Kabul Afghan President Mohammad Ashraf Ghani on Thursday met visiting US Special Representative for Afghanistan Reconciliation Zalmay Khalilzad, discussing the latest efforts for a political solution to the conflict in the country.

During the meeting, Khalilzad briefed Ghani on his tours to the countries in the region, focusing on peace and reconciliation of Afghanistan, the palace said in a statement cited by Xinhua news agency.

According to the statement, Ghani said that joint peace efforts would help Afghans to achieve a lasting peace and put an end to the long war and crisis.

The meeting was attended by government Chief Executive Abdullah Abdullah. Khalilzad, leading a delegation, arrived in Afghanistan after visiting Pakistan where he met the country’s top leadership.

Khalilzad held three-day talks with the Taliban political representatives in Qatar last month. He will travel to Russia, Uzbekistan, Turkmenistan, Belgium, the United Arab Emirates and Qatar during his 18-day tour till December 20.

(IANS)

Is humanity in peril due to climate change? The much-publicised underwater meeting of the Maldavian cabinet 2009, just about two months before the 15th UN Conference on Climate Change (COP 15), was deemed to have already responded to that question, albeit symbolically.

Maldavian ministers, led by then President Mohamed Nasheed, literally went down in the shallow waters off the island of Girifushi, one of the nearly 1,000 that make the Maldives most vulnerable to climate change. They then got down to the business of governance by communicating through hand gestures.

Some critics dismissed that meeting as a publicity stunt. Many in the diplomatic world, however, judged it a remarkable and bold gesture. It was considered a clarion call to global consciousness on issues that must be hammered out at the COP 15 in Copenhagen.

The most intense climate campaigner among the then Heads of State, Nasheed wanted to create awareness about not just the plight of the small-island countries in the wake of the rise in sea levels but also the extinction of life on Earth as hinted in the report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) that went on to win the 2007 Nobel Peace Prize.

Come 2018 — and three years after Paris Climate Agreement — COP 24 is now being held, literally, on top of one of Poland’s deep coal mines. It is yet not clear if it is another bold experiment by Poland’s young President, Andrzej Duda, to draw the attention of the international community to the darker side of the long and fatally flawed international efforts in addressing one of the deadly sources of climate change.

The conference is underway (December 2-14) in the region called the Upper Silesian Basin, known for the deep mines of lignite, hard and dirty coal. These are not just Poland’s largest operating coal mines, but the mine workers there are the key deciding factors in Polish politics.

The conference venue, Katowice, not far from Krakow where President Duda comes from, is in a busy mining area with strong political clout. The region is the home to the European Union’s largest coal producers. Needless to emphasise, ownership of these coal mines is not just Polish but other European countries as well. So, the roots of the mining are not only deep but, in a globalised world, have spread far and wide.

As if to broadcast the “reality-show” and to make the green movement extremely anxious, many of the events on the margins of COP 24 are financed by the coal-mining companies.

Until the affordable access to alternate fuel that provides similar employment and prosperity to Polish workers, sticking with coal is the only option for the Polish government. To hammer home the point, the government recently announced it is planning to invest in the construction of a new coal mine in Silesia.

By selecting it as venue for COP 24, Poland is making audacious efforts to raise global consciousness and awareness on the stark ground reality of the global war to tackle one of the greatest challenges of our times. A positive message from Katowice and the Upper Silesian basin is that the world needs to eliminate coal through techno-political-social solutions and not just through “clean coal”-like soft technological options.

What is the stark and dark reality? Nearly 80 per cent of the electricity in Poland is derived from coal. Globally, coal is the single-largest contributor to the Green House Gas (GHG) emissions, in this case carbon dioxide. On a weight-by-weight basis, coal produces 30 per cent more GHGs than oil and 50 per cent more than natural gas. It is also the major contributor to air pollution that is now a life-threatening menace in the urbanised world.

Coal mining is also a significant source of emission of methane, which has even more global-warming potential than carbon dioxide. Widespread use of lower quality coal to heat homes, especially in the colder months, has led to smog and respiratory illnesses in Poland’s southern cities, as in many emerging economies like India and China.

So, this black gold is now called dirty and anti-environmental in all its characters. But historically, coal has been serving humanity for ages for heating, cooking, steaming, lighting, manufacturing and electrifying. It was instrumental in triggering and spreading the industrial revolution that started with steam engines in the mid-18th century and has provided direct and indirect employment to billions.

To be fair, Poland is not the only country that uses coal to meet a major part of its energy needs. Globally, 40 per cent of the energy is produced by burning coal. China, India, the US are the three largest emitters of GHGs, most of which come from coal. In the US, the fracking revolution has in recent years reduced the use of coal for electricity to 30 per cent.

So, will delegates from all over the world to COP 24 get the symbolic message of President Duda in hosting the Climate Conference of world leaders on top of a coal mine?

[IANS]

Some 132 million people in 42 countries will need humanitarian assistance and protection in 2019, with Yemen topping the list of most-desperate nations, the United Nations said on Tuesday.

Funding requirements next year will amount to $21.9bn with Yemen facing the worst humanitarian emergency followed by Afghanistan, Cameroon and the Central African Republic.

Presenting the Global Humanitarian Overview for 2019, Emergency Relief Coordinator Mark Lowcock said the UN and its partner organisations aim to assist some 93.6 million of the most vulnerable with food, shelter, healthcare, emergency education, protection and other basic assistance in 2019.

“Most of the humanitarian crises we have seen in 2018 will continue into 2019 because there has been little progress in addressing the root causes,” Lowcock said while addressing the media in Geneva.

“We need to make it a bigger priority to address the underlying causes: Conflicts, poverty, climate change, food insecurity, development programmes’ failure,” he said.

Lowcock said the figure of $21.9bn needed for 2019 does not include the financial requirements for Syria, which will be confirmed upon finalisation of the 2019 Syria Humanitarian Response Plan in February.

He said it is expected total requirements, including those for Syria, will be comparable to current requirements of about $25bn.

Humanitarian funding has increased if compared to previous years, with donors providing a record $13.9bn as of mid-November 2018 – about 10 percent more than at the same time in 2017, which was itself a record.

At least 10,000 people have been killed since the Yemen conflict started in 2014, according to the UN [AFP]

The UN official said the UN response will have to deal with a higher rate of displacement and increasing food insecurity than in the past.

Nearly 70 million people are displaced by conflict, more than ever before, Lowcock said. In addition, crises are exacerbating gender inequality with girls more likely to drop out of schools in areas affected by humanitarian emergencies.

The average humanitarian crisis lasts more than nine years, affecting three-quarters of the people the UN helped in 2018. Large, protracted crises have commanded the majority of resources. Between 2014 and 2018, war and conflict in Somalia, South Sudan, Sudan and Syria alone accounted for 55 percent of all funding requested and received.

In 2019, the UN also foresees an 80-percent chance of an El Nino event affecting 25 countries with droughts, tropical cyclones and floods.

“We don’t project that it will be at the same level of impact as the 2016 El Nino, but it will be a significant event and we are planning for dealing with it,” said Lowcock. Natural disasters affect 350 million people on average each year and cause billions of dollars in damage.

Cash-based aid

Lowcock said Yemen will face the worst crisis of all with 24 million people, 75 percent of the population, in need of humanitarian assistance.

The UN has made an appeal for $4bn to provide aid to 15 million Yemenis, out of whom 12 million would be receiving food assistance. In 2017, the UN was assisting three million Yemenis a month. In 2018, the number increased more than two-fold to eight million people.

Other countries where the humanitarian situation will deteriorate in 2019 are Afghanistan – because of the mixture of drought, instability and economic challenges – Cameroon and the Central African Republic, where there has been an upsurge in conflict and violence.

There will be an increasing number of countries where needs are reduced, such as Somalia – which has been recovering from the drought last year – Iraq, Burundi and Haiti.

UN response plans will no longer be needed next year in countries that have recovered from earlier crises such as Burkina Faso, Mauritania and Senegal. While, for the first time, the UN will set out a humanitarian plan to help countries neighbouring Venezuela deal with the large numbers of Venezuelans fleeing unrest at home.

There are places where needs will remain at exceptionally high levels, said Lowcock, including Syria, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Ethiopia, Nigeria and South Sudan.

Lowcock said the UN is also working on improving delivery methods.

Among the measures to be implemented more systematically, he said, is the use of cash-based assistance. Lowcock said cash-based aid is more effective in helping the poorest and most vulnerable, especially in areas of conflict.

“We have witnessed cash-based assistance work in Somalia where, in 2017, we were able to prevent a famine. That didn’t happen in 2011 when UN supplies were systematically pillaged and ravaged by al-Shabab fighters,” he said.

The UN will also work to implement measures for the protection of people from sexual exploitation, abuse and sexual harassment, he said.

Aljazeera

Kunming (China) The southwestern Chinese province of Yunnan has got down to actively wooing Indian tourists, the inflow of whom has been limited till now, showcasing its scenic beauty, natural wonders and salubrious climate.

With Yunnan’s capital Kunming hosting the 65th convention of the Travel Agents Association of India (TAAI) last week, Director General of Yunnan Provincial Department of Culture and Tourism He Ligui said that his office is now focusing on Indian tourists.

“Yunnan is very close to India, particularly to northeastern India,” He said in an interaction with a group of visiting Indian journalists here.

“Indian tourist flow to Yunnan has been very limited but now we are focusing on this,” he added.

Kunming is just a four-hour flight away from Delhi and two-and-a-half-hour flight from Kolkata.

Stating that India and China are entering a “golden period” of tourism, He said: “India has become a very important source country for tourism in China and China too has become so for India — and Yunnan would like to play a leading role in this.”

Li Bijian, Minister in the Chinese Embassy in India, said that this is coming in the backdrop of the informal summit between Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Chinese President Xi Jinping in Wuhan in China in April this year during which the two leaders agreed to enhance people-to-people contacts between the two countries.

“We think that India and China are the largest neighbours, the largest developing countries and the largest emerging economies,” Li said.

“The decisions taken during the Wuhan summit are described as the Wuhan Spirit by your side while our side calls its Wuhan Consensus.”

Stating that two-way exchange of people stands around 1.08 million people annually, which is very low, Li said: “Educational, sports and cultural tourism are what we are looking.”

To increase the inflow of Chinese tourists to India, he said that there should be more Mandarin-fluent Indian guides holding official permits.

“Though there are many five-star and four-star hotels in India, there are very limited business hotels in India,” Li said.

“Also, there should be more Chinese restaurants in places like Kerala, Goa, Varanasi and Bodh Gaya.”

According to He, there are plans to launch more flights to Kolkata and other Indian cities to boost two-way flow of tourists.

Stating that Yunnan is expecting around 700 million tourists this year, he said: “In the first 10 months, the number has touched 601 million, out of which 595 million were domestic tourists and the rest seven million were from neighbouring countries like Thailand, Myanmar, Vietnam and Singapore. Yunnan is earning around 700 billion yuan (over $100 billion) annually through tourism, making it a strategic pillar of the provincial economy.”

Extolling what Yunnan has to offer to tourists, He said that the province is a great variety of weather — “not too hot in summer and not too cold in winter” — due to its unique geographical location.

“Kunming enjoys spring-like weather throughout the year,” he said.

Yunnan is home to 26 ethnic Chinese groups with a population of over 47 million.

Stating that Yunnan has become a very important tourism destination in China, He said that the province now has 856 star-rated hotels, 958 travel agents and 65 tourist bus companies.

The Yunnan official also said that a mobile app has also been developed to help people travelling in Yunnan.

“The app was launched on October 1 and we are working to further develop it,” he said. “We will make better use of WeChat, Facebook and Google to boost tourism in Yunnan.”

He also stated that Yunnan is a very important region for Beijing’s Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) as it is the only province that can link China with South Asia and Southeast Asia.

(IANS)

Washington Three space travellers, including two astronauts on their first flight, are scheduled to launch to the International Space Station (ISS) on Monday for a six-and-a-half month mission, NASA said.

The launch comes less than two months after a booster failure forced a Soyuz spacecraft carrying Russian cosmonaut Alexey Ovchinin and US astronaut Nick Hague to make an emergency landing.

The incident became the first failure of a manned space launch in modern Russian history.

The three new space travellers — Anne McClain of NASA, David Saint-Jacquesof the Canadian Space Agency and Oleg Kononenko of Russian space agency Roscosmos – are preparing to launch aboard the Soyuz MS-11 spacecraft at 5.31 p.m. from the Baikonur spaceport in Kazakhstan.

Following a six-hour journey making four orbits of Earth, the crew will dock the Soyuz to the station’s Poisk module to begin their mission on the orbital laboratory.

It will be the first flight for both McClain and Saint-Jacques and the fourth for Kononenko.

Less than two hours after docking, hatches between the Soyuz and the station will open, and the current crew, Expedition 57 Commander Alexander Gerst of ESA (European Space Agency), NASA Flight Engineer Serena Aunon-Chancellor and Roscosmos Flight Engineer Sergey Prokopyev, who have been in orbit since June, will greet them.

Kononenko, McClain and Saint-Jacques will officially become the Expedition 58 crew when Gerst, Aunon-Chancellor and Prokopyev depart the station for home on December 20.

(IANS)

 The Syrian Foreign Ministry on Friday confirmed that Israel was behind the strikes that targeted Syrian sites south of the capital Damascus a day earlier, state news agency SANA reported.

The attack against Syrian sites in the town of Kisweh south of Damascus was carried out by Israel, the ministry said, Xinhua news agency reported.

On Thursday evening, Syria’s national TV said the Syrian air defence missiles responded to a contentious missile strike, noting that all enemy targets were destroyed and that the foreign attack did not achieve its intended goal.

However, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a war monitor based in London, said a missile hit a weapon depot believed to contain weapons for the Iranian-backed Hezbollah in the second wave of attack, after the 45-minute first-round attack failed.

Another missile hit a military base, with no reported losses, the watchdog added.

It is the first Israeli hit since September when it attacked military sites in Syria, causing the Syrian air defences to mistakenly hit a Russian surveillance aircraft.

After the September attack, during which Russian servicemen were killed by friendly fire, Moscow was quick to equip Damascus with the S-300 air defence missile system.

Syria’s Deputy Foreign Minister Faisal Mekdad told Xinhua in September that the arrival of Russia’s S-300 to Syria would push Israel to reconsider before striking Syria again.

In its statement Friday, the Syrian Foreign Ministry said the Israeli attack on Thursday evening and the US-led attack that killed 30 civilians in eastern Syria on Friday are part of the aggression circle against Syria.

The Israeli attack is another sign of the Israeli support to the terrorist groups in Syria, said the ministry, adding that Israel wants to prolong the Syrian crisis.

IANS

 Leaders of India, China and Russia at a trilateral meeting held here had an in-depth exchange of views on expanding mutual cooperation in international forums and to encourage greater interaction among the three countries under new circumstances.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi, along with Chinese President Xi Jinping and Russian President Vladimir Putin, on Friday agreed on the importance of reform and strengthening of multilateral institutions which have benefitted the world, including the UN, World Trade Organisation (WTO) and well-established as well as new global financial institutions, a statement from the External Affairs Ministry said.

They underscored the benefits of a multilateral trading system and an open world economy for global growth and prosperity.

Calling it an excellent meeting, Modi said a wide range of subjects were discussed which would further cement the friendship between the three nations and enhance world peace.

The three leaders agreed to have regular consultations at all levels to jointly promote international and regional peace and stability, to strengthen cooperation through BRICS, Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) and East Asia Summit (EAS) mechanisms, to address global challenges such as terrorism and climate change, and to encourage peaceful resolution of all differences.

They also acknowledged the importance of cooperation in Russia-India-China format and agreed to hold further such trilateral meetings on multilateral occasions, the Ministry said.

On the sideline of G-20 Summit here, US President Donald Trump, Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe and Indian Prime Minister also held a trilateral meeting, the first ever of its kind.

IANS

Kabul The death toll soared to 15 in the car bomb attack in Kabul that targeted London-based Security contractor company G4S, Afghanistan’s Interior Ministry spokesman Najib Danish said on Thursday.

Five attackers were among those killed in the Wednesday night attack and 29 people were injured, Xinhua news agency reported citing the official.

Taliban militants claimed responsibility for the bombing.

Zabihullah Majahid, who claims to speak for the Taliban outfit, claimed that first a militant blew up his explosive-laden car next to the company, opening the way for others to enter the company’s compound and begin targeting anyone inside.

Earlier reports put the number of casualties at one dead and 11 injured.

G4S was yet to make any comment about the situation following the attack on its branch.

(IANS)

Washington George H.W. Bush, the 41st President of the US and father of the 43rd, who steered the nation through a tumultuous period in world affairs, has died at the age of 94 in Houston, his spokesperson Jim McGrath announced.

His death on Friday night came less than eight months after that of his wife of 73 years, Barbara Bush, reports The New York Times.

The cause of his death was not immediately known.

However, the former leader suffered from a form of Parkinson’s disease that forced him to use a wheelchair or motorised scooter in recent years, and he had been in and out of hospitals during that time as his health declined.

In April, a day after attending his wife’s funeral, he was treated for an infection that had spread to his blood.

Bush, a Republican, was a transitional figure in the White House, where he served from 1989 to 1993, capping a career of more than 40 years in public service.

A decorated Navy pilot who was shot down in the Pacific in 1944, he was the last of the Second World War generation to occupy the Oval Office.

Bush was a skilled bureaucratic and diplomatic player who, as President, helped end four decades of Cold War and the threat of nuclear engagement with a nuanced handling of the collapse of the Soviet Union and the liberation of Eastern Europe.

Born into privilege and a tradition of service, Bush was a son of a senator, student athlete, Texas oilman, Republican congressman, national party chairman, pioneering diplomat and spy chief, reports CNN.

After his own 1980 presidential campaign came up short, he served two terms as Ronald Reagan’s Vice President before reaching the pinnacle of political power by winning the 1988 presidential election, soundly defeating Democrat Michael Dukakis.

After losing the White House in 1992, Bush became a widely admired political elder who leapt out of airplanes to mark birthday milestones.

Emphasizing the generosity of his soul, he forged a close and unlikely friendship with Democrat Bill Clinton, the man who ended his presidency.

When Parkinson’s disease mostly silenced him in public, Bush flashed his sense of humour by sporting colourful striped socks.

(IANS)

A blast near a chemical plant in Zhangjiakou city, in north China’s Hebei province, has killed 22 and injured 22 others early Wednesday morning, local authorities said.

The blast occurred near Hebei Shenghua Chemical Industry Co., Ltd. in Zhangjiakou at around 0:40 a.m. local time. Fire caused by the blast has engulfed 38 trucks and 12 vehicles, according to the sources from Zhangjiakou city government, Xinhua news agency reported.

The injured have been rushed to hospitals. Further investigation is underway.

IANS