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I N T E R N A T I O N A L D A I L Y
16 Pages Price 10,000 Rials 38th year No.12873 Tuesday JULY 11, 2017 Tir 20, 1396 Shawwal 16, 1438
Iran’s June crude oil
exports stand
at 2.15m bpd 4
Iran Air appoints
first female CEO
12
UWW accepts Iran’s
proposal for Muslim
women’s singlet 15
Zarif: Regional
actors seeking
legitimacy
from outside
27% rise in West Karoun
output planned
See page 2
E C O N O M Y TEHRAN — Oil
d
e
s
k production
from
West Karoun oilfields in southwest Iran
is planned to reach 368,000 barrels
per day (bpd) by the end of the current Iranian calendar year (March 20,
2018), a 27 percent rise compared to
its current annual output.
Seyed Noureddin Shahnazizadeh,
the managing director of Petroleum Engineering and Development Company
(PEDEC) - a subsidiary of National Iranian Oil Company (NIOC) in charge of
developing West Karoun oilfields and
a number of other oil and gas fields in
the country- put the current production
from West Karoun at 290,000 bpd.
Addressing a press conference in
Tehran on Monday, he said PEDEC is
File photo
National document on older persons to be finalized
Indian PM not
expected to give
credit to Netanyahu
rime Minister Narendra Modi’s
visit to Israel was something that
friends and of lovers of India had
not really expected. It was painful.
Modi’s visit to Israel was the first by
an Indian prime minister since the two
sides established diplomatic relations
25 years ago.
According to CNN, seven agreements were signed, dealing with water,
agriculture and space technology during
the three-day tour that started on July 6.
It is quite praiseworthy that Prime
Minister Modi, a reformer, is seeking to
transfer technology to his country. It is
also comprehensible that India has security concerns and wants to develop
its military deterrence.
But India as a country with over 1.3
billion population and a rising great
economic power, whom many countries like to court, has abundant opportunities to advance its goals.
If India and China, as long-time rivals,
are not willing to cooperate especially in
defense technology, India can choose its
industrial partners among many countries
such as Japan, South Korea, Singapore,
Germany, France, Sweden, Italy, Finland
who are more than willing to cooperate
with New Delhi in areas of water desalination and agriculture. Russia, also a longtime
friend of India, is most probably ready to
help India to develop its space technology.
In fact India gave credit to Benyamin Netanyahu, a man whose extreme
policies have killed any hopes for decades-old Israeli-Palestinian conflict and
ordered many house constructions in
the occupied Palestinian territories in
violation of international law and the
UN Security Council Resolutions.
Still hundreds of millions of people in the world have a high opinion
of India and consider India, as one of
the chief founders of the Non-Aligned
Movement during the Cold War era,
as a voice of the suppressed nations.
It had been an articulate supporter of
Palestinian rights.
13
S O C I E T Y TEHRAN — The cabinet of
d
e
s
k ministers will finalize a na-
tional document on older persons aiming to
improve their daily lives, secretary of the national council for the elderly said on Saturday.
The document, which is to be ready by
July 22, will thoroughly focus on various aspects of the elderly’s lives by meeting four
prime objectives of income and livelihood,
health, training and employment, and building an empowering environment, IRNA news
agency quoted Mohammad Salman-Nejad
as saying.
Building an empowering environment
means guaranteeing safety for the elderlies
so that for example they can stay out late and
promoting senior-friendly city planning to allow them an independent life, Salman-Nejad
added.
Formerly two documents on older persons were proposed by State Welfare Organization of Iran and the Health Ministry but
there were disagreements, therefore the two
aforesaid documents were merged together
and a final draft was drawn up, he explained.
He further highlighted that senior citizens
over the age of 60 constitute to 9.3 percent
of the population in the country.
To raise awareness about issues affecting
the elderly the International Day of Older
Persons (October 1), which falls on the ninth
day of the seventh Iranian calendar month of
Mehr was brought back to the Iranian calendar in 2015.
Proposed by the State Welfare Organization and approved by the Supreme Council
of the Cultural Revolution, Mehr 9 (falling on
October 2) is observed as the day to celebrate by enhancing attention to the particular needs and challenges faced by many older people.
This is also a day to appreciate the contributions that older people made to society.
According to the Iranian culture and Islamic instructions, the elderly are of great
status. Respecting their wisdom, knowledge,
grace and fortitude should become second
nature to younger generations.
Iranian market ‘only’ trustable one in Middle East: consultancy company
Exclusive — Head of a consultancy company based in Tehran says the country is “the
only market” that European firms can really
trust in the beleaguered Middle East.
“My company provides consulting and
advisory service to many European companies, and I always explain that Iran is the only
market that you can really relay on,” Margaret
Ryan, managing director of MehrMax Cara
consultancy company, tells The Tehran Times.
In what follows the full transcript of the interview has been given:
Since the implementation of the Iran
nuclear deal, a lot has happened in the Iranian market. What’s your assessment of the
current situation? How do you see the future?
ISNA/ Mostafa Chashberah
By M.A.Saki
Deputy editor-in-chief
A: There is a lot of interest in Europe in
regards to working in Iran as the market has
a huge potential. There are many companies
who worked in Iran in the past and these are
also looking forward to come back in addition to newcomers.
I feel confident that the nuclear agreement
won’t be revoked, and possibly U.S. will need
to find a compromise. My assessment is, considering division and disagreement between
U.S. and EU since the election of president
Trump, that EU could eventually implement
JCPOA without U.S.
Your company provides specialized
consultancy services in a wide range of
sectors, including energy and aviation.
committed to raise the daily production to 350,000 barrels by the yearend,
but effort and planning are underway
to reach a higher output.
He also announced that PEDEC’s
outlook plan is to reach an output of
1.33 million bpd in West Karoun and
a total of 1.72 million bpd from all oilfields they are developing.
West Karoun region includes five
oilfields (Yadavaran, North Azadegan,
South Azadegan, North Yaran, and
South Yaran) Iran shares with Iraq at
the western part of Iran’s southwestern
region of Karoun.
Based on the latest studies, the in-situ deposit of West Karoun oilfields is
estimated to be 67 billion barrels containing both light and crude oils.
4
S. Arabia exports extremism to
many countries, including Germany
A British study has found that the
House of Saud regime plays a key role
in the radicalization of Muslims. The
Wahhabi influence, fueled by petro
dollars, can be seen in Germany as
well, says researcher Susanne Schroter.
After the bloody terror attacks in
Great Britain, there are an increasing
number of studies being conducted
on the cause of radicalization. Britain’s Henry Jackson Society, a think
tank, has published a report on foreign funding for extremist branches in
Great Britain. Saudi Arabia has been
clearly named as one of the greatest
supporters. In the past 50 years, Ri-
PERSPECTIVE
P
“The Bodyguard”
secures three awards
at Vienna film festival 16
What do you tell foreign investors who
are weighting up investing in these areas
and other ones in Iran?
A: Yes, my company provides consulting and advisor y ser vice to many European companies, and I always explain that
Iran is the only market that you can really
relay on, should the banking ban be lifted it will become the biggest opportunity in the whole region. Additionally, as
large part of the Middle East is in turmoil
I believe economically strong Iran could
add to the building of peace process. As
far as investment is concerned, we all wait
impatiently till international banking is restored.
13
Children
enjoy
high waves
Riding a bicycle in coasts of the Persian Gulf in the port city of Bandar Abbas, a young boy poses for a picture
in the scorching summer.
Temperature in summer reaches as
high as 50°c in southern parts of
Iran, causing outage and bringing
life to a halt.
yadh has invested at least 76 billion
euros ($86 billion) in Wahhabi extremism, the ideological basis of extremist
movements throughout the world. Are
you surprised about these findings?
Susanne Schroter: The findings do
not surprise me at all. It has long been
known that Saudi Arabia has been
exporting Wahhabi ideology - largely
similar to the ideology of the so-called
ISIL (Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant). Propaganda material and organizational expertise are being sent
along with money. People are being
hired to build mosques, educational
institutions,
13
Iraqi forces
battling to mop
up last ISIL
pockets in Mosul
Iraqi government forces are fighting
to eliminate the last pockets of the
Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant
(ISIL/Daesh) resistance in Mosul’s Old
City, where the Takfiri terrorists are surrounded in a sliver of territory about
200 by 100 meters.
Lieutenant General Sami al-Aridhi
of the elite Counter-Terrorism Service
said on Monday that government
troops are engaged in “heavy” fighting
with the remnants of ISIL terrorists, but
the battle is drawing to an end.
“They do not accept to surrender.
But operations are in their final stages, and it is likely that (the fighting)
will end today,” the senior commander
highlighted.
Aridhi went on to say that his forces
had information that there were between 3,000 and 4,000 civilians in the
area still held by ISIL terrorists in Mosul’s Old City.
The remarks came as the United
Nations said 920,000 people fled their
homes in Mosul amid fierce clashes
between Iraqi government forces and
ISIL terrorists there.
“It’s a relief to know that the military campaign in Mosul is ending. The
fighting may be over, but the humanitarian crisis is not,” Lise Grande, the
United Nation’s humanitarian coordinator in Iraq, said in a statement.
The Office of the United Nations
High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) said on Monday that it could
take many months before civilians are
able to return to their homes.
“It is likely that thousands of people
may have to remain in displacement
for months to come,” the UNHCR said
in a statement.
The UN refugee agency noted,
“Many have nothing to go back to due
to extensive damage caused during the
conflict, while key basic services such
as water, electricity and other key infrastructure, including schools and hospitals, will need to be rebuilt or repaired.”
Additionally,
twenty-eight
aid
groups working in Iraq have issued
a statement, calling for international
support for the reconstruction of Mosul and urged Iraqi authorities not to
press civilians to return. 1 3
I NTE R NATI O NAL DAI LY
MEDIA HIGHLIGHTS
Iran moves to ease
capital punishment
for drug offenders
P O L I T I C S TEHRAN — The members of Iranian
d
e
s
k parliament’s Judicial Committee have
drafted a new amendment to a bill limiting capital
punishment for drug-related offenders.
The proposed bill is expected to ease the executions
of minor drug convicts in the country, the Iran Labor
News Agency reported on Monday.
Under the new bill, those convicted of producing or
distributing more than 100 kilograms of opium or two
kilograms of industrial narcotics will face death penalty.
Thai judicial
delegation holds
talks in Tehran
P O L I T I C S TEHRAN — A judicial delegation from
d
e
s
k the Constitutional Court of Thailand
held talks in Tehran on Monday with officials from Iran’s
Guardian Council including the council chief Ayatollah
Ahmad Jannati.
The delegation was scheduled to attend a public
meeting of the council and to hold meetings with senior
officials of Iran’s judicial system as well.
The delegation consisted of the chief and members of
Thai Constitutional Court, Guardian Council spokesman
Abbas Ali Kadkhodaie said in a Telegram message.
Senior MP: Iran to
keep up advisory
support to Syria
P O L I T I C S TEHRAN — The head of Majlis
d
e
s
k National Security and Foreign Policy
Committee says Iran is to keep up its advisory support
for the Syrian government and military in the country’s
fight against foreign-backed terrorists.
“We reserve our right to support the Syrian
government and people against terrorists,” Alaeddin
Boroujerdi said on Monday, Fars reported.
“Based on that right, we will stand by the Syrian
people and government in their fight against Daesh and
other terror groups,” he stressed.
Iranian official to visit
Saudi Arabia for Hajj
preparation
P O L I T I C S TEHRAN — The head of Iran’s Hajj
d
e
s
k and Pilgrimage Organization is going
to visit Saudi Arabia for talks on preparations for this
year’s Hajj ritual.
MP Davood Mohammadi on Monday said Hamid
Mohammadi’s visit will take place next week, Nasim
reported.
In his trip, Mohammadi is going to talk about the
latest developments regarding the Hajj pilgrimage and
the guarantees given by Riyadh that the dignity of the
Iranian pilgrims will be preserved, the parliamentarian
added.
P O L I T I C S
JULY 11, 2017
Iran congratulates full
liberation of Mosul
P O L I T I C S TEHRAN
d
e
s
k Foreign
— Iranian
Minister
Mohammad Javad Zarif on Sunday
congratulated the Iraqi people and
government for their bravery in
succeeding to fully liberate the city of
Mosul from the hands of Daesh.
“Congratulations to brave people
& Government of Iraq upon liberation
of Mosul. When Iraqis join hands, no
limits to what they can achieve,” Zarif
tweeted.
Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi,
dressed in a military uniform, visited
Mosul on Sunday to congratulate armed
forces for wresting the city from Daesh,
also called ISIS or ISIL.
The victory marked the formal end
of a fierce campaign that lasted nearly
nine months and left much of Iraq’s
second-largest city in ruins.
Top
Iranian
military
officials,
including Defense Minister Hossein
Dehqan and Armed Forces Chief of
Staff Mohammad Bagheri, also sent
congratulations to Iraqi military and
political officials on victory over Daesh.
In his message to Erfan al-Hiyali,
Mohammad Javad Zarif
Hossein Dehqan
Mohammad Bagheri
the Iraqi defense minister, Dehqan Major General Bagheri expressed hope
said that eradication of terrorism is that expansion of ties between the Iranian
only possible through adoption of and Iraqi armed forces would foil plots
“real” and “collective” determination by and help establish stability and security in
the governments and formation of a the region.
Iran’s Supreme National Security
“united front” against terrorism.
In a message to the Iraqi prime minister, Council Secretary Ali Shamkhani also
Ali Shamkhani
congratulated Grand Ayatollah Ali
Sistani and Abadi on liberation of Mosul
in separate messages.
The top security official added Iran
wishes Iraq would present “a successful
model in resisting against plots and
proxy wars”.
Zarif: Regional actors seeking legitimacy from outside
— Unlike self-reliant
P O L I T I C S TEHRAN
d
e
s
k Iran, regional states try to acquire
“legitimacy” and “security” from external sources, the
Iranian foreign minister said on Monday.
“Regional powers eye on outside to acquire
legitimacy and security,” Mohammad Javad Zarif told
literati in Tehran.
“Currently, these countries are either under the
supportive umbrella of a foreign country or expect such
support from foreign systems,” Zarif added.
The comments were a clear reference to archrival
Saudi Arabia which signed a hefty arms sales deal with
the U.S. during President Trump’s May visit to Riyadh.
Saudi Arabia’s animosity with Iran began after Iran
concluded a historic agreement with great powers over
its nuclear program in July 2015.
Tensions exacerbated after 464 Iranians were crushed
to death in a Hajj ritual in Mecca in September 2015. Iran
Expediency
Council
chairman to be
named soon,
Velayati says
held Saudi responsible for the tragedy, saying it was a
result of mismanagement.
Relations suffered another blow after Saudi Arabia
executed Shia cleric Sheikh Nimr al-Nimr by Riyadh.
After the execution angry mobs stormed Saudi
diplomatic posts in Tehran and Mashhad. Though Iran
condemned the attacks, Riyadh severed all diplomatic
ties with Tehran.
Ever since, the two sides, who back opposing sides in
Syria, have been trading barbs at each other on a wide
range of issues.
During a late-June visit to Germany, Zarif made similar
remarks, arguing that security cannot be “purchased.”
Zarif says regional powers
eye on outside to acquire
legitimacy and security.
“When foreign policy becomes a commodity, then
purchasing military equipment becomes your yardstick
for measuring who is a terrorist or who isn’t a terrorist,”
Zarif noted.
“This reinforces a cognitive disorder in our region that
security can be purchased from outside, that security can
be purchased by trying to buy more military equipment,”
he pointed out.
Dissimilar to Wahhabism which is s a cornerstone of
Saudi ruling legitimacy, Iran just held a massive presidential
election in May as 42 million rushed to ballot boxes.
“Mr. Trump arrived in the region at the time when he
saw 45 million Iranians participating in the elections,” Mr.
Rouhani told a press conference two days after re-election.
“Then he visited a country that I doubt knows the
definition of elections. The poor things have never
seen a ballot box,” Rouhani said in open reference to
Saudi Arabia.
INTERNATIONAL
TENDER No. : 96 - K/166
First Announcement
Central Bank Of Iran
Tender Holder: Security Paper Mill of Central Bank of I.R.Of Iran.
Tender Subject: Purchase of 42 Spare Parts for Vacuumac Counter Machines.
Tender Deposit: an unconditional and extendable Bank guarantee from Iranian Bank for the amount
of 27,470 Euro or 1,000,000,000 Iranian Rials.
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Iran urges
resumption of talks
to solve Cyprus
conflict
P O L I T I C S TEHRAN — The Iranian Foreign Mind
e
s
k istry spokesman says the Islamic Re-
public supports the integrity of Cyprus, stressing the
importance of the resumption of negotiations to solve
the island’s decades-old conflict, according to Press TV.
“The Islamic Republic of Iran’s approach concerning
the issue of Cyprus since its beginning until now has been
based on a principled and fixed stance and has supported
its integrity,” Bahram Qassemi said on Monday.
The latest round of talks in a decades-long effort to
reunify the two Cypruses collapsed on Friday as the conflicting sides failed to narrow their differences and reach
a compromise despite an 11th-hour bid by the UN chief
to salvage them.
Iran resumes
flights to Najaf
P O L I T I C S TEHRAN — Iran resumed flights to
d
e
s
k Najaf airport, the deputy head of Iran’s
Civil Aviation Organization has announced.
Due to the problems on Iranian flights to Najaf,
representatives from Iranian airliners held meetings with
Iraqi officials with positive results, Morteza Dehqan told
IRNA on Monday.
He said Iranian airlines had halted flights since they
were being unconventionally charged by Iraq: about $85
for each flight, $15 for each seat, plus $10 in taxation.
portal of Iran Tenders Information http:// Iets. Mporg.ir
Deadline for submitting offers:
P O L I T I C S TEHRAN
d
e
s
k Velayati,
— Ali Akbar
head of the
Strategic Research Center of Iran’s Expediency
Council, announced on Monday that chairman
of the Expediency Council will be appointed in
the near future.
“We wait to see what decision the system
will take in this respect. Undoubtedly, the
Expediency Council has very important status
in the system,” he told reporters after his
meeting with Dogu Perincek, the president of
Patriotic Party of Turkey in Tehran.
Ayatollah Mohammad Ali Movahedi
Kermani has been serving as acting chairman
of the Expediency Council since Ayatollah
Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani passed away on 8
January, 2017.
As a 44-memebr body, the council’s chief
task is to act as an arbiter between the Majlis
(parliament) and the oversight Guardian
Council. Its members are appointed by the
Leader every five years.
Also asked on a gas deal between Iran and
France’s Total, he said that any deal which is
based on the law should go through the legal
procedure and approved by the parliament.
“We hope that the parliament will study the
deal with precision and what is beneficial to the
country would happen,” he added.
Iran signed a deal with France’s Total and
China’s state-owned National Petroleum
Corporation (CNPC) for development of phase
11 of its South Pars gas field, Shana reported
on Monday.
Maximum until dated 2017 August 26(96/06/04)
Time period of financial offers:
Maximum Three week after deadline submitting offer
Validity period of financial offers:
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All the cost of published advertisement must be paid by winner of tender
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INTERNATIONAL
JULY 11, 2017
Geneva hosting new round
of Syria peace talks
Israel not bound by U.S.-Russian ceasefire deal in Syria: Liberman
Syria’s government and opposition meet on Monday for a
seventh round of the United Nations-sponsored peace talks
with little expectation of a breakthrough to end the six-year
conflict.
The talks in Geneva open after a ceasefire took effect in
three provinces in southern Syria on Sunday, with a monitor
reporting that the region was mostly quiet despite scattered
violations.
The ceasefire was brokered by the United States, Russia
and Jordan, the latest agreement reached outside the Geneva framework.
The talks in Geneva have been held under the auspices of
the UN, which has appointed a special envoy for the Syrian
conflict. But a parallel series of talks has also been organized
and held by Iran, Russia, and Turkey in Kazakhstan’s capital
Astana.
Iran and Russia are Syrian government allies, while Turkey
is a supporter of anti-Damascus groups.
The last round of the Astana talks was held last week, and
the sides agreed to meet at the high level in Astana again in
late August. Working groups would meet in Iran for preparations in early August.
The three countries agreed in May to set up four “de-escalation zones” in Syria and have since been negotiating to
work out the details.
The last round of the UN-brokered talks in Geneva was
held in May, and those talks have made relatively less progress compared to the Astana talks.
Syria has been beset by conflict since March 2011. Numerous rounds of talks and three different UN special envoys
have failed to resolve the crisis.
Israel & Syria ceasefire
However, Israel has refused to abide by a ceasefire brokered by the United States and Russia which went into force
in southwestern Syria on Sunday, saying it would act to protect its interests.
“Israel reserves its complete freedom of action, regardless
of any understandings or developments,” minister of military
affairs Avigdor Liberman said on Sunday.
Russia, the U.S. and Jordan have agreed to back a ceasefire in southwestern Syria and to establish a de-escalation
zone in Syrian provinces of Dara’a, Suwayda and Quneitra,
which borders the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights.
Liberman said Tel Aviv is mulling the understandings
reached between Trump and Putin regarding the truce.
Israel has cited errant fire to launch several attacks on
the Syrian territory, targeting civilians and military positions.
Many observers believe militants backed by Israel are behind
Syrian chief negotiator and Ambassador of the Permanent Representative Mission of Syria to the United Nations
Bashar al-Jaafari (L) is welcomed by UN official upon his arrival for peace talks on July 10, 2017 at the United
Nations Offices in Geneva.
the fire, giving a pretext to Tel Aviv to attack Syrian military
positions.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu also commented on
the ceasefire on Sunday, saying Israel will carefully monitor
the developments in Syria, “while strongly upholding our red
lines.”
He cited alleged fears of Iranian or Hezbollah presence in
Syria, particularly in the Golan Heights. Netanyahu said the
truce must not “enable the establishment of a military presence by Iran and its proxies in Syria in general and in southern
Syria in particular.”
Syria has been gripped by foreign-backed militancy since
March 2011. The Syrian government says Tel Aviv and its
Western and regional allies are aiding Takfiri militant groups
wreaking havoc in the country.
Israel regularly hits positions held by the Syrian army in
the Golan Heights, describing the attacks as retaliatory. Syria says the raids aim to help Takfiri militants fighting against
government forces.
On several occasions, the Syrian army has confiscated
Israeli-made arms and military equipment from terrorists
fighting the government forces. There are also reports that
Israel has been providing medical treatment to the extremists
wounded in Syria.
Last month, United Nations Secretary General Antonio Guterres expressed concerns about a spike in contacts
between Israeli armed forces and Syria militants in recent
months, saying it could lead to escalation and cause harm to
UN observers deployed to the Golan Heights.
The Wall Street Journal recently said Israel has been providing Takfiri terrorists in Syria’s Golan Heights with a steady
flow of funds and medical supplies.
(Source: agencies)
Putin had agreed to create “a cyber-unit to
make sure that there was absolutely no interference whatsoever, that they would work on
cyber security together.”
But Trump returned to Twitter on Sunday
to play down the idea, which arose at his talks
with Putin at a summit of the Group of 20 nations in Hamburg, Germany.
“The fact that President Putin and I discussed a Cyber Security unit doesn’t mean I
think it can happen. It can’t,” Trump said on
Twitter.
He then noted that an agreement with
Russia for a ceasefire in Syria “can & did” happen.
Republican Senator John McCain of Arizona acknowledged Trump’s desire to move
forward with Russia, but added: “There has to
be a price to pay.”
“There has been no penalty,” McCain, who
chairs the Senate Armed Services Committee,
told CBS’ “Face the Nation” program according to a CBS transcript. “Vladimir Putin ... got
away with literally trying to change the outcome ... of our election.”
Trump argued for a rapprochement with
Moscow in his campaign but has been unable
to deliver because his administration has been
dogged by investigations into the allegations
of Russian interference in the election and ties
with his campaign.
Special Counsel Robert Mueller is inves-
tigating the matter, including whether there
may have been any collusion on the part of
Trump campaign officials, as are congressional
committees including both the House of Representatives and Senate intelligence panels.
Those probes are focused almost exclusively on Moscow’s actions, lawmakers and
intelligence officials say, and no evidence has
surfaced publicly implicating other countries
despite Trump’s suggestion that others could
have been involved.
Moscow has denied any interference, and
Trump says his campaign did not collude with
Russia.
Representative Adam Schiff, the top Democrat on the House Intelligence Committee,
told CNN’s “State of the Union” program that
Russia could not be a credible partner in a cyber-security unit.
“If that’s our best election defense, we
might as well just mail our ballot boxes to Moscow,” Schiff added.
Separately, U.S. government officials said
a recent hack into business systems of U.S.
nuclear power and other energy companies
was carried out by Russian government hackers, the Washington Post reported on Saturday.
Time to move forward with Russia
Meantime, Trump said he “strongly pressed
President Putin twice about Russian meddling
in our election. He vehemently denied it.”
He added: “We negotiated a ceasefire in
parts of Syria which will save lives. Now it is
time to move forward in working constructively with Russia!”
In Trump’s first attempt at ending the sixyear Syrian civil war, the United States, Russia
and Jordan on Friday reached a ceasefire and
“de-escalation agreement” for southwestern
Syria. The ceasefire was holding hours after
it took effect on Sunday, a monitor and two
rebel officials said.
Any joint U.S.-Russia cyber initiative would
have been a different matter. Depending how
much it veered into military or espionage operations, it could have faced major legal hurdles.
Language in the 2017 National Defense
Authorization Act prohibits the Pentagon,
which includes the National Security Agency
and the U.S. military’s Cyber Command, from
using any funds for bilateral military cooperation with Russia.
Michael McFaul, a former U.S. ambassador to Russia, also noted restrictions on sharing information with Russia that would clearly
prohibit offering Moscow a sense of U.S. cyber
capabilities. Russia would be similarly adverse
to revealing its capabilities to the United States,
he noted.
“It just will not happen,” McFaul told Reuters.
(Source: Reuters)
Pakistan court resumes Sharif ‘corruption’ hearings
Pakistan’s Supreme Court has resumed deliberations in a corruption case that could unseat
Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif, after investigators tasked with probing the allegations submitted their findings to judges on Monday.
The Joint Investigative Team (JIT), consisting of investigators from Pakistan’s police,
military and financial regulators spent 60 days
gathering evidence and questioning witnesses
regarding the prime minister’s family’s assets.
Sharif himself appeared before the inquiry
on June 15, while his sons Hassan and Hussain were questioned multiple times during
the course of proceedings. Maryam Nawaz,
Sharif’s daughter and political heir apparent,
was also questioned.
The JIT submitted its report, along with two
boxes of evidence, to the apex court on Monday morning amid tight security.
The court adjourned Monday’s proceedings until July 17, when lawyers for both sides
will be given a chance to present their arguments on the investigating team’s findings.
Erdogan: Iraq should avoid
independence referendum
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said on Monday it was increasingly important that neighboring Iraq
remain a unified countr y and said a planned Kurdish
referendum on independence should not go ahead.
Authorities in Kurdish northern Iraq have announced
an independence referendum on Sept. 25, and the
president of the Kurdistan Regional Government told
Reuters last week there could be no turning back on the
bid for an independent Kurdish state.
“ The importance of Iraq’s territorial integrity is increasing by the day,” Erdogan told a petroleum conference in Istanbul. “ They should refrain from unilateral
steps, such as an independence referendum.”
(Source: Reuters)
Pledging reforms by 2020,
Ukraine seeks roadmap to
NATO membership
Trump backtracks on cyber unit with Russia after harsh criticism
The United States President Donald Trump
backtracked on his push for a cyber-security
unit with Russia, tweeting that he did not think
it could happen, hours after his proposal was
harshly criticized by Republicans who said
Moscow could not be trusted.
Trump said on Twitter early on Sunday that
he and Russian President Vladimir Putin discussed on Friday forming “an impenetrable
Cyber Security unit” to address issues like the
risk of cyber meddling in elections.
The idea appeared to be a political
non-starter. It was immediately scorned by
several of Trump’s fellow Republicans, who
questioned why the United States would work
with Russia after Moscow’s alleged meddling
in the 2016 U.S. election.
“It’s not the dumbest idea I have ever heard
but it’s pretty close,” Senator Lindsey Graham
of South Carolina told NBC’s “Meet the Press”
program.
Ash Carter, who was U.S. defense secretary
until the end of former Democratic President
Barack Obama’s administration in January, told
CNN flatly: “This is like the guy who robbed
your house proposing a working group on
burglary.”
Trump’s advisers, including Secretary of
State Rex Tillerson and Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin, had recently sought to explain
Trump’s cyber push.
Mnuchin said on Saturday that Trump and
INTERNATIONAL DAILY
Corruption allegations
The allegations focus on Sharif’s previous
two terms as prime minister in the 1990s, with
opposition politician Imran Khan and others
alleging that Sharif and his family illegally profited from his position.
The 2016 leak of 11.5 million documents
from Panama law firm Mossack Fonseca –
dubbed the Panama Papers – showed that
three of Sharif’s children were listed as beneficiaries for three offshore companies registered
in the British Virgin Islands.
The documents showed these companies
were involved in a 2007 loan of $13.8m, made
using high-value Sharif-owned properties
in Britain as collateral, and a separate 2007
transaction amounting to $11.2m.
Owning off-shore companies is not illegal
in Pakistan, but Sharif’s political opponents
allege Sharif properties in London were obtained through corrupt means and that he did
not fully declare his assets to tax authorities.
The probe has expanded to include corruption allegations regarding the sale and
purchase of various industrial units in Pakistan,
the United Arab Emirates (UAE) and Saudi
Arabia.
Sharif denies any wrongdoing, saying the
sources of his family’s assets can be legally accounted for.
Political career in balance
On Saturday, Sharif appeared to take a
defensive stance prior to the inquiry report’s
submission, with leaders from his PML-N
(Pakistan Muslim League/Nawaz) party vowing to reject the report as it did not include
testimony from former Qatari Prime Minister
Sheikh Hamad bin Jassim bin Jaber Al Thani.
Sharif contends that the former Qatari
prime minister’s father was a business partner, and that the apartments in London were
bought using funds transferred from Qatar.
Sheikh Al Thani was invited to testify before the inquiry, or to record his testimony at
the Pakistani embassy in Qatar.
He rejected the invitation, saying he was
not subject to Pakistani law, but invited investigators to visit him in the Qatari capital Doha
to record a statement. The investigators did
not do so.
In a related development, a case was
registered on Monday against the Securities
and Exchange Commission of Pakistan (SECP)
Chief Zafar Hijazi for tampering with records
of Sharif-owned business while the investigating team was completing its inquiry.
(Source: Al Jazeera)
Ukraine and the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO)
will begin discussions on a roadmap to get Ukraine into
NATO, with Kiev pledging reforms to it up to standard by
2020, President Petro Poroshenko said on Monday.
Speaking alongside Poroshenko on a visit to the Ukrainian
capital, Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg said NATO has
provided Ukraine with new equipment to uncover the perpetrators of a cyber-attack that hit Ukraine in June and spread
globally.
“Ukraine has clearly defined its political future and future
in the sphere of security,” Poroshenko told reporters.
“Today we clearly stated that we would begin a discussion
about a membership action plan and our proposals for such
a discussion were accepted with pleasure.”
At loggerheads with Russia and fighting a Kremlin-backed
insurgency in eastern Ukraine, Ukraine passed a law in June
prioritizing NATO membership as a foreign policy goal.
NATO leaders agreed at a summit in 2008 that Ukraine
would one day become a member of the alliance and the
country already contributes troops to NATO missions including in Afghanistan.
A formal NATO membership plan for Ukraine would mean
meeting targets on political, economic and defense reforms,
with national plans submitted annually to show progress.
But there are even larger barriers.
NATO rules state that aspiring members must “settle their
international disputes by peaceful means”, meaning Ukraine
would need to resolve the Donbass conflict -- an insurgency by pro-Russian forces -- that has so far killed more than
10,000 people.
The meeting between Poroshenko and Stoltenberg comes a
day after the United States Secretary of State Rex Tillerson visited Kiev and said Russia must make the first move in staunching
the violence in eastern Ukraine.
(Source: Reuters)
U.S. carrier group leads
biggest yet drills with
India and Japan
A United States aircraft carrier strike group began naval exercises with India and Japan on Monday that the U.S. navy said
would help the three countries tackle maritime threats in the
Asia-Pacific region.
The annual exercises named Malabar are being held off
India. They are the largest since India and the United States
launched the exercise in 1992. Japan was later included.
“Malabar 2017 is the latest in a continuing series of exercises that has grown in scope and complexity over the years
to address the variety of shared threats to maritime security
in the Indo-Asia Pacific,” the U.S. Pacific command said.
Military officials say the drills involving the U.S. carrier USS
Nimitz, India’s lone carrier Vikramaditya and Japan’s biggest
warship, the helicopter carrier Izumo, are aimed at helping
to maintain a balance of power in the Asia-Pacific against the
rising weight of China.
The three countries have been concerned about China’s
claims to almost all of the waters of the South China Sea,
and more broadly, its expanding military presence across the
region.
Chinese submarines, for example, recently docked in Sri
Lanka, an island just off the southern tip of India that it has
long seen as squarely in its back yard.
The maritime drills are taking place as India and China are
locked in a standoff on their land border in the Himalayas.
The U.S. Pacific command said in a statement the exercises would help the three countries operate together and it
was learning how to integrate with the Indian navy.
India and the United States were for decades on opposite
sides of a Cold War divide but have in recent years become
major defense partners.
China has in the past criticized the exercises as destabilizing to the region.
India this year turned down an Australian request to join
the exercises for now, for fear that it would antagonize China
further.
The Indian navy said the exercises would focus on aircraft
carrier operations and ways to hunt submarines.
(Source: Reuters)
4
I NTE R NATI O NAL DAI LY
NEWS IN BRIEF
Annual exports
from free trade
zones stand at
$840m
E C O N O M Y TEHRAN — The value of exports from
d
e
s
k Iran’s free trade zones stood at $840
million in the last Iranian calendar year 1395 (ended on
March 20), a deputy at the secretariat of the Supreme
Council of Iran’s Free Trade, Industrial and Special
Economic Zones announced.
According to Mehdi Bazargan, the country’s value of
exports from the free trade zones was reported to be
$640 million in the preceding year 1394 which was 31
percent lower than that of 1395.
Tehran hosting intl.
stone exhibition
E C O N O M Y TEHRAN — The ninth edition of Iran
d
e
s
k Stone Exhibition (IRSE 2017) which
covers sectors like natural stone, quarry, machinery and
equipment is underway from July 10 to 13 at Tehran
Permanent International Fairgrounds.
According to IRNA, the exhibition is hosting
companies from eight Asian and European countries
alongside 178 Iranian exhibitors.
Representatives from Italy, China, Turkey, Germany,
India, Spain, Afghanistan and Poland are showcasing
their latest products and achievement in this year ’s
event.
Iran-Brazil Joint
Chamber of
Commerce opened
E C O N O M Y TEHRAN — Iran-Brazil Joint Chamber
d
e
s
k of Commerce was officially opened in
Tehran on July 9, IRIB reported.
According to the report, Pedram Soltani, the vice
president of Iran Chamber of Commerce, Industries,
Mines and Agriculture (ICCIMA), Brazilian ambassador to
Tehran Rodrigo de Azeredo Santos, and Iranian Foreign
Ministry’s director general for the Americas Mohammad
Keshavarz-Zadeh attended the opening ceremony.
How healthy is the global
financial system?
By Mohamed El-Erian
In recent weeks, policymakers on both sides of the Atlantic
have affirmed that the financial system is sound and stable.
The US Federal Reserve announced in June that all US banks
passed its latest annual stress test. And the Fed chair, Janet
Yellen, has now suggested we might not experience another
financial crisis “in our lifetimes”.
At the same time, the Financial Stability Board (FSB) – which
monitors regulatory practices around the world to ensure that
they meet globally agreed standards – has declared, in a letter
to G20 leaders, that “toxic forms of shadow banking” are being
eliminated.
In short, ongoing measures to buttress the global financial
system have undoubtedly paid off, especially when it comes to
strengthening capital cushions and cleaning up balance sheets
in important parts of the banking system. The latest assurances
from policymakers are comforting to those of us who worry
that not enough has been done to reduce systemic financial
risk and to ensure that banks serve the real economy, rather
than threaten its wellbeing.
Yet it is too soon to give the financial system as a whole a
clean bill of health. Efforts to shore up the banking sector in
some parts of Europe are still lagging far behind. And, more
importantly, financial risks have continued to migrate to nonbank activities.
After irresponsible risk-taking almost tipped the global
economy into a multi-year depression in 2007-2008,
regulators and central banks in advanced economies launched
a major effort to strengthen their financial systems. To that
end, they focused initially on banks, which have since bolstered
their risk-absorbing capital cushions, cleansed murky balance
sheets, increased liquidity, enhanced transparency, narrowed
the scope of high-risk activities, and partly realigned internal
incentives to discourage reckless behaviour. Moreover, the
process for resolving failing – and failed – banks has been
improved.
In addition to strengthening the banking sector, policymakers
have also made progress toward standardising derivative
markets and making them more robust and transparent, which
also reduces the risk of future taxpayer bailouts for irresponsible
institutions. Moreover, the system for payments and settlement
has been made safer, thereby lowering the threat of a “sudden
stop” in economic activity, like the one that occurred in the
fourth quarter of 2008.
It has been encouraging to watch national authorities
coordinate their efforts under the auspices of the FSB. Better
coordination has reduced the risk of regulatory arbitrage,
and address the threat that banks will be, as the former
Bank of England governor Mervyn King memorably put it,
“international in life but national in death.”
The US and the UK took the lead on reform, and Europe has
been catching up. Assuming that it does, as policymakers there
intend, Yellen’s assurance of a “much stronger” banking system
in the US will apply to all of the other systemically important
banking jurisdictions in the developed world, too. And the
FSB’s confident assertion that “reforms have addressed the
fault lines that caused the global financial crisis” will receive
more support.
(Source: The Guardian)
E C O N O M Y
JULY 11, 2017
27% rise in West Karoun
output planned
Reclaiming its share of the global oil market
1
in post-sanction era, Iran, once OPEC’s second-largest
producer, has it on agenda to ramp up crude production
especially from the fields it shares with its neighbors. In
this regard, West Karoun fields come under the spotlight.
IPC tender for Azadegan being prepared
The process of preparing the tender for development
of the big and important West Karoun oilfield, Azadegan,
based on Iran’s new model of oil contracts (known as IPC)
is being completed, Shahnazizadeh further announced.
He said 59 renowned foreign companies announced
readiness for participation, among them 22 companies
were qualified.
Azadegan oilfield has been the priority for the Iranian
Oil Ministry to go on tender based on IPC. Oil Minister
Bijan Zanganeh had said in mid March that the tender
will be held very soon.
Study MOUs signed with renowned foreign
companies
Elsewhere in his remarks, the managing director of
PEDEC said that his company has signed memorandums
of understanding (MOUs) with a number of famous
foreign companies on conducting development studies
on some of the country’s oil and gas fields.
He named Anglo-Dutch Shell, France’s Total, Malaysia’s
Petronas and Japan’s Impex as the companies with them
PEDEC has signed study MOUs for development of
Azadegan, saying that some of these companies have
already submitted the result of their studies.
Shell is also conducting studies on development of
Yadavaran, he added.
Projects worth $21.5b underway by PEDEC
Shahnazizadeh said his company has currently
projects worth $21.5 billion underway and added
that PEDEC requires $36 billion investment for the
implementation of all of its projects.
Iran’s June crude oil exports stand at 2.15m bpd
E N E R G Y TEHRAN — Iran’s oil
d
e
s
k exports to Europe and
Asia stood at 2.15 million barrels per day
(bpd) in June, IRNA reported on Monday
citing Oil Ministry’s website.
According to the report, Iran’s oil exports
hovered around 2.1 million bpd on average
since the beginning of 2017 of which near
1 million barrels were sent to the European
markets.
After the implementation of the nuclear
accord (called JCPOA), Iran has been seeking
the expansion of its target markets and as a
result the oil exports to Europe rose by more
than 300 percent since then.
The country is currently producing
near 4 million bpd of oil of which about 1.5
million-1.7 million barrels are being used as
the feedstock for domestic refineries and the
rest is sent to the buyers all around the world.
The country is also exporting 500,000 –
700,000 barrels of oil condensate, mostly to
Asian customers.
Earlier this month, OPEC released its
Annual Statistical Bulletin report in which they
said Iran’s oil exports in 2016 reached 1.921
million bpd, a 77.6 percent rise compared to
2015.
The country’s crude exports stood at
1.081 million bpd in 2015 which indicates that
the 2016 figure is 840,000 bpd more than
that of the 2015 average.
Top Iran oil tanker firm NITC says shipments to Europe increasing
NITC, Iran’s leading oil tanker operator, said
on Monday its shipments to Europe were
increasing daily and the company plans to
upgrade its fleet to support expansion.
International sanctions on Iran were
lifted in January 2016 and NITC is looking
to come in from the cold after years of
isolation.
Mohammad Reza Shams Dolatabadi,
NITC’s head of international affairs, told
Reuters on the sidelines of an energy
industry conference in Istanbul that the
company aimed to replace some of its
older tankers with new vessels.
“We have a plan for the renovation
of our fleet and to buy new vessels. We’ll
scrap some of our old vessels but we will
not change our capacity,” he said.
“We have a (renovation) plan for five
years, but (we are) still working to finalize
that.”
NITC’s own operations were also
hampered previously due to their difficulty
in securing international insurance cover
for their fleet and getting certification, a
key requirement for access to many ports
around the world, which tests the sea
worthiness of ships.
Iran has steadily reconnected with
buyers across Europe since sanctions were
lifted and NITC expects to play a bigger
role.
“We were active during the sanctions era
in the Asian market, but we have started
since last year to return to the European
market as well,” Dolatabadi said.
“Our ships are calling at many European
ports, and the number of these shipments
is increasing day by day.”
He added that the company also
planned to acquire liquefied natural gas
(LNG) tankers, marking a new direction for
the company.
“We are thinking of an LNG fleet in the
future,” he said.
“Iran has the largest gas reserves in the
world. There are plans for production for
liquefied gas, LNG, in the future. So due to
that we are thinking about playing a part in
the shipment of this product in the future.
(It will come along) in the mid-term, three
to five years,” he said.
(Source: Reuters)
Qatar central bank says country has $340b in reserves, can weather Arab sanctions
Qatar has $340 billion in reserves including holdings
of its sovereign wealth fund that could help the Gulf
country to weather the isolation by its powerful Arab
neighbors, central bank governor Sheikh Abdullah Bin
Saoud al-Thani said.
“This is the credibility of our system, we have
enough cash to preserve any..kind of shock,” he told
the news channel in an interview published early on
Monday on its website.
Al-Thani said the central bank has $40 billion
in reserves plus gold, while the Qatar Investment
Authority has $300 billion in reserves that it could
liquidate.
Qatari stocks have weakened and the riyal has
been volatile in the spot market since Saudi Arabia,
the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain and Egypt cut
diplomatic and transport ties with Qatar on June 5,
accusing it of backing terrorism. Dona has denied
these allegations.
“Qatar has already had a good and unique system.
We have laws established against all these kinds of
terrorists ,” al Thani told CNBC. “We work with the IMF
(International Monetary Fund) and other institutions
to establish our laws and audits and reviews.”
“We have no challenges, we welcome those to
review all our books, they are open,” he added.
Al-Thani said while the central bank has noticed
fund outflows from some non-residents, the amounts
weren’t particularly significant.
“There is more [money] coming in,” he said,
confirming that inflows are exceeding outflows.
He said long-term contracts in the gas and oil
sectors were not seeing any disruptions.
Rating agency Moody’s Investors Service earlier this
month changed the outlook on Qatar ’s credit rating
to negative from stable, citing economic and financial
risks arising from the ongoing dispute between Qatar
and the Saudi-led alliance.
Despite the market ructions, economists say Qatar,
the world’s top liquefied natural gas exporter, has
Qatar’s Central Bank.
Dabbous/File
Photo
REUTERS/Mohammed
taken a number of measures such as a planned boost
in gas output and new transport routes to weather
the crisis.
(Source: cnbc)
World stock markets cheered by healthy economy, dollar firm
World stock markets rallied on Monday
and the U.S. dollar hit a two-month high
against the yen as the latest U.S. jobs
data gave investors greater confidence
in the strength of the economy.
Focus was already turning to Federal
Reserve chief Janet Yellen’s semi-annual
testimony on monetary policy and a
meeting of Canada’s central bank on
Wednesday for the latest policy signals
from the world’s major central banks.
For now, unease about an end to
an era of ultra-cheap money gave way
to optimism about the global growth
outlook, with Friday’s stronger-thanexpected U.S. non-farm payrolls report
helping to bolster risk appetite. Data on
Monday showed exports from Germany,
Europe’s biggest economy, rose more
strongly than expected in May.
European stock markets followed
Asia higher, with blue-chip stock
markets in London, Paris and Frankfurt
up 0.2 to 0.5 percent in early Monday
trade.
MSCI’s broadest index of Asia-Pacific
shares outside Japan advanced 0.4
percent while Japan’s Nikkei rose 0.8
percent to a one-week high helped by
weakness in the Japanese currency.
U.S. stock futures also firmed,
suggesting Wall Street shares could
extend gains made after the U.S. jobs
data.
“Unlike in recent years, where there
was very patchy growth across the
world, we are seeing a synchronized
upswing in the global economy,” said
Alex Dryden, global market strategist
at JP Morgan Asset Management.
“So while it may not be coordinated
communication, I do think there’s been
a change in rhetoric from central banks
across the world -- though the ECB is
the central bank to watch in the second
half of the year.”
Over the past two weeks, markets
have reassessed the outlook for tighter
monetary policies from major central
banks following a string of hawkish
remarks.
“We’ll see just how much substance
there is to these comments on
Wednesday, when the Bank of Canada
announces its latest decision, with
investors now expecting a 25 basis
point increase,” said Craig Erlam, senior
market analyst at OANDA.
A rate rise from Canada’s central
would be its first interest rate rise in
nearly seven years.
(Source: Reuters)
E
JULY 11, 2017
N
E
R
G
Oil prices dip on ample supply as
OPEC may consider widening cap
Oil prices declined on Monday, adding to heavy losses at
the end of last week on the back of high drilling activity in
the United States and ample supplies from OPEC and nonOPEC nations.
Prices dropped even as OPEC signaled it may widen its
production caps to include Nigeria and Libya, whose output has recovered in recent months after being curtailed
by years of unrest.
Brent crude futures, the international benchmark for oil
prices, were at $46.21 per barrel at 0936 GMT, down 50
cents, or around 1 percent, from their last close.
U.S. crude futures were at $43.78 per barrel, down 45
cents.
“The market is in trouble and looks very vulnerable to
lower numbers,” PVM brokerage said in a note.
The Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries
has agreed with some non-OPEC members to curtail production until March 2018 but the move has failed to eliminate a global glut of crude.
Several key OPEC ministers will meet non-OPEC Russia
on July 24 in St Petersburg, Russia, to discuss the current
situation in oil markets.
Kuwait said on Sunday that Nigeria and Libya had
been invited to the meeting and their production could be
capped earlier than November, when OPEC is scheduled to
hold formal talks, according to Bloomberg.
Libya said on Monday it was ready for dialogue but
added that its political, economic and humanitarian situation should be taken into account in talks on caps.
Brent prices are 17 percent below their 2017 opening
despite strong compliance by OPEC with the production-cutting accord.
5
Iraq drills first well in
Huwaiza oil field near
Iranian border
Iraq started drilling the first well in the Huwaiza oil field near
the Iranian border, which may contain one billion barrels in
reserves, the Iraqi oil ministry said on Sunday.
The field is being developed by state-run Maysan Oil
Company which oversees the oil and natural gas industry in
the namesake region, the ministry said in a statement.
OPEC’s second largest producer, after Saudi Arabia, Iraq
seeks to boost its production capacity to 5 million barrels per
day by the end of the year, from about 4.7 million bpd now.
The country produces 4.3 million bpd, lower than its capacity, in line with an agreement between oil exporting countries to curb supply in order to support crude prices.
Oil Minister Jabar al-Luaibi attended the well drilling
launch at Huwaiza and also a ceremony marking the beginning of the expansion work in the Halfaya oil field, also
in Maysan, according to separate oil ministry statements on
Sunday.
The expansion will double Halfaya’s capacity in 2018 to
400,000 barrels per day. The field is operated by PetroChina.
(Source: Reuters)
ANZ bank said the market “continued to focus on the
increasing (U.S.) drilling activity and higher production”.
U.S. energy firms added seven oil drilling rigs last week,
marking a 24th week of increases out of the last 25 and
bringing the count to 763, the most since April 2015, energy services company Baker Hughes said.
U.S. oil production has risen more than 10 percent since
mid-2016.
“There seems little hope for (market) rebalancing ... unless we see an exceptional increase in demand as reining in
supply seems to be getting tougher,” said Sukrit Vijayakar,
director of energy consultancy Trifecta.
However, there are some indicators the oil market might
have bottomed as money managers have raised their long
positions since the start of July after reducing them to a
nine-month low by late June.
(Source: Reuters)
Libya, Nigeria may be asked to cap oil output, Kuwait says
Libya and Nigeria, which have both boosted oil production since they were exempt
from global cuts this year, may be asked
to cap their crude output soon in an effort
to help re-balance the market, Kuwait Oil
Minister Issam Almarzooq told Bloomberg.
OPEC and non-OPEC producers have
invited the two African nations to their
committee meeting in St. Petersburg, Russia, on July 24 to discuss the stability of their
Y
INTERNATIONAL DAILY
production, Almarzooq said on the sidelines of an energy conference in Istanbul.
Almarzooq is chairman of the committee
monitoring the compliance of OPEC and
non-OPEC suppliers with output cuts that
started in January and have been extended
to March.
“We invited them to discuss the situation of their production,” Almarzooq said.
“If they are able to stabilize their production at current levels, we will ask them to
cap as soon as possible. We don’t need
to wait until the November meeting to do
that,” he said, referring to the upcoming
OPEC meeting scheduled for November
30.
Crude sank into bear territory last month
amid concerns the cutbacks by producers
of the Organization of Petroleum Exporting
Countries, Russia and other allies are being
partially offset by a rebound in supply by
Libya, Nigeria and U.S. shale output. Libya
and Nigeria were both exempt from the
cuts due to their internal strife.
The two countries came into focus after they seemed to resolve some of the
political challenges that had slashed their
production. Libya’s oil output has climbed
to more than 1 million barrels a day for the
first time in four years. Nigeria’s production
rose 50,000 barrels a day in June, according
to a Bloomberg survey.
(Source: Bloomberg)
Here’s why
battered oil could
soon go from ‘sizzle’
right back to ‘fizzle’
The analyst who accurately called 2015’s crude
collapse is making a new prediction.
Tom Kloza of the Oil Price Information Service
suspects the oil market will heat up this summer.
Then, it will do something that could cost traders
a lot of money.
“I do think this is a summer of sizzle,” Kloza
told “Futures Now” recently. “Here in the summer
with very, very high usage of gasoline, diesel, jet
fuel — you name it. I think it’ll prop up crude oil.
The problem comes with the fall fizzle.”
He argued that demand is rising right now for
the commodity, as more consumers spend money on travel and vacations.
But as of Friday’s close, it doesn’t seem to be
reflected in the market. Crude fell by 2.8 percent,
closing at $44.23 a barrel. The day’s activity was
driven by concerns that U.S. output is too high,
and OPEC exports are climbing.
Kloza’s comments also come just a few
days after the AAA, which uses his firm’s data,
found the average price nationally for unleaded
dropped to the lowest level so far this year: $2.23
a gallon.
As the summer progresses, Kloza predicted
WTI (West Texas Intermediate) crude oil’s range
will be between $42 and $50 a barrel, and that
will bring prices at the pump higher.
“You have to worry when you get into August and the closer you get to the [fall] equinox.
That’s when I think you run into real problems
with crude,” cautioned Kloza. “I’d be a seller when
it gets closer to $50 on WTI and maybe $52 on
Brent.”
By autumn, Kloza forecasts, refineries will run
less and more oil will be coming online from the
Permian Basin in North America. Those are the
catalysts to help push crude prices lower.
While traders may suffer, it could spell relief at
the fuel pumps for consumers.
“We think that oil will be lower in the first
quarter of 2018 compared to the third quarter of
2017,” Kloza added.
(Source: CNBC)
Oil fields pumping third
of world supply die
fastest in 24 years
The tussle for supremacy between OPEC and U.S. shale
drillers is killing off older oil fields at the fastest pace in almost a quarter century. That could hurt the industry once
the current glut has faded.
The three-year price slump triggered by the battle for
market share choked off funds for aging deposits elsewhere,
accelerating their decline. Output at older fields from China to North America -- making up a third of world supply
-- fell 5.7 percent last year, the most since 1992, according
to Rystad Energy AS. It’ll drop about 6 percent in 2017 if oil
stays at current prices, the consultant said.
Oil fell from above $100 a barrel in 2014 to as low as
$26 in 2016 as the Organization of Petroleum Exporting
Countries opened the taps in an effort to stem the surge in
shale production. That set off the worst industry downturn
in a generation, forcing cost-cutting companies to focus on
higher-margin assets at the expense of older, costlier fields.
While OPEC changed course last year and curbed output to
boost prices, shale was the main beneficiary and resurgent
U.S. output has kept crude below $50.
“A lot of the focus is on OPEC and shale and not on
the decline at these mature fields, where supply is struggling,” said Espen Erlingsen, a partner at Oslo-based Rystad. “We’re starting to see the long-term impact of lower
oil prices.”
Though new projects mean total global production continues to rise, the slide at aging fields may give OPEC a
helping hand by reducing surplus supply today, according
to Erlingsen. The danger for major oil companies -- many
of which are gathering in Istanbul this week for the World
Petroleum Congress -- is that the decline may be difficult
to reverse, increasing the risk of future supply shortfalls as
spending cuts take their toll for years to come.
Oil deposits go through a number of phases, with production initially rising before flattening out and eventually
waning as the reservoir pressure drops. About a third of
global output comes from mature conventional fields -about 30 million barrels a day, or around three times Saudi
Arabia’s supply -- according to Erlingsen. Their fast-declining supply “is making OPEC’s life a little easier,” he said.
Central to the trend is China, where aging fields provide about half the total production, Rystad said. Volumes
from those deposits sank 9.5 percent last year, three times
the rate of 2015. Even in the U.S., where shale has risen to
prominence, about a third of output comes from fields that
began pumping last century. Their supply fell 8.3 percent in
2016 and 11 percent in 2015 compared with an average 4.1
percent in the previous five years, Rystad data show.
Decline rates are picking up because of “lower activity in
the mature assets, especially in China,” Erlingsen said. “This
shows that the low oil prices are having an impact on production from mature fields, and that we see the non-OPEC,
non-shale supply coming down.”
One region bucking this trend is the UK North Sea.
The area has been producing for decades, and is one of
the world’s costliest oil provinces, yet new fields are coming on stream as a result of investments made before the
2014 downturn. BP Plc started its Quad 204 project in May
and EnQuest Plc’s Kraken development began output last
month.
Still, the bulk of mature regions outside OPEC are on the
wane. Consultant Wood Mackenzie Ltd. estimates decline
rates at older fields at about 5 percent in 2015 and 2016,
compared with “just below” 4 percent from 2012 to 2014.
A decline this year at the pace predicted by Rystad would
remove about 1.8 million barrels a day from the market.
That’s the same volume as the voluntary cut agreed to
by OPEC and its allies last year -- a significant help in the
group’s quest to eliminate surplus inventories.
In the longer term, the implications for global supply
give cause for concern. International Energy Agency Executive Director Fatih Birol said this year that lower spending
on new production will probably result in a shortfall in the
next few years.
Crude’s collapse has forced companies to eliminate tens
of thousands of jobs and cut billions of dollars of projects.
With little prospect in sight of a strong recovery, oil bosses
are keeping a tight grip on budgets. The IEA will release its
latest assessment of energy industry investment on July 11
in Istanbul.
For the time being, enough new projects are keeping oil
flowing, said Patrick Gibson, research director for global oil
supply at Wood Mackenzie. “The key question is how long it
will take for the lack of investments to have a greater impact
on global oil supply.”
(Source: Bloomberg)
6
I NTE R NATI O NAL DAI LY
Don’t fall for the ‘fake Trump’
By Dean Obeidallah
There are two Donald Trumps: the “real” one and the “fake”
one. We saw both on display during the President’s Europe
trip this past week.
The fake Trump is the one who shows glimmers of being
thoughtful, informed and presidential. We saw that Trump
during his speech in Poland last week, when the Wall Street
Journal editorial board, which has slammed Trump in the
past, referred to his remarks as “Trump’s defining speech.”
Trump apparently loved the editorial so much it’s now on
the White House website.
Sure, that speech was “presidential,” with sentences like:
“The triumph of the Polish spirit over centuries of hardship
gives us all hope for a future in which good conquers evil,
and peace achieves victory over war.” But let’s be blunt:
Those words scream fake Trump.
The real Trump -- the one many of us knew on “The
Apprentice” and were reintroduced to when he declared his
bid for the presidency in 2015 -- was on display that same
day at a press conference with Polish President Andrzej
Duda. When a reporter asked Trump if he would finally
acknowledge that Russia was behind the meddling in our
2016 election, he did not offer measured words wrapped in
beautiful prose.
Instead, we got the real Trump telling us, “I think it very
well could be Russia, but I think it could very well have been
other countries. I think a lot of people interfere...Nobody
really knows. Nobody really knows for sure.”
But former Director of National Intelligence James
Clapper responded, “We saw no evidence whatsoever that
it was anyone involved in this other than the Russians.”
And on Sunday’s “State of the Union,” after CNN’s Dana
Bash played the clip of Trump saying “Nobody really knows,”
U.S. Ambassador Nikki Haley still said, “Everybody knows
that Russia meddled in our elections.”
Trump style
Then, in true Trump style, the President added: “I
remember when I was sitting back listening about Iraq,
weapons of mass destruction, how everybody was 100%
certain that Iraq has weapons of mass destruction. Guess
what? That led to one big mess. They were wrong, and it
led to a mess.”
And while Trump was indeed correct on Iraq, many
intelligence officials refute his claim that they are wrong
about Russia’s meddling.
But there again was the real Trump, this time mocking our
intelligence agencies on foreign soil because he refuses to
accept their conclusions on Russia’s involvement in the U.S.
electoral process. Imagine Republican outrage if President
Barack Obama had gone to Europe and publicly questioned
the work of numerous U.S. intelligence agencies.
Poland wasn’t the only place Trump presented two
opposing versions of himself. At the close of the G20
gathering in Hamburg, Germany, Trump tweeted: “The G20
Summit was a wonderful success and carried out beautifully
by Chancellor Angela Merkel. Thank you!”
That was a thoughtful, gracious tweet which represented
the United States well.
Unfortunately for America, that was also the fake Trump.
The real Trump could be seen the day before, tweeting
a bizarre attack on Hillary Clinton’s former campaign
manager: “Everyone here is talking about why John Podesta
refused to give the DNC server to the FBI and the CIA.
Disgraceful!”
If Trump is telling the truth, the leaders of the G20
countries weren’t focused
on the economic and
Poland wasn’t
security issues of their
the only place
respective countries, but
instead were fixated on the Trump presented
hacking of the Democratic
two opposing
National Committee in
versions of
July 2016.
himself.
Then there was the
fake Trump who appeared
“presidential” during the G20 summit photo of world leaders
by not pushing his way past other world leaders to be in the
center of the photo, as he did in a past photo op.
But the real Trump emerged Saturday, when he
suddenly left in the middle of a G20 working meeting tilted,
“Partnership with Africa, migration and health.”
Who did the President leave at the table in his absence,
sandwiched between British Prime Minister Theresa May
and Chinese President Xi Jinping? His daughter Ivanka.
Typically when world leaders leave these meetings,
a high-ranking government official will sit in who is
knowledgeable on the subject matter up for discussion. It’s
unclear what Ivanka’s expertise on African migration and
health issues is.
If you see Trump being “presidential,” you know you’re
watching the fake one. Just give it a little time and the real
Trump -- the one who denies inconvenient facts, attacks the
appearance of a female cable news host and mocks our
intelligence agencies -- will soon reappear.
Don’t be fooled by Trump’s “presidential” moments. They
truly are the definition of fake news.
(Source: CNN)
INTERNATIONAL
JULY 11, 2017
Saudi king shows no signs of
slowing aggressive foreign policy
Since ascending to the throne 2½ years
ago, King Salman bin Abdul-Aziz Al Saud
has asserted a much more aggressive
and assertive foreign policy than his predecessors. It is clear that Salman is a risktaker. What is less clear is how successful he has been. The kingdom is bogged
down in an expensive quagmire in Yemen
and has broken the [Persian] Gulf Cooperation Council ([P]GCC). Traditional alliances have fractured and opposition to
Saudi policies is building on both sides of
the Atlantic.
Traditional Saudi foreign policy since
King Faisal has been reactive and cautious. The kingdom was risk averse. National security policy was often done by
clandestine means; force was avoided. Kings were decisive but careful not to
overextend their capacity.
Salman, however, was quick to intervene in Yemen in early 2015 to prevent
Houthis from taking control of the country. The war has become a humanitarian
catastrophe for the Yemeni people and a
military stalemate for the Saudi coalition.
Cholera has broken out in 21 of Yemen’s
22 provinces with over a quarter million
cases reported. The fighting is barely
changing the front line.
Expensive war
It is also a very expensive war for the
king. The first nine months of operations
cost over $5 billion. Now monthly military
operations cost close to $700 million, according to one estimate. There are other
hidden expenses in paying for the support of states such as Sudan that provide troops for the war.
The war has also stressed old partnerships. Oman refused to join the coalition. The king and Sultan Qaboos have
not met directly since. Pakistan, the only
Muslim nuclear weapons power, voted
unanimously in its parliament to stay
neutral and not send troops to fight
against the Houthis. Egyptian support is
lukewarm.
Salman broke relations in 2016 with
Tehran. The Saudis now openly sympathize with the regime’s enemies. Former
intelligence czar Prince Turki bin Faisal Al
Saud has twice attended Mujahedeen-
According to the German accounts, the Saudis feared the
summit would bring private pressure on the king to negotiate
with Doha.
e-Khalq (People’s Mujahedeen of Iran)
conferences in Paris. But the Iran is not
intimidated.
The king precipitated the crisis with
Qatar in the afterglow of the successful
Riyadh summit in May that briefly seemed
to unite the Muslim world behind the
Saudis. Instead, the tiff with Doha has
split the [P]GCC. Oman has been further
alienated from the kingdom. Pakistan’s
press has been sharply critical of the Saudi effort to shut down the Qatari news
organization Al Jazeera and restrict Qatar’s sovereignty. Pakistan has hundreds
of thousands of guest workers in the [P]
GCC states and officially is neutral but the
quarrel has further undermined the credibility of Saudi foreign relations in Islamabad and elsewhere.
The king suddenly canceled his plans
to attend the G-20 summit in Hamburg
72 hours before it was opened. Instead,
he sent a technocrat to represent the
kingdom. According to the German accounts, the Saudis feared the summit
would bring private pressure on the
king to negotiate with Doha. The crown
prince, Salman’s favorite son, also avoided Hamburg. But the kingdom still has to
pay the bills for dozens of rooms in the
luxury Four Seasons Hotel. Saudi Arabia
will host the G-20 summit in 2020.
The Qatari debacle
The king’s most successful foreign policy initiative has been to curry favor with
President Donald Trump at the Riyadh
summit. But the Yemeni war and the Qatari debacle is costing the kingdom support on Capitol Hill. The latest half billion
dollar arms deal for the Yemeni battlefield
only narrowly won support in the Senate
(53 to 47). Now the Senate Foreign Relations Committee leadership says it will not
consider further arms sales to any [P]GCC
state until the Qatar crisis is resolved. The
Saudis are the most endangered because
they need constant resupply to fight
against the Houthis.
In London, the Saudis are also feeling the heat. A think tank has accused
the kingdom of being the top financial backer of extremist mosques in the
United Kingdom. The British prime minister is refusing to publish the results of a
government investigation into the same
issue, apparently because it comes to
the same conclusion. The opposition Labor Party, which won big this summer, is
calling for a halt to all arms sales to the
Royal Saudi Air Force in particular and
the kingdom more generally. The Saudi
air force depends heavily on U.S. and
UK support and could be crippled by an
arms embargo.
With low oil prices on the horizon
for the foreseeable future, the kingdom
is facing tough economic challenges. It
cannot continue spending more money
per capita on weapons than any other
country. Its hopes for economic reforms
will be futile if defense spending is not
constrained. Today, the situation is eerily
reminiscent of the shah of Iran’s last years,
when the bills for his arms deals could
not be paid. The House of Saud is much
more stable than the House of Pahlavi,
but the Saudi economy is slipping into
recession. It is time for a more traditional
approach and a measure of prudence in
foreign policy.
(Source: Al Monitor)
With Mosul victory at hand, displaced residents ponder uncertain future
By Isabel Coles
Victory over Daesh [ISIl] may be close at hand in the battle for Mosul but many of the almost one million city residents displaced by months of fighting are in no mood
to celebrate.
At a camp sheltering a fraction of those who have fled
eight months of combat between Iraqi forces and Daesh
terrorists, the main concern is keeping cool without electricity as temperatures climb above 40 degrees Celsius
(104 degrees Fahrenheit). Some of the displaced people
living at Hassan Sham camp east of Mosul are selling
food rations in order to buy a more precious commodity:
ice. A small block measuring roughly a foot long (30 cm)
sells for 500 Iraqi dinars ($0.43).
Standing in the ice queue, some camp residents said
they would be happy to see the back of the militants,
who subjected them to three years of violence and privation, but questioned how they would rebuild their lives
in a ravaged city.
Most have lost their livelihoods, many have lost
homes and relatives too. “There is nothing they (Daesh)
didn’t take from us,” said Mohammed Haji Ahmed, who
arrived at the camp just five days ago from the Souq alShaareen neighborhood in Mosul, where Iraqi forces are
fighting to dislodge the last terrorists.
The clothes trader lost his house, his car, his business
and 15 members of his extended family as a result of
Daesh’s occupation of Mosul. He said:
If there is no rebuilding and people don’t return to
their homes and regain their belongings what is the
meaning of liberation?
‘Safer here than there’
After three weeks of fighting in the narrow streets of
the Old City where Daesh is making its last stand, state
TV said on Saturday that Iraqi security forces expected to
take full control of Mosul in the coming hours.
The final phase of the battle has proved the bloodiest,
with Daesh trapped in a shrinking corner of the city.
For displaced inhabitants, the ordeal may soon be
over but the future remains uncertain.
“There is no work there (in Mosul) and the situation
is still not stable,” said Hussein, 18, who has fled Mosul
twice this year.
He first left the Tanak neighborhood when it became
a front line in the battle, but returned, only to leave again
around three weeks ago. Daesh staged a counter-attack
in the area just days later.
“It’s safer here than there,” he said.
Many at the Hassan Sham camp are from the eastern
half of the city, even though it was retaken in January and
normal life has to some extent returned there.
Aziz Ahmad, 43, said he would return to Mosul if he
could, but cannot afford the fare back to Mosul, let alone
rent a place to live in the city, where increased demand
for housing has pushed up prices.
Younis Idrees, 20, fled the Aden district four
months ago fearing Islamic State [ISIL] sleeper cells
and bombings.
“Unless the situation improves we won’t return,” he
said. “It’s not clear what will happen.”
(Source: middleeastmonitor.com)
Italy’s migrant crisis is Europe’s problem
The refugee emergency calls for a common European fund.
Summer makes it easier for migrants
to cross the Mediterranean, so Italy is
struggling to cope with another influx of
refugees. And like before, its European
partners are doing too little to help. The
Italian government is asking for a new
approach, and its right: The EU should
see this as a pan-European issue, requiring a pan-European response.
More than 84,000 migrants have arrived
in Italy by sea in the first six months of this
year, nearly 20 percent more than in the
first half of 2016. In future, the pressure on
Italy’s southern shores will only increase, as
the demographic boom in Africa and Asia
leads more young people to risk their lives
for a brighter future in Europe.
The EU’s Dublin Regulation says the
country in which an asylum-seeker first
enters the union must process his or her
case. This shouldn’t mean leaving that
country to bear nearly all of the costs.
In practice, it’s meant something close to
that.
Granted, the EU has taken some steps
to share the expense. Frontex, the agency
patrolling the common border, has seen
its budget increase from less than 20 million euros in 2006 to 300 million euros
this year. Last week the European Com-
mission approved a financial package
with another 35 million euros for Italy to
deal with the new surge of migrants, and
46 million euros to help the authorities in
Libya, a main point of departure.
Still, this is only a fraction of what Italy
is spending and will continue to spend
each year. The Commission has graciously
allowed Italy to cover this cost by borrowing more than the EU’s deficit rules would
otherwise permit -- adding more debt to
a pile that’s already one of Europe’s biggest. Italy’s taxpayers might reasonably
see that as adding insult to injury.
The EU should set up a sizable common fund which member states can use
to cover costs relating to the migrant crisis. Permitted spending could range from
rescuing ships at sea to helping refugees
into the labor market. The fund should be
able to borrow, with a joint EU guarantee,
and with the European Commission overseeing how the money is used.
Many of Italy’s EU partners still see the
migrant crisis as not their problem. That’s
grossly unfair -- and from Italy’s point of
view, unaffordable. If European solidarity
means anything, the EU will finally, belatedly, put this right.
(Source: Bloomberg)
ANALYSIS
JULY 11, 2017
Detention, deportation and
human rights in the United States
By Prof. Tanya Maria Golash-Boza
Over the past forty years, the number of
people detained and deported by the
U.S. government has grown precipitously.
In 1973, the federal government detained
a daily average of 2,370 migrants; this
number more than doubled to 5,532 in
1994 and then surged to 34,000 by 2009.
Today, over 40,000 detainees are behind
bars. Patterns of deportations have followed a similar trajectory, rising from an
annual average of less than 20,000 for
most of the 20th century to a peak of
over 400,000 in 2013.
The immigration detention system is
a complex of Department of Homeland
Security (DHS) detention centers, county
and city jails, and privately-owned prisons used to hold people awaiting immigration trials or deportations. Detainees
are not serving time for any criminal law
violations. Instead, they are civil detainees awaiting trial or deportation. As the
immigration detention system is not part
of the criminal justice system, the rights
accorded to suspected and convicted
criminals do not apply to detainees.
***** Detention
Let’s first take a close look at immigration detention. Joseph Dantica, the
uncle of the writer, Edwidge Danticat, fled
Haiti after a UN solider shot a local gang
member from the premises of his church.
Scared for his life, the elderly Haitian minister boarded a plane headed for Miami.
When Dantica arrived at the Miami
airport, instead of showing his valid tourist visa, he told the immigration inspector
that he would like to apply for temporary
asylum, as he feared for his life in Haiti.
Dantica knew he would be staying longer
than the 30 days his visa allowed, and
did not want to misrepresent himself. Unfortunately, Dantica’s request for asylum
meant that he was placed in detention
at Miami’s infamous Krome detention
center. ICE routinely detains asylum seekers at the border.
At Krome, the staff took Dantica’s
medicine away, and gave him replacements. On his second day in immigration
detention, Dantica began to experience
stomach pains and complained to the officials. They initially dismissed his claims,
and denied his requests to see his family in Miami. When the 91-year old Joseph Dantica began to have a seizure
and vomit shot out of his mouth and his
eyes rolled back into his head, Dantica’s
lawyer requested humanitarian parole
so that he could be taken to a hospital
and be with his family. The medic from
Krome responded that he thought that
Dantica was faking. He nevertheless allowed Dantica to be taken to the hospital, in shackles. Twenty-four hours after
arriving in the emergency room, Joseph
Dantica was seen by a physician. Later
that evening, he was pronounced dead.
Despite his family’s pleas to see him at
Krome and at the hospital, they were denied and Dantica died alone, five days after having arrived in the United States – a
fate he hoped to avoid by leaving Haiti.
The autopsy report showed that he “died
from acute and chronic pancreatitis, … for
which he was never screened, tested, diagnosed or treated while he was at Jackson Memorial Hospital.”
Krome Detention Center is part of a
vast complex of jails and prisons where
non-citizens are held while awaiting immigration trial and deportation. Unlike
prison, you cannot be sentenced to a
fixed amount of time. Immigration detention is where non-citizens await immigration hearings once they have completed
any prison or jail sentences. Immigrant
detainees are not convicted prisoners.
Rather they are civil detainees held pur-
suant to civil immigration laws.
The distinction between convicted
prisoners and immigrant detainees is
important because the United States
Department of Justice (DoJ) is obliged to
provide an array of protections to criminal
suspects. People arrested and charged
with criminal offenses in the United States
have the opportunity to challenge their
imprisonment before a court and the DoJ
provides them with legal counsel if they
cannot afford it. People held by the Department of Homeland Security, however,
do not have the same rights and safeguards as criminal suspects. Immigrant
detention is preventative, not punitive,
meaning that DHS can detain people to
ensure that they are deported or to make
sure that they are available for their removal hearing. Because immigrant detention is not punitive, the due process
protections afforded to criminal suspects
do not apply.
The Fifth Amendment of the United States Constitution provides for the
right not to “be deprived of life, liberty or
property without due process of law.” The
framers of the United States Constitution
found the deprivation of liberty to be a
very serious denial of freedom. For this
reason, they included two critical protections in the Constitution: due process and
habeas corpus. Together, these protections “ensure that the authority to detain
must be exercised according to law, and
must be subject to judicial review.” The
writ of habeas corpus ensures that individuals will have recourse to a court that
challenges the legality of their detention.”
Despite the centrality of due process
and habeas corpus protections to le-
7
Double standards in
United States’ human
right practices
By Robert Fantina, Journalist and peace and human rights activist
The immigration detention system is a
complex of Department of Homeland
Security (DHS) detention centers, county
and city jails, and privately-owned prisons
used to hold people awaiting immigration
trials or deportations.
ed States at the San Ysidro border crossing, where she explained to an asylum
officer that she was fleeing political persecution in Sri Lanka. The officer found
her to have a credible fear of persecution, and she was placed in immigration
detention. Saluja remained in detention
while she waited for her asylum case to
be heard. In August 2004, after Saluja had
been in immigration detention for three
years appealing her case, the Ninth Circuit found that she faced a well-founded
fear of persecution, and that she should
not be deported to Sri Lanka, where she
likely would be tortured. However, the
government appealed that decision, and
she had to remain in immigration detention while the appeal process took place.
Saluja remained in immigration detention
until March of 2006 – over a year after
she was granted asylum – and only after the ACLU filed a habeas petition on
her behalf. Saluja was 26 years old when
she was finally released after four years
in detention. Notably, Saluja was eventually found to have a well-founded fear
of persecution and was granted asylum.
Keeping her in detention for four years
until this determination could be made
was excessive. In 2013, Immigration and
Customs Enforcement (ICE) detained
approximately 10,000 individuals for six
months or longer.
The detention of immigrants occurs
with minimal due process protections.
The same can be said for deportation.
An undocumented migrant who has
The distinction between convicted prisoners
and immigrant detainees is important
because the United States Department of
Justice (DoJ) is obliged to provide an array
of protections to criminal suspects.
gal frameworks in the United States, the
current system of immigration detention
violates these procedural protections in
three critical ways:
1) The burden of proof is often on the
detainee;
2) Detainees can be denied bond
hearings; and
3) The judge and the jailer are sometimes the same.
DHS justifies the detention of non-citizens as a measure necessary to ensure
that they appear at immigration trials and
leave the country when ordered to do so.
However, DHS routinely detains people
like Dantica who do not seem to pose a
flight risk. DHS detains people who are
very likely to win their cases against deportation, people who have served in the
U.S. armed forces, people who have lived
in the United States for most of their lives,
people who own homes and businesses
in the United States, people such as Joseph Dantica who are ill and frail, and
people with U.S. citizen parents, children,
and siblings. DHS even detains people
who are in fact U.S. citizens, yet unable
to prove this.
Dantica did not spend a long time in
detention because of his untimely death.
Others, however, have spent years in detention. Saluja Thangaraja is a Tamil native and a citizen of Sri Lanka. She was
forced to flee her home in Sri Lanka
and was subsequently placed in a police
camp because of allegations that she was
a member of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam. She was tortured and brutally
beaten in this camp, and fled the country
to escape persecution. She took a boat
from Colombo, Sri Lanka to Mexico, and
made her way to the U.S./Mexico border
in 2001. She attempted to enter the Unit-
INTERNATIONAL DAILY
lived in the United States for thirty years,
and who has U.S. citizen children and
grandchildren, can be ordered deported without due process. He has fewer rights at his trial than does a murder
suspect. Unlike murder suspects, he can
be arrested without a warrant. He may
be able to appeal his case by applying
for cancellation of removal, but may be
detained while doing so, has no right to
appointed counsel, must bear the burden of proof, and may have no right to
judicial review. Most of the evidence he
may wish to present – such as his ties to
the United States and his lack of ties to
his home country – will be inadmissible.
As deportation is not punishment, immigration trials are not under the purview
of the criminal justice system and people
facing deportation have few procedural
protections.
People convicted of certain crimes
classified as aggravated felonies face
“mandatory deportation without a discretionary hearing where family and
community ties can be considered.” Congress created the idea of an aggravated
felony as part of the Anti-Drug Abuse
Act of 1988 to provide harsh provisions
for non-citizens convicted of murder and
drugs and arms trafficking. Subsequent
legislation has expanded the definition
of aggravated felonies and this category now includes any crime of violence
or theft offense for which the term of
imprisonment is at least one year, illicit
drug offenses, as well as other violations.
Although the definition of an aggravated
felony sounds as if it is referring to severe
crimes, crimes such as illegal possession
of Xanax and shoplifting have been classified as aggravated felonies and people
have faced mandatory detention and deportation as a result.
The Constitutional safeguards that
prevail in criminal proceedings do not apply in deportation proceedings. This has
severe implications in five ways.
1- People facing deportation do not
have the right to a trial by jury; instead
they are tried by an immigration judge.
This immigration judge works for the
Executive Office of Immigration Review
(EOIR) – part of the Executive Branch, not
the Judicial Branch. Moreover, in aggravated felony cases, deportation is mandatory and there is no judicial review.
2- The Ex Post Facto Clause does not
apply; this means that a person can be
deported for an offense that was not a
deportable offense when it was committed, and a person can be first punished
under criminal law for an offense, and
then deported without being able to
claim double jeopardy.
3- People facing deportation do not
have the right to appointed counsel; they
may pay the several thousand dollars required to obtain a lawyer, but the government does not provide a public defender
to people in immigration proceedings.
4- The exclusionary rule under the
Fourth Amendment does not apply; this
means that any evidence can be presented against the non-citizen, no matter
how it was obtained. In criminal proceedings, if evidence against a suspect was
obtained in an illegal search, it is inadmissible. In deportation proceedings, the
government can present any evidence
they choose.
5- The Eighth Amendment prohibition
against cruel and unusual punishment
does not apply. A person facing deportation cannot claim that deportation would
amount to cruel and unusual punishment,
or that the punishment does not fit the
crime, as deportation is not punishment.
(End of Part One)
(Part Four)
In 2014, Israel bombed United Nations refugee
centers in Gaza. It also targeted residences, mosques,
press vehicles and hospitals. All these crimes are violations of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.
The U.S. may be able to ignore many of these incidents, but the bombing of U.N. refugee centers cannot be ignored; Israel was notified at least ten times
that these centers were holding unarmed citizens.
The killing of four children playing on a Gaza beach
was widely witnessed by the international press, but
Israel ‘investigated’, and found the soldiers who shot
those children were in no way culpable. So foreign
aid from the U.S. to Israel continues to flow.
The U.S. uses militar y bases around the world to
control and dominate most of the planet. The United
States has at least 800 militar y basis in 70 countries,
housing hundreds of thousands of militar y personnel.
This is far more than any other nation today or at any
time in histor y. Of all the foreign militar y bases of all
countries, about 95% of them are owned by the U.S.
Ostensibly, these bases exist to enable the U.S. to
deploy thousands of soldiers anywhere in the world
where they are ‘needed’, although as activist David
Swanson has said, with current technology, proximity
isn’t important; soldiers and weapons can reach anywhere in the world just as quickly from the United
States. These bases provide no benefit to the U.S.
economy, or the host countr y, whose citizens often
resent the presence of a U.S. militar y base on land
that could be used for
The Black
farming, industr y or residences. The advantages
Lives Matter
accrue only to certain
movement
contractors, and the
grew out of the politicians to whom they
generously donate.
almost weekly
Domestically, the U.S.
shootings of
is no more straightforunarmed men,
ward or honest in its
dealings with human
women and
rights than it is on the
children of
international stage.
African descent
The Black Lives Matby white
ter movement grew out
of the almost weekly
police officers,
shootings of unarmed
almost always
men, women and chilwith complete
dren of African descent
by white police officers,
impunity.
almost always with complete impunity. One of them, Amadou Diallo was shot
41 times in 1999, after reaching for his wallet to provide police officers with his identification. An investigation by the New York City police department after
the death of Mr. Diallo stated that the officers acted
‘within policy’. Four officers were charged with second-degree murder and reckless endangerment, but
all four were acquitted.
Since then, the murders of people of African descent by white police officers have become almost
epidemic, with the offending officers seldom, if ever
charged. And these shootings seem to be routine
procedure.
In one incident that wasn’t fatal, 47-year-old
Charles Kinsey, a social worker of African descent, was
tr ying to bring a severely autistic man with whom he
worked back into the residential facility. Police were
called to the scene, and ordered Mr. Kinsey and his
client to lie on the ground. Mr, Kinsey did so, although
his client, sitting cross-legged and playing with a toy
truck, refused. Mr. Kinsey addressed the police: “Sir,
there is no need for firearms. I’m unarmed, he’s an
autistic guy. He got a toy truck in his hand.” One of
the officers then fired three shots, hitting Mr. Kinsey
in the leg. When Mr. Kinsey asked the officer why he
had shot him, the officer responded “I don’t know.”
He then handcuffed Mr. Kinsey, and rendered no first
aid for 20 minutes. The officer, Jonathan Aledda, is on
paid leave as this incident is investigated.
The belief has become common in the United
States that if a man of African descent commits a
crime, he is a thug, a criminal. If a Muslim man commits a crime, he is a terrorist. But if a man of European descent commits a crime, he is emotionally
troubled, and requires assistance to help him regain
his rightful place as a productive member of society.
This is the mighty United States, that self-proclaimed beacon of peace and justice. This is international hypocrisy at its most blatant and deadly.
People within the U.S. and without are working tirelessly to resolve these issues, but they are opposed
by powerful interest groups. Yet such shocking cruelty and violations of international law and the human
rights of millions of innocent people cannot continue
forever. The end of the injustices perpetrated by the
United States will be a welcome day across the globe.
8
I NTE R NATI O NAL DAI LY
INTERNATIONAL
JULY 11, 2017
Will the Scottish National Party lose to Corbynism?
By Jamie Maxwell
In the strange and obscure world of Scottish constitutional
politics, something can be utterly inevitable - until it suddenly isn’t. For most of the past 10 years, and certainly, for
the past two, a widespread consensus has existed in Scotland regarding the inevitability of independence. That consensus has been based on the almost total dominance of
Scotland’s electoral landscape by the Scottish National Party
(SNP).
At the UK’s snap general election on June 8, the SNP
shed 21 of its 56 Westminster seats and saw its share of the
vote slump by 13 points. Angus Robertson, the party’s chief
strategist, and Alex Salmond, its former leader, both lost
their once rock-solid constituencies in the rural north-east.
Towering nationalist majorities across Glasgow and the central belt crumbled. Even the Liberal Democrats enjoyed a
modest Caledonian revival, adding three new Scottish MPs,
in Edinburgh, Dunbartonshire, and Caithness, to their previous, solitary total of one.
The main consequence of these results was immediately
apparent: the inevitability of Scottish independence, of the
break-up of the British state, vanished.
This was confirmed by Nicola Sturgeon, Salmond’s suc-
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cessor as SNP chief, in a statement to Holyrood, Scotland’s
devolved national parliament, on June 27, in which the first
minister ditched (or delayed, depending on your interpretation) her contentious plan to stage a second referendum on
independence before Britain’s Brexit negotiations conclude
in the spring of 2019.
Remarkably, given the scale of its losses, the SNP
hasn’t collapsed into acrimony, nor is Sturgeon’s leadership in any serious trouble. However, a debate is starting
to brew within nationalist circles about the exact nature
and purpose of SNP strategy - a strategy that is clearly
no longer working.
The most urgent criticisms are coming from the left.
Some senior nationalists, such as Tommy Sheppard, the
MP for Edinburgh East, want the party to embrace a
more radical social democratic identity. They are worried
that the appeal of Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn runs
much deeper in Scotland than anyone had initially anticipated and that, in the event of another election, the SNP
could hemorrhage seats in its urban and working-class
heartlands.
A legitimate concern
It’s a legitimate concern. Having faced down a
20-point deficit at the start of the election campaign,
and then engineered Labour ’s best election performance for a generation, Corbyn is now polling in the
mid-forties. He has ever y chance of becoming Britain’s
next prime minister. Faced with the choice between
a left-wing Labour government and another span of
chaotic Tor y rule, there is a growing constituency of
Scots that will vote Labour, even at the SNP’s expense,
and even if it means postponing independence for the
foreseeable future.
The flaw, though, in Sheppard’s analysis is this: Labour
took six seats from the SNP on June 8, but Ruth Davidson’s
Scottish Conservatives took 12.
Davidson’s unexpected success capped the resurgence
of a party that had been relegated to the fringes of Scottish
political life in the late 1990s, but has now navigated its way
back into the mainstream on a wave of unionist frustration.
For the first time since Holyrood was created 18 years ago,
the Scottish right is brimming with confidence. Davidson
has cast Sturgeon’s referendum U-turn as a personal victory, and is pressing the SNP for additional concessions,
notably, that any talk of independence is suspended until at
least the next Scottish election in 2021, and that the nation-
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alists get back to their “day job” of running Scotland within
the constraints of the current devolutionary settlement.
Fortunately for Sturgeon, there is no shortage of policy
proposals available to reinvigorate her flagging administration.
To some extent, Davidson is right: Sturgeon had no
choice but to temper the charge towards “indyref2”. Like
a lot of people, the first minister expected the Brexit crisis to prompt a massive shift in Scottish public opinion,
which is largely pro-European, in favor of independence.
It hasn’t. In fact, Scottish constitutional attitudes have
barely changed over the past 12 months, despite the UK
government’s clueless and haphazard engagement with
EU negotiators.
But where Davidson’s advice should absolutely be disregarded is in the suggestion that the SNP reduce the scope
of its ambition, and focus narrowly on the most banal and
managerial aspects of administrative rule at Holyrood. This
would be fatal for Scottish nationalism, which, under Sturgeon’s centrist leadership, has already lost its anti-establishment momentum, and is suffering badly from rising levels
of apathy - or conscious abstentionism - among Scottish
voters.
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H
JULY 11, 2017
E
A
L
T
H
Eleven ways to become
a mentally strong person
Everything feel a bit too much? Get
some tips on how to find your mental
strength.
Everyone would like to be a
mentally strong person, but mental
resilience can be extremely hard to
achieve when life gets on top of you.
Help
is
at
hand:
experienced individuals have shared
their tips on how to power through
when times get tough, posting advice
on answers website Quora.
In order to be mentally strong, you
must prevent yourself from getting
carried away by emotions to the
point where you can’t see logic.
This involves dealing with difficult
tasks one step at a time without
getting overwhelmed, and also
means balancing positive and
negative thoughts in a way that
advantages you – not getting carried
away with one side or the other.
Mentally strong people will keep
their eye on the prize, and won’t let
their need for instant gratification or
the approval of others get in the way
of what they really want.
Find your motivation
“Viktor Frankl endured the terrors
of the concentration camps in World
War II, only to return home and find
that he had lost his wife and family.
“During his time in the camps,
he discovered that those who had a
purpose to keep on going outlasted
those who seemed to have given
up. He himself kept a burning desire
to see his wife and family again, and
that kept him going.”
Balance positive and negative
thinking
“Positive thinking is important
because when you believe good
things will happen, you tend to
work towards making them happen,
and you also notice good things
happening.
“Negative
thinking
is
also
important, because it allows you to
anticipate what could go wrong, and
plan how to deal with them.”
Be kind and compassionate
“By being kinder to yourself and
others, you reduce the number of
negative emotions in your life. By
reducing negative emotions, it opens
“Self-pity eats away mental energy and keeps you emotionally
drained forever. It also adds to your current misery for something that
happened in the past.”
up a space for positive emotions to
flourish.”
Take things ‘one brick at a
time’
“Mental toughness refers to
people who have gone through
tough times, and tough times can be
overwhelming. How do those who
have made it through do it? They
take it one brick at a time
While keeping their eyes on the
final goal, they break down this goal
into smaller, achievable steps, so that
they don’t feel overwhelmed.”
Take responsibility for things you
can control, accept what you can’t
“It should come as no surprise
that mentally strong people take
responsibility for their lives, but
they don’t take responsibility for
everything. That would drive anyone
crazy.
“Instead, they accept that there are
things outside of their control. The
weather, the market, other people.
If they try to take responsibility for
those it would just be futile.”
Stop taking everything
personally
“Much of what happens in life is
completely impersonal yet the need
to reference oneself in nearly every
situation is a deeply ingrained habit. If
you step back and see that much of what
goes on has nothing to do with you, it
can free you from this trap of overpersonalizing, which leads to suffering.”
Don’t ‘need’ – want
“We all want to be liked. We all
want approval. Problems arise when
we start needing it- when we cannot
function without it.
“Mentally strong people want
everything everyone else on this
planet wants. They just don’t need it.”
Ask for help when in need
“Being strong doesn’t mean that
you won’t need help. It means when
you do, you acknowledge it, and ask
for help.”
Don’t succumb to self-pity
“Self-pity eats away mental energy
and keeps you emotionally drained
forever. It also adds to your current
misery for something that happened
in the past.”
See the past as valuable
training and nothing more.
“Don’t spend a lot of time dwelling
on the past. Instead, write down
what you’ve learned, objectives, and
how to avoid pitfalls in the future.
This usually works much better than
wallowing. It is a great resilience
tactic as well.”
Balance emotions with logic.
“Mentally strong people understand
how their emotions can influence their
thinking. In an effort to make the best
decisions possible, they balance their
emotions with logic.”
(Source: Independent)
A parent killing a child happens more often than we think
By Doug Criss
It’s the most unfathomable of crimes: a parent
killing their own child. It grabs headlines when it
happens -- like this week in Georgia, where a mom
is accused of stabbing four of her children to death.
The reality is, filicides happen with depressing
regularity in the US. And mothers are almost as
likely to be the killers as fathers.
Of course we’re shocked whenever we hear
about a parent taking the life of their own children.
Think Andrea Yates or Susan Smith. But what’s
even more shocking (and sad) is that this type of
crime happens a lot. A study in the journal Forensic
Science International looked at three decades
worth of filicide cases (between 1976 and 2007)
and found they occurred about 500 times a year
in the US.
Almost 72% of those killed by their own
parents were 6 years old or younger.
And one-third of the victims were just babies
under 1 year of age.
But more than 13% of the victims were adults,
specifically people in ages running from 18 to
40 years old. So the threat of filicide doesn’t go
away when people get old enough to move out
on their own.
More than 40% of the killers in these crimes
were mothers, with fathers making up about 57%
of those who killed their own offspring.
It’s probable that a mother
kills a child somewhere in the
US once every three days.
Cheryl Meyer, co-author of several books on the
subject, said it’s probable that a mother kills a child
somewhere in the US once every three days.
Only 10% of the victims were killed by their
stepparents. That means 90% of the victims were
the biological sons or daughters of the killer. And
sons (52%) were more likely to be killed than
daughters (38%).
Parents used what the study called “personal
weapons” to beat, choke or drown victims in the
majority of cases involving underage kids.
.. If the victims were adults, parents used guns
in 72% of such killings.
There are several reasons why
Dr. Timothy Mariano, the study’s lead author,
offered up three theories: the parents are often
mentally ill, they usually have higher levels of
testosterone and the offspring that they kill may be
considered unwanted.
Forensic psychiatrist Phillip J. Resnick, pioneer in
the study of filicide research, identified five major
reasons:
Altruism: The parent kills the child because
he or she may perceive it to be in the child’s best
interest. It may be reality-based (e.g., the child
suffers from a terminal illness) or precede the
suicide of the parent, as the parent feels it would
be unfair to leave the child behind to face the cruel
world.
Acute psychosis: The parent kills the child
based on ideas that are inconsistent with reality.
For example, the parent believes the child has
been possessed by the devil.
Unwanted child: The parent kills the child
that he or she regards as a hindrance.
Accidental: The child’s death is an unintentional
outcome of parental physical abuse.
Spousal revenge: The parent kills the child
in an effort to exact revenge on the other parent.
(Source: CNN)
Sense of purpose aids sleep, U.S. scientists find
The secret to a good night’s sleep
later in life is having a good reason
to get up in the morning, according
to U.S. researchers who surveyed
people on their sleeping habits and
sense of purpose.
People who felt they had a strong
purpose in life suffered from less
insomnia and sleep disturbances than
others and claimed to rest better at
night as a result, the study found.
Jason Ong, a neurologist who
led the research at Northwestern
University in Chicago, said that
encouraging people to develop a
sense of purpose could help them
to keep insomnia at bay without the
need for sleeping pills.
More than 800 people aged 60
to 100 took part in the study and
answered questions on their sleep
quality and motivations in life. To
assess their sense of purpose, the
participants were asked to rate
statements such as: “I feel good when
I think of what I’ve done in the past
and what I hope to do in the future.”
According to Ong, people who
felt their lives had most meaning
were less likely to have sleep apnea,
a disorder that makes the breathing
shallow or occasionally stop, or
restless leg syndrome, a condition
that compels people to move their
legs and which is often worse at
night. Those who reported the most
purposeful lives had slightly better
sleep quality overall, according to
the study in the journal Sleep Science
and Practice.
Insomnia and some other sleep
disorders become more common
in old age, but Ong said that the
findings were likely to apply to the
People who felt they had a strong purpose
in life suffer from less insomnia and sleep
disturbance, says neurologist.
public more broadly. “Helping people
cultivate a purpose in life could be
an effective drug-free strategy to
improve sleep quality, particularly
for a population that is facing more
insomnia,” he said.
Age UK, a charity, advises people
who sleep badly to go to bed
and rise at the same time ever y
day; establish a bedtime routine;
and cut out caffeine, alcohol and
nicotine in the evening. Not eating
a heavy meal late at night; avoiding
exercise before bed; cutting out
daytime naps and banning TVs and
computers from the bedroom helps
too, they add.
(Source: The Guardian)
INTERNATIONAL DAILY
9
4 unexpected ways
summer heat affects
your body
Summer is finally in full swing, which means sandals and
sunglasses, beach vacations and scorching weather. If you’re
feeling the heat —literally — you’re not alone.
Hot temperatures can mess with your body in all sorts
of sneaky ways. Here are four common ways hot, humid
weather takes a toll on your health, plus how you can beat
heat’s effect on your system.
You’re sniffling and sneezing
Flowers bloom in the summer — and so do plants and
grasses that produce pollen, says Dr. Kim Knowlton, an
assistant clinical professor at Columbia University’s Mailman
School of Public Health. In response to the warm weather,
pollen production goes up, and the presence of pollen in
the air can leave even people with mild allergies sneezing,
sniffling and rubbing their itchy eyes through Labor Day.
To reduce these allergy symptoms, pay attention to
the daily pollen count and try to stay indoors as much
as possible on high-count days. If you can’t give up your
outdoor run or yoga class, try to time it (as well as other
outside activities) toward the end of the day, when pollen
counts go down. And keep windows shut in your house to
keep allergens from turning you into a sneezy mess in your
own home.
You toss and turn all night
Too hot to sleep — but the air conditioning in your
room is making you shiver? Summer makes it tough to
find that happy medium. Most people sleep best when the
temperature is at 65 to 66 degrees; as the temperature goes
up, sleep quality tends to go down, says Dr. Chris Winter,
neurologist and sleep medicine specialist at Charlottesville
Neurology and Sleep Medicine in Virginia.
The right temperature could also help you stay asleep
through the night and score better sleep quality. So if you
find yourself waking up fatigued and fuzzy-brained, try
adjusting the thermostat. Winter says many of his patients
have reported resting much better when they lower their
bedroom temperature, even if they hadn’t noticed sleep
problems. Don’t feel guilty for using so much electricity —
cranking up the AC to a healthy level is good for you.
Your heart pounds way more than normal
You do a hard-charging cardio workout three times a
week, but your heart rate is suddenly spiking on your walk
to work in the morning. What gives? Dr. Jonathan Newman,
cardiologist at NYU Langone Medical Center in New York
City, says higher temps have both direct and indirect effects
on your heart.
For starters, if you live in an urban area, you may notice
smog or haze fogging up summer skies. Air quality tends
to get worse at higher temperatures, and that air pollution
itself can take a toll on the heart and vascular system,
Newman says.
Plus, at the most basic physical level, “your heart is
working overtime” in the summer, says Dr. Kim Knowlton, an
assistant clinical professor at Columbia University’s Mailman
School of Public Health. “Your heart beats faster in order to
pump overly warm blood from your body’s core out to the
skin’s surface,” says Knowlton, which helps cool you down.
Since your faster heartbeat is all part of your body’s way
of keeping you cool, there’s not much you can do to prevent
it. Taking normal precautions in the heat — drinking lots of
water, not exerting yourself too much — are always good
ideas. And of course, “eating a heart-healthy diet, controlling
your blood pressure, controlling your cholesterol, and
increasing physical activity,” Newman says, will keep your
ticker in good shape so it can handle 90-degree days.
You’re racking up lots of mosquito bites
When the weather is warm, you want to spend as much
time in the great outdoors as possible. But while you’re
embracing nature, dining al fresco, or just enjoying a
backyard barbecue, mosquitoes are making you their buffet.
Unfortunately, summer is prime time for mosquitoes.
Their prey (in other words, us) are outside more, and the
little vampires also mature faster when the sun is out strong.
That means skeeters live fast and die young, so the time
between the day one hatches and the day it becomes a
disease-transmitting adult is shorter. With mosquitoes taking
less time to reach this stage, diseases (such as Zika and the
West Nile Virus) can spread more quickly, says Dr. Aileen
Marty, an infectious disease specialist in Washington, DC.
What can you do to protect yourself? When you’re
hanging outside, skip your signature scent in favor of
bug spray, says Dr. Debra Jaliman, New York City-based
dermatologist and author of Skin Rules. She recommends
Ultrathon Insect Repellent. “It’s creamy and it says on your
skin longer,” says Jaliman. It also has DEET, one of the few
ingredients that have been shown to be truly effective in
warding off mosquitoes.
And what you heard as a kid is right—don’t scratch! As
itchy as these bites are, scratching them can create an open
wound, making you susceptible to infections, especially
since there’s plenty of bacteria hiding under your nails, says
Jaliman.
If you just can’t keep your hands off your bites, Jaliman
has a few suggestions. “Use ice cubes to stop the itching;
over-the-counter hydrocortisone cream or aloe vera gel will
also diminish the itch and reduce swelling,” she adds.
(Source: Time)
10
I NTE R NATI O NAL DAI LY
Eight worldwide properties
made World Heritage sites
H E R I T A G E TEHRAN — The World Heritage Committee
d
e
s
k has inscribed cultural sites in Denmark, France,
Germany, Iran, Poland, and the Russian Federation, along with one
that spans Croatia, Italy and Montenegro.
The committee voted in favor of the sites out of 35 nominees
during its 41st session, which started on July 2 in Krakow, Poland,
UNESCO announced on Sunday. Here is a brief introduction to the
newly privileged properties:
Historic City of Yazd (Iran)
Located in the middle of the Iranian plateau, Yazd sbears living
testimony to the use of limited resources for survival in the desert.
Water is supplied to the city through a qanat system developed to
draw underground water.
The earthen architecture of Yazd has escaped the modernization
that destroyed many traditional earthen towns, retaining its traditional districts, the qanat system, traditional houses, bazars, hammams, mosques, synagogues, Zoroastrian temples and the historic
garden of Dolat-abad.
Venetian Works of Defense between the 16th and
17th Centuries (Croatia, Italy, Montenegro)
This property consists of 15 components of defense works in Italy, Croatia and Montenegro, spanning more than 1,000 kilometers
between the Lombard region of Italy and the eastern Adriatic Coast.
Taputapuatea (France)
Taputapuatea on Ra’iatea Island is at the center of the “Polynesian Triangle,” a vast portion of the Pacific Ocean, dotted with islands,
and the last part of the globe to be settled by humans. The property
includes two forested valleys, a portion of lagoon and coral reef and
a strip of open ocean.
Kujataa Greenland (Denmark)
Kujataa is a sub-arctic farming landscape located in the southern
region of Greenland. It bears witness to the cultural histories of the
Norse hunters-gatherers who started arriving from Iceland in the
10th century and of the Norse farmers, Inuit hunters and Inuit farming communities that developed from the end of the 18th century.
Caves and Ice Age Art in the Swabian Jura (Germany)
Modern humans first arrived in Europe 43,000 years ago during
the last ice age. One of the areas where they took up residence was
the Swabian Jura in southern Germany.
Excavated from the 1860s, six caves have revealed items dating
from 43,000 to 33,000 years ago. Among them are carved figurines
of animals including cave lions, mammoths, horses and cattle, musical instruments and items of personal adornment.
Sacred Island of Okinoshima and Associated Sites in
the Munakata (Japan)
Located western coast of Kyushu island, the island of Okinoshima
is an exceptional example of the tradition of worship of a sacred island. Its well-preserved archaeological sites provide a chronological
record of how the rituals performed there changed from the 4th to
the 9th centuries CE.
Assumption Cathedral and Monastery of the
town-island of Sviyazhsk (Russian Federation)
The Assumption Cathedral is located in the town-island of Sviyazhsk and is part of the monastery of the same name. Situated at
the confluence of the Volga, the Sviyaga and the Shchuka rivers, at
the crossroads of the Silk and Volga routes, Sviyazhsk was founded
by Ivan the Terrible in 1551.
Tarnowskie Gory Lead-Silver-Zinc Mine and its Underground Water Management System (Poland)
Located in Upper Silesia, in southern Poland, one of the main
mining areas of central Europe, the site includes the entire underground mine with adits, shafts, galleries and water management
system.
Most of the site is situated underground while the surface mining
topography features the remains of the 19th century steam water
pumping station, which testifies to continuous efforts over three
centuries to drain the underground extraction zone.
ROUND THE GLOBE
City of Luxembourg:
its old quarters and
fortifications
The Old City of Luxembourg is located at the confluence of
the Alzette and Petrusse Rivers, on a very steep rocky outcrop which is somewhat of a natural fortification that only
needed to be completed on the west side.
Due to its exceptional strategic position, the City of Luxembourg was one of the largest fortresses of modern Europe which was constantly strengthened and reinforced as
it passed successively into the hands of the great European
powers.
HERITAGE & TOURISM
JULY 11, 2017
Iran’s tropical island to launch
giant winter recreation hub
T O U R I S M TEHRAN — Kish Free
d
e
s
k Zone
Organization
has started construction of a massive
winter recreation center in a bid to lure
more domestic and foreign travelers to
the southern Iranian island, yet expand
its tourism infrastructure with a regional
outlook.
“The organization supports initiatives
that could expand leisure and tourism facilities as Kish aims to attain a top tourism
status among regional rivals in the span
of 2 or 3 years,” KFZO Managing Director
Ali Asghar Mounesan said on Saturday.
A total of $21m will be channeled into
the project that will be completed in two
phases, the first of which would be operational in mid-2018 while the second is
estimated to be fully functioning within
two years, he explained.
“The center will embrace its own hotel as well. Hotels are not nowadays regarded as places just for residence and
dwelling. What is pursued by modern
hospitality industry sees those places for
hangout.”
Named ‘Snow Land’, the complex will
encompass an area of over 19,000 square
meters. Its first stage will include recreational facilities and services measuring
7,606 square meters.
The project will go through its second
chapter by erecting a 16-story hotel on
11,200 square meters of land, comprising
124 rooms and suites.
Elsewhere in his remarks, Mounesan
told reporters that the organization also
plans to construct a 90-hectar amusement park westward the tropical island in
the near future.
The KFZO is in charge of handling
the infrastructure affairs, development
and economic growth, creating job opportunities, attracting local and foreign
An exterior view of Dariush Hotel on Kish Island, southern Iran
investors, regulating the good and labor shopping centers, apartment blocks
market and ultimately utilizing the Island’s and retail complexes dominate the
once-empty desert landscape. Its dotourist potentials.
Over the past couple of decades, Kish mestic tourist numbers have been on the
has become a beach resort where visitors rise as well, especially in winter, when it’s
can swim, shop and sample a laid-back freezing cold on the mainland.
Iran aims to take advantage of southand relatively liberated local lifestyle.
The coral island enjoys free-trade- ern coasts to make the best use of its
zone status, with ever growing hotels, maritime tourism potential by means of
China’s Wanda steps back from theme park, hotel drive with $9.3 billion Sunac deal
Chinese property giant Dalian Wanda Group
plans to sell tourism projects and hotels in
the country to Sunac China (1918.HK) for
$9.3 billion, as it dials back its theme-park
ambitions and brings down its debt pile.
The sale - the second-biggest real estate deal ever in China according to Reuters
data - will help strengthen Wanda’s case for
a mainland listing after its property unit delisted from Hong Kong last year. For Sunac, it
would mean ownership of a wide portfolio
of tourism developments at a time when it is
spending billions on property and technology assets.
Wanda said it would offload 91 percent
of thirteen cultural tourism projects, which
usually include theme parks and leisure
complexes, and 76 hotels to the acquisitive
Tianjin-based developer Sunac for 63.18 billion yuan.
After the sale, Wanda will, however, continue to play a role in operating and managing the projects.
Wanda, which also has interests in films
and sports, had plans to build at least 20
cultural projects around China. Its billionaire owner Wang Jianlin had last year said
his “wolf pack” of parks would beat U.S. rival
Walt Disney Co (DIS.N).
“This (deal) signifies a retreat from Wanda’s previous strategy in cultural tourism, and
marks a pivot to an asset-light strategy,” said
Qin Gang, senior researcher at State Information Center, a government-linked think
tank.
Beijing has been encouraging development of cultural theme parks as part of a local tourism drive, tapping consumers’ growing budget for entertainment. There are
over 300 such facilities in China, with most
struggling to turn a profit.
Wanda’s parks are still under construction, except three that have been completed. Two that opened in Nanchang and Hefei
last year do not rank in the top 20 by attendance for Asia Pacific, consultancy AECOM’s
2016 theme park index shows.
The firm, which had earmarked a more
than 300 billion yuan ($44 billion) investment
for its cultural and tourism projects, did not
give a reason for the sale to Sunac, but local
business magazine Caixin quoted Wang as
saying the deal would ease the debt burden
on Wanda’s property unit.
“Through this asset transfer, Wanda Commercial’s debt ratio will be greatly reduced,
all the proceeds will be used to repay loans.
Wanda Commercial plans to repay most of
the bank loans this year,” Wang told Caixin.
Analysts said the lower debt load could
help Wanda’s plans to list the unit in Shanghai and to attract a higher valuation.
S&P downgraded Wanda Commercial
in December citing rising financial leverage
and slower-than-expected asset disposal at
China’s largest commercial developer. Another downgrade would push the rating into
“junk” category.
(Source: Reuters)
Airlines try biometric identification for boarding and bags
identity are confirmed, a check mark appears on the camera
and fliers can board the plane.
So far, more than 90 percent of passengers are using this
self-boarding process, Ms. Geraghty said, and if the trial is
successful, the airline plans to expand biometric identification
to more flights.
“The technology is revolutionary because your face becomes your passport and travel document,” she said. (These
boarding processes, however, are not a replacement for the
security screening done by the Transportation Security Administration.)
Delta is using biometric identification to allow fliers to
check their own bags at Minneapolis-St. Paul International
Airport, the airline’s second-largest hub after Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport. The airline invested
$600,000 in four self-service bag drop machines equipped
with biometric technology; a passport is needed to use it.
By Shivani Vorajuly
Two United States air carriers, Delta Air Lines and JetBlue,
recently began passenger trials in biometric identification, a
technology that verifies a person’s identity through fingerprints, facial features or other physical characteristics.
In early June, JetBlue, teaming up with United States Customs and Border Protection, introduced optional self-boarding on flights from Logan International Airport in Boston to
Beatrix International Airport in Aruba. The process requires
no boarding pass and takes about three seconds, said Joanna Geraghty, JetBlue’s executive vice president for customer
experience.
Fliers who choose to try it out step up to a camera at
the boarding gate for a quick photo. This image is matched
with passport, visa or immigration photos in the Customs
and Border Protection database, and once flight details and
“Mini World”
theme park under
construction in Iran
global historical monuments that are under construction at
a “Mini World” theme park in Malayer, western Iran, on July
8, 2017.
The Eiffel Tower, Si-o-se Pol (Bridge of Thirty-Three Arches), the Hafez mausoleum, the Leaning Tower of Pisa, and
Persian Achaemenian-era sites are amongst 138 monuments that visitors would be able to see in one day - if they
walk quickly.
The project is said to be the first of its kind in the Middle
East and fourth in the world next to similar projects in Japan,
Belgium and China.
As a window to world, the theme park is estimated to lure
more travelers to Malayer, which has earned a national reputation for its rugs and popular parks.
The A total of 19.9 million travelers visited the country during the past four Iranian calendar years (March 2013 – March
2017), bringing in some $32 billion of tourism revenues.
IRNA/Abdollah Heydari
T O U R I S M A photo collection depicts a selection of
d
e
s
k many miniature mockups of national and
Originally, the City of Luxembourg comprised only a small
fort (the castle) built shortly after the middle of the 10th century on an almost inaccessible rock.
In the 12th century, the settlement that developed near
the castle was protected by a stone fortification wall, which
was extended in the 14th and 15th centuries. In 1443, the
city was taken by the troops of Burgundy.
The city also retains the layout of its streets and many
public buildings, important testimony of its origins and its
development since the 10th century.
Inside and at the foot of the ramparts, quarters where
people lived and engaged in trades or crafts developed.
They also kept places of worship, such as the Church of St.
Michel, now a veritable museum of sacred art, or the Church
of St. Nicolas, subsequently transferred to the sanctuary of
the Jesuits, the present cathedral.
(Source: UNESCO)
developing hospitality infrastructures, diversifying sea routes, and drawing private
sector investors.
The country regards tourism a fountain of wealth, seeking to make the best
use of positive atmosphere created in the
wake of the JCPOA, a landmark nuclear
deal signed between Iran and six world
powers in January 2016.
Passengers print out their luggage stickers at a check-in
kiosk and then head to one of the bag drop machines, where
they scan their passports and have their picture taken by the
machine. Once the images on their passports are matched
with the images from the machine and their identities are
confirmed, they place their bags on the belt; the machine
weighs the bags and moves them on.
Gareth Joyce, the company’s senior vice president for airport customer experience, said the process took around 30
seconds.
Delta and JetBlue are just two of several airlines putting
biometric identification in place: In 2014, Alaska Airlines introduced fingerprint scanners to allow entry into its airport
lounges, and more recently, British Airways opened three
self-boarding gates for domestic flights with facial recognition technology at Heathrow Airport in London.
(Source: The New York Times)
S C I E N C E
JULY 11, 2017
In the deep, dark sea, corals create
their own sunshine
Corals are pretty and colorful and fluorescent. They produce their vibrant colors
because they don’t live alone, which is
also what keeps them alive.
Over billions of years they’ve worked
out a special arrangement with algae:
Corals give them shelter and algae convert light into food for the corals.
Corals do other things for the algae,
too. Deep inside their tissue are little proteins that take the sun’s ultraviolet light
and turn it into a glowing green sunscreen, shielding from the sun these corals that live just below the water’s surface.
The mouth region of the coral Lobophyllia hemprichii. Some corals that live
well below the ocean’s surface produce
light to drive photosynthesis for algae
that live with them.
Blue part of spectrum
But deeper in the water, it’s dark and
the little light that reaches that far down
is only in the blue part of the spectrum.
Somehow, there are corals that live up to
hundreds of feet below the surface and
also manage to glow burning hues of orange and red.
The reasons for this fluorescence have
remained a mystery, until now: These
deep-sea corals glow to get more sunlight, according to a study published on
Wednesday in the journal Proceedings of
the Royal Society B. Their proteins soak
up the scarce light and shine it back out
as red-orange light that penetrates deep
inside their tissues where their microscopic roommates take up residence.
This means there’s light for photosyn-
thesis, and the algae creates energy and
food for the coral.
“This is a strategy that some corals pursue to cope with the challenges
of a low-light environment,” Prof. Joerg
Wiedenmann, a biologist at the Universi-
There are corals that live up to hundreds of
feet below the surface and also manage to
glow burning hues of orange and red.
ty of Southampton in Britain who led the
study, wrote in an email. It’s quite an adaptation, with a brilliant byproduct.
Deep-sea corals
A polyp of the coral Montastraea cavernosa. The proteins in some deep-sea
corals soak up the scarce light and shine
it back out as red-orange light.
The research could have implications for coral-reef conservation by
highlighting how different species of
coral adapt to various light conditions.
For two decades scientists have considered the idea that deep-sea reefs might
provide a safe haven for shallow-water
corals during threatening times of extreme heat.
The thought is that shallow coral
larvae pulled down by currents could
survive long enough to reproduce and
send their offspring back near the surface when temperatures returned to
normal.
But the “depth might not offer a convenient escape road,” said Dr. Wiedenmann. He said he worries that shallow-water corals may not be able to
adapt to the little light down deep.
“We need to make sure that their
homes in the shallows stay habitable,” he
said.
(Source: The NYT)
First Tesla Model 3 rolls off production line, goes to Musk
The Model 3 is Tesla’s first proper mass-produced car,
with a production volume goal of 500,000 units in 2018.
That’s a very aggressive ramp-up from the approximately 85,000 cars the company sold in 2016. Helping that
volume is a much simpler design for the Model 3 than
either the Model S or Model X that came before.
Earlier this month, Musk pledged that 30 cars will be
delivered at a July 28 launch event. The first of those cars
was set for Ira Ehrenpreis, investor and board member of
Tesla who placed the first deposit. However, Ehrenpreis
gave the car to Elon as a gift (apparently for the CEO’s
46th birthday) and so Model 3 number one will go to
Musk.
Musk shared two pictures of the car sitting outside
the company’s Fremont factory, painted a subtle black,
giving us our first look at the final production version of
the car.
The identities of the lucky recipients of cars number
three through 30 remain to be seen, but surely we’ll be
seeing more of those machines as we get closer to the
end of the month.
Available version
While Tesla has still not confirmed the exact price
of the Model 3, it’s expected to fall at around $35,000
and will offer a range somewhere in the neighborhood
of 215 miles. Musk has earlier confirmed that the first
available version of the car will have very few options,
basically just exterior color, wheels and interior, plus the
ability to enable Tesla’s Autopilot functionality.
Common options on the Model S and X, like allwheel drive and bigger battery packs, will seemingly
come later once the car is fully up to production.
The cars will be assembled in Tesla’s Fremont factory,
while batteries will come from Tesla’s massive Gigafactory, still under construction in the Nevada desert. Tesla expects these two facilities to provide the necessary
Although all the participants in the study
were elderly, researchers said the findings are
likely to apply to people of all ages, suggesting that whether you will sleep well is already
decided before you even get into bed.
Sleep problems are also associated
with many illnesses, including Alzheimer’s
disease obesity, heart disease, diabetes
and even colds and flu, so promoting
manufacturing capability to produce the 500,000 cars
per year in 2018.
(Source: cnet.com)
better sleep could help overall health.
Helping people
“Helping people cultivate a purpose in
life could be an effective drug-free strategy to improve sleep quality, particularly
for a population that is facing more insomnia,” said senior author Jason Ong,
an associate professor of neurology at
Northwestern University Feinberg School
of Medicine, in Illinois.
“Purpose in life is something that can
be cultivated and enhanced through
mindfulness therapies.”
In general, adults need between seven
and nine hours of sleep each night but the
exact amount varies from person to person,
depending on age, lifestyle and genes.
(Source: The Telegraph)
Official Elaborates on Way of Receiving Share of Vouchers at TBF
Deputy Managing Director of Bank Shahr for Branches
and Marketing Affairs Mohammad Kiaei expounded on
the way of receiving share of book vouchers at 30th
Tehran Book Fair.
Given the above issue, suitable ways have been
paved for receiving share of students’ voucher cards
using POS devices and ATMs of the bank, effective as
of the beginning of Iranian month of Tir (June 22), he
maintained.
Those people who own book vouchers are cordially
requested to log on at the following website: ketab.ir in
order to shop their book from the selected bookstores
across the country.
With the provision of 3,200 POS devices to publishers, more than 79 ATMs, three Virtual Teller Machines,
two electronic money exchange and 64 web-Kiosk devices, the bank offered quality services to the applicants at 30th Tehran International Book Fair (TIBF).
It should be noted that 30th Tehran Intl. Book Fair
was held from May 3-13, 2017 with the motto of “Read
a Book More” at the venue of Shahr-e Aftab Complex,
the report ended.
Bu-Ali Petrochemical Complex Paid All-Time High Fire Compensation at over €94m
Country’s highest amount of compensation in insurance industry of the country, amounting to €94 million, was paid
to Bu-Ali Petrochemical Complex in the
shortest time possible after the incident.
As insured by Iran Insurance Company (IIC), Bu-Ali Petrochemical Complex caught on fire last year, based on
which, insurance experts assessed that
the complex has incurred more than
€94 million worth of damage, Public Relations Dept. of the Iran Insurance Company reported.
Effective, constructive and strategic
steps were taken at insurance industry,
as headed by Iran Insurance Company,
in compensating the damage caused
senior managers of petrochemical
industry to ask for more insurance
coverage of the company, the report
added.
As mentioned in above, Bul-Ali
Sina Petrochemical Complex, based in
Mahshahr Port Special Economic Zone,
Khuzestan Province, caught fire on July
7, 2016.
As owned by Persian Gulf Petrochemical Industries Holding Company,
Bu-Ali Petrochemical Complex is one of
the important units producing aromatic
substances.
Shortly after announcing the fire
broke out at the complex, IIC dispatched
assessors in order to evaluate the compensation. After the compensation rate
was disclosed, Iran Insurance Company,
as insurer of the complex, compensated
the complex two days after the blaze,
the Public Relations Dept. of the company ended.
Tehran Hosts Organizing “Malaysian Tourism Opportunities” Seminar
A grand seminar on “Tourism Opportunities in Malaysia” was held in Tehran in the presence of Malaysian
Ambassador to Tehran and Deputy Director General of
Malaysian Culture and Tourism Ministry.
Disseminating information services in the field of
tourism and establishing direct relationship between
Iranian managers of tour and travel agencies (MAHAN
Airline) and chief executives of Malaysian Tourism and
Culture Ministry has been cited as the main aim behind
organizing this prestigious seminar.
Malaysian Ambassador to Tehran Dato Rostam
Yahya was the first speaker in this grand seminar who
pointed to the increase of visa period for Iranians
heading to Malaysia and said: “Presently, Iranian tourists receive 14-day visa for travelling to Malaysia but
90-day visa is issued for Russian tourists.”
Equal travelling condition has been stipulated between Iranian and Russian tourists who intend to travel
to Malaysia, he said, adding: “Currently, Iranian tourists
11
New ceramic brings hypersonic
travel closer to reality
A team of scientists from Britain and China have developed a new ceramic material that could one day make hypersonic air travel a reality. The ceramic carbide coating can
withstand the high temperatures of flying at over five times
the speed of sound without the degradation experienced by
similar materials.
Engineering isn’t simply a matter of coming up with a
good idea and slapping the bits together before flipping the
“on” switch. In many cases, it’s a long, frustrating search to
find the materials needed to build the device. Look, for example, at a smartphone with all its compact intricacy and
try to imagine making one without any of the sophisticated
plastics used in its design.
The same is true in aerospace engineering. The idea of
hypersonic flight has been around for a long time, but building an aircraft or missile that could make velocities of at or
above Mach 5 (3,800 mph, 6,125 km/h) – think two hours
from New York to London – requires materials that are still in
the experimental stage.
Even if this doesn’t melt or warp wing edges, nose tips,
turbine blades and other components, it will certainly cause
them to degrade in short order due to oxidation and ablation. This causes the surface layers of metals to evaporate in
part, making them weaker and more prone to scouring and
pitting.
The team from the University of Manchester and Central
South University in China is working on a new class of ultra-high temperature ceramics (UHTCs) that are less susceptible to oxidation and ablation, giving them more resilience
and longer life.
(Source: New Atlas)
China tests self-sustaining
space station in Beijing
The secret of a good night’s sleep has finally been found by scientists
It is said that a clear conscience makes
the softest pillow, but according to a new
study the secret of a good night’s sleep
is having something worth getting out of
bed for the next day.
In the first research of its kind, U.S. scientists found that having a purpose in life
results in fewer nighttime disturbances
and improved sleep quality.
INTERNATIONAL DAILY
can submit their visa to the Malaysian Embassy in order
to increase days of their stay in this Asian country.”
Yearlong visa will be issued for Iranian exporters
who intend to do trade and business activity in Malaysia, he maintained.
It is worth mentioning that Malaysian Peninsula in
Southeast Asia is regarded as one of the largest and
important diving hubs in the world due to owning several coastal areas in different parts of the country, the
ambassador opined.
In the end, Malaysian Ambassador to Tehran
Dato Rostam Yahya said that Kuala Lumpur, capital of Malaysia, is considered as one of the most
beautiful and sight-seeing hubs for inbound and
outbound tourists.
Sealed behind the steel doors of two bunkers in a Beijing suburb, university students are trying to find out how it feels to
live in a space station on another planet, recycling everything
from plant cuttings to urine.
They are part of a project aimed at creating a self-sustaining ecosystem that provides everything humans need to
survive.
Four students from Beijing University of Aeronautics and
Astronautics entered the Lunar Palace-1 on Sunday with the
aim of living self-sufficiently for 200 days.
They say they are happy to act as human guinea-pigs if it
means getting closer to their dream of becoming astronauts.
“I’ll get so much out of this,” Liu Guanghui, a Ph.D. student,
who entered the bunker on Sunday, said. “It’s truly a different
life experience.”
For Liu Hong, a professor at Beijing University of Aeronautics and Astronautics and the project’s principal architect,
said everything needed for human survival had been carefully calculated.
“We’ve designed it so the oxygen (produced by plants at the
station) is exactly enough to satisfy the humans, the animals, and
the organisms that break down the waste materials,” she said.
But satisfying physical needs is only one part of the experiment, Liu said. Charting the mental impact of confinement in
a small space for such a long time is equally crucial.
“They can become a bit depressed,” Liu said. “If you spend
a long time in this type of environment it can create some
psychological problems.”
Liu Hui, a student leader who participated an initial 60-day
experiment at Lunar Palace-1 that finished on Sunday, said
that she sometimes “felt a bit low” after a day’s work.
(Source: Reuters)
Fern fossil data clarifies
origination and extinction
of species
Throughout the history of life, new groups of species have
flourished at the expense of earlier ones and global biodiversity has varied dramatically over geologic time. A new study
led by the University of Turku, Finland, shows that completely
different factors regulate the rise and fall of species.
Previously, the debate has been about whether biodiversity is regulated mainly by the interaction between species or
the external environment, explains researcher and leader of
the study Samuli Lehtonen from the Biodiversity Unit of the
University of Turku.
In order to test these competing views, Lehtonen compiled a group of top researchers from Finland, Sweden, Switzerland and the United States. The researchers focused on
the diversity of ferns and the factors that influenced it during
the past 400 million years. Ferns have survived no less than
four mass extinctions and during their extremely long evolutionary history, the dominant fern groups have changed
repeatedly.
Thanks to the rich fern fossil data and a large amount of
DNA information from living species, we were able to test
multiple competing evolutionary models for the first time
by using new analytical methods, says Professor Alexandre
Antonelli from the Gothenburg Global Biodiversity Center
(GGBC) who participated in the study.
(Source: EurekAlert)
12
I NTE R NATI O NAL DAI LY
Iran Air appoints first
female CEO
W O M E N TEHRAN — For the first time, a female board
d
e
s
k member of Iran Air – the Iranian flag carrier –
has been appointed as the airline’s chief executive officer.
Farzaneh Sharafbafi will replace the current CEO Farhad
Parvaresh.
Sharafbafi, the current director general of Iran Air’s research department, will be the first-ever woman to head the
national flag carrier, Fars reported.
She is also the first Iranian woman with a PhD in aerospace. She has already implemented several aviation projects
and has taught various aerospace courses.
After leaving the airline, the former CEO Parvaresh is going to represent the Islamic Republic at the International Civil
Aviation Organization (ICAO) in Montreal, Canada.
RECIPE OF THE WEEK
Ice Cream Tiramisu Cake
“Sponge cake is soaked in coffee syrup then layered with coffee and espresso ice creams for an elegant, frozen dessert.”
Ingredients
1 cup white sugar
2/3 cup water
1 1/2 cups brewed espresso
1 (9 inch) sponge cake
1/4 cup finely ground espresso beans
2 pints espresso ice cream
2 pints coffee ice cream
v Directions
In a small saucepan over medium heat, combine sugar
and water. Bring to a boil, then remove from heat and stir in
espresso. Let cool completely.
Split the sponge cake in half horizontally to make two layers.
Place bottom layer in a serving dish. Brush with 3/4 cup coffee syrup. Sprinkle 2 tablespoons ground espresso evenly over
surface of cake. Beat the espresso ice cream with the paddle
attachment of an electric mixer until spreadable. Spread over
bottom cake layer. Place the top cake layer over the ice cream.
Brush with remaining coffee syrup. Place in freezer 30 minutes.
Beat the coffee ice cream until spreadable. Spread the ice
cream over the frozen cake, and swirl to make pretty. Return
cake to freezer until firm.
(Source: allrecipes.com)
LEARN ENGLISH
Daily Life - Picking A
University
A: I’ve never heard of AmLion College. Could you...
B: Of course sir, let me give you a brief overview. AmLion
College is located in the center of New York city. The school
covers a wide range of academic subjects; and eighty percent
of the courses are transferable to other state universities.
And, last year AmLion College was ranked number one in
terms of graduate employment.
A: Interesting, and what about the tuition fees, then?
B: You’ll be looking at somewhere around fifteen thousand
U.S. dollars per semester.
A: Okay, well.
B: And, did I mention our on-campus housing? Students
can stay in our newly renovated dorms for as little as three
thousand dollars per month!
A: Sounds good. Well. I’ll just grab one of your flyers.
B: Sir, you got the wrong flyer. Sir, sir!
Key vocabulary
overview: a general review
wide range: a variety
transferable: being able to move from one place, school,
job etc. to another, or to make someone do this, especially
within the same organization
rank: place something in a particular position
tuition: school fee
semester: one of two divisions of an academic year
on-campus housing: flats or apartments in school
renovated: repaired building or old furniture so that it is in
good condition again
dorm: a room for student to sleep in
flyer: a small sheet that advertises a product
Supplementary vocabulary
admission: the right of entrance
fraternity: a group of persons associated by or as if by ties
of brotherhood
spring break: a school holiday, usually for a week, during March
(Source: irlanguage.com)
W
O
M
E
N
JULY 11, 2017
Possible female candidates in
the next Rouhani cabinet
W O M E N TEHRAN — Zahra
d
e
s
k Shojaee, a former vice
Zahra Ahmadipour, the head of the
Cultural Heritage, Handcrafts and Tourism Organization, is expected to lead the
presidential department for women and
family affairs.
Ashraf Borujerdi will keep her post as
the director of the National Library and
Archives of Iran (NLAI).
Different female figures are proposed
for the post of minister in the next cabinet
yet their nomination is dependent on decision-makers, Molaverdi told reporters.
Hoping for nomination of women as
ministers, Molaverdi said it is essential to
have women in the cabinet essential.
Rouhani who was reelected president
in the May 19 presidential polls is slated to
be sworn in on August 5. After the swearing-in, Rouhani will name his cabinet nominees for parliamentary approval.
president, and Shahindokht Molaverdi,
the current vice president for women and
family affairs, are the two possible female
nominees for the post of education
minister, ILNA reported on Sunday.
However, Molaverdi is not yet
convinced to accept the job and there is
still no consensus over Shojaee, the news
agency reported.
It said Molaverdi is more interested
to stay in her current position as the vice
president for women and family affairs.
Although other possible candidates in
President Rouhani’s next cabinet are men,
Masoumeh Ebtekar would stay in her current position as vice president and head
of Environmental Protection Organization, the report added.
Iran to mark hijab and modesty week
W O M E N TEHRAN — People in
d
e
s
k different areas of Iran
are to mark the national day of hijab and
modesty on July 12.
This year, the hijab and dignity week (July
8-14) follows the slogan of “prudency, modesty, hijab, inner voice and social improve-
ment,” IRNA quoted Minoo Aslani, head of
Women’s Basij Organization as saying.
The hijab day’s ceremonies will be also
held in different countries, Aslani said,
adding that different photography competitions pivoting on hijab and modesty
will be held all around the country.
Different Islamic dress code exhibitions
will be held during the hijab week, she
said, adding that the Islamic dress code is
an important issue and it has been greatly emphasized in Islam.
Consultation sessions on religious
subjects are among the programs sched-
uled for the event, she added.
July 12th marks the day when some
people were martyred while protesting
Reza Shah Pahlavi who forced women
to remove their hijab in Goharshad Aqa
Mosque in Mashhad. The incident happened on July 12, 1935.
New World Bank Group facility to enable more than $1 billion for women entrepreneurship
On the occasion of the G20 leaders’ summit, the World
Bank Group announced the creation of an innovative
new facility that aims to enable more than $1 billion to
advance women’s entrepreneurship and help women
in developing countries gain increased access to the
finance, markets, and networks necessary to start and
grow a business.
The United States initiated the idea for the facility
and will serve as a founding member along with other
donor countries.
“This incredible facility will have a significant
impact on women’s economic development around
the world,” United States President Donald Trump
said. “It will help increase opportunities and economic
growth while addressing unique barriers women
entrepreneurs face.”
“Women’s economic empowerment is critical to
achieve the inclusive economic growth required to
end extreme poverty, which is why it has been such
a longstanding priority for us,” World Bank Group
President Jim Yong Kim said. “This new facility offers an
unprecedented opportunity to harness both the public
and private sectors to open new doors of opportunity
for women entrepreneurs and women-owned firms in
developing countries around the globe.”
“Everyone benefits when women have the resources
they need to participate fully in our economies and
societies,” Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said.
“Our government is determined to help women gain
the tools they need to be successful entrepreneurs
and leaders. This important investment will help
women in developing countries to create jobs, build
economies that work for everyone, and have a real
and fair chance at success.”
“I am happy that this initiative for women presents
real added value. I want to sincerely thank everyone
who worked on it especially the President of the
World Bank Jim Yong Kim and Ivanka Trump and
others. We can see from the example of this Women’s
Entrepreneurs Finance Initiative that the G20 is not
just a two-day Summit, but that the G20 is a process”
Chancellor Merkel of Germany said. “And I don’t have
the slightest doubt that under the leadership of Jim
Kim that these will be truly valuable and productive
investments.”
Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe said: “Women’s
active participation in society is one of the pillars of
Abenomics. Women’s empowerment and leadership
will diversify and revitalize organization and societies.
This facility embodies such belief in developing
countries, and is promising initiative to achieve society
where women shine.”
The Women Entrepreneurs Finance Initiative
(We-Fi), the first World Bank-led facility to advance
women’s entrepreneurship at this scale, will work to
enable more than $1 billion of financing to improve
access to capital, provide technical assistance, and
invest in other projects and programs that support
women and women-led SMEs in World Bank Group
client countries. The goal of the facility is to leverage
donor grant funding – currently over US$325 million
– to unlock more than $1 billion in IFI and commercial
financing by working with financial intermediaries,
funds, and other market actors.
The World Bank Group was invited to create the
facility by the United States and Germany, given the
Bank Group’s deep experience, track record, and
strong learning and innovation agenda. The initiative
received strong donor support Australia, Canada,
China, Denmark, Germany, Japan, Netherlands,
Norway, Saudi Arabia, South Korea, United Arab
Emirates, United Kingdom, and the United States,
enabling the Bank Group to take the facility from
concept to Board endorsement within the year of the
German G20 presidency.
“It’s remarkable how quickly the international
community has mobilized support for this new initiative,
which has exceeded our target by nearly $100 million,”
Kim said. “This demonstrates not only the importance
of increasing women’s economic empowerment,
but it scales up our efforts to help women open and
grow businesses. We’re grateful to President Trump,
Chancellor Merkel, and Ivanka Trump for being such
strong champions of this facility and the broader cause
of women’s entrepreneurship.”
We-Fi builds on the success of past and current
Bank Group programs while reaching into new
areas, supporting women-led businesses at earlier
stages of growth, and unlocking access to equity
and insurance services. At the same time, the
facility aims to support complementary public
sector interventions that strengthen the enabling
environment and enhance market opportunities for
women-owned businesses.
We-Fi differs from current efforts in that it represents
a platform to align country-level reforms and private
investment, build on and implement lessons learned
about what works for starting and growing female
owned/led firms, collect key data from the public
and private sector on female entrepreneurs and their
firms, and support innovation and learning for results
at scale.
Women entrepreneurs face numerous challenges
to financing, owning, and growing a business,
including limited access to capital and technology,
a lack of networks and knowledge resources, and
legal and policy obstacles to business ownership and
development.
We-Fi will work to break down barriers to financial
access and provide complementary services such as
capacity building, access to networks and mentors, and
opportunities to link with domestic and global markets
as well as improve the business environment for
women-owned or women-led SMEs in supply chains
across the developing world.
One of the major constraints limiting femaleled enterprises is access to financial services. Nearly
70 percent of women-owned SMEs in developing
countries are either shut out by financial institutions or
are unable to receive financial services on adequate
terms to meet their needs.
Women entrepreneurs face many Challenges
It is estimated that women-owned entities represent
just over 30 percent of formal, registered businesses
worldwide.
Yet, seventy percent of women-owned SMEs in
developing countries are either shut out by financial
institutions or are unable to receive financial services
on adequate terms to meet their needs. This results
in a nearly $300 billion annual credit deficit to formal
women-owned SMEs.
Lack of networks, knowledge, and links to high value
markets further constrain female entrepreneurship.
Moreover, unfavorable business and regulatory
environments are among the barriers that still impede
women entrepreneurs from accessing finance.
The fact that many emerging markets financial
institutions have yet to develop a sustainable strategy
to address this significant market gap represents a
missed opportunity and constrains private sector
development
Notes to editors
The facility will be established as a Financial
Intermediary Fund (FIF) at the Bank, drawing on the
Bank’s extensive experience housing such Funds.
The Bank and IFC will be Implementing Partners,
as well as other Multilateral Development Banks that
would propose private and public sector activities to be
supported by the We-Fi facility.
While she helped initiate the idea for the facility and
has been a strong advocate for the issue of women’s
entrepreneurship, Advisor to the President Ivanka
Trump will play no operational or fundraising role in
the facility.
(Source: worldbank.org)
Saudi activist jailed for driving says women ‘still being treated as slaves in 2017’
Manal Al-Sharif, who spent nine days in
prison for flouting the ban in Saudi Arabia
on women drivers, has spoken out about
her ordeal.
She said that women were being
“treated as slaves” to this day. Although
women can hold a driver’s license, they
are not allowed to drive as they are
considered “legally minors” in the country.
In her 20s, Ms. Al-Sharif was a computer
security engineer. She became the first
Saudi female IT security consultant and
worked for the oil business Saudi Aramco
for a decade.
“I come from a very private society
where we live in closed windows, high
walls and women are covered up. It’s
very difficult for girls and women in
Saudi Arabia to do anything without the
permission from a male guardian,” she
told Daily Mail Australia.
In 2011, the 38-year-old uploaded a
video on YouTube of her driving on the
roads of Kobar, which was viewed over
700,000 times in a single day.
She received death threats and was
called mentally ill. “I was called a w****
and people accused me of corrupting
Muslims... They called me all kinds of
names.”
After being imprisoned, she lost
custody of her son, her job and home.
Ms. Al-Sharif immigrated to Sydney
as a permanent resident with her second
husband and youngest son. She has
written a memoir called Daring To Drive,
describing her experiences. She was
inspired to write the book when she
found out that her eldest son, Aboudi,
was being beaten up at school.
The women’s rights activist recently
received her Australian driver’s license. “It
was the best $300 I spent. I was so happy.
It’s a liberating feeling,” she said.
Al-Sharif was named by Time Magazine as one of the “100 Most Influential
People in the World”. She launched the
Women2Drive movement which calls on
women to apply for driving licenses and,
when their applications are rejected, to
file lawsuits.
Saudi Arabia is the only country in
the world where women, both locals
and foreigners are banned from driving.
Although there is no legal ruling
preventing females from driving, police
are enforcing religious rulings.
In 2011, Shaima Jastaina was
sentenced to 10 lashes for breaking the
driving ban. However, this was overturned
due to international condemnation.
(Source: Press TV)
WORLD IN FOCUS
JULY 11, 2017
Saudi Arabia exports extremism to
many countries, including Germany
cultural centers and similar organ1
izations, so that Wahhabi theology can
reach the public – with great success.
Where is this extremism, that is fueled
by oil money, most obvious?
The export of Wahhabism got off the
ground after the Islamic revolution in Iran.
The revolution had dramatically shaken
the Saudis. When Iran started exporting
its ideology, the Saudis felt threatened by
it. Around that time, in 1979, hardliners
seized the Grand Mosque in Mecca. The
Saudis launched an ideological offensive
and said, “Now we are exporting our own
ideology. We will show the hardliners in
our own country what we are capable of
achieving.” Then, they started promoting Wahhabism through intermediaries
and organizations like the World Muslim
League in different countries throughout
Asia, Africa and parts of Europe – for example, in former Yugoslavia where Muslims and Christians fought against each
other in the civil war. Wahhabists saw it
as a gateway, where money was needed
since the Muslim population was ready
for a new and radical ideology.
The result is that, in many parts of the
world, a radical form of Islam is gaining
the upper hand. I have experienced this
first hand in Southeast Asia. In southern
Thailand, the Philippines, Indonesia, and
sometimes Malaysia, it was always said
that a special form of Islam was practiced, a much more open, much more
tolerant version. There has been a dramatic development towards radicalism
over the past three decades. It is perfectly clear that this development has been
encouraged by Saudi money. Moreover,
young intellectuals have been recruited
with generous scholarships at Saudi re-
gime universities. These people return to
their homes after having studied at Saudi
regime universities and suddenly carry
out Wahhabi missionary work in all their
home countries.
Pierre Vogel: perhaps the most wellknown German Salafi preacher, studied
on a Saudi scholarship in Mecca. Saudi
Arabia has apparently influenced the
radicalization process of Muslims in Germany. German media made such claims
in December 2016, citing intelligence
sources. It was said that religious foundations from the Persian Gulf States, especially Saudi Arabia, supported local Salafi
groups in Germany with the approval of
their governments. To what extent does
this correspond to your research findings?
This is absolutely consistent with our
findings. In some cases, state-owned
Saudi institutions were massively in-
volved. There was once a Saudi attaché
in Berlin, Mohamed Fakihi. He had connections to the terrorist cell in Hamburg
that carried out the attack on the World
Trade Center in New York in 2001. Fakihi
also was well connected to Berlin’s Al-Nur
Mosque, which often attracts attention
for being a Salafi hotspot. The attaché
is now no longer there but back then, it
was the first time people became aware
of this.
We have seen that Saudi regime foundations are operating everywhere - partly underground and partly through intermediaries, like Nadeem Elias. Until 2006,
he was chairman of the Central Council
of Muslims in Germany. This is one of the
most important Muslim associations that
constantly maintain inauspicious ties with
Saudi regime foundations, including the
Muslim World League or the World Assembly of Muslim Youth.
There is also another high-ranking official in the Central Council of Muslims:
Ibrahim El-Zayat. Zayat was chairman of
the Islamic Community of Germany from
2002 to 2010. We have only scratched
the surface. And when people are asked
questions, they are always evasive. But it
is clear that there are organizations and
individuals in Germany who take the
Wahhabization of German Muslims seriously.
According to latest report published
by the Office for the Protection of the
Constitution, a German domestic intelligence agency, the Salafi scene in Germany has now grown to include over
10,000 members. There must be other
reasons apart from Saudi regime support, right?
Of course. Firstly, not only do the
Saudis bankroll extremists. Now attention has been drawn to Qatar for doing
this. And yes, it is true that Qatar provides funds and Kuwait provides funds.
There are also other players in the Persian Gulf Region who support radical
tendencies here in Germany. I assume
that if you observe where money flows,
you will be amazed. Germany is generally a place where foreign extremist
organizations are active.
Professor Susanne Schroter is the
director of the Frankfurter Research
Center for Global Islam (FFGI), director
of the Institute for Ethnology, principal
investigator the cluster of excellence
“The Formation of Normative Orders,”
director of the Cornelia Goethe Center
for Gender Research and executive
board member of the German Orient
Institute.
(Source: DW)
Austria bars Turkish economy minister over rally plans
Austria has banned Turkish Economy Minister Nihat
Zeybekci from entering the country to take part in a political march marking the anniversary of a failed military
coup against the Ankara government.
“He has been barred because his visit was not
planned as part of a bilateral exchange, but was about
his public appearance at an event marking the coup attempt,” Foreign Ministry spokesman Thomas Schnoell
told media on Monday.
Schnoell explained that the minister’s attendance at
the rally would have threatened “public order.”
Austria’s ban comes days after the Dutch government
warned Turkey against sending its deputy prime minister, Tugrul Turkes, to address a rally in the eastern Netherlands this
week to mark the anniversary of last July’s abortive coup.
European Union countries, along with international rights groups, have been critical of Turkey’s massive
post-coup crackdown, which has seen more than 50,000
people behind bars pending trial.
Ankara has also suspended or dismissed some
150,000, including soldiers, teachers and civil servants,
over alleged links with the United States-based cleric
Fethullah Gulen, whom the Turkish government blames
for the July 2016 coup attempt.
Earlier this year, several European Union countries
hosting large Turkish populations, including Austria and
the Netherlands, banned pro-Ankara rallies ahead of a
controversial referendum in April on granting sweeping
powers to the president.
Turkish ministers had been heading to Europe to
whip up support for a ‘Yes’ vote among millions of Turkey’s voters who live abroad.
Some 360,000 people of Turkish origin live in Austria.
Many of the Turkish nationals living across Europe are believed to be supporters of President Recep Tayyip Erdogan.
Expat votes are said to have significantly helped
Erdogan win the April referendum on overhauling the
constitution. The EU has warned Ankara that such constitutional amendments equal forfeiting Turkey’s EU membership request.
(Source: DPA)
Iraqi forces battling to mop up last ISIL pockets in Mosul
“Remaining insecurity; lack of
1
basic services; explosive hazards contamination; and damage to homes, businesses and public infrastructure -- including
schools and hospitals -- all continue to pose
barriers to return,” the statement signed by
groups like the Norwegian Refugee Council, Oxfam and Save the Children read.
It also expressed deep concerns for Iraqis trapped in ISIL-controlled areas in Iraq,
namely Tal Afar, Hawijah district in the oilrich northern province of Kirkuk and the
troubled western province of Anbar.
“For the expected offensives in Haw-
ijah, Tal Afar and western Anbar, where
approximately 150,000 civilians are
thought to still be trapped, it is vital that
lessons are learnt from past offensives,”
the aid groups said, demanding access
to safety and assistance be prioritized.
Iraqi army soldiers and volunteer fighters from the Popular Mobilization Units
(Hashd Al-Sha’abi) have made sweeping
gains against ISIL since launching the Mosul operation on October 17, 2016.
The Iraqi forces took control of eastern Mosul in January after 100 days of
fighting, and launched the battle in the
west on February 19.
An estimated 862,000 people have
been displaced from Mosul ever since
the battle to retake the city began eight
months ago. A total of 195,000 civilians
have also returned, mainly to the liberated areas of eastern Mosul.
ISIL executes 7 Iraqi children
west of Mosul
Meantime, ISIL terrorists have reportedly executed seven Iraqi children west of
Mosul as the terrorists continue to perpetrate various crimes against humanity
in areas still under their control.
Jabbar al-Ma’mouri, a senior commander of the Popular Mobilization
Units, told Arabic-language al-Sumaria television network that ISIL terrorists
killed the victims in the city of Tal Afar,
located 63 kilometers west of Mosul, and
then hung their corpses from lampposts.
Ma’mouri noted the seven children
were killed after their families attempted
to flee Tal Afar, stressing that ISIL Takfiris
have placed the city under curfew in the
wake of a potential backlash from infuriated residents.
(Source: Press TV)
Iranian market ‘only’ trustable one in Middle East: consultancy company
1
Banking issues continue to be a source of concern for foreign investors eying to win venues in
Iran. What’s your solutions for the problem?
A: For the interim period, I suggest barter and buyback
as a temporary solution. Foreign companies are welcomed
to enter MOU’s and work on their business structure until banking problem is resolved and conduct a proper research so when it happens they are all set and ready for
trade. Proper and thorough establishment of foreigner entities in Iran is crucial to fruitful business and minimized risk.
What measures can be taken on the Iranian
side to facilitate foreign trade?
A: I feel that foreigners need more assistance with the
legal guidance on how to set up a company, deal with
tax issues and invest in Iran. At present, I fear lawyers do
not have a clear guideline, in particular for private sector
and the situation seems to be changing very rapidly.
In the post-sanctions era, Iran has demanded
potential trade partners transfer technology to domestic companies. Do foreign sides welcome that?
Have you brokered such contracts so far?
A: I have not come across foreign company yet which
would not be willing to transfer technology or provide
expert training, but only if they can have a presence in
Iran; in other words on basis of Joint Venture so both
companies can benefit and set up a business culture
that suits everyone.
I have organized workshops before for example at
IRC, whereby the largest insurance broker in UK has
given lectures to local insurance companies on various
subjects. Another important event was held at Shahid
Beheshti University in Tehran, with speakers presenting
on industrial lubricant technology. We had 80 representatives from various industries in Iran. These events
are very important as the education and exchange of
knowledge is key to improve international cooperation
as well as to expand and update their knowledge to the
international working standard.
And your concluding comments.
A: Our company, MehrMax Cara, is 100% Iranian registered company where I am the MD and shareholder. I
have a work permit and residency in Iran, which I usually
show to all foreign companies to assure them that it is
possible to work and live in Iran without any obstacle,
even as a female. Our services also include representation of international companies in Iran, organizing sem-
inars and conferences, allocating the right partners as
well as assisting on projects. Recently we have also added operational services to our offer for example: facilitating relevant license from particular industry.
Our aim is to promote Iran and share my own experience which helps us bringing investors and to some
extent add to the country’s economy. I have studied International Relations at university with focus on Middle
East and Persian Gulf as case study.
I have been travelling throughout Iran for the last 4
years and met many wonderful people both in business and private life. I have made friends here who
welcomed me into their homes which allowed me to
learn their way of day to day life. Presently apart from
the business side I am working on few socially focused
projects. Their aim is community building, education
and personal development. We are also assisting on
expanding the sport scene in Iran and the end goal is
to bring international tournaments to Iran. I also like to
encourage young people to educate themselves, focus
and believe in themselves. Whether they want to start
their own company or work for someone else hard work
and persistence is key to achieving any goals.
I feel that the current general perception of Iran is
out of date and should be refreshed. There isn’t enough
accurate and general coverage: culture, society and
travel in foreign press and Iran remains undiscovered
for many. However the relaxation of visa processing for
Europeans resulted in many tourists visiting Iran and
sharing their holiday experiences back home which encourages more visitors to come.
I N T E R NAT I O NALDAI LY
13
Tillerson heads to Persian Gulf
to help resolve PGCC row
The United States Secretary of State Rex Tillerson began a
four-day visit to Kuwait, Qatar and Saudi Arabia on Monday
to help seek a resolution to the ongoing Persian Gulf crisis.
Tillerson first “met with senior Kuwaiti officials to discuss
the ongoing efforts to resolve the Persian Gulf dispute” later
on Monday, before heading to Qatar and Saudi Arabia, the
state department announced.
The House of Saud regime, the United Arab Emirates
(UAE), Bahrain and Egypt cut ties with Qatar on June 5 and
imposed a land, air and sea blockade on the country.
The quartet accuse Qatar of funding “terrorism”, an accusation Qatar rejects as “baseless”.
On June 22, they issued a 13-point list of demands, including
the shutdown of Al Jazeera, as a prerequisite to lift the sanctions.
Doha rejected the demands and the countries now consider the list “null and void”.
But the Persian Gulf state of Kuwait is still trying to mediate
the dispute.The U.S. has been supporting Kuwait’s mediation efforts, but Tillerson’s trip will mark a new level of U.S. involvement.
On Thursday, the state department warned the crisis could
potentially drag on for week or even months and “possibly
even intensify”.
“We’ve become increasingly concerned that that dispute
is at an impasse at this point. We believe that this could potentially drag on for weeks; it could drag on for months; it
could possibly even intensify,” state department spokeswoman Heather Nauert said.
She didn’t specify what type of escalation the U.S. fears.
But she said Tillerson has been in close contact with the
countries involved.
Last month, Tillerson urged the Saudi regime-led group to
ease their blockade on Qatar, saying it is causing unintended
humanitarian consequences and affecting the U.S.-led fight
against the Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant (ISIL/Daesh)
terrorist outfit.
“Our expectation is that these countries will immediately
take steps to de-escalate the situation and put forth a good
faith effort to resolve their grievances they have with each
other,” Tillerson said.
More than 11,000 U.S. and coalition forces are stationed
at the Al Udeid Air Base in Qatar, from which more than 100
aircraft operate.
(Source: Al Jazeera)
Indian PM not expected to
give credit to Netanyahu
In fact India is selling itself cheaply to a regime
1
whose policies have even disappointed Tel Aviv’s old friends
in the West and its occupation of Palestinian lands have
helped fuel the flames of extremism among the Sunni youth
in the Arab world.
In December 2016 former U.S. Secretary of State John
Kerry said Netanyahu’s government has undermined peace
in the Middle East and warned that the rapid expansion of
settlements in the occupied territories meant that “the status
quo is leading toward one state and perpetual occupation”.
It was also due to this strategy that Sweden officially recognized the state of Palestine in October 2014. France, a
friend of Israel, also announced in January 2016 that it will
recognize a Palestinian state if plans to lead for a two-state
solution between Israel and the Palestinians fail.
The Norwegian Confederation of Trade Unions (LO), representing close to one million workers, endorsed a full boycott of Israel in May 2017 to achieve Palestinian rights under
international law.
In regard to these things, Netanyahu, who is standing
against the wishes of the international community for a solution of the Palestinian-Israeli conflict, did not deserve to take
photos with the prime minister of India. Moreover, the world’s
public opinion did not expect the prime minister of India to
hug this man.
Will the Scottish National
Party lose to Corbynism?
8
Former independence referendum
The numbers are stark. At the 2014 independence referendum, 1.6 million Scots voted “Yes” on a record-breaking
turnout of 84 percent. The following year, at the 2015 UK
election, the SNP soaked up most of that base, winning 1.4
million votes. At the 2016 Scottish devolved election, the SNP
vote dipped to just over one million. In June, it dipped again,
to 980,000, on a massively reduced turnout of 66 percent.
This is obviously not a sustainable trajectory for the SNP.
As participation in the Scottish political process falls, so too
does the party’s authority.
Sturgeon has triangulated her way through every major
policy challenge, from tax and education to land reform and
the environment. As a result, more and more (predominantly young and poor) Scots are withdrawing from the political sphere. Her refusal to deviate from an ideological center
ground that, in the aftermath of the 2008 financial crash, simply no longer exists, has cost the SNP its insurgent status. At
the same time, Corbynism has demonstrated that it is a credible force with the potential to win a British general election.
Fortunately for Sturgeon, there is no shortage of policy
proposals available to reinvigorate her flagging administration.
A national investment bank, for instance, could help restructure Scotland’s ailing economy and provide long-term
funding for much-needed infrastructure projects. Neither is
she short on time. The current Scottish Parliament will run for
another four years and, with the help of her pro-independence allies in the Scottish Green Party, she could introduce a
tranche of new legislative reforms that breathe fresh life into
the case for greater Scottish autonomy. On the other hand,
of course, she could just bunker down and wait for independence to become inevitable again.
(Source: aljazeer.com)
14
I NTE R NATI O NAL DAI LY
Neymar: I could join
Manchester United...
or Eibar
Barcelona star Neymar has suggested that he could be
tempted to leave Camp Nou in future to join Manchester
United – or Eibar.
The Brazil international has been heavily linked with a move
to the Premier League side for much of the past 18 months,
despite having signed a new five-year contract last October.
The
forward’s
agent,
Wagner Ribeiro, claimed last
September that he had been
tempted by offers from United
and Paris Saint-Germain, who
were reportedly ready to
pay a transfer fee of up to
€190million.
Speculation of renewed
interest from United has
refused to die down, even
though
manager
Jose
Mourinho stated in May that
it would be “absurd” to try to
sign the player.
Neymar has admitted that he cannot guarantee his long-term
future but offered something of a tongue-in-cheek response
when asked where he could potentially move.
“Who knows what will happen tomorrow?” he said after
the Neymar Jr’s Five event. “I’m very happy for now, very well
adjusted. But anything can happen, who knows.”
Asked if he could go to United, he replied: “Yes... or Eibar!”
The 25-year-old had earlier stated that he believes 2017-18
will be the most important campaign of his career.
“I hope it will be a season with a lot of success and a lot of
happiness,” he said. “I’m getting ready for it. It’s going to be one
of the most important seasons of my life. It will be the most
important season of my life.
“So I’m really happy and really excited, and I’m going to start
training and get prepared.”
(Source: Soccerway)
Romelu Lukaku will wear
No.9 shirt at Manchester
United vacated by Zlatan
Ibrahimovic
Romelu Lukaku has revealed he will wear the No.9 shirt at
Manchester United.
The Belgian’s move to Old Trafford from Everton is expected to be confirmed imminently after the clubs agreed a
£75million fee for the transfer.
Wayne Rooney has gone in the other direction and will
wear No.10 at Everton, fuelling rumours the pair could be set
for a straight swap.
But Lukaku has seemingly told the NBC network in the USA
that he will wear the No.9 jersey vacated by Zlatan Ibrahimovic.
Philip Brown from NBC secured an interview with Lukaku after the striker had completed his medical ahead of hiss witch to
Old Trafford. The exchange is yet to be broadcast, but Brown
revealed the spoiler on his Twitter account.
“People claiming Lukaku will wear the number 10 shirt are
false,” he posted. “He won’t.”
He added: “@RomeluLukaku9 welcome to @ManUtd
#newnumber9.” United’s No.9 shirt has a mixed history, notably
being worn by Andy Cole with great success.
Other inhabitants of the shirt include Anthony Martial, Louis
Saha, Dimitar Berbatov and Radamel Falcao.
(Source: Mirror)
Paulinho to Barcelona
´out of the question´ midseason for Guangzhou
Guangzhou Evergrande Taobao have praised Paulinho’s
professionalism after again ruling out an immediate move to
Barcelona for the Brazil midfielder.
Barca had a reported €20million offer rejected for the
28-year-old, who has expressed his desire to play for the LaLiga
giants and a willingness to take a pay cut.
Guangzhou maintain they will not allow Paulinho to depart at
what is the midway point of the Chinese Super League season,
despite the player calling upon the club to be “flexible”.
Evergrande Group chairman Xu Jiayin identified the
prospect of playing for Barcelona as a “once in a lifetime
opportunity” for Paulinho but
is not ready to sanction a
move at this stage.
“We need to not only consider the financial account of
the corporation, but also the
specific situation of our current campaign,” said Xu in his
annual mid-season meeting
with Guangzhou’s players.
“Paulinho has a once-ina-lifetime opportunity and we
attach great importance to this matter. But we won’t let him leave
mid-season. “The club have just reached the halfway point of the
season, it is out of the question that we let go such a key player.
“I understand the feelings of Paulinho but hopefully he will
understand the club. Despite receiving the offer from Barcelona,
he still plays each game to the best of his ability.
“I call on every player to learn from Paulinho’s professionalism.”
Paulinho has won two Chinese Super League titles and the AFC
Champions League since joining Guangzhou from Tottenham in
2015, with his form earning a recall to the Brazil national team.
(Source: Soccerway)
WORLD SPORT
JULY 11, 2017
Tour de France under scrutiny after
70kph crash on ‘crazy’ stage
From the lakeside town of Nantua to the city of
Chambéry, collarbones were fractured, kneecaps were
dislocated and lungs were punctured.
It’s supposed to be bike race, but by the end of
Sunday, stage nine of the 104th Tour de France felt more
like an episode of a TV hospital drama.
After 181.5 kilometers, three uncategorized climbs
and no shortage of devilishly difficult descents, 11 riders
were left by wayside -- five through serious injury.
Chief among them were Team Sky’s Geraint
Thomas and overall contender Richie Porte, prompting
commentators to brand it one of the most formidable
climbing stages in recent history, and one rider to
suggest “organizers got what they wanted.”
Colombia’s Rigoberto Uran (Cannodale-Drapac) took
the green jersey in a photo finish from Warren Barguil
(Sunweb) by a tire’s width after a six-man sprint -turning the Frenchman’s tears of joy to tears of sorrow.
“I thought that I had won,” said second-placed
Barguil, disconsolate after the photo finish. “It’s hard but
that’s sport.”
Chris Froome, now without his chief lieutenant
Thomas for the rest of the Tour, retains the yellow jersey
having finished third.
But once again, as in Mark Cavendish’s stage four
horror crash, it’s the riders that didn’t cross the line who
will dominate the headlines.
Thomas, second overall behind teammate Froome
at the start of play Sunday, was the first major name
to fall -- breaking his collarbone on the tough Col de
la Biche descent in a crash Dave Brailsford branded
“devastating.”
“He had the crash in the Giro, then the roller coaster
of coming here and being in yellow after winning the
first stage, and then breaking his collarbone today,” said
the Team Sky general manager.
“We’ll get our arms around him and make sure he’s
all right; we’ll get him back on track but that’s not nice
to see.”
If Thomas’s crash had been difficult to watch, Porte’s
crash just under 100km later was too much for some TV
viewers, including Cavendish.
Flying high above the town of Aix-les-Bans in slippery
conditions, Australian Porte was traveling at speeds in
excess of 70kph (45mph) when he veered onto the grass
and off the road.
As his bike threatened to tumble down the
mountain, Porte hit the tarmac hard, skidding across
the width of the road before clattering into the jagged
rock face on his right.
There was nowhere to go for Daniel Martin behind
him, who somersaulted over Porte’s body, then
“bounced,” but was somehow was able to get back on
his bike and continue the descent.
Mo Farah ‘sick’ of doping
allegations
British Olympic champion Mo Farah is
“sick” of his name being dragged into
doping controversies, the 34-year-old
said after winning the 3,000 meters at the
Anniversary Games in London on Sunday.
Russian hackers leaked documents
last week showing Farah was suspected
of doping in 2015 before being cleared
by the International Association of
Athletics Federations (IAAF) in 2016,
British media reported.
“I am sick of repeating myself and
you guys just making something out of
nothing,” Farah told reporters.
“I work hard at what I do and I just
carry on enjoying what I do, and it comes
as a little distraction...
“I said I will never fail a drugs test. That
is who I am. I believe in clean sports and I
just have to enjoy what I do, keep smiling.
And let you guys do what you do.
“There’s no secrets to what I do. My
life is not as easy as people think, it is hard
work. I wish you guys would understand
it a bit more and write down the facts.
I do what I do, keep smiling. I love you all.”
Farah has fielded doping allegations
repeatedly and the issue re-appeared in
April after a doctor said that he injected
a legal dose of a controversial substance
prior to the 2014 London Marathon but it
was not adequately recorded.
The long-distance runner said he
would not be racing in the 1,500m event
in Monaco and will instead go to an
altitude training camp in Font Romeu,
France to prepare for next month’s world
championships.
“The preparation is going well – I’m
grafting and continuing to tick boxes,”
Farah said.
“Initially I was going to try and fit a
1500m race in between now and the
World Championships, but this is my
last race now.
Farah had previously announced his
plans of retiring from track events and
focusing on marathons after the World
Championships.
(Source: Sky Sports)
The Irishman -- crashing once again in a later
incident but “remarkably” doing enough to still claim
ninth position in Sunday’s stage -- is sixth overall, one
minute and 44 seconds behind Froome.
“I guess the organizers got what they wanted,”
reflected Martin after the race. “I don’t think anyone
wanted to take risks there, but it was so slippery under
the trees.
“Richie locked up his back wheel, went straight into
the grass, just wiped out, and his bike just collected me.
“I was very lucky the first time; I got through but my
luck run out.”
(Source: CNN)
Macron’s presence key to successful
Paris bid for 2024 Games: mayor
French President Emmanuel Macron’s
presence at an International Olympic
Committee meeting this week will be key
to what will hopefully be a successful Paris bid for the 2024 Olympics, city Mayor
Anne Hidalgo said on Monday.
Macron, 39, who won election in May
as France’s youngest leader since Napoleon, was due to arrive later on Monday and
be part of Paris’s 2024 presentation to IOC
members on Tuesday as the French capital
goes up against a bid from Los Angeles.
LA 2024’s bid team will also present on
Tuesday but, as is usually the case at this
July IOC meeting, it will not have any political support on site.
Heads of state are usually present at the
host city vote, which this year will take place
in September to give their bid a final push,
but Macron has opted to be present now.
“It is a very good sign to say that we
are confident and we will win,” Hidalgo told
reporters, referring to Macron’s presence.
“It is very good for us, very good for us.”
This is not the first time Macron will meet
with the IOC, having hosted its evaluation commission two days after being elected to office.
Paris and LA are bidding for the 2024
Games though the IOC is widely expected
on Tuesday to ratify an executive board recommendation to award both the 2024 and
the 2028 Games at the same time, ensuring
both candidates are awarded one Games.
Four other cities dropped out of the race
out of cost concerns. That forced the IOC to
change the bidding process and award two
Games at the same time, making bidding
more attractive to potential hosts.
The only thing that will be decided in
September will be the sequence, though
Paris is widely seen as the frontrunner for
the 2024 Games. Los Angeles has hinted it
would accept the 2028 Olympics.
“We wanted to engage immediately
with the new president (Macron). He was
very receptive and committed. Two days
after taking office he decided to welcome
the evaluation commission,” said 2024
Games co-chair Tony Estanguet.
(Source: Reuters)
Luka Modric warns Morata and Rodriguez it would be ‘a step down’
to leave for Chelsea or Manchester United
Luka Modric has warned team-mates Alvaro Morata
and James Rodriguez that the only way is down if they
decide to leave Real Madrid for the likes of Chelsea or
Manchester United.
The pair are expected to complete moves away from
the Bernabeu this summer. United, Chelsea and Paris
Saint-Germain are all in the race to secure the £62million
signature of Rodriguez, while Antonio Conte’s side are
also set to bid £70m for Morata after missing out on
Romelu Lukaku.
Both players are at the exit door having struggled
to nail down a regular first-team spot at the Bernabeu
under manager Zinedine Zidane. But Modric has told
them they will never find another club like Madrid.
‘For sure it is not an easy decision to leave Madrid,’
Modric told Spanish paper Marca.
‘When you leave here, it is never the same. Now you
are at the best club in the world, for sure, so you can
only take a step down.
‘Each individual will have their reasons, but I will do
everything possible to stay here, even though things
can change quickly in football.’
Madrid’s pursuit of Monaco forward Kylian Mbappe
means they are willing to let Morata leave, although
they value the Spain international at around £80m.
Rodriguez, meanwhile, hopes to seal his departure
from the Spanish capital this week. The forward
moved to La Liga in the wake of a string of impressive
performances for Colombia at the 2014 World Cup.
Though the club are in no rush to let him go, the
25-year-old has decided his future lies elsewhere
after starting only 20 matches during the whole of
last season.
(Source: Daily Mail)
S
JULY 11, 2017
P
O
R
UWW accepts Iran’s proposal
for Muslim women’s singlet
S P O R T S Iran’s Wrestling Federation
d
e
s
k says that the United World
Wrestling (UWW) has accepted its proposal
to allow the women wrestlers to participate in
the competition with Islamic dress code.
Iran offered the suggestion in December
last year in the center of United World
Wrestling Committee of Associated Styles in
Istanbul, Turkey.
According to media reports, Iran is set
to host a three-a-side women wrestling
tournament with Iranian and foreign countries.
The International Basketball Federation
(FIBA) has already agreed a new rule to
come into force in October this year that
will allow players to wear a headgear that
minimizes the risk of injury and is the same
color as a team’s kit.
In this new style, the wrestling gear covers
the full body of the wrestler. This will make
all female wrestlers around the world able
to participate in this type of sport. Besides
removing cultural and religious barriers,
cover-singlet wrestling helps reduce injuries.
Iranians have chance of winning
medals at London 2017: coach
S P O R T S Iran para athletic
d
e
s
k coach
Mostafa
Bahrami says that the Iranian
representatives are well-prepared for
the world championships.
The competition will be held in
London, England from July 14 to 23.
There are 202 medal events, more
than at Rio 2016, featuring around
1,300 athletes from 100 countries.
Events are split into 49 different
classifications which depend on the
severity of each athlete’s impairment.
“Our athletes will participate in
the event in their best form. They
could go on the podium since they
have worked very hard for the
prestigious competition,” Bahrami
told paralympic.ir.
“The London 2017 will gather
the world’s best athletes together
and I believe that it’s more difficult
than Paralympics in some events,” he
added.
Zahra Inche Dargahi elected as Iran’s
Gymnastic Federation president
S P O R T S Zahra Inche Dargahi
d
e
s
k was elected as the
President of the Iran’s Gymnastic
Federation.
Inche Dargahi received 24 votes in
the presidential elections held at the
Iran’s Academy Olympic on Monday.
Shervin Asbaghian and Habib
Nozohouri came second and third with
12 and four votes respectively.
Reza Mohammad Kazemi also
received four votes.
Inche Dargahi has been elected for a
four-year term till 2021.
“First of all, I would like to thanks all
those who voted for me in the election.
I am very proud to have been elected
as the new president of Iran’s Gymnastic
Federation,” Inche Dargahi said.
“I will do my best to rebuild gymnastic
in our country. Also, the Iranian women
have no problem to participate in the
gymnastic sport wearing a hijab,” she
added.
Canada win FIBA U19 World Cup, Iran finish 15th
S P O R T S Canada claimed their first-ever FIBA
d
e
s
k U19 Basketball World Cup 2017
title after beating Italy 79-60, in Sunday’s Final in the
Egyptian capital of Cairo.
R.J. Barrett led the way with game-high 18 points,
and 12 rebounds in the winning cause.
USA won the bronze medal after beating Spain
96–72.
Barrett was named the tournament’s Most Valuable
Player, headlining the All-Star Five, where he was joined
by Lorenzo Bucarelli (Italy), Abu Kigab (Canada), Tom-
maso Oxilia (Italy) and Payton Pritchard (USA).
The Iranian team, who lost to the U.S, Italy, Angola,
Egypt and South Korea, finally earned their first win in
the tournament and finished in 15th place.
Iran beat Mali 70-61.
Final standings of the FIBA U19 Basketball World
Cup 2017:
1. Canada, 2. Italy, 3. The U.S., 4. Spain, 5. Germany,
6. Lithuania, 7. France, 8. Argentina, 9. Puerto Rico, 10.
Japan, 11. New Zealand, 12. Egypt, 13. Angola, 14. Korea, 15. Iran, 16. Mali
Russia approves anti-doping plan to try to clean up image
Russian Prime Minister Dmitry
Medvedev on Monday approved a
plan designed to stamp out doping,
part of Moscow’s push to rehabilitate
its tarnished sporting image and
overturn a ban on most of its
track-and-field athletes competing
internationally.
The measures, published on the
government’s official website, include
the creation of a new national antidoping laboratory and rolling out
education programmes to discourage
the use of performance enhancing
drugs.
Getting existing national antidoping
agency
RUSADA
fully
compliant with international standards
is another objective.
WADA, the World Anti-Doping
Agency, suspended RUSADA after a
report published in November 2015
found evidence of state-sponsored
doping and accused it of systematically
violating anti-doping regulations.
Russian authorities deny there was
a state-backed doping programme,
but
have
pledged
to
follow
international recommendations to get
the suspension of RUSADA, Russia’s
athletics federation, and the Russian
Paralympic Committee lifted.
WADA last month announced
it was allowing RUSADA to plan
and coordinate testing under the
supervision of international experts,
saying the agency had met some of
the requirements for its reinstatement.
WADA told Reuters last week that
RUSADA still needed to do a number
of things before it could regain its
accreditation, including a “series of
compliance audits that WADA will
conduct in the coming months.”
WADA said it will publish the
remaining requirements for RUSADA
to regain compliance later this month.
(Source: Reuters)
IOC determined to see North Korea take part in Winter Games
The International Olympic Committee said on Monday
it is working hard to make sure North Korea takes part
in next year’s Winter Olympics in neighboring South Korea, despite political tensions in the region.
A leading North Korean sports official said recently it
was too late to accept an offer from the South to form
a unified team to take part in Pyeongchang in February.
But the IOC said it still wanted the North to sent its own
team to the games.
“What is important for the IOC and the games is the
participation and we are working very hard on the participation of athletes from North Korea,” IOC spokesman
Mark Adams told reporters.
“(We are) identifying the athletes who could possibly
take part and we will do our best to make sure there is a
participation of athletes from North Korea.”
Last month, South Korean President Moon Jae-in
proposed forming a unified Korean team for the Games.
However, North Korean International Olympic
Committee (IOC) member Chang Ung ruled out the
idea of a North-South team, telling the Dong-a Ilbo
newspaper that it was an unrealistic objective in the
current political climate.
North Korea has carried out repeated nuclear and
missile tests.
Chang also ruled out the possibility of using venues
in the North to co-host the Feb. 9-25 Winter Games
and dismissed the notion that a unified team would help
improve relations on the Korean Peninsula.
Moon took office on May 10, winning an election
on a more moderate approach to North Korea and a
promise to engage Pyongyang in dialogue.
North Korea is not regarded as a powerhouse in winter sports and has missed several editions of the Winter
Games in the past.
On the hosting itself, the IOC said organizers were in
a race against time to complete 11 hotels for housing
stakeholders.
“It’s a tight situation,” said Christophe Dubi, the IOC’s
executive director for the Olympic Games. “There will be
very close monitoring to make sure they are delivered.”
(Source: Reuters)
T
INTERNATIONAL DAILY
15
Iranian cyclists pocket
three medals in Japan
Track Cup I & II
Iranian cyclists have put on acceptable performances at the
2017 Japan Track Cup I & II, and been three more medals at
the international tournament.
On Sunday, Iran’s pair of Fatemen Hadavand and Maedeh
Nazari took part in women’s double madison competitions at
Izu Velodrome in the southern
Japanese Izu peninsula, and
bagged a bronze medal for
the Islamic Republic.
The Iranian men’s team
of Mehdi Sohrabi and Mohammad Rajablou also vied
for a medal in the madison
team event, and struck a silver medal.
Earlier, Amir Hossein Jamshidiyan had stood on top of
the podium in the point race
contests, and collected the
gold medal.
The 2017 Japan Track Cup
I & II kicked off in Izu, Japan, on July 7 and finished on July 9.
The tournament brought together tens of male and female
cyclists from Australia, Hong Kong, the Islamic Republic of Iran,
Japan, Macau, Malaysia, the Netherlands, Russia and Thailand.
(Source: Press Tv)
Chelsea excuse Diego
Costa from start of
preseason training - source
Diego Costa has been excused from the start of Chelsea’s
preseason training, a source has confirmed to ESPN FC.
Chelsea players return to Cobham to begin their preparations for the new season on Monday, but Costa is not among
them as talks continue over a return to Atletico Madrid.
A source at Chelsea insisted that Costa’s absence is not
intended to cast doubt on
his professionalism but to
avoid the added attention
that would accompany his
presence. No timeframe has
been set for him to join up
with the rest of the squad.
Costa has made no secret of his desire to return to
the Spanish capital and an
agreement is expected to be
reached before the end of
the transfer window, despite
Atletico’s ban on registering
new players and the two
clubs remaining far apart in
their valuations of the 28-year-old.
The decision to excuse Costa spares Antonio Conte an
awkward reunion, after the Chelsea head coach informed the
striker that he was not wanted at Stamford Bridge by text
message earlier this summer.
Chelsea are actively pursuing a replacement for Costa in
the transfer market, but suffered a significant blow this week
when rivals Manchester United beat them to the £75 million
signing of top target Romelu Lukaku from Everton.
Real Madrid’s Alvaro Morata and Torino’s Andrea Belotti
both feature on Conte’s wish list, but Chelsea are not close
to either deal.M
Meanwhile, the source also confirmed that new signing
Antonio Rudiger has been granted an extended break after
representing Germany at the Confederations Cup.
(Source:Soccernet)
Chelsea move to sign
Alvaro Morata from
Real Madrid
Chelsea have made a move to sign Alvaro Morata from Real
Madrid, according to Sky in Italy.
The Blues are set to miss out on the signing of Romelu
Lukaku to Manchester United and have now turned their attentions to securing a deal for the Spain international.
Sky Sports News HQ understands Morata is keen on a
switch to the Premier League
having previously attracted
interest from United.
Real value Morata at
close to £70m, although
manager Zinedine Zidane
wants the former Juventus
forward to remain at the
Santiago Bernabeu.
Morata’s agent, Juanma
Lopez, and his father, Alfonso Morata, met with Real officials last Monday to discuss
the future of the 24-year-old.
Chelsea boss Antonio
Conte is keen to strengthen
his attacking options having told Diego Costa he is surplus to
requirements at the club.
The 28-year-old, who scored 20 goals last season as Chelsea
won the Premier League title, is yet to secure a move away from
Stamford Bridge ahead of the start of pre-season training.
Sky Sports News HQ understands Atletico Madrid are interested in re-signing Costa and are expected to make an
offer for him.
Atletico are currently under a transfer embargo and would
be unable to register Costa as their player until January.
(Source: Sky Sports)
Prayer Times Noon:13:10
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Adaptation of “Gruesome
Playground Injuries”
to go on stage at IAF
A
d
R
e
T TEHRAN — Iranian director Danial
k Khojasteh will stage “Accident Prone”,
s
an adaptation of “Gruesome Playground Injuries” by
American
playwright
Rajiv Joseph, at the
Iranian Artists Forum (IAF)
beginning on July 13.
The play that will
premiere on Thursday is
an examination of the 30year friendship between a
young man and a woman,
from childhood onward,
no more, no less.
Khojasteh and Aida
Sadeqi are the two actors
in the play, which will be
on stage until August 3
at the IAF Entezami Hall
A poster for the play “Accident Prone” located on Musavi St.,
by director Danial Khojasteh
Taleqani Ave.
R
e
A
d
Durrenmatt’s 1969 play “Play Strindberg” at Tehran’s
Sangelaj Theater on July 15
to commemorate the late
prominent Iranian stage
director and playwright,
Hamid Samandarian, who
translated the play into
Persian in 1972.
Sasanian,
Behzad
Khodaveisi and Elena Ahi
are the members of the cast
for the play.
“Play Strindberg” is a
free adaptation of August
Strindberg’s “The Dance of
Death”, using Strindberg’s
characters.
The comedy play is about a couple, Alice and Edgar,
who are disappointed by their careers, children and life,
until Alice’s cousin Kurt arrives after a 15-year absence.
NEWS IN BRIEF
National Orchestra
to perform in Sari
A
d
R
e
s
T TEHRAN — Iran’s National Orchestra is
k scheduled to give a concert in Sari, the
capital of Mazandaran Province, on July 27.
Vocalist Mohammad Esfahani will accompany the
orchestra during the concert, which will be conducted by
Fereidun Shahbazian.
Russia’s Bolshoi calls off
premiere of Nureyev ballet
MOSCOW (Reuters) — The Bolshoi Theatre has postponed the world
premiere of Nureyev, a ballet about famous Russian dancer, weeks after
its director Kirill Serebrennikov was questioned as a witness in a fraud
investigation.
The long awaited premiere of the ballet about Rudolf Nureyev, one
of the first Soviet artists to defect to the West, was due to be held on
July 11 but the Bolshoi said on its website late on Saturday it would not
take place.
The theater gave no reason for calling off the performance but said it
would hold a briefing about the postponement on Monday.
Serebrennikov said it was the theatre›s decision but declined to
comment on the reasons for the delay, according to the Vedomosti
business daily.
In May, Russian investigators searched the home and office of
Serebrennikov, the art director of the Gogol Centre theater, and
questioned him as a witness in a criminal investigation into alleged
embezzlement of state funds.
Serebrennikov was released, but two of his colleagues were arrested,
provoking an outcry from the artistic community, some of whom have
written to Putin to protest, according to Russian media reports.
R
e
Sunrise: 5:58 (tomorrow)
ART&CULTURE
JULY 11, 2017
T TEHRAN — Iranian
k director
Ebrahim
s
Hatamikia’s political drama “The
Bodyguard” won three awards at the
Vienna Independent Film Festival, the
organizers announced on Friday.
The films brought Hatamikia the
awards for best director and best art
direction and its star Babak Hamidian
received the award for best supporting
actor during the closing ceremony of
the event.
The film tells the story of a middleaged bodyguard who protects a
politician from a suicide bomber, and
then begins to question his dedication
to his job.
The grand prix of the event went
to “Million Loves in Me” directed by
Sampson Yuen from Hong Kong,
while “Platonov” by German director
Andreas Morell was named best film.
John Yiu was crowned best actor for
his role in “Million Loves in Me”, which
also won the award for best original
screenplay by Yiu, Tiong Wooi Lim and
Jeremy Tan.
“Forgiveness” by Lebanese director
Rima Irani won the best short film
award and “Chasing Stars” directed
by
Markus
Eichenberger
from
Switzerland and “The Writer with No
Hands” by British filmmaker William
Westaway shared the award for best
documentary film.
Villa Oushan in Tehran from the Behzad Atabaki Studio is competing in the Future Projects category at the World Architecture Festival in Berlin.
Symposium on Persian humor
underway at Université du Québec
Iranian cities to host
Armenian Film Week
A
d
A
d
R
T TEHRAN —
k Université
The
du
Québec in Canada is playing host
to the First Symposium of Persian
Humor.
A number of Persian satirists from
around the world are attending
the symposium that opened on
yesterday.
Member of the Faculty of
Oriental Studies of the University
of Oxford Hoamyun Katuzian, and
former professor at the University
of Cambridge and the University of
California at Berkeley Hasan Javadi will
deliver speeches at the symposium,
satirist Mahmud Farjami said in a press
release published on Monday.
The director of the Center for
the Study of Sadi, Kurosh Kamali
T TEHRAN — Kurosh Sasanian will direct
k a reading of Swiss writer Friedrich
s
Dawn: 4:14 tomorrow)
“The Bodyguard” secures three
awards at Vienna film festival
“Play Strindberg”
to commemorate
Hamid Samandarian
A
d
Evening: 20:43
e
s
Sarvestani, as well as researcher Roya
Sadr are also among the scholars
participating in the event that will be
running until July 14.
Articles are being presented both
in Persian and English.
R
T TEHRAN
k
—
A
lineup of movies
by filmmakers from the Republic of
Armenia will be screened during the
Armenian Film Week in Iran.
The film week is scheduled to be
held at the Iranian Artists Forum
in Tehran, the Hoveizeh Cinema
Complex in Mashhad and the
Golestan Cinema Complex in Shiraz
from July 23 to 29, the organizers
announced in a press release on
Monday.
Two Armenian filmmakers who
were not named in the press release
will also attend the program.
The event has been organized
in collaboration with Iran’s Art and
Experience Cinema and the Embassy
of Armenia in Tehran.
e
s
Tehran center hangs rare photos of Al-Baqi
A
d
R
e
s
T TEHRAN — The Iranian Photographers
k Center is hanging a selection of rare
photos and documents on the destruction of Al-Baqi, the
first cemetery of Muslims in Medina where several Imams
and relatives of the Prophet Muhammad (S) are buried.
The exhibit named “Jannat-ul-Baqi” (The Garden of
Baqi) features photos by several unknown photographers
in addition to a collection of rare photos selected from
the archives of several foreign photographers, the
director of the center, Ehsan Baqeri, said in a press
release on Monday.
“Works by veteran photographers Kamaleddin
Shahrokhi and Manuchehr Yeganeh highlighting the Hajj
rituals have also been put on display,” Baqeri said.
He also added that eight documents out of 3,000
historical documents selected over the last 10 years are
A woman visits the Jannat-ul-Baqi photo exhibit at the Iranian
Photographers Center in Tehran on July 9, 2017. (Tasnim/Nasser Jafari)
Peter Scarlet named Mar
del Plata artistic director
LOS ANGELES (Screen Daily0 —
Argentina’s film body INCAA said at
the weekend Peter Scarlet had been
appointed artistic director of the
upcoming 32nd Mar del Plata festival.
Festival president José Martínez
Suárez announced the development at
the weekend with INCAA president Ralph
Haiek, festival producer Rosa Martínez
Rivero, and the International Federation
of Film Producers Associations president
Luis Scalella and other Mar del Plata
executives in attendance.
Haiek said the goal was to maintain
Mar del Plata’s A Class classification
and “acquire more presence in the
international festival agenda.”
Suárez, who this year will complete
10 years as president of the festival,
said that “by the 32nd edition we have
a very ambitious plan, which will turn
into a remarkable one… We know what
priorities to achieve and we will keep
them up thanks to the team continuity
and the new members.”
Scarlet, a veteran festival executive,
added that “this represents an enormous
endeavor, which aims to build in addition
to what has already been achieved. I am
very pleased to work with a group of
people who share my expectations to
make this a great festival. To be part of a
team which invites a person who is not
from this country, speaks of a very open
mindset and a search for international
projection.”
Scarlet previously served as director
A poster for Mar del Plata festival
of San Francisco International Film
Festival, director of the French Film
Library, artistic director of the Tribeca
Film Festival, and executive director of
the Abu Dhabi Film Festival, among
others.
“I am thrilled to be part of this new
edition,” said Rivero, “and [I] remind the
audience that the call for participants for
the 32nd edition main competences is
open until July 31st.”
This year’s Mar del Plata will take
place from November 17-26 and will
include the International Feature Film
Competition, the Latin American Feature
Film and Short Film Competition, the
Argentinean American Feature Film and
Short Film Competition, and Work In
Progress for local features.
also being exhibited.
This is the third exhibit of its kind organized to remind
the younger generation of the sad day when Jannat-ulBaqi was razed and to introduce those responsible behind
this heart-breaking incident.
The cemetery was first built by Muslims commissioned
by the Prophet Muhammad (S) and it was demolished by
King Ibn Saud on the 8th of the Islamic month of Shawwal
in the year 1345 AH (April 21, 1925). This year, 8 Shawwal
coincided with July 3.
Imam Hassan (AS), Imam Sajjad (AS), Imam
Muhammad Baqir (AS) and Imam Jafar Sadiq (AS), the
second, fourth, fifth and sixth Imams of the Shia are buried
in the cemetery.
The exhibit which opened on July 9 will be running until
July 17 at the center located on Musavi St., off Hafez Ave.
“True Blood” actor
Nelsan Ellis dead at 39
NEW YORK (AP) — Actor Nelsan Ellis,
best known for his memorable portrayal
of Lafayette Reynolds on HBO’s “True
Blood,” has died at the age of 39.
Ellis’ manager, Emily Gerson Saines,
confirmed the actor’s death in an email
Saturday. The Hollywood Reporter,
which was first to report Ellis’ death,
quoted her as saying the actor died
from complications of heart failure.
The Illinois-born actor, who studied
at Juilliard, played the role of Lafayette
on the HBO drama from 2008 to 2014,
and more recently appeared in the CBS
detective series “Elementary.” He also
was a playwright and a stage director.
Ellis appeared as Martin Luther King,
Jr. in Lee Daniels’ “The Butler,” and as
singer Bobby Byrd in the James Brown
biopic “Get On Up.”
He also appeared in “The Help,”
and his castmate Octavia Spencer
mourned his death on Instagram. “My
heart breaks for his kids and family,” the
actress wrote.
On Twitter, some fans posted one of
his more famous scenes as Lafayette,
where the character marches out of
the kitchen to confront some bigoted
In this June 21, 2011 file photo, Nelsan Ellis
arrives at the premiere for the fourth season
of HBO’s “True Blood” in Los Angeles.
(AP Photo/Matt Sayles, File)
diners.
HBO released a statement saying the
network was “extremely saddened” by
Ellis’ death.
“Nelsan was a long-time member of
the HBO family whose groundbreaking
portrayal of Lafayette will be
remembered fondly within the overall
legacy of ‘True Blood,’” the statement
read. “Nelsan will be dearly missed by
his fans and all of us at HBO.”
“True Blood” creator Alan Ball called
Ellis “a singular talent whose creativity
never ceased to amaze me. Working
with him was a privilege.”