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.

JAJARKOT: Beekeepers of Kalpat of Nalgad Municipality-1 has started exporting their home-made honey to the international market. Nahakuli Organic Herbal Agro Pvt. Ltd has started exporting the local products in the international market. The company has already collected 2,000 kgs of honey to export in Australia, America, United Arab Emirates and South Korea.

With the growing demand of honey in the market, the traders have increased the price to Rs. 700 per kg.

Hari Bahadur Budha, the manager of the company informed that Super World Traders has assessed the quality and the weight of the honey for its export to the international market. The company is waiting for the consignment papers from the Division Forest Office.

The Chief of the Nalgad Agriculture Branch Office, Mahesh Kumar Bista said honey production in Nalgad has increased by 15 per cent this year as compared to last year. Honey production in the district last year was 20 metric tons. Similarly, with the growing demand of honey in the market, the traders have increased the price to Rs. 700 per kg. Earlier, the price was Rs. 500.

The beekeepers in Jajarkot have been doing commercial bee-keeping since three decades and the Nalgad municipality has declared the Kalpat area as the pocket area for honey production in a bid to promote commercial bee keeping.

PARIS : For the 12th straight weekend of protests, thousands of “Yellow Vest” protesters marched in Paris and other French cities on Saturday in relatively calm rallies, but some sporadic incidents led to 30 arrests in the French capital. As previous demonstrations, discontent people chanted the national anthem and anti-President Emmanuel Macron’s leadership slogans. Some of them had put plasters and others wore eye patches to pay tribute to those wounded in the months-long protests.
At the front of the fresh street action, Jerome Rodrigues who lost one of his eyes after being hit by a flash-ball last week, headed the rally in the French capital to say “Stop” to “Violence of State, Macron guilty”, as read in some banners. The French Interior Ministry said Saturday’s protests, coordinated via social media against Macron’s leadership, drew 58,600 participants nationwide. The turnout was down from a week ago when 69,000 people took part. In Paris, 10,500 people were gathered compared with 4,000 on Jan. 26.
After a calm debut where peaceful atmosphere reigned, tension arose in Paris after riot police used tear gas and water cannon in response to some protesters who set bins and a scooter ablaze. More standoffs were reported as officers moved to disperse protesters in the Republic square where they had planned an evening gathering, dubbed “Yellow Night”.
Similar scuffles clouded demonstrations in Tours, Valence, Toulouse and Bordeaux. The “Yellow Vest” movement, a nationwide protest against weak economic performance and stagnant income increase, started as a campaign against surge in fuel prices in November 2018.
Since then, thousands of drivers wearing highly visible yellow vests had blocked roads across the country and staged street protests that had been transformed into social rebellion demanding Macron to step down. Despite capitulating over plans for fuel taxes, France’s youngest president in its modern history has struggled to ease the anger that cast doubt on his political credentials to reform one of Europe’s major powers and lead the country, according to the country’s pollsters.

(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)

General Motors Co said on Saturday it is negotiating “feasibility conditions” to invest 10 billion reais ($2.73 billion) in Brazil from 2020 to 2024, after having warned last month that new investments would depend on returning to profit. The automaker also said it is completing an investment plan of 13 billion reais between 2014 and 2019.

“As market leaders, we are taking on the responsibility of facing the challenges of competitiveness that the industry.

Valor reported that GM would invest in its product line until 2022, and then the following year, the company would start to enjoy tax rebates. Valor, which also reported that GM’s losses in Brazil last year totaled 1 billion reais despite being the country’s market leader, did not specify the exact amount GM would expect to generate in tax incentives. 

(REUTERS)

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)

ETHIOPIA: The World Economic Forum (WEF) in 2020 will be hosted in Ethiopia, as the Eastern African nation hopes to attract more investment. The announcement was made following a meeting between Ethiopia’s prime minister, Abiy Ahmed and Prof Klaus Schwab, Founder and Executive Chairman of WEF.

The office of the prime minister said the two leaders discussed the importance of a collaborative approach among government, private sector and civil societies in addressing key global challenges. Abiy attended the WEF 2019 meeting held in Davos, Switzerland, where he met several business leaders before heading to Belgium.

Abiy courts investors
Abiy, who has championed reforms since taking office in April last year, called upon investors in Davos to take advantage of the huge business opportunities available in the country. Reiterating Ethiopia’s plans to liberalisze the previously state-controlled sectors of telecommunications, banking and aviation among others, Abiy pledged to do more to make it easier to do business for anyone planning to invest in Ethiopia. “In order to enforce our up word trajectory and achieve even more rapid and sustainable growth, Ethiopia has embarked on a comprehensive reform process since last April,” he said.

BEIJING, Jan 29: Beijing reported GDP of over 3 trillion yuan (446.6 billion U.S. dollars) in 2018, authorities said Wednesday.
According to the municipal statistics bureau, Beijing attained GDP of 3.03 trillion yuan last year, up 6.6 percent.
“Beijing spent a lot of efforts on moving the non-capital functions out of the city and attained a stable economic growth with its quality improved last year,” said Pang Jiangqian, deputy director of the bureau.
The city’s new economy grew 9.3 percent to over 1 trillion yuan, accounting for 33.2 percent of the city’s GDP.
The city’s per capita disposable income also rose 9 percent to 62,361 yuan last year.
The city saw a total consumption of 2.54 trillion yuan, up 7.4 percent thanks to the growing income.
Consumption in the service sector reached 1.37 trillion yuan, up 11.8 percent, contributing 82.6 percent to the city’s total consumption growth.
According to the city’s market regulation bureau, the number of enterprises in science and technology, service, culture, sports and entertainment established last year reached 88,716, accounting for nearly 50 percent of new enterprises in Beijing last year.
“Our company invested in a number of science and technology companies in areas such as artificial intelligence,” said Wu Haiyan with China Growth Capital, a venture capital firm.
The technical income of science and technology companies above a designated scale in Zhongguan science park accounted for 17.2 percent of the companies’ total income in the first 11 months of 2018, up 2.2 percent year on year.
The culture industry in Beijing also developed fast, with companies above a designated scale and public institutions in the industry reporting revenues of 925 billion yuan last year.