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New York: Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Monday left for home after concluding his seven-day visit that took him to Ireland and the US.
“An extraordinary visit ends, with a relentless focus on the future. PM @narendramodi emplanes for New Delhi,” external affairs ministry spokesperson Vikas Swarup tweeted.
Modi had visited Ireland on September 23 and then left for the US, during which he was in New York and also visited San Jose on the West Coast.
(IANS)
by Phil Dawkes, BBC Sport
Ireland’s hopes of reaching the World Cup quarter-finals suffered a blow as India sealed top spot in Pool B with a fifth straight win in the tournament.
Ireland came into the match knowing that a point would see them qualify.
Despite an opening stand of 89 between William Porterfield and Paul Stirling and 75 from Niall O’Brien, their 259 total was never likely to be enough.
So it proved as Shikhar Dhawan (100) and Rohit Sharma (64) helped India to a comfortable eight-wicket victory.
The margin of defeat is a reality check for Ireland, who have performed well above expectation in this tournament, claiming three wins (two against Test-playing nations) to give them six points and genuine hope of reaching the last eight.
They can still do so, but they will need to beat Pakistan in their final pool game or gain a point should the fixture be rained off.
Much like their game with South Africa, in which they conceded 411 runs before being bowled out for 210, the gulf in class between the sides in Hamilton was vast.
They started well, with Porterfield (67) and Stirling (42) using the pace of the opening bowlers well to amass an encouraging opening stand and suggest a competitive total over 300 was a possibility.
But India’s switch to spin bowling halted their progress as Ravichandran Ashwin, Ravinda Jadeja and Suresh Raina frustrated the top order and claimed the important wickets of Ed Joyce (bowled by Raina) and Andy Balbirnie (caught by Mohammed Shami off Ashwin).
Niall O’Brien offered resistance and hit well but when he and brother Kevin both fell to Shami, Ireland’s hopes of a decent score disappeared, with the returning Indian pace bowlers cleaning up the tail.
It was the fourth time India had bowled out a team in this high-scoring World Cup but Ireland’s consolation is that they made the highest total against MS Dhoni’s side.
Ireland had two opportunities to gain a foothold early in the India innings as Dhawan twice presented difficult catching chances off the bowling of John Mooney but the bowler was unable to hold on to the first and the second eluded the grasp of Porterfield at square leg.
After that, India were ruthless as Dhawan and Sharma amassed 174 before the latter chopped on to his own stumps from World Cup debutant Stuart Thompson.
Thompson, whose first over went for 18 before he was hastily withdrawn, also claimed the wicket of Dhawan, who miscued one to Porterfield at deep cover, but these were the only high points of the innings for Ireland as Virat Kohli (44) and Ajinkya Rahane (33) saw the reigning champions home with 79 balls to spare.
by BBC Sport
Ed Joyce praised Ireland’s bowlers after his century helped secure a thrilling five-run World Cup Pool B victory over Zimbabwe in Hobart.
Joyce hit 112 while Alex Cusack took two wickets in the final over as Ireland moved into a qualifying spot.
“To get them four down early on was a great effort – I think that won the game for us,” said the Sussex batsman.
“It’s fantastic for the tournament to have these close games and we seem to be playing in a lot of them.”
Joyce’s third one-day international century, along with a fine 97 from Andrew Balbirnie, helped Ireland post 331-8, their highest ever score at a World Cup, but Zimbabwe looked like chasing down the record chase.
Brendan Taylor’s superb 121 gave Zimbabwe hope and there was controversy when John Mooney took a catch close to the boundary board to dismiss Sean Williams, who scored 96, with 19 balls left.
The third umpire was called to judge the catch, although Williams did not remain on the field of play after he instead opted to take the word of Mooney that he had taken the catch inside the board.
Alex Cusack held his nerve as he claimed the final two wickets in the last over, first getting Regis Chakabva to drag on before Tawanda Mupariwa skied a catch captain William Porterfield gratefully accepted.
“I had a little luck, being dropped a couple of times, but I was really happy with how I hit the ball after a got to 50,” added Joyce, who was named man of the match.
“I played well but I think Andrew Balbirnie probably had a better innings.
“William Porterfield was the right man to be under that final catch and Alex Cusack was the right man to be bowling.”
Ireland face holders India, who have already qualified for the quarter-finals, on Tuesday in Hamilton before taking on Pakistan in their final pool game on 15 March in Adelaide.
The last match is likely to be a must-win game for the Irish after Pakistan moved above them on run-rate thanks to a surprise victory over South Africa on Saturday.
“It looks like we will have to win one of our final two games and I think it will probably all come down to the Pakistan match,” said Joyce.
“But that’s the way it should be to get through – you should have to win a lot of games.
“Pakistan are one of those teams, especially if they get a score on the board, who are very difficult to chase down as they have a lot of skilful bowlers.
“It will be exciting for both teams and exciting for the tournament.”
© AFP
by Justin Goulding, BBC Sport
South Africa condemned Ireland to their first defeat of the World Cup as they cruised to a 201-run win in Canberra.
Hashim Amla hit 159, Faf du Plessis 109 and Rilee Rossouw a rapid unbeaten 61 in South Africa’s 411-4, the second time in two Pool B games they have passed 400.
Ireland collapsed to 48-5 as they were bowled out for 210 in 45 overs despite Andrew Balbirnie’s 58.
Kyle Abbott finished with 4-21 and fellow pace bowler Morne Morkel 3-34.
South Africa need to win only one of their remaining two group games, against Pakistan and the United Arab Emirates, to reach the quarter-finals.
Ireland remain well placed to qualify, although the margin of defeat at the Manuka Oval will have a negative impact on their net run rate before Saturday’s clash with Zimbabwe in Hobart.
This game served as another illustration of South Africa’s immense power with the bat, albeit on a placid surface and against an attack lacking penetration.
Perhaps more alarming for their rivals, captain AB de Villiers – the star of their 257-run win over West Indies with 162 not out off 66 balls – played a negligible role with 24 off nine deliveries.
Amla and Du Plessis shared 247, a South Africa record for the second wicket, before Rossouw and David Miller plundered an unbroken 110 off the last 8.3 overs.
Five South Africa batsmen have now scored centuries in this competition.
Ireland were left to rue two costly misses, Amla put down on 10 by Ed Joyce, and Du Plessis edging between wicketkeeper Gary Wilson and Kevin O’Brien at slip when on 19.
Thereafter, they were barely troubled, rotating the strike almost at will while rarely wasting a chance to punish Ireland’s increasingly wayward attack.
Having seen Quinton de Kock fall in the third over, Amla – typically strong through point and mid-wicket – batted with his usual fluency as he became the quickest player to reach 20 ODI centuries.
Du Plessis, whose hundred was equally measured, was finally bowled making room to Kevin O’Brien, and the departure of Amla and De Villiers in the space of three balls merely gave Rossouw and Miller the freedom to mount a late-innings assault.
An improbable Ireland chase became nigh on impossible as Dale Steyn and Abbott shared five wickets in the first 11 overs.
Balbirnie and O’Brien’s sixth-wicket stand of 81 helped Ireland avert the heaviest defeat in ODI history, but the remainder of the innings was no more than an exercise in limiting the damage to their net run rate.
Although South Africa employed eight bowlers – including part-timer De Villiers, who removed John Mooney – Morkel mopped up the tail with two wickets in successive overs.
Gary Wilson hit 80 to help Ireland to a nervy two-wicket World Cup win over the United Arab Emirates in Brisbane.
by BBC Sport
Shaiman Anwar scored a maiden ODI century as the UAE part-timers hit 147 from their last 15 overs to post 278-9.
They then pegged Ireland back to 97-4, but Kevin O’Brien (50) and Wilson put on 72 from 36 balls for the sixth wicket to help rebuild the innings.
Ireland, who have two wins from their opening two Pool B games, next face South Africa in Canberra on 3 March.
O’Brien and Wilson were both dismissed as William Porterfield’s side closed in on the target, but Brisbane-born Alex Cusack and off-spinner George Dockrell kept their nerve to lead Ireland to victory with just four balls to spare.
Ireland skipper Porterfield won the toss and chose to bowl, and his decision seemed to be vindicated as his bowlers reduced the UAE to 131-6 in the 35th over, but Shaiman (106 from 83 balls) and Amjad Javed (42 from 35 balls) put on a World Cup record seventh-wicket stand of 107 to set up a challenging total on a turning wicket.
Ireland struggled for any fluency in their reply, until O’Brien joined Wilson at the wicket in the 39th over with 108 runs still needed.
O’Brien, Wilson and John Mooney all fell in the final six overs, as the UAE sensed a first win over Ireland since 2001, but Dockrell finally wrapped up victory from the second ball of the final over when he lofted Mohammad Naveed over cover.
Ireland added West Indies to their list of World Cup scalps with a four-wicket win in their opening match in Nelson.
by Jamie Lillywhite, BBC Sport
Lendl Simmons (102) shared 154 with Darren Sammy as the Windies recovered from 87-5 to post 304-7.
But Ireland openers Will Porterfield and Paul Stirling put on 71 and Stirling (92) added 106 with Ed Joyce.
Joyce hit 10 fours and two sixes in 84 and Niall O’Brien 79 not out as Ireland won with 25 balls left, their fourth World Cup triumph over a Test nation.
Having beaten Pakistan in their first World Cup in 2007 and England in the 2011 tournament, Ireland were almost considered favourites from the outset at the picturesque New Zealand venue.
The Windies, winners of the first two World Cups in the 1970s, now languish eighth in the ODI rankings, were skittled out for 122 by England in a warm-up match and are rumoured to be in disharmony following the omission of Kieron Pollard and Dwayne Bravo from their squad.
Ireland, ranked 11th, reached the second group stage in 2007 and now have matches against the UAE, Zimbabwe, India and Pakistan to try and secure a top four spot in Pool B and a place in the quarter-finals.
Their intrepid fielding and accurate seam bowling after choosing to field quickly led to two wickets falling in the eighth over.
Big hitting Gayle and Marlon Samuels both launched towering straight sixes before both were dismissed by 22-year-old George Dockrell in the 22nd over, the left-arm spinner with figures of 3-23 at one point.
Sammy unleashed some innovative strokes, often with ferocious power, in a thrilling partnership with Simmons, who accelerated stylishly as West Indies became the fifth successive team in the tournament to post in excess of 300 when batting first.
But far from overawed, the Irish openers punished some loose bowling in a fluent 13 over stand.
Man-of-the match Stirling hit three sixes in his pugnacious innings and was within eight of his sixth ODI hundred when, suffering from severe cramp, he edged behind in the 28th over with 128 still needed.
With the Windies looking ragged and forlorn, Joyce effortlessly guided the Irish within 32 of the target and despite three wickets in 17 balls, John Mooney, just as he did against England four years ago, struck the winning runs.
Ireland, coached by former West Indies batsman Phil Simmons, uncle of Lendl, next face the UAE in Pool B on 25 February.
A Palestinian protester holding her national flag faces Israeli soldiers during a demonstration on the highway between Jerusalem and Jericho on November 28, 2014, against the construction of Israeli settlements in the Jordan Valley and against the plan to relocate Bedoiuns from the central West Bank area. AFP / Abbas Momani
by Al Akhbar
Irish lawmakers urged their government Wednesday to recognize Palestine as a state in a symbolic motion that sailed through parliament unopposed, the latest in a series of similar measures across Europe as the EU parliament holds a crucial vote on Palestine next week.
The Irish move came a day before the Danish parliament gears up to vote on Thursday to recognize Palestine as well.
The non-binding motion agreed by lawmakers in Dublin called on the government to “officially recognize the State of Palestine, on the basis of the 1967 borders with East Jerusalem as the capital, as established in UN resolutions.”
This would be “a further positive contribution to securing a negotiated two-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict,” it added.
The government is not bound to follow the motion but Minister for Foreign Affairs Charlie Flanagan said Ireland supported early recognition of a Palestinian state “in principle.”
“We have always supported a viable two-state solution and will continue to support that in any manner and by any means,” Flanagan told parliament.
Despite being proposed by the opposition Sinn Fein party, the motion had cross-party support, dispensing the need for a vote. Sinn Fein leader Gerry Adams, who was refused entry to Gaza by Israel during a visit to the region last week, said the motion was about inspiring hope.
“We must stand with the Palestinian and Israeli citizens who want peace – who are taking risks for peace. The passing of this motion is an important contribution to this,” Adams said.
The motion also called on the Irish government to do everything it could internationally to secure “an inclusive and viable peace process.”
European politicians have become more active in pushing for a sovereign Palestine since the collapse of US-sponsored peace talks between Israel and the Palestinian Authority in April, and ensuing conflict in Gaza, where more than 2,000 Palestinians, mostly civilians, and on the Israeli side, 66 soldiers and six civilians were killed this summer.
“It’s been suggested that recognition now might help jump-start a stalemate process. This was the judgement made by Sweden and indeed it is the spirit of this evening’s motion,” Flanagan said.
The chairperson of the Irish Palestine Solidarity Campaign, Martin O’Quigley, welcomed the move.
“It’s very important, but just as important is for the Irish government to make Israel accountable for what has happened and what is happening in Palestine,” he told AFP.
The Israeli embassy in Dublin said however the motion was premature.
“A vote in favor of this motion, therefore, is a vote for Ireland, a neutral country, to intervene in a foreign conflict in favour of one national movement at the expense of another,” the Embassy said in a statement.
“That is not how peace is brought about.”
Denmark to debate Palestine recognition
Meanwhile, the Danish parliament will debate a motion calling for the recognition of Palestine as a state on Thursday.
Danish MP Holger K. Nielsen, one of the main drivers behind the initiative in Denmark, told Ma’an news agency that the first reading will take place Thursday before a potential vote in the second reading, which could take place in early 2015.
The motion was introduced by the Red-Green Alliance, the Socialist People’s Party (SPP), and Greenland’s Inuit Ataqatigiit, three small left-wing parties. It calls on the government to recognize Palestine as a state within the 1967 borders
“I think there is strength now among European countries tired of Israel’s attitude to negotiations and it is therefore more important now to put pressure on Israel,” Nielsen, a member of the SPP, said.
Nielsen says it will be “difficult” to get a majority in the Danish parliament, which may even vote against it. But he thinks debates like these aim to raise public awareness and have notably changed national attitudes to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
“Public opinion has changed (in Denmark) today compared to 10 years ago. Our aim is to change the situation so the Danish public understands the conflict.”
A former Danish adviser at the EU parliament told Ma’an that while the vote in Denmark won’t change the realities on the ground, it is a step in the right direction.
“The Danish vote is part of larger picture where a lot of Europeans are getting fed up with Israel’s rejectionism and continued settlement building. Parliaments in a lot of EU countries are reacting to this and putting Palestinian statehood to a vote out of concern for the two-state solution.”
According to PA estimations, around 135 countries have so far recognized the State of Palestine, although the number is disputed and several recognitions by what are now European Union member states date back to the Soviet era.
Ireland’s parliament is the fourth European assembly to call for the recognition of Palestinian statehood since October.
Sweden, who initiated the vote, has gone even further, officially recognizing Palestine as a state in a move that prompted Israel to recall its ambassador.
A week after Sweden’s decision, MPs in Britain voted 274 to 12 for a non-binding motion to “recognize the state of Palestine alongside the state of Israel as a contribution to securing a negotiated two-state solution.”
On November 18, Spanish MPs backed a motion to recognize Palestine as a state following a final-status agreement, while on December 2, French MPs voted 339 to 151 in favor of a motion that invites Paris to recognize the state of Palestine “as an instrument to gain a definitive resolution of the conflict.”
Spain notably changed its wording on the day of the motion following an attack on a Jerusalem synagogue — from recognition as a way to encourage a “negotiated settlement” to recognition following an agreement.
Intense lobbying around EU vote
The Danish debate comes a week before the EU parliament is due to vote on recognizing Palestine as a state on December 17, a motion postponed on November4 27 following reportedly intense pressure by Israeli diplomats.
Spain’s significant rewording of its motion reflects the core split within the EU parliament: using unconditional recognition as a means to address the imbalance between both sides in the peace process, or recognition as a condition of the outcome of talks.
A staffer in the European parliament told Ma’an that the vote was extremely tight at the moment, with signs that there could be no majority for any text at all, a potentially damaging blow for the EU’s role as a serious global actor.
The PA has also notably been absent from lobbying parliament members on the vote, the staffer said, with Israeli civil society actors lobbying passionately in favor of recognition and Israeli diplomats and other actors lobbying intensely against parliamentarians recognizing Palestine.
Whatever the outcome of the vote next week, debate in the EU parliament has been extensive, the staffer added.
EU recognition of Palestine would do little to change the realities of occupation, the former Danish adviser told Ma’an, but it could be taken as a sign of future EU action if Israel continues to maintain the status quo.
New EU foreign policy chief Federica Mogherini, who took office in early November, has been extremely vocal on Palestine and made it a point of calling for a Palestinian state during a visit to Gaza, the first visit in her new position.
Mogherini’s statements together with real measures such as getting tougher on settlements, denying violent settlers access to the EU, and reviewing the extensive trade agreements with Israel could signal meaningful change if the EU recognition vote falls flat, the former adviser added.
Holger Nielsen, the Danish MP, agrees that the EU must use economic means and be stricter on trade policy to really influence the Israeli government’s position.
“It’s difficult, but you have to continue the discussion. Change is coming all the time. Maybe not tomorrow, but I’m sure the only way you can make things change is to maintain this kind of pressure.”
The roots of the Israel-Palestine conflict date back to 1917, when the British government, in the now-famous “Balfour Declaration,” called for “the establishment in Palestine of a national home for the Jewish people.”
Israel occupied East Jerusalem and the West Bank during the 1967 Middle East War. It later annexed the holy city in 1980, claiming it as the capital of the self-proclaimed Zionist state – a move never recognized by the international community.
In November 1988, Palestinian leaders led by Yasser Arafat declared the existence of a state of Palestine inside the 1967 borders and the state’s belief “in the settlement of international and regional disputes by peaceful means in accordance with the charter and resolutions of the United Nations.”
Heralded as a “historic compromise,” the move implied that Palestinians would agree to accept only 22 percent of historic Palestine, in exchange for peace with Israel. It is now believed that only 17 percent of historic Palestine is under Palestinian control following the continued expansion of illegal Israeli settlements.
The Palestinian Authority (PA) this year set November 2016 as the deadline for ending the Israeli withdrawal from the territories occupied by Israel during the Six-Day War in 1967 and establishing a two-state solution.
It is worth noting that numerous pro-Palestine activists support a one-state solution in which Israelis and Palestinians would be treated equally, arguing that the creation of a Palestinian state beside Israel would not be sustainable. They also believe that the two-state solution, which is the only option considered by international actors, won’t solve existing discrimination, nor erase economic and military tensions.
(AFP, Ma’an, Al-Akhbar)