Jolie to visit Nauru to check refugee facilities

Hollywood star and UN refugee envoy Angelina Jolie has accepted an invitation to visit the small island of Nauru where Australia sends asylum-seekers for processing and resettlement, the government said Monday.

 

Jolie, a UN goodwill ambassador, was invited by the Pacific island nation´s President Baron Waqa when they met at the Global Summit to End Sexual Violence Against Women in Conflict in London.

 

"The government of Nauru can confirm that Angelina Jolie has accepted an invitation by President Baron Waqa to visit our nation," a government spokeswoman told AFP. "We believe this will be a wonderful opportunity to showcase the facilities for refugees on Nauru, which we believe are world-best practice."

 

Under Canberra´s punitive offshore detention policy, asylum-seekers attempting to arrive by boat are transferred to camps in Nauru or Papua New Guinea for processing and permanent resettlement outside Australia.

 

Most of those sent to Nauru are families with more than 1,000 people currently held and another 99 having been resettled in the community.

 

Refugee advocates have been deeply critical of the Australian policy and the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees last year slammed the facilities on Papua New Guinea´s Manus Island and Nauru.

 

It said they failed to meet international standards of treatment and amounted to arbitrary detention in breach of international law, while failing to provide an efficient system for assessing refugee claims or safe and humane conditions.

 

It also noted efforts made to improve conditions on steamy and mosquito-infested Nauru, where people were forced to live in cramped tents with little privacy after riots razed buildings last year.

 

Australian Immigration Minister Scott Morrison, who rejected the criticism, said Monday the Jolie visit was "a matter for the Nauruan government".

 

Asked whether he was concerned the visit would shine a light on Australia´s treatment of asylum-seekers in Nauru, he told reporters: "I don´t plan to respond to any of the assertions you have made."

 

Nauru said a date for Jolie´s trip had yet to be finalised. (AFP)

 

Oil prices up in Asian trade

Oil prices rebounded on bargain-hunting in Asia Wednesday following sharp losses in the previous session that were stoked by easing Middle East supply concerns, analysts said.

 

US benchmark West Texas Intermediate (WTI) for August delivery rose 36 cents to $100.32 while Brent crude for August was up 15 cents at $106.17 in late-morning trade.

 

WTI fell 95 cents in New York to $99.96, the first time it closed below the $100 mark since May 9, while Brent fell 96 cents in London to hit its lowest level since April 7.

Gemstone industry struggles with unrest

For 400 years the craftsmen and traders of Peshawar´s jewellery bazaar have cut, polished, set and haggled over precious gems dug from the rugged mountains of northwest Pakistan.

 

Pakistan´s gem and jewellery exports have boomed in recent years but Taliban violence, a crippling power crisis and outdated production methods are taking their toll in Peshawar, where traders say business has slumped alarmingly in the past 12 months.

 

As dusk settles over Peshawar -- the gateway to Pakistan´s wild and restive northwest -- the stalls and narrow lanes of Namakmandi bazaar in the heart of the city bustle with activity. Traders peer beadily to check the quality of emeralds, rubies and lapis lazuli, plying customers with green tea while food sellers roam about, the aroma of spices scenting the air.

 

But traders like Shehzad Sabz Ali say business is collapsing, and foreign buyers in particular have been scared off -- a major problem in a sector where exports account for 95 percent of the market. "I have been in this business for the last 25 years but the slump that we are witnessing these days because of unrest and Talibanisation is unprecedented," he told AFP.

 

The buyers from the United States, Thailand, France, Germany and Dubai who once thronged the packed market are largely a thing of the past. "The bomb blasts and suicide attacks have turned our businesses upside down, leaving us no option but to interact with our buyers through the Internet," Ali said as employees in his small shop cut and polished delicate rose-pink kunzite stones.

 

Online dealing may be the thing of the moment, but traders like Ali, whose businesses have been built on generations of salesmanship and personal relationships, feel it is ineffective.

 

For fellow trader Sheharyar Ahmad, the solution is to hold more trade shows in Pakistan´s other cities. "I have attended a few exhibitions in Islamabad and Lahore where foreign buyers showed great deal of interest in the stones such as emerald, ruby and sapphire," he told AFP.

 

Most of Pakistan´s gemstones are found in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, northern Gilgit-Baltistan, Federally Administered Tribal Areas, Pakistan-administered Kashmir region and Baluchistan. The reserves of precious and semi-precious stones in Pakistan are worth trillions of dollars, according to Peshawar-based gemologist Inayat Ali Shah. But much of this potential remains untapped as the stones lie buried in the seven restive tribal areas along the Afghan border, where militancy and poor infrastructure have restricted access.

 

"Pakistan could triple its current gemstone exports if these reserves are fully tapped," he said. While the quality of stones from Pakistan is good and they sell well at international trade shows, Peshawar trader Sheharyar Ahmad said, the primitive cutting and polishing techniques are not up to international standards. "That is why when our stones go to Thailand, they are re-faceted and polished again," he told AFP.

 

Shah, who heads the Gem and Jewellery Training and Manufacturing Centre in Peshawar, said the manual equipment Pakistani traders are still using did not allow the same precision and delicacy of workmanship as modern machinery. His training centre aims to bring Pakistani jewellery techniques up to date. "Our institute has been set up to train traders in cutting and polishing of gemstones through scientific means and we have so far trained over 1,000 students in Peshawar," he said.

 

The government-run Pakistan Gems and Jewellery Development Company (PGJDC) is also trying to raise skill levels to allow the country to compete better with the likes of Thailand and India.

 

Gem and jewellery exports have risen enormously in recent years to stand at $1.3 billion in 2013, and PGJDC general manager Khalid Aziz said they were aiming for a target of $1.7 billion by 2017.

First Black woman to win an Olympic Gold Medal is Dead.

Track and field star Alice Coachman, who overcame segregation to become the first black woman to win a gold medal in the Olympic games, died in Georgia on Monday at the age of 90.

 

Coachman, who won her gold medal in the high jump at the 1948 summer Olympics in London, died at a hospital near her home in Albany, Georgia, according to Albany State University. "Alice literally set the bar with her accomplishments at the 1948 Games, but Olympic champion is only part of the incredible legacy she leaves behind," United States Olympic Committee CEO Scott Blackmun said in a statement. "Alice Coachman Davis has inspired generations of athletes to be their best and she will be missed," Blackmun said.

 

Coachman, who was born in Albany in 1923, the fifth of 10 children, took an interest in high jump after watching a boys track meet and trained herself in the sport using home-made equipment, according to a biography issued by Albany State.

 

The university said Coachman was denied access to public training facilities because of segregation but worked herself into competitive shape, in part by running barefoot on dirt roads.

 

After the 1940 and 1944 Olympics were canceled due to World War Two, Coachman was able to compete in the Olympics for the first time in 1948 and won the gold medal by setting a record for the high jump.

 

She won a total of 34 national titles, was inducted into nine halls of fame and became the first black woman to endorse an international product when Coca-Cola signed her as a spokeswoman in 1954, according to Albany State.

 

She married Frank Davis and was the mother of two children. "Although she will sorely be missed, her achievements outside the fields of competition are on par with the great accomplishments within the athletics lines," the university´s athletic director, Richard Williams, told the Albany Herald newspaper. "We will continue to honor her legacy within the athletic department at Albany State University," Williams said. 

German football team given heroes' welcome

Hundreds of thousands of jubilant fans massed at Berlin´s Brandenburg Gate Tuesday to cheer the World Cup winners and new national heroes bringing home football´s top prize for the first time to a reunified Germany.

 

The flag-waving crowd, which began gathering before dawn, erupted in applause under warm summer sunshine when the triumphant players arrived from Rio de Janeiro.

 

Germany coach Joachim Loew told more than 250,000 supporters at the so-called Fan Mile stretching behind the Gate, the symbol of national unity, that they shared the title with his players.

 

Captain Philipp Lahm hoisted the World Cup trophy to a giant roar from the crowd.

 

Team members wearing black shirts emblazoned with the number one took the stage in groups to greet ecstatic supporters. They carried a long banner reading "Obrigado Fans", "thank you" in Portuguese in a nod to tournament hosts Brazil, and "the fourth title is ours".

Mario Goetze, who scored the only goal in Sunday´s nail-biter final against Argentina, called the Mannschaft´s win "a dream".

 

"We played an amazing tournament," he said. "It´s an incredible feeling."Midfielder Bastian Schweinsteiger appeared with the black, red and gold German flag draped from his shoulders, with a bandage still affixed below his eye from an injury he suffered in a clash during the final.

The players jumped and danced in a raucous circle on the stage, singing "this is how the Germans win, this is how the Germans win".

The team arrived in the late morning at Berlin´s Tegel airport on a Lufthansa jet rebranded "Fanhansa" for the occasion on one side and "Victors´ Plane" on the other, with thousands of fans waiting on a viewing platform.

 

Fans had lined the team´s route as black buses ferried the players to central Berlin from the airport, while construction workers waved from scaffoldings and dozens of cyclists followed the motorcade, their bicycles draped with Germany banners. (AFP)

At least 41 dead in Afghanistan suicide attack: officials

A suicide bomber driving a truck packed with explosives killed at least 41 people at a busy market in southeastern Afghanistan on Tuesday, the deadliest attack in the war-torn country for months.

 

The huge blast in Urgun district of Paktika province came hours after a remotely controlled bomb targeted a presidential palace media staff bus in Kabul, killing two and wounding five.

 

The explosion at Urgun also destroyed dozens of cars and shops, Hamkimullah, a witness, told AFP.

 

"There is no room in the hospitals for the victims. People are treating the wounded people on the streets," he said.

 

The blasts highlight the fragile security situation Afghanistan faces as NATO progressively withdraws its 50,000 remaining combat troops, leaving local forces to battle a resilient Taliban insurgency.

 

Afghanistan is also in a delicate state politically, with the two rivals to succeed President Hamid Karzai only narrowly avoiding a crisis at the weekend over allegations of electoral fraud.

 

Karzai´s office said in a statement 41 people including six children and the imam of a mosque were killed and 67 wounded in Paktika.

 

There are fears the death toll could rise -- the spokesman for Paktika´s governor, Mokhlis Afghan, said 43 had died.

 

Interior ministry spokesman Sediq Sediqqi said the explosives were placed in a truck and detonated after the police tried to stop the vehicle in the market. (AFP)

Isreal to 'expand, intensify' Gaza Campaign : Netanyahu

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu pledged on Tuesday to ramp up Israel´s military campaign against Gaza, after an Egyptian truce plan failed to end eight days of cross-border fire.

 

"This would have been better resolved diplomatically, that´s what we tried to do when we accepted the Egyptian truce proposal today," he said of the conflict which has so far resulted in 194 Palestinian and one Israeli deaths.

 

"But Hamas leaves us no choice but to expand and intensify the campaign against it," Netanyahu said. (AFP)