ISLAMABAD: Pakistani Prime Minister Imran Khan will meet International Monetary Fund (IMF) chief Christine Lagarde in Dubai on Sunday for talks on issues which have held up bailout negotiations, a Pakistani minister said on Saturday.

Pakistan is seeking its 13th bailout since the late 1980s to deal with a current account deficit that threatens to trigger a balance of payments crisis, but talks have been delayed by difficulties in reconciling IMF reform demands with Islamabad’s fears the push is too drastic and could hurt economic growth.

Information Minister Fawad Chaudhry told Reuters Khan will meet IMF Managing Director Christine Lagarde on the sidelines of the World Government Summit in Dubai.

“This will give us a chance to understand the IMF views and we will be able to give our version to Lagarde,” said Chaudhry, who will accompany Khan to Dubai along with Finance Minister Asad Umar.

Chaudhry said Pakistan wants any agreed bailout package, which would be the country’s second IMF bailout since 2013, to be the nation’s last such economic rescue by the IMF.

Officials had expected talks to conclude in November but they have been delayed as Islamabad harbors concerns that the programme could derail the economy and Khan’s plans for his term in office.

Pakistan has in the meantime sought financial assistance from Middle Eastern allies such as Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates, who have loaned it in excess of $10 billion to ease the pressure on its dwindling foreign currency reserves.

“The problem is not the (IMF) deal, the problem is the condition attached to the deal,” Chaudhry said.

“We don’t want conditions that hurt Pakistan’s growth prospects. We want a fair deal that can actually help Pakistan in the short term, without affecting our long-term economic goals.”

The IMF talks come amid a worsening macroeconomic outlook, with growth expectations slashed for the current fiscal year to about 4 percent from 6 percent previously forecast.

On Saturday, Pakistan also revised its growth figures for the last financial year to 5.2 percent from a previously reported 5.8 percent, after a sharp cut in the figure for large-scale manufacturing, the statistics office said.

When the original estimate was reported in April by the government of Prime Minister Shahid Khaqan Abbasi it was hailed as the strongest growth in 13 years.

Before the revisions to last year’s GDP figures, Pakistan’s deficit to GDP ratio, estimated at 5.8 percent in 2017-18, was expected to hit 6.9 percent this year, according to IMF data.

Reuters

BANGKOK: The Thai princess, whose stunning announcement that she was running for prime minister, thanked her supporters on Saturday, saying she wants Thailand to be “moving forward”, but she did not comment on her candidacy. The king, her brother, however, opposed her candidacy.

Princess Ubolratana Rajakanya Sirivadhana Barnavadi, 67, shocked the country on Friday when she announced she would be the prime ministerial candidate for a populist party loyal to ousted ex-premier Thaksin Shinawatra, in a March 24 election.

King Vajiralongkorn, 66, issued his message late on Friday, said his elder sister’s candidacy was “inappropriate” and it was against the spirit of the constitution for royalty to be involved in politics.

But her foray into politics – breaking with royal tradition – looked to be short-lived after her younger brother, King Maha Vajiralongkorn, quickly signaled he opposed it, which is likely to lead to her disqualification.

The Election Commission, which is overseeing the first polls since a 2014 military coup that overthrew a pro-Thaksin government, said it would issue a ruling on the issue on Monday.

The nomination of a royal family member by pro-Thaksin forces was an audacious gambit, potentially undercutting Thaksin’s ardently royalist foes, and setting up an election showdown with Prime Minister Prayuth Chan-ocha, who led the 2014 coup and heads the military government.

But,  King Vajiralongkorn’s swift rebuke of his sister’s bid could backfire on pro-Thaksin forces, who could face retribution if judged by election authorities to have tried to illegitimately use a royal connection.

The Thai Raksa Chart party, which nominated Ubolratana as its candidate for prime minister, said it “graciously accepts” the king’s statement and would abide by election regulations and royal tradition.

King Vajiralongkorn, 66, issued his message late on Friday, saying his elder sister’s candidacy was “inappropriate” and it was against the spirit of the constitution for royalty to be involved in politics.

While the Election Commission has the final say on approval of candidates, it seems unlikely its members would ignore the powerful influence of the king in making its decision.

Reuters

ISTANBUL:  The Turkish fiancee of murdered Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi said Friday she hoped pressure from the US Congress would encourage the Trump adminstration to take a tougher stance on the killing. Khashoggi, a Washington Post contributor, was killed on October 2 by Saudi agents during a visit to his country’s consulate in Istanbul to obtain paperwork ahead of his wedding to Hatice Cengiz. During a press conference in Istanbul for a book on Khashoggi’s life, Cengiz left the door open to a meeting with US President Donald Trump if certain conditions were met.
The book, titled “Jamal Khashoggi: his life, his fight, his secrets”, was written by Turkish journalists Mehmet Akif Ersoy and Sinan Onus with testimony from Cengiz. An English version will be published next week.
In the book, Cengiz shares her memories and papers detailing the life of former Saudi insider turned critic Khashoggi “who was a journalist for you, but a man for me”.  In December, Cengiz rejected an invitation from Trump.
But on Friday, she said “a visit to the United States could take place in March”. She hoped the US leader would have a change of “attitude” and “follow the case closely”.
“I have hope, not necessarily regarding Trump, but about the fact that the new Congress will follow this case more closely,” she said, struggling with tears as she spoke.
Special UN rapporteur, Agnes Callamard, said Thursday after a visit to Turkey that Khashoggi’s killing had been “planned and perpetrated” by Saudi officials. Khashoggi had written critical pieces on the Riyadh administration in the Post.
Trump faces a Friday deadline set by Congress to determine if Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman ordered the assassination of Khashoggi.
His murder was met with international outrage and considerably hurt the image of Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, who is accused of having ordered the killing.
While Riyadh denies any involvement of Prince Mohammed, the crown prince has been implicated in the murder by American senators based on the CIA’s conclusions.
But the Trump administration has said there is no irrefutable evidence of Prince Mohammed’s involvement, and has stressed the importance of the strategic partnership between Washington and Riyadh.
Cengiz refused to comment on the accusations against the crown prince, saying only that she awaited the completion of Turkey’s investigation.
However she denounced the fact that Khashoggi’s remains still had not been found.

BANGKOK: In what can be dubbed as an unprecedented move, Princess Ubolratana Mahidol, 67, has joined the race to be Thailand’s next prime minister, reports said.

The sister of Thailand’s king is said to stand for a party allied to divisive ex-prime minister Thaksin Shinawatra, according to agency reports. Thailand is holding the election on 24 March.

Observers have said that this decision ‘breaks with the tradition of the Thai royal family’, which has stayed away from politics. (Agencies)

UTTAR PRADESH: As night fell on the bucolic northern Indian hamlet of Mahaban, Gopi Chand Yadav gathered blankets and a flashlight to spend the night sitting on a wooden platform in his field. His task: to use bamboo sticks to ward off stray cattle from intruding and eating a maturing mustard crop.

Like Yadav, many thousands of farmers stay awake to guard their farms over a cold winter or face losing their crops to the cattle – a double whammy for growers already reeling from a plunge in Indian crop prices.

Protecting cows – considered sacred to Hindus – was one of the measures meant to shore up support in the heavily populated, Hindi-speaking belt across northern India that has been a heartland of the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party’s (BJP). Instead, it is creating a backlash, even among Hindu farmers.

While stray cows ambling around towns and villages have always been a feature of life in rural India, farmers say their number has increased sharply in recent years to the extent that they have become a menace, and blame the policies of Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s Hindu nationalist government.

Protecting cows – considered sacred to Hindus – was one of the measures meant to shore up support in the heavily populated, Hindi-speaking belt across northern India that has been a heartland of the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party’s (BJP). Instead, it is creating a backlash, even among Hindu farmers.

“We already had enough problems and now the government has created one more,” said octogenarian farmer Baburao Saini from Kakripur village, about 85 kilometers (50 miles) from New Delhi. “For the first time, we’ve been forced to stay in the fields to protect our crops.”

More than 50 farmers Reuters spoke to in Mahaban and nine other villages in Uttar Pradesh state said they would think twice before voting for Modi’s BJP in the next general election, due by May. The cattle issue and low farm prices are major reasons behind their disillusionment with a party that most say they voted for in the last election in 2014.

Modi swept Uttar Pradesh at that poll, winning 73 of 80 seats in India’s most populous state, with rural voters swayed by a promise of higher crop prices, and as Hindu farmers supported the BJP amid tensions with the minority Muslim community. (Reuters)

UNITED NATIONS/WASHINGTON: North Korea is working to ensure its nuclear and ballistic missile capabilities cannot be destroyed by military strikes, U.N. monitors said ahead of a meeting between U.S. and North Korean officials to prepare a second denuclearization summit.

The U.S. special envoy for North Korea, Stephen Biegun, will meet his North Korean counterpart on Wednesday in Pyongyang to prepare for a summit later this month between President Donald Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, the U.S. State Department said on Monday. Biegun has said he hoped the meeting with new North Korean counterpart Kim Hyok Chol would map out “a set of concrete deliverables” for the summit between Trump and Kim Jong Un.

South Korean officials said they and the United States could be looking at a compromise that could expedite North Korea’s denuclearization – the dismantling of the North’s main Yongbyon nuclear complex, which could be reciprocated by U.S. measures including formally ending the 1950-53 Korean War and setting up a liaison office.

Biegun, who held talks with South Korean officials in Seoul on Sunday and Monday, said he would be aiming for “a roadmap of negotiations and declarations going forward, and a shared understanding of the desired outcomes of our joint efforts”.

South Korean officials said they and the United States could be looking at a compromise that could expedite North Korea’s denuclearization – the dismantling of the North’s main Yongbyon nuclear complex, which could be reciprocated by U.S. measures including formally ending the 1950-53 Korean War and setting up a liaison office.

But U.N. sanctions monitors said in a confidential report, submitted to a 15-member U.N. Security Council sanctions committee and seen by Reuters on Monday, that they had “found evidence of a consistent trend on the part of the DPRK to disperse its assembly, storage and testing locations”, using the abbreviation for North Korea’s official name, the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea.

The North Korean mission to the United Nations did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the report, which was submitted to Security Council members on Friday.

The first summit between Trump and Kim Jong Un last June in Singapore yielded a vague commitment by Kim to work toward the denuclearization of the Korean peninsula, where U.S. troops have been stationed since the 1950-53 Korean War.

The Vietnamese resort town of Danang is seen as the most likely location for the next summit.

Trump last Thursday hailed “tremendous progress” in his dealings with North Korea, but the view in the United States is that it has yet to take concrete steps to give up its nuclear weapons program. (Reuters)

ABU DHABI: Pope Francis on Sunday became the first pontiff to set foot on the Arabian Peninsula, just hours after issuing his strongest condemnation yet of the war in Yemen, where his host the United Arab Emirates has a leading military role.

Shortly before departing for Abu Dhabi, Pope Francis said he was following the humanitarian crisis in Yemen with great concern, using his regular Sunday address in Vatican City to urge all sides to implement a fragile peace deal and help deliver aid to millions of hungry people.

“The cry of these children and their parents rises up to God,” he told tens of thousands of people in St. Peter’s Square.

The UAE welcomed the Pope’s message on Yemen and believes the peace deal he referred to was a historic breakthrough, Minister of State for Foreign Affairs Anwar Gargash wrote on Twitter.

“Let us pray strongly because they are children who are hungry, who are thirsty, they don’t have medicine and they are in danger of death,” he said before boarding his flight.

The UAE welcomed the Pope’s message on Yemen and believes the peace deal he referred to was a historic breakthrough, Minister of State for Foreign Affairs Anwar Gargash wrote on Twitter.

“Let us assure its implementation and make 2019 the year of peace in Yemen,” he said after the pope landed in Abu Dhabi.

Yemen’s warring parties agreed a ceasefire in December at the first major peace talks of the nearly four-year-old war, which pits Arab states backing an exiled president against the Iran-aligned Houthi movement that controls the capital.

Tens of thousands of people have been killed in the conflict, and the United Nations says millions are on the verge of starvation. Their survival depends on the truce preventing aid from being cut off by all-out fighting for the country’s main port.

Francis was greeted by Abu Dhabi’s Crown Prince Sheikh Mohammed bin Zayed al-Nahyan, who escorted him to meet Sheikh Ahmed al-Tayeb, the Grand Imam of Egypt’s Al-Azhar mosque and university, one of the main seats of learning of Sunni Islam. The pontiff embraced him.

Both men will hold meetings with Pope Francis on Monday. (Reuters)

BEIJING: President Xi Jinping extended greetings to Chinese people of all ethnic groups, compatriots in Hong Kong, Macao and Taiwan and overseas Chinese on Sunday, ahead of the Spring Festival. “In the past year… we have made efforts and achieved a lot,” he said while addressing a festival reception at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing.
Xi, also general secretary of the Communist Party of China (CPC) Central Committee and chairman of the Central Military Commission, extended the greetings on behalf of the CPC Central Committee and the State Council.
Party and state leaders Li Keqiang, Li Zhanshu, Wang Yang, Wang Huning, Zhao Leji, Han Zheng and Wang Qishan attended the reception, with Li Keqiang presiding. In the speech, Xi noted that Chinese people had a hard but fulfilling year.
The Chinese economy remained steady while making progress, with new steps taken in reform and opening-up, he said. The country actively pushed forward campaigns to defuse major risks, carry out targeted poverty alleviation and prevent and control pollution, with poverty alleviation projects achieving remarkable outcomes, he said.
Defense and military reforms extended to a deeper level, major country diplomacy with Chinese characteristics opened a new chapter and Party governance further improved, he said. “Chinese society has been stable, and the people have enjoyed a stronger sense of fulfillment, happiness and security.” Xi spoke of the need in the new year to adhere to the new development philosophy, advance high-quality development, continue the earnest fight in the “three critical battles” against risks, poverty and pollution and take coordinated steps to ensure steady growth, advance reform, make structural adjustments, improve living standards and guard against risks.
Xi called for efforts to create a growing sense of fulfillment, happiness and security in people, promote sustained and sound economic growth and maintain law and order to lay a crucial foundation for building a moderately prosperous society in all respects and celebrate the 70th anniversary of the founding of the People’s Republic of China with great achievements. After working so hard for a whole year, it is time for family members to gather for New Year’s Eve dinner and stay up all night to usher in the new year, Xi said.
Xi spoke of the need to enhance people’s love for the family and the country, nurture and practice core socialist values, promote the spirits of patriotism, collectivism and socialism and advocate combining the love for family with the love for the country so that every individual and every family can make contributions to the big family of the Chinese nation.
Having become an aging society, China should make great efforts to ensure the elderly are well respected, taken care of, and supported, and promote programs for the elderly so that they can all enjoy a happy life, Xi said.
He called for hard work to bring a happy life for the Chinese people and a great future for the Chinese nation as well as further efforts to work with the people of countries across the world to build a community with a shared future for humanity.

(Agencies)

The US authority has arrested 129 Indians arrested for enrolling at a fake university allegedly to remain in the US, officials said on Friday, even as immigration attorneys claimed that the youths were not aware of the varsity’s illegitimate operation and criticised authorities for using “troubling” methods to trap them.

The university in Detroit’s Farmington Hills was part of an undercover operation by the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) designed to expose immigration fraud, according to federal prosecutors who announced charges in the case.

The Indian embassy in the US has opened a 24/7 hotline to assist the arrested students. The two numbers 202-322-1190 and 202-340-2590 would be manned by senior embassy officials round the clock, officials said.

In what the authorities called a “pay-to-stay” scheme, foreign students knowingly enrolled in the fake school to falsely maintain their student visa status and remain in the US, according to prosecutors.

“The ICE (Immigration and Customs Enforcement) has administratively arrested 130 foreign nationals enrolled at the University of Farmington for civil immigration violations. Of the 130, 129 were Indian nationals,” Khaalid H Walls, an ICE spokesperson, told PTI.

“These individuals have been placed in removal proceedings, and ICE will seek to maintain them in its custody pending the outcome of those proceedings,” he said.

The ICE agents made the arrests on Wednesday, the same day federal indictments were unsealed that charged eight people, all of whom are either Indians or Indo-Americans, in a visa fraud scheme.

The eight defendants were charged criminally for conspiracy to commit visa fraud and harbouring aliens for profit. But the 130 students were arrested on only civil immigration charges, Detroit Free Press reported.

The sweep was one of the largest targeting immigrants from India in recent years, immigration attorneys said.

In a nationwide sweep, federal agents with ICE arrested “130 foreign nationals on civil immigration charges,” ICE spokesperson Carissa Cutrell had told the Free Press on Thursday.

The arrests took place across the US, in New Jersey, Atlanta, Houston, Michigan, California, Louisiana, North Carolina and St Louis. The students had immigrated legally to the US on student visas and had transferred to the University of Farmington so they could work, said attorneys.

Federal prosecutors claim the students were aware the university was not running a legitimate operation. But attorneys who have spoken with students or with family and friends of those arrested are pushing back against the government’s claims.

Ravi Mannam, an immigration attorney in Atlanta, said the fake university “hooked these students by promising them credits for their previous master’s programmes”.

He said what the University of Farmington was offering – allowing students to work while enrolled – is not unusual. So the students may have thought it was an authorised university and work programme through a type of F-1 visa known as CPT (Curricular Practical Training).

Michael Sofo, an attorney in Atlanta with Mannan and Associates, said based on what he has heard about the students, it’s “not been the case” that they were knowingly participating in an illegal operation.

“There are specific universities who have advanced degree programmes that primarily involved practical training from day one that allows them to enroll and the bulk of the time is spent working,” Sofo said. The courses “can be done at a remote location. It doesn’t have to be where they attend the university…Programmes like this exist and they are legal.”

Mannam said some Indians had come to the US to enroll elsewhere, only to find that their intended programme had lost accreditation. So they enrolled at the University of Farmington, believing that they could apply their prior credits to the new programme, which seemed to emphasise work experience, he said.

Other students had completed legitimate master’s in the US but were waiting to be approved for a specialty work visa, so they enrolled in school as a stopgap measure. “The government utilised very questionable and troubling methods to get these foreign students to join the institution,” Mannam said.

In New Delhi, Ministry of External Affairs Spokesperson Raveesh Kumar said, “We are aware about this incident. We are ascertaining more details (through) our embassy in Washington and different consulates in the US…We have also mobilised the Indian community organisations in the US to extend all possible support to the Indian students who are affected by this incident.”

The ICE said foreign students are granted what are called “F” and “M” visas to study in the US and must maintain their legal status by enrolling in a varsity certified by the Student and Exchange Visitor Program. The ICE said since the Farmington varsity did not offer courses, the students were using the programme as a way to work.

On Thursday, the DHS shut down a website they had been created for the University of Farmington. The website tells affected students to contact their local office of Homeland Security Investigations, the ICE agency that did the undercover operation.

Meanwhile, the Indian Embassy here has appointed a nodal officer here to help the students in distress.

(Agencies)

TEHRAN: Iran announced the “successful test” of a new cruise missile with a range of over 1,350 kilometres on Saturday, coinciding with celebrations for the country’s 1979 Islamic revolution. “The test of the Hoveizeh cruise missile was carried out successfully at a range of 1,200 kilometres (840 miles) and accurately hit the set target,” Defence Minister Amir Hatami said, quoted on state television which broadcast footage of its launch.
“It can be ready in the shortest possible time and flies at a very low altitude,” he said.

Hatami described the Hoveizeh as the “long arm of the Islamic Republic of Iran” in defending itself. It is part of the Soumar group of cruise missile, first unveiled in 2015 with a range of 700 kilometres, according to the minister.
The Hoveizeh unveiling was part of an arms exhibition titled “40 years of defensive achievements” held in Tehran.
Friday marked the beginning of 10 days of celebrations of the Islamic revolution that ousted the pro-Western shah.
Iran has voluntarily limited the range of its missiles to 2,000 kilometres (1,250 miles), sufficient to reach Israel and Western bases in the Middle East.

But Washington and its allies have accused Tehran of pursuing enhanced missile capabilities that also threaten Europe. Iran has “no intention of increasing the range” of its missiles, the country’s Supreme National Security Council secretary, Admiral Ali Shamkhani, said Tuesday.

(Agencies)