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International 5 Neighbor News Former IMF Senior Official Expects China to Play Big Role in Improving Global Governance Pakistani Youths Display Talents at 2nd ‘Silk Road & Young Dreams’ Held in Beijing Uzbekistan Kicks Off Campaign to Tackle Obesity Turkmenistan Presents Its Investment Potential in China Pompeo Denies Netanyahu’s Promise to Annex West Bank Will Hurt ‘Peace Plan’ At US-Mexico CEO Summit, Leaders Optimistic Amid Uncertainty Qatar Seeks to Transform Diabetes Care with ‘Whole Nation’ Project Poland’s Striking Teachers Warn High-School Exams Threatened Kim Open to Another Summit with Trump, with Conditions If We Lose Wikileaks, We Lose a Whole Stratum of Freedom — Pilger Iran, Iraq and Syria Considering Transnational Railway Project: Report Migrants Break Border Gate, Force Their Way into Mexico BEIJING - Over 30 Paki- stani youths displayed their talents by elegant- ly contesting in music, speech, sand painting and photography com- petitions at the opening day of 2nd Silk Road and Young Dreams held here on Saturday. Pakistani youths along with nearly 300 contest- ants from 70 countries in five continents of Europe, Asia, Africa, America and Oceania participated in the three- day event organized to welcome the forthcom- ing Belt and Road Fo- rum for International Cooperation scheduled to be held in the Chinese capital later this month. The event was organized by Silk Road Cities Alli- ance, China Friendship Foundation for Peace and Development, Bei- jing Belt and Road Coop- erative Community, and Chongyang Research Institute for Financial TASHKENT - Uzbeki- stan launched a series of mass events across the country to promote healthy living to prevent obesity and other illness- es. The Uzbek Health Ministry kicked off the initiative with the event “The Day of Healthy Weight Loss” on Satur- day in the capital Tash- kent where participants walked or cycled for five kilometers, according to the ministry’s press ser- vice said. Employees of the health ministry and other public organiza- tions set an example by actively participating in the events across the country, according to the ministry. “A healthy ASHGABAT - A round- table on the presenta- tion of the investment potential of Turkmeni- stan was held in Beijing with the participation of representatives of lead- ing Chinese business circles, Trend reports re- ferring to the Turkmen Foreign Ministry. In particular, detailed information was pro- vided about the Caspian Economic Forum, which will be held on Au- gust 12, 2019 in Awaza, Turkmenistan’s nation- al tourist zone. Companies from China are represented on the Turkmen market in such fields as oil and gas, TEHRAN - Iraq says ne- gotiations are underway with Iran and Syria to develop a transnational railway line linking the three countries. Iraqi Republic Railways Company chief Salib al- Hussaini said a summit will be held between the countries to further dis- cuss the matter, the Ara- bic-language al-Sumeria news website reported on Friday. The comments made on the sidelines of the joint Syrian-Iraqi committee held in Damascus came a week after Iranian First Vice-President Es- haq Jahangiri spoke of an initiative to link the Persian Gulf to the Med- iterranean. “We will connect the Persian Gulf from Iraq to Syria and WASHINGTON - US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo has said he doesn’t think Benjamin Netanyahu’s election vow to annex the West Bank will have a negative im- pact on a two-state peace plan, despite the removal of a large part of one state. Asked whether he thought Netanyahu’s promise to officially an- nex the West Bank – al- ready riddled with set- tlements constructed by Israel on occupied Pales- tinian land in violation of international law – would hurt the peace process, Pompeo said, “I don’t.” MERIDA, Mexico — Business and political leaders from the U.S. and Mexico gathered Friday to promote greater trade at a time when actions by both governments have rattled investors, express- ing optimism despite times of uncertainty and tensions over the border and illegal immigration. Investment in Mexico has been cool pending passage of the new U.S.- Mexico-Canada trade agreement that is meant to update NAFTA, and due to other concerns for the global economy, and attendees saw ratification DOHA - In an unremarkable office in a Doha hospital, a study is taking place which could transform the way Qatar deals with one of its most persistent health issues -- diabetes. A small team led by professor Khalid Hussain has since last year been enter- ing youngsters aged up to 18 with dia- betes into a nationwide database, some- thing he claims is unique in the region and possibly the world. “What we want to do is recruit every child with diabetes in Qatar into our re- search project,” says Hussain, who runs the project out of his office in the capi- tal’s Sidra medical complex. (AFP) WARSAW, Poland — The union lead- er of Poland’s striking teachers says that key high-school graduation ex- ams next month could be cancelled if government does not respond to pay demands. Slawomir Broniarz warned that the ex- ams, scheduled for May, may not hap- pen because the strike may prevent the qualification procedure. On Friday, teachers were on strike for the fifth day in a row as part of an in- definite action related to their 30% pay demand. The government is urging the strikers to accept an offer of half that amount. Rallies were held in Warsaw and many other cities across Poland in support of the teachers’ pay demands. (AP) PYONGYANG, North Korea — North Korean leader Kim Jong Un said he is open to a third summit with President Donald Trump, but set the year’s end as a deadline for Washing- ton to offer mutually acceptable terms for an agreement to salvage the high- stakes nuclear diplomacy, the North’s state-run media said Saturday. Kim made the comments during a speech Friday at a session of North Korea’s rubber stamp parliament, which made a slew of personnel changes that bolstered his diplomatic lineup amid stalemated negotiations with the United States. His speech came hours after Trump and visiting South Korean President Moon Jae-in met in Washington and agreed on the importance of nuclear talks with North Korea. “We of course place importance on resolving problems through dialogue and negotiations. But U.S.-style dia- logue of unilaterally pushing its de- mands doesn’t fit us, and we have no interest in it,” Kim said during the speech. According to the Korean Cen- tral News Agency, or KCNA, Kim blamed the collapse of his summit with Trump in February on what he described as unilateral demands by the United States, which he said raised questions over whether Wash- ington has genuine willingness to improve relations. But Kim said his personal relationship with Trump remains good and that they could ex- change letters at “any time.” (AP) Studies of the Renmin University of China. This year’s event high- lighted the theme of “Belt and Road, People- oriented”, focusing on finding real touches from specific coopera- tion projects and vivid examples. The annual event drew strong support from dip- lomatic bodies in China, Chinese and foreign cultural institutions and partner organizations. Former Prime Minis- ter of Ukraine, Yuriy Ivanovych Yekhanurov, former Deputy Minister of Russian Ministry of Culture, Mikhail Lem- ontov, and President of International Academy of Ceramics UNESCO, Tobien Kavasbo, Hun- garian sand animation master Ferenc Cako and other guests came to at- tend the event to share their experience and wisdom with young people. (Agencies) lifestyle is under special attention in Uzbekistan. One of the five initiatives of the president is direct- ly aimed at attracting young people to physi- cal culture and sports, increasing the capacity of the sports facilities,” Alisher Shadmanov, Uzbek health minister was quoted as saying. President Shavkat Mir- ziyoyev last December issued a decree on meas- ures to prevent infec- tious diseases, support healthy living and in- crease physical activity following research that said unhealthy lifestyle was a reason for the most serious illnesses in the country. (Trend) telecommunications, transport, agriculture, textile, chemical and food industries, health care and construction. China has implemented a number of major pro- jects in the gas sector. In particular, CNPC com- pany is taking part in the development of the Bagtyyarlyk contract territory and construc- tion of facilities on the Galkynysh giant gas field. Since 2009, China has been importing Turkmen gas with the prospect of increasing the volume of gas im- ports to 65 billion cubic meters of fuel per year. (Trend) the Mediterranean via railway and road,” said Jahangiri, making refer- ence to the construction of a railway linking the Iranian Shalamcheh border region to the Iraqi city of Basra. The Shalamcheh-Basra railway project is esti- mated to cost 2.22 bil- lion rials and can link Iran to Syria via Iraq. Speaking last Decem- ber, Director General of the Railway and Tech- nical Structures De- partment at the Islamic Republic of Iran Rail- ways (RAI) Moham- mad Mousavi said Iran was planning to build a movable railway bridge over the Arvand river as part of the Shalam- cheh-Basra project. (Press TV) MEXICO CITY – Mexi- can authorities said a group of about 350 mi- grants broke the locks on a gate at the Guate- malan border Friday and forced their way into southern Mexico to join a larger group of migrants trying to make their way toward the United States. The National Immigra- tion Institute did not identify the nationali- ties of the migrants, but they are usually from Central America. A similar confrontation occurred on the same border bridge between Mexico and Guatemala last year. The institute said the WASHINGTON - The US attempt to prosecute WikiLeaks founder Ju- lian Assange is a spiteful assault on civil freedoms conducted by an ailing superpower that is struggling to pre- serve its dominance, UK-based jour- nalist John Pilger told RT. One should not mistake what is hap- pening to Assange for anything but the persecution of a man, who em- barrassed the US by exposing to the public Washington’s brutality in the Sudan Activists: ‘Regime’ Kills 16 after Al-Bashir’s Ouster WASHINGTON - It is important for China to play a big role in the in- ternational community and contribute to the improvement of global governance, said Zhu Min, former deputy managing director of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) here Friday. Zhu made the remarks during an event at the Johns Hopkins Univer- sity School of Advanced International Studies. He said it is also impor- tant for China and the United States to cooper- ate on improving global migrants were acting in a “hostile” and “aggres- sive” way, and accused them of also attacking local police in Metapa, a Mexican village that lies between the border and the nearby city of Tapa- chula. The group of 350 pushed past police guarding the bridge and joined a larg- er group of about 2,000 migrants who are walk- ing toward Tapachula in the latest caravan to enter Mexico. Claudia Jaqueline San- doval, 43, from El Pro- greso, Honduras, was walking toward Tapa- chula with her 6-year- old daughter. Another son and a daughter are already in the United States. (Fox News) Middle East, award-winning British journalist John Pilger told RT’s Going Underground program. “The United States has aroused the ire because what we are in the midst of is the world’s greatest superpower struggling to maintain its dominance. Its information dominance, its tech- nological dominance, its cultural dominance. And WikiLeaks has pre- sented an extreme hurdle to this,” he argued. (RT) governance. Zhu, now chair of the National Institute of Financial Research at Tsinghua University in Beijing, said there is still room for improv- ing global governance 10 years after the global financial crisis. Over the past decade, the debt-to-GDP ratio has not decreased but increased substantially, “which to me (indicates) the potential risks are high,” he said. Meanwhile, intercon- nectivity across the world is strengthening, Zhu said, cautioning that when a crisis hap- pens, the spillover effect could cause more se- vere damage. The policy “I think that the vision we’ll lay out is going to represent a significant change from the model that’s been used,” he told CNN. President Donald Trump’s “vision” for the Middle East has already diverged significantly from the model that’s been used. This has included a uni- lateral declaration recog- nizing Israeli sovereignty over the Golan Heights, which the United Nations has repeatedly declared il- legitimate since Israel offi- cially annexed the Syrian territory in 1981. (RT) as a solution to that. Thomas Donohue, presi- dent and CEO of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, stressed the valuable U.S.-Mexico relationship, noting that every day the countries do more than $1.7 billion in trade and some 500,000 people cross their shared border legally for work, school, or tourism. “That’s why we have fought vigorously for the successful completion of the USMCA,” Donohue said, “and we’re going to keep up that fight un- til the deal is ratified and implemented.” (AP) space for decision-mak- ers to maneuver today is also more limited than it was before, he said. (Xinhua) Malta Announces Deal to Distribute 64 Migrants from NGO Ship VALLETTA, Malta – Malta has announced a deal to distribute among four EU nations the 64 mi- grants rescued at sea off Libya 10 days ago. Malta announced Saturday that the migrants will be distributed among Ger- many, France, Portugal and Luxembourg. The migrants are being trans- ferred to Maltese vessels and brought to port. However, Malta said the German-flagged aid ship, named Alan Kurdi, will not be allowed to enter its ports. Both Malta and Libya have refused to al- low humanitarian rescue ship to enter their ports, saying their activities off Libya encourage human traffickers. The German NGO Sea-Eye has com- plained about worsen- ing conditions for the 64 migrants. Two have been evacuated in recent days due to health issues. (Fox News) CAIRO – Sudanese activists say 16 people, including a soldier, have been killed since the mili- tary forced President Omar al- Bashir from power on Thursday following months of protests. The Sudan Doctors Committee, an affiliate of the Sudanese Pro- fessionals Association, which has been spearheading the pro- tests, said Saturday that 13 peo- ple were shot dead on Thursday and three others, including the soldier, were killed Friday. It says they died “at the hands of regime forces and its shadow militias.” Sudanese police said late Friday that the 16 were killed by “stray bullets,” and that at least 20 peo- ple were wounded at rallies and sit-ins across the country. Activists have welcomed al-Ba- shir’s ouster while calling for a swift transition to a civilian government, with many fearing the military intends to retain power. (Fox News)
