Politics Today

ISLAMABAD: The government on Saturday announced to reduce prices of all petroleum products by Rs 5 per litre.

According to the announcement, the new price for petrol, to be effective from February 01, would be Rs 71.25 and the price of high speed diesel would be Rs 75.79 per litre.

Similarly, high octane price would be Rs 75.66 per litre while that of kerosene oil and light diesel oil would be Rs 43.25 and Rs 39.94 per litre respectively for the month of February.

In a statement, Finance Minister Ishaq Dar said that decrease of Rs 5 per litre had been approved by the prime minister. He said that in percentage terms, the decrease is from 6.2 percent for high speed diesel and HOBC to 11.1 percent for the light diesel oil.

The minister stated the government had been passing on benefit of decrease in oil prices in the international market to the consumers in the country. He said the prices announced for the month of February were another manifestation of the government’s resolve to provide maximum relief to the general public.



DAILY TIMES
YEMI

KARACHI: Governor State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) Ashraf Wathra on Saturday said that local economy was facing different challenges despite the macro-economic indicators have showed sustainability during the last financial year.

The SBP kept the policy rates unchanged in the first monetary policy announced in year 2016, slightly against the expectations of analysts who believed in the room for cut in policy rates by at least 50 basis points.

On the occasion of monetary policy announcement, the SBP chief mentioned the challenges facing Pakistan’s economy that included decline in exports due to contraction of trade at the regional and the local levels.

Responding to a question, he said that decline in exports could not be attributed to interest rates of banks for specific schemes but it was a global issue which had been hurting Pakistan as well.

There are challenges to overall economic performance from the declines in the production of cotton and rice.

The monetary policy pointed out that the major macroeconomic indicators continued to exhibit improvements in the first half of the current fiscal year, whereas the inflationary environment stayed benign, large scale manufacturers (LSM) gained traction and fiscal consolidation remained on track.

In addition, successful completion of ninth review under IMF’s EFF and disbursements from multilateral and bilateral sources added to country’s external buffers. With the pickup in private sector credit, for fixed investment in particular, along with improving security situation reflected strengthening of investor and consumer confidence.

The average CPI inflation declined to 2.1 percent during July-December 2015, with perishable food items and motor fuel leading the way. Meanwhile, trend in YoY CPI inflation reversed as it rose for third consecutive month to 3.2 percent in December 2015.

Keeping in view the benign outlook of global commodity prices, expectation of a moderate pickup in domestic demand and further ease in supply side constraints, SBP expected the average inflation in FY16 to remain in the range of 3 to 4 percent. However, global oil price trends and excess domestic food stocks (wheat, rice, and sugar) may exert downward pressures on inflation.

Large-scale manufacturing (LSM) grew by 4.4 percent during Jul-Nov FY16 as compared to 3.1 percent in the same period last year. LSM mainly benefitted from monetary easing, falling international prices of key inputs, better energy situation, increased domestic demand for consumer durables, and expansion of construction activities.

The uptick in economic activity appears to continue beyond FY16 on the back of energy and infrastructure projects under CPEC.

Some stress in liquidity noticed in Q1-FY16 due to increased government borrowing from the scheduled banks steadily eased in Q2-FY16 owing to improved revenue collection and timely receipt of foreign flows.


DAILY TIMES
YEMI

 Republican Texas Senator Ted Cruz, locked in a tight race in Iowa with billionaire Donald Trump just two days before the state's crucial U.S. presidential nominating contest, urged a packed house of supporters to give him the first victory of the 2016 campaign.
Ten Republicans and three Democrats were campaigning in Iowa for their parties' nominations but much of the focus was on the fight between Cruz and Trump.
“This is your time,” Cruz told a crowd of about 1,000 at a hotel ballroom. "This is the time for the men and women of Iowa to make a decision. We are inches away.”
On Monday, Iowans will gather in homes, gymnasiums, libraries, taverns and even grain elevators for caucuses to select their favorite for the Democratic and Republican presidential nominations. When they are finished, the race will take on a new dynamic and several candidates are expected to drop out altogether.
Polls suggest that either Cruz, who is making a furious last-minute swing through as many counties and small towns as he can, or Trump, who was holding several large-scale rallies across Iowa this weekend, will prevail among the Republicans.
Trump used stagecraft and blasted Cruz to enliven a crowd in Dubuque as he barnstormed through eastern Iowa. At the airport, Trump's plane, with his name emblazoned on the side, did a fly-by near the hangar where he was to soon speak. The plane landed, and he emerged from his plane to speak to a crowd of about 400, small by Trump standards.
Trump urged people to caucus. "This is now crunch time," he said. "This is what it's all about."
While at his event in Ames, Cruz refrained from attacking Trump but the New York developer was not so circumspect. He continued to suggest that Cruz may not be legally qualified to be president because he was born in Canada.
"How the hell can you run for president?" Trump said. "Ted has a big problem."
On the Democratic side, Hillary Clinton, the former secretary of state, and Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders remain engaged in a fierce battle, both in Iowa and elsewhere.
The two, along with former Maryland Governor Martin O'Malley, agreed in principle to add four debates to their calendars, Clinton's campaign said. The first will be next week in New Hampshire, contingent on approval by the Democratic National Committee.
The Clinton campaign also called for a debate in Flint, Michigan, to highlight the city's water-contamination crisis.
CLINTON ON GUN CONTROL
Clinton made a stop as well in Ames, where she spoke to a crowd of more than 1,100 at Iowa State University. She was introduced by former U.S. Representative Gabby Giffords and her husband, former astronaut Mark Kelly. In 2011, Giffords was critically injured when she was shot during an assassination attempt near Tucson, Arizona. In her remarks, Clinton praised gun-control measures recently taken by President Barack Obama.
“None of it will stick if it’s not a voting issue, and as you go to caucus Monday night, please think about this,” Clinton said.
Sanders, speaking at a college in Waverly, stuck to his familiar theme of reducing economic inequality and praised his fund-raising.
"I am proud to tell you that we have received almost 3 million individual contributions, more than any other candidate in history," he said, while criticizing Clinton, without naming her, for relying more heavily on wealthier donors.
The New York Times editorial board Saturday weighed on the campaign, endorsing Clinton for the Democratic nomination and Republican John Kasich for the Republicans. The Times called Clinton one of the most "deeply qualified presidential candidates in modern history."
Kasich, the governor of Ohio who is trailing badly in national polls, was the only candidate in the crowded Republican field the board said it was able to stomach. "Gov. John Kasich of Ohio, though a distinct underdog, is the only plausible choice for Republicans tired of the extremism and inexperience on display in this race," the board wrote.
The moderate Kasich will not be a factor in Iowa, where social and religious conservatives hold sway at the caucuses. Those voters seem to have largely cohered around the fiery Cruz, whose stump speech carries a distinct anti-establishment tone. Conservative commentator Glenn Beck introduced Cruz at the Ames rally.
Cruz is trying to bounce back from what many observers considered to be a rocky performance in Thursday’s debate. With Trump boycotting the event over a disagreement with sponsor Fox News Channel, much of scrutiny fell on Cruz, who, among other things, tussled with moderators and sniped repeatedly at another rival, Florida Senator Marco Rubio.
Rubio also has much to gain from Monday’s caucuses. A finish in the top tier could give him needed momentum going into the next nominating contest, the New Hampshire primary on Feb. 10.
His campaign announced that it would air 30-minute town halls featuring Rubio in television markets all across the state over the weekend.


REUTERS
YEMI

LAHORE: Nishat Group Chairman and Pakistan's leading industrialist Mian Mohammad Mansha has served a legal notice in England through Carter Ruck (the UK's leading defamation law firm) against Pakistani media house ARY Network Ltd for false and defamatory allegations broadcast by the television network on-air.

As stated in the legal notice served on January 14 that the network's broadcasts contained numerous false and slanderous allegations, including those pertaining to the acquisition of the St James Hotel and Club Limited (the "Hotel") in the UK and the operations of DG Khan Cement's Kallar Kahar factory in Pakistan. The allegations have been flatly and categorically denied being devoid of any truth whatsoever.

The notice declares that it is completely false that Chairman Nishat Group has been involved in money laundering and/or other illegal activity in relation to the acquisition of the St James Hotel. As has been public ally disclosed, the hotel is 100% owned by M/s Sea Capital Limited, a company incorporated in the United Kingdom. That company is a wholly owned subsidiary of M/s Residentia Holdings PTE Limited which is a Singaporean entity. Residentia Holdings PTE Limited financed the acquisition of M/s Sea Capital Limited through a mixture of debt and equity.

The notice goes on to say that Nishat Group chairman does not own any interest in any of these entities. Three members of Chairman Nishat Group's family own the entire equity of M/s Residentia Holdings PTE Limited and have declared the same in their respective wealth statements. The acquisition of the Hotel was undertaken according to international regulations and was overseen by external auditors of repute. All relevant records have been duly filed with the concerned regulators.

The notice further states that it is completely false that Chairman Nishat Group operates the DG Khan Cement factory in KallarKahar, in callous disregard of serious harm being caused to the health and well-being of people living in the area of the factory and extensive pollution of the environment in the area of the factory. It is also completely falsethat Chairman Nishat Group has used illegal means to obtain the collusion of the Government and regional administrators to enable him to operate the factory as per allegations levelled by ARY Network Ltd. The legal notice further states that the DG Khan Cement factory located within KallarKahar was supplied by a world renowned supplier of cement plants and equipment and thatthe equipment complied with applicable World Bank Environment Standards in terms of gaseous, liquid and particulate emissions. Since commercial production commenced in March 2007, the factory has undergone regular inspection by Pakistan's National Environment Quality Standards (NEQS) and, on each occasion, has been found compliant with the set standards.

The factory team takes their duties and responsibilities to the local community and workers - over 50% of whom are from the local community - to include their environmental responsibilities very seriously. These include providing free drinking water (approximately 275,000 litres daily), medical services for those patients who live in the vicinity of the factory and free transport to and from the Factory's medical centre for elderly and female patients. The notice discloses that images of chimney smoke spewing from a factory were broadcast by the Network and incorrectly attributed to DG Khan Cement, whereas they were from another factory. Allegations that the DG Khan Cement factory emits smoke and pungent odour during its operations are wholly false. Contrary to the impression conveyed in ARY Network Ltd's programmes, poultry and household waste is not transported to the factory untreated and in open lorries. It is transported in covered lorries, mainly on the motorway, from the waste processing plant "Lahore Green". Alternate fuel usage at the factory accounts for approximately 20% of the fuel used. Indeed, far from profiting from the burning of this waste, the factory ran at a loss for approximately the last six months in relation to this aspect of its processes.

The notice further states that the allegations made by ARY Network Ltd. are gravely defamatory and are of a nature that will have caused serious harm and are likely to cause serious harm in the future. This is aggravated by the wholly gratuitous broadcasting of the national identity cards of the Chairman Nishat Group's family members, containing their photographs and unpixellated private personal information - a very serious security risk to their lives. This is yet further aggravated by ARY Network Ltd.'s conduct during the course of 2015, whereby the Network has undertaken a campaign against Chairman Nishat Group, broadcasting repeated false and damaging claims about him, which have escalated over recent months.


DAILY TIMES
YEMI

The oil market scored modest gains Friday, ending a turbulent January that drove prices sharply lower amid worries about the global crude oversupply.

Speculation that Russia and the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries will meet to discuss oil output cuts to push up prices supported sentiment for a second day, analysts said.

US benchmark West Texas Intermediate for delivery in March rose 40 cents to $33.62 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange, after advancing almost $3 over the three prior trading sessions.

In London, Brent North Sea for March finished at $34.74, adding 85 cents from Thursday's settlement and about $2.50 over the week.

The oil market managed a second straight week of advances after having sunk to 12-year lows early this month.

Despite those gains, WTI finished the month down about nine percent and Brent nearly seven percent. Mike Lynch of Strategic Energy and Economic Research said there was "no strong reason" for Friday's lift in prices. "The talk of Russia and OPEC maybe meeting and working out a production cut has made people think we've reached a bottom and it's time to buy back in the market," Lynch said.

According to Russian news agency reports Thursday, Energy Minister Alexander Novak said Moscow is ready to discuss "coordinating" with OPEC and mutual production cuts of up to five percent. The news though drew skepticism that such a meeting or agreement would take place. Novak said they had been approached by Venezuela about a potential meeting but that was the extent of it, while senior OPEC delegates were dismissive," said Matt Smith of ClipperData.

But Price Futures Group analyst Phil Flynn said the mere talk of a Russia-OPEC meeting was shifting sentiment higher. “OPEC summit talk is being denied a little bit,” Flynn said. But in the market there remains at least a ray of hope they could get together on a production cut. And that hope is just enough to give the market a boost.

Meanwhile the number of active oil drilling rigs in the United States fell by 12 this week to 498, compared with 1,223 a year ago. The plunge in the market also was reflected by Chevron. The second-largest US oil company reported Friday a $588 million loss in the fourth quarter, its first loss since 2002.


DAILY TIMES
YEMI

Swedish police say the large gang distributed leaflets inciting people to assault refugees.
Witnesses said the men physically attacked people they believed were foreigners. However, police have not confirmed these reports.
It comes amid heightened tension in Sweden over the migrant crisis.
Some 163,000 migrants applied for asylum in Sweden in 2015, the highest per capita number in Europe.
According to Aftonbladet newspaper, the men in Stockholm were distributing leaflets on Friday evening with the slogan "It's enough now!",
The material threatened to give "the North African street children who are roaming around" the "punishment they deserve."
The newspaper published a video showing the gang clashing with police at Stockholm's central station.

Knuckledusters

Stockholm police said in a statement (in Swedish) that the group was handing out leaflets with the intention to incite people to carry out crimes.
One man was arrested after punching an officer in the face. Several others were detained on public order offences and another was found with brass knuckledusters, police said. All had been released by the following morning.
 

 
  Police apparently clashed with masked men outside Stockholm central station


Spokeswoman Towe Haegg told Swedish radio police had not received any reports of violence against people from migrant backgrounds.
However, Aftonbladet interviewed one 16-year-old who said he had been hit in the face near Stockholm's central station. The newspaper also quoted another witness who said he had seen men beating up people who appeared to have a foreign background in the middle of the city's Sergelstorg square.
The men were wearing arm bands of various colours and have been reportedly linked to football hooligan gangs.
There were scuffles on Saturday between pro and anti-migrant demonstrators, during which witnesses say foreigners were assaulted.
Tensions have increased after a 22-year-old employee was stabbed to death at a centre for young asylum seekers earlier this week. A 15-year-old asylum seeker was arrested in Molndal, near Gothenburg, over the murder.
Along with Germany, Sweden is a prime destination for refugees and other migrants entering the EU illegally.
More than one million refugees and migrants travelled to Europe last year, most fleeing conflicts in Syria, Iraq and Afghanistan.
The numbers arriving in Sweden have fallen significantly since it imposed tighter border controls this year.
On Thursday, Interior Minister Anders Ygeman said the country would prepare to deport up to 80,000 migrants whose asylum applications were rejected.


BBC
YEMI

Thousands of people marched in the Paris rain on Saturday to denounce plans to renew France's state of emergency and revoke the French citizenship of dual nationals convicted of terrorism.
Human rights groups, politicians and unions joined the march in the French capital and in other demonstrations around France. The protests came just days before the Cabinet plans to review a measure on Wednesday to prolong the state of emergency, first imposed after the Nov. 13 Paris attacks that killed 130 people.
The state of emergency gives more power to police and administrative authorities, allowing for searches without warrants, house arrests and other measures.
"My France of liberties, where are you?" read one banner.
The parliament is expected to approve the prolongation of the exceptional measures in voting later this month. The current state of emergency expires Feb. 26.
Jean-Baptiste Eyrault, of the Right to Housing movement, said: "Democracy is moving backwards ... at the expense of judges and the rule of law, freedom to demonstrate and [freedom] of expression."
Last week, a French high court upheld the measure, saying the danger "has not disappeared."
Opponents of another plan to revoke citizenship for dual nationals convicted of terrorism claim the move would feed racism, creating a two-tier system of citizens. Many dual nationals are Muslims, and some feel they are blamed for attacks such as those on Nov. 13.
Green party lawmaker Noel Mamere, taking part in the march, said the state of emergency lays the foundations for "a society under surveillance."
Christiane Taubira resigned suddenly last week as France's justice minister over her opposition to the plan, and as it became evident her views were on a collision course with those of President Francois Hollande.



ALJAZEERA
YEMI

The foreign ministry said a Russian jet flew into its airspace on the border with Syria on Friday. Moscow described the claim as "baseless propaganda".
Tensions between the two countries have been high since November, when Turkey shot down a Russian jet.
Russia has been carrying out air strikes in Syria since September.
It has been targeting forces fighting the government of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, its ally.

'Irresponsible steps'

In a statement, the Turkish foreign ministry said a Russian SU-34 jet crossed into Turkish airspace at 11:46 local time on Friday, ignoring several warnings made in Russian and English.
It said the ministry had summoned the Russian ambassador in Ankara to "strongly protest at and condemn" the incident.
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan warned on Saturday that Russia would "have to face consequences if it keeps up such violations".
"Such irresponsible steps do not benefit either the Russian Federation, or Russia-Nato relations, or regional and global peace," he told reporters.
He said he had asked repeatedly for a meeting with his Russian counterpart, Vladimir Putin, without success.
Nato - of which Turkey is a member - on Saturday urged Russia "to act responsibility and to fully respect Nato airspace" and "take all necessary measures to ensure that such violations do not happen again".

Relations between Russia and Turkey, a vocal opponent of Mr Assad, plummeted after Turkish F-16s shot down a Russian SU-24 on 24 November.
Turkey said the plane intruded into its airspace and ignored repeated warnings to leave.
Russia insisted the jet had never crossed over from Syrian territory and did not receive any warnings.
The two leaders embarked on a war of words and Russia introduced a raft of sanctions designed to damage Turkey's economy.
Moscow's ban on the import of Turkish foods, the sale of charter holidays for Russians to Turkey and most construction projects with Turkish firms was expected to cost the Turkish economy at least $10bn.


BBC
YEMI

The New York Times's editorial board endorsed Democrat Hillary Clinton and Republican John Kasich as they seek to become their parties' nominees in the U.S. presidential election, calling Clinton one of the most "deeply qualified presidential candidates in modern history."
Clinton, a front-runner facing a strong challenge from Senator Bernie Sanders, and Kasich, who has only dimly registered in the polls, received the endorsements from one of the nation's largest newspapers two days before voters in Iowa hold the first nominating contest for the Nov. 8 election.
"Mr Sanders does not have the breadth of experience or policy ideas that Mrs Clinton offers," the board wrote, after praising him for making important points about economic inequality and foreign policy.
The board praised Clinton's term as secretary of state from 2009 to 2013, and said she had shown a lifelong commitment to American workers, particularly women. The board criticized her as too quick to propose using military force abroad, but said she still would be a better military leader than her Republican rivals.
The Times editorial board previously endorsed Clinton in 2008, when she ran against Barack Obama. In that endorsement, it also argued that Clinton had more experience and had presented more detailed policy ideas than her rival.
Kasich, the governor of Ohio, was the only candidate in the crowded Republican field the board said it was able to stomach.
"Gov. John Kasich of Ohio, though a distinct underdog, is the only plausible choice for Republicans tired of the extremism and inexperience on display in this race," the board wrote.
It said Kasich had "been capable of compromise and believes in the ability of government to improve lives."
The board said that front-runner Donald Trump did not have experience of international issues or interest in learning about them. It said Ted Cruz would "say anything to win."


REUTERS
YEMI

ISLAMABAD - Federal Minister for Finance and Economic Affairs Senator Ishaq Dar as the Economic Coordination Committee (ECC) chairman on Saturday accorded anticipatory approval to amend 0.6 per cent Withholding Tax (WHT) rate on banking transactions to 0.3 per cent in respect of non-filers till February 29, 2016.

The Income Tax Amendment Act 2016 empowers the federal government to amend the rate of 0.6 per cent on the recommendation of the ECC. Dar also gave approval for extending the date for filing of tax returns by Individuals and Associations of Persons till 29th February.

In addition the last date for filing of tax returns by traders under the Income Tax (second amendment)/Act, 2016, the last date has also been specified as 29th February 2016.




DAILY TIMES
YEMI

ISLAMABAD - In a meeting held in Peshawar on Saturday, military commanders from Pakistan and Afghanistan agreed to enhance coordination and security measures on both sides of the border.

An eight-member delegation of the Afghan National Army, headed by Corps Commander Lieutenant General Mohammad Sharif Yaftali, visited the Corps Headquarters Peshawar and called on Corps Commander Lieutenant General Hidayatur Rehman, Inter-Services Public Relations (ISPR) said.

The visit was a follow up of Army Chief General Raheel Sharif’s last visit to Afghanistan, during which it was decided that corps commanders from both sides would hold meetings for better border management.

The delegates discussed matters pertaining to mutual interest and security arrangements at the Pak-Afghan border, a statement from ISPR said. Both militaries have also established a hotline to exchange views on security matters in line with decisions taken during the army chief’s visit.



DAILY TIMES
YEMI

A month ago, I was seated in a dimly-lit room in downtown Karachi, talking to militants representing three factions of the Taliban-al-Qaeda conglomerate that has ruled the underworld of Afghanistan and Pakistan since the 1990s.
Not generally eager to reveal themselves, let alone to talk shop with a journalist, previous twice-yearly encounters had been rather stiff affairs in which the militants would be hospitable, but not particularly forthcoming.
In the latter half of 2015, however, the militants were the ones repeatedly requesting a meeting and when it took place in December, it was clear that these hardened prodigies of Mullah Mohammed Omar and Osama bin Laden were alarmed by the rapidity with which the "Khorasan" governorate of the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) group has gained strength in Afghanistan.
Officials there recently said that ISIL now controls 10 of the 21 districts of eastern Nangarhar province, and has expanded into neighbouring provinces, reaching as far as the borders of Kabul province.

Broken bonds of allegiance

It was chilling to see expressions of dread on the faces of men, each of whom have fought and ruthlessly killed in Afghanistan, Kashmir, Chechnya and beyond.
What worried them most was the ease with which ISIL had persuaded al-Qaeda's best - or worst - operations commanders as they were scattered from the North Waziristan tribal area by the Pakistani military.

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ALSO READ: ISIL prolongs US war of contradictions in Afghanistan

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The militants estimated that about 80 percent of their colleagues had broken the bonds of allegiance withered by the 2011 killing of Bin Laden and snapped by the 2013 demise of Omar, disclosed last July.
By the second half of January, it had become apparent that the ISIL's expansion into Afghanistan was not merely a natural, isolated expansion into a country torn by civil war, well known to the elders of Raqqa, who had lived, trained and fought there as al-Qaeda jihadists for the decade up to the US invasion of 2001. Instead it was part of a strategic expansion into Asia, home to 62 percent of the world's estimated 1.6 billion Muslims
ISIL grabbed the headlines in Indonesia and Malaysia, the Muslim-majority states of Southeast Asia, by carrying out a somewhat amateurish attack on a central business district of Jakarta, nonetheless creating the kind of media hype that ISIL feeds on.
Soon after, officials in both countries disclosed that they had been alerted to the threat of ISIL-inspired attacks on public gatherings and foreigners over the Christmas and New Year holiday, and were able to prevent them by deploying tens of thousands of security personnel and arresting of the plotters.

Propaganda value

As in Afghanistan and Pakistan, ISIL has used the propaganda value of its sick antics in the Middle East, Africa and Europe to attract the several hundred orphaned militants from Indonesia and Malaysia to the frontline in Iraq and Syria.
It has also been working to create cells in Southeast Asian countries in which Muslim minorities suffer a sense of disenfranchisement or persecution: China, Myanmar, Philippines and Thailand.
Security analysts say an ISIL cell, comprising Turkey-based Uighur dissidents from China's western Xinjiang province, was responsible for the bombing of Bangkok's Erawan Shrine in August. The same cell was said to have established a regional network in southern Thailand, where occasional clashes between Muslim separatists and Thai security forces have been going on for decades.
Uighur militants associated with the al-Qaeda-affiliated East Turkestan Islamic Movement were previously based in Pakistan's tribal areas until forced to relocate to Syria by the military offensive there in the summer of 2014. The same cell was subsequently reinforced by Syrian militants sent to Thailand in late October to target Russians, according to an alert sent to the Thai authorities by Russia's FSB security agency.

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ALSO READ: ISIL won't get very far in Afghanistan - for now

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Now the cell is instrumental in ISIL's aim of uniting the disparate groups of the region under the umbrella of a new governorate, the leadership of which is being contested by figures in Indonesia and Malaysia, and in the Muslim-majority Philippine state of Mindanao, where President Benigno Aquino is struggling to obtain Congressional ratification for a 2014 autonomy agreement with Muslim separatists.
As in Afghanistan, officials are warning of the dangerous ramifications of providing ISIL with the political space in which to establish a beachhead in Mindanao.
Meanwhile, Indian authorities arrested members of an ISIL cell on suspicion of plotting an attack on the Republic Day parade in New Delhi attended by French President Francois Hollande, which went off without incident on Tuesday.
Political circumstances and time, it seems, are on ISIL's side.



ALJAZEERA
YEMI

LAHORE - Punjab Assembly Leader of Opposition and Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) leader Mian Mehmoodur Rasheed has termed the Orange Line Train project meant to the economic murder of the masses.

Addressing a press conference along with leaders of other political parties here on Saturday, Rasheed said that he was not against Orange Line Train project but he was against the mode adopted for implementation of the project.

He stressed the need for completion of project keeping in view the Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) study. He said that a protest rally would be held at Mall Road Lahore on February 02, and six protest camps would be set up at the Orange Line Train project route.

He demanded the government for adopting Tunnel Boring Technology for Orange Line Train project.


DAILY TIMES
YEMI

One of three inmates who escaped a week ago from a maximum-security jail in Southern California has been taken into custody after surrendering to law enforcement, while the other two were believed to be in the Bay Area, police said on Friday.
Bac Duong, 43, gave himself up to police in Santa Ana shortly before noon, Orange County Sheriff Sandra Hutchens told a news conference.
The other two escapees remained at large on Friday afternoon. Sheriff's Lieutenant Jeff Hallock told reporters officials believed Hossein Nayeri, 37, and Jonathan Tieu, 20, were in San Jose.
Carrie Braun, a sheriff's spokeswoman, said Duong apparently surrendered "because of the pressure that was being put on him by the general community" during an exhaustive, week-long manhunt.
Duong broke out of the Orange County Men's Central Jail in Santa Ana on Jan. 22 along with Nayeri and Tieu.
Duong and Tieu are both reputed to be connected with Vietnamese-American street gangs, and Hallock said Nayeri and Tieu may have chosen San Jose due to its large Vietnamese population. He said they may be heading to Fresno next.
Nooshafarin Ravaghi, a community college instructor who taught at the jail and had befriended Nayeri, was arrested on Thursday on suspicion of assisting in the escape by furnishing the inmates with Google Maps information that included overviews of the jail rooftop and surrounding areas.
Ravaghi and Nayeri had also exchanged handwritten letters outside of class that were personal in nature, sheriff's office Hallock told reporters earlier on Friday.
Nayeri, the presumed mastermind of the breakout, was in jail on charges stemming from the 2012 mutilation torture of a kidnap victim.
Tieu was facing murder charges and Duong charges of attempted murder and assault with a deadly weapon, among other crimes.
Hallock said it was Duong who on Sunday took what was supposed to be a test drive in a utility van advertised for sale in south Los Angeles and never returned.
Authorities say the men made their getaway by cutting through steel grating inside the jail, climbing through a plumbing conduit to the roof and lowering themselves four floors with bedsheets to the ground. Their disappearance went unnoticed for about 16 hours.
Ravaghi is expected to be arraigned on Monday.
In a high profile New York prison break last year, the fugitive inmates had help from a female prison employee who allegedly had sexual relations with one of them. She was sentenced to seven years for her role.


REUTERS
YEMI

ISLAMABAD - Islamabad Civil Judge Abdul Ghafoor Kakar on Saturday gave 14 days judicial remand of Capital Development Authority’s (CDA) Director Enforcement Muhammad Iqbal to the Federal Investigation Authority (FIA) in the Afghan slums case.

The accused was produced in the court by FIA personnel. The FIA prosecutor told the court that the accused had played a role in establishing the slums in H-9 Sector by selling state land to Afghan nationals.

He requested the court to grant his more physical remand for investigations. However, the court granted 14-day judicial remand.



DAILY TIMES
YEMI

SARGODHA - An unmanned aircraft of Pakistan Air Force (PAF) crashed after a technical glitch developed in it, here on Saturday.

Sources said that the drone was on a routine flight in the 106-northern area of Sargodha when it encountered a mechanical fault and crashed.

PAF officials and police reached the crash site after getting information of the incident. The personnel cordoned off the area. A large number of locals also gathered at the crash site.



DAILY TIMES
YEMI

Renowned political theorist Noam Chomsky is often cited for his criticism of the US political system.
In the second of a special two-part interview, Chomsky sits down with Mehdi Hasan to discuss the US presidential election and the rise of Islamophobia.
The US academic says Democratic presidential candidate Bernie Sanders has the "best policies", but little chance of winning in a "mainly bought" election.
When asked if he would vote for presidential hopeful Hillary Clinton if he lived in a swing state, Chomsky says: "Oh absolutely... my vote would be against the Republican candidate."
Also watch part one of the interview, in which Chomsky discusses  ISIL, Turkey and Ukraine.



ALJAZEERA
YEMI

The long and sometimes arcane ritual of electing the next U.S. president begins on Monday in more than 1,100 schools, churches and libraries across Iowa, a state that wields political influence far greater than its small size.
After more than a year of up-close and personal evaluation of the candidates, Iowans will gather with their neighbors on what promises to be a cold wintry night to kick off the state-by-state process of picking the Republican and Democratic nominees for the Nov. 8 presidential election.
The starring opening-night role of the largely rural Midwestern state in the presidential drama, now four decades old, is a source of pride for Iowa voters, who spend months evaluating the candidates, looking them in the eye and asking questions.
"Iowans see it as a great privilege and a great gift. They take their role very seriously," said Tom Henderson, chairman of the Democratic Party in Polk County, home to Iowa's biggest city, Des Moines.
The caucuses will begin on Monday at 7 p.m. CST, and results are expected within two or three hours. Most gatherings will be in schools, community centers or other public locations, although at least two Republican caucuses will be in private homes and one Democratic caucus will be held at an equestrian center.
Turnout varies by community, with up to 1,000 people typically gathering in cities like Des Moines, while a few dozen or less may gather in more sparsely populated areas.
The state Republican and Democratic parties run their caucuses separately, although in some areas they hold them in different parts of the same building. Republicans will have more than 800 caucus sites, and Democrats will have about 1,100.
The two parties also have different rules. Iowa Democrats gather in groups by candidate preference in a public display of support, a tradition that can allow for shifts back and forth. If a candidate does not reach the threshold of support of 15 percent of voters in a caucus needed to be considered viable, that candidates' supporters are released to back another contender, leading to another round of persuasion.
Republicans are more straightforward. They write their vote privately on a sheet of paper that is collected and counted at the site by caucus officials. A surrogate or volunteer from each campaign may speak to their neighbors in a last-ditch plea for support, adding to the uncertainty going into the process.
Neither party is offering voter turnout estimates this year, although many Iowans predict the Republicans will surpass the 121,503 who turned out in 2012. In the last contested Democratic caucus, in 2008, excitement over Barack Obama's candidacy spurred a record turnout of 239,872.
Iowa, the 30th most populated state, and tiny New Hampshire, which holds the second nominating contest on Feb. 9, have traditionally served as early filters to winnow out the losers and elevate the top contenders for later contests.
But Iowa Republicans recently have had a spotty record at backing the ultimate presidential nominees. Neither the Republican winner in 2008, former Arkansas Governor Mike Huckabee, nor the winner in 2012, former U.S. Senator Rick Santorum, managed to win the party nomination.
Iowa Democrats did back the party's last two nominees: John Kerry in 2004 and Obama in 2008, which ultimately launched Obama's drive to the White House.


REUTERS
YEMI

The first node in the network is a telecommunications satellite that was launched from Baikonur, Kazakhstan.
It will use a laser to gather pictures of the planet taken by other spacecraft and then relay them to the ground.
One benefit will be to put information on natural disasters, such as flooding and earthquakes, into the hands of emergency responders far faster than has previously been possible.
Currently, it can take hours to get the pictures taken by Earth observation satellites down on the ground.
Part of the reason is that spacecraft can only transmit their images when they pass over a receiving dish, and they will have visibility of this antenna for just 10 minutes in most cases during every 90-minute tour around the globe.
The European Space Agency's (Esa) answer is to fire the pictures upwards instead, via laser, to another satellite much higher in the sky that has a constant view of the ground station.
The agency recently put up two Earth observers that are equipped with optical transmission equipment. These will now be able to offload their data through the new relay satellite, which is to be positioned 36,000km above the equator at 9 degrees East.
Testing by Esa's industrial partner, Airbus Defence and Space, shows it should be possible for the system to put pictures on the desks of the people who need them within 20 minutes of those images being acquired.
For some applications - such as the monitoring of pollution incidents, or illegal fishing or ocean piracy - the time saved could be critical to achieving an effective response.
"Some important shipping routes go through the North Pole region, where thick ice flows can cause damage to vessels and even threaten human life," explained Magali Vaissiere, Esa's director of telecoms.
"It's also an environment in constant motion which means that data that is two days old is not only unhelpful - it could even be unsafe.
"We have already demonstrated quasi real-time performance of below 20 minutes for bringing monitoring information from the coast of Brazil to the user's desk. And with this capability, the European Data Relay System (EDRS) may open up a new horizon to what I would call quasi real time Earth observation."

 

EDRS has been in development for more than 10 years. Getting satellites to talk to each other via a narrow laser beam is no easy task, says Esa project manager Michael Witting.
"The difficulty is basically that you have to hit another satellite with your laser beam over a distance of over 40,000km, which is akin to hitting a two-euro coin over the distance of the Atlantic," he told BBC News.
With a successful connection, data will move at a rate of up to 1.8Gbps.
EDRS will debut with the European Commission as its anchor customer. Brussels is establishing a series of satellites called Sentinels that will systematically map the Earth, to help inform and enforce EU policies.
Prodigious volumes of data are expected from these satellites in the coming years and the traditional downlink solutions are no longer regarded as adequate to the task.

 

The relay spacecraft is actually a standard TV platform owned by the Paris-based commercial operator Eutelsat. Esa's laser node, which it refers to as EDRS-A, is a hosted payload on this spacecraft.
The launch from the Kazakh Baikonur cosmodrome atop a Proton rocket occurred at 22.20 GMT on Friday (04:20 local time Saturday).
The drop-off high above the Earth was confirmed nine hours and 12 minutes later.

 

Many weeks of testing lie ahead. EDRS should go into full service in the summer.
A second relay satellite carrying another laser terminal will go up in 2017. Further such platforms will be required to provide fully global, round-the-clock, super-fast connections.
Evert Dudok from Airbus said: "We are looking for partners to deliver the system. It can be a dedicated payload but it can also be a hosted payload as we have it on EDRS-A. We want to have this system operational by 2020; that's very important. And I think we can set this optical standard established here in Europe as a global standard, which would be very interesting"
The laser technology is very much a German development, led by Tesat Spacecom. Germany has invested more than 280m euros in the capability, through its own space agency (DLR) and through Esa.
Eutelsat-9B was built in large part at Airbus factories in Stevenage and Portsmouth the UK. Britain will also be a major downlink point for EDRS through a dish sited at Harwell in Oxfordshire.

Almost 40 people drowned and 75 were rescued after a boat carrying migrants to Greece sank off Turkey's western coast on Saturday, according to local officials and the Turkish Dogan news agency.
More than one million refugees and migrants arrived in the European Union last year and some 3,600 died or went missing, forcing the EU to mull suspending its Schengen open-borders area for up to two years.
The Turkish coast guard was continuing search and rescue efforts where the 17-metre boat carrying at least 120 people sank off the coast of Ayvacik, a town across from the Greek island of Lesvos, the Dogan news agency reported.
"I am afraid the numbers will rise as divers continue the search," Mehmet Unal Sahin, the mayor of Ayvacik, told the CNNTurk news channel by phone.
"Local people woke up to the sound of screaming migrants and we have been carrying out rescue work since dawn. We have an 80-kilometre-long coast just across from Lesbos, which is very hard to keep under control."
At least five of those who died were children, Dogan reported, while rescued migrants were hospitalized with hypothermia symptoms. It said the migrants were of Syrian, Afghan and Myanmar origin.
GREEK CENTRES
Chancellor Angela Merkel, who opened Germany's borders to Syrians fleeing civil war last summer, is under mounting pressure to halt the inflow.
Merkel told a meeting of a members of her Christian Democratic Union party on Saturday that despite efforts to help refugees, it was important to stress that they had only been given permission for a limited stay.
"We need ...to say to people that this is a temporary residential status and we expect that once there is peace in Syria again, once IS has been defeated in Iraq, that you go back to your home country."
Around 500,000 refugees from the five-year-old war in Syria traveled through Turkey and then risked their lives at sea to reach Greek islands in 2015.
Under pressure from the European Commission about delays, Greece expects to have four of five "hot spot" centers for processing migrants operational in about two weeks, its migration minister said in a newspaper interview published on Saturday.
"We are behind schedule on the installation of these hot spots," Greece's Yiannis Mouzalas told Austrian newspaper Der Standard. "Four of the five will be operational from mid-February."
Neighboring Turkey is hosting 2.5 million Syrian refugees. In November it struck a deal with the EU pledging to help stem the flow of migrants to Europe in return for 3 billion euros ($3.3 billion) in financial aid and renewed talks on joining the 28-nation bloc.



REUTERS
YEMI

WASHINGTON (AP) — Delegates are the key to claiming both the Republican and Democratic nominations for president, and the battle to win them starts Monday at the Iowa caucuses.
All of the Democratic contests award delegates in proportion to the vote, meaning you don't have to come in first to win some. Most of the GOP states award them proportionally, too, but there is a lot more variation from state to state.
For both parties, it takes a majority of delegates to the national convention to win the nomination.
Some things to know about Iowa's delegates:
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DEMOCRATS HAVE 44 DELEGATES AT STAKE
Iowa Democrats award delegates proportionally, based on the statewide vote as well as the vote in individual congressional districts.
Candidates must get at least 15 percent of the statewide vote to win any statewide delegates. They must win at least 15 percent of the vote in individual congressional districts to win the delegates allocated to those districts.
The threshold could be a problem for former Maryland Gov. Martin O'Malley, who is polling below 15 percent in pre-election polls in Iowa.
In a tight contest, it is possible for two candidates to split the delegates evenly.
There are 4,763 delegates to the Democratic National Convention, so it takes 2,382 to win the nomination.
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REPUBLICANS HAVE 30 DELEGATES AT STAKE
Republicans also award delegates proportionally, based on the statewide vote. But there is no threshold for winning them. That means a Republican candidate could win a single delegate with as little as 1.67 percent of the vote, depending on how the rounding works out.
There are 2,472 delegates to the Republican National Convention, so it takes 1,237 to win the nomination.
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DO DELEGATES HAVE TO SUPPORT THE CANDIDATE WHO WINS THEM?
Yes and no.
Unlike past years, Iowa's GOP rules require delegates to support the candidate who wins them, unless only one candidate is nominated at the convention. In that case, they can support the remaining candidate.
For Democrats, Monday's caucuses are the first step of a multi-step process of winning delegates to the party's national convention. The final step of the process is the state party convention in June.
The AP will allocate national convention delegates based on the results of Monday's caucuses. If the Democratic nomination is still in doubt when Iowa Democrats meet at their state convention, AP will update the delegate totals after that.
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ISN'T CLINTON ALREADY AHEAD IN THE RACE FOR DELEGATES?
Yes. The Democrats have 712 superdelegates who can support any candidate, no matter whom voters choose in the primaries and caucuses. They are members of Congress and other elected officials, party leaders and members of the Democratic National Committee.
The AP is tracking superdelegate endorsements. So far, 361 have said they would support Hillary Clinton at the convention. Only eight have backed Sen. Bernie Sanders and two have said they would support O'Malley.
Fewer than half of the superdelegates have not publicly committed to a candidate, though all of them can change their minds.
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DO REPUBLICANS ALSO HAVE SUPERDELEGATES?
Yes but not nearly as many as the Democrats have, and they are only in a handful of states.
In the past, many of the 168 members of the Republican National Committee (three for each state and U.S. territory) were free agents who could support the candidate of their choice.
But the RNC says a new rule adopted at the 2012 national convention requires states to bind their delegates based on the outcome of presidential primaries and caucuses.
There are exceptions. For example, Colorado and North Dakota won't hold presidential preference votes, so the RNC members from those states can support the candidate of their choice.
Other delegates from these states might also be free agents, but those delegates have not yet been selected.

AP

SANTA ANA, Calif. (AP) — The first major break in the hunt for three dangerous jail inmates came exactly a week after their escape, when one of them walked up to a Southern California auto shop where a friend works, had her call police and stood and smoked a cigarette until he was arrested.
He then told investigators that a day earlier he had been in Northern California with the other two inmates before breaking off to turn himself in, setting off a statewide search, authorities said.
Bac Duong, 43, is in custody and cooperating with authorities, Orange County sheriff's spokesman Jeff Hallock said Friday. His two former companions, 20-year-old Jonathan Tieu and 37-year-old Hossein Nayeri, are believed to be in San Jose and driving a van that the men stole a day after their escape. They may be on their way to Fresno, Hallock said.
"If they are watching, we want them to understand that we are pressing forward, and we are coming after them," Hallock said at a news conference, addressing the escapees directly for the first time. "We will take you back into custody."
Duong was taken into custody in Santa Ana, where the trio made their brazen escape on Jan. 22 from the maximum security facility, authorities said.
It's not clear how he got back to Southern California from San Jose, but early Friday Duong contacted a woman he knew at the auto electric repair shop just a few miles away from the jail, authorities and witnesses said.
Lee Tran, whose family owns Auto Electric Rebuilders, said Duong came to the shop looking for Tran's sister, Theresa, and told her that he wanted to surrender.
"He was scared for his life, pretty much," Tran said. "That's why he asked one of our people to turn him in."
Tran said his sister called 911, and Duong stayed outside until authorities came.
"She was crying her head off," said Trach Tran, her father, who was also there. "Everybody was scared."
Lee Tran said his sister's boyfriend knows Duong, and federal authorities had come by to speak with her earlier this week because she might have visited Duong in jail.
Shortly after the late-morning arrest, a team of well-armed officers in protective vests swarmed the business.
Tieu and Nayeri are believed to be still together in a white utility van the fugitives stole a day after the escape, and they could be headed to Fresno where there may be an associate who can help them, Hallock said.
The three men had all been awaiting trial for separate violent crimes at the Central Men's Jail. They were held in a dormitory with about 65 other men in the jail about 30 miles southeast of Los Angeles.
The men escaped in the early morning hours after cutting a hole in a metal grate then crawling through plumbing tunnels and onto the roof of a four-story jail building.
They pushed aside barbed wire and rappelled down using a rope made of bed linen.
It took jail staff 16 hours to realize the three men were missing.
On Thursday, authorities arrested a woman who taught English inside the jail. Nooshafarin Ravaghi, 44, gave Nayeri a paper copy of a Google Earth map that showed an aerial view of the entire jail compound, Hallock said.
She was booked on suspicion of being an accessory to a felony and was being held pending a court appearance set for Monday. It wasn't clear if she had a lawyer.
Ravaghi and Nayeri also exchanged "personal and close" handwritten letters, but Hallock could not say if the two were romantically involved.
"It wasn't the relationship that you would expect between a teacher and an inmate in a custody setting," he said.
Duong, a native of Vietnam, has been held since last month on charges of attempted murder and assault with a deadly weapon.
It was the first escape in nearly three decades from the California facility built in 1968 that holds 900 men.
Tieu is charged with murder and attempted murder in a 2011 gang shooting. Nayeri had been held without bond since September 2014 on charges of kidnapping, torture, aggravated mayhem and burglary.

AP