By Hossein AskariContributor Professor of Business and International Affairs at George Washington University

A R T I C L E

W W W . T E H R A N T I M E S . C O M I N T E R N A T I O N A L D A I L Y

King Salman: Relinquish Guardianship of Islam’s Holy Sites!

Mecca and Medina, situated in Western Saudi Arabia, are Islam’s two holiest sites. The region is

the birthplace of Islam and of the Prophet Mohammad. Every Muslim is required to make a pilgrimage (during Hajj) to Mec-ca at least once in a lifetime, if he or she is physically and financially able to do so. During Hajj, all Muslims, be they kings or paupers, are equal, each person wearing two simple white sheets with nothing to distinguish between ruler and subject and rich and poor.

The Al-Sauds, the conquerors and rulers of Arabia, have used their own interpretation of Islam in an attempt to legitimize their rule and manage, or more accurately misman-age, Islam’s holiest sites. Since 1986, the kings of Saudi Arabia have unilaterally adopted the title “Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques,” a title that was also used by Ottoman caliphs. Saudi Arabia is a country that has no consti-tution but claims the Quran for its constitu-tion. Does Al-Saud rule reflect Islamic teach-ings from the Quran and are the Al-Sauds the sole and rightful custodians of Islam’s holiest sites?

Saudi Arabia is a country where the rulers have been the principal backers of Muslim extremists affiliated with AL-Qa-eda and ISIS although Islam condemns violence and murder, where churches or synagogues are prohibited although Islam preaches freedom of religion, where rul-ers live in unimaginable luxury while Islam prohibits opulent lifestyles, where there is an extreme inequality of wealth while Is-lam prohibits the hoarding of wealth and sanctions large divergences in wealth and income, where the rulers’ wealth comes largely from corruption and the exploitation of oil while Islam condemns corruption and preaches that mineral wealth belongs equally to all members of all generations, and where the rulers rule by fiat and oppression while Islam preaches that rulers are to be the most rule-abiding members of the commu-nity and must have the concurrence of their community for their rule. 6

Zarif: Iran has saved Jews

three times in history

TEHRAN — For-eign Minister Mo-

hammad Javad Zarif has said that Iran has saved Jews three times in its histo-ry, noting Israeli Prime Minister Ben-jamin Netanyahu is resorting to fake history.

“To sell bigoted lies against a na-tion which has saved Jews 3 times, Ne-tanyahu resorting to fake history and falsifying Torah. Force of habit,” Zarif tweeted on Sunday.

“Once again Benjamin Netanyahu not only distorts the realities of today, but also distorts the past — including Jewish scripture. It is truly regrettable that bigotry gets to the point of mak-ing allegations against an entire nation which has saved Jews three times in its history,” the chief diplomat noted.

He added, “The Book of Esther tells of how Xerxes I saved Jews from a plot hatched by Haman the Agagite, which is marked on this very day; again, dur-ing the time of Cyrus the Great, an Ira-nian king saved the Jews -- this time from captivity in Babylon; and during the Second World War, when Jews were being slaughtered in Europe, Iran gladly took them in.”

On Sunday, Iranian Parliament Speaker Ali Larijani also said, “Ap-parently, [Netanyahu] is neither ac-quainted with history, nor has read the Torah.” 2

Iran well advised to

forge closer ties with

EU: scholar TEHRAN — Arshin Adib-Moghadd-am, a professor of global thought and comparative philosophies, be-lieves that Iran must reinforce its re-lations with the European Union in view of the fact that “Iran and Europe have had a common bond through-out history.”

“Iran is well advised to forge even closer relations with Brussels in all fields,” Adib-Moghaddam tells the Tehran Times.

Following is the text of the inter-view:

What is the impact of Brex-it on British foreign policy, par-ticularly toward Iran? And what is the effect of Trump’s presiden-cy on Iran-England relations?

A: Brexit has already weakened the international importance of the UK. As a lone country on the edges of the European Union, with another independence chal-lenge from Scotland looming, the UK has been trying to reach out to the United States and the GCC in particular to fill the economic vacuum that leaving the EU will undoubtedly leave. 13

16 Pages Price 10,000 Rials 38th year No.12792 Tuesday MARCH 14, 2017MARCH 14, 2017 Esfand 24, 1395 Jumada Al Thani 15, 1438

Infrastructures prepared for Iran-Russia all-out economic ties

Sistan-Baluchestan to turn into tourist hub

Iran’s Zob Ahan defeat Bunyodkor in AFC Champions League

Performing styles by two musicians inscribed on Iran’s national heritage list 164 10 15

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Syrian President Bashar al-Assad says the era of spreading disinformation by most of the Western media against the Syrian government has passed and their credibility is questioned even by the people in the West.

The Syrian leader made the re-marks in a meeting with a European parliamentary delegation headed by Deputy Chairman of the European Parliament’s Committee on Foreign Affairs Javier Couso, adding that fre-quent visits to Damascus by European parliamentarians in the past months are a clear sign that they have come to witness the reality and relay to their re-spective people a true image of what is happening in Syria.

Elsewhere in his remarks, President Assad reiterated that the wrong poli-cies adopted and pursued by several European countries toward the region in general and Damascus in particular had led to the spread of terrorism and the flow of large numbers of refugees and asylum seekers to those European countries.

The flawed policies include sup-porting extremism and terrorism and imposing economic sanctions on the Syrian people, he added.

The members of the delegation, which represented several Europe-an nations and parties, for their part, asserted that their visit was aimed at

rectifying the erroneous views both on the political and popular levels to-ward what is actually going on in Syria.

They also confirmed that they would keep on working toward restor-ing diplomatic ties between the Euro-pean Union member states and Syria, and toward ending the sanctions im-posed on the country.

The two sides also discussed the latest developments in Syria, the EU policies on the foreign-backed terror-ists targeting the Syrian people, and the prospects of finding effective and conclusive solutions for ending the six-year-long war in the country.

Syrian Foreign Minister Walid al-Muallem also received the delega-tion, affirming to them that Damas-cus supports all possible ways to find a political resolution to the crisis by encouraging intra-Syrian negotiations without any foreign interference.

Since 2011, Syria has been hit by militancy it blames on some Western states and their regional allies.

United Nations Special Envoy for Syria Staffan de Mistura estimates that more than 400,000 people have been killed in the Syrian crisis. The UN has stopped its official casualty count in Syria, citing its inability to verify the figures it receives from var-ious sources.

(Source: SANA)

Western disinformation against Damascus lacks credibility: Assad

TEHRAN – Profes-sor Nader Entessar

says the election of Donald Trump, as a “highly volatile, unpredictable and ag-gressive person”, should be “considered a very important event in the world be-cause of the impact of his still evolving foreign policy on global stability.”

Trump’s victory in presidential election on November 8 (Aban 18 in the Persian calendar month) surprised the world.

Entessar said the election of Trump as the U.S. president “will impact the American sociopolitical, economic, and cultural landscape in a way not seen in the United States in many decades.”

The South Alabama University professor also numerated Brexit and heavy blows to Daesh as other impor-tant events in the Iranian calendar year

1395, falling between 21 March 2016 and 20 March 2017.

“Brexit was the most important event in Europe because of its long-term impact on European integration and Europe’s foreign and domestic policies,” he noted.

He also said, “The military set-backs suffered by Daesh in Syria and Iraq should be considered as impor-tant events, especially if Syria and Iraq manage to establish full control over liberated towns.”

When asked about any important even in Asia, he said, “I don’t think there was a specific event that stood out in Asia, but the crisis in South Chi-na Sea may lead to greater tension in Asia and impact U.S.-China relations negatively.”

Election of ‘highly unpredictable’ Trump was most important event in 1395: academic

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Turkey expected to act prudently

See page 2By Javad Heirannia

MARCH 14, 2017MARCH 14, 2017

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Russia, Turkey, Iran to go ahead with Syria talks: Kazakhstan

TEHRAN — The Ju-dicial Commission of

Iran’s parliament has tabled a motion that, if passed, overturns death penalty for near-ly 5,000 drug smugglers, a member of the body said on Saturday.

The parliament had already approved generalities of the act with the difference being that it now will act retrospectively.

“In this regard, the Judicial Commission has given its approval to retrospectively support the overturning of death penalty for drug smugglers already sentenced to death,” lawmaker Jalil Rahimi was quoted as saying.

Reportedly, more than 100 lawmakers helped draw up the preliminary legislation as a measure against growing execution re-ports in the country.

Iran is a neighbor to Afghanistan, a lead-ing producer and supplier of the world’s drugs, and faces big challenges at home with a young population susceptible to a variety of cheap and abundant addictive drugs.

The country is also located on the Balkan route which traverses Iran (often through Pakistan), Turkey, Greece and Bulgaria across South-East Europe to the Western European market.

The Balkan and northern routes are the main heroin trafficking corridors linking Af-ghanistan to the huge markets of the Rus-sian Federation and Western Europe.

According to Executive Director of the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) Yury Fedotov, Iran is directly or in-directly involved in almost 40 percent of all drug confiscations around the world.

Critics, however, say Iran’s use of death penalty in this regard has done little, if any-thing, to address the issue.

Under the country’s anti-drug regula-tions, those engaged in smuggling and sell-ing different types of drugs in amounts more than five kilograms are sentenced to death.

Iran has hinted that it wants to end drug-related executions.

Last October Iran’s Human Rights Coun-cil secretary Mohammad Javad Larijani, in what seemed to be a setback from a tough-er stance taken previously, said Tehran may

reconsider capital punishment for drug smugglers by limiting it to drug lords.

“Capital punishment should be limited to drug lords. This will cut the number of exe-cutions (in Iran) immediately,” he was quoted as having said in an interview with O Es-tadao, a daily published in Sao Paulo, Brazil.

Drug-related offences account for 93 percent of executions in Iran though all in compliance in law, according Larijani.

The human rights issue is increasingly turning into a sticking point between Iran and European countries after a successful accord between Tehran and six world pow-ers, from among them three European.

While the official line in Iran has been leaning towards capital punishment over the past years, the EU lends support to what it calls “reduction efforts.”

In a 2016 document titled “An EU strat-egy for relations with Iran after the nuclear deal,” the union has voiced concerns over

the issue. “The EU has a long standing policy of

opposing capital punishment,” read part of the document.

“The response from the EU has been to concentrate on harm reduction and other drug demand reduction efforts and avoid drug supply cooperation where the death penalty is part of the Iranian approach to reduce the drug trade,” read another part of the blueprint.

Responding to the report, Iranian For-eign Ministry Bahram Qassemi called on the European side to be “more realistic and forward-looking”.

Ever since, the two sides have met twice on the issue of human rights in a bid to reach a common ground.

During the recent 34th session of the Human Rights Council in Geneva, Asma Jahangir, the UN special rapporteur for hu-man rights in Iran, presented her 40-page report on details of human ?rights viola-tions in Iran.

In the report, Jahangir expressed con-cerns about no improvements in the hu-man rights situation in Iran, voicing con-cerns over juvenile executions, accusations described by Iran as “unfair and politically motivated.”

Parliamentary body cancels death penalty for drug smugglers

MEDIA HIGHLIGHTS

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Iran to object to UN human rights report

TEHRAN – Tehran will object to a recent report by the United Na-

tions special rapporteur on Iran in an upcoming meeting of the UN’s Human Rights Council in Ge-neva, ISNA reported.

Kazem Gharibabadi, Iran’s Human Rights Council director for international affairs, said on Monday that that an Iranian team, headed by Deputy Foreign Minister Abbas Araqchi who is now in Geneva participating in the four-week-long sessions of the UN body, will bring up the issue in the coming days.

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Leader pardons, commutes sentences of some inmates

TEHRAN — Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, Leader of the Islamic Revolution, has

agreed to a letter by the Judiciary chief to pardon or commute the sentences of some prisoners, the Lead-er ’s website reported on Monday.

Ayatollah Sadeq Amoli Larijani had proposed the move on the occasion of the birth anniversary of Fatima al-Zahra, the daughter of Prophet Mohammad (SA).

The order will cover a broad range of inmates with special conditions that have been mentioned in the Judiciary chief ’s letter to Ayatollah Khamenei.

Leader was right about U.S. treachery: ICT minister

TEHRAN — “As we go on we realize the Leader was right about America’s

disloyalty not only to Iran but to other countries,” Iran’s ICT minister said in an interview with Mehr published on Monday.

The U.S. has always gone back on promises, Mahmoud Vaezi pointed out, saying, “The JCPOA is an international deal and it is our job to seek support from Russia, China and the EU with adroitness as America must be accountable to them too.”

Parliamentary committee to look into mistreatment case at Turkish border

TEHRAN — An Iranian lawmaker has said the Majlis National Security

and Foreign Policy Committee will follow up on the case of insults against Iranian travelers at a border crossing with Turkey, Tasnim reported on Monday.

However, Hossein Naqavi Hosseini, the committee spokesman, said Majlis has not yet received any official report from the Foreign Ministry about the incident.

The lawmaker also called on Iranians to avoid traveling to Turkey, citing security concerns.

Karroubi’s son to be jailed for publishing father’s letter

TEHRAN — An Iranian court has ruled to imprison the son of Mehdi

Karroubi for having published an open letter written by his father.

Mohammad Hossein Karroubi will be jailed for 6 months on charge of attempt to undermine national security, ILNA reported on Monday.

In the letter, Karroubi had urged President Rouhani to ask the Supreme Leader to agree to a court hearing about his case.

Mehdi Karroubi, who claimed vote rigging in the 2009 presidential election, is under house arrest.

TEHRAN — Iranian Majlis Speaker Ali Larijani said on Monday that Tehran ex-

pects the Turkish government to be considerate in making comments and adopting stances.

Iran practiced “self-restraint” towards some comments made by the Turkish government, he said in a press conference.

Last month, in successive comments, the Turkish prime minister and foreign minister accused Iran of pursuing a sectarian policy in the region.

Larijani also said that asking the Iranians to avoid taking unnecessary trips to Turkey does not mean Tehran intends to undermine relations.

Such action was taken to protect the people’s lives, he added.

Larijani called Turkey a friendly country to Iran and ex-pressed hope that terrorist acts would not happen in the country anymore.

Iran’s Foreign Ministry on Sunday issued a statement warning Iranians about traveling to Turkey. The statement which was published on the ministry’s official website urges citizens to avoid unnecessary trips to Turkey during the up-coming Nowruz holidays.

“Considering the security conditions in Turkey in recent months and concerns for safety of Iranian citizens, all Irani-ans who intend to visit Turkey are strongly recommended to avoid making unnecessary trips and take all necessary measures if the visit is unavoidable,” the statement read.

‘Saudi Arabia should change its behavior’Larijani also said that Saudi Arabia should change its

behavior after two years of war against Yemen, noting that it is not good for Saudi Arabia to send a violent image of itself to the world.

He also indirectly signaled that Tehran seeks good ties with Saudi Arabia, saying Iran’s general strategy is to have

good relations with the Islamic countries.The parliament speaker also said that he will not be in-

volved in the presidential rivalries in favor of or against a particular candidate.

It is not in the interests of the legislative branch to in-volve itself in elections, Larijani remarked.

Commenting on the potential candidacy of Ebrahim Raisi, the custodian of Astan Quds Razavi, Larijani said in his opinion Raisi does not need to resign from his current post.

‘Nuclear deal was a good decision’Larijani also defended the nuclear deal, saying that sign-

ing of the agreement and its implementation were good decisions, however more precautionary actions should have been taken to avoid recent “mischievous” acts by the U.S.

The nuclear agreement, known as the Joint Compre-hensive Plan of Action, was reached in July 2015 and went into effect in January 2016.

TEHRAN — Iranian Navy has announced that two of its warships

have entered the Gulf of Aden in recent days, Tasnim news agency reported.

The two warships will be protecting Iran’s cargo ships in the Gulf of Aden and Bab el-Mandeb, the navy said on Monday.

Commercially, Tehran attaches great importance to the Gulf of Aden and Bab el-Mandeb as they connect Iran to neighboring countries as well as other regions across the world.

In recent years, the country’s navy has increased its

presence in international waters to protect naval routes and provide security for cargo ships and tankers.

On Sunday, a senior Iranian commander said the navy has so far escorted more than 2,100 cargo ships and tankers.

“Such achievements are because of the powerful presence of the navy in international waters,” Deputy Navy Commander for Coordination Admiral Peiman Jafari Tehrani stated.

Jafari Tehrani further said that the navy’s presence in international waters boosts the security of the Islamic Republic and improves intelligence sharing between Iran

and neighboring countries.In line with international efforts against piracy, the

Iranian navy has been conducting patrols in the Gulf of Aden since November 2008.

In July 2016, it fought off two consecutive pirate attacks on an Iranian merchant vessel in Bab el-Mandeb Strait.

Iran has in recent years made great breakthroughs in its defense sector and attained self-sufficiency in producing important military equipment and hardware.

The Islamic Republic asserts that its military might poses no threat to other countries and will only act as a deterrent to others.

1 He added Netanyahu “has distorted the Iranians’ pre-Islam historical era and attempted to misrepresent events. Of course, nothing more than

presenting such lies is expected from a wicked Zionist.”In a meeting with Russian President Putin in Moscow

on Friday, Netanyahu claimed, “Persia made an attempt

to destroy the Jewish people that did not succeed nearly 2,500 years ago, today there is an attempt by Persia’s heir, Iran, to destroy the state of the Jews.”

‘Turkey expected to act prudently’

Two Iranian warships enter Gulf of Aden

Zarif: Iran has saved Jews three times in history

TEHRAN — Russia, Turkey and Iran are

pressing ahead with the third round of the Syria peace talks in Kazakhstan, Kazakh Foreign Minister Kairat Abdrakhmanov said on Monday, despite a request from the Syrian opposition to postpone the meeting.

“We are awaiting confirmations from the other parties to the meeting,” Abdrakhmanov told the parliament. He added that delegations had already started arriving in the Kazakh capital, Astana, where the peace talks are held.

Last week, Syrian rebel groups called for a delay of the talks and said that further meetings would depend on whether the government and its allies adhered to a newly declared ceasefire between March 7 and 20.

The Syrian rebel delegation to the Astana talks was not ready at this point to attend a new round of Syria talks, a senior member of the delegation said on Monday.

Colonel Ahmad Othman, who heads the Turkey-backed Sultan Murad rebel brigade, said that they were awaiting a Russian response to a letter that demands that Moscow acts as a guarantor and ends violation in the ceasefire. “Nothing has been implemented so far,” Othman claimed.

The United Nations Security Council has praised the peacemaking potential of the “Astana process”, Abdrakhmanov said in his address of the lower house of parliament.

According to the minister, the UN Security Council has applauded Kazakhstan’s role in solving the Syrian

crisis. “Members of the UN Security Council noted that arranging dialogue between the Syrian government and the armed opposition, strengthening the ceasefire and setting up a trilateral mechanism for monitoring the ceasefire guaranteed by Moscow, Ankara and Tehran, became possible thanks to the steps taken by the head of our state and the Astana process,” he said.

The Iranian delegation, headed by Deputy Foreign Minister for Arab-African Affairs Hossein Jaberi Ansari, left Tehran for Astana on Monday to attend the third round of talks on the Syrian crisis. The talks are due to take place in the Kazakh capital

on March 14-15. Delegations from Russia, Turkey

and Iran will take part in the meeting; invitations have also been sent to the United Nations, the UN Special Envoy for Syria Staffan de Mistura, the United States and Jordan. The Syrian government and the armed opposition are expected to confirm their participation. Preliminary consultations will be held on March 14 and a plenary meeting is due on March 15.

“The composition of the participants, the format and the agenda of the meeting are determined by the guarantor countries,” the Kazakh foreign minister said. He also added

that he has no information concerning Egypt, when asked about Egypt’s possible participation in the talks.

“I met with some representatives of the Syrian opposition on the sidelines of the Geneva talks. They expressed their dissatisfaction with the way the ceasefire is being implemented as well as with the situation concerning the prisoner release and lifting the siege in districts adjacent to the areas defined by the ceasefire agreements,” Andrakhmanov added.

At the same time, the Kazakh top diplomat stressed that the guarantor countries were obliged to ensure the participation of the Syrian government as well as the armed opposition.

Speaking ahead of the talks, Abdrakhmanov said that Kazakhstan has received an official message from the Russian Federation saying that a special representative of the Russian president and a special representative of the foreign minister will participate in the talks next to deputy foreign ministers from Turkey and Iran. Other participants still have to confirm their presence at the third round of Astana talks.

The first Syria peace talks in Astana were held on February 6. During the second international conference, on February 15-16, Russia Iran and Turkey created a joint trilateral ceasefire group as part of the Syria truce monitoring mechanism. The Astana talks are regarded as a progress in resolving the Syrian conflict, which has been going on for almost six years now.

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Iran is a neighbor to Afghanistan, a leading producer and supplier of the world’s drugs,

and faces big challenges at home with a young population susceptible to a variety of cheap

and abundant addictive drugs.

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Kazakh Foreign Minister Kairat Abdrakhmanov (C) reads a final statement on Syria peace talks in Astana, Kazakhstan, January 24, 2017.

Iran’s Rouhani writes to Kuwaiti emir

TEHRAN — The Iranian president has written a letter to Kuwait’s Emir Sabah

Al-Ahmad Al-Jaber Al-Sabah, al-Alam reported.Hassan Rouhani’s letter was delivered on Monday

by Iran’s ambassador to Kuwait to the country’s Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Sabah Al-Khalid Al-Sabah.

The content of the letter has not been revealed. The letter was written a few days after Rouhani visited Kuwait in what was seen as a move by Tehran to mend ties with Arab states.

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Turkey summoned the Dutch envoy in Ankara to complain about the actions of Rotterdam police against Turkish pro-testers over the weekend as a row over Ankara’s political campaigning abroad widened.

The Dutch Embassy’s charge d’affair-es, Daan Feddo Huisinga, was called on Monday to the Foreign Ministry where a senior official handed him two formal protest notes.

In the note, the Turkish Foreign Minis-try condemned what it said were practic-es contrary to international conventions and diplomatic courtesy and immunities, and requested a written apology from the Dutch authorities.

Turkey also reserved its right to seek compensation, the Dutch diplomat was told.

The second note protested the treat-ment of Turkish citizens who had gath-ered outside the Turkish Consulate in Rot-terdam, saying “disproportionate force” had been used against “people using their right to peaceful gatherings”.

“The Turkish community and our citi-zens were subject to bad treatment, with inhumane and humiliating methods used in disproportionate intervention against people exercising their right to peaceful assembly,” a statement attributed to min-istry sources said.

It was the third time the Dutch charge d’affaires was summoned since Saturday over the row.

The Dutch ambassador is on leave and the Turkish foreign ministry has said it does not want him to return “for some time”.

On Sunday night, Dutch riot police were called in to end a protest by Turks in Amsterdam and arrested 13 people.

Turkish leaders continue verbal assault on the Netherlands

Meantime, Turkish leaders continued their verbal assault on the Netherlands on Sunday. Turkish President Recep Tayy-ip Erdogan said on Sunday at a rally in Istanbul that it was appropriate to accuse the Dutch government of “Nazism and fascism” because “only those types of re-gimes would bar foreign ministers from travelling within their countries”.

Erdogan vowed to retaliate against the Netherlands after claiming that “Nazism is alive in the West.” Dutch officials have condemned the statements.

He has warned that the Netherlands will “pay the price” for its “shameless” treatment of Turkey’s ministers.

Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu accused his NATO (North Atlantic Treaty Organization) ally of being “the capital of fascism”.

Cavusoglu made the comments in France where he spoke to whip up sup-port among Turkish immigrants for con-stitutional reforms to expand the powers

of the Turkish presidency Netherlands issues Turkey travel

warningAs the tensions escalated, the Nether-

lands issued a new travel warning for Tur-key, urging Dutch citizens there to take care.

“Since March 11, 2017, there have been diplomatic tensions between Turkey and the Netherlands. Stay alert across the whole of Turkey and avoid gatherings and crowded places,” the Foreign Ministry said on Monday.

It warned that there was a safety risk in traveling to Turkey, advising citizens to register with the ministry ahead of travel.

“Across the whole country, there is a high risk of terrorist attacks,” the ministry noted, particularly warning against travel to areas bordering Syria and Iraq.

Germany: No future ‘free pass’ for Turkish politicians

Meantime, German Chancellor Angela Merkel’s chief of staff said on Monday that while his country has not issued a ban on campaign appearances by Turkish politi-cians, that isn’t a “free pass” for the future.

“So far, in the last 60 years of our his-tory, we repeatedly refrained from such entry bans for countries such as, for ex-ample, the Soviet Union, China and oth-ers with whom we were in the Cold War,” Merkel’s chief of staff, Peter Altmaier, said.

However, he noted that “This is not a free pass for the future.”

Several German municipalities can-celed rallies by Turkish ministers cam-paigning for a “yes” vote in the April ref-erendum.

German Finance Minister Wolfgang Schaeuble said that the dispute with Tur-key over the campaign for the referen-dum and the arrest of a German-Turkish journalist made working on economic aid difficult.

“In these circumstances, it is of course

extremely difficult to continue working on that,” Schaeuble told Germany’s ZDF pub-lic broadcaster.

“We don’t want to escalate it. We only want Turkey to return to reason,” he added.

Denmark, France back EU allyMeanwhile, Denmark’s Prime Minister

Lars Lokke Rasmussen proposed on Sun-day postponing a planned visit by Turkey’s Prime Minister Binali Yilderim this month because of the diplomatic row between Turkey and the Netherlands.

France urged Turkey and several EU member states to calm tensions.

NATO head calls on Turkey, Neth-erlands to defuse row

Elsewhere, NATO head Jens Stolten-berg on Monday called on two of the al-liance’s members, Turkey and the Nether-lands, to defuse their escalating dispute.

“Robust debate is at the heart of our democracies but so is mutual respect,” Stoltenberg said. “I would encourage all allies to show mutual respect, to be calm and have a measured approach.”

“To contribute to deescalate the ten-sions, defuse tensions and deescalate the situation, it’s important that we now focus on everything that unites us.”

EU slaps down ‘excessive’ Turkey in Erdogan Nazi row

The development followed as the European Union urged Turkey on Mon-day to avoid “excessive statements” and actions that could increase tensions, in a row with the Netherlands and Germa-ny over the blocking of rallies by Turkish ministers.

Brussels also said it was up to Berlin and The Hague to decide whether to allow Turkish politicians into the country to try to win support for plans to expand the powers of President Recep Tayyip Erdogan.

Erdogan at the weekend twice ac-cused the Netherlands of acting like the

Nazis, comments that sparked outrage in a country bombed and occupied by Ger-man forces in World War II.

“The European Union calls on Turkey to refrain from excessive statements and actions that risk further exacerbating the situation,” EU Foreign Policy Chief Fed-erica Mogherini and EU Enlargement Commissioner Johannes Hahn said in a statement.

“Following the tensions of these last days between Turkey and some EU mem-ber states, it is essential to avoid further escalation and find ways to calm down the situation,” it added.

“Decisions with regard to the holding of meetings and rallies in member states are a matter for the member state concerned, in accordance with the applicable provisions of international and national law.”

The European Commission said it would “continue to provide our good offices in the interest of EU-Turkey rela-tions.”

No sign of EU retreat, decisive game for Turkey

The Turkish government has sought to hold campaign rallies in European coun-tries to appeal for Turkish diaspora votes to help secure victory in a referendum next month that would grant President Erdogan sweeping executive powers.

In the run-up to a general election next week in the Netherlands, the Dutch government cited security and public order concerns over a proposed Turkish rally and withdrew landing rights for the Turkey’s foreign minister Cavusoglu.

The Dutch authorities later prevented Fatma Betul Sayan Kaya, Turkey’s family minister, from entering the Turkish con-sulate in Rotterdam, before escorting her out of the country to Germany.

The crisis with the Netherlands is the most serious yet as tensions spiral be-tween Turkey and its EU allies over the desire of top Turkish officials to hold rallies abroad ahead of the April 16 referendum on a new constitution that would give Er-dogan greater powers.

The Netherlands is home to some 400,000 people of Turkish origin, and An-kara is keen to harness their votes.

The diplomatic fight also comes at a tough time in the Netherlands, which has national elections on Wednesday, and where issues of Dutch identity and rela-tions with migrant communities and Islam have taken center stage.

In a neck-and-neck race, the parties of either Rutte or populist firebrand Geert Wilders could end up with the most votes.

Rutte said it was important for his gov-ernment not to bow to Turkish pressure, especially, he said, after Ankara threat-ened sanctions if the Dutch kept its min-isters out.

(Source: agencies)

A man in the United States state of Florida faces a first-de-gree arson charge after attempting to set a convenience store ablaze because he thought it was owned by Muslims.

Richard Leslie Lloyd, 64, told police he tried to set the Port St Lucie shop on fire to “run the Arabs out of our country”, according to news reports on Sunday.

According to police, however, the shop owners were of Indian descent.

Local television channel WPTV reported that Lloyd was an-gry at Arabs “due to what they are doing in the Middle East”.

The intended target was the Met Mart store in the town 180km north of the city of Miami.

According to police, Lloyd carried out the attack on Friday morning while the shop was still closed.

Police said Lloyd was hoping that by setting a rubbish bin on fire he would ignite a bigger blaze targeting the shop.

Lloyd said he was “doing his part for America” by car-rying out the attack, according to the arrest affidavit.

Police said they will review Lloyd’s mental health, and will leave it to prosecutors to determine if he can be charged with a hate crime.

The attack was the latest in a string of recent assaults targeting minorities in the United States.

On March 3, a Sikh man was shot and wounded outside his home in Seattle in Washington state, a day after a man of Indian origin was killed in the U.S. state of South Carolina.

In late February, an Indian engineer working in Kansas was killed and two other people wounded after a gun- man shouting racial slurs opened fire on them.

(Source: Al Jazeera)

Japan plans to dispatch its largest war-ship on a three-month tour through the South China Sea beginning in May, three sources said, in its biggest show of naval force in the region since World War Two.

China claims almost all the disputed waters and its growing military presence has fueled concern in Japan and the West, with the United States holding regular air and naval patrols to ensure freedom of navigation.

The Izumo helicopter carrier, com-missioned only two years ago, will make stops in Singapore, Indonesia, the Phil-ippines and Sri Lanka before joining the Malabar joint naval exercise with Indian and the United States naval vessels in the Indian Ocean in July.

It will return to Japan in August, the sources said.

Taiwan, Malaysia, Vietnam, the Philip-pines and Brunei also claim parts of the

sea which has rich fishing grounds, oil and gas deposits and through which around $5 trillion of global sea-borne trade pass-es each year.

Japan does not have any claim to the waters, but has a separate mar-itime dispute with China in the East China Sea.

The 249 meter-long (816.93 ft) Izu-mo is as large as Japan’s World War Two-era carriers and can operate up to nine helicopters. It resembles the am-phibious assault carriers used by U.S. Marines, but lacks their well deck for launching landing craft and other ves-sels.

Japan in recent years, particularly un-der Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, has been stretching the limits of its post-war, pacifist constitution. It has designated the Izumo as a destroyer because the constitution forbids the acquisition of offensive weap-ons. The vessel, nonetheless, allows Japan to project military power well beyond its territory.

Based in Yokosuka, near to Tokyo, which is also home to the U.S. Seventh Fleet’s carrier, the Ronald Reagan, the Izumo’s primary mission is anti-subma-rine warfare.

(Source: Reuters)

MARCH 14, 2017MARCH 14, 2017 INTERNATIONALI N T E R N A T I O N A L D A I L Y

Turkey summons Dutch envoy over Rotterdam police action

Former Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak to be releasedHosni Mubarak, who was overthrown as president of Egypt in an uprising in 2011, will be released from detention in a military hospital, the public prosecutor ruled on Monday, his lawyers and judicial sources said.

“He will go to his home in Heliopolis,” Mubarak’s lawyer Farid El Deeb told Reuters. Asked if Mubarak would go home on Monday, he said: “No but tomorrow or after tomorrow.”

(Source: Reuters)

White House addresses Trump’s unorthodox call to Preet BhararaThe White House offered an explanation on Sunday for a mysterious phone call that the United States President Don-ald Trump placed to U.S. Attorney Preet Bharara a day before abruptly dismissing him and 45 other United States attor-neys, saying the president was merely trying to extend his good wishes.

But Bharara indicat-ed on Sunday evening in a statement to The New York Times that he was skeptical of the White House account, although he did not offer an alternative ex-planation for the pres-ident’s call.

The call, placed on Thursday to the office of Bharara, the top federal prosecutor in Manhattan, by a per-sonal assistant to the president, concerned Bharara because it seemed to be at odds with ethics proto-cols restricting communications between the White House and prosecutors. Bharara declined to return the call. But the White House said there was nothing untoward about it.

“The president reached out to Preet Bharara on Thursday to thank him for his service and to wish him good luck,” Sarah Huckabee Sanders, a White House spokeswoman, said in an email.

That account left many questions about the firing of Bhar-ara, who was told by Trump during the transition period that he would be retained. Some Democrats accused Trump on Sunday of seeking to deter aggressive federal investigations on Wall Street and elsewhere.

Despite being asked repeatedly on Saturday about the nature of the call, the White House was silent until Sunday. Sanders declined to answer other questions, such as why Trump had changed his mind on Bharara, whether the pres-ident had made similar calls to other United States attorneys before demanding their resignations, and why the president did not try to convey his good wishes through an aide or by some other means.

In the call on Thursday, a woman who said she was from the president’s office left a voice mail message asking Bha-rara to call back, according to a person to whom Bharara described the call. The person, who was not authorized to discuss the matter, spoke on the condition of anonymity. Bharara conferred with his deputy about whether it would be appropriate to return the call, the person said.

Then he and his deputy, Joon H. Kim, reviewed Justice De-partment memos governing such contacts, the person add-ed. Because the caller had not specified what the president wanted to discuss, they concluded that it would be prudent to not return the call and to instead contact the office of Ses-sions, the person said.

Bharara called the chief of staff to the attorney general, Joseph H. Hunt. “Mr. Hunt was direct and clear in our con-versation that, given written White House contacts policy, my position as a sitting U.S. attorney, and my office’s jurisdiction, it would be improper for me to speak directly to the sitting president without knowing the subject matter,” Mr. Bharara said in his statement.

“Some might find that inconsistent with what is for the first time, three days later being described as a well-wishes call,” he added.

After speaking with Hunt, Bharara called the White House back and said the attorney general’s office had advised him not to speak directly with the president.

It has not been unusual for new presidents to bring in a new roster of United States attorneys, but the abrupt dismiss-als on Friday caused concern about instability in the Justice Department.

Two days before the prosecutors were dismissed, Attor-ney General Jeff Sessions held a conference call with them on a Justice Department initiative and offered no hint that they would soon be forced out.

Almost all of the 46 United States attorneys asked to re-sign on Friday have now done so, a Justice Department offi-cial said. The balance of the nation’s 94 United States attor-neys had already resigned.

Career prosecutors are running most of the United States attorneys’ offices until the White House nominates successors for Senate confirmation.

Bharara announced on Saturday on Twitter that he had been fired after refusing to turn in his resignation. His public defiance came two days after he received the White House call.

On Twitter on Sunday, Senator Elizabeth Warren, a Massa-chusetts Democrat who is one of the president’s fiercest crit-ics, charged that the call to Bharara was a breach of protocol and that Trump was trying to stifle aggressive prosecutions by dismissing him.

Warren promised the president a “massive fight” in the Senate if he seeks to replace “real prosecutors with cronies.” (Source: The New York Times)

U.S. man sets Florida store on fire to keep ‘Arabs out’

Japan plans to send largest warship to South China Sea: sources

Turkish Family Minister Fatma Betul Sayan Kaya back to Istanbul

4I N T E R N A T I O N A L D A I L Y

E C O N O M Y MARCH 14, 2017MARCH 14, 2017

TEHRAN — Central banks of Iran and

Oman signed a memorandum of un-derstanding on Sunday aiming for expansion of cooperation, IRNA re-ported.

The MOU was signed by Central Bank of Iran (CBI) Governor Valiollah Seif and Central Bank of Oman (CBO) Executive President Hamood Sangour al-Zadjali in Tehran.

Secretary General of Oman’s For-eign Ministry Badr bin Hamad Al-busaidi and representatives of some commercial banks of the two coun-tries also attended the signing cere-mony.

Mentioning the importance of banking relations, Seif noted that po-litical ties between the two countries are age-old but economic ties do not match the political bonds.

According to the official, banking relations are prerequisite for trade and economic ties.

“Such meetings will be held every six months between the two groups to remove all possible problems and obstacles,” he noted.

Central Bank of Oman’s executive president for his part said that bank-ing relations should reach the level of diplomatic relations which is quite desirable.

Sangour called on banks of both countries to promote and boost bilat-eral ties.

He further expressed his country’s interest to open bank branches in Iran, and said that Saderat and Mel-li banks of Iran have been active in Oman.

“Now we expect Omani banks to start activities in Iran,” Sangour noted.

Iranian, Omani central banks ink cooperation MOU

E C O N O M Yd e s k

E C O N O M Yd e s k

TEHRAN – Australia is willing to expand economic ties with Iran especially in wa-

ter and energy sectors, IRNA quoted South Australia’s Minis-ter for Investment and Trade as saying on Sunday.

According to the report, Martin Hamilton-Smith made the remarks in a meeting with Iranian Deputy Energy Minister for Planning and Economic Affairs Alireza Daemi in Tehran.

“With the post-sanctions opportunity presented, we hope that the two countries take necessary measures for expan-sion of ties in various sectors including water management, technology, energy efficiency, renewable energies, and sea-water desalination,” Hamilton-Smith said.

The official also expressed hope for expansion of aca-demic and research cooperation between the two countries

saying that some of the world’s leading universities are lo-cated in South Australia and they are ready to share their experiences with Iran.

Mentioning the trade turnover between the two sides, Hamilton-Smith noted that the worth of annual trade be-tween the two sides is about $1.5 million which is relatively low.

Iranian deputy minister for his part said Iran is open to new investment and financing in areas like climate change, renewable energies and seawater desalination and the coun-try welcomes interested Australian companies in this regard.

“There is also a very good potential for cooperation be-tween universities of the two countries to conduct joint re-search in water and energy,” Daemi said.

Australia willing to expand water, energy ties with Iran

Iran replaced Iraq as India’s No. 2 oil supplier in Feb.: trade data India’s oil imports from Iran rose nearly 17 percent in Febru-ary from a month earlier as refiners received less crude from key OPEC producers Saudi Arabia and Iraq after an OPEC deal to cut output, shipping data showed on Monday.

The jump meant Iran replaced regional rival Iraq as India’s second-biggest oil supplier - a role Tehran used to occupy before Western sanctions were imposed against it over the country’s nuclear program.

While Saudi Arabia remained the biggest oil supplier to India, ship tracking data and a report compiled by Thomson Reuters Oil Research and Forecasts showed imports from Iran rose to 647,000 barrels per day in February. That was 16.7 percent more than January, and almost trebled from Febru-ary 2016.

(Source: Reuters)

The trigger of Article 50 is the event trad-ers have been waiting for since the U.K. voted to leave the European Union. Yet as Prime Minister Theresa May approach-es her end-March deadline for launching Brexit, there is no consensus on what it means for markets.

The pound has slumped 18 percent and the country’s benchmark equities in-dex has rallied about 16 percent since the June 23 referendum. While currency and stock volatility is now calmer ahead of the talks, some analysts are warning markets are too complacent in expecting a smooth path toward an agreement.

Is Article 50 already baked into sterling?

No, says Bank of America Merrill Lynch. “We reject the notion that sterling has ful-ly priced Article 50 and beyond. Risks to the currency remain to the downside on a disruptive start to negotiations,” strategists including Kamal Sharma said in a note to clients on March 2, adding they see a dip before a recovery into the end of the year.

JPMorgan Chase & Co. is also bearish. It recommended on March 3 selling the pound against the dollar at 1.2250, with a stop at 1.2530, as it sees the currency as the most over-valued in the Group-

of-10 and investor confidence as vulner-able.

Bank of America’s preferred strategy is to bet on greater swings in the pound, rather than its direction. It has recom-mended buying three-month forward vol-atility, a measure of expected swings, with a target for it to gain around 20 percent from current levels. Societe Generale SA also sees opportunity in options, as it ex-pects two-month implied volatility to pick up if cable falls below $1.20.

Meanwhile, Morgan Stanley is more sanguine and thinks the triggering of Arti-cle 50 shouldn’t come as a major surprise. “There may be many Article 50-relat-ed news headlines in the coming weeks but we believe that a lot of the negativ-ity around Brexit-related economic data weakness is already in the price,” strate-gists led by Hans Redeker said in a March 2 note.

The bank initiated a long sterling ver-sus the euro trade recommendation last month and is targeting a move to 0.8000, as it sees political risks in the euro zone remaining high.

What are key things to watch during negotiations?

The key question is whether economics

or populist politics dominate the negotia-tions, according to Bank of America econ-omist Robert Wood. It should become apparent relatively early into the formal talks that the UK is on course for a harder Brexit, with all of the economic disruption that leaving Europe’s single market is likely to entail, according to JPMorgan.

Traders will focus on what the process means for the financial services industry, a key contributor to the economy, and any signs that banking or broader investment is being relocated out of the UK could potentially have a negative effect on the currency, said Viraj Patel, a London-based strategist at ING Groep NV.

How will Article 50 affect stock allocations?

UK equity investors are not losing any sleep over Article 50. In fact, stock volatility as measured by the VFTSE Index is near a record low. That’s in large part because members of the benchmark FTSE 100 In-dex get about three-quarters of sales from abroad, so their profits have been bene-fiting from the slide in the pound. If the currency sees a significant drop from here, the index may rise further, after hitting a record high this month.

Yet some analysts argue that upside

is limited, as the weak pound has been priced in. Members of the FTSE 250 Index get about half of revenues from the UK, and that’s at 70 percent for the FTSE Local UK Index, so these firms may struggle if UK growth shows more signs of a slowdown. Investors will watch house building shares, which have defied expectations since the vote, and may retreat if the economy shows significant weakness.

Bank of America expects a rising risk premium for holding gilts as a result of political headlines early on in the negoti-ations, and recommends being short five-year gilts versus overnight indexed swaps. JPMorgan also has a bearish view, expect-ing “market noise” following the Article 50 trigger, and is staying short 10-year gilts. Citigroup Inc. is targeting 10-year yields to fall to 1 percent on a pessimistic eco-nomic outlook as consumers start to feel the pinch.

ING says it’s worth watching the level of foreign ownership of UK bonds as a gauge of sentiment. Foreign ownership of UK bonds has slipped in the past two months and “if this becomes a six-month theme that’s telling you something,” said ING strategist Patel.

(Source: Bloomberg)

What to expect in UK markets when may pulls Brexit trigger

Saudi King visits Japan, seeks help on diversifying economy King Salman and hundreds of business leaders from Saudi Arabia are in Japan for talks on Monday mainly expected to focus on economic ties.

The visit is the first by a Saudi king in 46 years, though Salman visited more recently as crown prince.

Saudi Arabia is one of Japan’s biggest suppliers of crude oil, accounting for about a third of its total imports of oil from the Middle East.

The kingdom is striving to diversify its economy away from its heavy reliance on oil exports, and Salman is on a month-long tour of Asia to advance his kingdom’s economic and business interests.

Japan’s Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga told reporters Monday that Japan is willing to provide support for Saudi Arabia.

“We will discuss growth strategy, including our ‘Saudi Vision’ project,” he said, referring to Japanese collaboration with Vision 2030, a roadmap adopted by the kingdom last year for its devel-opment and economic objectives

He did not confirm reports that the countries would agree to set up a special economic zone in Saudi Arabia.

Salman met with Japanese Foreign Minister Fumio Kishida and was to meet Prime Minister Shinzo Abe later Monday.

Reports say Japan plans to urge that Saudi Aramco, the state-run oil company that is being partially privatized, seek a share listing on the Tokyo Stock Exchange.

Separately, Saudi Arabia’s sovereign wealth fund and Japanese telecoms provider and energy company Softbank have joined forces in setting up a $25 billion private fund for technology in-vestments.

Trade between the countries fell overall last year as oil prices dropped. Japan’s 2.1 trillion yen ($18.6 billion) in imports from Saudi Arabia in 2016, mostly oil and gas, dwarfed its exports of 546.3 billion yen ($4.8 billion).

The delegation arrived late Sunday on about 10 aircraft. Offi-cials said top hotels and car hire services would be busy handling the unusually large group during its four-day visit.

Salman’s stop in Japan follows visits to Indonesia and Malaysia. He is due to travel on to Brunei, China and the Maldives.

While seeking investment and help with Saudi industrialization and development of its services sector, Salman has also offered help. Earlier, he pledged $1 billion in development finance for Indonesia and closer cooperation for combating transnational crime such as human trafficking, terrorism and the drugs trade.

(Source: Bloomberg)

China stocks post best gains in 3 weeks as Beijing official says economy steadier China stocks posted their best gains in three weeks on Monday after a senior research official said over the weekend that the world’s second-largest economy was on steadier footing.

The blue-chip index rose 0.9 percent to 3,458.10 points, while the Shanghai Composite Index gained 0.8 percent to 3,237.02.

Li Wei, director of the Development Research Centre of the State Council, said on Sunday that the risk of a sharp slide in China’s economy has decreased.

He said the economy had moved through an “L-shaped” pattern of slowing to now “horizontal” growth.

Fears of more forceful monetary tightening in China also abated after a senior government official said on Sunday that the debt risk for China’s main state-owned enterprises (SOEs) is controllable.

On Friday, China’s central bank governor Zhou Xiaochuan said that it would take time to bring down corporate debt lev-els.

The central bank has gently lifted short-term interest rates twice this year and is expected to bump them up again in com-ing months as a more stable economy gives policymakers the confidence and room to tackle financial risks such as high cor-porate leverage ratios.

(Source: Reuters)

Central Bank of Iran Governor Valiollah Seif (R) and Central Bank of Oman Executive President Hamood Sangour al-Zadjali signing a cooperation MOU in Tehran on Sunday

TEHRAN — Irani-an Communications

and Information Technology Minister Mahmoud Vaezi in a Monday meeting with Russian Energy Minister Alexander Novak in Moscow announced that the required infrastructure to expand all-out economic ties between the two countries have been prepared, IRNA reported.

Vaezi, who leads the Iranian side of Iran-Russia Joint Economic Commit-tee, referred to the 29 MOUs signed

between the two sides in the com-mittee, hoping that mutual trade will witness increase after establishing a customs green channel between the two sides and also banking relations will improve.

The Iranian minister expressed con-tent about the 80-percent annual rise in mutual trade balance during the current Iranian calendar year (ending March 20) but called for more efforts to be done in this regard.

Novak, leading the Russian side of the joint committee, in his turn, hoped that implementation of accorded MOUs will develop the common relations between Iran and Russia in the intended fields.

He asserted that the incoming visit of Iranian President Hassan Rouhani to Moscow, probable to take place in late March, can be a leap in common ties.

‘Russia’s imports of Iranian oil to be discussed’

Meanwhile, at the start of the Monday

meeting, Vaezi said that the two men would discuss a deal to supply Moscow with 100,000 barrels per day (bpd) of Ira-nian oil, Reuters reported.

“Our delegation is prepared to hold talks on this subject,” he said.

On February 27, Novak said, “Russia is negotiating daily purchases of 100,000 bpd of oil from Iran. The two countries are currently discussing the terms of a potential agreement expected to be reached within weeks.”

Infrastructures prepared for Iran-Russia all-out economic ties

Oil prices dropped to their lowest in three months on Monday despite OPEC efforts to curb crude output, dragged down as U.S. drillers kept adding rigs.

Brent crude had fallen 39 cents, or 0.8 percent, to at $50.98 per barrel by 0553 GMT, its lowest since Nov. 30. It closed the previous session down 1.6 percent at $51.37.

U.S. West Texas Intermediate crude (WTI) declined 45 cents, or 0.9 percent, to $48.04 a barrel, also the lowest since Nov. 30.

Brent crude is set to drop for a fifth day, its biggest losing streak since a six-day slump that ended on Nov. 4. During this streak, the price has slumped 8.8 percent, its worst performance since the middle of June 2016.

WTI is set to decline for a sixth day, during which is has dropped 9.8 percent.

The slump in prices has occurred as more rigs are de-ployed to look for oil in the United States and as crude inventories in the U.S., the world’s biggest oil consumer, have surged to a record.

U.S. drillers added oil rigs for an eighth consecutive week, Baker Hughes said on Friday, as energy companies

increased spending to take advantage of an earlier recov-ery in crude prices since the Organization of the Petro-leum Exporting Countries (OPEC) agreed to cut output.

OPEC and other major oil producers including Russia reached a landmark agreement late last year to rein in production by almost 1.8 million barrels per day (bpd) in the first half of 2017.

Overshadowing the curbs, U.S. crude inventories surged last week by 8.2 million barrels.

“With the market still digesting the big increase in in-ventories, oil prices are likely to remain under pressure today,” ANZ bank said in a note.

Hedge funds and other money managers cut their net long positions in U.S. crude futures and options in the week to March 7, according to data from the U.S. Com-modity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) on Friday.

Michael McCarthy, chief market strategist at Sydney’s CMC Markets, said markets this week will be dominated by expectations that the U.S. Federal Reserve is set to hike interest rates this week.

A rise in U.S. rates would likely buoy the dollar, making greenback-denominated oil more expensive for import-ing countries.

“The week ahead is packed with potentially market defining releases,” said McCarthy. “However, the key to market performance this week is the response to the U.S. lift in rates.”

(Source: Reuters)

Oil prices fall to three-month low as U.S. rig count climbs

E C O N O M Yd e s k

Rosneft sees risk global oil output cuts deal won’t be extendedRussian oil major Rosneft said on Monday there was a risk that a global oil output cuts deal would not be extended be-cause of a lack of will on the part of the main participants and due to shale production dynamics in the United States.

“We think that in the long term global oil demand dynam-ics and reduced investment during the period of ultra-low prices will balance the market, but that the risk of a price war resuming remains,” a company spokesman told Reuters.

(Source: Reuters)

ADVERTISEMENTMARCH 14, 2017MARCH 14, 2017 5I N T E R N A T I O N A L D A I L Y

By Hamish McRae

MARCH 14, 2017MARCH 14, 20176I N T E R N A T I O N A L D A I L Y

INTERNATIONAL

Beware the Ides of March, Julius Caesar was warned before his fa-tal visit to the Roman forum on

15 March, or at least that is what Shake-speare would have us believe.

We no longer celebrate that particular religious festival, but next Wednesday will be a big day in the political and economic calendar. It will be the first test on the continent for the wave of populism sweeping through Europe: the Dutch elections. There are rumors it may well also be the day that the UK triggers Article 50, giving notice of the intention to leave the EU, though this is still dependent on parliamentary procedure. And it will be the day when the U.S. Federal Reserve again increases interest rates, signalling the divergence in economic fortune between the U.S. and the Eurozone.

The three hang together. In the Neth-erlands nationalist politician Geert Wil-ders is consistently running either first or second in the polls after calling for the country to leave the EU. In the UK we have already made our decision to do so. And what is happening in the U.S. is a stark reminder of the extent to which the country has had a much more posi-tive economic experience than most of Europe since the great recession in 2009. If voters are fed up with the status quo in the U.S., and the choice of president suggests they are, voters in Europe have even more reason to be tetchy.

The Netherlands matters most though, because the pitch that it might leave the EU ought not to gain much support. It was one of the founding members and has done very well out of its membership. According to Eurostat, it has the highest per capita GDP of any country in the EU, bar Luxembourg and the rather special case of Ireland. It also has a relatively egalitarian society, good infrastructure, relatively low unemployment (5.3 per

cent) and a successful business sector.As it happens I have been in Amster-

dam twice in the past few weeks, includ-ing a visit earlier this week talking with some business people. The message was not only one of regret about Britain’s exit, but also concern about any weakening of trade between the UK and Europe. That’s to be expected, given that the Netherlands is not only one of our closest economic partners but also has broadly similar ideas about how business should be conducted (two of the largest multi-nationals are the Anglo-Dutch Unilever and Shell). There was inevitably a certain bewilderment at the choice UK voters had

made, but that was easier to understand than the local political mood. Why should people in the calm, prosperous and sta-ble society be starting to rebel against Europe?

What’s going on in the Netherlands is not about economics, it is about identity. Geert Wilders’ attacks on Muslims repre-sent his anti-immigration sentiment, as does the slogan “The Netherlands Ours Again”. But the rise of populism may have more to do with a desire to protect and respect the Dutch way than limiting immi-gration per se. Across the country there are hints towards this idea, focusing on the importance of Dutch food and drink,

advertisements celebrating national cul-ture, the easy egalitarian relationship be-tween the genders, and so on.

If the EU is to hold together, and break-up is now a real possibility, it has to down-play being “European” and allow national divergence. This means accepting and celebrating patriotism, rather than seeing it as a relic of an uncomfortable past.

If the Netherlands, of all countries, is signalling distress with the way that the EU is developing, then populism is shift-ing the ground across the entire continent and not just in this calm and successful nation. Beware the Ides of March indeed.

(Source: Independent)

The Dutch election next week could lead the tolerant and prosperous country to vote for an anti-EU nationalist

president, but we’d be wrong to label the population as racist.

The EU could collapse completely if we continue to vilify nationalism

King Salman: Relinquish Guardianship of Islam’s Holy Sites!1 It is difficult to call the King of Saudi Arabia a rule-

abiding Muslim ruler and the rightful “Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques.” And don’t forget, it is Al-Saud rule that spawned Al-Qaeda and the 9/11 terrorists.But in the last 30 or so years, Al-Saud claim to the sole guardi-anship of the “Two Holy Mosques” must be further questioned because of the mismanagement of the holy mosques. Since 1990, several thousand pilgrims have died in Mecca-Medi-na in stampedes and from the collapse of infrastructure and construction equipment. But there is more. Mecca is rich with

nearly 1400 years of Islamic history. In recent years, the Al-Sauds have demol-ished many of the histori-cal sites of Islam and have replaced them with build-ings that dwarf the Kaaba and with hotels where the homes of the Prophet Mo-hammad’s companions once stood. During Hajj all Muslims are presumed to

be equal, but in recent years inequalities are increasingly on display everywhere. Saudi kings have built palaces overlooking the Kaaba and rich pilgrims enjoy luxurious living at hotels such as the Royal Fairmont Clocktower in $3,000-a-night rooms that overlook the Kaaba while poor Muslims get by with minimal accommodations. When pilgrims become so unequal during Hajj — where equality is to be supreme — Muslims know all that they need know that the rule non-compliance has reached a zenith and that Al-Saud rule does not reflect the teachings of Islam, something that they proclaim for legitimacy.

The demolishing and rebuilding of Mecca and Medina has afforded the ruling family and well-connected Saudis enor-mous wealth through escalating land prices and higher ex-penditures for luxury by wealthy pilgrims. Destroying Islamic heritage sites and turning Mecca into a commercial glitzy moneymaking fairground to benefit the Al-Sauds and their cronies is an affront to the world’s 1.7 billion Muslims.

Does the King of Saudi Arabia, one man among 1.7 billion Mus-lims, have the right to do as he wishes with Islam’s holy sites? Is it seemly to use Islam’s holy sites for profiteering? Should the world’s 1.7 billion Muslims have a say in how these sites are managed?

It is high time to protect Islam’s holiest sites and Islam’s heritage from financial exploitation and to designate Mecca and Medina “Muslim-administered cities” with their admin-istration in the hands of a representative and elected com-mittee of Muslims whose duties should be to protect these mosques and the Islamic heritage of the region, and to en-sure safe and equal access to all Muslims.

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ANALYSISMARCH 14, MARCH 14, 20172017 7I N T E R N A T I O N A L D A I L Y

Iran has always done its best to re-inforce Economic Cooperation Or-ganization (ECO) as its top priority

and is seeking to boost cooperation among the organization’s member states.

Recently, Tehran handed over the rotating presidency of the ECO Council of Ministers to Islamabad.

Leading the Iranian delegation in the 22nd meeting of the ECO Council of Ministers, Foreign Minister of Iran Mo-hammad Javad Zarif handed over the presidency to Pakistan’s Adviser to Prime Minister on Foreign Affairs Sartaj Aziz.

Iranian President Hassan Rouhani also traveled to Islamabad to attend the 13th session, during which the Council of Ministers (COM) approved the Islam-abad Deceleration during the gathering held on March 1.

‘Vision 2025’Addressing the opening session

of the 22nd ECO Council of Ministers meeting, Zarif said new regional eco-nomic architecture among ECO mem-ber states is required to ensure imple-mentation of ‘Vision 2025’.

“New regional economic architec-ture for cooperation and integration within the ECO is required to ensure that the “Vision” and other such frame-works will deliver their expected output, in a timely and effective way,” he said.

He added in the 21st COM Meeting in November 2013, and in the “Tehran Communiqué”, the Ministers clearly in-dicated that continued regional coop-

eration within ECO framework would require, first and foremost, enhanced institutional and operational capacities in the Organization, enabling it to re-spond in a timely and effective man-ner to the needs and aspirations of the Member States.

The minister added the ECO mem-ber states, assisted by the Secretariat, have charted the “Vision 2025” which lays out the ECO goals and pro-grammes in the coming decade.

“We need to have all Member States on broad; while ECO in return needs to prove that it works for the whole mem-bership,” he viewed.

“ECO needs to prove its added val-ue for each and every single Member State, enhancing the sense of owner-ship among them. Conversely, we, the Member States, should lend our full support to the Organization and its ac-tivities,” said Zarif.

Emerging Asian economiesAddressing the opening session of

the 13th Summit of ECO on March 1,

President Rouhani said the emerging Asian economies would change the direction of the world’s economy from the West to the East; and this would turn the twenty first century to the era of rising Asia.

“Our continent Asia is going to pump the heart of the world’s economy in the second half of the present cen-taury,’ said the President stressing that promotion of connectivity will help de-velopment and prosperity in Asia.’

He further noted, “The unique status of our countries in transit and transport as well as energy and commerce has put the ECO in an ideal position. The ECO can and should play a prominent role in building the future economy of our region.

“Situated on the shores of several strategic waterways of the world and being neighbor to five important bod-ies of water, our countries have provid-ed unique geopolitical and territorial conditions for our organization.

“There is no other trade and tran-sit route linking Europe to Asia more cost-effective and shorter than the ECO pathway.”

President Rouhani highlighted that ECO was a proper ground for creation of a safer and more secure region for all nations. He stressed that Iran appreciat-ed common interests and cooperation with neighbors as it held joint borders with six ECO members; “no barriers exist on deepening relations with ECO states.”

The official underlined that the fruitful experience gained through the

JCPOA which was a win-win agreement has paved the path for boosting collab-oration asserting “the end of a fake cri-sis over Iran’s peaceful nuclear program and reaching an international accord confirmed by the UN Security Council marked a great achievement not only for Iran but also for ECO.”

Fruitful results Upon his arrival in Tehran from Is-

lamabad President Rouhani highlighted the positive impacts that ECO will have on stability in the region, saying he had constructive talks with Turkish and Paki-stani leaders to serve that purpose.

Rouhani underlined that members of ECO are determined to strengthen joint relations, saying there are many capacities for broadening cooperation among ECO states which should be used completely.

By constructive interaction we mean that it should primarily be forged with neighboring states and the ECO mem-bers, President Rouhani said adding that proper steps have been taken dur-ing the summit to this end.

Noting that ECO Summit high-lighted promoting bonds among ECO member states, the President added that participants of the ECO Summit underlined the necessity of cooperat-ing on road, railway and shipping activ-

ities as well as gas and oil sectors. They have also called for removing obstacles in the way of trade among those coun-tries.

All member states stressed the need for boosting bilateral cooperation in various fields and that has led to releas-ing a good statement which empha-sized proper use of the ECO member states capacities, the President said.

Strengthening ECO will benefit the region and will contribute to promoting cooperation among Pakistan, Iran and Turkey and eventually to regional stabil-ity, said the President.

Islamabad declarationFinally, the 13th Summit of 10-mem-

ber of ECO concluded in Islamabad on March 1 with adoption of the Islamabad

Declaration.The leaders of ECO member States

also adopted ECO Vision 2025, a roadmap for greater regional cooper-ation and integration in years to come. They also unanimously agreed to build and promote multi-dimensional con-nectivity among the ECO member states.

In their deceleration, the ECO mem-ber states expressed grave concern over the security challenges facing the region and expressed resolve to com-bat terrorism in all its forms and man-ifestations.

In the deceleration the ECO mem-bers also strongly opposed policies adopted by some countries towards the refugees.

For sure the event would play a key role in establishing that peace and stability in the region and is pivotal for achieving regional economic goals.

To this end, accelerating establish-ment of ECO commercial trade zone as well as the agreement for promoting investment is essential.

The Islamic Republic of Iran has always attaches great importance to the expan-sion of relations with its neighbors, Azer-

baijan Republic in particular. As two developing Muslim countries, Iran

and Azerbaijan Republic have always enjoyed numerous commonalities.

Iranian officials have repeatedly announced that there is no limit to broaden all-out eco-nomic cooperation with Baku.

In an indication of amending cordial rela-tions, Azeri President Ilham Aliyev heading a high-ranking delegation arrived in Tehran on March 5 in his third visit to Iran since Hassan Rouhani was elected as Islamic Republic’s pres-ident in 2013.

During his day-long visit in Tehran, Aliyev held talks separate meetings with Leader of the Islamic Revolution Ayatollah Seyyed Ali Khamenei and his Iranian counterpart and re-viewed issues of mutual interests.

The Iranian and Azeri sides also inked two memoranda of understanding on cooperation in the presence of the two countries’ presi-dents which were mainly focused on bilateral relations in the areas of fighting against money laundering and fostering railroad cooperation.

Meanwhile, simultaneous with the trip of President Aliyev to Tehran, Astara-Astara rail-road project were test-launched, a project which joined Astara in Iran to Astara in Azer-baijan.

Religious sentimentsIn a meeting with Aliyev, Ayatollah Khame-

nei said that the interest and expediency of the Azeri government rests in sharing with people religious sentiments.

Religious commonalities bring more affini-ty between the two nations and officials, the Leader said, adding that the current level of economic cooperation is much lower than ex-isting facilities and capabilities and should be increased ten-folds.

Hailing the stances adopted by Azerbaijan in dealing with Iran’s nuclear dossier, the Lead-er said Azeri government has always backed Iran in political gatherings and their stances have brought us much closer.

The evil Zionist regime more than other enemies try to weaken brotherly relations be-tween Iran and Azerbaijan and the two sides

should be vigilant in protecting such sincere relations, the Leader said.

“If the Azeri government relies on its peo-ple, no one in the world can harm you and we also pray for success of the Azeri government and nation,” the Leader said.

Azeri president, for his part highlighted both sides’ historical, cultural and religious commonalities, and said Iran and Azerbaijan have always backed each other and the visit of some one million Azeri people to Iran last year truly indicates the depth of affinity and cultural and religious commonalities between the two

nations.Relations between Iran and Azerbaijan is

excellent, he said.Current volume of trade exchanges between

Iran and Azerbaijan is not satisfactory, he said,

adding that contraction of joint rail tracks was a very significant job and the two sides are now working on South-North corridor, Aliyev said.

North-south corridorSpeaking in a joint press conference attend-

ed by President Rouhani, Aliyev said the two countries had good economic progresses and in the past year trade volume between the two states increased more than 70 percent.

Aliyev said that two documents were signed between Iran and Azerbaijan Republic would pave the way for consolidation of relations, and appreciated Iran for starting investment in

Azerbaijan Republic.He said that the issue of north-south cor-

ridor is important, adding, ‘The plan will have remarkable influence on the regional countries.’

‘With regards to electricity and energy, the two countries have done good moves and today electricity lines between the two states have been connected and in relations with oil and gas also there are good possibilities and investment.

He added that Islamic solidarity meeting will be held next month in Baku and invited Iranian athletes to participate in the event.

Meanwhile, President Rouhani for his part described Tehran-Baku relations as brotherly and strategic, saying the two countries enjoy close viewpoints about the regional ques-tions.

During the past three years, Iran and Azer-baijan have witnessed considerable growth in their bilateral ties, President Rouhani said.

Growth in Tehran-Baku ties is “politically, economically, culturally, regionally and inter-nationally” important, President Rouhani said.

The volume of the trade exchange in the

past ten months between Iran and Azerbai-jan indicates that the two are moving towards further efforts in developing bilateral relations, Rouhani underlined.

Rasht-Astara rail trackIn a meeting with Azeri high-ranking offi-

cials led by Aliyev, President Rouhani said that Iran attaches importance to the expansion of relations with its neighbors and there is no limit to broaden all-out economic cooperation with Baku.

Connecting the two countries rail tracks prepare grounds for the expansion of econom-ic cooperation through transit of goods in the region, President Rouhani said while express-ing the hope that Rasht-Astara rail track to be connected to enable Azerbaijan to have access to Persian Gulf region.

He added grounds for the expansion of mu-tual cooperation in industry, agriculture, scien-tific cooperation, universities and tourism are well-prepared and ease of commutes between the two sides’ nationals help deepen such co-operation.

Implementation of banking cooperation can help broaden banking and economic cooper-ation between the two countries, Rouhani said.

Free trade economic zones can play vital role in broadening economic cooperation be-tween border regions and Iran welcomes in-vestment of Azerbaijan in tourism sector, Pres-ident Rouhani said.

Determining Caspian Sea Legal Regime re-quires collective consensus of all littoral states and Tehran and Baku can play significant role to this end, he said.

Trade exchangesIn Feb 25, Minister of Economy of Azerbai-

jan Republic Shahin Mustafayev said that in year 2016 trade exchanges between the two countries increased almost 70 percent.

More than 530 Iranian companies are ac-tive in different fields of economy in Azerbaijan Republic, he announced, adding, ‘Almost 2.7 billion dollars have been invested by Iran in Azerbaijan Republic.’

He called Iran as important commercial partner for his country and said that common activities of the two neighboring countries in direction of execution of a number of econom-ic projects successful, and added that the first stage of completion of international corridor of north-south has ended and in this framework a 8.3 kilometers railway in Azerbaijan Repub-lic and a rail bridge in common border of the two states have been constructed and works to build 1.7 kilometers railway and a cargo termi-nal in Iran territory is continuing, Mustafayev said.

He said that last year a 330-kilovolt electric-ity transfer line were sat up and a joint venture auto maker company founded in Azerbaijan Republic as well as a joint venture pharmaceu-tics plant.

By Maryam Azish

By Mina Ahmadi

Aliyev said that two documents were signed between Iran and Azerbaijan Republic would pave the way for consolidation of relations,

and appreciated Iran for starting investment in Azerbaijan Republic.

Strengthening ECO will benefit the region and will contribute to promoting

cooperation among Pakistan, Iran and Turkey and eventually to regional

stability

“There is no other trade and transit route linking Europe to Asia more cost-effective and shorter than the ECO pathway.”

In a meeting with Aliyev, Ayatollah Khamenei said that the interest and expediency of the

Azeri government rests in sharing with people religious sentiments.

The 13th Summit of 10-member of ECO concluded in Islamabad on March 1 with adoption of the Islamabad Declaration.

Call for closer cooperation among ECO members

Bright future ahead of Tehran-Baku relations

MARCH 14, 2017MARCH 14, 20178I N T E R N A T I O N A L D A I L Y

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HEALTH & MEDICINEMARCH 14, 2017MARCH 14, 2017 9I N T E R N A T I O N A L D A I L Y

What is inflammation?Ask the doctor

Think of inflammation as the body’s natural re-sponse to protect itself against harm. There are two types: acute and chronic. You’re probably

more familiar with the acute type, which occurs when you bang your knee or cut your finger. Your immune system dispatches an army of white blood cells to sur-round and protect the area, creating visible redness and swelling. The process works similarly if you have an infection like the flu or pneumonia. So in these set-tings, inflammation is essential—without it, injuries could fester and simple infections could be deadly.

But chronic inflammation can also occur in response to other unwanted substances in the body, such as toxins from cigarette smoke or an excess of fat cells (especially fat in the belly area). Inside arteries, inflam-mation helps kick off atherosclerosis—the buildup of fatty, cholesterol-rich plaque. Your body perceives this

plaque as abnormal and foreign, so it attempts to wall off the plaque from the flowing blood. But if that wall breaks down, the plaque may rupture. The contents then mingle with blood, forming a clot that blocks blood flow. These clots are responsible for the majority of heart attacks and most strokes.

A simple blood test called the hsCRP test can meas-ure C-reactive protein (CRP), which is a marker for in-flammation, including arterial inflammation. Nearly 20 years ago, Harvard researchers found that men with higher CRP levels—approximately 2 milligrams per liter (mg/L) or greater—had three times the risk of heart at-

tack and twice the risk of stroke as men with little or no chronic inflammation. They also found that peo-ple with the greatest de-gree of arterial inflamma-tion benefited the most from aspirin, a drug that helps prevent blood clots and also damps down in-flammation.

But many doctors don’t routinely recom-mend the hsCRP test because for the most part, they believe the re-sults would not change your treatment. If you’re young and healthy and at low risk for heart disease, there is no evidence that knowing your CRP level is helpful. If you have heart disease, you should

already be taking medications that lower your heart attack risk, such as a cholesterol-lowering statin. Like aspirin, statins also appear to work particularly well in people with arterial inflammation. One study even showed that statins reduce the risk of death in people with average cholesterol levels but CRP levels of 2 mg/L or higher. So if you’re middle-aged or beyond and have signs of looming heart trouble, like high blood pressure, high cholesterol, or a family history of heart disease, knowing that you have a high CRP level might nudge you toward more aggressive ac-tions to protect your heart. These include doing regu-lar aerobic exercise and (if needed) losing weight and quitting smoking.

(Source: health.harvard.edu)

1. The extra edgeWhile there is no magic pill or

short-cut to losing fat, research has shown certain foods increase me-tabolism and speed up our ability to burn calories. Consistent exercise and eating right is the recommended way to achieve fitness. However, eat-ing those foods proven to speed up metabolism may provide an extra edge to lose weight more efficiently. The following list of foods coupled with regular exercise are shown to enhance the fat burning process.

2. Hot peppersSpice up your menu and fat loss

with the capsicum family or hot pep-pers. According to research, the ac-tive component capsaicin boosts metabolism and stimulates fat oxida-tion. The properties of the hot and spicy pepper are also shown to de-crease appetite and overall food in-take. Other detailed studies support energy expenditure is higher in red peppers and is on the top ten list of natural metabolism boosting foods.

3. Green teaGreen tea has been scientifically

proven to boost metabolism. Ac-cording to an article published in the American Journal of Clinical Nu-trition, green tea has thermogenic (fat burning) properties. It is sug-gested green tea stimulates fat oxi-dation even beyond what’s provided through its caffeine content. Other studies show green tea extract con-tributing to the control of body com-position through fat oxidation. Caf-feine is naturally occurring in green tea extract along with powerful anti-oxidants. This combination provides bountiful health benefits assisting with weight loss while removing harmful free radicals from the body. Research also shows the plant com-pound EGCg found in green tea pro-motes fat loss.

4. CoffeeCoffee contains caffeine, a natu-

ral stimulant proven to increase me-tabolism. According to research, it’s one of the most potent metabolism boosting foods. An article published in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, shows caffeinated coffee significantly increases energy ex-penditure over several hours after consumption. Coffee also contains antioxidants providing numerous health benefits. Research has shown stimulant properties found in coffee to improve concentration and create more productive workouts. Other sports nutrition studies have recom-mended black coffee as an effective, natural pre-workout drink.

5. Cold waterSports nutrition studies have la-

beled water as the most important nutrient in our diet. In addition, drinking plenty of water is shown to

boost metabolism and aid in fat loss. According to research, drinking wa-ter and especially cold water ensures hydration which supports an optimal metabolic rate. An article published in the Journal of Clinical Endocrinol-ogy & Metabolism, stated “drinking 500 ml of water increased metabolic rate by 30%.” This significant find-ing should provide motivation to increase our water intake for overall health benefits including weight loss.

6. Whole grains and lentilsResearch shows eating good car-

bohydrates like oatmeal, brown rice or quinoa help boost metabolism. Consuming whole grains are said to help maintain and stabilize insulin levels. Whole grains work by releas-ing sugar slowly into the body pro-viding lasting energy while not spik-ing insulin levels unlike sugar-rich foods. Maintaining lower insulin lev-els and keeping insulin spikes under control decreases the body wanting to store fat. This is a good thing. A bowl of oatmeal for example aids digestion, increases metabolism, maintains normal insulin levels and provides energy for hours.

Lentils are a fiber rich food and a good source of healthy carbohy-drates and protein. According to research, this power packed combi-nation helps with digestion and in-creased metabolism. Studies show the iron content in lentils assists oxy-

gen flow throughout the body and is linked to increased metabolism and energy production. The incredible health benefits of whole grains and lentils make these foods a great ad-ditive to the daily menu.

7. Low-fat dairy and yogurtResearch has shown foods rich

in calcium and probiotics linked to increased metabolism. Milk and yo-gurt are rich sources of calcium that may assist burning body fat more efficiently. The probiotics found in yogurt aid in digestion which in turn boosts metabolism. Cottage cheese is another great calcium source

shown to increase metabolism and help with muscle maintenance and repair. An article published in the National Institutes of Health, sug-gested consuming calcium signifi-cantly improved overall weight and fat loss especially from the abdomi-nal area.

8. ApplesAccording to research, eating two

apples per day may keep the weight away. Apples are full of fiber which maintains and regulates blood sugar, helps digestion, and increases me-tabolism. They are also very filling and the high fiber content encour-ages fat burning and not fat storing. Consider curbing that sweet tooth by eating an apple or two to natu-rally increase your metabolism and shed those unwanted pounds.

9. Nuts and seeds

Research has shown consum-ing nuts and seeds an effective way to boost metabolism. Nuts are a rich source of essential fats directly linked to elevating metabolism. Eat-ing raw nuts is recommended to ensure they maintain their nutrient value. The roasting process typical in canned nuts can destroy nutrients important to our health. According to studies, raw nuts and seeds con-tain inositol and choline, chemicals that help eliminate fat in the body. It is said their function ensures that the fat burned does not return. Nuts and seeds are also filling and fiber

full aiding in digestion and keeping the body satisfied for hours. They are a great portable snack anytime to keep our metabolism boosted.

10. Fatty fishResearch shows fish like salmon a

rich source of Omega-3 fatty acids and linked to increased metabolism. Fish oil elevates fat burning en-zymes which boosts metabolism sig-nificantly. Eating foods rich in fatty acids promotes the reduction of the hormone leptin in the body shown to lower metabolism. Studies have revealed a positive effect and reduc-tion of leptin with the consumption of Omega-3 fats and an increase in metabolism. It’s recommended fatty fish be included in the diet at least two to three times per week for op-timal benefit.

(Source: greatist.com)

How certain foods speed up our metabolism

Consistent exercise and eating right is the recommended way to achieve fitness. However, eating those foods proven to speed up metabolism may

provide an extra edge to lose weight more efficiently.

Eating two apples per day may keep the weight away.

Consuming calcium significantly improved overall weight and fat loss especially from the abdominal

area.

Nearly 20 years ago, Harvard researchers

found that men with higher CRP levels—

approximately 2 milligrams per

liter (mg/L) or greater—had

three times the risk of heart

attack and twice the risk of stroke as men with little

or no chronic inflammation.

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TEHRAN — Iranian tourism authorities seek

to put a new face to Sistan-Baluchestan Province in a bid to turn the vast south-eastern region into a tourist destination.

The province has long been shunned by potential foreign travelers though it is home to several distinctive archaeologi-cal sites and natural attractions, including two UNESCO World Heritage sites, name-ly Shahr-e-Soukhteh (Burnt City) and Lut Desert, shared with Kerman Province.

“Given what’s out there [in the media] about Sistan, the province needs to com-pletely revamp its image,” Sistan-Baluch-estan Governor Ali Osat-Hashemi said in a press conference on Mar. 8.

“Showcasing the differences is [amongst] our efforts to enhance tourism in Sistan-Baluchestan Province,” the pro-vincial official said, adding, “The province

has turned into a heaven for archaeologi-cal excavations in the country.”

Osat-Hashemi the notion that the province is unsafe is false, suggesting that

[practical] measures should be taken to correct that perception before it takes a toll on the region’s development.

For mainstream people, the name of Sistan-Baluchestan conjures up stories of drought, desiccated wetlands and dust storms.

The massive province has four airports, while construction is underway to build a fifth in Chabahar, a port city on the coasts of the Sea of Oman.

A strip of land stretching along the southern border of Sistan-Baluchestan is home to mangrove forests that are replete with diverse species of seabirds such as flamingos and herons.

Earlier in February, a team of Iranian and Italian archeologists and researchers commenced large-scale interdisciplinary research to provide a clearer picture of life and urban settlement in the Burnt City.

Orkhon Valley Cultural Landscape

The Orkhon Valley Cultural Landscape (OVCL) lies in the central part of Mongolia, some 360 km southwest of Ulaanbaatar.

The site covers 121,967 ha of grassland along the historic Orkhon River, and includes a buffer zone of 61,044 ha. The archaeologically rich Orkhon River basin was home of successive nomadic cultures which evolved from prehistoric origins in harmony with the natural landscape of the steppes and resulted in economic, social and cultural polities unique to the region.

Home for centuries to major political, trade, cultural and religious activities of successive nomadic empires, the Orkhon Valley served as a crossroads of civilizations, linking East and West across the vast Eurasian landmass.

Subsequently the Valley was continuously occupied throughout the Prehistoric and Bronze ages and in proto-historic and early historic times was settled successively by the Huns, Turkic peoples, the Uighurs, the Kidans, and finally the Mongols.

At the height of its cultural ascendancy, the inscribed property was the site of historic Kharakhorum – the grand capital of the vast Mongol Empire established by Chinggis Khaan in 1220.

Erdene Zuu, the earliest surviving Mongol Buddhist monastery, the Tuvkhun Hermitage and the Shank Western monastery are testimony to the widespread and enduring religious traditions and cultural practices of the Northern School of Buddhism which, with their respect for all the forms of life, enshrine the enduring sustainable management practices of this unique cultural landscape of the Central Asian steppes.

(Source: UNESCO)

ROUND THE GLOBE

10I N T E R N A T I O N A L D A I L Y

HERITAGE & TOURISM MARCH 14, 2017MARCH 14, 2017

Tourists head back to Europe, and investors followLONDON (Reuters) — Tourists are heading back to Europe, and the recovery is showing up in everything from rising hotel bookings to tax-free shopping and air traffic, leading to a brighter earnings outlook for travel and leisure companies.

A rebound in emerging markets is bringing visitors from coun-tries like China, Brazil and Russia to continental Europe, while a weaker pound since Britain voted to leave the European Union has boosted UK tourism. And despite the sagging pound, travel from the UK also remains healthy, an HSBC survey showed.

“International travel both to and from emerging markets has been growing, while average spend per trip has also been increas-ing. For hotels, the revenue per available room has improved in Eu-rope and the UK,” said Jeff Meys, head of optimized portfolio strate-gies at NN Investment Partners.

The pan-European STOXX 600 travel and leisure sub-in-dex , which includes hoteliers, airlines, brewers and book-makers, is up 2 percent so far this year, after dropping 11 percent in 2016. Travel stocks have outperformed the pan-European STOXX index over the past three months.

Security fears after at-tacks on Paris in January and November 2015 and in Nice the following July dampened tourists’ appetite for France. That cost French hotels an estimated $675 million in lost revenue over 2016, the re-search firm MKG said in Jan-uary. But France saw tourist numbers grow in the fourth quarter, figures from the national statistics agency showed, indicat-ing a return to health.

The improvement in travel was apparent in the latest earnings at companies such as Spain’s Amadeus, which provides booking sys-tems for airlines, and Eurostar operator Groupe Eurotunnel.

Merlin Entertainments, which runs London’s Madame Tus-sauds waxworks and more than 100 other attractions, said earlier this month a weak pound was drawing tourists back to London, reporting a jump in visitors from the EU in November and De-cember.

The pound has fallen 11 percent against the euro and 17 per-cent against the U.S. dollar since Britain voted to leave the European Union in June.

Luxury goods makers Prada, LVMH and Hugo Boss all cited high-er tourist spending and increased inflows from Asia in their results.

Pending upTax-deductible shopping in Europe, a measure of tourist spend-

ing, grew 21 percent in January, the second straight month of growth after a year of decline, figures from Global Blue, a tourism tax refund company, showed. An earlier-than-usual Chinese New Year delivered a surge of Chinese visitors in late January, Global Blue said.

Tax-free shopping in France grew 20 percent, while sales in Italy and Germany rose for the first time in a year. Sales in Britain grew 45 percent in January, with average spending also increasing as tourists took advantage of the cheaper pound.

TEHRAN – Amongst final preparations to

salute the Iranian New Year, people observe Chaharshanbeh-Suri, a deeply-rooted-in-time ceremony that, according to tradition, is a bid to ward off all the misfortunes and bad omens, hoping that wishes will come true.

It is celebrated on the last Tuesday night of the Iranian calendar year, marked by unique customs, most notably people jumping over fire shouting “Sorkhi-ye to az man; Zardi-ye man az to” (Give me your beautiful red color; And take back my sickly pallor).

Over the past couple of years, the occasion has been accompanied by fire-works from locally-made or imported firecrackers diverted from the original basics.

In big cities, Chaharshanbeh-Suri can be a frightening spectacle. Each year dozens of people are burned and in-jured. Many prefer to stay at home be-fore nightfall, because the city feels like being under siege; fireworks go off every second, shaking windows.

However, it is an ancient custom and by celebrating it in the right manner, many believe that they are passing on a valuable piece of the country’s past to the next generation.

The event plays host to a number of other rituals that are still practiced more or less across the country.

Shrouded people, young and old, run through the streets banging on pots and pans with spoons (Qashoq-Zani or spoon banging) to beat out the last unlucky Wednesday of the year. This act re-enacts the visits of the departed spirits, as prac-ticed by ancient Zoroastrians hundreds of years ago.

After jumping over the fire, when the night grows dark, women and sometimes men disguise themselves in chadors and, each with a spoon and a plate, go to the doors of their neighbors’ houses and bang the spoons against the plates.

In response, the householder places a small gift—a morsel of food, a fruit, some nuts, or a trinket—on each plate.

Wishes are made and in order for them to be realized, it is customary to prepare and distribute food among gathered crowds – a noodle soup called Ash-e Chaharshanbeh-Suri has a particu-lar connection with the event. Passersby are served with dried fruits and nuts, a treat called Ajeel-e Chaharshanbeh-Suri which is comprised of pistachios, roast-ed chickpeas, almonds, hazelnuts, figs, apricots, and raisins. The composition of

a particular Ajeel-e Chaharshanbeh-Suri changes depending on the region and the kitchen it comes from.

People who have made wishes stand on street corners, hiding behind walls and listening to chatter from the passersby. The person is known as a “Faal-gush”, or ‘eavesdropper of their fortune’. The belief goes that if the conversations are positive the wishes of the hider will come true or good fortune will befall him.

The night ends with fireworks, feasts, songs and gestures merriment.

In olden days, Zoroastrian Iranians cel-

ebrated the last 10 days of the year. They believed that guardian angles and spirits of the dead would return to Earth for a re-union with their loved ones. What’s more, Zoroastrians engaged in Khaneh-Tekani – spring cleaning – to prepare the home for the return of the spirits.

These spirits were welcomed as hon-ored guests in their old homes, and were bid a formal ritual farewell at the dawn of the New Year. The ten-day festival also coincided with events celebrating the cre-ation of fire and life – joyful assemblies and ritually blessed feasts.

Chaharshanbeh-Suri: Chaharshanbeh-Suri: A fiery salute to New YearA fiery salute to New Year

T O U R I S Md e s k

A man clad in a special outfit passes by a massive bunch of fire set to observe Chaharshanbeh-Suri, a time-honored Iranian ritual.

A general view of the Burnt City, an archeological site located in Sistan-Baluchestan Province.

Sistan-Baluchestan to turn into tourist hub

During spring break, Canadian families used to pile the kids into a tour bus and head to New York to see the Statue of Lib-erty, Rockefeller Center and other attrac-tions. It was the start of the busy season for Comfort Tour, a Toronto-based firm that usually brought between 200 and 300 tourists to New York in March.

This year, 11 people have signed up for the tours.

“Even white, Anglo-Saxon people, who are most of our customers, they are afraid of crossing the border,” lamented Al Qa-nun, manager and part-owner of the trav-el agency. “They don’t want to end up in some prison.”

The fallout from President Trump’s ex-ecutive orders limiting travel from some Middle Eastern and African countries is having far-reaching implications for U.S. tourism.

It is not just visitors from the countries targeted by the bans that are souring on U.S. travel; the seven countries included in Trump’s original order in January account for 0.1% of incoming travelers. Rather, an atmosphere of fear at the nation’s airports — and well-publicized incidents of visitors being detained and interrogated — are scaring off people without the slightest connection to the Muslim world.

“Think twice about visiting America if you don’t want the ‘Mem Fox’ treatment,’’ read a recent headline in the letters col-umn of the Australian magazine Traveller,

referring to the children’s book author who swore she would never return to the Unit-ed States after being questioned at Los Angeles International Airport on her way to a literary conference.

The Toronto Star newspaper in late Jan-uary published a commentary calling on Canadians to forgo unnecessary trips to the U.S. until Trump is out of office.

Ana Teran, a 68-year-old essayist and short-story writer from Mexico City, used to make three or four trips per year to the U.S., where she lived and studied in the past.

On her last trip, a weekend visit in mid-February to see a friend who’d had a heart attack, she said she was pulled out of a line at Washington’s Dulles Interna-tional Airport and made to sit three hours before she was finally admitted. She was only briefly questioned and not given any explanation about why she was held, al-though she assumed it was because of her Mexican passport.

“I was going to make another trip to Miami to visit my sister, who just bought an apartment there,” said Teran. “But not

now. Not after what I went through.”An economic consulting firm that has

crunched the numbers from various air-line and travel booking websites projects that the U.S. will lose 6.3 million visits by the end of next year, which translates into $10.8 billion in spending. What the firm, Tourism Economics of Wayne, Pa., is call-ing “Trump-induced losses” could affect an estimated 90,000 Americans whose jobs are directly or indirectly dependent on tourism.

“It doesn’t take very much uncertainty or antipathy to influence decisions away from a given travel destination,” said Adam Sacks, the firm’s president. “Ultimately, des-tinations and companies are in the busi-ness of building a brand and a message that is welcoming .… All the ‘America first’ rhetoric in various policy areas like trade, diplomacy and immigration is conveying the exact opposite.’’

Among the cities that stand to lose the most are New York, Miami, Los Angeles and San Francisco. New York expects to lose 300,000 foreign tourists this year, a big worry because it is foreigners who drop

the big money, spending about four times as much as domestic tourists, according to officials.

The city recently rolled out a new cam-paign that — without mentioning Trump’s name — tries to distance the city from its native son.

“People know that New York is a city of immigrants, that we pride ourselves on diversity and tolerance. But Trump is also from New York, so who knows if that has created confusion,’’ said Christopher Hey-wood, senior vice president of NYC & Co., the city’s official tourism agency.

Heywood was speaking from Berlin, where a major travel trade show, ITB Ber-lin, is underway, with the U.S. political situ-ation one of the main topics of discussion among participants.

“It is a perception challenge,” he said. “People worry what will happen to them at the border. They worry if their cellphone will be searched, what [passwords for] websites they will be asked to jot down.”

A survey released Wednesday by the Washington-based Global Business Travel Assn. found that 45% of European busi-ness travel professionals say they are less likely to schedule meetings or events in the U.S.

“There is no doubt that these travel bans will have an impact on [economic ac-tivity] and jobs,’’ said Michael McCormick, executive director of the association.

(Source: Los Angeles Times)

The Trump slump? Tourists say they’re scared to visit the United States

H E R I T A G Ed e s k

A rebound in emerging

markets is bringing visitors

from countries like China, Brazil

and Russia to continental

Europe, while a weaker pound

since Britain voted to leave the

European Union has boosted UK

tourism.

An economic consulting firm that has crunched the numbers from various airline and travel

booking websites projects that the U.S. will lose 6.3 million visits by the end of next year, which

translates into $10.8 billion in spending.

Cornell engineers have devised a method for transmitting and receiving radio signals on a single chip, which could ultimately help change the way wireless communication is done.

Separating the send and receive bands is difficult enough, but the problem is compounded by the ever-increasing number of bands in the latest devices, which handle everything wireless technology has to offer. From GPS to Bluetooth to Wi-Fi, each band requires a filter to stop the strong transmit signals from drowning out reception.

Alyosha Molnar, associate professor of electrical and computer engineering (ECE), and Alyssa Apsel, professor of ECE, have come up with an ingenious way to separate the signals. Their work is described in “A wideband fully integrated software-defined transceiver for FDD and TDD operation,” published online in the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers’ Journal of Solid-State Circuits.

Artificial transmission lineTheir idea lies in the transmitter --

actually a series of six subtransmitters -- all hooked into an artificial transmission line. Each of the subtransmitters send signals at regular intervals, and their individually weighted outputs are programmed so that they combine to produce a radio frequency signal in the forward direction, at the antenna port, while canceling out at the receive port.

The programmability of the individual outputs allows this simultaneous summation and cancellation to be tuned across a wide range of frequencies, and to adjust to signal strength at the antenna.

“In one direction, it’s a filter and you basically get this cancellation,” Apsel said. “And in the other direction, it’s an amplifier.”

“You put the antenna at one end

and the amplified signal goes out the antenna, and you put the receiver at the other end and that’s where the nulling happens,” Molnar said. “Your receiver sees the antenna through this wire, the transmission line, but it doesn’t see the transmit signal because it’s canceling itself out at that end.”

Noise-canceling headphonesThis work builds on research reported

six years ago by a group from Stanford University, which devised a way for the transmitter to filter its own transmission, allowing the weaker incoming signal to be heard. It’s the theory behind noise-canceling headphones.

Unlike the Stanford work, the Cornell group’s subtransmitter concept will work over a range of frequencies - a positive in this age of scrambling for available frequencies that used to be the realm of over-the-air television.

“This wire is a fairly broadband structure,” Molnar said. “And the thing you do to make it work over a wide range of frequencies is just control those different subgains of the transmitters to make this cancellation always happen.”

Instead of needing a filter for every band, signal separation can be controlled digitally. Upgrading to the latest version would be like updating an app - as simple as downloading the latest software.

(Source: EurekAlert)

World’s oceans are warming 13% faster than previously thought: studyThe world’s oceans are warming 13 per cent faster than sci-entists previously thought, a study has warned.

The research, published in the journal Science Advances, also found the rate of ocean warming had changed signifi-cantly over the last 60 years.

The warming rate from 1992 was found to be almost twice as great as the warming rate from 1960.

“In other words, the planet is warming quite a lot more than we thought,” Keven Trenberth, a co-author of the study, said.

Scientists are concerned by such an increase, as 90 per cent of the extra heat absorbed by greenhouse gasses ends up in the ocean, meaning it is considered one of the most important meas-urements of global warming.

“We know the oceans are much warmer now and they contain the memory of climate change. Higher sea surface temperatures are continually re-inforced by the extra heat beneath the ocean surface,” the team wrote in a press release.

The “oceans are affecting weather and climate through more intense rains. This process is a major reason why 2016 was the hottest year ever recorded at the Earth’s surface, beating out 2015 which was the previous record.

“Additionally 2015 was a year with record hurricanes, heat waves, droughts, and wild-fires around the world.”

(Source: The Independent)

A look inside the Hawaiian volcano-top telescopeThe Haleakal High Altitude Observatory Site is the oldest astronomical observatory in Hawaii, positioned above 10,000 feet in altitude on the crest of a dormant volcano on Maui. Haleakal, also known as the East Maui Volcano, is one of the best places on U.S. soil for observing the sky, so it should come as little surprise that the Air Force has set up shop there.

Over half a dozen sophisticated telescopes and optical instruments at the Haleakal Observatory, which is owned by the University of Hawaii, are operated by the U.S. Air Force. Multiple observation programs make up the Air Force Maui Optical and Supercomputing Observatory, which was formerly called the Air Force Maui Optical Station, or AMOS, a name you might recognize.

Although AMOS is constantly tracking any artificial objects like satellites and space stations, it is also looking for potentially hazardous natural objects such as near-Earth asteroids. But most of the time, things are pretty quiet up at AMOS, and the Air Force Research Laboratory astronomers stationed there have the chance work closely with the University of Hawaii on science projects.

AMOS has discovered over 60 minor planets, many in the asteroid belt, including 8721 AMOS which is named after the observatory. Some of the first research to develop laser guidance systems for telescopes was done at AMOS, using a 0.6 meter laser beam director to project an artificial star on the sky to calibrate the telescopes.

In addition to the two-foot laster pointer, the Air Force operates the 3.67-meter Advanced Electro-Optical System (AEOS), the United States’ largest optical telescope for tracking satellites, and the Maui Optical Tracking and Identification Facility (MOTIF), which includes two 1.2-meter telescopes bolted to a common mount, as well as a number of other telescopes.

(Source: Popular Mechanics)

New approach may allow doctors to attack Alzheimer’s proteinWe don’t completely understand the pathology behind Alzheimer’s, one of America’s most deadly diseases, but we do know that proteins called amyloid-peptide play a major role in how it develops. For years, scientists have tried to tar-get these proteins, and halt the disease’s progression.

Now, a new study suggests they may be closer than ever. According to the study, researchers from Ulsan National

Institute of Science and Technology in South Korea have created a “metal-based substance that works like a pair of genetic scissors to cut out amyloid-? (A?), the hallmark protein” of Alzheimer’s, according to a statement on ScienceDaily. Unlike past approaches that aimed to cut out amyloid-peptide using metals, this process works in living cell experiments.

“This material has a high therapeutic potential in the treatment of Alzheimer’s disease as it can penetrate the brain-vascular barrier and directly interact with the amyloid-beta protein in the brain,” says study co-author Mi Hee Lim, in the statement.

The Alzheimer’s Association reports that Alzheimer’s is a type of dementia and leads to problems with memory, think-ing and behavior. More than 5 million Americans are living with it, and about one in three seniors with the condition will die from it. It is the sixth leading cause of death among older Americans and kills more people than prostate cancer and breast cancer combined.

Amyloid proteins sometimes clump together and may form plaques. According to the Alzheimer’s Association, these small clumps may block cell-to-cell signaling at synapses and can also activate immune system cells that trigger inflammation and devour disabled cells. Eventually vital nutrients can no longer reach the cells and they die.

(Source: Newsweek)

NN hh

S C I E N C EMARCH 14, 2017MARCH 14, 2017 11I N T E R N A T I O N A L D A I L Y

The past few months have brought another rough summer for the Great Barrier Reef, which is suffering a major bleaching event for the second year in a row.

The Great Barrier Reef is the world’s largest reef and “largest living structure,” a 2300-kilometer (almost 1500-mile) expanse of colorful coral off the eastern Australian shore, hosting thousands of species of fish, mollusks, jellyfish and other sea creatures. These coral rely on microscopic algae embedded in their tissue to produce food via photosynthesis.

But if the water gets too warm or polluted, those algae can be expelled. The starving coral then turns bone white and becomes more susceptible to disease. If the coral dies, it will turn a nasty greenish-brown as other opportunistic algae grow on its surface.

Last year’s warm water brought coral bleaching events worldwide, which were made worse by the El Niño climate pattern, according to a story published last year in the Guardian. This year’s reports are fairly unsurprising — we’ve basically been experiencing the same continuous global coral reef bleaching event since 2014, Mark Eakin, Coordinator of NOAA’s Coral Reef Watch program explained to Gizmodo.

Signs of stressGreat Barrier Reef Marine Park

rangers started receiving reports back in January, the start of Australia’s summer that the coral wasn’t looking too good this year. By February, corals were starting to show signs of stress from elevated water temperatures. Yesterday’s survey of the central third of the Reef’s length revealed severe bleaching; this area largely escaped last year’s event, according to the GBRMPA.

The problem with years of successive bleaching is that corals have little time to recover in between. And as much as some American readers might hate to read this, climate change is likely a major factor. Australian authorities have pointed to carbon emissions as the probable cause, and have cited cutting emissions as the best solution to fix their ailing coral reef.

“It’s vital the world acts to implement the Paris Agreement to reduce greenhouse gas emissions,” said Marine Park Authority Director of Reef Recovery David Wachenfel in the press release.

On top of climate change, more local issues threaten reefs, Eakin explained. “In many areas, people are causing declines in coral reefs because of pollution, overfishing, and habitat destruction,” he said. “We have to be reducing the amount of CO2 in the atmosphere and addressing the local stressors so the coral can have the best chance to survive.”

The GBRMPA will send scientists and experts to survey the remaining length of the reef later this month. Regardless of what a few important Americans may think, human carbon emissions will continue to be to blame as coral continue to suffer from increased bleaching events and ocean acidification.

(Source: Gizmodo)

Despite uncertainty about potential policy changes, NASA is pressing ahead with plans for a cislunar “gateway” outpost for future human missions, with decisions about how to develop it expected in the coming months.

Speaking at the American Astronautical Society’s Goddard Memorial Symposium here March 8, Bill Gerstenmaier, NASA associate administrator for human exploration and operations, said he was studying concepts for launching the first elements of the proposed outpost as secondary payloads on early flights of the Space Launch System.

“There’s starting to be a sense of urgency” about selecting what to fly on those initial SLS missions to support development of the cislunar outpost, he said. “We’ve really got to start making some decisions about what that cargo is.”

Collection of habitationThe outpost will be a collection of

habitation, cargo and other modules that could support crews working in lunar orbit or elsewhere in cislunar space for extended periods. Orion spacecraft would ferry astronauts to and from the outpost, where they could test technologies and perform other work needed to support NASA’s long-term plans for human missions to Mars in the 2030s.

Gerstenmaier said development of the outpost could begin with the second and third SLS missions, EM-2 and -3, which will be the first flights of the SLS to use the more powerful Exploration Upper Stage (EUS). That version of the SLS will have the ability to carry secondary payloads weighing up to several thousand kilograms within the rocket’s Universal Stage Adapter, an area between the EUS and Orion spacecraft.

Current schedules call for the

launch of EM-2 as soon as 2021, which Gerstenmaier said pushes NASA to make decisions soon on what element of the outpost, if any, to fly on that launch. “We’ve really got to start making some decisions about what that cargo is, whom we partner with and how we build the equipment,” he said.

A wild cardA wild card in those plans is the

ongoing study of putting a crew on the first SLS/Orion mission, EM-1. That mission is currently scheduled to launch in late 2018 without a crew, but if NASA does decide to place astronauts on that mission, it would likely slip until 2019, pushing back EM-2 and later missions.

Gerstenmaier, in an interview after his conference presentation, said putting a crew on EM-1 could open up new possibilities for EM-2 and later missions. “It makes EM-2 be more of an aggressive mission, and we can do more with the cargo that’s behind the Orion capsule on that flight,” he said.

Gerstenmaier and others cautioned that no decision had been made about flying crew on EM-1, as the study was ongoing. “We realize the challenges associated with that. That’s not an easy task to do,” NASA Acting Administrator Robert Lightfoot said in remarks at the conference earlier the same day. “I expect to hear pretty soon in terms what we could do.”

(Source: Space News)

NASA moving ahead with plans for cislunar human outpost

The Great Barrier Reef is suffering yet another mass bleaching: study

Unlike the Stanford work, the Cornell group’s subtransmitter concept will work over a

range of frequencies - a positive in this age of scrambling for available frequencies that used

to be the realm of over-the-air television.

A Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) was inked between Imam Khomeini Airport City Company (IKAC) and University of Tehran on March 11, 2017 in the field of construction of green and modern city, the Public Relations Dept. of the company reported.

Dr. Mohammad Rahimian Research Deputy Chancellor of University of Tehran was the first speaker pointed to the importance of comprehensive plan on the studying behavior and designing qualification pattern of human resources of Imam Khomeini Airport City Company and said: “Signing and sealing this MOU is a good and blessed start which helps us show high

capability and potential of the University of Tehran in this field to all walks of life in society.”

Turning to the joint cooperation of University of Tehran with the Ministry of Roads and Urban Development, he said that University of Tehran benefits from approx. 30,000 students in higher educations.

Signing and sealing agreement will strengthen bilateral cooperation between Ministry of Roads and Urban Development and University of Tehran, he said, adding: “Under the agreement, joint cooperation and collaboration will be strengthened in different fields, ranging from research projects to the publication of

treatises in MA and Ph.D.”In the end, he said: “It is hoped that joint cooperation

between Imam Khomeini Airport City Company and University of Tehran will be improved in the very near future.”

Dr. Hadi Bahrami Ehsan Faculty Member of Psychology and Educational Sciences School of the University of Tehran was the next speaker who pointed to the meetings held in this regard and said: “Modeling is the main objective of the plan, based on which, airport will be turned into a pleasurable and enjoyable environment for incoming and outgoing travelers.”

Using Bank Shahr’s financing scheme is the most important factor in the dynamicity of development projects in Shiraz.

Head of Development Commission of Shiraz City Council Reza Mohammadian said: “Using finance of Bank Shahr is very constructive in stimulation of development projects in the Municipality

of Shiraz, so that none of projects of the municipality have not ceased.”

Shiraz Municipality’s income has reduced in the current year in 1395 (to end March 19, 2017) due to the recession and economic downturn in the construction market, he said, adding: “None of development projects of the

municipality have ceased through using Bank Shahr’s financing scheme.”

Given the above issue, 13,500 billion rials facilities were provided to the Municipality of Shiraz, he said, adding: “Of total 13,500 billion rials, 70 percent of which will be provided as barter while the rest 30 percent will be returned to the bank as cash.”

Construction operations of different development projects are underway in Shiraz, the most important of which are as follows: intersection of Mo’allem Square, construction of Kaboli Bridge in Vali-e Asr Sq., Koohsar Project, intersection of Brigadier General Abdollah Roudaki St., Urban and Suburban Railway Company, etc.

MOU Inks between IKAC and University of Tehran

Using Bank Shahr Financing Scheme, Most Important Factor in Dynamicity of Development Projects

Two radio signals, one chip, open a new world for wireless communication

I N T E R N A T I O N A L D A I L Y

W O M E N MARCH 14, 2017MARCH 14, 201712

Women can promote purchase of made in Iran goods: female VP

TEHRAN — Iranian women, especially mothers, play an essential role in encour-

aging families to buy Iranian made goods, Vice President for Women and Family Affairs Shahindokht Molaverdi said here on Monday.

Speaking at a congress on women’s role, held at Iran Kho-dro Industrial Group (a multinational automaker headquar-tered in Tehran), Molaverdi insisted on women’s role in resist-ance economy which should be changed to a common belief.

The event was made on the occasion of Iranian Women’s Week which winds up on March 19th, on birthday anniversary of Hazrat Fatima Zahra (SA).

Referring to many events held in the current lunar year which is reaching its ending days, Molaverdi noted that the government has paved the way for promotion of women.

Women, by tapping modern technology and their capabil-ities, should help make Iran develop its economy and get out of recession, she underlined.

Currently, women play essential role in 320 knowl-edge-based companies, Molaverdi stated.

W O M E Nd e s k Sunday, March 19th, 2017 is Women’s

Day. It is the day when (the birth of ) a woman is commemorated of whom the world is proud. It is the day commemo-rating a woman whose daughter stood against tyrannical governments, who recited that sermon and uttered those words, of which you are all aware.

All dimensions that one can imagine exist for a woman and a human being were personified in Fatima Zahra, upon whom be peace. She was not an ordi-nary woman; she was a spiritual wom-an, a heavenly woman, a human being in the true sense of the word. She was the incarnation of human goodness; she personified the true nature of woman and the true nature of the human be-ing. She was not an ordinary woman, she was a heavenly being who appeared in this world in the form of a human being, she was a divine, celestial being who appeared in the form of a woman. She personified all the very best human and female traits that one can imagine. Sunday is Women’s Day, it is the day on which such a woman was born.

She was a woman who embodied all the virtues of the prophets, a woman who, had she been a man, would have been a prophet, a woman who, had she been a man, would have been the Mes-senger of God. Spiritual qualities, heav-

enly qualities, divine qualities, celestial qualities, human and angelic qualities all came together in this being. She was a human being in the full sense of the word, a woman in the full sense of the word. Sunday is the Women’s Day. Sunday is the day when woman’s dig-nity and woman’s character came into being.

Various dimensions exist for the wom-an just as they do for a man, for human

beings in general. This external, physical side is the lowest stage of a human be-ing’s development, be it man or woman, but it is from this inferior stage that the human being moves towards perfection. Man is a moving being, moving from the physical towards the metaphysical stage, towards annihilation in God. In Fatima Zahra’s case these stages have been attained. She began from the physical stage and moved on. She proceeded

through the stages of a spiritual move-ment assisted by divine power, by the invisible hand, by the teachings of the Messenger of God (peace be upon him and his descendants) until she reached the stage that all others could not reach. Sunday then is the day on which all as-pects of woman were materialized, and woman in all her dimensions was incar-nated. Sunday is Women’s Day.

(Source: al-islam.org)

The divine personality of Hazrat Fatima Zahra and Women’s Day

Women worldwide rally for equality, and against Trump in U.S.

ONE TIER GENERAL INTERNATIONAL TENDER NOTICE

Iran Tobacco Company

Iran Tobacco Co. located at Qazvin Ave, Qazvin square, Tehran, Islamic Republic of Iran, P.O.Box 1331838734, intends to purchase cocoa powder through international tender, qualified supplier that have certified permission from competent authorities are invited to obtain the tender documents from 11/3/2017 till 8/4/2017 at Iran tobacco company, Commercial department, 2nd floor , Setadi building, Qazvin Ave, Qazvin square, Tehran, Iran, after remittance the amount of 200,000 Rls to the account number 68753581 of Mellat bank, Salamat branch in favor of ITC or from the national tender website: www.iets.MPORG.ir register the participation process and receive tender documents

Please note the following:

Offers must be submitted to our security department secretariat office located at, 1st floor, Shahid Golchin building,Qazvin Ave.,Qazvin square, Tehran Islamic Republic of Iran until 8/5/2017.

The offers will be opened in the Iranian Tobacco Company located at Qazvin Sq, Qazvin Av, Tehran .Islamic Republic of Iran, on 9/5/2017.

Validity period of the proposed price must be at least six months from the opening date of the envelopes andType and the amount of the bid bond should be in the form of unconditional and extendable bidbond for at least 6 months or by payment the amount of 21500 USD to the account No. 1976770005 or 19952 Euro to the account number 1976770006 of Sepah bank , Mirdamad branch in favor of ITC.

The Management of Communica�on and Interna�onal Affairs Iran Tobacco Company

Women protested around the world on Wednesday for equal rights and in the United States against President Donald Trump, with many Americans skipping work or boycotting stores to demand economic fairness on In-ternational Women’s Day.

American women seized upon the momentum of the Women’s March on Washington on Jan. 21, the day after Trump’s inauguration, once again denouncing his poli-cies on abortion and healthcare.

Dubbed “A Day Without a Woman” in the United States, the nationwide events were modeled in part after pro-immigrant demonstrations on Feb. 16, the latest in a series of anti-Trump protests since his Nov. 8 election.

By having women, who make up 47 per-cent of the U.S. civilian labor force, flex their economic muscle, organizers hope to call at-tention to the gender pay gap, access to re-productive health services, and Trump’s actions that have restricted abortion overseas.

Debra Sands, 37, a middle school teacher, joined thousands of women at New York City’s Central Park after her students convinced her to attend.

“This past year’s election made me realize that voting in November isn’t enough,” Sands said.

New York police reported 13 arrests at the protest in midtown Manhattan. Details on the possible charges were not immediately available.

In San Francisco, where about 1,500 people gath-ered, Christine Bussenius, 37, said she and her female colleagues at Grey Advertising convinced their all-male managers to give them the day off and participate in the rally.

“We were nervous,” she admitted. “But the men stepped up to fill in the void.”

Rallies were held in numerous U.S. cities, including Washington, where demonstrators gathered at the U.S.

Labor Department.Female staffers at Fusion Media Group’s Gizmodo de-

clared they were striking for the day.At least three U.S. school districts, in Virginia, Mary-

land and North Carolina, closed because of staff short-ages after teachers requested the day off.

Nearly 1,000 women converged outside Los Angeles City Hall, many of them critical of the Republican-backed healthcare bill that would strip women’s health and abortion provider Planned Parenthood of funding.

“It’s terrifying. It’s anti-woman,” said Kassia Krozsur, 53, a finance professional.

Ghotab, sweet nuggetsQotab is a filled deep-fried Iranian cuisine pastry, prepared as one of Norouz sweets. The city of Yazd is well known for its qotab.

Ingredients:3 cups all-purpose flour1/2 cup sugar1/2 cup sugar1 cup plain yogurt1/2 cup (2 oz / 57g) wal-

nuts1/2 cup vegetable oil (ap-

prox. 100g)1 egg1/2 tsp ground cardamom1 tsp ground cinnamon1 tsp baking powder1/4 cup powdered sugar

(confectioners’ sugar)Directions:

Batter1- Combine 1/2 cup vegetable oil and sugar in a large

bowl.2- Add plain yogurt, add an egg to the bowl and continue

stirring until well mixed.3- In a separate container mix flour and baking powder

and gradually add to the mixture while whisking.4- Knead the batter for 5 minutes or so.5- Cover the bowl with plastic wrap or a lid and allow to

rest for an hour. Filling

6- Grind walnuts in a grinder. Add ground cardamom, ground cinnamon and 1/2 cup of sugar and continue grind-ing/mixing.

7- Roll out the dough on a well-floured working surface.8- Using a large round shaped cookie cutter, cut out the

batter, add the walnuts filling and seal the top to make a small ball shape.

9- Deep fry the nuggets in vegetable oil.10- Place them back onto a napkin to get rid of the exces-

sive oil.11- Dip the nuggets in powdered sugar.

Eastern Australia hit by drought and floods

Bus runs over at least 34 people in northern Haiti

Australia can be a country of great ex-tremes and this is certainly proving to be the case in terms of the weather at the moment.

Parts of Queensland are in drought. Meanwhile, New South Wales is being pummeled by violent storms.

Elsewhere, there’s a heat wave go-ing on in Victoria. Temperatures in the state capital, Melbourne are currently running around 6 degrees above av-erage with highs nudging above 30 Celsius.

Parts of Queensland have just expe-rienced their driest ever 12 months on record. That has left 87 percent of the Sunshine State officially drought-strick-en.

There are concerns that conditions could get even worse in the short term. Queensland’s Agricultural Minister, Bill Byrne said this means that producers in the affected regions are now eligible for drought assistance, including relief from water and electricity costs.

Ironically, the neighboring state of

New South Wales is currently suffering more than enough rain in parts. Severe storms have hit northern and central ar-eas with golf-ball sized hail.

The city of Dubbo in the Orana Re-gion was worst affected with 51mm of rain in just six hours. That amount is close to the entire March average of 55mm.

It did lead to flash floods and doz-ens of calls for help were made to the State Emergency Service (SES). The floods along with damaging winds led to around 4,000 people losing power along the coast to the north of Syd-ney.

Showers remain in the forecast along the east coast for much of this week. They will be heavy at times and could become rather more ex-pansive.

The coastal fringes of both Queens-land and New South Wales, from Cairns to Sydney, are likely to see storms on Wednesday.

(Source: agencies)

At least 34 people have been killed and 17 injured when a bus ploughed into a crowd outside the northern Haitian city of Gonaives.

Marie-Alta Jean Baptiste, head of Haiti’s civil protection office, told AFP news agency on Sunday that first the bus ran over two pedestrians, killing one and injuring the other.

Then the driver rammed into a band of street musicians while trying to speed away, killing 33 others. The incident took place about 150km from the capi-tal, Port-au-Prince.

The vehicle crashed into a “rara” pa-rade. Rara parades are groups of mu-sicians playing traditional instruments who are often joined by passers-by.

Emergency workers transported the injured to a hospital, while police tried to control an angry crowd that attacked the bus.

After the incident, other musicians and people in the parade began hurl-ing rocks at the bus and passing vehi-cles, injuring other people, said Albert

Moulion, the Ministry of the Interior ’s spokesman.

“The people who were not victims of the accident tried to burn the bus with the passengers inside,” said Faustin Jo-seph, a coordinator at the civic protec-tion office in the Artibonite region.

“The bus, the passengers, and the driver were all placed into the care” of local authorities, Joseph said.

The bus was travelling from Cap Hai-tien to Port-au-Prince at the time of the incident.

Jovenel Moise, Haiti’s president, lat-er on Sunday “expressed his deep sad-ness following the terrible accident” in a statement.

“The head of state conveys, on be-half of the whole government, his sin-cere condolences to the families and those close to the victims,” the state-ment read.

Moise called for “an investigation as soon as possible to shine light on this tragedy”.

(Source: agencies)

WORLD IN FOCUS 13I N T E R N A T I O N A L D A I L Y

MARCH 14, 2017MARCH 14, 2017

Delegates gather in Astana for Syria ceasefire talksKazakhstan says delegations from Iran, Russia and Turkey ar-rived in Astana for a third round of talks to put an end to the conflict in Syria.

Kazakh Foreign Minister Kairat Abdrakhmanov said on Monday that delegations had already started arriv-ing despite a request from Syrian militants to delay the meeting.

The third round of Astana talks is due to take place on March 14-15, with Iran, Russia and Turkey trying to shore up a ceasefire between the warring sides that was brokered in December.

Tehran-based media said the Iranian team had depart-ed for Astana, headed by Deputy Foreign Minister for Arab and African Affairs Hossein Jaberi Ansari.

The first round of the Astana talks took place on Jan-uary 23-24. The second round was held on February 15-16.

Last week, the militants called for the postpone-ment of the process, saying they had to first make sure about Damascus and its allies’ adherence to the ceasefire.

On Monday, the French news agency AFP said an oppo-sition delegation had told it that militant groups would not attend the negotiations.

“Rebel groups have decided not to participate in Astana,” the agency quoted Osama Abu Zeid as saying.

One reason for the boycott was “unfulfilled pledges relat-ed to the cessation of hostilities.”

“We decided not to participate in Astana because the reinforcement of the ceasefire was not imple-mented,” said Ahmad Othman, commander of the An-kara-backed Sultan Murad militant group, according to AFP.

The Astana talks got off the ground after the negoti-ators successfully mediated an all-Syria ceasefire. The agreement was on the extension of a previous one bring-ing about a cessation of hostilities in the northwestern Syr-ian city of Aleppo.

The Syrian delegation will be headed once again by the country’s representative to the United Nations Bashar al-Ja’afari, who has also led the government’s representatives in parallel UN-backed talks in Geneva.

A fresh round of negotiations in Switzerland is set to be-gin on March 23 and will focus on governance, constitutional process, elections, counter-terrorism and possibly recon-struction.

(Source: agencies)

Large explosion hits Somali capital MogadishuA vehicle exploded near a busy hotel in the Somali capital Mogadishu on Monday, killing at least six people and wound-ing four others, police said.

The blast happened near the entrance of Weheliye hotel on the busy Maka Almukarramah road, Captain Mohamed Hussein said. The hotel was left intact, but the explosion damaged a nearby house.

Hours before, a minibus exploded when police shot at it after it refused to stop as it approached a checkpoint in the capital, police officer Nur Osman told Reuters news agency, adding that two people were wounded.

“A policeman at a checkpoint shot at the speeding mini-bus. It exploded and killed the al-Shabab fighter that drove it,” he said.

Somalia’s new Prime Minister Hassan Ali Khaire con-demned the two attacks, saying they were carried out by “bloodthirsty groups”.

No one has claimed responsibility for today’s explosions in Mogadishu. In the past al-Qaeda-linked al-Shabab have claimed responsibility for gun, grenade and bomb attacks in Somalia, and tend to focus on Mogadishu and other regions controlled by the federal government.

(Source: Al Jazeera)

Scotland’s leader seeks new independence referendumScottish First Minister said she would demand a new Scottish independence referendum to be held in late 2018 or early 2019, once the terms of Britain’s exit from the European Union have become clear.

British Prime Minister Theresa May is poised to launch the two-year process of taking the country out of the EU.

Sturgeon said May has so far refused to compromise with Scotland over Brexit and that it is important for Scotland to take active steps to protect its interests as Britain prepared to trigger its departure from the EU.

Scottish voters rejected independence in a 2014 referen-dum, but Sturgeon said that Britain’s decision to leave the EU had brought about a “material change or circumstances.”

(Source: agencies)

Pakistan deploys troops to Saudi border with Yemen

“Iran needs to continue to position itself as a constructive

actor within international society in order to contain any movement towards escalation

from Washington.”

Influential United States Republican Senator John Mc-Cain has denounced President Donald Trump’s claim that former Democratic President Barack Obama wire-tapped Trump Tower, saying either he has to retract it or provide evidence of the allegation.

“President Trump has to provide the American peo-ple, not just the intelligence community, but the Amer-ican people, with evidence that his predecessor, former president of the Unites States was guilty of breaking the law,” McCain told CNN.

Earlier this month, Trump accused his predecessor of intercepting his communications at his offices in Trump Tower in New York City just before the November pres-idential election.

He also said that Obama abused his power and spied

on his campaign fearing that his team was connected to Moscow. Trump, however, offered no evidence to sup-port his accusations.

A spokesman of Obama denied that the former presi-dent or any White House official had ordered surveillance.

McCain said on Sunday that he had “no reason to believe” Trump’s allegations, but if Obama “violated the law” by ordering surveillance, then “we’ve got a serious issue.”

“I have no reason to believe that the charge is true, but I also believe that the president of the Unites States could clear this up in a minute,” McCain said.

The senator added that Trump could call the CIA (Central Intelligence Agency) chief and the director of national intelligence for proof. “All he has to do is pick

up the phone, call the director of the CIA, director of national intelligence and say, ‘OK, what happened?’”

Experts say electronic surveillance of a U.S. citizen by American intelligence agencies would require a warrant approved by a FISA (Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court/FISC) court judge. Presidents do not have the au-thority to order such wiretaps and would not even be aware of them as a routine matter.

If the president were involved in the process, it would be “scandalous and unheard of,” said Ron Hosko, a for-mer assistant FBI (Federal Bureau of Investigation) direc-tor. Hosko called the allegations “unprecedented” and “unlikely to have occurred in the very broad way” that Trump described.

(Source: agencies)

An Israeli policeman has killed a Pales-tinian, who had reportedly attacked him and his colleague on duty, prompting a “struggle” with them.

The fatality was caused in the Old City of al-Quds (Jerusalem) on Monday, said Israeli police spokeswoman Luba Samri.

She claimed the law enforcement agents suffered minor injuries during the

incident. The attacker was identified as a 26-year-old Arab resident of East al-Quds.

Medics remove the body of a Palestin-ian shot and killed after allegedly attack-ing two Israeli policemen in East al-Quds’ Old City, March 13, 2017.

The occupied Palestinian territories of East al-Quds and West Bank have been the scene of constant often dead-

ly clashes between Palestinians and Is-raeli forces.

The melee erupted in August 2015 after Israel imposed restrictions on the entry of Palestinian worshipers into the compound of al-Aqsa Mosque in the Old City.

Around 285 Palestinians have lost their lives at the hands of Israeli forces since the beginning of October that year,

when tensions escalated.The compound is of religious signifi-

cance to Muslims, Jews, and Christians. The unrest has earned the title the Third Intifada (Uprising) against the oc-cupying regime. It follows in the foot-steps of the first such uprising between 1987 and 1993, and the second one in the 2000s.

(Source: agencies)

1 The UK is interested in constructive relations with Iran, especially if President Rouhani is re-elected and if the Trump administration retains the JCPOA. Un-der the current conservative government, one has to analyse the foreign policy of the UK as semi-independ-ent when it comes to crucial, strategic issues because of the emphasis on the special relationship with the Unit-ed States. Iran needs to continue to position itself as a constructive actor within international society in order to contain any movement towards escalation from Wash-ington. This will ensure good relations with the UK as well.

As indicated in my previous interviews, the Trump administration is erratic, irrational and incompetent. This is the real danger of this Presidency. But at the moment, the administration is seriously weakened because of do-mestic politics and this will confine the ability of Trump to move against Iran. There is no doubt that this is the weakest administration in power in U.S. post-war histo-

ry. Hence, the United States has lost its ability to lead effectively.

What is the impact of Brexit on London’s arms sales to Arab states in the Persian Gulf region?

A: The GCC is viewed as a market, a convenient cash reservoir, so weapons sales will continue to be on the agenda despite criticisms of Saudi Arabia in particular. The EU has rather more stringent export rules, than Brexit UK is likely to have, not at least because of the EU human rights guidelines and charter which is at the

heart of the European project and which is a document that I have a lot of respect for. Europe has a conscience and it remains to be seen if the UK after Brexit will act recklessly when it comes to arms dealing in volatile re-gions such as the Persian Gulf.

Can the Trump election affect Iran-EU rela-tions?

A: It has seriously deteriorated the transatlantic part-nership, certainly for now. The EU is acting rather more self-consciously with more independence from the Unit-ed States. Iran is well advised to forge even closer re-lations with Brussels in all fields. The future is likely to establish Europe as a major power pole in the interna-tional system. For now, the EU seems to me as a pillar of world order and a beacon of democracy and pluralism, despite of the challenges by the far-right. Iran and Eu-rope have had a common bond throughout history and it is about time that this is reflected in a strategic part-nership with economic, political and cultural breadth.

Pakistan is deploying a brigade of com-bat troops to Saudi Arabia as the king-dom is struggling to keep its south-ern borders from retaliatory attacks conducted by Yemeni forces, security sources say.

The unnamed sources told the Middle East Eye online portal that the troops will only be deployed inside southern Saudi Arabia. “It will not be used beyond Saudi borders,” a source stressed.

The dispatch of the brigade follows a three-day official visit by General Qamar Javed Bajwa, the Pakistani Chief of Army Staff (COAS), to Saudi Arabia in Decem-ber 2016, the report said.

The Pakistani military said in a state-ment that Bajwa had met chief of gen-eral staff of Saudi Forces, General Abdul Rehman bin Saleh al-Bunyan, “to discuss military to military relations, defense co-operation and regional security situation.”

“Both leaders agreed to boost military cooperation and collaboration,” it added but there was no immediate reaction to the report by Pakistani authorities.

The area of deployment for the Pa-

kistani troops is politically sensitive in Islamabad as about two years ago the Pakistani parliament dismissed Saudi Arabia’s request to join its deadly air raids

against Yemen.The alleged plan is the latest twist in

a brutal and devastating two-year war, which has killed more than 12,000 peo-

ple in Yemen, injured over 40,000 and brought the impoverished nation to the verge of famine.

The House of Saud regime began its deadly campaign against Yemen in late March 2015 in a bid to restore power to Abd Rabbuh Mansur Hadi, Yemen’s pres-ident who has resigned and is backed by Riyadh. The campaign also seeks to un-dermine the Ansarullah (Houthi) move-ment.

The Ansarullah and their allies in the Yemeni army have increasingly been retaliating with cross-border missile strikes on targets deep inside the king-dom.

Two years ago, the Pakistani parlia-ment decided against a possible de-ployment of troops after four days of debate which was dominated by fears of further stoking sectarian violence in the country.

Generals argued then that their troops were overstretched with cam-paigns against the Pakistani Taliban in the Northwest Tribal Areas.

(Source: agencies)

McCain tells Trump: Present evidence or retract wiretapping claim

Israeli policeman kills Palestinian ‘in a struggle’

Iran well advised to forge closer ties with EU: scholar

I N T E R N A T I O N A L D A I L Y

W O R L D S P O R T MARCH 14, 2017MARCH 14, 201714

The Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) on Monday upheld a lifetime ban levied against Sergei Portugalov, former chief of the Russian Athletics Federation’s Medical Commission, for his role in providing illicit substances to Russian athletes.

Lausanne-based CAS upheld the ban as part of an arbitration involving the International Association of Athletics Federation (IAAF) and the Russian Athletics Federation,

citing in a statement “clear evidence” that he violated IAAF doping rules governing possession and trafficking of prohibited substances.

In a 2015 report, the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) wrote that Portugalov supplied performance enhancing drugs to athletes and coaches, administered doping programs and “even injected athletes himself”.

(Source: Reuters)

Real Madrid forward Cristiano Ronaldo has surpassed Atletico Bilbao’s Aritz Aduriz to become the only active player to have scored the most headed goals in the La Liga.

The goal came in the 41st minute in Madrid’s 2-1 win over Real Betis at the Santiago Bernabeu stadium on Sunday.

After the visitors took the lead through Antonio Sanabria, Marcelo’s

pinpoint cross founded an unmarked Ronaldo who powered his header into the net for the equaliser. Sergio Ramos sealed maximum points with an 81st minute winner.

Ronaldo’s header was his 19th league goal of the season and it allowed him to leapfrog Aduriz who was tied with the Portuguese star on 45 headers before the game.

(Source: Soccernet)

Still playing with distinction midway through his fourth decade, Kaspars Gorkss shows no signs of wear and tear getting the better of him. The rock-solid 6’3 (1.91m) defender, who enjoyed notable club stints at Queens Park Rangers, Reading and Wolverhampton Wanderers in England, remains a mainstay in defence for Latvia, whom he also captains. With his steely determination and iron will, he is a cult hero among his country’s fans.

“I’m not the sort of person to brag or boast about anything. It’s not my place to say that I’ve had a great or successful career. There’s one thing for sure, though: it’s been well spent and it’s not quite over yet,” the 35-year-old told FIFA.com. In fact, a full 20 years since making his debut for Auda, the Latvian second-division club where his father Juris is now the chairman, Gorkss has just signed a new contract with top-flight outfit Liepaja. In the process, he has also tacitly extended his ties with the Latvian national team, nicknamed the Sarkanbaltsarkanie, for whom he has been a loyal servant since 2005.

“I’m football-mad: it’s my love, my passion, what drives me on,” Gorkss said. “It’s true that, as the years go by, training sessions get harder and harder for me, but football still makes me feel better than anything else in the world. Nothing can compare to the excitement and adrenaline that build up at the weekend when a match is coming around.”

Contrary to those who subscribe to the idea of a club-versus-country trade-off, the two are very much inextricably linked for the veteran, who therefore has no qualms about continuing to turn out on both stages.

“I feel that I’ve still got something to offer Latvia, with my leadership and experience,” he said. “The national team are very close to my heart: I’m as passionate about them as about the game itself. The day I decide to quit international football, I’ll quit playing altogether. The two will go hand in hand.”

It is undeniable that Gorkss has lost a yard or two of pace compared to the version that was named the Latvian Footballer of the Year in 2009 and 2010. Nevertheless, he has lost none of his influence in the Sarkanbaltsarkanie squad, with whom he came within striking distance of qualifying for the 2010 FIFA World Cup South Africa™. The Baltic minnows were still in contention going into the final matchday of group-stage action, but ultimately had to settle for third place in Group 2 behind Switzerland and Greece, respectively.

“That type of disappointment stays with you forever, but that’s the nature of the beast for a football player: you have dreams and you’re always going to get to achieve some of them and not others,” he said. “One of my goals at the beginning of my career was to play in the [English] Premier League and I did that, which I’m delighted about. At international level, my aim was to feature in the finals of a major tournament, which must be the pinnacle. Unfortunately, that hasn’t been possible and yes, it could

go down as one of my biggest regrets – if I had to write it off for good.”

The promotion kingAs those words make clear, Gorkss is not ready to give

up on this dream just yet, and with good reason, with Latvia still in the hunt for a spot at Russia 2018. That said, he and his compatriots have not exactly hit the ground running on the road to Russia: with just a single victory under their belt, a 1-0 win away to Andorra, they are languishing in fifth in Group B.

“Our hopes of qualifying are slim, but we’ve got to cling to them. So long as it’s not mathematically out of the question, we’ve got to keep believing, come what may, and working hard,” said the gnarled stopper, turning his attention to his country’s potentially make-or-break meeting with their old Swiss foes in a fortnight’s time.

“That match promises to be as tough as the rest. Switzerland have a good blend of established talents and youth. They’ve got some super players and have made

a really good start to these qualifiers. But the beauty of football lies in its unpredictability: nothing is set in stone and anything is possible. For Latvia, games like this one are a golden opportunity to show that we’re improving and looking up.”

And if anyone knows about upward mobility, it is Kaspars Gorkss. After all, the centre-back’s CV includes no fewer than three promotion-winning campaigns, all with different clubs in England (in 2006/07 with Blackpool, in 2010/11 with QPR and in 2011/12 with Reading), with the last two involving a rise from the second-tier League Championship to the promised land of the Premier League.

“Back in England, they called me the promotion king,” he reminisced. “I’ve got wonderful memories of that time, but I think it’s a coincidence more than anything else. On each occasion, I was just a link in a chain,” he added, modestly neglecting to mention the mettle and durability that continue to set this Latvian iron man apart to this day.

(Source: FIFA)

Ronaldo claims another La Liga record

CAS tribunal upholds lifetime ban on Russian doping doctor

Russia’s anti-doping agency (RUSADA) still has “significant work” to do to get its suspension lifted, the World An-ti-Doping Agency said on Monday.

WADA President Craig Reedie said RUSADA, suspend-ed in 2015 after the drugs scandal that led to Russian track-and-field athletes being banned from the following year’s Rio Olympics, had taken steps forward in the past year. But more were needed, he said.

“There remains significant work to do. (RUSADA) must demonstrate its processes are autonomous and independ-ent from outside interference,” Reedie told an international meeting in Lausanne, Switzerland.

In a reminder of the continuing fallout from the scan-dal, the Swiss-based Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) on Monday upheld a lifetime ban on Sergei Portugalov, former chief of the Russian Athletics Federation’s Medical Commission, for his role in providing illicit substances to Russian competitors.

In a 2015 report, WADA had written that Portugalov supplied performance-enhancing drugs to athletes and

coaches, administered doping programs and “even injected athletes himself”.

In November 2015, a WADA commission said Russia had systematically broken anti-doping rules. It subsequently re-voked the status of the Moscow Anti-Doping Laboratory and stated that RUSADA did not comply with WADA standards.

A WADA-commissioned report by Canadian law profes-sor Richard McLaren found state-backed doping involved

more than 1,000 athletes in the country.Russian Sports Minister Pavel Kolobkov said in Lausanne

that RUSADA was working towards being considered com-pliant within the year, and listed what he said was progress on restructuring the country’s anti-doping system.

“We are ready to cooperate. We are open to all kinds of inspections,” said Kolobkov, speaking after Reedie.

Russian President Vladimir Putin earlier this month de-nied the McLaren report’s findings about state-sponsored doping but acknowledged there had been individual in-stances of cheating that indicated the country’s current system was not working.

“The ball is in their camp and we will see when they will be able to deliver this program,” WADA Director General Olivier Niggli said.

He described Putin’s comments as “very encouraging, going in the right direction”.

“I hope that politics can now stay at the door and we can all focus on protecting clean sports and clean athletes,” Niggli said. (Source: Doping)

Doping: Russian agency needs ‘significant’ work to get suspension lifted

Latvia’s iron man Gorkss Latvia’s iron man Gorkss still going strongstill going strong

Cafu: Russia are one of Confed Cup favoritesLast week Brazil legend Cafu spent a jam-packed 48 hours in Saint Petersburg, exploring the city. He carried the FIFA Confederations Cup 2017 trophy onto the pitch of the new Saint Petersburg Stadium as part of the festivities marking 100 days to the start of the Tournament of Champions in Russia. Cafu is not only a two-time FIFA World Cup™ winner, he also lifted the 1997 Confederations Cup trophy, so he is certainly entitled to hold the trophy in his hands.

During his visit, Cafu took time out to speak with FIFA.com about the approaching festival of football in Russia, the best moments from his career and Brazil›s experience of organizing international FIFA tournaments.

FIFA.com: What are your memories of Brazil›s preparations for the Con-federations Cup in 2013 and the 2014 FIFA World Cup? Was there a lot of ex-citement?

Cafu: We took the preparations for the Confederations Cup very seriously. It was important to realize how capable we were of putting on such a large-scale event. There was a huge buzz in the country. There are fewer stadiums in use at the

Confederations Cup compared to the World Cup, but the venues that hosted the tournament on that occasion proved they were fully prepared for the World Cup, and this made our task easier. The tournament turned out to be important for the national team as well: in the build-up to the Confederations Cup, the team was experiencing a lack of trust from some supporters. The trophy we won helped unite everyone around the Seleção.

You have visited Moscow and Saint Petersburg on a number of occasions. Do you remember the first time you played in Russia?

It was cold! But I›m always cold in Russia, so nothing unusual there. I had been to Russia before, so I knew what to expect. My first match here was a friendly between Russia and Brazil in 1996 in Moscow. It was a good game; I don›t remember all the details as it was so long ago, but I do recall we played out a 2-2 draw. For me, Russia is first of all a country with a rich and interesting history. My second association is snow!

Brazil have won the most Confederations Cup titles in history but will not be competing this summer in Russia. Who are the favorites in your absence?

I think the final will be Russia vs Germany. I›ve named Russia as one of the favorites because the host nation always performs extremely well at these tournaments, in front of their own fans and swept along by a surge of optimism on all sides. Even though some Russian supporters don›t have a lot of faith in the success of their national team right now, it is not that important. The Confedera-tions Cup is actually the perfect opportunity to overcome any lack of trust and prove that the Sbornaya will produce worthy displays at both the Confederations Cup and the World Cup.

You played at the Confederations Cup 1997 in Saudi Arabia. What are your abiding memories of that tourna-ment? Brazil had a phenomenal line-up back then, possibly even better than at a few World Cups.

And that›s why we won, right? How could we not win with such stars in our team? The thing I remember most from that tournament was that we all shaved our heads after winning it, as we had agreed before the competition this is what we›d do if we won. We all went around bald afterwards!

You had players like Romario, Ronaldo and Rivaldo. Was this the strongest front three in Brazil›s history, do you think?

We had so many amazing forwards! It›s very difficult to com-pare them. Every team that won World Cups or the Confeder-ations Cup featured outstanding players in attack. During the 1990s, of course, these three were the very best.

You hold the record for the most appearances for your country, and by some distance. How did you manage to achieve this in a team where competition for places is arguably the toughest in the world?

I think this is understandable because no one has played for Brazil over such a long period of time as me – 16 years! I think it›s purely down to strength of will, my devotion to football and the effort I put in during all this time.

The two biggest triumphs in your career were winning the World Cup in 1994 and 2002. What do you remember from those finals?

Both were very emotional but extremely different in terms of the responsibility I had. I was playing in my first FIFA World Cup Final at USA 1994. I was young and it was my first chance to get my hands on the most important trophy there is for any foot-baller. I was ready for this, had worked very hard, but I started on the bench on that occasion. However, in 2002 I had the colossal responsibility of a captain leading his team to the final. I was nervous both times, but it was completely different.

As captain, did you give a speech to your team-mates before the final against Germany?

I didn›t say anything other than I usually do. On the way to the final, we had played six matches and got six victories. I just told them that they don›t need to do anything other than usual. Why change anything when it›s working? Why act differently in a final if you›ve won all your previous games? You might get the thought that this is a final and I need to say something special to get everyone motivated, but how could they have made it all the way to the final if they weren›t motivated?

It is unlikely your appearance record will be broken anytime soon, but Pele›s record for goals scored is under threat. Can Neymar overtake him?

All records exist only to be beaten. Of course, Neymar has got it in him. He›s young and has time on his side. If he contin-ues playing as he is now, then there›s every possibility he will.

What advice would you give to the organisers of the Confed-erations Cup and World Cup in Russia, as well as Russian football fans, so that these tournaments are even better than in Brazil?

Above all else, the most important thing is belief. You need to believe in yourselves more, in your national team and their chances of victory. Believe that Russia can host tournaments at the highest level. The main thing is to believe, and then everything will work out. (Source: FIFA)

S P O R TMARCH 14, 2017MARCH 14, 2017 15I N T E R N A T I O N A L D A I L Y

Iran cruise to second Asian title on sandIran underlined their pedigree as the top-ranked side in Asia by claiming their second AFC Beach Soccer Championship title with victory over United Arab Emirates (UAE) in Saturday’s final. Both teams secured two of Asia’s three qualifying spots for the FIFA Beach Soccer World Cup Bahamas 2017 by reaching the final. Japan joined their Middle Eastern counterparts in claiming their ticket to the Caribbean by finishing third at Malaysia 2017.

As newly-crowned Asian champions, Iran will play Mexico, Italy and Nigeria in Group B at the Beach Soccer World Cup. As runners-up at Malaysia 2017, UAE will take their place alongside Paraguay, Panama and Portugal in Group C at the world finals. By earning the third and final spot in Asian qualifying, Japan will play Poland, Tahiti and Brazil in Group D at Bahamas 2017.

FIFA.com rounds up all the action from seven days of competition on the beach sands of Pantai Batu Buruk in Kuala Terengganu, Malaysia.

The group phaseGroup A: 1. Iran, 12 points; 2. Bahrain, 9 pts; 3. Afghanistan,

6 pts; 4. Malaysia, 3 pts; 5. China PR, 0 ptsThe Iranians made easy work of their four matches to

cruise to the semi-finals as winners of Group A, outscoring the opposition 35 to three in the process. Mohammad Hossein Mirshamsi’s side started their campaign with a 14-0 thumping of tournament hosts Malaysia before earning results against Afghanistan (6-1), China PR (10-0) and Bahrain (5-2). Leading the way for Iran was Mohammadali Mokhtari, who scored eight of his tournament-leading 12 goals during the group stage.

Group B: 1. Lebanon, 6 points; 2. Oman, 3 pts; 3. Thailand, 0 pts

The last-minute withdrawal of Uzbekistan from Malaysia 2017 put the onus on the remaining three teams in Group B to try and win both of their group matches in order to advance to the last four. After both sides claimed victories over Thailand, Oman and Lebanon squared off in the group decider. In a dramatic contest, the Lebanese ended Oman’s reign as Asian champions with a 4-3 victory. Ahmed Grada’s header three seconds from the end secured top spot in the group for Lebanon.

Group C: 1. UAE, 9 points; 2. Japan, 6 pts; 3. Iraq, 1 pt; 4. Qatar, 0 pts

UAE and Japan found the back of the net with regularity in Group C, as both teams proved too strong for Iraq and Qatar. The Emiratis opened their account with a 6-0 win over Iraq before easing past Qatar 8-1. The Japanese were even more prolific in front of goal, thrashing the Qataris 14-0 and the Iraqis 11-2. That set up a group decider between UAE and Japan, and it was the Middle Eastern nation that triumphed 5-4 to win Group C and advance to the semi-finals. Despite the defeat, Japan also advanced to the last four as the best second-best finisher in the group stage.

Knockout roundsThe first two qualifying places for Bahamas 2017 were

up for grabs in the semi-finals on 10 March, and the day’s action started with a penalty shoot-out victory for UAE over Lebanon following a 4-4 extra-time draw. Haitham Mohamed and Hasham Al Muntaser both converted their penalties to give the Emiratis a 2-1 win in the shoot-out and secure their nation’s fifth berth at a Beach Soccer World Cup with a place in the final.

Iran followed UAE in assuring they would be making the trip to the Caribbean next month by outlasting Japan 8-6 in an entertaining back-and-forth contest. Mokhtari, Hassan Abdollahi and Mohammad Ahmadzadeh each scored twice for the Iranians, as they advanced to Saturday’s final and claimed their country’s seventh berth at a Beach Soccer World Cup.

The final day of action on 11 March saw the two losing semi-finalists in Lebanon and Japan contest the final qualifying berth for the Bahamas in the match for third place. Led by four goals from Takasuke Goto, Japan defeated Lebanon 6-3 to finish third at Malaysia 2017 and earn a ninth straight berth at beach soccer ’s showpiece event. Only Brazil and Japan have appeared at every Beach Soccer World Cup since 2005.

The last match of the competition crowned a new Asian champion, and it was Iran that capped an excellent campaign with a sixth straight victory, as they defeated UAE 7-2 in the final. Moslem Mesigar had two goals for the Iranians, as did Mokhtari, who capped a fine tournament for himself by not only claiming the honour as top goalscorer, but also being named the tournament’s top player.

Final standings1. Iran*2. United Arab Emirates*3. Japan*4. Lebanon *Qualified for the FIFA Beach Soccer World Cup Bahamas

2017 Player of the tournamentMohammadali Mokhtari (Iran) Fair Play AwardIran Leading goalscorerMohammadali Mokhtari (Iran) – 12 goals

(Source: FIFA)

Arsenal have been scouting Besiktas midfielder and former Gunner Oguzhan Ozyakup.

Ozyakup, 24, was among the players Arsenal kept tabs on at the Karaiskakis Stadium in Greece during Besiktas’ 1-1 Europa League round-of-16 first-leg draw against Olympiakos last week.

The Turkey international, who came through the youth ranks at Arsenal, was brought on at half-time in place of Tolgay Arslan and his introduction coincided with a marked improvement from Besiktas.

Besiktas equalised in the second half and dominated possession. Despite only playing 45 minutes, Ozyakup still managed to complete the second highest number of passes (61) after Atiba Hutchinson (69).

Arsenal scout Jurgen Kost confirmed that the Gunners are monitoring Ozyakup and could consider making a move for him in the future.

“Ozyakup is a player of the highest standard, we have been closely tracking his progress and when

we do our next search for players in his position he could return to Arsenal,” Kost was quoted as saying by

Turkish-Football.Ozyakup left Arsenal for Besiktas in 2012 for

€500,000 in search of first-team football and is currently a key player for the Turkish side, playing an important role in their Super Lig title win last season.

Ozyakup has amassed 25 goals and 37 assists for Besiktas over the course of 169 appearances in all competitions.

La Liga outfit Sevilla have also been linked with Ozyakup recently and were reported to have made an offer last summer.

The central midfielder has just over a year left on his contract and Besiktas reportedly value him at €15 million.

Besiktas are currently first in the Super Lig, two points ahead of second-placed Basaksehir. They take on Olympiakos on Thursday in the return leg of their Europa League tie.

(Source: Soccernet)

Arsenal keeping an eye on Besiktas midfielder Oguzhan Ozyakup

Iranian teams Persepolis and Esteghlal Khuzestan will be action in the Matchday

Three of AFC Champions League on Tuesday. Al Rayyan will want to return to winning ways when

they welcome Group D table-toppers Persepolis to Jassim Bin Hamad Stadium in the 2017 AFC Champions League on Tuesday.

Michael Laudrup’s side conceded deep into injury time to suffer a 2-1 defeat to Al Hilal on Matchday Two after beating Al Wahda by the same scoreline in their Group D opener. The 4-0 Qatar Stars League win over Al Wakrah three days later was the perfect response but Al Rayyan, who will be unable to call on the suspended Victor Caceres, have won just once in 10 against Iranian opposition.

Persepolis, who warmed up for the clash with a 1-0 domestic victory over Esteghlal Khouzestan on Thursday to remain 10 points clear in the Persian Gulf Pro League, saw a late Mehdi Taremi brace claim a 3-2 win over Al Wahda in their last game on the continent to move ahead of second-placed Al Hilal at the top of Group D on goals scored.

Esteghlal Khouzestan will look to maintain their perfect start to the 2017 AFC Champions League when they host Lekhwiya in Group B at Ghadir Stadium on Tuesday.

Back-to-back 1-0 victories over Al Fateh and Al Jazira have seen the Iranian debutants set the early pace in Group B and, in doing so, become the only team in the tournament that has yet to concede a goal ahead of their first ever meeting with their Qatari opponents.

Nam Tae-hee’s stunning late equaliser secured Lekhwiya a 2-2 draw with Al Fateh on Matchday Two, meanwhile, as Moroccan hot shot Youssef El Arabi also took his goals tally to three in two games, the-afc wrote.

The sides go into the clash on the back of contrasting domestic results after Esteghlal Khouzestan were defeated 1-0 by fellow AFC Champions League side Persepolis last week while Lekhwiya saw off Al Kharitiyath 3-0 in their most recent Qatar Stars League fixture.

S P O R T Sd e s k

Paykan coach Peyman Akbari has been named as coach of Iran

volleyball national team on Monday.Igor Kolakovic has appointed the 40-year-old coach

as his assistant in Iran National Volleyball Team.Akbari, who played for Team Melli from 1996

to 2008, has already worked as head coach of Iran B volleyball team and helped the team win Sheikh

Rashid Cup in 2011. Kolakovic also named Red Star volleyball coach

Dragan Kobiljski as his assistant. Iran volleyball team are preparing for the FIVB

Volleyball World League 2017 which has been scheduled for June 2-4 in Italy.

Team Melli will play Italy in the first day and meet Brazil and Poland respectively in the following days.

Peyman Akbari named Iran volleyball coach

S P O R T Sd e s k

ACL MD3: Persepolis, Esteghlal Khouzestan to continue their good run

Goals from Jerry Bengtson and

Morteza Tabrizi secured a 2-0 win for Zobahan – their first of the 2017 AFC Champions League campaign – and handed hosts Bunyodkor a third consecutive Group C defeat on Monday.

The Iranian visitors had shaded the first half at Bunyodkor Stadium without making a breakthrough, but after the re-start a mistake from Javlon Mirabdullaev allowed striker Bengtson through on goal, and the Honduran coolly beat goalkeeper

Murotjon Zukhurov on 55 minutes.Things went from bad to worse for

the home side as forward Vadim Ce-mirtan was sent off for a dangerous challenge on Danial Emaeilifar shortly after the hour mark, before Tabrizi en-sured Bunyodkor’s record 17th conti-nental match ended without a win as he netted a penalty in injury time.

Zob Ahan were held to a 1-1 draw by Al-Ahli of the UAE in the opener and lost to Al-Ahli of Saudi Arabia 2-1 in their second match.

AFC Champions League: Zob Ahan 2 – 0 Uzbekistan’s Bunyodkor

Esteghlal of Iran de-feated Uzbekistan’s

Lokomotiv in Matchday Three of this season’s AFC Champions League Group Stage.

The Iranian football team beat the Uz-bek team 2-0 in Tehran’s Azadi Stadium.

Farshid Esmaeili opened the scoring for the Blues in the 37th minute in front of about 50,000 spectators.

Lokomotiv put Esteghlal under pres-sure in the second half but lacked of cutting edge.

Ali Ghorbani extended Esteghlal’s lead in the 84th minute.

Esteghlal opened the campaign with a 2-1 loss to Al-Ahli of the UAE but de-feated Saudi Arabia’s Al-Taawoun 3-0 in their second match.

“I am satisfied with my players’ perfor-mance in this match. I also thank the fans who supported us in this home match,” Esteghlal coach Alireza Mansourian said in the post-match news conference.

Esteghlal will play Lokomotiv in Group A on April 11 in their fourth match.

Esteghlal beat Lokomotiv of Uzbekistan in ACL Matchday Three

S P O R T Sd e s k

S P O R T Sd e s k

Tehran center explores Plasco tragedy with “Love and Fire”

LOS ANGELES (Variety.com) — “Kong: Skull Island” emerged victorious after a battle of the beasts that pitted the giant ape movie against the Wolverine’s last stand. Cresting a wave of good reviews, “Kong: Skull Island” topped the domestic box office, racking up a mighty $61 million. That handily beat estimates, which had “Kong: Skull Island” debuting to between $45 million and $50 million.

King Kong’s roar didn’t totally drown out Wolverine’s berserker rage. In its second weekend, Fox’s “Logan” dropped 58% to $37.8 million, pushing its stateside total to $152.6 million. The R-rated comic book adventure is Hugh Jackman’s swan song as Wolverine after nearly two decades playing the X-Men team member.

“Kong: Skull Island” gets bragging rights for topping expectations, but the film isn’t out of the woods yet. It cost a hefty $185 million to produce, which means that it will need to be a hit overseas if Legendary and Warner Bros., the studios behind the film, want to make a profit. On the domestic front, “Kong: Skull Island” is also staring down Disney’s “Beauty and the Beast,” a live-action fairy tale that is expected to premiere to as much as $120 million next weekend. That will likely suck up most of the oxygen in the multiplexes, making it difficult for other films to keep drawing in big crowds.

Legendary and Warner Bros. have grand ambitions for King Kong. The film is the second installment in a planned monster franchise. The first chapter, 2014’s “Godzilla”, opened to $93.2 million in the States before topping out at $529.1 million globally. The plan is for King Kong and Godzilla to meet in an epic showdown of primordial creatures at some point in the not-too-distant future.

“The movie is pure fun and that’s translating into the box office,” said Jeff Goldstein, domestic distribution chief at Warner Bros. He went on to

predict that the film would benefit from rolling spring breaks that will see more than 20% of the nation’s schoolchildren on vacation and looking for something to occupy their time. The opening weekend crowd for the film was 56% male and 35% under the age of 25. Imax showings accounted for $7.5 million worth of ticket sales.

Because of its massive production and marketing costs, “Kong: Skull Island” will need to do roughly $500 million worldwide to be considered a success. To that end, the film debuted to $81.6 million in 65 foreign markets. A lot is riding on how the movie performs in China, the world’s second-largest film market. “Kong: Skull Island” opens in the Middle Kingdom in two weeks.

Set in the waning days of the Vietnam War, “Kong: Skull Island” exchanges embassy helicopter rescues for oversized primates looming large against a fog-encrusted jungle setting. Jordan Vogt-Roberts, who made a splash with the Sundance favorite “Kings of Summer”, directed the picture, with Tom

Hiddleston, Samuel L. Jackson, and Brie Larson heading up an ensemble cast. Critics embraced the decision to give an “Apocalypse, Now” sheen to the oft-filmed story of King Kong, with Variety’s Owen Gleiberman hailing it as “a rousing and smartly crafted primordial-beastie spectacular.”

With Wolvie and Kong duking it out for the top slot, Blumhouse and Universal’s “Get Out” snagged third place. The low-budget thriller about a black man whose visit to his white friend’s hometown takes a sinister turn picked up $21.1 million. It has earned $111 million in three weeks of release -- a fantastic return on its $4.5 million budget.

The top five was rounded out by Lionsgate’s “The Shack” and Warner Bros.’ “The Lego Batman Movie”, which earned $10.1 million and $7.8 million, respectively. “The Shack,” a faith-based drama, has grossed $32.3 million in two weeks of release. The latest Lego movie has earned $159 million after five weeks in theaters.

Among limited releases, CBS Films’ “The Sense of an Ending”, an adaptation of Julian Barnes’ prize-winning novel, opened to $42,000 from four locations, while Focus World’s “Raw”, a horror film about a vegetarian student who turns to cannibalism, debuted to $25,230 from two theaters.

Ticket sales were up nearly 25% from the same weekend in 2016 -- a period that overlapped with the second weekend of “Zootopia” and the debut of “10 Cloverfield Lane.” Revenues are up roughly 2% year-to-date, as the combination of “Logan”, “Get Out”, and now “Kong: Skull Island” are translating into a busy time at the box office. Next weekend brings the release of “Beauty and the Beast”, which should expand 2017’s lead.

“This could be the biggest March on record”, said Paul Dergarabedian, senior media analyst at ComScore. “You don’t have to wait until May to release blockbusters any more.”

NEW YORK (AP) — The publishing of the upcoming books by Barack and Michelle Obama will be a global event.

Penguin Random House announced Monday that it has lined up publishers from Ireland to South Africa for the two books, to be released by the Crown imprint in the U.S. and Canada.

Titles and release dates have not been announced.The advance from Penguin Random House for

the former president and first lady, whose popularity extends well beyond the U.S., is widely believed to be tens of millions of dollars.

Penguin Random House acquired the books jointly

last month.The publisher has Spanish-language editions

planned for Spain, Mexico and several countries in South America. English editions will come out in the United Kingdom, Australia, India and elsewhere. Deals for other countries are still pending.

HONG KONG (Hollywood Reporter) — Jackie Chan is getting into the international film sales business.

On the first day of Hong Kong’s Filmart, the iconic actor’s Beijing-based Sparkle Roll Media announced the launch of a new Hong Kong-based international sales arm, which will handle “high-quality action films and high-profile Chinese language films by acclaimed directors and top producers,” according to the company. The new venture will also manage sales on all future Sparkle Roll Media productions.

“We are thrilled to introduce our new international sales arm, which further expands Sparkle Roll Media’s position

as a leader in Chinese-language media and entertainment,” said Joe Tam, vice president of Sparkle Roll Media Culture Industry Development “The new sales group brings together a strong team with years of experience in the film industry, and they will play a crucial role in the growth of Sparkle Roll Media.”

Chan’s primary vehicle for managing his brand and developing and producing his films for years, Sparkle Roll Media has evolved over the past decade into an international media company with businesses spanning film financing, film production, film distribution and marketing, exhibition (via the SR Jackie Chan Cinema chain), TV production, talent management,

large-scale events and performances, and other activities.

Sparkle Roll Media’s new sales arm is headed by Will Lin, who previously was with Fortissimo Films, and Andree Sham, who spent time at Hong Kong filmmaker Peter Ho-sun Chan’s We Distribution. Veteran Hong Kong executive, Katherine Lee, will serve as a consultant to the company. Lin and Sham will share the title of director, international sales, and will report to Tam and Sunny Sun, vice president of Sparkle Roll Media.

On Monday, Sparkle Roll also revealed its latest slate, which includes: “Bloom of Youth”, (original title: Fang Hua), about the trials and tribulations of a Military Cultural

Troupe in the 1970s; “Jackie Chan: Down to Earth”, a feature-length documentary, directed by Sun Lin, exploring the actor’s five-decade career as a martial arts action-comedy star; and “A Better Tomorrow 4: Ding Sheng”, a brand-new chapter of John Woo’s blood-soaked saga.

TEHRAN — Works by photojournalists

covering the raging inferno in Tehran’s Plasco Building in January and events in the aftermath of the tragedy are on display in an exhibition titled “Love and Fire” at the Iranian Artists Forum.

The exhibition that opened on Sunday showcases photos of the very first moments Plasco caught fire until the funeral of the brave firemen who were

killed in the collapse of the building.Plasco, a 17-storey mega mall in

downtown Tehran, collapsed to the ground three and a half hours after it caught fire, and sixteen firefighters and a number of citizens lost their lives in the tragic incident.

According to the secretary of the exhibit Hamed Jafarnejad, the exhibit puts the spotlight on the round-the-clock endeavors of the firemen.

“We aim to express our thanks to the firefighters and pay respects to the families of the victims,” he added.

A selection of the photos of the Plasco tragedy is scheduled to be published in a book in the near future.

The three-day exhibit has been arranged in collaboration with the Puya Journalists Club, a photojournalists club, which is affiliated with the Tasnim News Agency.

Jackie Chan, (VCG/ Getty Images)

No. 18, Bimeh Alley, Nejatollahi St., Tehran, IranP.o. Box: 14155-4843

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www.tehrant imes.comI N T E R N A T I O N A L D A I L Y

A R T & C U L T U R E

TEHRAN — Styles of performing by veteran musicians Shir

Mohammad Espandar and Qanbar Rastgu have been registered on the National Intangible Cultural Heritage List.

Espandar and Rastgu were awarded certificates at a meeting held at the Cultural Heritage, Tourism and Handicrafts Organization in Tehran on Sunday.

Donali (twin reed flute) virtuoso Espandar was born in Bampur in 1927. He left Iran to find work in Pakistan when he was only a teenager. In 1958, he returned home after he had received an education on Baluchi music in the country.

He has given many performances in France, Peru and many other countries.

Ratgu is a master performer of jofti, a kind twin reed flute that is used in southern Iran, particularly in Bushehr, which is home to various tribes and nations that migrated to the city for different reasons.

Music in the region was strongly influenced by the African slaves who were brought to southern Iranian cities centuries ago.

After the victory of the Islamic Revolution, he founded Kaalang, a band that was dismantled years later.

Performing styles by two musicians inscribed on Iran’s national heritage list

Iranian docs to go on screen at Movies that Matter Festival

Hojjatollah Ayyubi appointed as senior advisor to culture minister

TEHRAN — The acclaimed Iranian documentaries “A157” and “Sonita” will

go on screen at the Movies that Matter Festival, which will be held in Amsterdam, the Netherlands from March 24 to April 1.

Directed by Behruz Nuranipur “A157” is about the tragedy of three Kurdish girls who became pregnant after being raped by members of ISIS.

“Sonita” by Rokhsareh Qaem-Maqami is about an Afghan refugee living in Iran who fights to keep her dream of becoming a rap star alive, while her family attempts to sell her as a bride.

TEHRAN — Minister of Culture and Islamic Guidance Reza Salehi-Amiri has

appointed Hojjatollah Ayyubi, the former director of the Cinema Organization of Iran, as his new senior advisor.

Last week, the minister appointed Mohammad-Mehdi Heidarian as the new director of the Cinema Organization of Iran. Heidarian was a senior advisor to Salehi-Amiri.

N E W S I N B R I E F

C U L T U R Ed e s k

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This combination photo shows musicians Qanbar Rastgu (L) and Shir Mohammad Espandar.

A R Td e s k

“Kong: Skull Island” rules with mighty $61 million debut

Obama books to be published worldwide, from Ireland to India

Jackie Chan’s Sparkle Roll Media launches Film Sales Arm

“Breath” director Narges Abyar awarded at Canadian festival

TEHRAN — Iranian director Narges Abyar received best director award for his latest

film “Breath” at the Vancouver International Women in Film Festival (VIWIFF), which was held in the Canadian city from March 8 to 12.

“Breath” is about four children whose mother had died a few years ago and whose father decides to join the Iranian volunteers on the warfront following Iraq’s attack in September 1980.

“Lutine” by director/writer Isabelle Broué from France won the awards for best film and best screenplay while “A Revolution in Four Seasons” by Jessie Deeter

from the U.S. received the award for best documentary.

Film producer Ali Moallem dies at 54

TEHRAN — Film producer Ali Moallem who was also the founder the Hafez Awards, Iran’s

first and only private awards in film industry, died of a heart attack on Monday.

The news came on Monday evening on the website of his Persian cinematic monthly Donya-ye Tasvir (Picture World), which was the organizer of the Hafez Awards.

He began a career in journalism in the early 1980s. He then worked as a reporter for Iranian TV for a short period at that time.

He made “Art Festival”, “From Word to Picture”, “The Cinema of Thought” and several other TV programs.

After his split from TV, he established Donya-ye Tasvir in 1992. Seven years later, he founded the Hafez Awards to honor Iranian films and TV productions.

He was the producer of the acclaimed movies “Hemlock” and “The River’s End”, both directed by Behruz Afkhami.

His credits also include “Marriage, Iranian Style” by Hassan Fathi.

Actor John C Reilly poses for photographers at the European Premiere of “Kong: Skull Island” in London, Britain February 28, 2017. (Reuters/Neil Hall)