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Wednesday November 8, 2017

THIS year will be among the three hottest on record in a new sign of man-made climate change that is aggravating “extraordinary weather” such as hurricanes, droughts and fl oods, the United Nations said in a report Monday.

The U.N. report is meant to guide almost 200 nations meet-ing from Monday to Nov. 17 in Bonn, Germany, to try to bol-ster the 2015 Paris climate pact despite a planned U.S. pullout.

“2017 is set to be in top three hottest years,” the U.N.’s World Meteorological Organization said, projecting average surface temperatures would be slightly less sweltering than a record 2016 and roughly level with 2015, the previous warmest.

And 2017 would be the hot-test on record without a natural El Nino event that releases heat from the Pacifi c Ocean about once every fi ve years, the U.N. said. El Nino boosted global temperatures in both 2015 and 2016.

“We have witnessed extraordi-nary weather,” WMO Secretary-General Petteri Taalas said, pointing to severe hurricanes this year in the Atlantic and Caribbean, temperatures above 50 degrees Celsius in Pakistan, Iran and Oman, monsoon fl oods in Asia and drought in East Africa.

“Many of these events — and detailed scientifi c studies will determine exactly how many — bear the tell-tale sign of cli-mate change caused by increased greenhouse gas concentrations from human activities,” he said.

The Bonn meeting is due to work on a “rule book” for the Paris Agreement, which seeks to end the fossil fuel era in the second half of the century by shifting the world economy to cleaner energies such as wind and solar power.

“These fi ndings underline the rising risks to people, economies and the very fabric of life on Earth if we fail to get on track with the aims and ambitions of the Paris Agreement,” said Patricia Espi-nosa, head of the U.N. Climate Change Secretariat which hosts the Bonn talks. (SD-Agencies)

2017 set to be among hottest years

JAPAN will impose additional sanctions on the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (DPRK) in response to the continuing threat posed by the nation’s missile and nuclear pro-grams, Japan’s top government spokesman said yesterday.

The sanctions, mentioned by Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe in a joint news conference with U.S. President Donald Trump on Monday, will freeze the assets of nine organizations and 26 individuals, Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga told a news conference.

“The North Korean missile and nuclear issue is a pressing threat unseen before. Its pro-vocative actions, in which it has ignored the severe warnings of international society, are totally unacceptable,” he said.

The organizations are DPRK banks, while the individuals are based in a number of nations.

Suga said the move was taken in the wake of Trump’s visit as a way of demonstrating the deter-mination of the two nations to stand together and increase pressure on Pyongyang.

Trump said Monday that the United States stood in solidarity with Japan on the DPRK.

(SD-Agencies)

Japan to impose new sanctionson DPRK

U.S. President Donald Trump and South Korea’s President Moon Jae-in shake hands during a joint press conference at the presi-dential Blue House in Seoul, South Korea, yesterday. SD-Agencies

EGYPT’S President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi will not seek a third term in offi ce, he said in an interview with CNBC, adding that he does not intend to change the consti-tution and its provision of a two-term presidential limit.

“It doesn’t suit me as a presi-dent to stay one more day against the will of the Egyptians,” he told CNBC over the weekend.

“We will not interfere with (the constitution) ... I am with preserving two four-year terms,” Sisi added.

However, he did not confi rm if he intended to run for a second term when his current term expires.

Sisi came to power in 2014, a year after he led the military in ousting elected but unpopular Islamist President Mohamed Mursi. Rights groups say Sisi has since led an unprecedented crackdown on political oppo-nents, activists and critical media.

He is unlikely to face strong opposition and many in Egypt see him as vital to stability in a country where unrest since 2011 has battered the economy.

Egyptian human rights lawyer and opposition leader Khaled Ali on Monday became the fi rst person to announce he is running against Sisi, vowing to challenge

him in the 2018 presidential elec-tion, provided he was not barred from the contest.

The 45-year-old gained promi-nence in January, when he won a case that nullifi ed a government transfer of two Red Sea islands to Saudi Arabia, a deal that had provoked mass protests.

(SD-Agencies)

Egypt’s Sisi ‘not to seek a third term’

Abdel Fattah al-Sisi

SAUDI King Salman on Monday swore in new offi cials to succeed a powerful prince and former minister believed to have been detained in a large-scale sweep that has shocked the country and upended long-standing tradi-tions within the ruling family.

The offi cial Saudi Press Agency released images of the king swearing in new National Guard chief Prince Khalid bin Ayyaf Al Muqrin and new Economy and Planning Minister Mohammad Al Tuwaijri.

Prince Miteb bin Abdullah, who had led the National Guard

for the past four years, and Adel Fakeih, who had been minister of economy since April, were both reportedly arrested as part of a purported anti-corruption inves-tigation led by Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman.

Prince Miteb was once consid-ered a contender for the throne, although he has not been thought of recently as a challenger to Prince Mohammed.

The arrests began late Satur-day. Seventeen princes and 38 offi cials and businessmen were reportedly being held at fi ve-star hotels across Riyadh.

The king was also pictured meeting Lebanon’s departing prime minister, Saad Hariri, who unexpectedly resigned during a trip to Saudi Arabia. The photo-graphs of their meeting did little to quiet speculation over his sur-prising move and current status. Hassan Nasrallah, Hezbollah’s leader and Hariri’s top political rival, argued Sunday that Saudi Arabia had forced Hariri to resign amid the deepening Saudi-Iran rivalry and questioned whether Saudi Arabia had also detained him in the sweep.

The highest-profi le royal

caught in the sweep is Prince Alwaleed bin Talal, an outspoken billionaire with investments in Western companies. The com-pany he chairs sought to reassure investors after its stock plunged following his arrest.

Kingdom Holding on Monday said that it maintained the gov-ernment’s “vote of confi dence” as it pursues its investment strategy and global business operations.

The company has investments in Twitter, Apple, Lyft, Citigroup and hotel chains such as the Four Seasons, Movenpick and Fairmont. (SD-Agencies)

Saudi king swears in new ministers, replacing those detained

U.S. President Donald Trump and South Korean President Moon Jae-in yesterday agreed to peacefully resolve issues on the Korean Peninsula and swiftly push negotiations for a fair free trade deal between the two countries.

Moon told a joint press con-ference with the U.S. leader after a bilateral meeting in the presidential residence that they reached an agreement to peace-fully resolve the Korean Penin-sula nuclear issue and to settle a permanent peace regime on the peninsula.

The U.S. president told the press conference that he did not wish to use force against the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (DPRK), urging the Asian country to return to a dialogue table and make a deal benefi ting both Pyongyang and the entire world.

Asked about whether to accept a direct dialogue offer from the DPRK, Trump declined to com-ment on it.

Trump took issue with the South Korea-U.S. Free Trade Agreement, called KORUS FTA, telling the press conference that the current free trade pact with South Korea was “unsuccessful and not very good for the United States.”

However, he said he was “con-fi dent” that the two sides will be able to reach a “free, fair and reciprocal” trade deal.

Moon told reporters that he

and Trump agreed to rapidly push for negotiations on the KORUS FTA to enjoy benefi ts from a “free, fair and balanced” trade.

Before the summit, Trump told offi cials of both sides that he appreciated South Korea’s big purchase of U.S. military weap-ons and anticipated the purchase to narrow the U.S. defi cit in trade with South Korea.

“You’ll be buying a lot of our military equipment. There’s nobody that comes close whether

it’s the planes, missiles, ships and anything you wanna talk about,” said Trump.

Describing trade as “one of my favorite subjects,” Trump said the U.S. trade defi cit with South Korea will be brought down, as the amount of military equipment the country will order from the U.S. will be increased “very substantially.”

Trump, on the second stop of his lengthy Asian tour, arrived in South Korea around noon, visit-ing Camp Humphreys, a newly

renovated U.S. military base in Pyeongtaek, about 40 km south of Seoul.

The South Korean president greeted the U.S. leader at the base, an unscheduled greeting that was called by local media outlets an “exceptional” proto-col toward Trump.

During talks at the camp, the two sides reassured of their mutual military commitment, including the U.S. providing the so-called strategic military assets. (Xinhua)

Trump, Moon agree to seek peace