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4 Saturday, February 20, 2016 National KARACHI: Head office: 509, Land Mark Plaza, I.I Chundrigar Road, Karachi, Pakistan. Ph: +9221-32214988- 32214990, Fax: +9221-32214989 messengerdaily@yahoo.com, editor@dailymessenger.com.pk Chief Editor: Muhammad Taqi Alvi Associate Editor: Ali Razavi - Hyderabad Bureau Chief: Abbas Kassar ISLAMABAD –– LAHORE –– RAWALPINDI –– KARACHI MORALITY is our guiding light. Morals without empathy or concern equals lack of morals. They are the opposite of one another. Our morals are what guide our day to day decisions; they allow us to make good decisions and allow us to be aware of bad decisions that may hurt or harm others as well as self. A person without morals, is a person without a conscience. Morality is a social construct that has developed because it makes living in a group better for everyone but that's possible when rights of all persons in a group are protected. Otherwise, a just system won't be in place. IF one does not care for others, one wouldn't act morally, unless one is afraid of the consequences. BUT even that requires concern for well-being, even if only for your own. If you don't even care about yourself, you wouldn't be able to develop any moral sense. Morality is well-being itself. Low moral standards can function fine with little empathy. And when people start demanding moral standards without a sense of empathy, there dawns tyranny. Then we justify cruel punishment when we decide that someone is wrong if they don't fit our small minded ideals. OFTEN politics and morals work against each other. The reason is because many times what is politically expedient is not morally correct. Often, politicians are too caught up in political games and they lack any real power to effectively change the status quo because there is too much political force being spent on maintaining the status quo. POLITICS can make or break morals in raising a good or bad society. So, a great responsibility is borne by the politicians. However, politics once held in highest of esteem with almost every school going child wanting to become a politician, politics is now dehumanized and degenerated to an extent that very few may like to become a politician. For, nowadays, in order for someone to be a successful politician they must have the capacity to lie. Since lying is morally considered a wrongful act it cannot be ignored that politicians are sometimes expected to lie in order to achieve their goals. This makes them less moral. Any time you are in politics in order to gain power or gain votes you must say one thing while you likely will take action the exact opposite way, If you are going into the political field you have to be ready to bend your morals in order to win. Or stick to your morals and suffer a defeat. WHILE it's not so nowadays, unlike the past, politics can serve with application of morality in real world. Morality is the theory of what is right, without regard to its results in real world. Politics is the practice of governing in the real world where real world By Alex Vatanka Two weeks ahead of critical elections, Iranian President Hassan Rouhani can boast of achieving two of his key election pledges from 2013: He secured a groundbreaking diplomatic nuclear deal with world powers and has removed crippling sanctions on the country. Rouhani should, therefore, feel confident ahead of the February 26 vote and see himself as well on course to winning re-election in 2017. Unfortunately, not all in Iran have welcomed the president’s political ascendance. Now, they are rushing to put the brakes on Rouhani’s vision to open the country up economically and politically. Iranian hard-liners, mostly connected to the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), have launched a relentless campaign, attacking Rouhani’s every step ahead of the February 26 parliamentary and Assembly of Experts elections. They will do anything to make him the first oneterm president in the history of the Islamic Republic and are banking on a strong showing this month to mark the beginning of the end of his reign. Invested reactionaries While there are no dependable public opinion surveys on the question, popular support for Rouhani is by most accounts still solid, despite plenty of frustration among ordinary Iranians about the slow arrival of the economic benefits promised at the time of the nuclear agreement. If he has a weakness, it’s in his questionable ability to maintain the cross-factional consensus that enabled Tehran to make nuclear concessions in order to bag a deal. When Rouhani was elected President in June 2013, all three main interest groups in the regime — the presidency, the Office of the Supreme Leader, and the IRGC generals — were in agreement that a nuclear compromise was needed to save the economy from collapse. It is now apparent that this was a temporary alignment: With the lifting of sanctions achieved, Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei and his close allies in the IRGC have since shifted to putting the brakes on the rest of Rouhani’s agenda at home and abroad. As Rouhani has repeatedly warned, his enthusiasm for international engagement has powerful detractors in Tehran. They fear his vision of a new Iran will come at their expense and weaken their influence in the Iranian pyramid of power. EDITORIAL Media Morals: A Great Issue, Or 'No Issue At All'?. Clear It Or Clean It! (I) OPINION outcomes have meaning. With bad politics, fortunes are lost, lives destroyed and people die, as good politics and good morals are ignored. Governments and people are corrupted and needless lives are lost and fortunes and growing economies destroyed when morality is abandoned. Therefore, morality and principles for good living overall for everyone is a noblest deed which is never cared for and is even considered by some as height of stupidity! VALUES have assumed opposite meanings now, compared to the past. Morality and values are going downhill. It may not always be because traditions are being discarded and new opinons voiced and lifestyles lived. It is also because we are living in a culture that lauds celebrity over talent. On the other hand, this opinion can be differed: Morality and values do not decline but people change in thinking and doing. DIFFERENCE in outlook, thoughts and actions over time that demands or force a change to be accepted or rejected by people for benefit or loss may be one point overlooked. One person's morality and values are different than another person. When a mass of peoples morality and values switch and start to match, then theirs are the morality and values of the subjective area. Seeing it as a decline, if change is positive, is simply seeing the shift in morality and values as new hard to accept change that is looked upon negatively, instead of the inevitable change it is. That is one perspective. ANOTHER open dimension often quickly stashed inside a carpet and not discussed due to one's own criminal nature, accepted negative imposition due to financial reasons, is a system that thinks good economics can make a good life and living. Nothing can be farther from the truth. Non-financial factors, not monetary gains, determines better quality of thinking and living that is not machinistic or materialistic. With money -- as a main condition of happiness -- is gone, selfish care for each other ends. Non financials sustain a relation, after financial stability is terminated. THINK of a change for better in a system that produces selfish individuals who make up a family which in turn makes up a society, a nation: Good deeds without benefits are regarded as stupid acts. Evil deeds with benefits are considered as smart and clever. Hence, good is punished and bad is rewarded. This trend can reverse itself, if anything good is to become of human beings in this society. It's most dangerous to continue with such evil system, and it can change for the better. Needless to say, all are invited to it, but very few answer the call in practice. However, there is a need to be clear on media morals or else a need to clean it! Iran’s internal power struggles Take the attacks on Rouhani for his recent trip to Europe, a direct dividend from the nuclear agreement. Hussain Shariatmadari, head of the influential Kayhan newspaper who was hand-picked by Khamenei, claimed that Rouhani had “shown contempt for the Iranian people” by letting the French foreign minister greet him at the airport and not President Francois Hollande. Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif was flabbergasted by hard-liner suggestions that Rouhani had been deliberately humiliated. “By God, that is not true,” Zarif responded angrily on national television. While the hard-liners’ accusations may seem petty on the surface, they are part of a systematic media campaign to depict Rouhani as someone mesmerised by the West, but who is only sneered at by Western leaders. IRGC-controlled media also belittle Rouhani’s hopes that trade and investment from western countries will help revive the ailing Iranian economy. As Fars News Agency put it, in reference to Iran’s multibillion-dollar purchase of 118 Airbus passenger aircraft, “new aircraft will not tackle inflation and unemployment”. Rouhani’s basic premise is that without restoring the economy, Iran’s entire Islamist order could collapse. To that end, foreign trade and investment and access to international technological know-how, particularly in the critical oil and gas sector, are pivotal for regime survival. Unsurprisingly, key projects in Iran’s oil and gas industry were at the heart of his recent negotiations in Rome and Paris. Rouhani has set ambitions targets, including the creation of 900,000 to one million jobs per year and a GDP growth of 5 to 8-per cent for the upcoming Iranian year (March 2016 to March 2017). The Rouhani government is undeterred by current low oil prices. In the latest national budget, oil export revenue is projected to make up only 23 per cent of the government’s income — the lowest ever. Thanks to years of sanctions, Iran is one of the oil exporters best placed to deal with significantly less oil income. Still, Bijan Namdar Zangeneh, Iran’s Oil Minister, aims to find new markets for the country’s abundant natural gas and oil reserves, which would allow it to regain its presanctions position as Opec’s (Organisation of Petroleum Exporting Countries) second-largest exporter. Three more die in drought-hit Thar THARPARKAR, Feb 19: Famine in Tharparkar claimed three more lives on Friday. 13-days-old Maryam in Civil hospital Mithi, threemonths-old Mushtaq Samejo and one-year-old Sara Samejo in Chachro’s native village Maigy Jotar lost their lives in the drought-hit Thar Desert. Atleast 81 children are under treatment in Civil hospital Mithi and Chachro Talqa Hospital. Diseased children from affected areas are continuously arriving in the hospitals. However; no implementation has been done regarding the announcement to provide transport for transferring sick children to the hospital. Besides this the distribution of wheat has also not started yet. Famine-struck people have demanded the government to announce a package for their ease as poor arrangements in hospitals KOTLI, Feb 19: The former Prime Minister Azad Jammu and Kashmir (AJK) and president Pakistan Tehrik Insaf (PTI) AJK chapter barrister Sultan Mehmood Chaudhry has said that the upcoming election in AJK should be conduct under the army. Speaking with the journalists at central secretariat and lack of basic facilities are adding to the severity of the issue. Tharparkar is a home to more than 60 lac cattle which provide source of income to residents. However, locals have started migrating to other areas as fodder for their cattle is all consumed before the expected time. of PTI in AJK he said that we will give an exceptional reception to Imran Khan on February 24 and the political gathering of Imran Khan in Kotli will open a new chapter in AJK politics. He said Imran Khan has elaborated his statement on Kashmir cause and it is not necessary to argue on his statement. The PTI stance on According to the World Health Organisation (WHO) guidelines, if the Global Acute Malnutrition (GAM) rate among children and women is above 15 percent, it is to be considered an emergency situation. During the National Nutrition Survey conducted in 2011, the GAM rate in the Sultan wants election under army in AJK Waheed Phulpoto SHIKARPUR, Feb 19: A community dialog program in connection to create awareness among villagers under the banner “problems, reasons and solutions” organized by Strengthening Participatory Organization [SPO] in collaboration with Oxfam and Novib in village Qasim near here on Friday. Speaking on the occasion Abida Zafar the representative of SPO, said that SPO have launched a campaign drive for creating awareness among villagers to identify their problems, reasons and the solutions and SPO will perform a role to resolve the basic problems of the villagers which were being faced by them since long adding SPO is performing the role of a bridge between district administration and among the villagers so that they could resolve their problems. Furthermore, if the problems were not resolved from district level then SPO will make help province level adding SPO has been working in Pakistan for 20 years with the help of civil society organizations and political parties to make better governance in Pakistan and now we are part of citizen’s first project further added the aims and objects of first citizen project is to build the peaceful Pakistan through the citizens first project. On the occasion the villagers presented the basic problems of the village including drainage system, dilapidated condition of primary boys school,graveyard was submerged in the drainage water and no basic facility of Health available in the village Qasim. Kashmir cause is vivid he, added. He further said that the Nakyal tragedy is government failure. Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) and Pakistan Muslim league Nawaz (PML N) scoring their political points on dead bodies, he added. He requested the party workers to join political gathering in Kotli on 24th February. Problems will be resolved with the help of district administration: Abida Zafar 2 robbers gunned down near Hyderabad Abbas Kassar HYDERABAD, Feb 19: Two robbers were gunned down in an encounter with police on Muqbara link road within the limits of Seri police station late Thursday night, police said. SHO Seri Gulshan Mehar said that police got a tip-off about presence of two notorious robbers at the locality. Police party headed by the SHO reached the spot where the robbers challenged the police which also retaliated. Both the robbers were gunned down in the encounter with the police, he said. they were shifted to Liaquat University Hospital (LUH) Hyderabad where they were identified as Mian Dad Soho son of Muharram Khan and Yousuf Chandio alias Bhalu son of Mohammad Fazal Chandio. Police got kalashnikov with a magazine from possession of Soho and a pistol from Chandio, SHO said adding that both the robbers were involved in more than 10 cases including murders, armed robberies, attacks on police and others in several districts including Hyderabad, Larkana, Jacobabad, Shaheed Benazirabad and others. The first citizen group of youths of the village was constituted so that the problems of the village may be resolved with the support of the district adiminstration. Abida Zafar directed to the first citizen group to write the applications of the problems of the village separately to concerned departments so that their problems will be pursued. Pervaiz Abro, Ishfaq Ahmed were also addressed on the occasion. Muhammad Hafeezullah Mahar coordinator, Nazeer Ahmed the deputy coordinator, Haque Nawaz the secretary, Bashir Ahmed the deputy secretary, Masood Bhayo the communication secretary and Muhammad Hajan Mahar, Abdul Rahman Mahar and others were selected the members of the first citizen project. province of Sindh is 17.5 per cent and the Severely Acute Malnutrition (SAM) is 6.6 per cent. In 2014, the Sindh government announced establishment of Thar Development Authority to address the problem, however, the draft is still pending for approval. Lioness gave birth to three cubs at Lahore Zoo LAHORE, Feb 19: Director General Wildlife & Parks Punjab Khalid Ayaz Khan has said that three lionesses have given birth to three cubs each at Lahore Safari Zoo Park. He said that after the birth of these cubs, the number of lions has become 23 in Lahore Safari Zoo Park. He disclosed this while talking to media-men at his office, here today. He said that the lionesses giving birth to cubs is one mother (Kaloo) while other two are lionesses are Kajil and Rani. He told that Kajil and Rani had also born at Lahore Safari Zoo Park. He said that staff of Wildlife Department is looking after lionesses properly. KP Tourism Department seeks slogan from general public PESHAWAR, Feb 19: The Tourism Corporation Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (TCKP) has invited entries from the general public to suggest a slogan for the province that reflects the significance of tourism, culture, geography, history and heritage of the region, stated the Managing Director TCKP Mr. Mushtaq Ahmad Khan. He said during media briefing that the competition titled "Suggest a Slogan" is one of the innovative ideas of the TCKP to involve general public, be it events, writing, blogs and photography competitions, to elicit their valuable views and opinions about the values, culture and tourism". As the name suggests, the aim is to give a slogan to the beautiful province of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa. HYDERABAD: HESCO officials along with Sindh Rangers busy in operation against payment defaulters and electricity thieves.
Saturday, February 20, 2016 International 5 US aircraft hit militants in Libya, more than 40 reported dead TRIPOLI, Feb 19: U.S. warplanes carried out air strikes early on Friday morning in the western Libyan city of Sabratha, where Islamic State militants operate, killing as many as 40 people. A U.S. military spokesman said the attacks targeted a senior Tunisian militant linked to attacks in Tunisia last year. Sabratha's mayor, Hussein al-Thwadi, told the planes struck at 3.30 a.m. (0130 GMT), hitting a building in the Qasr Talil district in which foreign workers were living. He said 41 people had been killed and six wounded. The death toll could not immediately be confirmed with other officials. Tunisian security sources have said they believe Tunisian Islamic State fighters have been trained in camps near Sabratha, which is close to the Tunisian border. Two major attacks in MOSCOW, Feb 19: Russia’s envoy to the UN on Friday warned long-term ally President Bashar al-Assad over his vow to retake all of Syria, saying he faced dire consequences if he did not comply with Moscow over the peace process. "Russia has invested very seriously in this crisis, politically, diplomatically and now also militarily," Vitaly Churkin told Kommersant newspaper, referring to an international agreement to cease hostilities sealed in Munich last week. "Therefore we would like Assad also to respond to this," he said, adding that the Tunisia last year claimed by Islamic State - one on a Sousse resort hotel and another on a Tunis museum - were carried out by gunmen who officials said had trained in Libya. The New York Times earlier reported that Friday's air strikes targeted a senior Tunisian operative, Syrian leader’s stance "is not in accord with the diplomatic efforts that Russia is making." At their meeting in Munich, the 17-nation group backing Syria’s peace process agreed to work for a ceasefire, the lifting of starvation sieges and the resumption of talks. In an interview last week, Assad defiantly pledged to retake the whole of the country, speaking before the plan for a nationwide "cessation of hostilities" in Syria was announced. If Syria "follows Russia’s leadership in resolving this crisis, then they have a Noureddine Chouchane, connected to both of last year's attacks. The mayor said officials visited the site of the strike and found weapons in the building, but he did not give any further details. Some Tunisians, a Jordanian and two women were among the dead, he said. chance to come out of it in a dignified way," Churkin stressed. "If they in some way stray from this path -- and this is my personal opinion - - a very difficult situation could arise. Including for them," he warned. "If they proceed on the basis that no ceasefire is necessary and they need to fight to a victorious end, then this conflict will last a very long time and that is terrifying to imagine." Churkin however also suggested that Assad’s comments were made for political impact. "It isn’t worth putting too Several Tunisians who had recently arrived in Sabratha were among survivors. Since Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi was overthrown in 2011, the north African country has slipped deeper into chaos with two rival governments each backed by competing factions of former rebel brigades. Russia warns Assad on vow to retake all of Syria Palestinian shot dead after stabbing Israeli policemen in Jerusalem JERUSALEM, Feb 19: Israeli security forces shot dead a Palestinian man on Friday after he stabbed two police officers outside Jerusalem's walled Old City, police said, as a wave of heightened violence persisted into its fifth month. The bloodshed has raised concern of wider escalation a decade after the last Palestinian uprising subsided. "The terrorist attacked a police team from behind, stabbed and lightly wounded them. The team responded by gunfire and neutralized the terrorist," police spokeswoman Luba Samri said, adding that the man was killed. On Thursday two Palestinian 14-year-olds stabbed and killed an Israeli in a supermarket in the occupied West Bank before an armed civilian shot and wounded the teens, who were taken for treatment to Israeli hospitals in Jerusalem. Since October, stabbings, shootings and car rammings by Palestinians have killed 28 Israelis and a U.S. citizen. Israeli security forces have killed at least 164 Palestinians, 108 of whom Israel says were assailants, while most others were shot dead during violent anti- Israeli protests. Many Palestinian attackers have been teenagers. Tensions have been stoked by factors including a dispute over Jerusalem's al-Aqsa mosque compound and the failure of several rounds of peace talks to secure the Palestinians an independent state in Israeli-occupied territory. Palestinian leaders have said that with no breakthrough on the horizon, desperate youngsters see no future ahead. Israel says young Palestinians are being incited to violence by their leaders and by Islamist groups calling for Israel's destruction. Security officials have also pointed to economic hardship and social media as playing a role in triggering attacks. much significance into one statement or another and dramatising them," he said. "We should be guided not by what he says, with all respect for the statements of a person at such a high level, but by what he finally does." Churkin said of the Munich agreement that "Damascus, as I hope, understands this is a unique chance for Syria after five years of unremitting destruction." Russia launched air strikes in Syria in September last year to support Assad and fight "terrorists", saying it was targeting the Islamic State group and other militants. US making conflicting statements over Syrian Kurdish YPG ISTANBUL, Feb 19: Turkey's foreign minister accused the United States on Friday of making conflicting statements about the Syrian Kurdish YPG militia, in a sign of deepening divisions between the NATO allies over policy in Syria. Mevlut Cavusoglu said U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry had told him the Kurdish insurgents could not be trusted, in what Cavusoglu said was a departure from Washington's official position. Washington's support of the YPG in the fight against Islamic State in Syria has enraged Ankara, which fears advances by the Kurdish militia in northern Syria would stoke separatism among its own Kurdish minority. Turkey says the YPG was responsible for a car bombing in Ankara that killed 28 people this week. "Resorting to terrorist groups like the YPG in the fight against Daesh in Syria is above all a sign of weakness," Cavusoglu said, using an Arabic acronym for the Islamist group. As Islamic State has expanded in Libya, taking over the city of Sirte and attacking oil ports, so too have calls increased for a swift Western response to stop the group establishing a base outside its Iraq and Syria territory. Western officials and diplomats have said air strikes and special forces operations are possible as well as an Italian-led "security stabilization" plan of training and advising. U.S. and European officials insist Libyans must invite help through a united government, but say they may still carry out unilateral action if needed. Last November the United States said it carried out an air strike on Libya's Derna to target Abu Nabil, also known as Wissam Najm Abd Zayd al Zubaydi, an Iraqi commander in Islamic State. N.Korea leader calls for more rocket launches SEOUL/SOUTH KOREA, Feb 19: North Korean leader Kim Jong-Un says his reclusive nation plans more “satellite launches” which the West sees as a cover for ballistic missile tests calling space exploration a “strategic goal”, state media said Friday. “Conquering space is … a fierce class struggle against the hostile forces seeking to usurp our peace and sovereignty”, Kim was quoted as saying at a Wednesday awards ceremony for those involved in this month’s rocket launch. He also underscored the need to successfully launch “more working satellites”, Pyongyang’s said. “The advance toward space… is the DPRK’s (North Korea’s) strategic goal”, he said. Calling the scientists involved in the February 7 launch “best patriots and admirable heroes”, Kim gave out medals, prizes and wristwatches bearing ames of two late leaders of the Kim dynasty Kim Il-Sung and Kim Jong-Il. NAIROBI, Feb 19: Wildlife rangers on Friday hunted for two lions who escaped from Nairobi’s national park and meandered into “highly populated” areas of the Kenyan capital. Kenya Wildlife Service (KWS) issued an appeal, “for help to get two lionesses that strayed from the Nairobi National Park.” Armed rangers, as well as KWS vets with dart guns, scoured bush and agricultural land alongside the Kibera district, one of Africa’s largest slums. “Lions are dangerous wild animals. Avoid provoking the lions by confronting them,” said KWS I will be happy if I achieve what Maneesh wanted MUMBAI, Feb 19: A more than two-decade long illustrious career with close to 100 movies, but superstar Shah Rukh Khan says he felt incompetent filming his upcoming drama "Fan" The 50-year-old actor believes without director Maneesh Sharma's guidance, he would not have been able to do justice to the character of Gaurav. "Fan" shows Shah Rukh in double avatars--a superstar, Aryan Khanna and his young look-alike admirer Gaurav. While Aryan is close to how the "Dilwale" star is in real life, it took him some time to understand the psyche of a fan. "I won't say it was easy because I was playing a movie star, the way I do in real life so it doesn't take you away from the real world... Maneesh and the whole team had a great understanding of how Gaurav was. "50 per cent of what you see Gaurav is a physical transformation-- prosthetics and the VFX have been used. 100 per cent Gaurav is Maneesh's vision. I don't think I have done 100 per cent what Maneesh may have wanted because he was very clear about it," Shah ABUJA, Feb 19: At least 19 people have lost their lives in twin bomb attacks targeting a local market in Cameroon’s volatile northern region, security officials say. Military sources said two bombers on Friday detonated their explosives at the market in Meme, a department of Southwest Province, killing 19 people and injuring about 50 others. No group or individual has so far claimed responsibility for the Friday attack, but the Nigeria-based Boko Haram terrorist group has carried out similar assaults in the northern parts of the country over Rukh told reporters here. The actor said he is fine with taking credit for a lot of characters he had played in his career, but for this particular role he had to go by the thought process the director had. "I wouldn't have been able to play the role. I just knew the superficiality of fan before Maneesh told me the past months. On February 10, two female bombers killed six civilians in a northern Cameroon region bordering militancy-wracked Nigeria. The assaults hit the village of Nguetchewe, where people had joined the follow-up to a funeral ceremony Cameroon has joined a regional military alliance alongside Niger, Chad and Nigeria in the battle against Boko Haram. Cameroon has lost some 1,200 people to attacks by Boko Haram, which spread its campaign of terrorism to the country in 2013. the depth and how well understood was Gaurav. If I achieve what Maneesh wanted then I will be very happy. I don't know what I was playing; I was just following Maneesh's instructions." SRK was all praise for the "Band Baaja Baaraat" helmer and his team for "bearing with him." Twin bombing kills 19 in northern Cameroon spokesman Paul Udoto. At least two lionesses are reported to have late Thursday left the park, spread over 117 square kilometres (45 square miles) where buffalo and rhino roam just seven kilometres from the bustling high-rise city centre. Local media reported as many as six lions might be on the loose. It is not the first time lions have prowled into town. The big cats are under growing pressure as one of Africa’s fastest Over 100 people have reportedly been killed in the far northern region in about 20 bomb blasts blamed on the Daesh-affiliated Takfiri group since July 2015. The Boko Haram militancy began in Nigeria in 2009, when the terrorist group started an armed rebellion against the government. At least 17,000 people have been killed and more than 2.5 million made homeless ever since. The terrorists have pledged allegiance to the Takfiri Daesh terrorist group, which is primarily operating inside Syria and Iraq. Panic as lions on the loose in Kenyan capital growing cities creeps onto ancient migration routes and hunting grounds. Sometimes the lions are killed by livestock farmers protecting their herds, other times they prowl leafy gardens giving residents a fright. “These are highly populated areas and that is why we are intensifying the search,” Udoto said. “Anyone with information about them should share it with us immediately.” Lock up your children Udoto said two lionesses were last sighted around Nairobi’s Langata district. “Our teams comprising veterinary officials have been in Langata looking for the animals,” he said. Austria enforces plan to limit daily refugee numbers VIENNA, Feb 19: Austria was to impose daily caps on Friday on the number of refugees entering the country despite EU warnings that the move runs contrary to the 28- nation bloc’s law. Vienna said it would implement the plan to only let in 3,200 people a day, adding it is also slated to limit the number of asylum claims at 80 a day from Friday. “I am very happy with our decision and we will stick to it,” Interior Minister Johanna Mikl-Leitner as she arrived for a summit of EU leaders, adding Vienna “will have to reduce these upper limits further.” The decision comes despite a warning by the EU’s top migration official, who said the plan is against the continental body’s law. “What the Austrians have decided is not according to European laws,” EU Migration Commissioner Dimitris Avramopoulos said on Thursday. “There are some principles and laws that all countries must respect and apply,” he added. On Thursday, Austria’s interior minister brushed aside criticism of her country’s plan to limit daily refugee numbers, saying the plan would be put into operation as foreseen. She said Germany’s past decision to introduce limits remains legal and “is of course also so for Austria.” Europe is facing an unprecedented influx of refugees who are fleeing conflict-ridden zones in Africa and the Middle East, particularly Syria. The continent has failed to come up with a coherent and effective response to the worst refugee crisis since World War II. Most asylum seekers have tended to use Austria, a key place of transit in 2015, as a means of reaching Germany. Merkel’s open-door policy ‘total failure’ Some 1.1 million asylum seekers entered Germany last year, sparking heavy criticism of Chancellor Angela Merkel’s open-door refugee policy. Russia and France have criticized Merkel’s policy for the inflow, saying the strategy is a “total failure” and not sustainable in the long run. “European migration policy is a total failure, all that is absolutely frightening,” Russian Prime Minister Dimitry Medvedev said in an interview with the leading German language business newspaper Handelsblatt last week. Medvedev further noted that he attaches “great value to humanity” and wants “to help refugees” displaced by conflicts in their homelands The Russian premiere, however, warned that “among these people, there are also many, perhaps hundreds, or even thousands, of thugs who have come to Europe on a ‘countdown mission.’ In similar remarks last week, French Prime Minister Manuel Valls said Merkel’s policy was “unsustainable in the long term,” saying Europe “has to regain control over its borders, over its migration or asylum policies.” On January 30, Merkel defended her refugee policy, arguing that asylum seekers from Syria and Iraq would go back home once the conflicts there end. “We need ... to say to people that this is a temporary residential status and we expect that once there is peace in Syria again, once IS (Daesh) has been defeated in Iraq, that you go back to your home country with the knowledge that you have gained,” she said. Austria deported hundreds of refugees back to neighboring Slovenia in December 2015 on the ground that they had allegedly lied about their nationality in a failed attempt to be granted asylum. Observers say major European powers are to blame for the exodus as their policies have led to a surge in terrorism and war in those regions, forcing more people to flee their homes. Certain Western media outlets, along with far-right activists, have taken advantage of the refugee crisis unfolding in Europe to fuel Islamophobic sentiments across the continent.
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