KATHMANDU,
Shiva Maya Tumbahangphe is tired. After Krishna Bahadur Mahara resigned as the House Speaker last October, following rape allegations by a female employee at the Parliament Secretariat, Tumbahangphe has been drawn into a vortex of political machinations. Her own party, the ruling Nepal Communist Party, has asked her to resign, in an attempt to use the posts of Speaker and deputy Speaker in horse-trading.
But Tumbahangphe has remained firm. She believes that as deputy Speaker she has a rightful claim to Speaker and that she should not have to resign just because of Mahara.
“I don’t let these things affect me,” she told the Post stoically, sipping green tea at her office in Singha Durbar in late December. “I will not abandon my claim.”
For nearly four months, Tumbahangphe, a veteran politician who holds a PhD in political science, has been saying that she, as deputy Speaker, has first claim to the post of Speaker. But that is easier said than done, given the shifting power dynamics in the Nepal Communist Party (NCP), as both CPN-UML and Maoist factions jostle for influence.
Regardless of the larger politics at play within the ruling party, Tumbahangphe is so far the only person to publicly lay claim to the Speaker’s position, a first for women in Nepali politics. Many have been saying this is a watershed moment for women’s representation in the highest echelons of state mechanism—women going from just demanding a seat at the table to claiming a chair at the head.
Binda Pandey, one of the most vocal lawmakers from the ruling party, believes that the “women need to be competent enough” rhetoric denies them positions that they well deserve.  
“Women like Shiva Maya aren’t saying I deserve this because I am a woman,” said Pandey. “They are now in a position where they can assert that they are capable and competent enough for the job.”
And Tumbahangphe, who has been active in politics since her student days during the Panchayat era, ticks off all the boxes to be fielded as Speaker, perhaps more so than anyone else.
“She is capable and she has the experience, as well as the academics to back it up,” said Pandey.
On Friday, at a meeting with the party leadership, Tumbahangphe presented Co-chairs KP Sharma Oli and Pushpa Kamal Dahal with a signed copy of her PhD thesis on the role of women in Nepal’s political revolutions, according to the news portal OnlineKhabar. It was a highly symbolic move, but Tumbahangphe did not stop there. She presented a list of 12 points that qualify her for the position of Speaker, including her years as a student leader, as a women’s leader, and as an advocate.
But given how deeply patriarchal Nepali politics is, female politicians are not optimistic about the party agreeing to Tumbahangphe as Speaker. On Saturday, the party co-chairs officially asked Tumbahangphe to resign and she refused. As deputy Speaker, she said that she is not beholden to the party whip and that if they want to remove her, they need to begin impeachment proceedings.
The shabby treatment being meted out to Tumbahangphe has galvanised female politicians, and many on social media, who have taken up her cause. But in the history of Nepali politics, this is not unique.
Two years ago, when the chief ministers of all the seven provinces were nominated, not a single party fielded women candidates. The ruling party faced the most ire about its decision to bypass senior leader Asta Laxmi Shakya as chief minister in Province 3 for Dormani Poudel, a man who many say has far fewer credentials in politics compared to Shakya.
None of the national political parties has complied with the Election Commission’s directive to ensure 33 percent representation of women in the central committee. Furthermore, the nationwide trend of limiting women to deputy roles, just because of constitutional provisions that envision a mix of both sexes in the executive roles, has created yet another obstacle for women from taking up leadership positions. The constitution requires that the Speaker and the deputy Speaker, of both the federal parliament and provincial parliaments, be of two different sexes.
But like in Tumbahangphe’s case, parties fielded women as deputy Speakers across all provinces, with not a single nomination for Speaker.
Now, with Tumbahangphe claiming the Speaker’s post, all the deputy Speakers from the seven provinces have rallied in her support.
“It’s the prevailing mindset that we are trying to challenge and change by saying that a deserving woman like Shiva Maya needs to get the top job and not be relegated to a deputy position just because of her sex,” Radhika Tamang, the deputy Speaker of Province 3, told the Post.
How the party responds to Tumbahangphe will have far-reaching consequences for women in politics, said Tamang.
“Women’s morale will get a boost, not just in the upcoming general convention of the party, but across the political spectrum,” she said. “There will be a sense of confidence to assert ourselves and claim positions we deserve.”
But Tamang is also well aware of history. Far too often, male politicians have sidelined women in the past, and how the parties care more about balancing the political equation rather than appoint a deserving woman to a post she has a rightful claim to.
Oli has so far pushed for Subas Nembang for Speaker. Nembang twice led the Constituent Assembly, which doubled as the Legislature-Parliament. Dahal, on the other hand, has been pushing for Agni Sapkota. With both names divided clearly along factional lines in the ruling party, Tumbahangphe is caught in the middle.
The ruling party’s chief whip, Dev Gurung, blames legal hurdles for the delay in choosing a Speaker, suggesting that Tumbahangphe’s resignation would “clear the current deadlock”. In addition to saying that the two Speakers should be of different sexes, the constitution also states that they should be from two different parties.
“If Shiva Maya wants to be Speaker, she needs to resign and file her candidacy,” said Gurung. “Unless the path for the Speaker’s election opens up, no one can make a claim for the position.”
The ruling party will field candidates irrespective of their sex, said Gurung. “It would be nice if a woman is elected Speaker, but right now we need to sort out the process before we talk about candidates,” he said.
While the Nepal Communist Party’s all-male leadership locks horns at Dhumbarahi, and the indecision drags the House’s winter session into uncertainty, it is Tumbahangphe who is at the receiving end of all the questions—and all the blame.
In late December, when a group of all male journalists swarmed into her office in Singha Durbar, trying to get anything provocative from her, she repeated her claim to Speaker, and hinted that their questions should be directed at the party leadership, not her. “I have nothing to say,” she said with a dry laugh, going back to her tea. “I have said all that I had to say. Now there’s nothing left.”

KATHMANDU,
The federal parliament is being held hostage to the internal dynamics of the ruling Nepal Communist Party. Although some have pointed to the refusal of Deputy Speaker Shiva Maya Tumbahangphe to resign as the obstacle, party leaders point to an internal failure to reach consensus on the new Speaker, four months after Krishna Bahadur Mahara resigned over rape allegations.
Dozens of meetings between Prime Minister and party Co-chair KP Sharma Oli and Co-chair Pushpa Kamal Dahal in the last three months have yielded no results. Oli has continued to lobby for his UML member Subas Nembang and Dahal for his Maoist comrade Agni Sapkota. Party insiders said that Dahal could even back Pampha Bhusal for Speaker if gender is to be an issue.
Tumbahangphe, for her part, has refused to resign, despite a directive on Saturday from both Oli and Dahal asking her to step down.
“I have not committed any crime so why should I resign,” Tumbahangphe told the Post. “I am not going to leave the House headless. So I am not going to put in my papers, which I have made clear to Oli and Dahal.”
As she is deputy Speaker of the federal parliament, Tumbahangphe is above the party line and thus is not beholden to the party whip, she said.
“I have placed my claim for the post of Speaker and have told both leaders that they can either remove me by sending a notice to the Election Commission stating that the party has expelled me or they can impeach me,” said Tumbahangphe. “But I am not going to resign at any cost.”
Tumbahangphe has President Bidya Devi Bhandari and a host of women leaders from the ruling party in her corner, said party insiders.
One politician told the Post that Bhandari and Tumbahangphe are old friends and meet frequently.
As the ruling party scrambles to decide whether to allow Tumbahangphe to contest for the role of Speaker or to find a candidate suitable to all, all House business has been put on hold.
After a heated debate between Oli, Dahal and Tumbahangphe on Sunday ended without conclusion, the January 12 meeting of the House was put off until January 20.
A party Secretariat member told the Post that Oli and Dahal will first address the issues raised by Tumbahangphe, so both chairs will require some time to assess the situation. An adamant Tumbahangphe has even presented the co-chairs with a 12-point list of her accomplishments, asking them to tell her why she does not qualify for the post.
“It will take some more time but both leaders will discuss what Tumbahangphe said and will then attempt to seek consensus on the new Speaker,” said NCP spokesperson Narayan Kaji Shrestha.
Dahal had earlier appeared softer on the post of Speaker but has hardened his stance since former Maoist leaders asked him not to give up their faction’s only high-level political representation. Oli, on the other hand, is miffed at Dahal after he held a separate meeting with a number of senior party leaders in Lalitpur, according to the ruling party leader.
The post of Speaker is especially crucial for Oli as the prime minister was unhappy with Mahara for holding up a number of bills, including the Millennium Challenge Corporation’s Nepal compact.
If Oli is forced to compromise over Sapkota or Bhusal, he will definitely have some hard conditions of his own, said the party leader. “Oli will also require a precondition that his government will not face any sort of non-cooperation from the new Speaker,” he said.
According to Minister for Agriculture Ghanashyam Bhusal, the debate might be taking a long time but it is not something that will invite serious confrontation.
“Both sides want to dominate each other until a consensus is reached but we have faced more serious issues than this in the past and such issues are likely to come up in the future too,” said Bhusal.
The Nepali Congress, the primary opposition party, on the other hand, has expressed concern over repeated failures of the ruling party to pick the Speaker and to hold the meeting of the House of Representatives.

KATHMANDU,
On a cool winter morning, Richa was going through her slides before taking a lunch break. As the fundraising officer for an advocacy organisation, she had a presentation on mental health in two hours. It is difficult to imagine that just two years ago, Richa was living on the streets of Kath-mandu, mentally ill and homeless.
In 2018, Richa, who asked that she only be identified by her first name for fear of stigmatisation, was rescued from the streets of Jawalakhel by Koshish, an organisation that works with mentally ill homeless people. After being trafficked to India as a child by her step-father, Richa had been rescued, gotten an education and had grown up to work as a tour guide, travelling back and forth between Nepal and India. But a mishap with the law involving drugs jailed her for nine years. In prison, she had developed various forms of mental illnesses and after being released, with nowhere to go and no family to turn to, she had ended up on the streets.
“People called me pagal and baula and left me on my own,” said the 38-year-old. “I would spend nights outside the police station in Jawalakhel and would wander around the streets of Kathmandu during the day.”
She spent nine months on the streets of Kathmandu, between Gongabu and Jawalakhel, before she was discovered by Koshish and taken in for treatment.
Although there isn’t any data on the number of homeless people with mental illnesses, almost every Kathmandu street is home to at least one person with some form of mental illness.
In 2017, when the Kathmandu Metropolitan City rescued the homeless people from the streets, a staggering 80 to 90 percent had some form of mental health problems.
The prevailing stigma attached to mental illness has meant that people with psychosocial problems are often ignored and abandoned. However, with proper medical treatment and rehabilitation, these people can lead largely productive and dignified lives.
“People on the streets often suffer from severe mental illnesses like schizophrenia, bipolar disorder and severe depression, all of which are manageable with the right medication and counselling,” said Matrika Devkota, founding chairman of Koshish.
After being rescued, Richa was diagnosed with a non-psychotic mental disorder, a condition of the mind that causes depression, panic attacks, suicidal thoughts, social withdrawal, compulsive behaviour, irritability and restlessness.
Although Richa developed mental health issues while in prison, her problems exacerbated during her time on the street.
“I was constantly hungry, and it was difficult to find a safe place to sleep. I never knew if I would wake up alive,” she said.

In one horrific incident, Richa was gang-raped and left to die in a Gongabu gully, she said.
Across the world, homeless people on the street are more vulnerable to sexual violence. A 2017 report by the District of Columbia in the United States found that 54 percent of homeless women had experienced different forms of sexual violence, ranging from stalking to rape. In a 2015 study conducted on homeless women in Los Angeles in the United States, 13 percent reported rape.
“When she was brought in to the residential treatment centre, Richa was in trauma. She had withdrawn from reality and didn’t talk to anyone,” said Sangeeta Laudari, a psychologist who is in charge of the Koshish transit home for rescued people with psychosocial problems.
After a 10-month therapy, which included counselling and medical treatment, Richa began to recover steadily and was able to recall bits of information about her background.
“Richa began to talk about her life prior to ending up on the street. We found out that she worked as a tour guide and used to travel to India and back. She also has impeccable leadership and English-speaking skills,” said Devkota, who offered Richa a job at Koshish.
However, Richa still can’t recall her family and where she grew up. According to Devkota, the biggest challenge lies in rehabilitating homeless people who have recovered from mental illness.
“There are people like Richa who genuinely cannot track the addresses of their families. However, there are also cases where the families don’t take them back although they have recovered,” said Devkota.
According to Devkota, along with the lack of a budget for the rescue and rehabilitation of people with mental illness from the streets, there is also the stigma that continues to persist even after they’ve recovered.
“Discharging people who have recovered back into a society that isn’t ready to receive them is fraught with evil consequences,” said Devkota. “A family that isn’t ready to accept the person is unlikely to ensure adherence to treatment and regular follow-ups. Thus, the person is at risk of relapse.”
According to psychologist Laudari, mental health is affected by a lack of social support and attention from friends, family and society. With the right care and a supportive environment, people can usually overcome mental disorder and lead productive lives.
“There are many reasons why people with mental health problems end up on the street. However, it is the duty of society and the government to provide them with basic rights and security to recover and live a dignified life,” said Laudari.
A 2019 pilot study for the National Mental Health Survey estimates that 2.2 million Nepalis, aged between 16 and 40 years, suffer from some form of mental illness. Despite mental health emerging as a health priority, for the fiscal year 2018-2019, the government only allocated 4.29 percent of its total budget to the ‘health and population’ category.
There is also a severe shortage of trained professionals like psychologists and psychiatrists to deal with mental health, especially in rural areas. According to estimates, there are an estimated 130 psychiatrists in the country, with less than 30 working in government hospitals.
According to Gyanendra Karki, spokesperson for the Kathmandu Metropolitan City, although the city has started to rehabilitate people begging on the streets, there isn’t any rehabilitation programme as such for homeless people with mental health issues.
As for Richa, she said she feels blessed to have been found by people who treated her with empathy and love.
“The medical treatment and support system I received after being rescued have given me a new life,” she said.
Richa now wants to devote her life to advocating against the stigma attached to mental health.
“I know that I am among the lucky few who got proper care and support,” she said. “When I talk about mental health issues, people still roll their eyes. They are often taken aback when I say that I have a mental illness.”

ARIES (March 21-April 19)
**
Do you think that just because you’re moving at an oh, so rapid pace that you’re being oh, so productive? Silly you! Look down at your scrambling legs right now, and chances are you’ll see you’re on a treadmill and running in place. Sure, you’re working up a sweat, but you’re not getting anywhere.


TAURUS (April 20-May 20)
**
Silly questions are going to plague you today, so don’t waste time entertaining each and every one of them. You have work to do, and you can’t stop and be extra polite to people who are being too nosy for words! If someone really needs to know something about what is going on in your life, then by all means tell them.


GEMINI (May 21-June 21)
***
Right now you have to prove to yourself that you can finish what you started. Make sure that no one will be able to accuse you of having no follow-through! Your go-getter attitude will be remembered by powerful people some day soon, and they will reward you with an opportunity you’ve been waiting for.


CANCER (June 22-July 22)
**
If you’ve been doing risque things or maybe just walking on the wild side a bit too often lately, the time has come for you to settle down! Variety is the spice of life, and “all wild all the time” will make you dull. Tame the animal inside of you. A quiet life doesn’t have to be a boring one.


LEO (July 23-August 22)
****
It’s a great day for working in groups. The energy that only comes from teamwork will keep you feeling powerful, and valuable. Today when you get together with other smart people just like you, you’ll start finishing each other’s sentences. You’ll collaborate on something new and exciting.


VIRGO (August 23-September 22)
**
There is strong potential for today to be a good or bad day. The outcome (as usual) is completely up to you. The best way to ensure that things go well is to stay positive yourself. Visualize the way you want things to go down. Show the universe how you want things to be, and it might just follow along.


LIBRA (September 23-October 22)
***
You’re moving into a very intuitive phase. You can pick up on clues that go right over the heads of most other people, which puts you in an optimal position to take control of a situation. Financially, you’ll see where you should be putting your money, and the rewards will be better than you expected.


SCORPIO (October 23-November 21)
**
Your ability to focus in on small details is one of your greatest strengths, and you need to rely on it today if you’re going to hold on to the resources you’ve worked so hard to attain. Make sure you read all documents properly you’re about to sign, because an unusual minor detail will pop right out when you do.


SAGITTARIUS (November 22-December 21)
**
People have been making some assumptions about you that are simply not correct, and it’s up to you to educate them about who you really are today. The only catch is that you can’t really tell them. You have to show them. Carry on with your daily tasks as you normally would, but keep in mind that you’re being observed.


CAPRICORN (December 22-January 19)
***
Take only what you need today. It’s better if you travel light and avoid baggage of any kind right now. You might be asked to move or travel somewhere at the very last minute, so you’ll want to stay as streamlined and flexible as possible. It’s likely that you’ll really enjoy living a more spartan lifestyle, too.


AQUARIUS (January 20-February 18)
****
Your creativity will really be luminous today, and your mind will be drawn to light. If you can, get up extra early and watch the sunrise. You’ll see the world in a way you’ve never seen it before. You might realize that you are a morning person after all! This evening, try to be with someone you care a lot about when the sun sets.


PISCES (February 19-March 20)
*
You should watch your words carefully today. Your temper could be running hotter than you realise, and you don’t want to burn any bridges. Try to keep things impersonal. It’s not that your emotions aren’t valid. It’s just that people you’ll be around today aren’t going to be able to help make you feel better.

KATHMANDU,
Reversing the previous decision, the Central Bureau of Statistics has decided to incorporate ‘third gender’ option in its census questionnaire. After consulting the LGBTI (Lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and intersex)
community, the bureau has decided to count the number of third gender besides male and female. This, the bureau believes, would help offer the exact number of LGBTIs.
“We have decided to include the questionnaire referring to LGBTI. Now, the questionnaire will include male, female and others to identify the sexes in a household,” said Dhundiraj Lamichhane, director at the bureau.  
However, he said the census would not generate separate data on the different subgroups within the LGBTIs. “We have agreed with the LGBTI community to conduct a separate survey in the future, where we will further disaggregate the LGBTIs.”
Earlier,  the bureau had prepared a questionnaire excluding the LGBTIs, arguing that it would be difficult to get information about the third gender in a family because the bureau usually records the responses from the main person in a household who may be reluctant to open up on third gender family members.
This line of thinking came to prevail due to the fact that only 1,500 third gender people were identified during the last census in 2011 and the bureau didn’t publish a report on the number of third gender people, as per the request of LGBTI community.
While the LGBTI community in Nepal itself has no data on its population, it said that some studies have suggested that around 8-10 percent of the total population identifies as LGBTI.
“Irrespective of the results, we wanted to know the exact number of LGBTIs,” said Manisha Dhakal, executive director of Blue Diamond Society, a representative body of LGBTIs in the country. “So, we had suggested the inclusion of a questionnaire on LGBTIs in two separate categories— sexual minorities and transgender.”
The transgender denotes a person whose sense of personal identity and gender does not correspond with their birth sex.  
The LGBTI community believes that people who conduct headcounts would understand the meaning of the third gender if they are categorised as sexual minorities and transgender instead of bracketing them as others. However, the bureau officials said that they would be collecting the data on LGBTIs as ‘other’ sex. But, the bureau will define the term ‘other’ as a sexual minority in its manual.
Dhakal said that they are in favour of incorporating third gender in the census to set a precedent and to facilitate the government’s efforts to identify sexes and recognise the sexual minorities within the definition of minorities.
Although the constitution has talked about the rights of sexual minorities, it has excluded their political representation in a proportional manner.
“If the census produces a low number of  LGBTIs because of people not speaking up, we will be disappointed, but accept the results.  It will also give us the energy to make further efforts to ensure that our communities open up about their sexes,” said Dhakal.
The Blue Diamond Society believes that more LGBTI people would open up about their sexual orientation in the upcoming census because of the growing trend among LGBTIs to speak up.
Dhakal stressed training the enumerators so that they could encourage sexual minorities to open up about their gender.
“We are also mobilising our team and efforts for the purpose,” said Dhakal.
Meanwhile, the bureau has not heeded to the demand of people with disabilities that the questionnaire should be based on the standard set by Washington Group on Disability Statistics, a body under the United Nations Statistical Commission City Group.
The main purpose of the Washington Group is the promotion and coordination of international cooperation in the area of health statistics focusing on disability measures suitable for censuses and national surveys. It has developed questionnaires for the census which are most related to what type of disability one is suffering from, instead of whether one is blind or deaf.
“We are going to include questions, based on the law of rights of people with a disability,” said Lamichhane.
The law has classified disability in terms of types of disability such as physical disability, blind and deaf as well as the severity of the disability.  
The bureau has said that it would be conducting a pilot census in 14 districts, two districts each from every province, in March.
According to the Lamichhane, the director at the bureau, the selected districts include Panchathar and Morang from Province 1; Parsa and Dhanusha from Province 2; Kathmandu and Makawanpur from Province 3; Kaski and Baglung from Gandaki Province; Rupandehi and Pyuthan from Province 5; Surkhet and Jumla from Karnali Province; and Dhangadhi and Darchula from Sudurpaschim Province.
“Through the pilot census, we expect to figure out the potential problems we could face during the upcoming national census,” said Lamichhane. “We can then effect some necessary changes accordingly in the questionnaire and other preparations for the census planned to be conducted from June 7 to June 21 next year.”

HETAUDA,
A provincial assembly meeting of Province 3 endorsed the proposal to name the province as Bagmati by a majority vote on Sunday. The meeting also endorsed Hetauda as the provincial capital.
The proposal on the name of the province forwarded by Nepali Congress lawmaker Indra Baniya garnered 108 votes while no votes were cast against the proposal.
“Chief Minister Dormani Poudel’s proposal to name Hetauda as the provincial capital also received a two-third majority,” announced province assembly Speaker Sanu Kumar Shrestha.
The proposal received 105 votes in its favour while three votes were against the chief minister’s proposal. In the 110-strong provincial assembly, 108 were present at Sunday’s meeting.
Poudel had registered the proposal at the assembly secretariat on Saturday which was seconded by Baniya, including the lawmakers from Rastriya Prajatantra Party and RPP (Samyukta).
On December 29, the ruling Nepal Communist Party had instructed its provincial party committee and the parliamentary committee of Province 3 to adopt Bagmati as the name of the province with Hetauda as its capital. The decision was met with criticism with legal experts describing it as a move against constitution and federalism.
After the meeting, Poudel expressed satisfaction on the assembly’s decision. The decision aligns with “the spirit of decentralisation,’’ he said.
“The provincial office and operation should in no way be shadowed by Singha Durbar. The decision has been taken with that spirit.”
Meanwhile, Baniya, the NC lawmaker, said the decision was a “strategic victory” for his party. “Now that we’ve finalised the name and the capital, the province should move into the direction of development. “The cooperation that we saw in making the decision should take place in developing the province as well,” Baniya said.

KATHMANDU,
The World Health Organization has alerted the Ministry of Health and Population about the risk of possible transmission of a new strain of coronavirus that was first detected in the Wuhan city of China.
At least one person has died of respiratory failure and more than 40 others suffered a pneumonia-like illness caused by a new strain of coronavirus last week.
It is not immediately clear how and where the new strain of the virus originated.
“The UN health agency has alerted us to take precautionary measures to prevent the possible transmission of the deadly virus in our country,” Dr Bibek Kumar Lal, director at Epidemiology and Disease Control Division, told the Post. “We are at high risk of deadly disease, as China is our neighbouring country and the flow of tourists from China is very high.”
Coronavirus is from a large family of viruses with some causing a less-severe disease, such as the common cold and others more severe diseases such as the Middle East Respiratory Syndrome (MERS) and Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS), according to the WHO.
Globally, novel coronaviruses emerge periodically in different areas, including SARS in 2002 and MERS in 2012. The outbreak in the Chinese city of Wuhan is reported to be linked to a large seafood and animal market, suggesting a possible zoonotic origin to the outbreak.
“We have no health workers to quarantine suspected cases at the Tribhuvan International Airport or at any land crossings,” Lal added. “We have been urging the Health Ministry for a long time to deploy human resources, but to no avail.”
Of the nine health desks—one at the Tribhuvan International Airport and eight at the land crossings, none are functional due to a staff crunch. Those health desks are also lacking in infrastructure facilities such as thermal imaging cameras, infrared thermometers to check the temperatures of the travellers, sufficient personnel protective gears, isolation facilities and trained human resources to handle the suspicious cases, according to Lal.
Some health workers, who were trained to quarantine commuters at the time of the Ebola virus outbreak in Africa in 2014, were transferred to local levels. The division has prepared a guideline for screening passengers at the entry points, taking the help of the WHO’s country office in Nepal, but due to a lack of trained human resources in those desks, the guideline is yet to be implemented.
Meanwhile, the Health Ministry on Sunday held a meeting with the Department of Immigration about the risk of arrivals of infected people and the possible ways to control the virus spread. “We held a meeting with the director-general of the Department of Immigration today and discussed the security measures,” Secretary for Health Khaga Raj Baral told the Post. “We are also working to depute health workers at those health desks at the earliest.”
Nepal is highly vulnerable to several deadly coronaviruses like MERSD and SARS, as hundreds of thousands of Nepali migrant workers have been serving in the Middle East and South Korea, where these viruses are
common. As well, more than 1 million foreign tourists visit the country every year.
Additionally, hundreds of peacekeepers from the Nepal Army, Armed Police Force and Nepal Police have been serving in the African countries affected by the deadly Ebola virus. Those peacekeepers have been entering the country without any health screening for a long time.
The WHO says high visitor traffic can play a critical role in the spread of deadly diseases internationally.

DHANUSHA,
Four of the alleged perpetrators of the tipper attack in Dhanusha have been remanded in judicial custody for five days. The Dhanusha District Court on Sunday issued the order to keep the accused—Bipin Mahato, Munindra Mahato, Jitendra Mahato and Roshan Kumar Yadav—in custody pending a police investigation.
Police had nabbed the four men in connection to the murder of 24-year-old Dilip Mahato of Sripur. Dilip was crushed to death by a tipper truck on Friday morning, following his protests against the illegal mining of riverbed materials near his home in Sripur.
The alleged perpetrators have been charged with a homicide case, said Superintendent of Police Ramesh Kumar Basnet.
Basnet added that the police on Sunday started taking statements from the alleged perpetrators.
“We have remanded the alleged perpetrators in custody for five days and are currently taking their statements,” Basnet said. “More information will be revealed after the statements are recorded.”
Meanwhile, the National Human Rights Commission on Sunday issued a press release calling for an impartial and effective investigation into the murder of Mahato.
“Our attention has been drawn to reports that environment activist and human rights defender Om Prakash Mahato [Dilip] of Mithila Municipality Ward No. 5 of Dhanusha was crushed to death by a tripper truck in the Aurahi River in the district on January 10,” reads the statement.
According to the statement, a team from the NHRC in Province 2 will inspect the incident site and investigate the incident. The incident is against human rights and the multilateral treaty adopted by the United Nations in 1966, the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, of which Nepal is a signatory, said the human rights watchdog.
“The government should conduct an impartial and effective investigation into the case; provide compensation to the victim’s family, and punish the perpetrator(s) according to law and make all the efforts not to let such incident repeat in the future.”

KATHMANDU,
The Kathmandu District Court on Sunday ordered to summon the doctor, who conducted the medical examination of the woman who had accused Krishna Bahadur Mahara of attempted rape, to record statements.
A single bench of Justice Ambar Raj Paudel gave the order to summon the doctor, said Aananda Shrestha, a court official. “Staffers at the National Forensic Science Laboratory, who examined the evidence of the incident and who conducted the deed of inquiry also have been summoned.”
Mahara resigned in early October last year after a woman working at the Parliament Secretariat alleged that he had attempted rape on her. He was arrested on October 6. If convicted, Mahara could face a jail term up to seven years.
The Patan High Court on December 19 asked the Kathmandu District Court to pass a final verdict on the Mahara case within a month. Mahara is currently in Dilli Bazaar Prison, awaiting the final verdict.

ROLPA,
The local government has been facing challenges in combating minors’ issues such as child marriage, child labour and school dropouts in several federal units of Rolpa district.
Since the election of the local representatives in 2017, the local level had made efforts from running awareness campaigns to introducing mid-day meals in government schools. But despite these efforts, there has not been much improvement in eradicating practices such as child marriage and child labour, and in retaining children at school.
Shanta Kumar Oli, chairman of the Tribeni Rural Municipality, said the local government launched an awareness drive to end child marriage and child labour soon after the local level elections but the campaign had not been fruitful.
“The rural municipality and several social organisations spend around Rs 30 million annually for child rights and children’s education. However, we haven’t been able to stop child marriage and child labour completely,” said Oli.
The tradition of parents getting their children to marry at a young age is still prevalent in rural areas, says Oli. “Poor economic condition drives young children to work for the livelihood of their families. This is also why the district hasn’t been able to end child labour,” he said.
According to a recent study carried out by Tribeni Rural Municipality, 227 children were involved in child labour in the local unit last fiscal year. The study shows that as many as 68 underage couples got married in 2019-20. Child marriage has been illegal in Nepal since 1963. Two years ago, the government increased the legal age for marriage from 18 to 20 years.
There are 12 secondary schools, 28 basic schools and 37 child development centres in Tribeni Rural Municipality. According to data at the local level, 2,299 students have been enrolled in various schools this year. The rural municipality does not have comprehensive data on the total number of school-going children in the rural municipality.
According to the rural municipality, 205 school-age children were found out of school in the current academic year. The local unit, with the help of Save the Children and Human Rights and Environmental Education Centre, initiated a campaign to bring those children to school.
“We have brought almost all the children to school again. Only 12 children are deprived of education now. Efforts are on to bring them into the school system too,” said Pramila Budha, an officer at one of the social human rights organisations working in the region.
Thaman and his siblings Laxmi and Tara Dangi of Garigaun could not continue their studies after their father died and their mother remarried. The Dangi siblings, who have been living with their elderly grandparents, joined a school in the municipality a few weeks ago as motivated by one of the social organisations.
“I could not send them to school after the death of their father. They again started going to school with the help of the rural municipality and the social organisations,” said Dil Bahadur Dangi, the 65-year-old grandfather of the trio.
The situation of the children is almost the same--if not worse--in other local units as well. All 10 local councils in the district expressed their commitment to working towards educational reforms and ensuring child rights for every child in their respective wards. The representatives of the local units gathered at the district headquarters a few days ago and signed a 15-point commitment to stopping child marriage and child labour.
According to the International Labour Organisation, Nepal still has about 1.6 million children aged 5 to 17 years engaged in labour

DARCHULA,
Four years since the KP Oli administration’s decision to replace tuins with bridges, people in Darchula are still using these rudimentary ropeway crossings to get across the Mahakali River. Before the government announced the tuin replacement programme, there were 11 tuins over the river, which borders Nepal and India. Only two suspension bridges have been built, one in Lali and the other at Tigram, in the last four years while more than half-dozen tuins are still in operation.
The district administration had sent a proposal to the federal
government recommending the spots where tuins needed to be replaced with suspension bridges. However, there hasn’t been much progress towards that end.
Tuins are still in operation at seven places in Byas Rural Municipality.
“People are still dependent on tuins to cross the river,” said Narasingh Bhandari, a local of Byas.
“The government had announced in 2015 that it would replace all tuins within two years, but four years have already passed and we are still using tuins to cross the Mahakali,” said Harak Singh Karki, a local of Byas Rural Municipality Ward No. 2.
Construction of four suspension bridges began in Badgaun, Malghatte, Maal and Baku starting this fiscal year.
“Initially, eleven suspension bridges were proposed, but some of the planned bridge projects had to be put on hold after the Indian side expressed reservations, citing security concerns,” said Karan Singh Dhami, assistant engineer at the then-District Technical Office. “While tuins over Mahakali await replacement, those in other rivers such as Gogane, Jarbagad and Sitolighat have already been replaced.”
Meanwhile, the locals of Byas Rural Municipality Ward No. 2 have started constructing makeshift wooden bridges due to the lack of bridges in their areas.
“These makeshift bridges are temporary. They get flooded during the monsoon, and we have to revert to using tuins,” said Dhiran Singh Budhathoki, the ward chief.

KATHMANDU,
The Ward 25 of the Kathmandu Metropolitan City on Saturday successfully tested a ‘dry riser’ over a distance of 220 metres from Masangalli to Mahaboudha.
A dry riser is an empty pipe that’s connected to a pressurised water source by firefighters. The vertical pipeline distributes water to multiple levels of a building. The metropolitan city has installed four-inch-long iron pipes along the alleys of the area where the water gets supplied from tankers or fire brigades from Indrachwok and Mahaboudha.
The Mahaboudha area and its vicinity are some of the oldest and busiest market places in the capital and
are vulnerable to fire-related incidents. The city has already seen numerous cases of fire breakouts, causing massive losses of human lives and properties.
On Saturday morning, authorities conducted experimentation where they lit an artificial fire on the fourth floor of an under-construction building in Masangalli. A fire brigade and an ambulance arrived immediately, along with volunteers from the Nepal Red Cross Society and officials from Juddha Barun Yantra (City Fire Brigade). They connected water pipes from the fire brigade to the riser. A significant number of locals watched the activity from their verandahs.
“We feel safe with the installation of dry risers in our locality. When a fire breaks out in one house here, it threatens all other houses in the area, as they lie in such close proximity,” said Ram Hari Maharjan, 47, a local resident.
Nilkaji Shakya, the chairperson of ward 25, said his dream project materialised on Saturday.
“I had dreamed of this project some 25 years ago, as there are many places in the Valley where fire brigades can’t reach. Dry risers should be built in other places that are inaccessible to firefighters,” said Shakya, who is also the coordinator of the Disaster Management and Citizen Safety Committee.
The Rs 940,612 project received Rs500,000 from Strengthening Urban Resilience and Engagement Programme, Rs200,000 from the Disaster Management Committee of Ward-25 and Rs240,612 from various organisations and consumer committees in the area.    
Lila Raj Gachha Magar, chief of Juddha Barun Yantra, said the dry risers would prevent fires from spreading out.
Inaugurating the programme, Mayor Bidya Sundar Shakya said the Kathmandu Metropolitan City has already started a tendering process to purchase an additional three fire brigades. He vowed to extend fire safety measures to other wards as well.
At present, the city has only three fire brigades, two ladders, one rescue truck and one rescue jeep. A month ago, the city had established a fire station in Ramhiti, Ward-6.

JAJARKOT: Nepal Police Head Constable Bhoj Bahadur
Kathayat shot himself dead in the Area Police Office in
Dalli, Jajarkot, on Sunday.
According to Deputy Superintendent of Police Kishwor Shrestha, Kathayat, 35, committed suicide with a pistol he was carrying.
The cause of the suicide is not immediately known, said
Shrestha.

TANAHUN: An unidentified group torched a repeater tower of Ncell in Bhimad of Tanahun district on Saturday night. The equipment in the tower were completely destroyed in the arson. Search is on to nab the culprit involved in the crime, said police.

BARA: Police on Sunday seized a huge cache of contraband pharmaceutical drugs from Jhawani Village in Simraungadh, Bara. The seized drugs include Norfin, Phenergan and Diazepam, amounting to a total of 966 units, according to DSP Gautam Mishra. Mishra said the smuggler—who is currently on the run—left the drugs and ran away upon
spotting the police.

MUGU: Telephone services have been disrupted in Mugu district for the past week, leaving the local people in hardships. The service has been disrupted across the
district following heavy snowfalls on January 4.  Media persons in the district complained that they could not disseminate news due to internet disruption.

GULMI: Gulmi’s Chhatrakot Rural Municipality and Kathmandu’s Tokha Municipality have established a sister city relationship with an aim to foster trade between the two local units. Tokha is popular for Chaku and Chhatrakot for Khudo. The signatories of the alliance—Prakash Adhikari, chief of Tokha, and Madhukrishna Panthi of Chhatrakot—expressed commitment to further trade and assist each other in their development ambitions.

Deputy Speaker Shiva Maya Tumbahangphe, in a rare move, seems to be disregarding parental advice to play safe and is standing up for what she believes in—that she is an apt choice for the position of speaker. But the party top brass—consisting of men of all shapes and sizes—are having a hard time stomaching this. So much so that the ruling party co-chairs KP Sharma Oli and Pushpa Kamal Dahal asked Tumbahangphe to step down, even though she does not belong to any political party, so that they can put the man of their choice in the coveted position. With Oli and Dahal deciding everything in the party, the leadership has made a joke out of the democratic process that is supposed to be guiding its decisions.
For the past four months, the House of Representatives is without a Speaker because of has become a hostage the indecision of the ruling Nepal Communist Party which has failed to decide on speaker candidate. Last month, the second meeting of the winter session of the Lower House was scheduled to start the process to elect its Speaker—a position that has remained vacant following Krishna Bahadur Mahara’s resignation on early October after he was charged with attempted rape. And on Sunday, the scheduled House meeting was postponed again owing to indecision in the ruling party.
Clearly, the ongoing row in the ruling party over the post of Speaker and Tumbahangphe represents the patriarchal mindset that prevails in Nepali politics. Nepali culture demands women to remain submissive to men, and this regressive school of thought extends even to the political sphere. Conventionally, Nepali women have had a limited role in political leadership. They exhibited solid representation during People’s Movement I in 1990, and a notable number of women participated in People’s Movement II in 2006, too, which contributed to the abolition of the monarchy and the declaration of Nepal as a federal democratic republic. Despite their impressive participation and contribution in politics, they have not been able to come out into the limelight as leaders.
The ongoing saga about the Speaker tells us two things: One, that the 33 percent reservation policy enshrined in the constitution to ensure women’s participation is still largely limited to mere tokenism; and two, that the co-chairs of the Nepal Communist Party are on their way to getting rid of all democratic processes and practices. The sun, which once used to be a sign of forging heat, is now slowly becoming a melting heat.
The Nepal Communist Party must not hold Parliament hostage any longer and appoint someone to the post of the Speaker as soon as possible. Subas Nembang, who has previously held the post five times and is the top choice of KP Sharma Oli, and Agni Sapkota, another top choice of Pushpa Kamal Dahal, are both men who have served the government in some capacity or the other. Tumbahangphe is in no way less deserving than them, and the party should not be reluctant to elevate the deputy speaker to the position of speaker.

What is the purpose of education? The responses will vary greatly, depending on who you are and what you do. Parents, politicians and policymakers will have different concerns based on different social visions. But it is worth nudging the beneficiaries of the education system, the students, to investigate this inquiry more deeply and from various angles; to help them identify the inherent layers. The term ‘students’ encapsulates a massive, heterogeneous population and each will have their own aspirations. In the context of Nepal, burdened with a history that offered unequal access and opportunity to different groups of citizens, the question becomes crucial. The purpose of education might still be intricately tied to class and caste, and to one’s sociopolitical identity.
The cruel Rana rule banned public education for over a century, and the autocratic Panchayat system designed state mechanisms to benefit select groups of people. Academic researchers have analysed the Panchayat curricula and described it as propaganda designed to brainwash and engineer faux nationalism. Just like the racially integrated classrooms that silenced black girls in the United States, the Panchayat education system discouraged critical questioning and discussions. More importantly, the histories and narratives of marginalised and oppressed groups of Nepalis were systematically excluded from the textbooks and largely erased during the Rana and Shah regimes.
 
Casteist Nepali state
Writers like CK Lal and Aahuti have written extensively along these lines, regularly calling out the casteist nature of the Nepali state. And speaking at a recent talk programme, Aahuti pointed out that a state that values jaati (diversity) will work to create equality, whereas a state that values jaat (hierarchy) will work to exploit. Even though Nepal has politically transitioned from autocratic rule to a federal republic, the basic values of the Nepali state (hill, Hindu, high-caste) hasn’t changed, reiterated Aahuti, stating that the nation was designed based on jaat and this designation is deeply entrenched, impacting not just the political mechanism but also law and order, the media and security networks, and of course, the education system.
For students belonging to the Khas-Arya group (hill, Hindu, high-caste), the purpose of education might be more straightforward—getting basic information, passing exams and securing a job. These students are adequately represented in history lessons and stories, in popular movies and the media. Their place in mainstream society is never questioned; their aspirations for power and comfort are largely assured. But for students from marginalised groups, the purpose of education becomes multifarious. It is almost impossible for them to track their ancestry, and consequently, their place inside classrooms and in the larger society.
The aforementioned talk programme was titled ‘Non-textual representation of Nepal’s marginalised narratives’ and was part of an exhibition titled ‘Masinya Dastoor’ by Tharu artist Lavkant Chaudhary. While growing up in a boarding school in Sarlahi, Chaudhary had very little knowledge about his own ethnic background because it wasn’t taught in schools. His curiosity was piqued only after moving to Kathmandu and during the politically sensitive aftermath of the 2015 Tikapur killings. After familiarising himself with the historical grievances of different ethnic groups, Chaudhary travelled through the Tarai belt, speaking to Tharu leaders, writers and activists. Artifacts and artworks inspired by this research—diaries of murdered journalist Jokhan Ratgainya, replicas of dastoors and tamasuks juxtaposed with stipplings and photos, statements by rulers carved on ghailas, installations and an astimki, portraits and a video—have been expertly curated in a way that clearly exposes the ways the Nepali state oppressed and exploited the indigenous Tharus.
Textual representation is based on facts and is usually produced by the state, explained CK Lal during the same talk programme. And non-textual representation is based on aesthetic expressions in the form of fine art, poems and plays. According to Aahuti, it is impossible to tell accurate stories of marginalised experiences in Nepal because the state has not set up fair and accurate mechanisms. The textbooks are outdated, and the system is fraught with pedagogical problems. It then becomes important to engage with non-textual representations like Chaudhary’s exhibition in order to understand our country’s history that highlights the prevailing socio-political order. Furthermore, non-textual representations can often be more effective because they are infused with raw emotions that have emerged from lived experiences. That is why an educational outreach programme that engages students and stakeholders with art shows like Dastoor becomes essential.
Another educational intervention based on the Tharu people is currently ongoing. Srijanalaya, a non-governmental organisation that works to create safe spaces for children, brought together Tharu writers and paired them with illustrators in order to create picture books. With support from The Asia Foundation’s Let’s Read Asia programme, illustrators visited Tharu neighbourhoods in Dang so that their images would be informed by their observations.

Previously hidden stories
Since we live in a world complicated by ideological clashes and in a country burdened with history, what could be the purpose of education? If we are indeed committed to justice and equality, is it imperative to provide a voice to those who have been voiceless for generations? Who should write the school curricula and on what basis? Whose stories should be included and to what extent? Whose representations matter? If the purpose of education is to provide knowledge, is knowledge about information only or should educators always find ways to connect the information to each student’s life?
One could say that by creating ‘Masinya Dastoor’, the artist participated in a new kind of education, the same way writers and illustrators for Srijanalaya’s picture book project have collaborated and participated in order to create new possibilities of learning for others. By studying and accessing previously hidden stories, these new methods of learning have the potential to set mindsets free. Is the purpose of education then to set everyone free? I am alluding to freedom with all its connotations, with all its philosophical and psychological implications. Freedom as a way to self-actualise and become independent; freedom as a space for self-transformation and social change, a space into which those who have often been left out can be invited.
 

Kunwar writes about the arts and education.

President Joko ‘Jokowi’ Widodo has placed human resource development at the top of his priority list for his second term in office. Indeed, the demographic bonus is an opportunity that must be utilised properly to accelerate development in Indonesia.
Without proper management capabilities, Indonesia will lose a great opportunity to catch up with more developed countries. Standard Chartered has predicted that the top 10 economies in 2030 will include seven countries that are currently emerging markets.
The survey by the multinational bank, which is based on purchasing power parity (PPP), predicts that Indonesia will occupy the fourth position of the world, just behind China, India and the United States. The challenge for Indonesia is to prove these predictions right.
The progress of a country depends on the development of a culture of literacy. The success of the environmental-based economic development of Scandinavian countries, which goes hand in hand with the development of a strong literacy culture is a concrete example.
Research conducted by John W. Miller and Michael C. McKenna of Central Connecticut State University on more than 60 countries and published in a 2016 report titled The World’s Most Literate Nations places the Scandinavian countries of Finland, Denmark, Sweden, Iceland and Norway in the top ranks. Indonesia ranks below 60th.
Some time ago, there were viral photos on social media of Japanese students absorbed in reading a book while waiting to board an airplane at an airport in Thailand. A strong literacy culture has been awake in Japan from an early age.
This explains the maintained quality and capacity of human resources in the country. Literacy culture is the cornerstone of national development in the country.
Indonesians need to learn from Japan about developing a literacy culture in the ‘sakura’ country. The development of a literacy culture must continue to be driven by the awareness that national development assets are human resources.
The development of information technology is currently causing a decrease in reading interest in society. This has led to a decline in book sales in Indonesia due to a shift in interest from reading books or newspapers to social media.
This condition is quite alarming for Indonesia. The decline in reading interest has made it difficult for the government to develop quality human resources.
Many countries with abundant natural resource wealth fail in economic development because of human resources lagging behind. As a result, the country has social, political and economic problems, which is often called the natural resources curse. Examples include Nigeria, Tunisia and other countries.
Indonesia faces similar challenges with an extraordinary wealth of natural resources but human resources that fail to meet expectations of quality and capacity.
The development of information technology also contributed to the formation of Indonesia’s culture of wanting every instantly. A serious effort by the government is needed to deal with the problem of human resource development in Indonesia.
Encouraging an increase in literacy culture must be one of the concerns of the government in the development of human resources. Synergy is needed between various government institutions dealing with the problem. The Education and Culture Ministry cannot move alone.
Other government institutions that need to be involved in enhancing the literacy culture are the ministries in charge of research, communications and information technology, tourism and creative economy; the National Library, the National Archives (ANRI), the state-owned Enterprise of National Film (PFN), the state-owned enterprise of National Publishing (Balai Pustaka), news agency Antara, and the national television and radio public broadcasting institutions (LPP TVRI and LPP RRI).
Synergy between government institutions is to be achieved in the production, promotion and distribution of literacy-related programs. Liberalization in the television industry, which also plays a role weakening the literacy culture, must be countered by this synergy.
Synergy with NGOs is also needed for the development of the literacy culture including the Indonesian Publishers Association (Ikapi). More book exhibitions should be encouraged to increase reading interest and at the same time be an oasis for literacy lovers in the country
Cultivating literacy means building a foundation for improving human resources in a country. This is where the main challenge lies in building human resources.
If the government is serious and committed to increasing the human resource capacity of the Indonesian people and seizing the opportunities of the demographic bonus, developing a literacy culture is the main key.

This article was previously published in The Jakarta Post, a part of the Asia News Network.

There is little doubt that technology will drive everything in the coming days. The developed world is witnessing an artificial intelligence-driven transformation of technology, earlier than us—but we are also embracing it. Technology and technological innovation such as artificial intelligence in particular, is so invincible that tech giants are taking over everything. They just create a super-efficient system or platform; we then embrace it and at one point, we are left with no option but to submit ourselves with our belongings to this system.
For instance, Google generates billions of revenues in USD from Google Ads that posts user-targeted ads on online news portals across the world. Due to its unique nature, news portals are generally the most visited websites in the world after social media platforms like Facebook, YouTube and Yahoo. As a result, Google posts targeted ads (based on Pay-Per-Click or Pay-Per-Impression) in the content-rich news portals. Google does not pay a single dime for the content that is being owned by a different entity.
Neither does it pay any tax to the government of the corresponding country from which it is generating income. No doubt it is unfar. Is there anything that can be done? Yes, of course.
Spain did it back in 2014 and became the first country in the world to legally empower media organisations to charge Google for aggregating content that is owned by them. The move, popularly known as ‘Google Tax’, did not immediately benefit the media industry, but gave them a strong legal ground to hold the technology giants financially accountable. Google announced that it would cease collating such content on Google News. Such response was expected as there is hardly any evidence in the world of a company that comes forward to pay before being asked.
Google is not the lone example here, as there are other technology giants like Yahoo, Facebook, Amazon, etc., that are either aggregating news and contents or doing business and earning revenue from display ads, cloud-based hosting, managed services (e.g. email service) videos, etc.
These are just a few mentionable ones—while there are hundreds of such services from which these technology
giants earn revenue. Two examples might help the readers (companies as well) understand how they are paying these giants directly or indirectly. When you call the popular ride-sharing platform Uber, it finds you through google map. After reaching the destination, the rider pays the bill, a tiny portion of which goes to Google. Uber and Google have a separate arrangement for this. The second example can be derived from Facebook—a sponsored post can reach a hundred, perhaps a thousand times more people than what it organically can. All one has to do is pay the social network from his credit card. In both cases, the consumer, be it a company or an individual, are paying these technology giants while the giants are not paying a dime to the national exchequer in Bangladesh from the revenue it is earning every day.
Spain, EU, governments across Europe and India are also coming up with their versions of ‘Digital Tax’. In July 2019, the senate of the French Parliament passed the ‘Digital Service Tax’ for foreign and domestic companies operating in France. It was later signed by President Macron on July 24, paving the way to tax at 3 percent on the gross revenues earned from digital services including but not limited to adverting services based on user data. In January this year, the Spanish government introduced a bill creating, with provisions, two types of taxes on digital services and financial transactions. Once passed, the law, similar to the French version, will impose a levy of 3 percent on online advertising, online platforms and sales of user data by companies with global revenues of more than 750 million euros.
With a population of 1.33 billion, India is one of the fastest-growing markets for tech giants. The country has introduced the ‘equalisation levy’ that taxes 6 percent on business to business transactions by foreign eCommerce companies from within India. It is a direct tax which is withheld at the time of payment by the recipient of the services. But the problem with this kind of equalisation levy is that it is the consumer that has to bear the burden of the tax. Therefore, the government of the tech-savvy Prime Minister Narendra Modi is now working on developing a framework to bring the tech giants under the tax net. In October 2018, the UK unveiled the plan to bring profitable tech giants with annual revenue of 500 million pounds under the tax net. It will come into effect in April 2020 and is expected to bring 400 million pounds a year to  Britain’s treasury. It is mentionable that the move is designed not to affect the consumers or internet startups, but target only the big players. These are country-level developments in Europe and India. Although the European Commission tabled various proposals for a fair and effective tax system in a European digital single market in March 2018, the plan was finally abandoned in March 2019 in the face of opposition from some member states. Instead, the EU is now considering OECD and G20 level international tax discussions.
Now the question is, do the news media and the Bangladesh government have any stake in this? Yes, of course. But it is going to be a very hard nut to crack. First of all, the government must underscore the importance of bringing the technology giants under the country’s legal purview. It also has a responsibility to protect its online platforms, the news media in particular. To this end, both parties should carefully observe and examine the lessons from other countries, the European ones in particular, and work in close collaboration and strategise to find a way forward.

This article was previously published in The Daily Star, a part of the Asia News Network.

As a person who has spent most of his life in Bandung, West Java, the thought of living in a developed country certainly triggered great excitement. Near the end of winter Canberra welcomed me with cool weather and occasional showers. As I was happily enjoying student life, summer came and brought the 2019-20 Australian bushfire season with it. Suddenly, the blissful delight turned into a bit of a worrisome experience.
Earlier, August 2019 was one of the happiest moments of my life, receiving news of my admittance to the Australian National University (ANU) for my doctoral program, with the support of the National Endowment Fund for Education (LPDP). Whether for business or pleasure, I had never spent more than a couple of weeks outside of Indonesia.
There were days in Summer when the temperature in Canberra would reach 40-43 degrees Celsius. It was so hot that I believed air conditioning could actually be one of the greatest inventions in the history of humankind. Many people believed global warming made the average temperature higher during summer. Well, bathing twice a day like in Indonesia became a necessity, so were sunblock and sunglasses. Suddenly, I began to miss Bandung.
With summer came the bushfires, which are quite common and natural for Australians, as the vegetation of the country has historically been associated with fire hazards since the earliest humans arrived here. Mainly dry trees and branches of eucalyptus caught fire, although the trigger could be due to human involvement, with occasional natural causes such as lightning strikes. I had thought there was no way the bushfires could be as bad as forest fires in Sumatra and Kalimantan. Again, I stand corrected.
Many experts believe the current bushfires are the most destructive and the most widespread in Australia’s recorded history. They have rampaged nationwide, affecting Queensland, South Australia, Tasmania, Victoria and Western Australia. New South Wales (NSW), the most populous state in the country, is currently heavily impacted by the fires, with approximately 1,300 houses destroyed.
Shortly after the New Year an estimated 5.9 million hectares of land and over 2,500 buildings had been engulfed in fire, killing at least 18 people. Fortunately Canberra had only a few small grass fires that were quickly dealt with by the ACT fire brigade. The real, out-of-control bushfires, mostly occur in the neighboring NSW area, surrounding Canberra, resulting in a very thick smoke haze, choking your throat and irritating your eyes. For most Canberrans, the real problem is the smoke.
Currently, Canberra’s air quality is ranked as the worst of any major city due to the fires. Hazardous levels of air are normally considered 300 or above within the Air Quality Index, with air quality stations around Canberra recording levels between 2,300 and 2,800 on Jan. 2. Face masks are sold out in every store, while people fight for discounted air purifiers. These two commodities are currently scarce in the ACT, as in other affected cities.
The current conditions in Canberra can be considered tolerable, compared to the NSW coastal town of Batemans Bay, which has been besieged by fires in recent days. What is currently happening in Batemans Bay is also happening in many other coastal cities, with thousands of families being uprooted from their houses. It felt surreal for me, seeing refugee camps installed in several parts of Australia, a developed country with good disaster mitigation and management. Still, people cannot avoid the wrath of Mother Nature.
The horror and terror of bushfires are widely spread through social media and news portals. Videos of heroic acts by the firefighters immediately went viral, as well as a video of Prime Minister Scott Morrison being heckled by bushfire victims, refusing to shake his hand during his visit to a bushfire victims’ town. Most Australians believe his visit was mere publicity, as his current policies on bushfire mitigation have been deemed insufficient.
Months ago, the forecasts were there from the scientists, yet the government did little to nothing, deflecting any talk of climate change policy. Even when a group of former fire and emergency leaders warned Morrison that Australia needed more resources to tackle the upcoming bushfire season, they were also ignored.
There is also ongoing debate whether the devastation level of the current bushfire season is exacerbated by global warming. But what we do know is that the average temperature in Australia now is running about 1 degree Celsius above the long-term average. Fire seasons are starting earlier and the fire danger in many areas is growing. The challenge of climate change is not exclusive to bushfires, there is also flood and drought.  
more facts accumulated about the fires, the more I longed for Indonesia. Suddenly my WhatsApp group notification sounded. It was my uncle who lives in Bekasi, sharing a picture of his two-story house, the first floor flooded with water as high as his chest.  
It takes no genius to know that what is happening in Australia has also become more evident throughout the world. Bushfires in Australia, flooding in Indonesia, the meltdown in the Arctic and rising sea levels are no longer signs of a climate emergency in the near future, it is already happening now. Is it up to the politicians to mend this? No. It is a global problem that needs recognition from every single one of us so we can seek to understand serious necessary action to curb the hazards encroaching on us all.

This article was previously published in The Jakarta Post, a part of the Asia News Network.

Cat fights, mean girls, Queen Bees.
We’ve all heard these terms stemming from a popular belief that women don’t help other women, or indeed actively undermine them.
Women leaders are often portrayed in popular culture as suffering from Queen Bee Syndrome (think Miranda Priestly in The Devil Wears Prada). The media is filled with advice about “what to do if you work for a Queen Bee.”
But what if the Queen Bee isn’t real? Or at least she’s sorely misunderstood?
Gendered differences in expectations make us see Queen Bees when they aren’t really there.
Looking across a wide range of studies, there is no evidence that senior women are less helpful (or more harmful) to junior women than senior men are to junior men. Studies find little evidence that women are more competitive towards other women than men are towards other men. And women and men do not differ in their use of aggression. Indeed, having a female manager is, with few exceptions, either positive or neutral on women’s rates of promotions and wages.

Women expected to be helpful, warm
So why do people believe that Queen Bees are so prevalent? The answer has to do with our expectations of leaders. Because women are expected to be helpful and warm, people perceive women who take on leadership roles more negatively. So even if women leaders aren’t behaving any differently than men, they will be seen as unsupportive because of the double standards women face.
Demanding male managers are seen as strong leaders, while women don’t get the same credit. And when conflicts arise at work, as they often do, clashes between two women are seen as much more problematic by others in the organization than those between men.
It’s assumed that women should align themselves with other women no matter what. As former U.S. Secretary of State Madeline Albright said: “There’s a special place in hell for women who don’t help each other.”
In corporations, we expect senior women to take on responsibilities for championing other women in management, heading up women’s leadership committees and, in general, doing the organization’s heavy lifting when it comes to increasing diversity.
This is, however, a lot of extra (and undervalued) work that is not expected of their male peers. If a woman chooses not to take on these roles, she may be labelled a Queen Bee, while men who don’t do diversity work are not.

Marginalization is the culprit
If women do behave like Queen Bees sometimes, why is that?
Sometimes we observe that women don’t advocate for other women in their organizations. Experimental evidence shows that this is not about being a prima donna, but instead a product of what scholars call “value threat.”
Value threats occur when there are negative stereotypes of women in highly masculinized workplaces. Women who do manage to “make it” must constantly fight these negative stereotypes in order to hold onto their own positions in the organization. Their concern about whether they are valued at work may shape their willingness to assist other women. Women might not support other women if there is any question about these women’s qualifications, because they don’t want to do anything that might fuel the negative stereotypes.
In this context, there are often few opportunities open to women—“implicit quotas” that limit chances for leadership roles. One study of 1,500 firms showed that once a company appointed a woman to a top leadership role, the chance that a second woman would join the leadership ranks dropped by 50 per cent. Another study of corporate boards showed companies seemed to be gaming the system: appointing two—but no more than two—women to their boards, a phenomenon the researchers called “twokenism.”
As a result, women may not support other highly qualified women because they know they’ll be competing for the same small number of opportunities. Our conclusion: being a Queen Bee is not an intrinsically female behaviour but instead a reaction to marginalization.
Again, it’s the context that matters. In studies of networks inside organizations, women were more likely than men to cite a woman as a source of difficult work relationships, but this propensity was lower for women with more women in their social support network. Similarly, an experiment with women police officers found that women who identified closely with their gender actually responded to gender bias with increased motivation to help other women, while those who were less gender-identified were more likely to exhibit Queen Bee responses.
Women may be seen as Queen Bees when in fact the organizational context is the origin of the behaviour. When organizations are not inclusive, women are more likely to experience value threat and therefore more likely to avoid supporting other women.

No male equivalent to Queen Bee
Beyond the evidence against the Queen Bee myth, the mere existence of the term is part of the problem. If men are as likely to be competitive with other men as women are with other women, then gendered terms such as Queen Bee are sexist.
In this regard, language matters. Calling women Queen Bees is its own form of devaluation, with its impact on the denigration and marginalization of women in leadership. At a time when corporations are struggling to address gender gaps at all levels, killing off stereotyped myths such as the Queen Bee Syndrome is essential.
The Queen Bee is dead! Long live women leaders!

—The Conversation/Associated Press

Developing a diverse workforce isn’t just a nice thing to do
anymore. It’s an essential business practice that helps ensure longevity in a time of rapid change.
The Fourth Industrial Revolution will separate winners from losers based on which organisations can create, implement and employ technology, even when that technology takes new, challenging and perhaps hard-to-understand forms. As Linda Hassan, Head of Diversity & Inclusion—Americas, noted: “that really requires a diverse talent base to happen.”
Hassan made her comment at “Inclusive Diversity: What does it mean? Why does it matter?” a panel discussion held March 14 at the Thomson Reuters campus in Eagan, Minnesota, United States. She was joined by three diversity & inclusion professionals: Sharon Smith-Akinsanya, CEO of Rae Mckenzie group; Peter Frosch, vice president for strategic partnership at Greater MSP; and Elizabeth Nelson, Diversity Recruiting and Marketing Program Manager at Thomson Reuters

Why does diversity matter?
“Cultures that are high-performing are also diverse,” Hassan said. “Having diversity of opinion and viewpoints helps, from a business perspective. Diversity and business success aren’t separate things anymore.”
The argument persists that organisations should look only for “the best talent,” but the panellists noted that term is often narrowly defined. A search that looks for “the best talent” only in familiar places isn’t much of a search at all; to truly identify the strongest candidates, a wider view must be embraced.
“You don’t know what that ‘best talent’ is until you reach out to different recruiting streams,” Frosch said.
Myopia aside, diversity is something clients expect to see—and make no mistake, see they can. Social media is giving unprecedented visibility into what a company is really like.
“More and more, customers are saying ‘What do you stand for? Do your values align with mine?’ Smith-Akinsaya. “Customers are watching and they want to know ‘Am I reflected?’”
Attraction is one thing. Retention is another.
Attracting diverse workers is only part of the equation. Retaining and promoting those workers is an important part of that same equation—a part that is often neglected.
“Attraction without retention doesn’t work for you,” Frosch said. “In fact, it may work against you, because if people come and then leave, they’re going to tell everyone.”
That’s over and above the simple mathematical fact that recruiting workers who leave because they don’t feel welcome is expensive and inefficient.
“Companies that develop and cultivate talent find that talent not only stays but thrives,” Hassan said.

What can organisations do about it?
The panellists had several recommendations for how organisations can build diversity and inclusion initiatives that attract and bolster diverse workers.
Lead from the top: Revisiting the idea that organisations are now more transparent than ever, the panellists agreed it’s important to have leaders consistently deliver messages supporting diversity and inclusion and provide evidence they’re taking steps to promote those two values.
Engage other groups with similar missions: Building diversity and inclusion is a bigger effort than any one organisation can undertake. In fact, it’s something businesses, communities and governments should all be working on. To that end, it’s important for groups to partner with each other. That way, they can determine what’s working and what isn’t, avoid duplicative efforts and strengthen each other’s initiatives.
Resources for newcomers: An excellent job at a workplace a new employee lies goes a long way, but it isn’t always enough to make up for a wider community that doesn’t feel welcoming.  Nelson noted having resources for “talent who want to live, work and be” in a new city can help them feel at home. Smith-Akinsaya seconded that observation and added it helps if colleagues take the proactive step of engaging new employees in conversation or extend invitations for things like lunch or happy hour.
While it may seem like creating diversity and inclusion is a labour-intensive goal, it’s one that promises to yield strong dividends.
“Anything that moves the needle forward—for all—is a good thing to have happen,” Hassan said.

Kathmandu,
Malti Agarwal leaves her home for her workplace. She walks down the same road she routinely takes everyday. But a splash of liquid thrown at her face by a man and a woman in a motorcycle sends her in a fit of scream. The acid-attack takes place in the middle of the road while the crowd watches in horror. This incident takes away all traces of the normalcy from her life.  
Deepika Padukone and Meghna Gulzar’s Chhapaak details the struggles, stigma and the journey of Malti’s self-love after the attack. The film is a fictionalised account of real life acid attack survivor turned activist Laxmi Agarwal. But the primary preamble of the story is the real portrayal of not just Agarwal, but of many women and girls who have faced this form of violence.
These assaults have increased over the years even in Nepal. Since the fiscal year 2014/2015, as many as 13 women and three men have been attacked with acid. While the first case that made national headlines in recent memory was that of Sangita Magar in 2015. She was assaulted by her neighbour Jiwan BK, who had barged into the then 16-year-old’s tuition centre and flung acid at her. The latest is that of 15-year-old Muskan Khatun on September 2019. The 9th grader at Tribhuvan Hanuman Secondary School in Birgunj was assaulted on her way to school.
In India, this has been far more frequent and dangerous. Just a day after Chhapaak’s premiere, a 14-year-old went through the same assault in Lucknow.
It would be, therefore, an understatement to say the subject of the film couldn’t have been more relevant. But there were some sceptics of how the film will present the issue, or rather, represent the side of the attack survivor—of which, it is relieving to see that the makers have taken a sensitive approach.
The writer duo, Gulzar and Atika Chohan, have refrained from portraying the lead character as someone you need to feel pity for. Rather, she is fleshed out like any other character, with ambitions and the desire to be financially independent. But it is the portrayal of the attacker that shows the filmmaker’s maturity in handling the sensitive subject.
Staying true to the real life events, the motive behind the attack on Malti is ‘to teach her a lesson’ for not accepting the attacker’s romantic advances. This has been the main reason behind many of the acid attacks in both India and Nepal. Even in Khatun’s case, a friend of the person whose advances she had rejected had assaulted her.

The film also addresses this influence of toxic masculinity that equates women to play a submissive role, and a complete disregard to women’s consent. The filmmakers are also careful to showcase that it wasn’t just a one-off case, but is intrinsically woven into the social and cultural fabric.
On the very first day of the movie’s release, Zonta Club of Kathmandu, a local club of Zonta International, an organisation that works in the field of women empowerment, organised a special screening of the film for more than 500 people, including acid attack survivors, chemical shop owners, and media.  The audience inside the packed hall even let out a collective gasp at certain moments of the film, especially when acid was thrown at the women’s faces.
This is the influence that a film can bring, says Jenny Khadka, an acid attack survivor and an activist who was also at the screening. “It was really inspiring to see a mainstream Bollywood actor portraying a role of an acid attack survivor,” she says. “Films are undoubtedly a powerful medium to grab people’s attention, and when such social causes is the subject matter, many people will be able to understand the message.”
Khadka’s photo, where she is showing her scars from the acid attacks while smiling at the camera, were recently making the rounds in the social media. “The reason for agreeing to do that photo shoot was because I didn’t want to stereotype myself,” she says. “And it was also to show others that we are capable of moving on in life.”
The film perfectly captures such sentiment. Agarwal, on whom the movie is based on, is also currently working as an activist and is associated with an NGO that works for the acid attack survivors. As shown in the film, Agarwal even went through a legal battle, filing a public interest litigation against the government, demanding a strong mechanism of acid’s sale in India.
Similarly, in Nepal, Sangita Magar also filed a similar PIL in 2017. As a result, the Supreme Court gave an order to the government to provide immediate financial help for the treatment of the acid attack survivors. Before this PIL was filed, the country’s law on acid and burn violence only allowed the survivors to receive compensation if the perpetrators were arrested and had sufficient economic resources.
According to the revised Criminal Code of Nepal, the attacker can be jailed for up to eight years and fined a maximum amount of Rs500,000 if the victim’s face is injured in acid or any other chemical attack. Similarly, the perpetrators can face punishment upto three years in jail and a fine of Rs300,000 if other body parts of the victim are injured.
Even after the supreme court’s order on regulating the sale of acid in Nepal, little changes can be seen as acid is still easily available in the market. This remains as a classic example of how much of struggle and advocacy it takes for the state to bestow the rights and justice to the survivors.
In Chhapaak, the lead character’s journey was shown in a structured template of the regular pattern of hero’s journey—which isn’t particularly bad, but dilutes the struggles of the acid attack survivors.
The attempt of taking the sensitive issue and portraying the survivor’s story with respect and dignity, however, is a feat in itself. There have been earlier attempts of making a movie based on this very subject. Uyare, a Malayalam film and even Rekha Thapa’s Rudrapriya were some of them. But these films didn’t receive as much attention as Chhapaak, mostly due to the popularity of the lead actor.
After the release of the movie, Uttarakhand state government of India even announced that it will start a scheme of providing pension for acid attack survivors of the state.
In the film, in one scene, Malti says, “Kitna acha hota agar acid bikta hi nahi, milta hi nahi to fekta hi nahi” which roughly translates to, “How nice would it be if acid was not sold, then nobody would get their hands on it and they won’t throw it on others.”
This should be a learning for the policy makers of both Nepal and India. Although the state mechanism has banned porn, which the authorities say increases violence against women, no efforts have been made to regulate and monitor the sale of acid, which has become the newest tool to propagate gender-based violence.

When we think of sand, our minds naturally drift towards the beach.
However, for sand artist Bee Ghee Leng, it is part of his “rice” bowl and a medium for his passion.
Better known by his stage name Loong Bee, he is possibly Malaysia’s first homegrown sand art performer.
His acts are well-received that he and his daughter Xiang Zi, or Little Bee, were invited to perform at the media conference to promote Donnie Yen’s Ip Man 4 movie, where Yen was present, in Kuala Lumpur last month.
Bee has also showcased his work at Malaysian badminton legend Datuk Lee Chong Wei’s wedding, the Sultan of Kedah’s installation ceremony, and a Chinese New Year lunch where Tun Mahathir Mohamad was a guest.

But what exactly is sand art performance?
It’s using sand to create a series of visuals to tell a story. On a custom-made lightbox, Bee would sprinkle sand and move it around with his fingers to form an image or scene.
To change a scene, he would quickly sweep away the sand before adding a fresh batch to create the next artwork. He has to work fast with his hands to ensure a smooth transition of the visuals or “storyboard”.
However, the audience does not see him physically working on his art. Rather, only his artwork comes alive on a projected screen.
The 42-year-old former hairstylist from Klang is a self-taught sand artist. He was inspired to become one after watching a sand art presentation on television.
“I saw an international Chinese sand artist perform and was impressed by his talent. I was eager to learn,” he said, adding that at that time, he did not know of any sand art performer in Malaysia.
“I watched YouTube tutorials on sand art to learn the tricks of the trade. It took me three months before I could create a good piece of artwork.”
One of his earliest creations was a piece inspired by Titanic, the 1997 American epic romance and disaster film.
As his popularity increased, he found it challenging to cope with the avalanche of requests. To date, he has performed in Asia as well as in Australia, New Zealand and Sweden.
To the audience, what Bee does may seem effortless, but he begs to differ.
“It is not as easy as you think,” he insisted, saying it takes a lot of practice. “My performances are very short, five minutes each max, and I have to incorporate 10 to 12 scenes depending on how fast the scene changes,” he added.
Either way, it is quite amazing to see the changes as the theme or story progresses.
“Composition aside, the (beach) sand used is very fine and one has to have good hand control. That takes time to master. The artwork must also synchronise with the right music to hit it off and make an impression, ” he explained.

Artistic streak
Bee’s initial ambition was to become a comic book artist. “We have good genes for art. My father can draw very well too, ” said the former student of Hin Hua High School in Klang, Selangor.
“As a youngster, I did a lot of drawings but my father was not pleased that I wanted to pursue a career in it. He doubted I could earn money from drawing, ” said Bee, who stopped school after Form 3.
Disheartened by his father’s remarks, he gave up his dream and found work in a popular hair salon in Kuala Lumpur. He started as a shampoo boy and worked his way up to hairstylist.
“I would observe how the hairstylists do their work and then practise. On my off days, I would cut hair for my friends. After three months, I was able to do a good haircut, ” he recalled.
One day, he showed his boss what he could do and was given the chance to start as an apprentice hairstylist. He stayed on the job for 12 years.
But even though he could earn a living as a hairstylist, he never gave up his love for drawing.
With his focus on sand art, his wife Chris Ang, 41, has taken over the hair salon business that was managed by Bee.
“On request, I still cut hair for some customers,” he said.
 

Like father, like daughter
Bee started off as a solo performer but soon taught his daughter the art when she showed an interest in it. “When Little Bee was six, she loved to draw Hello Kitty and Disney princesses. She would watch me perform and ask for some sand to play too,” he said.
By the time she was eight, she had honed her sand art skills. She took part in talent contests and won two prizes, in school and in a public talent competition. At the age of 10, Xiang Zi went for art classes, taking lessons for two years.
Confident that she was ready for public performances, Bee then roped her in to help with some solo engagements. “I took three months to practise before my first show, ” said Xiang Zi, 14.
Now, the international school student can handle a show alone, thanks to her father’s guidance. She said that a steady hand is important and one should also be deft with the hands “to chase the music”. Most importantly, it is her father’s confidence in her that has nurtured her skill and talent.
Festive seasons and special occasions like Merdeka Day, Christmas and Chinese New Year are busy periods for the father-daughter team as companies would engage them to perform at various events.
“We feel proud when the audience applauds and gives feedback on our performance,” said Bee.
When he has time, Bee would travel or watch movies to get new ideas for his shows. His son Zhi Xuan, 10, has been the new sand art performer in Xiang Zi’s former school in Klang for two years now.
It wouldn’t come as a surprise if he, too, soon joins hands with his father and sister in the sand art arena.

—The Star

TRIPOLI,
Both sides in Libya’s conflict agreed to a ceasefire from Sunday to end nine months of fighting following weeks
of international diplomacy and calls for a truce by power-brokers Russia and Turkey.
The oil-rich North African country has been wracked by bloody turmoil since a NATO-backed uprising killed long-time dictator Moamer Kadhafi in 2011, with multiple foreign powers now involved.
Since April last year, the UN-recognised Government of National Accord (GNA) in Tripoli has been under attack from forces loyal to eastern-based strongman Khalifa Haftar, which days ago captured the strategic coastal city of Sirte.
Late on Saturday, Haftar’s forces announced a ceasefire starting at midnight (Sunday 00:00 local time, Saturday 2200 GMT) in line with a joint call by Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin.
Early Sunday the head of the GNA, Fayez al-Sarraj, also announced his acceptance of the ceasefire, saying it had taken effect at the start of Sunday.
The UN mission in Libya welcomed the announcements and called on all parties “to respect the ceasefire” and to support efforts to launch an inter-Libyan dialogue.
Likewise, the Arab League called on Libya’s factions to “commit to stop the fighting, work on alleviating all forms of escalations and engage in good faith aimed at reaching permanent arrangements for a ceasefire.”
Since the start of the offensive against Tripoli, more than 280 civilians have been killed, 2,000 fighters have died and 146,000 Libyans have been displaced, according to the United Nations.
- Diplomatic offensive -
Sarraj stressed the GNA’s “legitimate right ... to respond to any attack or aggression” that may come from the other side, while Haftar’s forces warned of a “severe” response to any violation by the “opposing camp”.
Artillery fire could be heard shortly after midnight in the capital, before quiet settled over the southern Tripoli suburb where pro-GNA forces have been resisting Haftar’s offensive.
No ceasefire monitoring mechanism has been announced, but the GNA leader called for both sides to “prepare ceasefire measures under the aegis of the UN”, without providing further details. The ceasefire comes after a diplomatic offensive, led by Ankara and Moscow, which have established themselves as key players in Libya, supporting opposing sides.
Ankara deployed military support to the GNA in January. Russia has been accused of backing pro-Haftar forces, which are also supported by the United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia and Egypt, all regional rivals of Turkey.
Erdogan and Putin called for a truce at a meeting on Wednesday in Istanbul, and Turkey on Saturday asked Russia to convince Haftar, who had initially vowed to fight on, to respect it.
Europe and North Africa have also launched a diplomatic offensive to try to prevent Libya, with the increased involvement of international players in its conflict, from turning into a “second Syria”.
European governments, also including former colonial power Italy, are concerned that Islamist militants and migrant smugglers, already highly active in Libya, will take further advantage of the chaos.
The US embassy in Libya, in a statement Saturday, voiced its “serious concern about toxic foreign interference in the conflict”.
It said “Russian mercenaries” had backed Haftar’s Libyan Arab Armed Forces while “Turkish-supported Syrian fighters” had backed the GNA, a development that had “significantly degraded security, to the detriment of all Libyans”.
It continued: “All responsible Libyan parties should end this dangerous escalation and reject the destructive involvement by foreign forces.”
On Saturday Putin and German Chancellor Angela Merkel met in Moscow and called for international efforts to address the crisis in Libya.
Merkel said she hoped “the Turkish-Russian efforts will be successful,” calling a ceasefire a first step in a peace process.
Putin and Merkel both backed a Libya peace conference in Berlin being organised by UN special envoy to Libya, Ghassan Salame, which could be held in the coming weeks.
Putin on Saturday again denied Russia had deployed mercenaries to Libya, saying: “if there are Russians there, they do not represent the interests of the Russian state and do not receive money from it.”

LONDON,
Queen Elizabeth II will host a showdown meeting with Prince Harry on Monday in an attempt to solve the crisis triggered by his bombshell announcement that he and wife Meghan were stepping back from the royal frontline.
Other senior royals including Harry’s father Prince Charles and brother Prince William, with whom he has strained relations, will join the monarch at her private Sandringham estate in eastern England, according to British media.
Meghan will join the meeting via conference call from Canada as they attempt to work out the “next steps” towards a compromise and nip the growing crisis in the bud.
Issues up for debate include how much money the couple will still receive from Charles’s estate, their royal titles and what commercial deals they can strike, according to the Sunday Times. The newspaper reported that William believes he and Harry are now “separate entities”, breaking the bonds forged following their mother’s tragic death.
“I’ve put my arm around my brother all our lives and I can’t do that any more; we’re separate entities,” the Times reported he told a friend.
Harry, Meghan and son Archie spent Christmas in Canada, with the American former actress returning there this week.
The Queen on Thursday demanded that staff work with the couple to find urgently a “workable solution” that would take into account their demands for more freedom.
Several Canadian media reported Meghan had returned to Vancouver island off the country’s Pacific coast, where the family spent the year-end holidays and where baby Archie had remained with his nanny.
Senior royals were caught off guard by Wednesday’s announcement that the Duke and Duchess of Sussex wanted to seek a “progressive new role” and divide their time between Britain and North America.
The Queen’s office issued a terse statement the same evening, saying there were “complicated issues that will take time to work through”. Harry and Meghan said they intended to continue to “fully support” the queen and “collaborate” with senior royals.
They also want to keep their home on the queen’s Windsor Castle estate as their British base, while aiming to become financially independent.
But their desire to live as both members of the monarchy and private individuals making a living was described as a “toxic mix” by David McClure, an investigator into royal finances.
“The history of senior royals making money—the two is a toxic mix. It hasn’t worked well in the past,” he told the Press Association.
“How can you be half-in, half-out—half the week perform public duties and the other half earn your own income with TV, lectures, books? It is fraught with dangers.”

PARIS,
A crippling French transport strike dragged into its 39th day on Sunday despite the government’s offer to withdraw the most contested measure of the pension reform plans that sparked the protest.
Prime Minister Edouard Philippe said Saturday he would drop plans to increase the official retirement age to 64 from 62 in an effort to end a strike which has paralysed Paris and its suburbs, with bus, train and metro services all badly disrupted.
“I am willing to withdraw from the bill the short-term measure I had proposed,” said Philippe, prompting his boss French President Emmanuel Macron to dub the change “a constructive and responsible compromise.”
The more reformist trade unions—the FDT, Unsa and FRC—welcomed the announcement and said they were now ready to work with employers on the sustainable financing of the state pension system.
However the more hardline CGT, FO and Solidaires unions were not moving an inch, calling for the strike and protests to continue, among them a major demonstration on January 16.
CGT head Philippe Martinez played down the impact of the CFDT and Unsa’s readiness to resume negotiations, and spoke of internal splits within these groups.
“We will see” what these unions’ workers have to say on the issue, he said, reiterating his call for the government to withdraw the pension reforms completely which he described at “the major requirement of a majority of unions representing a majority of employees”.
However the arrival of empty January pay slips could sap the determination of some striking workers.
“It is clear that some colleagues want to go back to work,” said one disillusioned Paris Metro worker during demonstrations on Saturday.
“It’s going to get tricky financially,” he added.
Private sector workers have not followed the unions’ lead on the stoppage to turn the campaign into a true national strike.
The government’s compromise move came a day after meetings with unions in a bid to end a strike that has frustrated Paris commuters, ruined December holiday travel plans, and hurt business.
Demonstrators in the capital on Saturday, some masked and hooded, broke shop windows along their protest route, set fires and threw projectiles at police in riot gear who responded with tear gas. Several stores were ransacked as marchers brandished union flags and chanted defiantly: “We are still here!” and “Macron resign!”
Protests were also held in Marseille, Toulouse, Lyon, Nantes and several other cities.
The interior ministry said 149,000 people had turned out throughout France.
The CGT put the figure at half a million, saying the 150,000 marched in Paris alone.
In one of Macron’s signature reforms, the government is seeking to rationalise 42 existing pension schemes into a single, points-based system it says will be fairer and more transparent but which unions fear will see millions work longer for a smaller retirement payout.
Particularly vexing was the proposal to impose the 64 “pivot age” that people would have to work to in order to qualify for a full pension.
Union meetings will be held on Monday to decide on the future of the strikes on France’s local and national rail services.
The government, employers and unions are also keeping their eyes on the opinion polls.
“Public opinion supports the strikers,” Martinez insisted late Saturday.
The government has ruled out cutting pensions but insists that something must be done to boost funding as workers are living longer post-retirement.
French Environment Minister Elisabeth Borne said Sunday that there was “no longer any reason” for the strike to continue now that the prime minister had proposed scrapping the “pivot age” of 64.

MELBOURNE,
After weeks of criticism over the handling of the bushfires scorching Australia, Prime Minister Scott Morrison said on Sunday he will propose a national review into the response to the disaster, as the fires claimed another firefighter’s life.
The Australian bush has been burning for nearly three months and the fires have killed 28 people, claimed 2,000 homes and consumed millions of acres of land and wildlife. The crisis is becoming increasingly political as the country looks at the causes and the government’s response.
“There is obviously a need for a national review of the response,” Morrison said in an interview with ABC television.
Asked whether it should be a Royal Commission, a powerful judicial inquiry, Morrison said, “I think that is what would be necessary and I will be taking a proposal through the cabinet to that end, but it must be done
with consultations with the states and territories.”
Morrison said that the inquiry would examine the response to the crisis, including the deployment of emergency services to battle the fires at a state and local level, the role of the federal government, and the impact of climate change.
Bushfires are common during Australia’s summer months, but this fire season started unusually early, often moving quickly and unpredictably, and leaving swaths of the drought-stricken land a scorched earth.
Cooler weather conditions over the weekend have brought a temporary respite, but a firefighter died on
duty in Victoria, where new flames sparked. Authorities said the risk was far from over and more hot weather is expected.
Smoke again sheathed Sydney on Sunday, almost a new normal for the country’s biggest city, moving the air quality into hazardous territory, according to the NSW Department of Primary Industry index.

LILLE (France): Three people have died while kayaking off the northern French coast, authorities said on Sunday. A fourth person aged 15 was rescued, suffering from hypothermia, and taken to hospital, they added. The Amiens prefecture said the bodies of a man and a woman in their 50s were found on the beach at Crotoy after midnight while the body of another man was recovered later. It said eight kayakers, members of a local club at Saint-Valery-Sur-Somme, set out Saturday afternoon but they split up into two groups, with four returning to base and the others continuing, aiming for Cayeux-sur-Mer down the coast. The alarm was raised at 17:45 pm (1645 GMT), with two helicopters and rescue boats involved. (Agencies)

WASHINGTON: Severe storms sweeping the southern US killed at least 11 people, authorities said, as tornadoes and high winds upturned cars, destroyed homes and left tens of thousands without power. The storms hit parts of the south on Friday and were expected to move east and north on Sunday, according to the National Weather Service, which issued flood and tornado warnings for several states. Among the dead were a policeman and firefighter who were hit by a vehicle in Texas after being called out to respond to traffic accidents in icy conditions, local authorities said. In Louisiana the bodies of a couple were found on Saturday near their destroyed mobile home after it was hit by storms the night before, said Bill Davis of the county sheriff’s office. “It’s totally rolled over. (Agencies)

BRUSSELS: EU chief Ursula von der Leyen on Sunday hailed Austria’s target of being carbon neutral by 2040 as an example for other European countries as she met the country’s newly re-elected leader. The incoming government in Vienna, a coalition between conservatives and greens, has vowed to make Austria a front-runner in climate protection by beating the EU-wide target of carbon neutrality by 2050. “It is impressive to see that Austria has set itself the goal of being climate-neutral by 2040,” von der Leyen said as she met Chancellor Sebastian Kurz for talks in Brussels. “I hope that the Austrian model with these ambitious goals will set an example for us.” (Agencies)

KOLKATA,
Indian police baton-charged protesters Sunday to stop them reaching Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s car as nationwide protests against a bitterly disputed citizenship law entered a second month.
Tens of thousands staged protests through the night in the eastern city of Kolkata to denounce Modi’s weekend visit to the capital of West Bengal state, whose local rulers have strongly opposed the legislation.
Police said they were forced to act after protesters tried to storm past barricades to stop Modi’s vehicle outside a stadium, where the leader again defended the law and insisted the demonstrators were “misguided”.
Nearly 2,000 protesters gathered outside chanting “Fascist Modi, Go Back” before the showdown between demonstrators and police. More than 100 protesters were detained, a police official said.
Protesters have burned effigies of the prime minister during his visit and brandished black flags—considered an insulting gesture in Indian society.
“The government can’t suppress our voice. We are not afraid. We are determined to fight for our rights,” Samit Nandi, one of the protesters, told AFP. “We will continue our protests until Modi leaves our city.”
West Bengal has become a political battlefield between Modi’s right-wing Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and regional powerhouse Mamata Banerjee, whose Trinamool Congress party leads the state.
Banerjee is among state leaders nationwide who have said they will not implement the Citizenship Amendment Act, which excludes Muslims from a list of ethnic minorities from Pakistan, Afghanistan and Bangladesh who are allowed to seek Indian nationality.
Opponents say the government has created a religious test for citizenship in the secular country.
Many among India’s 200 million Muslims fear the law is a precursor to a national register of citizens that could leave them stateless in the country of 1.3 billion. Many poor Indians do not have documents to prove their nationality.
“CAA is not about taking away citizenship, it is about giving citizenship,” Modi told supporters.
He has accused political opponents of “misleading” and “inciting” people against his government.
Widespread demonstrations have rocked the Hindu-majority nation since the law was approved by parliament last month.
At least 27 people, mostly Muslims, have been killed with police accused of using disproportionate force in several states.
Home Minister Amit Shah, the government number two, also held a rally in Jabalpur on Sunday to build support for the law and several hundred supporters of the measure marched in New Delhi.
But in a new sign of international unease over the law, a third Bangladesh minister cancelled a visit to Delhi in apparent protest. Deputy foreign minister Shahriar Alam was to have attended a diplomatic syposium in the Indian capital this week.
Foreign Minister A.K. Abdul Momen and Home Minister Asaduzzaman Khan called off separate visits in December. The government has denied any link to the new law, however.
The United Nations and a US government religious freedom commission have also expressed concern.

BEIJING,
China on Sunday slammed officials from the US and other countries for congratulating Taiwan President Tsai Ing-wen after she was re-elected with a landslide victory in a stunning rebuke of Beijing’s campaign to isolate the self-ruled island.
Tsai, who had pitched herself as a defender of liberal democratic values against an increasingly authoritarian China, secured a record-breaking win in Saturday’s presidential election.
US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, as well as top diplomats from Britain and Japan, issued statements congratulating Tsai and the island’s democratic elections.
But Beijing, which views Taiwan as part of its territory, denounced their actions as violating the one-China principle.
“The Chinese side expresses strong dissatisfaction and resolute opposition to this,” said foreign ministry spokesman Geng Shuang.
“We oppose any form of official exchange between Taiwan and countries that have established diplomatic relations with China,” he said in a statement.
Chinese state media also sought to downplay Tsai’s victory and cast doubt on the legitimacy of her campaign by accusing the Taiwanese leader of “dirty tactics” and cheating.
Tsai and her Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) used “dirty tactics such as cheating, repression and intimidation to get votes, fully exposing their selfish, greedy and evil nature”, said official news agency Xinhua in an op-ed Sunday.
Xinhua also accused Tsai of buying votes, and said “external dark forces” were partly responsible for the election results.
Beijing, which has vowed to one day take Taiwan—by force if necessary—loathes Tsai because she refuses to acknowledge the idea that Taiwan is part of “one China”.
China doubled down on its “one-China principle” after Tsai’s victory, with Geng emphasising Sunday that “regardless of what happens in Taiwan, the basic facts won’t change: there is only one China in the world and Taiwan is part of China”.
“The Chinese government’s position won’t change,” he added in a statement.
Over the last four years, Beijing has ramped up economic, military and diplomatic pressure on the island, hoping it would scare voters into supporting Tsai’s opposition.
But the strong-arm tactics have backfired and voters flocked to Tsai’s DPP, fuelled in part by China’s hardline response to months of huge and violent pro-democracy protests in Hong Kong. Chinese state media have accused Tsai, who frequently invokes Hong Kong’s protests as a warning about a Beijing-controlled Taiwan, of fear-mongering.
Tsai and her party are “orchestrating tensions”, wrote the nationalistic Global Times on Saturday.
At the end of 2019, the Taiwanese leader “wantonly hyped up the so-called threat from the Chinese mainland while slandering Han Kuo-yu’s mainland connections”, it said, referring to her Beijing-friendly main opponent from the Kuomintang party.
Chinese state media also dismissed Saturday’s results as an anomaly in long-term the relations with Taiwan.

DOHA,
Qatar’s Emir Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad al-Thani will visit Tehran, the government said on Sunday, amid soaring tensions following the US killing of an Iranian commander and retaliatory strikes.
Qatar is close to the US and hosts Washington’s largest military base in the region, but it also enjoys strong ties with Tehran, with whom it shares the world’s largest gas field.
Sheikh Tamim will meet with President Hassan Rouhani and other top Iranian leaders, Qatar-based broadcaster Al Jazeera reported. Qatar’s Foreign Minister Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al-Thani reportedly called for a peaceful solution that would lead to de-escalation during a visit to Tehran in the immediate aftermath of the US strike on January 3.
“Yes it’s confirmed,” an official at Qatar’s Government Communications Office said, adding Sheikh Tamim would fly to Iran for what is believed to be his first official visit to the Islamic republic, following a stop in Oman.
Sheikh Tamim left Doha for Muscat on Sunday morning “to offer condolences on the death of Sultan Qaboos”, the state-run Qatar News Agency reported.
The visit follows the US killing of Iranian general Qasem Soleimani in a drone strike near Baghdad’s airport, and Iran’s admission that it shot down an airliner near Tehran by mistake on Wednesday, killing all 176 people on board. Iran retaliated against the US for Soleimani’s death by firing missiles at American assets in Iraq, which US President Donald Trump said caused no casualties.
Qatar’s relationship with Shiite-dominated Iran, seen as the major rival to Sunni-ruled Saudi Arabia in the region, is one of the major factors underpinning a crisis between Qatar and its former allies.
Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, the United Arab Emirates and Egypt all cut ties with Qatar in 2017, accusing Doha of backing extremism and being too close to Iran, charges Qatar denies.

TEHRAN,
Iran’s Revolutionary Guards chief briefed parliament Sunday over the killing of a top general by the US, Tehran’s retaliation and the subsequent downing of an airliner, ISNA news agency said.
Major General Hossein Salami addressed the members of the Majles in a closed session, the semi-official news agency reported.
Salami had been due to explain the killing of Qasem Soleimani, the head of the Guards’ foreign operations arm, in a January 3 US drone strike in Baghdad, ISNA reported as the session got underway.
The Guards chief had been expected to speak about Iran’s retaliation to the killing of the general on Wednesday when it fired a volley of missiles at US troops stationed in Iraqi military bases, it said.
ISNA said Salami was also expected to address members of the parliament about the accidental downing of a Ukraine International Airlines Boeing 737, which killed all 176 people on board.
Those killed in the air disaster were mainly Iranians and Canadians, including dual nationals. Many were students. Iran said on Saturday that the plane was mistakenly shot down on Wednesday morning, hours after the missiles were fired at Iraq.
The Islamic republic’s armed forces said its air defences had been at a heightened state of alert at the time and that the missile operator who fired at the plane acted independently.
Following Sunday’s session, parliament speaker Ali Larijani asked the Majles’ security and foreign policy commission to examine the “grave incident” and how to prevent such disasters from occurring again.
Police dispersed students at Amir Kabir University on Saturday evening after their commemoration for those killed in the disaster turned into an angry demonstration, Fars news agency reported. The students chanted slogans denouncing “liars” and demanded the resignation and prosecution of those responsible for downing the plane and allegedly covering up the accidental action.
Newspapers in Iran on Sunday paid tribute to those killed in the tragedy, many of them with black front pages.
“Apologise, resign,” said the main headline of the reformist Etemad daily. “Unbelievable,” read the front-page banner of Arman-e Meli, another reformist newspaper.
“Unforgivable,” said government paper Iran, which published all names of those who died in the air disaster on the image of black plane tail.

WUHAN (China),
Wuhan, the Chinese city known as the home of a new virus that has sickened dozens, killed one man and sparked international concern, is not an obvious holiday destination.
But Tian, a tourist from another metropolis around three hours’ drive away, decided to make the trip despite trepidation from his family over reports of a mysterious pneumonia outbreak.
“I said I should be fine, so I came,” he told AFP after checking out of his hotel on Sunday, wearing a face mask as a precaution nonetheless.
Residents of the central city seem just as unconcerned about the disease, believed to be from the same family as SARS—an infectious coronavirus that killed hundreds of people in mainland China and Hong Kong in 2002-2003.
So far 41 people with pneumonia-like symptoms have been diagnosed with the new virus in Wuhan, with authorities disclosing on Saturday the death of a 61-year-old man two days earlier.
The outbreak began just weeks before China’s busiest annual travel period, and national plane and rail authorities are closely watching developments as millions prepare to visit family at Lunar New Year.
No clear evidence of human-to-human transmission has yet been detected, according to the local health commission.
Huanan Seafood Wholesale Market in the city centre—where multiple pneumonia patients worked—is still cordoned off after being shut down on January 1.
But multiple restaurants sharing the same building were open and serving customers early Sunday morning.
Initial reports about the virus had raised fears that SARS was back, prompting authorities to punish
eight people for posting false information online.
While the outbreak sparked a run on face masks at pharmacies in Hong Kong, where scientists urged people to stay vigilant, few on the streets of central Wuhan were sporting masks this weekend.
Most of the guards stationed around the seafood market were not wearing protective gear, although one group of security staff who had entered the market area wore masks and hats and were instructed at a morning briefing to stay covered at all times.
Multiple people without safety equipment were seen exiting and entering the market, however, while some guards appeared more concerned about the spread of unflattering images than contagion.
One of them threatened to track down AFP reporters for filming a confrontation between the guards and an elderly man who wanted to enter the market.
The same guard said merchants had been allowed to enter the facility to check on their stalls, accompanied by security staff.
Chinese scientists said last week they believe the pathogen is a previously unknown type of coronavirus—a broad family ranging from the common cold to more serious illnesses like SARS.
Hong Kong’s Department of Health said Saturday that genetic sequencing of the virus found in one of the Wuhan patients indicated it was 80 percent similar to SARS found in bats.
But they said it was too soon to conclude that it was a SARS strain.
Outside the medical centre in Wuhan where the infected are being treated, patients discharged after being seen for other illnesses waited for buses and taxis, some without face masks.
Visitors were free to enter and exit the hospital compound, although a guard physically blocked AFP from filming a group of patients moving between buildings, saying it was a “sensitive” scene.
Two women surnamed Yan and Shu who had been discharged said on Sunday that hospital authorities had pushed overnight for as many patients unrelated to the pneumonia outbreak to be sent home as possible.
“Most of the building is empty,” Shu said, adding that she believed more pneumonia patients would soon be transferred there.
Another woman surnamed Yan, waiting for a bus near the hospital with her husband and three-year-old daughter, said she was concerned about the virus but felt there was little point in worrying.
“If the illness looks for us, there’s nothing we can do,” she said.
Her husband Cao said most of their neighbours in the Wuchang district across the river from Huanan market were “not worried”, as they rarely crossed over to the other side of the city.

MANILA: A volcano near the Philippine capital Manila spewed a massive cloud of ash into the sky on Sunday, forcing the precautionary evacuation of thousands of residents, authorities said. Government seismologists recorded magma moving towards the crater of Taal, one of the country’s most active volcanoes located 65 kilometres (40 miles) south of Manila. That increases the chances of an eruption that could happen “within days to within weeks” if such activity continues, Renato Solidum, chief of the Philippine Institute of Volcanology and Seismology, told AFP. Taal’s last eruption was in 1977, he added. (Agencies)

MUSCAT: Britain’s Prince Charles and Prime Minister Boris Johnson joined regional leaders in Oman on Sunday to offer their condolences to the royal family after the death of long-reigning Sultan Qaboos. A ceremony at Muscat’s Alam Palace drew figures from across political divides in the Middle East, including Abu Dhabi’s Crown Prince Sheikh Mohammed bin Zayed and Qatar’s Emir Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al-Thani. Iranian foreign minister Mohammad Javad Zarif was among those who met the new sultan, along with Tunisian President Kais Saied, Kuwait’s Emir Sheikh Sabah al-Ahmad al-Sabah, and Yemeni President Abedrabbo Mansour Hadi.  (Agencies)

TEHRAN: Britain’s ambassador to Tehran denied Sunday that he took part in a demonstration that broke out at a memorial for the 176 people killed when a plane was shot down. Students held a gathering at Tehran’s Amir Kabir University on Saturday evening to honour those killed hours after Iran admitted the Ukrainian airliner was downed by mistake. Iran’s Mehr news agency said the ambassador, Rob Macaire, was arrested for his alleged “involvement in provoking suspicious acts” at the gathering in front of the university. On Sunday, Iran confirmed his arrest as a foreigner at “an illegal gathering”, but said he was released soon after being identified. (Agencies)

BEIJING,
Washington and Beijing may be ready to sign a preliminary trade agreement, but companies in China are not taking any chances, forging ahead with contingency plans in case the tariff war resumes.
As Chinese Vice Premier Liu He travels to Washington from Monday to Wednesday to seal the deal, manufacturers and suppliers told AFP that they fear the agreement could be upended even after it is signed.
Rather than focusing on the agreement, they are planning for the worst -- seeking new markets abroad, increasing their presence at home or moving production overseas.
The “Phase One” deal signalled a de-escalation in a trade conflict pitting the world’s two most powerful economies against each other for nearly two years.
But even as the US held off last month from a further escalation in tariffs, firms continue bearing the brunt of existing levies as well as suffering a lower volume of orders amid simmering trade tensions.
Washington maintains 25 percent tariffs on about $250 billion worth of Chinese imports.
“Even if they signed the Phase One deal, we don’t know if things will change at a later stage,” said Alfred Wong, CEO of D&S Products Manufactory, which is headquartered in Hong Kong and has a factory in the southern trade hub of Shenzhen.
Wong’s company, which makes child safety products and greeting cards, has moved almost a third of its production to Sri Lanka since last September, even though it has not been hit hard by existing tariffs.
Wong said that clients were unlikely to give it new deals if it did not adopt a “China plus one” strategy of diversifying operations outside the country.
He added that orders for products had fallen last year, much of it due to uncertainty over potential escalations in tariffs.
“Even if President Donald Trump were not in office, the US could still take action against China,” said Wong. “Things are unlikely to return to the way they were before the trade war.”
Jason Lee, CEO of metal parts manufacturer Shanghai EverSkill M&E, said the US market made up about 60 percent of his company’s sales before the trade war, but this has dropped to around 40 percent.
He is now looking for more clients outside the US to make up for some of the shortfall.
“In the long run, as a Chinese supplier, we can only improve on our products and ensure they are better compared with those from elsewhere. That is the most fundamental solution,” Lee said. Instead of looking abroad, Silver Star, a robot vacuum-cleaner maker headquartered in Shenzhen, is now seeking to increase its market share within China, particularly via e-commerce.
“Macroeconomic policies are not within the control of small business owners like us,” said company chief executive Ludwig Ye.
Some companies are also doing less research and development for new products.
Kim Ng, managing director of kitchen gadgets producer Ko Fung, said this has had a knock-on effect on business for the rest of the year as the production of new goods typically comes after research and development.
Ng added that the potential cut in tariffs in the Phase One deal is only from 15 percent to 7.5 percent on around $120 billion of Chinese imports.
“President Trump is attacking China to boost his popularity, and it is (a US presidential) election year. I expect the further stages of negotiations will be more difficult,” he said.
Iris Pang, Greater China economist at ING, said the rollback on tariffs is likely to benefit only “a very small group of exporters”.
UOB bank’s head of research Suan Teck Kin said that while the deal suggests that trade tensions have stopped escalating, it does not address other sources of strain such as China’s subsidies to state-owned enterprises.
Analysts also remain divided on whether China is likely to raise its purchase of US agricultural goods to at least $40 billion annually over two years, a figure invoked by US officials.
China has not confirmed the numbers, but Suan said it was not impossible to achieve. If US farm-product purchases hit around $40 billion by 2021, it would likely represent about 23 percent of China’s agricultural imports. At its 2015 peak, US farm products made up nearly 25 percent of China’s imports, he said.
Tensions also remain on other fronts, especially in technology, with the US having imposed sanctions on Chinese telecom champion Huawei.
“There seems to be an escalation of the tech war between China and the US, and between China and the rest of the world,” said Pang.
“It seems that it’s not only a trade war now, it’s an overall resistance towards China’s development of advanced technologies.”

BEIRUT, 
Lebanon’s central bank is seeking extra powers to regulate and standardise controls which commercial banks are imposing on depositors, the governor said on Sunday, saying his intention was to ensure “fair relationships” between banks and customers.
Seeking to prevent capital flight, commercial banks have been tightly controlling access to deposits and blocking most transfers abroad since October, when anti-government protests brought a long-brewing Lebanese economic crisis to a head.
The Lebanese authorities have not, however, introduced formal capital controls regulating these measures.
Central bank governor Riad Salameh, in a text message to Reuters, confirmed sending a letter to Lebanon’s finance minister on Jan. 9 seeking “exceptional powers necessary to issue regulations pertaining” to conditions in the sector.
He said no new measures were planned. The letter, reported by Lebanese media late on Saturday, said the measures imposed by commercial banks needed to be regulated and unified “with the aim of implementing them fairly and equally on all depositors and clients”.
Lebanon’s caretaker government has not issued any statement on Salameh’s request, which was set out in a letter to caretaker Finance Minister Ali Hassan Khalil.
In the letter, Salameh said implementation of the controls by commercial banks had “on several occasions led to prejudicing the rights of some clients, particularly with respect to the unequal approach with other clients”.
He urged Khalil to work with the government “to take appropriate legal measures ... to entrust (the central bank)” with the necessary extra powers. In justifying this, he cited the need to “secure the public good, to protect banking and monetary stability ... and to protect the legitimate interests of depositors and clients”.

NEW YORK,
When Dennis Muilenburg, Boeing’s ousted chief, was summoned to Washington last month, he scarcely knew he was in for a dressing-down from the head of the Federal Aviation Administration.
FAA chief Steve Dickson -- a former Delta Air Lines employee who in August took over the reins at the world’s most influential aviation regulator -- had announced the day before that Boeing’s 737 MAX would not return to the skies before 2020.
The plane was grounded worldwide last March after two crashes in less than five months left 346 people dead.
The meeting between the two men was tense, according to a US official.
Muilenburg had promised airlines and investors the MAX would be back in the sky by December 2019.
Ominously, he warned a delay could force a temporary halt to production, something that could inflict pain on the entire US economy.
But Dickson was unswayed, telling Muilenburg to focus on fixing the MCAS anti-stall system implicated in the crashes.
Strikingly, he also publicly accused Boeing of making statements “designed to force FAA into taking quicker action.”
The souring relations between the two men alarmed Boeing board members, including Larry Kellner, former head of Continental Airlines, according to people with knowledge of the matter.
The board feared a complete breakdown in the crucial relationship with the FAA.
Boeing needs the agency’s support both to emerge from the unprecedented crisis, which has cost it billions of dollars, and also to certify the airworthiness of other jets like those in Boeing’s long-haul 777x aircraft line.
Ten days of talks followed. And on December 23 Muilenburg’s unceremonious firing was announced in a terse Boeing statement that offered no thanks for his years of service.
David Calhoun, chairman of Boeing’s board, had finally dropped Muilenburg after having earlier assured him of his support in the face of blistering attacks from lawmakers and the victims’ families.
Adding insult to injury, Muilenburg was informed just hours before the announcement, according to a knowledgeable person.
The bonds of trust between Boeing and the FAA had been fraying since October. That month, as lawmakers intensified a probe of the 737 MAX’s certification, Dickson levelled explosive accusations against Boeing.
He said the company had concealed important documents, including exchanges between employees, showing that the MCAS system, which was meant to prevent stalling, made piloting the aircraft difficult during simulator training.
“I expect your explanation immediately regarding the content of this document and Boeing’s delay in disclosing the document to its safety regulator,” Dickson said in a letter.
In the documents, former Boeing test pilot Mark Forkner boasted of easily convincing the FAA to approve the MCAS. Forkner told a colleague he was “Jedi mind tricking” regulators. And the FAA ultimately approved the MCAS software without in-depth scrutiny. Another episode further eroded trust between Dickson and Muilenburg.
In early November, Muilenburg asked Dickson to authorize Boeing to resume deliveries of the 737 MAX -- which Boeing assembly plants were still producing at the time -- even before allowing the planes to return to service. Dickson agreed to consider the request, according to an FAA spokesperson. But six days later, before Dickson could respond, Boeing announced it had won approval to resume deliveries before the end of 2019.
The FAA was dumbfounded and Dickson had to assure officials that he had not in fact buckled under pressure.
“Relations between Boeing and the FAA sucked,” said Scott Hamilton, an analyst at Leeham.
Richard Aboulafia of Teal Group likewise told AFP that regulators have “lost confidence” in Boeing.
Calhoun, a former top executive at General Electric who is due to take over at Boeing on Monday, hopes to repair relations and win permission for the 737 MAX to return to service.

TIERRA DEL MAR (UNITED STATES),
A battle playing out in Oregon is pitting residents of a tiny coastal town with no stoplights or cellphone service against one of the world’s biggest tech companies.
Locals in Tierra del Mar are trying to stop Facebook from using property in their quiet community to build a landing spot for an undersea cable connecting America with Asia.
Representatives of the social media giant say Tierra del Mar is one of the few places on the US West Coast suitable for the ultra-high-speed cable. It will link multiple US locations, including Facebook’s huge data centre in the central Oregon town of Prineville, with Japan and the Philippines, and will help meet an increasing demand for internet services worldwide, the company says.
But locals say vibrations from drilling to bring the submarine cable ashore in this village of some 200 houses might damage home foundations and septic systems. They also point out that Tierra del Mar, arrayed along a pristine beach, is zoned residential. If the project is allowed, they say, more commercial ventures will come calling.
“This is a huge precedent. Once you open the shores to these companies coming anywhere they want to, Oregon’s coast is pretty much wide open season,” resident Patricia Rogers told county officials in written remarks.
The Tillamook County Board of Commissioners voted 2-1 in favour of the project after hearing testimony Thursday.
“Once it is done, it is my hope that the community is not going to even know it is there,” Commissioner David Yamamoto said. He noted the project is similar to other uses, like electrical facilities, that have been permitted.
Residents plan to appeal to a state board.
Tierra del Mar, 65 miles (105 kilometres) southwest of Portland, is home to a mix of professionals and retirees who share a love of the unspoiled beach that is fringed with coastal pines and the deer, bald eagles and rare seabirds that inhabit the area. It has two businesses, a rock shop and antiques store, and no cell service, apparently because providers don’t consider it profitable enough.
In recent years, locals fiercely opposed a plan by investors to turn a former farm just to the north into a high-end golf course. The site ultimately opened instead as a state nature area.
Residents’ attention turned to Facebook in 2018 when a subsidiary bought the empty lot for the cable landing from former NFL and University of Oregon quarterback Joey Harrington. County records show Edge Cable Holdings, USA, paid him $495,000 for the beachfront property, about the size of 10 tennis courts.
Locals worry the project will pave the way for cell towers, power junctions and additional cable sites.
Rogers, who owns a house adjacent to the Facebook lot, stood on the beach in stormy weather Wednesday as waves charged the shore. A sign apparently toppled by the high tide said “Keep Facebook off our beach.”
She pointed to two other empty lots nearby. “If Facebook gets (approval), well, two companies will get those, and we’ll have three of these drilling projects within a half a mile of each other,” Rogers said.
Others feel the tech titan is trying to steamroller residents’ wishes.
“I am extremely angry about and opposed to the cavalier attitude that an amoral multi-national, multi-billion dollar corporation has taken to this tiny residentially zoned portion of Tillamook County,” resident Carol J. Griffith said in written comments.

NEW YORK, 
From coast to coast, US refineries are available for the taking, but nobody is buying.
With the news that Royal Dutch Shell Plc is looking to unload its Anacortes, Washington, facility, there are seven different US refineries on the block now, accounting for about 5 percent of US crude oil processing capacity, according to data compiled by Reuters.
US energy production is at an all-time record, but there are concerns that refineries that don’t attract buyers could suffer from lack of investment and maintenance that could lead to accidents down the road.
These properties, from Washington state to Pennsylvania, are having trouble finding bidders because of unfavorable locales, worries about falling margins, and the coming restart of nearby facilities in the Caribbean that will add to competition, bankers and analysts said.
Just one US refinery transaction closed last year: Chevron Corp’s purchase of a Houston-area plant from Petrobras.
Prior to that, a flurry of corporate mergers saw independent refiners Alon, Western and Tesoro acquired by rivals. The consolidation left some acquirers, like Marathon Petroleum, with limited appetite or ability to consolidate the sector further.
“When some of your really big companies have stopped buying refineries, that really slows things down,” said Matthew Blair, head of refiners equity research at Tudor Pickering Holt & Co.

KATHMANDU,
The government has balked at deregulating the petroleum sector with Nepal Oil Corporation lately awash in cash.
It has backtracked on its long-standing pledge to break the monopoly of the state-owned company which has total control over the import and distribution of gasoline in Nepal.
Addressing the company’s 50th anniversary celebration on Saturday, Minister for Industry, Commerce and Supplies Lekhraj Bhatta said that the government would not open up the oil trade to the private sector. “In view of national security, petroleum is sensitive. Therefore, I think we should not bring the private sector into the oil business.”
All the gasoline sold in Nepal comes from India, and experts have been saying that the cross-border pipeline that opened last September makes perfect sense for bilateral trade and economic advantage, but they worry that it could make the country even more dependent on the southern neighbour and exclude the private sector from the oil trade.
The government’s reluctance to loosen its grip on the oil trade may have been prompted by the massive revenues Nepal Oil Corporation has been raking in recently, say industry watchers.
The state-owned firm is in the midst of a profit bonanza due to increased development projects and rising incomes of Nepalis.
In the last fiscal year, the corporation made a net profit of Rs7.5 billion on oil imports valued at Rs216 billion. It paid Rs63.85 billion in taxes to the government.
Nepal Oil Corporation also raised Rs11.95 billion in infrastructure tax for the construction of the Budhi Gandaki Hydropower Project. Business has been booming after the company adopted automatic pricing mechanism in 2014.
The corporation has been subsidising cooking gas with the extra revenues generated by selling high-priced aviation fuel to international and domestic airlines. It makes a profit of Rs45 on a litre of aviation fuel sold to international carriers.
Currently, the corporation reviews cooking gas prices monthly and prices of other petroleum products on a fortnightly basis.
Economist Jagdish Chandra Pokharel said that if the state thinks it can do all the business, it is discouraging the private sector.
“Business monopoly is not good for any country. At a time when the government has been announcing public-private partnership model in every venture, it should not hold all key businesses.”
Economist Deependra Bahadur Kshetry, however, said that bringing the private sector on board will not resolve all the issues.
“The supply chain or state efficiency will not improve automatically if the private sector enters the business,” he said. There are several instances of problems occurring in supply with the private sector creating havoc in the market by hoarding products, he added.
Nepal Oil Corporation was once a chronic loss maker. In 2015-16, the company announced it had finally become debt-free after 14 years. Once heavily in debt with outstanding loans totaling Rs36.87 billion, the corporation paid off all the loans in the past one year and a half—thanks to falling oil prices in the international market.
The corporation had started taking loans from the government and various banks and financial institutions since 2002, which had swollen to Rs36.87 billion in January 2015.
The corporation’s financial position started to weaken in the fiscal year 2002-03 when world petroleum prices went into an upward spiral.
Oil prices peaked at $147 per barrel in 2007. Falling prices in 2014 and the automatic price mechanism helped improve its financial health. Brent crude fell to $27.67 a barrel in January 2016—the lowest since 2003.
At least a dozen reports containing recommendations for the improvement of the corporation are gathering dust on government shelves.
Several high-level petroleum sector reform taskforces have recommended ending the monopoly of Nepal Oil Corporation.
But since 2016, the government remained silent putting all recommendations on the back burner, as the corporation started to earn profits and the construction of the cross-border pipeline started.
Minister Bhatta also said that the government was enacting the Petroleum Act as the oil market had grown to over $2 billion annually, saying that the private sector would not be included in the lucrative oil business now.

FRANKFURT, 
Soaring demand for SUVs drove record sales for premium carmakers including BMW and Mercedes last year, leaving the industry on collision course with government efforts to tackle global warming despite big investments in electric vehicles.
BMW said on Friday deliveries by its main luxury brand rose 2 percent to a record 2,168,516 vehicles last year, thanks to a 21 percent jump in sales of its “X” branded sport-utility vehicles (SUV) which now make up 44 percent of the BMW brand’s global sales.
At Mercedes-Benz, the world’s bestselling premium car brand, every third luxury car sold last year was an SUV.
Automakers across the world are investing billions in electric vehicles to try to meet tougher emissions regulations. But the jury is out on how many drivers will buy them.
“Consumer preferences for SUVs could offset the benefits from electric cars,” the International Energy Agency (IEA) warned in its November World Energy Outlook 2019 report.
The IEA said a doubling in market share had seen emissions from SUVs grow by nearly 0.55 gigatons of carbon dioxide (CO2) during the last decade to roughly 0.7 gigatons.
As a result, SUVs were the second-largest contributor to the increase in global CO2 emissions since 2010 after the power sector—ahead of heavy industry including iron and steel, cement, aluminium, as well as trucks and aviation, it said.
There are now more than 200 million SUVs around the world, up from about 35 million in 2010, accounting for 60 percent of the increase in the global car fleet since 2010, IEA data shows.
“If the popularity of SUVs continues to rise in line with recent trends, this could add another 2 million barrels per day to our projection for 2040 oil demand,” it said.
The German carmakers say their vehicles are among the most fuel efficient available, thanks to hybrid and other technologies, adding customers could also choose to buy smaller, more frugal cars instead of SUVs.
Both BMW and Mercedes-owner Daimler say they aim to achieve new sales records this year, and are preparing to launch fully electric SUVs—the BMW iX3 and Mercedes-Benz EQC—which they say shows a commitment to a cleaner future.
While acknowledging the growing popularity of SUVs, Germany’s powerful VDA auto industry association said much of the demand was for more efficient models.
“Only just under 5 percent of SUVs are large luxury class vehicles.
The market success of the SUV segment is mainly due to the model offensive in compact and medium-sized SUVs, with correspondingly lower fuel consumption,” VDA said on Thursday.
The newly registered SUVs of German group brands had reduced their CO2 emissions by 35 percent since 2008, it added.
European Union lawmakers agreed in December 2018 that automakers had to cut CO2 emissions from cars by 37.5 percent by 2030 from 2021 levels, in addition to a 40 percent cut between 2007 and 2021, or face fines.

SINGAPORE,
Singapore is opening up its banking industry to digital lenders in a reform that could shake up the sector across Southeast Asia, with Chinese billionaire Jack Ma and ride-hailer Grab among those seeking licences.
Traditional banks are being challenged by a new generation of online-only competitors that can offer better savings and borrowing rates, as they don’t need to spend money on overheads such as physical branches.
The introduction of digital lenders into the Singaporean market heralds the biggest liberalisation of the financial hub’s banking sector for two decades, and follows similar moves in the United States, Britain, Japan and Hong Kong, among others.
With most adults in the city already having access to financial services, firms awarded licences are likely to use the city-state as a gateway to the wider region, where many consumers still lack bank accounts.
“It’s a total reconfiguration of the terrain—we’re talking about radical changes,” Lawrence Loh, a professor at the National University of Singapore Business School, told AFP.
“Singapore is the launchpad for Southeast Asia.”
An eclectic group of 21 applicants are vying for five digital banking licences, Singapore’s central bank and financial regulator said this month.
They range from Alibaba founder Ma’s online platform Ant Financial, as it ramps up efforts to expand outside China, to a consortium that includes Southeast Asian ride-hailing behemoth Grab and the region’s biggest telecom player, Singtel.
Other bidders are Asia’s biggest massage chair maker, V3 Group, and an alliance featuring computer gaming firm Razer and a supermarket chain operator.

RASUWA,
State-owned Dairy Development Corporation has produced 38 tonnes of cheese and 12 tonnes of butter since mid-April last year, a result of an increase in yak farming in the northern district of Rasuwa. Yak derived product volumes in the country have been growing at 10 percent a year.
Local traders say the value of yak cheese amounted to Rs 69.62 million and Rs12.4 million for butter which helped improve the lives of farmers.
Chandanbari, Dhunchhe, Gatlang and Langtang are the key cheese and butter producing centres of the corporation. Cheese and butter made from Yak’s milk are popular with Nepalis as well as the foreign tourists.
It is also a major income-generating activity for the people in the mountain region. These dairy commodities have a huge export potential, both in Asia and other markets around the world.
Yak cheese production started in Nepal in 1952 after a factory was set up in Langtang with financial support from the World Food Organization and technical support from the Swiss government.   
The cheese produced is mostly being supplied to Kathmandu.
“The production has been increasing with the rise in the number of yaks,” said Gyalbo Lama, chief of the Langtang Centre.
Currently, the centre has been collecting milk from 21 yak sheds. Since April, it alone has produced 4 tonnes of cheese and 900 kg of butter.
Chattra Bahadur Tamang, head of Gosaikunda Cheese Production Centre in Chandanbari, said they were able to produce 11 tonnes of yak cheese and 4 tonnes of butter in the year gone by.
Established in 1970, Gosainkunda Cheese Production Centre in Chandanbari is Nepal’s biggest cheese producing centre.
The district produces dairy products only for six months. When the winter season begins, yaks are sent to lowland areas. The factory is closed during this time. Tamang said that cheese is produced from mid-May to mid-November.
Jeet Bahadur Jirel, head of Pangle Kharka Cheese Production Centre in Dhunchhe, said that he has been receiving milk from 38 yak sheds. His centre produced 11 tonnes of cheese and 4 tonnes of butter in 2019.
Lalit Bahadur Jirel, head of Cheese Production Centre in Gatlang, last year, produced 13 tonnes of cheese and 3.7 tonnes of butter. It has been receiving milk from 39 yak sheds. Gosaikunda, Aamachodingmo and Naukunda Rural Municipality of the district have many yak farmers.
The Corporation, meanwhile, has fixed the cheese price at Rs1,801 a kilo and Rs1,000 for a kilo of butter.

MILAN,
Veteran Swedish star Zlatan Ibrahimovic scored on his first AC Milan start since his return to the club in a 2-0 win over Cagliari on Saturday but city rivals Inter’s position on top of Serie A is at risk after a 1-1 draw against Atalanta.
Lautaro Martinez put Inter ahead after four minutes in the San Siro only for Robin Gosens to pull Atalanta level on 76 minutes. Inter are just one-point clear of champions Juventus who play Roma in the Stadio Olimpico on Sunday.
Lazio consolidated third position, four points behind Inter, with the league’s top scorer Ciro Immobile grabbing the only goal against Napoli to stretch his side’s winning streak to ten games. Atalanta striker Duvan Zapata got his first start after a long injury layoff but Inter were struggling without suspended Nicolo Barella and injured duo Matias Vecino and Alexis Sanchez.
“We gave everything in a difficult situation,” said Inter coach Antonio Conte. “We were down to the bare bones, without four big players. Looking at our position in table, seeing us up there, we might turn a blind eye to some issues. But I hope we don’t have any more missing players or the situation becomes problematic.”
Atalanta are fifth, equal on points with Roma, who occupy the final Champions League berth.
In Sardinia, Ibrahimovic was named in the starting 11 for Milan against Cagliari, having come on as a substitute in their goalless draw against Sampdoria last weekend. The 38-year-old played the entire match scoring after 64 minutes for his first Milan goal since leaving the club for Paris Saint-Germain eight years ago. “I’ll celebrate like a God at San Siro, not here,” said Ibrahimovic, who last scored in the Milan jersey in May 2012. “I celebrate God every time I score, that way I feel alive!”
Portuguese forward Rafael Leao, 20, had struck the opener just after the break as Milan got their first win since a 3-2 victory over Bologna on December 8.
Lazio extended their winning streak to a club record of ten games as they inflicted a second consecutive defeat on Serie A runners-up Napoli thanks to a blunder from goalkeeper David Ospina with eight minutes to go. Colombian international Ospina was caught in possession inside his own box allowing Immobile to tap in his 20th goal in 19 games to the delight of the home crowd as the club marked their 120th anniversary. Lazio are chasing their first Scudetto since 2000.

LONDON,
Record-breaking Liverpool beat Tottenham 1-0 to extend their lead at the top of the Premier League table to a yawning 16 points on Saturday as Southampton gained sweet revenge over high-flying Leicester.
Chelsea and Manchester United secured comfortable wins in the race for the top four but 10-man Arsenal fell further off the pace after a limp draw at Crystal Palace. Jurgen Klopp’s Liverpool secured their 20th win in 21 Premier League matches thanks to Roberto Firmino’s 37th-minute goal at the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium. Spurs had their chances to take at least a point as Son Heung-min and Giovani Lo Celso missed the target with the goal gaping in the final 15 minutes.
The European champions have won 61 points in the Premier League — the most any side has ever registered after 21 games in a single season across Europe’s big five leagues, assuming three points for a win. Their scarcely credible lead over second-placed Leicester means they are almost certain to claim their first English top-flight title for 30 years barring a calamitous collapse.
“We played super football in their box, but for 90-95 minutes you have to be ready,” Liverpool manager Jurgen Klopp told Sky Sports. “We were, but we still have to do better.” Speaking about Liverpool’s record he said: “It’s special. To win the number of games, to always be ready to fight, that’s what the boys do. The only thing is that you don’t get anything for best starts. The only thing we’re interested in is what we can get in the summer. This league is so strong. We have to be ready.”
Earlier, Southampton claimed their fifth win in their past six games in all competitions as they came from behind at the King Power Stadium to beat Leicester 2-1. Dennis Praet fired the hosts into an early lead, but Stuart Armstrong’s deflected effort quickly pulled Hasenhuettl’s men level. Danny Ings then scored his 10th goal in 11 games eight minutes from time and the visitors survived a late scare when Jonny Evans’s header was ruled out by VAR for offside.
Chelsea put their struggles at Stamford Bridge behind them with a 3-0 win over Burnley, who slid ever closer to the bottom three. Jorginho opened the scoring from the penalty spot and Tammy Abraham gave Frank Lampard’s men breathing space before half-time. Callum Hudson-Odoi then scored his first Premier League goal by converting Cesar Azpilicueta’s cross at the back post.
United ended a three-game winless run in style with Marcus Rashford and Anthony Martial once again leading the way for Ole Gunnar Solskjaer’s men in a 4-0 demolition of bottom-of-the-table Norwich. Rashford marked his 200th appearance for the club with two goals and Martial and substitute Mason Greenwood were also on target.
Solskjaer was delighted with this team’s performance, which leaves them in fifth spot in the table, five points behind fourth-placed Chelsea. But after the match he took fans at Old Trafford to task after angry protests aimed at unpopular owners the Glazer family and executive vice-chairman Ed Woodward. “As a club we’ve got to stick together, we’ve got to be united, we are a family,” said the United boss. “I can only say from when I’ve been here I’ve been backed by the owners, I’ve been backed by Ed and they’re supporting me, so for me, make sure they stick together.”
Woodward has become a particular target for supporters in recent months, given the club’s on-field problems and his record in the transfer market. Arsenal are now 11 points off the Champions League places as their revival under Mikel Arteta was halted by a red card for captain Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang in a 1-1 draw at Crystal Palace.
Wolves were held 1-1 at home by Newcastle while Everton bounced back from an embarrassing FA Cup exit to a youthful Liverpool side thanks to a moment of magic from Richarlison to beat Brighton 1-0. During Spurs’ match against Liverpool, injured Tottenham forward Harry Kane tweeted an image of himself in his hospital bed following successful surgery on his damaged hamstring. He wrote: “First day of recovery starts now!”

SYDNEY,
Cricket greats Shane Warne and Ricky Ponting will come out of retirement to skipper star-studded teams at a charity game to raise money for victims of Australia’s bushfires, it was announced Sunday.
Other former greats signed up for the “Bushfire Cricket Bash” include Adam Gilchrist, Brett Lee, Michael Clarke, Shane Watson and Australian coach Justin Langer, while Steve Waugh will have a non-playing role. All match profits and funds raised during the February 8 game, played as a curtain raiser to the Big Bash League final, will go to the Australian Red Cross Disaster Relief and Recovery Fund.
Cricket Australia chief Kevin Roberts said he hoped it would play a part in helping those impacted by the devastating fires that have killed at least 27 people and destroyed more than 2,000 homes.
“People the world over have seen the overwhelming images of hundreds of thousands of hectares burnt, precious lives lost, hundreds of properties destroyed and the devastating loss of wildlife as a result of the fires,” he said.
“These images have reinforced the need to get behind organisations like the Australian Red Cross which is responding to the immediate requirements of people who have lost loved ones, their homes, and their livelihoods.”
Cricket Australia also injected Aus$2 million (US$1.38 million) into a fund to assist community cricket clubs impacted by the fires. It is the latest initiative by sports stars to stump up memorabilia and cash to help in the relief effort.
On Friday, Warne’s “baggy green” cap, awarded to Test players on their debut, sold at auction for more than Aus$1 million (nearly $700,000) with all funds aiding victims.
Reigning Formula One champion Lewis Hamilton has pledged $500,000.
A “Rally for Relief” exhibition match at the Rod Laver Arena in Melbourne featuring Williams and Roger Federer is due to take place on Wednesday ahead of the Australian Open to raise further money.

AUCKLAND,
Serena Williams ended a three-year title drought and donated her winner’s cheque to victims of the Australian bushfires in an emotional WTA Auckland Classic final on Sunday.
Williams raised expectations for this month’s Australian Open, where she can equal Margaret Court’s record of 24 Grand Slam titles, with her 6-3, 6-4 victory — her first WTA trophy since she won in Melbourne in 2017. But the 38-year-old tempered celebrations as she donated her $43,000 winners cheque to Australian bushfire relief fund and described how the tragedy had affected her deeply.
“I’ve been playing in Australia for over 20 years and it’s been really hard for me to watch all the news and everything that has been happening in Australia with all the fire and... animals and people that have lost their homes,” she said. “I decided at the beginning of the tournament... I’d donate all my prize money for a great cause.”
It is Williams’ first title since 2017 — and her first as a mother — since she won the Australian Open while pregnant. Her 73 WTA titles now stretch across four decades, after she won her first in 1999. The tournament top seed slipped 1-3 behind in the first set against the unseeded Pegula, a fellow American. But once she found her range there was never any doubt about the final result, which Williams greeted by raising her arms in triumph while her husband Alexis Ohanian and two-year-old daughter Olympia looked on.
“It’s been a long time, I think you could see the relief on my face,” she said, adding she could feel her game sharpening up as she prepares to head to Melbourne. It definitely feels good, it feels like I was definitely improving as the week went on and obviously I needed to.” Pegula, who has only one title to her credit, had stunned former world number one Caroline Wozniacki — a close friend of Williams — in a three-set semi-final, winning every game in the deciding set. The 25-year-old continued in the same fearless vein at the start of the final, seemingly untroubled by her heavily bandaged left thigh as she chased down everything Williams delivered and even broke Williams’ first serve.
Pegula held her own serve and appeared set to break again when Williams, by this stage yelling with every point she won, fought back from 15-40 to hold her second service game on the fifth deuce. Williams eventually achieved a break of her own to level at 3-3, finding the power and precision that had deserted her until then. With her confidence boosted, Williams held to love in the next game, broke Pegula again and then served to clinch the first set. Pegula was down 0-40 at the start of the second set before rallying to hold serve but the strain of facing the player who has dominated women’s tennis for two decades was showing. Williams broke on Pegula’s next service game and stayed in front until the end to take the title and extinguish a sequence of five defeats in finals since her 2017 win in Melbourne.
Williams, whose last tournament was the US Open in September, was looking for as much game time as possible in Auckland and an hour after winning the singles crown she was back on court partnering Wozniacki in the doubles final. However, the pair were beaten 6-4, 6-4 by Americans Asia Muhammad and Taylor Townsend.

Kathmandu,
A 13th-minute goal from Wagner de Carmo saw Friends Club cause a 1-0 upset win over Three Star Club in the Martyrs Memorial ‘A’ Division League on Sunday.
The first win in the league this season saw Friends climb two places up to 11th in the standings with five points from six matches. They were lying just above the relegation-threatened Saraswoti Youth Club who earned their first point in the 14-team league after holding Brigade Boys to a goalless draw in the other match on Sunday.
Following the lacklustre performance against Friends, Three Star’s title aspirations have suffered a major dent. Their coach Megh Raj KC, however, put on a brave face, saying: “A win obviously would have kept us in the title race, but the points table does not really matter at this moment.”
“It was obvious from our performance that we did not live up to our standards. We failed in converting our chances,” KC added. “They scored from one of the two free headers they had. It was their day today and this is how football is.” The defeat leaves Three Star fourth in the table with 10 points, three behind leaders Machhindra.
Friends Club, smarting on their previous performances—they came into Sunday’s match with two draws and three defeats, completely dominated the first half. They could have found the back of the net on several occasions.
The second half, however, lacked the same intensity and De Carmo’s goal was the only difference between the sides at the end.
Soon after the Brazilian forward headed home to put Friends Club 1-0 up, both their team coach Marcus Dantas and manager Rabin Benjankar were booked alongside their substitute goalkeeper Sojit Gurung for getting into several arguments with the match officials.
The Brazilian coach was not amused with the way the match officials handled the match. The officials added nine minutes in the first half, followed by another seven in the second half.
Dantas said, “I apologise for being too aggressive at the touchline while issuing directives to my players. But that is the spirit coaches have.
“However, never in my managerial [coaching] career across three continents have I seen such officiating as regards additional time.”
He had previously coached in his native Brazil and in Sweden. He is the third coach to have criticised the standard of refereeing in the league.
He, however, was elated with the result after a much-improved show from his boys. “This victory is very important for us. The win against a very good team shows the evolution of Friends Club,” said Dantas. “We can only do better from here.”
New Road Team play Nepal Police Club in the opening match at the Dashrath Stadium on Monday, followed by a clash between Chyasal Youth Club and Armed Police Force.

MADRID,
Ernesto Valverde will take Barcelona training on Monday after Xavi told the club he would not be accepting the job of coach immediately, AFP Sport has learned.
Xavi, who is currently in charge of Qatari team Al-Sadd, held talks with Barca’s sporting director Eric Abidal and chief executive Oscar Grau on Friday and Saturday. But a source has told AFP Sport that Grau and Abidal were returning to Barcelona on Sunday, after Xavi said he would not be giving his agreement straight away. Xavi could yet resume negotiations in the coming days or, more likely, in the summer once the season has finished.
In the meantime, Valverde remains in charge and the plan is that he will take training as usual on Monday morning. Yet it remains to be seen how he responds, with the current Barca coach likely to have been unimpressed by the club’s indiscreet pursuit of Xavi. Abidal and Grau met Xavi on Friday in Qatar and then again on Saturday night following Al-Sadd’s Qatar Cup semi-final win over Al-Rayyan. The suggestion on Saturday had been that Xavi would make a decision as early as Sunday but the club’s iconic former midfielder wants more time.
His situation is complicated by the fact he would like to lead Al-Sadd in the Qatar Cup final, which will be played on January 17. It would also be a daunting task to join Barcelona mid-season. The team are level on points in the league with Real Madrid and face a tough last-16 tie in the Champions League next month against Napoli.
Xavi is also said to want to show respect to Valverde, who has overseen Barcelona winning two La Liga titles in his two seasons in charge. But Champions League collapses against Roma and Liverpool have not been forgotten and poor performances in recent weeks have prompted fears of a repeat. Barca were beaten 3-2 by Atletico Madrid on Thursday in the Spanish Super Cup in Saudi Arabia.
“I respect Barcelona, I respect Valverde and I respect my club and I’m doing my job here,” Xavi said on Saturday. “I’m focussing on Al-Sadd. Yes Abidal is my friend, I met him many times,” he continued.“I cannot hide that it’s my dream to coach Barcelona, I said it many times.”
Asked about talks between Barca and Xavi, Al-Sadd’s sports director Muhammad Ghulam Al-Balushi told the Qatar-based BeIN broadcaster: “I will not deny that.... but I can say that Xavi so far is at Al-Sadd. The final decision is in the hands of Al-Sadd’s management, the manager and the hands of Barcelona’s management.”

BRISBANE,
Karolina Pliskova said her tough three-set win over Madison Keys in the final of the Brisbane International on Sunday was the ideal preparation for next week’s Australian Open. The Czech world number two won 6-4, 4-6, 7-5 in two hours, seven minutes on Pat Rafter Arena.
Pliskova’s third Brisbane title in four years and her 16th on the WTA tour stamps her as one of the favourites for the year’s first Grand Slam. The former world number one is yet to win a Grand Slam singles title, but she reached the semi-finals in Melbourne last year, falling in three sets to eventual champion Naomi Osaka. Pliskova beat Osaka in a marathon three-hour semi-final on Saturday night, and the way she backed up to defeat Keys in another gruelling clash on Sunday shows she has form and fitness heading into the Australian Open.
She said while she still saw the Brisbane International primarily as part of her Melbourne preparations, it was a good tournament to win.
“Especially beating the last two players, Naomi and Madison,” she said. “I think it always gives you some extra confidence and at least you know which level are you at, so I think it was a great way to start the year. But of course, Grand Slam or any other tournament it always starts on zero, so there’s nobody’s really thinking that, ‘Oh, she won a tournament two weeks ago’. I can still feel well and confident and whatever, but I think we still have to start from zero.”

SYDNEY,
Novak Djokovic beat Rafael Nadal and then went back on court within an hour and won the deciding doubles encounter to secure Serbia’s victory over Spain in the inaugural ATP Cup final.
Second-ranked Djokivic had a 6-2, 7-6 (4) win over top-ranked Nadal on Sunday night to level the final after Roberto Bautista Agut had given Spain a 1-0 lead by beating Dusan Lajovic 7-5, 6-1 in the first singles match. After extending his lead to 29-26 in career head-to-heads with Nadal and extending his supremacy over the Spaniard on hardcourts, he combined with Victor Troicki in a 6-3, 6-4 win over Pablo Carreno Busta and Feliciano Lopez.
Nadal, who hasn’t beaten Djokovic on a hard surface since the 2013 US Open final, withdrew from the doubles match, citing fatigue. Lopez got the late call-up for the doubles match.
“I have been playing a lot of tennis the last couple of days. My level of energy is a little bit lower than usual, because I played long yesterday, very long before yesterday, very long in (Perth),” Nadal said. “So is a team decision, and we believe in our team. That’s why we had success in the past, because we were able to give the confidence to other players, and we give confidence to Feliciano and Pablo.”
After playing six singles matches and two doubles matches in 10 days — on both the west and east coasts of Australia — less than two months after guiding Spain to the Davis Cup title in Madrid, Nadal urged the International Tennis Federation and the ATP to negotiate to form one world team championship.
Spain’s early lead put extra pressure on Djokovic, a seven-time Australian Open champion, to keep Serbia in contention. He hadn’t lost a singles match at the new 24-team tournament, and started like losing wasn’t a consideration. “We get to play a lot of exciting points. There were some incredible exchanges today,” Djokovic said. “I started off the match, perfectly, really. Everything worked for me. Serve got me out of trouble in the second set.” He broke Nadal’s serve in the opening game, which lasted eight minutes and included two requests from the umpire to the crowd to keep quiet during the service motion.
Djokovic held for a 2-0 lead, the game going to deuce, and then didn’t concede a point on serve for his next three games, closing the set in 39 minutes with three straight aces. Nadal, meanwhile, was struggling to hold, with Djokovic typically relentless with his returns. After Nadal was broken for the second time, in the seventh game, he went to the chair umpire in the changeover, likely about the noise during his service swing, and held his thumb up to the crowd as he walked back to his team zone.
The Spaniard found his range on serve in the second set, though, conceding just a point in each of his first three service games. He had also had a huge opportunity to go up a break in the sixth game, but was unable to convert five chances as Djokovic rallied from 0-40 to hold. Djokovic then had two breakpoints in the 11th game, which would have given him the chance to serve for the match, but Nadal rallied from 15-40 to hold and it was almost inevitable that the set finish in a tiebreaker.

Kathmandu,
Binod Lama picked up seven wickets as Sudurpaschim Province sailed into the semi-final of the Manmohan Memorial national one-day cricket tournament following their comprehensive nine-wicket win against Gandaki Province in Inaruwa on Sunday.
Gandaki won the toss and elected to bat, but they were bowled out for a paltry 64 runs in 23.3 overs. Kishore Mahato (17) was the only Gandaki batsman to score in double figures. Lama, who was too hot to handle for Gandaki, grabbed seven wickets, giving away only 14 runs while bowling two maiden overs in his 9.3 overs. Sher Malla picked up two wickets and Bikram Thagunna one, as the Gandaki innings unravelled rather tamely.
In reply, Gajendra Bohara was the only Sudurpaschim wicket to fall. Before being caught by Bipin Khatri off Deepesh Khatri, Bohara scored 34 runs from 31 deliveries, hitting as many as seven fours. Khadak Bohara (16) and Arun Airee (10) remained unbeaten as they took Sudurpaschim to 67-1 in just 10.2 overs and the team won the match with 220 balls remaining.
Following the completion of Sunday’s match, the semifinal line-up in the tournament has got sorted. Nepal Army Club progressed to the semi-finals as winners of Group ‘A’ without a defeat, while another departmental side, Nepal Police Club fared similarly in Group ‘B’. Province 3 emerged as the winners of Group ‘C’ to secure their semifinal berth with a win and a no-result from their two matches, while Sudurpaschim scored an eight-wicket win against Malaysia Selection XI on Saturday before their Sunday’s win in Group ‘D’.
Gandaki and the Malaysian side will next go head to head in a dead rubber on Monday.

KATHMANDU: Jana Jyoti Public High School of Banke claimed the Inter-School Girls’ Football Tournament following a 2-1 win over Durga Secondary School of Rautahat at the ANFA Complex in Satdobato on Sunday. Mahadev Secondary School secured the third place with a 1-0 win over Jwalamukhi Secondary School. With the win, Jana Jyoti pursed Rs300,000 while runners up Durga Secondary walked away with Rs150,000. Mahadev and Jwalamukhi received Rs75,000 and Rs50,000 respectively. Jana Jyoti’s Binisha Sunar, Dikshya Khand and Amrit KC were adjudged the best goalkeeper, forward and the best coach respectively while Pratikshya Chaudhary of Mahadev and Sunita Sunwar of Durga Secondary School were declared the best defender and midfielder respectively. (SB)

PARIS: Moussa Dembele scored the winner as Rudi Garcia’s Lyon came from behind to win 2-1 at Bordeaux on Saturday and climb to fifth in the Ligue 1 table. Lyon are now only four points adrift of Rennes in the race for Champions League qualification, after the third-placed outfit’s 1-0 loss to Marseille on Friday. Jimmy Briand capitalised on Joachim Andersen’s dreadful back-pass to put Bordeaux ahead in the 15th minute, but Lyon struck twice in three second-half minutes. Maxwel Cornet’s deflected effort drew the visitors level five minutes after the break before Dembele netted his 11th Ligue 1 goal of the season. (AFP)

BARCELONA: Uruguayan striker Luis Suarez will undergo another knee operation on Sunday, Barcelona have announced. The club issued a press release Saturday saying the surgery was for an “injury to the external meniscus of the right knee”. It will not be his first knee operation. Last May, Suarez missed the last two league games and the Spanish cup final so he could have an operation on his right knee and recover in time to play for Uruguay in the Copa America in Brazil. Suarez also underwent knee surgery in May 2014. (AFP)