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Reuters 20 October, 2019 Idrees Ali KABUL (Reuters) - U.S. Defense Secretary Mark Esper arrived in Afghanistan on Sunday in a bid to bring talks with the Taliban back on track after President Donald Trump abruptly broke off negotiations last month seeking to end the United States’ longest war. Esper’s trip to Kabul comes amid questions about the United States’ commitments to allies after a sudden withdrawal of U.S. troops from northeastern Syria and Trump’s long-time desire to get out of foreign engagements. “The aim is to still get a peace agreement at some point, a political agreement. That is the best way forward,” Esper told reporters traveling with him to Afghanistan. He is due to meet President Ashraf Ghani and U.S. troops while in Afghanistan. “I hope we can move forward and come up with a political agreement that meets our ends and meets the goals we want to achieve,” Esper said, adding that talks were in the State Department’s domain. He added tha

The Dawn  October 19, 2019 Mubarak Zeb Khan While giving a four-month lifeline, the Financial Action Task Force (FATF) has strongly urged Pakistan to swiftly complete its full action plan by February 2020 and until then the country will remain on the ‘grey list’. The Paris-based FATF reviewed measures taken and progress made by almost 15 countries, including Pakistan, vis-à-vis anti-money laundering and combating financing of terrorism (AML/CFT) in its five-day plenary, which con­clu­ded on Friday. Representatives from 206 countries and jurisdictions around the world took part in the meeting. The Pakistani delegation was led by the Minister for Economic Affairs, Hammad Azhar. At the end of the meeting, three countries — Iceland, Mongolia and Zimbabwe — were added to the grey list, while Sri Lanka, Tunisia and Ethiopia were removed from the list as they have adequately complied with the FATF recommendations. The news is not that good in the case of Pakistan as the

National Review July 30, 2015 JIM GERAGHTY Since announcing his campaign for the Republican presidential nomination, Donald Trump has made clear that he’s a different kind of candidate. He’s loud, he’s brash, and he’s got an uncanny ability to spark outrage and controversy just by opening his mouth. His is a reality-show candidacy for a reality-show age, and his pitch to voters fits it to a tee: heavy on personality and light on policy. Those stances he does take have a superficial populist appeal — quite a substantial one if the polls are to be believed — but tend to fall apart on closer inspection. Case in point: American policy in the Middle East, where Trump has in recent years repeatedly endorsed the bizarre, bellicose fantasy that the U.S. could and should seize oil fields in Iraq and Libya. In 2007, Trump said that the U.S. should “declare victory and leave” Iraq, “because I’ll tell you, this country is just going to get further bogged down.” Four years later,

The Economic Times October 19, 2019 he second 1,000 MW nuclear power unit at Kudankulam, owned by the Nuclear Power Corporation of India Ltd (NPCIL) stopped power generation on Saturday. The second 1,000 MW nuclear power unit at Kudankulam, owned by the Nuclear Power Corporation of India LtdNSE 0.39 % (NPCIL) stopped power generation on Saturday, said Power System Operation Corporation Ltd (POSOCO). The atomic power plant stopped generation about 12.30 a.m. on Saturday owing to "SG level low", the company added. The expected date of the unit's revival is not known. Reference:  https://economictimes.indiatimes.com/industry/energy/power/second-nuclear-plant-at-tns-kudankulam-stops-operation/articleshow/71661290.cms

Hindustan Times  October 19, 2019 Indian Army chief General Bipin Rawat has said there is pressure on Pakistan to take action against terror after the Financial Action Task Force (FATF) warned the neighbouring country of blacklisting it, news agency ANI reported on Saturday. “There is pressure on them. They have to take action. We would like them to work towards restoring peace. To be on such a ‘Grey List’ is a setback for any nation,” Gen Rawat said, according to ANI. The global finance watchdog had warned Islamabad on Friday that it only had until February to improve its counter-terror financing operations or face international action. FATF said Pakistan had failed to deliver on 22 out of 27 items in an action plan drawn up after the country was placed in the grey list in June 2018. Harsher sanctions and greater global scrutiny of financial transactions, which could hit investments and business, are among actions taken against countries if included in the blac

First Post Oct 18, 2019 Islamabad: Pakistan blacklisted and expelled the Asia coordinator of global press freedom group the Committee to Protect Journalists, the group's executive director said Friday. Joel Simon called the expulsion of Steven Butler "baffling" and "a slap in the face" to those concerned about press freedom in Pakistan. Butler was refused entry at the Allama Iqbal International Airport in Lahore despite having a valid visa and was returned to the United States. Butler said he was told he was on "a stop list of the interior ministry." The Pakistani government had no immediate comment on Friday. "Pakistani authorities should give a full explanation of their decision to bar Butler from entering and correct this error," Simon said in a statement issued by the CPJ. "If the government is interested in demonstrating its commitment to a free press, it should conduct a swift and transparent investigation i

The Tribune  October 19, 2019 Ahead of the ninth India-US Defence Technologies and Trade Initiative or DTTI group meeting in New Delhi next week, the Pentagon on Saturday said the bilateral defence trade between the two countries is expected to reach USD 18 billion by year-end. Undersecretary Of Defence For Acquisition And Sustainment Ellen M Lord said the US is committed to strengthening its partnership with India while furthering military-to-military relationships and cooperation. “Bilateral defence trade, essentially zero in 2008, will reach an estimated USD 18 billion later this year,” she told reporters at the Pentagon.  Lord heads to New Delhi next week to co-chair the ninth India-US Defence Technologies and Trade Initiative or DTTI group meeting with her co-chair Secretary for Defence Protection Apurva Chandra. “As the US Department of Defence leads for DTTI, I’m excited to continue working with our Indian major defence partner,” Lord said. She said the U

The Indian Express October 18, 2019 Of the 10 million new cases, 7 million were reported to authorities, including 1.99 million of the 2.69 million in India. Globally, TB claimed 15 lakh lives in 2018, including 2.51 lakh with HIV. On Thursday, the World Health Organization released its annual Global Tuberculosis Report for 2019, which found India was able to reduce incidence in 2018 by almost 50,000 cases from the previous year, but still had the highest burden with 2.69 million cases — 26.9% of the global burden of 10 million. Of the 10 million new cases, 7 million were reported to authorities, including 1.99 million of the 2.69 million in India. Globally, TB claimed 15 lakh lives in 2018, including 2.51 lakh with HIV. The 15 lakh included 4.49 lakh deaths in India (9,700 lakh had HIV), down from over 6 lakh in 2000. TB incidence rate in India dropped from almost 300 per lakh population in 2000 to 199/lakh in 2018, as compared to a global decline from 170/lakh to

Hindustan Times October 20, 2019 Yashwant Raj Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman told reporters Saturday that it might be important for the government to move “now and see and meet up with industries and invite them”. India plans to come up shortly with a “blueprint” to aggressively court international companies either leaving China or taking a part of their production lines elsewhere as their current top destination Vietnam is understood by many to have hit a “saturation” point in labour availability and other facilities. Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman told reporters Saturday that it might be important for the government to move “now and see and meet up with industries and invite them”. “I will identify those multinational corporations … who are moving out of China or who probably are contemplating it,” she said, and added,“I will make a blueprint with which I will approach them and put forward to them as to why India is a far more preferable destination an

The Print  October 20, 2019 Samayak Pandey At JNU conference, social scientists, economists, political commentators and activists speak on poverty, inequality, Indian agrarian distress & shape of economy. Noted economist Prabhat Patnaik Saturday called for a new methodology to rejuvenate India’s agro-economy. “Agriculture growth rate should be the new growth rate for India rather than GDP and other data points,” Patnaik, a former professor at Centre for Economic Studies and Planning in the School of Social Sciences at JNU, said Saturday. He was speaking at a conference, “Theory, Planning and India’s Development Challenge”, organised by JNU to honour another eminent economist, Professor Abhijit Sen. “Manufacturing is a demand constraint sector whereas agriculture is largely a production constraint sector. Henceforth, more emphasis should be laid on it,” he said. Various social scientists, economists, political commentators and activists attended the con

The Quint  October 18, 2019 Agam Vakil Pernod Ricard’s India sales growth tumbled as a slowing economy may have prompted consumers to switch to cheaper brands. The maker of Chivas Regal scotch and Absolut Vodka saw sales of its India division grow 3 percent year-on-year in the quarter ended September, according to its earnings statement. That compares with a 23 percent rise in the preceding three months and a 20 percent revenue growth in the fiscal ended June. The management attributed the muted growth to higher sales a year ago and slowing demand in India. Chief Executive Officer Alexandre Ricard, in a phone interview with Bloomberg, said the pace will moderate from last year in India and China in an uncertain environment. It guided for low double-digit growth in the medium term in India. Macquarie, in a note quoting the management, said flooding in key states of Maharashtra and Haryana, and downtrading in select regions impacted Pernod Ricard’s India earnings. That come

NDTV October 19, 2019 Most of the deaths were reported from the Northern Railway zone at 7,908, followed by 6,149 deaths from the Southern Railway zone and 5,670 deaths from the Eastern Railway zone. Nearly 50,000 people have lost their lives between 2015 and 2017 on railway tracks after being hit by trains, according to official data from the Indian Railways. A train mowed down 62 people as they were watching a Ravan effigy being burnt while standing on railway tracks near Amritsar on October 19, leading to questions how the national transporter could prevent such deaths. Data provided by the railways states, 49,790 deaths happened because people were hit by trains on tracks from 2015 to 2017. Most of the deaths were reported from the Northern Railway zone at 7,908, followed by 6,149 deaths from the Southern Railway zone and 5,670 deaths from the Eastern Railway zone. The Government Railway Police (GRP) collates data on such deaths zone-wise and the data fo

INTREPID October 18, 2019 By Amarnath Amarasingam and Leah West  As we head into the Canadian federal election next week, one of the many pressing issues facing the new government will be the question of what to do with the nearly 40 Canadian men, women, and children currently in Kurdish custody in northeastern Syria. We visited the camps and the prisons over the course of a week earlier this month, and the challenges we documented were immense and since the invasion by Turkey, those problems are only getting worse. On the day we visited al-Hol camp, which houses most of the Canadian women and their children, Kurdish forces supposedly interrupted a meeting of the “morality police” who were, apparently, getting set to punish one of their fellow women for some sort of religious violation. The Kurdish police were able to stop the meeting, and arrest some of the women. Upset by these arrests, several women in the camp began, with babies and toddlers in their arms and at the