Category: Foreign

The Duke and Duchess of Cambridge have said they are excited to visit Pakistan to meet its people and to witness and experience its beautiful culture, although the Duke of Cambridge is wary of spicy food, the Duchess likes spicy food.

Prince William and Kate Middleton were speaking to around 70 selected Pakistanis at the Aga Khan Centre at an exclusive reception hosted for them by His Highness The Aga Khan in association with Pakistan High Commission. The royal couple visited the centre for two hours ahead of their Royal Highnesses’ official visit to Pakistan, which will take place between Monday 14th and Friday 18th October.

Pakistan’s High Commissioner to the UK Nafees Zakaria and the Aga Khan welcomed the royal couple when they arrived for the visit of the centre. While the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge, both 37, mingled with the guests, a Pakistani musician played tabla in the background. The couple were seen going round to the guests and asked them questions about Pakistan and the work they did.

The Aga Khan, 82, told the guests he was hosting the Royal Couple at the centre to showcase them the contribution Pakistanis are making to the cultural diversity of Britain. Speaking briefly to this correspondent, Prince William said he looked forward to visiting Pakistan as he has heard so many wonderful things about Pakistan.

The food for the guests was cooked by Saliha Mahmood Ahmed, the MasterCheff 2017 winner. She told Geo News that the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge asked her about Pakistani food and sought tips on what to eat.

Saliha said, “They asked me about Pakistani culture, they wanted to know about Pakistani food. They are much excited to visit Pakistan. I recommended that they should eat traditional food of Pakistan. I suggested them not to worry about putting on fats, you can exercise later on and burn the fats!”.

Saliha said the Duchess likes spicy food and the Duke is wary of it but both looked forward to enjoying the local cuisine. Writer and broadcaster Sarfraz Manzoor quoted the Duke as saying that he likes medium spice but “I don’t think it exists in Pakistan”.

Producer and composer of Naughty Boy (Shahed Khan) said the royal couple asked him how bansri and tabla are played and that they looked forward to enjoying Pakistani music during their visit.

Lord Zameer Choudrey said he welcomed the Royal couple. Banker Arif M Ali said the couple asked him how he helped Pakistan. “They were eager to know more about my work for Pakistan and wanted to know in what way I helped Pakistan’s economy.”

Mahmood H Ahmed of Agha Khan Foundation said that the event was organised to showcase modern Pakistani culture and the royal couple were able to meet a range of people from Pakistan, including community leaders, those involved in British and Pakistani business, and key figures within the diaspora community, including musicians, chefs and artists.

He said the Aga Khan Development Network (AKDN) has been working in Pakistan for over a century to improve the quality of life, promote pluralism, and enhance civil society.

High Commissioner Nafees Zakari said, “The Royal couple is much excited to visit Pakistan. I told them that the whole Pakistan awaits them with excitement. I think this will be a great visit.

This visit will boost relations between the two countries and will project the real soft image of Pakistan before the world. The visit will draw attention of many people towards Pakistan.”

Zakaria said the people of Pakistan still cherish and fondly recall” the visits by the Queen and described the upcoming trip as a “reflection of the importance the United Kingdom attaches to its relations with Pakistan. The two countries enjoy historical links which both sides wish to strengthen further”.

The prominent Pakistanis who attended the reception included artist Mehtab Hussain, Shahed Karim, Shaista Gohar, Arif Rangoonwala, Adil Ray, Shazia Mirza, Sarfraz Manzoor and many others.

President Muhammadu Buhari will departed Abuja on Wednesday on a three-day visit to the Republic of South Africa.

The visit comes against the background of recent xenophobic attacks, the evacuation of hundreds of Nigerians and the exchange of visits by special envoys of the two leaders.

While in South Africa, the Nigerian leader will hold a town hall meeting with Nigerians living in the country, with a view to sharing in their experiences and reassuring them of Nigeria’s government commitment to working for the protection of their lives and property and promoting peaceful co-existence.

President Buhari and his host will preside over the South Africa/Nigeria Bi-National Commission, during which a progress report will be presented. At the end of the meeting, both leaders will sign a joint communiqué.

The President and his delegation including Nigerian business representatives will also participate at a South Africa-Nigeria Business Forum with their host counterparts.

President Buhari will be accompanied by Governor Abdullahi Umar Ganduje of Kano State, Governor Simon Lalong of Plateau State and Governor David Umahi of Ebonyi State.

Others are: Minister of Foreign Affairs, Geoffrey Onyeama; Minister of Defence, Maj. Gen. Bashir Magashi (retd); Minister of Power, Eng. Saleh Mamman; Minister of Interior, Rauf Aregbesola; Minister of Mines and Steel Development, Arch. Olamilekan Adegbite; Minister of Police Affairs, Maigari Dingyadi; and Minister of State, Industry, Trade and Investment, Amb. Mariam Katagum.

Also on the trip are: National Security Adviser, Maj. Gen. Babagana Monguno (retd); Director-General, National Intelligence Agency, Amb. Ahmed Rufai Abubakar; and Chairman/CEO Nigeria Diaspora Commission, Hon. Abike Dabiri-Erewa.

Pakistani Prime Minister Imran Khan ordered authorities to prepare a mobile phone app to help parents report child sex abuse after a series of crimes shocked the nation.

Khan announced the initiative after police arrested a man for the alleged sexual abuse and murder of four young boys in Punjab province’s Kasur district.

The abduction, rape and murder of the four boys in September took place in the same district where a seven-year-old girl named Zainab was raped and murdered in 2018.

The “Mera Bacha Alert” (My Child Alert) app will allow parents the option of avoiding a decades-old in-person police reporting system.

Many parents, especially in rural areas and smaller communities, avoid reporting incidents like rape due to shame, fears of stigmatisation and pressure to avoid lodging such allegations.

The new method should help ease the barriers to reporting crimes of abuse, Khan’s office said.

The app will alert officials in all four provinces of the country about the incident.

“The app will help parents report and we will ensure safety and security of our children,” the prime minister said in a statement issued by his office.

“The PM has ordered to complete the task within two weeks,” a spokesperson at Khan’s office said on Wednesday.

In 2018, at least 3,832 cases of abduction, sodomy and rape were reported in which 55 per cent victims were girls, according to Sahil, a not-for-profit organisation that records reported cases related to children.

It welcomed the launch of the app.

In 2015, the city of Kasur made global headlines when hundreds of videos of child molestation surfaced and police later arrested several members of a racket involved in selling child pornography to websites in Europe.

Prime Minister Boris Johnson will on Wednesday unveil his final Brexit offer to the EU and say that, if Brussels does not engage with it, Britain will stop talking and leave on Oct. 31 regardless.

In his closing speech to his Conservatives’ annual conference, Johnson will stick to his hard line on Brexit, offering the party faithful details of what he will describe as his “fair and reasonable compromise”.

With less than a month left until Britain is due to leave the EU, the future of Brexit, its most significant geopolitical move since World War Two, is uncertain.

It could leave with a deal or without one – or not leave at all.

“My friends, I am afraid that after three-and-a-half years, people are beginning to feel that they are being taken for fools.

“They are beginning to suspect that there are forces in this country that simply don’t want Brexit delivered at all,” he will say, according to extracts released by his office.

“Let’s get Brexit done on Oct. 31 so in 2020 our country can move on.”

In a strategy that will define the future of Brexit, the EU and his premiership, Johnson is betting he can get enough concessions from Brussels to persuade Brexit supporters in the British parliament to ratify any deal.

Johnson has been firm that the Oct. 31 deadline will be met, but parliament has put roadblocks in his way – passing a law that requires him to ask the EU for a delay if he fails to secure an acceptable deal at an EU summit on Oct. 17-18.

On Tuesday, sterling had dipped to a one-month low of 1.2205 dollars as traders became increasingly nervous about the possibility of a deal.

On Wednesday morning it was trading at 1.2228 dollars, weighed down by fears that Johnson’s proposal would not produce an agreement.

The EU has repeatedly asked Britain to come up with “legal and operational” proposals for the changes Johnson wants to a deal that his predecessor Theresa May negotiated with the bloc in 2018.

“This is the moment of truth,” Conservative Party Chairman James Cleverly said, adding that the EU must see the need to compromise if it wanted to avoid a ‘no-deal’ Brexit.

“This would mean no measures to soften the sudden rupture of trade and cooperation agreements that have been in force for decades.

Following its rejection three times by parliament, Johnson has demanded changes to the Withdrawal Agreement, especially over new arrangements with the bloc for the border between the British province of Northern Ireland and EU member Ireland.

But weeks of talks since Johnson took power have made little headway, and British officials described the proposal to be unveiled on Wednesday as a final offer.

The Telegraph newspaper cited a briefing to European capitals to report that Britain was proposing to leave Northern Ireland in a special trading relationship with the EU until 2025, after which Belfast would decide whether to remain aligned to the bloc or return to following British rules.

The newspaper said London was proposing that Northern Ireland leave the EU customs union at the end of the transition period in 2021 alongside Britain, which would move directly into a Free Trade Agreement with Europe.

Customs checks would take place at a distance from the Ireland-Northern Ireland border – which will have become the border of the EU’s tariff-free internal market.

A senior British government official said: “The government is either going to be negotiating a new deal or working on ‘no deal’ — nobody will work on delay.”

“We will keep fighting to respect the biggest democratic vote in British history.

“The EU is obliged by EU law only to negotiate with member state governments, they cannot negotiate with parliament, and this government will not negotiate delay.”

Johnson is gambling that, by taking a hard line on Brexit, he will steal votes from others such as the Brexit Party, led by veteran euroskeptic Nigel Farage, at an election widely expected to come before the end of the year.

He also has the main opposition Labour Party in his sights, and will use his speech to attack its leader, Jeremy Corbyn, who has led efforts to try to block a ‘no-deal’ Brexit. (Reuters/NAN)

U.S.-Japan trade deal hit a last-minute snag as Japanese officials sought assurances that the Trump administration will not impose national security tariffs on Japanese-built cars and auto parts, people familiar with the talks said.

U.S. President Donald Trump and Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe have been aiming to sign a trade deal at a meeting this week during the UN General Assembly in New York that provides increased access to Japan for U.S. agricultural goods and bilateral cuts in industrial goods tariffs.

But the limited trade deal is not expected to include changes to tariffs and trade rules governing autos, the biggest source of the $67.6 billion U.S. trade deficit with Japan.

Trump has refrained thus far from following through on his threat to impose tariffs of up to 25 per cent on Japanese and European car and parts imports, citing ongoing trade negotiations with these partners.

The New York Times earlier reported that Japan was demanding a “sunset clause” that would cancel any trade benefits for the U.S. if Trump imposes the auto tariffs on Japanese vehicles.

Japanese Foreign Ministry spokesman, Masato Ohtaka, said that Japan still hoped to sign the U.S. trade deal by the end of September and that there was still time to work out remaining issues.

“Frankly speaking, we still have some time and all my colleagues in the government are making their best efforts to actually meet this target,’’ Ohtaka said.

Japanese Chief Cabinet Secretary, Yoshihide Suga, speaking in Tokyo told a news conference: “With the U.N. General Assembly meeting in mind, we are accelerating the remaining work, including the wording of a trade agreement’’.

Executives at two automakers briefed on the matter said Japan has expressed concerns about signing a deal without assurances that Trump will refrain from imposing tariffs on Japanese automotive exports as he benefits from Japanese agricultural concessions.

These people, speaking on condition of anonymity, confirmed that the issue could delay the signing of a U.S.-Japan trade deal until subsequent weeks.

Japanese Foreign Minister, Toshimitsu Motegi, told reporters after talks with U.S. Trade Representative, Robert Lighthizer, that significant work was underway to finalise the deal but that he did not expect much delay beyond an end-September target signing off on the deal.

He added he expected a “good ceremony” when Abe and Trump meet.

Asked about the U.S. threat of added tariffs on Japanese autos, Motegi said: “I think the content will not be something to worry about’’.

Details of the U.S.-Japan trade deal have not been disclosed, but people familiar with it say that it will provide U.S. farmers, who have been battered by the U.S. trade war with China, some relief through increased access to Japan, including for American beef and pork.

But some people say it will provide less than the access they would have received had the U.S. remained in the Trans-Pacific Partnership trade deal, which Trump pulled the U.S. out of on his third day in office in January 2017.

The deal also includes a modernisation of digital trade rules, which is expected to reinforce the U.S. model of internet development, prohibiting cross-border taxation of e-commerce and data localisation requirements.

Trump and Abe, a year ago at the U.N. General Assembly, agreed to discuss an arrangement that protects Japanese automakers from further tariffs while negotiations are underway.

The trade deal would not require congressional approval, using a trade law provision that allows the U.S. president to make executive agreements to mutually reduce tariffs with a foreign trading partner.

(flowerbudnews) Russian President Vladimir Putin has met with his Venezuelan counterpart, Nicolas Maduro, in Moscow amid the ongoing political crisis in the South American country.

Maduro arrived in Moscow on September 24. Russia has been one of Maduro’s rare steadfast allies in the face of what it has described as U.S. efforts to undermine him.

Despite Venezuela’s extreme economic and political crisis, Moscow has kept supporting Maduro with generous loans.

Neither Putin nor Maduro spoke about any financial aid in their opening remarks. But Putin said Russia has invested so far some $4 billion in Venezuela.

Putin told Maduro that Russia backed dialogue between the government and opposition to find a way out of Venezuela’s political crisis.

Separately, Russian news agency Interfax reported that Russia planned to supply up to 600,000 tons of grain to Venezuela this year.

Maduro’s visit also comes the day after U.S. President Donald Trump delivered a warning to Venezuela, denouncing Maduro in his speech at the United Nations.

Venezuela’s opposition said earlier this month that a dialogue mediated by Norway to try to resolve the crisis in Venezuela had ended, six weeks after Maduro’s government suspended its participation.

Maduro’s representatives walked away from the table in August to protest against U.S. President Donald Trump’s tightening of sanctions on Caracas.

Meanwhile, diplomatic sources in Brussels, speaking on condition of anonymity, said the European Union had approved sanctions on seven more Venezuelan officials over torture and other human rights abuses, as the bloc seeks to keep up pressure on Maduro.

Ambassadors from the 28-member bloc gave their backing to the measures in a meeting on September 25, bringing to 25 the number of Venezuelan officials under EU travel bans and asset freezes.

Meghan Markle and Prince Harry are keeping busy on their royal trip to South Africa.

The Duke and Duchess of Sussex  paid a visit to the country’s oldest mosque, the Auwal Mosque, in the Bo-Kaap section of Cape Town. It was built in 1794.

For the visit, Meghan ditched the denim jacket she wore earlier in the day and donned a cream-coloured headscarf. Harry changed out of his casual-collar shirt to a light-grey suit with no tie.

Earlier in the day, the couple paid a visit to Monwabisi Beach on behalf of Waves For Change, a nonprofit that promotes surfing and also provides mental health services.

“Their Royal Highnesses were able to hear how the sessions are building trust, confidence, and belonging,” read a caption describing the meeting on the Sussex Royal Instagram page, with a gorgeous photo of Meghan smiling.

“And they also got to join in as children took part in ‘power hand’, which teaches them how to keep calm down [and] reflect on strengths.”

During the outing, the two royals complemented each other’s parenting skills, though little Archie was nowhere to be seen on the second day of the family’s trip (as he may have been resting up and recovering from a little jet lag).

Iranian President Hassan Rowhani is set to address the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) on Wednesday, with his speech expected to draw much attention as world leaders take to the podium for a second day.

Rouhani is speaking amid worsening tensions between the Iran and the U.S. and after he accused Washington of being the main backer of terrorism in the Middle East on Tuesday.

Rowhani is likely to respond to  U.S. President Donald Trump’s remarks to the world body on Tuesday, in which he blamed Iran directly for the recent attack on a Saudi Arabian oil plant.

There had been speculation, and even hope, that Trump and Rouhani would meet at the UN, but the Iranian president said there first must be a restoration of trust.

Rouhani did meet with European leaders, after France, Germany and Britain announced on Monday that they believed Iran “bears responsibility” for the oil plant attack.

Since Trump pulled Washington out of a 2015 deal between Tehran and world powers, the president has been imposing sanctions on Iran, seeking to cripple its economy and force the country to change its foreign policy.

Rouhani is expected to elaborate on an initiative dubbed HOPE, an acronym for Hormuz Peace Endeavour, aimed at establishing peace in the Persian Gulf without foreign influence.

Other leaders to address the UN General Assembly on Wednesday include Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, whose July call with Trump is at the heart of the impeachment inquiry launched by  U.S. Democrats against the  U.S. president on Tuesday.

Iraqi President Barham Salih and Colombian President Ivan Duque are also among those scheduled to speak.

Trump is expected to hold a wide-ranging press conference before he leaves New York.

Scientists from around the world were gathering in Monaco on Wednesday to release a major report on the impact of global warming on the Earth’s oceans and frozen regions.

The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) scoured almost 7,000 scientific publications to come up with an overview of the effects of greenhouse gases on oceans, glaciers and permafrost regions.

Hours ahead of the release of the report, French President Emmanuel Macron said that it contained “naked and stubborn” facts.

“We are losing the battle,” he told the United Nations General Assembly in New York on Tuesday.

The report comes weeks after the UN panel warned of the impact of climate change on land, saying that the world faced a high risk of drought, wildfires, thawing permafrost and unstable food supplies.

The IPCC warned last October that limiting global warming to an average temperature rise of 1.5 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels is only possible with “rapid, far-reaching and unprecedented changes.”

The IPCC is a UN institution with 195 member states.

Its reports aim to summarize scientific knowledge on climate change and offer advice to policy makers.