DT e-Paper 29 March 2017

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DT 8 World WEDNESDAY, MARCH 29, 2017 SOUTH ASIA US asks Maldives to restore democracy The US on Tuesday asked the Maldives to restore faith in democracy after the government deployed troops to parliament to forcibly remove opposition politicians, sparking chaotic scenes. US expressed concern about “irregularities” that impeded a free and fair vote in parliament, after plain-clothes soldiers evicted MPs as they attempted to impeach the speaker. AFP INDIA Four killed in clashes in Kashmir Three civilians and one rebel were killed and at least 28 people were injured Tuesday in clashes between protesters and troops and police in Kashmir, police said. The clashes started when soldiers cordoned off a house in a village in central Kashmir’s Chadoora area in which at least one armed militant, who was killed later in the day, was hiding. AFP CHINA China calls on France to protect its citizens after killing China Tuesday urged France to protect the safety and rights of its citizens after police in Paris killed a Chinese national, sparking a violent protest. French police arrested 35 people after a demonstration late Monday by the capital’s Asian community over the killing turned violent. AFP ASIA PACIFIC Cambodia bans human breast milk exports to US Cambodia officially banned selling and exporting locally-pumped human breast milk Tuesday, after reports exposed how women were turning to the controversial trade to boost meagre incomes. The order comes after Cambodia temporarily halted breast milk exports by Utah-based Ambrosia Labs, which claims to be the first firm to source the product from overseas and distribute it in the US. AFP MIDDLE EAST UN: Iraq, US must avoid civilian deaths in Mosul The UN human rights chief urged the Iraqi government and US-led coalition on Tuesday to review tactics in Mosul to spare civilians he said were being deliberately put at risk by IS. At least 307 civilians have been killed and 273 wounded in western Mosul between February 17 and March 22 as IS fighters herd people into booby-trapped buildings as human shields. REUTERS Worst humanitarian crisis hits as Trump slashes foreign aid • Tribune Desk The world’s largest humanitarian crisis in 70 years has been declared in three African countries on the brink of famine, just as President Donald Trump’s proposed foreign aid cuts threaten to pull the US from its historic role as the world’s top emergency donor. If the deep cuts are approved by Congress and the US does not contribute to Africa’s current crisis, experts warn that the continent’s growing drought and famine could have far-ranging effects, including a new wave of migrants heading to Europe and possibly more support for Islamic extremist groups. The conflict-fuelled hunger crises in Nigeria, Somalia and South Sudan have culminated in a trio of potential famines hitting almost simultaneously. Nearly 16m people in the three countries are at risk of dying within months. Famine already has been declared in two counties of South Sudan and 1m people there are on the brink of dying from a lack of food, UN officials have said. Somalia has Nato-Russia talks on eve of Tillerson visit • AFP, Brussels Nato ambassadors will meet the Russian envoy on Thursday in a new bid to ease tensions on the eve of the alliance’s first talks with US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson. The ambassadors will discuss the crisis in Ukraine as well as Afghanistan’s security, and terrorism in the region, a Nato official said. “Following consultations with the members of the Nato-Russia Council (NRC), I have invited them to a meeting at ambassadorial level,” Nato chief Jens Stoltenberg said in a statement. The NRC had met regularly until the Ukraine crisis plunged relations with Moscow into the deep freeze in 2014, though this will be the fourth meeting since the forum resumed nearly a year ago. Nato was alarmed when Moscow annexed Crimea from Ukraine in March 2014 and has accused Russia since of fuelling a rebellion in eastern Ukraine against the government in Kiev. US-led Nato has suspended all practical cooperation with Russia over its role in Ukraine but Stoltenberg has said political channels of communication have always remained open. Russia’s ambassador to Nato Alexander Grushko and alliance counterparts will also discuss “military activities, reciprocal transparency and risk reduction in order to improve stability and security in the Euro-Atlantic area,” the Nato official said on condition of anonymity. • Powerful cyclone slams into Australia’s tropical northeast • Tribune Desk A powerful cyclone packing winds of up to 260-kmph roared across Australia’s tropical northeast on Tuesday, uprooting trees, tearing down fences and knocking out power to thousands, officials said. Cyclone Debbie, which slammed into the coast of Queensland state as a fierce Category 4 storm, quickly began to weaken after making landfall near the resort town of Airlie Beach, the Australian Bureau of Meteorology said. By Tuesday night, it had been downgraded to a Category 2 storm, with wind gusting up to 155-kmph. One man was injured after a wall collapsed in Proserpine, a town south of Airlie Beach, Queensland A baby suffering from severe acute malnutrition is weighed at Al Sabbah Children’s Hospital in Juba, South Sudan on March 14 AP Strong wind and rain from Cyclone Debbie is seen effecting trees at Airlie Beach, located Australian city of Townsville on March 28 AP Police Commissioner said. The extent of the damage from the storm was not known as night fell across the region, but there were reports of roofs peeling from homes, fences crumbling and trees snapping in half. The idyllic Whitsunday Islands, a popular tourist destination, were hit particularly hard, with one recorded wind gust of 263-kmph, the meteorology bureau reported. • declared a state of emergency over drought and 2.9m of its people face a food crisis that could become a famine, according to the UN and in northeastern Nigeria, severe malnutrition is widespread in areas affected by violence from Boko Haram extremists. At least $4.4bn is needed by the end of March to avert a hunger “catastrophe” in Nigeria, Somalia, South Sudan, and Yemen, UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said in late February. But according to UN data, only 10% of the necessary funds have been received so far. If Trump’s foreign aid cuts are approved, the humanitarian funding burden for the crises would shift to other large donors like Britain. But the US’s influential role in rallying global support will slip. • Trump to sign order sweeping away Obama-era climate policies • Reuters, Washington, DC US President Donald Trump will sign an executive order on Tuesday to undo a slew of Obama-era climate change regulations that his administration says is hobbling oil drillers and coal miners, a move environmental groups have vowed to take to court. The decree’s main target is former President Barack Obama’s Clean Power Plan, requiring states to slash carbon emissions from power plants, a critical element in helping the US meet its commitments to a global climate change accord reached by nearly 200 countries in Paris in 2015. The so-called “Energy Independence” order will also reverse a ban on coal leasing on federal lands, undo rules to curb methane emissions from oil and gas production, and reduce the weight of climate change and carbon emissions in policy and infrastructure permitting decisions. The wide-ranging order is the boldest yet in Trump’s broader push to cut environmental regulation to revive the drilling and mining industries, a promise he made repeatedly during the presidential campaign. But energy analysts and executives have questioned whether the moves will have a big effect on their industries, and environmentalists have called them reckless. •
World Brexit explained: What’s next on the UK’s road out of the EU • Tribune Desk The British government announced Monday that it will formally begin its exit from the EU on March 29. Prime Minister Theresa May will invoke Article 50 of the key EU treaty, the official start of the two-year divorce process. Then comes the hard part- the arguments, the lawyers, the squabbles over money. Here’s a look at the main issues and what happens next: What is the EU and why is UK leaving? The EU is a bloc of 28 nations sharing relatively open borders, a single market in goods and services and, for 19 nations, a single currency, the euro. Former Prime Minister David Cameron offered voters a referendum on EU membership, and in June they voted by 52-48% to leave. How does UK file for divorce? The UK government will invoke Article 50 of the EU’s Lisbon Treaty, which says a member state may “notify the European Council of its intention” to leave the bloc. Who conducts the negotiations? On the UK side, David Davis will take the lead, reporting to May. UK’s ambassador to the EU, Tim Barrow, will also play a major role. French diplomat Michel Barnier is the chief negotiator for the European Commission, the bloc’s executive arm. He’ll receive direction from the Council, which represents the leaders of the member states. What is the most pressing issue? UK’s vote to leave the EU has meant uncertainty for 3m EU citizens living in the UK, and 1m Britons who reside in the EU nations. Both sides agree that giving such citizens a guarantee that they will be able to stay where they are is a top priority. What will be the main conflicts? The first major battle is likely to be about Scottish MPs to hold referendum on eve of Brexit • AFP, Edinburgh Scotland’s parliament is poised to call for an independence referendum Tuesday, another headache for Prime Minister Theresa May as she battles to keep the country united just a day before triggering Brexit. Lawmakers in Edinburgh are expected to vote in favour of Scottish leader Nicola Sturgeon’s plan for an independence referendum despite the May’s last-minute appeals. Sturgeon will then make a formal request for a referendum but she needs approval from the British government and parliament to do so and May has already said that money. The EU says Britain must pay a hefty divorce bill of up to $64bn, to cover EU staff pensions and other expenses the UK has committed to. There’s also likely to be friction over UK’s desire to maintain free trade in goods and services with the bloc, without accepting the EU’s core principle of free movement of workers. UK has said it will impose limits on immigration, and so will have to leave the EU’s single market and customs union. That makes some barriers to trade seem inevitable. When will it be over? Under the terms of Article 50, UK will cease to be an EU member in March 2019. But EU negotiators warn it could take two years just to settle the divorce terms; agreeing on a new relationship for the UK and the EU could take years longer. If the rest of the EU agrees, the two-year negotiating period can be extended, leaving Britain in the EU for a while longer. • China holds military drills near restive Myanmar border • AFP, Beijing China’s army held drills near its border with Myanmar on Tuesday, state media reported, in a show of strength from Beijing following weeks of clashes between ethnic rebels and Myanmar’s military. Tens of thousands of people have fled to China in recent months to escape the battles in Myanmar’s restive borderlands. China’s infantry, artillery and air force took part in Tuesday’s exercise, the official Xinhua news agency said, adding the drills were part of annual training. “The Chinese People’s Liberation Army (PLA) forces on Tuesday “now is not the time”. May will on Wednesday begin the process of ending Britain’s 44-year membership of the EU by invoking Article 50 of the EU’s Lisbon Treaty, opening two years of negotiations. Last year’s Brexit vote has spurred the independence campaign of Sturgeon, head of the ruling party, who argues that Scotland is being forced out of the European bloc against its will. Both Scotland and N Ireland voted to remain in the EU, but they were outnumbered by voters in England and Wales who backed Brexit. Most recent polls show support for independence is high but still short of a majority. • Turkey sends team to UK over flight ban • AFP, Ankara Turkey sent a team of experts to Britain Tuesday to try to persuade London to lift a ban on passengers carrying large electronic devices on flights from Istanbul, the Turkish transport minister said. Britain issued a ban last week on laptops and tablet computers in the passenger compartment of flights from five countries from the Middle East and northern Africa as well as Turkey. Ahmet Arslan said Turk he “felt” Britain would shortly lift the ban “because our meetings suggest this” but said talks with the US This photo is taken on January 21, 2017 shows a Burmese refugee family in front of their temporary shelter near Lung Byeng village, Kachin state AFP Demonstrators hold placards during a protest in favour of amendments to the Brexit Bill outside the Houses of Parliament, in London, March 13 REUTERS staged an air-ground, live-fire drill in south China, close to the border with Myanmar,” Xinhua said. It quoted Colonel Fang Xin as saying the drill “demonstrated the PLA’s resolve and will in safeguarding national security” and “protecting people’s safety and their property”. would likely be “longer-running.” The British move came after Washington banned electronic devices larger than mobile phones on direct flights to the US from 10 airports in seven Middle Eastern countries and Turkey, allowing them only in hold luggage. The UK ban affects 14 airlines including British Airways, EasyJet and flag carrier Turkish Airlines, whose profits have already been hit by a slew of terror attacks in 2016. In a bid to make passengers “more comfortable” after the bans, the airline said passengers could use their laptops until they board. • Beijing held similar exercises in 2015 when several of its nationals were killed by stray rockets fired by Myanmar’s army during a surge in violence in the Kokang border region in northeastern Shan state. This month Chinese authorities said a citizen was injured by a projectile that strayed across the border. Observers believe Beijing holds significant sway over Myanmar’s ethnic fighters and has been angling to increase its key role in the government’s peace process. China has called for an immediate ceasefire and officials have reportedly been holding talks with rebel groups in a bid to calm the fighting. • 9 WEDNESDAY, MARCH 29, 2017 DT USA Ryan has full confidence in House Intelligence election probe US House of Representatives Speaker Paul Ryan has “full confidence” in the investigation of possible Russian influence on the 2016 US election campaign being led by House Intelligence Committee Chairman, Ryan’s spokeswoman said in a statement. REUTERS THE AMERICAS Colombia’s ELN rebels accused of ‘massacring’ 5 Colombian prosecutors accused the ELN rebels Monday of “massacring” five people in an attack aimed at taking control of the narcotics trade in a remote, impoverished region. Prosecutor said seven guerrillas wearing camouflage and ELN arm bands attacked the northeastern town of Litoral de San Juan on Saturday, killing five people and forcing 52 from their homes. AFP UK UK raises prospect of direct rule for Northern Ireland Britain will consider all options for Northern Ireland including direct rule from London if politicians there fail to form a regional government in the next three weeks, the minister for the province said on Tuesday. Northern Ireland politics has been in crisis since Irish nationalist party Sinn Fein pulled out of government in January, sparking a March 2 election that ended the majority pro-British unionists had enjoyed in the province for almost a century. REUTERS EUROPE Nato, Russia ambassadors to meet to resolve differences Ambassadors from Nato and Russia will meet this week for the first time this year in a fresh attempt to resolve some of their differences. Nato Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg said in a statement Tuesday that a Nato-Russia Council, their main forum for dialogue, would be held at the military alliance’s Brussels headquarters on Thursday. AP AFRICA Congo tense as Catholic bishops withdraw from talks Isolated unrest broke out in Congo’s capital on Tuesday after Catholic bishops withdrew from their role as mediators between the government and opposition in talks aimed at paving the way for delayed elections this year. Demonstrators, some burning tyres at city crossroads, took to the streets in several areas in Kinshasa. In one instance, police fired tear gas to disperse a small group of youths. REUTERS
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DT e-Paper 29 March 2017

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