Embattled Turkey PM faces tough visit to EU

Embattled Turkey PM faces tough visit to EU

ANKARA: Turkey´s embattled Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan sought Monday to downplay the risk of a crisis with the European Union as he headed to Brussels facing a row over controversial judical reforms.

European officials have voiced deep concern about the state of democracy in Turkey and the independence of its institutions after the government, facing its worst crisis since coming to power over a decade ago, moved to tighten its control on the judiciary in the wake of a vast corruption probe.

Erdogan insisted 2014 would be a "turning point" in Turkey´s relations with the EU, after the resumption of membership talks late last year following a three-year freeze.

But he told reporters before leaving for Brussels that the government would not back down on the plans to reform top judicial body the Supreme Board of Judges and Prosecutors (HSYK) and that it would move ahead with a "brave" reform agenda this year.

Nearly 2,000 supporters of the Turkish prime minister gathered in front of the Brussels hotel he is to check to into, waving Turkish flags in a festive display.

New EU Affairs Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu said that Muslim-majority Turkey, which has sought for decades to join the European club, would be pushing in Brussels for a timeline for negotations to ensure that the process is not "open-ended.

""We hope, we wish and we believe that the process concerning the HSYK will not provoke a serious crisis with the EU," Cavusoglu said, although he conceded that there were "some difficulties" in aspects of the membership talks.

Erdogan´s trip to Brussels -- his first in five years -- has been overshadowed by the graft scandal rocking Erdogan and his government´s subsequent mass purge of police and the judiciary, which critics see as a bid to stifle the investigation.´Opportunity to explain reforms´

Funeral of Bannu martyrs in respective cities today

Funeral of Bannu martyrs in respective cities today

BANNU: The funeral of the 23 troops martyred in a blast that occurred in Bannu on Sunday will be held on Monday in their respective cities, Media reported.

 

Three more security men succumbed to their injuries today after which the toll increased to 26.

 

The burial of the victims will take place in their respective areas today.

 

It is pertinent to mention that at least 23 soldiers were killed and 30 others sustained injuries in an explosion that targeted a military convoy in Bannu city on Sunday.

 

The blast took place in a private vehicle that was part of the military convoy. According to military sources, officials of the paramilitary Frontier Corps (FC) had rented this vehicle in Bannu to take the troops to Razmak town in North Waziristan Agency.

 

“Unknown people had already planted a huge quantity of explosives in the vehicle that was supposed to take the troops from Bannu to Razmak. It went off when the convoy was preparing to leave,” a senior military official told.

 

“Out of 30 injured, 15 are still in a critical condition. They have been shifted to Peshawar in a helicopter and admitted to the Combined Military Hospital,” the military official said on Sunday. According to military sources, most of the soldiers who were killed in the blast belonged to the FC. “Fifteen of the slain soldiers were from the FC while five belonged to the Pakistan Army,” the military official said.

 

Before sending their bodies to their respective hometowns for burial, the military authorities ordered DNA tests of the six soldiers to ascertain their identity.

 

The military officials said other vehicles parked near the private vehicle were also damaged. The area was cordoned off after the incident as rescue work was carried out. The site of the blast is close to Amandi village.

 

There were also reports that some of the vehicles in the convoy were loaded with arms and ammunition and had caught fire when huge explosions were triggered off by the blast in the vehicle.

 

The military officials said a high-level inquiry has been ordered to investigate how and why a private vehicle was acquired on rent for transporting troops to the volatile North Waziristan tribal region. They added that the probe would also focus on the apparent security lapse that the vehicle may not have been checked before the soldiers boarded it.

 

The government has to clamp curfew in North Waziristan during the movement of the armed forces and the Bannu-Miranshah main road is kept closed for common people. The police officials in Bannu said the blast took place in the limits of the Bannu Cantonment where the security situation is considered far better than other parts of the city.

 

The Pakistani Taliban had claimed responsibility for the deadly attack on the troops.

Lifestyle disorders top health issues in Arab world

Lifestyle disorders top health issues in Arab world

PARIS: Heart disease and stroke have replaced infectious disease as the top causes of early death in the Arab world, tracking the West in a trend towards lifestyle disorders, The Lancet reported Monday.

 

An international consortium of scientists compared the state of health in the 22 countries of the Arab League in 1990 and in 2010, using data from a vast study -- the 2010 Global Burden of Diseases report.

 

In 1990, respiratory infection headed the list of concerns, accounting for 11 percent of deaths, while stillbirths and poor nutrition also featured high on the mortality list.

 

These problems still persist in the low-income countries of the Comoros, Djibouti, Mauritania, Somalia and Yemen, the investigators found.

 

But overall, infectious diseases -- with the exception of HIV -- have receded, the paper said.

 

By 2010, the No. 1 cause of death in Arab countries was heart disease, which was implicated in 14.3 percent of cases. In 1990, it had ranked second.

 

Next on the mortality list was stroke, followed by respiratory infection, diarrhoea, diabetes, road injuries and cirrhosis, respectively.

 

The report also pointed to depression, anxiety, domestic violence, lower back pain and neck pain as common and growing sources of ill health -- all signs of a region "undergoing a major epidemiological transition."

 

"Indeed, the epidemiological profile closely resembles that of western Europe, the USA and Canada," it said.

 

"Today, disorders related to drug and alcohol use are causing more premature death and disability in the Arab world than they were two decades ago."

 

"Road injuries have taken a growing toll on health," it added.

 

"The region has also seen a rapid increase in injuries associated with interpersonal violence and self-harm, but a decline in injuries from fire, drowning and poisonings."

 

Despite the change, "the Arab world has made great progress" in increasing life expectancy and reducing infant mortality and maternal deaths, it said.

 

The report noted that its source material predated most of the events of the Arab uprising.

 

In some countries, the turbulence could have a big impact on health, said its authors.

 

"Many of the successes that we report here might now be lost because of war and a shortage of health services such as sanitation, surveillance and immunisation programmes, leading to disease outbreaks."

Unlikely friendship explores humanity in Gitmo film 'Camp X-Ray

Unlikely friendship explores humanity in Gitmo film 'Camp X-Ray

PARK CITY: Guantanamo Bay may be a hot button topic in the political field, but new film "Camp X-Ray" provides an intimate look at the lives of the military and the detainees, and actress Kristen Stewart explores an unconventional friendship in her latest role.

In "Camp X-Ray," which premiered on Friday at the Sundance Film Festival and is a contender in the festival's U.S. drama competition, Stewart plays young military officer Amy Cole on the suicide watch team at Guantanamo Bay detention camp. The U.S. prison is located in Cuba and has been condemned internationally for holding enemy combatants for years without trial.

The role was a new direction for Stewart, 23, who is best known for being the lead in the teen vampire "Twilight" film franchise, but has been taking riskier choices, such as 2012's "On the Road," to break out of the "Twilight" spotlight.

The actress said that while "people are a little bit afraid of doing movies about current issues," writer-director Peter Sattler had created a character in Cole that reflected most young women today.

"It's a story about a girl who is really simple and really relatable, and just like probably most girls across the entire country. She's a really normal, simple-minded girl from Florida who wants to do the right thing and ultimately doesn't feel like she is," Stewart told Reuters.

While observing detainees every three minutes to make sure no one has harmed themselves, Cole bonds with detainee 417, otherwise known as Ali (played by Payman Maadi), who constantly asks for the final installment of the Harry Potter novels.

The seemingly simple request generates laughs on the surface, but deeper down, unearths Ali's own desperate search for how both Harry Potter and his own story will end.

"When you involve people from very different backgrounds and differences of opinions, there's something there that never goes away but you're both human, even though you may be in a position where you're pitted against each other," Stewart said.

The biggest challenge that Stewart said she faced was to make sure she looked the part, and trained hard to represent a military soldier.

"Even though I walk in circles and this job becomes very mundane, I still had to look like I had learned everything. You sort of have to breathe in and it changes your entire physicality. I wanted to represent them right," she said.

Stewart's performance has already been gaining buzz early in the festival, and the film garnered a positive response from the audience at Friday's premiere. In an early review from The Hollywood Reporter on Friday, film critic David Rooney called the film "riveting," and Stewart's performance "her best screen work to date."

Sattler, who makes his feature film debut with "Camp X-Ray," said he wanted to avoid making a political comment on Guantanamo Bay, and instead focus on something that he felt would connect with audiences - a friendship.

"I'm always fascinated by movies and art that takes extraordinary and difficult subjects but focuses on some of the unexpected, more mundane aspects of it," Sattler said.

"I was really interested in the idea of how to explore the subject matter in a different way, through characters, not through politics."

The result is an intimate drama that is littered with lighter moments such as the young U.S. officers bonding off duty, that quickly inhabit darker undertones, be it Cole's attempt to understand her place among her peers or Ali's eager and often rash attempts to understand humanity.

"There's something very uplifting in a sense about that, even though the movie has darker notes and bittersweet moments, there is this really human connection that exists in this movie," Sattler said. (Reuters)

Oil prices down in Asian trade

Oil prices down in Asian trade

SINGAPORE: Oil prices eased in Asian trade Monday after China´s 2013 economic growth came in at its slowest rate in 14 years, fuelling concerns over demand in the world´s second largest economy.

 

New York´s main contract, West Texas Intermediate (WTI) for February delivery, was down 76 cents at $93.61 a barrel in mid-morning trade, while Brent North Sea crude for March dropped 21 cents to $106.27.

Sharapova out in another early upset in Australia

Sharapova out in another early upset in Australia

MELBOURNE: Victoria Azarenka advanced to the quarterfinals and firmed as a favorite to claim a third straight Australian Open title on Monday after Maria Sharapova joined Serena Williams on the fourth-round casualty list.

 

Azarenka had a 6-3, 6-2 win over No. 13-seeded Sloane Stephens in a match that didn´t have any of the drama of their contentious semifinal here last year.

 

Third-seeded Sharapova lost 3-6, 6-4, 6-1 to Dominika Cibulkova in the earlier match on Rod Laver Arena, struggling with her serve in the second and third sets and making 45 unforced errors as she tried to claw her way back.

 

Her serve started to backfire from the eighth game, when she was broken at love while trying to serve out the first set.

 

During a run of four breaks against her, Sharapova won only three points on her own serve and fell 5-0 behind in the second set.

 

The four-time major winner rallied to win four straight games before Cibulkova held to level the match.

 

After taking an off-court medical time out after the second set for a hip strain, she was broken immediately and had seven double-faults in the third set.

 

Sharapova was two tournaments into a comeback from a prolonged layoff with a right shoulder injury, and said her run to the fourth round was a positive sign because she was healthy and back on tour. "I have to look at the positives and see where I have come from in four or five months. I haven´t played a lot of tennis in those six months," said Sharapova, who won the Australian title in 2008 and lost two other finals. "So I certainly would have loved to play a little bit more before playing a Grand Slam, but this is the chance that I was given."

 

Top-ranked Williams, a five-time Australian Open champion, was knocked out in a three-set loss to 14th-seeded Ana Ivanovic on Sunday, and later revealed she had a back problem that had her considering withdrawing from the tournament.

 

Another former No. 1 was knocked out when No. 11 Simona Halep beat Jelena Jankovic 6-4, 2-6, 6-0 to set up a quarterfinal against Cibulkova.

 

Azarenka, meanwhile, was making herself comfortable at Melbourne Park, where she´s on an 18-match winning streak. "I just love playing here, the surroundings, it feels so cozy ... feels like home," she said after her win over Stephens. It was a rematch of their semifinal last year when Azarenka took a medical timeout just when it appeared Stephens was getting momentum, then came back and won the match.

In the first set, Stephens accidently hit Azarenka in the hip area with a shot at the net, and Azarenka sent a forehand whizzing past Stephens a few games later.

 

There was very little tension, though, after Azarenka broke Stephens´ serve to open the second set and then again to take a 5-2.

 

The second-seeded Azarenka didn´t´ have any trouble closing out this time, saving one set point before setting up match point with an ace.

 

Sharapova made it hard for herself in Australia, having difficulty closing out her second- and third-round matches. She needed almost 3½ hours to beat Karin Knapp in searing heat the second round — playing 50 minutes between her first and final match points. She said she couldn´t use the heat wave as an excuse for her loss, and added that the hip strain wasn´t anything out of the ordinary for a tennis player.

 

Cibulkova had spent just over 3½ hours on court in her first three wins. The pair hadn´t played since Sharapova´s quarterfinal win at Wimbledon in 2011.

 

Now they´re evenly split in six head-to-heads, but Cibulkova has won two of their three matches at the majors with her win Monday and her quarterfinal victory at the 2009 French Open. "I was never doubting myself," the No. 20-seeded Cibulkova said, adding that Ivanovic´s win over Williams the previous day had been motivational but not her main inspiration against Sharapova. "This was a different story. I already beat Maria before, and I beat her" at a Grand Slam tournament. (AP)