Nomi added, “This platform is a
remarkable way of blending fashion and beauty. We came up with
three looks, which are sensual and
elegant, to complement the collection.”
When Age of Ultron isn’t busy
with product placement, fan service and strengthening Marvel’s
properties, it is busy setting up
its sequel
Here, they encounter the Maximoff twins, Wanda /Scarlet Witch
and Pietro/Quicksilver, played by
Elizabeth Olsen and Aaron Taylor-Johnson respectively, who
awkwardly enough were playing
wife and husband in the recent
Godzilla — though it’s not so awkward if you know your Ultimate
Marvel comic book history (think
Lannisters).
The Maximoff twins have a
crucial supporting role in Age of
Ultron. Initially sidekicks for the
super villain Ultron, they switch
sides when they realise his plans
are far more destructive than what
they had imagined.
The twins’ importance is unfortunate as they are the weakest
aspect of the film. As Elizabeth
Olsen and Aaron Taylor-Johnson
proved in Godzilla, the two uncharismatic actors lack screen presence. This makes their quasiAvenger status especially difficult
to swallow, especially when compared to magnetic actors such as
Mark Ruffalo, Robert Downey Jr.,
Chris Hemsworth, Scarlett Johansson and Jeremy Renner, who
can single-handedly steal any
scene in any film.
Worse still is their characterisation. We are told that the Maximoffs have an axe to grind with
the Avengers due to a painful and
tragic history with Stark weaponry. Yet when the time comes, all is
forgotten in a blink of the eye. Similarly, The Avengers embrace the
two, who are responsible for the
death of possibly thousands early
on in the film when Scarlet Witch’s
spell sets Hulk on a rampage in
the film’s best action sequence.
Thankfully, the main baddie,
Ultron himself, is a fairly interesting character. Voice acted in a brilliantly maniacal performance by
James Spader, and brought to life
by frighteningly evil facial animations, Ultron is fascinatingly complex, often at odds with himself.
Unfortunately, the finer points of
his volatile temperament aren’t
explained with much satisfaction.
These narrative sacrifices in
Age of Ultron are made at the expense of its suffocating content.
The Marvel Entertainment property has now grown into numerous films as well as TV shows,
and it seems that every bit character has a scene in Age of Ultron.
Characters such as Jim Rhodes
(War Machine/Iron Patriot), Nick
Fury, Sam Wilson (Falcon), and
Maria Hill, all make an appearance.
While some of their scenes serve a
purpose, others sequences exist
only to market Marvel’s other
properties.
The most impressive aspect of
the first Avengers film was Joss
Whedon’s ability to juggle multiple headline characters in a film
that felt remarkably organic. Age
of Ultron was a far bigger challenge.
Had Whedon simply been tasked
with crafting a great Avengers sequel, he may have created a better
film. But when Age of Ultron isn’t
busy with product placement, fan
service and strengthening Marvel’s
properties, it is busy setting up
the sequel. In spite of such demands, Whedon manages a fairly
entertaining film that features some
spectacular action sequences,
laugh out loud humour and a surprisingly touching romance between two Avengers. In the end
though, it has to be said that Age
of Ultron was only held back by
its chief villain: Marvel Entertainment. Rated PG-13 for intense sequences of sci-fi action, violence
and destruction, and some suggestive comments
Whoa! Piku
shatters
records
worldw ide
“Now what am I supposed to do
now? What am I going to do in
Avengers 2?” director Joss Whedon reportedly exclaimed after
watching Iron Man 3. Evidently,
not much. It was an interesting
setup that left us salivating for an
emotional payoff; at the end of Iron
Man 3, Tony Stark (Robert
Downey Jr.), destroys all of his
iron man suits so as to cement his
commitment to girlfriend Pepper
Potts, who doesn’t approve of his
superhero ways.
After making such a meaningful sacrifice in a film that strongly
characterised Tony’s inner demons, we wondered how Tony
Stark’s return as Iron Man would
be explained in Age of Ultron.
Unfortunately, Age of Ultron
doesn’t have time for these questions. In fact, it doesn’t even have
time to set itself up. The film hits
the skies without waiting for a
countdown.
Alongside Iron Man, the
crown prince of Asgard Thor
(Chris Hemsworth), the butt-kicking spy Black Widow (Scarlett
Johansson), the bow and arrow-wielding agent, Hawkeye (Jeremy
Renner), the super soldier Captain
America (Chris Evans), and the
scientist who turns into a giant
green monster, Dr. Bruce Banner
(Mark Ruffalo), are in the fictional Eastern European nation of Sokovia, conducting a raid on the terrorist organisation Hydra in an attempt to retrieve Loki’s powerful
magic sceptre.
.
AFGHANISTANTIMES
Durable American Kevin Johnson
will present Anthony Joshua with
his first genuine test when the pair
meet on May 30, says Glenn McCrory. The Olympic heavyweight
champion, 25, stopped Brazil's
Raphael Zumbano Love inside two
rounds on Saturday Fight Night to
improve his record to 12 knockouts from 12 fights and now faces
a step up against Johnson, live on
Sky Sports Box Office. Here is
Glenn's verdict on the Kingpin
conundrum... The opponent was
a lamb to the slaughter on Saturday. He didn't seem to have any
offensive prowess whatsoever - I
don't know how he'd accumulated
26 knockouts. It seemed like Love
wanted to make peace with Anthony Joshua! You can't blame AJ
and he's great. I'm a big fan. I think
he's terrific, but they've just got a
bit of a problem on their hands because he's fought 12 very basic,
easy opponents and never gone
past three rounds. Now, he's going
to go in with a decent hardcore
American who's never been
stopped in Kevin Johnson.
Johnson has been the distance
with Vitali Klitschko and comes
with a little bit of fire in his belly.
He looks in good shape, is saying
the right things and doesn't look
afraid, and why should he? He's
been in with bigger, stronger more
accomplished fighters than Joshua.
We've got a similar position
as we had with David Price a couple of years ago. He'd been fed runof-the-mill heavyweights and was
suddenly put in with a guy who
wasn't afraid, could take punches
and would go back at him. He
wasn't ready because he hadn't had
that preparation. I'm a little bit
worried that Joshua's missing that.
In 12 fights, you need to get something of a test. Yes he's good and
we're all big fans. I just feel if
Johnson takes him past six and
starts rattling him around the chin,
has he got the professionalism and
experience to handle that? It's a
doubt in my mind. Price was found
out in the amateurs and found out
in the professionals. We would
have answered more questions if
Joshua was fighting him because
he'd have had to defend the jab and
be up against someone tall.
No disrespect to Price but I
don't think he's going to be a world
champion. The tough fighters will
know now they can hit him on the
whiskers and he'll go, so they've
lost that fear. Johnson is a man. So
far, Joshua has only fought fighters of a certain level and I guarantee not one of them thought they
were in with a chance of winning.
Stephen Curry scores 33 points in
Golden State Warriors’ vital victory
Stephen Curry came to the fore
with 33 points as the Golden State
Warriors ended a two-game losing
streak to level their NBA play-off
series against the Memphis Grizzlies.
Curry, who was named the
league's Most Valuable Player earlier this month, scored 21 points
in the first-half to help the Warriors to a 101-84 win and avoid
their first three-game losing streak
of the season.
Victory sees the Western Conference top seeds reclaim home
advantage, with two of the remaining three games in the series taking
place at the Oracle Arena in Oakland.
Draymond Green had 16
points and 10 rebounds for the
Warriors while Klay Thompson
had 15 points, Harrison Barnes 12
and Andre Iguodala 11.
Marc Gasol contributed 19
points and 10 rebounds for Memphis while Zach Randolph had 12
points and 11 rebounds. Point
guard Mike Conley finished with
10 points and seven assists but
was only 4-of-15 from the field.
Memphis pulled its starters with
three minutes left.
Jeff Teague scored 26 points for the Atlanta Hawks as they levelled their Eastern Conference series with the
Washington Wizards thanks to a 106-101 victory. Paul Pierce missed a three-point attempt that would have
levelled the game with less than 10 seconds left, just two days after hitting a buzzer-beater to win Game
Three. The Hawks led most of the game, but Washington cut the deficit to 101-97 with under two minutes
remaining before Teague's three-pointer with 72 seconds left got the margin back to seven. Washington's
Bradley Beal blocked a shot by Dennis Schroder in the lane to keep Atlanta's lead at 104-101, and the Wizards
had the ball and called a timeout with just 9.5 seconds remaining. They got Pierce an open look from deep, but
his shot came off the rim. Beal led all scorers with 34 points.
The guy on Saturday didn't even
look like he thought he was going
to hit him. He didn't throw one
punch in anger. If Joshua has a
tough fight and comes through to
win on points, there's nothing
wrong with that at all. You don't
have to knock everybody out.
Tyson didn't knock everybody out
- James Tillis took him the distance in his early days and he
learned an awful lot in that fight. I
sparred with Tillis too and he
taught me an awful lot! Joshua is
not the finished article and he's not
going to knock out every single
person he ever fights. That's just
not going to happen. The reality is
that somebody is going to stand
there, grit their teeth and slap him
back in the mouth, which is something we haven't seen yet. Johnson
is the first genuine threat. Specimen I also notice when I see AJ on
Twitter he's hanging off apparatus, lifting weights or climbing
ropes. He wants to look the part
and be a fine specimen but he
doesn't want to try to be Conan
the Barbarian! I know he's a great
athlete but so was Frank Bruno
but people will tell you he was
too stiff Lennox Lewis was a far
more fluid boxer because he wasn't
really a weight lifter. I'm not saying he wasn't strong because he
was - I can vouch for his strength!
But he wasn't a weight-lifting kind
of guy. I am concerned because I
want to see Anthony go all the way.
I see him as a world champion and
a great world champion. He's coming under scrutiny now, as he will
as he goes further and further. The
world's press and fans will do that.
He's done things like stick his
tongue out a couple of times. I can
understand the exuberance of winning and wouldn't want anyone to
quell that, but he can't afford to
lose his class. So far, he's come
across as classy and I just hope he
can keep it together. Having said
all that, my prediction is still that
Joshua will stop him. I think he's
still good enough to become the
first man to stop Kevin Johnson.
It's a big shout and I think we'll see
him hit on the chin for the first
time, but I think he'll come through.
You can see Joshua has got a bit of
steel in him. When Johnson said
he was going to stop him, you saw
it fired him up. That's what we
need to see because nobody else
has ever done that. Jamie does us
proud I must say I thought Jamie
McDonnell was superb in defending his WBA bantamweight title in
Texas. To box the way he did in
front of such a top-class, credible
and tough world champion,
showed there was no gulf in class
and he was actually better than
Tomoki Kameda.
He rose to the occasion and
proved himself as one of the top
fighters in the world at that division. It was really quality stuff
from Jamie.
The knockdown punch was
the sort of clean punch that can be
a match-winner. Sometimes you
don't quite recover, the colly-wobbles creep in to your brain and you
go out the next round and get done
- but Jamie didn't do that.
After that early setback, he
came out the next round, all guns
blazing and put him back in his
place so that's an excellent, excellent performance from McDonnell
at the very highest level.
Kevin Pietersen’s
England future set
to be confirmed by
Andrew Strauss
Andrew Strauss is expected to clarify the England and Wales Cricket
Board's stance on a Kevin Pietersen recall on Tuesday.
The new England director of
cricket will hold his first press conference since taking on the role on
Tuesday, a matter of hours after
meeting with Pietersen in the wake
of his career-best triple century at
the Kia Oval.
Pietersen has been absent from
the England team since the end of
the 2013-14 Ashes series but the
arrival of Colin Graves as ECB
chairman started rumours that the
34-year-old might be brought out
of the wilderness.
He gave up his contract in the
Indian Premier League and resigned with Surrey, for whom he
scored 326 against Leicestershire
on Monday.
After that innings he met with
Strauss and ECB chief executive
Tom Harrison when, according to
Sky sources, he was told an international return is unlikely.
Pietersen had earlier reiterated
his desire to pull on an England
shirt again, saying: “All I’ve been
asked to do by the chairman elect
is get a county and to score runs
and I’ve done both and I do believe I’m good enough to play for
England. All I can do is score runs.
That’s it.
“It’s an interesting time and
what more can I do? I was told to
find a county. I was told to score
runs. I think I’m scoring runs. I’ve
always said since my knee was
sorted that, if my knee was good,
I’m going to play well.
“I played well in the Big Bash.
I gave up a contract in India. I’m
not playing for any money here.
I’m dedicated to getting back my
England place. I want my England
place and I think I deserve my
England place.”
After hitting 326 not out,
Kevin Pietersen told Sky Sports
he has a “burning desire” to play for England
againAfter hitting 326 not out,
Kevin Pietersen told Sky Sports
he has a “burning desire” to play
for England again Pietersen has
shared a strained relationship with
Strauss since being dropped by
England in 2012 over reports he
sent derogatory text messages to
South Africa players about the
then-England captain.
After being reintegrated back
into the side, he was then sacked
by England in February 2014 after
the Ashes series whitewash in
Australia, only for managing director Paul Downton's departure to
kick-start suggestions he could earn
an unlikely recall.
Strauss also has to find a permanent successor to Peter
Moores, who was sacked last
week. Paul Farbrace will take control for the two-Test series against
New Zealand ahead of the Ashes
later in the summer.
England will finalise their
squad on Thursday to face New
Zealand at Lord's in the first Investec Test next week.
Bidding door opens for
new Olympic sports
Olympic chiefs have launched an application process for new sports to
be included at the 2020 Tokyo Games which promises to extend a saga
of twists and turns. Baseball/softball, squash, karate, surfing, skateboarding, roller skating, climbing, cue sports and cricket are among sports
which fans and competitors hope to see added to the list already included for the summer Olympics in Japan in five years' time. An application
period was officially opened by the International Olympic Committee
(IOC) on Monday to add new sports to the summer Olympics in Tokyo. The list of Olympic sports has been a controversial subject for the
IOC for several years. Following London 2012, it decided to review the
list of 26 sports included, at first imposing a cap of 28. Initially, golf and
rugby sevens were new sports added for the 2020 Games. Wrestling,
one of the oldest Olympic sports, was controversially dropped but then
reinstated after winning an IOC vote on which sport to replace it with squash and baseball/softball losing out in the final shortlist. In December, however, the IOC voted to abolish the 28-sport cap and the process
has now begun to consider additional sports. Timetable A total of 33
international sports federations have been invited to apply before a June
8 deadline, with the Tokyo organising committee scheduled to announce
a shortlist on June 22. Finalists will make a presentation in Tokyo in
August, and the organising committee is to make its recommendation to
the IOC by September 30. The governing body is not expected to make
a final decision until August 2016, when it meets ahead of the next
summer Olympics in Rio de Janeiro.
Cars beat drivers in Barcelona and
Jamie Carragher urges
Steven Gerrard not to cry a w ish-list of changes for 2017
on Liverpool farew ell
Jamie Carragher has urged Steven
Gerrard not to shed any tears
when he makes his Anfield farewell . The Liverpool captain will
play in his final home game for the
club against Crystal Palace, live on
Sky Sports, before joining LA Galaxy in the MLS this summer.
Former Liverpool team-mate Carragher will be at Anfield for what
is expected to be an emotional occasion, but says Gerrard must not
break down in tears like Sami Hyypia did when he left the club in
2009. “I think he’ll be looking forward to the game and will get a
great send-off,” he told Monday
Night Football. “His last game is
the week after at Stoke, but for me
this is his last game. It’s at Anfield, where he’s been his whole
career. “Nervous is the wrong
word. He will be looking forward
to it, but it will start to really sink
in now that he’s not going to play
there again.
“I just hope he doesn’t start
crying and all that nonsense at the
end or get emotional. Sami Hyypia did that…”
Gerrard received a standing
ovation when he was substituted
during Sunday’s Premier League 11 draw with Chelsea, before telling Sky Sports: "It was nice of
Chelsea fans to turn up for once".
However, Carragher argued he
should have stayed on the pitch to
help Liverpool find a winner that
would have kept them in the hunt
for a Champions League place.
He added: “It wasn’t so much
Gerrard coming off, but more Lucas coming on. Stevie got the goal
in the game and he can take penalties and free-kicks.
“Brendan Rodgers said he
wanted to take him off for the ovation, but I think the best thing
about that was what he said after
the game. That was probably the
most entertaining part of it!
“I would have liked to have
seen him stay on. If he was going
to come off then maybe a more
offensive player should have come
off to try and get a goal?”
It would be reasonable to expect
that any annual sporting event
which had nine different winners
over nine years would be quite a
spectacle but unfortunately F1 in
Barcelona can be rather steady on
occasions.
This is backed up by another
statistic that three quarters of the
25 races held at the track have been
won by the pole sitter. It's a car
circuit.
Things could have been so different but for two fleeting moments. First, the wheelspin Lewis
Hamilton had off the startline
which put him behind Sebastian
Vettel and so nearly Valtteri Bottas too. The other was the lumpy
first pit-stop which prevented any
chance of him undercutting Vettel’s
Ferrari with a banzai lap on fresh
tyres. The resulting need to stop
three times to ease his Mercedes
past the Ferrari meant that he didn't
have a realistic chance of catching
the serene Nico Rosberg out front,
who was calmly taking his first
victory of the year which he deservedly earned by seizing pole
position on Saturday. Ferrari were
45.3 seconds behind at the finish
but it's worse than that. Rosberg
was cruising up front and the Italian team have much to do in order
to understand their numerous updates and to close the real performance gap to Mercedes outside of
any track and temperature variations. To compound that Kimi
Raikkonen had a relatively miserable weekend, struggling to stop
his car sliding around and even going back to the old set-up which is
always a sign of lost direction and
desperation, and which the man
himself described as a ‘sacrifice’
to help the team back-to-back car
set-ups. Once again the ever-impressive Bottas placed his Williams between the two Ferraris for
another very assured performance.
With no Safety Car to spice
up the action, we were left with
the tail end of the top ten to entertain us. Pastor Maldonado was on
the move early on and once again
looked impressive before enduring
a series of mishaps.
He had one of those unnecessary Turn Three contacts with his
team-mate Romain Grosjean
which I’ve had myself, and although the damage was relatively
slight it would force him in the pits
for repairs and eventually out of
the race again.
For McLaren it was all a ripoff with regard to Fernando Alonso. Not a comment on his annual
salary mooching about in the lower midfield but unfortunately one
of his visor rip-offs which caught
in his own rear brake duct. Everyone is trained not to release those
plastic strips into their own engine air box just above the driver’s
head, so it was doubly cruel that it
should end up blocking an equally
crucial cooling duct.
With electric generators to help
the cars slow down the rear brakes
are essentially passengers from
time to time and so in true F1 style
are minimised to the extreme for
weight and drag inducing cooling
anyway. Front jack men are the
unsung heroes of F1 as yet another had to jump out of the way of
the brake-less Alonso.
McLaren's Fernando Alonso
overshoots his braking zone in the
pits after his car fails to stop, nearly
hitting the jackman.
McLaren's Fernando Alonso
overshoots his braking zone in the
pits after his car fails to stop, nearly
hitting the jackman.
More troubling for McLaren
were the handling woes on particularly Jenson Button’s car. Watching out on track on Friday afternoons you will often hear me mention the apparently poor driveability of the Honda engine on part
throttle and this can't help their
rear tyres.
.
WEDNESDAY MAY 13
.
2015 -Sawr 23, 1394 H.S
Vol:IX Issue No:277 Price: Afs.15
Karzai terms education
A KEY TO PROSPERITY
AT News Report
KABUL: Head and members of a
social association of youth called
on the ex-President Hamid Karzai
at his office on Tuesday. Hamid
Karzai termed education as key to
prosperity of Afghanistan. Members of the association lauded the
achievements made during Karzai’s
tenure in different areas, particularly education. Karzai said that
Security forces
retake Jaw and
DISTRICT FROM
TALIBAN
AT News Report
KaBUL: Afghan security forces
launched a counterattack and retook
Jawand district of Badghis province
from the Taliban militants, said an
official on Tuesday. A spokesman
for the 20th Zafar corps of national
army, Fakhruddin Kamal, said that
security forces have still surrounded the Taliban in some areas of the
district. Thought the security officials didn’t provide exact number
of casualties to the Taliban, they
claimed to have inflected heavy casualties on militants in the clashes.
Kamal said that district is under the
government’s control now. “Security forces managed to take the Taliban out of the administrative build-
ing of Jawand district on Tuesday
afternoon,” he added. Mirwais
Mirzakwal, spokesman for the
provincial governor office, said that
around 16 Taliban militants have
been killed in the operation. It is
worth mentioning that Jawand district of Badghis fell into the Taliban control around three days ago
after hours long fighting between
security forces and militants. Tens
of residents of the province the
other day staged a protest in Kabul and urged the government to take
all necessary measures to retake
the district. They warned that other districts in the province may also
fall into the Taliban’s hand if the
government didn’t take action.
education and unity can steer Afghanistan towards a prosperous
future.
He said that only education of Afghan youth can put end to miseries of this nation.
NATO eyes
post-Resolute
Support mission
presence:
Stoltenberg
AT Monitoring Desk
KABUL: Considering NATO’s
important role in Afghanistan’s
stability in past decade, the alliance is mulling to maintain its presence in the country even after the
end of the Resolute Support (RS)
mission in order to train, advice
and assist the Afghan security forces, said a statement by the coalition on Tuesday.
NATO Secretary General Jens
Stoltenberg said in the statement
that they will discuss ways to
strengthen their partnership with
Afghanistan for the future. The
statement comes ahead of the Foreign Ministerial Meeting of NATO
which will take place in Antalya,
Turkey.
“Afghan soldiers and police
have been doing great job since
they took responsibility for security at start of this year. But they
will continue to need support and
we will continue to stand with
them,” The NATO secretary general pledged.
According to a NATO official,
a two-day NATO foreign ministers’ meeting will kick-off from
tomorrow (Wednesday) in Turkey
to discuss recent security situation
of Afghanistan, a NATO official
said.
The Foreign Minister Salahuddin Rabbani, representatives of
UNAMA, European Union and
externa affairs ministers of Korea
and Japan will attend the meeting.
It is said that the first day of
the meeting has been specified for
Afghanistan wherein the foreign
minister will brief the participants
about recent situation of the country.
TERROR NEEDS TO BE ELIMINATED IN BOTH
neighboring countries, Nawaz tells Abdullah
AT Monitoring Desk
KABUL: Pakistan’s Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif called on the
Chief Executive of Afghanistan
Abdullah Abdullah on Tuesday
where they exchanged views on
boosting bilateral cooperation in
the war on terror. According to a
press statement by the Chief Executive office, Abdullah welcomed
Pakistan’s Prime Minister, and
termed the trip a sign of strengthening bilateral ties between the two
countries. Abdullah said he hopes
that friendly relations will further
augment after the visit. In response,
Pakistan’s Prime Minister Sharif
thanked the warm welcome of the
Chief Executive, and said during
his terms as the Prime Minister of
Pakistan he has struggled a lot to
strengthen friendly ties between
the two countries. He added that
both the countries are victims of
terrorism and extremism. “It has
unleashed instability in the region
and has affected the lives and economy of the two peoples,” he said.
“Terrorism should be eliminated in
both the countries and we are
standing alongside Afghanistan in
war on terror,” he stated. Sharif
said that Pakistan has launched
military operations against terrorists in its soil. “I am here as the
Prime Minister of Pakistan to assure that we are standing next to
Afghanistan in any kind of situations,” he said. He said they have
announced their stance against the
Taliban, and the Taliban has no
option except peace. He said his
country is ready to leave no stone
unturned in strengthening Afghanistan-Pakistan relations. The Chief
Executive said terrorism is a common threat to peace and stability
in both the countries. “Afghanistan is also ready to cooperate with
Pakistan in war against terrorism,”
he vowed. He said a number of
measures have been taken in war
on terror, and he hopes more practical steps in this regard. In a bid
to kick-start economic cooperation
between the two countries, Abdullah suggested the Pakistani side to
Watchdog concerned over
delay in Electoral Reform
Commission’s activities
AT Monitoring Desk
KABUL: Concerning over delay
in activities of the Electoral Reform Commission, the Election
Watch Afghanistan (EWA) said
Tuesday that it will affect participation of people in upcoming elections in the country.
EWA said in a statement that
in the crisis in the past presidential and provincial councils’ elections should not be repeated in
upcoming elections therefore the
Electoral Reform Commission
should kicks-start its activities as
soon as possible.
Bringing reform in electoral
bodies was one of the key reasons
behind establishment of the National Unity Government (NUG).
President Ghani recently appointed female MP Shukriya Barikzai
as chairperson of the Electoral
Reform Commission. However,
she was removed later due to a
number of reasons, and it is said
that Jandad Spinghar will step in
her shoes. The NUG leaders in first
days of their office pledged to bring
reforms in electoral panels. EWA
urged the Chief Executive and the
president to implement their
promises about bringing reforms
in electoral bodies. The watchdog
warned that delay in bringing reforms in electoral panels has resulted in cutting of foreign aid to
election commissions. A number of
members of electoral bodies have
criticized delay in their salary, and
have suggested removal of commissioner of the two election commissions. EWA said that bringing reforms in electoral system will ensure political stability in the country and will build people’s trust
on democracy in Afghanistan.
The watchdog asked the parliament to use their legal authorities and push the government to
implement its commitments about
electoral bodies and the election
system.
begin work on construction of
power dam on Kunar River. Hinting at TAPI pipeline and CASA1000 power transferring projects,
the Chief Executive said the
projects can prove vital for economic improvement in the two
countries.
He said work on constriction of
railroad in bordering cities of the
two countries will start in a bid to
boost up Afghanistan-Pakistan
economic ties.
Abdullah suggested Pakistan’s
Prime Minister to extend the deadline for returning of Afghan refugees in that country.
Sharif vowed to take step for implementation of suggestions by the
Chief Executive, and said he will
extend the deadline for expulsion
of Afghan refugees in Pakistan.
DABS vow s actions
against defaulters
AT News Report
KABUL: Da Afghanistan Breshna Sherkat (DABS) warned to take
legal action against those who
didn’t pay their electricity bills in
10 days. The marketing chief of
the power supply company, Mirwais Alemi, told reporters on Tuesday that government institutions
and some individuals owe Afs4
billion to the DABS. “If the defaulters didn’t pay their electricity bills within 10 days, we will
take cameras and knock their doors
to identify who they are and will
also cut their electricity lines,” Alemi warned. He said they have sent
several notices to defaulters, including government institutions
and individuals, to pay their bills,
but they are yet to take the issue
seriously. He added that the issue
has faced the company with financial challenges. “The government
institutions which haven’t paid
their electricity bills include, Ministry of Public Health, Ministry
of Education, Ministry of Higher
Education, Ministry of Interior,
Ministry of Information and Culture, Ministry of Telecommunication and Information Technology,
Ministry of Mines and Petroleum,
Ministry of Labor and Social Affairs, Ministry of Refugees and
Repatriation, Ministry of Borders
and Tribal Affairs and dozens of
other organizations,” Alemi said.
However, he didn’t revealed names
of the private defaulters.
The Attorney General Office
(AGO) has said that they have received the list of the defaulters and
will soon take legal action against
them.

Pakistan wants durable peace in Afghanistan: Nawaz Sharif

Transcription

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