Majlis votes for Rouhani’s ministerial picks

T E H R A N —Iranian car

makers manufactured 111,506 vehicles in the seventh Iranian calendar month of Mehr (September 22-October 21), showing 139.1 percent rise from 46,629 vehicles manufactured in the same month in the preceding year, ISNA reported on Tuesday.

The country’s car output also stood at 691,581 in the first seven months of the current Iranian year (March 20-October 21), showing

26.2 percent rise compared to the same period of time last year.

Iran is scheduled to manufacture 1.35 million of cars by the end of the current calendar year (March 20, 2017), Deputy Minister of Industry, Mine and Trade Mohsen Salehinia announced in early April.

As Salehinia underlined, the government seeks to improve the quality as well as the quantity of the domestically produced cars on the way to boost their exports.

By Ali KushkiHead of the Politics Desk of the TehranTimes

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124 15 16Third World Golden Adobe award announces winners

Russia to host Iran’s 3rd exclusive trade exhibition

Iran to play India in

Asian U-19 qualifier

opener

Screenwriter says “Muhammad” not limited to certain geography

W W W . T E H R A N T I M E S . C O M I N T E R N A T I O N A L D A I L Y Iran’s Judiciary chief meets Ayatollah Sistani

16 Pages Price 10,000 Rials 38th year No.12687 Wednesday NOVEMBER 2, 2016 Aban 12, 1395 Safar 2, 1438 IR

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Zarif: Iraqis must unite

to defeat terrorism

TEHRAN — Iranian Foreign Minister

Mohammad Javad Zarif said on Monday that all Iraqi tribes and ethnic groups must be united in order to defeat terrorism in their country.

Zarif made the remarks in a meet-ing with Mala Bakhtiar, the chief of executive body of Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK).

The two sides exchanged views on regional developments and ways to combat terrorism in Iraq.

Iran and the Iraqi Kurdistan Region have been negotiating in recent months to boost cooperation on security issues.

Back in August, Iran’s Supreme National Security Council (SNSC) Ali Shamkhani and the Iraqi Kurdistan Region’s Interior Minister Karim Sinjari met to discuss the security situation in Iraq’s semi-autonomous Kurdistan region as well as ways to further ramp up the security of the region.

“Sustainable security along the borders is a redline for the Islamic Republic and the country’s police and security forces will strongly counter any move threatening the country’s borders,” Shamkhani said.

Bakhtiar also met with Iran’s Interior Minister Abdolreza Rahmani Fazli on Tuesday to discuss ways to counter terrorism. 2

“The Bodyguard”

art book unveiled

TEHRAN — The art book of “The

Bodyguard”, Ebrahim Hatamikia’s political drama, was unveiled during a ceremony held at the Owj Arts and Media Organization on Monday.

The idea of publishing the art book, which contains film reviews, backstage photos, the storyboard and a lot of details about the film, has been initiated by the Hatamikia’s son Esmaeil.

The unveiling ceremony was attended by a number of cineastes and the film cast and crew members including actress Merila Zarei, Persian media reported on Tuesday.

Speaking at the ceremony, the director of photography of “Bodyguard”, Mahmud Kalari, said that working on the project was a good experience for him.

“A number of people gathered to produce the book and have mentioned whatever they have experienced during the film production in this book,” he said.

“I must say that this book is quite new and contains good photos and information. Also, we can use it as a reference book to see in what situation the cinema of Iran was standing in the year 2016,” he added.

For his part, Esmaeil also expressed his appreciation to the director of Owj, Ehsan Mohammad-Hasani, for his support. 1 6

Foreign Ministry’s 3rd quarterly report on JCPOA and one key point

Iran’s Foreign Ministry released on Monday its third quarterly report on BARJAM (the Farsi acronym for

the nuclear deal), providing details on the implementation of the pact over the past three months.

The report includes information on monitoring, removal of sanctions, and nuclear activities in connection with the country’s nuclear program.

The report also bears information on obstacles which have been preventing Iran from experiencing the full economic benefits it had expected from the deal, one being opposing voices inside the country.

From the moment BARJAM, officially called the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), was signed in Vienna in July 2014 until now, it has stirred disagreements in the Iranian society.

While a large number of politicians and millions of Iranians hail the agreement framework, there are a few dyed-in-the-wool deniers, otherwise known as “the worriers,” who have remained skeptical of the deal.

They look at the deal as a sort of submissive cooperation with the West which is antithetical to the spirit of the 1979-revolution.

Juxtaposing the so-called worriers inside the country with other antagonistic international actors such as Saudi Arabia, Israel, and U.S. hardliners, has an important message regarding how national interests of a country can be undermined by uncoordinated and informal stances expressed by different individuals.

Mohammad Soleimani, the former telecommunication minister under the Ahmadinejad administration, said in an interview recently with Fars news agency, that BARJAM has borne no fruit for the country, accusing senior officials of not being “honest.” 2

2

Iran’s monthly car output up 139% yr/yr

TEHRAN —The Leader of

the Islamic Revolution Ayatollah Seyyed Ali Khamenei met on Tuesday with a number of families of the so-called “defenders of the shrine.”

Defenders of the shrine is a term used in Iran as a general reference to those who are martyred in the Syrian battleground in defense of holy places like the Zeinab shrine near Damascus, the burial place of a granddaughter of the

Prophet Mohammad and one of the holiest shrines for Shi’ites.

Over the past months, the Leader has received a number of the martyrs’ families.

Leader meets families of ‘defenders of the shrine”

TEHRAN — Nearly two weeks after a cabinet reshuffle, President

Hassan Rouhani’s proposed nominees for sports, education, and culture ministries won confidence

votes in the 290-seat Majlis (parliament) on Tuesday. Rouhani had proposed Reza Salehi Amiri, Fakhroddin

Ahmadi Danesh Ashtiani, and Massoud Soltanifar as ministers of culture and Islamic guidance, education,

and sports and youth, respectively. The candidates needed to receive at least

one half plus one of the votes cast to fill the ministerial vacancies. See page 2

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Tehran Intl. Short Film Festival to honor Khosro Sinai, Maryam Bubani

TEHRAN — The 33rd Tehran

International Short Film Festival plans to honor veteran filmmaker Khosro Sinai and actress Maryam Bubani for their lifetime achievements.

The organizers also plan to screen a number of Sinai’s acclaimed short movies during a program entitled “Master’s Choice” on the first day of the festival.

Among the films are “Hossein Yavari”, “A Journey to the History”, “Between Shadow and Light” and “Haj Mosavvar”.

Bubani will receive the honor during the second day of the festival, which will be held from November 8 to 14.

A number young filmmakers’ movies featuring her collaborations are scheduled to be screened.

“Signature” directed by Mohammad Sorayya, “As Usual” by

Mohammad Hamzei and “The Last Sin” by Elham Aqalari and Mehdi Jozani will be shown.

The Iranian Youth Cinema Society (IYCS) is the main organizer of the festival, which will be held at Tehran’s Charsu Cineplex.

IN HIS EXALTED NAMEGeno Combined Cycle Power Plant Project,

Steam PortionHormozgan Province

INVITATION TO PREQUALIFICATIONPursuant to the national economic policies for fuel saving and efficiency enhancement of power plants, subject of “The bylaws of Article 12 of the Law on Elimination of Barriers of Competitive Production and Enhancement of the Financial System of the Country”, Thermal Power Plants Holding Company (TPPH) intends to award construction of the steam portion of Geno Combined Cycle Power Plant (the “Project”), consisting of two steam turbine generator units, each with ap-proximate capacity of 150±5% MW, all ancillary and auxiliary equipment, common systems and the necessary interfaces with existing open cycle power plant, located in Hormozgan Province, to a qualified and competent contractor through an international bid. It should be noted that the ex-isting open cycle power plant consists of four V94.2, ver. 5 gas turbine generator units, manufac-tured by MAPNA with a capacity of 4*162 MW at ISO conditions, and has been in operation since 2014, and that TPPH has appointed Messinan Engineering Company (MEC) as the Consultant.

To this end, TPPH will prepare a short list of bidders possessing the necessary qualifications via this invitation to prequalification after the required process and evaluation. TPPH will then select an eligible contractor (successful bidder) possessing the required financing and technical capabilities and will award the engineering, procurement, construction and total financing of the Project to said contractor (the “Contractor”). The Contractor shall be paid for im-plementation of the Project in 10 semi-annual equal installments, beginning six months after the provisional acceptance of the Plant. The Ministry of Economic Affairs and Finance of the Islamic Republic of Iran shall guarantee the payment of said installments.

Interested applicants are hereby invited to obtain prequalification documents, within fourteen (14) calendar days after the second posting of this invitation notice, in one of the following ways:

A) A representative of the applicant, carrying a valid proxy letter, may refer in person to :Contracts Department,4th Floor,Thermal Power Plants Holding Co.,No.28 Shahid Shahamati Street,Vali Asr Avenue,Tehran, Islamic Republic of Iran

B) Applicants may refer to either of the following sites:www.tpph.irhttp://iets.mporg.ir

Deadline for submitting the completed prequalification documents is forty five (45) calendar days after the deadline for obtaining the Prequalification Questionnaire as indicated in this invitation notice.

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L Y IranJudichieAyaSiSSSS st

TEHRAN — Iranian President Hassan Rou-

hani said on Tuesday that interference by foreigners to create division among na-tions is the root cause of the crises in the Middle East.

“There is no way but establishment of long lasting peace and security to achieve bright future, wealth and pro-gress in the regional countries and all should help” to realize such a goal, Rouhani said during a meeting with Cypriot Parliament Speaker Demetris Syllouris in Tehran.

Rouhani also expressed regret over the fact that millions of innocent peo-ple in Iraq, Syria, Yemen and Libya have been displaced and live in dif-ficulty.

Commenting on bilateral relations, he said that expansion of ties can link the Middle East to Europe and Africa.

The president also called for expan-sion of economic relations between the two countries’ private sectors.

There is no impediment to increase re-lations and cooperation between the two

countries, Rouhani added.For his part, Syllouris said Cyprus

is determined to expand cooperation with Iran as a “great” and “civilized” country.

He also said that a “logical” and “politi-cal” solution is required to settle the crises in the region.

‘Parliamentary capacities should be used to expand ties’

In a separate meeting with the Cypriot official on Tuesday, Ali Akbar Velayati, the senior foreign policy advisor to the Lead-er, said the two countries should use par-liamentary capacities in order to expand relations.

He also said that Cyprus can play a “positive” role in helping settle crises in the Middle East region.

Syllouris also called Iran an important country in the world.

The officials also discussed banking re-lations between the two countries.

NOVEMBER 2, 2016NOVEMBER 2, 20162I N T E R N A T I O N A L D A I L Y

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MEDIA HIGHLIGHTS

1 Rahmani Fazli underlined the importance of unity among Muslim nations in the region in order to defeat terrorist groups.

Since the rise of Daesh in Iraq in June 2014, violence has plagued the northern and western parts of the oil-rich country.

Iraqi military and popular mobilization forces, backed by Kurdish Peshmerga, launched an operation on 16 October to liberate the city of Mosul from the terrorist group.

The liberation of the strategic city of Mosul would have a great impact on the region’s security.

“We consider solidarity and support for the world’s Muslims as our humanitarian duty and wish for unity, se-curity, sustainable peace, economic development for the Iraqi government and people,” Rahmani Fazli asserted.

The minister also announced that Iranian western provinces plan to develop economic relations with their Iraqi neighboring provinces.

Rahmani Fazli called for cooperation between the two sides in order to fight drug smuggling and illegal cross-border transactions.

He noted that Iran-Iraq ties are expanding in different fields, including economy.

Bakhtiar, for his turn, expressed satisfaction for meeting with the Iranian interior minister and laud-ed the important role that the ministry plays in strengthening ties with neighboring countries, es-pecially Iraq.

“Security, stability and economic prosperity of region-al markets would benefit neighboring countries, and we’re well-aware of our duties in strengthening such ties,” said the PUK official.

He further underscored the need to “strengthen and deepen” relations between the Kurdistan region and the Islamic Republic.

1 Take Friday prayer preacher Ahmad Khatami as another example, who back in August undermined Iran deal by calling one of the greatest breakthroughs of the world over the past years a “game” where the West has not honored its side of the bargain.

As a matter of fact, the Foreign Minis-try’s reference to the detrimental impact of such stances serves as an alarming call to put the national interests of the coun-

try before anything else. It makes no difference whether these

are voices inside or outside the country who keep downgrading the deal. The outcome is the same: scarring investors off the country.

“Attraction of foreign investment, and increased international economic trans-actions depend on a confidence-building atmosphere,” read part of the Foreign Ministry report.

The fact that economic growth won’t be achieved over night doesn’t mean it won’t be reached at all.

The JCPOA has already been of great help for the country. We are making a comeback to the oil market, and are claw-ing back our share in international markets.

According to Ali Kardor, the manag-ing director of the National Iranian Oil Company (NIOC), Iran’s oil production is touching the pre-sanctions level of

around four million barrels per day from nearly one million between 2012 and 2015.

Other economic performance indexes such as direct foreign investment have also shown growth.

So, we should be upbeat and maintain a positive attitude toward post-sanctions era, and bear in mind that honoring the deal means honoring our national interests.

Zarif: Iraqis must unite to defeat terrorism

Foreign Ministry’s 3rd quarterly report on JCPOA and one key point

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TEHRAN — An Iranian court has issued verdicts for some 20 sus-

pects involved in the attack on the Saudi embassy in Tehran, Mizan reported.

Javad Hosseini who judges the case said the ver-dicts will be declared in the coming days. He did not provide any further details.

In January a group of angry protestors stormed the Saudi embassy in Tehran in pro-test to Riyadh's execution of Nimr al-Nimr, a prominent Shia cleric.

Court orders verdicts against attackers on Saudi embassy in Tehran

P O L I T I C Sd e s k

TEHRAN — A top Iranian mili-tary official has dismissed com-

ments made by an Emirati official about the need for arming Persian Gulf Arab states to counter Iran, saying the “political dwarfs” look for “criminal acts” to attract attention.

“The region is gripped by a number of political dwarfs that have resorted to com-mitting crimes to prove themselves,” Deputy Armed Forces Chief of Staff Brigadier Gener-al Massoud Jazayeri said on Tuesday, Nasim reported.

Commander derides anti-Iran comments by ‘political dwarfs’

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Iran, Austria discuss closer consular cooperation

TEHRAN — High-ranking off icials from Iran and Aus-

tria have held talks on ways to boost coop-eration between the two countries in con-sular affairs.

The second joint meeting of Iran and Aus-tria on consular cooperation was attended on Sunday and Monday by Iranian Foreign Minis-try director for consular affairs Ali Chegini and his Austrian counterpart Elisabeth Felsberg, Tasnim reported.

The two diplomats also discussed ways to pro-mote relations between Iran and Austria in other spheres, including tourism, economy and police cooperation.

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Boroujerdi: Aoun should focus on Lebanon’s integrity

TEHRAN — As president, Michel Aoun should focus on the integ-

rity of Lebanon, the chairman of the National Se-curity and Foreign Policy Committee of the Majlis said on Tuesday.

Aoun’s speech on liberating more of the oc-cupied Lebanese lands shows he has a clear con-ception of the resistance, which provides a unique opportunity for the resistance front, Alaeddin Boroujerdi told ICANA.

He hoped that other than addressing terrorism, the new Lebanese president makes gains for his country in the economic sphere.

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Iran’s Judiciary chief meets Ayatollah Sistani

TEHRAN — Iranian Judiciary chief Ayatollah Sadeq Amo-

li Larijani who is on a tour of Iraq met with Grand Ayatollah Ali Sistani in Najaf on Tues-day.

Amoli Larijani, heading a high-ranking judicial delegation, arrived in Iraq on Saturday.

He met some senior clerics of Najaf to discuss is-sues related to Najaf and also cooperation between seminaries in Iran and Iraq.

Larijani also signed a memorandum of un-derstanding on judicial cooperation with head of Iraqi Supreme Judicial Council Medhat al-Mahmoud.

P O L I T I C Sd e s k

On Tuesday the Tehran Times quoted Russian Ambassador to Iran Levan Dzhagaryan as having told IRNA that Russian experts are in Iran to help with the redesign of the Arak heavy water reactor.

The same report by IRNA, nonetheless, appeared in a story by Russia’s Sputnik news agency.

The embassy in a letter to the Tehran Times explained that Russian experts are helping Iran build two new reactors in Bushehr, not redesign the one in Arak.

Rouhani calls interference root cause of regional crises

TEHRAN — Algerian Ambassador to Tehran Abdel Moneim Ahryz has said

that Iranian firms are welcome in Algeria.Ahryz said his country has opened its markets to the

Islamic Republic.“Businesspeople, entrepreneurs and investors have

directed their efforts in recent years to support and encourage the officials of the two countries to expand their economic ties,” Ahryz said in an interview with IRNA published on Tuesday.

The Algerian ambassador said that Iran and Algeria had close ties even before the JPCOA – a nuclear deal between Iran and six world powers – was signed.

The two sides have been able to develop their ties during the past ten years, he said.

Ahryz further said that there are great opportunities in various fields, especially economy, to strengthen ties between Iran and Algeria.

The ambassador also said the two countries enjoy exemplary security and stability as well as strategic posi-tions in their regions and “this can help the expansion of ties between Iran and Algeria.”

Elsewhere in his remarks, Ahryz emphasized that Al-geria would always support the Syrian and Yemeni peo-ple and believes that the conflicts in the two countries should be resolved through dialogue.

Algerian ambassador: Iranian firms are welcome in AlgeriaP O L I T I C Sd e s k

TEHRAN — Hossein Amir-Abdolla-hian, a special aide to Majlis speaker

for international affairs, said on Tuesday that the Leb-anese people are the actual “winners” as the Lebanese parliament on Monday voted to elect Michael Aoun as president.

The post had been vacant since 2014 due to differ-ences between rival factions in the country.

Aoun has played an important role in resistance against the Zionist regime of Israel and his election bears an important message, Amir-Abdollahian said in a meeting with Hungarian Ambassador to Iran Janos Kovacs.

Aoun, the former Lebanese army chief, was elected president by winning the support of 83 MPs, well above the absolute majority of 65 needed to win.

The Iranian Foreign Ministry congratulated on Monday election of Aoun as president, expressing hopes for increasing relations between Tehran and Beirut. Amir-Abdollahian also highlighted the im-portance of expanding relations between Iran and Hungary.

Kovacs said that Hungary is willing to expand rela-tions with Iran.

P O L I T I C Sd e s k

Correction

‘Lebanese people are winners’

1 Reza Salehi Amiri got 180 “yes” votes while 89 voted against him and six legislators abstained.

With the confidence vote, Salehi Amiri will replace Ali Jannati who resigned two weeks ago.

Prior to being endorsed as minister, Salehi Amiri served as deputy culture minister.

He had previously served as deputy intelligence min-ister for strategic studies under the reformist govern-ment.

“Mr. Salehi Amiri is a sociologist, and cultural celebrity. I have worked with him for at least 13-14 years,” President Rouhani said while defending him in the parliament.

It remains to be seen how Salehi Amiri will address challenges such as the concert row in the country which caused, people familiar with the issue say, Jannati to step down.

Fakhroddin Ahmadi Danesh Ashtiani, the president’s

nominee for the education minister, also secured 157 “yes” votes, with 111 rebelled against him and six ab-stained.

Ahmadi Danesh Ashtiani, a graduate of the Imperial College London, is a faculty member at Khaje Nasir Too-si University of Technology.

Ashtiani will replace Ali Asghar Fani who was grap-

pling with numerous challenges such as teachers’ wages. “The Education Ministry requires a leader who can

bring about a positive change for teachers…” Rouhani said of Ashtiani. “He is familiar with educational systems of many countries.”

Prior to appearing before the parliament, he had un-derscored that addressing a troubled teacher fund affili-ated with the ministry would be a priority.

The fund’s managerial board is being investigated for an embezzlement worth millions of dollars.

Also, Massoud Soltanifar, as the president’s pick for the Ministry of Sports and Youth Affairs, secured the highest number of votes among the three proposed ministers. He won 193 votes in favor, 72 against, and nine abstentions.

Soltanifar was the head of the tourism and heritage organization.

Majlis votes for Rouhani’s ministerial picks

“The Education Ministry requires a leader who can

bring about a positive change for teachers…” Rouhani said of Ashtiani. “He is familiar with educational systems of many

countries.”

Explosion in Alabama shuts gas pipeline, shortages possibleFor the second time in two months, a pipeline that supplies gas-oline to millions of people was shut down, raising the specter of another round of gas shortages and price increases.

The disruption occurred when a track hoe — a machine used to remove dirt — struck the pipeline, ignited gasoline and caused an explosion on Monday that sent flames and thick black smoke soaring over a forest in northern Alabama, Colo-nial Pipeline said. One worker was killed and five were injured.

A September leak that spilled 252,000 to 336,000 gallons of gasoline occurred not far from the location of Monday's explosion. That leak led to days of dry pumps and higher gas prices in Alabama, Georgia, Tennessee and the Caroli-nas while repairs were made. The cause of the leak still has not been determined, and the effects of the latest disruption weren't immediately clear.

Colonial Pipeline, based in Alpharetta, Georgia, operates 5,599 miles of pipelines, transporting more than 100 million gallons daily of gasoline, jet fuel, home heating oil and other hazardous liquids in 13 states and the District of Columbia, according to company filings. Authorities have not said which type of fuel was involved in the explosion Monday.

Plagued by a severe drought after weeks without rain, the section of the state where the explosion happened has been scarred by multiple wildfires in recent weeks, and crews worked to keep the blaze from spreading. (Source: AP)

U.S. diplomat meets with Maduro to bolster Venezuela dialogueA senior United States diplomat met with Venezuelan Presi-dent Nicolas Maduro as part of an effort to support dialogue between the government and the opposition amid an es-calating political standoff and a worsening economic crisis.

The arrival of Tom Shannon, U.S. Under Secretary of State for Political Affairs and an expert on Latin America, may help spur negotiations between the two sides, which over the years have repeatedly held talks that generated few concrete results.

Venezuelan state television briefly showed images of Shannon shaking hands with Maduro and speaking infor-mally with other ruling Socialist Party officials in the Miraflores presidential palace.

“I had a good conversation with Thomas Shannon. We spoke about bilateral relations, among other issues,” Maduro said on Monday in comments broadcast on state television.

“It's good news for Venezuela that we achieved this dia-logue process and that it started out well.” The United States has for more than a decade been at ideological loggerheads with Venezuela's socialist government.

Maduro and opposition leaders agreed to move ahead in talks that were organized with support from the Vatican following a meeting that began on Sunday evening and stretched into dawn on Monday.

Maduro's adversaries accuse him of creating a dictator-ship by blocking a recall referendum on his rule and of ille-gally overriding the legislature, which was taken over by the opposition in a landslide election last year.

The opposition insists the government allow a recall referen-dum on the unpopular Maduro's rule, release dozens of jailed opposition activists and respect congressional decisions.

Maduro, who is struggling to control shortages of con-sumer goods and soaring prices in an unraveling socialist economy, says he is a victim of opposition conspiracies to overthrow him and of an “economic war” led by businesses with the backing of Washington.

Shannon has in recent years worked to ease long-running tensions between Caracas and Washington.

He helped contain fallout from U.S. sanctions against Ven-ezuelan officials in 2015, and last year spearheaded an effort to create informal channels of communication between the State Department and top Venezuelan officials.

The United States has stepped up diplomatic efforts with Venezuela since 2014, when U.S. President Barack Obama put in motion a process of restoring relations with communist-run Cuba after more than 50 years of economic embargo.

Shannon faces a difficult situation in Venezuela, where the two sides show few signs of agreement on a path forward and have repeatedly failed to reach consensus through bilateral talks.

Jesus Torrealba, head of the opposition coalition, said ear-ly on Monday that dialogue cannot continue without “con-crete and immediate action in the coming days with respect to the release of political prisoners.”

Four major opposition parties have joined the talks. The influential Popular Will party, led by jailed former mayor Leo-poldo Lopez, did not join, insisting the government had not shown enough respect for human rights.

The two sides will create four commissions to continue discussing specific issues. Venezuela's Congress is currently conducting a largely symbolic trial of Maduro to declare him politically responsible for the country's crisis and formally de-clare that he has violated democratic principles.

The opposition is also scheduled to march to the presi-dential palace this week, following massive demonstrations last week and a national strike on Friday that was only par-tially observed even by government critics. (Source: Reuters)

NOVEMBER 2, 2016NOVEMBER 2, 2016 INTERNATIONAL 3I N T E R N A T I O N A L D A I L Y

Amnesty International has called on mil-itants operating in Syria’s divided city of Aleppo to halt their unlawful actions.

The human rights group said that the offensive launched by militants in the city on October 28 has been marked by indiscriminate attacks on residential areas and is by no means justifiable as a way to break the government’s siege on the city.

“The goal of breaking the siege on eastern Aleppo does not give armed opposition groups a license to flout the rules of international humanitarian law by bombarding civilian neighborhoods in government-held areas without distinc-tion,” said Deputy Director of Campaigns at Amnesty International's Beirut regional office Samah Hadid.

Earlier, the Syrian military announced that at least 84 people have been killed and another 280 people sustained inju-ries in three days of intensive and relent-less assaults by militants on the govern-ment-held parts of the city.

“Armed opposition groups have dis-played a shocking disregard for civilian lives. Video footage shows they have used imprecise explosive weapons in-cluding mortars and Katyusha rockets, whose use in the vicinity of densely pop-ulated civilian areas flagrantly violates international humanitarian law. Armed opposition groups must end all attacks

that fail to distinguish between military targets and civilians,” Hadid added.

Reports surfaced that at least three dozen people had been injured after mil-itants launched a barrage of shells load-ed with toxic gas against two residential neighborhoods in the city.

“Chemical weapons are international-ly banned and their use is a war crime. Such weapons cause immense suffering

and health damage. Their use can never be justified and regardless of who is be-hind this attack all parties to the conflict must halt the use of all prohibited weap-ons of war,” she added.

On Sunday, United Nations Special Envoy for Syria Staffan de Mistura also slammed the militant rocket attacks against civilians in Aleppo.

U.S. must separate moderates

from terrorists Meanwhile, Russian Foreign Minis-

ter Sergey Lavrov said that if the Unit-ed States fails to separate the so-called moderate opposition groups in Syria it will become an “accomplice” of the ter-rorists.

“The fact that not only Staffan de Mis-tura but also Western media now say that it is Jabhat al-Nusra [Al-Nusra Front] which attacks government positions in the south-western part of Aleppo proves that no one can turn a blind eye any-more,” he said.

“We call on our international part-ners, you have influence over opposition groups to ask them to separate from al-Nusra. If this does not happen, they are making themselves accomplices of al-Nusra,” he added.

U.S. flirting with terroristsFollowing a meeting with Cypriot For-

eign Minister Ioannis Kasoulidis, Lavrov stressed that the U.S. either cannot sep-arate the so-called moderates from the terrorists or does not want to.

“Apparently now, it can be said that they actually do not want to do that.” He added. “We hope that the instinct of self-preservation will prevail because flirting with terrorists and attempts to use them for your own goals has never led to anything good.”

(Source: agencies)

Stop killing civilians: Amnesty to Syria militantsU.S. flirting with terrorists: Lavrov

The United States Democrat presidential nominee, Hillary Clinton and her republican rival Donald Trump are all but tied in the latest Washington Post-ABC News Tracking Poll, which finds Clinton backers slipping behind in enthusiasm even as the Democrat has an edge in early voting.

The tracking poll finds little shift in Clinton's overall support following news of the FBI's (Federal Bureau of In-vestigation) renewed look at Clinton e-mails, but strong enthusiasm among her supporters fell behind Trump in combined on Saturday and Sunday interviews. By 53 to 43 percent, more Trump supporters say they are “very enthusiastic” about him, compared with Thursday and Friday when Trump's edge was negligible (53 percent vs. 51 percent).

Voter enthusiasm has been in short supply for both Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump through the fall cam-paign and continues to lag excitement about candidates on the ballot four years ago. At this point in 2012, 64 percent of Obama supporters said they were “very en-thusiastic” about him; Romney was only narrowly behind at 61 percent.

Trump and Clinton continue to run nearly even in overall vote preferences, with Trump at 46 percent and Clinton 45 percent in a four-way contest in the poll con-ducted on Thursday through Sunday. The margin is a mirror 48-47 Clinton-Trump split when third-party can-didates are asked which major-party candidate they lean toward, a comparison which has grown in importance as support declines steadily for Libertarian Gary Johnson and the Green Party's Jill Stein.

Over 1 in 5 likely voters identified in the Post-ABC poll report as having already voted (21 percent), while about one-quarter say they plan to vote early or by mail (24

percent,) and a slight majority plan to vote in-person on Election Day. The level of early voting so far is rough-ly in line with expectations given the 24.7 million early votes tracked so far by the United States Election Project, which amounts to 19 percent of the 129 million ballots cast in 2012.

Clinton has a modest 54-41 percent edge among ear-ly voters in an average of the three most recent tracking poll waves, while Trump leads by a 50-39 percent mar-gin among those looking to vote on Election Day; those who anticipate voting early are more evenly split. Those breakdowns should be treated with caution, given both the sizable 8.5-point margin of sampling error around that result as well as general challenges in tracking atti-tudes among a rapidly growing population.

Older Americans have flocked to vote early, with 38 percent of senior likely voters saying they have done so, compared with 18 percent of those ages 40-64 and 17 percent of voters younger than that. Women are slight-

ly more apt to report voting early than men (26 vs. 19 percent), as are voters in urban areas (28 percent) com-pared with suburban and rural voters (19 percent and 22 percent).

The daily tracking poll's latest four-night wave finds voters splitting sharply along traditional political divi-sions, with Trump's previously lagging support among core Republican groups now nearly matching Clinton's wide support on the left. Trump holds 78 percent sup-port among white evangelical Protestants, 77 percent among conservatives, 68 percent among rural voters and 59 percent among white men. Clinton answers with 81 percent support among liberals, 67 percent of those identifying with no religion, 60 percent of those in urban areas and 72 percent among non-whites.

Clinton and Trump receive similar support among fellow partisans, but Trump maintains an 18-point edge among political independents, significantly higher than Republicans have held in recent elections. Looking deep-er at that group over a seven-day stretch, 77 percent of independents who say they lean Democratic prefer Clinton while a similar 80 percent who lean Republican favor Trump. But Trump holds a sizable 53-28 percent advantage among voters who say they don't lean toward either party, a group that accounts for about 10 percent of likely voters.

This Washington Post-ABC News poll was conduct-ed by telephone on Oct. 27-30, 2016, among a random national sample of 1,773 adults including landline and cellphone respondents. Overall results have a margin of sampling error of plus or minus 2.5 points; the error margin is plus or minus three points among the sample of 1,167 likely voters.

(Source: The Washington Post)

Post-ABC Tracking Poll: Trump 46, Clinton 45, as Clinton falls behind Trump in enthusiasm

Turkey’s prime minister said he had no regard for Europe’s “red line” on press freedom on Tuesday and warned that An-kara would not be brought to heel with threats, rejecting criticism of the deten-tion of senior journalists at an opposition newspaper.

Police detained the editor and top staff of Cumhuriyet, a pillar of the country’s secularist establishment, on Monday, on accusations that the newspaper’s cover-age had helped precipitate a failed mili-tary coup in July.

The United States and European Un-ion both voiced concern about the move in Turkey, a NATO (North Atlantic Treaty Organization) ally which aspires to EU membership. European Parliament Pres-ident Martin Schulz wrote on Twitter that the detentions marked the crossing of ‘yet another red-line’ against freedom of expression in the country.

“Brother, we don’t care about your red line. It’s the people who draw the red line. What importance does your line have,” Prime Minister Binali Yildirim told mem-bers of his ruling Justice and Develop-ment Party (Adalet ve Kalk?nma Partisi/AKP) in a speech in parliament.

“Turkey is not a country to be brought in line with salvoes and threats. Turkey

gets its power from the people and would be held accountable by the people.”

Prosecutors accuse staff at Cumhuri-yet, one of few media outlets still critical of President Tayyip Erdogan, of commit-ting crimes on behalf of Kurdish militants and the network of Fethullah Gulen, a United States-based cleric blamed for or-chestrating the July coup attempt.

Journalists at the paper were suspect-ed of seeking to precipitate the coup through “subliminal messages” in their columns before it happened, the state-run Anadolu agency said.

Cumhuriyet vowed “we will not surren-der” in a front-page headline. Dozens of people staged a vigil in front of its Istan-bul offices overnight, some wrapped in blankets as they slept on benches while police guarded barriers outside.

“Even if Cumhuriyet’s executives and writers are detained, our newspaper will continue its fight for democracy and free-dom to the end,” it said in a defiant edi-torial which described the arrests as the start of an attempt to close the paper.

It said its pages had repeatedly warned that Gulen’s movement represented a danger to the Republic and wanted to abolish secularism. The paper said it had in the past been targeted by prosecutors

and judges aligned with Gulen. Enemies of the state

Turkey’s authorities have bristled at the Western reaction to the abortive coup, in which rogue soldiers used fighter jets and tanks to attack parliament and other key buildings, killing more than 240 people, many of them civilians.

They see European leaders as quick to condemn wide scale purges of suspected plotters, but reluctant to accept the gravity of the putsch and the threat to the state.

“We have no problem with press free-dom. This is what we can’t agree with our European friends. They always bring up press freedom when we take steps in our fight against terrorism,” Yildirim said.

He said Turkey could draft a “limited measure” to bring back the death pen-alty if a political compromise could be reached on the issue, a move that could spell an end to its efforts to join the Eu-ropean Union.

Crowds have repeatedly called for the re-introduction of capital punishment, which Turkey abolished in 2002 as part of the EU accession process, and Erdogan has said he would approve it if parliament voted for it.

Turkey has classified Gulen’s network of followers as the “Gulenist Terror Organi-

zation” (FETO), ranking it as an enemy of the state alongside the Kurdistan Work-ers’ Party (PKK/Partiya Karkerên Kurdis-tanê) militant group, which has waged a three-decade armed insurgency, and the Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant (ISIL/Daesh) terrorist group.

Gulen, who has lived in self-imposed exile in the United States since 1999, de-nies involvement in the coup attempt.

More than 110,000 of Gulen’s suspect-ed followers have been sacked or sus-pended and 37,000 jailed pending trial since the coup attempt. Rights groups say the scale of the purges show Erdo-gan is using the coup attempt to crush all dissent.

No access to lawyersThe latest detainee on Monday

evening was veteran Turkish journalist Kadri Gursel, who began writing for Cum-huriyet in May, bringing the number of those held to 13, the paper said. Three more staff targeted by the investigation are abroad.

It said the detainees, some of whose computers and phones were confiscated, were not being allowed to speak to law-yers for five days under emergency rule imposed after the putsch.

(Source: Reuters)

Turkey rejects Europe’s ‘red line’ on press freedom after detentions

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

E C O N O M Y NOVEMBER 2, NOVEMBER 2, 20162016

The Bank of Japan held off on expanding stimu-lus on Tuesday despite once again pushing back the timing for hitting its inflation target, signaling that it will keep policy unchanged unless a severe shock threatens to derail a fragile economic recovery.

The BOJ maintained its view that the world’s third-largest economy will expand moderately as exports and consumption emerge from the dol-drums.

But it also warned that risks to the outlook were skewed to the downside and that price momentum was weakening, an unusually bleak assessment that underscored its waning conviction of achieving the elusive inflation target.

The government of Dubai has chosen HSBC (HSBA.L) to arrange initial funding of $3 billion (£2.45 billion) towards the expansion of Al Mak-toum International Airport, according to a state-ment on UAE state news agency WAM.

The financing will be raised by a consortium of Dubai state entities, comprising of the Depart-ment of Finance, state-owned fund Investment Corporation of Dubai, and the Dubai Aviation City Corporation.

The funds will come from a variety of sources and will include conventional and Islamic tranch-es, the statement added.

Irish manufacturing growth rebounded to a four-month high in October but growth in new export orders slowed as the country continued to feel the impact of Britain’s vote to leave the EU, a survey showed on Tuesday.

The Investec Manufacturing Purchasing Man-agers’ Index (PMI) climbed to 52.1 in October from 51.3 in September, remaining above the 50 mark that separates expansion from contraction for the 41st consecutive month.

The consumer goods sector posted the sharpest expansion in production during the month.

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IN B

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BOJ keeps policy steady, delays inflation target again

Dubai govt. says picks HSBC to arrange $3b airport financing

Irish manufacturing growth hits four-month high in Oct.

TEHRAN — Manag-ing Director of Iranian

Privatization Organization (IPO) Abdol-lah Pouri-Hosseini told IRNA on Tuesday that 250 to 300 state-run companies will be transferred to the private sector by the end of the present Iranian calendar year (March 20, 2017).

The planned privatizations will be carried out via putting the companies’ shares on auction, Pouri-Hosseini said on the sidelines of the 3rd Kish International Exhibition of Exchange, Banking, Insur-ance and Privatization and the 8th Inter-national Exhibition for Presenting Iran’s Investment Opportunities (Kish INVEX

2016) held on Iran’s southern Kish Island. “Some 120 companies have been put

on auctions since the beginning of the current year,” he added.

Since its establishment, i.e., during the past 15 years, IPO has sold shares of 1,111 government companies to the private sector, the organization’s head previously announced.

IPO transferred 5.760 trillion rials (about $162.34 million) worth of Iranian state-run shares to the private sector from the beginning of the present Ira-nian calendar year (March 20, 216) to September 13, Tasnim news agency re-ported.

Up to 300 companies to be privatized in Iran by Mar. 2017

ECONOMYd e s k

ECONOMYd e s k

Iran exports near $170m of tiles, ceramics in 6 months

TEHRAN — According to the data pub-lished by Iran’s Ministry of Industry, Mine and

Trade, the country exported over 62 million square meters of tiles and ceramics at the value of $169.7 million during the first six months of the current Iranian calendar year (March 20- Sep-tember 21, 2016).

Iran exported $112 million of tiles and ceramic in the past year and the figure stood at $109 million in its preceding year.

According to its 1404 (March 2025-March 2026) Outlook Plan, Iran plans to increase its tiles and ceramics annual pro-duction capacity up to 700 million square meters and improve exports up to $2 billion per annum.

TEHRAN — The third exclusive trade and in-

dustry exhibition of Iran in Russia is due to be held from December 7 to 9 at As-trakhan Star Sports and Entertainment Complex, the official website of Iran’s Trade Promotion Organization (TPO) announced.

The event will be held in collabora-tion with Iran’s Consulate General in As-trakhan and the chambers of commerce and industry of Astrakhan, Krasnodar, Rostov, Volgograd, Stavropol, Dagest-

an, Caucasus, Grozny and Cherkessk, and with the participation of state-run and private sectors, including compa-nies, enterprises, manufacturers, ex-porters and businessmen from Iran and Russia.

The exhibition aims to develop com-mercial and trade relations between Iran and the Eurasian country, espe-cially the southwest regions.

Construction, energy, food industry, irrigation and agriculture, wood indus-try, household appliances, insurance,

banking, transportation and automo-tive, tourism, pharmaceuticals, medical equipment, engineering services and products are among the areas covered in the event.

With the lifting of sanctions, trade turnover between Moscow and Tehran has grown 70.9 percent in year-on-year terms, Russian Ambassador to Iran Le-van Dzhagaryan said on August 12.

Since international sanctions against Iran were lifted, there has been a surge in interest from Russian firms in doing

business in the country, the ambassador noted, adding the further expansion of trade is one of the main priorities of the bilateral cooperation with Iran.

Russia to host Iran’s 3rd exclusive trade exhibition

The best-performing big bank stock in Oct.October was a good month for big bank stocks. The KBW Bank Index, which tracks shares of two dozen blue-chip bank stocks, climbed 5.7 percent through the month, handily outperforming the S&P 500, which fell 1.7 percent over the same stretch.

But some banks fared better than others, with one in particular separating itself from the pack: Goldman Sachs.

Goldman Sachs’ performance last month was fueled by a better-than-expected third-quarter earnings report, which came out on October 18. The bank beat expecta-tions on both the top and bottom lines.

It earned $4.88 a share in the three months ended Sept. 30 on revenue of $8.17 billion. Analysts had predicted that its earnings would come in at $3.82 a share on $7.42 bil-lion worth of revenue. In other words, Goldman Sachs didn’t just narrowly beat expectations. It blew by them.

It’s worth pointing out as well that Goldman’s earnings and revenue were comfortably above the same quarter in 2015, when it earned $2.90 per share on revenue of $6.86 billion.

Goldman Sachs benefited in particular from an im-provement in trading revenue. Net revenue from its fixed income, currency, and commodity unit soared 34 percent in the quarter relative to the year-ago period.

Additionally, as the bank pointed out in its third-quarter earnings release, it’s currently ranked first in worldwide an-nounced and completed mergers and acquisitions for the year-to-date, which boosts its advisory income. And it saw a $14 billion net inflow in long-term assets under supervi-sion.

“We saw solid performance across the franchise that helped counter typical seasonal weakness,” said Chairman and CEO Lloyd Blankfein. “We continue to manage our balance sheet conservatively and are benefiting from the breadth of our offerings to clients.”

Since reporting earnings, shares of Goldman Sachs have climbed 5.3 percent and are now flirting with positive territory for the year.

(Source: Fox Business)

Iran-Russia Joint Transportation Committee meeting kicks off in Tehran

TEHRAN — The eighth round of Iran-Rus-sia Joint Transportation Committee meet-

ings started in Tehran on Tuesday, IRIB news reported.Aiming to explore and prevent barriers to the develop-

ment of transportation between the two countries, the three-day event includes four working groups covering transporta-tion issues and a working group to draft documents.

Representatives from subsidiary organizations of Iranian Ministry of Transportation and Ministry of Foreign Affairs and some private sector representatives from Iran will meet their Russian counterparts in the meeting.

ECONOMYd e s k

ECONOMYd e s k

Asia’s largest economies posted strong factory activity in October, though poor showings in Korea and South-east Asia and a weaker inflation outlook from the Bank of Japan kept market reaction muted.

China’s official Purchasing Managers’ Index (PMI) expanded at the fastest pace in more than two years in October, adding to views that the world’s second-largest economy is stabilizing thanks to a credit and housing boom.

India factory activity grew at the fastest rate since December 2014, boosted by a surge in output and new orders, as Asia’s third largest economy continues to grow at a robust pace.

But investors remained cautious as the prospects of another U.S. Federal Reserve interest rate hike in De-cember raise concerns about the impact on emerging market economies, despite positive trends in Asia.

“Asia is especially exposed to a potential rate hike by the Fed: the region’s highly indebted economies will feel the pinch from rising dollar funding costs but will not receive a lift from stronger exports that a strength-ening U.S. economy ordinarily entails,” said Frederic Neumann, co-head of Asian Economic Research at HSBC.

Uncertainty was also on the rise as the acrimoni-ous U.S. presidential election campaign entered its final week.

In China, there are worries that a pickup in activity over the last few months can’t last, with record loan growth set to slow and the government seeking to

dampen rocketing home prices.For India, a sharp rise in input costs could point to

heightened inflationary risks, which could crimp the Re-serve Bank of India’s room to ease policy interest rates further.

Inflation looked to be trending lower in the region’s major developed economies.

The Reserve Bank of Australia held its policy interest rate at a record low on Tuesday, saying inflation was ex-pected to remain subdued for some time and that the economy was likely to grow near its potential next year.

The Bank of Japan on Tuesday held off on expand-ing stimulus on Tuesday despite pushing back the time frame for hitting its 2 percent inflation target, signal-ing that it will stand pat unless a severe market shock

threatens to derail a fragile recovery.Japanese manufacturing activity expanded at the

fastest pace in nine months in October as output and new export orders picked up, a private business survey showed on Tuesday, offering some hope for the strug-gling economy.

Diverging trends Factory surveys for major technology exporters Tai-

wan and Korea went in opposite directions in October.Taiwan’s manufacturing sector showed the fastest

growth in two years, with output rising for the last five months.

Meanwhile, South Korea’s purchasing managers index (PMI) contracted for a third straight month and was the second-lowest since August 2015. While the downturn eased slightly, persistent weakness in global demand hampered the recovery in the export-reliant economy, the private survey showed.

Factory activity also contracted in Indonesia and Malaysia in October, while growth in Vietnam cooled, according to IHS Markit purchasing managers’ indexes released on Tuesday.

Surveys from Europe and the U.S. were due later Tuesday.

The U.S. economy grew at a faster than expected 2.9 percent in the third quarter, and consumer spending rose more than expected in September, which could bolster expectations of an interest rate hike from the Fed in December.

(Source: Reuters)

Asian factories crank up output, but U.S. election, Fed make investors wary

Carnegie Investment Bank AB, which manages $17.2 billion for clients, sold all of its U.K. holdings as opinion polls nar-rowed ahead of the June vote to exit from the European Union.

“We had equities and corporate bonds in Britain before the vote,” chief strategist Henrik Drusebjerg said in a telephone interview on Monday. “We started sell-ing off our U.K. holdings to absolute zero maybe a month before the vote,” he said. He wouldn’t give the value of the assets sold.

The Stockholm-based bank is staying out of U.K. investments because uncer-tainty remains too large a factor regard-

ing negotiations to leave the EU, or even if Prime Minister Theresa May will secure one, the strategist told Bloomberg Radio earlier on Monday. A separate survey of 83 money managers commissioned by NN Investment Partners revealed that Brexit and the potential breakup of the EU was deemed the biggest investment threat globally for the investors.

Brexit: impact on investment1. The pound plunges to a three-

decade low, with some warning of even-tual parity with the dollar.

2. Henderson Global Investors saw net retail outflows of £1 billion after the referendum.

3. M&G, the asset management arm of UK insurer Prudential, plans to build a new investment unit in Luxem-bourg.

4. M&G’s £4.5 billion property portfolio will reopen in November, having been frozen in July.

5. Prime central London offices may lose as much as 30 percent of their value by the end of next year.

“It will definitely end with a deal that is so bad they will either get an election about this new bad deal, or they will have to have a parliamentary election before that,” Drusebjerg said in the radio inter-view. “It’s very possible that Britain will

never reach Brexit because I think down the road it will be obvious that the deal they will get will be really, really bad for the economy.”

Brexit is shaping up to be the worst of a slew of nationalist sentiment that’s hit-ting the global economy, the strategist said, citing a potential Donald Trump vic-tory in U.S. elections, a constitutional vote in Italy in December to limit the power of the Senate and parliamentary votes next year in Germany and France.

That could result in the election of more politicians who advocate trade bar-riers, which would be negative for inves-tors, he said. (Source: Bloomberg)

Carnegie Investment Bank sold all UK assets before Brexit vote

Saudi Arabia appoints new fin. min.Saudi Arabia appointed market regulator Mohammed al-Jadaan as its new finance minister by royal decree on Monday, replacing Ibrahim Alassaf, who had held the post since 1996.

Alassaf, 67, had been the last veteran member of cabinet to remain in a key post through a series of government reshuffles after King Salman assumed power last year, including one in May that replaced the long-standing oil minister.

He has been made minister of state and will remain a mem-ber of the Council of Ministers, as the Saudi cabinet is known, according to the royal decree.

The decree also appointed new chiefs for the Public Trans-port Commission and the Saline Water Conversion Corporation (SWCC), which both supplies water and generates electricity.

It transferred responsibility for consumer protection from the ministry for commerce and investment to the health minister, Tawfiq al-Rabeeah.

Alassaf’s removal is unlikely to usher in a shift in Saudi Ara-bia’s tight fiscal policy, which is being crafted to a large degree by Deputy Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, who oversees the kingdom’s economic and defense portfolios.

The prince has introduced a wide-ranging economic reform plan to steward the world’s largest crude exporter through an era of low oil prices and diversify its sources of revenue.

Still, Alassaf has been a public face of the fiscal strain the country has experienced since oil prices plunged in mid-2014, which created a yawning $98 billion budget deficit and forced authorities to impose painful austerity measures.

In a televised interview broadcast last week, he praised the government’s recent spending cuts while defending what critics have characterized as lavish expenditures during the oil boom years. (Source: CNBC)

PICTURE OF THE DAY SHANA/Hassan Hossaini

E N E R G YNOVEMBER 2, 2016NOVEMBER 2, 2016 5I N T E R N A T I O N A L D A I L Y

Essar Oil, the top Indian buyer of Iranian crude, shipped in about 132,000 barrels per day (bpd) of oil from Iran last month, a growth of about 8.3 percent from about 122,000 bpd a year ago, according to tanker arrival data obtained from trade sources and ship-tracking services on the Thomson Reuters terminal.

Although the Indian company imported about 47 percent less Iranian oil in September compared to Au-gust as the country’s second biggest private refiner boosted purchases from Venezuela.

A group led Russian oil giant Rosneft earlier this month agreed to acquire 98 percent stake in Essar Oil and associated port and power plant for about $13 bil-lion, including debt. Rosneft may supply Venezuelan oil to Essar ’s Vadinar refinery after a deal to buy a stake in the Indian company is finalized, the Indian company’s managing director L. K. Gupta told Reuters in August.

Essar ’s oil imports from Venezuela trebled to about 211,000 barrels per day (bpd) last month from 67,000 bpd in August, the data showed.

Iran’s share in overall imports by Essar Oil in the Jan-uary-September period rose to about 46 percent while that of Venezuela rose to about 45 percent. Last year during the same period the two nations accounted for about a third each of Essar ’s overall oil imports.

(Source: Reuters)

India Essar’s Sept. oil imports from Iran up 8.3 % yr/yr: trade

Iran eyes new crude oil buyers, Asia remains linchpin

I ran continues its quest for new crude buyers, es-pecially in Europe, but its loyal customer base will continue to hinge on countries like India and China,

whose demand for Iranian crude has observed a steady rise this year.

Iran has found interest for its crude in some unusual places in the past few months as it continues it diversify its list of buyers. Earlier this month it agreed to sell one million barrels of crude oil to Hungary via Croatia as it seeks to widen its post-sanctions customer base, which now includes car-goes sold to oil major BP, France’s Total, Greece’s Hellenic Petroleum, Spain’s Repsol and Cepsa, Rus-sia’s Lukoil, Poland’s Grupa Lotos, Portugal’s Petrogal and Italy’s Saras and Iplom.

Iran said it has held talks with Bosnia and Her-zegovina this week as it hopes to expand its list of crude oil export destinations. However, its shipments to Asia remain the pillar of its export market.

India share In September, total estimated export volumes of crude

and condensate on VLCCs, Suezmaxes and Aframaxes from Iran’s crude and condensate ports jumped to 2.49 million barrels per day (bpd) from 2.42 million bpd in August.

This sharp rise was driven by a heavier Iranian Heavy export program, sources said.

Exports to Asia accounted for 79 percent, or some 1.72 million bpd, of total outflows, marking a fall of around 300,000 bpd from August.

Despite the slight fall, Asia remains its premier market with China and India buying almost 50 percent of Iranian crude last month.

India was the largest buyer of Iranian crude last month, totaling 602,456 bpd, up from 458,880 bpd in August.

India’s thirst for Iranian crude has intensified this year, with its estimated share of market volume for September rising to 25 percent from 19 percent in August.

India’s Oil Ministry recently said it received its first consignment of 260,000 million tons of Iranian crude for its strategic reserves on the west coast in mid-October.

State-run Mangalore Refinery and Petrochemicals Ltd. received almost two million barrels of a variety of Iranian crude grades at the strategic crude oil storage facility at Mangalore, which has a capacity of 11 million barrels.

Around 5.5 million-6 million barrels of storage at the Mangalore facility is to be filled with Iranian crude.

The other two strategic reserve sites are at Visakhapa-tnam on the east coast, with capacity of 9.75 million bar-rels, and Padur in southern India’s Kerala, which will have the highest capacity of around 18.33 million barrels when it becomes operational by the end of this year.

Other Asia, EuropeChina’s crude oil imports from Iran have increased

slightly this year, showing an 8 percent rise from January-September this year compared to the same period last year, according to recent data from the General Admin-istration of Customs.

Taiwanese purchases rebounded to 59,701 bpd last month from zero in August.

Japan and South Korea, who are major buyers of Ira-nian condensate, saw their interest fall month on month.

But demand from these two countries is likely to stay robust as oil refiner Hyundai Oilbank starts commercial operations at its 130,000 bpd condensate splitter next month.

The splitter will mainly use South Pars condensate as a feedstock, traders said, and this will be supplemented by Qatari condensates, depending on pricing and avail-ability.

South Korea’s crude oil imports from Iran in Septem-ber more than doubled from August to 12.175 million barrels, or 405,833 bpd, Korea National Oil Corp. data showed.

In Europe, France, Turkey, Italy, Greece and Spain re-mained the major buyers of Iranian crude in September.

Iran exported 153,572 bpd of crude to France last month, a sharp rise of 57 percent month on month, all of which go to oil major Total on a term-contract basis.

European refiners have rekindled their interest for Ira-nian crude in the past few months partly due to its com-petitive pricing compared to other medium-sour crudes from Russia and the Persian Gulf.

Iranian oil output growth has slowed slightly since June this year, with its older oil fields urgently needing investment and new technology to help boost output.

But its targets have not changed dramatically, the country’s oil ministry said two weeks ago that it hopes to raise its crude oil production to around four million bpd next month, from around 3.89 million bpd in mid-October.

The Islamic Republic also aims to increase its crude oil exports to 2.4 million bpd, from 2.2 million bpd cur-rently, National Iranian Oil Co. (NIOC) managing director Ali Kardor said recently.

Iran has also signaled its plans to increase the oil it is holding in storage. In mid-October, Iran Oil Terminals Company said it was currently holding 11 million barrels of crude at its 28 million-barrel storage facilities.

NIOC opened up a qualification process for 50 new upstream projects it plans to launch in the near future. It will publish a list of qualified companies on December 7.

Iran has said its oil and gas industry needs at least $200 billion in investment, with 40 percent, or $80 billion, to be provided by foreign companies. (Source: Platts)

By Eklavya Gupte, Sierra Highcloud

Russia’s LUKoil not to participate in privatization of 19.5% of

RosneftRussia’s LUKoil will not take part in the privatization of 19.5 percent of oil gi-ant Rosneft, the company’s CEO Vagit Alekperov said Monday. “No,” Alekperov told journalists answering the respective question.

The Russian 2016 economic develop-ment plan specifies partial privatization of state assets to support budget rev-enue, which has suffered due to falling oil prices.

Rosneft and Bashneft oil and gas companies, the ALROSA group of dia-mond mining companies, VTB bank, as well as the Sovcomflot maritime petrole-um and liquefied gas shipping company, are among the companies to be partially privatized. Russia is due to sell 19.5 per-cent of Rosneft shares before the end of the year.

(Source: Sputnik)

OPEC’s oil output is likely to set another record high in October, a Reuters sur-vey found as Nigerian and Libyan output partially recovered from disruptions and Iraq boosted exports.

The rise in output could add to skep-ticism about OPEC’s ability to finalize a plan agreed in September to limit sup-plies. Oil, which rallied to a 2016 high near $54 a barrel following the decision, has since slipped towards $48.

Supply from the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries has risen to 33.82 million barrels per day (bpd) in October from a revised 33.69 million bpd in September, according to the sur-vey based on shipping data and infor-mation from industry sources.

That would be 820,000 bpd above the top end of a target output range OPEC agreed to adopt at a Sept. 28 meeting. According to analysts, production near

34 million bpd would prolong the supply surplus weighing on the market.

Supply has risen since OPEC in 2014 dropped its historic role of fixing output to prop up prices as Saudi Arabia, Iraq and Iran pumped more. Production has also climbed due to the return of Indo-nesia in 2015 and Gabon in July as mem-bers.

October ’s supply from OPEC exclud-ing Gabon and Indonesia, at 32.88 mil-lion bpd, is the highest in Reuters survey records starting in 1997.

In October, the increase was led by Nigeria, Libya and Iraq. Supply in Nige-ria, where output had fallen due to mili-tant attacks on oil installations, rose as exports of Qua Iboe and Forcados crude resumed.

In Libya, production has been hit by port shutdowns, strikes and protests since the fall of Muammar Gaddafi in

2011. Output has increased in recent weeks since the reopening of some ma-jor terminals, but remains a fraction of the 2011 rate.

Iraq exported more crude from its northern and southern ports, lifting sup-ply to 4.58 million bpd in October from a revised 4.52 million bpd in September, according to the survey. Iraq says its September production is higher.

Saudi Arabia has kept supply steady to lower, but still within sight of the record high reached in the summer, sources in the survey said. One source said there were signs of a bigger drop in output.

Fellow Persian Gulf producers the United Arab Emirates and Kuwait both pumped slightly more. The two say their production is higher than estimated by both the Reuters survey and by the sources that OPEC uses to monitor its

output.Supply growth in Iran, OPEC’s fastest

source of production increases earlier this year after the lifting of Western sanc-tions, has slowed down as output nears the pre-sanctions rate. Iran is seeking in-vestment to boost supply further.

Among countries with lower output, the biggest drop was in Angola because of planned maintenance on the Dalia crude stream which pushed exports to a 10-year low.

OPEC’s smallest producer Gabon pumped less because of a workers’ strike, which cut output for part of the month.

The Reuters survey is based on ship-ping data provided by external sources, Thomson Reuters flows data, and infor-mation provided by sources at oil com-panies, OPEC and consulting firms.

(Source: Reuters)

OPEC oil output hits new record on Nigeria, Libya: Reuters survey

The South Pars gas field’s phase 19 refinary in Pars Special Economic Energy Zone (PSEEZ) located in the port city of Assaluyeh, southwestern Bushehr Province.

Oil prices edged higher from one-month lows in early trading in Asia on Tuesday af-ter OPEC agreed on a long-term strategy that was seen as an indication the cartel was reaching a consensus on managing produc-tion.

But the gains were limited as the market was weighed down by further indications of record output from the group, a sign the glut that has kept a lid on prices is not draining away as fast as the oil bulls would like.

U.S. West Texas Intermediate (WTI) fu-tures were up 10 cents at $46.96 a barrel at 0456 GMT. They plunged nearly four percent to $46.86 a barrel in the previous session.

Brent for January delivery, the new front-

month contract, was up 29 cents at $48.90 a barrel. The previous front-month contract fell nearly three percent before expiry on Monday.

The Organization of the Petroleum Ex-porting Countries (OPEC) approved a docu-ment on Monday outlining its long-term strategy that would mean returning to its role managing the market and being more proactive in anticipating market changes.

But the oil grouping had setbacks earlier, raising questions over their ability to control prices that have knocked their economies hard.

Representatives met on Friday in Vienna, and then again on Saturday with their coun-

terparts from non-member producers. They did not reach any specific terms, and sources said Iran has been reluctant to even freeze output.

Oil prices had risen as much as 13 per-cent since OPEC announced on Sept. 27 a production cut to support prices after the slump that began in mid-2014. The car-tel said members’ cuts will be finalized at a meeting later this month.

“The lack of progress on implementing production quotas and the growing dis-cord between OPEC producers suggests a declining probability of reaching a deal on November 30,” Goldman Sachs said in a re-search note.

OPEC’s oil output likely hit a record high in October, rising to 33.82 million barrels per day as Nigeria and Libya partially resumed output after disruptions and Iraq raised overseas sales, according to a Reuters sur-vey.

(Source: Reuters)

Oil hovers above one-month low, prospects dim for OPEC deal

By Paul Callan

NOVEMBER 2, 2016NOVEMBER 2, 20166I N T E R N A T I O N A L D A I L Y

INTERNATIONAL

By Amir Idris

How the international community has failed South Sudan

South Sudan’s peace agreement is still “alive,” according to Festus Mogae, the chairman of the body tasked with implementing the August

2015 accord.While this is partially true, it is not an accurate

characterization of the situation in South Sudan just over a year after it was signed.

Five years after South Sudan gained its independence in July 2011, the humanitarian and security situation is dire and deteriorating. The number of South Sudanese refugees has passed 1 million, including more than 150,000 since fighting began again in July.

The peace agreement has failed to accomplish its stat-ed objectives. For the past year, regional and international

powers have watched with helplessness as both sides have repeatedly violated its terms. The accord was ex-pected to end a three-year civil war, form a transitional government of national unity, engender political, economic and security re-forms, and establish a hy-brid court to try war crimes suspects in South Sudan, among others. None of these provisions have been implemented.

Shortly after the formation of the long-

delayed transitional government in April, heavy fighting erupted in the capital Juba between forces loyal to President Salva Kiir and those supporting First Vice-President Riek Machar. The latter was forced to flee with his forces, first to the Democratic Republic of Congo, then to Sudan. Meanwhile, Kiir replaced Machar with Taban Deng Gai as the first vice-president in a controversial decision criticized by Machar as a violation of both the agreement and the internal rules of his movement.

Nevertheless, the regional Intergovernmental Authority on Development (IGAD), the United States and other guarantors of the peace agreement appeared to accept, at least in the short term, the new political arrangement in Juba. But this regional and international acceptance has undoubtedly emboldened the government and pushed other opposition groups to resort to armed resistance instead of political dialogue.

Regional and international actors, such as IGAD, the U.S., and the United Nations, seem to have a unique standard when it comes to South Sudan, responding to the country’s crisis with a lack of urgency and political will.

The U.S. has yet to figure out an effective strategy to advance the core principles of democracy, human rights, and develop-ment in South Sudan. Since its independ-ence, the country has been seen through the lens of regional secu-rity by the Obama administration, instead of economic and political ones. Consequently, international donors and development agencies have focused on state-building in-stead of nation-building. The result is the creation of an undemocratic government with a large military and secu-rity apparatus.

IGAD is a weak political organization manned by a dysfunctional leadership struggling to overcome its own internal political and economic challenges. The absence of a credible IGAD leadership, coupled with the lack of an effective regional strategy to respond to South Sudan’s crisis, have derailed the implementation of the agreement.

The U.N. Security CouncilIn August, the U.N. Security Council authorized the

deployment of a regional protection force to secure Juba. Three months later, the Security Council has been unable to send in the troops due to Kiir ’s government refusal to cooperate. Calls for an arms embargo against the government in Juba have also been resisted by Russia and China, both permanent members of the Security Council.

In reaction to the repeated violations of the agreement and the failure of the regional and international powers—including the Joint Monitoring and Evaluation Commission, headed by Mogae—to fulfil its tasks, the fighting has spread to other regions of the country, in particular the southern region of Equatoria, with tragic human consequences. As the rainy season ends, the fighting could well spread across the entire country.

The danger is that the recent conflict is increasingly taking on an ethnic dimension. President Kiir himself has admitted that his army is mostly made up of Dinka, his own ethnic group, and the largest ethnicity in South Sudan. He has also threatened to personally lead military operations against armed groups in the state of Central Equatoria, a pronouncement that could signal a dangerous phase in the country’s ongoing political struggles.

Two possible routes lie ahead for South Sudan: either it will build a peaceful, democratic and united state, or it will succumb to ethnic fragmentation and de facto statelessness, with no guarantee of non-violent coexistence. The peace accord can still be implemented, but only if the regional and international powers change course. If they step in to revive the agreement and ensure the urgent deployment of a U.N.-mandated regional protection force, South Sudan can still be rescued from plunging itself into uncontrollable ethnic violence.

(Source: News Week)

Donald Trump’s oft-repeated claim that the FBI’s investigation of “Crooked Hillary” and the presidential election itself were and are “rigged,”

seems to have thrown FBI Director James Comey into a state of panic. In foolishly making a public announcement that the bureau is reviewing newly discovered emails related to Hillary Clinton’s personal server, he has inserted himself yet again into the presidential campaign.

The FBI virtually never announces the commence-ment or termination of ongoing criminal investigations or the discovery of new evidence. Such inquiries are often conducted in relative secrecy, enabling a more efficient investigation.

It is not unusual for investigations in so-called “white collar” cases to go on for years, luring the target into an unfounded belief that he or she is in the clear. Then the hammer falls. A grand jury indictment is announced by the Department of Justice and the handcuffs are swiftly employed.

The old, sensible FBI rule book apparently has been thrown on the trash heap this year. While undoubtedly attempting to be open and “transparent,” to protect the reputation of the FBI, the FBI director has tossed a Molotov cocktail into the presidential race.

The FBI was now taking “appropriate investigative steps. ... to assess their importance to our investigation.” What in the world does this mean? One thing it means is that this issue will move to front and center during the final days of the presidential campaign.

Voters must now be subjected to endless speculation in the press and explicit accusations from the Trump campaign and other Republican candidates that Hillary Clinton is a “criminal” aided and abetted by a rigged FBI and Justice Department. Comey’s “openness and transparency” will blow up in his face and further tarnish the FBI’s reputation. He has reinserted the Bureau into the political process.

A renewed Hillary investigationThe director probably feared that leaks would lead

to speculation that a renewed Hillary investigation was underway. In trying to get ahead of criticism of the FBI for jumping to a conclusion too quickly and closing the original Hillary Clinton email investigation, he has only made matters worse and dropped a huge new issue into the presidential campaign.

In truth, investigations open and close routinely and secretly when new evidence comes to light. Each new scrap in a pile of useful or useless evidence is not announced in real time, like a scandal in a scripted reality TV Show. Perhaps it’s time for the embattled FBI director who seems to have forgotten how to conduct a proper investigation to resign.

Comey’s public announcement in July that the FBI had concluded its investigation regarding Hillary Clinton’s use of a private email server in the conduct of official State Department business and would not recommend the

lodging of criminal charges was historically unprecedented in a high-profile political case.

The decision to commence or terminate a criminal investigation by the FBI is rarely disclosed. In the case of high-profile political figures such as presidential candidates, the process normally requires that an FBI “recommendation” based on the evidence it has gathered must be forwarded to the Justice Department, where a career, nonpolitical unit reviews the matter, making a recommendation to the attorney general, who makes the final decision.

This sensible process was thrown into disarray when former President Bill Clinton made a surprise airport tarmac visit to none other than the sitting attorney general, Loretta Lynch. Both parties claimed that they engaged in harmless small talk involving their families and, of course, nothing about the FBI’s investigation of Hillary’s classified document and email server practices.

The meeting was utterly improper and the attorney general recognized this, promptly asserting that she would not personally make the decision about the Hillary Clinton email investigation, though strangely she would review the work of her subordinates before any public announcement of prosecution or non-prosecution was made.

This was then followed by the highly unusual announcement of “no criminal charges” and the end

of the investigation by the FBI director. In the very rare case where an announcement of “no criminal charges” occurs, the prosecutors in the Justice Department would make such an announcement because Justice, not the FBI, makes prosecutorial decisions. The FBI makes a recommendation; Justice makes the decision.

Comey, while presumably attempting to insulate the Justice Department and the attorney general from claims that the Bill Clinton tarmac meeting had corrupted the investigative process, took the Justice Department and Loretta Lynch off the hook and made the announcement himself.

In defending the statement he made today, Comey might assert that he was attempting to clarify his prior Congressional testimony. But that elaboration on his testimony could legitimately have waited until the FBI completed its analysis of the new emails. He has been around long enough to understand that any new FBI statements regarding the email scandal during the final 11 days of the campaign had a high probability of improperly placing the Bureau into the political process.

Trashing the Justice and FBI rule books in the interest of “openness” is likely to put the FBI front and center in one of the most contentious presidential races in recent U.S. history. J. Edgar Hoover loved to influence elections, but he had the good sense to keep quiet about it.

(Source: CNN)

The Security Council has been unable to send in the troops due to Kiir’s government

refusal to cooperate.

In trying to get ahead of criticism of the FBI for jumping to a conclusion too quickly and closing the original Hillary Clinton email investigation, the FBI director has only made

matters worse and dropped a huge new issue into the presidential campaign.

Time for FBI director Comey to go

Little more than a decade ago, Turkey appeared to be an emerging democ-racy with vibrant civil society and some-what independent media. No longer. President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has abandoned democracy and is building a strongman cult of personality.

The latest descent came Monday when police detained the editor and senior staff of a leading opposition newspaper, Cumhuriyet, one of the few media outlets still critical of Erdogan. Arrest warrants were issued for about a dozen journalists, of whom seven were taken into custody, including editor in chief Murat Sabuncu. Those targeted also include Can Dundar, the newspaper’s previous editor, now living in exile abroad, as well as several officials in the foundation that owns the newspaper. The arrests are part of a broad media crackdown to silence dissent after a July 15 coup attempt against Erdogan. On Sunday, 15 media outlets, mostly Kurdish, were closed; by some accounts, as many as 195?have been shut and 140 journalists remain imprisoned. Turkey ranks 151st out of 180 countries on Reporters Without Borders’s World Press Freedom Index, between Tajikistan and Congo.

The prosecutor’s office said Cum-huriyet is suspected of supporting Kurd-ish militants and backing the coup at-tempt, which Erdogan has blamed on

Fethullah Gulen, a Pennsylvania-based cleric, who denies any involvement.

Rather, Erdogan is constructing a kind of authoritarianism centered on his personal power, replacing critical media with mouthpiece organs, suffocating independent civil society organizations and summarily dismissing thousands of academics without due process. Overall, more than 110,000 people have been sacked or suspended and 37,000 ar-rested since the coup attempt; just over the weekend, 10,000 more civil servants were dismissed. This is a colossal purge, tearing the heart out of any remaining hope for a democracy that depends on independent voices and unfettered po-litical competition.

The United States and Europe have been far too quiet about this. Erdogan is holding back a tide of Syrian war refugees from Europe, and Turkey is critical to the U.S. campaign against the Islamic State. These are real concerns but should not prevent the United States from speaking out against arbitrary detention, persecution of civil society and suppression of free speech in Turkey. The United States often describes freedom of expression and human rights as “universal values” when they are trampled in China and Russia. They are no less universal when trampled in Turkey.

(Source: The Washington Post)

Lebanon’s election of a new president not only marks its own attempt to rec-oncile religious factions but shows how Lebanon can be a model for other Middle East countries caught in reli-gious violence.

With multiple wars being waged in the Middle East over religious dif-ferences, Lebanon has decided that it must hold even tighter to its consti-tutional democracy and especially its unique formula of peaceful coexistence between its many sects.

On Monday, its parliament ended a long stalemate between the country’s religious-based political factions and chose a new president, Michel Aoun, a Maronite Christian.

The post had been empty for more than two years.

Lebanon’s domestic politics are complex but they are easily influenced by outside forces. With the war next door in Syria getting worse, Lebanon was ready to reassert its model of po-litical reconciliation under an arrange-ment dating back to the 1940s.

Electing a Christian as president is now expected to lead to choosing a Sunni Muslim as prime minister, which will most likely be Saad Hariri, a local businessman and son of former prime minister. The speaker of the parliament is a Shia Muslim, Nabih Berri.

The Lebanese don’t just read about Syria’s war. One in four people in the country are Syrian refugees.

The Middle East needs more mod-els like Lebanon to show how different faiths can share power through consti-tutional means.

Lebanon learned from its own 1975-1990 civil war that sectarian coexistence is essential. At the same time, its young people are more demanding of secular government. An estimated 20 percent of marriages are now between Sunnis and Shias (dubbed “SuShi”), or between Muslims and Christians.

Lebanon’s politics must still evolve away from sect-based political lead-ers. The new president and the next prime minister will need to rise above their religious constituencies to solve the country’s many problems, such as electoral reform.

Behind the scenes, many of the country’s religious leaders have worked together to support a constitutional democracy, one in which minority faiths are respected.

Together with Tunisia’s example as an Arab democracy that is lessening religious tensions, Lebanon has taken a big step to be a worthy example in a region torn by violence between rival sects.

(The CSM)

A Mideast beachhead for reconciliation

A cult of personality dashes Turkey’s democratic dreams

A N A L Y S I SNOVEMBER 2, NOVEMBER 2, 20162016 7I N T E R N A T I O N A L D A I L Y

By Vahid PourtajrishiINTERVIEW

An Indian professor of internation-al relations believes that US has to keep both India and Pakistan

under influence, since it required both countries to achieve its national interests.

Bhakti Desai, a Bhaurao Kakatkar gave an interview to Tehran Times on India-Pakistan relations, where she be-lieved that BRICS could challenge the US monopoly over international econom-ic order and replace it with a new great market created by its members. “In the post-Cold War era, the US has been fol-lowing a very crafty policy towards both these countries,” she stated, claiming that India would not accept US mediation in India-Pakistan border issues, since India had traditionally seen Kashmir part of its territories and what had happened there, was a matter of internal affairs:

Rajnath Singh the Indian Min-ister of Home affairs has recently claimed that his country is ready to help Pakistan to fight terrorism. Meanwhile the two states challenge each other on many issues such as Kashmir crisis, so how such co-ordi-nation is possible?

It is true that India-Pakistan have sev-eral unresolved issues which need to be solved through dialogue. But as far as Kashmir is concerned, India believes that Kashmir is an integral part of India and what happens in Kashmir is India’s internal affair. The problem of Kashmir is one of terrorism sponsored by Pakistan. Cross-border terrorism is therefore the real problem. Pakistan understands that there is no chance it can engage and de-feat India in an open battle; therefore, it has resorted to the callous and devious plan of cross-border terrorism. What concerns India most is that Pakistan’s en-tire establishment is engaged in fuelling terrorism in India. Though Pakistan has time and again tried to convince the in-ternational community of its intentions of fighting terrorism, but facts on the ground are that. Pakistan is a safe haven for var-ious domestic and transnational terrorist organizations. Therefore, India has se-

rious doubts about Pakistan intentions of fighting terrorism. However India has no ill-will against the people of Pakistan and is committed to peaceful relations. In spite of serious issues like cross-bor-der terrorism, India has always strived for cooperation and friendship with Pakistan. This intention is reflected in Rajnath Sin-gh’s recent comment where he offered to help Pakistan carry out anti-terror cam-paign if its intentions remain clear.

Can BRICS assure a multipolar world and a new world economic order? What are the prospects & challenges of BRICS?

The eighth BRICS summit was held in Goa, India, under the theme ‘Build-ing Responsive, Inclusive and Collective Solutions.’’ The Goa declaration adopted by the BRICS member states calls upon members to further strengthen BRICS solidarity and co-operation based on common interests. It also reiterated the view of these countries that a more eq-uitable and democratic multipolar inter-national order is possible only through a determined approach based on solidarity, mutual trust and benefit, equity and co-operation. The Declaration also reaffirms that BRICS nations are committed to con-tributing in building a fair and equitable international order.

BRICS has become a common plat-form for developing countries. The World

Bank and IMF have been instruments of forwarding western interests and terms while conveniently neglecting the inter-ests of the developing world. The New Development Bank, established by the BRICS, aspires to serve as an alternative to international financial system and ush-er in a new world economic order which will ensure liberation of BRICS countries from the financial policies of the western countries. The enormous potential of the BRICS countries allows them to lead the world from unipolarism to multipolarism. BRICS is strong in the terms of size, pop-ulation and resources. It is also the larg-est market in the world on account of its population. The BRICS leaders hope that with increased mutual trust and closer coordination, they will be able to make international relations more just, demo-cratic and balanced. However, in spite of the many prospects there are also various challenges that BRICS needs to tackle. The member countries have different political systems, cultures, economies and nation-al interests. Moreover the geographical distance is also a factor while Brazilian, South African and Russian economies are not at their best, China’s economic growth has also slowed down. India has emerged as the fastest-growing econo-my yet its GDP is still a concern. The real challenges before BRICS is to build ex-emplary unity on key international issues.

While India’s proximity to the US has not gone down will with Russia. Russia’s joint military exercise with Pakistan and China’s refusal to refer to cross-border terrorism or to any Pakistan-based terrorist groups at the Goa summit has stunned India. In spite of these and many such challenges, I would say the Prospects of BRICS are indeed bright. The Goa declaration is a testimony to that. In Prime Minister Nar-endra Modi’s words, ‘In a world of new security challenges and economic un-certainties, BRICS stands as a beacon of peace, potential and promise.”

Donald Trump, Republican candidate in US Presidential election 2016 has claimed that he will try to mediate between New Delhi and Islamabad if he succeeds. How do you evaluate his claim? What is the benefit of such probable action for Trump as a businessman or in quali-ty of probable US president?

There is no chance India will agree to any mediation offer made by the US pres-ident on Kashmir issue. As far as Trump is concerned as a presidential candidate, he is just trying to get his calculations right and establish himself as a judicious and unprejudiced leader. Every presidential candidate of the US understands that in the changing international terrain, the US needs both India and Pakistan to further its national interests. While Pakistan may

be important to the US in terms of its stra-tegic location, India is a potential market for its products. In the post-Cold War era, the US has been following a very crafty policy towards both these countries. On one hand it consoles India after every terrorist attack and signs a nuclear deal with it, and on the other hand, it contin-ues to give military and economic aid to Pakistan. The recent claims by Republican candidate Donald Trump are in tune with this policy. Trump knows that Pakistan is vital for his country’s strategic interests because of its geographical proximity to India, China, Afghanistan, Iran, Central Asia and the Middle East. He also under-stands that India is the fastest growing economy as well as the best potential market for American goods.

Russia has accepted to sell and deliver the new S400 missiles system to India according to the recently signed agreement between the two sides. Why has India decided to arm herself at the time of tension with Pakistan on one hand and China on the other? Could this agreement cause a provocation to these two states?

The Russia-India deal on S400 mis-siles is intended to enhance India’s de-fense against any aggression. The deal also strengthens partnership between India and Russia. In fact the deal should

not be seen in connection to India’s re-lationship with Pakistan and China. The agreement is not designed to provoke or threaten any nation. India has always remained committed to the principles of peaceful coexistence, cooperation and non-aggression. However, in the light of recent surge in terrorist attacks, New Delhi feels that she needs to fortify her defense, hence India has signed the deal with Russia. Moreover, S400 mis-siles agreement should be seen in the light of old friends trying to rekindle their friendship. In the past few months the India-Russia friendship has seen difficult times with growing US-India partnership on one hand and Russia conducting its first military exercise with Pakistan on other hand. However, both countries re-alize that the bond they share is crucial.

India, Bangladesh, Afghan-istan and Bhutan boycotted the SAARC summit. Do you evaluate this issue as a means by Modi to put pressure on Islamabad?

The SAARC summit of 2016 due in November in Islamabad which was ear-lier postponed now stands cancelled on account India, Bangladesh, Afghanistan and Bhutan pulling out of the summit. In my opinion this move by India was a well-calculated step by Modi to put dip-lomatic pressure on Pakistan after the recent Uri attack. The move also comes as a major diplomatic victory for India because the other SAARC members too cited “terrorism” and “imposed vio-lence” as reasons for their withdrawal. In fact, these countries used the BIMSTEC platform at Goa to engage with each other on important issues while keeping Pakistan away. India responded to the Uri attacks at two levels on one hand it conducted surgical strikes in POK tar-geting terrorist camps and on the other hand it pulled out of the SAARC summit in Islamabad sending a strong message to Pakistan that India is prepared to take stern action against cross border ter-rorism. These decisions by Modi were designed to put pressure on Pakistan as well draw the International community’s attention to cross border terrorism.

Bhakti Manohar Desai is Professor of International Relations in Department of Political Science, D.M.S.M’s Bhaurao Kakatkar College, Belgaum.

India ‘managed’ better ties with Pakistan, despite events in Kashmir

NOVEMBER 2, 2016NOVEMBER 2, 20168I N T E R N A T I O N A L D A I L Y

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Physical Education and Sport in UNESCO high level priority

The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organiza-tion (UNESCO) is the only United

Nations agency which is leading Physical Education and Sport.

The most important values for UN-ESCO are equality, respect, solidarity and fair play that are considered the key goals for transmitting the magnificent spirit of global youth, united in their determina-tions to push the boundaries of achieve-ment, rise above poverty and exclusion, overcome marginalization and test the very limits of personal endurance.

The social and physical roles of sport are especially relevant today, in a global context deeply challenged by discrimina-tion, insecurity and violence.

Sport changes everything ~ Director General of UNESCO Irina Bokova

In the world today that we are contrib-uting to different conflicts and crisis, sport retains the power to transcend and unite people in a play.

Sport can help us develop life skills and give us a sense of belonging.

Youth are eager to compete and de-spite the strong competition, sport over-coming the odds with the power of team-work that will cause youth integration and empowerment.

Physical activities provide a daily op-portunity to weave a community fabric, bringing young people together to em-brace nature and acquire the bodily con-fidence and healthy outlook required for academic achievement.

Sport and physical education as a springboard for social transformation is another valuable criteria for UNESCO.

Despite the absence of basic facilities in lots of southern countries and under-developed communities, such as lack of drinking water, drainage, roads and

streets and other challenges, sport illus-trates the power to bring joy and hope for the youth and all civilians.

By promoting healthy, active lifestyles and targeted game- play linked to nu-trition, hygiene and children rights, and sport as a transformative vehicle that can cause favorable promotion and benefit for women, men and children.

On the other hand, sport and physi-cal education are gateways to rounded development, inclusion and civic en-gagement.

Sport has had demonstrable success in efforts to reintegrate the societies im-pacted by the civil wars. Physical activity and games are as strong vehicles for al-leviating post- traumatic stress and deliv-ering value based education and training.

It had been seen that some specific

case like in Tanzania street children re-defined their identity and self- worth through sport especially football.

Providing players with the skills and training needed to see beyond life on the streets that mostly happens after wars, sport becomes a vector for social mobi-lization.

Engaged beneficiaries gain confidence, forge ties and build community which provide a support system. In many similar cases, this sentence had been said, “I am happy because I can play with other chil-dren, when I am in the street, I am alone".

Sport doesn't discriminate by gender, age, socio- economic background or cul-ture.

Providing a common playground, sport has unique power to mobilize and inspire in every religion of the world and

acts as an engine for education and social cohesion.

UNESCO reinforces cultural herit-age through sport and physical educa-tion

Reviving the traditional and local games, sport will promote sense of be-longing and strong attachment to the tra-ditions which constitute cultural heritage.

In this way, sport's practice bridges the gap between generations, reinforc-ing a distinct sense of individual and community identity which would be most efficient and impressing element for youth empowerment and self con-fidence promotion.

Regards to all above, Iranian National Commission for UNESCO's Expert Sport Committee appreciates researchers and policy makers who are in favor of deliver-ing their projects and comments to pro-mote and strengthen its activities and po-tential to operate and enforcement those favorable advice to be more efficacious in national, regional and international fora.

Iran catching up in biotechnology

TEHRAN — Biotechnology are techniques and methods used to make modifications to plants, animals, species, and microorganisms to man’s benefit.

Biotechnology was first put into practice in 1976 in the world aiming at utilizing biotechnology for human beings benefit.

In Iran, biotechnologies came on stream in the year 2,000 and the University of Tehran was first in the field.

Since then the university has started enrolling students and initiating workshops in the newly opened up field.

Despite all the efforts, biotechnology has remained little-known to many students.

Therefore, pupils studying biotechnology are trying to promote the field in country by setting up scientific commu-nities and groups.

Since late February 2016, a group of biotechnology under-graduate students in the University of Tehran faculty of sci-ence have gathered and established a group dubbed "young biotechnologists" and taken steps toward heightening public awareness of the field of science.

Aiming to lift students’ spiritsThe "young biotechnologists" spontaneously started

to encourage gatherings and interaction among the students by arranging weekly meetings, conducting in-terviews with professors “holding seminars and reading books.”

The first session of "young biotechnologists" was held with the entire students, professors and supervisors in attendance.

The session are managed to shed light on the field of bio-technology and come up with new ideas, primarily explaining and clarifying the field, and then exploring and recognizing the potential of this practical field of study.

This group can be pretty inspiring to other science stu-dents and can pave the way for greater scientific accomplish-ments for the country.

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A R T I C L E

In the world today that we are contributing to different conflicts and crisis, sport retains the power to transcend and unite people in a play.

By Alireza Khorasani

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

T E C H N O L O G Y NOVEMBER 2, NOVEMBER 2, 20162016

As electronics have become in-creasingly ubiquitous, the nev-er-ending upgrade churn fills an

ever-larger e-graveyard. If that’s where the story ends, we’re in real trouble. The several years of use a typical device sees effectively become a short conveyor belt between mines around the world and the local landfill. The only sensible and sus-tainable thing to do is to recycle the ma-terials in our devices—ideally right into the next generation of tech.

Responsible recycling operations (that don’t simply dump e-waste in develop-ing countries) have an interesting set of challenges to work on. Recycling is al-ways trying to catch up to—and is limited by—what manufacturers are doing. But opportunities are there for those willing to make it a priority.

To learn a little about the kinds of things that can be done now and what stands in the way of doing more, Ars talked to Dell about its recycling efforts. Dell runs a take-back program for old de-vices in partnership with Goodwill, which sells anything worth selling and sends the rest on.

Closing the loopIn the last few years, Dell has started to

move beyond just collecting e-waste for recyclers and is trying to “close the loop” by using some of the recycled material in its products—namely the plastic. Because a limited number of types of plastic get used for electronics, e-waste is a better resource to work with than your house-hold recycling bin would be. Most of the plastic that comes in is suitable to be used in new products. But it’s not quite that simple—paints, labels, “soft-touch” coat-ings, and additives like flame retardants can render plastic difficult or even impos-sible to work with.

“The base material is a good place to start, but there’s still a good bit of engi-neering work to actually get the product to the point where the recycled plastics have the equivalent or better properties of virgin plastics, which is what we have to do to meet our specification needs,” Dell Director of Environmental Affairs and Global Responsibility Scott O’Connell told Ars.

All that plastic gets processed at a re-cycling plant in Texas run by Wistron, a manufacturer that was already handling refurbishing before it got into the e-waste business. One approach is to just shred the whole mess and sort the pieces, but workers at this plant dismantle devices by hand to separate materials more cleanly. Plastics with disqualifying characteristics head off in other directions; the rest is sorted by chemistry and color.

That plastic is shipped to Wistron’s op-erations in Kunshan, China, where a num-ber of plastics manufacturers are located.

(Unfortunately, e-waste collection efforts and manufacturing are on opposite sides of the planet.) Wistron’s plant, Senior Manager of Business Development Eric Huang explained, takes in dismantled plastic and spits out resin ready to be molded into something else.

That “something else” has so far been back panels for Dell’s monitors and all-in-ones. “We do encounter some poten-tial for cosmetic issues and for perfor-mance issues [with pure recycled plastic],” O’Connell said. “Before we rolled this out in 2014, we had about a nine-month trial process where we actually had to do a lot of engineering work. What we found is, to get the properties right you do have to have a blend of recycled content along with virgin plastics.”

There’s more to this recycling thing than “melt and pour,” unfortunately. Part of the recycling process involves grinding up the plastic—sometimes more than once—and this changes its properties. At every step in the processing, and even in the design of the product, there are var-iables that could potentially be tweaked to increase the share of recycled plastic in the blend.

What about the guts?The rest of the e-waste entering

Wistron’s recycling plant has a different fate. Cables go one way to have their copper recovered. Steel frames go anoth-er. Lithium-ion batteries go to dedicated lithium operations. Case fans might even be saved and reused. Any components that can be yanked off circuit boards are,

and then it’s on to precious metals.Smelting operations in Europe and

Japan have traditionally just burned off the fiberglass and melted the metals, but Wistron’s Texas plant relies on water rather than fire. Chemicals (which can be recycled for the next batch) leach gold-plating and solder until everything just falls off the fiberglass board. Grind-ing and more chemistry can separate the various metals that remain.

None of these materials is plugged di-rectly back into electronics made by Dell or anyone else. They just hit the commod-ity market as another source of copper, or lithium, or gold. “I thought metals would be easy when we started working on this several years ago, but they have actually turned out to be a little more complicated than plastics,” O’Connell said.

For many metals, the electronics in-dustry does not dominate demand, so it makes sense for recycled metal to sim-ply hit the open market. There are clearly opportunities for electronics companies to use those recycled metals directly, but O’Connell thinks the open market will probably always be part of the sto-ry. There may someday be good enough tracking in the industry that you at least know how much of the metal you’re buy-ing is recycled, but for now recycled ma-terial just slips invisibly into the stream.

But for all the ways recycling could be improved, the real obstacles still come from the way products are designed. There are simple things manufacturers can do to make products more easily

recyclable, like skipping adhesives, mini-mizing the number of screws used, and maximizing the ease with which a prod-uct can be taken apart. (Apple, for exam-ple, recently highlighted a robotic disas-sembly process for end-of-life iPhones it is working on.) “We routinely take product designers into the recyclers themselves so they can see good design versus bad design,” O’Connell said.

Obviously, the choice of materials is the other big variable, but it’s even more complicated than just using easily recy-clable materials. Minimizing the use of expensive materials can bring the cost (and environmental footprint) of a prod-uct down but can also have unintended consequences on the economics of re-cycling. The precious metal content of integrated circuit chips has declined over time, for example. “Because our manu-facturing techniques are so air-tight and so much more clean, there’s not as much need for precious metals in those types of materials because their innards never get exposed to oxygen,” Huang said.

That’s good, but it also means it’s tougher for recyclers to turn a profit.

Huang describes the situation as a sort of race between manufacturers and recy-clers, with recyclers forever catching up to all the new things manufacturers throw at them. The growing “Internet of things” is also an “Internet of e-waste”—even light bulbs can contain circuit boards that need to be recycled. Recyclers have to figure out how to work with each of those things as they start showing up alongside the usual computers, printers, and phones.

“In some ways, it’s gotta start on the front end, in terms of consumers want-ing products that are more recyclable,” Huang said.

That’s a particularly tough sell since consumers get almost no information about how recyclable any given product is. A company may improve its image by advertising “green” programs, but there is little financial incentive beyond that to put the work into solving these problems and designing for recyclability. It’s hard enough to match competitors’ progress on all the characteristics consumers know they do want.

The closest thing to an Energy Star label for recyclability is the EPEAT reg-istry, where companies can verify that their products meet an IEEE standard. (The interpretation of that standard has not always impressed, however.) This has helped large entities like the federal gov-ernment follow their purchasing rules but isn’t necessarily the most useful thing for the average consumer.

Consumers do, at least, control what they do with a device at the end of its useful life. You can make sure they end up in recycling programs—and hope those programs continue to improve.

(Source: arstechnica)

Very few applications and devices so far are truly intelli-gent. However, innovation in the field of machine intelli-gence is high and accelerating rapidly. We’re approach-ing a new age in which there actually will be an intelligent assistant for every part of our lives and, accordingly, the future digital landscape will look very different.

When Dag Kittlaus (creator of Siri and founder of Viv) demonstrated Viv’s new speech-based user interface in May of this year, we were given a glimpse into a future with radically different dynamics. One of the demonstra-tions was booking a vacation. In the past you’d either have a dozen of tabs open, consulting different plat-forms and doing research, or you’d pay a travel agency to arrange it for you.

Kittlaus showed that these first two scenarios will soon be displaced. We’ll engage with intelligence that will re-member our preferences, recent actions, and purchases, and will be able to process our requests faster within one interface.

In the Viv scenario, the Hotels.com brand presence is reduced to a small logo in the bottom-right of the screen and a link to their support page. Their booking platform has been usurped and displaced by the intelligence used to facilitate the transaction. For the user, this means a single, simpler UI and a streamlined booking experience. For Hotels.com, it’s a valuable new source of transac-

tions, although it also poses challenges for their platform in the longer term. Platforms like Hotels.com, Booking.com, Indeed.com, or eBay will play a very different role or disappear entirely as we interact with assistants, not platforms.

Future scenariosWe’ll live in a world in which we will engage with in-

telligent assistants in most if not all aspects of our lives. For this future, there are three different scenarios that could arise:

1- A single super-intelligence 2- Intelligence managing intelligence (e.g., Siri interact-

ing with the intelligence of a company’s customer service)

3- A fragmented landscape with different players (horizontals and verticals)

Assuming a super-intelligence could be kept in check (i.e. working on behalf of human-kind, as opposed to seeking to destroy the human race), it would make a fantastic digital assistant: smart enough to deal with booking holidays, ordering the groceries, and much more, often before we even asked. A market-leading in-telligence would have access to the necessary data and commercial integrations to handle any request users can throw at it.

The second scenario involves various intelligent agents, acting on behalf of different companies or in-dividuals, that interact and transact among themselves to reach outcomes of mutual benefit. From a UX per-spective, there may be very little difference to the end user between this and interacting with one super-intel-ligence: The user would interact with their own digital agent, which would handle any further interactions au-tonomously.

The “fragmented landscape” scenario seems the most likely; intelligence will solve some industries’ challenges before others, and hence the user may need to interact with multiple specialized digital assistants in order to ac-complish a varied range of tasks.

(Source: verturebeat)

Where do laptops go when they die?10 hot titles of IT world

Here are high rated IT titles in the world that reviewed by savvy tech users:

New filter on Google Play Store announced. This feature detecs and filters fraudulent apps.

If an install is conducted with the intention to manipulate an app’s placement on Google Play, new systems will detect and filter it.

Nobody knows why Women executives left Ya-hoo at an unusually high rate after the U.S. tech-

nology company announced plans to sell itself earlier this year.

The number of women in Yahoo leadership roles slipped to 21 percent as at June 30, down from 24 percent the year before.

Yahoo had 8,800 employees at the end of the second quarter, down from 9,400 as at March 31.

Contract manufacturer Foxconn is making wire-less charging modules that are earmarked for next

year's Apple iPhone.The 2017 iPhone will be the tenth anniversary model of

the wildly successful product, and Apple is expected to skip the iPhone 7s name and go straight to iPhone 8 or iphone 10!

President Barack Obama’s Council of Advisors on Science & Technology (PCAST) announced the

launch of a new Semiconductor Working Group that will pro-vide recommendations to address the rapid rise of semicon-ductor businesses abroad.

Chips are the heart of everything electronic, and they have become a $330 billion worldwide industry.

Google disclosed a major Windows bug and Micro-soft is not happy about that.

The bug itself is very specific — allowing attackers to es-cape from security sandboxes through a flaw in the win32k system — but it’s serious enough to be categorized as critical, and according to Google, it’s being actively exploited.

Google adds new banks to Android Pay, including Capital One.Symantec has launched Endpoint Protection 14, a new security solution which harnesses artificial in-

telligence to protect clients.The company's new endpoint security system uses ma-

chine learning for multi-layered defense.Vodafone Australia and Nokia announce mobile edge computing prototype.

Vodafone and Nokia are looking to 4G-powered mobile edge computing to improve public safety through network function virtualisation applications.

New report says future 5.5-inch iPhone will have curved, OLED display.

A new report comes from The Nikkei Asian Review where the President of Sharp as well as another senior executive of the company both confirmed that next year’s iPhone will no longer be using the current LTPS display technology, but rather will be using OLED screens.

China set to finish 2,000-kilometer ‘quantum link’ to achieve quantum encryption.

3 future scenarios for super intelligent chatbots

By Scott K. Johnson

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Twitter tests new ad-blocking Reader mode on mobile Twitter is testing a new feature on its iOS app which turns on Apple’s “Reader” mode by default on every link opened in its in-app browser.

First introduced in 2010, and ported to iOS in 2011, Reader mode is a oft-forgotten feature in Safari that strips out most of the formatting from a webpage, removing adverts, nav-igation links, comments, and almost everything else except for the main content of a text-based article.

In the new test from Twitter, rolled out for a small number of users – including one Guardian reporter – the company has enabled Reader mode by default on every single link clicked.

While the new feature can be a boon for those navigating badly designed web-pages, it also manages to mangle the presentation of almost as many sites. While the feature works well for traditional news articles, anything that isn’t a chunk of text-heavy content in the middle of a page falls apart.

The change will also be worrying for many media organ-isations: unlike similar light-weight webpage options, such as Facebook Instant Articles and Google’s Amp project, there’s no option to customise the appearance of the Reader version of the page, nor any ability to monetise the views.

Reader still requires the original version of the page to be loaded before it can display, however, which may mean adver-tising figures are still counted – at least until advertisers realise that some proportion of readers aren’t viewing the adverts.

A Twitter spokesperson confirmed that the change is “just a test for some”, but it comes in the middle of a number of other large changes being tested by the company. Most notably, Twitter is also testing a new system for replies on the site, which has been received with extraordinarily negative re-sponse from those in the test. “I understand completely that this is just a test of something Twitter might do,” wrote Tech-Crunch’s Matthew Panzarino, “I am just encouraging them very strenuously not to.”

The new replies functionality, among other things, makes it much harder to remove people from threads, hides who else is in a thread, and removes from notification tabs any mention of whether or not there is a broader conversation at all.

(Source: Guardian)

The tablet market has now been in de-cline for eight quarters in a row. Q3 2016 saw a 14.7 percent year-over-year decline: 43 million units shipped worldwide, com-pared to 50.5 million units in the same quarter last year. The estimates are pro-vided by IDC, which counts both slate and detachable form factors, meaning tablets with keyboards are included.

The top two tablet makers maintained their positions: Apple was first and Sam-sung second. Amazon also seems to have solidified its spot in third place. The top five vendors accounted for 55.8 per-

cent of the market, up from 46.8 percent last year, and nobody managed to ship more than 10 million units.

Both Apple and Samsung saw their shipment numbers fall once again, though Apple gained share, up 1.9 points to 21.5 percent market share. Samsung slipped 0.9 points to 15.1 percent, but still shipped more than double the units than those behind it.

Because of the larger drop for Sam-sung, the gap between the South Kore-an company and the U.S. company in-creased. This is unique to 2016, as in the

previous year the gap had been shrink-ing. The reversal can likely be attributed to Apple’s iPad Pro lineup, though Apple is still selling fewer and fewer iPads over-all.

This is the third time that Amazon has placed in the top five in a non-Q4 quarter — typically, the company only shows up due to the holiday season. The compa-ny’s low-cost Fire tablet has propelled the company to the top, though the growth shown is skewed by the fact that IDC did not include the 6-inch tablets offered by Amazon in Q3 2015.

Lenovo shipped fewer units but grew 0.3 points to 6.3 percent share, while Huawei shipped more units and gained 1.9 points to 5.6 percent. Both companies have maintained their positions for many quarters now and don’t look like they will be displaced.

Microsoft is still missing from the list. And given that the company only un-veiled the Surface Book i7 this year, we doubt that will be changing anytime soon. But pursuing the premium segment for tablets is the right strategy.

(Source: IDC)

IDC: Tablet shipments decline for eighth straight quarter

As we push the limits of agriculture to feed more people in a warmer world, we do not understand how plants sense temperature.

In a surprising turn of events scientists have just learned that plant light sensors also respond to temper-ature.

Plants contain specialized light-sensitive proteins that change shape when they absorb light, much as do the photopigments in the human eye. All plants have three main red-light photoreceptors, called phytochrome A, B and C.

As part of an effort to create plants that can tolerate different growth conditions, Richard Vierstra the George and Charmaine Mallinckrodt Professor in Arts & Sciences at Washington University in St. Louis has been develop-ing a library of phytochrome B mutants, including ones that are much more or less sensitive to light than the wild type plant.

Mutant plantsTo better understand their mutant plants, the Vier-

stra lab shared them with Jorge J. Casal lab in Argentina where doctoral student Martina Legris grew them under a wide variety of carefully controlled conditions.

“We got ‘weird’ results that couldn’t be explained un-

less the phytochrome we were working with was sensi-tive to temperature as well as light,” Vierstra said.

As the temperature rose, some plants exposed to constant sunlight generate less of the biologically active form of phytochrome B--not more, as you’d expect.

At summer temperatures, these plants behave as though they’re in dim light even though they’re in bright sun.

The findings will be published in the Oct. 27 issue of Science, together with a companion paper also on plant temperature sensors by a lab at the University of Cam-bridge in England.

The Pr form is best at absorbing red light, which is plentiful in full sun. When it absorbs red light, phy-tochrome converts to the Pfr state, which is better at absorbing far-red light that dominates in shade. When the Pfr absorbs far-red light, it switches back to the Pr form.

This clever little system is able to detect many differ-ent qualities of light, including the light intensity (encod-ed in the speed at which the molecule bounces from one form to another), and the color of the light (encoded by the ratio of the Pfr form to the Pr form). Intensity tells a seed when to emerge from the soil and color tells the

seeding when to grow tall to avoid shade.The “beauty of this is you can purify the phy-

tochromes, put them in a test tube and watch them switch forms simply by shining red or far-red light on the solutions,” Vierstra said. “So they’re not figments of our imagination.”

But this description leaves out one conversion. Pfr can convert to Pr by absorbing far-red light but also by a pro-cess called thermal reversion, which occurs without light.

(Source: EurekAlert)

Understanding the ways data can be represented in graphs and charts is a key part of comprehending math and science. It is also an essential skill on the ACT math and science sections.

The visuals by themselves are not especially compli-cated; rather, the challenge lies in the immense time-re-lated pressure of the ACT format. You will have a minute or less per question. This includes reading any back-ground material for sets of questions, as well as arriving at individual answers. How can you maximize this time per question? By familiarizing yourself with the visuals you will encounter and the concepts that apply to them and then practicing your interpretation.

A pie chart, for example, represents proportions. Pie charts typically do not display counts or numbers of items, although

the total number of objects is generally noted on the side of the visual. Thus, a wedge that represents 20 percent of a group of 300 students would be equivalent to 60 students.

The other three categories of visuals rely on rectan-gular plots with x and y axes. It is important to note, however, that the axes will vary in what they represent.

Actual countsBar graphs, for instance, display actual counts of differ-

ent categories of items. Consider a group of 300 students, each wearing a sweatshirt in one primary color. The x, or horizontal, axis would list blue sweatshirts, green sweat-shirts, red sweatshirts, etc. The vertical, or y, axis would have the corresponding counts of students wearing each color, and the bar height would be equal to the count.

Line graphs are used to show the relationship be-tween two variables, where one variable is presumed to cause a change in the other. For example, a line graph might display the number of days after the start of the fall semester -- along the x-axis -- and how many total students are wearing sweatshirts, on the y-axis. The im-plication is that more students will wear sweatshirts as the year progresses and as the weather grows colder.

A scatter plot is used to find or display a relationship between two variables where one does not necessarily influence the other. You might use a scatter plot to graph the number of students wearing sweatshirts on one axis and the number wearing hats on the other.

(Source: U.S. News & World Report)

On March 10, 1933, the ground beneath Californian’s feet shook for 15 seconds. The quaking may have been momen-tary in Long Beach, but it was powerful enough to cause massive buildings to collapse. More than 100 people died.

It’s not hard to chalk that 6.4 magni-tude earthquake up to natural disturbance along California’s infamous fault lines. But that might be misguided, suggests Susan Hough of the U.S. Geological Survey.

Humans may have actually had a hand in that disaster, as well as some other sig-nificant earthquakes in the Los Angeles basin in the early 20th century, according to Dr. Hough’s research published Mon-day in the Bulletin of the Seismological Society of America.

Oil drilling activitiesHough points to parallels between oil

drilling activity and earthquake records in the early 1900s as clues that the petro-leum industry may have played a role in shifting the Earth’s crust and thus induc-ing some earthquakes in the early 1900s.

At the time, oil was extracted from the Earth by “just pulling it out of the ground,” Clifford Frohlich, a geophysicist at the University of Texas at Austin who was not part of the research, explains in an inter-view with The Christian Science Monitor. This straightforward extraction left the

Earth’s crust susceptible to slumps and cracks with the changing pressure, which likely triggered tremors.

It’s difficult to “prove beyond all shadow of a doubt that an earthquake was induced because you basically have to show that

the earthquake would not have happened otherwise,” Hough tells the Monitor.

Circumstantial evidenceSo Hough and her colleague Morgan

Page have assembled multiple lines of circumstantial evidence that collectively

suggests some earthquakes in the Los Angeles basin, including the 1920 Ingle-wood and 1929 Whittier earthquakes, in addition to the 1933 Long Beach quake.

One thing the researchers looked at was what was happening in nearby oil-fields when the earthquakes occurred. They found that earthquakes commonly followed when older oil wells were being deepened. Furthermore, these quakes seemed to be occurring quite close to where the wells were being deepened. For example, the epicenter of the 1929 Whittier quake was right on top of that activity, Hough says.

Another clue that an earthquake may have been induced by drilling is if it was particularly shallow. Natural earthquakes tend to occur perhaps 6 miles below the surface, whereas human-induced quakes may be just a mile deep, Hough says. And those shallow earthquakes can cause a lot more damage at the epicenter.

It wasn’t just the characteristics of in-dividual earthquakes that tipped the re-searchers off. They also found that when oil production ramped up in the 1920s, ground motion seemed to increase as well.

“Frankly, from what we’ve seen other places, it would not surprise me if there was a link here.

(Source: The CSM)

Hough points to parallels between oil drilling activity and earthquake records in the early 1900s

as clues that the petroleum industry may have played a role in shifting the Earth’s crust and thus

inducing some earthquakes in the early 1900s.

Plants that detect bombs: Bionic spinach with nanotubes can sense explosivesNumerous methods have been devised and used over the decades to detect the presence of bombs in various places. Some of these include the use of chemicals, spectrometry, X-rays, silicon nanowires and animals such as dogs and even bees. But plants?

Using an approach they are calling “plant nanobinics,” re-searchers from Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) have embedded carbon nanotubes in spinach that enables the leafy plant to sense explosives and also transmit the in-formation to a handheld device wirelessly.

The approach is based on a concept already used in bomb detection — that of identifying the aroma of certain chemicals commonly used in explosives. A statement on MIT’s website explained how it works.

The “plants were designed to detect chemical compounds known as nitroaromatics, which are often used in landmines and other explosives. When one of these chemicals is present in the groundwater sampled naturally by the plant, carbon nanotubes embedded in the plant leaves emit a fluorescent signal that can be read with an infrared camera. The camera can be attached to a small computer similar to a smartphone, which then sends an email to the user.”

Michael Strano, a chemical engineering professor at MIT and leader of the research team, said in the statement: The “goal of plant nanobionics is to introduce nanoparticles into the plant to give it non-native functions.”

Strano, who believes similar techniques could be used to engineer plant warnings for pollutions and environmental conditions like drought, added: “This is a novel demonstra-tion of how we have overcome the plant/human communi-cation barrier.”

A research paper on the subject, titled “Nitroaromatic detection and infraredcommunication from wild-type plants usingplant nanobionics,” was published in the journal Nature Materials on Monday.

(Source: ibtimes.com)

We may have found a way to cheat the second law of thermodynamicsThe Second Law of Thermodynamics says that entropy in the universe must always increase. It’s an immutable law of phys-ics, and it’s the reason you can’t get free energy or perpetual motion machines. But a group of physicists may have found a way to break this law, at least in some specific circumstances.

The researchers, from Argonne National Laboratory, have developed a theoretical model where the Second Law is vio-lated on a molecular level. Their results are published in the journal Science Direct.

The basic idea behind the discovery is the H-theorem, which says if you mix a hot thing and a cold thing, the mix-ture will end up somewhere in the middle. The H-theorem re-lies on a statistical interpretation of the way molecules move around. Because it’s pretty much impossible to keep track of every single molecule, physicists just treat them as groups and use statistics to figure out how they’ll behave.

The team from Argonne decided to look at the problem through the lens of quantum mechanics. They created a quantum H-theorem that is, at least theoretically, more accu-rate than the traditional theorem. Their new formula revealed that in some special cases, entropy might actually decrease, at least in the short term.

A few years before Boltzmann proposed his H-theorem, another physicist had an idea for a way to cheat the Second Law. James Clerk Maxwell proposed a hypothetical thought experiment: What if a small demon sat between the hot and cold things and controlled their mixing? The demon would only allow hot things to go one way and cold things to go another. Essentially, the demon could unmix the mixture.

(Source: Popular Mechanics)

Physicists induce superconductivity in non-superconducting materials Researchers at the University of Houston have reported a new method for inducing superconductivity in non-superconducting materials, demonstrating a concept proposed decades ago but never proven.

The technique can also be used to boost the effi-ciency of known supercon-ducting materials, suggest-ing a new way to advance the commercial viability of superconductors, said Paul C.W. Chu, chief scientist at the Texas Center for Super-conductivity at UH (TcSUH) and corresponding author of a paper describing the work, published Oct. 31 in the Proceedings of the Na-tional Academy of Sciences.

“Superconductivity is used in many things, of which MRI (magnetic resonance imaging) is perhaps the best known,” said Chu, the physicist who holds the TLL Temple Chair of Science at UH. But the technology used in health care, utilities and other fields remains expensive, in part because it requires expensive cooling, which has limited widespread adoption, he said.

(Source: nextbigfuture.com)

S C I E N C ENOVEMBER 2, 2016NOVEMBER 2, 2016 11I N T E R N A T I O N A L D A I L Y

Did human activity trigger California earthquakes nearly 100 years ago?

The mysterious tilt of the moon’s orbit might come from an angled, giant impact that vaporized most of the early Earth, creating the moon in the process, a new study finds.

Earth and the other major planets of the Solar System follow orbits around the sun that mostly lie within a thin, flat zone defined by the sun’s equator. This is likely because these worlds arose from a proto-planetary disk of gas and dust encircling the sun’s midriff.

Oddly, the moon’s orbit is slightly in-clined compared to Earth’s orbit around the sun, by about 5 degrees. Until now, scientists could not reconcile the moon’s tilt with the leading theory of how the moon formed.

Previous research suggested that during the early days of planet formation, the new-born Earth grazed a Mars-size rock called Theia (named after the mother of the moon

in ancient Greek mythology). Debris from the impact later helped form the moon.

Giant-impact hypothesisThis giant-impact hypothesis seemed

to explain many details about the moon and Earth, such as the large size of the moon compared with Earth and the rates of rotation of the two bodies. However, in the past 15 years, new evidence has challenged scientists to rework the details of this scenario.

In 2001, scientists began discovering that terrestrial and lunar rocks had more in common than expected: Earth and the moon possessed extremely similar levels of many isotopes. (Isotopes are versions of the same element with different num-bers of neutrons.)

Prior work suggested that planetary bodies that formed in different parts of the Solar System generally have different isotopic compositions.

Isotopic similaritiesThe isotopic similarities of Earth and

the moon threw the giant-impact hy-pothesis into crisis because previous computer simulations of the collision pre-dicted that 60 to 80 percent of the ma-terial that coalesced to form the moon came from Theia rather than Earth. The likelihood that Theia happened to have virtually the same isotopic composition as Earth seemed unlikely.

The latest version of the giant-im-

pact hypothesis seeks to resolve this cri-sis by suggesting that an extraordinarily high-energy impact created the moon — one so violent that it vaporized not just Theia but also most of Earth, down to the young planet’s mantle region (the layer just above the core). This dense va-por then formed a cloud more than 500 times bigger than today’s Earth. Much of this material would have fallen back onto Earth as it cooled, but some of the debris would have gone on to form the moon. Previous research suggested that the ma-terial from Earth and Theia would have mixed together in the cloud, helping to explain why Earth and the moon have similar isotopic compositions.

One feature of this new model is that Earth was spinning very quickly after it got hit, taking maybe only 2 to 3 hours to complete a day.

(Source: space.com)

Bank Maskan paid interest-free marriage loans to 40,170 qualified and eligible couples since the beginning of the current Iranian calendar year in 1395 (started March 20, 2016), Public Relations Dept. of the bank reported.

Central Bank of Iran obliged Bank Maskan to pay 150,000 interest-free marriage loans to eligible young

couples effective as of July 23.Under the directive, it was envisioned that Bank Mas-

kan will pay 3,000 facilities and also 24,000 interest-free marriage loans before termination of the current year (to end March 19, 2017).

During Iranian month of Mehr (ended Oct. 22), Bank

Maskan paid 14,785 interest-free loans to qualified ap-plicants, so that total facilities paid by the bank in this period hit 37,190.

According to the statistics of CBI, Bank Maskan broke the record in terms of number of facilities and loans paid to applicants in current year, the report ended.

Violent, vaporizing impact may explain moon’s mysterious tilt

Mutant plants reveal temperature sensor

Improve interpretation of visuals for ACT math, science success

Bank Maskan Pays Over 40,000 Interest-Free Marriage Loans in Current Year

Without water, everything withers

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

S O C I E T Y NOVEMBER 2, 2016NOVEMBER 2, 201612

China criticizes Donald Trump’s plan to exit Paris climate dealChina on Tuesday rejected a plan by U.S. Republican pres-idential candidate Donald Trump to back out of a global climate change pact, saying a wise political leader should make policy in line with global trends, a rare comment on a foreign election.

The world is moving towards balancing environmental protection and economic growth, China’s top climate change negotiator told reporters, in response to a query on how China would work with a Trump administration on climate change. “If they resist this trend, I don’t think they’ll win the support of their people, and their country’s economic and social progress will also be affected,” Xie Zhenhua said.

“I believe a wise political leader should take policy stances that conform to global trends,” China’s veteran cli-mate chief said.

Trump has threatened to reject the Paris agreement, a global accord negotiated by nearly 200 governments to bat-tle climate change that takes effect on Friday.

Chinese officials are often hesitant to weigh in on foreign elections, although they will defend Chinese policies when attacked in candidates’ policy platforms.

Xie’s comments come as China plans to launch a national carbon trading scheme in 2017.

The scheme is on track and pilot programs have already traded 120m carbon allowances with total transactions amounting to 3.2bn yuan ($472.29m), he added.

“It will take time for the market to be fully operational, but once it’s operational, it’ll be the largest carbon trading market in the world,” said Xie.

China’s coal consumption has declined as the world’s sec-ond-largest economy slows, but Xie said it was too early to decide if it had peaked.

China’s delegation of more than 80 negotiators will begin departing from Tuesday for global climate change talks in the Moroccan city of Marrakesh set for 7-18 November.

(Source: The Guardian)

Talking About Old Crimes Paul: What are you watching? Della: I’m watching a really good show about cold cases. They take unsolved crimes from decades ago and recon-struct them, trying to solve them once and for all. Paul: But after all this time, isn’t the trail cold? How do they solve the crimes with no new leads? Della: They go over the witness testimony and use scientific methods that didn’t exist many years ago. Paul: Isn’t there a statute of limitations for most crimes? Della: Yes, but not for murder. Paul: I really doubt a TV show can solve crimes that the police couldn’t crack. Are any crimes really ever solved on the show? Della: Yes, of course. Paul: How? Through crack investigative methods or a keen eye for detail? Della: Deathbed confessions. Paul: Ah.

(Source: eslpod.com) Words & phrases

cold case: an unsolved criminal investigation which remains open pending the discovery of new evidenceunsolved crime: a crime that is unsolved has never been solveddecade: a period of 10 yearsreconstruct: to produce a complete description or copy of an event by collecting together pieces of informationonce and for all: if you deal with something once and for all, you deal with it completely and finallytrail: a sign that a person or animal has been in a place, used for finding or catching themlead: a piece of information that may help you to solve a crime or mystery; cluewitness: someone who sees a crime or an accident and can describe what happenedtestimony: a formal statement saying that something is true, especially one a witness makes in a court of lawscientific method: he usual process of finding out informa-tion in science, which involves testing your ideas by perform-ing experiments and making decisions based on the resultsstatue of limitation: a law which sets out the maximum time that parties have to initiate legal proceedings from the date of an alleged offensemurder: the crime of deliberately killing someonecrack: to find the answer to a problem or manage to under-stand something that is difficult to understand; solvecrack: with a lot of experience and skillinvestigative: specializing in uncovering and reporting hidden informationkeen eye for detail: good at noticing detailsdeathbed confession: an admittance or confession when someone is nearing death, or on their “death bed”, this confession may help alleviate any guilt, regrets, secrets, or sins the dying person may have had in their life

TEHRAN — Winners of the Third World

Golden Adobe award for the best urban management projects were announced here on Monday, IRIB reported.

Nine award winning projects are com-prising reconstruction project in Baalbek, Lebanon; rebuilding project of Paris Repub-lique square; the project of eliminating waste water in Tehran; Superkilen public park of Copenhagen, Denmark; Harandi Park in Tehran; Christchurch, New Zealand; city management project, Barcelona flea mar-ket; Carbon neutral Berlin 2050; and regu-lating facades according to Iranian models.

The closing ceremony was held con-current with the World Cities Day, October 31, with Tehran’s mayor Mohammad-Baqer Qalibaf, UN resident coordinator in Iran Gary Lewis, ambassadors, and officials from World Association of the Major Metropolis-es and the United Nations Human Settle-

ments Program in attendance.Shahram Gilabadi the director for in-

ternational affairs of Tehran Municipality

explained that some 255 projects both from cities of Iran and 183 cities world-wide have submitted to the Third World

Golden Adobe award.Gilabadi went on to say that the jury

was comprised of five international judg-es and urban experts who chose the winners in seven different categories of urban management and development.

Adobe is the smallest unit in con-structing a building in ancient Iranian architecture which dates back to some 7,000 years ago, Gilabadi suggested.

The first Golden Adobe award cere-mony was held in 2014. The event is be-ing backed by the World Association of the Major Metropolises, the United Na-tions Human Settlements Program, and Tehran Municipality.

The award aims at improving urban life and encouraging international inter-actions in developing urban infrastruc-ture which ultimately leads to transferring knowledge and information in imple-menting urban projects.

S O C I E T Yd e s k

IN FOCUS Tehran Times/Fatemeh Abedi

Doidokh village in North Khorasan province is famous for double-sided silk carpets woven by the locals.

Ounce of discretion is worth a pound of wit

Explanation: knowing when to refrain from making jokes is better than being able to make jokes all the time

For example: Mabel makes fun of everybody, regardless of whether or not she hurts their feelings. Someone should tell her that an ounce of discretion is worth a pound of wit.

Bone up on something Meaning: to learn as much as you can about

a subject, because you need the knowledge, for example for an examination

For example: I have to bone up on criminal law for a test next week.

Leave somebody holding the baby

Explanation: if someone is left holding the baby, they are made responsible for a problem that others don’t want to deal with

For example: When the angry customer started to complain, my colleague disappeared and left me holding the baby.

ENGLISH PROVERB PHRASAL VERB ENGLISH IDIOM

ENGLISH IN USE

Female leopard ‘Hircan’ released back to the wild Hircan, a female leopard who had spent two years in captivity, was released in Golestan National Park on August 23, IRNA news agency reported on Saturday. Two years ago two cubs who were later named Hircan and Varcan were found and delivered to the Golestan province Department of Environment (DoE), living in captivity since then.As female leopard appeared to be more ready to live in the wild and survive the department first set her free and is keeping close tab on her.

هيركان، پلنگ ماده، در طبيعت رها شدبــه گــزارش روز شــنبه خبرگــزارى ايرنــا هيــركان، مــاده پلنگــى كه دو ســال در اســارت به ســر مى

بــرد، روز دوم شــهريور در پــارك ملى گلســتان رها شــد.هيــركان و وركان تولــه پلنــگ هايــى هســتند كــه دو ســال قبــل پيــدا و تحويــل اداره كل حفاظت

محيــط زيســت گلســتان شــدند و از آن بــه بعــد در اســارت زندگــى كردنــد.از آنجايــى كــه بــه نظــر مــى رســيد پلنــگ مــاده آمادگــى بيشــترى نســبت بــه پلنــگ نــر بــراى زندگــى مســتقل در طبيعــت داشــته باشــد در زيســتگاه رهاســازى شــد و مرتبــا پايــش مى شــود.

LEARN NEWS TRANSLATIONLEARN NEWS TRANSLATION

Third World Golden Adobe award announces winners

United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon in his message on World Cities Day, 31 October 2016 said new global frameworks and agendas including the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development will put sustaina-ble urbanization at the center of the efforts to eliminate poverty and achieve development and prosperity for all.

The full text of his message reads: Cities are increasingly the home of humanity. They

are central to climate action, global prosperity, peace and human rights. More than half of all people live in cities and human settlements, and that proportion is projected to grow to two thirds by 2050.

To transform our world, we must transform its cities.

Crime, pollution and poverty are taking their toll on hundreds of millions of city-dwellers. At the same time, urban areas are hubs of energy, innovation and eco-nomic dynamism. By investing in cities, we can advance progress across societies.

Momentum is building. The recently concluded Hab-itat III Conference adopted the New Urban Agenda, a vision for cities that are just, safe, accessible, affordable, resilient and sustainable. This marked a milestone in setting global standards for sustainable urban develop-ment, sparking new thinking on how we plan, manage and live in cities.

Together with the other new global frameworks and

Agendas – the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, the Agenda for Humanity, the Sendai Framework for Dis-aster Risk Reduction and the Addis Ababa Action Agenda – this New Urban Agenda will put sustainable urbanization at the center of our efforts to eliminate poverty and achieve development and prosperity for all. It can also complement the Paris Agreement on climate change.

Local action is essential to realizing the potential of these global agreements. On World Cities Day, let us re-new our resolve to confront urban problems and forge lasting solutions. Together, we can show how success in cities inspires change across the world.

(Source: UNIC)

Sustainable urbanization to eliminate poverty and achievedevelopment, prosperity for all: UN chief

Lebanon’s Minister of Foreign Affairs Ge-bran Bassil says the Lebanese resistance movement Hezbollah shares the victory of Michel Aoun in securing the country’s presidency.

Aoun, a strong Hezbollah ally, was chosen by Lebanese lawmakers as the country’s president on Monday.

Addressing a large number of people who had converged at a square in Bei-rut to celebrate Aoun’s election, Bassil, who is also the head of the Free Patriotic Movement (FPM) and Aoun’s son-in-law, said his movement never doubted Hez-bollah’s “loyalty” and “honesty.” Aoun is the founder of the FPM.

He said Aoun’s victory was based on his own perseverance as well as the posi-tions adopted by Sayyed Hassan Nasral-lah, who is Hezbollah’s secretary general.

In a phone call on the same day, Nas-rallah congratulated Aoun on his election as the head of the Lebanese state.

Nasrallah endorsed Aoun last week, advising Lebanese political factions to set aside their differences in order to fill the presidential void in the country.

Lebanon had been without a pres-ident for over two years amid political

bickering in the parliament.After the election, Aoun vowed in a

speech to the parliament that he would spare no effort in trying to bring about the liberation of Lebanese territories oc-cupied by Israel.

He said his top priority would be to

strengthen the army in order for it to be-come capable of defending the country against all threats to its independence and sovereignty.

Hezbollah has been defending Leba-non against Israeli aggression since the movement’s inception, including during a

full-fledged Israeli war in 2006. Global congratulations

Elsewhere, Iranian President Hassan Rou-hani and Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif congratulated Aoun on his election.

So did Syrian President Bashar al-Assad.Yemen’s Ansarullah (Houthi) move-

ment congratulated him, as well.In a phone call on Monday, French

President Francois Hollande also voiced France’s permanent readiness to help the Lebanese nation in line with the historic ties between the two countries, accord-ing to Lebanon’s National News Agency.

A special envoy of the Russian pres-ident, Deputy Foreign Minister of Rus-sia Mikhail Bogdanov, also conveyed Vladimir Putin’s felicitations on the elec-tion of General Michel Aoun as the pres-ident of Lebanon on Monday.

European Union High Representative Federica Mogherini also said in state-ment that the election of Aoun is crucial for Lebanon’s future.

Italian Foreign Minister Paolo Gentiloni and German Foreign Minister Frank-Wal-ter Steinmeier also congratulated Aoun on his election as president.

(Source: Press TV)

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

Hezbollah shares Aoun’s victory: Lebanese FM

Iraqi troops advance on more urban districts of Mosul UN: Violence kills 1,792 Iraqis in OctoberIraqi Special Forces were advancing toward the more ur-ban center of Mosul on Tuesday after entering the out-skirts of the city in a bid to retake it from terrorists.

The advance into Iraq’s second largest city in over two years marks the start of what could be a grueling and slow operation for troops, with the terrorists holed up in their positions and using civilians as human shields.

According to the commander of the Special Forces, troops entered the Gogjali neighborhood inside Mosul’s city limits and by noon were only 800 meters (yards) from the more built-up Karama district.

“Daesh (ISIL) is fighting back and have set up concrete blast walls to block off the Karama neighborhood and our troops’ advance,” Maj. Gen. Sami al-Aridi said.

Iraqi artillery, tank and machine gun fire pounded the Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant (ISIL/Daesh) positions, with the terrorists responding with guided anti-tank missiles and small arms in an attempt to block the advance.

Across the liberated districts, white flags fluttered to show the residents wouldn’t resist the Iraqi army ad-vance. Some residents stood outside their homes, and children raised their hands with V-for-victory signs, the Associated Press reported.

Human shieldsOne resident said ISIL terrorist group was preventing

families from moving toward the security forces and or-dered them into the city center.

United Nations human rights spokeswoman Ravina Shamdasani meanwhile said ISIL was trying to move 25,000 civilians from the town of Hammam al-Alil to Mo-sul to use them as human shields.

Most of the trucks used in the operation were forced to turn back under pressure from patrolling aircraft, but some buses managed to reach Abusaif, 15 km north of the town, she added.

Shamdasani also cited reports from the field as say-ing that the terrorist group on Saturday killed 40 former members of the Iraqi security forces near Mosul and threw their corpses in the Tigris River.

She said the UN has no documented any reports of abuses by Iraqi troops or civilian deaths in air raids in Mosul so far.

Iraq’s Badr Organization said seven villages located to the west of Mosul were purged of ISIL on Tuesday. Iraqi forces also took control of a government building in a village in eastern Mosul.

The spokesman for Popular Mobilization Units (al-Hashd al-Shaabi) Ahmed Assadi said 39 villages west of Mosul have been purged of ISIL since the beginning of the operation about two weeks ago.

According to the Defense Ministry, as many as 27 ISIL terrorists were killed in fresh operations and their weap-ons and equipment seized or destroyed.

Meanwhile, a military source said a senior terrorist commander was killed in an airstrike in the center of Mo-sul on Tuesday.

Abu Tareq al-Hayali, the commander of the ISIL-affili-ated Jund al-Khilafah (Soldiers of the Caliphate), and sev-en of his companions were killed as Iraqi aircraft bombed their positions, he added.

With the advances gaining momentum, Takfiri militants are resorting to more desperate measures. On Monday, Iraqi forces thwarted an ISIL car bomb attack and another terrorist attack on the Asyla village west of Mosul, killing 12 terrorists and capturing two others.

Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi announced the start of the operations to liberate Mosul on October 16. The city fell to ISIL in June 2014 as the Takfiri group crossed the Syri-an border to expand its so-called caliphate.

The loss of Mosul would be a major defeat for the Takfiri terrorists because it is the last major ISIL bastion in Iraq.

UN report Meanwhile, the United Nations says 1,792 people

were killed in violence in Iraq in October, up from 1,003 the previous month.

The UN Assistance Mission for Iraq (UNAMI) says in a statement Tuesday that 1,120 of those killed last month were civilians. The other 672 were members of Iraqi se-curity forces, including the Kurdish peshmerga, Interior Ministry, SWAT (Special Weapons And Tactics) forces and militias fighting alongside the Iraqi army.

UNAMI says 1,358 other people were wounded.The worst-hit city is Baghdad with 268 civilians killed

and 807 wounded, while the militant-held Ninevah prov-ince comes next with 566 killed and 59 wounded. Much of Ninevah province, including its capital Mosul, is con-trolled by the ISIL terrorist group.

The UN envoy in Iraq, Jan Kubis, warned that civilians in Mosul and surrounding areas “are once again in harm’s way” due to ongoing military operations and ISIL tactics of using them as human shields.

(Source: agencies)

NOVEMBER 2, 2016

The woman at the center of the political scandal em-broiling President Park Geun-hye has been placed un-der emergency detention after prosecutors said she was “unstable” and a flight risk.

Choi Soon-sil, who faces allegations of fraud and meddling in state affairs over her decades-long friend-ship with Park, was questioned for hours on Monday after she returned to the country and handed herself in following mass street protests.

“There is a possibility of Choi trying to destroy ev-idence as she is denying all the allegations,” a prose-cution official told Yonhap news agency, explaining the decision to hold her for 48 hours.

“She has fled overseas in the past, and she doesn’t have a permanent address in this country, making her a flight risk. She is also in an extremely unstable psycho-logical state, and it’s possible an unexpected event could occur if she is released.”

Choi flew back to Seoul on Sunday from Germany to submit herself for questioning and was surrounded by hundreds of journalists and angry protesters waving placards demanding her arrest.

Dressed from head to toe in black, Choi lost her hat, sunglasses and one shoe as she struggled through the

scrum to the Seoul district prosecutor’s office on Monday.“Please forgive me. I have committed a deadly sin,”

Choi said after she made it inside the building, Yonhap reported.

After a night in detention, she was escorted back to the prosecutors’ office early on Tuesday wearing a pris-on uniform for another round of questioning - which could last for days, Yonhap said.

Prosecutors have to decide whether to seek a war-rant to formally arrest Choi before the emergency de-tention period expires.

Public angerPark and Choi have been close friends for 40 years.

The precise nature of that friendship lies at the heart of the scandal which has caused a media frenzy in South Korea, with lurid reports of religious cults and shamanistic rituals.

Suggestions that Choi vetted presidential speeches and was given access to classified documents have exposed Park to public anger and ridicule and, with just over a year left in office, pushed down her approval ratings.

Choi has also been accused of using her relationship with the president to coerce corporate donations to two non-profit foundations, and then siphon off funds for personal use.

Park issued a public apology last week, acknowledg-ing seeking limited advice from Choi on her speeches.

But it did little to assuage public outrage, with mass street protests erupting in Seoul and other cities to de-mand Park’s resignation.

The Hankyoreh newspaper reported on Tuesday that Choi had been a frequent visitor to the presidential Blue House since Park took office in 2013 - something Park’s administration has denied.

Park on Sunday carried out a partial reshuffle of key aides accused of being linked to Choi.

(Source: agencies)

Thirteen people have been found dead after a gas ex-plosion in a Chinese coal mine and the status is unknown of 20 others still trapped, according to state media.

Rescuers worked through the night at the privately owned Jinshangou mine in the Chongqing region where the explosion occurred before midday on Monday, Xin-hua news agency reported.

Two miners escaped earlier. Xinhua previously re-ported 15 deaths in the explosion, but Chongqing’s Deputy Mayor Ma Huaping lowered the death toll early on Tuesday, saying only 13 bodies had been found so far.

Local officials did not answer telephone calls from the Associated Press news agency, and a person who

answered the phone at the mine hung up when asked about the blast.

“We are still working all-out to search for the 20 miss-ing miners, and will exert our utmost as long as there’s still a ray of hope,” Ma said, according to Xinhua.

Xinhua reported that the 400 workers trying to res-cue more miners were being hindered by debris block-ing some of the mine’s passageways.

Gas explosions inside mines are often caused when a flame or electrical spark ignites gas leaking from the coal seam. Ventilation systems are supposed to prevent gas from becoming trapped.

The State Administration of Work Safety ordered an investigation into the blast, “adding that those responsi-

ble must be strictly punished”.Local officials in Chongqing ordered the temporary

shutdown of coal mines producing fewer than 90,000 tons a year, Xinhua said.

China’s mining industry has long been among the world’s deadliest.

The head of China’s State Administration of Work Safety said earlier this year that struggling coal mines are likely to overlook maintenance.

China is the world’s largest producer and consum-er of coal but has announced plans to shut more than 1,000 outdated mines, as part of a broader plan to cut down on overproduction.

(Source: agencies)

South Korean president’s friend Choi Soon-sil detained

Jinshangou mine: Deadly explosion in China’s Chongqing

Pakistan: Supreme Court hears Panama leaks case

Russia: resumption of Syria peace talks delayed indefinitelyRussia says the West has failed to con-tain the extremist militants it supports in Syria and has caused an “indefinite de-lay” in peace talks for the country.

Speaking on Wednesday, Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu said the West had failed to exercise influence on the extremist militants in Syria.

“As a result, the prospects for the start of a negotiation process and the return to peaceful life in Syria are post-poned for an indefinite period,” he said.

The remarks came one day after Staffan de Mistura, the United Nations (UN) special envoy for Syria, said the militants had intentionally killed scores of civilians in the west of the embattled northwestern Syria city of Aleppo over the previous 48 hours.

He said he had been “appalled and shocked” by the “relentless and indis-criminate” rocket attacks that killed the civilians and warned that such attacks could amount to war crimes.

The fatalities were caused after a mix of militants, including the Takfiri Jabhat Fateh al-Sham, formerly known as al-Nus-ra Front, and Ahrar al-Sham, another ex-tremist outfit, launched what they called a “big battle” on Friday to break an army siege over the strategic city.

Russia has been bombarding militant positions in Syria on a request from Da-mascus since September 2015.

Russia ceased airstrikes on the city on October 18. Russian President Vladimir Putin turned down a subsequent re-quest by the Russian military to resume the attacks, saying he wanted humani-tarian efforts to continue in northwest-ern Aleppo and the United Staete to separate the so-called “moderate” mil-itants from other terrorists there.

Washington has for long been sup-porting militants it calls “moderate.” Moscow says there are no such militants in Syria, and all militants are committing savage acts of terror in the country.

The U.S. has been pounding targets it claims to belong to the Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant (ISIL/Daesh) terrorist group in the country since 2014 without permission from the Syrian government.

(Source: SANA)

Pakistan’s Supreme Court has heard the defense’s arguments in the Panama Papers case involving members of the prime minister ’s family, while march-es are staged by hundreds of people across Islamabad demanding Nawaz Sharif’s resignation.

The court on Tuesday directed all the respondents to submit their com-ments to form a commission to inves-tigate the Panama Papers leaks before adjourning the hearings, which will re-sume on Thursday, according to local media reports.

A petition filed by the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) party has levelled corruption allegations at Sharif and his family and demanded an investigation.

Sheikh Rasheed, of the PTI-allied Awami Muslim League, has demanded that a commission be formed to follow up the matter.

Another petition was filed by the Ja-maat-e-Islami demanding an investiga-tion into all Pakistani companies named in the Panama Papers.

The hearing coincides with days of anti-government protests led by the opposition politician Imran Khan. He called for a shutdown of Islamabad on Wednesday, to pressure Nawaz Sharif to resign, but reports on Tuesday suggest-ed that he had backed down.

Instead of the protest, Khan said that

he would hold a “celebratory” rally, fol-lowing a decision by the Supreme Court to pursue a case linked to Sharif.

“On the Supreme Court’s advice, we have decided that tomorrow we will thank God and celebrate a day of thanks at [Islamabad’s] parade ground,” Khan told media.

Two PTI supporters reportedly died after inhaling tear gas used by police to prevent hundreds of protesters from entering Islamabad on Tuesday, the op-position party said.

“Two of our workers have been killed due to excessive use of expired tear-gas shells,” said Shah Mehmood Qureshi, a senior PTI leader, said on local Geo TV.

Local authorities could not immedi-ately be reached to confirm any deaths.

(Source: Al Jazeera)

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 NOVEMBER 2, 2016NOVEMBER 2, 201614

World Cup trophy sculptor Silvio Gazzaniga dies at age 95Silvio Gazzaniga, the sculptor who designed the World Cup trophy, has died. He was 95.

Gazzaniga’s son, Giorgio, said his father passed away in his sleep at home in Milan.

“He just didn’t wake up this morning. It was a peaceful death,” Giorgio Gazzaniga told The Associated Press on Monday, adding that his father had been in the hospital re-cently for a series of minor ailments.

Silvio Gazzaniga designed and created the World Cup tro-phy in 1971 after Brazil retained the right to keep the Jules Rimet trophy by winning its third World Cup in 1970.

“The World Cup is a mythic object for the players and for all football lovers,” FIFA President Gianni Infanti-no said. “We will be eternally grateful. I express my condo-lences by joining the pain of the family.”

The 18-carat solid gold trophy weighs approximate-ly six kilograms (13 pounds). It depicts a moment of joy: two players celebrating with their arms outstretched and a globe resting on the backs

of their shoulders.“The lines spring out from the base, rising in spirals,

stretching out to receive the world,” Silvio Gazzaniga once said, according to FIFA’s website. “From the remarkable dy-namic tensions of the compact body of the sculpture rise the figures of two athletes at the stirring moment of victory.”

FIFA received 53 proposals from seven different countries for a new trophy, before opting for Gazzaniga’s design.

“I designed it to reward heroism,” Silvio Gazzaniga said in a 2002 interview with The Associated Press. “But not super-human heroism. It’s not a conventional cup.”

Giorgio Gazzaniga said that his father knew his design couldn’t be understood on paper, so he brought a plaster model to show FIFA.

“The jury understood right away that it was a very photo-genic cup,” Giorgio Gazzaniga said. “It’s easy to lift and beau-tiful when raised. He created a universal trophy.”

The FIFA contest stipulated that the winner would not hold the rights to his work and so Silvio Gazzaniga never profited directly from images of the World Cup trophy.

“But as compensation he gained more work on other cups,” his son said. “He became Mr. Cups.”

Silvio Gazzaniga also designed the UEFA Cup, European Super Cup and many other international trophies.

But he’ll be remembered above all for the World Cup.Cafu, who captained Brazil to the 2002 World Cup ti-

tle, tweeted, “Today I think for Silvio Gazzaniga, this man designed the trophy which gave my proudest moment in sport. RIP.”

Silvio Gazzaniga leaves behind two children, along with grandchildren and great grandchildren.

(Source: AP)

Bastian Schweinsteiger should still leave Manchester United - Bayern CEOBayern Munich CEO Karl-Heinz Rummenigge has urged Bastian Schweinsteiger to leave Manchester United despite his return to first-team training on Monday.

Schweinsteiger, 32, had been training with the youth team after Jose Mourinho replaced Louis van Gaal in the summer, and the former Germany captain was even written off as an asset in the club’s accounts in September.

The 32-year-old ex-Bayern midfielder was back on the training pitch with the senior squad on Monday, though, with German outlet Sport1 reporting that he had been put-ting in extra shifts in recent weeks to be prepared for an eventual comeback.

However, Rummenigge -- who had been strongly critical of Mourinho’s decision to demote the player in August -- told Bild: “My wish for him is that he finds a solution once the transfer window opens in January.”

Rummenigge again questioned Mourinho’s handling of the situation, saying: “It’s difficult to manage a generation change but, nevertheless, you have to do it with tact.”

Schweinsteiger, who has previously said United will be his last club in Europe and vowed to be ready for the team if required, wrote on his Twitter account on Monday: “Felt great today! Team is in good shape, results will follow!”

The German’s return was also welcomed by left-back Luke Shaw, who said: “It’s great to see him back. We found out the news a couple of days ago and it’s so great to have him back.

“He’s a big influence in the dressing room and obviously on the pitch, especially for the young players like myself.

“It’s a great boost for us, the experience and the quality that he brings. The quality he possesses is a boost for our team and I’m so glad to have him back.’’

Schweinsteiger was included in United’s 25-man squad for the Premier League but was not included in the selection for the Europa League, which means he would not be eligible to play in European competition until registration reopens for the knockout phase.

Henrikh Mkhitaryan was also involved in training on Mon-day, despite a report in the Daily Mail saying the former Borussia Dortmund midfielder had trained alone on Sunday.

The Manchester Evening News has since reported that Mkh-itaryan had trained alone out of choice after missing out on a place in the squad for Saturday’s 0-0 draw with Burnley and that he hopes to convince Mourinho to bring him back into the side.

(Source: ESPN)

Leicester City’s Shinji Okazaki is so drained when he returns from international duty with Japan he is barely recognizable from the bustling forward that played a key role in their title triumph last season, said manager Claudio Ranieri.

“I don’t know what happens, but when he comes back he is a different person, believe me,” Ranieri told British media. “He needs to recover. He is not a machine where you put in the money and he starts to run.”

Okazaki featured in Japan’s 2018 World Cup qualifying win over Iraq on Oct. 6 but did not play against Australia five days later.

The 30-year-old sat out Leicester’s de-feat to Chelsea on his return to England

then came on as a late substitute in the Champions League before starting in their last two Premier League games against Crystal Palace and Tottenham Hotspur.

“There are players like Wes Morgan who go around the world but on the pitch he is the same,” added Ranieri. “Shinji los-es his energy. After the last international break it wasn’t the true Shinji.”

Okazaki played a key part in Leices-ter ’s title-winning season, scoring five goals in 36 league appearances.

Leicester are 11th in the league this season and have lost four of their 10 games -- more than they lost in the whole of last season.

(Source: Reuters)

Inter Milan fired Dutchman Frank de Boer as coach on Tuesday after less than three months in charge during which the for-mer European champions lost seven of their 14 competitive games.

Inter, who dropped to 12th in the Se-rie A table following Sunday’s 1-0 loss to Sampdoria, said youth team coach Stefano Vecchi would be in charge of the team for Thursday’s Europa League match at Southampton.

“The club thanks Frank and his staff for the work they have undertaken at the and wish them the best for the future,” Inter said in a statement.

Inter, traditionally one of Italy’s three

biggest clubs alongside Juventus and city rivals AC Milan, appointed the 46-year-old De Boer on Aug. 9, two weeks be-fore the start of the season, after Robert Mancini left by mutual consent.

The former Netherlands defender had no experience of playing or coaching in Italy. He had previously been in charge of Dutch side Ajax Amsterdam for six years during which he won four league titles.

His overall record of five wins, two draws and seven defeats included shock losses to Hapoel Beer Sheva and Spar-ta Prague in the Europa League and at home to Cagliari in Serie A.

(Source: Reuters)

Inter Milan sack coach De Boer

Okazaki a different player after Japan duty, says Ranieri

PARIS (AFP) — AFP Sports looks ahead to Wednesday’s Champions League action with reigning champions Real Madrid, Juventus, Borussia Dortmund and debutants Leicester City all looking to clinch places in the last 16 with two games to spare (kick-offs 1945 GMT):

Group EAt MonacoMonaco (FRA) v CSKA Moscow (RUS)Monaco top the group and remain unbeaten, so

a win at home to the Russian champions will all but secure their place in the last 16. Leonardo Jardim’s side, who snatched a draw in Moscow last time out thanks to Bernardo Silva’s late equaliser, come into the game sitting in second place in Ligue 1. They are also the most prolific side in any of Europe’s leading leagues along with Barcelona, with both teams having netted 30 goals so far. That is despite Monaco having loaned giant Ivorian striker Lacina Traore to CSKA -- he scored for the Russians in the reverse fixture. CSKA could be on the brink of elimination if they lose and form is not on their side. They have won just one of their last eight matches in all competitions and have been beaten eight times in their last nine away group games in the Champions League. Meanwhile, their goalkeeper Igor Akinfeev is looking to end a run of 40 consecutive Champions League games without keeping a clean sheet. CSKA are without the suspended Roman Eremenko, while Alan Dzagoev is a doubt.

At LondonTottenham Hotspur (ENG) v Bayer Leverkusen (GER)Mauricio Pochettino’s Tottenham will be looking to end

a five-game winless run when they entertain Leverkusen in a crucial contest at Wembley. Spurs have had four draws and one defeat in all competitions since beating Manchester City a month ago. That sequence includes a 0-0 draw in Germany two weeks ago, and Tottenham need at least the same again to keep qualification for the last 16 in their own hands. They will also be looking for a maiden victory at Wembley after losing 2-1 to Monaco at England’s national stadium in their Group E opener. Leverkusen have drawn all three group games so far and come into the match on the back of a 2-1 win at Wolfsburg at the weekend that ended their own run of four matches without a victory. Harry Kane is on the sidelines for Spurs while Joel Pohjanpalo and Karim Bellarabi are absent for the visitors.

Group FAt Dortmund, GermanyBorussia Dortmund (GER) v Sporting Lisbon (POR)Dortmund have started strongly in Group F and will

secure their place in the last 16 with a win at home to Sporting at the Signal Iduna Park. Thomas Tuchel’s men were 2-1 winners when the teams met in Portugal recently and have lost just one of their last 11 matches. However, they were held to a goalless draw by Schalke in the Ruhr derby at the weekend and sit only sixth in the Bundesliga. In addition, they have a long injury list with Marcel Schmelzer, Sven Bender, Marco Reus, Neven Subotic and Erik Durm all on the sidelines. Sporting need a positive result to keep alive their chances of reaching the knockout phase for the first time since 2008/09 but they have had one draw and suffered 11 defeats on their 12 previous visits to Germany. Jorge Jesus’s men are also struggling for form - last Friday’s 0-0 draw at Nacional left them with only one win in five, a run that has seen them drop to fourth place. Captain Adrien is injured.

At WarsawLegia Warsaw (POL) v Real Madrid (ESP)Incidents at Legia’s last home game, a 6-0 defeat

to Borussia Dortmund, means this meeting with the reigning champions will be played behind closed doors

in the Polish capital. Legia lost 5-1 in Madrid last time out and are yet to register a point in the group -- another defeat here will eliminate them, while even a draw may not put off the inevitable. Madrid, meanwhile, will be through with a win, provided Borussia Dortmund also win. Zinedine Zidane’s men warmed up for this game with a 4-1 win at Alaves in which Cristiano Ronaldo bagged a hat-trick. They are top of La Liga, unbeaten in 15 games this season and have scored 24 times in their last five matches. Ronaldo, meanwhile, is just two goals away from reaching a century in European competition. Pepe is out, but it is set to be a daunting task for Legia, who are currently sixth in their domestic league.

Group GAt CopenhagenFC Copenhagen (DEN) v Leicester City (ENG)The Leicester City fairytale can reach the Champions

League knockout phase if the shock English champions get a result at Copenhagen, who have four points so far. One of only three teams in the competition on full points from the opening three games, the feeling is that coach Claudio Ranieri is focusing on Europe. A win in Denmark will secure a place in the last 16, and they warmed up with a 1-1 draw at Tottenham Hotspur at the weekend. They travel to Denmark with their Danish international goalkeeper Kasper Schmeichel in exceptional form. Copenhagen, who had gone 23 games without defeat before losing 1-0 in the reverse fixture, come into the match still unbeaten domestically and six points clear at the top of their league.

At Oporto, PortugalPorto (POR) v Club Brugge (BEL)The 2004 champions Porto are locked in a battle with

Copenhagen for a place in the next round with the pair on four points. After winning 2-1 in Belgium with a late penalty, the home side badly need another result here. They are second in their domestic league, five points behind leaders Benfica, after drawing 0-0 at Vitoria Setubal at the weekend. He may have drawn a blank in that match but striker Andre Silva has scored 10 goals in his last nine games for club and country. Brugge,

the runners-up in the 1978 European Cup, are on a seven-game winless away streak in the competition. They have had a poor season so far but their domestic form has improved since their last European outing, with seven points from three games lifting them to fifth in the Belgian league.

Group HAt Seville, SpainSevilla (ESP) v Dinamo Zagreb (CRO)Serial Europa League winners Sevilla are level top

of Group H alongside Juventus and tackle pointless Croatians Dinamo Zagreb, who lost 3-0 and 4-0 to Lyon and Juventus respectively before going down 1-0 at home to Sevilla two weeks ago. Fourth in the Spanish league, Sevilla have scored just two goals to get their seven points in Europe with a goalless draw at Juventus and a 1-0 win over Lyon coming before Frenchman Samir Nasri gave them the points in Zagreb. Nasri will miss this match with a hamstring injury and former Chile coach Jorge Sampaoli will hope his team can safely negotiate the encounter with a home clash with Barcelona to follow at the weekend. Dinamo have never gone beyond the group stage in the Champions League and will be eliminated if they lose.

At Turin, ItalyJuventus (ITA) v Lyon (FRA)The 2015 finalists Juventus will qualify for the next

round with a win over their struggling French visitors. Juve are unbeaten in their last 18 home matches in Europe and are fresh from beating Napoli 2-1 in Serie A at the weekend when Argentine striker Gonzalo Higuain scored the winner against his old club and refused to celebrate. Paulo Dybala is absent for the hosts, who won 1-0 in Lyon two weeks ago. Striker Alexandre Lacazette missed a penalty for the Ligue 1 side in that match but he has been back in goalscoring form, grabbing a brace in a 2-1 away win at high-flying Toulouse at the weekend. After Gianluigi Buffon saved Lacazette’s penalty in the reverse fixture, Juventus had Mario Lemina sent off but beat Lyon thanks to Juan Cuadrado’s strike. Lyon will be out if they lose and Sevilla win.

Leicester among sides with Champions League last 16 in sight

S P O R TNOVEMBER 2, NOVEMBER 2, 20162016 15I N T E R N A T I O N A L D A I L Y

Former Germany striker Miroslav Klose retires to start coaching careerGermany legend Miroslav Klose has ended his playing career as he prepares to become a coach with the national side.

Klose, who retired from international football after winning the 2014 World Cup, had been without a club after leaving Lazio in the summer.

The 38-year-old, who also played for FC Homberg, Kaiserslautern, Werder Bremen and Bayern Munich, remains Germany’s all-time leading scorer with 71 goals in 137 matches.

Klose, who is one of the most successful players in German football history, is also the all-time leading scorer at World Cup finals, having scored a total of 16 goals across four tournaments.

The German FA (DFB) confirmed his retirement on Tuesday and said he would join Germany’s coaching staff with immediate effect, as a part of a trainee programme.

“I have achieved my biggest successes with the national team,” Klose said on the official DFB website. “It was a wonderful and unforgettable time. That’s why I am delighted to return to the DFB. Over the past few months the decision to stay on the pitch, but take on another perspective, that of a coach, grew in me.”

Klose added that during his playing days he had been keen to “read a game, prepare for it meticulously and develop tactics and strategies” and that he was thankful to Germany head coach Joachim Low and DFB sporting director Hansi Flick for allowing him “to shape this view in practice” by joining the association.

Low, who on Monday extended his contract until 2020, said he can very much picture Klose as a future coach and that he is happy to support him.

“I am convinced that the coaches and also the players can profit from his presence and participation,” Low said, while confirming that the former striker will work with the coaching staff on and off the pitch.

Germany’s general manager, Oliver Bierhoff, said the national team can become “a second home with familiar surroundings” for some players and welcomed Klose’s decision to take the special route to his coaching career, and added that integrating former internationals is part of a new “strategic process” for the DFB academy, which is to be built in Frankfurt.

(Source: Soccernet)

Per Mertesacker: A new Arsenal contract is my ‘highest priority’

Arsenal captain Per Mertesacker has made it clear he wants to stay with the Gunners next season amid speculation about a return to Germany.

Mertesacker, 32, is in the last year of his contract and the centre-back is out for the first half of the season after injuring his knee in the summer. He could struggle to make the team even when fit after Arsenal brought in fellow German Shkodran Mustafi, who has since formed an impressive partnership with Laurent Koscielny at the back.

But while the former Germany international said last month he would be open to returning to Germany next year, with Hannover and Werder Bremen having been linked with moves, Mertesacker said his first choice is to stay at Arsenal.

“A new Arsenal contract has absolute priority for me. But no dates have been set [for talks],” Mertesacker told Spox. “Arsenal has the highest priority for me. Everything else is pure speculation, and I won’t join the discussion.”

Arsenal boss Arsene Wenger has a long-standing policy of only giving one-year extensions to players once they get past the age of 30 and confirmed earlier this season that Mertesacker’s future would be evaluated on a “year-by-year” basis.

Mertesacker took over the captaincy from the retired Mikel Arteta this summer, but has yet to get on the pitch since then due to his injury.

Arsenal are doing well without him as they are currently second in the Premier League standings and lead their Champions League group ahead of Tuesday’s game at Ludogorets Razgrad.

“The team has matured a bit,” Mertesacker said. “We played a few convincing matches, but there were also some hard-fought last-minute wins. The competitiveness at the top of the league is certainly unique in Europe. And it’s unmistakable the fans want the title, but it might be harder to win it in England than elsewhere.”

Wenger’s future is also still uncertain as the Frenchman’s contract expires next summer and he has yet to sign an extension.

Wenger came under heavy criticism last season when Arsenal failed to win the Premier League title, with some fans and pundits still sceptical about whether he is the right man to take the club forward.

Mertesacker, however, gave his full backing to the Gunners boss.

“To me, Arsene Wenger is way above any public criticism. A coach who has been with a club for 20 years, and has developed and shaped the club decisively -- where do you find that today?” Mertesacker said.

“You have to look at the bigger picture and he deserves the highest respect here. Criticism in the media is rushed these days, it’s too closely connected to the results and sadly it’s often not that knowledgeable.

“You beat Razgrad in a midweek fixture, and three days later you receive fundamental criticism for a draw at home to Middlesbrough. How much have the team, manager, and club really changed for such a different perception?”

(Source: Soccernet)

S P O R T Sd e s k

S P O R T Sd e s k

S P O R T Sd e s k

Manchester United manager Jose Mourinho has been charged with misconduct by the Football Association over his altercation with referee Mark Clattenburg during Saturday’s goalless draw with Burnley.

“It is alleged that in or around the tunnel area at half-time he used abusive and/or insulting words towards a Match Official,” an official statement from the Football Association said.

The United manager has until Friday evening to

respond to the charge. Mourinho did not appeal an additional charge

against him over comments made to the referee in his side’s recent draw with Liverpool, and the two incidents combined are likely to lead to a fine and one-game touchline ban, or even a stadium ban if the manager ’s previous disciplinary record is brought into consideration.

The confrontation occurred after the Manchester

United manager was riled up by a decision not to award his team a penalty when Matteo Darmian appeared to be fouled on the edge of the penalty area in Saturday’s 0-0 draw.

That result against Burnley means that Mourinho’s side have won just one of their last seven league games and lie eight points off the pace after his first ten matches in charge.

(Source: Eurosport)

Iran opened the fifth edition of the Beach

Soccer Intercontinental Cup with a victory over USA.

Team Melli defeated USA 6-2 in Dubai, the UAE.

Team Iran claimed the title in the third edition, defeating powerhouse

teams Brazil and Russia.Iran has been drawn in Group B

alongside defending champion Russia, USA and Egypt.

Group A consists of the UAE, 2014 champion Brazil, and Tahiti and Poland.

The Beach Soccer Intercontinental Cup is an international beach soccer tournament

which is currently being held in the city of Dubai in the United Arab Emirates.

The invitation-only tournament has been held annually starting in 2011. It will continue until at least 2017.

The competition bares many similarities to the FIFA Confederations Cup, however is not so strict on entry requirements.

Jose Mourinho charged with misconduct by FA over Mark Clattenburg incident

Iran defeats USA at Beach Soccer Intercontinental Cup

Manchester City boss Pep Guardiola says Barcelona forwards Lionel Messi and Neymar are “almost unplayable” but added that he has “an idea” for Tuesday’s Champions League clash.

City lost 4-0 as former Barca boss Guardiola returned to the Camp Nou last month, with Messi scoring a hat trick and Neymar adding the fourth late on after having missed a penalty.

Ahead of the Group C game at the Etihad Stadium, Guardiola told reporters: “The two wide players from Barcelona are almost unplayable.”

Guardiola had left out Sergio Aguero for the 4-0 loss in favour of an extra midfielder in an effort to stifle the Barca attack, but his plans were thwarted as City failed to take their chances in front of goal and also saw goalkeeper Claudio Bravo sent off for handling the ball outside the area.

Asked whether he had a plan for the return match, Guardiola said: “I have an idea, yeah.”

He gave little else away, although he later added: “Maybe we are going to change the way we press.”

In addition to Messi and Neymar, Luis Suarez also

represents a significant threat to the City defence and Guardiola said the Uruguayan has different “qualities” to Aguero, although he did not elaborate.

“The quality is Luis Suarez, I don’t want those qualities,” he said. “Aguero has his own qualities. I want to help Aguero to achieve his huge qualities as much as possible.

“Suarez has a quality I can’t ask of Sergio. What Suarez does I can’t ask Sergio because it would be unfair. I want to build up Sergio’s quality and also his mentality.”

(Source: ESPN)

Barca’s Lionel Messi, Neymar ‘almost unplayable’ - City boss Pep Guardiola

Iranian Siamand Rahman’s name went down in history during the

Rio 2016 Paralympic Games, as he became the first powerlifter to break the 300kg barrier.

His 310kg final lift was the equivalent of more than three baby elephants and secured his name as the world’s strongest Paralympian. He broke the world record three times that day, lifting 300kg, 305kg and finally the 310kg to add a total of 14kg onto his previous mark.

Here Rahman outlines his most memorable moments of Rio 2016.

Returning to the bench to attempt the world record…twice

“The first moment stuck in my memory thinking of Rio’s Paralympics is when I returned into the arena that day to raise the bar with 300 kilos. The second refers to when I lifted 310 weights which was an amazing moment in Rio, knowing the importance of it.”

“Hearing my parents’ voice on the phone after making history; also, the happiness generated within the Iranian people can be considered as one of the rarest moments I lived in Rio.”

Rahman’s top three moments from Rio 2016

Iran to play India in Asian U-19 qualifier opener

Iran will open the AFC U-19 Women’s

Championship qualifier with a match against India on Wednesday.

The Iranian team will participate in the competition with the aim to qualify to the Asian Football Confederation (AFC) U-19 Women’s Championship in 2017.

The competition will be held in China in August 2017.

The top four teams in the 2015 edition of the AFC U-19 Championship — champion Japan, North Korea, South Korea and China — received a direct qualification to the tournament leaving the 14 teams to battle it out in the qualifiers.

The winner from each group (total four teams) will qualify to the finals (eight teams in total).

The participating nations are:Group A: Australia, Jordan and

Northern Mariana IslandsGroup B: Uzbekistan, Chinese Taipei,

Hong Kong and TajikistanGroup C: Thailand, Myanmar, Palestine

and KyrgyzstanGroup D: Vietnam, Iran, Myanmar and

India

Sanandaj of Iran finished in fifth place in the first edition of the Asian Women’s Club League Handball Championship.

The Iranian team lost to ALK of Kazakhstan 29-19 in its last match and came fifth out of six teams.

Sanandaj had suffered defeat against Ile, Kaysar, Almaty from Kazakhstan in its

previous matches and beat Qatar’s Qatar.The competition was held in

Kyzylorda, Kazakhstan from October 26 to November 1.

Iran’s Samenolhojaj had also planned to partake in the competition but the participation was cancelled.

(Source: Tasnim)

Iran will take part at the 10th Asian Swimming Championship with four swimmers.

The swimming competition will be held in Tokyo from November 17 to 20.

Jamal Chavoshifar, Mehdi Ansari, Sina Gholampour and Beniamin

Ghare Hasanlu will travel to Japan to partake at the prestigious event.

Iran will participate in the competition after a four-year absence.

The team will be headed by Abbasali Keshtkar. He will be assisted by Farshad Karami.

(Source: Tasnim)

Four swimmers to represent Iran at Asian Championships

Sanandaj comes 5th at Asian Women’s Club League Handball

b

No. 18, Bimeh Lane, Nejatollahi St., Tehran, IranP.o. Box: 14155-4843

Zip Code: 1599814713

I N T E R N A T I O N A L D A I L Yh t t p : / / w w w . t e h r a n t i m e s . c o m / c u l t u r e

Intercessor, obeyed, prophet, gracious, Bountiful, majestic, affable, marked with the seal of God.

Sadi

Poem of the day

SINCE 1979Prayer Times

TEHRAN — Kambuzia Partovi, the writer of the screenplay for

“Muhammad, the Messenger of God”, said that the epic about the prophet of Islam (S) is not limited to a certain group of people or a certain geographical area.

Partovi made the remarks following the premiere of the movie in Turkish theaters.

“I worked on the characters in a way that would be acceptable for everybody,” he told the Persian service of ILNA on Tuesday.

He added that the producers of the film wanted it to have a widespread premiere and that everybody could understand it.

“Muhammad, the Messenger of God” was screened at Turkish theaters on October 28 while it had its world premiere during the 39th Montreal World Film Festival in May 2015.

“I wish I was there to see Turkish filmgoers’ responses to the movie,” said Partovi who previously watched the film along with Canadian audiences at the Montreal festival.

He said that the Canadian moviegoers warmly received the film.

“Muhammad, the Messenger of God” was the opening film at the Montreal festival and the organizers arranged two additional screenings by popular demand.

With a budget of over $50 million, the 171-minute movie is the most expensive film ever made in Iran in five years.

Iranian director Majid Majid had the collaboration of renowned international craftsmen and artists, including director of photography Vittorio Storaro, editor

Roberto Perpignani, special effects designer Scott E. Anderson, makeup designer Gianetto De Rossi and

Indian composer A. R. Rahman, in the production of the film, which premiered in Iran on August 27, 2015.

NEW YORK (Hollywood Reporter) —Dick Clark productions announced today that two-time Academy Award-winning actor Robert De Niro will be honored with the “Hollywood Comedy Award” for his film “The Comedian” at the 20th Annual “Hollywood Film Awards Presented by Virginia Black.

The awards ceremony, celebrating its 20th anniversary as the official launch of the awards season, will be hosted by actor and comedian James Corden, and will take place at the Beverly Hilton Hotel in Beverly Hills, on November 6, 2016, the academy has announced on its website.

The Hollywood Film Awards honors

some of the most acclaimed films and actors, as well as previews highly anticipated films and talent for the upcoming year. Additional artists are also honored in the categories of Cinematography, Visual Effects, Film Composing, Costume Design, Editing, Production Design, Sound and Makeup & Hairstyling. Its honorees over the past 20 years have included the world’s biggest stars and more than 110 have gone on to garner Oscar nominations and/or wins.

Past honorees of the “Hollywood Comedy Award” include Judd Apatow, Bradley Cooper, Zach Galifianakis, Amy Schumer and Ben Stiller.

In the film, “The Comedian”, De Niro plays an aging comic icon who develops a strong bond with the daughter of a sleazy real estate mogul. De Niro plays opposite Leslie Mann and Harvey Keitel in this dark comedy by Sony Pictures Classics.

Robert De Niro launched his prolific motion picture career in Brian De Palma’s “The Wedding Party” in 1969. In 1974, De Niro won the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor for his portrayal of the young Vito Corleone in “The Godfather, Part II”. In 1980, he won his second Oscar, as Best Actor, for his extraordinary portrayal of Jake La Motta in Scorsese’s

“Raging Bull”. De Niro has earned Academy Award

nominations for his work in five additional films: as Travis Bickle in Scorsese’s acclaimed “Taxi Driver”, as a Vietnam vet in Michael Cimino’s “The Deer Hunter”, as a catatonic patient brought to life in Penny Marshall’s “Awakenings”, in 1992 as Max Cady, an ex-con looking for revenge, in Scorsese’s remake of the 1962 classic “Cape Fear” and as a father to a bi-polar son in David O. Russell’s “Silver Linings Playbook.”

Additional honorees for the 20th Annual Hollywood Film Awards will be announced in the coming weeks.

TEHRAN — Tehran’s Shirin Gallery will be

hosting a charity exhibition of underglaze ceramic plates, which have been painted by a number of Iranian artists and cineastes, opening on Friday.

“The ceramic plates have been painted using the underglaze technique,” curator Azadeh Shuli said in a press conference held at the gallery on Tuesday.

Underglaze is a method of decorating pottery, in which the decoration is applied to the surface before it is glazed. Because the glaze will subsequently cover it, such decoration is completely durable, and it

also allows the production of pottery with a surface that has a uniform sheen.

“The exhibit is the first part of the project ‘1001 Underglaze Ceramic Plates’, in which 1001 artists will display their paintings in four different exhibits,” she added.

In the first phase of the project, 250 works by 250 artists are displaying their works.

“A box containing a ceramic plate and painting tools were given to each participant and they had 15 days to paint the plate based on their personal taste,” she explained.

Among the participants in the first

phase were sculptor Parviz Tanavoli, the late actor Davud Rashidi, animator Bahram Azimi, graphic designer Ebrahim Haqiqi, make-up designer Abdollah Eskandari and theatrical figure Marzieh Borumand.

The charity exhibit is due to raise funds for the Children’s’ Medical Center in Tehran.

“10 percent of the price of each artwork has been designated by the artist. The works will be on display until the end of the exhibit and they will go for the highest price offered by any individual or organization,” she remarked.

The exhibit will be running until November 16 at the gallery located at No. 5, 13th St., Karim Khan Ave.

Noon:11:48 Evening: 17:27 Dawn: 5:03 (tomorrow) Sunrise: 6:28 (tomorrow)

PICTURE OF THE DAY IRNA/Mehdi Jafari

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An orchestra conducted by Saeid Ardiani performs the symphonic poem “Instruments in Mourning” at Tehran’s Milad Tower on October 31, 2016 to commemorate the martyrdom of Imam Hussein (AS) and his loyal companions.

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A poster for “1001 Underglaze Ceramic Plates”

NOVEMBER 2, 2016

Tehran gallery to showcase underglaze ceramic plates featuring designs by artists, cineastes

“The Bodyguard” art book unveiled

1 Director of the House of Cinema

Manuchehr Shahsavari in his brief words said that knowledge is the base of cinema and it must be taken into consideration.

Director Hatamikia said that the publication of the book might seem to have been a project upon which too much money has been spent, but gaining the experience was a necessity.

Actress Zarei also called it a very interesting move and wished that every team effort could be recorded in such a book.

Filmmaker Fereydoun Jeyrani expressed his opinion on the publication of the book and said that no such book has been published; however, if there had not been a willing investor like Owj, the book would never have been published.

The ceremony concluded with the cineastes placing their signatures on the poster for the book.

Kambuzia Partovi in an undated photo (Tasnim/Hamed Malekpur)

“The Salesman” honored at Spanish festival

Director of “Until Ahmad Returns” crowned best at Polish festival

Iranian animations competing in Taiwanese festival

TEHRAN — Iranian director Asghar Farhadi’s acclaimed

drama “The Salesman” won the Young Jury Award of the 61st edition of the Valladolid International Film Festival (Seminci), which was held in the Spanish city from October 22 to 29.

“The Salesman”, which is Iran’s submission to the 89th Academy Awards in the best foreign-language film category, tells the story of a young couple who move into a new flat in the center of Tehran. An incident linked to the previous tenant dramatically changes their life.

“La Pazza Gioia”, a joint production of France and Italy directed by Paolo Virzi won the Golden Spike award, which is the main award of the festival, and the audience award.

TEHRAN — Iranian director Sadeq Sadeq-Daqiqi won the best

director award for his drama “Until Ahmad Returns” at the 7th International Historical and Military Film Festival, which was held in Warsaw, Poland from October 24 to 28, Iran’s Farabi Cinema Foundation announced on Tuesday.

The film is about a family living on the southern Iranian island of Khark, which begins to search for their son, Ahmad, after he is missing in action during a military operation during the Iran-Iraq war in 1986.

TEHRAN — Five Iranian short animations are competing in the

KuanDu International Animation Festival (KDIAF), which is currently underway in the Taiwanese capital of Taipei.

“Entr’acte” by Seyyed Mohammadreza Kheradmandan, “That’s Mine” by Maryam Kashkulinia and “Lima” by Afshin Roshanbakht and Vahid Jafari are scheduled to be screened at the festival, which will run through November 5.

“From the Eastern Lands” by Sara Tabibzadeh and “Red” by Ario Saffarzadegan will also go on screen.

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N E W S I N B R I E F Screenwriter says “Muhammad” not limited to certain geography

C U L T U R Ed e s k

Denmark to build new Hans Christian Andersen museumODENSE (Reuters) — A new museum dedicated to the life and work of Danish fairytale writer Hans Christian Andersen, author of The Ugly Duckling and The Little Mermaid, is to be built in his birthplace of Odense, local authorities said on Monday.

A donation of 125 million Danish crowns ($33 million) from the A. P. Moller Foundation, main owner of the shipping and oil group A. P. Moller-Maersk, will make the museum a reality after years in the planning, the city announced.

The Japanese architecture group Kengo Kuma & Associates presented a winning proposal that will create a new “magical” museum over a total area of 5,600 sq. m (60,300 sq. feet) - most of it underground, a statement said.

Officials said it would complement an existing museum in Odense, which charts Andersen’s personal life and travels, by focusing more on the magic of his fairytales.

It will provide “a unique possibility to create Andersen’s fairytale universe in a way that will appeal to both children and adults,” said a local cultural official, Jane Jegind.

Andersen’s fairytales have been translated into 160 languages.

Robert De Niro to be honored with Hollywood Comedy AwardWarner Bros.’ “The Flash” film loses director Rick FamuyiwaLOS ANGELES (AP) — The Warner Bros. and DC Comics film “The Flash” has hit a roadblock. Director Rick Famuyiwa on Monday said in a statement that he and the studio could not “come together creatively” on the project, which he’s been attached to since June.

Ezra Miller stars as the speedy superhero in the film, which is slated for a March 2018 release.

Famuyiwa, known for the indie “Dope”, appeared at Comic-Con earlier this year on behalf of the film alongside fellow DC directors Zack Snyder, Patty Jenkins, James Wan and Ben Affleck.

His departure is the latest bump on the road for Warner Bros.’ expanding DC universe, which has had a somewhat gloomy year with critically derided, but decently successful films like “Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice” and “Suicide Squad”.