Abbas
highlights role of various peace powers to end conflicts
RAMALLAH, Aug. 20 (Xinhua) --
Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas on Sunday stressed the importance of the
role of the peace powers in Israel in order to achieve a permanent peace
between the two sides.
Abbas made the remarks during
meeting with an Israeli left-wing party delegation in Ramallah, according to
the report of Palestinian news agency WAFA.
The report said that Abbas briefed
the Israeli delegation on the latest development of the peace process with
Israel.
Head of the delegation Zahava
Gil'on, chairman of the left-wing party Meretz, said during the meeting with
Abbas that the delegation visited Ramallah because it believes that there is a
moderate Palestinian leadership.
"There is no difference between
our views as peace partners because we believe in the necessity of ending the
occupation and establishing the Palestinian state on 1967 borders," said
Gil'on, according to WAFA.
Last direct peace talks, sponsored
by the United States, had stopped in April 2014 after it went on for nine
months without achieving any breakthrough due to deep differences on Israeli
settlement and borders.
A high-ranking U.S. delegation is
scheduled to visit in the region soon and will hold meetings with both Israelis
and Palestinians to discuss the possibilities of reviving the stalled peace
process.
----------
09- Economic
growth may slow down in Palestine: report
RAMALLAH, Aug. 20 (Xinhua) -- A
report issued by the Palestine Monetary Authority on Sunday forecasts drop in
economic growth rate by 0.7 percent in Palestine as compared with last year.
The report mentioned that the growth
rate could possibly slow down to nearly 3.4 percent, compared with 4.1 percent
in 2016.
This performance is based on the
prediction that the current political and economic situation in Palestine will
remain unchanged, in terms of Israeli imposed restrictions on crossings and
access of people and goods, the continued growth of Palestinian labor force
inside Israel and the process of reconstruction of Gaza Strip, according to the
report.
The economic growth in 2016
registered an increase of 0.7 percent compared with 2015.
The report also said that Gaza
witnessed in the past year the highest growth rate in five years, reaching 7.7
percent, compared with 6.1 in 2015, due to investments.
In the West Bank, however, the
growth rate in 2016 reached 3 percent compared with 2.6 percent in 2015,
despite "the continued unrest due to popular outrage against Israeli
occupation," said the report.
High unemployment rates are still
considered one of the main hurdles to economic growth, said the report,
especially in Gaza Strip.
-: 9 :-
Despite the increased economic
growth rate in Gaza last year, the unemployment rate in Palestine reached a new
high at 26.9 percent of the overall labor force, compared with 25.9 percent in
2015.
According to the new report, the
unemployment rates in 2016 reached 18.2 percent in the West Bank and 41.7
percent in Gaza.
Additionally, the report mentioned
that the current Palestinian balance of payment showed a 1.35 million U.S.
dollars deficit in 2016, with a better performance by 34.8 percent compared
with 2015, making 10.1 percent of GDP.
Concerning the finance sector, the
report showed an increase of assets in the financial body by 12.7 percent in
2016, compared with 6.6 percent in the end of 2015, standing at 14.196.4
million dollars.
Client deposits in Palestinian banks
in 2016 registered an increased by 9.8 percent, besides an increase in
ownership of the banking sector by 14.9 percent.
---------
10- Death
toll of mudslide disaster in Sierra Leone rises to 499
FREETOWN, Aug. 20 (Xinhua) -- Bodies
recovered from the mudslide and flooding on Aug. 14 in Sierra Leone have
totalled 499, local media reported on Sunday.
Victims included 162 male, 163
female, 70 boys and 86 girls and an additional 18, Awoko Newspaper reported.
The side of a hill collapsed in
heavy rains in the early hours of Aug. 14, killing residents and destroying
homes near or on the outskirts of Freetown, capital of Sierra Leone, and
leaving more than 2,000 others homeless.
Sierra Leone's President Ernest Bai
Koroma on Tuesday declared seven days of mourning across the country with
immediate effect.
Humanitarian aids are coming in from
countries including China and Ghana for the people affected by the disaster.
According to the Chinese Embassy in
Sierra Leone, in addition to donations from local Chinese companies and
organizations, the Chinese government had decided to provide emergency
humanitarian aid of one million U.S. dollars to the Sierra Leonean government.
Ghana has also mobilized relief
items valued at one million U.S. dollars for victims of the flood and mudslide
disaster in Sierra Leone.
---------
11- Mine
kills 3 Lebanese soldiers near Syria border: army
BEIRUT, Aug 20, 2017 (AFP) - Three
Lebanese soldiers were killed Sunday when a mine exploded under their vehicle
in the east of the country along the border with Syria, the army said in a
statement.
The deaths in the Jurud Arsal area
come as the army fights to oust the Islamic State group from a nearby area on
the country's border in an operation that began on Saturday.
---------
12- Iran
protects nuclear deal from being torn up by U.S.
TEHRAN, Aug. 20 (Xinhua) -- Iran's
President Hassan Rouhani said Sunday that Iran's top foreign policy priority is
to protect the nuclear deal from being torn up by the United States.
-: 10 :-
Rouhani indicated a week ago that
Iran was ready to walk out on the nuclear deal if the United States continued
to apply fresh sanctions.
But Rouhani has insisted the deal
remains the preferred way forward.
He was addressing lawmakers ahead of
votes of confidence on his ministerial choices on Sunday. Rouhani, a political
moderate, began his second term earlier this month after winning a resounding
victory over a hardline challenger in May.
-------
13- With
580 accidents in past 5 years, India's ageing rail network needs urgent
overhaul
NEW DELHI, Aug. 20 (Xinhua) -- A day
after 23 people were killed and more than 90 others injured in a train accident
in the northern state of Uttar Pradesh, Indian Railway Minister Suresh Prabhu
Sunday asked the railways to fix responsibility by the end of the day.
Prabhu directed Chairman of Railway
Board A.K. Mittal, the top executive official of the Indian Railways, to fix
responsibility for the derailment of Kalinga Utkal Express, based on prima
facie probe.
"Will not allow laxity in
operations by the (Railway) Board. Have directed CRB (chairman of the Railway
Board) to fix responsibility on prima facie evidence by end of day," he
tweeted.
The train was on its way to the holy
town of Haridwar in the northern state of Uttarakhand from the eastern state of
Odisha when 13 of its coaches derailed near Muzaffarnagar in Uttar Pradesh
Saturday evening.
Conflicting claims from officials
indicate that a human error may have been the cause of the accident, with
locals also claiming that maintenance work was going on the tracks that railway
officials failed to convey to the train's driver.
But this is not the first time that
such a fatal accident has taken place. Official statistics reveal over 580
train mishaps, both minor and major, took place in the past five years in
India, out of which more than 50 percent occurred due to derailments. The worst
accident occurred on November 20, 2016, when an express train from the central
state of Madhya Pradesh to the eastern state of Bihar's capital Patna derailed
near Kanpur city in Uttar Pradesh, claiming the lives of 150 people and
injuring a similar number.
"A fracture on the railway
tracks was said to be the main cause behind that accident. This clearly
indicates the need for urgent overhaul of the tracks, which have gone through
wear and tear over the years, since being laid," a senior Indian Railways
official said.
Used by some 23 million people each
day and covering almost every nook and cranny of India, the state-run Indian
Railways, one of the largest in the world, is considered the "lifeline of
the nation".
"The railways operate more than
12,000 trains. But after decades of neglect and subsidised fares, the train
network is in shambles and much of the equipment is out of date," he said.
Despite inflation, rail tickets in
India are dirt cheap. A one-way ticket on a long distance train can be
purchased for as little as 400 rupees (six U.S. dollars), making it accessible
to poorer passengers who cannot afford to travel by other modes of transport.
-: 11 :-
The Indian Railways also runs
schools, hospitals, police forces and building companies and employs a total of
1.3 million people, making it the seventh biggest employer in the world.
But it is ailing due to severe funds
crunch. In 2015, Prime Minister Narendra Modi's government pledged to invest
137 billion U.S. dollars in the ageing railway network over the next five
years.
"Over the next five years, the
railways have to undergo a transformation. We have to make Indian Railways a
benchmark organisation in safety, security and infrastructure." the
Railway Minister had then said.
"But no improvement is showing
on ground. It's time to act fast to revive the ailing railways," said
Sukumar Chaubey, a rail safety expert.
--------
14- Bangladesh
sentences 10 to death for plot to kill PM Hasina
DHAKA, Aug 20, 2017 (AFP) - A
Bangladesh court sentenced ten Islamist militants to death Sunday over a failed
plot to assassinate Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina by detonating a huge bomb at
one of her rallies.
The men were sentenced to death by
firing squad for planting a huge explosive near where Hasina was scheduled to
speak during her first term as prime minister in 2000, prosecutor Shamsul Haq
Badol told AFP.
"The bomb was planted in an
attempt to kill Sheikh Hasina, high-ranking leaders of the (ruling) Awami
League party and dignitaries," Badol said.
The 76 kilogram (167 pound)
explosive was detected and defused, sparking a manhunt for those responsible
for the assassination attempt on Hasina, who is in her third term as leader of
Bangladesh's secular government.
Police allege the operation was led
by Mufti Abdul Hannan, the late leader of extremist group Harakat ul Jihad Al
Islami, which perpetrated a string of attacks across Bangladesh in the late
1990s and early 2000s.
Hannan, the main accused in the
failed bomb plot, was hanged in April for orchestrating a grenade attack on
Britain's envoy to Bangladesh in 2004.
The accused in this latest case
wanted to kill Hasina because "they said she was not a Muslim, and an
agent of India, and Islam can be established (in Bangladesh) only by killing
her," Badol said.
He said another large explosive was
found three days later at a helipad where Hasina was scheduled to land.
A separate prosecutor, Khandaker
Abdul Mannan, said those sentenced to death were also implicated in other
assaults, including a deadly bombing at a church and a secular festival.
Defence lawyer Faruque Ahmed said
the defendants would lodge an appeal through the jail authorities. "There
are a lot of questions about this case. The defendants said they did not get
justice," he told AFP.
Hannan tried to kill Hasina in a
separate grenade attack at a rally in the capital Dhaka in August 2004, in
which 22 people were killed, Badol said.
Hasina, who was opposition leader at
that time, suffered injuries to her ear in the carnage. A madrassa teacher who
studied in India and Pakistan, Hannan fought against the Soviets in Afghanistan
before returning home to Bangladesh where he rose to prominence for a string of
deadly attacks under his command.
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