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Pakistan begins Kinnow export
ISLAMABAD: Pakistan has officially kicked off its Kinnow export two months ahead; the government has set an export target of 400,000 tonnes for 2015-16 which is 100,000 tonnes higher than the export target for the previous season.
However, growers and exporters warn this year that Kinnow production is sub-par and that there is a very likely possibility that the target will be missed by a long shot.
Former FPCCI Chairman Standing Committee Ahmad Jawad said the low export quality yield in the ongoing season would keep Pakistan away from the opportunity to fill the gap created by the Russian ban on the import of Turkish oranges after the recent events in the Middle East.
He said if government doesn’t use preventive measures then Kinnow export will be squeezed further in next two to three years.
UN fears for hundreds of thousands if Syria troops encircle Aleppo -
GENEVA: Hundreds of thousands of civilians could be cut off from food supplies if Syrian government forces encircle rebel-held parts of Aleppo, the United Nations said on Tuesday, warning of a massive new flight of refugees.
Syrian government forces, backed by Russian air strikes and Iranian and Lebanese Hezbollah fighters, have launched a major offensive in the countryside around Aleppo, which has been divided between government and rebel control for years.
The assault to surround Aleppo, once Syria´s biggest city with 2 million people, amounts to one of the most important shifts of momentum in the five year civil war that has killed 250,000 people and already driven 11 million from their homes.
The United Nations is worried the government advance could cut off the last link for civilians in rebel-held parts of Aleppo with the main Turkish border crossing, which has long served as the lifeline for insurgent-controlled territory.
"It would leave up to 300,000 people, still residing in the city, cut off from humanitarian aid unless cross-line access could be negotiated," the United Nations Office for Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs said in an urgent bulletin.
If government advances around the city continue, it said, "local councils in the city estimate that some 100,000 - 150,000 civilians may flee".
Turkey, already home to 2.5 million Syrians, the world´s biggest refugee population, has so far kept its frontier closed to the latest wave of displaced, making it more difficult to reach them with urgently needed aid.
The United Nations urged Ankara on Tuesday to open the border and has called on other countries to assist Turkey with aid.
Turkish Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu said some 70,000 Syrian refugees could reach the Turkish border if the military campaign continues unabated, and Turkey would not shut its gates to them.
The UN World Food Programme said in a statement it had begun food distribution in the Syrian town of Azaz near the Turkish border for the new wave of displaced people.
"The situation is quite volatile and fluid in northern Aleppo with families on the move seeking safety," said Jakob Kern, WFP´s country director in Syria.
"We are extremely concerned as access and supply routes from the north to eastern Aleppo city and surrounding areas are now cut off, but we are making every effort to get enough food in place for all those in need, bringing it in through the remaining open border crossing point from Turkey.
"The Russian-backed government assault around Aleppo, as well as advances further south, helped torpedo the first peace talks for nearly two years, which collapsed last week before they got under way in earnest.
Moscow turned the momentum in the war in favour of its ally President Bashar al-Assad when it joined the conflict four months ago with a campaign of air strikes against his enemies, many of whom are supported by Arab states, Turkey and the West.
German chancellor Angela Merkel accused Russia this week of bombing civilians, against a UN Security Council resolution Moscow signed up to in December.
Russia says it is targeting only Islamist militants.
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said there was no credible evidence of civilian deaths.
The complex multi-sided civil war has drawn in outside powers, with the United States leading a separate campaign of air strikes against Islamic State militants who control eastern Syria and northern Iraq.
A suicide bomber drove his car into a police officers´ club in a residential quarter in central Damascus, blowing himself up and killing several people, a Syrian interior ministry statement said.
JAC ends strike, resumes PIA flight operations from today-
KARACHI: The Joint Action Committee (JAC) of Pakistan International Airline (PIA) on Tuesday announced to put an end to more than two-week long strike with immediate effect.
Announcing the end to the strike at a press conference here, Chairman JAC, Sohail Baloch, said he has issued directives to the concerned authorities to resume PIA's flight operations from today.
He said the JAC cannot remain negligent to the safety of the planes while the government has also expressed its concerns regarding the hardships being faced by the passengers. "Safety of the planes and passengers is our foremost priority," he added.
Without taking any name, he said, all the issues were resolved due to the intervention of a ‘kind friend’.
Sohail Baloch said he along with his team is leaving here today for Lahore where he is scheduled to meet government representatives including Punjab Chief Minister Shahbaz Sharif.
He said the strike continued for 16 days during which two of their fellow employees embraced martyrdom. “We pay tribute to the martyrs,” he said, adding, it will be made sure that their sacrifice does not go to waste.
The JAC Chairman hoped the interaction with the government representatives will result in progress on matters highlighted during the strike.
The prolonged strike by the JAC saw closure of PIA booking offices and suspension of flight operations, causing hardships to the passengers in general and the Umrah pilgrims in particular.
Army Chief pays rich tribute to resilience of people of KP, FATA -
: The Chief of Army Staff, General Raheel Sharif has paid rich tribute to the resilience of people of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and FATA, who stood up to terrorist atrocities and pushed and marginalised the militants.
The Army Chief was chairing a meeting of Apex Committee at Corps Headquarters Peshawar here Tuesday.
In a twitter message, DG ISPR Lt-Gen Asim Bajwa said the COAS vowed to ensure timely and dignified Temporarily displaced persons (TDPs) return to resettle them in their homes. He also reiterated his commitment with tribal brethren to rebuild the area, revive entire socio-eco infrastructure.
Pakistan: Victim or exporter of terrorism?
Pakistan: Victim or exporter of terrorism?
General Asad Durrani, the former head of the ISI, Pakistan's notorious spy agency, on its role in the "War on Terror".
"They deluded themselves in believing that they were allies. Actually, they were not," says former Director-General of the Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) Lt. General Asad Durrani, commenting on Pakistan's rocky relationship with the United States since they allied in the "War on Terror".
The least that I expect from an audience like this…is to give the Taliban and their supporters in Pakistan a big applause
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In this episode of Head to Head, Mehdi Hasan challenges General Durrani on whether Pakistan is fighting or fuelling international terrorism.
We explore the nation's role as a US ally in the "War on Terror", and investigate claims that it has been backing the Afghan Taliban, whilst its offshoot, the Pakistani Taliban, wages a brutal insurgency at home.
Is Pakistan a rogue state? Or is it stuck between a rock and a hard place? And what role should the military play in a democratic Pakistan?
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US struggling to build anti-Islamic State strategy in Libya
The Obama administration is struggling to find the right mix of military and diplomatic moves to stop the Islamic State in Libya, where the extremist group has taken advantage of the political chaos in the country to gain a foothold with worrying implications for the U.S. and Europe — particularly Italy, just 300 miles away.
U.S. officials have publicly warned of the risks of Libya becoming the next Syria, where the Islamic State flourished amid civil war and spread into Iraq.
No large-scale U.S. military action is contemplated in Libya, senior administration officials said, but Obama last week directed his national security team to bolster counterterrorism efforts there while also pursuing diplomatic possibilities for solving Libya's political crisis and forming a government of national unity. While the Islamic State has emerged in other places, including Afghanistan, Libya is seen as its key focus outside of Syria and Iraq.
"We've been mindful of this risk for more than a year and a half now," White House spokesman Josh Earnest said. "We're going to continue to watch how the threat in Libya evolves, and we're going to continue to be prepared to take action."
Other administration officials, speaking on condition of anonymity to discuss internal deliberations, said military options under consideration include raids and advisory missions by U.S. special operations forces and narrowly targeted airstrikes like the November hit on a command center near the port city of Darnah that killed Abu Nabil, a longtime al-Qaida operative believed by U.S. officials to have been the senior Islamic State leader in Libya.
Since 2014, Libya has been split between two rival authorities, each backed by different militias and tribes. At a conference earlier this week in Rome, U.S., European and Arab officials resolved to "stand ready" to support Libya once it establishes a long-awaited government of national unity. Italy has said it will take the international lead in providing security support to a Libyan government, with the U.S. and others chipping in.
For Obama, the growth of the Islamic State in Libya is the result, in part, of his decision in 2011 to join a European-led air campaign to topple dictator Moammar Gadhafi. By contemplating a return to some form of military action in Libya, the administration is acknowledging how little progress has been made in restoring security in a country with major oil resources.
"The last thing in the world you want," Secretary of State John Kerry said Tuesday, "is a false caliphate with access to billions of dollars of oil revenue."
That could haunt Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton, who advocated for the intervention as secretary of state. Clinton has argued it was necessary to prevent mass civilian atrocities, but Republicans have argued the downward spiral that followed only fueled further insecurity.
The U.S. military is closely monitoring Islamic State movements in Libya, and small teams of U.S. military personnel have moved in and out of the country over a period of months. British, French and Italian special forces also have been in Libya helping with aerial surveillance, mapping and intelligence gathering in several cities, including Benghazi in the east and Zintan in the west, according to two Libyan military officials who are coordinating with them. The Libyan officials spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak to the press.
The U.S. officials predicted it would be weeks or longer before U.S. special forces would be sent, citing the need for more consultations with European allies. Additional intelligence would help refine targets for any sort of military strikes, but surveillance drones are in high demand elsewhere, including in Syria, Iraq and Afghanistan.
Adding to the concern in Washington and Europe is evidence that the number of Islamic State fighters in Libya is increasing — now believed to be up from about 2,000 to 5,000 — even as the group's numbers in Syria and Iraq are shrinking under more unrelenting U.S. and coalition airstrikes.
Last month, Gen. Joseph Dunford, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said the U.S. was "looking to take decisive military action against ISIL (in Libya) in conjunction with a legitimate political process." The long-term answer, he said, is to help Libya build and defend its own security.
The U.S. instead is focused on enlisting individual countries — primarily in Europe — to join the U.S. in taking action in Libya. Although the United Nations has been brokering a plan to bring about a unity government in Libya, the U.S. is looking beyond the U.N. for the right partner for the anti-IS effort, officials said, noting the Europeans' experience in policing and capacity-building in Iraq.
Defense Secretary Ash Carter is convening a meeting of more than two dozen defense ministers in Brussels next week to discuss the way ahead in fighting IS globally.
Last week he warned that IS fighters are trying to "consolidate their own footprint" in Libya by setting up training sites and drawing in foreign recruits. IS must not be allowed to "sink roots" in Libya, he said, adding that no unilateral U.S. military campaign is planned.
"We don't want to be on a glideslope to a situation like Syria and Iraq," Carter said.
Trade Route From China To Europe.
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Who rules Pakistan? Former Foreign Minister Hina Rabbani Khar on Pakistan's role in the so-called "War on Terror".
In this episode of Head to Head , Mehdi Hasan challenges Hina Rabbani Khar, former foreign minister of Pakistan, on whether the army is in control of the country, and if Pakistan has been supporting the Taliban.
Last year's Peshawar school attack reinvigorated the military campaign against the Pakistani Taliban, while civilian oversight was curtailed.
We explore Pakistan's ambiguous stance towards the Afghan Taliban and the so-called " war on terror " and whether the alleged links between the ISI, Pakistan's spy agency, and armed groups have brought the violence home.
With the help of a panel of experts, we ask: did Pakistan support the Afghan Taliban and protect Osama bin Laden? Who calls the shots in Pakistan: the civilian authorities or the army? Are democracy, human rights and civil liberties safe in the fight against the Pakistani Taliban? And what should be done to bring peace to Kashmir?
Hafeez disallowed from bowling in PSL
Mohammad Hafeez will not be allowed to bowl in the Pakistan Super League, after the league decided to follow the ICC standards on playing conditions. Even though the PSL is a domestic tournament, Hafeez, who is currently serving a 12-month bowling ban, cannot apply for a reassessment of his action until his suspension ends.
According to the ICC policy, any player who is banned from bowling in internationals is allowed to bowl in domestic competitions, provided he has the consent of his home board, and remains under observation. Though Hafeez continued to bowl regularly in domestic cricket after his ban, the PSL has decided to stick with the ICC's ruling.
"The rules we are following are from the highest standard and we decided to stick with the ICC's ruling against any player," the PSL management told "We understand that Mohammad Hafeez is presently banned and we will endorse the ICC's decision and carry it in the league.
"On the draft day before the players were picked, we were intimated that Hafeez was named as a batsman only as his bowling action was banned by the ICC. We are sticking with that. The team who picked him agreed before hand they were taking him only as a batsman. The rules were already cleared before the final pick and it was mutually agreed."
Hafeez's bowling action was reported during the final of the Quaid-e-Azam trophy between SNGPL and United Bank Limited in Karachi, with several of his deliveries suspected to be beyond the 15-degree limit. The case was instantly sent to the PCB's illegal technical committee headed by Ali Zia. According the PCB policy, Hafeez then had to undergo remedial work on his action to convince the committee that he could be allowed to bowl in the tournament again.
Hafeez, 35, had undergone testing at an ICC-accredited lab in Chennai on July 6 last year, after his action was reported following the first Test against Sri Lanka in Galle in June. The tests revealed that his action exceeded the permitted 15-degree limit. He had earlier been reported for a suspect action after the Abu Dhabi Test against New Zealand in November 2014.
Hafeez was initially drafted in the Platinum category of the PSL draft, but was later demoted to the Diamond category after no team picked him in the top bracket. He was eventually taken by Peshawar Zalmi for $70,000. Zalmi confirmed to that they had picked Hafeez purely as a batsman. "I picked him as a batsman," Zalmi's head coach Mohammad Akram said. "I know he has the ability to win games and it would have been a bonus if he was allowed to bowl but we will have to respect the authorities and rules of the game."
Almost everything about HTC's next phone just leaked
Fresh rumors about HTC's next flagship smartphone, reportedly named the One M10, cropped up on Thursday.
According to details obtained by VentureBeat from someone who used the M10, it'll have some key differences compared to its predecessor, the One M9.
One of the main differences is that the One M10 will have a fingerprint sensor.
That lines up nicely with rumors from earlier this week suggesting the M10 will share some similarities with HTC's sub-premium One A9 smartphone, which has a touch sensitive home "sensor" with fingerprint recognition.
We might also see the return of HTC's "UltraPixel" camera technology. It first appeared in the One M8 back in 2014 but wasn't well received, as the four UltraPixel camera wasn't as sharp as competing smartphones. HTC actually ditched its UltraPixel technology for the One M9, but it might reintroduce it in the M10 with a 12-UltraPixel camera.
The rumors also claim that HTC will ditch the two front-facing speakers, which delivered stereo sound, was one of the HTC's flagship's main features, as most phones have downward-facing speakers on the bottom edge.
Apart from that, the One M10 looks like it could be very similar to most other flagship Android smartphones.
Based from the rumors, it looks like the One M10 will have a super sharp quad-HD (1440 x 2560) 5.1- inch display, which isn't all that exciting considering most other flagship Android devices also have sharp displays.
It's also rumored to run on the latest Snapdragon 820 chip, which most Android flagship smartphones from Samsung and LG are also expected to use. The Snapdragon performed as well in benchmark tests, and sometimes better, than Apple's extremely powerful A9 chip in processing power.
As a result, we expect the One M10 to be a very powerful and fast phone.
Rumors claim we'll see HTC unveil the One M10 after MWC 2016 at its own event.
China mission to reach Europe in easy, cheap and short distance way, through Gawader ( Pakistan).
The following pictures shows that how important China Pakistan Economic Corridor is far China.
Click here to see the maps and diagrams.
Maps
Orya Maqbool Jan Column. "State narrative and extremism"
Orya Maqbool Jan Column. "State narrative and extremism", click here to read
Mehdi Hasan goes Head to Head with Michael T. Flynn, former head of the US Defense Intelligence Agency, on how to deal with ISIL and Iran.
Mehdi Hasan goes Head to Head with Michael T. Flynn, former head of the US Defense Intelligence Agency, on how to deal with ISIL and Iran.
Flynn was the former head of the US Defence Intelligence Agency (DIA) and a commander of J-SOC, the ghost military unit whose squads hunted Al Qaeda in Iraq and Afghanistan all the way to Osama Bin Laden’s compound in Pakistan. With no panel or audience, we ask him whether the US is to blame for creating ISIL and whether the War on Terror has become a crusade. We also discuss torture in US bases and why he is opposed to a deal with Iran.
From Syria to Mexico: A young student finds an unexpected home
We’ve heard about Syrians trying to find places to resettle in Europe and the United States. Then, there are Syrians such as Essa Hassan, 27, landing in less typical places — like Mexico.
Back in 2011, Hassan was in a tight spot. He had just graduated from Damascus University and his plan was to head to grad school. But he was left in limbo for several months, not yet enrolled in graduate school, and would soon be wanted for mandatory military service.
“I couldn’t delay the military service anymore,” he says. “There was no way, and I just decided to leave. Maybe I’ll never go back.”
Hassan left Syria in 2012 and drifted for a while: Istanbul, Italy and Beirut, where he worked for a non-profit and met Adrián Meléndez, who had started a new initiative called theHabesha Project. It organizes scholarships for Syrians to study in Mexico. Hassan is the project’s first student, arriving last year. The plan is to bring 30 more students this year.
Today, Hassan is settling into his new home, an old house in Aguascalientes. It’s a small mostly working class city in central Mexico, where Toyota is a major employer. It’s a safe bet, Hassan is the only Syrian for miles around.
The living room of his new home is filled with old wooden furniture and large family photos.
“It reminds me of my grandparents place, almost my parents place somehow. We have the same idea of putting pictures in big frames,” he says.
In his bedroom, Hassan put up a poster of Anita Ekberg, the Swedish actress from La Dolce Vita. She’s in a short dress making coffee. “To wake up seeing a woman drinking café, it’s nice,” he says.
There are also several photos of Charlie Chaplin. “The Great Dictator” is one of Hassan's favorite movies. He also has a few, just a few, books in Arabic on literature and politics, hard to find in hard copy in this part of Mexico.
Hassan also likes the small size of Aguascalientes. We head out to the colonial center, just a 10-minute walk from his house, and hit a local favorite, La Gloria, for tacos al pastor.
He says he likes how places like this in Mexico bring you appetizers before you order (we get a plate of cucumbers, limes, potatoes and fried tortillas). It reminds him of Damascus.
“It’s about generosity,” Hassan says. “It’s a way of life. It’s not something they pretend to do.” The pork spit they use for the tacos also reminds him of shawarmas back home, except for the pineapple that marinates the meat here.
Later on, I meet the family Hassan lives with. The mom, Juana, works long days at the family’s café and just gets by. “I don’t watch much television or listen to the radio,” she says. There’s no time. She didn’t know about the Syrian war until she met Hassan, and says she’s glad he’s here.
When it comes to Mexico, Hassan knew about the drug violence, but he was also interested in the country’s history, the Mayans and Aztecs. He says he refuses to see places one way — Syria means war, Mexico means drug cartels, and how that perception can paint a population.
“When you consider a whole place a dangerous place, you are doing something unjust to the people who live there because there are always millions who have nothing to do with these crimes. I’m considered coming from a dangerous place and people, somehow, even if they don’t say it in my face, they think about it,” he says.
He also feels more at ease in Mexico than, say, Italy, where he lived for a short time. There, Hassan says, he was always an immigrant, never a foreigner. There’s a big difference, he says.
“Foreigners, they are Europeans from other countries. Or Americans. And all the others are immigrants. So it’s hard to live there. We tried, I tried,” he says.
Now, Hassan needs to learn Spanish so he can start a master’s degree. He's still not sure what to study. “I have many, many ideas. I mean, a lot,” he says. “And I always think about it. Since the conflict, really, my thought is about this. And I enjoy it. I enjoy thinking about this.”
Maybe his future will mean staying in Mexico for a while, perhaps years, or arming himself with another degree, going back to Syria one day, and using what he’s learned there.
Vietnam PM makes last-minute comeback in leadership battle
HANOI, Vietnam — Vietnam's pro-business prime minister, who last week appeared to have lost a power struggle in the ruling Communist Party, has made a last-minute comeback and will know Monday if he can re-enter the contest for the top job in the country.
Using a loophole in party rules, supporters of Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung on Sunday proposed that his name be added to the list of candidates who can contest for membership to the Central Committee, one of the two pillars of the ruling establishment.
If Dung makes it, he will stand a good chance to be elected to the committee, and then would be in a position to challenge his rival, General Secretary Nguyen Phu Trong, for his job. The party general secretary is the de facto No. 1 leader in the collective leadership that governs Vietnam.
"Dung is a skilled and determined infighter and most people agreed there was still a remote chance that he would try to mount some sort of comeback," said Murray Hiebert, a Southeast Asian expert at the Center for Strategic and International Studies in Washington.
Trong has for years been trying unsuccessfully to sideline Dung, and while contests for the top post are not unheard of, they are usually settled well before the party congress, which take place once every five years to choose new leaders.
This year, the rivalry between Dung and Trong has gone down to the wire into the party congress that began last Thursday and will end this Thursday. But regardless of who wins, the fundamental makeup of the government or its policies will not change radically, according to analysts.
Dung has built a reputation for promoting economic reforms, and being bold enough to confront China in its territorial aggression in the South China Sea. But even if Trong, a stolid party apparatchik with closer leanings toward China, manages to sideline Dung eventually, it doesn't mean the economic reforms would stall or Vietnam will capitulate to Chinese maritime aggression in Vietnamese waters, according to observers.
"Ideologically, there isn't a yawning gap between Trong and Dung, although most people believe that the pace of economic reform might slow a bit if Trong remains at the helm and Dung is ousted," Hiebert told The Associated Press.
For now, the road to the top is paved with hurdles for Dung. He faces the first one later Monday on the floor of the Communist Party congress that is being attended by 1,510 delegates behind closed doors.
The delegates will pick 234 candidates for an election to the 180-member Central Committee. Of these, 199 people endorsed by the outgoing committee are guaranteed to be picked. The remaining 35 will be chosen from the 62 politicians proposed by some of the delegates, which includes Dung's name.
If he does get chosen, he will still need to win an endorsement from the floor to make it to the final 180 in an election on Tuesday. After that, they will elect at least 16 members to the all-powerful Politburo, which handles the day to day governance of Vietnam. It is possible that the Politburo will be expanded to 18 members this year.
Of the Politburo members, one will be chosen the general secretary, the country's top leader. Three others will be chosen, in respective order of seniority: the prime minister, the president and the chairman of the national assembly.
Dung, who has risen through the ranks of the party and has held senior positions, is a two-term prime minister. This means he can't be the prime minster for a third term, leaving only the general-secretary's post as a viable option.
His economic reforms in the country have helped Vietnam attract a flood of foreign investment and helped triple the per capita GDP to $2,100 over the past 10 years.
Trong's camp accuses him of economic mismanagement, a prime example of which was the spectacular collapse of state-owned shipping company Vinashin, failing to control massive public debt, allowing corruption and for failing to deal with non-preforming loans of state-owned banks.
Vietnam is one of the last remaining communist nations in the world, with a party membership of 4.5 million. But like its ideological ally China, the government believes in quasi-free market economy alongside a strictly controlled society that places several restrictions on its 93 million people.
Iran says to buy 114 Airbus planes, interested in Boeing and other deals
Iran plans to buy 114 aircraft from European plane maker Airbus as soon as March, and is looking for other deals, senior Iranian officials said on Sunday as their country emerges from sanctions and international isolation.
The republic could need as many as 500 new planes over the next three years, lawmaker Mahdi Hashemi, the chairman of the parliament's Development Commission, said at Tehran's first major post-sanctions gathering of global businessmen.
Transport Minister Abbas Akhoondi told journalists Tehran would discuss details with Airbus next week and was also interested in negotiating with U.S. plane maker Boeing for aircraft.
Tehran has long said it will need to revamp an aging fleet, hit by a shortage of parts because of trade bans imposed by Washington and other Western powers.
Its planes fleet have suffered several fatal crashes in recent years
Hashemi said Iran could place an order in the next two months, confirming plans announced earlier this month ahead of a nuclear sanctions deal.
He also urged international investors and airlines to move quickly into Iran after the lifting of sanctions.
"Come with your proposals. We would like to have new contracts and serve them immediately and make up for the losses that we suffered from in the past," Hashemi said.
Iran emerged from years of economic isolation when world powers last week lifted crippling sanctions against the Islamic Republic in return for Tehran complying with a deal to curb its nuclear ambitions.
The deal also released billions of dollars worth of frozen Iranian assets and opened the door for global companies that have been barred from doing business in Iran.
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