Flowerbud News

Category: Foreign

  • UN scribe says eliminating poverty remains one of the greatest global challenges and prioritie

    No fewer than 700 million people are still being left behind and are unable to meet their basic daily needs, the United Nations has said.

    UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres stated this in his message commemorating the 2018 International Day for the Eradication of Poverty.

    Guterres highlighted that eliminating poverty in all its forms remained one of the greatest global challenges and priorities.

    “Let us remember that ending poverty is not a matter of charity but a question of justice,” he said.

    “On this International day for the Eradication of Poverty,” the UN Chief added, “let us commit to uphold the core pledge of the 2030 Agenda to leave no one behind”.

    The UN chief stressed the fundamental connection between eradicating poverty and upholding equal rights for all.

    He said that since the day was first marked 25 years ago, “nearly one billion people have escaped poverty, thanks to political leadership, inclusive economic development and international cooperation”.

    The 2018 theme is: ‘Coming together with those furthest behind to build an inclusive world of universal respect for human rights and dignity.

    Guterres said the theme underscored the connection between extreme poverty and human rights, specifically, emphasising that people living in poverty are disproportionately affected by many human rights violations.

    Eradicating poverty in all its forms and dimensions is embodied in Goal 1 of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, which aims to foster social protection systems for all.

    The UN will host the 25th Commemoration of the International Day at the headquarters in New York on Wednesday. (NAN)

  • Apple gets critical iPhone technology in $600m On Dialog deal

    Apple Inc is buying the power-management technology at the heart of its iPhones in a 600 million dollar.

    The purchased deal is with Dialog Semiconductor that also secures the German-listed company’s role as a supplier to the U.S. tech giant.

    The agreement to acquire patents and people from the Anglo-German chip designer is not only unusual, but also the largest of its kind by Apple, whose last sizeable acquisition was the $350 million purchase of Face ID creator PrimeSense in 2013.

    Dialog shares surged as much as 34 per cent on Thursday, their most since 2002, as the deal bought the company time to reduce its dependence on Apple – which it expects to account for three-quarters of this year’s sales.

    Dialog’s shares had tumbled earlier this year when it said Apple planned to use chips from another supplier.

    Dialog Chief Executive Jalal Bagherli told Reuters he could now lead a “managed, smooth” transformation of the business as Dialog seeks new opportunities.

    In areas such as the Internet of Things that includes connected devices like home speakers, fitness trackers or smart watches.

    Since the first iPhones a decade ago, Apple has used Dialog power-management chips to extend their battery life.

    Under the deal, Apple is buying patents, a 300-strong engineering team, most of which already worked on chips for Apple devices, and Dialog offices in Britain, Italy and Germany.

    Dialog said its 2018 revenue would not be affected and it would continue shipments of existing main power management integrated circuits (PMICs) to Apple.

    It expects to sell current and future generations of so-called sub-PMICs to Apple.

    Bagherli said that Apple increasingly viewed main PMICs, which are central to the operation of its devices, as a strategic element that it wanted to control directly.

    This was not the case for sub-PMICs that manage features such as on-board cameras, he told Reuters.

    After the deal, Dialog expects Apple to account for 35-40 per cent of its total revenues in 2022. That is down from around 75 per cent in the current year. Headcount will fall to 1,800.

    The chipmaker also said it would begin a share buyback programme for up to 10 per cent of its stock following its next quarterly trading update.

    The 600 million dollars windfall will add to Dialog’s already-healthy net cash position of 525 million dollars, analysts said.

    Other chip designers in Europe have struggled to manage their relationship with Apple due to its sheer scale.

    Britain’s Imagination Technologies ended up being sold to a Chinese-backed fund last year after losing Apple as a client.

    “Dialog has bought itself much more than just time,” said Karsten Iltgen, an analyst at Bankhaus Lampe, which rates the stock ‘buy’.

    “Its Apple business has been clearly defined and put on a sound long-term footing,” he said.

    Half of the deal’s value, or about 300 million dollars, is cash for the Dialog engineers and offices and the other 300 million dollars is pre-payment to Dialog for supplying chips over the next three years, according to the deal agreement.

    Dialog said it would continue to deliver chips to other customers, focusing on the automotive and internet-of-things markets, among others.

    It forecast that its sub-PMIC business would achieve compound annual growth rates of 30 to 35 per cent between 2018 and 2022.

    Its AMS, Connectivity and Automotive & Industrial business would grow at a 10 to 15 per cent rate.

    The deal represents an expansion of Apple’s chip design operations, which kicked into high gear in 2010 when the company released its first custom processor for the iPad and iPhone.

    Apple is buying about 16 per cent of Dialog’s workforce.

    Apple said these employees would stay in Europe and would report to Johny Srouji, the company’s senior vice president of hardware technologies who oversees Apple’s chip design efforts.

    “Our relationship with Dialog goes all the way back to the early iPhones, and we look forward to continuing this long-standing relationship with them,” Srouji said. Apple has added around 20,000 employees in Europe since 2000.

    It already has a chip design centers in Munich, Germany, where it employs 1,000 staff, and St Albans, Britain.

    The deal will give Apple four more from Dialog, in Livorno in Italy, Swindon in Britain, and Nabern and Neuaubing in Germany.

    The transaction is expected to close in the first half of 2019, subject to customary closings and regulator’s approvals, Dialog said.

    It expects annual operational savings of $35 million from the deal, but declined to give more detail on its financial impact ahead of an investor presentation on Nov. 1.

    Dialog said Qatalyst Partners acted as its financial adviser and Linklaters as its legal counsel. (Reuters/NAN)

  • Turkey detains 90 over alleged links to Kurdish militants

    Turkish police on Tuesday detained 90 people over suspected links to outlawed Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) rebels, the Interior Ministry said in a statement.

    The main pro-Kurdish Peoples’ Democratic Party (HDP) decried the arrests as a politically motivated crackdown.

    “The operation across eight provinces was continuing,’’ the statement said.

    The arrests come days after President Tayyip Erdogan warned he would replace any mayor elected in the forthcoming 2019 local elections if they were deemed to have links to terrorism.

    Erdogan accuses the main pro-Kurdish party, the Peoples’ Democratic Party (HDP), of links to the PKK.

    The HDP denies this and says it is unjustly targeted by the government.

    More than 140 HDP members had been detained over several days, the party said on Sunday.

    Ninety-four of 102 municipalities in Kurdish-majority cities and towns are now administered by trustees, rather than their elected mayors.

    Authorities removed those mayors, elected in the last municipal elections in 2014, in the security crackdown that followed an attempted military coup in 2016.

    “Elections are nearing,” Erdogan said at a meeting of his AK Party (AKP) over the weekend, referring to the March 2019 local vote. “If those involved with terror come out of the ballot box, we shall appoint trustees without delay.”

    One prominent HDP lawmaker, Garo Paylan, said the arrests were politically motivated, and were part of the AKP’s campaign strategy for the 2019 election.

    “The AK Party has started its local election campaign from Diyarbakir by detaining journalists, politicians and theologians,” Paylan said on Twitter.

    Diyarbakir is the largest city in the mainly Kurdish southeast.

    The autonomy-seeking PKK, deemed a terrorist organization by Turkey, the U.S. and Europe, has waged an insurgency against the state since 1984.

    Violence across the southeast escalated after the collapse of a ceasefire in 2015.

    Turkey has in recent months conducted regular strikes on PKK bases in northern Iraq, especially the insurgents’ stronghold in the Qandil mountains, where Ankara has also threatened to carry out a ground offensive.

    “The PKK killed a Turkish soldier and wounded four others in a missile attack on Tuesday on a military post in Turkey’s Cukurca region.

    “The missiles were fired from northern Iraq,’’ the local governor’s office said. (Reuters/NAN)

  • Nigeria cautions nuclear weapons states on catastrophic consequences of their use

    Nigeria cautions nuclear weapons states on catastrophic consequences of their use

    Nigeria has cautioned the nuclear weapons states on the catastrophic consequences of the weapons’ use on humans and the environment, restating its call to the countries to dismantle these weapons of mass destruction.

    The Permanent Representative of Nigeria to the UN, Amb. Tijjani Bande, stated this at the ‘Disarmament and International Security Committee of the 73rd Session of the UN General Assembly in New York.

    Bande said nuclear weapons still remained the ultimate agents of mass destruction and their total elimination should be the final objective of all disarmament processes within the broad spectrum of goals being pursued by the UN.

    The Nigerian envoy, therefore, recalled the adoption of the landmark Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons, which opened for signature in September 2017.

    Bande said: “The Delegation of Nigeria remains proud to have participated in the processes leading to its adoption (Treaty), as well as being one of the first States to sign the treaty.

    “We are also mindful of the catastrophic humanitarian consequences that could result from the deliberate or accidental use of nuclear weapons.

    “To this end, my Delegation calls on all states, particularly nuclear weapons states, to take into consideration the catastrophic humanitarian consequences of the use of these weapons on human health, the environment and vital economic resources among others, and to take necessary measures aimed at the dismantling and renunciation of these weapons.

    “Nuclear test explosions not only send a tense signal to the global political environment, they also have devastating effects on our environment with the spread of radioactive materials to the atmosphere.

    “We all owe a duty to protect the environment by respecting the moratorium against nuclear testing as we work assiduously to achieve the entry into force of the CTBT – Comprehensive Nuclear Test Ban Treaty”.

    He, therefore, called on those countries that have not signed or ratified the CTBT, particularly the eight nuclear weapons States, to do so without further delay.

    The States are: China, Egypt, Iran, Israel, and the United States of America, which have signed but yet to ratify the Treaty, and North Korea, India, and Pakistan, which have not signed.

    The Nigerian envoy highlighted the daunting challenges confronting the world but expressed sadness that little had so far changed to provide confidence and reduce the enormous challenges to global peace and security.

    According to him, this reality makes it more urgent that we re-double our efforts and stridently work for global peace and security.

    “In the context of threats to international peace and security, my Delegation continues to highlight the astronomical proportion of global defence budgets, including the enormous resources devoted to the maintenance and upgrading of nuclear arsenals by nuclear weapons states, as well as unfettered access to a wide-ranging collection of conventional weapons by unauthorised non-state actors.

    “Today, the dangers and effects of uncontrolled access to conventional weapons, including small arms and light weapons, are witnessed all around us.

    “From Africa to the Middle East, across Europe to the Americas and Asia, the carnage has become phenomenal and unprecedented, particularly the immense bloodshed foisted on innocent populations by terrorists and other criminal elements.

    “We have witnessed cities and communities destroyed, including heavy losses of precious lives, property, toll on livelihoods and forced migration,” he said.

    Bande, however, pointed out that in many cases, these atrocities were largely enabled by illicitly procured or transferred arms by non-state entities.

    He noted the overwhelming support and adoption of the Arms Trade Treaty resolution in 2014, to present a common front to robustly respond to the threat posed to international peace and security by the non-regulation of conventional weapons.

    The Nigerian envoy stressed that the world must do the needful by standing with States Parties and other Signatories to the Treaty, while calling on the nuclear weapons states to support and adopt the treaty. (NAN)

  • Nigeria advocates strong partnership, management of Lake Chad project resources

    Nigeria has stressed the need for strong partnership, effective monitoring and sound management of resources committed to the Lake Chad project.

    Minister of Foreign Affairs Geoffrey Onyeama stated this at a follow up meeting on the High-Level Conference on the Lake Chad region on the sideline of the 73rd UN General Assembly in New York.

    The Acting Director, International Organisation Department, Mr Richards Adejola, represented the Minister at the meeting.

    The former informal meeting chaired by the Germany Minister of Foreign Affairs, Heiko Maas, had in attendance representatives of other co-hosts nations, which included Nigeria, Norway, Chad, Niger, Cameroon and UN

    The meeting discussed strategies for the implementation of the outcome document of the High Level Conference on the Lake Chad (OSLO 11) held in Berlin, Germany in September.

    The September international donor conference on the Lake Chad (Oslo 11) had pledged 2.52 billion dollars to help countries in the Lake Chad Basin address humanitarian crisis occasioned by Boko Haram insurgent.

    Germany’s foreign ministry said the aid would be disbursed “in the coming years” to Nigeria, Chad, Niger and Cameroon, where the jihadist group launched frequent suicide bomb attacks from its bases in Lake Chad.

    The two-day conference, which was attended by more than 70 states, international organisations and non-governmental organisations, raised 672 million dollars in 2017.

    The Nigeria Minister thanked partners for their resilience and continued commitment to the cause of the Lake Chad region

    Foreign Minister of Chad, Hissein Taha, reiterated the need to anchor humanitarian assistance with future development needs.

    Taha advised on the over-arching need to address the main causes from the many challenges of the Lake Chad region.

    This he said, included the receding Lake Chad and ongoing efforts to curb the activities of Boko Haram insurgency in the area.

    Similar view were expressed by the Niger Foreign Minister, Kalla Ankourao, and the Ambassador/Permanent Representative of the Republic of Cameroon to the UN, Tommo Monthe.

    They expressed readiness to remain committed to the increasing partnership for the benefit of the  people and future development of the region. (NAN)

  • U.S. ambassador accuses China of ‘bullying’ with ‘propaganda ads’

    A week after an official Chinese newspaper ran a four-page ad in a U.S. daily touting the mutual benefits of U.S.-China trade, the U.S. ambassador to China accused Beijing of using the American press to spread propaganda.

    U.S. President Donald Trump on Wednesday referred to the China Daily’s paid supplement in the Des Moines Register, the state of Iowa’s biggest selling newspaper, after accusing China of seeking to meddle in the Nov. 6 U.S. congressional elections, a charge China denies.

    Trump’s accusation that Beijing was trying to meddle in U.S. elections marked what U.S. officials told Reuters was a new phase in an escalating campaign by Washington to put pressure on China.

    While it is normal for foreign governments to place advertisements to promote trade, Beijing and Washington are currently locked in an escalating trade war that has seen those level rounds of tariffs on each other’s imports.

    Chinese and U.S. experts have said that China’s retaliatory tariffs early in the trade war were designed to hit exporters in states such as Iowa that supported Trump’s Republican Party.

    Terry Branstad, the U.S. ambassador to China and the former longtime governor of Iowa, a major exporter of agricultural goods to China, said Beijing had hurt American workers, farmers and businesses.

    China, Branstad wrote in an opinion piece in Sunday’s Des Moines Register, “is now doubling down on that bullying by running propaganda ads in our own free press.”

    “In disseminating its propaganda, China’s government is availing itself of America’s cherished tradition of free speech and a free press by placing a paid advertisement in the Des Moines Register,” Branstad wrote.

    “In contrast, at the newsstand down the street here in Beijing, you will find limited dissenting voices.

    “You will not see any true reflection of the disparate opinions that the Chinese people may have on China’s troubling economic trajectory, given that media is under the firm thumb of the Chinese Communist Party,” he wrote.

    He added that one of China’s most prominent newspapers dodged the offer to publish his article, although he did not say which newspaper. (Reuters/NAN)

  • Saudi Arabia to build oil refinery in Pakistan

    The oil facility will be located near Gwadar sea port in the South-Western province of Balochistan, Petroleum Minister, Sarwar Khan, said.
    Pakistan’s cabinet approved the plan after a delegation from the Saudi Energy Ministry visited Gwadar on Oct. 2, Khan said.
    The capacity and the cost of the refinery were still to be determined, the minister added, but local media reports suggested the investment might be around eight billion dollars.
    Since taking over in August, Pakistan’s new government has been looking to Saudi Arabia to invest in the country and seeking financial assistance to avoid a looming economic crisis.
    Analysts warned that Saudi investment in a region bordering Iran could trigger a new conflict between Riyadh and Tehran.
    “It is natural that Iranians will not be comfortable to see Saudis in their backyard,” Security Analyst, Fida Khan, said.
    China could also be upset by the move, according to analysts.
    The Chinese have built a port in Gwadar as part of 62-billion dollar project to establish an overland and sea trade route through Pakistan to reach Middle Eastern, European and African markets.
    Political and defence analysts warned the investment by a U.S. ally in a project initiated by Beijing might anger the Chinese.
    “This is a risky move,” said Irfan Shehzad from the Institute of Policy Studies think tank. “The Chinese may not be pleased.”
    Pakistan’s new government said the investment plan with China that was signed by the previous administration might push the country into a “vicious debt trap.” (dpa/NAN)

  • 75-year-old cat lover goes viral online for napping with cats

    Terry Laurmen, 75, has never thought he would become an online sensation by napping with shelter cats.

    The photo of him sleeping with cats in various positions at a pet shelter in Wisconsin has gone viral on the internet and helped the shelter raise over 30,000 dollars.

    Terry became a regular volunteer at the Safe Haven Pet Sanctuary about six months ago.

    “He just came along one day to the shelter and introduced himself, he said he would like to brush cats, eventually it became everyday.

    “They all know him, when he walks through the door they run over to him because they know he has the special brush and special treats.

    “They all pile on top of him and rub all over him and just love him,’’ sanctuary owner Elizabeth told the BBC.

    But grooming 20 to 30 cats can get exhausting, and the staff began snapping shots of Terry taking his daily siestas with his furry friends and shared some of them on the shelter’s facebook page.

    Unexpectedly, the post became a hit, and has been shared across the world for over 23,000 times.

    Thousands of well-wishers have shared comments and pledged thousands of dollars to the shelter in donations.

    The retired Spanish teacher, with no mobile phone or computer, still can not get his head around his newfound online fame.

    However he said he would do anything to raise money for the shelter. (Xinhua/NAN)

  • Maltese Customs intercepts largest drug haul

    (Xinhua/NAN) Maltese Customs intercepted the largest ever drug haul, the Customs Department said on Tuesday.

    According to local media Malta Today, over 15 tonnes of cannabis resin was seized while in transit at the Malta Free port on a container ship.

    “The containers, which were transiting through Malta on their way from Syria to Libya, were flagged as ‘potential high-risk containers’ following risk analysis performed by the Malta Customs Container Monitoring Unit,’’ the Customs Department said in a statement.

    The Customs said that three of the containers had been said to contain pails of crockery detergent, while the other was declared to hold blow-torches.

    The drugs were estimated to be worth millions of euros, but the exact value will be determined following a purity analysis, according to the Customs.

    It said that although investigations were still ongoing, the haul was definitely the largest of its kind in Malta, both in quantity and in value. (Xinhua/NAN)