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ARAB TIMES, THURSDAY, JUNE 25, 2015 13 SUBCONTINENT A Pakistani man rushes a child suffering from heatstroke to a hospi- tal in Karachi, Pakistan, on June 23. A scorching heat wave across the southern city has killed hundreds of people, authorities said Tuesday. The heat wave compounded the struggles of ordinary Pakistanis as it struck amid the holy, fasting month of Ramadan, when observant Muslims abstain from food or water during daylight hours. (AP) Reputation took a bashing: Bulcke Nestle trying to restore firm’s ‘image’ after ban GENEVA, June 24, (AFP): Nestle chief Paul Bulcke says he has drawn the lessons from India’s shock ban on its Maggi instant noodles over a health scare and is now trying to salvage the image of the world’s top food company. Bulcke insisted that its hugely popular Maggi brand was 100 percent safe, saying that packaged food was unfair- ly fingered by many around the world as a health risk. The Switzerland-based food giant’s reputation took a bashing “because it’s a big brand and that (ban) made a lot of waves,” the Belgian chief executive told AFP in an interview. India’s food safety regula- tor on June 5 outlawed the product after it said tests showed the noodles con- tained excessive levels of lead. The largest food company by revenues is challenging the order and is in the process of destroying more than 27,000 tonnes of Maggi noo- dles after halting production — a Herculean task given India’s size. The ban had led to 3.2 billion rupees (44.5 million euros, $50.5 million) worth of goods being with- drawn, the company said. Nestle had already announced it was pulling the product from sale when the Food Safety and Standards Authority of India imposed a ban following similar moves by some state governments. Preception “One can have facts on one’s side but it’s the percep- tion that counts,” Bulcke said, explaining the compa- ny’s decision to withdraw and destroy the product. “Food has never been safer,” he said. “But there is this perception and we have to work on that. We have to reconnect with consumers.” According to Brand Finance, a consultancy firm, Maggi is set to lose over $200 million (180 million euros) in brand value follow- ing the setback in India. Maggi was previously val- ued at $2.4 billion, Brand Finance said, adding that it had ranked the noodle manu- facturer as the 23rd most valu- able food brand in the world. The ban in India could have devastating implica- tions for Maggi in neighbour- ing countries where it is also very popular, experts warn. “The only thing that inter- ests me is to have the product back as soon as possible and that things are cleared up,” said Bulcke, who took over as Nestle’s chief executive in 2008. Contact “We are doing all we can to make contact with Indian authorities at the earliest,” he said, adding: “The product is safe.” Nestle notched up sales of 13.5 billion Swiss francs ($14.4 billion, 12.9 billion euros) in ready-to-eat and ready-to-cook meals last year, the third most profitable sector for the company after soft drinks and milk products and ice cream. The food industry has been rocked by several scandals in recent years including tainted milk in China and horse meat being fraudulently passed off as beef in Europe. There have also been grow- ing concerns over obesity and the health effects of processed or “industrial” food Bulcke said Nestle, which has made nutrition, health and well-being the main axes of development, had invested enormous sums to develop balanced and healthy prod- ucts, notably reducing the levels of sugar and salt. Nestle is currently trying to relaunch frozen meals in North America. As for India, Bulcke says he wants to get Maggi noo- dles back on the shelves “as soon as possible.” Maggi noodles grew increasingly popular as more and more Indians moved away from their home vil- lages to study or seek work. It emerged as one of India’s five most trusted brands in a consumer survey conducted last year. Several celebrities have endorsed Maggi over the years, including Bollywood superstar Amitabh Bach- chan. Row takes some sheen off yoga Hindu nationalist’s jibe at vice-president NEW DELHI, June 24, (RTRS): The Indian govern- ment has apologised to the country’s Muslim vice-presi- dent after comments by a sen- ior member of the Hindu nationalist ruling party trig- gered allegations that sectari- anism had tainted a mass event to celebrate World Yoga Day. The row has taken some of the sheen off the event led by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, who along with 36,000 people flexed his way into world records on a New Delhi avenue on Sunday at the largest ever session of the ancient Hindu discipline. In a post on Twitter, Ram Madhav, a general secretary in the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party who coordinates closely with Modi and top ministers, questioned why the vice presi- dent, Hamid Ansari, did not attend the celebrations. It was later revealed that Ansari had not been invited. In his post, Madhav also, wrongly, stated that a TV public broad- caster that Ansari heads had not covered the event. Madhav later deleted the tweet and Modi’s yoga minister said sorry. “We apologise for that,” yoga minister Shripad Naik told reporters. “It should have been avoided, it’s a mistake.” Ansari, a veteran diplomat who previously represented India at the United Nations, has often been a target of hard- line Hindu nationalists who accuse him of putting his reli- gion before the nation. Hardliners in Modi’s party believe that India is a Hindu- first nation and mistrust the country’s religious minorities, especially Muslims, who make up about 18 percent of the pop- ulation. Since coming to power a year ago, Modi has at times seen his reform agenda stymied by inflammatory attacks on religious minorities by minis- ters and members of his party. “All too often, when it comes to assertions of crude majoritar- ianism, in the ruling establish- ment, there is no separating the mainstream from the fringe,” the Indian Express newspaper wrote in a leader on Tuesday. In a bid to make the yoga day event inclusive, the government dropped the “sun salute” from the exercises, since some Muslims say it represents sun worship and is against their faith. India’s education minister on Monday announced plans to introduce yoga in government schools. The All India Muslim Personal Law Board, a group representing Muslims, is con- sidering bring a case before the Supreme Court to challenge any decision to make yoga compulsory at school, saying it is a breach of religious freedom. Bulcke Lawmakers trade blame Pakistan heat wave deaths reach 800 KARACHI, June 24, (RTRS): A heat wave has killed nearly 800 people in Pakistan’s financial hub of Karachi and piled pressure on a beleaguered provincial government, as rivals blame it for severe blackouts and crumbling public services that have added to the woe. The powerful military, which heavily criticized the gov- ernment for corruption last week, is winning praise after it set up 22 health centres to distribute aid. “They (the army) are at least handing out cold wet towels, juice and rehydration salt,” said Ahmed Sultan, as he squeezed a towel soaked in ice water over his sweat-soaked clothes at a military tent set up outside an overflowing pub- lic hospital. “This government just keeps on giving us the death toll ... this government is a total failure.” The heat wave has once again exposed Pakistan’s fledg- ling civilian government’s failure to fund social services, making for a glaring contrast to the military, which often takes the lead in responding to natural disasters. The lion’s share of the national budget goes to the military, which has ruled Pakistan for about half of its history. Public services in the nuclear-armed nation of 190 million people are starved of resources because almost all its wealthy evade taxes. Fewer than 0.5 percent of citizens pay income tax; many legislators are among the tax dodgers. The death toll in Karachi, a city of 20 million people, had reached 780 by Wednesday, said Anwar Kazmi, a senior offi- cial of the Edhi Foundation, a private charity. “We are planning to expand the Edhi morgue to cope with a situation like this in future,” he said. Government health officials did not return calls seeking comment. Angry lawmakers blamed each other in parliament for the crisis, feeding perceptions that the city’s political leaders are floundering after a week of temperatures that touched 44 degrees Celsius (111 Fahrenheit). Civilian and military officials traded barbs over corruption in Karachi, which is home to Pakistan’s main stock market, central bank and biggest port. “Two years have gone by. Where are the government’s power projects?” demanded lawmaker Asad Umar, of the opposition Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf party. 2 soldiers wounded during exchange of gunfire Paramilitaries kill 10 militants in southern Pakistan KARACHI, June 24, (AFP): Pakistan’s paramilitary forces on late Tuesday gunned down at least 10 mili- tants in two encounters in suburban areas of the sprawling southern city of Karachi, an official said. The paramilitary rangers were acting on an intelli- gence tip that militants belonging to an unnamed, banned outfit were present in Kathor, a district in the northern outskirts of the port city. Militants opened fire on the ranger contingents while they were cordoning off their hideout, according to the rangers’ spokesman. “When the rangers were cordoning the area, the mil- itants started firing,” the spokesman for the paramilitary force said in a press statement. “Two of the militants were killed in the retaliatory fir- ing”, the spokesman said, adding that their accomplices initially escaped from the scene under the cover of darkness. In a pursuit that followed, the rangers killed four more militants, who wounded two soldiers during exchange of gunfire. In yet another encounter, this time in the Manghopir area of the city, the rangers shot dead four militants and later recovered automatic weapons and a suicide vest. “One soldier got injured in the second encounter,” the spokesman said. He did not elaborate as to which group the militants belonged, but the two areas are known as a hotbed for homegrown Taleban militants and affiliated groups. Pakistan has been battling a homegrown Islamist insurgency for over a decade following the 2001 US-led invasion of Afghanistan. The army began a major campaign against Taleban and other militant strongholds in the North Waziristan tribal area in June last year. The offensive against the militants intensified after December last year when the Taleban militants attacked a school in Peshawar killing over 150 people — mostly children. Indian cricket tycoon declares war, ‘rattles’ Modi government Police arrest bootlegger over toxic liquor deaths NEW DELHI, June 24, (Agencies): Pressure is growing on India’s foreign minister and a top member of the ruling party over help they gave to a disgraced cricket tycoon, as the first major scandal to touch Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s government begins to threaten his reform agenda. Foreign Minister Sushma Swaraj has faced days of scrutiny for her ties to Lalit Modi, scion of an industrial family who almost singlehandedly turned the Indian Premier League into the world’s richest. “This is war,” Modi, who is not related to the prime minister, has declared in recent days from a hotel in Montenegro. He has used Twitter to attack opponents, such as Finance Minister Arun Jaitley and members of the opposition. Dissent bubbled up in Modi’s ruling Bharatiya Janata Party on Tuesday, with one member of parliament saying Swaraj and Rajasthan Chief Minister Vasundhara Raje were wrong to have helped the tycoon in his bid for British travel papers. The opposition Congress party, voted out last year amid corruption scandals, on Tuesday warned of plans to disrupt parliament after it opens next month, unless Swaraj and Raje resign. The government hopes to pass major economic reforms during the session. Modi fled India for London when tax and financial crime authorities raided his premises in 2010 in a money laundering and tax evasion investigation. He says his life was threatened by Mumbai mobsters. Swaraj says she met the British high commissioner in July 2014 to recommend that Modi be granted British trav- el papers, after his Indian passport was rescinded, and sent the same message to British Labour MP Keith Vaz. Swaraj, whose husband and daughter have worked as lawyers for Modi, said her intervention was humanitarian, because he needed to travel to help his ailing wife. There has been no sugges- tion of financial wrongdoing by Swaraj, but opponents ques- tion the legality of her assis- tance. The foreign ministry did not respond to a request for com- ment. In another development, Education Minister Smriti Irani’s academic record faces scrutiny after the Delhi high court agreed to hear a petition alleging that she lied about having a degree. The court will hear the case in August. The dispute stems from Irani’s differing declarations to electoral authorities. In 2004, she said she had a BA degree, but in 2014, she said she had only studied the first year of a commerce degree. Congress has demanded that she, too, resign. Indian police have arrested a bootlegger accused of supply- ing the toxic liquor that killed 100 people from a slum in the financial capital Mumbai, a senior officer has said. Mansur Latif Shaikh, 26, was picked up during a raid on his hideout in northwestern New Delhi on Tuesday follow- ing a tip off, days after Mumbai police pledged to crack down on the popular illicit trade. A Nepalese police officer walks with a sniffer dog in Durbar Square ahead of the International Conference on Nepal Reconstruction in Kathmandu, on June 24. On June 25, the government of Nepal will host an international conference in Kathmandu on Nepal’s reconstruction following a series of devastating earthquakes. (AFP) Bid to link migrant return to freeing guard Bangladesh rejects Myanmar proposal DHAKA, June 24, (RTRS): Bangladesh’s border guard said on Monday it turned down a propos- al it said Myanmar had made to return a cap- tured officer if Dhaka also took in some 600 ille- gal migrants from a people trafficking ship inter- cepted by the Myanmar navy. Bangladesh’s Foreign Ministry has already summoned the Myanmar ambassador in Dhaka and lodged a strong protest to ask for the imme- diate release of Abdur Razzak. Razzak was seized and another Bangladeshi guard was wounded by Myanmar forces on June 17 after the two sides exchanged gunfire while chasing drug smugglers on the Naff River sepa- rating the two countries. Border Guard Bangladesh battalion com- manding officer Lieutenant Colonel Mohammad Abu Jar Al Jahid said the countries had agreed last year that any soldiers straying across the border should be handed back after senior offi- cers held a so-called “flag meeting” at the fron- tier. But on this occasion, he said, Myanmar want- ed to link the handover to the return of the migrants. Jahid said his counterpart, the com- mander in Border Guard Police in Maungdaw, Myanmar, had made the proposal. “We have rejected the proposal as this can not be linked with trafficking victims,” Jahid told Reuters. “Instead, we proposed a flag meeting to settle the issues.” Officials at Myanmar’s embassy in Dhaka and at the ambassador’s residence were not immedi- ately available for comment. Jahid said Myanmar wanted Bangladesh to identify around 600 of the 727 migrants picked up from the ship intercepted by the Myanmar navy on May 29 as Bangladeshi nationals and take them back as part of the deal. Thousands of people, many of them Bangladeshi or Muslim Rohingya from Myanmar, have taken to the sea in recent months in dangerously crowded boats run by people- traffickers, heading south towards other south- east Asian countries. Previously, Myanmar has said nearly all of them were Bangladeshis seeking better econom- ic prospects, rather than Rohingya, a group who complain of severe discrimination and mistreat- ment in Myanmar. Family members of Nazar Singh, who at age 111 was believed to be both Britain and Europe’s oldest man, gather around his body for last rituals before his cremation in the village of Fazalpur some 40 km from Jalandhar on June 24. Singh died on June 20, two weeks after his 111th birthday, as he was visiting his family in India, media reports said. (AFP) Govt focused on impending parliamentary polls Sri Lanka says war crimes probe delayed COLOMBO, June 24, (AFP): Sri Lanka’s proposed war crimes investigation has been delayed by several months until September as the government focuses on impending parliamentary elections, Foreign Minister Mangala Samaraweera said Wednesday. Samaraweera said he hoped the composition of the investigating team along with its terms of refer- ence would now be finalised just before the UN Human Rights Council’s session in September in Geneva. “We are working out the contours of a domestic mechanism to look into human rights abuses and war crimes,” Samaraweera told reporters in Colombo. “This will be in place before the September sessions in Geneva.” President Maithripala Sirisena came to power in January promising reconciliation and accountability following alleged atrocities during the island’s sepa- ratist war that ended in 2009. But Samaraweera said the government’s schedule of reforms including starting the probe by June has been pushed back because of a delay in holding gen- eral elections. Sirisena was due to sack the parliament he inherit- ed from his autocratic predecessor Mahinda Rajapakse by April. He is now expected to dissolve parliament and call elections very shortly, Samaraweera said. Sirisena is hoping to strengthen his numbers in par- liament, where Rajapakse’s party and its allies still hold a majority, and bolster his mandate for demo- cratic reforms. “I hope the president will dissolve parliament in a matter of hours and we can have an early election,” Samaraweera said amid intense speculation the 225- member assembly could be dissolved at midnight. The US led international pressure on former presi- dent Rajapakse to probe allegations that up to 40,000 civilians were killed in the military’s final push to end the war against ethnic minority Tamil rebels.
