The dollar index, which gauges the greenback’s strength against a basket of six currencies, rose by 0.02 per cent to 99.04.

MUMBAI: The Indian rupee opened on a cautious note and fell 28 paise to 71.35 against the US dollar in early trade on Thursday amid rising crude oil prices and unabated foreign fund outflows.

Forex traders said weak opening in domestic equities and rising demand for the US dollar vis-a-vis other currencies overseas also weighed on the domestic currency.

At the Interbank Foreign Exchange, the rupee opened at 71.22 then fell to 71.35 against the US dollar, showing a decline of 28 paise over its previous closing.

The Indian rupee on Tuesday had closed at 71.07 against the US dollar.

Forex market was closed on Wednesday on account of Mahatma Gandhi Jayanti.

Meanwhile, brent crude futures, the global oil benchmark, rose 0.03 per cent to USD 57.71 per barrel.

Foreign institutional investors (FIIs) remained net sellers in the capital markets, pulling out Rs 1,298.56 crore on Tuesday, as per provisional data.

Domestic bourses opened on a negative note on Thursday with benchmark indices Sensex trading 112.27 points down at 38,193.14 and Nifty lower by 43 points at 11,316.90.

The dollar index, which gauges the greenback’s strength against a basket of six currencies, rose by 0.02 per cent to 99.04.

The 10-year government bond yield was at 6.62 per cent in morning trade.

Defying curfews, tear gas and live rounds, they gathered by truckfuls to vent their anger against corruption, unemployment and poor services in the biggest challenge yet to Prime Minister Adel Abdel.

BAGHDAD: Thousands of protesters clashed with riot police in Iraq’s capital and across the south on Thursday, the third day of mass rallies that have left 28 dead.

Defying curfews, tear gas and live rounds, they gathered by truckfuls to vent their anger against corruption, unemployment and poor services in the biggest challenge yet to Prime Minister Adel Abdel Mahdi.

As dusk fell in Baghdad, crowds swelled around the capital’s oil and industry ministry, pledging to march to the capital’s emblematic Tahrir (Liberation) Square.

“We’ll keep going until the government falls,” pledged 22-year-old Ali, an unemployed university graduate.

“I’ve got nothing but 250 lira (20 US cents) in my pocket while government officials have millions,” he told AFP.

Most demonstrators carried the Iraqi tricolour while others brandished flags bearing the name of Hussein, the Prophet Mohammed’s grandson and a revered figure in Shiite Islam.

Riot police and army troops fired at the ground from automatic weapons mounted on military vehicles, the bullets ricocheting into the crowd.

Wounded protesters piled into small tuk-tuks to reach hospitals.

“Why do the police shoot at Iraqis like them? They suffer like us — they should help and protect us,” said protester Abu Jaafar.

The three days of demonstrations have left 27 people dead, including two police officers, dead and over 1,000 people have been wounded.

More than half of those killed in the last three days have been in the southern city of Nasiriyah, where six protesters were shot dead and dozens wounded on Thursday alone.

Nearby Amarah has also seen significant bloodshed, with medics and security sources reporting four protesters shot dead on Thursday.

Later in the day, two protestors and a police officer were killed in Diwaniyah, 150 kilometres (100 miles) south of Baghdad, and a curfew was subsequently imposed.

Rallies began Tuesday in Baghdad but have since spread across the mainly Shiite south, including the provinces of Dhi Qar, Missan, Najaf, Basra, Wasit and Babylon.

Several cities have imposed curfews, but protesters flooded the streets regardless.

The Kurdish northern regions and Sunni western provinces, meanwhile, have remained relatively calm.

The grievances echo those of mass demonstrations in Iraq’s south a little over a year ago which were prompted by a severe water shortage that caused a widespread health crisis.

Since then, southern provinces have accused the central government of failing to address profound infrastructural gaps, chief among them youth unemployment.

Tensions have been exacerbated by the closure of government offices in Baghdad and calls by firebrand cleric Moqtada al-Sadr for “a general strike”.

Sadr was behind the last round of major protests in Baghdad in 2016, when his supporters stormed the Green Zone, home to some ministries and embassies.

His involvement appears much more limited this time, but if his followers join the protests en masse, the rallies will likely balloon even further.

With internet access virtually shut off, demonstrators on Thursday struggled to communicate with each other or post footage of the latest clashes.

Approximately 75 per cent of Iraq is “offline” after major network operators “intentionally restricted” access, according to cybersecurity monitor NetBlocks.

The United Nations, European Union and United Kingdom have all appealed for calm, while rights group Amnesty International slammed the response to protests.

“It is outrageous that Iraqi security forces time and again deal with protesters with such brutality using lethal and unnecessary force,” said Amnesty’s Lynn Maalouf.

She said the internet blackout was a “draconian measure…to silence protests away from cameras and the world’s eyes”.

The protests appear to be largely spontaneous and de-centralised, with virtually no party insignia or slogans spotted.

Instead, demonstrators brandished Iraqi flags, posters demanding a “real country” and even pictures of an Iraqi general who was recently decommissioned after reported pressure by pro-Iran factions.

Their rage has not been quelled by the government’s relatively modest reactions.

Several Iraqis said they received on Thursday text messages from Abdel Mahdi’s office giving a number for a hotline that protesters could call to air their grievances.

The premier, who has not addressed the demonstrators directly, has also infuriated many of his compatriots by blaming the violence on “aggressors who…deliberately created casualties”.

Abdel Mahdi came to power in October 2018 as a consensus candidate, after last year’s popular demonstrations effectively ended his predecessor Haider al-Abadi’s chances at a second term.

He pledged to reform inefficient institutions, eradicate corruption and fight unemployment — unfulfilled promises that appear to have pushed protesters over the edge this week.

In particular, anger has boiled over at the staggering level of youth unemployment, which stands at around 25 per cent or double the overall rate, according to the World Bank.

Qureshi was asked the question as he had repeatedly endorsed Khan’s statement that 58 countries had supported Islamabad on the Kashmir issue.

ISLAMABAD: Pakistan Foreign Minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi lost his cool on being asked to name the 58 countries that Prime Minister Imran Khan commended for backing Islamabad on its stance on the Kashmir issue at the UNHRC.

During a talk show on Pakistan TV channel Express News, Qureshi was asked the question as he had repeatedly endorsed Khan’s statement that 58 countries had supported Islamabad on the Kashmir issue, reported Sputnik news agency.

“On whose agenda are you working?” Khan snapped at talk show host Javed Chaudhry. “Are you going to tell me or decide which countries have or have not supported Pakistan at the UN?… You may write whatever you want!”

On being again pressed for endorsing Khan’s comment on his own Twitter handle, Qureshi said, No! No! Show me the tweet I have written, not what Prime Minister Khan has written. You have said my tweet… show that to me. I want my tweet.”

Oddly still, after the minister was shown the tweet, Qureshi said he found nothing wrong in the tweet. “I stand by what I have said. What is so surprising in this….whose agenda are you following?”

In a tweet, Imran Khan said that the decision was taken during his meeting with Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan and Malaysian Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad in New York.

NEW YORK: Pakistan Prime Minister Imran Khan on Wednesday said that Pakistan, Turkey and Malaysia will jointly launch an English language channel ‘dedicated to confronting the challenges posed by Islamophobia’.

In a tweet, Khan said that the decision was taken during his meeting with Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan and Malaysian Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad in New York.

“President Erdogan, PM Mahatir and myself had a meeting today in which we decided our 3 countries would jointly start an English language channel dedicated to confronting the challenges posed by Islamophobia and setting the record straight on our great religion – Islam”, Khan tweeted.

He also added that the channel would correct the misperceptions which bring people together against Muslims.

Further, Khan said: “Issue of blasphemy would be properly contextualized; series and films would be produced on Muslim history to educate/inform our own people and the world; Muslims would be given a dedicated media presence.” 

President Trump said he had ‘very productive conversations’ with the leaders of India and Pakistan on the margins of the UN General Assembly.

NEW YORK: US President Donald Trump said he discussed Kashmir with the top leadership of India and Pakistan during his meetings with them and offered to help with “arbitration or mediation” on the issue to the two nuclear-armed neighbours, who have to “work it out”.

Trump’s comments came a day after he met Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Tuesday on the sidelines of the United Nations General Assembly session here where the two leaders mainly focused on issues related to terrorism emanating from Pakistan and the Indo-US bilateral trade.

India maintains that Kashmir is a bilateral issue and no third party has any role in it.

Pakistan has been trying to internationalise the Kashmir issue after India withdrew the special status of Jammu and Kashmir on August 5, but New Delhi has asserted the abrogation of Article 370 was its “internal matter”.

Addressing a press conference here on Wednesday, President Trump said he had “very productive conversations” with the leaders of India and Pakistan on the margins of the UN General Assembly.

“With respect to Pakistan and India, we talked about Kashmir. Whatever help I can be, I said, I offered, whether it’s arbitration or mediation or whatever it has to be,” Trump said in his opening remarks, offering to mediate for the fourth time.

Trump said he will “do whatever he can, because, they are at very serious odds right now and hopefully that will get better”. “You look at the two gentlemen heading those two countries, two good friends of mine. I said, fellows work it out, just work it out. Those are two nuclear countries, gotta work it out.”

When asked to comment on Trump’s remarks, External Affairs Ministry spokesperson Raveesh Kumar said India position is “very clear”.

“I think it has been articulated by the prime minister earlier. It was articulated yesterday (Tuesday) by the foreign secretary so that position remains,” Kumar told reporters at a briefing.

Foreign Secretary Vijay Gokhale had told reporters after the Modi-Trump meeting that the prime minister “made it clear that we are not shying away from talks with Pakistan”.

“But for that to happen, we expect some concrete steps to be taken by Pakistan. And we do not find any effort by Pakistan taking those steps,” Gokhale had said.

Trump’s meeting with Prime Minister Modi on Tuesday — their fourth meeting since Modi came to power for a second term in May this year — came a day after the US president met Pakistani premier Imran Khan on the sidelines of the United Nations General Assembly session.

A White House readout on Wednesday said Trump “encouraged” Modi to improve relations with Pakistan and fulfil his promise to better the lives of the Kashmiri people.

Gokhale had said during the meeting, Modi explained in detail to Trump the challenges faced by India because of terrorism, especially in Jammu and Kashmir, where 42,000 lives have been lost in the last 30 years due to terrorism.

Tensions between the two countries have spiked since the abrogation of Article 370.

It evoked strong reactions from Islamabad, which downgraded ties and expelled the Indian ambassador.

Meanwhile, both Modi and Khan are scheduled to address the UN General Assembly on Friday.

The technology-driven U.S. drilling boom that started more than a decade ago has made the United States a massive producer, but imports of crude oil and petroleum products from the Gulf region last year still flowed in abundantly.

WASHINGTON [USA]

Donald Trump said become such a big producer it no longer needed oil from the Middle East.
 

Amid a flurry of Twitter posts on Monday morning, U.S. President Donald Trump turned to the weekend attack on Saudi Arabia’s oil facilities and assured his audience the United States had become such a big producer it no longer needed oil from the Middle East.

U.S. government data tells a different story: The technology-driven U.S. drilling boom that started more than a decade ago has made the United States a massive producer, but imports of crude oil and petroleum products from the Gulf region last year still flowed in abundantly.

“By and large, we are still importing quite a bit and not totally immune to the world market,” Jean-Francois Seznec, a senior fellow with the Atlantic Council Global Energy Center, said during a call with reporters on Monday.

Iran has rejected U.S. charges it was to blame for the attacks, which damaged the world’s biggest crude-processing plant in Saudi Arabia and triggered the largest jump in crude prices in decades.

Saudi Arabia is the world’s biggest oil exporter, shipping about 7 million barrels of crude daily around the globe. The United States, produces roughly 12 million barrels per day, but consumes 20 million bpd, meaning it must import the rest.

U.S. ‘locked and loaded’ after Saudi attack

U.S. President Donald Trump said the U.S. is “locked and loaded” after the attack on Saudi oil, and has “reason to believe that we know the culprit.” Meanwhile, analysts are warning that if the price of oil stays at record highs it could further risk a global recession.

Much of the U.S. shortfall comes from Canada, but some still comes from Saudi Arabia, Iraq and other Gulf nations because several U.S. refineries prefer their oil. As an example, the biggest U.S. refinery – Motiva Enterprises LLC in Port Arthur, Texas – is half-owned by Saudi Arabia’s state energy company, Saudi Aramco, and is set up for Saudi grades.

Other refineries – particularly in California are isolated from big U.S. oil fields and must also rely on cargoes.

The mismatch between what U.S. refiners want and what the United States produces means that in 2018, the United States imported an average of 48 million barrels per month of crude oil and petroleum products from the Gulf region, according to the U.S. Energy Information Administration.

That is down about a third from a decade ago, as domestic oil and gas production soared, but roughly the same level as in 1995 and 1996, according to the data.

Phillip Cornell, another senior fellow with the Atlantic Council, who used to advise Saudi Aramco, called Trump’s tweet “nonsense.”

“He’s a guy who likes hyperbole,” he said.

Sarah Emerson, president of ESAI Energy LLC, said the Saudi production outage, if it is prolonged, could provide an opportunity for U.S. crude oil producers to expand their overseas markets.

Foreign Office spokesman Mohammad Faisal said an Improvised Explosive Device exploded outside the consulate in Afghanistan’s Jalalabad.

ISLAMABAD: Pakistan said on Sunday that at least three persons, including a policeman, were injured in a blast outside its Consulate General in the volatile Jalalabad city in Afghanistan.

Foreign Office spokesman Mohammad Faisal said an Improvised Explosive Device (IED) exploded outside the consulate in Jalalabad.

“IED exploded outside holding area of our Consulate General in Jalalabad. All Pakistani staff are safe.

One policeman and two applicants are reportedly wounded,” he said in a tweet.

“We are in contact with Afghan authorities to ensure strengthened security for Consulate General’s premises and personnel,” Faisal said.

No outfit has taken responsibility of the attack.

The consulate had been shut down in August last year, before resuming operations two months later, a media report said.

The eastern Afghan city of Jalalabad, also the provincial capital of Nangarhar, has seen violence erupt multiple times in the recent past.

On August 19, a series of bombings struck restaurants and public squares, wounding at least 34 people as the country marked the 100th anniversary of its independence.

In May, three explosions had ripped through the provincial capital, killing three people and wounding another 20.

Dubai, Aug 23: Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Friday arrived in the UAE where he will discuss bilateral and regional issues with the top leadership. 

Modi reached UAE capital Abu Dhabi from Paris on the second leg of his three-nation tour to France, UAE and Bahrain.

During the visit, Modi will discuss bilateral, regional and international matters of mutual interest with the Crown Prince of Abu Dhabi, Sheikh Mohammed bin Zayed Al Nahyan, and also formally launch RuPay card to expand the network of cashless transactions abroad.

“Reached Abu Dhabi. Looking forward to holding talks with His Highness Crown Prince @MohamedBinZayed and discussing the full range of friendship between India and UAE. Deepening economic relations will also be on the agenda during this visit,” Modi tweeted 

He will also receive the ‘Order of Zayed’, the highest civilian decoration conferred by the UAE government. 

From Abu Dhabi, Modi will visit Bahrain where he will hold talks with King Shaikh Hamad bin Isa Al Khalifa and also witness the formal beginning of the re-development of the temple of Shreenathji — the oldest in the Gulf region before returning to France on Sunday to attend the G7 Summit meetings. 

Modi’s visit to Bahrain is significant as it will be the first visit of an Indian Prime Minister to the country.

He would also meet and interact with the Indian diaspora during the visit. 

Earlier in the day, Modi held bilateral meeting with his French counterpart Edouard Philippe and discussed issues of bilateral and mutual interests to further boost the comprehensive strategic partnership.

He also met UNESCO Director General Audrey Azoulay and addressed the Indian community at the UNESCO headquarters after inaugurating a memorial at the foothills of the Mont Blanc mountain in the honour of the victims of two Air India crashes in France in 1950s and 1960s in which several Indians, including Homi J Bhabha, regarded as the father of India’s nuclear programme, were killed.

New Delhi: The Asia-Pacific Group of the global watchdog for terror financing and money laundering has put Pakistan in the Enhanced Expedited Follow Up List (Blacklist) for its failure to meet its standards, officials said on Friday.

The Asia Pacific Group (APG) of the Financial Action Task Force (FATF) has also found that Pakistan was non-compliant on 32 of the 40 compliance parameters of terror financing and money laundering.

The FATF APG meeting was held in Canberra, Australia and the discussions lasted over seven hours over two days.

“The APG has placed Pakistan in the Enhanced Expedited Follow Up List (Black List) for failure to meet its standards,” an Indian official privy to the development said.

On 11 effectiveness parameters of terror financing and money laundering, Pakistan was adjudged as low on 10. The official said despite its efforts, Pakistan could not convince the 41-member plenary to upgrade it on any parameter.

Now, Pakistan has to focus on avoiding the blacklist in October, when the 15-month timeline ends on the FATF’s 27-point action plan, another official said.

Naik is alleged to have made controversial remarks against Malaysian Hindus and Malaysian Chinese during a talk in Kota Baru on August 3, prompting calls for him to be deported to India.

Controversial Islamic preacher Zakir Naik has been banned from giving speeches in Malaysia, local media reports said on Tuesday.

Naik was summoned on Monday for a second time by Malaysian authorities after his alleged racial remarks against Hindus and Chinese, hours after Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad told the controversial Indian televangelist that he is not allowed to participate in political activities in the country.

The official Bernama news agency reported on Monday that Naik, wanted by Indian authorities since 2016 for alleged money laundering and inciting extremism through hate speeches, has been called for the second time to have his statement recorded at Bukit Aman, The Royal Malaysia Police Headquarters here.

The 53-year-old preacher, who is a permanent resident in Muslim-majority Malaysia, had his statement recorded for the first time on August 16, the report said.

Naik is alleged to have made controversial remarks against Malaysian Hindus and Malaysian Chinese during a talk in Kota Baru on August 3, prompting calls for him to be deported to India.

Responding to calls for his deportation from Malaysia by suggesting Malaysian Chinese should leave the country first as they were “old guests.”

He also said that ethnic Hindus in Malaysia enjoyed “100 times more rights” than Muslims in India and that they believed in the Indian government more than the Malaysian one, media reports said.

Reacting to Naik’s controversial comments, Malaysian Prime Minister Mahathir on Sunday said it was “quite clear” that Naik wanted to participate in racial politics.

“He is stirring up racial feelings. The police will have to investigate whether it is causing tension; obviously, it is,” he said.

Mahathir added that as a permanent resident, Naik was not allowed to participate in politics.

“You can preach (religiously). But he wasn’t doing that,” he said.

“He was talking about Chinese going back to China and Indians going back to India. I have never said such things. But he did. That is politics,” the annoyed Malaysian prime minister said.

Meanwhile, more Malaysian provinces have banned Naik from making public speeches.

On Monday, Melaka became the latest state to ban his speeches.

Naik has been banned from speaking in Melaka, said the Malaysian state’s Chief Minister Adly Zahari.

Adly said the state government wants to avoid any issue that could strain ties between races, the Star reported on Monday.

“We want to maintain this. So we decided not to allow Mr Naik to hold talks or gatherings here,” he was quoted as saying.

Last week, the northern state of Perlis banned him from speaking at an event, following public uproar over racially insensitive remarks which he had made.

Naik has already been banned from the Malaysian states of Johor, Selangor, Penang, Kedah and Sarawak.