Antananarivo, Jun 4 : Madagascar’s prime minister announced his resignation today in the first step towards the naming of a “consensus” premier to resolve a political crisis sparked by controversial electoral reforms.
Madagascar has been rocked by violent protests since April 21 that initially sought to oppose the new laws the opposition said were crafted to bar their candidates from participating in elections planned for later this year.
The Constitutional Court has ordered President Rajaonarimampianina to form a government of national unity with a “consensus prime minister” to avert a full-blown crisis. For that to happen, the current government was required to resign and the president was ordered to name a new prime minister by June 12.
“I will tender my resignation to the president today. As a statesman, I cannot be an obstacle to the life of the nation,” Olivier Mahafaly Solonandrasana told a press briefing.
“I resign willingly and with happiness. I have no regrets today and I can leave with my head held high.” “I will leave this magnificent palace, (but) I tell you this is not ‘goodbye’,” he added without giving details of his future plans.
No successor to Solonandrasana has yet been named.
New York, Jun 4: Poor security situation, grinding poverty, discrimination against girls and continuing conflict in Afghanistan have led to a surge in the number of out-of-school children for the first time since 2002, according to a report by the United Nation’s Children’s Emergency Fund (UNICEF).
The report found that some 3.7 million children, that represents almost half of all children between 7 and 17 years of age were missing out on school, with girls accounting for 60 per cent of that number, reflecting the frequent gender-based discrimination in the country.
In some provinces, including Kandahar, Helmand, Wardak, Paktika, Zabul and Uruzgan, the figure for out-of-school girls rose to as high as 85 per cent.
Mumbai, Jun 4: Air India has asked the government to “restore” equity infusion in the carrier, after it failed to find any takers for its disinvestment.
The loss-making carrier has already received more than Rs 26,000 crore under the bailout package announced by the former UPA government in April 2012.
“We have sought restoration of the equity infusion in Air India and have written to the government last week in this regard,” a senior airline official said.
The official, however, did not disclose the amount of the funds the airline was looking at.
The UPA government had approved a turnaround plan under which Air India is to receive a total equity infusion worth Rs 30,231 crore up to 2021, subject to meeting certain performance thresholds.
Amid fund crunch, during which Air India also had to defer its staff salaries, the airline borrowed Rs 6,250 crore from various banks between September last year and January this year for working capital requirements and other needs.
The carrier, which has a debt burden of about Rs 50,000 crore till March last year, had been receiving about Rs 3,000-4,000 crore equity infusion on an average per fiscal from the government till FY14. However, after that the amount was gradually reduced.
For 2018-19, the airline has been allocated Rs 650 crore in view of its now failed disinvestment plan.
The government had proposed to offload 76 per cent equity share capital of the national carrier as well as transfer the management control to private players, besides complete sale of its low-cost arm Air India Express and its entire stake in 50:50 joint venture AI-SATS.
Sfax (Tunisia), Jun 4 : More than 50 migrants drowned in the Mediterranean, the majority off the coasts of Tunisia and Turkey, while Italy marked a sea change in its policy.
Tunisian authorities said 48 bodies were recovered off the country’s southern coast yesterday, close to the city of Sfax, while 68 people were rescued.
“The boat had a maximum capacity of 75 to 90 people, but there were more than 180 of us,” said Wael Ferjani, a Tunisian survivor from the southern region of Gabes.
While water leaked into the boat, some passengers jumped into the sea and drowned, he told AFP.
The latest death toll was published around 7:00 pm (1800 GMT), after the search and rescue operation had ended for the day.
The hunt for survivors would continue on Monday morning, Mohammed Salah Sagaama from Sfax’s naval base told AFP.
Tunisians and migrants regularly try to cross the Mediterranean to seek a better future in Europe, with 120 mainly Tunisians rescued by their navy in March after trying to reach Italy.
In October, a collision between a migrant boat and a Tunisian military ship left at least 44 dead, in what Prime Minister Youssef Chahed called a “national disaster”.
The latest shipwreck is the most deadly in the Mediterranean since February 2 when 90 people drowned off the coast of Libya, according to the IOM.
Across the Mediterranean, nine Syrians including seven children drowned when their vessel sank off the coast of Turkey.
The group were travelling in a speedboat intending to head illegally to Europe, when the boat hit trouble off the coast of the southern Antalya province, state media reports said.
The oldest child to drown was 14 and the youngest just three, according to the Anadolu news agency.
Six adults were reportedly rescued including a couple who lost five of their children in the disaster.
Turkey was the main sea route for migrants to Europe in 2015, when more than a million people crossed to Greece.
That year 3,771 people were recorded as dead or missing in the Mediterranean by the United Nations refugee agency.
So far this year, 32,601 migrants and refugees have survived the sea crossing and 649 have been recorded as dead or missing.
A deal struck with the EU in 2016 has drastically reduced the amount of people trying to make the sea crossing, although observers say the numbers have been ticking up again in recent months.
The focal point for Mediterranean migration in recent years has been Italy, where more than 700,000 migrants have arrived since 2013.
Yesterday the country’s new hardline interior minister, Matteo Salvini, headed to Sicily, one of the main landing points for those rescued at sea, to push his anti-immigration agenda.
His predecessor signed a controversial deal with authorities and militias in Libya — the key departure point on the route to Italy — which has driven down overall arrival numbers by 75 per cent since last summer.
But Salvini has pledged to go further still, vowing to cut the number of arrivals and speed up deportations.
“The good times for illegals is over — get ready to pack your bags,” he said on Saturday at a rally in Italy’s north.
The latest arrivals, some 158 people, were rescued by a humanitarian boat and reached southern Sicily on Friday.
Meanwhile Spanish maritime rescue units said Sunday they have picked up 240 migrants since the start of the weekend, with one person reported drowned.
Migration will be high on the agenda Tuesday when EU interior ministers meet in Luxembourg and discuss the bloc’s contested Dublin rule, under which would-be refugees must file for asylum in the first member country they enter.
Many of those landing on the Mediterranean coast see their arrival point as a pathway to their final destination, but the Dublin rule and tightening border checks have meant migrants are increasingly stuck in southern Europe.
New Delhi, Jun 3: Hours after the Congress delegation on Sunday, met the Election Commission and demanded an enquiry into the allegations of approximately 60 lakh fake voters registered in Madhya Pradesh, the poll body deputed two teams to probe the accusations.
The team has been asked to submit their final report by June 7, the Commission said in an official release.
One team for Bhopal will probe the alleged irregularities in the Assembly constituencies of Narela and Bhojpur, while the second team for Narmadapuram will hold enquiry in Hoshangabad and Seoni-Malwa constituencies.
The Commission has asked teams to reach the respective constituencies by June 4.
Earlier in the day, a delegation of Congress leaders led by Madhya Pradesh PCC chief Kamal Nath and senior leader and MP Jyotiraditya Scindia met Election Commission and handed over the complaints along with what they called ‘proof of irregularities’.
New Delhi, June 3 : A Congress delegation from Madhya Pradesh on Sunday approached the Election Commission to point out the gross irregularities in the state voters list and demanded that the list be re-examined.
Expecting a high voltage fight between the ruling BJP and the Congress in the upcoming assembly elections in Madhya Pradesh, which will be held this year, the delegation said that it handed over proof of approximately 60 lakh fake voters registered in the voters list.
Addressing mediapersons after the meeting with the Election Commission, Madhya Pradesh Congress chief Kamal Nath, senior leader and MP Jyotiraditya Scindia said that the BJP is murdering democracy in the state and that the state government is indulging in such irregularities for for its own benefit.
“We have provided evidence to the Election Commission that there are approximately 60 Lakh fake voters registered in the voting list. These names have been deliberately registered in the list. This is not a systematic error but misuse of the power”, said Kamal Nath.
In the letter handed over to the Chief Election Commissioner, the Congress leaders requested the Commission to re-examine the voters list.
It also demanded to prepare a new voters list and take action against officials responsible if mistakes are found the list again and guilty officials by debarring them from participating in the electoral process for next 6-10 years.
“This has been done by the BJP. How is it possible that population increased by 24 percent in 10 years but number of voters increased by 40 percent? We scrutinised the list of all constituencies. One voter is registered in 26 lists. There are similar cases in other places too”, said Mr Scindia.
He also said the Congress has demanded the scrutiny of voters lists of state that share border with Madhya Pradesh.
New Delhi, June 3 : Due to lack of sanitation and water-borne diseases, 73 million working days are lost each year, Secretary in the Ministry of Drinking Water and Sanitation Parameswaran Iyer said here today.
Addressing a session on ‘Corporate Sustainability and the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)’ in the run up to World Environment Day, organised by the Ministry of Environment, Forests and Climate Change and FICCI, he highlighted the importance of water and sanitation.
Iyer said, “Seventy-three million working days are lost each year due to lack of sanitation and water-borne diseases. Swachh Bharat Mission goal of achieving Open Defecation Free (ODF) India by October 2019 is on track as 13 States and three Union Territories had already achieved ODF status.”
He also said that corporates can adopt villages and wards near their facilities and help them become ODF, improve solid and liquid resource management and last-mile drinking water infrastructure.
Also, corporate entities can assist the local administration in sustaining ODF, organise and sponsor training for collective behaviour change, train workers and staff to be agents of sanitation and water stewardship in the community, sponsor the creation of infrastructure for water conservation and groundwater recharge, solid and liquid resource management, maintenance of institutional and community toilets in the neighbourhood, he said.
On the occasion, Helena Molin Valdes, the head of the Secretariat, Climate and Clean Air Coalition, UNEP, underlined the need to understand the impact of corporate sustainability on business models, align corporate sustainability efforts with SDGs and apply analytical tools to access financing.
FICCI secretary general Dilip Chenoy emphasised on corporate sustainability said it had become imperative today due to its importance in the context of SDGs, environmental concerns and threats that are increasingly becoming a risk to the business community and the need to embed sustainability in corporate goals and strategies to build business resilience.
Singapore, Jun 3 : North Korea will not get any sanctions relief until it has demonstrated “irreversible” steps to denuclearisation, US Defence Secretary Jim Mattis said today.
Speaking at a security conference in Singapore ahead of a planned summit between President Donald Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, Mattis said it is vital that the international community keeps UN Security Council sanctions in place for now.
“North Korea will receive relief only when it demonstrates verifiable and irreversible steps to denuclearisation,” Mattis said during public remarks at a meeting with the South Korean and Japanese defence ministers.
“In this moment we are steadfastly committed to strengthening even further our defence cooperation as the best means to preserving the peace.”
South Korean Defence Minister Song Young-moo said that given recent developments in North Korea, “one can be cautiously optimistic as we go forward”.
Mattis has tended to stay away from commenting publicly on the upcoming summit, which Trump has confirmed will take place in Singapore on June 12, and instead deferred to the State Department.
The key task ahead of the summit is to settle the agenda. The main stumbling block is likely to be the concept of “denuclearisation” — both sides say they are in favour of it, but there is a yawning gap between their definitions.
Washington wants North Korea to quickly give up all its nuclear weapons in a verifiable way in return for sanctions and economic relief.
But analysts say North Korea will be unwilling to cede its nuclear deterrent unless it is given security guarantees that the US will not try to topple the regime.
Dhaka, Jun 3: Myanmar’s National Security Adviser Thaung Tun said on Saturday his country will take back all 700,000 Rohingya Muslim refugees who have fled to Bangladesh if they volunteer to return.
He was speaking at the Shangri-La Dialogue, a regional security conference in Singapore, where he was asked if the situation in Myanmar’s Rakhine state, where most Rohingya live, could trigger use of the Responsibility to Protect framework of the United Nations.
The so-called R2P framework was adopted at the 2005 UN World Summit in which nations agreed to protect their own populations from genocide, war crimes, ethnic cleansing and crimes against humanity and accepted a collective responsibility to encourage and help each other uphold this commitment.
“If you can send back 700,000 on a voluntary basis, we are willing to receive them,” Thaung Tun said. “Can this be called ethnic cleansing?
“There is no war going on, so it’s not war crimes. Crimes against humanity, that could be a consideration, but we need clear evidence. These serious charges should be proved and they should not be bandied about lightly.”
Since August 2017, about 700,000 Rohingya Muslims have fled a military crackdown in mainly Buddhist Myanmar, many reporting killings, rape and arson on a large scale, UN and other aid organizations have said.
The United Nations and aid agencies have described the crackdown on the Rohingya as “a textbook example of ethnic cleansing”, an accusation Myanmar rejects.
Myanmar and Bangladesh agreed in January to complete the voluntary repatriation of the refugees within two years.
Myanmar signed an agreement with the United Nations on Thursday aimed at eventually allowing the Rohingya sheltering in Bangladesh to return safely and by choice.
It also said it would set up an independent commission to investigate “the violation of human rights and related issues” in Rakhine State following the army operation there in response to attacks by Rohingya insurgents on security posts.
Thaung Tun said that the narrative of what happened in Rakhine was “incomplete and misleading”. “Myanmar does not deny that what is unfolding in northern Rakhine is a humanitarian crisis,” he said. “There is no denying that the Muslim community in Rakhine has suffered. The Buddhist Rakhine, Hindu and other ethnic minorities have suffered no less.”
He said that while the military had the right to defend the country, if investigations showed they had acted illegally, action would be taken.
Chandigarh, Jun 3: Vegetable prices at various cities in Punjab, Haryana started soaring in the wake of the dwindling fresh supplies of farm produce in mandis even as the farmers dumped vegetables, milk on roads and blocked supplies to cities.
As part of the 10-day agitation , the farmers stopped supply of vegetables, fruits, milk and other items to various cities against the alleged anti-farmer policies of the Centre.
Though the impact of farmers’ stir on price of farm commodities was not visible yesterday, the retail prices of vegetables in several cities soared in the range of Rs 10-20 per kg on the second day today, forcing consumers in cities to shell out more for buying vegetables.
According to traders in Chandigarh, the price of tomatoes soared to Rs 20-25 per kg against Rs 10-15 per kg prevailing two days back. Similarly, retail prices of potatoes, capsicum, bottle gourd, cucumber, have also gone up on short supplies.
Traders said the fresh supplies of vegetables coming through vehicles in mandis have dwindled, triggering fears of more price rise in coming days.
The farmers continued to hold protest at several places in Punjab, including Nabha, Ludhiana, Muktsar, Tarn Taran, Nangal and Ferozepur and there were reports that farmers even put up blockades not to allow supply of vegetables and milk entering cities.
According to a report from Ferozepur, the farmers allegedly forced the closure of vegetable mandi.
In Bathinda, a group of farmers, owing allegiance to the Bhartiya Kisan Union (Sidhupur), stopped some milk sellers from going to the city in the morning at village Jodhpur Romana which resulted into heated arguments among them.
Milk sellers were requesting the protesting farmers to allow them to sell their milk but they refused, said police.
Then, four farmers were taken into preventive custody, said Bathinda police station Sadar SHO Iqbal Singh. The farmers even staged sit-in outside police station demanding release of their fellow farmers.
In Mohali, a group of farmers parked their cars outside the entry gate of Verka milk plant as part of their protest. They were demanding that Verka milk plant should not procure milk from farmers. Verka is a brand of cooperative federation Milkfed Punjab.
The decision to stop supplies starting from June 1 till June 10 was taken by farmers under the banner of Kisan Ekta Manch and Rashtriya Kisan Maha Sangh.
The farmer organisations have been demanding minimum income guarantee scheme, implementation of the Swaminathan Commission report and waiver of farmers’ debt.
London, Jun 2 : “Harry Potter” creator JK Rowling has revealed that she is currently writing the screenplay for the third film in the “Fantastic Beasts and Where To Find Them” series.
The 52-year-old author took to her official blog to share the news.
“I’ve just finished the fourth Galbraith novel, ‘Lethal White’, and I’m now writing the screenplay for ‘Fantastic Beasts 3’,” Rowling wrote.
The third installment is yet to be titled.
The second part, “Fantastic Beasts: The Crimes of Grindelwald”, will release on November 16 this year.
Rowling further teased her writing plans, saying she will pen another children’s book – which will be a departure from the Harry Potter universe.
“After that I’ll be writing another book for children. I’ve been playing with the (non-Harry Potter/wizarding world) story for about six years, so it’s about time I get it down on paper,” she wrote.
Beijing, Jun 2 : US Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross arrived in Beijing today for talks aiming to ease tensions over tariffs that have heightened fears of a trade war between the world’s two biggest economies, Chinese state media said.
Despite announcing a truce earlier this month, the United States is working to finalise planned sanctions on Beijing — including restrictions on Chinese investment, export controls and 25 percent tariffs on USD 50 billion in Chinese tech goods.
China has threatened to hit back with tit-for-tat tariffs on tens of billions of dollars in US goods.
Ross will stay in the Chinese capital until Sunday, a US government official told AFP.
His visit comes as fears of an all-out global trade war intensified after the European Union,
Canada and Mexico drew up retaliatory measures to Washington’s stinging steel and aluminium tariffs that came into effect yesterday.
US President Donald Trump first announced trade sanctions on China, largely focused on the Asian giant’s theft of US intellectual property, in March.
Beijing on Wednesday lambasted “sudden flip-flops” in US policy after the Trump administration said it would still move to impose the sanctions against it — just over a week after announcing a truce.
But as Ross arrived, China appeared to soften its position.
“China’s door for negotiation remains open,” said foreign ministry spokeswoman Hua Chunying on Friday.
The US and China “should adopt a sincere attitude and follow the spirit of equality and mutual respect to seek a win-win solution through dialogue and consultation”, she added.
The final list of Chinese imports covered by the US tariffs list will be announced June 15 and imposed shortly thereafter, while the proposed investment restrictions and enhanced export controls will be announced by June 30, according to the White House.
Trump has accused China of forcing American firms to hand over their industrial secrets to Chinese companies in order to do business in the country, a charge that Beijing has rejected.
The US leader has also threatened to impose tariffs on an additional 100 billion in Chinese goods if Beijing retaliates.
Chennai, Jun 2 : Welcoming the constitution of a Cauvery Water Management Authority (CMA) by the Centre, the Tamil Nadu government has hailed it as a “grand victory for the “Amma (Jayalalithaa) government” and the state’s farmers.
Chief Minister K Palaniswami expressed joy and recalled the various efforts of the ruling AIADMK on the Cauvery dispute, including the late party supremo
J Jayalalithaa going on a fast in the 1990s on the issue.
The CMA had been set up following the AIADMK government’s sustained efforts and legal battles, he added.
AIADMK leaders had observed a fast while opposition parties in the state staged protests in April demanding constitution of the CMA.
Acting on the Supreme Court’s direction, the Centre has constituted the CMA to address the dispute over sharing of river water among Tamil Nadu, Karnataka, Kerala and Puducherry and issued a gazette notification.
On February 16, the apex court had directed the government to form the CMA within six weeks in a verdict that marginally increased Karnataka’s share of Cauvery water, reduced the allocation for Tamil Nadu and sought to settle the protracted water dispute between the two southern states.
In the gazette notification, the Ministry of Water Resources said it has framed a scheme constituting the CMA and the CWRC to give effect to the decision of the Cauvery Water Disputes Tribunal as modified by the Supreme order.
MALE 2018 June 2: – The European Union and some Western nations on Friday urged the Maldives to hold a credible and transparent presidential poll, after police executing a court order disrupted an opposition effort to pick a candidate for the September election.
The Maldives foreign ministry, however, said in a statement that actions taken by the government to stop illegal activities and to maintain law and order should not be seen as aimed at curtailing fundamental freedoms.
The Maldives, home to 400,000 people and best known as a tropical paradise for tourists, has experienced political unrest since Mohamed Nasheed, its first democratically-elected leader, was forced to quit amid a mutiny by police in 2012.
Nasheed, the sole candidate in this week’s primary election held by his Maldivian Democratic Party (MDP), was convicted of terrorism charges in 2015 and sentenced to 13 years in prison after a controversial and widely criticised trial.
Although Nasheed campaigned from Sri Lanka to win 43,922 of the 44,011 votes cast in Wednesday’s election, the Elections Commission declined to accept the results and vowed to take action against the MDP.
In a joint statement, the ambassadors of the European Union, France, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands, Romania, the United Kingdom, Canada and the United States said they had followed the deterioration of the situation with increasing concern.
“Legitimate opposition is a vital part of any healthy democracy, and it is critical that authorities respect fundamental freedoms, including freedom of assembly and speech,” the European Union said.
“We urge authorities to demonstrate genuine commitment to a credible, transparent, and inclusive election process.”
In a statement, Nasheed said it was inspiring to see Maldivians rising up with the belief that “Democracy must prevail, despite the atmosphere of military rule and repression” imposed by President Abdulla Yameen.