6,600 jobs at tourism port - Oman Observer

More documents

Recommendations

Info

6 REGION Palestinian women hold placards and Palestinian lags during a rally that marks 46 years since the start of the 1967 war with Israel, yesterday at Damascus Gate in Jerusalem. Israeli forces occupied Gaza, the West Bank and east Jerusalem during the conlict, with Palestinians mourning it as the "Naksa" or setback. — AFP World powers seek Iran response to IAEA VIENNA — Six world powers engaged in stalled talks with Iran over its nuclear programme said yesterday it was "essential and urgent" Tehran cooperates with the UN atomic agency. The US, China, Russia, France, Britain and Germany also said they were "deeply concerned" by Iran's continued expansion of its activities despite UN Security Council resolutions calling for a suspension. They said that after 10 failed meetings between the International Atomic Energy Agency and Iran over the past 18 months it was "essential and urgent for Iran to engage with the agency on the substance of its concerns". The countries — all permanent UN Security Council members except Germany — said at a meeting of the IAEA board of governors that this included Iran fulilling "its undertaking to grant access to Parchin," a military base near Tehran. The IAEA believes Iran constructed a large explosives containment vessel at Parchin in 2000 to conduct experiments that it says would be "strong indicators of possible nuclear weapon development". Iran has rejected IAEA requests to visit the site and denies wanting or ever having worked on developing a nuclear weapon. It says that the IAEA's allegations are based on faulty intelligence provided by Tehran's enemies. The allegations on Parchin form part of a major report issued by the IAEA in November 2011 summarising information on suspected nuclear weapons research that it had been given, mostly, but not only, by foreign intelligence agencies. — AFP Diplomats fail to set date for Syria peace conference GENEVA, Switzerland — Seniors diplomats failed yesterday to set a date for an international peace conference for Syria amid continued disagreement over the list of participants. "It will not be possible to hold this conference in June," UN peace envoy to Syria Lakhdar Brahimi told reporters in Geneva, adding that the talks, which will be hosted by UN chief Ban Ki-moon, could happen "hopefully in July." Brahimi met with Russian Deputy Foreign Ministers Gennady Gatilov and Mikhail Bogdanov and US Under Secretary of State for Political Affairs Wendy Sherman in the Swiss city yesterday to pave the way for a new international conference aimed at ending the unrest in Syria. The conference, dubbed Geneva 2, is meant to follow up on an initial Geneva meeting last June 30 that produced a never-implemented power transition plan for Syria. The initial plan had been for the talks to be held early this month, but Brahimi said the preparations had run into a signiicant sticking point: "the Syrian component." The aim, he said, "is to get the Syrian sides, without preconditions, to see how they can implement the communique of June 30... And the Syrian sides are not ready," he said. "This conference cannot be held without Syrian delegations. The Syrian delegations have not been formed yet," he said in Arabic, according to a UN translation. Russian deputy foreign minister Gennady Gatilov was more explicit about the dificulties. "Right now the most complicated issue is perhaps about a list of conference participants," he was quoted as saying by Russian news agencies in Geneva. "The entire issue is that unlike the government, the Syrian opposition has not decided in principle on the participation in the conference," he said, adding the Syrian opposition also could not agree on who exactly will represent it at the meeting. The Syrian regime has agreed in principle to participate in the conference, but Syria's main opposition has refused to attend as long as ighters from Iran and the Islamist-militia Hezbollah are ighting in Syria alongside Assad's forces. It has also so far reportedly rejected names put forward by the Syrian regime as possible interlocutors, while continuing to demand Assad's departure. A senior US oficial, who asked not to be named, told reporters that one stumbling block was "the opposition coalition forming itself, naming its representatives, agreeing on a delegation." But, the oficial added, there was also "not yet full clarity on who the regime will send and what that delegation will look like." Last year's talks involved top diplomats from the ive permanent members of the UN Security Council — the United States, China, Russia, France and Britain — and representatives of Turkey, the Arab League and the European Union. This time, Russia is pushing hard for Iran, another key Assad ally, to have some kind of role, despite concerns from the West about including the Islamic republic, which it accuses of shoring up the Syrian regime. — AFP Members of a Yemeni counter-terrorism unit undergo a training session at a military camp in Sanaa, yesterday. — Reuters THURSDAY, JUNE 6, 2013 Palestinians raise demand; Israel seems to shift stand JERUSALEM — Palestinian oficials marked 46 years since the start of the 1967 war with Israel yesterday by insisting any peace talks must be based on the lines that existed before the Jewish state's occupation. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu signalled readiness to consider a 2002 Arab peace plan whose terms were recently softened to include possible land swaps between Israel and the Palestinians. "We are listening to every initiative — the Arab initiative has been mentioned — and we are prepared to discuss initiatives that are proposals and not edicts," he said in a speech in parliament. Netanyahu spoke during a debate on the plan, proposed at an Arab League summit 11 years ago. Israel had rejected the initiative that offered normalised ties for it with much of the Arab world, citing its call for complete withdrawal from land captured in the 1967 Middle East war as a main stumbling block. Chief Palestinian peace negotiator Saeb Erakat visited three villages in the West Bank whose populations led the Israeli invasion during the Six-Day War against the armies of Egypt, Jordan and Syria. Israeli forces occupied Gaza, the West Bank and east Jerusalem during the conlict, with Palestinians mourning it as the "Naksa" or setback. "The (same) fate of the 5,000 Palestinians who were evicted from these villages" in June 1967 still befalls Palestinians in the West Bank today, he told reporters on a stop in the village of Yalu. The demolition of Yalu, Imwas and Beit Nuba back then was now being repeated "in Jericho, Nablus and everywhere else" in the West Bank, he lamented, citing the destruction of houses by the Israeli army, which expels hundreds of Palestinian families from their homes in areas under its control each year. "Why did the Israelis evict those people in 1967? Simply because they wanted to declare the borders," Erakat said. He reiterated Palestinian demands for a halt to Israeli settlement building in Palestinian territories and a return to the pre-war lines as a basis for any peace talks. Israel calls for talks "without preconditions" and refuses publicly to freeze settlement building. Hanan Ashrawi, a member of the Executive Committee of Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas's PLO, slammed Israel's continued settlement building in a statement marking the war's anniversary. "Forty-six years later, the Israeli occupation of 22 per cent of historical Palestine still constitutes a humanitarian and political disaster that dominates and controls the lives of the Palestinian people in Palestine and in exile," she said. "Our struggle will continue until we... witness the establishment of an independent Palestinian state on 1967 borders with east Jerusalem as its capital," Ashrawi said, pointing out that Israel's settlement building is illegal under international law. Israeli human rights group B'Tselem, in its own report marking the anniversary, slammed Israel's "de facto annexation of Area C (in the West Bank) and creation of circumstances that will help perpetuate this situation and inluence the inal status of the area". Area C, which covers more than 60 percent of the occupied West Bank, is under full Israeli control. "In theory, Israel retains complete authority only in Area C," B'Tselem said. "In practice, Israel's control of Area C adversely affects all Palestinian West Bank residents," more than 2.5 million people. The report added that "contrary to international law," Israel was actively encouraging its citizens to settle in the West Bank. But Israel's deputy foreign minister Zeev Elkin yestersday reiterated Israel's refusal to return to the pre-June 1967 lines. "The people of Israel are not ready to commit suicide and make the same mistake they made when they pulled out of the Gaza Strip (in 2005)," he said, referring to the subsequent takeover of the territory by Islamist movement Hamas and the rockets which have since been ired at southern Israel. US Secretary of State John Kerry, who will visit the region next week for a ifth time since February, has been trying to draw the parties back into direct negotiations, but on Monday warned Israel could be facing its last chance to secure a peace deal. — Agencies Protesters stage a demonstration in central Ankara yesterday. Thousands of striking workers were set to join mass protests across Turkey against the government after another night of ierce clashes between riot police and angry demonstrators. — AFP Turkey faces protests in more cities ISTANBUL — Thousands of union workers joined mass street protests yesterday calling for Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan to step down, as the government insisted Turkey was "not a second-class democracy". Bellowing to the din of drums and wailing Turkish pipes, teachers, doctors, bank staff and others marched in the capital Ankara and in Istanbul, where they converged on Taksim Square. "Taksim, resist, the workers are coming!" they chanted in Istanbul. In the capital Ankara, police ired tear gas and water cannon to disperse crowds there. The striking workers in the capital had earlier unfurled banners addressing Erdogan, reading: "This nation will not bow to you!" and "Taksim Square is everywhere!" Two people have been killed in the six days of unrest nationwide, doctors and oficials say, while hundreds have been injured in protests police have sought to quell with tear gas, pepper spray and water cannons. "Turkey is not a second-class democracy," Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu told US Secretary of State John Kerry in a phone call late on Tuesday, the diplomat said on condition of anonymity. Davutoglu assured Kerry an investigation was under way into the police response and played down the demonstrations, likening them to the Occupy Wall Street movement in the US in 2011, the source said. Two trade union federations, KESK and DISK, launched two-day strikes from Tuesday in solidarity with the street protesters. The premier was due in Tunisia yesterday. In his absence, Deputy Prime Minister Bulent Arinc on Tuesday promised that the government had "learnt its lesson", but protesters ignored his plea to call off the demonstrations and fresh clashes broke out overnight. At least 25 people were also arrested in the western city of Izmir for "misleading and libellous" Twitter posts, according to the Anatolia news agency, after Erdogan accused the microblogging site of spreading "lies". Protesters rely heavily on social media to organise demonstrations. They have complained about a lack of coverage of the crisis by the main- stream media. In the latest bid to ease tensions, the deputy prime minister met yesterday with leaders of civil groups, including the movement whose initial protest sparked the nationwide demonstrations — a campaign to save Istanbul's Gezi Park from redevelopment. In the meeting, protest representatives urged the government to ire the police chiefs of Istanbul and Ankara and cities where security forces used excessive force to quell the unrest. They also demanded Ankara release all the arrested demonstrators and ban police from tear gassing demonstrators. Almost 1,700 people have been arrested, according to the most recent oficial estimate, with many released. Nato-member Turkey is a key regional ally for the United States. Sitting at the crossroads of East and West, Turkey has long aspired to join the European Union, which sets strict requirements on human rights for prospective members. Erdogan's Justice and Development Party (AKP) irst took power in 2002 and has won three elections in a row. — Agencies
THURSDAY, JUNE 6, 2013 Nawaz Sharif takes oath as new Pak prime minister ISLAMABAD — Pakistan's newly elected prime minister Muhammad Nawaz Sharif yesterday evening took oath for the post at President House in capital Islamabad, the state owned TV channel PTV News reported. According to the reports, President Asif Ali Zardari administered the oath for Nawaz Sharif who assumed the charge as the 27th chief executive of the country for the non-consecutives third term. Sharif, in his irst speech to parliament shortly after being elected prime minister for the third time, demanded an end to US drone strikes. Sharif, 63, said: “The chapter of these daily drone attacks now must come to an end,” to loud applause from parliamentarians. “When we respect the sovereignty of others, it is obligatory for them to respect our sovereignty,” he added. Sharif’s Pakistan Muslim League- Nawaz party — which had during its campaign promised to end the drone attacks if elected to power — won 176 seats in the May 11 polls. A number of guests including veteran politicians and members of the parliament, former caretaker PM Mir Hazar Khan Khoso, governors and chief ministers of all four provinces, Chief of Pakistan army, envoys and ambassadors of different countries were present in the ceremony. Nawaz, who came into power after over 13 years gap, is the irst Pakistani that reached the rank of premiership for the third time. His last tenure as premier concluded on October 12, 1999 when the then army chief Pervez Musharraf deposed his government in a military coup before sending him into exile. Nawaz served the country as PM for two non-consecutive terms from November 1990 to July 1993, and from February 1997 to October 1999, respectively. Earlier in the day, Nawaz was elected as the prime minister after receiving 244 votes in the 342-member Lower House of Parliament during the election conducted through a division of the House process. Makhdoom Ameen Fahim, the candidate of the Pakistan People's Party that led the previous government, grabbed 42 votes while senior politician Javed Hashmi, the candidate of Pakistan Tehrik-e-Insaf party, got 31 votes. In his address to parliament, Sharif also vowed to mend the country's falling economy and sort out the rising energy crises. — Agencies Garment workers block a street as they participate in a protest in Dhaka yesterday. Thousands of garment workers from at least seven factories blocked two important roads in Dhaka's Tejgaon industrial area for almost an hour yesterday, demanding wage hikes and payment of overtime dues, local media reported. — Reuters 3 Rohingya killed in Myanmar security forces iring YANGON — Three Rohingya women were shot dead in a confrontation with security forces at a camp for displaced victims of sectarian violence in western Myanmar, police said yesterday. The killings happened on Tuesday at a camp at Parein in Rakhine state after some Rohingya refused to move to new locations, police oficer Maung Maung Mya said by telephone. Four others were injured. "They fear they will lose their land if they move to new shelters." The incident came as hundreds of world leaders, business chiefs and media began arriving in Myanmar for the World Economic Forum on East Asia. More than 140,000 people — mainly Rohingya — were displaced by unrest between Buddhists and Muslims in Rakhine last year that left about 200 people dead. Myanmar views its population of roughly 800,000 Rohingya as illegal immigrants. They are considered by the United Nations to be one of the world's most persecuted minorities. Foreign investors looking to raise investment in Pakistan KARACHI — Foreign funds and companies are looking to drastically increase investments in Pakistan and the rise could improve Pakistan’s dire economic conditions, inancial experts said yesterday. The investors’ interest is based on their expectation that the newly elected PML-N government will follow pro-business policies. “A number of practicing chartered accountant irms here in Pakistan received an increased number of enquiries from the potential foreign investors, who are interested in undertaking investment in various sectors of economy and industry either for joint ventures, acquisitions or green- ield projects,” said Mubasshar Mirza, a seasoned chartered accountant. “Most of the foreign companies are willing to set up their businesses in Pakistan. Moreover, there is considerable interest by top global fund mangers and individual investors looking for opportunities to invest in Pakistan’s stocks,” he said. The morale of local and foreign investors is high. They have welcomed the PML-N-led government wholeheartedly, while the Karachi Stock Exchange (KSE)’s benchmark 100share index reached the 22,000-point level so far on the back of foreign and institutional investment. Experts say the share of overseas investment in Pakistan will take at least one year to increase. Foreign investment outlook in Pakistan has been stagnating since 2008. The country has witnessed a signiicant fall in foreign direct investment in the past ive years with FDI inlows dropping from $5.4 billion in the iscal year 2007-08 to $760.7 million in the iscal 2011-12. Foreign irms invested heavily in the telecom, inancial and oil and gas sectors during the Pervez Musharraf era. Foreign direct investment in Pakistan amounted to $853 million between July 2012 and April 2013 against $658.2 million during the same period in the previous iscal. The Pakistani community abroad is also playing an important role in promoting trade and investment to the homeland. — Internews New Zealand's Foreign Minister Murray McCully (R) shakes hands with his Sri Lankan counterpart Gamini Lakshman Peiris in Colombo yesterday. McCully is in Sri Lanka for one-day state visit. — Reuters SUBCONTINENT Pakistani President Asif Ali Zardari administering the oath to newly-elected Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif during a ceremony at the Presidential Palace in Islamabad yesterday. — AFP Hundreds fall sick in Bangladesh factory DHAKA — Hundreds of employees of a Bangladesh garment factory near the capital fell sick yesterday after drinking suspected contaminated water in their workplace, police and factory oficials said. "Primarily we suspect the water supply of the Starlight Sweaters factory was poisoned or contaminated," local industrial police oficer Mahfuzur Rahman said from Gazipur, a suburb of Dhaka. Based Ali, the administrative oficer of the factory, said the number of affected workers could be as high as 600. "The workers have been sent to different hospitals after they reported stomach pain and started vomiting. We estimate the number could be up to 600," he said. The accident follows the collapse of a building housing ive garment factories in April that killed 1,129 people. The tragedy, the industry's worst ever, has led to renewed scrutiny of "made-in-Bangladesh" clothes which are commonly sold in the West. The factories in the doomed Rana Plaza building just outside Dhaka had made clothing for Western retailers including Italy's Benetton, Britain's Primark and Spain's Mango An oficial from Bangladesh's Garment Manufacturers and Exporters Association (BGMEA), which represents the country's 4,500 garment plants, said the contamination could have been deliberate. "We are suspecting that it was poisoning of the water. It could be some sort of pesticide," S M Mannan, a vicepresident of the BGMEA, said. "This is an A-grade factory. It has its own water supply which comes from a deep tube well, so there is no scope for contamination. Someone might have mixed poison to the water," he said. Earlier in the day police ired rubber bullets and tear gas at a protest by the families of missing garment 7 workers presumed dead in the factory disaster. Oficials in the Dhaka suburb of Savar, where the building collapsed on April 24, said a thousand-strongcrowd of relatives and garment workers gathered at the site of the wrecked building. They demanded that authorities publish a full list of missing workers to allow families to claim compensation. "There were up to 1,000 protesters, they blocked a key highway and staged a sit-in in front of the ruined site for nearly three hours," said local industrial police inspector Amjad Hossain. Savar police oficer Sheikh Farid Uddin said his oficers clashed with the protesters after they failed to move off the highway and began throwing stones. "In retaliation, we had to ire rubber bullets and tear gas to disperse them," Uddin said. — AFP Afghanistan's Defence Minister Bismellah Mohammadi (L) talks with Canadian Defence Minister Peter Gordon Macay (C) during the second day of Nato Defence ministers meeting yesterday at the Nato Headquarters in Brussels. — AFP Passports issuance gathers pace ISLAMABAD — The Immigration and Passport Department has issued over 650,000 passports in 50 days after Additional IG Zuliqar Cheema took the charge as Immigration and Passport Director-General (DG). Zuliqar Cheema said that he started the task on war-footing to clear the backlog of over 850,000 passports. After he took charge on April 9, 2013, he resolved the issue of lamination paper as a priority and accelerated the process for preparation of passports increasing the capacity from 3,000 to 30,000 per day. "The backlog of urgent-fee passports has been cleared and over 450,000 passports of urgent category have been issued and sent to their relevant stations," the DG said, adding that 160,000 passports of oversees Pakistani’s have also been issued and posted to various embassies of Pakistan around the world. Cheema said that Haj passports would be issued till June 15 and the next task of issuance of single-fee passports would be completed in two weeks. All backlog would be cleared before June 30. A home delivery system would be introduced in four major cities of the country, including Islamabad, Rawalpindi, Lahore and Karachi, next week, the DG said. The decision of issuance of passports for a period of ten years without increasing fee has been withdrawn as it caused a loss of billions of rupees to the national exchequer. It has been decided that passports, being issued with effect from June 1, 2013, would be for a term of ive years with the same fees, Cheema said. "We are trying to streamline the system to run the organisation with professional skill without interference," the DG said. "Over 2,000 government passports issued to unauthorised oficials will be cancelled without any delay," Cheema said, adding that as many as 2,000 cases have been sent to the Ministry of Interior for action against unauthorised oficials having red and blue passports. "Corruption will not be tolerated in the department. Severe action is being taken against the oficials involved in corruption," the DG said, adding that agent maia has been eliminated. — Internews
Page 1 and 2: World News P14 Majority of French w
Page 3 and 4: THURSDAY, JUNE 6, 2013 OMAN Majlis
Page 5: THURSDAY, JUNE 6, 2013 French Presi
Page 9 and 10: THURSDAY, JUNE 6, 2013 Glimmer of h
Page 11 and 12: THURSDAY, JUNE 6, 2013 Need for shi
Page 13 and 14: THURSDAY, JUNE 6, 2013 People see o
Page 15 and 16: THURSDAY, JUNE 6, 2013 The highway
Page 17 and 18: Inside P 19 France minister in Sili
Page 19 and 20: THURSDAY, JUNE 6, 2013 Mobile payme
Page 21 and 22: 24 YEARS old Indian diploma holder
Page 23 and 24: THURSDAY, JUNE 6, 2013 Business Ale
Page 25 and 26: CRICKET P27 South Africa take on In
Page 27 and 28: THURSDAY, JUNE 6, 2013 SPORT Heavyw
Page 29 and 30: THURSDAY, JUNE 6, 2013 Actress Emma
Page 31 and 32: THURSDAY, JUNE 6, 2013 Tackle junk

6,600 jobs at tourism port - Oman Observer

Create successful ePaper yourself

Delete template?

Save as template?