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Syed Zafar MehdiJournalistfrom New Delhi

A R T I C L E

By Naghmeh Mizanian

U.S. President Donald Trump admitted Sunday that his son met with a Russian lawyer in Trump Tower in 2016 “to get information on an oppo-nent” but defended it as “totally legal.”

It was Trump’s most direct acknowledgement that the motive for the June 2016 meeting was to get dirt on Hillary Clinton, his Democratic

rival for the presidency.As he has in the past, Trump insisted in a

tweet that he did not know at the time about the meeting between his son Donald Jr. and Natalia Veselnitskaya, a lawyer with links to the Kremlin.

“This was a meeting to get information on an opponent, totally legal and done all the time in poli-

tics - and it went nowhere. I did not know about it!”The meeting has come under intense scru-

tiny from Special Counsel Robert Mueller, who is investigating whether members of the Trump campaign coordinated with a Russian effort to sway the 2016 election in the Republican’s favor. 1 3

TEHRAN — Pakistan has just given mandate to Imran Khan

led Pakistan Tehreek Insaaf (PTI) to form the new government, albeit with the help of other smaller par-ties. Despite controversies surrounding the election outcome, Imran Khan is all set to take oath as the new Prime Minister of Pakistan later this week. The new government faces many challenges in terms of domestic issues and foreign policy.

Farahnaz Ispahani is a Pakistani politician and former Member of the Parliament (MP). She served as Media Advisor to the President of Pakistan from 2008 to 2012. She is currently

Global Fellow at the Woodrow Wilson Center, Washington and is the author of the book ‘Purifying the Land of the Pure: The History of Pakistan’s Religious Minorities’.

In an interview with Tehran Times, she spoke about the political transition in Pakistan, the challenges for the new government, Imran Khan’s foreign policy matters, Pakistan’s relations with Iran and the U.S. and why parties like PML-N and PPP will bounce back.

Following are the excerpts: Imran Khan is all set to become the new

prime minister of Pakistan. What are the biggest

challenges before his government?A. The biggest challenge facing Pakistan to-

day is the economy. We need both immediate and long term relief. Saudi Arabia and China are reported to have offered monetary help to the tune of $8 billion and $2 billion respectively and a new International Monetary Fund (IMF) program is also being considered. Even if the IMF program is obtained it will involve oner-ous conditions. Pakistan needs to break out of its cycles of boom and bust but for that serious reform, not gimmicks and temporary solutions, are needed. 6

‘Imran Khan’s desire to improve relations with Iran is good for regional stability’

By Payman YazdaniEXCLUSIVE INTERVIEW

TEHRAN — Ryan Costello says a great deal of trust was broken when Trump decided to fully withdraw from the JCPOA and snap back sanctions.

Turing a press conference with Italian Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte, U.S. President Trump said he would meet with Iranian President Has-san Rouhani without preconditions. His new strategy regarding meeting with Iranian officials

caught commentators off guard, as he had been increasingly hostile to the Islamic Republic; on July 22, Trump threatened Iranian President Hassan Rouhani with an all-caps tweet.

Hours after Trump’s remarks contrary to his remarks, Secretary of State Pompeo outlined a series of preconditions.

In his latest move repeating the idea of negoti-ating with the Iranian authorities, U.S. President Donald Trump on Saturday said any meeting with the Iranian leaders is “up to them.”

Earlier, Iranian president’s chief of staff Mah-moud Vaezi revealed that during Rouhani’s last visit to New York for the UN General Assembly session, Trump asked the Iranian delegation eight times to have a meeting with the president.

An adviser to President Rouhani Hamid Aboutalebi also said “respecting the Iranian na-tion’s rights, reducing hostilities and returning to the nuclear deal are steps that can be taken to pave the bumpy road of talks between Iran and America.” 7

Trump has done everything to discourage negotiation with Iran: Costello

Trump admits son met with Russian to get information on opponent

Hanif GhaffariPolitical analyst

A R T I C L E

Will Pakistan, Iran open new chapter in their relationship?

As Pakistan Tehreek Insaaf (PTI) chief Imran Khan gets ready to take oath as the new prime minister of

Pakistan, pundits are keen to see what his foreign policy will be. A populist leader, his election campaign focused majorly on domestic issues and the fight against institutional corruption.

But, in his televised victory speech, the cricketer-turned-politician outlined his vision for ‘Naya Pakistan’ (new Pakistan) and spoke in detail about his desire to improve Pakistan’s relations with neigh-boring countries, including Iran.

Pakistan, which has traditionally been an ally of Riyadh, is expected to open a new chapter in its relations with Iran under the new government in Islam-abad. Khan, whose party had backed the 2015 Iran nuclear deal, has been outspoken in his support for Tehran. More importantly, he has been scathing in his criticism of the U.S. government’s regional policy and travel ban on the citizens of some Muslim-majority coun-tries, including Iran.

It will be interesting to see how Khan, who has been a staunch votary of stronger Iran-Pakistan ties, balances the equation between Riyadh and Tehran, two formi-dable regional rivals. Also, how he will resist the pressure from Washington, considering Islamabad’s growing ties with Beijing.

On Saturday, Iranian envoy to Islam-abad Mehdi Honardoost called on Khan to congratulate him on his thumping victory in general election and to dis-cuss ways to bolster bilateral ties. The envoy reaffirmed Iran’s commitment to expand cooperation with Pakistan in areas of mutual interest, including trade. The two countries have signed many accords in recent years.

During the meeting, Honardoost spoke about Tehran’s desire to negotiate with Islamabad on the ambitious Iran-Paki-stan gas pipeline project, which he said can transform relations between the two neighbors. Pertinently, Pakistan is defi-cient in natural gas while Iran is home to second largest gas reserves in the world, which makes their economic well-being interlinked. 6

A Contemplation on Obama’s Campaign against Trump

Recently, the name of former U.S. President, Barack Obama, is re-peatedly heard in American polit-

ical circles. While guiding and managing the Democrat’s electoral campaign in the upcoming congress election, Oba-ma intends to prepare the ground for Trump’s defeat in the presidential elec-tions of 2020.

Many American analysts believe that the defeat of Republicans in the congres-sional elections and the serious divisions between the traditional Republicans and Trump (which will subsequently intensify) will provide the basis for Trump’s defeat in the upcoming elections. This is while some analysts close to the Republicans argue that this process will have little effect on the presidential election results, and it’s likely that Trump will once again win the next election.

Anyhow, and apart from analyzing the incidents taking place in the U.S. political and electoral atmosphere, the Democrats are planning to conquer the White House in 2020, and that would be after their possible victory in the mid-term elections in November. Referring to Obama’s in-creasing political and electoral activities, the Express daily has pointed to his visits to Democratic potential candidates for the 2020 elections.

Accordingly, the former president of the United States has in recent months met with at least nine prospective 2020 Democratic presidential candidates, including Bernie Sanders, Elizabeth Warren, Joe Biden and Deval Patrick, pulling them in for one-on-one sessions at his Washington office. Meanwhile, former Vice President Joe Biden is the early favorite to represent the Demo-crats and try to unseat President Donald Trump in the 2020 election, according to a new poll.

However, with more than two years to go before the next presidential elec-tion, the Democratic figures have al-ready hit the road to stand against Republicans, aimed at “returning to Obama’s time.” As mentioned, they are planning a 28-month process with the mid-term elections as its “milestone” and the presidential elections of 2020 as the “the end point”. 1 3

2 4

Details of currency rules unveiled

Response to Marivan terror attack will be tough: commander

Kimia Alizadeh misses 2018 Asian Games 15

Filming begins on Iranian-Algerian movie 16

Zarif: Trump, MBS, Netanyahu ‘are symbols of mistrust, violence’

TEHRAN – Foreign Minister Mohammad

Javad Zarif said on Monday that those who violate international agreements, easily infringe on the rights of the Palestinian people, and take the prime minister of another country hostage are the symbols of “mistrust, violence and suppression” in the world.

Zarif made the remarks in reference to U.S. President Donald Trump who

withdrew from the international 2015 nuclear agreement, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu who is continuing to steal the Palestinian lands and Saudi Crown Prince Mohammad bin Salman (MBS) whose country took Lebanese Prime Minister Saad Hariri as hostage in order to create insecurity in Lebanon.

The chief diplomat also said Trump and his Middle East allies have become isolated in their hostility toward Tehran. 2

EU regrets U.S. sanctions on Iran, vows to protect European businesses

The European Union said Monday it deeply regretted the U.S.’ reimposition of sanctions on Iran after President Donald Trump pulled out of the 2015 nuclear pact, and vowed immediate steps to protect European companies.

The statement by EU diplomatic chief Federica Mogherini and the foreign min-

isters of the United Kingdom, France and Germany said it would also work to keep “effective financial channels” open with Iran.

“We deeply regret the re-imposition of sanctions by the U.S., due to the latter’s withdrawal from the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA),” the statement issued in Brussels said. 2

Women in Iran enjoy good freedom: female diplomat

TEHRAN – “The world should under-stand that women in Iran are very different from women of other Muslim countries,” Parvin Farshchi, the recently appointed ambassador of Iran to Finland, said here on Monday.

“Women in Iran enjoy good free-dom; they are good planners. They are the decision-makers and majority

of our university students in Iran are women,” she told the Tehran Times in an exclusive interview conducted in English.

Next to Marzieh Afkham who was ap-pointed as the first Iranian female am-bassador to Malaysia in 2015, Farshchi is the second female ambassador to a foreign country since the 1979 victory of the Islamic Revolution. 1 2

16 Pages Price 10,000 Rials 39th year No.13177 Tuesday AUGUST 7, 2018 Mordad 16, 1397 Dhi Al Qaeda 24, 1439

Olasbelangah, a piece of heaven

on Earth!Picture depicts a view of Olasbel-angah, a mountainous landscape in the province of Gilan, northern Iran, August 5, 2018.

Cool foggy environment, pris-tine wilderness and scenic natural beauties have made the region a popular destination for domestic holidaymakers.

Visit is highly recommended during warm seasons though the region boasts its own beauty in win-tertime. There are some cottages, eco-lodges and budget hotels for accommodation as well.

Olasbelangah is described by many as a piece of “heaven on Earth.”

See page 2

Rouhani: Sanctions and dialogue not in conformity

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MEDIA HIGHLIGHTS

TEHRAN — China’s am-bassador to Tehran Pang

Sen on Monday afternoon met with influential lawmaker Alaeddin Boroujerdi to exchange views on mutual ties as the U.S. sanctions against Tehran took effect late on Monday.

During the meeting, Sen said the rela-tions between Tehran and Beijing are in full compliance with international regulations.

China is opposed to the unilateral U.S. sanctions on Iran and will keep working with the Islamic Republic based on its interna-tional obligations, the envoy underlined.

Ambassador Pang whose country is a party to the international nuclear deal with Iran said closer cooperation between Tehran and Beijing will neutralize the unilateral sanctions of the U.S.

Under the nuclear agreement signed in July 2015 and went into effect in Jan-uary 2016, Iran is obliged to put limits

on its nuclear activities in exchange for termination of sanctions.

MP decries U.S. for waging trade warBoroujerdi, for his part, decried the

U.S. administration for waging a trade war in defiance of the long-standing norms of international relations, saying such an American policy will backfire.

The lawmaker said the U.S. trade war has upset the deep-rooted structures that prevail in the international business market, adding that such a policy will definitely be to the detriment of the U.S. itself.

Boroujerdi also pointed to Iran’s poli-cy to enhance ties with China, hoping for major strides in promoting political and parliamentary cooperation.

Back in June, China’s President Xi Jinping offered plans for trade exchange with Iran using national currencies rial and yuan.

China, Iran review ties on eve of sanctions

TEHRAN — Mo-hsen Pakaeen, the

former Iranian ambassador to Azerbai-jan, has said that the Foreign Ministry can provide the grounds for increas-ing Iran’s oil sale in the international markets.

“It is true that the Foreign Min-istry is not directly responsible for economic development, however, it can provide the grounds for economic interactions with the other countries. So, the ambassadors play an important role in this respect,” he told Mehr news agency in an interview published on Monday.

He added diplomats can introduce Iran’s capacities to other countries and boost political determination to expand relations.

U.S. President Donald Trump

withdrew from the 2015 nuclear deal, known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action, on May 8 and ordered restoration of sanctions against Iran.

The first stage of sanctions were restored on Monday midnight. The second stage of sanctions will be snapped back in November.

While the Trump administration has said it wants to cut Iranian oil exports to zero by Nov. 4, most ana-lysts viewed that target as unlikely.

China has rejected request by the U.S. to cut Oil imports from Iran. Bloomberg reported on August 3 that the U.S. has been unable to persuade China to cut Iranian oil imports.

Teams of U.S. officials have been visiting capitals around the world to try to choke off sales of Iranian oil by early November.

Foreign Ministry can help increase Iran’s oil sale: ex-diplomat

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Zarif: Trump, MBS, Netanyahu ‘are symbols of mistrust, violence, suppression’

TEHRAN – In a much awaited televised interview late on Monday, President Hassan

Rouhani reacted to offers of negations by U.S. President Donald Trump, saying an offer of negotiation necessitates “sincerity”, noting negotiations and sanctions “cannot go together”.

Following is an excerpt of Rouhani’s remarks.U.S. officials’ offers of negotiations are contradictory; It is the U.S. president who has abandoned talks and trying

to undermine two years of intensive talks which produced the JCPOA (the official name for the nuclear agreement);

Contrary to U.S. moves, Iran’s slogans have been nego-tiation, interaction…;

Anybody who claims negotiations must ob-serve certain principles; dialogue entails sincerity;

The Trump administration has shown disdain for in-ternational commitments, ranging from the Paris climate agreement to free trade;

It is the U.S. which have left the negotiations; the U.S.

should show that negotiations and sanctions are not in con-formity and cannot go together;

Trump’s offer for negotiations is full of contra-dictions. His offer is like a person who holds a knife in his hand and threatens to hit you in the arm. If anybody wants negotiations he should first put aside his knife;

The purpose behind offering negotiations is a kind of psychological warfare; it is intended to cause doubt in the mind of the Iranian people. His moves have been against Iran and the interest of Iran;

Sanctions are against the Iranian children, the Iranian patients…;

Trump’s sanctions is against foreign companies who want to do business with Iran;

Trump wanted to take Iran to the UN Security Council

By withdrawing the JCPOA, Trump wanted Iran to quickly exit the

JCPOA as well in order to take the issue to the UN Security Council;The Resolution 2231, which confirms the JCPOA, is very

important for us because it annuls all the previous sanctions resolutions against Iran;

He wanted to mobilize the world against Iran, however, he failed;

Today Europe is against the U.S.; only a few countries back the U.S. moves against Iran;

All the world is standing beside Iran;Europeans’ move in resisting the U.S. has been “politically”

very good. However, in terms of protecting the JCPOA, we are still waiting for practical decisions by the EU;

The EU, Russia, and China have given us promises to keep channels of economic and banking cooperation with Iran;

In comparison to Europe, our relations with China and Russia are much better, however we want good ties with the entire world including the European countries;

We have good ties with India, China, and even ASEAN.

Rouhani to Trump: Sanctions and dialogue not in conformity

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Medium caliber ammunition plant opens in Isfahan

TEHRAN — Defense Minister Amir Hatami on Monday inaugurated a fac-

tory in Isfahan province which manufactures medium caliber ammunition.

“We thank God for being able to take steps in line with boosting defense capabilities and deterrence pow-er. We promise the people that the Defense Ministry will spare no effort in the path to boost the country’s defense capabilities,” he explained.

The defense minister said enemies seek to harm Iran given the country’s status in the Middle East. However, he added that the threats cannot prove effective.

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Interior minister meets NGO activists

TEHRAN — Ahead of the Social Partici-pation Week, Interior Minister Abdolreza

Rahmani Fazli held a meeting on Monday with NGO activists, ILNA reported.

Social Affairs Organization Deputy Chief Kamal Akbari said at the meeting that the NGOs should be able to play a more active role in governmental activities.

“Over the past year, 600 projects were supported and half of the Social Affairs Organization’s expenses were spent through NGOs,” Akbari explained.

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Aref urges cabinet members to speak directly to people

TEHRAN — Mohammad Reza Aref, chair-man of the pro-reform Hope faction in the

parliament, on Monday urged President Hassan Rouhani’s cabinet members to speak directly to the public about the efforts being done to tame prices and bring back certainty to the business market.

“People do not know what the government is doing, and naturally, problems can be solved more easily if the rela-tionship between the ministers and the people is fostered,” Aref said, ISNA reported.

He also said, “We have complaints about the ministers… they need to accept that they have joint responsibilities and avoid acting like they are on separate islands.”

Criticizing lack of unity in the Rouhani administration, Aref called on the ministers to help the president develop his plans, policies and strategies.

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Leader visits fallen soldier’s home

TEHRAN — Leader of the Islamic Revolution Ayatollah Ali Khamenei

on Sunday night visited the home of fallen soldier Mo-hammad Javad Hassanzadeh.

The Leader offered three of his rings and a copy of the Holy Quran handwritten by himself to the family of the fallen soldier, ISNA reported.

Hassanzadeh was martyred in Syria two years ago. He had two daughters, one of which was born two month after he was martyred.

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Judiciary: 45 arrested in corruption probe

TEHRAN — Judiciary spokesman Gholam-Hossein Mohseni-Eje’i said

on Monday that so far 45 people have been arrested as part of a probe into the high volatility in the foreign currency market.

“So far, 45 individuals have been arrested over their role in the foreign currency market,” Mohseni-Eje’i said, ISNA reported.

He added that a number of them are still under cus-tody, and some of them have been freed on bail.

“Yesterday (Sunday), seven people including a former deputy central bank governor and five foreign exchange dealers were arrested for alleged economic crimes,” the spokesman explained.

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‘IRGC duty-bound to speak out on certain occasions’

TEHRAN — A spokesman for the Irani-an armed forces said on Monday that the

Islamic Revolution Guard Corps (IRGC) is duty-bound to voice its stance on certain occasions in order to intimidate the enemy.

Brigadier General Abolfazl Shekarchi also said the Islamic Republic of Iran is the “guarantor” of the security of the Persian Gulf and the Strait of Hormuz and “no one else is allowed to talk about the security of this region”.

“Whatever we do in the Persian Gulf is to establish secu-rity in this region,” General Shekarchi remarked, the Mehr news agency reported.

1 “Talk to anyone, anywhere in the world and they will tell you that Netanyahu, Trump and bin Salman are isolated, not Iran,” he said, adding that the world has distanced itself from the anti-Iran policies of the U.S., Saudi Arabia and Israel.

The remarks come as the first round of U.S. sanctions against Iran, lifted under the 2015 nuclear agreement, are due to go into effect on Tuesday, targeting Iran’s purchas-es of dollars, its trade in gold and precious metals and its automotive sector.

Back in May, in a unilateral move widely criticized by the international community, Trump withdrew from the nuclear pact, also known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA). The decision, however, was welcomed by Israel and Saudi Arabia.

While acknowledging the impact of U.S. pressure on Iran, Zarif said, “Our current status is the effect of their psychological warfare against our nation, but nothing else

will happen because they did everything they could.”

“We will overcome this period of hardship as well,” he remarked.

The foreign minister also suggested it was hard to imagine negotiation with Trump after he tried to kill the JCPOA, on which Iran and the European Union, five permanent members of the UN Security Council plus Germany had spent the “longest hours in negotiating history”.

“Despite all this, you claim to be open to negotiations?” Zarif asked Trump, a week after the U.S. president called for talks with President Hassan Rouhani without preconditions.

“It’s good for the country, good for them, good for us and good for the world. No pre-conditions. If they want to meet, I’ll meet,” Trump said.

“Who believes that Trump wants to ne-gotiate with Iran?” Zarif asked.

TEHRAN — Majlis National Security and Foreign Policy Committee

Chairman Heshmatollah Falahatpisheh has said that Iran is studying 50 target countries for trade after re-imposition of sanctions.

In an interview with the Mehr news agency published on Monday, he said that the parliamentary committee under his leadership will study economic interaction with 50 target countries after restoration of sanctions.

U.S. President Donald Trump announced Washington’s exit from the 2015 nuclear deal on May 8 and ordered

restoration of sanctions against Iran. The first batch of sanctions was snapped back on Monday, August 6. The second batch will be restored on November 4.

Falahatpisheh, who represents the Kurdish town of Islamabad-Gharb in Kermanshah province, said Iran should turn the sanctions into an opportunity.

“We should do something to promote cultural, economic and political capacities and foil the enemy’s plot to isolate the Islamic republic.”

On July 16, Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif said Iran had filed a complaint at the International Court of

Justice against the U.S. for reintroducing sanctions.The first hearing session in the case will be held on

August 27.“The International Court of Justice (ICJ), the principal

judicial organ of the United Nations, will hold public hearings from Monday 27 to Thursday 30 August, in the case concerning the Alleged violations of the 1955 Treaty of Amity, Economic Relations, and Consular Rights (Islamic Republic of Iran v. United States of America), at the Peace Palace in The Hague, the seat of the Court,” the UN body said in a statement on July 26.

TEHRAN — Commander of the IRGC Ground Force

said on Monday that revenge for the terrorist attack on a military checkpoint near the west-ern border city of Marivan will be “tough”.

“They should know that our revenge will be tough,” Mohammad Pakpour told reporters

on the sidelines of a ceremony.The brigadier general added, “Nobody

knows the time and the place, but our revenge will definitely be tough.”

On July 20, anti-revolution terrorists attacked the military checkpoint on the border with Iraq, killing 11 forces from the

Islamic Revolution Guards Corps. PJAK, a terrorist group aligned with the PKK, claimed responsibility for the attack.

Pakpour also said security forces killed 21 members of Daesh in western Iran in the Ira-nian calendar year 1396 (March 2017-2018).

Last month Iran executed eight mem-

bers of Daesh for attacks on the Iranian parliament and the mausoleum of Imam Khomeini in June 2017.

Iran emerged as the biggest force against Daesh in Iraq and Syria. Officials have said if it had not been for Iran’s immediate response Daesh would have captured Baghdad in 2014.

1 The EU said it would now swiftly bring in legal cover for firms in the 28-nation bloc to work with Iran, after the Trump administration rejected European calls for an exemption.

“We are determined to protect European economic operators engaged in legitimate business with Iran,” the statement added.

“This is why the European Union’s updated Blocking Statute enters into force on 7 August to protect EU compa-nies doing legitimate business with Iran from the impact

of U.S. extra-territorial sanctions.”The “blocking statute” forbids EU firms from comply-

ing with U.S. sanctions, allowing them to recover damages from such penalties and nullifying any foreign court rulings against them.

French carmaker Renault, which does not sell cars in the U.S., has said it will remain in Iran despite the sanctions. But French oil group Total and carmaker PSA have already indicated they are likely to pull out of Iran.

Despite the U.S. move to restore the sanctions, which Secretary of State Mike Pompeo reaffirmed in Alaska late Sunday, the Europeans said they would continue to work with Iran to preserve the deal.

“The remaining parties to the JCPOA have committed to work on, inter alia, the preservation and maintenance of effective financial channels with Iran, and the continuation of Iran’s export of oil and gas,” it said.

(Source: dailysabah.com)

Iran studying 50 target countries for trade in sanctions time

Response to Marivan terror attack will be tough: commander

EU regrets U.S. sanctions on Iran, vows to protect European businesses

Price volatility is result of ‘psychological warfare’ on Iran, FM says

Indonesia Monday sent rescuers fanning out across the holiday island of Lombok and evacuated more than 2,000 tourists after a powerful earthquake killed at least 98 people and damaged thousands of buildings.

The shallow 6.9-magnitude quake sparked terror among tourists and locals alike, com-ing just a week after another deadly tremor surged through Lombok and killed 17 people.

Rescuers Monday searched for survivors in the rubble of houses, mosques and schools de-stroyed in the latest disaster Sunday evening.

National disaster agency spokesman Su-topo Purwo Nugroho said there were fears a number of people were trapped in the ruins of a collapsed mosque in the northern vil-lage of Lading-Lading. Footage he posted on Twitter showed the large concrete mosque had pancaked.

A lack of heavy equipment and shattered roads were hampering efforts to reach sur-vivors in the mountainous north and east of the island, which had been hardest hit.

Najmul Akhyar, the head of North Lombok district, estimated that 80 percent of that region was damaged by the quake.

“We expect the number of fatalities to keep rising,” Nugroho said. “All victims who died are Indonesians.”

He said up to 20,000 people may have had to quit their homes on Lombok and paramed-ics, food and medication were badly needed.

The spokesman said search and rescue teams also rescued between 2,000 and 2,700 tourists from the Gili Islands, three tiny, cor-al-fringed tropical islands a few kilometers off the northwest coast of Lombok.

Authorities initially said 1,200 people were stuck on the islands but scaled up the figure early in the evening. Some tourists chose to stay behind.

Footage posted online by Nugroho showed hundreds crowded onto powder-white beaches desperately awaiting transport off the nor-mally paradise Gilis.

“We cannot evacuate all of them all at once because we don’t have enough capacity on the boats,” Muhammad Faozal, the head of the tourism agency in West Nusa Tenggara province, told AFP, adding two navy vessels were on their way.

“It’s understandable they want to leave the Gilis, they are panicking.”

By early afternoon, hundreds of weary tourists had arrived with their baggage at Bangsal harbor, the main link between Lom-bok and the Gilis.

Margret Helgadottir, a holidaymaker from Iceland, described people screaming as the roof of her hotel on one of the islands collapsed.

“We just froze: Thankfully we were out-side,” she told AFP tearfully from a harbor in Lombok to where she had been evacuated. “Everything went black, it was terrible.”

Seven Indonesian holidaymakers died on the largest of the three islands, Gili Trawangan, while another local woman died on nearby Bali.

But it was Lombok which bore the brunt of Sunday evening’s quake.

The shallow tremor sent thousands of residents and tourists scrambling outdoors, where many spent the night as strong af-tershocks including one of 5.3-magnitude rattled the island.

The quake knocked out power in many areas and parts of Lombok remained without electricity Monday.

Hundreds of bloodied and bandaged victims were treated outside damaged hos-pitals in the main city of Mataram and other hard-hit areas.

Patients lay on beds under wards set up in tents, surrounded by drip stands and monitors, as doctors in blue scrubs attended to them.

Anguished relatives were huddled around loved ones in front of the main clinic in Mat-aram, as medical staff struggled to cope with hundreds of patients. Many were yet to be attended to despite spending the night out in the open.

“I feel restless sleeping in a tent, I can’t be at peace,” Nurhayati told AFP outside one hospital where she had brought her sick 70-year-old mother.

“What we really need now are paramedics, we are short-staffed. We also need medica-tions,” Supriadi, a spokesman for Mataram general hospital, told AFP.

Singapore’s Home Affairs Minister K. Shanmugam, who was in Lombok for a se-curity conference when the earthquake struck, described on Facebook how his hotel room on the 10th floor shook violently.

“Walls cracked, it was quite impossible to stand up,” he said.

Bali’s international airport suffered damage to its terminal but the runway was unaffected and operations had returned to normal. Dis-aster agency officials said. Lombok airport was also operating.

Indonesia, one of the world’s most dis-aster-prone nations, straddles the so-called Pacific “Ring of Fire,” where tectonic plates collide and many of the world’s volcanic erup-tions and earthquakes occur.

In 2014, a devastating tsunami triggered by a magnitude 9.3 undersea earthquake off the coast of Sumatra in western Indonesia killed 220,000 people in countries around the Indian Ocean, including 168,000 in Indonesia.

(Source: AFP)

AUGUST 7, 2018 INTERNATIONALI N T E R N A T I O N A L D A I L Y

More than 2,000 tourists evacuated after Indonesia quake kills 98

Jordan and Iraq have signed a military and security cooperation agreement after years of stormy ties which saw ISIL (Daesh) terrorists gain control of their joint border and cut vital trade to a bare minimum.

Jordan’s Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Lt. General Mahmoud Abdul Halim Freihat and Iraqi Defense Minister Irfan Mahmoud Al Hayali oversaw the signing of the agreement in Amman Sunday, Petra news agency reported.

“The agreement aims to exchange expertise and information on border protection, as well as improving intelligence capabil-ities and combating terrorism in all its forms,” the report said.

The two sides also agreed to increase joint military exercis-es, boost research and technology development and hold joint courses in security and military fields.

The vast desert Province of Anbar on the 180 km border with Jordan became a historic hotbed of the Takfiri militancy sparked by the 2003 U.S. invasion of Iraq.

Before that Iraq was the kingdom’s main export market, accounting for almost a fifth of Jordan’s exports or about $1.2 billion a year, according to the International Monetary Fund.

Last August, Jordan opened its main border crossing with Iraq for the first time since 2015 after Iraqi forces gained control of the main highway to Baghdad.

The Tureibil post is crossed by the 550 km highway to Bagh-dad, connecting Iraq’s Basra port in the south to Jordan, where the Red Sea port of Aqaba has long served as a gateway for Iraqi imports coming from Europe.

Although the highway has been secured after driving out Daesh, the threat of hit-and-run attacks on convoys and the army are ever present and there have been several attacks near al-Rutba town, the last town before the border with Jordan.

Iraqi authorities have reportedly awarded a contract to a U.S. security company that would employ a local force to secure the highway.

History of mistakesJordan’s former prime minister Hani al-Mulki visited Bagh-

dad early last year to revive an oil pipeline project running from Basra to Aqaba.

Amman has hoped that the opening of export routes would save its debt-ridden economy which has been badly hit by pro-longed conflicts in neighboring Syria and Iraq.

The kingdom has been rocked by its worst protests in years over a controversial tax system backed by the IMF from which the country secured a $723-million loan in 2016.

Jordan’s King Abdullah II swore in a new government in June after Mulki stepped down under pressure from protest-ers who blamed his government for worsening poverty and unemployment.

The kingdom, however, has a rocky road ahead for a full normalization with Iraq.

Many Iraqis hold a dim view of Jordan, believing it did not do enough to stem the flow of militants entering Iraq and seiz-ing a third of the country. They are also unhappy with Jordan having given sanctuary to Saddam Hussein’s daughters.

King Abdullah was the first Arab leader to claim a “Shia Cres-cent” in the making in late 2004, meaning there was a strategic arc running from Iran through Iraq and Syria to Lebanon.

The allegation riled many Iraqi leaders and those in neigh-boring countries, who believed the remarks played a second fiddle to a campaign to stoke up sectarian strife in the region.

Jordan had its best special ties with Iraq under former dictator Saddam Hussein who provided the kingdom with cheap oil in return for access to Aqaba which became a lifeline for Iraq’s oil revenues as the war with Iran rendered shipping through the Persian Gulf impossible.

(Source: Press TV)

Jordan, Iraq ink security deal but still face rocky road

Saudi Arabia has expelled the Canadian ambassador and recalled its envoy after severing business ties with Ottawa over claims of interference in its internal affairs.

“The kingdom of Saudi Arabia... will not accept interference in its internal affairs or imposed diktats from any country,” said the Saudi Foreign Ministry on Monday.

“The kingdom announces that it is recalling its ambassador... to Canada for consultation,” it added.

It also noted that the Canadian ambassador to Riyadh had 24 hours to leave and that it was “freezing of all new commercial and investment transactions” with Ottawa.

The Canadian Embassy in Riyadh said it was “gravely con-cerned” over a spike of arrests of human rights campaigners in the Saudi kingdom including gender rights activist Samar Badawi.

“We urge the Saudi authorities to immediately release them and all other peaceful #humanrights activists,” tweeted the Ca-nadian embassy.

“It is very unfortunate that the words ‘immediate release’ appeared in the Canadian statement... it is unacceptable in re-lations between countries,” tweeted the Saudi foreign ministry in response.

Riyadh also released a statement on the official Saudi Press Agency, in which it confirmed its commitment to not interfere in the internal affairs of other countries and in return rejected any intervention by them.

“Any further step from the Canadian side in that direction will be considered as acknowledgment of our right to interfere in the Canadian domestic affairs,” said the statement.

(Source: Press TV)

Saudi Arabia severs ties with Canada over Ottawa ‘interference’

Pentagon redoing space defenses

Houthis dispute seriousness of ‘aggressors’ to peace

U.S. President Donald Trump wants a Space Force, a new military service he says is needed to ensure U.S. dominance in space. But the idea is gaining little traction at the Penta-gon, where the president’s defense chief, Jim Mattis, says it would add burdensome bureaucracy and unwanted costs. The Pentagon acknowledges a need to revamp its much-crit-icized approach to defending U.S. economic and security interests in space, and it is moving in that direction. But it’s unclear whether this will satisfy Trump, who wants to go even further by creating a separate military space service.

The administration intends to announce this week the results of a Pentagon study that is expected to call for cre-ating a new military command – U.S. Space Command – to consolidate space warfighting forces and making other organizational changes short of establishing a separate ser-vice, which only Congress can do. Any legislative proposal to create a separate service would likely not be put on the table until next year.

Mattis, who said prior to Trump’s “Space Force” announce-ment in June that he opposes creating a new branch of the military for space, said afterward that this would require “a lot of detailed planning.”

Mattis is allied on this with key Republicans on Capitol Hill including Sen. James Inhofe, a member of the Senate Armed Services Committee who opposes a separate Space Force but is open to creating a Space Command. The com-mand would coordinate the use of space forces of existing services, such as those that operate military satellites, but would not be a separate service.

Mattis’ chief spokeswoman, Dana W. White, said Friday he believes that consolidating space functions will “ensure we move at the speed of relevancy. Space is a joint warfighting domain that the U.S. must dominate.”

Trump mentioned as recently as Tuesday that he had ordered the Pentagon to begin the process of creating a Space Force as a new branch of the military, but he did not repeat the phrase he used in June – a “separate but equal” service. That may open the possibility of the Pentagon proposing to establish a cadre of space experts that would be part of a space “corps” attached to the Air Force rather than as a separate service.

Friday, Trump hailed the news that NASA has named the astronauts who will ride the first commercial capsules into orbit next year. “We have the greatest facilities in the world and we are now letting the private sector pay to use them,” he tweeted. “Exciting things happening. Space Force!”

Trump’s focus has generated an unusual level of talk about space, but with little clarity.

“At the moment, there is no concrete proposal on the table for what a Space Force will look like or what it will do,” said Brian Weeden, an Air Force veteran who is director of program planning at the Secure World Foundation, which promotes peaceful uses of outer space. “It’s just sort of a notional concept.”

Weeden points out that creating a new service would not address what is generally seen as a need for a more coherent force to defend U.S. interests in space, since by law a service recruits, trains and equips troops but does not do combat. That is why a Space Command is being considered, since it would be the combat arm for space much as Central Com-mand is the organization responsible for combat operations in the Middle East.

Aside from the organizational issues, the Pentagon’s role in space is under scrutiny because of a recognition that the United States is increasingly reliant on satellites that are difficult to protect in space. Satellites provide communi-

cations, navigation, intelligence and other services vital to the military and the economy. Whereas space has long been the U.S.’ technological edge, it is increasingly seen as its Achilles’ heel.

War in space is not just Hollywood fiction. The U.S. in-telligence agencies reported earlier this year that Russia and China are pursuing “nondestructive and destructive” anti-satellite weapons for use during a future war.

A related problem that the Pentagon has struggled to address is the sluggish pace of developing and acquiring satellites through the Air Force Space and Missile Systems Center, which could be replaced by a new space develop-ment agency.

In an interim report to Congress in March on ways to reorganize its space organizations, the Pentagon said it is making changes to “ensure that we are prepared for” poten-tial conflicts in space. This includes making satellites more resilient to potential attack by Russia or China.

Deborah James, who was the civilian leader of the Air Force for the final three years of the Obama administration, said at a think tank forum last Monday that creating a separate Space Force does not address the legitimate concerns about U.S. space defenses. One of the criticisms of the Air Force, which is the primary service responsible for military satellites, is that it devotes too little money and attention to space.

“If money is your issue, Space Force is not your answer,” she said. If the logic of creating a separate space service were applied broadly, she said, it would imply other radical changes such as creating a single nuclear service by combin-ing management of the strategic nuclear weapons of the Air Force and Navy, which no one is considering.

(Source: AP)

The UAE says it supports UN-sponsored talks for peace in Yemen, but Houthis say they do not see “any serious or real stance by the aggressors toward reaching a political solution.”

The United Arab Emirates is Saudi Arabia’s key partner in the ongoing war on Yemen, including a massive offensive to capture the Red Sea port of Hudaydah.

With the conflict having ground into a stalemate, UN envoy to Yemen Martin Griffiths told the Security Council earlier this month that the world body would invite warring sides in Yemen for talks on September 6.

The warning sides are about to gather in Geneva to discuss a framework for peace negotiations, with Griffiths saying “a polit-ical solution” to end the war in Yemen was “available”.

“We have always been in support of the special envoy, we are going to continue to do so,” Emirati Minister of State for Inter-national Cooperation Reem al-Hashemi told journalists in Abu Dhabi on Sunday.

UAE troops and their mercenaries have faced a stiff brick wall in their push to capture Hudaydah in the the face of fierce resistance

from residents and Houthis fighters. Salim Meghles, a member of the political

wing of the Houthi movement, said Saturday that the fighters were willing to attend the UN-brokered talks but they had low expec-tations of a positive outcome.

He stressed that the Ansarullah political

wing was “not opposed to such consultations” which are aimed at “reaching a general frame-work for negotiations.”

“We are not opposed to traveling to any neutral country to take part in such consul-tations,” Meghles told Agence France-Presse.

However, Meghles cast doubt over the

expected talks, saying he did not sense “any serious or real stance by the aggressors toward reaching a political solution.”

The last UN-brokered talks on Yemen broke down in 2016.

On Thursday, the UN envoy said that he was “still trying” to negotiate a deal to avoid a full-blown battle for Hudaydah, which is a key entry point for humanitarian aid.

Griffiths expressed worries that “Hudaydah could be a flashpoint” that could derail the push for talks in September.

Saudi Arabia and the UAE launched their offensive on June 13 to capture Hudaydah, the main entry point for food in a country teetering on the brink of famine.

Humanitarian organizations have warned that the Hudaydah operation threatens to cut off essential supplies to millions of Yemeni people. More than 70 percent of Yemen’s imports pass through Hudaydah’s docks.

On Sunday, witnesses said heavy fighting had left at least 80 people dead on both sides as Saudi-backed militants tried to capture the Houthi-held district of al-Durayhimi south of Hudaydah.

(Source: Press TV)

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

AUGUST 7, 20184 E C O N O M Y

TEHRAN – The Central Bank of Iran (CBI)’s new

foreign currency package, approved by the Cabinet on Sunday evening, would come into effect on Tuesday, CBI governor announced in a televised interview on Sunday night.

“The new package will expand domestic secondary market, where only 20 percent of non-oil exporters could offer their foreign currencies to, previously,” Abdolnaser Hemmati said.

Declaring that Iranian exporters including petrochemical and steel companies are allowed to offer their earned foreign currency to the secondary market in accordance with its supply and demand, the

central bank governor added that “importers can receive the offered foreign currency by exporters after registering their orders at Ministry of Industry, which lets them import consumer goods, intermediate goods, and capital goods.”

In his remarks, Hemmati assured the Iranian nation that basic goods and medicine will be supplied from the foreign currency reserves of the CBI, earned from the country’s oil sales.

He also announced that the CBI plans to reaccept currency exchange shops as some role players of domestic foreign currency market. “Buying and selling foreign currency would be done by permitted foreign currency

exchange shops merely for services and travel affairs and based on CBI regulations via submitting the requires documents.”

“From now on, applicants would be provided with foreign travel currency at free market rate,” Hemmati further announced.

The CBI governor admitted that, in the

new CBI era, he intends to make a link among financial markets including the banks, insurance companies, and the capital market and to control foreign currency rates via the secondary market. “Policies to reach the target will be discussed and clarified with capital market officials next week,” he said.

While few European states can pretend to share Germany’s distinction of being a “country of poets and thinkers,” none can rival German abilities to extract so much wealth from the rest of the European Union.

Last year, Germany posted a 159.3 billion euro surplus on its goods trade with other countries in the EU — one of the world’s largest free-trade areas and a region with privileged access to German goods and services.

That’s the way it’s been since 1958, when Europe’s common market opened up.

Germany’s enormous EU bounty con-sistently accounts for two-thirds of its net foreign trade income in a market structure where Berlin remains an undisputed leader and a principal regulator.

This year looks set to mark another re-cord-high EU trade income for Germany. The surplus during the January-April period was running at an annual rate of 175 billion euro — a 10 percent increase on the country’s EU trades in 2017 — according to statistics from Germany’s Bundesbank.

A country representing 28 percent of the monetary union’s economy and living so grandly off the rest of its partners is a structurally destabilizing factor.

Right policies are no handoutsTo this day, economists pointing out that

fundamental problem have been ridiculed as hopelessly naive because, as the mantra goes, the European project has always been, and always will be, a political construct to keep the Europeans off each other’s throats.

That charge is not only false, but it also bears the seeds of its own destruction.

Taking hundreds of billions of euros of purchasing power out of the monetary un-ion, Germany makes it virtually impossible

for other euro area economies to grow and create jobs as they struggle to bring down their public debts and deficits.

Instead of accumulating enormous wealth on the back of its euro partners, Germany should stimulate its domestic spending to buy more goods and services from them.

At the same time, Germany can relieve its growing labor shortages by offering jobs to more than 17 million EU people that are currently looking for work and a meaningful future.

And there is more: Recycling some of last year’s roughly $300 billion trade surplus — through direct investments in the rest of the EU — Germany would boost economic growth and employment in other countries in the bloc, solve the problem of its shrink-ing manpower and adjust its overflowing external accounts.

Those would be appropriate economic policies for a country running large and systematic trade surpluses. Such policies would also even out the intra-area growth dynamics and stabilize the monetary union in a more homogeneous manner.

And none of that would be actions of EU solidarity loathed by the tight-fisted German government.

It is no wonder that the “everyone for themselves” attitudes have led to the revival of nationalism, alienation from the European project and an increasing popularity of “my country first” slogans — even in places like Italy, where the traditional idea of a united, peaceful and prosperous Europe inspired generations.

Dwindling support for Merkel’s coalition

Germany’s dogmatic imposition of fiscal austerity on recession-ridden EU countries

and its frightening handling of Greece have been painful examples of absurd and insen-sitive policies. It has also strengthened the hand of Euro-skeptic political movements, such as the “Italy First” government in Rome which is hostile to the EU.

The last straw was the German attempt to dump its self-inflicted and unmanageable immigration problems on the rest of the EU. What we are seeing now is that what goes around comes around. The mismanagement of the EU economy and the calamitous im-migration blunders have led to Germany’s escalating political crises.

German Chancellor Angela Merkel’s con-servative alliance, made up of the Christian Democratic Party (CDU) and the Bavarian Christian Socialist Party (CSU) — together unofficially known as the Union — is falling apart. The latest opinion polls, reported last Thursday, show that the Union finds favor with only 29 percent of voters — a record low and down one percentage point from a previous poll in early July.

The Union’s coalition partner, SPD (The Social Democratic Party of Germany), re-mained at its record low of 18 percent, which means that only 47 percent of Germans are ready to vote for the current government coalition.

Germany now has a federal government with a dismal approval rating of 25 percent in a recent poll and no parliamentary majority if an election were called today.

Particularly serious is the situation with the CSU party, which two months before the elections in Bavaria on October 14, was polling at 39 percent and looked almost certain to lose control of the state government.

A new, and probably terminal, government

crisis could erupt at any moment.Merkel keeps insisting on a “European

solution” — which does not exist — to an intractable immigration problem she created. Her bitter opponent, the powerful Interior Minister and leader of the CSU, Horst See-hofer, wants a radical and expedient “national solution” because the neighboring states Austria and Italy don’t want to cooperate for fear of getting stuck with migrants that Germany intends to throw out.

Investment thoughtsThe historian Ludwig Dehio famously

said that, after the founding of the German empire in 1871, Germany was “too strong for a balanced Europe, but too weak to dominate the continent.”

Mercifully, the dilemma that led to two world wars in the last century seems to be a thing of the past as a result of the EU.

What is missing is a German leadership deeply committed to the European project as was the case with previous chancellors such as Konrad Adenauer, Helmut Schmidt and Helmut Kohl, who helped usher in European reconciliation and set Europe on the way to a common currency.

Under the current leadership, Germany is a weakened and deeply divided country. Its excessive, by far the world’s largest, trade surpluses are a burden on its EU partners.

Its economic policies are not conducive to stability, growth and employment crea-tion within the monetary union and beyond.

We have to hope that the next generation of German leaders will understand that it is in their best interest to run a more balanced economy that will promote shared prosperity for the EU as a whole.

(Source: CNBC)

Chinese state media on Monday lambasted U.S. President Donald Trump’s trade policies in an unusually personal at-tack, and sought to reassure investors anxious about China’s economy as growth concerns battered its financial markets.

China’s strictly controlled news outlets have frequently rebuked the United States and the Trump administration as the trade conflict has escalated, but they have largely refrained from specifically targeting Trump.

The latest criticism from the overseas edition of the rul-ing Communist Party’s People’s Daily newspaper singled out Trump, saying he was starring in his own “street fighter-style deceitful drama of extortion and intimidation”.

Trump’s desire for others to play along with his drama is “wishful thinking”, a commentary on the paper’s front page said, arguing that the United States had escalated trade friction with China and turned international trade into a “zero-sum game”.

“Governing a country is not like doing business,” the paper said, adding that Trump’s actions imperiled the national cred-ibility of the United States.

The heated dispute between the world’s two biggest econo-mies has roiled financial markets including stocks, currencies and the global trade of commodities from soybeans to coal in recent months. Last month, the International Monetary Fund warned that escalating trade conflicts following U.S.

tariff actions on its trading partners threaten to derail the global economic recovery.

The United States and China implemented tariffs on $34 billion worth of each other’s goods in July. Washington is ex-pected to soon implement tariffs on an additional $16 billion of Chinese goods, which China has already said it will match immediately.

On Friday, China’s finance ministry unveiled new sets of additional tariffs on 5,207 goods imported from the United States worth $60 billion.

That move was in response to the Trump administration’s proposal of a 25-percent tariff on $200 billion worth of Chi-nese imports.

The trade war, rising corporate bankruptcies, and a steep decline in the value of the yuan versus the dollar have raised concerns that China’s economy could face a steeper slowdown.

Recent data showed growth has already started to cool. The government has responded by releasing more liquidity into the banking system, encouraging lending and promising a more “active” fiscal policy.

U.S. companies are putting in place measures to cushion the impact of the trade row, including price hikes, and a num-ber of companies - from industrial firms to home furnishers and toymakers - have said they will move some sourcing and

manufacturing outside of China.China’s exports are expected to have maintained solid

growth in July despite the new tariffs on billions of dollars of shipments to the United States, though the outlook has darkened as both sides raised the stakes in the trade brawl.

China market take hitThe vitriol from the People’s Daily follows Trump’s com-

ments on Twitter from Saturday in which he boasted that his strategy of placing steep tariffs on Chinese imports was “working far better than anyone ever anticipated”, and that Beijing was now talking to the United States about trade.

Trump cited losses in China’s stock market as he predicted the U.S. market could “go up dramatically” once trade deals were renegotiated.

China’s stocks were lower on Monday as Beijing’s latest tariff threats escalated the tit-for-tat Sino-U.S. trade war, while the yuan weakened after briefly edging up despite the central bank’s latest efforts to shore up the tumbling currency.

Michael McCarthy, Sydney-based chief market strategist at CMC Markets and Stockbroking, wrote in a note to clients that while China’s proposed new tariffs appeared proportion-ate, “White House tweets claiming an upper hand for the U.S. over the weekend risk another round of confidence sapping exchanges.” (Source: Reuters)

COMMODITIES

CURRENCIES

STOCK MARKET

USD 44,120 rialsEUR 51,200 rials

GBP 57,359rials

AED 12,130 rials

TEDPIX 133646.2IFX 1527.28

WTI $69.36/b

Brent $73.94/b

OPEC Basket $71.61/b

Gold $1,209.25/oz

Silver $15.35/oz

Platinium $832.00/oz

Sources: tse.ir, Ifb.ir

Source: mehrnews.com

Sources: oilprice.com, Moneymetals.com

TEHRAN – The 10th International Exhibition of Steel, Metallurgy, Foundry,

Machinery and Related Industries of Iran (Metalex Isafahan 2018) kicked off at Isfahan International Exhibitions Center in the central city of Isfahan on Monday.

During this four-day exhibition, more than 150 Iranian and foreign companies are presenting their latest products, services and achievements in the fields of metallurgy, foundry, machinery and related industries.

This exhibition is providing a significant opportunity for senior specialists and also businessmen to learn more about the latest market trends and technology advances in this industry.

TEHRAN — Hosting 900 Iranian and foreign companies, the 18th edition of

Iran’s International Exhibition of Building and Construc-tion Industry (Iran Confair 2018) kicked off in Tehran on Monday.

As reported by IRIB, some 804 Iranian and 115 foreign companies are taking part in the four-day event, which is going on at the Tehran Permanent International Fairgrounds.

Being inaugurated in the presence of Iran’s Minister of Roads and Urban Development Abbas Akhoundi, Iran Confair is attended by representatives of different countries across the globe including Turkey, China, Poland and the Netherlands, Norway, Czech Republic, Italy, Germany, Brazil, South Korea, India, Finland, France, the United Kingdom, Hong Kong, Switzerland, Australia, Austria, Japan and Spain.

According to the organizers, several conferences and workshops are also scheduled to be held on the sidelines of the exhibition including some specialized panels in the fields of ceramic tile, building styling, mass builders and modern building projects.

TEHRAN – Iran’s National Petrochemical Company (NPC) has finalize an agreement

with a consortium of companies from China and the Philippines for $7 billion worth of investment in Iran’s petrochemical industry, IRNA reported on Monday quoting an NPC official.

According to NPC’s Director for Investment Hossein Alimorad, the mentioned consortium has registered a representative company in Iran and the last steps are now underway for awarding the agreed project.

“The consortium plans to construct a petrochemical plant to process the entire methanol complementary chain”, Alimorad said.

“The total value of this petrochemical project is $7 billion, of which $2.8 billion is going to be spent in the project’s first phase” he added.

E C O N O M Yd e s k

E C O N O M Yd e s k

E C O N O M Yd e s k

E C O N O M Yd e s k

N E W S I N B R I E FIntl. metallurgy expo running in Isfahan

Tehran hosting 900 companies in intl. building expo

Asian consortium to invest $7b in Iran’s petrochemical industry

Details of currency rules unveiled

E N E R G Yd e s k

E N E R G Yd e s k

TEHRAN — Gasoline production in Iran has

risen 50 percent since the beginning of current Iranian calendar year (March 21) compared to the same period of time in the previous year, according to the managing director of National Iranian Oil Products Distribution Company (NIOPDC).

Alireza Sadeqabadi put the country’s average daily gasoline output at 93 mil-lion liters during the 4.5-month period of this year, Shana news agency reported.

On Saturday, Alireza Arman Moqadam, the director for consolidated planning in NIOPDC, announced that Iran’s daily gasoline production will hit the record of 95.5 million liters in the coming days.

In mid-December last year, Oil Minister Bijan Namdar Zanganeh said: “Iran will reach a stable status in gasoline produc-tion once the second phase of Persian Gulf Star Refinery comes on stream.”

The second phase of the refinery (in south of Iran), was inaugurated by Presi-dent Hassan Rouhani in late June, and

on July 28, Mohammad-Ali Dadvar, the managing director of refinery, announced that its daily gasoline production has in-creased 2 million liters to stand at 26 million liters.

The refinery in the southern province of Hormozgan is the first of its kind de-signed based on gas condensate feedstock.

It is projected to be complete by the end of the current Iranian calendar year (March 20, 2019) and once fully operational, the refinery will add over 36 million liters of Euro-4 and Euro-5 quality gasoline to the country’s gasoline production capacity to increase it to 100 million liters per day.

Gasoline output rises 50% in 4.5 months yr/yr

TEHRAN — Iranian Privatization Organiza-

tion (IPO) has offered 19.473 trillion rials (about $442.5 million) of state-run shares to the private sector since the beginning of the present Iranian calendar year 1397 (March 21), IRIB reported on Monday.

In late May, IPO published the list of the enterprises that their shares are planned to be transferred to the private sector by the end of current Iranian calendar year (March 20, 2019).

As previously reported, in its planned budget for 1397, the Iranian government expects to earn some 106 trillion rials (about $2.4 billion) of income from divesting shares of sate-run companies to the private sector.

Implementation of privatization plan aimed at more productivity, investment making, job creation, promotion of trade bal-ance, more competition in domestic economy, and reducing financial and management burden on the government has been under the spotlight in Iran over the past decade.

The law on implementation of the general

policies of the Article 44 of Iran’s Constitu-tion on privatizing state-owned companies was declared in 2006 in a bid to downsize the government and promote the private sector’s role in the national economy.

The government envisioned a large pri-vatization program in the Fifth Five-Year National Development Plan (2010-2015), aiming to privatize about 20 percent of the state-owned firms each year. Under the present interpretation of the Article 44, some state-owned companies have been privatized to reduce their financial burden on the country’s budget and also increase their productivity.

Over $442m of state-owned shares divested in 4.5 months

Germany’s huge trade surpluses are a burden on its EU partners

Trump’s trade ‘extortion’ won’t work, China state media says

New Package to take effect today: central banker

Germany upholds export, investment guarantees for Iran business despite U.S. pressureGermany will continue to offer export and investment guarantees for companies doing business with Iran, the economy ministry said on Monday, adding Berlin remained in dialogue with the U.S. on exemptions for German companies from Iran sanctions.

“Export guarantees and investment guarantees from the Fed-eral Ministry of Economics are still available to companies,” the economy ministry said. (Source: Reuters)

5I N T E R N A T I O N A L D A I L Y

E N E R G YAUGUST 7, 2018

Oil rose on Monday after Saudi crude production registered an unexpected decline in July and U.S. drilling appeared to slow, although the price is still almost 10 percent below its 2018 high of more than $80 a barrel.

Markets also anticipated an announcement from Washington later on Monday on renewed U.S. sanctions against major oil exporter Iran. So-called “snapback” sanctions are due to be reinstated at 12:01 a.m. EDT on Tuesday, according to a U.S. Treasury official.

Saudi Arabia pumped around 10.29 million barrels per day (bpd) of crude in July, two OPEC sources said on Friday, down about 200,000 bpd from a month earlier.

That drop came despite a pledge by the Saudis and top producer Russia in June to raise output from July, with Saudi Arabia pledging a “measurable” supply boost.

Brent crude oil futures were up 31 cents on the day at $73.52 a barrel by 0903 GMT, while U.S. futures rose 35 cents to $68.84 barrel.

“Saudi Arabia knows that the U.S. really does want to see maximum impact from sanctions towards Iran, which means that

they want to prepare all buyers of Iranian crude to say ‘there is plenty of oil in the market and don’t be afraid to pull back on Iran (purchases),” said Bjarne Schieldrop,

head of commodities strategy at SEB.This is not about bombarding the market

with oil and pushing the price into the $50’s, it is about preparing the market and easing

the transition, he said. “There is no wish from Saudi Arabia to push prices down to $50.”

Most Iranian crude exports go to China and India, but roughly 20 percent go to Europe. Saudi Arabia last week cut its official selling prices for Asian customers to a four-month low.

U.S. investment bank Jefferies said in a note that “the Saudi and Russian production surges appear to be more limited” than initially expected, adding that bullish market sentiment was also fueled by the imminent reinstatement of U.S. sanctions against Iran.

Still, with Russia, the United States and Saudi Arabia now all producing 10 million to 11 million bpd of crude, just three countries now meet around a third of global oil demand.

Meanwhile, U.S. energy companies last week cut oil rigs for a second time in the past three weeks as the rate of growth has slowed over the past couple of months.

Drillers cut two oil rigs in the week to Aug. 3, bringing the total count down to 859, Baker Hughes energy services firm said on Friday.

(Source: Reuters)

Diesel, marine gasoil, and jet fuel—collectively known as middle distillates—account for more than a third of global oil consumption. Used in road transportation, shipping, aviation, and man-ufacturing, middle distillates are more closely linked to economic growth than any other section of the oil products market.

Inventories of middle distillates—one of the most important refinery products—are also closely correlated with oil price trends and with the shape of the oil futures curve, so the pace of distillates demand and their stock levels could be the key determinant for the oil price changes through the next two years, Reuters market analyst John Kemp writes.

At times of industrial activity expansion and economic growth, demand for middle distillates jumps, and their stocks decline. If the current global economic growth is sustained, distillates demand will rise, lifting crude oil prices. But higher oil prices would raise inflation and could force an

economic slowdown, or the global economy may slow down as a result of trade tensions, leading to higher middle distillate inventories, Kemp argues.

Last year, global middle distillates consumption stood at 35.307 million bpd—the largest share, 36 percent, of the world’s total oil consumption of 98.186 million bpd, according to the BP Statistical Review of World Energy 2018.

Demand for middle distillates is expected to surge ahead of an upcoming stricter regulation on the fuels used by the shipping industry. The International Maritime Organization (IMO) has set January 1, 2020, as the staring date from which only low-sulfur fuel oil will be allowed to be used for ships. The severe restrictions on fuel oil’s sul-fur content—aimed at reducing emissions—will drive increased demand for middle distillates such as diesel and marine gasoil, which in turn will push up demand for crude oil, Morgan Stanley analysts say. This would boost crude oil demand by additional 1.5 million bpd, potentially sending

oil prices to $90 a barrel in 2020, according to Morgan Stanley.

“Over the next few years, we expect tightness in one particular product — middle distillate — to lead to strength in one particular liquid, crude oil, and especially those crudes that look like Brent,” Morgan Stanley’s global oil strategist Martijn Rats said in May.

While middle distillates demand will be at the core of this new regulation, those distillates and their stock levels also tend to be highly correlated with the Brent futures curve and the spot price of Brent Crude.

According to Reuters’ Kemp, distillates draws have been much more correlated with the Brent curve shifts than gasoline inventory changes.

During periods of middle distillates over-supply, such as in 1998/99, 2001/02, 2006, 2009/10, and 2015/16, economic growth has been slower, and the Brent futures curve has been in a large contango—a market structure in

which front-month prices are lower than prices out in the future months—pointing to a crude oil oversupply and making storing oil for future sales profitable.

At times of strong economic growth, middle distillate stocks have been very tight, and the Brent futures curve has been in backwardation—the market situation in which front-month prices are trading at a premium compared to prices further out in the future—a sign of a tighter and undersupplied market.

During the most recent oil price cycle, distillate stocks were high in 2015 and 2016, when the global oil glut was at its height and oil prices at a decade-low. In 2017, when oil prices started to rise, and stocks—including distillate stocks—started to draw down, the Brent curve flipped to backwardation, which was one of the key (and officially communicated) goals of the OPEC production cuts.

(Source: oilprice.com)

Oil gains after monthly Saudi output shows surprise drop

The key oil price driver by 2020

5I N T E R N A T I O N A L D A I L Y

A D V E R T I S E M E N TAUGUST 6, 2018

Iraq oil minister says oil prices approaching stability: state media Iraqi Oil Minister Jabar al-Luaibi said oil prices are approaching stability, the al-Sabah state newspaper reported on Monday.

Iraq plans to raise oil production to more than 7.5 million bar-rels per day (bpd) by 2023-2024, including 6 million bpd of oil for exports and 1.5 million bpd for domestic consumption, Luaibi said.

On June 22-23, OPEC, Russia and other producers agreed to raise output from July by returning to 100 percent compliance with previously agreed output cuts, after months of underproduction by OPEC countries including Venezuela.

Luaibi said the country’s refining capacity now stood at around 670,000 barrels per day with local consumption reaching to 1.2 million bpd.

“We plug the gap by importing fuel which costs us over $2 billion a year,” Luaibi was quoted by al-Sabah as saying.

The Oil Ministry plans to resume partial operations at the coun-try’s largest refinery of Baiji with a capacity of 70,000 barrels per day of oil, Luaibi said.

Oil Ministry’s crews are carrying out repairs at Baiji Refinery aimed at resuming operations soon at a second sub-refinery to add an additional capacity of 70,000 bpd, he said.

Baiji maintenance and repair works have cost Iraq around $500 million so far, Luaibi said.

Iraqi forces recaptured Baiji from ISIS militants in 2015, but the area sustained heavy damage in the fighting. The country now relies on the Doura refinery in Baghdad its and Shuaiba plant in the south. (Source: Reuters)

Rosneft approves $2b buyback programRussian oil company Rosneft has approved a $2bn share buy-back program, as the state-controlled major seeks to boost its attractiveness to investors.

The buyback, which will run to as many as 340m shares or 3.2 percent of the company, is part of the company’s strategy to 2020 to increase profitability, reduce capital expenditure and debt, and lift its share price, which lags behind global rivals.

Just under 10.5 percent of Rosneft shares are currently trad-ed on the market. The Russian government owns 50.1 percent, BP owns 19.75 percent and Qatar’s sovereign wealth fund owns 19.5 percent.

Rosneft said on Monday that it would appoint an unnamed “independent agent” to execute the buyback, which will extend until December 31, and that the shares would be held in treas-ury, ahead of a board decision regarding “their potential full or partial cancellation.

”Shares in the company, the world’s largest listed oil producer by output, rose as much as 2.7 percent after the announcement.

Separately, Rosneft said that its average liquids production during the second quarter of 2018 rose an annual 0.8 percent to 4.6m barrels per day. (Source: Financial Times)

AUGUST 7, 20186I N T E R N A T I O N A L D A I L Y

INTERNATIONAL

TEHRAN — With heavy hearts and moist eyes,

mourners laid to rest the victims of twin suicide attack on a Shia mosque in eastern Afghanistan on Saturday. The death toll in the deadly attack, according to local of-ficials, was 35. The suicide bombers, wearing women’s dress, barged inside the mosque in Gardez, the capital of Paktia province, on Friday and detonated their explosives at the time of congregational Friday prayers.

It is the latest in a series of attacks on Shia people and their places of worship in Afghanistan. Most of these attacks have been carried out by the ISIS.

Haji Sultan, 70, who attended the funeral of blast victims, accused the government of “negligence” in providing security for the Shia minority.

“The enemies of Afghanistan want to create division by carrying out attacks on Shia people, but they cannot win, it will further increase hatred towards the en-emies,” he told AFP. Although no group immediately claimed responsibility for the attack, it is widely believed that the ISIS is behind it. The attack comes amidst escalation in violence across the country and pitched battles between the Taliban and ISIS in northern Afghanistan.

But what’s striking about the latest attack is that the target were members of minority Shia community. It’s not the first time they

have been targeted by the ISIS. Many Shia mosques in Kabul and various provinces

have become the target of ISIS over the past few years. The dangerous spiral of sectarian bloodletting in Afghanistan has assumed alarming proportions since the advent of ISIS, also known by their Arabic acronym Daesh. Their hatred for Shias has a historical background. “ISIS fighters and their ideologues take inspiration from those fanatics who carried out the murderous as-sault on Hazrat Ali in Kufa mosque, hence we see these attacks on Shia mosques,” says a Kabul-based analyst, wishing anonymity.

ISIS has reportedly claimed that they attack Afghan Shias because of their in-volvement in the Syria war. “Unless they (the Afghan Shias) stop going to Syria and stop being slaves of Iran, we will definitely continue such attacks,” a top ISIS com-mander told Reuters a few years ago. Hun-dreds of Hazara Shias from Afghanistan are fighting in Syria as part of the Liwa Fatemiyoon force.

However, the more plausible reason be-hind the unrelenting attacks on Afghan Shias is the fact that their religious beliefs clash with the radical Islamism propounded by ISIS ideologues, believe observers.

Pertinently, the intelligence officials of Iran, Pakistan, China and Russia recently met in Pakistan to evolve a joint strategy to fight the menace of ISIS in Afghanistan-Pakistan region.

1 Experts are hoping that the imple-mentation of China-Pakistan economic corridor (CPEC) project, which has re-placed China as Islamabad’s top ally, will eventually pave the ground for the successful completion of Pakistan-Iran gas pipeline project.

The envoy also expressed Tehran’s readiness to cooperate with Islamabad and other regional powers to ensure peace and stability in the region, at a time when the terror groups in Afghanistan-Pakistan region have upped the ante, launching in-discriminate attacks.

Last month, Pakistan, China, Russia and Iran had agreed to launch integrated efforts to eliminate the threat of ISIS from Afghanistan-Pakistan region.

Khan told the envoy that Pakistan was ready to improve ties with its historical ally and even expressed his wish to visit Iran, the statement issued by his office said.

He said Tehran’s role in protecting its integrity was commendable, in reference to Tehran’s resistance against the neo-imperialistic forces.

The statement is significant as the U.S. government recently issued a diktat to all its allies to stop buying oil from Iran. While many observers believe that Imran Khan government in Islamabad will not bow before the U.S. pressure, it remains to be seen how he deals with the issue of U.S. sanctions.

The role of Pakistani army is also im-portant in this context, as military’s word is often the final word in Pakistan’s foreign policy matters.

During the meeting, Khan said Islama-

bad was ready to play a constructive and positive role between Iran and Saudi Ara-bia, hinting that his government would try to balance ties between the two regional powerhouses.

It is extremely significant since the previ-ous governments in Islamabad, especially the PML-N government led by Nawaz Sharif, were seen heavily tilted towards Riyadh.

In Pakistan, as they say, the writ of mili-tary runs large. Late last year, Pakistan’s army chief Qamar Bajwa visited Iran, which was the first visit to Iran by a Pakistani army chief in more than two decades.

Gen. Bajwa’s visit, which came at a propi-tious time, marked a new shift in Pakistani military’s relationship with Iran. Last month Iranian army chief Gen.

Mohammad Baqeri visited Islamabad, which was the first visit by an Iranian army chief to Pakistan in 40 years.

As it appears, the script looks perfect for Iran-Pakistan ties but will the main protagonists perform their roles the way they should? That is the big question.

“The enemies of Afghanistan want to create division by carrying out attacks on Shia

people, but they cannot win, it will further increase hatred towards the enemies,” he

told AFP.

ISIS war against Shias in Afghanistan gathers momentum

‘Imran Khan’s desire to improve relations with Iran is good for regional stability’

Will Pakistan, Iran open new chapter

in their relationship?

N E W S I N B R I E F

INTERNATIONALd e s k INTERNATIONAL

d e s k

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Surrendered ISIS fighters in Afghanistan to get amnesty

About 1.67 million votes omitted in Pakistan election

Tension growing in Kashmir over citizenship rights law

Violent protests in Bangladesh over road safety

TEHRAN — SIS-Khorasan fighters who ‘surrendered’ to Afghan security forces

earlier this week in northern Afghanistan’s Jawzjan province may be granted amnesty by the Afghan government, accord-ing to reports. “There is an amnesty for the Daesh (ISIS) group that surrendered in Darzab district,” Mohammad Reza Ghafouri, spokesman for the Jawzjan provincial governor, told media persons. He said the amnesty offer is meant to encourage militants to lay down arms and surrender, without facing charges. “The group will not be presented to legal and judicial authorities because they are taking part in the peace process,” he said, drawing sharp reaction from people who accuse ISIS fighters of committing horrendous war crimes in Afghanistan, including murder and rape.

Around 200 ISIS fighters, including two senior command-ers, surrendered few days back in Jawzjan after facing defeat at the hands of Taliban, with some reports suggesting that they were either captured or evacuated by the security forces.

A former government official told Tehran Times on Friday that the fighters were actually evacuated by Afghan army helicopters on the orders of the U.S. authorities, which he said is “another piece of evidence that ISIS in Afghanistan means U.S. mercenaries”.

“How innocent Afghan, women, children were slaughtered by these foreign backed terrorists and now our government under the orders from the U.S. military and U.S. embassy in Kabul evacuate them,” said the official, wishing anonymity.

TEHRAN — A few weeks after the general election in Pakistan that was marred by ac-

cusations of vote-rigging and manipulation, an independent poll watchdog has made stunning disclosure in a new report.

According to the report by Free and Fair Election Network (FAFEN), a coalition of 30 Pakistan-based non-governmental organisations that observe elections and mobilise voters, about 1.67 million votes were omitted from the count in July 25 gen-eral election, more than the number of ballots rejected in 2013 general election. According to the report, an increase in the number of discarded ballots, recorded at around 11.7 percent, was a phenomenon observed across country’s four provinces and in Islamabad. Out of almost 100 million registered voters in Pakistan only about 51 per cent exercised their franchise, according to the Pakistan Election Commission. The report also said that the number of votes excluded from the count surpassed the margin of victory in 120 (21 percent) of the 570 provincial assembly constituencies where polls were conducted.

Imran Khan’s Pakistan Tehreek Insaaf (PTI), which emerged as the single largest party in general election, is expected to form the government with the help of some smaller parties later this week.

TEHRAN — Tension is growing in Indian-controlled-Kashmir over a law that gives

exclusive citizenship rights to people there under special provisions of the Indian constitution.

There is fear that India’s apex court will revoke Article 35-A that empowers Jammu and Kashmir state’s legislature to define “permanent residents” and provide them with spe-cial rights. The law also prevents non-state subjects from purchasing property and having government jobs in the state.

There have been widespread protests in the region over the past one week after an NGO linked to right-wing Hindu groups filed a petition in Supreme Court arguing that Article 35-A is “highly discriminatory” and therefore liable to be declared as unconstitutional. Political parties, trade bodies, civil society organisations and people in the disputed region have threatened a massive protest if the law is repealed as they fear it will lead to demographic change in the Muslim-majority state.

Joint Resistance Leadership, an alliance of three sepa-ratist leaders - Syed Ali Geelani, Mirwaiz Umar Farooq and Mohammd Yasin Malik – said in a statement that any and every attempt made at changing the demographic nature of the state will be stiffly resisted.

Senior lawyer Zafar Shah will defend Article 35-A on behalf of a group of Kashmiri lawyers in court.

TEHRAN — The violent protests over road safety in Bangladesh have entered

tenth day even as the police continued to fire teargas and the country’s authorities urged protestors, mostly students, to go home.

Tens of thousands of students brought Dhaka – Bang-ladesh’s capital city – to a grinding halt after two teenagers were killed by a speeding bus ten days ago. The protests have spread far and wide in these days, taking ugly shape in some areas.

Bangladesh Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina Wajid warned on Sunday that a “third party” could sabotage the protests and put the safety of demonstrators at risk. “That’s why I request all guardians and parents to keep their children at home. Whatever they have done is enough,” she said.

Authorities have shut down mobile internet services across the country, officials and local media said, to prevent spread-ing of rumors regarding these protests.

Sheikh Hasina’s government, which has been ruling Bangladesh since 2009, has in recent months faced mass protests demanding an end to the system of discriminatory civil service recruitment.

INTERNATIONALd e s k

1 The United States, which has bailed Pakistan out repeatedly since the early 1950s, seems unlikely to help generously this time.

After the pressing economic issues, the nation must deal with the continued presence of extremist parties and ter-rorist groups. There were several terrorist attacks during the recent election campaign and religious minorities, both Muslim and non-Muslim, face increasing challenges.Education, health and other social sector indicators show Pakistan to be lagging behind. To correct that downward trajectory we need good long term policies and resources to implement them. Neither of which we have had for decades.

The general election was marred by accusations of vote rigging allegedly engineered by the military. Do you think Imran Khan had the backing of military?

A. Yes. Imran Khan and the PTI have had the backing of the Pakistan army and establishment which includes the judiciary. The restrictions on the media were at an all-time high.

Pre-poll rigging has been accepted by the Human Rights Commission of Pakistan, and the EU Election Observer team. Many Pakistani political parties, candidates, activists and media have reported election irregularities all over the coun-try. So, proof of the engineered results exists. But, Mr. Khan also had his support base.

In his campaign, Khan spoke about domestic issues like rebuilding institutions of governance and fighting cor-ruption but he didn’t clearly outline his foreign policy. Do you think his foreign policy will be any different from his

predecessors?A. No. Mr. Khan has few foreign policy interests and no

expertise or experience. However he had spoken in support of the Afghan Taliban and made some positive remarks about Pakistan’s allies Saudi Arabia and China. He has been largely anti-American in his past views.

The bottom line, however, is that the army controls foreign policy and they expect to continue to do so. If Khan steps out of line he will face the consequences like his predecessors.

He also spoke about improving ties with Iran and playing a role in bringing Tehran and Riyadh closer. Is that going to happen?

A. The desire to improve relations with Iran is a positive

one. Let us hope he can deliver that for regional stability. But he will have to tread carefully to not upset Pakistan’s other friends and benefactors.

As for acting as an intermediary, it’s highly unlikely that Pakistan can bridge serious and ongoing differences between the two Muslim countries. For that, the Iranian and Saudi leaders would have to find common ground themselves.

Khan’s biggest test would be America because he has been critical of Trump’s foreign policy and has even sup-ported Iranian nuclear deal. Do you think Pakistan has the best chance to come out of US shadow under him?

A. Pakistan’s foreign policy has always been directed by the Pakistani military and is destined to remain that way for the near future. The Trump administration has adopted a tough posture with Pakistan and Khan cannot change that posture without changing Pakistan’s policies on Afghani-stan and terrorism. The course of Pakistan-Iran relations of course depends on the two states themselves.

How do you see Pakistan’s relations with China shap-ing up under the new government?

A. China is the biggest power player in Pakistan today. China-Pakistan economic corridor (CPEC) has ensured that. For the near future I see a further deepening of Pakistan-China ties.

PML-N has lost the ground across the country, even in Punjab. PPP has been relegated to sidelines. Do you think it will be difficult for these two parties to comeback from here?

A. Politics and political parties rarely die out. I do see a continued role for both parties in Pakistan’s future.

6I N T E R N A T I O N A L D A I L Y

AUGUST 7, 2018 ANALYSIS & INTERVIEW

N.I.S.O.C

Vendors who intend to participate in aforesaid tender are requested to send their “ Resume” and “Tendency Letter” via postal services to the following address not later than 14 days after the second announcement. The applicants should have relevant background in supplying the required goods and capability to provide and submit a bid bond of 7, 105 EURO or 364,650,000, RIAL, in favor of NISOC. Iranian vendors shall submit their resume according to Quality Assessment Forms, available at: www.shana.ir and www.nisoc.ir

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Public RelationsWWW.SHANA.IRWWW.NISOC.IR

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NATIONAL IRANIAN SOUTH OILFIELDS COMPANY INVITATION FOR PREQUALIFICATION

TENDER NO. : 01-31-9580008

National Iranian South Oilfields Company(NISOC) intends to purchase the following goods

Second Announcement

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N.I.S.O.C

2067.1397شماره مجوز

NATIONAL IRANIAN SOUTH OILFIELDS COMPANY

TENDER NO. : 01-31-9580008

National Iranian South Oilfields Company(NISOC) intends to purchase the following goods

Vendors who intend to participate in aforesaid tender are requested to send their " Resume" and “Tendency Letter" via postal services to the following address not later than 14 days after the second announcement.

The applicants should have relevant background in supplying the required goods and capability to provide and submit a bid bond of 7, 105 EURO or 364,650,000, RIAL, in favor of NISOC.

Iranian vendors shall submit their resume according to Quality Assessment Forms, available at: www.shana.ir www.nisoc.irand

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Quantity Material Description Items

41171 PARTS FOR “PALL”AIR DRYER 19

7I N T E R N A T I O N A L D A I L Y

By Farzad Farhadi

AUGUST 7, 2018 ANALYSIS & INTERVIEW

By Javad HeiranniaEXCLUSIVE INTERVIEW

Reasons behind Tel Aviv’s fear of war with Hezbollah

TEHRAN — Former U.S. Congressman, James Charles Slattery, says President Trump may be looking for a way to re-en-gage Iran and solve some of his concerns about the JCPOA and then reengage the diplomatic process.

“Both sides would be wise to try and find a win-win solution to the current impasse! Further escalation of words will do nothing to improve the situation on the ground on either side,” Slattery tells the Tehran Times in an exclusive interview.

Following is the full text of the interview: Donald Trump said he would be willing

to meet Iranian President Hassan Rouhani with “no preconditions”. What are the reasons behind this decision?

A: I take the president at his word. I think he would like to meet with President Rouhani. The President is looking for a solution to the pending issues with Iran. The President surely knows that Iran and the U.S. have

some common concerns in the Middle East like violent Sunni extremism in the form of ISIS and el Qaeda. I am happy to hear that Pres. Trump is willing to meet with Pres.

Rouhani. If Trump is willing to meet with the leader of North Korea he should be willing to meet with Pres. Rouhani.

After Trump’s statement on no pre-

conditions’ meeting with Iran, U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo appeared on CNBC hours later to set some conditions. What are the reasons for this contradiction in Washington?

A: I do not know how to explain the in-consistences between the statements of Pres. Trump and Sec. of State Pompeo. They may simply disagree but the president is in charge. The same is true of John Bolton.

Former U.S. deputy secretary of state Wendy Sherman tweeted “Iran just might have a precondition- (Trump) rejoin the com-munity of nations in support of the JCPOA”. What’s your opinion on this matter?

A: The President may be looking for a way to re-engage Iran and solve some of his concerns about the JCPOA and then reengage the diplomatic process. Both sides would be wise to try and find a win-win solution to the current impasse! Further escalation of words will do nothing to improve the situation on the ground on either side.

“We should never negotiate out of fear but we should never fear to negotiate.”

Iran and U.S. can find a win-win solution: Former congressman

TEHRAN —August 14 is the anniversary of the Lebanon Re-sistance Victory over the Israel’s 33-day war in 2006. That has been enough for Israeli officials to threat Hezbollah in Lebanon.

The Zionists, deeply concerned about the situation on their domestic front, have been tempted to try a possible war with Hezbollah. Israel has devoted a huge budget of 30 billion shekel to its military for protecting its internal front from rocket attacks by Gaza or Hezbollah missiles.

Zionist analysts are heavily worried about the new and modern weapons of Hezbollah. The Zionist Channel 2 analyst Yaron Schneider points to the Lebanon Resistance missiles “Se7” and “Se14”.

According to various reports in recent years, Hezbollah has some 120,000 to 130,000 missiles and rockets, most short to medium in range.

About 90 percent of the rockets can reach up to 45 kilom-eters, which means they could reach Haifa.

Amos Gilad, head the Institute for Policy and Strategy and the former head of the Defense Ministry’s political affairs bu-reau has spoken of Israeli army reports to the Security Council on future war scenarios in the Northern Front, which include the discharge of hundreds of thousands of Israelis and the daily exposure of hundreds of missiles and energy shortages.

Gilad warned against the military struck on the northern front and considered the threat of the internal front to be very serious. “The resistance has targeted its missiles in the north towards Israel’s Tel Aviv.

This condition requires that the army and security insti-tutions be fully equipped” he announced.

The Zionist’s Haartez shared damaging estimates in the event of a brief clash with Hezbollah in Lebanon, “what would happen if it [the war] lasted about 10 days, a longer but medi-um-length campaign, about three weeks; or a longer conflict that lasts more than a month.

The scenarios shared with the cabinet included estimates of how many rockets that would likely be fired each day, how many them would be intercepted, how many would strike on plains versus constructions and civilians.

If a war erupts up north, the Israeli army plans to evacuate hundreds of thousands of people who live within missile range, and move them to other parts of Israel.

Haartz reported that in the wake of the war, hundreds of missiles will be fired every day to Israel, a fatal blow to both in the north and south of the country.

The proliferation of missile attacks and the limitation of anti-missile systems such as the Iron Dome and Patriot in their interception will make it harder to confront these missiles.

According to various reports in recent years, Hezbollah has some 120,000 missiles and rockets and they can launch 700 rockets a day, most short to medium in range. About 90 percent of the rockets can reach up to 45 kilometers, most of them are Grad-type Katyusha.

Hezbollah has the ability to fight for several weeks in a row, even if half its missiles are shot down by the Israeli Air Force, reported Haartez. Iron Dome air defense system will face se-vere problems in dealing with this rocket volume, especially because of limited number of missile reserves.

With all the efforts of the Zionist authorities to assure Hezbollah of the next war, the truth is, the Israelis have no faith and trust on their defensive systems.

According to Zionist circles, more than half of the Israelis will naturally turn to more secure areas in the event of a war between Hezbollah and Israel.

Meanwhile, the economy of the Zionist regime faces a lot of problems like power outage, water shortage and other war-re-lated problems such as flight cancellations.

The Zionists are also concerned about platforms and off-shore facilities. According to Zionist media, Tamar square facilities are located 23 kilometers from the shore, the Kar-ish and Tanin field development are 40 kilometers away and Levitan is 10 kilometers away from the coast. The Zionists have been spending hefty money in gas platforms, but they are still very worried.

Meanwhile, Lebanese Hezbollah Secretary-general Seyyed Hassan Nasrallah announced several days ago that he was ready to attack Israeli gas platforms in the Mediterranean, saying he was waiting to get a green light from the Lebanon’s Supreme Defense Council.

Abdel Bari Atwan, the famous analyst of the Arab world, wrote: “Palestinians and Lebanese resistance are not afraid of Israeli military superiority as Arab regimes are fearful of them. He went on to address the Zionist concern about tar-geting Hezbollah with its unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) gas fields in the Mediterranean Sea.”

Atwan adds: “All Israeli experts believe Iron dome may be able to deal with missiles coming from Gaza, but it certainly cannot demolish drills that come from southern Lebanon or southern Palestine. What we want to say is that dignitaries work around the clock to strengthen the military power of resistance and stand up to the Israeli tyranny.”

He continued: “We do not know the number of patriotic invaders, but what we know is that there are hundreds of un-manned drones in Lebanon’s and Gaza’s stockpiles, a matter that wastes the Israeli military budget and creates panic among settlers. Perhaps most Arabs do not pursue these remarka-ble news and meanings, but the Israeli military analysts are closely following the trend and are aware of the size of the threat, whether they are threatened with drones or hundreds of thousands of resistance advanced missiles.”

«Israel’s Minister of Education Naftali Bennett and an Israeli cabinet member, who is also the military officer of the regime, described his level of risk as part of a maneuver for the domestic front at an Israeli school. He said: “Each new war causes damage at unusual level. Israel has not had new plans since the beginning of 1967, and now Israel will face retaliation from Arab states if it breaks out any war with Arab nations.

Although the Zionists think very little of the probability of a war initiated by Hezbollah, but any small incident may turn into a full-fledged war.

Undoubtedly, the Zionists having the 2006 bitter war expe-rience before them, fear another war with Hezbollah for three reasons: Hezbollah’s powerful missile power, the fragility of the Israeli front, and the heavy economic consequences of the war. They have fear of being hit by the power grid, large power plants, airports and critical facilities.

1 To shed more light on the issue we reached out to Ryan Costello NIAC assistant policy director.

Following is the full text of the interview: How do you assess contradictory statements of the

U.S. officials? A: The U.S. is pursuing a pressure campaign but

hasn’t decided whether that campaign will be an end in itself or a means toward a policy goal. Trump appears to have signaled a willingness to negotiate, in line with his approach toward North Korea, but it is unclear if he is serious or if his advisors would permit such a shift in approach at this time.

Immediately after Trump’s statement saying he’d ne-gotiate without preconditions, Secretary of State Pompeo outlined a series of preconditions. Moreover, John Bolton – Trump’s national security advisor – indicated in 2017 that after the U.S. withdraws from the nuclear accord the administration should leave the prospect of negotiations open to demonstrate Iranian intransigence – not out of a sincere hope for dialogue.

Whereas the Obama administration had clear goals, it is hard to tell what Trump and his administration want on Iran policy.

Is it possible to talk under threat, sanction and breaking of international agreements?

A: My sense is it is still possible for Iran to talk to the United States, but the Trump administration has done al-most everything it can to disincentive serious negotiations. A great deal of trust was broken when Trump decided to fully withdraw from the Iran nuclear deal and snap back sanctions, which has limited the space in Iran to re-engage with the United States.

However, writing off negotiations completely until 2020 or 2024 could prove to be a mistake for Iran given the power of U.S. sanctions. If the Trump administration turns a new leaf and demonstrates a sustained interest in dialogue, Iran should consider direct negotiations. Trump has re-written the political rulebook in the United States before and could do it again, so it might be worth testing whether a mutual-ly-beneficial deal can be struck.

What can Trump do to show his good will for starting talks with Iran?

A: An obvious good-faith gesture would be to return to the Iran nuclear accord, though I don’t believe Trump would consider doing so given its association with his predecessor Barack Obama. An alternative would be to delay the re-imposition of key sanctions that had been lifted under the nuclear accord, provide waivers to European companies eager to continue business started under the JCPOA, or – less convincingly – write to Iran’s leaders articulating bottom lines that he would like to address in future meetings. Given the variety of areas of pressure the administration is pressing on, there are many areas where Trump could ease off in order to try to jumpstart negotiations.

TEHRAN (Tasnim) — An American po-litical analyst said an initiative by the US administration to develop an alliance with the Persian Gulf and Arab allies is expect-ed to fail as there are sharp disagreements between the member states of the Persian Gulf Cooperation Council on Iran.

“The prospects for the formation of a Middle Eastern Strategic Alliance are hin-dered by multiple obstacles. There are sharp disagreements between the member states of the (Persian) Gulf Cooperation Council on Iran,” Keith Preston, the chief editor and director of attackthesystem.com, told Tasnim.

He added, “It is unlikely that the proposed member nations of a Middle Eastern Strate-gic Alliance will find that they share enough common interests and common objectives to make such an alliance viable”.

Keith Preston was born in Lynchburg, Virginia, United States. He received degrees in Religious Studies, History, and Sociology from Virginia Commonwealth University. He is the founder and director of American Revolutionary Vanguard and the chief editor of AttacktheSystem.Com. He has also been a contributor to LewRockwell.Com, Antiwar.Com, Anti-State.Com,Taki’s Magazine, Radix Journal, and AlternativeRight.Com . He is the author of six books, and was awarded the 2008 Chris R. Tame Memorial Prize by the United Kingdom’s Libertarian Alliance. Keith has been a featured speaker at confer-ences of the National Policy Institute, H. L. Mencken Club, and Anarchapulco. He has been interviewed on numerous radio pro-grams and internet broadcasts and appeared as a guest analyst on Russia Today, Press TV and the BBC.

The following is the full text of the in-terview:

According to media reports, the Trump administration is quietly pushing ahead with a bid to create a new security and political alliance with six Persian Gulf Arab states, Egypt and Jordan, to contain Iran’s growing influence in the region. What do you think about the “Arab NATO” force?

A: The Trump administration is interest-ed in developing a Middle Eastern Strategic Alliance that would consist of the two Arab nations that have actually recognized Israel, Egypt and Jordan, both of which are heavily dependent on American aid, in addition to the six members of the (Persian) Gulf Coopera-

tion Council: Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman and Qatar. Rhetorically, President Trump is claiming such an alliance would be a Middle Eastern counterpart to the North Atlantic Treaty Or-ganization in Europe. The objectives of such an alliance would ostensibly be to contain the growing influence of Iran in the Middle East, and presumably Iran’s allies such as Syria, Hezbollah, Yemen’s Houthis, and various Palestinian, Iraqi, and Shiite Afghan groups.

However, a wider geopolitical objective appears to be to counter the influence of both Russia and China in the Middle East, particu-larly given that both of these major powers have moved closer to Iran and its allies in recent years. The United States has an interest in preventing Russia and China from gaining access to valuable natural resources in the Middle East and Central Asia such as minerals, petroleum, and natural gas. For example, it is largely for this reason that the Trump administration has decided to continue the US military presence in Afghanistan despite Trump’s earlier misgivings about the US effort in that country. Clearly, the United States is also working to strengthen relations with its strongest allies in the Middle East, such as Israel and Saudi Arabia, and the proposed “Arab NATO” would seem to be an effort in that direction as well.

Saudi officials raised the idea of a security pact ahead of a Trump visit last year to Saudi Arabia where he announced a massive arms deal, but the alliance proposal did not

get off the ground at the time. How much do you think an Arab NATO could be a game changer in the reign?

A: The armaments deal between the Trump administration and Saudi Arabia was part of the administration’s efforts to strength-en relations with its Middle Eastern allies. The Saudi regime is currently waging war in Yemen, and in Saudi Arabia’s own Eastern Province against the Shiite population there. The United States is working to ensure that Saudi Arabia maintains the upper hand in that conflict because of the importance of the US-Saudi relationship, and the desire to counter the influence of Iran. An “Arab NATO” could be a game changer only if the proposed alliance remained stable and functional over a long enough period of time to effectively counter the influence of Iran and its allies in the region in a way that the Saudis and their allies have not previously been able to do. Such an alliance would be fraught with a great deal of internal tension, and would probably not endure over an extensive period of time. Also, if such an alliance were to develop and actually prove to be formidable, it would be quite likely that Russia and possibly China would seek to increase their own assistance to forces that would oppose such an alliance in the Middle East. Clearly, Russia and China are opposed to ongoing efforts by the United States to curtail their influence in the region. Such a situation could potentially escalate tensions between the major international powers.

Similar initiatives by previous US administrations to develop a more formal alliance with the Persian Gulf and Arab allies have failed in the past. Do think this would fail as well?

A: The prospects for the formation of a Middle Eastern Strategic Alliance are hindered by multiple obstacles. There are sharp disa-greements between the member states of the (Persian) Gulf Cooperation Council on Iran. While Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates and Bahrain each wish to take a hard-line stance against Iran, the other three mem-bers-Oman, Kuwait, and Qatar-do not share this position, at least publicly. However, none of the other 16 Arab nations besides the (P)GCC members give any substantial indication that they wish to escalate tensions or hostil-ities with Iran. Additionally, four potential members of the proposed alliance-the three anti-Iranian members of the (P)GCC along with Egypt-have engaged in hostile rhetoric against Qatar, another member of the (P)GCC and proposed member of an “Arab NATO,” by accusing Qatar of promoting terrorism in the region. Egypt is also supportive of the Assad government in Syria and has refused to offer support for the Saudi/UAE-led war effort in Yemen.

Indeed, Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, the UAE and Egypt have collectively organized a block-age against Qatar, and it is therefore uncertain how such an alliance would be perceived as being in the interest of each of the proposed members. Hostility also exists between the four anti-Qatari nations and Oman as well. While the UAE and Saudi Arabia have both moved closer to Israel in recent times, it re-mains true that tensions also exist between Egypt and Jordan as nations that have rec-ognized Israel, and the other 19 Arab nations which have not. The formation of such an alliance would be perceived in the Middle East as a Sunni alliance against Shiite Mus-lims. Kuwait would experience difficulties by joining such an alliance because about 30% of its population is Shiite. And Oman is not a predominantly Sunni nation, but a mostly Ibadi Muslim country with no direct interest in escalating hostilities with Shiites. It is unlikely that the proposed member na-tions of a Middle Eastern Strategic Alliance will find that they share enough common interests and common objectives to make such an alliance viable.

‘Arab NATO’ proposal unlikely to get off ground: U.S. analyst

Trump has done everything to disincentive negotiation with Iran: Costello

AUGUST 7, 20188I N T E R N A T I O N A L D A I L Y

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9I N T E R N A T I O N A L D A I L Y

H E A L T H

H E A L T Hd e s k

AUGUST 7, 2018

TEHRAN — Alzheimer’s disease is one of the most

prevalent diseases associated with old age, but the general public have a limited knowl-edge of the condition, an expert with the Iran Alzheimer’s Association has said.

Dementia is a syndrome in which there is deterioration in memory, thinking, behavior and the ability to perform everyday activities and Alzheimer’s disease is the most com-mon form of dementia and may contribute to 60–70% of cases. Worldwide, around 50 million people have dementia, and there are nearly 10 million new cases every year.

The early stage symptoms of dementia is often overlooked as the onset is gradual, however, diagnosing the disease at early stages would help the patients to receive the timely treatment to have better quality of life, IRNA news agency quoted Maryam Harifi as saying.

According to World Health Organization (WHO) forgetfulness, losing track of the time, and becoming lost in familiar places are the early stage signs of dementia.

Iran is a country with high incidence of Alzheimer’s disease and over the oat few years the number of people suffering the disease have been growing, she lamented.

In September 2017, head of the association Masoumeh Salehi said that some 700,000 have Alzheimer’s disease in Iran.

Harifi also explained that with regard to the growing aging population[MG1] in Iran in near future we will face “Alzheimer’s tsunami” and unfortunately the general public is not well-informed about the disease.

As the lifestyle and diet are important factors in developing the disease the pub-lic should become aware of the disease, its risk factors and best ways to manage it, she Harifi suggested.

The Iran Alzheimer’s Association is mainly concerned with informing the pub-lic about the disease by holding training courses, screening tests and encouraging mental activities such as yoga and medi-tation, she explained.

She further underscored the importance of being kind to the elderly and teaching the children and teenagers to treat their grand-parents who suffer from Alzheimer’s gently.

WHO facts on dementia

Dementia is not a normal part of ageing

Although dementia mainly affects older people, it is important to know that it is not a normal part of ageing. Dementia is a syn-drome, usually of a chronic or progressive nature, caused by a variety of brain illnesses that affect memory, thinking, behavior and ability to perform everyday activities.

47.5 million people live with dementiaThe total number of people with demen-

tia worldwide in 2015 is estimated at 47.5 million. Among them, 58% live in low- and middle-income countries, and this proportion is projected to rise to 71% by 2050.

A new case of dementia is diag-nosed every 4 seconds

One new case every 4 seconds. The number of people with dementia is expected to increase to 75.6 million in 2030 and 135.5 million in 2050.

Huge economic impact; $604 billion per year

The high cost of the disease will challenge health systems to deal with the predicted future increase of cases. The costs are es-

timated at $604 billion per year at present and are set to increase even more quickly than the prevalence.

Caregivers of dementia patients experience high strain

Caring for dementia patients is over-whelming for caregivers. The stresses include physical, emotional and economic pressures. Care givers require support from the health, social, financial and legal systems.

Early diagnosis improves the qual-ity of life of people with dementia and their families

The principal goals for dementia care in-cludes diagnosing cases early, optimizing phys-ical health, cognition, activity and well-being, detecting and treating behavioral and psycho-logical symptoms, and providing information and long-term support to caregivers.

People with dementia and their families are often discriminated against

People with dementia are frequently denied the basic rights and freedoms available to others. For example, physical and chemical restraints are used extensively in aged-care

facilities and acute-care settings. Awareness and advocacy are needed

Improving the awareness and understand-ing of dementia across all levels of society is needed to decrease discrimination and to improve the quality of life for people with dementia and their caregivers.

More research and evaluation is required

More research is needed to develop new and more effective treatments and to better understand the causes of dementia. Research that identifies the modifiable risk factors of dementia is still scarce.

Dementia is a public health priorityTo address this important health pri-

ority there are actions that can be taken: promote a dementia friendly society, make dementia a public health and social care priority everywhere, improve attitudes to, and understanding of, dementia, invest in health and social systems to improve care and services for people with dementia and their caregivers, and increase research on dementia.

Lack of public awareness about the prevalent disease of old age; Alzheimer’s New drug may improve liver

cancer therapyResearchers from many international institutions have teamed up to design a more effective drug for liver cancer therapy. Their compound may help improve survival rates and reduce adverse effects.

Hepatocellular carcinoma, or primary liver cancer, tends to grow and expand at a fast rate.

If it is not caught early, this means that people who have been diagnosed with it may not survive longer than 11 months.

Recent studies show that in the United States, hepatocellular carcinoma is the ninth leading cause of cancer-related deaths.

To treat it, specialists will usually prescribe therapy with a drug called “sorafenib.” Unfortunately, this drug typically prolongs survival by only 3 months, and it can have numerous adverse effects.

In an effort to improve liver cancer treatment, researchers from the Cancer Institute of Singapore at the National University of Singapore in Queenstown have come together with colleagues from other global institutions to develop a new experimental drug, which they call “FFW.”

FFW, the scientists believe, could hinder the growth of primary liver cancer and help reduce the unwanted effects of typical therapy.

The researchers outline the process of developing FFW in a paper now published in the journal PNAS.

“In our latest work, [we have] demonstrated an effective strategy to accurately target oncogenes previously considered undruggable,” says study co-author Prof. Daniel Tenen, of the National University of Singapore.

The smart workaround drugThe researchers based their new study on some earlier find-

ings about a protein that is known to be implicated in tumor growth: SALL4.

SALL4 is seen in developing fetuses but is normally inactive in fully developed tissue. However, in liver cancer, this protein becomes active again, contributing to tumor growth.

So far, SALL4 has been considered an “undruggable target,” meaning that it does not respond to drugs that target it. That is because, unlike other proteins, SALL4 does not have a “pocket” in its structure to allow drug molecules to lodge in and take effect.

Nevertheless, the research team’s earlier experiments sug-gested a way to work around this issue.

“In our earlier research, we found out that the SALL4 protein works with another protein, NuRD, to form a partnership that is crucial for the development of cancers such as [hepatocellular carcinoma],” explains Prof. Tenen.

“Instead of looking for ‘pockets’ on SALL4, our research team designed a biomolecule to block the interaction between SALL4 and NuRD,” he adds.

By blocking the interaction between SALL4 and NuRD, the biomolecule FFW “has led to tumor cell death and reduced move-ment of tumor cells,” Prof. Tenen observes.

Moreover, when used in conjunction with sorafenib, FFW may also be able to hinder the growth of liver cancer that is re-sistant to this drug.

(Source: Medical News Today)

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

HERITAGE & TOURISM AUGUST 7, 2018

Scroll back a few months, to October last year. Monarch, one of the UK’s biggest holiday airlines, went bust. For a few days there was chaos: 110,000 people were stranded abroad; hundreds of thousands more, who had booked and paid for future departures, were left without tickets. The CAA, to its credit, and at a cost of £60?million, intervened and arranged to fly back all the stranded passengers, even those who weren’t technically entitled to free repatriation.

Monarch was the biggest failure in British aviation history, but collapsing airlines have been a problem for decades. The first one I wrote about was Air Europe in 1991. Since then we’ve seen lots more – Zoom, Debonair, Silverjet – but also major collapses such as XL in 2008 (85,000 stranded) and Flyglobespan (4,400) in 2009. In each case, I’ve found myself emphasising over and over again how unsatisfactory the situation is and how difficult it is for holidaymakers to understand the complex rules and loopholes in this area.

In March this year, the Department for Transport set up the Airline Insolvency Review to examine the problem in the light of the Monarch failure. Last week, an interim report confirmed what we have been saying for years that “too many [passengers] do not have protection” and that consumers “must have clarity and confidence about the risks of airline

insolvency and how they are protected when they travel”. As well as stating the obvious, an interesting potential

solution was mooted. The problem with the way financial collapses work is that once a company is declared insolvent, it has to stop trading. That’s fine if you are a restaurant or a carpet shop. Some customers may lose money on advance orders, and employees are left in the lurch. But no one is left stranded miles from home, facing substantial costs and the difficulty of arranging new flights.

One of the interim report’s suggestions is that airlines, instead of losing their licenses to operate as soon as they are declared insolvent, be allowed to wind down gradually – to continue operating as long as is necessary to bring back pas-sengers with minimal disruption. This is what happened in Germany last year when Air Berlin went into administration.

There was still a cost to the German government, but the review suggests it was a more efficient solution than the huge operation to rescue Monarch’s passengers. It is still early days – the final report isn’t due to be handed to the Secretary of State until this winter – but at least some progress is being made and some serious and creative thinking is going on.

On a completely different subject, I was interested in a recent ruling by the Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) which criticized Eurostar for suggesting on its booking site that there were only two tickets still available at £98 on one

of its trains to Paris. The implication was that, once those tickets were sold,

the fare would be higher. However, it subsequently offered more lower-priced tickets on that train in a sale.

A passenger who had bought the tickets at £98 noticed this and complained to the ASA. Its ruling acknowledged Eurostar’s argument that normally tickets would be sold at a higher price, but that there “were nevertheless circumstances where subsequent prices would be lower”.

The ASA accepted that such claims wouldn’t always be classed as misleading. However, its conclusion in this case was clear: “We considered that where Eurostar knew, or could reasonably have anticipated, that the seats would subsequently be available at a lower price – for example, where a promotion was due to begin or where they were already aware that ticket sales for that train had been poor – it was misleading to describe the current prices in a way that suggested prices would increase if consumers did not act quickly.”

It is encouraging to see the ASA policing this kind of marketing, but it is facing an uphill struggle. The phrase “last few seats (or hotel rooms) available at this price” is now ubiquitous on airline, rail and hotel booking sites – and there is no sure way of a customer knowing whether the claim is true, or simply an attempt to fluster them into booking.

(Source: The Telegraph)

TEHRAN — Isfahan province’s tourism de-

partment has recently formed a task force to look for ways to encourage and attract more travelers from China.

“A task force was formally launched to develop tourism ties between Isfahan and China, which has [some] 130 million outbound tourists per annum,” Fars quoted Mohsen Yarmohammadian, a provincial official, as saying on Sunday. The scheme is pursued to explore new tourism markets and to widen engagement with Asian countries, he added.

“For the first stage, several marketing seminars have been arranged to be held in five major cities in China, including Beijing, Shanghai and Guangzhou, in a bid to intro-duce Isfahan,” said Korush Vakili who is a tourism marketing official.

“Chinse travel businesses will be iden-tified and invited to the seminars in close collaborations with the Iranian Embassy and its consulates in various Chinese cit-ies,” Vakili said.

The number of Chinese tourists visiting Iran in 2017 fell short of expectations as just 80,000 of the total 100,000,000 outbound Chinese passengers traveled to Iran last year.

Insignificant numbers of Chinese res-taurants, Chinese-language guides or even inappropriate lodging facilities are deemed to be among the main reasons behind the low number of Chinese tourist arrivals.

Some believe that part of this failure comes from inside Iran, because Chinese

restaurants are scanty across the country while the cuisine is of high importance for majority of the Chinese people.

In 2017, over 100 million Chinese tourists traveled abroad, with Japan, Hong Kong,

the U.S., South Korea, Thailand, Taiwan, Singapore, Vietnam, and France among their top destinations.

Isfahan is Iran’s top tourist destination for good reasons. Its profusion of tree-lined

boulevards, Persian gardens and important Islamic buildings gives it a visual appeal un-matched by any other Iranian city. In addition, Isfahan’s many artisans underpin its reputa-tion as a living museum of traditional culture.

T O U R I S Md e s k

Iranian and Chinese nationals pose for a photo in the UNESCO-registered Imam Square of Isfahan, central Iran. The picture depicts Safavid-era Sheikh Lotfollah Mosque in the background.

Isfahan sets sights on more Chinese tourists

How do we protect holidaymakers from airline failure? Germany may have found the answer

A local man stands by a platform of well-preserved windmills in Nashtifan, northeastern Iran.

By Nick Trend

H E R I T A G Ed e s k

Old Town of Corfu

The ensemble of the fortifications and the Old Town of Corfu is located in a strategic location at the entrance to the Adriatic Sea.

Historically, its roots go back to the 8th century BC and to the Byzantine period. It has thus been subject to various influences and a mix of different peoples.

From the 15th century, Corfu was under Venetian rule for some four centuries, then passing to French, British and Greek governments. At various occasions, it had to defend the Venetian maritime empire against the Ottoman army.

Corfu was a well thought of example of fortification engi-neering, designed by the architect Sanmicheli, and it proved its worth through practical warfare.

Corfu has its specific identity, which is reflected in the design of its system of fortification and in its neo-classical building stock. As such, it can be placed alongside other major Mediterranean fortified port cities.

(Source: UNESCO)

ROUND THE GLOBE

H E R I T A G Ed e s k

TEHRAN — Iran’s cultural Heritage body has commenced documentation of an ancient

chain of vertical-axis windmills, which can be found in eastern parts of the country.

The Cultural Heritage, Handicrafts and Tourism Organiza-tion runs the project to collect substantial evidence needed for a possible inclusion in the UNESCO World Heritage list, CHTN reported on Monday.

The mission of mapping and documenting is being initially conducted for thirty selected specimens that stand tall in Khaf county, Khorasan Razavi province.

Architectural plans, facades, cross-section geometry, pho-togrammetry measurements, and their ownership are amongst issues being investigated, the report added.

Vertical-axis windmills, which are locally known as “Asbads” can be found in Sistan-Baluchestan, South Khorasan and Kho-rasan Razavi provinces, southeast, south, and northeast of the country, respectively.

Asbad used to be a smart technique to grind grains. It also bares testimony to the human being’s adaption with the nature through transforming environmental obstacles into opportunities.

Currently, avid visitors and researchers can see the subtle yet simple mechanism in person as several windmills have been restored and brought back to life.

TEHRAN – A total of twelve Sassanid-era potteries have recently been confiscated from

people who were illegally excavating in Kazerun county, southern Fars province.

“These antique and treasured objects were recovered from a group of illegal diggers in a village within Kazerun county, fol-lowing reports obtained from cultural heritage advocates,” said Hamid Rahmatollahi, commander of the police department for the protection of cultural heritage.

The police also confiscated a metal detector, three [large] bits and some other drilling tools from the group, he added.

The Sassanid era (224 CE–651) is of very high importance in the Iranian history, under which Persian art and architecture experienced a general renaissance.

Iran starts documentation of ancient windmills for UNESCO tag

Sassanid-era potteries seized in southern Iran

Crisis stemming from crackdown on an-ti-Ortega protesters has left resorts on the stunning western coast empty and busi-nesses on edge

Peckish pelicans nosedive into the crys-talline waters off Nicaragua’s most exclusive stretch of shoreline. Iguanas lounge in the shimmering mid-morning heat, oblivious to the political tsunami engulfing their home.

Until April, Manzanillo beach’s unspoiled sands were a “superstar getaway” graced by the likes of Beyoncé, Scarlett Johansson, Michael Fassbender and deep-pocketed jet-setters able to pay for the $550-a-night-plus rooms at Nicaragua’s premier resort, Mukul.

But the revolt against Daniel Ortega has transformed the luxury 37-room property into a guest-less ghost resort – and the most potent symbol of Nicaragua’s col-lapsed tourism industry.

Custom-made mussel-shell chandeliers still adorn deserted oceanfront villas but the plunge pools outside are filled with stagnant water and decomposing leaves.

“It’s because of the situation,” said one staff member lucky enough to keep their job when Mukul closed last month after being

abandoned by all its guests. Hundreds of colleagues were less fortunate. “We hope they might reopen, in November, or De-

cember or January maybe,” the employee speculated. “We’ll see.”

Nicaragua’s crisis – which has seen hundreds killed, thousands injured and led many western governments to warn against visiting the country – has ravaged the nascent tourism industry along its stun-ning western coast.

“I’d say most businesses are on the edge,” said Carl Segerstrale, one of the owners of NSR, a surf tourism company at the Ha-cienda Iguana condominium-resort just north of Mukul.

Segerstrale said occupancy rates in his properties had plummeted from 85% to 15% after protests began in April and were likely to fall further.

“Business-wise we are now really starting to feel the burn,” he admitted. “It’s extremely painful ... It is certainly secondary to the violence that is going on and the loss of life but ... [the crisis] has a real impact on families.”

(Source: The Guardian)

Ghost resorts: Nicaragua’s tourism industry ravaged by violent unrest

T O U R I S Md e s k

TEHRAN — Iranian cy-clist Hassan Khorashadi

is slated to ride across Rig Yelan desert, deemed as one of the hottest spots on Earth, to try and set a Guinness World Record, Mehr reported on Saturday.

The athlete is scheduled to try hand at trekking a 120-kilometer course on Au-gust 10 within a span of 12 hours when the temperature in the desert reaches over 60 degrees centigrade.

Native of South Khorasan province, Kho-rashadi has been professionally cycling for 14 years, Mehr reported.

“The impression of cycling across Earth’s hottest spot popped into my head in 2016 when I was traversing Lut Desert,” the ath-lete said.

He also referred to measures to be taken

to achieve the record, saying “My cycling marathon will be documented and submit-ted to Guinness authorities in order to be accessed to go on their records.”

Other objective for the event is to pro-mote the Lut Desert in an international scale, Khorashadi added.

Rig Yelan is referred to some eastern parts of the UNESCO-registered Lut Desert which is rich in magnificent scenery and unparalleled serenity. Iranian deserts have always lured people who are in search of new adventures.

Seven years of satellite temperature data analyzed by NASA has shown that the Lut Desert is the hottest spot on Earth. Based on the research, it was hottest during 5 of the 7 years, and had the highest temperature overall: 70.7°C in 2005.

Iranian cyclist to defy hot desert, eying world record

Iranian cyclist Hassan Khorashadi rides across the Lut Desert in an undated photo.

San Juan del Sur, where nearly all hotels are empty or closed because of the crisis.

A view of the Old Town of Corfu on the Island of Corfu off the western coasts of Albania and Greece

Over 1.2 million acres are currently burning across much of the West, Alaska and Florida. In California, the Carr Fire in Shasta County has scorched more than 100,000 acres, and the Ferguson Fire has driven tourists out of Yosemite National Park.

Photojournalist Michael Kodas, depu-ty director of the University of Colorado’s Center for Environmental Journalism, has worked as a wildland firefighter and is author of Megafire: The Race to Extinguish a Deadly Epidemic of Flame.

There are lots of drivers. Fuels like tim-ber and grass, drought to dry them to the point of combustion, and high temperatures that help flames spread quickly are usually involved.

The Tubbs Fire, which burned into Santa Rosa in 2017, was counterintuitively set up by a break in California’s drought during the previous winter. That pulse of moisture allowed a burst of what firefighters call “one-hour fuels” — grasses and other fine vegeta-tion that grow fast, but can be dried to the point of burning in an hour when drought conditions return.

Igniting heavy timberDead needles on coniferous trees killed

by drought can act like fine fuels, spreading fire rapidly through the crowns of the dead trees and igniting heavy timber below them.

What does it mean when reports say a fire

is 10 percent or 20 percent controlled? Can that erode if a fire spreads in unexpected ways?

In the United States we fight wildfires

more often with dirt than with water. Con-tainment usually describes the percentage of the blaze surrounded by a fire line — a perim-

eter around the fire that’s been dug down to mineral soil, leaving no fuel to carry the fire across the line. Fire lines can join together other barriers, such as paved highways and rivers, to corral the blaze.

But strong breezes behind a wildfire can launch fire brands a mile or more to ignite timber, grasses or even communities on the other side of the containment line. So a sudden wind change can push a blaze across a fire line that otherwise would have held it back.

Warming worldThree firefighters have died on the job in

California in the past several days. Do you think this work is becoming more dangerous in a warming world?

Climate change is definitely magnifying some of the hazards that firefighters face, but rapid development in the West is probably a bigger factor. The U.S. Forest Service estimates that more than one-third of all U.S. homes are in the wildland-urban interface — the area where development abuts flammable open space, and houses are at risk of burning in a wildfire.

Out of necessity, the nation is prioritizing fighting wildfires close to communities and infrastructure. So firefighters who once only had to worry about the hazards of fires burning through forests now also have to contend with threats like power lines and fuel tanks.

(Source: Newsweek)

S C I E N C EAUGUST 7, 2018 11I N T E R N A T I O N A L D A I L Y

The explosion that rocked Eta Carinae in the 1840s was nearly as powerful as a supernova explosion. Amazingly, the star survived.

Eta Carinae is the most luminous star in the Milky Way, and its near annihilation over a century ago is still subject of study. Until now, 170 years later, scientists puz-zle over the eruption and the mysterious reason behind it.

It’s impossible to backtrack and get a glimpse of the explosion, but scientists have found another way to get more in-formation by observing what’s known as “light echoes.” This phenomenon is when the light emanating from the explosion bounces off interstellar dust and arrives on Earth much later.

The light echo from the Eta Carinae explosion is only just making its way to Earth.

One of the astronomers who led the research is Nathan Smith of the University of Arizona, who calls light echoes the “next best thing to time travel.”

“They give us a chance to unravel the mysteries of a rare stellar eruption that was witnessed 170 years ago, but using our modern telescopes and cameras,” Smith explains in a report from the Gemini Observatory, adding that the data from the event can be compared to the nebula created from the blast.

Wayward light analyzedBy analyzing the wayward light, astron-

omers discovered that material expanded from the blast up to 20 times faster than they expected, according to NASA.

The speed is comparable to the fastest material ever ejected from a supernova explosion. It’s strange to witness from dying stars, as these often produce very

slow, gentle winds.Due to the new findings documented

in a pair of papers in the Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society, the as-tronomers suggest that the explosion may be borne from a tussle among three stars.

In a violent explosion, the Eta Cari-nae may have devoured one of its siblings, spitting out material 10 times the mass of the sun. This mass eventually became the dumbbell-shaped gas cloud called Homun-culus that’s still seen in modern images.

“We see these really high velocities in a star that seems to have had a powerful explosion, but somehow the star survived. The easiest way to do this is with a shock wave that exits the star and accelerates material to very high speeds,” Smith says.

Eventually, Eta Carinae will experience a true supernova explosion and meet its end. This is due in the next half million years, potentially much sooner.

(Source: natureworldnews.com)

The blazing star in the Milky Way just won’t die, scientists claim

In 2003, researchers digging in a mountain cave on the Indonesian island of Flores discov-ered astonishing fossils of a tiny, humanlike individual with a small, chimp-sized brain. They called the species Homo floresiensis.

These relatives of modern humans stood just over three feet tall. Several villages in the area, scientists noted, are inhabited by people whose average height is 4 feet 9 inches.

Was this the result of interbreeding long ago between taller modern humans and short-er Homo floresiensis? Fifteen years after the bones’ discovery, a study of the DNA of living people on Flores has delivered a verdict.

“It’s rare in science that you set about to answer a question and you get something of a definitive answer and it’s the end,” said Richard E. Green, a geneticist at the University of California, Santa Cruz, and a co-author of the study, published on Thursday in Science.

Relatives grew shorterBut as often happens in science, the an-

swer to one question raises new ones. The study shows that at least twice in ancient history, humans and their relatives (known as hominins) arrived on Flores and then grew shorter.

When the fossils of Homo floresiensis first came to light, many researchers hoped they might still hold fragments of DNA. They were encouraged by the initial dating of the fossils — an estimated age of perhaps just 13,000 years.

DNA analysis might have settled the de-bate over how Homo floresiensis fits into the hominin family tree. Some researchers argued that the bones simply belonged to a modern human with a growth disorder.

Others argued that they belonged to a much more distant branch of the human tree, evolving from a taller hominin species called Homo erectus.

In 2007 Herawati Sudoyo, a geneticist at the Eijkman Institute for Molecular Biolo-gy in Indonesia, brought samples of Homo floresiensis fossils to Dr. Green, then at the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary An-thropology in Germany.

Getting DNA from fossilsHard as he and his colleagues tried, they

failed to get any definitive DNA from the fossils. “We could never really make sense of it,” said Dr. Green.

Liang Bua cave on Flores Island, where Homo floresiensis was discovered, in 2009. Scientists wonder why pygmy body types seem endemic to Flores. Ancient dwarf el-ephants also evolved here.

Years later, Dr. Green and his colleagues made two important discoveries. They found that humans and Neanderthals interbred; about 1 percent of the DNA of living non-Africans comes from those vanished hominins.

(Source: The NYT)

Bodies keep shrinking on this island, and scientists aren’t sure why

Expert describes the challenges of how to fight wildfires across the world

The end-Cretaceous extinction unleashed modern shark diversityA study that examined the shape of hundreds of fossilized shark teeth suggests that modern shark biodiversity was triggered by the end-Cretaceous mass extinction event, about 66 million years ago.

As part of a larger scientific endeavor aiming to understand the diversity of fossil sharks, a group of researchers from Uppsala University, Sweden, and the University of New England, Australia, have explored how certain groups of sharks responded to the mass extinction that killed-off non-bird dinosaurs and marked the end of the Cretaceous period and the Mesozoic era.

Much like several other vertebrate groups during the Cretaceous (142-66 million years ago), shark diversity looked very different from today. Ground sharks (Carcharhiniformes) are the most di-verse shark group living today, with over 200 different species. However, while dinosaurs dominated terrestrial environments during the Cretaceous, Mackerel sharks (Lamniformes) were the dominant shark forms of the sea.

“Our study found that the shift from lamniform- to carchar-hiniform-dominated assemblages may well have been the result of the end-Cretaceous mass extinction,” said project leader and Uppsala doctoral student Mohamad Bazzi.

Sharks are one of the major groups that survived the Creta-ceous-Palaeogene mass extinction and, today, carcharhiniforms are typified by forms such as the Tiger, Hammerhead, and Blacktip Reef sharks and lamniforms by the Great White and Mako sharks.

“Unlike other vertebrates, the cartilaginous skeletons of sharks do not easily fossilize and so our knowledge of these fishes is largely limited to the thousands of isolated teeth they shed throughout their lives,” says Mr. Bazzi. “Fortunately, shark teeth can tell us a lot about their biology, including information about diet, which can shed light on the mechanisms behind their extinction and survival.”

The team used “cutting-edge” analytical techniques to explore the variation of tooth shape in carcharhiniforms and lamniforms and measured diversity by calculating the range of morphological variation, also called disparity. (Source: Science Daily)

Mysteriously and intense low-frequency radio signal detected in space, team saysAstronomers detected yet another mysterious and powerful fast radio burst hitting Earth from an unknown source in space.

If that’s not strange enough, this particular fast radio burst is in-credibly low, in the 580 megahertz frequency range – nearly 200 MHz lower than any other fast radio burst we’ve picked up on before.

They can generate as much energy as 500 million Suns in mere milliseconds, and there could be as many as one happening every second. The problem is, we still don’t know what’s causing them.

One of the signals we’ve detected has repeated, sending out multi-ple FRBs from the same location, and this has allowed us to pinpoint where in the Universe is coming from.

But we still don’t know for certain what caused it, or even if there are different varieties of FRBs coming from different sources. The vast majority signals we only ever detect once, which gives us very little to go off.

The fast radio burst has been named FRB 180725A after the year, month, and day it was detected.

The most interesting part is that the intense signal was transmitted in radio frequencies as low as 580 megahertz - making it the first detection of a FRB under 700 MHz.

The Astronomer’s Telegram is a bulletin board of observations posted by accredited researchers - so while these are genuine detections, it’s important to note that they haven’t been peer reviewed as yet and independent teams haven’t verified that the signals are from space.

That sounds like a silly thing to say, but let’s not forget that back in 1998, researchers thought they had discovered a new type of radio signal coming from space, only to figure out 17 years later that it was coming from a microwave oven in their research facility. Or even the very recent rediscovery of Mars.

(Source: sciencealert.com)

There are lots of drivers. Fuels like timber and grass, drought to dry them to the point of combustion, and high temperatures that help

flames spread quickly are usually involved.

Bank Saderat Issues Deposit Bonds in IME

CII Plans to Integrate Insurance Firms

EDBI Inks Refinance Contract with Moscow Mir Business Bank

In response to the requirement of customers, Bank Saderat Iran issues gold coin deposit certificate named ‘Khazaneh Zarrin” due to the growing demand for purchasing and maintaining gold coins, the Public Relations

Dept. of IME reported. This bank has embarked on presenting

gold coin deposit certificate to customers in cooperation with Iran Mercantile Exchange (IME).

In this service, applicants can take advantage of gold coin deposit certificate.

In the first phase, safe deposit boxes of Bank Saderat Iran will be issued in five large cities including Tehran, Mashhad, Tabriz,

Shiraz and Isfahan. Individuals can retake their gold coin with

presenting their certificate to the deposit box and/or sell their deposit certificate in Iran Mercantile Exchange.

Chairman of Central Insurance of Iran (CII) Gholam-Reza Soleimani revealed the merge and integration of two- or three insurance companies, the Public Relations Dept. of the company reported.

Planning is underway for integration of two and three insurance companies at the sole discretion of shareholders.

Annual general assemblies of all insurance companies have been held and assignments, that should be explained in the Assembly, have also been raised, based on which, nec-essary corrections will be conducted with relation to 2017 fiscal year, the report added.

He put the insurance policies issues up to the present time by the Central Insur-ance of Iran (CII) at 19.3 million, based on which, the company has given 16.1 million compensations.

With due observance to the said issue,

the number of insurance policies issued and compensations paid in the same period has experienced a considerable 7.7 and 28.3 percent respectively as compared to the same period of last year.

Share of private sector out of compensa-tion paid to the insurance industry stands at 66.3 percent, the share of which is on the verge of palpable growth, he maintained.

In the same direction, other insurance companies in the country, except Central Insurance of Iran which holds the lion’s share of insurance at the market, hold negligible share of insurance, so that, it is logical to empower companies in the field of merging

insurance companies.Earlier, expectations of shareholders

should be taken into serious consideration in this respect, he reiterated.

After the US pullout from JCPOA (Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action), some inter-national insurance companies, which have established interaction with the American companies, announced us that they cannot continue cooperation with the Islamic Re-public of Iran.

However, Iranian companies and Central Insurance of Iran (CII) enjoy high capa-bility in order to transfer reinsurance into the country.

Export Development Bank of Iran (EDBI) inked a refi-nance (short-term) contract with Mir Business Bank of Moscow for importing basic materials and staples, the Public Relations Dept. of the bank reported.

Upon signing and sealing refinance contract with Mir Business Bank of Moscow, giant steps were taken for im-porting staples, the report added.

The report put the value of refinance contract inked be-

tween Export Development Bank of Iran and Mir Business Bank of Moscow at €10 million, based on which, suitable ways will be paved for importing basic goods, staples, medical equipment and also raw materials of industrial and production units.

The interest rate of facilities and loans paid in euro to Mir Business Bank of Moscow for the aforementioned refinance period stands at 2.5 percent in a year.

Accordingly, repayment periods are in 6- and 12-month, so that two percent of fee of operating banks will be assed to the costs earmarked for importing products into the country according to the FOREX tariff services.

Under the stipulated rules and regulations, refinancing for importing products into the mainland from Russia and/or Commonwealth Independent States (CIS) should be authorized by the relevant ministry, the report concluded.

The subtle mechanics of an avalanche -- as seen in 3DAn avalanche is an extremely complex event, with countless parameters and physical variables coming into play from the time the avalanche is triggered until it ends. Johan Gaume, a researcher in the Laboratory of Cryospheric Sciences (CRYOS) and SLF, has created a highly accurate digital simulation of an avalanche based on these parameters. His work, which offers unprecedented insight into how avalanches work, could be used to improve risk management in the mountains.

The young avalanche expert spent several months last year at the University of California Los Angeles (UCLA) working with 3D modeling experts, some of whom had worked with Disney’s engineers to simulate the snow in the film Frozen.

Combining these mathematicians’ know-how with Gaume’s scientific expertise turned out to be a winning formula. The math-ematicians were able to increase the accuracy of their snow sim-ulation thanks to Gaume’s in-depth knowledge and the data and field observations collected and analyzed by Alec Van Herwijnen, Gaume’s SLF colleague and co-author of the study.

Adopting a whole new approach, the Swiss and U.S. researchers created the first realistic, complete and scientifically rigorous simulation of a snow slab avalanche - a type of avalanche that occurs when a very clear linear crack appears at the top of the snowpack. This usually happens when, over a large area, there is a weak - and therefore not very cohesive - snowpack layer under the dense top layer of snow, known as the slab.

A snow slab avalanche is usually triggered when there is an extra load - such as a crossing skier - on the snow, or when the snowpack is destabilized in some other way, for instance by an explosion. This causes a crack to appear in the bottom layer of snow, which can spread rapidly. (Source: eurekalert.org)

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

W O M E N AUGUST 7, 2018

Female soccer players may be more likely to experience brain damage from heading the ball than male athletes, a U.S. study suggests.

Researchers examined brain scans of 49 male and 49 female amateur soccer players who reported a similar number of headings during the previous year. Half of the men had at least 487 headings, while half of the women had at least 469.

The scans were done with diffusion tensor imaging, a form of MRI that detects subtle brain damage by measuring the direction of the diffusion of water in white matter, the

deep brain tissue that coordinates commu-nication between brain regions.

Scans showed that the volume of dam-aged white matter in women was five times greater than it was for men, researchers report in Radiology.

Women had eight brain regions where greater levels of heading were associated with structural damage, compared with only three regions in men, the study also found.

“It has long been known that women fare worse, in general, following concussion,” said senior study author Dr. Michael Lipton

of Albert Einstein College of Medicine and Montefiore Medical Center in New York City.

“However, some have considered this an artifact due to women being more likely to report symptoms than men,” Lipton said by email. Results of the current study suggest that different outcomes from brain injuries in women and men can’t be explained by reporting because all of the participants in the current study experienced similar numbers of headings, Lipton noted.

“It shows the greater sensitivity of women at the level of brain tissue,” Lipton said.

Men and women in the study were similar in many ways. For example, they started playing soccer around the same age and played for roughly the same number of years, and they also played with similar frequency.

Beyond its small size, another limitation of the study is the lack of data on whether or how brain injuries from headings might translate into impairments in athletes’ phys-ical or mental abilities. Headings were also self-reported by athletes, and researchers only examined brain scans at one point in time.

(Source: Reuters Health)

Soccer headings may damage women’s brains more

Basking In the glow of international praise for allowing women to drive, Saudi Arabia issued a self-congratulatory press release June 27, saying Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, the country’s young ruler, wanted to go fur-ther with his “Vision 2030” project. “Advancing the role of women is an important element” of the plan, the press release declared. However, it appears that allowing women to voice their opinions is not part of the plan. Instead, the crown prince is throwing them in jail.

The most recent victims are two women’s rights activ-ists, Samar Badawi and Nassima al-Sadah, both apparently detained for their outspoken advocacy. Ms. Badawi was a recipient of the 2012 International Women of Courage Award from the State Department.

The citation described her as “a powerful voice” advo-cating for women’s suffrage and against the guardianship system, under which women cannot marry, work or travel without the permission of a guardian or male relative. The citation added, “In a landmark case, Badawi was the first

woman to sue her father for abusing the guardian system and preventing her from marrying the suitor of her choice. She is also the first woman to file a lawsuit against the government demanding the right for women to vote, and launched an online campaign to encourage other women to file similar suits. The efforts of activists like Badawi helped encourage a royal decree allowing women to vote and run for office in future municipal elections.”

Ms. Badawi is the brother of Raif Badawi, a blogger who founded a website called Free Saudi Liberals, where he chal-lenged the religious establishment, promoted women’s rights and called for a more tolerant society. He was arrested and sentenced in May 2014, to 10 years in prison, 1,000?lashes, and a 10-year travel and media ban following release. In January 2015, Badawi received the first 50?lashes in front of a Jiddah mosque.

Since then, the punishment has stopped, but he remains in prison despite an international outcry over the monarchy’s cruel treatment of a blogger.

The recent Saudi press release said the right to drive is “just one example” of the crown prince’s “progressive agenda” in Vision 2030. Is it really progressive to imprison the people who first campaigned for the right to drive? In May, the crown prince detained at least seven people — five women and two men — who had been advocates for the right of women to drive. On top of that, recent months have seen wave after wave of arrests of writers and intellectuals who dared speak out or show the slightest dissatisfaction with the monarchy. Human Rights Watch has reported a skyrocketing number of people being detained for more than six months without referral to courts.

The crown prince seems to be gambling that he can be successful as an economic modernizer, diversifying away from dependence on oil, while retaining the kingdom’s re-pressive ways when it comes to human rights.

This is misguided. In the end, modernization means freedom of the mind as well as freedom to drive.

(Source: The Washington Post)

The Saudi crown prince is throwing women in jail for speaking up

Calling Tech Support Tech guy: Hello, thanks for calling 123 Tech Help, I’m Todd. How can I help you?Client: Hello? Can you help me? My computer! Oh man...Todd: It’s okay sir, calm down. What happened?Client: I turned on my laptop and it broke! I mean, the monitor went black!Todd: Ok, sir, it sounds like you might have a virus.Client: I don’t feel sick,...let me check... Nope! No fever, I’m fine.Todd: No, your computer might have a virus, I mean, it has a bad program on it. Maybe that’s why it crashed. I recommend that you run an antivirus program in order to safely remove any unwanted spyware or Trojans.Client: Phew! . . . . . .Wait a minute, CRASH??!! Spyware? Trojans! What? Where? When?!

Key vocabularyoh man: to express emotion or feeling, like God, Jesuscalm down: become quiet or calm, relaxlaptop: a small computer which is easily carriedI mean: to express one’s own opinion, meaningmonitor: an electronic display that shows imagesvirus: a program designed to harm a computernope: no program: a set of instructions to perform crash: stop working or functioning properlyrun: to work or be in operationantivirus: a program designed to identify and remove computer virusesspyware: software that secretly gathers information

Supplementary vocabularyhotline: a telephone line that gives quick and direct access to a source of information or helpphishing: to request confidential information over the Internet under false pretenses in order to fraudulently obtain credit card numbers, passwords, or other personal datacrack: to break open or into something such as a safe or a computer systemformat: to divide (a disk) into marked sectors so that it may store data

(Source: irlanguage.com)

L E A R N E N G L I S H

RECIPE OF THE WEEK

W O M E Nd e s k

1 “They have come far away from those days that women were not studying very much and they are far from barriers for their social appearance or for their participations in social events or even studying at the university,” Farshchi, holding post doctorate in coastal zone management explained.

“There are many women studying at uni-versities at different courses in Iran. They are very much in the society as employees. They work. And also at high level.

“I am sure that I’m not to be the last woman ambassador of the Islamic Republic of Iran to other countries,” Farshchi, 58, added.

“There are many capable women in the country and I am sure with this approach of promoting the role of women in the society, which the government has adopted, many more women, who are much more capable than me, can definitely secure high positions either in national, regional or international levels,” she said with modesty.

“As an Iranian woman, at first place, I want to demonstrate Europe and the whole world, the way that women in Iran are living and make other people familiarized with what potentially Iranian women are capable of,” said Farshchi, explaining “what I found in Iranian woman is that they are very ambitious; they are very hardworking and they are very committed to what they have accepted as their commitment.

“They are well-educated. They have got a good social relationship with all groups at all levels of society. They are good managers and they have got lots of creative ideas that they can present.

“Being Iranian Muslim ladies, they have learned all through their life so many good beliefs, in the family and in the society,” said the current deputy environment chief for marine affairs.

“Iranian women have the ability to lead as a leader, good leaders for other women and other human beings,” she said.

Farshchi, went on to say that “What we can definitely, as a messenger of Iranian woman show to the society of Iran and the interna-tional society is to make people understand the true face of Iranian women.

“They are very capable and they are very hardworking; at the same time, I think they can be very good leaders in whatever respon-sibility they take.

“They can definitely prove to be a very good managers because of what they have learned as an Iranian woman; what they have learned as an Iranian Muslim woman, in the framework of family.

“They are very powerful and from those starting days of being a daughter, being a sister or being a mother. They are really learning how to manage because they are the managers of the houses,” she highlighted.

“In many cultures, I have seen that men are the managers of the house, but in Iran women are the managers of the house and family and the frame of the family is a woman.

“A woman is the core of a family and being the core of the family gives women so much of freedom in making the social relations, making decisions and to be good planners.

“Women of Iran are good planners in differ-ent levels; whether they are housewives or they are working at offices,” explained the official.

“I am very happy with this approach of the government that they are promoting

the role of women in the society,” Farshchi emphasized.

Expressing happiness about being appoint-ed as an ambassador to a country in which about 80% percent of women are active in the society, Farshchi put emphasis on many areas of cooperation between Finland and Iran in different spheres, not only culture and politics but on different spheres like economy.

“We can definitely have so much of re-lationships with Finland because they have got a very high ability in IT and technology and transfer of technology. Definitely there exists so much of mutual benefits for both countries,” she noted.

There would be definitely mutual cooper-ation between two countries on environment as well, because Finland is a member of very huge body of water, i.e. Baltic, Farshchi replied to Tehran Times question regarding mutual activities of the two countries.

“I believe that on the area of the environ-ment, specifically when it comes to marine environment, there will be so much of common interests between both countries, she said, elaborating that we can definitely be thinking of working on marine environment issues,

transfer technology, economy and culture.”“I am sure that there are lots of mutual

interests between both countries.“I feel very proud to be given this oppor-

tunity to represent my country at first place and at second place to represent Iranian wom-en. I hope that I can be successful and I can bring changes, positives changes, based on responsibilities that has been given to me.

“I think when you work at regional and international levels you understand that there are lots to learn, and there are lots to do.

“Basically, improving the relationships between the countries and at regional and international level will definitely bring pros-perity to the country,” she enlightened.

“Off course, national interests are the first most significant issue but besides that I am sure that the whole world has come to the point that they have to be working together in order to bring prosperity to the human kind,” Farshchi concluded.

Working with the Department of Envi-ronment since 1998, Farshchi has been ap-pointed as a senior advisor to the department chief since then. She has the opportunity to be appointed as a project manager for envi-ronmental cooperation between the Caspian littoral countries from the United Nations.

She was appointed as a project manager from 2009-2012. And she was coordinating cooperation between the five countries.

The Caspian Sea is the largest inland body of water in the world and accounts for 40 to 44% of the total lacustrine waters of the world. The coastlines of the Caspian are shared by Azerbaijan, Iran, Kazakhstan, Russia, and Turkmenistan.

Later on 2012, when she returned to the country, she was appointed as the deputy minister to the marine environment. All these years from 1998 till now she was coordinating all relationships on environmental issues between all eleven neighbors which are littoral countries of the Persian Gulf, Sea of Oman and Caspian Sea.

Being coordinators of activities between eleven countries has given Farshchi an oppor-tunity to be working on regional and interna-tional dimensions of the work, she clarified.

Majlis to facilitate departure of talented women: MP

TEHRAN — Members of the National Security and Foreign Policy Committee

of Iran’s parliament (Majlis) approved a plan for facilita-tion of women’s departure from the country without their

husband’s permission, said Tayebeh Siavashi, Iranian fe-male Member of Parliament here on Sunday.

If the plan gains final ap-proval, all talented women in science, culture and sports are allowed to leave the country with the permission of the prosecutor or the competent court or the organization re-lated to their activity, IRNA reported.

Women who are interested to attend scientific, economic,

sports and cultural Olympiads and their husbands do not give them permission for departing the country, are allowed to depart the country based on the permission of the related organizations or the prosecutor or the competent court, she elaborated.

Currently if a woman is not permitted by her husband to leave the country, is allowed to depart only based on the prosecutor’s permission, but the new law facilitated the process through the related organization’s permission, Siavashi said.

If the plan receives final approval and confirmation of the Guardian Council, it will be implemented, she noted.

Cantaloupe crunch“This is a great way to get anyone to eat cantaloupe. It’s quick, easy, and delicious.”

Ingredients:

3 cups cubed cantaloupe1/3 cup lemon juice1/2 cup white sugar1 tablespoon all-purpose flour2 tablespoons butter, melted1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon1/4 teaspoon ground nutmeg1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract1 (18.25 ounce) package white cake mix1/2 cup butter, melted

Directions:Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C).In a medium bowl, mix together the cantaloupe, lemon juice,

sugar, flour, 2 tablespoons melted butter, cinnamon, nutmeg and vanilla. Transfer to a 9 inch square baking dish, and spread the dry cake mix evenly over the top. Drizzle the remaining melted butter over the cake mix.

Bake for 45 minutes in the preheated oven, or until the top is golden brown.

12Women in Iran enjoy good freedom, are

good planners: female diplomat

“de-“ Meaning: down, off, away from For example: You need to type in a code number

to deactivate the alarm.

Take something apart Meaning: purposely break into pieces For example: He took the car brakes apart

and found the problem.

The best thing since sliced bread

Explanation: used humorously to say that some-thing new is very helpful, useful etc.

For example: He reckons his new mobile phone is the best thing since sliced bread.

PREFIX/SUFFIX PHRASAL VERB IDIOM

ENGLISH IN USE

20% of schools in Iran built by philanthropistsMore than one fifth of the schools in Iran have been constructed by philanthropists, First Vice-President Es’haq Jahangiri has said, IRNA reported. Education is at the core of development in the country, Jahangiri said, adding that poor education and inefficient educational entities can negatively affect all the sectors and have harmful cultural and economic consequences. Education Minister Mohammad Bat’haei, for his part, said that there are some 650,000 philanthropists are active in field of building schools in Iran. “There are also some 1,000 expatriate donors who have established philanthropic partnership in Iran.”

20 درصد مدارس کشور را خیرین ساخته اندبــه گــزارش خبرگــزاری ایرنــا اســحاق جهانگیــری معــاون اول رئیــس جمهــوری گفــت: بیــش از 20 درصــد

مدرســه ســازی کشــور بــه همــت خیریــن انجــام شــده اســت.ــه کشــور دانســت و یادآورشــد: ضعــف در ــادی توســعه همــه جانب ــون بنی ــرورش را کان ــوزش و پ وی آمــی و ــائل فرهنگ ــی آن در مس ــار منف ــت و آث ــذار اس ــر گ ــور تاثی ــی ام ــر تمام ــور ب ــی کش ــام آموزش نظ

ــود. ــده می ش ــور دی ــادی کش اقتصســید محمــد بطحایــی وزیــر آمــوزش و پــرورش نیــز گفــت: بیــش از 650 هــزار خیــر مدرسه ســاز در داخــل

کشــور و هــزار خیــر مدرسه ســاز در خــارج از کشــور فعالیــت دارنــد،

LEARN NEWS TRANSLATION

Women in Iran are very different from women of other Muslim countries: Farshchi

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

AUGUST 7, 2018

Rohingya refugees living in a severely overcrowded mega camp should be relo-cated by the Bangladeshi government to safer areas, Human Rights Watch (HRW) said on Monday.

A 68-page report by the New York-based group highlighted the dangers the Rohingya face from flooding and landslides during the monsoon season as they wait to return to their homeland in Myanmar, as well as the heightened risks of communicable diseases, fires, community tensions, and domestic and sexual violence to which the densely packed refugees are subjected.

These refugees “should have sturdier shelters and adequate education for their extended stay”, said the report titled, Bang-ladesh Is Not My Country: The Plight of Rohingya Refugees from Myanmar.

It called on Bangladeshi authorities to transfer the Rohingya to smaller, less-con-gested camps on flatter, proximate land in the same Ukhiya sub-district where the mega camp is located.

Since August last year, more than 700,000 Rohingya have fled across the border from Rakhine State in Myanmar, after the army waged a brutal crackdown against the Mus-lim minority.

An estimated 626,000 Rohingya - from last year’s and past displacements - are now living in the Kutapalong-Balukhali camp, making it the largest refugee camp in the

world.It is severely overcrowded, the report

said, with the average usable space at 10.7sq meters a person, far below the recommended international standard of 45sq meters for each individual.

The United Nations refugee agency es-timates 200,000 Rohingya are at risk of floods and landslides.

Mohammad Abul Kalam, the Refugee Relief and Repatriation Commissioner for Bangladesh’s disaster management ministry,

told Al Jazeera there is “no doubt” the camp is “definitely overcrowded”.

“But we also don’t have much mainland,” he said. “We are a population of 160 million and suffer from land scarcity. So, settling the refugees in the first place is really re-markable.”

The Bangladesh government said it would soon start relocating 100,000 Rohingya to Bhasan Char, an uninhabited mangrove-and-grass island. However, HRW said it was not fit for accommodation because of

its vulnerability to high waves and tides, and in the event of a cyclone, it would be completely submerged under water.

“We are very concerned for the plan of relocating Rohingya refugees to Bhasan Char,” Nay San Lwin, a coordinator of Free Rohingya Coalition based in London, told Al Jazeera.

“The refugees in the camps are also not willing to move to Bhasan Char. They would be more comfortable if they were relocat-ed within Ukhiya with easy access to aid agencies.”

According to HRW’s report, there are six practical relocation sites in Ukhiya - in an eight-kilometer stretch west of the Kutupalong-Balukhali camp - that could accommodate 263,000 people.

Yet Abul Kalam said the government is “serious” about relocating refugees to Bhasan Char as “they have invested a lot of money in this”.

In addition to relocation, the report said the Rohingya, particularly the recent arrivals over the past year, have a right to a dignified life.

“Bangladesh should register fleeing Ro-hingya as refugees, ensure adequate health-care and education, and let them pursue livelihoods outside the camp,” said Bill Frelick, refugee rights director at Human Rights Watch.

(Source: Al Jazeera)

Trump admits son met with Russian to get information on opponent

1 The Washington Post reported Sunday that Trump has been brooding in private about whether his son unintentionally put himself in legal jeopardy by meeting with Veselnitskaya.

Trump called the report “a complete fabrication.”Donald Jr. initially said in a statement to the New York Times

in July 2017 that the meeting was “primarily” about American adoptions of Russian children. The Post has reported that the statement was dictated by the president.

Donald Jr. later admitted he accepted the meeting with Vesel-nitskaya in hopes of obtaining damaging information on Clinton, but said nothing came of it.

Trump’s lawyers argue that the meeting, in and of itself, vi-olated no laws.

“The question is how will it be illegal? The real question here is, would ... the meeting itself constitute a violation of the law,” Trump lawyer Jay Sekulow said Sunday on ABC’s “This Week.”

(Source: AFP)

Car explodes in central Cairo, injuring 13 peopleA car exploded in central Cairo Monday after colliding with a microbus, injuring 13 people, the Egyptian Health Min-istry said.

Reuters reporters heard a loud blast in the area and saw a car on the side of the road completely destroyed, with bits of twisted and punctured metal scattered nearby. There appeared to be damage to a nearby building including smashed windows.

Smoke from the blast could be seen rising from the other side of the Nile River.

The ministry said in a statement that the injured were taken from the scene near a bridge in the Dokki district to three different hospitals, where they were being treated for wounds and burns.

State-run media reported that explosives experts had concluded that the blast was caused by an electrical fault which spread a fire to the car’s fuel tank.

A security source gave a similar account in a statement to journalists, saying the car’s electrics short-circuited, causing a fire, then an explosion. However, the source said the traffic accident had occurred after the blast.

A Health Ministry official told a local radio station that several other people were treated at the scene for minor injuries.

(Source: Reuters)

A Contemplation on Obama’s Campaign against Trump

1 The main question here is, regarding the current poo-litical changes in the United States, what would our country’s policies be? There seems to be some false calculations in this regard that should be corrected.

One of the most important points here is about “how to inter-pret political changes in America”. Unfortunately, some Iranian officials seem to have opened a special account on the “Shift of Power in the United States”.

This is while no real and fundamental changes will take place in the United States this November, even in case of Democrats’ victory in the congress elections! A simple review suggests that, at best, Democrats will be able to win 55 to 58 Senate seats, which is not enough to counteract the veto power of the President of the United States in dealing with issues such as the Joint Com-prehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA).

Therefore, it’s wrong to imagine that Democrats’ victory in the mid-term elections in America would save the JCPOA. Moreover, there isn’t enough cooperation among Democrats in “standing against Trump’s decision in withdrawing from the nuclear deal”. The silence of some Democrat senators and members of the House of Representatives well indicates this fact.

This equation is quite simple! According to Nancy Pelosi, the Minority Leader of the United States House of Represen-tatives, Democrats are not supposed to impeach Trump after their possible victory in the congress elections. On the other hand, Democrats will focus on health, economic and social issues within the United States between 2018 and 2020 to strengthen their base among American voters (for the presi-dential election of 2020).

Many Democrats don’t intend to stand against Trump’s policies directly because in this case, they will be accused of disrupting the political order of the United States by Repub-licans. Therefore, we can’t count on the relative majority of the Senate and the House of Representatives, indicating it as a strong leverage on the Trump government to return to the nuclear deal with Iran.

The next point is that the Obama administration was the initiator of the U.S. withdrawal from the nuclear deal and the breach of the JCPOA. By setting the trigger mechanism, the United States and others can reintroduce sanctions on Iran. This was done by the Democrats in the process of finalizing the JCPOA.

We all remember that during the 2008 presidential compe-titions, Barack Obama came forth with the slogan of “change. The launch of numerous wars in the West Asian region through the establishment of ISIS and the Jabhat al-Nusra and other terrorist and takfiri groups was also considered as Obama’s other “changes”. The Iranians can well remember the exten-sion of the ISA (Iran Sanctions Act) that imposed economic sanctions on firms doing business with Iran by the Obama administration!

Everybody remembers how Obama ordered the U.S. Treasury Department to prevent the normalization of banking and credit relations and investment of other countries in Iran! It should not be ignored that Trump pulled out of the JCPOA with the direct help of Democrat politicians such as John Kerry and Wendy Sherman. Therefore, we shouldn’t let the American Democrats to deceive us with their pretensions of supporting the nuclear deal.

Finally, it should be noted that the fundamental opposition of the U.S. two main parties to Iran is a fully established issue and it’s not going to change under any circumstances. In such a situation, there no distinction between the Republicans or Democrats, and they’re in a perfect harmony in their opposition to our country.

Thus our calculations in the field of diplomacy and foreign policy should be completely realistic and based on this fact. Con-ducting and managing the scene of the conflict with the United States calls for a deep, ingenious, and consistent measures to resist the common conspiracy of the United States two traditional parties, and it shouldn’t be forgotten that these conspiracies are to continue by Democrats and Republicans.

HRW: Rohingya must be moved to safer areas in Cox’s Bazar

North Korean state media called on the United States to immediately drop its sanctions against the communist country, accusing Washington of “acting opposite” to its plans of improving ties.

Pyongyang said it has shown good faith by stop-ping its nuclear tests and handing over the remains of American soldiers killed in the 1950-1953 Korean War last week.

“There have been outrageous arguments coming out of the U.S. State Department that it won’t ease sanctions until a denuclearization is completed, and reinforcing sanctions is a way to raise its negotiating power,” the state-run news-paper Rodong Sinmun said in an editorial on Monday.

“How could the sanctions, which were a stick the U.S. administration had brandished as part of its hostile policy against us, promote the two countries’ amity?” it added.

Other North Korean outlets echoed the call, saying sanc-tions were a hurdle in the way of better relations between the two countries, which have officially been at war since an armistice was signed in 1953.

In June, U.S. President Donald Trump and North Ko-

rean leader Kim Jong-un agreed to improve ties between the two countries during an historic meeting in Singapore.

Verifiable and irreversible?During that meeting, Kim signed up to a vague commit-

ment of the “denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula” - a far cry from long-standing U.S. demands for complete, verifiable and irreversible disarmament.

In return, the U.S. would not only stop despised military exercises with South Korea, but also ease sanctions.

Last week, U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo high-lighted the “importance of maintaining diplomatic and economic pressure on North Korea”, prompting Pyong-yang to respond by saying the U.S. was undermining the denuclearization process.

North Korea’s Foreign Minister Ri Yong-ho said his country stood “firm in its determination and commitment” to implement the June deal. But he also criticized the U.S. for undermining confidence in the process.

Monday’s call for the lifting of sanctions comes days after a United Nations report concluded North Korea has not stopped working on its nuclear missile programme.

According to the report, North Korea has also violated sanctions by clandestinely transferring weapons and fuel to Syria, Yemen, and other countries.

North Korea has been under sanctions since 2006 when the country carried out its first nuclear test.

(Source: Al Jazeera)

Turkish-backed militants have arrested at least 45 members who sought reconciliation with the Syrian government amid Turkey’s attempts to stave off an offensive by Damascus to liberate Idlib.

Idlib is the last major territory still in militant hands, the capture of which will leave the Syrian army with no choice other than retaking its territories on the border with Turkey.

Last month, Syria’s envoy to the United Nations hit out at Turkey’s growing influence in his country’s north, calling it an “occupation” and vowing to “expel” its troops.

Syrian troops have retaken three strategic provinces on the border with Jordan and the occupied Golan Heights in recent weeks after reaching reconciliation deals with militants.

Diplomatic sources were reported as saying last week that Turkey was trying to forestall a similar scenario in Idlib. On Sunday, the National Liberation Front (NLF), formed with Turkish backing in May, arrested some of its members who sought reconciliation deals.

“The National Liberation Front launched a campaign a week ago... that peaked today with the arrest of 45 recon-ciliation activists and candidates for municipal elections” announced by the government in the provinces of Hama and Idlib, a spokesman said.

According to the spokesman, the NLF has made a total of 60 arrests since the beginning of the campaign.

Last week, a Turkish diplomatic source was quoted as saying that “Ankara is working with other opposition groups in Idlib to eliminate the militants” in order to fend off a Syrian operation.

Most of Idlib is controlled by Hayat Tahrir al-Sham, formerly al-Qaeda’s affiliate in Syria.

Ahrar al-Sham and Nureddine al-Zinki merged in Feb-ruary with Turkish backing as the Syrian Liberation Front. On August 1, the Syrian Liberation Front merged with four other militant groups to establish the NLF.

According to the so-called Syrian Observatory for Human Rights chief Rami Abdel Rahman, Idlib has since “seen

an upsurge in security chaos and mutual assassinations between rebel groups”.

President Bashar al-Assad told Russian media last month that Syria’s next priority was retaking Idlib after the army’s liberation of three provinces on the border with Jordan and the occupied Golan Heights.

In recent weeks, the Syrian army has been making sig-nificant territorial gains against terrorists in the country’s south. Militants have been handing over their heavy weap-ons to Syrian government forces and leaving the region in negotiated surrender deals.

Assad said on August 1 that final victory over terrorism is close thanks to the sacrifices of the Syrian army forces.

The Observatory confirmed Sunday’s arrests, saying “nearly 50” people had been arrested in areas straddling Hama and Idlib over “attempts to reconcile” with gov-ernment forces and to participate in “meetings with its intelligence services.”

(Source: agencies)

Former British foreign secretary Boris Johnson has been accused of encouraging Islamophobia to open his way to the top post in the ruling Conservative Party.

The criticism surfaced on Monday after Johnson published an article in the Daily Telegraph describing Muslim women wear-ing burqa (an enveloping outer garment worn by women in some Islamic traditions to cover themselves in public, which covers the body and the face) as “letter boxes” and “bank robbers.”

Labour MP David Lammy said John-son, whom he called a “pound-shop Don-ald Trump,” was “fanning the flames of Is-lamophobia to propel his grubby electoral ambitions.”

“Muslim women are having their burkas pulled off by thugs in our streets & Boris

Johnson’s response is to mock them for looking like letter boxes,” said Lammy in a tweet.

Naz Shah MP (Member of Parliament), Labour’s shadow equalities minister, said Johnson was deliberately attacking the Muslim women in an alleged bid to reach out to the far-right.

“Saying Muslim women look like let-terboxes, comparing them to bank rob-bers and describing Islam as a ‘problem’ was a calculated attack and published in a national newspaper,” Shah said, adding, “Boris Johnson’s latest racist insults cannot be laughed off, like they often are.”

Johnson resigned from the government of Prime Minister Theresa May last month after he protested against May’s plans for finalizing Brexit negotiations with the Eu-

ropean Union.Many believe he is seeking to improve

his popularity among Tory members to fi-nally replace May who is struggling to keep her post amid widening criticism about her Brexit strategy.

A recent survey in the party showed that Johnson has the support of almost a third of party members, a sharp rise compared to the time he was serving in the government. At the time, Johnson had support of just eight percent of the members and was far behind May in the fifth place.

In his article, Johnson said he was against banning burqas in public, a stance adopted by May’s government and the conservatives in general. However, he said the garment is “oppressive” and directly insulted Muslim women who wear it.

“It is absolutely ridiculous that people should choose to go around looking like letter boxes,” Johnson wrote, adding, “If a constituent came to my MP’s surgery with her face obscured, I should feel fully entitled ... to ask her to remove it so that I could talk to her properly. If a female student turned up at school or at a university lecture looking like a bank robber then ditto.”

Stella Creasy, a Labour MP, called on the leadership in the Conservative Party to avoid Johnson, saying he was much like Steve Bannon, a former adviser to US President Donald Trump who is seen as an influential member of the alt-right camp in the US.

“Dear Tory leadership voters - one of the potential candidates thinks you want Bannon not Boris on the ballot paper.”

(Source: Press TV)

Iraq’s election commission has concluded the manual recount of votes from the coun-try’s parliamentary elections held in May, wrapping up a process following accusations of electoral fraud.

Iraq’s state television made the announce-ment on Monday, saying that the results were expected to be released in the coming days.

The recount was ordered by the Iraqi parliament in June and officially launched in early July after a government report con-cluded there had been serious violations in an initial count using electronic vote-count-ing systems.

There were also reports of polling stations where complaints of vote manipulation had been filed as per a ruling by the Federal Court.

The oil-rich northern province of Kirkuk was the first to begin the recount on Tuesday.

The state broadcaster said the recount process had been cut short in the capital Baghdad last month, citing a fire that broke out in the warehouse where the votes had been stored.

The commission’s leadership had been suspended after the incident and replaced with a panel of judges who oversaw the recount.

The Iraqi government had reported widespread violations in the elections, which saw a bloc led by Shia cleric Muqtada al-Sadr win. Another Shia bloc, emerg-ing from volunteer forces that had battled the Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant (ISIL/Daesh) Takfiri terrorist group over the past three years, came second. Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi and his bloc came third.

The recount was overseen by local and international observers as well as repre-sentatives from the United Nations and foreign embassies, paving the way for the

formation of a new parliament and a new government in Iraq as the Arab country struggles to emerge from years of fight against terrorists.

The winning parties are currently em-broiled in negotiations over forming the next governing coalition.

The political uncertainty in Iraq has fueled tensions at a time when public impatience is growing over poor basic services, unem-ployment and the slow pace of rebuilding after the war with Takfiri terrorists, which cost tens of billions of dollars.

(Source: Press TV)

North Korean state media urge U.S. to drop sanctions immediately

Militants in Idlib arrest members for seeking reconciliation with Syrian govt.

Former British FM Johnson accused of encouraging Islamophobia

Iraq concludes manual recount of May parliamentary elections

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 S AUGUST 7, 201814

In October 2016, Li was head of a consortium called Sino-Eu-rope Sports which was looking to buy the Rossoneri from Silvio Berlusconi. With the takeover effectively having to be paid for in instalments and a lack of clarity over who made up the group, the potential new owners sought to bring a club legend on board to placate fans.

The historic club has more than its fair share of iconic figures, but when you think of a Milan legend only one name comes to mind: Paolo Maldini.

The former defender spent his entire career with Milan, making 902 appearances as he played beyond his 40th birth-day. Maldini’s trophy cabinet makes for ridiculous reading, with seven Scudetti, five European Cups, four UEFA Super Cups, two Intercontinental Cups and the Coppa Italia.

When he retired from football in 2009 it seemed inevitable he’d be given a role with the Rossoneri, as Javier Zanetti would with Inter a few years later. Reported tensions with the ownership, and in particular CEO Adriano Galliani, put paid to that, but with a new regime coming in the time was surely right for Maldini to come home.

Except it wasn’t. Paolo Maldini, Mr Milan, rejected the opportunity to work with Yonghong Li and Marco Fassone, blaming a lack of transparency - the former left-back never met with any of the Chinese owners - and predicting that there wasn’t “the basis for a winning project”.

“Milan has always been a matter of heart and passion for me,” Maldini explained at the time. “My history, my father’s history and my children prove it, and no-one can take this bond with the Rossoneri colours away from us. This very strong link obligates me to be careful, precise and professional in accepting a job I’m offered.”

Maldini could never accept being a mere figurehead, far less one for an unstable and shady ownership. Of all the warning signs about Li, many ignored or outright rejected by a section of the Milan support, the fact he couldn’t convince the Rossoneri’s greatest legend to work for the club he loves was perhaps the most glaring.

When the owner was finally ousted by Elliott Manage-ment, the hedge fund from whom he’d borrowed money to finance his takeover, there was again concern about how the club would be handled.

The early signs were good, with the Court of Arbitra-tion for Sport overturning UEFA’s decision to bar Milan from the Europa League, the decision reached in part due to a more stable ownership situation. Former player and Coach Leonardo returned as technical director, and strengthened the squad with Mattia Caldara and Gonzalo Higuain.

Then, yesterday, it was officially announced that Maldini will be returning to the club. The living legend will become the Diavolo’s strategic development director, and the fact he accepted the role proves there is a more convincing and sustainable project in place at Casa Milan these days.

It’s not all sunshine of course. Maldini’s retirement wasn’t befitting of his legendary status, marred as it was by point-ed jibes from the club’s ultras. For his final match against Roma, the Curva Sud unveiled a huge banner saying “there’s

only one capitano” - but bearing Franco Baresi’s number 6 rather than Maldini’s 3.

Never one to bow to public opinion, the legendary defender had at times been critical of the ultras during his career, with another banner accusing Maldini of having “no respect for those who made you rich”. It was a shameful way for his glorious career to end.

Time heals all wounds though, and Maldini’s return has been met with almost universal positivity. The fact that the 50-year-old refused to bow either to the ultras or to Yong-hong Li proves that he’s his own man, not simply a face and a name for others to hide behind.

Paolo Maldini is back where he belongs, and his endorse-ment of the new regime is perhaps the greatest source of reassurance Milan fans could hope for.

(Source: Football Italia)

Mourinho warns of tough times if United fail to improve squad

Manchester United could be in for a tough Premier League season if they do not add quality players before the transfer window closes, manager Jose Mourinho has said.

United have been relatively quiet in the transfer market, adding Brazil midfielder Fred, 19-year-old Portuguese defender Diogo Dalot and goalkeeper Lee Grant. “If we don’t make our team better, it’ll be a difficult season for us,” Mourinho told MUTV after United’s 1-0 defeat to Bayern Munich on Sunday. “The other clubs who compete with us are really strong and already have fantastic teams. Or they are investing massively like Liverpool, who are buying everything and everybody. “My CEO knows what I want and I still have a few days to wait and see what happens.”

The transfer window in England closes on Aug. 9, a day before United begin their Premier League campaign against Leicester City.

(Source: Mirror)

Chelsea midfielder Willian has ended media speculation linking him with a move away from Stamford Bridge, saying he is happy at the club and has no intention of leaving them in the current transfer window. British media reports said Brazil internation-al Willian had become a target for Barcelona and Manchester United following the breakdown of his relationship with former Chelsea manager Antonio Conte towards the end of last season.

The 29-year-old cleared the air after Chelsea’s 2-0 Community Shield defeat by Manchester City under new coach Maurizio Sarri.

“I’ve always made it very clear that I’ve always been very happy playing for Chelsea. I never said that I want to leave the club,” Willian told reporters.

Willian returned late from his close season break and only joined his team mates at the club’s training ground four days before the Community Shield clash at Wembley Stadium.

Former Napoli boss Sarri, who replaced Conte last month, had said he had no problem with Willian and hoped to keep him at the club as he sets about putting his stamp on the team.

“This is a new era, with a new manager and I’ve had a good conversation with him. I hope we can enjoy a lot of victories,” Willian said. Chelsea, who are looking to improve on their fifth-placed finish last season, kick off their league campaign with a trip to Huddersfield Town on Aug. 11.

(Source: Reuters)

The Chinese Football Association (CFA) said on Monday it had launched an investigation into allegations by Shanghai Shenhua striker Demba Ba that he was subjected to racist abuse by an opponent during a league match at the weekend.

The former Chelsea forward alleged he was the target of a racial slur by Changchun Yatai midfielder Zhang Li after they clashed during Saturday’s 1-1 Chinese Super League game.

“After the game, according to the supervising report, the Chi-nese Football Association immediately launched an investigation and will hold a hearing about the irregularities in this game,” said the CFA statement.

“If it’s true, the players involved will be dealt with seriously in accordance with the rules and regulations.”

Local media have reported that Changchun had denied the allegations. The CFA said football in China had always been based on the principle of “fair play and the spirit of sports”.

“We oppose any form of racial discrimination,” the CFA said.“We encourage all participants to work together to preserve the

good order of the game and spread the positive energy of football.”(Source: Eurosport)

Eleven Sports, a global broadcaster launching two new channels in Britain, will show one Spanish and one Italian top flight soccer match a week live and for free on Facebook, including Cristiano Ronaldo’s debut for Juventus.

Eleven Sports, led by the former head of TV at BT, Marc Wat-son, has won the rights to show La Liga and Serie A in Britain and Ireland, as well as other sports, taking on Sky and BT in the race for viewers.

The group said that as part of its push into Britain and Ireland it had made Facebook its free-to-air partner to show matches including the likes of Real Madrid, Barcelona, Juventus and Napoli.

The vast majority of Eleven’s programming will be available on an app or online for 5.99 pounds per month, while the group is also in talks with other TV platforms.

Tech groups have stepped up their focus on live-streaming sports in a bid to keep young viewers on their platforms.

Facebook has been in talks to show English Premier League matches in parts of Asia, according to media reports, while Ama-zon has won rights to show 20 English Premier League matches a season from 2019 in Britain, giving it a foothold in the most watched sports league in the world.

(Source: Reuters)

Willian keen to stay in Chelsea under Sarri

Chinese FA investigating Ba racism allegations

Eleven Sports to stream La Liga, Serie A matches on Facebook

Disgraced former professional cyclist and Olympic champion Jan Ullrich was released from police detention in Mallorca on Saturday night after being handed a restraining order by a Spanish judge ordering him to keep away from the famous German actor Til Schweiger.

Ullrich had been arrested by Spanish National Po-lice Friday evening in Palma, Mallorca’s capital, after allegedly breaking into Schweiger’s property, which abuts his own.

The German film star had been hosting a party at the moment when the ex-pro cyclist jumped a fence and then accosted and allegedly threatened Schweiger, the Diario de Mallorca reported. The German daily Bild said that a physical scuffle ensued.

Ullrich’s lawyer, Wolfgang Hoppe, confirmed to the German Press Agency (DPA) on Saturday that an incident had taken place but did not provide any further details.

After spending the night in detention, Ullrich arrived at a courthouse in Palma on Saturday wearing shorts, with

his torso bared and his head covered by a sheet from the nearby public hospital.

The judge ordered that Ullrich keep at least 50 meters (164 feet) away from Schweiger, the Diario de Mallorca reported.

Cyclist’s run-ins with the lawUllrich, who became the first German to win the Tour

de France in 1997, admitted to blood doping in 2013 after having been found guilty of the offense the previous year.

It is not the first time that Ullrich has run into trouble with the law. Last year, a Swiss tribunal handed him a 21-month suspended prison sentence for drunk driving that resulted in an accident. Ullrich had been living in Switzerland at the time, but he subsequently moved to Mallorca, where he now leads bike tours for tourists over the island where he spent his winter months training. Schweiger had vacationed on the Balearic Island for many years before buying a house in Palma. He is a well-known actor and director of German-language films, including Honig im Kopf (to be released in English as Head Full of Honey), and gained international recognition for his role in Quentin Tarantino’s Inglorious Bastards.

Mallorca is a popular vacation destination for German tourists and home to a large German-speaking community.

(Source: DW)

Any sense that Barcelona are straying from their traditional transfer market model has been refuted by Eric Abidal, who insists the club are simply basing their business on what they already have.

At the age of 31, Arturo Vidal is a somewhat different signing to what Blaugranafans have become accustomed to, although technical secretary Abidal pointed out the younger players he was hoping to sign before opting for the Chilean.

«You talk about a philosophy, but there were other players [Barcelona were interested in],» the Frenchman stated to reporters.

«I think we have to adapt to the squad and make it as strong as possible. The coach has to have decisions to make.»

Like the arrival of Malcom, the purchase of Vidal from Bayern Munich was completed in double quick time, a factor which Abidal is more than comfortable with.

«I don›t know if we have a plan to sign

quickly players or not,» he went on.«I know we have a team that works in-

ternally, that puts names on the table and, from there, decisions are made.

«If we can sign as quickly as possible, all the better. We are adapting to the situation and the market. The quicker [the deals] are, the better.»

The midfielder is seen as a direct replace-ment for Paulinho and the characteristics that Abidal listed of his new signing were

remarkably similar to that of the recently sold Brazilian. «Everyone knows the profile of the player because of his past,» added the former left-back. «He is a player with character, who gives a lot in the center of the pitch, not only in defense but in attack.

«[He brings] goals, that arrival into the box. A player with a profile like that, we know we need. He is happy here and wants to win titles.»

(Source: AS)

Jan Ullrich arrested for jumping Til Schweiger’s fence in Mallorca

Abidal: Barcelona aren’t changing philosophy, just adapting to the transfer market

Saudi Arabia’s Mosaad ‘Msdossary’ Aldossa-ry topped more than 20 million competitors to “make a dream come true” and win the FIFA eWorld Cup in London.

The Xbox player secured a 4-0 aggre-gate victory over Belgium’s Stefano ‘Ste-fanoPinna’ Pinna to secure the $250,000 (£190,000) top prize. Thirty-two players from 19 countries made it to the Grand Final at The O2. “This win makes up for all the hard work and dedication me and my team have put into this,” said Msdossary.

“It is fantastic to see competitive FIFA gaming grow, but this is nothing I could have ever imagined. “Winning the FIFA eWorld Cup Grand Final and becoming world champion is a dream come true for me, my friends, family and supporters.

“To get the opportunity to win in front of a live audience this big is absolutely un-believable. I am truly lost for words in this moment.”

Qualification for the tournament began

in November, with more than 20 million hopeful gamers entering online looking to qualify for live tournaments.

The most successful then progressed to the play-offs and live events throughout the season, with only the world’s best reaching the London showpiece.

Jean-Francois Pathy, FIFA’s director or marketing services, said: “The FIFA eWorld Cup Grand Final 2018 provided an outstanding opportunity to drive for-ward the professionalization of competitive FIFA gaming. “This year’s landmark event has experienced advanced levels of growth and has played a key role in engaging new players, fans and audiences on both digital and traditional platforms.

“As the wider ecosystem continues to develop, FIFA gaming is playing a key role in encouraging more young people and the wider public around the world to play football - either virtually or in person.”

(Source: BBC)

Signing for Barcelona represents a big step up from his time at Bayern Munich, in the eyes of Arturo Vidal.

The midfielder joins on a three-year deal and was unveiled at the Camp Nou on Monday alongside his son, and vice-pres-ident Jordi Mestre.

“I have come here to win everything,” he told reporters.

“This is a big step up from Bayern Munich.

“I hope to make a contribution and help my teammates to win all the titles.

“We will prepare to exceed expectations with maximum confidence.”

The name of the game for Vidal is trophies with every opportunity to lift silverware on offer being of the utmost importance to his time in Catalonia.

“Very happy, I am very happy to get to Barcelona,” said the former Juventus man.

“For me, this is the best team in the world.

“I come hungry to win many important trophies, I hope we win each of them in these next three years.

“I am here to leave everything on the pitch.”

In recent years, Vidal has clashed with Real Madrid a number of times and he marked out where he stands on the capital outfit before facing them in the upcoming season’s Clasicos.

“No,” he replied to the question of whether he is an AntiMadridista.

“I am a rival to all those who play against Barcelona from now on. I have no rival.

“The one that faces Barcelona, they are my rival.

“I don’t know if I have outstanding ac-counts with Madrid, aside from my main objective, which is to win the Champions League. I hope to fulfill that here.

“When we take on Madrid, then we’ll see.”

(Source: Marca)

Gamer beats 20 million rivals to win $250,000 at FIFA eWorld Cup

Vidal: Barcelona a big step up from Bayern Munich

Maldini shows Milan ambition

S P O R T S 15I N T E R N A T I O N A L D A I L Y

Toyota partners with Buenos Aires 2018 Torch TourAs part of its partnership agreement with the Buenos Aires 2018 Organizing Committee, Worldwide TOP Partner Toy-ota is part of the youth Olympic flame’s 14,000-kilometre journey across Argentina.

Lit by the sun, on 24 July, in a ceremony at the Panath-enaic Stadium in Athens, the youth Olympic flame started its journey from Greece with the participation of young athletes. The flame’s journey will last two months and cover 14,000 kilometers. During its tour, it will spread the Olympic values of friendship, respect, and excellence while sending a message about the transformative power of sport to build a better society.

The Buenos Aires 2018 Torch Tour started on 5 August in a journey that is taking the Olympic flame to 17 cities as well as iconic geographical locations in Argentina, high-lighting the achievements of some unique young people, as well as the country’s cultural and geographical diversity.

For the Buenos Aires 2018 Organising Committee part-nership programme, Toyota will be in charge of transport for these Youth Olympic Games and the 60-day Torch Tour. The programme will include cars (urban and commercial vehicles), transport services (including road and transport security systems) and other mobility solutions.

Toyota Motor Corporation (Toyota) became part of The Olympic Partner (TOP) Programme in 2015. As the World-wide Mobility Partner, Toyota is committed to mobility as a source of inspiration and as a way to improve the quality of life for all. As per this commitment, Toyota also became a Worldwide Paralympic Partner in 2015.

(Source: Olympic.org)

Alhaji Gero on Esteghlal’s radar

TASNIM — Nigerian striker Salisu Abdullahi “Alhaji” Gero has reportedly traveled to Tehran to negotiate with Iran’s Esteghlal football team.

After Mame Thiam’s departure, the Blues are going to strength-en their frontline.

Alhaji Gero, 24, currently plays in Östersunds in the Allsven-skan, Sweden’s top flight.

He is teammate of Iran international winger Saman Ghoddos.Gero made his debut for the Nigeria national under-20 football

team at the eight-nation tournament in South Africa.Esteghlal have recently signed contracts with Iraqi attacking

midfielder Humam Tariq Faraj Naoush and German midfielder Markus Neumayr.

Malatyaspor players show support for Mesut Ozil

Players for Malatyaspor, a team in Turkey’s Super Lig, wore shirts in support of former Germany international Mesut Ozil before their friendly on Saturday.

Ozil, who was born in Germany but has Turkish heritage, accused the German football federation and president Rein-hard Grindel of racism when he decided to quit international competition last month.

The shirts, worn before the 2-1 victory against second-divi-sion side Gazisehir Gaziantep, featured a photo of Ozil’s face with the phrase “We are all you” printed above it and “Say no to racism” below it.

“Our players wanted to show they support Mesut Ozil,” the club wrote on Instagram.

The Arsenal midfielder had been the centre of a debate for over two months after he and Germany teammate Ilkay Gundogan took a photo with Turkey President Recep Tayyip Erdogan in mid-May.

There has been little support for Ozil from his former interna-tional teammates. Germany captain Michael Neuer said that “we accept his decision,” but said he wanted to play with teammates who were proud to represent their country.

Forward Thomas Muller said in a brief statement to reporters last week that “there can be no talk of racism in sport and in the national team.”

Erdogan, meanwhile, condemned the “unacceptable” treat-ment of Ozil by the DFB following the player’s announcement.

(Source: ESPN)

Courtois tells Maurizio Sarri he wants to leave

Chelsea goalkeeper Thibaut Courtois has informed new manager Maurizio Sarri he wants to leave, sources close to the club have told ESPN FC.

Following Sunday’s Community Shield defeat to Manches-ter City, Sarri said that Courtois could be sold if he wanted to leave the club.

And Courtois, who returned to preseason training with Chel-sea on Monday following his involvement with Belgium at the World Cup, has made his intentions clear to Sarri during talks.

Real Madrid have been strongly linked with a move for Courtois and are reported to have had several offers knocked back by Chelsea this summer. Courtois’ agent pleaded for Chelsea to let him leave and said there was a deal on the table from Madrid.

(Source: Soccernet)

Islamic Republic of Iran’s Mes Sungun Varzaghan topped Group D of the AFC Futsal Club Championship Indonesia 2018 with a perfect record after defeating Lebanon’s Bank of Beirut 3-1 on Monday.

Both teams had already qualified for the Knockout Stage after winning their previous games and faced off to deter-mine the group winners.

Mes Sungun wasted no time in testing Beirut as Ali Asghar Hassanzadeh forced a save from Bank of Beirut goalkeeper Hussein Hamadani in the first minute.

The Iranians employed a high-pressing game with quick passes which opened up their opponents but Beirut were organised and fought back with counters whenever they found space.

Ahmad Kheir El Dine had an opportunity at goal four minutes in but his grounder was easy for Mes Sungun cus-todian Alireza Samimi.

El Dine was at the centre of attack for Beirut three min-utes later when he lost his marker at the top of the box but he sent his shot into the stands.

It was not long before Mes Sungun found the net in the ninth minute through Mortteza Ezzati, who stuck out his right boot to direct Abolghasem Orouji’s cross from the right past Hamadani.

Beirut, however, were undeterred and pressed harder but their efforts did not bear fruit as Mes Sungun stayed

firm at the back.Mes Sungun then doubled their lead through Farhad

Hakim, who burst down the left and fired his powerful strike into the roof of the net to give the Iranians a 2-0 lead at halftime.

Beirut picked up the pace in the second period as they pushed for a goal, activating the power play which kept their opponents pegged in their own half.

But the Lebanese found it hard to break down their op-ponents as Samimi was in top form.

Mes Sungun almost made it three when Ezzati hit the

upright eight minutes in following a swift counter attack.Ezzati then doubled his tally in the 30th minute follow-

ing Hossein Tayebibidgoli’s cross from the left to give Mes Sungun a comfortable 3-0 advantage.

Mahdi Javid, however, pulled one back for Beirut in the 31st minute after Mouhammad Hammoud found him unmarked in the box to give Beirut a lifeline.

Beirut pushed further and were almost rewarded with their second following a counter but Javid could not convert from close range.

Mes Sungun Varzaghan Head Coach Hamid Bigham Tabrizi:

“This was one of the best games we had. Both teams played aggressively and technically it was very good as well. Our main target was having a stress-free game without picking any cards, I believe we have achieved what ever we had in our minds. For our next game, we might face the Kyrgyz Republic team (FC Erem) and we know this team after ana-lysing them and I think there won’t be a bad day for us.”

Bank of Beirut Head Coach Dejan Dedovic:“I’m happy and I’m not happy. I’m happy because we

played well and I’m not happy because we lost and my team played a very good second half. We had a lot of opportunities but today luck was on Mes Sungun’s side and for the first time an Iranian team was time wasting, maybe its strategy.”

(Source: the-afc)

Mes Sungun stay perfect perfect in AFC Futsal Club Championship

S P O R T Sd e s k

S P O R T Sd e s k

TEHRAN — Iran discovered their op-

ponents in the 2018 Asian Women’s Handball Championship.

The Iranian team have been drawn in Pool A along with host Japan, Ka-zakhstan, Australia and New Zealand.

Pool B consists of South Korea, China, Hong Kong, Singapore and India.

The competition will be held in Ku-mamoto, Japan from November 30th to December 9th.

The Asian Handball Nations

Championship is the official com-petition for senior national handball teams of Asia and takes place every two years.

In addition to crowning the Asian champions, the tournament also serves as a qualifying tournament for the World Championship.

The 2019 World Women’s Handball Championship, the 24th event hosted by the International Handball Federation, will be held in Japan from 30 November to 15 December 2019.

Iran know rivals at Asian Women’s Handball C’ship

TEHRAN — Iran pow-ered past Kazakhstan in

the FIBA U18 Asian Championship 2018 on Monday.

The Iranian team, who started the campaign with an 80-50 victory over Indonesia on Sun-day, defeated Kazakhstan 86-54 in Game 2.

Amirhossein Rezaeifar pace Iran with 17 points and Anuar Shakirov led Kazakhstan with 21 points.

Iran will play Japan in Pool A on Tuesday. The 2018 FIBA Under 18 Asian Champi-

onship is being held in Nonthaburi, Thailand

from August 5 to 11.The top four teams will qualify and will

represent FIBA Asia in the 2019 FIBA Under 19 Basketball World Cup.

Pools:• Group A: Iran, Japan, Kazakhstan,

Indonesia• Group B: China, Philippines, Leba-

non, UAE• Group C: Australia, New Zealand,

Bahrain, Thailand• Group D: Korea, Chinese-Taipei,

India, Syria

Iran outshine Kazakhstan in FIBA U18 Asian Championship

AUGUST 7, 2018

Khatam Ardakan underlined their su-premacy over the 2018 Asian Men’s Club Volleyball Championship following a hard-fought 29-27 25-23 25-22 victory over Atyrau in the pulsating final showdown on Monday at the Wunna Theikdi Indoor Stadium Hall B to retain the title for Iran three times in succession.

Sarmayeh Bank captured the 2016 and 2017 Asian Men’s Club Championship titles in Nay Pyi Taw and Vietnam respectively and Ardakan’s victory on Monday, the Iran’s 11th title in this top-tier championship, was a warning sign to the Asian volleyball that the Iranians are the powerhouses not to be toppled easily in this championship.

Khatam Ardakan, second to Sarmayeh Bank in the season-ending Iranian Volleyball Super League, fielded a formidable lineup including star spker Shahram Mahmoudi, who landed the MVP award with consecu-tive two-time Asian Men’s Club champions

Sarmayeh Bank, while Atyrau were strength-ened by three foreign players, Ukrainians Roman Khandrolin and Oleh Shevchenko and Russian Vasily Nosenko.

As Atyrau aimed for a sweet revenge for the 1-3 loss to the same rivals in the pool plays, Ardakan were going all out to capture their historic victory in this cham-pionship. Both teams started solidly from the first serve, but the Iranians captured the impressive lead with a 3-point clear at 22-19. The Ardakan’s overwhelming dominance continued through a fusion of skill and brute force of explosive attacks from Mahmoudi and Adel Gholami and powerful jump serves by Hamzeh Zarini which gave them a gritty 24-21 lead. Atyrau came roaring back through the sensational blocking and Aibat Netalin’s exceptional attacks, saving three set points and forced the Iranians to play catch-up. At 27-27, Ardakan continued their superb form to

win successive two points for the sensa-tional 29-27 win in the exhausting battle.

Winning the first set helped Ardakan grow in confidence and they were just un-catchable in the second set. The Iranian side mixed the splendid offensive combination of Mahmoudi’s deadly spikes and Zarini’s aggressive jump serves with solid blocks to take the closely-contested set 25-23.

With the winds in their sails, Ardakan remained unstoppable in the third set. Trailing the formidable rivals with three points behind at 5-8, the Iranians turned things around and clawed their way back into the game to catch Atyrau at 16-16 and, despite a last-ditch effort of the Kazakh side, stormed on with their incredible per-formance against which the rivals proved no match. Ardakan captured the set 25-22, match and the championship.

Shahram Mahmoudi scored a team-high 18 points for Khatam Ardakan including

17 attacks, while Hamzeh Zarini added 12 points. Oleh Shevchenko chipped in 10 points for the losing side.

“I’m very happy that my team won the title for the first time here and all credit went to everyone in my team. This cham-pionship is our team’s first experience. Every team came here to fight for the best result in a competitive competition, not for fun. Although we lost only one set throughout the whole tournament, I find it very difficult for my team to play in this championship since all participating teams are strong,” Khatam Ardakan head coach Abbasali Mirhosseini commented after the final match.

As Ardakan stamped their authority over the championship, Atyrau finished second place, their best performance ever. The Kazakh side finished third twice in 2002 and 2004.

(Source: Asianvolleyball)

Khatam win Asian Men’s Club Volleyball Championship title

Kimia Alizadeh misses 2018 Asian Games

S P O R T Sd e s k

TEHRAN — Iranian taekwondo athlete Kimia Alizadeh has missed

the 2018 Asian Games due to a torn ACL.She suffered the horro injury in the training. An

MRI confirmed the worst - a torn ACL.Alizadeh won a bronze medal at the 2016 Summer

Olympic Games. This made her the first Iranian woman to win a medal at the Olympic Games.

She made a name for herself in the women’s 63-kg class at the Nanjing 2014 Youth Olympic Games by winning a gold medal.

A year later, Alizadeh beat London 2012 gold medalist Jade Jones at the 2015 World Championship to win a bronze medal.

Kimia won a silver medal at the 2017 World Taek-wondo Championships.

Alizadeh had been named as Iran’s flag bearer at the opening ceremony of the 2018 Asian Games.

Iranian woman shooter Elaheh Ahmadi will re-portedly replace her to carry the flag in the Games.

The 18th edition of the Asian Games will be held in Indonesia between August 18 and September 2.

The upcoming Asiad would be the second for Indonesia to host the event after in 1962. The Asian Games themed “Energy of Asia” will bring more than 11,000 athletes from 45 Asian countries and regions together.

TEHRAN – Filming on “Ahmed Bey”, a co-

production between Iran and Algeria about Ahmed Bey, the last Ottoman Bey who ruled Algiers during the 19th century, has begun in the Algerian Center for Cinema Development – CADC, the Persian service of IRNA reported on Monday.

Iranian filmmaker Jamal Shurjeh is directing the project with an all-Algerian cast. Turaj Mansuri and Majid Mirfakhrai, both from Iran, are collaborating as cinematographer and stage manager respectively.

“Algeria attaches great importance to the project and the Algerian culture minister is repeatedly pursuing the matter,” the Iranian cultural attaché in Algeria, Amir Musavi, said.

Algerian actor Mohammad Tahir Zawi who stars as Ahmed Bey praised the Iranian team that is collaborating in this project and said, “They are very skilled in makeup, set and costume design.”

Samira Hadj-Djilani, who is the president of the Algerian Network of Businesswomen, is the producer of the film, which will be the first co-production between Iran and Algeria.

It depicts Ahmed Bey’s life from 1826 to 1848 when he ruled the Regency of Algiers.

As head of state, Ahmed Bey led the local population in fierce resistance against

the French occupation forces. In 1837, the territory was conquered by the French,

who reinstated Ahmed Bey as ruler of the region. He remained in this position until

1848, when the region became a part of the colony of Algiers and he was deposed.

No. 18, Bimeh Alley, Nejatollahi St., Tehran, IranP.o. Box: 14155-4843

Zip Code: 1599814713

Prayer Times Noon:13:10 Evening: 20:23 Dawn: 4:43 (tomorrow) Sunrise: 6:17 (tomorrow) AUGUST 7, 2018

Managing Director: Ali Asgari Editor-in-Chief: Mohammad Ghaderi

www.tehrantimes.comI N T E R N A T I O N A L D A I L Y

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Maxim Gorky’s “The Lower Depths” coming to Tehran theater

Tabriz center unveils portraits of Sattar Khan, Baqer Khan

TEHRAN – The Constitution House

of Tabriz has unveiled portraits of Sattar Khan and Baqer Khan, two leaders of the Constitutional Revolution.

The unveiling ceremony was part of a program organized at the center on Sunday

to celebrate the 112th anniversary of the revolutionary campaign that forced the central government to establish democratic reforms.

The revolution began in 1905 and the Constitutional Decree was signed by Qajar king Mozaffar ad-Din Shah in the Saheb Qaranieh Palace on August 6, 1906.

TEHRAN – Russian writer Maxim Gorky’s

play “The Lower Depths” will be performed by director Alireza Kamyarnia’s troupe at the Gusheh Hall of Tehran’s Niavaran Cultural Center on August 12.

Hamed Badihi, Shahab Bahrami, Me-hzad Tavakkoli, Nasim Jafari, Ali Hedari,

Mohammadreza Zakerzadeh, Neda Riahi and Shahrad Qadiri will star in the play, which will be on stage for a month.

Written during the winter of 1901 and the spring of 1902, the play that is also known as “Scenes from Russian Life” de-picts a group of impoverished Russians living in a shelter near the Volga.

TEHRAN – The 12th edition of the National

Festival of Youth Music, which will showcase classical and regional performances by musicians aged between 15 and 29, will be held at several halls in Tehran from August 13 to September 9.

About 600 solo and group performances will be staged and over 90 master musicians will judge the performances during the event, the director of the festival, Hooman As’adi, said at the press conference held at the Music Office on Monday.

“As far as I know, this festival is not only one of its kind in Iran but also unique in the world,” he added.

The virtuoso of the Persian stringed instruments, Hossein Alizadeh who collaborates with the organizers as a jury member, said that he believes it is the young musicians who can make the cultural future of the country.

He said that despite an official disagreement with music in the country, the families get

more interested in encouraging their children to learn music.

“The word ‘young’ bears a feeling of hope and energy in itself,” he added.

Addressing the reporters, Alizadeh continued, “I would like to say this obviously that in the current time the number of female musicians who are able to perform Iranian music is much more than the men, but since they cannot find ways on stage, the men have more public appearances.

“The art of music is one of my sacred things and I will never attend a festival if it enforces sex segregation,” he asserted.

“If you say we have 10 good male singers I would introduce 100 good female singers to you. I know that many female singers have never accepted to attend the concerts arranged exclusively for females. We have not issued these laws and will never obey them,” he concluded.

The Iran Music Association is the main organizer of the festival.

LOS ANGELES (AP) — Charlotte Rae, who played a wise and patient housemother to a brood of teenage girls on the long-running sit-com “The Facts of Life” during a career that encompassed many other TV roles as well as stage and film appearances, has died. She was 92.

Rae died at her Los Angeles home Sunday with her family at her side, said her publicist, Harlan Boll. A cause of death was not imme-diately available, but Rae was diagnosed last year with bone cancer after beating pancreatic cancer, Boll said.

She originated the character of Mrs. Garrett in 1978 during the first season of NBC’s comedy “Diff’rent Strokes,” then took Mrs. Garrett with her for the spinoff “Facts”, which premiered the following season.

Initially set at a girls’ boarding school, that NBC series ran for nine seasons. Rae left after its seventh year, however, explaining later, “I needed some time for the rest of my life.”

The “Facts” role came to Rae after years of theater and television performances. She earned an Emmy nomination for the part, and she was a two-time Tony nominee for her work

on Broadway.Her last feature film credit was “Ricki and

the Flash” with Meryl Streep in 2015. That same year she released her autobiography “The Facts of My Life”, co-written by her son Larry Strauss.

Mindy Cohn and Kim Fields, who played members of Mrs. Garrett’s brood, recalled her lovingly.

“She was my champion, a teacher, a proud example of the tenacity and perseverance need-ed to live as a creative, along with your talent and gifts. i love you char,” Cohn, who played Natalie, posted on Instagram.

“Sorry, no words at the moment just love and tears... and yeah, smiles,” tweeted Fields, who portrayed Tootie.

Tony Award-winning actress Audra Mc-Donald tweeted: “She was so sweet, funny, wise, lovely, and brilliant. She will be so missed. Rest In Peace Sweet Charlotte Rae.”

Todd Bridges, who was on “Diff’rent Strokes,” said on Twitter that she was beloved by all her colleagues and that the show “would not have been the same without you.”

Edna Garrett provided kind if sometimes wry counsel to her “Facts of Life” charges (which, besides Cohn and Fields, included Lisa Whelchel, Nancy McKeon and Molly Ringwald) on a series that was praised for dealing with such sensitive issues of teenhood as drug use, eating disorders and peer pressure.

“I wanted to bring in as much humanity as possible, as well as the humor,” Rae told The Associated Press early in the show’s run. “I don’t want her to be Polly Perfect, because she must have human failings and make mistakes.”

Her own life was marked by tragedy, Rae told the AP in a 2015 interview. She said the “most devastating thing” she faced was her son Andy Strauss’ diagnosis of autism at a time when there was far less understanding of or attention to the disorder. Andy died in his mid-40s of a heart attack in 1999.

Born Charlotte Rae Lubotsky in Milwaukee, on April 22, 1926, she had studied drama at Northwestern University, then moved to New York where, despite early plans to be a “serious” actress, she quickly found work doing satirical sketches in Greenwich Village clubs.

It was there that Broadway producers, who frequented such bistros, discovered her, leading to her first Broadway musical, called “Three Wishes for Jamie,” in 1952. A few years later, she originated the role of Mammy Yokum in the Broadway musical “Li’l Abner.”

Rae made numerous TV appearances in 1950s drama anthologies including “The U.S. Steel Hour,” ?Playhouse 90” and “Armstrong Circle Theater,” sharing the black-and-white screen with such actors as Zero Mostel, Art Carney and Gertrude Berg.

Filming begins on Iranian-Algerian movie about Algiers’ last Ottoman ruler

Members of the cast and technician crew are seen on the set of “Ahmed Bey” in Algiers in an undated photo. (IRNA)

“The Little Prince” to go on stage at benefit performance

TEHRAN – A troupe will organize a read-ing performance of French aviator Antoine

de Saint-Exupéry’s story “The Little Prince” to raise funds for children suffering from cystic fibrosis (CF).

The performance will be performed by a cast composed of Mehran Ahmadi, Elsa Firuzazar, Mir Taher Mazlumi, Mahbubeh Arabi, Mujan Haselipajuh and Saeid Borjali at the Persian Gulf Hall of Tehran’s Niavaran Cultural Center today.

All the money will be raised at the performance will go to charity at the Qadam Charity Institute, which supports children with CF.

CF is a genetic disorder that affects mostly the lungs, but also the pancreas, liver, kidneys, and intestine. Long-term issues include difficulty breathing and coughing up mucus as a result of frequent lung infections.

A poster for a reading performance of Antoine de Saint-Exupéry’s story “The Little Prince” at Tehran’s Niavaran Cultural Center

Shams Ensemble to perform at Konya Mystic Music Festival

TEHRAN – Shams Ensemble, the Iranian group that is most famous for its Sufi

performances, will give a concert at the Konya Mystic Music Festival in the Turkish city on September 25, the organizers

have announced.The ensemble led by veteran

tambur virtuoso Keykhosro Purnazeri will be performing in company with vocalist Homayun Shajarian.

Hossein Rezainia, Azad Mirzapur, Aiin Meshkatian, Kaveh Gerayeli, Kimia Jamshid, Donya Kamali, and Sepehr Ramin are other members of the group.

Other ensembles are coming from Azerbaijan, Tunis, Macedonia, and Bosnian Herzegovina.

The festival will take place at the Mevlana Cultural Center in Konya from September 22 to 30.

A poster for the Konya Mystic Music Festival

Tehran to host National Festival of Youth Music next week

The officials of the Constitution House of Tabriz unveil portraits of Sattar Khan (L) and Baqer Khan, two leaders of the Constitutional Revolution, on August 5, 2018. (IRNA/Kazem Yusefi)

A poster for “The Lower Depths”

Jury member Hossein Alizadeh attends a press conference in Tehran on August 6, 2018 to brief the media about the 12th National Festival of Youth Music. (Fars/Mohsen Atai)

“Facts of Life” star Charlotte Rae dies at 92

Singer Demi Lovato speaks out, says will keep fighting addictionNEW YORK (Reuters) — U.S. pop singer Demi Lovato spoke out on Sunday about her battle with addiction, saying she needed “time to heal and focus on my sobriety” days after media reports said she was taken to a Los Angeles hospital suffering from a suspected overdose.

“I have always been transparent about my journey with ad-diction,” the 25-year-old Grammy-nominated recording artist wrote on Instagram. “What I’ve learned is that this illness is not something that disappears or fades with time. It is something I must continue to overcome and have not done yet.”

Lovato, who has spoken openly in the past about her history of drug and alcohol abuse, thanked God, her friends and her fans, saying that their positive thoughts and prayers had helped her navigate “this difficult time.”

She also thanked her family, team and the staff at Cedars-Sinai hospital in Hollywood, who she said had been at her side since she was admitted on July 24. “Without them I wouldn’t be here writing this letter to all of you,” Lovato wrote.

“I now need time to heal and focus on my sobriety and road to recovery,” she said. “The love you have all shown me will never be forgotten and I look forward to the day where I can say I came out on the other side. I will keep fighting.”

The New Mexico-born performer rose to fame on Disney Channel shows “Camp Rock” and “Sonny with a Chance” be-fore forging a pop career with hits such as “Skyscraper” and “Sorry Not Sorry.”

In a 2017 YouTube documentary, “Simply Complicated,” Lovato spoke about years of substance abuse, eating disorders, and drinking, saying she first started using cocaine when she was 17. She entered rehab at the age of 18 and was diagnosed with bipolar disorder.

Charlotte Rae (Getty Images)