NEWS
TUESDAY, AUGUST 25, 2015
View of the Cotopaxi volcano spewing ashes from Sangolqui, Ecuador on Sunday. A dozen towns of central Ecuador, including the Quito sector, suffered Saturday from the ashes of the Cotopaxi
volcano, which started erupting a week ago after 138 years, affecting crops and cattle. — AFP
France honors train ‘heroes’ for courage
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“I think that one way or another, we are going to be facing this kind of problem quite a few times in the future,
and I would invite you all to think about ‘what would I do
in that situation’. Act if the opportunity presents itself.
Obviously you don’t want to throw yourself in a situation
that is completely hopeless, but act if you can.”
France has been on high alert since extremist attacks in
Paris in January left 17 people dead. Intelligence services
in Belgium, France, Germany and Spain had previously
flagged Khazzani as an Islamic extremist. But he is said to
have told investigators he is “dumbfounded” by accusations he was intending to carry out a terror attack. He said
he had stumbled upon a weapons stash in a park in
Belgium where he sometimes slept rough and decided to
use it to rob passengers, according to Sophie David, a
lawyer who was temporarily assigned to his case.
Khazzani’s father described his son as a “good boy” who
preferred “football and fishing” to politics. “I have no idea
what he was thinking and I have not spoken to him for
over a year,” Mohamed El Khazzani told British newspaper
The Telegraph in the Spanish port city of Algeciras on
Sunday.
But Sadler, 23, dismissed suggestions that Khazzani was
not trying to kill anyone. “It doesn’t take eight magazines
(of bullets) to rob a train,” he told reporters on Sunday.
National Guardsman Skarlatos added that if Khazzani had
known how to handle guns, he could have killed many
people. “He would have been able to operate through all
eight of the magazines and we probably wouldn’t be here
today along with a lot of other people,” the 22-year-old said.
A Spanish counter-terrorism source said Khazzani had
lived in Spain for seven years until 2014. He came to the
attention of Spanish authorities for making hardline
speeches defending jihad and attending a radical mosque
in Algeciras. It is unclear where he was living after he left
Spain. His father said he went to France for a six-month
work contract but was let go after just one month, and
Spanish intelligence services say he went to Syria from
France - a claim Khazzani denies.
French sources say he did not show up on their radar
until May this year, when German authorities warned he
had boarded a plane bound for Turkey. Khazzani boarded
the Amsterdam-Paris train in Brussels, where it is believed
he was living. Stone - whose hand and eye were injured in
his wrestle with the gunman and who wore a sling at yesterday’s ceremony - and Skarlatos are due to go to a US
military base in Germany for health checks. Sadler is to fly
back to the United States. — AFP
Oil falls below $40 on China and oversupply
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Analysts interviewed by Kuwait News Agency (KUNA)
agreed that predicting prices over the coming period is
not an easy task. Predictions over the past months were
vain. Still, prices are more likely to go further down. A just
price for a barrel must be $70-75, they said, yet they
warned that it could fall as low as $20.
The nuclear deal concluded on 14 July between Iran
and the world powers has been a reason for the decline of
prices, head of Al-Ofuq (horizon) Administrative
Consultancy Dr Khaled Boodai said. The deal has had such
psychological effects, as more production is expected to
flow into the markets from Iran, he explained. Iran is
expected to increase production from a million barrel per
day (bpd) to 1.5 million bpd, but this will take time, he said.
The markets have been suffering oversupply of about two
million bpd, now rising to three millions as a result of the
world’s sagging economy. The falls of the Chinese and the
European stocks have also taken their toll on the oil markets.
Boodai urged the Organization of the Petroleum
Exporting Countries (OPEC) to counter the unprecedented
decline in prices, otherwise more deterioration is likely to
take place. Prices have fallen by about 30 percent over the
past two months, prompting an extraordinary meeting for
the OPEC. “If not now, then when?” Boodai wondered.
As for shale oil, he said that in best cases it is expected
to form only 10 percent of the world’s production in 20
years’ time. The output of shale oil is now four million bpd,
and is likely to hit 10 million bpd in 2013, he said. Boodai
predicted more deterioration in prices over the coming
period.
Analyst Mohammed Al-Shatti meanwhile referred to
expectations that emerged recently over a decrease in the
US production during the rest of the year, which is likely to
help withdraw surplus from the markets and give positively affect prices. However, weak prices are expected by
many to carry on with their downturn trend for years to
come, as far as 2020, he said. Some say they could even fall
to $20 or $10, Shatti said.
Shatti touched on the lack of signs on a voluntary
decrease of prices or international cooperation to restore
balance to the markets. For him, the impact of an increase
in Iran’s oil output could only be felt by April 2016 or even
months later. — Agencies
Rare mass ‘terror’ trial opens in UAE
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They are also accused of setting up cells to train members in handling weapons and explosives in preparation for
attacks in the UAE. Authorities reported their arrest on Aug
2 and prosecutors immediately levelled the accusations
against them and said they would face trial. Such mass trials
on terrorism charges are rare in the UAE which has largely
been spared the Islamic militancy that has hit other Arab
states. The UAE is part of a US-led coalition that has been
carrying out air strikes against IS in Syria since September
last year. The wealthy Gulf state has upped security measures in the aftermath of the 2011 Arab Spring uprisings.
In July, it adopted tougher anti-terror legislation and
introduced the death penalty for crimes linked to religious
hatred and “takfiri groups”. These measures were taken a
week after an Emirati woman convicted of the jihadistinspired murder of a US schoolteacher was put to death by
firing squad in a rare execution approved by President
Sheikh Khalifa bin Zayed Al-Nahyan. — AFP
IS blows up famed temple in Palmyra
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Before the arrival of Christianity in the second century,
Palmyra worshipped the Semitic god Bel, whose temple at
Palmyra is considered the city’s most significant, along with
the sun god Yarhibol and lunar god Aglibol.
Prior to the outbreak of the Syrian conflict in March
2011, more than 150,000 tourists visited Palmyra every
year. IS mined the ancient site in June before destroying
the Lion Statue of Athena outside the Palmyra museum.
Most of the pieces in the museum were evacuated by
antiquities staff before IS arrived, though the group has
blown up several historic Muslim graves. IS’ harsh version
of Islam considers statues and grave markers to be idolatrous and the group has destroyed antiquities and heritage sites in territory under its control in Syria and Iraq.
IS has also executed hundreds of people in the city and
surrounding area, many of them government employees,
and infamously used children to shoot dead 25 Syrian government soldiers in Palmyra’s ancient amphitheatre.
Among those it has killed was Khaled Al-Assaad, Palmyra’s
antiquities chief for 50 years, who was beheaded last week
after refusing to leave the city following the IS takeover.
In neighbouring Iraq, the jihadist group has razed some
relics of ancient Mesopotamia and looted others to sell on
the black market. Syria’s war, which began with anti-regime
protests, has spiralled into a multi-front conflict that has
killed more than 240,000 people. On Sunday, at least 31
people including eight children were killed in government
air strikes on rebel-held Eastern Ghouta outside Damascus,
the Observatory said. Rebels have fired barrages of rockets
into Damascus from the region in recent days, with Syrian
state media saying 13 had been injured by missile fire yesterday. — AFP
PALMYRA, Syria: A file picture taken on March 14, 2014 shows the courtyard of the sanctuary of Baal Shamin
in this ancient oasis city. —AFP