Junior Digest

“The onus for expelling Iran from the country falls on the Syrian government, which bears responsibility for its presence there,” Pompeo told the Jewish Institute for National Security of America.

“If Syria doesn’t ensure the total withdrawal of Iranian-backed troops, it will not receive one single dollar from the United States for reconstruction,” Pompeo said.

Pompeo’s remarks come as the Trump administration shifts its reasoning for US involvement in Syria’s brutal civil war, which a war monitor says has killed close to 365,000 people since 2011.

The United States has some 2,000 troops in Syria, mainly training and advising rebels, after former president Barack Obama authorized the mission to defeat the Islamic State extremist group, or IS.

Pompeo said that fighting IS “continues to be a top priority” but listed rolling back Iran as another.

National security adviser, John Bolton, said last month that US troops would stay “as long as Iranian troops are outside Iranian borders.”

Iran, ruled by Shiite Muslim clerics, and Russia are the primary supporters of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad in his bloody campaign against largely Sunni Muslim rebels and IS.

Pompeo did not make similar demands for a withdrawal by Russia, which has long considered Syria a major ally.

Trump in August already pulled out of Syria’s immediate reconstruction, suspending $230 million after pledges by Gulf Arab allies.

Washington  Oct 12 : The Donald Trump administration has decided to limit sales of United States’ civil nuclear technology to China to prevent use for military or unauthorised purposes, thus heightening further tensions between the two countries.
“The United States cannot ignore the national security implications of China’s efforts to obtain nuclear technology outside of established processes of US-China civil nuclear cooperation,” CNN quoted US Secretary of Energy Rick Perry as saying on Thursday.
Officials said that the National Security Council led a review of China’s efforts to advanced technology, nuclear material and equipment from American companies, which was done due to Beijing’s effort to acquire US intellectual property that could pose a risk to Washington’s businesses and military interests.
Explaining the move behind the decision to limit import of nuclear components to Beijing, an administration official said, “The administration concluded that a change in US civil nuclear cooperation with China is necessary to strike an appropriate balance between long-term risks to US national security and economic interests and the impact to the US nuclear industrial base.”
The official added that China is “actively pursuing our advanced nuclear technology for diversion to military use in its third-generation nuclear power submarine, in the development of a nuclear-powered aircraft carrier and in strategic dual-use nuclear-powered platforms, such as small modular reactors and floating nuclear power plants deployable in the South China Sea.”
The decision came as Washington and Beijing have been engaged in an escalating trade war from the past few months, with both nations slapping high tariffs on each other’s goods and imports. This has led to the straining of ties between the world’s two largest economies.
Last month, US President Donald Trump imposed a fresh 10 per cent tariffs on Chinese products amounting to USD 200 billion. Beijing then retaliated with tariffs worth USD 60 billion of American goods. Both the countries have threatened new waves of tariffs in the near future.

But negotiations ended without a breakthrough, including on the issue of trade to and from Northern Ireland, which has emerged as a possible deal breaker and even a threat to Prime Minister Theresa May’s leadership.

Diplomatic sources in Brussels confirmed to AFP that negotiations have been suspended until Wednesday, when the leaders of the other 27 EU member states will be in town on the eve of their October summit, which had already been billed as a “moment of truth”.

“We met today Dominic Raab and UK negotiating team. Despite intense efforts, some key issues are still open, including the backstop for IE/NI to avoid a hard border,” Barnier tweeted, referring to EU member Ireland and the British province of Northern Ireland.

Diplomatic sources confirmed that a meeting of the “diplomatic sherpas” — senior officials representing the leaders of EU members — that had been planned for Monday to review a draft deal has been cancelled.

“The commission informed the ambassadors that no deal was reached today. There will be no further negotiations until the summit,” one source said, speaking on condition of anonymity.

Other sources familiar with Barnier’s meeting with EU ambassadors confirmed this, and one added that “certain countries insisted that preparations for a ‘no deal’ be accelerated.”

Raab’s department said “real progress” had been made in some areas, but admitted “there remain a number of unresolved issues relating to the backstop.”

“The UK is still committed to making progress at the October European Council,” it promised, referring to this week’s Brussels summit.

With Britain set to leave the bloc at the end of March, European Commission head Jean-Claude Juncker had demanded “substantial progress” this week, and Raab’s visit stoked optimism.

“With several big issues still to resolve, including the Northern Ireland backstop, it was jointly agreed that face-to-face talks were necessary” ahead of the summit, Raab’s department had said.

A senior British government source played down initial reports a deal had already been done, saying there are still some “big issues” to be resolved and “Dominic has gone out there to try to resolve the outstanding issues”.

Sunday’s flurry of activity came as May prepared to face what one newspaper cartoon dubbed “hell week”.

On Tuesday, she will rake over the Irish border issue with her cabinet, amid speculation that more ministers could resign if she ploughs on with her proposals.

Male: The president of the Maldives, Abdulla Yameen, said on Wednesday he had no complaints or reservations about any of his decisions while in office, and that he was preparing to step down, despite having challenged his election defeat in court.

In a surprise result, Yameen lost his re-election bid last month and initially conceded defeat. Last week, however, his lawyers went to the Supreme Court, saying his supporters had complained about rigging of votes and fraudulent ballot papers.

In a televised speech on Wednesday, Yameen said all his decisions when in power were made in the interest of the people.

“Even today, as I prepare to take leave from official duties, I would like to say that I have no complaints or reservations about my decisions,” he said.

Yameen is due to hand over power next month, but the opposition has flagged concerns that he could prolong the transition in the Indian Ocean island that has been in upheaval since February, when he imposed a state of emergency.

Yerevan, Oct 16 : Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan resigned on Tuesday, seeking an early parliamentary election.
He  pledged to “ensure the free expression of the people’s will during snap elections.”
The former opposition leader swept to power in May, following weeks of protests that forced the resignation of Serzh Sarkisian.
Mr Pashinyan has pushed for an early vote to be held in recent months, in an attempt to unseat his rivals, who maintain a majority in Parliament.
Early elections are held, if Legislators fail to appoint a new Prime Minister, and Pashinyan persuaded his opponents not to nominate any candidates, Al-Jazeera noted.
Earlier this month, he led thousands of his supporters to besiege the Parliament, in an attempt to force an early vote on his rivals.

New Delhi, Oct 18: India, the world’s third-biggest oil consumer, Wednesday pressed OPEC to move to responsible pricing of oil and gas saying the recent spike in rates are far detached from market fundamentals and are hurting importing nations.

A combination of crude oil climbing to four-year high and rupee dipping to its lowest level against US dollar has sent retail petrol, diesel and cooking gas (LPG) rates to record high. The relentless price rise has wiped away tax cuts done by the government to give relief to consumers.

At the annual institutional dialogue between the world’s third-largest oil importer and the Organisation of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC), Oil Minister Dharmendra Pradhan gave the cartel, which accounts for 45 per cent of the world output, a perspective of an importing country.

“(I) met OPEC Secretary General Mohammed Sanusi Barkindo at the 3rd India-OPEC Energy Dialogue (and) raised the issue of surging crude prices which is hurting oil importing countries like India. I sought responsible pricing, which is in the best interests of both producers and consumers,” Pradhan said.

India imports over 83 per cent of its crude oil needs. Of the crude oil imported, about 85 per cent of comes from OPEC nations. Also, 80 per cent of gas imports come from those countries.

India believes OPEC has a major role in shaping oil prices and availability and the current high oil prices dent the economic development of many countries and threaten already fragile world economic growth.

Pradhan said he also expressed concerns on global trade practices limiting the affordability of energy.

Barkindo, he said, reaffirmed India as an extremely important partner for OPEC and called for further strengthening India-OPEC relationship.

“He said OPEC will help to develop it as a model for developing countries,” Pradhan said.

The OPEC secretary general said Saudi Arabia, the world’s largest oil exporter and the organisation’s kingpin, has assured that it is “committed, capable and willing” to ensure there will be no shortage in the oil market.

The government had on October 5 cut excise duty on petrol and diesel by Rs 1.50 per litre and asked oil PSUs to subsdise the two fuel by another Re 1. The twin move resulted in retail rates being cut by Rs 2.50 per litre.

However, the relentless price hike has wiped away all cut benefits on diesel and most on petrol.

While there was no change in prices on Wednesday, petrol in Delhi costs Rs 82.83 per litre and diesel is priced at Rs 75.69.

Since the duty cut, diesel prices have risen by Rs 2.74 per litre, more than wiping away the excise duty cut and oil firm subsidy. Petrol price has during the period risen by Rs 1.33 per litre.

Before the October 5 price cut, petrol in Delhi had hit an all-time high of Rs 84 per litre and diesel was at record Rs 75.45. This came down to Rs 81.50 per litre for petrol and Rs 72.95 in case of diesel on October 4.

In Mumbai, petrol on Tuesday was priced at Rs 88.29 per litre, down from a peak of Rs 91.34 hit on October 4. A litre of diesel in the city costs Rs 79.35, a shade lower than Rs 80.10 record high hit on October 4.

Saudi Arabia on Saturday admitted that critic Jamal Khashoggi was killed inside its consulate in Istanbul, more than two weeks after his disappearance tipped the kingdom into one of its worst international crises.

The kingdom also sacked deputy intelligence chief Ahmad al-Assiri and royal court media advisor Saud al-Qahtani, both top aides to Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman who has faced mounting pressure over the Khashoggi affair.

The admission that Khashoggi died at the hands of Saudi officials after weeks of vehement denials by the Gulf kingdom comes after President Donald Trump said that the United States, which is Saudi Arabia’s biggest backer, could impose sanctions if it was proved the journalist was killed.

Saudi Attorney General Sheikh Saud al-Mojeb said Khashoggi died after “discussions” at the consulate devolved into an altercation, without disclosing any details on the whereabouts of his body.

“Preliminary investigations… revealed that the discussions that took place between him and the persons who met him… at the Saudi consulate in Istanbul led to a brawl and a fist fight with the citizen, Jamal Khashoggi, which led to his death, may his soul rest in peace,” the attorney general said in a statement.

In its first reaction to Khashoggi’s confirmed death, the White House said it was “saddened” but made no mention of any possible action against its major ally.

“We will continue to closely follow the international investigations into this tragic incident and advocate for justice that is timely, transparent and in accordance with all due process,” White House spokeswoman Sarah Sanders said.

UN chief Antonio Gutterres said he was “deeply troubled” adding there needed to be “full accountability for those responsible.”

– Shrouded in mystery –

Saudi journalist Khashoggi, a critic of the Islamic petro-state’s powerful crown prince and a Washington Post contributor, was last seen on October 2 entering his country’s consulate in Istanbul.

His disappearance had been shrouded in mystery and triggered an international crisis, with Turkish officials accusing Saudi Arabia of a state-sponsored killing and dismembering his body.

The public prosecutor said 18 people, all Saudi nationals, have been detained in connection to the probe.

The Saudi king also ordered the setting up of ministerial committee under the chairmanship of the crown prince, widely known as MBS, to restructure the kingdom’s intelligence agency and “define its powers accurately”, state media said.

The controversy has put the kingdom — for decades a key Western ally and bulwark against Iran in the Middle East — under unprecedented pressure to offer an explanation to take the heat off its rulers.

It evolved into a major crisis for Prince Mohammed, a Trump administration favourite who has portrayed himself as a modernising Arab reformer, but whose image and even position at home could now be gravely undermined.

Nusa Dua, Oct 15: China’s central bank governor Sunday sought to cool the temperature on a brewing trade-and-currency war with the United States, calling for “constructive solutions” as the spat threatens to knock the world economy.

Speaking on the last day of the IMF-World Bank annual meetings in Bali, Yi Gang warned that the stakes could hardly be higher and cautioned that a clash between the world’s two biggest economies was a “lose-lose” situation.

“Trade tensions…cause negative expectations, negative uncertainties,” he told a seminar with other top central bankers on the Indonesian holiday island.

“There are tremendous uncertainties ahead of us. The whole world should work together to seek constructive solutions,” he added.

Yi said he had spoken to central bank governors and other top officials from a string of nations amid a tit-for-tat US-China tariff battle and Washington’s accusations that China was unfairly pushing down the value of its yuan currency to boost exports.

His comments come a day after the IMF warned that the “window of opportunity” to keep global growth on track was narrowing as the US-China spat threatens to boil over and emerging markets feel the pinch from higher US interest rates.

Tensions have soared recently with President Donald Trump’s administration rolling out billions of dollars in tariffs against China in a bid to tackle its trade deficit and rein in what Washington considers unacceptable Chinese trade practices.

Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin earlier downplayed the global concerns expressed at the meetings, saying the world would benefit if Beijing is forced to changes its trade policies.

But he said he had told Yi this week about his concerns over the weakness of its currency.

Mnuchin, speaking earlier on the Bali meeting’s sidelines, declined to comment on whether Washington would declare Beijing a “currency manipulator” in a Treasury report due out next week.

That would be a first for China, triggering a process that could lead to punitive steps.

Attention has begun to turn toward hopes that Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping could meet on the sidelines of the G-20 summit next month in Argentina and reach some sort of agreement that would reduce trade tensions.

A separate, public swearing-in ceremony is planned for 7:00 pm (2300 GMT) Monday in the White House’s East Room.

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, who has railed against Kavanaugh’s critics, said he was “proud” of his colleagues while Vice President Mike Pence, who presided in the Senate during the vote, called it a “historic day for our country.”

It reflects a high water mark of the Trump presidency: Republican control of the White House, the Senate, the House of Representatives and the judiciary’s top court.

But the Kavanaugh spectacle, fueled by extraordinary accusations and counter-claims in nationally televised hearings, and tense battles over an 11th-hour FBI investigation to address the assault allegations, has inflamed political passions.

New Delhi, Oct 6: The government of India on Friday hit out at Pakistan for its ‘false’
accusation that India has acquired chemical weapons and using them in Jammu and Kashmir.
“We completely reject allegations made by Pakistan about the reported use of chemical weapons by the Indian security forces against Indian citizens. Such allegations are not new and are totally unfounded,” MEA spokesman Raveesh Kumar said in response to a question by media regarding allegation by Pakistani foreign ministry official.
“It is a matter of deep concern that Pakistan repeatedly tries to make such false allegations. They are acting in a highly irresponsible manner with the sole purpose of repeating untruths in the vain hope that the international community will start believing in their falsehood. Such malicious attempts to deflect international opinion away from the terrorism emanating from Pakistan shall not succeed,” Mr Kumar said.
The Pakistan Foreign Office spokesperson Mohammad Faisal on Thursday in a regular press briefing alleged that India was using chemical weapons in Kashmir.
The MEA spokesman said in Delhi that: “India has repeatedly stated its complete opposition to the use of chemical weapons by anyone, at anytime, and anywhere in the world. India is an original signatory to the Chemical Weapons Convention (CWC)”.
He further said the international community has “recognised” India’s abiding commitment and contribution to the CWC which is the universal multilateral instrument prohibiting the use of chemical weapons.

Palu, Indonesia : Rescue workers in Indonesia stepped up their search for victims of an earthquake and tsunami on Tuesday, hoping to find as many bodies as they can before this week’s deadline for their work to halt, as the official death toll rose to 2,010.

The national disaster mitigation agency has called off the search from Thursday, citing concern about the spread of disease. Debris would be cleared and areas where bodies lie would eventually be turned into parks, sports venues and memorials.

Perhaps as many as 5,000 victims of the 7.5 magnitude quake and tsunami on Sept. 28 have yet to be found, most of them entombed in flows of mud flows that surged from the ground when the quake agitated the soil into a liquid mire.

Most of the bodies have been found in the seaside city of Palu, on the west coast of Sulawesi island, 1,500 km (930 miles) northeast of the capital, Jakarta.

More than 10,000 rescue workers are scouring expanses of debris, especially in three areas obliterated by soil liquefaction in the south of the small city.

“We’re not sure what will happen afterwards, so we’re trying to work as fast as possible,” said rescue worker Ahmad Amin, 29, referring to the deadline, as he took a break in the badly hit Balaroa neighborhood.

At least nine excavators were working through the rubble of Balaroa on Tuesday, picking their way through smashed buildings and pummeled vehicles. At least a dozen bodies were recovered, a Reuters photographer said.

The state disaster mitigation agency said the search was being stepped up and focused more intensely on areas where many people are believed to be buried.

While Indonesian workers searched, the disaster agency ordered independent foreign aid workers to leave the quake zone.

Indonesia has traditionally been reluctant to be seen as relying on outside help to cope with disasters, and the government shunned foreign aid this year when earthquakes struck the island of Lombok.

Berlin: Germany has deported a Moroccan associate of the Sept. 11 hijackers after he served most of a 15-year jail term for helping organise the 2001 attacks on U.S. targets, authorities said on Monday.

Mounir El Motassadeq was a member of a group of radical Islamists based in the northern German city of Hamburg who helped bring about the suicide attacks with hijacked airliners that killed nearly 3,000 people.

As a result, it loses its absolute majority and must scramble for coalition allies — likely the conservative Free Voters, who won 11 percent.

Merkel’s other national governing partner, the over 150-year-old Social Democrats (SPD), halved their ballot box support to 9.6 percent, ceding the position of Bavaria’s second biggest political force to the Greens.

“Debacle for CSU and SPD,” ran the online headline of Bild daily, while Der Spiegel called it a “bitter defeat” for Bavaria’s traditional ruling party.

United Nations, Oct 13 : India has been elected to the United Nations Human Rights Council (UNHRC) for a period of three years beginning January 1, 2019, getting highest 188 votes in the Asia-Pacific category.
The 193-member UN General Assembly held elections for new members to the UNHRC on Friday.
The 18 new members were elected by absolute majority through a secret ballot. India got highest 188 votes in the Asia-Pacific category.
India was vying for a seat in the Asia Pacific category. Along with India, Bahrain, Bangladesh, Fiji and Philippines had also staked a claim in the same regional group.
Given that there were five nations vying for five seats in the Asia Pacific category, India’s election to the Council was all but certain.
As of 1 January next year, the 18 newly-elected States will serve for three years on the UN’s highest inter-governmental body, mandated to protect and promote human rights worldwide.

Washington : Nikki Haley announced on Tuesday she is resigning as the U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, but the rising Republican star immediately denied she was preparing to challenge President Donald Trump in the 2020 presidential election.

Sitting beside Trump in the Oval Office, Haley said her 18-month stint at the United Nations had been “an honour of a lifetime” and said she would stay on until the end of the year.

A former governor of South Carolina who is the daughter of Indian immigrants, Haley is the highest profile woman in Trump’s Cabinet and is often seen as a possible presidential candidate.

But she said in her resignation letter to Trump she would “surely not be a candidate for any office in 2020” and would support his re-election bid.

She told reporters in the Oval Office on Tuesday: “No, I am not running for 2020.”

Haley said she did not have any future plans set and did not give a reason for her unexpected departure, but Trump said she had told him some six months ago that she was thinking of leaving by the end the year “to take a little time off.”

Trump later told reporters he would consider selecting former Goldman Sachs executive and White House adviser Dina Powell to replace Haley, and shot down speculation he would put his daughter Ivanka in the role.

Colombo: The president of the Maldives, Abdulla Yameen, filed a petition in the Supreme Court on Wednesday, challenging his defeat in last’s month election in the island nation, which has been in political upheaval since the declaration of emergency this year.

Yameen conceded defeat after an official count showed joint opposition leader Ibrahim Mohamed Solih had polled 16.8 percent more votes in a surprise result. But opposition members have worried about a smooth transition of power, due on Nov. 17.

Yameen’s supporters had complained about rigging of votes and fraudulent ballot papers, his lawyer Mohamed Saleem told reporters after approaching the top court.

“There are a lot of complaints from supporters,” he said. “We decided to submit the case after going through those complaints. President Yameen did not want to let this go as the concern is about the rights of his supporters.”

Critics are wary of Yameen, who ran the islands with an iron hand, jailing political opponents and Supreme Court justices.

In February he declared a state of emergency to annul a court ruling that quashed the convictions of nine opposition leaders, including former president Mohamed Nasheed.

Complaints about the election result came from voters as well as monitors, Yameen’s Progressive Party of Maldives said in a statement.

The Election Commission said the vote had been free and fair, with turnout of 89.2 percent.

The Maldives, located near key shipping lanes in the Indian Ocean, has become important as China and India compete for influence in the region.

China is engaged in building up the islands’ infrastructure as part of its Belt and Road Initiative to boost trade and transport links across Asia.

Palu:  More than a week after a major earthquake hit the west coast of Indonesia’s Sulawesi island, rescuers workers were focusing on Saturday on what looks sure to be a long, difficult search for bodies, many buried in appalling morasses of debris and mud.

President Joko Widodo has said all of the victims of the 7.5 magnitude earthquake and tsunami that struck on Sept. 28 must be found.

The official death toll from the quake and the tsunami it triggered has risen to 1,649, but will certainly increase.

Most of the dead have been found in the region’s main urban center, the small city of Palu. Figures for more remote areas, some just re-connected to the outside world by road, are trickling in.

No one knows how many people were dragged to their deaths when the quake triggered soil liquefaction, a phenomenon that turns the ground into a roiling quagmire. Communities in the south of Palu were particularly hard hit.

The national disaster agency says 1,700 homes in one neighborhood alone were swallowed up. Many hundreds of people are now entombed in slowly drying mud churned with heaps of debris and vehicles.

In the Balaroa neighborhood of Palu, rescuers found 34 bodies on Saturday, and laid them out in a row of blue and orange bags, among them 10-year-old Dede Aulianisa.

Her parents recognized her from the clothes she was wearing when the quake struck.

“I’m certain it’s her. She was wearing the exact scout uniform, with a sweater with the words ‘Geng 97’,” her father, Anwar, who like many Indonesian goes by only one name, told Reuters.

Ankara: Turkey said on Tuesday it would search Saudi Arabia’s consulate in Istanbul where Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi vanished last week, and close ally Britain called on Riyadh to provide “urgent answers” over his disappearance.

Khashoggi was last seen one week ago entering the consulate in Istanbul to get documents related to his forthcoming marriage. His fiancee, waiting outside, said he never emerged and Turkish sources said they believe Khashoggi, a prominent critic of Saudi policies, was killed inside the mission.

Turkey’s President Tayyip Erdogan asked Saudi Arabia on Monday to prove its assertion that Khashoggi left the consulate.

The U.S. State Department said it did not know what happened to Khashoggi and whether he was alive or not.

Saudi Arabia has dismissed as baseless accusations that it killed or abducted Khashoggi, and on Tuesday Turkey’s state-owned Anadolu agency said Riyadh had invited Turkish experts and other officials to visit the consulate.

Britain urged the Saudi government to explain what happened.

Kuala Lumpur, Oct 14 : The Malaysian ex-deputy Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim has won a parliamentary seat in the town of Port Dickson,sealing his return to front-line politics.
Overjoyed by the emphtic victory, Mr Anwar said,’This to my mind is an important milestone, a vote of confidence for the government and the reform agenda, and the prime minister personally.’
According to the Election Commission, Mr Anwar received 71 per cent of Saturday’s votes from Port Dickson, where a member of the current coalition stepped down to allow for his accession, reports BBC.
Mr Anwar was seen as Dr Mahathir’s heir but the relationship soured when Mr Anwar was sacked in 1998 after a leadership dispute.
He was convicted of homosexual sodomy and corruption which is widely regarded as politically motivated.
He was freed in 2004, but once again convicted for sodomy in 2015, charges that he said were concocted to destroy his political career.
Mahathir, the world’s oldest leader at 93, has said he expects to be in office for at least two years and will keep his promise to hand over power to Anwar.
Mr Anwar has also insisted that he holds no malice towards his former mentor, who secured his royal pardon.

Kabul: At least 8,050 Afghan civilians were killed or wounded in the first nine months of 2018, almost half of them targeted by suicide bomb attacks and other improvised devices that may amount to war crimes, the United Nations said on Wednesday.

The number of casualties was roughly in line with the same period a year earlier, when there were 8,084 casualties, with deaths this year rising five percent to 2,798 and injuries falling three percent to 5,252, the report from the UN Assistance Mission in Afghanistan (UNAMA) said.

“As there can be no military solution to the fighting in Afghanistan, the United Nations renews its call for an immediate and peaceful settlement to the conflict,” said Tadamichi Yamamoto, the top UN official in Afghanistan.

Seventeen years after U.S. forces led a campaign to overthrow the Taliban following the Sept. 11 attacks on New York and Washington, the figures underline how dire the security situation remains.

While the figures show little change in the overall trend of violence, the UN highlighted the indiscriminate use of suicide and IED attacks, which killed 1,065 civilians and wounded 2,569 in the first nine months, a total of 3,634 casualties, compared with 3,007 casualties in the same period of 2017.

“UNAMA recalls that attacks deliberately targeting civilians and the murder of civilians are serious violations of international humanitarian law that amount to war crimes,” it said in the report.

With parliamentary elections due on Oct. 20, security officials warn that attacks are likely to pick up on polling stations and other election sites, many of which are located in schools, mosques or health clinics.

Islamabad, Oct 9: Prime Minister Imran Khan on Monday said that a strong bilateral relationship with China is the cornerstone of the Pakistan’s foreign policy.

Khan chaired a high-level meeting with his Cabinet colleagues and discussed his maiden tour to China next month during which matters related to the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) is to be discussed, the Express Tribune reported.

The meeting was also attended by Pakistan’s Finance Minister Asad Umer, Information Minister Fawad Chaudhry, Planning and Development Minister Khusro Bakhtiar and Railways Minister Sheikh Rasheed.

China is an all-weather ally of Pakistan. The two countries launched the controversy-hit USD 50 billion CPEC in 2015 under which a network of roads, railways and energy projects, linking China’s resource-rich Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region with Pakistan’s strategic Gwadar Port on the Arabian Sea, has been planned.

Khan, chairing a cabinet meeting of the Balochistan province during his first visit to the restive province as the prime minister on Saturday, said that Pakistan was reviewing the projects under the CPEC to safeguard the interest of the Baloch people, who say the projects were not beneficial for them.

Khan in the past had criticised former prime minister Nawaz Sharif for the lack of transparency and corruption in the CPEC projects.

Last month during his meeting with Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi, Khan had said that the Pakistan government was committed to the implementation of the CPEC projects.

Wang had also conveyed the desire of the Chinese leadership to work with the new government of Khan for further enhancing the strategic partnership between Pakistan and China.

New Delhi: India and Russia on Friday signed a pact to build six more nuclear reactors at a new site in India following summit talks between their leaders in New Delhi.

Russian President Vladimir Putin and Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi also agreed to cooperate on India’s plan for a manned space mission.

Russian state-owned reactor manufacturer Rosatom said in a statement that the two countries want to build six Russian-design nuclear reactors on a new site in India, boost nuclear cooperation in third countries and new nuclear technologies and are considering building nuclear plants together.

The firm said Russia would offer to build its third-generation VVER reactor on the new site and would increase the level of participation of Indian companies in the project.

A Rosatom official told Reuters the pact is not a firm contract yet, but an agreement to work towards a contract.

India has not chosen the new site yet, which could be controversial as the country has seen vehement protests against new nuclear sites.

If confirmed, the agreement would be one of the biggest nuclear industry deals in recent years, and would bind the two countries for decades.

Two Russian-built VVER-1000 reactors have been in commercial operation in Kudankulam, southern India, since 2014 and 2017 respectively. Construction on two more started last year with a target for commercial start-up in 2025 and 2026.

Last year, the Russian and Indian governments signed an agreement to build reactors 5 and 6 on the site and Putin said at the time that Russia is ready to build a dozen reactors in India over the next 20 years.

“We expect to start building a series of new units at a second site in India in the near future,” Rosatom Director-General Alexey Likhachev said in a statement.

Rosatom has become the world’s largest nuclear reactor builder as the financial problems of the two big Western firms Westinghouse Areva have crimped their ability to develop nuclear plants abroad.