Vienna, Jun 6 : Iran said it was in “preparatory works” to restart nuclear activities in the event of the failure of the 2015 accord between Iran and world powers.
In such a scenario, Iran could “restart its activities without any limits,” Iran’s ambassador to the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) Reza Najafi told reporters on the sidelines of a meeting of the IAEA’s board in Vienna.
The future of the deal — known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) — has been thrown into doubt after US President Donald Trump announced last month that the EU would withdraw from the accord and re-impose sanctions.
The preparatory works mentioned by Najafi refer to steps to boost uranium enrichment capacity by producing new centrifuges, as outlined on Tuesday by Vice President Ali Akbar Salehi, who heads the Iranian Atomic Energy Organisation.
Najafi said that in addition Iran had notified the IAEA of a plan to restart activity at its uranium conversion facility in Isfahan to produce the UF6 feedstock for centrifuges.
The IAEA confirmed on Tuesday that it had “received a letter from Iran on 4 June informing the Agency that there is a tentative schedule to start production of UF6”.
However, Najafi emphasised that the measures do “not mean that right now Iran will start any activities contrary to the JCPOA”.
The remaining signatories to the pact have been scrambling to find ways to preserve the accord since Trump’s announcement.
Last month a senior Iranian official said European powers had until the end of May to come up with an economic package to compensate Iran for the effects of the US withdrawal.
On Wednesday Najafi said that negotiations were still continuing at an expert level but that it could not be an “endless process” and needed to be concluded “very soon”.
Asked about the IAEA’s call for Iran to provide “timely and active cooperation” with the inspections mandated under the JCPOA, Najafi said that Iran had interpreted this as encouragement to extend voluntary invitations to the agency to conduct inspections.
However he said that “while Iran is not benefiting from the deal, no one should expect Iran to implement… voluntary measures”.
Mumbai, June 6 : The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) on Wednesday raised its key policy as the Repo rate by 25 bps to 6.25 per cent, in its second bi-monthly meeting of this fiscal.
The reverse repo rate under the LAF stands adjusted to 6.0 per cent, and the marginal standing facility rate and the Bank Rate to 6.50 per cent.
The six-member monetary policy committee of RBI headed by Governor Urjit Patel on Wednesday bit the bullet and hiked the repo the short-term lending rate by 25 basis points to 6.25 per cent.
This was the first rate hike by the Indian central bank in four-and-a-half years, since the BJP-led National Democratic Alliance government was voted into office in May 2014.
The central bank kept cash reserve ratio (CRR) and statutory liquidity ratio (SLR) unchanged at 4 per cent and 19.5 per cent
The MPC kept its policy stance to ‘neutral’. It was MPC’s second bimonthly policy review of this financial year
The Ethiopian government led by new premier Abiy Ahmed announced a slew of reforms on Tuesday, including ending its border dispute with Eritrea and opening key economic sectors, among them Ethiopian Airlines, to foreign investment.
Both steps represent major policy changes by Abiy, the first prime minister in modern Ethiopia from the country’s largest ethnicity the Oromo who took office in April after years of anti-government protests and political turmoil.
A former province, Eritrea became Ethiopia’s bitter foe after a 1998-2000 border conflict followed by Ethiopia’s refusal to accept the ruling of a UN-backed boundary commission that divided up contested territory between the two countries.
In a surprise announcement that came on the same day as parliament’s repeal of a nationwide state of emergency, the ruling Ethiopian People’s Revolutionary Democratic Front (EPRDF) said it would “fully implement” the boundary commission’s 2002 decision.
“The Eritrean government should take the same stand without any prerequisite and accept our call to bring back the long-lost peace of the two brother nations as it was before,” the EPRDF wrote on Facebook.
Since the formal end of the border conflict, Ethiopia and Eritrea have taken starkly different paths, with Eritrea growing increasingly isolated while Ethiopia has exerted power across the region, fuelled by an economy that has expanded at one of the fastest rates in Africa.
But a shortage of foreign currency is seen as threatening that economic growth, which dropped to 8.5 percent this year from 10.9 percent in 2017, according to the International Monetary Fund.
Looking to increase the players in the economy, the ruling party said it would sell minority stakes in Ethiopian Airlines and the sole telecom company Ethio Telecom to foreign investors — a reversal of years of policy that closed those sectors to outsiders.
The move would “enable Ethiopia-born citizens living abroad who’ve long wished to work on the development of their country, and… foreigners who have the knowledge and foreign currency, to play a positive role in our growth,” said the statement issued after a meeting of top EPRDF officials.
Colombo, Jun 6: Sri Lankan Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe’s UNP won the secret ballot in parliament today for the deputy speaker’s position left vacant by the resignation of Thilanga Sumathipala, a loyalist of President Maithripala Sirisena.
UNP nominee Ananda Kumarasiri was elected deputy speaker with 97 for and 53 against in the 225-member assembly while 25 members were absent from the house. Kumarasiri’s defeated rival Sudarshani Fernandopulle is another Sirisena loyalist.
Sumathipala and 15 other Sirisena loyalists had walked out of the government in April after they voted against Wickremesinghe in a no-trust vote.
“We have gone on the basis that two for the government and one for the opposition in parliamentary positions. We want to retain that position,” Wickremesinghe said referring to an argument by R Sampanthan, the main opposition leader, that Sirisena loyalists should be appointed for the vacancy by consensus.
The group of 16 Sirisena loyalists now align with former president Mahinda Rajapaksa’s joint opposition. However all three Rajapaksas – Mahinda, brother Chamal and son Namal – were not present in the house when the secret vote was taken.
The parliamentary competition between Sirisena loyalists and the president’s unity government partner UNP followed last week’s anti-UNP outburst from Sirisena who blamed the UNP for bungling in governance.
The ruling party however has chosen not to respond to the president’s public criticism.
Jerusalem, Jun 6: Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said that the Iranian plan to increase its nuclear enrichment capacity was aimed at producing nuclear weapons to be used against Israel.
“Two days ago Ayatollah Khamenei, Iran’s supreme leader, stated his intention to destroy the State of Israel,” Netanyahu said in a video. “Yesterday he explained how he would do it — by unlimited enrichment of uranium to create an arsenal of nuclear bombs”.
“Yesterday he explained how he would do it — by unlimited enrichment of uranium to create an arsenal of nuclear bombs.” “We’re not surprised,” Netanyahu said in the video from Paris, where he was to meet French President Emmanuel Macron.
“We won’t let Iran obtain nuclear weapons,” he said.
Iran yesterday notified the International Atomic Energy Agency of its plan to open a centre for the production of new centrifuges to be used for uranium enrichment, according to the head of the Iranian Atomic Energy Organisation, Ali Akbar Salehi.
Salehi stressed the announcement did not mean they will start assembling the centrifuges, and “does not violate the (2015 nuclear) agreement” between Tehran and world powers.
Under the 2015 agreement, Iran can build parts for the centrifuges as long as it does not put them into operation within the first decade.
On Sunday, Iran’s supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei called Israel a “malignant cancerous tumour” that should be removed.
Netanyahu was visiting European leaders to discuss Iran’s regional involvement and nuclear programme, both seen by the Jewish state as grave threats.
European powers have been scrambling to preserve the 2015 nuclear deal since US President Donald Trump announced Washington’s withdrawal from the treaty last month.
New Delhi, June 6: Misplaced sympathy for the accused is harmful for the criminal justice system, a Delhi court has said while refusing to set aside the three-year jail term awarded to a man for illegally possessing a pistol.
Special Judge Rakesh Kumar upheld the sentence awarded to convict Anil Kumar, a south Delhi resident, by a magisterial court in 2016 under the Arms Act.
“The sentence must take into account the gravity of the offence and its nature, otherwise it can seriously undermine the respect of court of law. Misplaced sympathy for accused is harmful for criminal justice system,” the judge said.
The judge, while rejecting the convict’s appeal against the trial court order, held that he was rightly convicted and the sentence awarded to him was also not excessive.
“The appeal is without merit and accordingly the same is dismissed,” the court said.
According to the prosecution, the police received a tip off that a gang of snatchers was scheduled to arrive at a market near Saket on September 29, 2013.
A raiding team of police officers was formed and they nabbed two persons, including Kumar and recovered a country-made pistol from him, it said.
He was arrested under section 25 (illegal possession of arms and ammunition) of the Arms Act and charge sheet was filed. The court framed charge against him in 2014.
In its August 2016 judgement, the magisterial court convicted him and sentenced him to three years imprisonment and imposed a fine of Rs 25,000.
Challenging this order, the convict contended that the weapon recovered from him was planted by the police to falsely implicate him.
He further claimed that there was no independent prosecution witness in the trial.
However, the court rejected this contention saying non examination of independent witnesses was not fatal to the case and testimonies of police officials cannot be disregarded altogether in the absence of such witnesses.
Aizawl, Jun 5 : Ten people were killed and another injured when a building was swept away by a landslide triggered by heavy rains in the Lunglawn area of south Mizoram’s Lunglei town, police said today.
It was raining heavily last night in the Lunglawn area when the landslide hit the building killing 10 people, they said.
The Lunglei District Disaster Response Team and local volunteers rushed to the spot to rescue people, police said.
Rescue workers pulled more bodies Monday from under the dust and rubble left by an explosive eruption of Guatemala’s Fuego volcano, bringing the death toll to at least 69.
Of them, 17 have been identified so far, said Fanuel Garcia, head of the National Institute of Forensic Sciences.
In addition, there are 46 people injured, most of them seriously, more than 1.7 million being hit by the disaster, including 3,271 ordered evacuated and 1,787 in shelters in the departments of Escuintla, Sacatepequez and Chimaltenango since Sunday’s eruption.
The 3,763-meter (12,346-foot) volcano erupted early Sunday, spewing out towering plumes of ash and a hail of fiery rock fragments with scalding mud.
Authorities had warned the death toll could rise after searches resumed for survivors in communities on the mountain’s southern flank.
After an initial toll of 25 dead, it was revised upwards within hours as bodies were recovered from villages razed by the tumbling mud.
“There are missing persons, but we do not know how many,” said Sergio Cabanas of Guatemala’s disaster management agency. A roll call of communities on the slopes of the volcano was under way.
The speed and ferocity of the eruption took mountain communities by surprise, with many of the dead found in or around their homes.
A woman with an aggressive form of breast cancer which defied chemotherapy and spread to other organs, was cured with an experimental treatment that triggered her immune system, researchers said Monday.
The woman has been cancer-free for two years, reported the US-based team, presenting their results as “a new immunotherapy approach” for the treatment of patients with a late-stage form of the disease.
Other experts not involved in the work hailed it as “exciting”.
So-called “immunotherapy” has already been shown to work in some people with cancer of the lung, cervix, blood cells (leukaemia), skin (melanoma) and bladder.
But an immune breakthrough for bowel, breast and ovary cancer has remained elusive.
In the latest study, a team extracted immune cells called lymphocytes from the patient, tweaked them in the lab, then reinjected them.
The woman was 49 when she signed up for the clinical trial after several attempts at a cure through conventional treatments had failed, said the study published in the scientific journal Nature Medicine.
The cancer had spread to various parts of her body, including the liver.
A person’s immune system is designed to kill invaders, including rogue, cancerous cells. But it can fail, often because it cannot recognise cancer cells containing the patient’s own DNA.
Immunotherapy trains a patient’s own immune cells to recognise and fight cancer.
For the new study, researchers took lymphocytes from a tumour in the woman’s body and scanned them for specific types which reacted to mutant, cancerous cells.
Kolkata, Jun 5 : Regular physical activity is proven to help prevent and treat
noncommunicable diseases (NCDs) such as heart disease, stroke, diabetes and
breast and colon cancer.
It also helps prevent hypertension, overweight and obesity and can improve
mental health, quality of life and well-being. Yet, much of the world is becoming
less active.
Physical activity is defined as any bodily movement produced by skeletal
muscles that requires energy expenditure. Regular moderate intensity physical
activity – such as walking, cycling, or participating in sports – has significant
benefits for health.
NCDs are responsible for 71 per cent of all deaths globally, including for the
deaths of 15 million people per year aged 30 to 70.
WHO has developed a new global action plan to help countries scale up policy
actions to promote physical activity. It responds to the requests by countries for
updated guidance, and a framework of effective and feasible policy actions to
increase physical activity at all levels.
Many of Member States have already started activities to promote physical
activity in their workplace and other areas, as well as taking “healthy breaks”
during the meetings.
The plan sets out four objectives and recommends 20 policy actions that are
applicable to all countries and address the cultural, environmental and individual
determinants of inactivity.
A key feature of this new plan is its call for a ‘’systems-based’’ approach where
effective implementation will require bold leadership combined with
cross-government and multisectoral partnerships at all levels to achieve a
coordinated, whole-of-system response.
Working in partnerships, WHO will support countries to implement a
whole-of-community approach to increase levels of physical activity in people
of all ages and abilities. Global, regional and national coordination and capacity
will be strengthened to respond to needs for technical support, innovation and
guidance.
WHO Director-General Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus on Monday joining
Prime Minister António Costa of Portugal to launch the new “WHO Global action
plan on physical activity and health 2018-2030: More active people for a healthier
world.”
“Being active is critical for health. But in our modern world, this is becoming
more and more of a challenge, largely because our cities and communities aren’t
designed in the right ways,” said Dr Tedros. “We need leaders at all levels to help
people to take the healthier step. This works best at city level, where most
responsibility lies for creating healthier spaces.”
Worldwide, one in five adults, and four out of five adolescents (11-17 years), do
not do enough physical activity. Girls, women, older adults, poorer people, people
with disabilities and chronic diseases, marginalized populations, and indigenous
people have fewer opportunities to be active.
Pretoria, June 5: India on Monday called for consolidation of intra-BRICS cooperation to ensure global growth in a world drifting towards uncertainty, with international trade and multilateralism facing strong headwinds.
“Our meeting today takes place at a time when multilateralism, international trade, and rules-based world order face strong headwinds. Though, the global growth has exhibited signs of recovery, the challenges to long-term growth continue to persist. Ensuring that the benefits of globalization are shared widely remains a challenge,” External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj said, addressing the BRICS (Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa) Foreign Ministers’ meeting.
In less than two months from now the leaders of BRICS nations will meet in Johannesburg for the 10th BRICS Summit. The deliberations, therefore, are significant in preparing the groundwork for a successful Johannesburg BRICS Summit and “will contribute towards enriching intra-BRICS cooperation further,” she said.
The New Development Bank and the Contingent Reserve Arrangements are flagship BRICS initiatives, Swaraj said, adding their functioning be consolidated further and their outcomes optimised.
With BRICS representing some 40 per cent of the world’s population and almost 30 per cent of global Gross Domestic Product, there is enormous potential for the bloc to be an economic force.
“India attaches importance to the role of BRICS in consolidating intra-BRICS cooperation and in international affairs,” Swaraj said.
She also called for collective action by BRICS nations against money laundering, terrorist-financing and radicalisation.
“PM Modi had given a call for a BRICS Counter-Terrorism Strategy for joint-action with a focus on money laundering, terrorist-finance, cyber-space and de-radicalization as our priorities. Our leaders have also called for making UN Counter Terrorism framework efficient and effective. We reiterate our commitment to implement our Leaders’ mandate on counter terrorism under South Africa’s BRICS Chairship.”
She said coperation in strategic areas of security, counter-terrorism, UN reforms, peacekeeping, de-radicalisation, cyber security, energy security, global governance, and international and regional hot-spot issues are deliberated in detail during our NSA’s meetings.
“It is imperative now that the common ground reached in our NSAs meeting on setting up a BRICS Security Forum is implemented fully.”
The minister also voiced support for South Africa for tabling the proposals on tourism, medicines, governance, and science-park network.
“Yoga and Ayurveda system of India’s traditional medicines will make BRICS tourism endeavours even more attractive.”
Earlier, Swaraj had an “excellent” bilateral with South African President Cyril Ramaphosa and discussed “ways to make further progress in areas of bilateral and multilateral cooperation.”
India and South Africa are commemorating the 25th anniversary of diplomatic relations, 100th birth anniversary of the iconic leader Nelson Mandela and the 125th anniversary of the Pietermaritzburg incident of Mahatma Gandhi.
In 1893, Gandhi was thrown out of a train compartment in Pietermaritzburg railway station. The incident proved to be a turning point in his fight against racial discrimination in South Africa.
Swaraj will attend a series of events marking the 125th anniversary of the historic incident.
Amman, Jun 4 : Jordanian Prime Minister Hani Mulki resigned today after he was summoned by King Abdullah II over growing protests against his government’s austerity measures, a government source said.
“Prime Minister Hani Mulki submitted his resignation to the king this afternoon during a meeting at the Husseiniyeh Palace and the king accepted the resignation,” the source told AFP.
The king asked Education Minister Omar al-Razzaz to form a new government, the source added.
Demonstrations have rocked the capital Amman and several other cities since Wednesday after the government adopted a draft income tax law and announced new price hikes based on recommendations by the International Monetary Fund.
Protesters had called on Mulki to step down, vowing not to “kneel” and earning support from trade unions as well as a majority of MPs opposed to the new taxation.
The premier’s meeting with the king came hours after around 5,000 people rallied outside Mulki’s office in Amman, on the fifth consecutive day of protests in Amman and other cities.
Jordan, a mostly desert kingdom with few resources, has seen prices of several basic goods and services like bread, fuel and electricity steadily rise over the past year.
Last month the government adopted a draft income tax law, yet to be approved by parliament, aimed at increasing taxes on employees by at least five percent and on companies by between 20 and 40 percent.
And last week it announced a new price hike for electricity and fuel, before revoking it under orders from the king following protests.
They were the latest measures in a series of economic reforms since Amman secured a 723-million three-year credit line from the IMF in 2016.
The loan, intended to support economic and financial reforms, has the long-term objective of reducing Jordan’s public debt from about 94 percent of GDP to 77 percent by 2021.
Paris, Jun 4 : The United Nations has released its first ever guidelines on fighting anti-Semitism in education.
UNESCO, the UN’s cultural body, launched the publication on Monday in Paris in collaboration with the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe, the OSCE.
The guide, aimed to be used by young people, the teaching world, as well as political leaders, was presented by Audrey Azoulay, UNESCO’s first Jewish director general.
UNESCO said the guide provides tools to strengthen the resilience of young people to anti-Semitic ideas and violent extremism, such as how to respond to anti-Semitic acts and words in school settings.
It also familiarizes educators with anti-Semitic stereotypes and conspiracy theories as well as developing media skills to help students resist manipulation.
Chennai, June 4 : Asserting that all approvals given to the Sterlite Copper Smelter Plant in Tuticorin were cancelled, Tamil Nadu Chief Minister Edappadi K Palaniswami on Monday categorically said the plant was shut permanently and no one could reopen it.
When leader of the Opposition and DMK Working President M K Stalin raised the issue during Zero Hour and demanded a resolution in the State Assembly seeking permanent closure of the plant and hiking the solatium to police firing victims on Anti-sterlite protestors to Rs one crore, the Chief Minister asserted that the plant could never b y re-opened.
‘All the approvals given to it were cancelled and the plant has been permanently closed and sealed…it cannot be re-opened’, Mr Palaniswami said.
He also listed out the steps taken by the government on the issue and said the GO, ordering closure of the plant, was issued after detailed consultations with legal expert and it would stand legal scrutiny.
‘Only if the Tamil Nadu government issued any order contrary to the directions issued by the Central Pollution Board (CPCB) under Sec 18 (1) (B) of Water (prevention and control of pollution) Act of 1974, then the GO will not stand legally’, he added.
‘But as on date, the CPCB has not passed any directions on the Sterlite issue. Hence the GO issued by the Tamil Nadu government for permanently closing down the Sterlite plant will stand legal scrutiny’, he said. Noting that all the approvals given to the plant were cancelled, Mr Palaniswami said power supply
to the Sterlite plant was cut, the boiler licence has been cancelled and the land allocated for expansion was also cancelled.