8-14 January 2018 - 16-min

NEW DELHI TIMES 

R.N.I. No 53449/91 DL-SW-01/4124/17-19 (Monday/Tuesday same week) (Published Every Monday) New Delhi Page 16 Rs. 7.00 

8 - 14 January, 2018 Vol - 27 No. 49 Email : info@newdelhitimes.com Founder : Dr. Govind Narain Srivastava ISSN -2349-1221 

China accords top 

priority to Sino-Indian 

border dispute 

North America, Japan, India and 

the Trans Pacific Partnership 

David Kilgour 

Page 12 

erik solheim 

EU rebuffs Israel; Opposes US 

stand on Jerusalem 

NDT Bureau 

Page 12 

NDT Special Bureau Page 2 

Need for Regulating Drug 

Testing on Dogs 

Smt. Maneka Sanjay Gandhi 

Page 14 

This New Year; a New You? 

Dr. Pramila Srivastava 

Page 13 

Pakistan’s Political Turmoil ahead 

of 2018 Elections 

Dr. Ankit Srivastava 

Page 3 

Iran reminds us of the dangers 

of Islamism 

Tarek Fatah 

Page 2 

1 

twitter@NewDelhiTimes 

facebook.com/newdelhitimes 

www.NewDelhiTimes.com

2 

8 - 14 January, 2018 

I 

Editorial 

www.NewDelhiTimes.com 

◆◆ 

By Tarek Fatah 

Author & Columnist, Canada 

@TarekFatah 

tarek.fatah@gmail.com 


China accords top priority to Sino-Indian 

◆◆ 

By NDT Special Bureau 

@NewDelhiTimes 

info@newdelhitimes.com 

n a news report in Global Times on 21st 

December, 2017, Liu Xin elaborates 

the latest trends on Sino-Indian relations 

on the eve of 20th Special Representatives’ 

(SR)- level Meeting on the China-India 

Boundary Questions on December 22 

between India and China at the invitation 

of National Security Adviser Ajit Doval. 

The seventy-three-day-long military standoff 

between India and China in Doklam 

Iran reminds us of the dangers of Islamism 

n the day after Iran erupted into yet 

O 

another revolt against the dictatorship 

of “Supreme Leader” Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, 

much of the mainstream media in the West 

acted as if nothing had happened. 

As Iranian women tore off their hijabs in 

protest on Thursday, the Friday edition 

of one Toronto paper carried a large 

photograph of two women in hijabs on the 

cover of its “insight” section, with the title 

#ACTIVISM. 

For many Iranians in Canada, it could not 

have been a worse insult. 

The first protests in Iran erupted in the 

country’s second-largest city of Mashhad. 

They are most certainly of an economic 

nature. One does not need to be a Marxist 

to connect the dots between the economic 

deprivation of a million slum dwellers and 

their desire for economic change. 

Keyvan Soltany, a Toronto-based Iranian 

activist, shared the work of Ali Ranji Poor, 

a BBC Persian-language journalist, who 

wrote an eye opening article on Sept. 1, 

2016, revealing that one of every three 

people living in Mashhad resides in slums, 

in deplorable conditions. 

border dispute 

ended amidst bitterness as Chinese officials 

repeatedly threatened India in pursuance of 

their psychological warfare. 

The visiting Chinese team to New Delhi 

consisted of member of the Political Bureau 

of the CPC Central Committee and State 

Councillor Yang Jiechi. Both parties met at 

Delhi for a new round of bilateral talks on 

border issues and other key bilateral topics. 

Photo Credit : Shutterstock 

“This is the 20th SR-level meeting. The 

complicated border issues that emerged out 

of the Doklam stand-off will top the agenda, 

particularly as India is trying to pick new 

disputes related to the Doklam area,” Zhao 

Gancheng, director of the Center for Asia- 

Poor predicted these million-strong Iranian 

paupers were on the verge of a revolt, 

against what the Iranian regime referred to 

as “austerity measures”. So when the price 

of eggs jumped seven times and bread 

became a luxury because of skyrocketing 

costs, the slum dwellers of Mashhad came 

out on the streets to protest. 

They were soon joined by political activists 

of every shade, from Maryam Rajavi’s 

MEK, to women’s groups belonging to the 

“White Wednesday” anti-Hijab movement, 

to monarchists, to Marxists. It was a perfect 

storm. 

Nobel Laureate Shirin Ebadi, speaking to 

the Italian newspaper La Repubblica, has 

now warned: “I think the [current] protests 

Pacific Studies at the Shanghai Institute for 

International Studies, told the Global Times. 

The meeting also discussed the modalities of 

how to better control border related disputes. 

Given the complicated nature of the dispute 

that predates even Chinese war of 1962 

both China and India may not find it easy 

to define and demarcate the Line of Actual 

Control (LAC). 

The divergences between the two sides 

on verifying the LAC are too many to be 

overcome in a single attempt. However both 

have been ‘exchanging maps over the past 

10 years,’ said Sun Shihai, deputy director 

of the Institute of Asia-Pacific Studies of the 

Chinese Academy of Social Sciences. 

On June 18, Chinese troops crossed into 

the territory in Doklam, in violation of the 

tripartite agreement among China, India and 

Bhutan-an act firmly opposed by the New 

Delhi. 

“Both China and India will strengthen 

infrastructure construction along the 

border to make it easier for regular area 

patrols” and senior officials from the two 

sides need to better communicate to avoid 

misunderstandings. 

China and India will also exchange ideas 

on other bilateral issues, including future 

cooperation in an effort to enhance their 

damaged state of mutual trust, say Chinese 

experts. They also emphasize that the twosides 

[in Iran] are not going to end soon. It seems 

to me that we are witnessing the beginning 

of a big protest movement that can go well 

beyond the Green wave of 2009. It would 

not surprise me if it becomes something 

bigger.” 

To get a sense of how Canada’s Iranian-born 

Liberal MPs felt about the uprising, I reached 

out to two Toronto-area parliamentarians, 

including Richmond Hill’s Majid Jowhari. 

Neither responded to my queries or shared 

their opinions. 

Jowhari’s views would have been interesting 

to know because early last year he was 

criticized by some Iranian-Canadians for 

lobbying for friendlier relations with the 

current Iranian regime. 

need to enhance mutual trust as well as 

better control disputes so that Doklam is not 

repeated again. 

Chinese experts unnecessarily blame India 

for pressurizing China by way of border 

disputes and always projecting China as an 

imaginary enemy. They suggest that China 

and India should not demonize each other 

or make it into a zero-sum game but rather 

have greater cooperation on matters of new 

global governance and climate change. 

They advised further that instead of treating 

China as an offender in the Indian Ocean, 

India should take an active part in China’s 

Belt and Road initiative and make joint 

efforts with China on protecting sea routes. 

There seems to be some predominant voices 

in India who feel strongly feel that the 

country should cooperate more with the US, 

Japan and Australia to contain China. These 

overwhelming consensus not withstanding 

China hopes India will think twice before 

inciting a direct confrontation with China. 

For China, addressing border disputes with 

India now constitutes top of the agenda. 

Beijing is aware that unless India joins 

OBOR, its success could be doubtful; hence 

it is too keen that India should join to ensure 

success. 

The representatives have already stated after 

initial round of talks that both countries need 

to maintain peace and tranquillity across the 

border to resolve the dispute peacefully. 

In a letter sent to Prime Minister Justin 

Trudeau, several Richmond Hill residents 

said they did not want to be represented by 

someone who is “working in the interest of a 

foreign country”. 

(Jowhari told yorkregion.com news at the 

time that a petition he sponsored to push 

for reopening the Iranian embassy, and his 

meetings with Iranian parliamentarians, 

were simply intended to encourage dialogue 

between Canada and Iran.) 

On New Year’s eve, I chatted with two 

Muslim residents of Richmond Hill, Aftab 

Chowdhury and Intizar Zaidi, who voiced 

similar concerns, saying some MPs of 

Iranian origin appear to be more interested 

in representing Iran in Canada, than in 

representing their constituents to the federal 

government. 

They also criticized Liberal MPs who 

support the federal government’s so-called 

“anti-Islamophobia” motion, M103, while 

not speaking out in favour of the ongoing 

protests in Iran. 

In any event, the Middle East is undergoing 

a historical change with Iran and Saudi 

Arabia on different tracks, but both moving 

away from rule by clergy. 

That bodes well, except for Pakistan, which 

is inheriting the runoff from both countries.

8 - 14 January, 2018 3 

Editorial 


Pakistan’s Political Turmoil ahead of 2018 Elections 

T 

◆◆ 

By Dr. Ankit Srivastava 

Editor - in - Chief 

@AnkitNDT 

ankits@newdelhitimes.com 

he feud in Pakistan between the 

Punjabi Pakistani Army and the 

disqualified corrupt Prime Minister Nawaz 

Sharif continues. 

The investigations in the Panama Papers 

case led to the resignation of Nawaz Sharif 

from his office making him the 18th Prime 

Minister not to complete his full term. A 

court appointed Joint Investigation Team 

found Sharif to be dishonest in failing to 

disclose his employment in UAE based 

company. Investigations still continue against 

the Sharif family and in October 2017, the 

National Accountability Bureau (NAB) 

indicted Sharif, his daughter Maryam Nawaz, 

son-in-law Muhammad Safdar Awan on 

corruption charged for owning a flat in 

London. 

But the allegations have not led Nawaz 

Sharif stepping down from the leadership 

and key decision making from his political 

party Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N), 

which is still the country’s ruling party. 

Major key decision-making positions are 

still held by the immediate family members 

and close circle of political allies, who all 

occupy senior and key positions in the 

cabinet. Shahid Khaqan Abbasi, who is 

known to be the interim Prime Minister 

of Pakistan, is one of the closest allies of 

Nawaz Sharif who shall continue to serve 

till the elections in 2018. Nawaz Sharif;s 

civilian government has in the past opposes 

T 

◆◆By NDT US Bureau 



the Pakistani Army and the well-known 

Pakistan’s Intelligence agency ISI (Inter 

Service Intelligence). Nawaz Sharif is the 

only civilian Prime Minister who pursued 

treason charges against the military coup 

mastermind of 1999 and then Chief of 

Army Staff Pervez Musharraf. Nawaz Sharif 

denies all corruption allegations against him 

and blames “INVISIBLE POWERS” to be 

behind his removal. 

Political instability in Pakistan will always 

continue as civilian government and military 

have never had working relations since 

the country came into existence. For the 

upcoming elections, all political parties will 

look for military support to win the elections, 

be it PML-N or PTI. But since Nawaz Sharif 

seems to have burnt his bridges with the 

current military rulers, the front runner 

seems to be Imran Khan of PTI; the main 

battle ground will be the province of Punjab. 

The military rulers have agreed to provide 

support to Imran Khan for 3 provinces - 

Sindh, Azad Kashmir, & Gilgit Baltistan, 

while they are still debating for providing 

support for the remaining 3 provinces. 

Some of the scenarios for Pakistan’s Upcoming 

2018 elections are as follows: 

1. High Political Risk 

The Nawaz Sharif government promoted 

the country’s improvements in the economy, 

business confidence and infrastructure 

development. With its majority in the 

parliament, PML-N has passed legislations 

which are pro-business and anti-terrorism. 

On the other hand, Imran Khan’s PTI has 

always opposed the PML-N and accused it 

of election rigging and corruption which has 

always led to political instability and violent 

unrest. 

Instability in Pakistan since 2013 has led 

to major policy struggle between Nawaz 

Sharif and the military rulers. One of the key 

policy struggle between the two always have 

been India. Whereas the civilian government 

always wants to improve relations with 

India, the military has always opposed the 

idea for a peaceful resolution with India and 

Pakistan. 


The second policy struggle was of Nawaz 

Sharif negotiating with Tehreek-e-Taliban 

Pakistan (TTP) and trying to avoid military 

operations against the militant group’s 

stronghold in North Waziristan. The military 

on the other hand opposed the idea and 

encouraged PTI with Anti Government 

Protests. 

NDT Bureau’s Investigative journalist supports 

the idea that PTI’s anti government protest 

in Islamabad in 2014 was fully financed by 

the ISI for an amount of 10 crores Pakistani 

Rupees. 

2. Outside Pakistan Risk factors 

Since Nawaz Sharif has been removed 

from office, Pakistan-India relations have 

deteriorated. All negotiations including 

Kashmir, cross-border militancy and trade that 

were initiated by the PML-N government 

have been put on a backburner by Military’s 

order. 

Military’s fear has been reinforced by 

growing co-operation between US, India 

and Afghanistan and Trump’s Afghanistan 

policy, which seeks greater involvement 

of India in Afghanistan’s security and 

development. 

Military ruler’s apprehension on this India- 

US- Afghanistan Troika has further solidified 

the partnership between China and Pakistan 

and has also made the military top brass find 

ways of developing new ties with Russia as 

a military supplier and leaving North Korean 

technology to go waste. 

If Nawaz Sharif is able to form the new 

government in 2018 without the support 

of the Military, the new government will 

try and foster broken ties with India and 

try to bring peace and stability in Pakistan. 

Nawaz Sharif is also aiming at cutting down 

the military interference in the functioning 

of the civilian government. However, the 

military’s control of foreign policy means 

that the outcome of the 2018 election is 

unlikely to fundamentally alter Pakistan’s 

regional outlook. 

For Full Article : http://www. 

newdelhitimes.com/pakistans-politicalturmoil-ahead-of-2018-elections 

The US deems India a leading Global Power 

he newly unveiled National Security 

Strategy (NSS) of US regards India as a 

leading global power. Trump administration 

expressed openly its resolve to deepen 

US strategic partnership and support its 

leadership role in the region and beyond 

in maintaining security in the Indo-Pacific 

region. 

The detailed NSS report running to 68 

pages makes the US intent clear that it 

seeks to increase quadrilateral cooperation 

with regional powers like Japan India and 

Australia. ‘We welcome India’s emergence 

as a leading global power and a stronger 

strategic and defence partner’ said the report 

presented on December 18. 

Stressing that American vision for Indo- 

Pacific region excludes no nation the 

report indicated that America will extend 

its defence and security cooperation with 

India - a Major Defence Partner of the 

United States - and support India’s growing 

relationships throughout the region. 

The NSS report spoke highly of US-India 

defence relationships in the context of Indo- 

Pacific region. It also accorded a prominent 

role to India in South and Central Asia. Of 

late India has been expanding its relations 

with South east asia, so its expressed intent 

to expand footprint through ‘Act East’ policy 

is widely known but American insistence on 

India developing relations in Central Asia 

is a fresh encouraging approach, hence 

welcome. Mention of India’s leadership 

role in ‘Indian ocean security and broader 

region’ definitely imparts a positive strategic 

direction to India’s policy. 

China’s initiatives in South Asia like One 

Belt and One Road (OBOR) and China- 

Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) has 

disproportionately increased Chinese influence 

in the region. 

The US intends to ‘help South Asian 

countries ‘maintain their sovereignty’ in the 

teeth of Chinese opposition to Washington’s 

involvement in the region. “We will help South 

Asian nations maintain their sovereignty as 

China extends its influence in the region,” 

it said. 

The US has taken note of recent Chinese 

advances in Sri Lanka and Maldives - the 

moves seen basically as designs to encroach 

on their sovereignty. Even the China 

Pakistan Economic corridor built as part 

of One Belt One Road (OBOR) initiative 

that connects China’s Xinxiang province 

with port city of Gwadar has raised similar 

fears in Pakistan. India opposes CPEC as it 

passes through area which belongs to India 

but currently under Pakistani occupation. So 

here also remains the issue of sovereignty. 

There are also other angles to US cosying 

up to New Delhi. Pakistan has been habitual 

tormentor of its neighbours like Afghanistan 

and India. Now Washington is feeling the 

heat of Pak sponsored terror in Afghanistan 

hence sympathising with New Delhi. It 

continues to face threats from transnational 

terrorists and militants operating from within 

Pakistan. That explains why this time around 

Washington is too specific and particular 

about stopping Pakistan support to terrorists 

operating in Afghanistan much against the 

interests of Washington and Kabul. 

The US is now extremely focused on its 

interests in South Asian region, thanks to the 

Afghan muddle. It is wary of terror threat 

that impacts the security of the US home land 

and its allies. It wants to prevent cross border 

terrorism that could snowball into horrifying 

prospects of military and nuclear tensions, 

as well as nuclear weapons, technology and 

materials falling into the hands of terrorists. 

It is in this framework that US wants India 

to step up as a leading global power. That 

solves basically two purposes. First of all 

it could blunt, to some extent, Pakistan’s 

freehand in promoting terror in Afghanistan 

that gets US stuck there. Secondly, it wants 

to check Chinese prominence in the region 

by raising the status of India as a global 

power as a counterbalancing measure. 


4 


World 


Thousands remain missing after Iraq’s victories against IS 

I 

n 2014, Abdulrahman Saad was taken 

from his home in Mosul by Islamic 

State fighters, leaving his family in limbo. 

They asked IS security offices and judges: 

Where is our husband and father? No 

answer. When the operation to retake Mosul 

began, they heard he was being held in 

the western part of the city, with hundreds 

of other prisoners. But when the area was 

liberated, they found no trace of Saad, the 

Photo Credit : AP Photo 

59-year-old owner of a wholesale food store. 

“Life without my father is difficult,” says his 

son, Rami. Without him, the Saads struggle 

to get by, and his wife pines for her spouse. 

In their misery, they have company. Since 

Mosul was declared liberated in July, 

residents have submitted more than 3,000 

missing-persons reports to Nineveh’s 

provincial council, according to council 

member Ali Khoudier. Most of them are 

men or teenage boys. Some were arrested by 

IS during the group’s extremist rule; others 

were detained by Iraqi forces on suspicion of 

extremist ties. 

Regardless, Iraqi government bureaucracy, 

inefficiency and neglect have left thousands 

of families across Iraq hanging as the 

country’s leadership celebrates the defeat 

of IS. In a small garden outside of a 

Mosul courthouse, dozens wait to hear if 

investigators have news of their missing 

relatives. They cling to thick files of 

papers: identity documents, official forms, 

glossy family photos and “missing person” 

advertisements from a local paper. It is 

unlikely they will hear good news. 

“It will be years before these people know 

what exactly happened to their relatives,” 

said an investigator, as anxious relatives 

tapped on the windows behind his desk and 

hovered at his office door. 

The investigator, who spoke on condition of 

anonymity, said the Iraqi government doesn’t 

have enough forensic experts to exhume the 

dozens of mass graves discovered as territory 

has been retaken from IS. And the country’s 

judicial system isn’t equipped to efficiently 

process the thousands of detainees scooped 

up by security forces. Some 20,000 people 

are being held at detention centers across 

Iraq on suspicion of ties to IS, according 

to a report from Human Rights Watch this 

month. 

In Anbar province, where victory was 

declared in the cities of Ramadi and 

Fallujah more than a year ago, more than 

2,900 people remain missing, according to 

Mohammed Karbouli, a member of Iraq’s 

parliamentary committee on defense and 

security from Anbar. He said those missing 

from Anbar are becoming a symbol of the 

lack of trust between Anbar’s mostly Sunni 

residents and the Shiite-dominated central 

government in Baghdad. 

When parents don’t know the fate of their 

children, he warned, “tensions emerge.” 

Just south of Mosul, an unthinkable number 

of Iraqis are believed to be buried in a natural 

sinkhole that became one of the Islamic 

State group’s most infamous mass graves. 

Some Iraqi officials estimate as many as 

4,000 people were tossed into the cavernous, 

natural crevasse in the barren desert on the 

road linking Mosul to Baghdad— some 

already dead, others still living and buried 

alive. 

IS fighters “would bring them and make 

them get out (of the car) and line up at the 

edge of the hole,” said Mohammed Younis, 

a resident of the area, recounting the weeks 

and months leading up to the fight for 

Mosul. “They would line them up and then 

they would execute them. And the bodies 

would all fall into the hole.” 

An AP investigation has found at least 133 

mass graves left behind by the defeated 

extremists, and only a handful have been 

exhumed. Many of the missing — especially 

the thousands of Yazidis unaccounted for 

since Islamic State fighters slaughtered and 

enslaved the minority — may ultimately be 

buried there. Estimates total between 11,000 

and 13,000 bodies in the graves, according 

to the AP tally. 

But not all of the missing were spirited 

away by the Islamic State. Some families in 

and around Mosul say their relatives were 

taken by unidentified gunmen after IS was 

defeated. “It was the middle of the day, 3:30 

in the afternoon. A silver pickup truck drove 

into the village and took my brother,” Elias 

Ahmed explained as he walked along the 

dusty main road leading to his home in the 

sprawling Bijwaniya agricultural village. 

Ghazwan Ahmed was taken along with four 

other young men in August. They have not 

been seen since. 

“The men who took him didn’t even identify 

themselves, they just said they worked in 

intelligence,” he explained. 

Elias Ahmed spent weeks shuttling between 

the different headquarters buildings of Iraq’s 

disparate security services in and around 

Mosul. The federal police, Sunni tribal 

paramilitary fighters, local policemen and 

the Iraqi army all control different sections 

of Mosul and the surrounding Nineveh 

countryside. Each group maintains its own 

records of detentions and arrests. 

Ahmed went looking for answers at a court 

north of Mosul in the small, historically 

Christian town of Tel Keif, established 

especially to process those charged with 

terrorism. Each morning, family members 

gather outside its gates in hope of tracking 

down missing relatives. 

Inside, judges process close to 100 cases 

a day. Many trials last no longer than 30 

minutes. 

Yasser Hafahdy, an attorney from Mosul 

working at the court, defended the practice 

of arresting people without informing their 

families where they would be held or the 

charges against them. He said the court was 

overwhelmed by the sheer number of IS 

suspects arrested and could not spare the 

time or resources to reach out to families. 

Since the court opened its doors in March, 

about a dozen judges have processed more 

than 15,000 cases. More than 60 percent 

have been found guilty, Hafahdy estimated. 

“What we need is a Judge Dredd, you know, 

Sylvester Stallone,” Hafahdy said, referring 

to a 1995 dystopian action film in which a 

traditional justice system is replaced by 

armed judges who patrol city streets acting 

as police, judge, jury and executioner. At a 

nearby detention center, hundreds of men 

sat in cramped rooms, and dozens of women 

and child detainees shuffled between a 

windowless room and an open courtyard. 

“The Iraqi government was completely 

unprepared for all the people taken 

prisoner while fighting Daesh,” said an 

Iraqi lieutenant colonel overseeing a 

different detention center just south of 

Mosul. “Honestly we expected more field 

executions. But human rights organizations 

were monitoring the operations, so we began 

taking people prisoner instead.” 

The Iraqi officer, who spoke on condition that 

he was only identified by his rank because he 

was not authorized to talk to journalists, said 

that during the Mosul operation hundreds of 

people passed through his detention center 

on their way to Baghdad for trials. During 

the height of the fighting, the small rooms 

used as makeshift cells were packed with 

prisoners. 

“We know that this is a violation of human 

rights,” he said. The squalid conditions were 

due to the backlog of cases in Baghdad, he 

said, and families were unable to track down 

arrested relatives until the detainees were 

processed in the capital. 

Rami Saad continues to look. The search has 

taken him to government detention centers 

and hospitals in and around Mosul and 

lawyers’ offices in Baghdad. Rami traveled 

to the Health Ministry’s forensic department 

in Mosul to look over lists of people 

confirmed killed by IS. If Abdulrahman 

Saad’s death could be established, at least 

the wife would receive his pension. 

“But we didn’t find my father’s name,” 

Rami said, and so “we have a glimmer of 

hope. Perhaps he is still alive.” 

Credit : Associated Press (AP) 

Iceland requires companies to prove equal pay for women 

A 

new law in Iceland is requiring all 

companies to prove that their wage 

practices don’t discriminate against women, 

in what is thought to be a global first in the 

effort to reduce gender pay gaps. 

25 workers will have to obtain an “equal 

pay certification” from an accredited auditor 

showing that they are basing pay differences 

on legitimate factors such as education, 

skills and performance. 

The law, which was passed with a large 

majority by parliament in June, took effect at 

the New Year. It seeks to erase a current pay 

gap between men and women of about 5.7 

percent that can’t be explained by differing 

work hours, experience or education levels, 

as measured by Statistics Iceland. 

While other countries, and the U.S. state 

of Minnesota, have equal-salary certificate 

policies, Iceland is believed to be the first 

to make it mandatory for both private and 

public firms. 

The North Atlantic island nation, which 

has a population of about 330,000, wants 

to eradicate the gender pay gap by 2022. 

The country has a female prime minister, 

Katrin Jakobsdottir, and ranks first on the 

World Economic Forum’s global gender 

equality index. Companies with more than 

Big companies with more than 250 

employees have until the end of the year to 

get the certification, while the smallest have 

until the end of 2021. The certification must 

be renewed every three years. 

Employers’ associations came out against 

the law, saying that it imposed costly 

compliance burdens and involved too much 

government interference in the labor market. 

Some academic economists also were 

skeptical of the certification requirement, 

arguing that the gap resulted from nongender 

related factors that would be apparent 

if the statistical measures were perfect. 

While the law might help eliminate the 

unexplained pay gap, it likely won’t address 

the larger, explainable pay difference of 

22 percent between the sexes that is based 

on different work volumes, according to a 

report by Stefan Olafsson of the University 

of Iceland for the European Social Policy 

Network. The network provides independent 

policy analysis to the European Commission. 

“That is still a gendered pay difference 

rooted in the fact that women take greater 

responsibility for care tasks within the 

household, while men spend more time in 

paid work,” Olafsson wrote. 

“Still, one may assume that the certification 

requirement will forward the ethos of gender 

and other equality issues in Icelandic society, 

both directly and indirectly,” he wrote. 





World 

Kim says US 

should know North 

Korean nuclear 

N 

force a reality 

orth Korean leader Kim Jong Un said 

that the United States should be aware 

that his country’s nuclear forces are now a 

reality, not a threat. 

But he also struck a conciliatory tone in his 

New Year’s address, wishing success for 

the Winter Olympics set to begin in South 

Korea in February and suggesting the North 

may send a delegation to participate. 

Kim, wearing a Western-style gray suit and 

tie, said in his customary annual address that 

his country had achieved the historic feat of 

“completing” its nuclear forces and added 

that he has a nuclear button on his desk. 

“The U.S. should know that the button for 

nuclear weapons is on my table,” he said 

during the speech, as translated by The 

Associated Press. 

“The entire area of the U.S. mainland is 

within our nuclear strike range. ... The 

United States can never start a war against 

me and our country,” Kim said. 

He also called for improved relations with 

the South, an idea mentioned in speeches 

more often than it is met. He said the 

Pyeongchang Winter Olympics would be 

a good opportunity to showcase the status 

of the Korean nation. He also said the two 

Koreas could meet urgently to discuss the 

North sending a delegation. 

“The Winter Olympic games that will be held 

soon in the South will be a good opportunity 

to display the status of the Korean nation 

and we sincerely wish that the event will be 

held with good results,” he said. 

South Korea’s presidential office said 

it welcomed the proposal to hold talks 

between government officials over the issue 

of North Korea sending a delegation to the 

Olympics. The office of President Moon 

Jae-in said the successful hosting of the 

Pyeongchang Olympics would contribute to 

peace and harmony not only on the Korean 

Peninsula and in Northeast Asia, but in the 

entire world. 

The New Year’s address is an annual event 

in North Korea and is watched closely for 

indications of the direction and priorities 

Kim may adopt in the year ahead. 

This year’s speech was seen as particularly 

important because of the high tensions over 

Pyongyang’s frequent missile launches and 

its nuclear test in 2017. The tests were the 

focus of fiery verbal exchanges between 

North Korea and President Donald Trump, 

who has derisively called Kim “little rocket 

man.” 

Kim also stressed North Korea’s economic 

achievements during the speech, and noted 

the importance of improving the nation’s 

standard of living. 



“P 


How Iran Protests Play into Middle East 

Power Struggles 

art of me is feeling hope,” said 

Arash Azizi, a New York University 

researcher, far from his home in Iran. “We 

see the rising up of the downtrodden.” 

“But I am even more worried than hopeful,” 

he added. 

More than 20 people have been killed and 

450 arrested since a protest movement in 

cities and towns across Iran began in late 

December, and analysts say if it continues, 

the impact many not just be in Iran, but 

across the region. 

Mostly peaceful protests could turn into 

clashes and Iran’s rivals are watching for 

the prospect of a weakened state, according 

to Reza Marashi, research director with 

the National Iranian American Council. 

Protesters are demanding an end to 

“mismanagement, nepotism and corruption,” 

he said, and have called for the fall of the 

government in recent days. Unlike mass 

protests in 2009 against an election seen as 

illegitimate, the movement is without clear 

leadership, and normally outspoken activists 

in Iran have been largely silent. It is still not 

clear if the demonstrations will continue with 

the same velocity as they have in the past 

week. And if they do, according to Marashi, 

it is too early to predict an outcome. 

The 2009 protests lasted for months, but 

were ultimately crushed by security forces. 

Thousands of people were arrested and 

dozens killed. The election results were 

upheld. Current protests have attracted 

considerably smaller crowds, but in a larger 

number of cities and towns, said Marashi. 

“It’s more important to see how it plays out 

over the weeks and months,” he said. 

Iran-Saudi rivalry 

Iran is embroiled in proxy wars with Saudi 

Arabia in Syria and Yemen, as well as 

funding Hezbollah, a Lebanese military and 

Israeli archenemy. It is also a key player 

in Iraq, and its internal politics have the 

potential to impact almost every corner of 

the region. Among the protesters’ grievances 

are vast sums of money sent abroad while 

people are hungry at home. 

In the past two years, tensions between 

Tehran and Riyadh have become explosive, 

and Iranian officials have accused Saudi 

Arabia, the United States and Britain of 

having a hand in the protests. “This is a 

silly claim, with no basis in fact,” said 

Mark Fitzpatrick, executive director of the 

International Institute for Strategic Studies’ 

Americas office. “It is farcical because the 

Saudis have little influence in Iran.” 

In recent days, protesters also began calling 

for the collapse of their government, 

demanding “Death to the dictator!” and 

“Clerics should get lost!” Among Iran’s 

main rivals, this sparked speculation — or 

perhaps hope — that the Iranian government 

will fall or be damaged. 

For Saudi Arabia, this could mean a shift 

of regional power toward Riyadh as Iran’s 

influence and ability to fight regional 

conflicts decrease, according to Khaled 

Almaeena, a Saudi political and media 

analyst based in Jeddah. “For too long, Iran 

has been interfering with other states,” he 

said. 

Domino effect 

If the past is an indicator of the future, 

these protests are likely to lead to a violent 

crackdown if they continue, according to 

Azizi of NYU.And while many protesters 

have expressed a willingness to risk physical 

harm to achieve their aims, there has yet 

to emerge any alternative to the current 

government. 

“Some people say, If we want to bring down 

the Islamic Republic, I’m the first to sign 

up,’” he said. “’But what’s next?’” Violence 

on Iranian streets may also increase the 

threat of clashes in other parts of the region, 

according to Josepha Ivanka Wessels, a 

senior researcher at Lund University in 

Sweden. 

“The prospect of major bloodshed at the 

hands of the state looms large and if that 

happens, the ensuing domino effect could 

create yet another volatile and explosive 

situation in an already stormy and dangerous 

region,” she writes in The Conversation, a 

journal that features articles written by 

academics. 

Real change? 

Still, many in Iran are hopeful that the 

protests will inspire real change at any cost, 

according to Azizi. “People ask how long are 

we going to keep up this bizarre regime that 

takes up our blood and treasure to survive,” 

he said. 

Iranian President Hassan Rouhani, widely 

seen as progressive and democratically 

elected, has spoken up for the public’s right 

to express their grievances, but has also 

downplayed the protest movement. 

“Our great nation has witnessed a number 

of similar incidents in the past and has 

comfortably dealt with them. This is 

nothing,” he told Iranian members of 

parliament. 

Other Iranian leaders have stressed that 

the death penalty will be applied to some 

protest-related arrests. If demonstrators are 

not dissuaded by this threat and the lack of 

alternate leadership, some analysts say even 

continued protests may have no immediate 

impact. 

“The regime has full control of all 

security forces as well as the judiciary, the 

communications networks and other sources 

of power,” said Fitzpatrick. “So far, it has 

been retrained in exercising these tools of 

force, but it will not hesitate to do so if the 

protests grow to the point where they might 

be seen as threatening the regime’s hold on 

power.” 

In the context of Iranians’ long-term 

internal struggle for civil and political 

rights, these protests are significant, added 

the National Iranian American Council’s 

Marashi. “Iranians strive for democracy, not 

revolution,” he said. 

Credit : Voice of America (VOA) 


6 


Delhi/NCR News 

Ration distribution 

system made online 

for Delhiites 

A 

◆◆By NDT Bureau 



s a New Year gift to the beneficiaries, 

the Delhi government launched a 

scheme which will allow ration card holders 

to buy from any fair price shop (FPS) within 

the city. 

the ration distribution in all 2,254 fair price 

shops here has been made online and will 

now be managed through the electronic 

Point of Sale (e-PoS) devices. 

The Aadhaar-based e-PoS machines would 

use biometric identification to ensure that 

ration card-holders get their allotted share of 

foodgrains. 

“We have introduced ration portability 

scheme under which ration card holders 

can procure ration from any fair-price 

shop while shifting completely to the PoS 

device. 

However, this facility will be available 

only for online transactions. 

To avail this facility, biometric data of the 

beneficiaries must match the official record,” 

said, civil supplies minister Imran Hussain. 

“Distribution of food grains to 8% of the 

total card holders will be allowed off line 

so that the beneficiaries whose Aadhar 

authentication either fails or who still do not 

possess Aadhar cards do not face problem,” 

Hussain added. 

The minister also said that the department 

has agreed to consider a long pending 

demand of FPS owners to increase the 

margin money in order to enable them to 

bear the costs of running the shops. 

A 




T 

Swachh Survekshan 2018 

launched by government 




he Indian government has launched 

Swachh Survekshan 2018 - cleanliness 

survey for this year as part of Swachh Bharat 

Mission. 

Swachh Survekshan is a ranking exercise 

taken up by the Government of India to 

assess rural and urban areas for their levels 

of cleanliness and active implementation of 

Swachhata mission initiatives in a timely 

and innovative manner. 

The Swachh Survekshan 2018 will rank 500 

cities on national level which have more 

than 1 lakh population, while 3,541 cities 

with less than 1 lakh population will have 

State and Regional ranking, according to an 

official release. 

The objective of the survey is to encourage 

large scale citizen participation and create 

awareness amongst all sections of society 

about the importance of working together 

towards making towns and cities a better 

place to live in. 

Additionally, the survey also intends to 

foster a spirit of healthy competition among 

towns and cities to improve their service 

delivery to citizens, towards creating cleaner 

cities and towns. 

The Ministry of Urban Development, 

Government of India takes up the Swachh 

Survekshan in urban areas and the Ministry 

of Drinking Water and Sanitation in rural 

areas. 

The Quality Council of India (QCI) has been 

commissioned the responsibility of carrying 

out the assessment. 

As a prelude to encouraging cities to improve 

urban sanitation, Minister of Housing and 

Urban Affairs (formerly Ministry of Urban 

Development) had conducted ‘Swachh 

Survekshan-2016’ survey for the rating of 73 

cities in January 2016 followed by ‘Swachh 

Survekshan-2017’ conducted in January- 

February 2017 ranking 434 cities. 

In a bid to scale up the coverage of the ranking 

exercise and encourage towns and cities to 

actively implement mission initiatives in 

a timely and innovative manner, MoHUA 

now proposes to conduct its third survey to 

rank all 4041 cities based on assessment of 

progress from January 2017 till December 

2017 under Swachh Bharat Mission-Urban 

(SBM-U). 


NDMC declares 

all its wards 

open-defecation 

free 

T 




he North Delhi Municipal Corporation 

has declared all its 104 wards open 

defecation-free. 

North Delhi Mayor Preety Agarwal said 

that all out efforts are being made to Delhi 

cleaner and greener under the Swachh 

Bharat Mission. 

“North Corporation is making all out efforts 

to create on ground difference. One of the 

important parameters is to make the area 

‘Open Defecation Free’,” she said. 

Ms. Agarwal added that there are 314 

Community Toilet Complexes (CTCs), with 

3,508 seats for men and 3, 232 seats for 

women. 

“We have installed 22 mobile toilets, constructed 

14 community toilet complexes (CTC) in 

various areas. 

In addition to this, we have tied up with 

351 restaurants, 113 petrol pumps and 20 

non-government organisations to provide 

free access to the toilet complexes in their 

premises,” said senior North Corporation 

official. 

The Mayor added that though the toilets 

have been constructed, keeping them clean 

and maintaining them is a process that needs 

to be carried out by both the civic body and 

the people. 

“All the toilets have been uploaded on 

Google Maps, using which people can locate 

their closest toilets,” she said. 

“We have not only constructed new 

toilets but also undertaken mass public 

movement for stoppage of open defecation 

and beautifying public places,” said Madhup 

Vyas, commissioner, North Corporation. 

AAP declares Rajya Sabha nominations, 

excludes Kumar Vishwas 

am Aadmi Party has announced its 

nominees for elections to three Delhi 

Rajya Sabha seats. Sanjay Singh, Narayan 

Das Gupta and Sushil Gupta are the party’s 

nominees, while excluding Kumar Vishwas, 

a senior member of the party. 

The decision was announced after a meeting 

of the political affairs committee (PAC), the 

party’s highest decision-making body, called 

by AAP’s national convener and Delhi chief 

minister Arvind Kejriwal. 

There were several names in the contention 

within the AAP for the three seats for the 

Upper House of Parliament that go to polls 

in the mid-January. 

The election has also created bitterness in 

the party. 

Kumar Vishwas’ supporters had picketed the 

party office demanding that their leader, who 

founded AAP along with Arvind Kejriwal 

and Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia, 

be sent to parliament. 

But his frequent run-ins with Mr Kejriwal, 

who accuses Mr Vishwas of plotting to 

overthrow him as AAP chief, cancelled the 

chances of the poet-politician. 

The central leadership of Delhi’s ruling 

party clearly ignored party heavyweight and 

one of AAP’s founding members Kumar 

Vishwas in the process. 

“Whatever the name of those Guptas, 

congratulations to Kejriwal and them for 

loyal work to AAP...They will now sit where 

Atal Bihari Vajpayee, Indira Gandhi and 

other stalwarts sat...I have to say, I have 

never felt more disappointed with this party. 

They couldn’t have been more blatant about 

their shady dealings,” Mr Vishwas said. 



Delhi/NCR News 


Indian court paves way for takeover of 

tycoon’s businesses 

A 

New Delhi court declared India’s 

flamboyant tycoon Vijay Mallya a 

“proclaimed offender” for failing to appear 

to answer allegations of money laundering 

by flouting foreign currency laws. 

The order paves the way for the government 

to take over Mallya’s businesses and real 

estate holdings. 

Mallya is currently in London where a court 

is hearing whether he should be extradited 

as sought by India. 

Mallya was once hailed as India’s version 

of British tycoon Richard Branson for 

his investments in a brewing and liquor 

company, an airline, a Formula One team 

and an Indian Premier League cricket club. 

the 1990s. The Enforcement Directorate 

claimed that the money was paid without 

prior approval of India’s federal bank. 

Mallya denies any wrongdoing. 

The Indian government seeks the 

entrepreneur’s extradition to face moneylaundering 

and conspiracy allegations. 

He is fighting to remain in Britain — which 

he calls his second home — and will be able 

to appeal if the judge rules against him. 

Mallya was once one of the wealthiest 

people in India with control of Kingfisher 

Airlines and other major businesses. He 

was also a prominent member of Parliament 

before he resigned when he was about to be 

expelled. 

Investigators have accused the 61-year-old 

of paying $200,000 to a British firm for 

displaying his company Kingfisher’s logo 

during the Formula One World Championships 

in London and some European countries in 

The government says he borrowed hundreds 

of millions of dollars he knew he would 

never be able to repay. 


Union Budget 2016 to be 

presented on February 1 

P 




arliamentary Affairs Minister Ananth 

Kumar has informed that Union 

Budget for the fiscal year 2018-19 would be 

presented on February 1. 

He also said that first part of the budget 

session would take place from January 29 to 

February 9. 

“First part of budget session to be held 

from 29 January to 9 February, budget to 

be presented on 1 February. The second 

part to be held from 5 March to 6 April,” 

said Parliamentary Affairs Minister Ananth 

S 




Kumar. President Ramnath Kovind will 

address the joint sitting of the two Houses 

on January 29 and the Economic Survey will 

be tabled on the same day. 

According to Article 112 of the Indian 

Constitution, the Union Budget of a year, 

also referred to as the annual financial 

statement, is a statement of the estimated 

receipts and expenditure of the government 

for that particular year. 

Starting January 8, Delhi 

Metro Card can be used in 

DTC buses also 

tarting January 8, Delhi Metro Card can 

also be used while travelling in DTC 

buses. Initially the commuters can avail 

this facility in 200 DTC buses. Transport 

Minister Kailash Gahlot said that the pilot 

project will be carried out for a month, 200 

buses of the DTC and 50 buses under the 

cluster service of the Delhi Integrated Multi 

Modal Transit System (DIMTS) have been 

fitted with electronic ticketing machines. 

Existing smart cards of the DMRC will 

be accepted on these 250 buses. Once a 


passenger taps the card on the machine, a 

printed ticket, with the remaining balance, 

will be generated. 

According to news reports, the government 

wants to spread the common mobility card 

service across its network of more than 5,000 

buses across Delhi. Since, the ridership of 

DTC buses had decreased drastically in the 

past 3 years, the introduction of common 

mobility cards is expected to increase the 

headcount of commuters choosing bus 

transport. 

The government officials also told the press 

that after the launch of mobility card service, 

passengers can buy and recharge their metro 

cards at DTC office counters. 

D 





Delhi High Court clears 

way for women to be a 

part of Territorial Army 

elhi High Court has cleared the way 

for the recruitment of women in Indian 

Territorial Army. 

The Court has observed that any provision 

that bars the recruitment of women in 

Indian Territorial Army is a violation of the 

principles stated in the Indian Constitution. 

A bench of Acting Chief Justice Gita Mittal 

and Justice C Hari Shankar said the words 

“any person” in section 6 of the TA Act, 

shall include both men and women. 

The Delhi High Court ruling came on a 

PIL, filed by lawyer Kush Kalra, alleging 

discrimination against women in recruitment 

in the TA, in which actor Mohanlal and 

cricketers Kapil Dev and M S Dhoni are 

honorary members holding senior ranks. 

The petitioner had alleged in his plea 

“institutionalised discrimination” against 

women for not being recruited in the TA, 

which is an organisation of volunteers who 

get military training in order to be mobilised 

for the country’s defence in case of an 

emergency. 


8 


C 

Neighbourhood News 



Emergence of Radical Political Groups Raises Concern 

in Pakistan 

oncerns are being voiced in Pakistan 

about how a few radical groups with 

proven terror ties have been allowed to rebrand 

themselves as political parties. 

Taj Haider, one of the prominent and 

founding members of the opposition 

Pakistan People’s Party (PPP), which has 

been in power five times since 1970, told 

VOA the country is again seeing the trend of 

extremist groups camouflaging themselves 

to enter into politics. 

“Religion and politics cannot go hand in 

hand, but unfortunately this is our new 

reality. We have seen the recent by-elections 

in Lahore and Peshawar where militantturned-political 

parties were able to mobilize 

people and gather votes,” Haider said. “And 

these so-called new political parties, with 

proven terror records, look determined to 

contest the upcoming elections in 2018.” 

In a recent high-level party meeting presided 

by PPP chairman Bilawal Bhutto Zardari, 

the son of Pakistan’s slain Prime Minister 

Benazir Bhutto, the government was sharply 

criticized on its inability to forcefully 

implement the National Action Plan and bar 

proscribed groups from entering the political 

sphere. 

The National Action Plan is a 20-point 

strategy devised to combat extremism in 

2015 that clearly states no banned groups 

can operate in the country by changing their 

names or identity. 

Analysts say many other political parties 

are also agitated and wary about the 

recent political dynamic that has allowed 

radicalized groups to enter the political 

arena. 

“The government has repeatedly said it will 

not allow the hardliners to enter into politics, 

but the reality is different, these parties are 

going into masses,” Rasul Baksh Raees, a 

prominent analyst from Pakistan told VOA. 

“As long as these proscribed groups stick 

to their extreme ideologies and violence, 

they will be a danger to the society and 

democracy itself.” 

PPP’s acute criticism came as Hafiz Saeed, 

the alleged mastermind of 2008 Mumbai 

terror attacks and leader of Jamaat-ud- 

Dawa (JuD), inaugurated the office of his 

newly launched political party Milli Muslim 

League (MML) in the eastern city of Lahore. 

Pakistan’s Election Commission rejected 

MML’s party registration application 

in October, citing its link to Jamaat-ud- 

Dawa, a U.S. designated terror-sponsoring 

organization. 

But MML looks determined to contest the 

upcoming state and provincial elections. 

The party has several offices, has launched 

a website, and has a social media team 

spreading its messages through Facebook 

and Twitter. 

Pakistan’s government has repeatedly emphasized 

it will not tolerate any political party with 

a proven record of promoting violence and 

terrorism to use democracy and political 

means to spread their extreme ideologies. 

But critics still say the government is not 

doing enough to stop radical groups from 

entering politics. “Look what happened in 

Lahore’s recent by-election and who can 

forget the power show by extremists on the 

roads of Islamabad. The government was 

totally helpless,” Raees said. 

During the Lahore election in September, 

a MML backed independent candidate 

secured the fourth position in the race. 

The by-election was also contested by 

Tehreek-e-Labbaik (TeL), another extremist 

religious party created to carry-on Mumtaz 

Qadri’s mission, the bodyguard who killed 

Punjab’s Governor Salman Taseer in 2011 

after he had demanded reforms in the 

controversial blasphemy law. Mumtaz Qadri 

was later sentenced to death. 

In November, thousands of followers of the 

Islamist group Tehreek-e-Labaik blocked 

Islamabad roads for weeks and demanded 

the resignation of Law Minister Zahid 

Hamid, after accusing him of blasphemy. 

The government eventually surrendered to 

hardliners’ demands after Pakistan’s military 

played the role of mediator. 

The experts say the emerging trend 

of politicizing militancy is a danger 

to democracy. They also point out the 

sectarian and hardline rationale will further 

complicate the situation in the country that 

has been trying to combat terrorism for more 

than a decade. 

“Imagine when these hardliners, through 

political parties, will spread their extreme 

views on the grassroots level. What will be 

the future of this country?” Raees said. 

But some politicians dismiss the blending 

of radicalized groups into politics. 

Haider believes the people of Pakistan 

can differentiate between politicians and 

extremists and will not allow militantturned-politicians 

to thrive. 

“If you look at the past, the religious 

parties including the Jamaat-i-Islami [an 

old religious party], despite having a huge 

following, were never able to clean sweep 

or get majority in the electoral process of the 

country,” said Haider. 

“Even now, with all these efforts, I believe 

Milli Muslim League or Tehreek-e-Labaik 

will not be able to pull large numbers 

during the general elections. Religious or 

sectarian votes are scattered in the country 

and can’t be unified and will not help these 

newly established political parties to win a 

prominent number of seats.” 

Credit : Voice of America (VOA) 

Photo Credit : AP Photo


Canada News 

Toronto theater 

A 

director resigns over 

alleged misconduct 

prominent Toronto theater company 

said that it has accepted the resignation 

of its founding artistic director following 

allegations of sexual assault and harassment 

by actors under his employ. 

The move comes after four women held 

a news conference about the accusations 

and four fellow actors resigned in a show 

of support for the women, saying they 

would not work at the Soulpepper Theatre 

Company until Albert Schultz had no role 

with company. 

Katie Saunoris, a spokeswoman for the 

Soulpepper, said Schultz’s resignation is effective 

immediately. The board of directors previously 

suspended Schultz on 3rd January pending 

an investigation. 

“Mr. Schultz’s resignation will allow 

Soulpepper to focus on its core mission: to 

provide a safe community for its exceptionally 

talented group of professionals,” Saunoris 

said in an emailed statement. 

Four women revealed they had filed lawsuits 

alleging he exposed himself, groped and 

otherwise sexually humiliated them. “I 

know that I can’t work there knowing what 

I know,” actor Ted Dykstra said in a show of 

support. “It’s because I know these women 

and I believe their stories.” 

The allegations of sexual misconduct have 

roiled Canada’s theater community in a way 

similar to that previously seen in Hollywood, 

Washington and the U.S. media world 

since reports about movie mogul Harvey 

Weinstein surfaced in early October. 

“The ‘Me Too’ campaign has shown that 

for the first time ... people are listening and 

that people care,” Patricia Fagan, one of the 

women who brought a lawsuit, said at the 

news conference. 

Schultz confirmed the resignation and plans 

to “vehemently defend” himself. “I have 

made this decision in the interest of the future 

of the company into which I poured the last 

20 years of my life, and in the interest of the 

aspirations of the artists and administrators 

of the company,” he said. 

Also, his accusers said they were motivated 

to come forward because of what they 

described as hypocrisy and unsafe working 

conditions at the theater company. 

One of them, Kristin Booth, said she went 

public after statements from Soulpepper 

touting anti-harassment policies that she 

says she never saw. Fellow actress Hannah 

Miller said it was hard to speak out knowing 

the damage it could do to the theater. “The 

implication that we are ruining something is 

maybe the reason why it’s so hard,” Miller 

said. 

Fagan’s lawsuit charges that Schultz 

assaulted her during a rehearsal of “Twelfth 

Night” in 2000, when he tried to show 

her what he wanted by “pushing his penis 

against her buttocks.” 

Booth says Schultz questioned her about 

her sex life with her fiance and suggested 

they get a hotel room together. On another 

occasion, she alleges, he pressed his “erect 

penis against her body” while hugging her. 

The women’s lawyer, Alexi Wood, said 

Soulpepper did nothing to protect the 

actresses from Schultz. Soulpepper said its 

“priority is to create a workplace where all 

its employees feel safe” and it “takes all 

allegations of harassment very seriously.” 

Soulpepper bills itself as Toronto’s largest 

not-for-profit theater company, and Schultz 

has played a key role in its repertoire. He 

is also an executive producer on “Kim’s 

Convenience,” a play-turned-TV show aired 

by the Canadian Broadcasting Corp. 

“While this has been a tremendously difficult 

chapter in Soulpepper’s history, today’s 

decision ensures the organization is able to 

move forward with confidence and remain 

a leading Canadian theatre company,” 

Saunoris said. 



Prosecution: conductor played role in 47 

deaths in Quebec 

he prosecution says the train conductor 

T 

involved in a 2013 derailment that killed 

47 people in Quebec played a significant role 

in the tragedy because he didn’t apply the 

brakes sufficiently after parking the oilladen 

convoy. 

Prosecutor Sacha Blais said in closing 

remarks that Thomas Harding applied only 

half the required level of brakes and didn’t 

test them to ensure they worked properly 

before leaving for the night. A runaway 

train carrying crude oil from North Dakota 

derailed in Lac-Megantic and exploded on 

July 6, 2013. Harding and former colleagues 

Richard Labrie and Jean Demaitre are each 

facing one count of criminal negligence 

causing the death of 47 people. They have 

pleaded not guilty. 


C 


Ex-hostage Boyle makes 

video court appearance 

anadian ex-hostage Joshua Boyle 

will remain in jail following a brief 

appearance via video link at a preliminary 

hearing on 3rd January after he was charged 

with 15 offenses, including sexual assault, 

following his release from captivity in 

Afghanistan. 

A justice of the peace granted lawyer Ninetta 

Caparelli’s request for adjournment so the 

defense can work on a bail plan. 

Boyle had a beard and wore an orange 

jumpsuit in the appearance, which lasted a 

few minutes. Boyle, his wife Caitlan and 

their three children were freed in October 

in Pakistan, five years after the couple was 

abducted by a Taliban-linked militant group 

during a backpacking trip in neighboring 

Afghanistan. The children were born in 

captivity. The purported acts allegedly 

occurred between Oct. 14 and Dec. 30 after 

Boyle returned to Canada. A publication 

ban bars reporting information that could 

identify the alleged victims. 

The charges include eight counts of assault, 

two counts of sexual assault, two counts 

of unlawful confinement and one count of 

causing someone to “take a noxious thing, 

namely Trazodone,” an antidepressant. 

There is also a charge of uttering a death 

threat and a charge of misleading a police 

officer. 

Before the matter was adjourned, Justice 

Norman Boxall was told Boyle has 

retained prominent Ottawa criminal lawyer 

Lawrence Greenspon as part of his defense 

team, although Greenspon was not in court. 

No family members of Boyle or his wife 

attended. 

Boyle’s attorney’s issued a statement after 

the hearing, saying he is presumed innocent. 

“He has no criminal record and has never 

been in trouble with the police. As Mr. Boyle 

has only just been charged, we are waiting to 

receive more information (disclosure) about 

these allegations so that we can respond to 

them appropriately in court,” the statement 

said. 

In a statement to the Toronto Star, Boyle’s 

wife wrote, “I can’t speak about the specific 

charges, but I can say that ultimately it is the 

strain and trauma he was forced to endure 

for so many years and the effects that that 

had on his mental state that is most culpable 

for this.” 

“Obviously, he is responsible for his 

own actions,” she added, “but it is with 

compassion and forgiveness that I say I hope 

help and healing can be found for him. As to 

the rest of us, myself and the children, we 

are healthy and holding up as well as well 

we can.” Taped to the Boyle family’s front 

door at their apartment in Ottawa was a 

handwritten sign asking the media to respect 

their privacy. 

A woman speaking to young children could 

be heard inside, but they didn’t respond to a 

knock on the door. 

Boyle told The Associated Press in October 

that his wife had been hospitalized in Ottawa, 

but did not specify why she was taken to the 

hospital. Boyle also told AP that he and his 

wife decided to have children even while 

held captive because they always planned to 

have a big family. 

“We’re sitting as hostages with a lot of time 

on our hands,” Boyle said. “We always 

wanted as many as possible, and we didn’t 

want to waste time. Cait’s in her 30s, the 

clock is ticking.” Boyle said then that their 

three children were 4, 2 and “somewhere 

around 6 months.” “Honestly we’ve always 

planned to have a family of 5, 10, 12 children 

... We’re Irish, haha,” he wrote in an email in 

October. 

The parents of Caitlan Boyle, who is from 

Stewartstown, Pennsylvania, said after the 

rescue that they were elated she had been 

freed, but they also expressed anger at their 

son-in law for taking their pregnant daughter 

to Afghanistan. 

Pakistani soldiers rescued the family in an 

operation Oct. 11 aimed at their captors 

from the Taliban-linked Haqqani group. 

The Pakistanis caught the Haqqani fighters 

at some point after they had moved with 

their captives across the border from 

Afghanistan. Pakistan’s Foreign Ministry 

said the operation was based on a tip from 

U.S. intelligence. 

Boyle was once briefly married to 

Zaynab Khadr, the older sister of former 

Guantanamo Bay detainee Omar Khadr and 

the daughter of a senior al-Qaida financier 

who had contacts with Osama bin Laden. 

The Canadian-born Omar Khadr was 15 

when he was captured by U.S. troops 

following a firefight and was taken to the 

U.S. detention center at Guantanamo Bay. 

Officials had discounted any link between 

that background and Boyle’s capture, with 

one describing it in 2014 as a “horrible 

coincidence.” 

Boyle and his family met with Canadian 

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau in the leader’s 

office last month. 




10 


E 

G 

Africa News 

Ethiopia to release imprisoned 

thiopia’s government says comments 

by the prime minister that appeared 

to refer to the planned release of political 

prisoners instead referred to imprisoned 

politicians. 

The Associated Press and other news 

organizations interpreted the remark to 

mean a wider population of people in prison, 

including opposition figures and journalists, 

as alleged political prisoners. But the 

government steadfastly denies that the East 

African nation has political prisoners. 

Prime Minster Hailemariam Desalegn 

had been speaking in Amharic to local 

journalists. He also announced plans to 

close the notorious Maekelawi prison camp 

in what he called an effort to “widen the 

democratic space for all.” His comments 

came after months of sometimes deadly 



George Weah: Slum to soccer stardom and now president 

eorge Weah’s soccer talent took him 

from a slum surrounded by swamps in 

Liberia to superstardom in Paris, Milan and 

London, becoming the first and still only 

African to win FIFA’s world player of the 

year award. 

That’s only half the story. 

Raised in a poor neighborhood built on a 

mangrove swamp on the neglected outskirts 

of the Liberian port capital Monrovia, 

Weah was elected president of his country 

last week. His victory over the country’s 

incumbent vice president, a business 

graduate and former consultant to the World 

Bank, was a lesson in how sports fame can 

help propel figures with humble beginnings 

to positions of great importance. 

Weah was not the first sportsman to 

test his popularity in the political arena. 

Boxer Manny Pacquiao is a senator in the 

Philippines, former Olympic champion 

runner and current IAAF president Sebastian 

Coe was a member of parliament in Britain, 

and ex-cricketer Imran Khan leads an 

opposition party in Pakistan. There have 

been others. 

But Weah, easily Liberia’s most famous 

sportsman, has reached the highest office 

in his land. His challenge is big, too. The 

51-year-old former striker, who made his 

name with Italian giant AC Milan in the 

1990s, must lead a country that still sits in 

the shadow of civil war. Weah has the brutal 

politicians, close camp 

anti-government protests in Ethiopia, the 

most serious since the current government 

came to power in 1991. 

The demonstrations engulfed much of the 

restive Oromia and Amhara regions and 

spread into other parts of the country, leading 

to a months-long state of emergency that has 

since been lifted. 


It was not immediately clear how many 

such prisoners were being held across the 

country, a close U.S. security ally, or when 

they would be released. 

Ethiopians were quick to respond, even with 

social media sites currently blocked. 

“I’m writing you this struggling with my 

tears,” wrote renowned blogger and former 

detainee Befeqadu Hailu. “All these pledges 

need to be implemented immediately.” 

warlord and convicted war criminal Charles 

Taylor as one of his recent predecessors 

as president of Liberia. Just as Liberia, a 

nation on the coast of West Africa founded 

by freed slaves from America, appeared to 

be emerging from violence, it was rocked by 

the Ebola crisis in 2014-15. 

And there’s the grinding poverty. Poverty 

that Weah knows firsthand from his early 

years in Monrovia’s Clara Town slum. 

Helped by his familiarity with those 

hardships, Weah won the second round of 

voting in the presidential election by a large 

margin as young Liberians, especially, put 

their trust in a former soccer player with 

little experience in politics, and who only 

achieved his high school diploma when he 

was in his 40s. 

Some of them might even be too young 

to remember Weah during his footballing 

heyday, but very few of them aren’t aware 

of his achievements. A league title with 

France’s Paris Saint-Germain in 1994, 

the top scorer in the 1994-95 Champions 

League, two league titles with AC Milan 

and, his greatest moment, the world player 

of the year and Ballon d’Or winner in 1995. 

Maybe more importantly for poor Liberians 

in the same situation as Weah was: Soccer 

made him rich and famous. The name Weah 

of Liberia stands out on that list of players 

who have been voted the world’s best, the 

only one from his continent alongside greats 

Tens of thousands of people were arrested, 

and reportedly hundreds were killed, during 

the protests demanding wider freedoms that 

began in late 2015 and disrupted one of 

Africa’s fastest growing economies. 

Ethiopia’s government has long been accused 

of arresting critical journalists and opposition 

leaders. Rights groups and opposition 

groups in Ethiopia had been calling for 

their release, saying they were arrested on 

trumped-up charges and punished for their 

points of view. 

“Potentially big news,” Human Rights 

Watch researcher Felix Horne said on 

Twitter after the announcement, as some 

observers waited to see the government’s 

next move. 

“Today’s announcement could signal 

the end of an era of bloody repression in 

Ethiopia,” Amnesty International researcher 

Fisseha Tekle said in a statement calling 

for prisoners’ immediate and unconditional 

release. 

While the plans to close the Maekelawi 

camp are welcome, “the closure must not be 

used to whitewash the horrifying events that 

have taken place there,” Fisseha said. 

“For years, Maekelawi has essentially 

functioned as a torture chamber, used 

by the Ethiopian authorities to brutally 

interrogate anybody who dares to dissent 

including peaceful protesters, journalists 

and opposition figures.” 


of the game from Italy, Spain, Germany, 

Brazil and Argentina. Strong, fast and with 

skill to match his physical prowess, he 

scored wondrous goals. 

One of his best was this dizzying display of 

pace and skill for Milan against Verona. Two 


of Weah’s sons also became professional 

footballers, with Timothy Weah starring 

for the United States at last year’s under-17 

World Cup. George Weah Jr., now 30, was 

also a youth international for the U.S. 

An African in the big leagues in Europe is 

not a novelty now. But in the late 1980s, 

when Weah senior was playing his way out 

of the slum, it was rare. 

And even rarer that he should come from 

Liberia, a country that still struggles to put 

a national team together, and not Africa’s 

more fertile football fields in Nigeria, 

Nigeria confirms 

Chibok girl found 

after almost 4 years 

A 

nother Nigerian schoolgirl seized in 

a mass abduction by Boko Haram 

extremists from a boarding school nearly 

four years ago has been found, authorities 

announced on 4th January. 

The kidnapping resulted in global outrage 

and drew attention to the thousands of 

Nigerians who have been taken by Boko 

Haram during its deadly insurgency over the 

years. 

While more than 80 of the Chibok schoolgirls 

seized by the Islamic extremists were freed 

last year following negotiations with the 

government, more than 100 remain captives. 

Many were forced to marry their kidnappers 

and have had children while in captivity. 

A Nigerian military official, Col. Onyema 

Nwachukwu, said in a statement that Salomi 

Pogu was rescued near Pulka village in 

Borno state. 

She had been No. 86 on the list of girls 

abducted in Chibok. 

Pogu was found in the company of another 

young woman and her child. 

Chibok community leader Madu Usman 

expressed happiness that Pogu finally had 

been rescued but said efforts must be made 

to find all those who remain in captivity. 

The militants abducted 276 girls in 2014. 

Some managed to escape on their own. 


Cameroon, Senegal or Ivory Coast. Weah 

played in France, Italy and for Chelsea and 

Manchester City in the English Premier 

League, and was Africa’s first superstar. He 

was named African Player of the Century in 

1996. 

He never appeared at the World Cup — his 

Liberian teammates weren’t good enough 

to help him get there — but Weah said in 

an interview in 2015 for FIFA that his own 

success was always dedicated to Liberians. 

“They celebrated with me and it put Liberia 

on the map,” Weah said. Weah’s decision to 

personally bankroll the Liberia national team 

through a number of World Cup qualifying 

campaigns further ingratiated him to his 

compatriots. 

Last week, those compatriots elected Weah 

president, pinning their dreams on an exsoccer 

star whose rise from the slum appears 

to give them as much hope of better things 

as the Harvard-educated, Nobel Peace Prizewinning 

Ellen Johnson Sirleaf, who Weah 

will succeed as leader of his country. 

Signs of that sentiment were evident in 

Weah’s early political career a few years 

ago when one of his young supporters 

proclaimed: “We want to put him in power 

because he cares for the youths and common 

people. And if he becomes president he will 

open a football academy for us.” 

Credit : Associated Press (AP)


T 

North America News 

Trump moves to vastly expand 

offshore drilling off US coasts 

he Trump administration moved to 

vastly expand offshore drilling from the 

Atlantic to the Arctic oceans with a plan that 

would open up federal waters off California 

for the first time in more than three decades. 

The new five-year drilling plan also could 

open new areas of oil and gas exploration 

in areas off the East Coast from Florida to 

Maine, where drilling has been blocked for 

decades. 

While some lawmakers in those states 

support offshore drilling, the plan drew 

immediate opposition from governors 

up and down the East Coast, including 

Republican Govs. Rick Scott of Florida 

and Larry Hogan of Maryland, who pressed 

President Donald Trump to withdraw their 

states from consideration. 

Democratic governors on both coasts 

blasted the plan. New York Gov. Andrew 

Cuomo called it “another federal assault 

on our environment” while California Gov. 

Jerry Brown vowed to block “this reckless, 

short-sighted action.” 

Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke announced the 

plan, saying that responsible development 

of offshore energy resources would boost 

jobs and economic security while providing 

billions of dollars to fund conservation along 

U.S. coastlines. 


The five-year plan would open 90 percent of 

the nation’s offshore reserves to development 

by private companies, Zinke said, with 47 

leases proposed off the nation’s coastlines 

from 2019 to 2024. Nineteen sales would 

be off Alaska, 12 in the Gulf of Mexico, 

nine in the Atlantic and seven in the Pacific, 

including six off California. 

“This is a draft program,” Zinke told 

reporters during a conference call. “Nothing 

is final yet, and our department is continuing 

to engage the American people to get to 

our final product.” Industry groups praised 

the announcement, which would be the 

most expansive offshore drilling proposal 

in decades. The proposal follows Trump’s 

executive order in April encouraging more 

drilling rights in federal waters, part of the 

administration’s strategy to help the U.S. 

achieve “energy dominance” in the global 

market. 

“To kick off a national discussion, you need 

a national plan — something that has been 

lacking the past several years,” said Randall 

Luthi, president of the National Ocean 

Industries Association. President Barack 

Obama blocked Atlantic and Pacific drilling 

under a five-year plan finalized in 2016. 

A coalition of more than 60 environmental 

groups denounced the plan, saying it would 

impose “severe and unacceptable harm” 

to America’s oceans, coastal economies, 

public health and marine life. “These ocean 

waters are not President Trump’s personal 

playground. They belong to all Americans 

and the public wants them preserved and 

protected, not sold off to multinational oil 

companies,” read the coalition’s statement, 

which was signed by leaders of the Sierra 

Club, Natural Resources Defense Council, 

League of Conservation Voters and other 

environmental groups. The proposal 

comes less than a week after the Trump 

administration proposed to rewrite or kill 

rules on offshore oil and gas drilling imposed 

after the 2010 rig explosion in the Gulf of 

Mexico. The accident on BP’s Deepwater 

Horizon rig killed 11 workers and triggered 

the biggest offshore oil spill in U.S. history. 

The Trump administration called the rules 

an unnecessary burden on industry and 

said rolling them back will encourage more 

energy production. Environmentalists said 

Trump was raising the risk of more deadly 

oil spills. 

The Obama administration imposed tougher 

rules in response to the BP spill. The rules 

targeted blowout preventers, massive valvelike 

devices designed to prevent spills from 

wells on the ocean floor. The preventer used 

by BP failed. The rules require more frequent 

inspections of those and other devices and 

dictate that experts onshore monitor drilling 

of highly complex wells in real time. 

The Gulf of Mexico is still recovering from 

the BP spill, said Diane Hoskins, campaign 

director for the marine conservation group 

Oceana. “Americans have seen the devastation 

that comes from offshore drilling,” she said. 

“Will we allow Florida’s white beaches or 

the popular and pristine Outer Banks to 

share a similar fate? What about the scenic 

Pacific coast or even remote Arctic waters?” 

Zinke’s announcement “ignores widespread 

and bipartisan opposition to offshore 

drilling,” including from more than 150 

municipalities nationwide and 1,200 local, 

state and federal officials, Hoskins said. 

Scott, the Florida governor, said he has 

asked for an immediate meeting with Zinke 

to discuss his concerns. “My top priority is 

to ensure that Florida’s natural resources are 

protected,” Scott said. Hogan, of Maryland, 

said he would oppose the plan “to the fullest 

extent that is legally possible.” 

California was the site of the first offshore 

drilling in the U.S. more than 120 years ago, 

but the region was tarnished by one of the 

worst spills in U.S. history in 1969, when 

more than 3 million gallons of oil poured 

into the ocean near Santa Barbara. 

Thousands of sea birds were killed, along 

with dolphins, elephant seals and sea lions. 

Virtually all commercial fishing near Santa 

Barbara was halted, and tourism dropped 

dramatically. Public outrage generated by the 

spill helped spark the modern environmental 

movement, and no federal leases have been 

granted off the California coast since 1984. 

Democratic Govs. Jerry Brown of 

California, Kate Brown of Oregon and Jay 

Inslee of Washington issued a joint statement 

slamming the proposal, which they said 

ignored science and the devastation of past 

offshore spills. “For more than 30 years, 

our shared coastline has been protected 

from further federal drilling and we’ll do 

whatever it takes to stop this reckless, shortsighted 

action,” they said. 


T 

T 


Mexico presidential front-runner 

sketches security plan 

he early front-runner in Mexico’s 

presidential race is proposing to tackle 

what he calls the root causes of crime and 

violence if he wins election in July. 

Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador says he 

would make economic development, job 

creation and educational opportunities focal 

points of his administration. 

He also proposes to integrate military and 

police forces into a new national guard, 

though it’s not clear he would have enough 

legislative support to do so. 

Lopez Obrador is a leftist former Mexico 

City mayor making his third run for 

president. 

He criticized security policy over the past 

decade during a militarized offensive against 

drug cartels. 

He also said he would appoint as his 

public safety secretary Alfonso Durazo, the 

former private secretary of conservative ex- 

President Vicente Fox. 


P 


New Puerto Rico law targets 

graft, shields whistleblowers 


uerto Rico’s governor has signed a new 

law aimed at fighting corruption in the 

U.S. territory amid a deep economic crisis. 

The measure bars judges from granting 

probation to anyone accused of corruption, 

obstruction of justice or any other charge 

that involves public funds. People convicted 

of graft are prohibited from running for 

elected office. 

Gov. Ricardo Rossello said that the law also 

strengthens protections for whistleblowers 

and increases the statute of limitations for 

those seeking to file a civil complaint for 

alleged reprisals. 

The government can seek triple the amount 

of compensation in a civil claim for any 

case involving misuse of public money that 

results in a conviction. 


EU presents itself as 

ally of Cuba in face of 

US hostility 

he European Union wants to be a 

reliable partner for Cuba in the face of 

the reversal in U.S.-Cuban relations under 

President Donald Trump, its foreign policy 

and security chief said on 4th January. 

Federica Mogherini said at the end of a twoday 

visit that the EU is a “predictable and 

solid” partner that can help Cuba manage 

a political transition and slow, halting 

economic opening. 

The EU and Cuba last year signed an 

agreement that normalized diplomatic 

relations after a long period of stalemate 

over European demands for human rights 

improvements on the island. 

“We are consistent and we do not have 

unpredictability in our policies, or sudden 

shifts,” Mogherini said, in a clear dig at 

Trump’s reversal of some elements of 

President Barack Obama’s opening with 

Cuba. 

Mogherini said that the EU and Havana 

would soon sign agreements on renewable 

energy, agriculture and cultural exchanges, 

while a European Investment Bank 

delegation will visit the island in January to 

identify new possibilities. 




12 


N 

Editorial 

◆◆ 

By David Kilgour 

Author & Lawyer 



North America, Japan, India and the Trans 

Pacific Partnership 

egotiating a free trade agreement 

with an increasingly totalitarian and 

plutocratic party-state in China, which treats 

its Tibetan, Falun Gong, Uyghur, Christian, 

farm, urban worker and other communities 

appallingly, should be unthinkable for any 

democratic country. 

Canadian Clive Ansley, who practised law 

in Shanghai for 14 years until 2003, notes 

that its Communist party has long operated 

outside and above the law: 

China is a brutal police state…There is a 

current saying amongst Chinese lawyers 

and judges who truly believe in the Rule of 

Law…: ‘Those who hear the case do not make 

the judgment; those who make the judgment 

have not heard the case’…. Nothing which 

has transpired in the ‘courtroom’ has any 

impact on the ‘judgment’. Nonetheless, with 

the U.S. trade deficit with China for the first 

U 

nine months of 2017 alone being $US274 

billion and the Canadian one being also far 

too high, some in both countries still believe 

our goods and services could obtain better 

access to China’ s market through bilateral 

free trade agreements. 

Many others say that Japan, India and a 

revised Trans Pacific Partnership (TPP), 

including a number of other regional 

democracies with rule of law, are the best 

major trade option for both Canada and the 

U.S. in Asia and the Pacific Rim. Although 

the Trump administration has shunned the 

TPP, a future U.S. president might well join. 

Renegotiating the North American Free 

Trade Agreement (NAFTA) quickly and 

successfully is also vital. The United 

States, Canada and Mexico now trade more 

than US$ 1.2 trillion in goods yearly, with 

Canadians and Mexicans being the two top 

buyers of U.S. exports. Millions of skilled 

workers and consumers in all three nations 

require NAFTA to continue in essentially its 

present form. 

While likely that chaos will result if the 

Trump administration scraps NAFTA, the 

current odds of successful negotiations at 

the upcoming next round in late January are 

only about 50-50. 

The White House could also seek to 

withdraw from it by executive order. Japan, 

the world’s third-largest economy, which 

has assisted many nations in Asia, appears 

to be throwing its business, diplomatic and 

political weight behind India and the TPP. Its 

snap election in October returned to office 

prime minister Shinzō Abe and his Liberal 

Democratic Party(LDP) with 312 seats in its 

465-member House of Representatives. 

India in turn has become Asia’s fastestgrowth 

economy and is expected to surpass 

China in population by 2022. 

Under Prime Minister Narendra Modi, its 

increasing self-confidence and need for 

investment is resulting in continuously 

falling trade and investment barriers. 

The TPP was intended to create a unified 

counterbalance to China’s regional power 

and magnify the trading capacity of 

democratic nations having the rule of law, 

social market economies, fair trade and 

freedom of the seas-values some of which 

Canada’s Prime Minister Justin Trudeau 

recently voiced in Beijing. 

Modi chose a visit to Tokyo to reproach 

China on its bad behaviour in Asia, alluding 

to the Chinese military build-up in the South 

China Sea, its heavy-handedness in Tibet, its 

territorial ambitions in northern India and 

more. He added, “Everywhere around us, we 

see an 18th-century expansionist mindset: 

encroaching in other countries, intruding in 

others’ waters, invading other countries and 

capturing territory.” 

Australia, similar to Canada in many ways 

but with a heightened awareness of the 

security challenge represented by Beijing, 

has embraced the emerging Japan-India 

coalition. 

At the first India-Australia-Japan trilateral 

dialogue in 2015, the three governments 

discussed China at length, and, according 

to the Japanese, there was a high degree of 

consensus on the issues raised. 

The participation of Australia is significant 

because it indicates that smaller democracies 

with Pacific interests needn’t choose between 

China and their traditional alliances. 

Australia has a bilateral free trade deal with 

Beijing, but this doesn’t mean Australians 

are naïve about the need to protect their 

security interests or the dangers of becoming 

overly reliant on a regime that believes any 

attempt to counter its ambitions is an affront. 

The world economy is now improving overall 

and unemployment is mercifully falling in 

some nations despite predatory trade and 

other economic practices by China, Russia 

and others. 

Canada should still trade cautiously with the 

Middle Kingdom, but our recent experience 

with the aborted launch of free trade 

negotiations in Beijing indicates that trade 

cannot outrank a judicious advancing of our 

strategic interests in concert with those who 

share our values. 

Japan, India and a revised TPP are the best 

trade option for both Canada and the U.S in 

Asia. 

David Kilgour, a lawyer by profession, 

served in Canada’s House of Commons for 

almost 27 years. In Jean Chretien’s Cabinet, 

he was secretary of state (Africa and Latin 

America) and secretary of state (Asia- 

Pacific). He is the author of several books 

and co-author with David Matas of “Bloody 

Harvest: The Killing of Falun Gong for 

Their Organs.” 

EU rebuffs Israel; Opposes US stand on Jerusalem 




S President Donald Trump’s declaration 

of Jerusalem as the capital of Israel 

has stirred the hornet’s nest. The opposition 

to Trump has now come from the most 

unlikeliest of places - European Union and 

European allies. The Jerusalem decision 

fast-paced decades of US diplomacy and 

broke with international consensus and 

could take the situation ‘backwards to even 

darker times’. 

When Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin 

Netanyahu arrived in Brussels for talks 

with European leaders hisexpectation of 

‘all or most’ European countries following 

the US declaration were promptly belied. 

The 28-nation bloc’s foreign policy head 

Federica Mogherini gave him a stern rebuff, 

telling him to ‘keep his expectations for 

others’. Netanyahu countered that Trump’s 

announcement — through controversial for 

raising street protests and diplomatic alarm 

across the Islamic world — had in fact 

‘put facts squarely on the table’. The EU’s 

diplomatic chief at Brussels bluntly rejected 

Netanyahu’s suggestion that Europe would 

follow the US in recognising Jerusalem as 

the Jewish state’s capital. She said there 

won’t be any change to EU stance on 

Jerusalem. 

The EU expressed alarm at the US decision, 

but Netanyahu said Trump had simply 

acknowledged the facts. Jerusalem had been 

the capital of the Israeli state for 70 years 

and of the Jewish people for 3,000 years. 

“It doesn’t obviate peace, it makes peace 

possible, because recognising reality is 

the substance of peace, it’s the foundation 

of peace,” Netanyahu stated alongside 

Mogherini ahead of a breakfast meeting 

with EU foreign ministers. 

“I believe that all or most of the European 

countries will move their embassies to 

Jerusalem, recognise Jerusalem as Israel’s 

capital, and engage robustly with us for 

security, prosperity and peace,” Netanyahu 

said. 

Hours of talks between Netanyahu and 

the EU ministers, failed to convince 

Mogherini who flatly rejected Netanyahu’s 

suggestion to follow Trump. “He can keep 

his expectations for others, because from 

the European Union member states’ side 

this move will not come,” she said, adding 

that the European Union- Palestinians’ 

largest donor - would stick to the 

‘international consensus’ on Jerusalem. 

She reiterated the EU’s stance that ‘the 

only realistic solution’ for peace is two 

states — Israel and Palestine — with 

Jerusalem as the capital of both and the 

borders returned to their status before 

the 1967 Arab-Israeli War. She pledged 

to step up efforts with the two sides and 

regional partners including Jordan and 

Egypt to relaunch the peace process. 

Netanyahu blamed Europe’s ‘hypocrisy’ 

for criticising Trump’s statement, but not 

‘the rockets fired at Israel or the terrible 

incitement against it’. Mogherini followed 

up condemning atta-cks on Israel. “Let me 

condemn in the strongest possible way all 

attacks on Jews everywhere in the world, 

including in Europe, and on Israel and on 

Israeli citizens,” she said. 

Netanyahu viewed the new US peace 

initiative as a possible way forward. “There 

is now an effort under way to bring forward 

a new peace proposal by the American 

administration. I think we should give 

peace a chance. I think we should see what 

is presented and see if we can advance this 

peace,” he said. 


Trump’s son-in-law and senior adviser Jared 

Kushner has been developing a new US 

proposal to revive peace talks between Israel 

and the Palestinians, but strong reaction to 

Trump’s declaration has halted its progress. 

Mogherini indicated that US efforts were 

at a very early stage, as ‘both horizon and 

framework’ — the end goal and how to get 

there — had still not be clearly defined. 

Both Israelis and Palestinians claim Jerusalem 

as their capital and all peace plans have 

stumbled on whether and how to divide 

sovereignty or oversee holy sites. Now 

EU’s stubborn resistance stalls American 

initiative towards a solution.


A 

Think - Tanks 


NAM calls for comprehensive approach towards the issue of missiles 

M 

◆◆ 

By Dr. Pramila Srivastava 

@PramilaBK 

ps.a@iins.org 

s the clock struck 12 this January 1st, 

we all probably tossed and turned and 

thought about the year that had pass. One 

popular custom we all follow each New 

Year’s is making resolutions. We all try to 

change something about us, like we promise 

ourselves that this New Year we will diet 

and lose weight or we try to kick a bad habit, 

save money etc. 

Making New Year’s resolutions are widely 

popular. According to studies, about 40 

percent of people make them. According 

to a study which followed 200 people who 

made resolutions for a two year period, a 

whopping 70 percent keep their resolutions 

for a week and 64 percent keep it for a 

month, which then goes down to 50 percent 

in three months and finally less 19 percent 

are successful for the two year period. 

The New Year is sort of a wake up call to tell 

that another year has passed in our lives and 

that day spurns us into action. 

So we wake 1st of January year after year 

and promise ourselves that this would be 

the year we lose all that weight, or save all 

that money, go on a vacation of our dreams, 

make better choices. 

So how do we tackle the New Year and keep 

our resolutions successfully. Lets rehash all 

that we spoke about in this column in the last 

year. Let’s look at New Year as just a gentle 

◆◆ 

By International Institute 

for Non - Aligned Studies 

@iinsNAM 

iins@iins.org 

issiles continue to be a focus of 

increased international attention, 

discussion and activity. Their potential 

to carry and deliver weapons of mass 

destruction (WMD) payload quickly and 

accurately makes missiles a qualitatively 

significant political and military issue. 

In addition, the diversity of international 

views on matters related to missiles poses 

a particular challenge for efforts to address 

the issue in multilateral fora. These concerns 

are related to, inter alia, the increasing 

number, range, technological sophistication 

and geographic spread of missiles and their 

capability of delivering weapons of mass 

destruction, in particular nuclear weapons, 

as well as conventional weapons, missile 

defences and their strategic consequences, 

the potential use of space-launch vehicle 

technology for the development of missiles, 

the role of missiles in military doctrines as 

well as the role and scope of confidencebuilding 

measures. 

NAM Member States are committed to 

establishing a peaceful international order 

based on a rule of law. As part of promoting 

the principle of disarmament, NAM has 

highlighted the need for a multilaterally 

negotiated, universal, comprehensive, transparent 

and non-discriminatory approach toward 

the issue of missiles in all its aspects as a 

contribution to international peace and 

security. NAM has expressed its support 

This New Year; a New You? 

reminder of practicing good habits; mental 

and physical to be happy. 

Let’s start our day right 

As popular speaker Tony Robbins says we 

should spend ten minutes in our day priming 

ourselves to have a better life. 

Wake up and breathe, like really breathe. 

Practicing deep breathing is a good way to 

pump some energy into our bodies. 

Pick an activity like running, swimming, 

dancing or hit the gym anything to get our 

blood pumping to prime us for the day. 

Instead of focusing on losing weight, shit 

your focus to becoming healthier. So eat 

better, workout take the healthy route to 

losing weight. 

Practice Gratitude 

This can never be said enough, A part of 

your morning routine and your nighttime 

should be to take the time to be grateful. 

Practicing gratitude is a very good way to 

take stock of our lives. 

Instead of focusing on the difficult part of our 

lives, when we take the time to say thanks 

we begin to see a change because even in 

the toughest of times we are choosing to be 

positive rather than negative. 

When we are grateful we forget to be angry 

or resentful, it helps us focus on all the good. 

We should practice gratitude for even the 

smallest things like the sunset or the wind in 

our face, the smile of a child. 

for efforts to be continued within the UN to 

explore further the issue of missiles in all its 

aspects. 

In this regard, NAM has emphasized the 

contribution of peaceful uses of space 

technologies, including space launch vehicle 

technologies, to human advancement, 

such as for telecommunications and 

data gathering on natural disasters. The 

Movement has emphasized the need to keep 

the issue of missiles in all its aspects on the 

agenda of the UN General Assembly and 

welcomed that the Panel of Governmental 

Experts established in accordance with 

Resolution 59/67 successfully concluded its 

work in 2008 and submitted its report to the 

63rd session of the UN General Assembly. 

The Movement has encouraged follow up 

efforts to further examine the elements 

contained in the conclusions of the UN 

Secretary- General’s Report A/63/176. 

The report discusses the background and 

present situation with regard to missiles, 

and identifies a number of key issues which 

should be taken into account in order to 

address, in a comprehensive manner, the 

issue of missiles in all its aspects. These 

issues include, inter alia, the global and 

regional security backdrop which provides 

the motivation (or lack thereof) for 

missile development, testing, production, 

acquisition, transfer, possession, deployment 

and use; the circumstances of transfer to and 

use of certain types of missiles and missile 

technology by State or non-State actors; 

the issue of disarmament, arms control and 

non-proliferation; the interrelation between 

Be Spiritual and Mindful 

Spirituality should be the cornerstone of your 

New Year, in every thing and every moment 

we should practice mindfulness, being fully 

present in the moment. Meditation, yoga, 

Tai Chi is all activities that help us center 

ourselves be more one with ourselves and 

bring greater resilience to our days. 

Prayer is a beautiful thing, it is talking with 

God himself and we all need to cast our 

worries and burdens on God and believe in 

a higher power than ourselves. When we 

don’t believe in a higher power, we take on 

all the worries on ourselves but we should 

know that it is not humanly possibly to deal 

with life. 

We look to a higher power, we are further 

strengthened by his love and grace which 

doctrines, strategies and missile-related 

behaviour; the relative salience of ballistic 

and cruise missiles as well as missiles as 

delivery vehicles for weapons of mass 

destruction or conventional arms; missile 

defence; and the increased contribution of 

space-based capabilities to a wide range of 

human endeavours. 

NAM agrees with the conclusion of the 

report that it is important to have continued 

international efforts to deal with the 

increasingly complex issue of missiles in the 

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then helps us deal with the difficulties that 

come our way. 

Laugh out Loud 

Find the laughter in the darkest moments of 

your lives, when we respond to the tough 

times with humor there is a light that is 

shines upon us. 

It is good for our health our peace of mind, 

there is actually no better medicine than 

interest of international peace and security, 

and to further deliberate on the issue, 

specifically focusing attention on existing 

and emerging areas of consensus. In this 

context, NAM has emphasized the important 

role of the United Nations in providing a 

more structured and effective mechanism 

to build such a consensus. NAM’s firm 

position is that pending the achievement 

of such a universal approach related to 

delivery systems for weapons of mass 

destruction, any initiative to address these 

concerns effectively and in a sustainable and 

comprehensive manner should be through an 

inclusive process of negotiations in a forum 

where all States could participate as equal. 

The Movement thus stresses the importance 

of the security concerns of all States at 

regional and global levels in any approach 

to the issue of missiles in all its aspects. 

(in arrangement with 

News from Non-Aligned World) 

www.iins.org 

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laughter. So instead of feeling sad one week 

later when we break our resolutions, let’s 

focus on the bigger picture, let’s make it our 

lives mission to invest in our peace of mind 

and happiness not just the 1st of January every 

year rather throughout the year let’s practice 

these simple yet highly effective habits. 

So a very Happy New Year to all of you. 


14 


F 

Technology & Health 


◆◆By Smt. Maneka 

Sanjay Gandhi 

@ManekaGandhiBJP 


Need for Regulating Drug Testing on Dogs 

or years the scientific community has 

been talking about the uselessness 

of experimenting on dogs. According to 

most scientists and companies that produce 

pharmaceuticals, dogs have no role to play 

in proving any drug for humans. 

Thirty years ago I had created the CPCSEA 

in the Environment Ministry. This was 

supposed to be the apex centre of deciding 

which experiments and which animals 

were to be used in India. It was supposed 

to bring in new ideas and promote safe 

animal alternatives. Unfortunately, instead 

of putting first class scientists on it, it was 

soon overrun by low level ministry directors 

and it degenerated into a dull and senseless 

office, which simply holds meeting every 

now and then to rubber stamp useless and 

repetitive experiments that lead nowhere and 

push up the prices and delay the issuance of 

vital drugs. 

In October 2017, the first ever conference 

on the use of dogs in testing and research 

was held in Hyderabad, India. The event 

was organized by People For Animals India, 

partnered by Cruelty Free International a 

London-based scientific research agency, 

to bring attention to the practical and 

ethical problems associated with the 

laboratory testing of dogs. It was attended 

by government people and by the 16 Indian 

companies that test on dogs. 

Every year, over 2 lakh dogs are used for 

testing worldwide to evaluate the safety of 

new chemicals and drugs. Most regulatory 

agencies around the world require a nonrodent 

species (usually dogs) to be used in 

pre-clinical trials to test the effect (toxicity 

and pharmacokinetics, pharmacokinetics 

which means the study of the movement of 

drugs in the body, including the processes of 

absorption, distribution, localization) of new 

I 

◆◆ 

By Dr. Anveeta Agarwal 

@AnveetaAgarwal 

anveeta@dantah.com 

t is a known fact that smoking in 

any form is injurious to health and 

increases the risk of many types of cancer 

of the lungs, mouth, voice box (larynx), 

throat etc. Smoking may also cause chronic 

lung diseases, heart attacks, stroke and other 

health problems. It also causes premature 

aging, wrinkles on the skin and stains 

teeth. Aren’t these reasons enough to quit 

smoking? But quitting is difficult because the 

body gets addicted to nicotine and the habit is 

gruelling to break. With firm determination, 

support and motivation from family and 

friends, professional help and medicines 

quitting tobacco is possible and simple. 

Why should you quit Smoking? 

• For a healthier and happier life 

• To prevent family and friends from passive smoke 

• For a youthful skin 

• To save money 

chemicals before the tests are conducted 

on humans. This includes testing of 

pharmaceuticals, agrochemicals, pesticides 

etc. 

Beagles are the most commonly used breed 

of dogs for animal testing, owing to their 

passive nature and small size. These dogs 

are kept in cages for years until the study 

is complete, and undergo very invasive and 

painful procedures during this time. Their 

vocal cords are sometimes cut so they cannot 

bark when hurt. These dogs rarely have 

access to veterinarians and are often not 

even given painkillers. When rescued, test 


dogs have been seen to have enlarged hearts 

and various diseases due to their high stress 

environments. They are also very anxious 

and scared of humans. It is a difficult task to 

rehabilitate even those dogs that manage to 

make it out of laboratories. 

The practice of using dogs has become 

a part of most regulatory protocols over 

the decades, despite it lacking a scientific 

basis. The tests on dogs do not validate any 

drugs. The tests conducted on dogs have no 

added value and usually do not provide any 

new useful data which an original test on 

rodents cannot. It continues to be practiced 

despite immense public opposition and clear 

scientific and ethical arguments against it. In 

fact, tests done on dogs in the ‘50s delayed 

penicillin coming into the market, as dogs 

were found allergic to it and they died. 

When they were bypassed and humans were 

administered the test, it turned out to be a 

lifesaver. 

For years, scientists believed that the central 

physiological functions of circulation, 

respiration, and nervous system were 

common to all mammals. However, no 

species of animal has been identified which 

has the same absorption, distribution, 

metabolism, and excretion processes of 

drugs as humans. It is unlikely that such an 

animal species will ever be found. Despite 

this, there is a persisting opinion that animal 

research has made a significant contribution 

to the treatment of human diseases. This is 

not based on fact, as most of the research 

using animals is known to be wasted. 

The primary objection to the specific use 

of dogs in testing is thus simple – the data 

derived from dogs is not predictive enough 

to be applied to the case of humans. Any 

conclusions that come out of this forced 

extrapolation (an act of inferring an unknown 

from something that is known) between two 

such different species is largely unreliable. 

And the scientists know that. So, instead of 

paying attention to, or taking any interest 

in, the results of tests on dogs, it becomes 

simply one more step to fulfil on paper for 

bureaucrats, before they can get down to the 

real testing on human beings – which is the 

only test that matters. 

For example, if a new drug is already known 

to have a 70% chance of not being toxic 

for humans, a negative test conducted on 

dogs will increase this probability to just 

72%. The dog test thus does not provide 

significantly new or supporting evidence. 

It does, however, have a huge financial and 

ethical cost. 

Dogs have always been found to be 

inconsistent predictors of toxic responses in 

humans. A study conducted, at the School 

of Pharmacy, University of Connecticut, as 

early as 1982 found that most derivatives 

of the drug benzodiazepine, used in many 

common medicines, have a much smaller 

half-life in dogs as compared to humans. As 

Your way to a Smoke Free Life 

How can you quit tobacco? 

• Self Help 

• You are the protagonist and are ready to quit 

tobacco with your grit and determination. 

• Nicotine Replacement Therapy 

• Nicotine is the addictive chemical in 

tobacco. Withdrawal symptoms are difficult 

to deal with and medicines are available to 

lessen the withdrawal symptoms. 

• Nicotine replacement therapy (NRT) is the 

use of products that contain nicotine. They 

are available in the form of a patch, gum, or 

lozenges. 

• The nicotine in these substances helps to 

lessen the withdrawal symptoms and the 

use of these products should be lessened 

gradually over a period of 6 to 8 weeks. 

• Non Nicotine Medicines 

• Varenicline and bupropion, are medicines 

prescribed by the doctor which helps to 

reduce the urge to smoke without the use of 

nicotine products. The doctor will ask you to 

start the medicine 1 or 2 weeks before your 

quit date and use them for at least 8 weeks 

after your quit date. 

• Deep Breathing 

• Deep breathing can be done anywhere and 

is a quick fix to help cravings pass. 

• It also helps relieve nervousness, anxiety, 

and impatience. 

• Has a relaxing and calming effect. 

• Oral substitutes 

These keep the mouth busy and help to 

distract you. Water, lollipops, fruits, hard 

candy, gum, brushing teeth, mouthwash, 

breath spray, fresh vegetables (carrots, 

peppers, radishes) can be used as oral 

substitutes and to help you fight the urge to 

light a cigarette. 

• Exercise 

• Go out for a walk, jog, swim or cycling to 

release endorphins which are the feel good 

hormones. 

• Exercise helps to prevent any weight gain, 

reduce stress and relieve feelings of anxiety 

and anger. 

What are withdrawal symptoms? 

• The severity of Nicotine withdrawal 

symptoms varies from person to person. 

these drugs are processed and metabolized 

much faster in dogs, results of tests conducted 

on dogs become irrelevant to predict the side 

effects or toxicology on humans. 

A study by Nerviano Medical Sciences, Italy 

found that the CYP3A enzyme – which is 

present in all animals and used to study drug 

toxicity – is extremely specific to the species 

being tested. The extrapolation of such data 

to human subjects is a risky exercise. Dogs 

are not a good metabolic model for humans 

due to major differences in their cytochrome 

P450 enzymes (CYPs), which are the key 

enzymes involved in the metabolism of over 

90% drugs. Other research has also proven 

that the results obtained by studying drug 

metabolizing enzymes in animals could 

not be extrapolated for humans due to the 

molecular differences among different 

species. 

The Department of Pharmaceutics and 

Pharmacodynamics at the University of 

Illinois conducted a study where 43 drugs 

were administered to dogs and humans. 

The overall correlation with regard to drug 

absorption and efficacy was relatively poor 

(r2 = 0.5123) in comparison to an earlier rat 

vs. human study on 64 drugs (r2 = 0.975). In 

fact, even poorer than rats which are tested 

on to begin with simply as a basic exercise. 

The data could not be used to build a better 

understanding of the effects on humans. 

Further studies, including one conducted by 

AstraZeneca, a pharmaceutical company, 

have shown that several drugs when tested 

are observed to be free in the plasma of 

animals, meaning that they do not bind to 

proteins as they might do in humans and are 

thus irrelevant for human comparison. 

For Full Article : http://www. 

newdelhitimes.com/need-for-regulatingdrug-testing-on-dogs 

To join the animal welfare movement 

contact gandhim@nic.in, 

www.peopleforanimalsindia.org 

• Anxiety, hunger, nervousness, difficulty 

in concentrating and the craving to light a 

cigarette is strongest in the first few days 

after you stop smoking. 

• Sleep disturbances, headache, irritability , 

tiredness are also seen. 

• They lessen within few weeks and 

completely disappear gradually. 

Until now, smoking has been a rescue from 

stress and anxiety for smokers. But stress is 

inevitable and the power to handle it without 

resorting to the use of a cigarette (which 

is only paper and dried leaves) should be 

the way of life. Smoking only provides 

temporary escape from the problem but the 

problem persists and along with it remains 

the detrimental effects of smoking. 

The cons of smoking outweigh its pros and 

it is time to take your first step towards a 

healthier and happier life by quitting this 

vicious substance today. Let’s all be smoke 

free! 

By Dr. Anveeta Agarwal, BDS, MDS, 

Consultant Oral Pathologist, Associate 

Dental Surgeon & a Specialist at 

Dantah


Entertainment & Lifestyle 

China’s 2017 

movie ticket 

sales rise 13.5 

percent 

C 

hina’s total domestic movie ticket sales 

rose 13.5 percent in 2017 to 55.9 billion 

yuan ($8.6 billion), a state news agency said. 

The top-grossing title was the mainlandmade 

action picture “Wolf Warrior 2,” which 

took in 5.7 billion yuan ($875 million), 

the Xinhua News Agency said, citing data 

from the State Administration of Press, 

Publication, Radio, Film and Television. 

China is the second-largest global film 

market and is narrowing the gap with the 

United States, where last year’s domestic 

box office is estimated to have declined 2.6 

percent from 2016 to $11.1 billion. 

Mainland-made movies accounted for 54 

percent of 2017 ticket sales, or 30.1 billion 

yuan ($4.6 billion), according to Xinhua. 

The No. 2-grossing title was the Hollywood 

action movie “The Fate of the Furious,” 

which earned 2.7 billion yuan. 


I 

t’s no secret that the Navajo code 

talkers played a significant role in the 

Allied powers’ victory in World War II, 

said Kody Dayish, a Navajo storyteller of 

Shiprock. 

Navajo servicemen’s complex native tongue 

was critical in communicating crucial Allied 

M 


Indian movie star Rajinikanth joins 

politics in Tamil Nadu 

ovie superstar Rajinikanth is entering 

politics in his southern Indian state 

with a plan to launch his own party, calling 

it his duty. 

The 67-year-old said before his cheering 

supporters that his objective is to change the 

system and bring good governance to Tamil 

Nadu. He called for political change and 

appealed to his fans to bring all sections of 

society into the fold. 

“I do not want cadres. I want watchdogs,” 

New Delhi Television channel quoted 

Rajinikanth as saying. 

Rajinikanth is one of India’s most popular 

stars and many of his 175-plus films since 

1975 have broken box-office records, mostly 

in the Tamil and Telugu languages. 

His political prospects appear bright 

following a huge political vacuum created by 

the death of Jayaram Jayalalithaa, an iconic 

political figure, and the near-retirement of 

93-year-old Muthuvel Karunanidhi, the 

leader of the opposition Dravida Munnetra 

Kazhagam party. 

Cinema has always influenced Tamil politics 

by turning actors into popular politicians. 

C.N. Annadurai and M. Karunanidhi were 

both scriptwriters who went on to become 

chief ministers. M.G. Ramachandran, a top 

actor-turned-politician, also had a strong 

screen presence and following among the 

masses. 

Born Shivaji Rao Gaekwad, Rajinikanth 

worked as a bus conductor for three years 

before joining an acting school. 

He started in small roles as a villain in Tamil 

cinema and worked his way up, landing 

roles in Bollywood, the Hindi-language film 

industry based in Mumbai. 

The Indian government honored him with 

top national awards — the Padma Bhushan 

in 2000, and the Padma Vibhushan in 2016 

Navajo filmmaker to start shooting 

WWII code talkers movie 

it’s never been told from a Navajo point of 

view, Dayish said 

Dayish has wanted to tell his own version 

of the code talkers’ story for some time, 

but wanted to wait until he felt he had the 

skills and maturity as a filmmaker to tell it 

properly. 

short films and features, Dayish feels his 

family’s film production company, Kody 

Dayish Production, is ready to take on the 

task. 

With the help of his brother Kolin and sister 

Kolette, Dayish plans to make his movie 

“Unbroken Code” focus on two Navajo 

youths who leave their home behind to join 

the Marine Corps. 

It will explore their conflict over leaving their 

families behind, the sacrifices they make on 

behalf of a country that has relegated them 

to a reservation, and most importantly, the 

depth of their contribution to the war effort. 

The film will be shot entirely on the Navajo 

Nation and will feature mostly Navajo 

actors. 

— for his contributions to the arts. At the 

45th International Film Festival of India in 

2014, he was conferred the Centenary Award 

for Indian Film Personality of the Year. 

Bollywood superstar Amitabh Bachchan 

also tried his hand in politics as a member 

of India’s Parliament, representing the 

Congress party in support of his friend, then- 

Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi, in the 1980s. 

He resigned after three years following 

allegations that he accepted bribes in the 

purchase of artillery guns. His name was 

later cleared from the scandal. 


T 


Final ‘Game of 

Thrones’ season 

will air in 2019 

he final season of “Game of Thrones” 

will feature veterans of the show 

behind the scenes when it airs in 2019. 

HBO said that David Benioff, D.B. Weiss, 

David Nutter and Miguel Sapochnik will 

direct and Benioff and Weiss along with 

Bryan Cogman and Dave Hill will write the 

episodes. They will collaborate on the sixepisode, 

eighth and last season. 

messages that could not be deciphered by 

Japanese foes, The Daily Times reported 

earlier this month. 


“We wouldn’t want to disrespect the code 

talkers by making a film that’s (unworthy),” 

he said. 

The siblings have already completed the 

script and are looking for actors who are 

fluent in the Dine language since the most of 

the dialogue will be presented in that tongue. 

With very few surviving code talkers left, 

Dayish believes it’s the perfect time for the 

project. 

“Now is the time to get a little deeper to see 

where the Navajo code talkers came from,” 

he said. 

They plan to begin shooting the film in 2018. 


Weiss and Benioff have been co-creators, 

executive producers and showrunners for 

every season of the hit show. The others 

have all had roles creating the mythical 

world of author George R. R. Martin. 

When season seven ended late last year, 

an all-time high of 12.1 million viewers 

tuned in. An additional 4 million caught the 

episode on streaming channels. 

Their story has been told before in films, but 

After producing a number of award-winning 




16 


Sports 


Olympic Refugee Foundation: A symbol of hope 

P 




laying sport in a safe environment is 

a distant dream for the more than 65 

million refugees and internally displaced 

people worldwide who have been forced to 

flee their homes because of war, conflict or 

persecution. Working in cooperation with 

the UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR), the 

Olympic Refuge Foundation was launched 

in at the International Olympic Committee 

Session (IOC) in Lima in September 2017 

with an objective to create safe, basic and 

accessible sports facilities and develop 

sporting activities for vulnerable people. 

The aim of the Olympic Refuge Foundation 

is to create safe, basic and accessible sports 

facilities in areas where there are refugees, a 

displaced migrant population and internally 

displaced people. Working in close 

collaboration with the UNHCR and with 

the relevant partners and local authorities 

on the ground, the Foundation will develop 

sporting activities and social development 

projects that can be implemented in a 

sustainable way within a safe and conducive 

environment. According to the IOC President 

Thomas Bach, the foundation aims to create 

safe, basic and accessible sports facilities in 

areas where there are refugees, a displaced 

migrant population and internally displaced 

people. 

Even prior to its launch, the Olympic Refuge 

Foundation had received pledges of financial 

support from the Qatar Olympic Committee 

and the Government of Liechtenstein. The 

Foundation will fund projects across the 

world through the generous donations from 

Olympic Movement partners, governmental 

institutions and private donations. 

In December 2017, the Olympic Refuge 

Foundation held its first ever board meeting 

to chalk out a plan of action and prepare 

the first pilot projects supporting refugees 

through sport that will be implemented in 

2018. Starting in early 2018, the Foundation, 

in close collaboration with UNHCR and 

with the relevant international partners 

and local authorities on the ground, will 

start the implementation of programmes 

and allocating grants through the generous 

donations of Olympic Movement partners, 

governmental institutions and private 

donors. Projects, which will use sport as a 

pathway to social, physical and emotional 

wellbeing, will take a community-based 

approach. 

During the meeting, IOC Honorary President 

Jacques Rogge was appointed as Honorary 

Member of the Foundation and Mr Filippo 

Grandi, High Commissioner of UNHCR; Mr 

Zaiqing Yu, IOC Vice-President; HE Sheikh 

Joaan bin Hamad Al-Thani, President 

of the National Olympic Committee of 

Qatar, Dr Chungwon Choue, President 

of World Taekwondo and the Taekwondo 

Stokes replaced in 

England’s ODI squad, can 

enter IPL draft 

Humanitarian Federation and Mr Yiech Pur 

Biel, member of the first Refugee Olympic 

Team at the Olympic Games Rio 2016 were 

formally reduced as the members of the 

foundation board. 

President of the QOC, HE Sheikh Joaan bin 

Hamad al Thani, remarked that the Qatar 

Olympic Committee has made a donation to 

the Olympic Refuge Foundation to support 

the International Olympic Committee and 

the UNHCR in the valuable work that they 

are doing to improve the lives of young 

refugees around the world through the power 

of sport. “The Qatar Olympic Committee 

shares the belief that having a safe space 

to be able to practise and play sport is a 

basic human right, and we are committed 

to promoting sport as a tool for peace and 

inclusion in society. Sport spreads solidarity 

and hope, promotes a healthy lifestyle and 

brings communities together and we hope 

that our contribution to the Olympic Refuge 

Foundation will have a positive impact on 

the lives of young people globally.” 

World Taekwondo President Chungwon 

Choue remarked after the meeting that 

the Olympic Movement has a social 

responsibility to use sport to contribute to 

a better and more harmonious society. He 

mentioned how the values of Taekwondo 

Humanitarian Foundation (THF) are very 

closely aligned with the Olympic Refuge 

Foundation as it aims to bring the physical 

and mental benefits of taekwondo to 

T 

vulnerable peoples. THF has taekwondo 

programs in Jordan, Turkey and Rwanda and 

launched an earthquake relief programme in 

Nepal last year. 


The intrinsic value of sports heals many 

wounds, brings hope to the refugees and can 

help to forge their ideas and to integrate in 

society. 

The Olympic refugee foundation is a manifestation 

of how sport can be a powerful tool in 

creating social cohesion and in integrating 

migrants and refugees. 

Nadal to return in Tie 

Break Tens; Djokovic 

also playing 

op-ranked Rafael Nadal will make his 

return from injury in the Tie Break 

Tens event in Melbourne on Jan. 10. 

Nadal previously withdrew from the 

Brisbane International and Fast4 event in 

Sydney while recovering from a knee injury. 

Organizers said Nadal will join Novak 

Djokovic and Stan Wawrinka among a field 

of eight players in the Melbourne knockout 

tournament which has a winner-take-all 

purse of $250,000. 

E 

ngland has replaced Ben Stokes in its 

one-day international squad and given 

the allrounder permission to enter the draft 

for the Indian Premier League at the end of 

January. 

The 26-year-old Stokes was named last 

month in the ODI squad for the series 

against Australia, even though he remains 

unavailable for international selection as 

he waits to see if he will be charged with 

causing actual bodily harm following an 

incident outside a nightclub in England on 

Sept. 25. 

The England and Wales Cricket Board says 

Dawid Malan has been added to the ODI 

squad while Stokes stays in England on 

legal advice. 

Stokes could still be called up once a 

decision has been reached as to whether he 

is charged or cleared. 

The ECB added that Stokes has been granted 

a “no objection certificate” for the lucrative 

IPL. 

Last year, he starred for Rising Pune 

Supergiant in his maiden IPL campaign. 


In Tie Break 10s, the winner is the first player 

to reach 10 points with a two-point margin 

in a super tiebreaker. 

Nadal said “Tie Break 

Tens is a great concept 

and we will see and play 

some exciting matches. 

The field is fantastic and 

I expect some tough 

competition which will be 

great for the Aussie fans.” 


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Published at A-2/59 Safdarjung Enclave New Delhi-110029. Ph.: 26102520, 26105846 Fax: 26196294 Email: info@newdelhitimes.com, Vol. 27, No. 49 Editor : Dr. Ankit Srivastava

8-14 January 2018 - 16-min

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