US accuses Iran of conducting rocket test near warships

________ A to Z kerala .......... [kvk] [www.atozkerala.in , www.atozkerala.blogspot.com]
DUBAI, United Arab Emirates: Iranian naval vessels conducted rocket tests last week near US warships and commercial traffic passing through the Strait of Hormuz, the American military said Wednesday, causing new tension between the two nations after a landmark nuclear deal.
The vital strait, a narrow waterway between Iran and Oman that is the route for nearly a third of all oil traded by sea, is crucial for ships taking part in the war against the Daesh group in Iraq and Syria. In the past, Iran has threatened to block the strait, which lies at the entrance of the Arabian Gulf.
While the United States has complained previously about other Iranian war games and maneuvers there, Saturday’s incident comes after a series of weapons tests and other moves by the Islamic Republic following the nuclear deal.
Iranian media and officials did not immediately discuss the tests Wednesday.
Cmdr. Kyle Raines, a US Central Command spokesman, said in a statement that Iranian Revolutionary Guard naval vessels fired “several unguided rockets” about 1,370 meters from the USS Harry S. Truman aircraft carrier, the USS Bulkeley destroyer and a French frigate, the FS Provence. Raines said commercial sea traffic also was nearby, though the missiles weren’t fired in the direction of any ships.
Raines said the Iranian vessels announced over maritime radio that they’d carry out a live fire exercise only 23 minutes beforehand.
Iran’s “actions were highly provocative,” Raines said. “Firing weapons so close to passing coalition ships and commercial traffic within an internationally recognized maritime traffic lane is unsafe, unprofessional and inconsistent with international maritime law.”
A French military official, speaking to The Associated Press on condition of anonymity as he was not authorized to publicly named, confirmed the rocket fire took place Saturday. However, the official said the French military did not consider it to be a threatening event as the rocket fire clearly wasn’t directed toward the Western fleet.
The French frigate is now escorting the French aircraft carrier Charles de Gaulle, which is launching airstrikes against the Daesh group.
NBC News first reported news of the Iranian rocket fire.
The Strait of Hormuz is only about 33 kilometers (21 miles) wide at its narrowest point between Iran and Oman. Ships traversing the chokepoint have even less room to maneuver. The shipping lane in either direction is only 2 miles (3.22 kilometers) wide, with a 2-mile (3.22-kilometer) buffer zone between them.
The US Navy’s 5th Fleet is based in nearby Bahrain, on the southern coast of the Gulf. It conducts anti-piracy patrols in the greater Gulf and serves as a regional counterbalance to Iran.
While the US didn’t retaliate to Saturday’s rocket test, the Strait of Hormuz has been the scene of a battle between the two countries’ navies. On April 18, 1988, the US attacked two Iranian oil rigs and sunk or damaged six of its vessels, including two naval frigates, in Operation Praying Mantis. That came after the near-sinking of the missile frigate USS Samuel B. Roberts by an Iranian mine.
A few months later, in July 1988, the USS Vincennes in the strait mistook an Iran Air flight heading to Dubai for an attacking fighter jet, shooting down the plane and killing all 290 passengers and crew onboard. The shoot-down of the jet came shortly after the US vessel reported coming under fire from Iranian speedboats.
Saturday’s rocket fire comes after Iran and world powers led by the US agreed to a landmark nuclear deal to limit the Islamic Republic’s enrichment of uranium in exchange for lifting economic sanctions. While heralded by moderates in Iran, hard-liners have criticized the deal.
In the time since, Iran has conducted missile tests criticized by the US, as well as aired footage on state television of an underground missile base. Iran also sank a replica of a US aircraft carrier in February near the strait. It seized a Marshall Islands-flagged cargo ship and later released it in May after earlier surrounding US-flagged cargo ship transiting the strait

Dearth of talent hampers Modi's plan to revamp cabinet

________ A to Z kerala .......... [kvk] [www.atozkerala.in , www.atozkerala.blogspot.com]
NEW DELHI: After a drubbing in a state poll in November, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi wants to overhaul his cabinet to weed out underperformers and improve his government’s image. Problem is, several sources said, he can’t find the right replacements.
As New Delhi buzzes with speculation about changes in several ministries, senior members of the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and a close aide to Modi said some changes could come early next year but the talent pool was too shallow to engineer a major revamp.
Pressure is mounting on Modi to revive his party’s fortunes. Nearly two years after he swept to power on a promise of jobs and growth, the shine is coming off — reforms to revive investment have withered and the economy is stuttering. Rural distress has grown after two successive droughts.
“The challenge is to identify the right candidates who can deliver fast-paced reforms and policies in their work sphere,” the prime minister’s aide said.
Articulate and suave, Finance Minister Arun Jaitley has been considered for the defense portfolio, another high-profile role that is crucial to Modi’s geopolitical ambitions and plans to boost Indian industry. But there was no one to take Jaitley’s place in finance, the sources said.
A spokesman for Modi declined to comment.
An official in Jaitley’s office said they didn’t have any knowledge of a possible reshuffle.
Modi tends to keep such decisions close to his chest, and the sources said the final decision lay with the prime minister. They added that he has yet to make up his mind on the changes, and that nothing has been confirmed.
Another close aide to the prime minister dismissed talk of a reshuffle as speculation, saying it had no basis.

Dearth of talent
The problem with the government’s search for talent is that Modi’s Hindu nationalist administration is loath to tap people who are associated with other ideologies, such as liberals or the left.
At the same time, the right-wing intelligentsia has not developed after decades of rule by the centrist Congress party, under which liberal institutions flourished.
“Compared to the Congress, we have a smaller talent pool and less exposure, but it’s only a matter of time that we expand our base,” BJP vice president Vinay Sahasrabuddhe said.
He said Modi has “embarked on the process of fine-tuning the government machinery and also send a concrete signal that inefficiency will be checked.”
BJP’s defeat in Bihar state polls earlier this year led to calls from within the party and the Hindu group that is its ideological parent, the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS), to remove ministers and party officials who failed to deliver.
Although a general election is not due until 2019, the government’s fortunes will depend on upcoming provincial polls, including an election in bellwether Uttar Pradesh state in 2017.
Top RSS and BJP leaders are expected to meet in New Delhi in the second week of January, where these issues are likely to be discussed.
A revamp is also expected to send the message that Modi will not tolerate remarks by ministers that fan intolerance against India’s non-Hindu minorities.
Junior ministers Giriraj Singh and Niranjan Jyoti could be removed after they made public remarks construed as anti-minority, the sources said. Singh’s and Jyoti’s offices said they have no information about Modi’s reshuffle plans.
Some ministers are also looking for a change. Foreign Minister Sushma Swaraj has asked to be moved to a portfolio with a more domestic focus, the sources said.
Swaraj’s office said they will not comment about her plans.
Road transport minister Nitin Gadkari was offered additional charge of the agriculture ministry, but he declined saying he already had too big a job, the sources said.
A source in Gadkari’s office declined to comment, calling it a “hypothetical question.”
Modi is looking to the RSS and may go further afield in southern and northeastern states to find new, lesser-known faces to bring to his government, his aide said. That would also give his cabinet a more pan-India feel, the aide said. 
(Additional reporting by Mayank Bhardwaj in New Delhi)

Low-income groups won’t be hit by new power tariff 

________ A to Z kerala .......... [kvk] [www.atozkerala.in , www.atozkerala.blogspot.com]

• 

P

RIYADH: People with limited incomes will not have to pay extra charges for water and electricity as they have not been included in the new amendments in this regard, Water and Electricity Minister Abdullah Al-Hussayen has clarified.
“The new tariffs are aimed at those segments of society who extensively consume water and electricity,” the minister was quoted as saying by local media on Tuesday.
The amendments in this regard were approved by the Saudi Cabinet recently.
“For example, 250 liters of water consumption per day will cost SR92 per month with the new tariff, and this is reasonable. We sincerely hope that with the new prices, people will start conserving water,” he said.
The minister urged the citizens to start making behavioral adjustments such as checking if there are leakage problems and start rationalyzing the volume of consumption.
The minister said an awareness campaign on rationalyzing the consumption of water and electricity, and on the installation of equipment to rationalize the use of water and how to reduce electricity consumption will be launched before the actual enforcement of the adjusted tariff next month.
Al-Hussayen said: “About 87 percent of the water and electricity bills issued this year will not be affected by the new price; only 13 percent of the total will feel the change.” 
He asserted that low and medium incomes will not be affected by the rise in costs as 52 percent of households will not pay more than one riyal a day for water consumptions, or SR30 a month.
Commenting on the fee increase, he said that 90 percent of households will pay an additional of not more than SR5 a month. “It is a known fact that Saudi Arabia ranks third worldwide in terms of water consumption,” he said.
He said: “As Muslims, we are commanded by our religion and our Holy Qur’an and Hadith to rationalize in all expenses; otherwise, how could we work hard and ask God to grant us with his blessings and waste it uselessly?”

50,000 workers hurt at work in 9 months 

________ A to Z kerala .......... [kvk] [www.atozkerala.in , www.atozkerala.blogspot.com]
RIYADH: As many as 50,000 workers, including 300 Saudis, have sustained work-related injuries in the past nine months this year, a recent report issued by the General Organization for Social Insurance (GOSI) has stated.
The report said non-Saudis represent 95 percent of the total injuries. The injuries were not confined to males only, as 533 or 0.299 of them are women.
GOSI said that the total compensation paid by the foundation since 1974 until last year, was SR114 billion, of which a large amount went to the Eastern regions (by 44.8 percent), while damages amounted to SR53.5 billion.
Meanwhile, local and international reports reveal that Saudi women now comprise 400,000 of the workforce in Saudi Arabia.
Referring to on-the-job injuries, a source at the Research and Studies Department at GOSI said that they occurred during the first nine months of 2015. The construction industry accounted for over 17 percent of the injuries, followed by trade activity (9,690) and manufacturing (7,420).
Among the other sectors, 301 injuries occurred in the field of agriculture and fishing. Referring to the statistics, the source said that most of these injuries happened in the Makkah region (20,877 cases), followed by the Eastern region (12,768 cases), while the Riyadh region reported 11,986 injuries.
The lowest rate was reported from the Northern Border with 25 cases, the report said.
The report shows most of those injured are aged between 25 and 29. They form the highest rate who suffered from the risk of work-related injuries (12,467 cases) cases followed those in 30 and 34 years category (10,789), while 7,179 were between 35 and 39. The report also revealed that 80 of the injured workers are aged 15 to 19 during in the same period.
The number of work-related injuries during the past 10 years stood at 803,000 cases involving professions ranging from business managers and technicians to technical and engineering professions among others, the report added.

Bahraini pilot survives jet crash in Jazan

________ A to Z kerala .......... [kvk] [www.atozkerala.in , www.atozkerala.blogspot.com]
RIYADH: A Bahraini pilot who was flying for the Arab coalition battling Iran-backed Shiite rebels in Yemen has survived a plane crash caused by a technical failure, the Saudi military said.
A military statement carried by Saudi Press Agency (SPA) said the F-16 jet crashed on Wednesday in the Saudi region of Jazan.
The Saudi-led coalition backing Yemen’s internationally recognized government has been battling the Shiite rebels, known as Houthis, since March. The United Nations says the civil war in the Arab world’s poorest country has killed more than 5,800 people since then.
Bahrain announced Tuesday that three of its soldiers were killed and others were wounded along Saudi Arabia’s southern border, without elaborating. Cross-border fire from the conflict has killed soldiers and civilians there in the past.

School exams in Jeddah area postponed

________ A to Z kerala .......... [kvk] [www.atozkerala.in , www.atozkerala.blogspot.com]
The General Directorate of Education in Jeddah, announced Tuesday the suspension of examinations on Wednesday at all schools in Jeddah, Rabigh and Khulais.
Spokesman of the General Directorate of Education in Jeddah Abdul Majid Al-Ghamdi, said that the suspension of the exams was based on meteorological alerts, which predicted medium to heavy rainfall in the Jeddah area.
He added Wednesday's suspended exams will be held next week.

..Israel cracks down on Daesh volunteers

________ A to Z kerala .......... [kvk] [www.atozkerala.in , www.atozkerala.blogspot.com]

JERUSALEM: Ayoob Kara, a deputy Israeli cabinet minister, used to double as an unofficial intermediary with the few of his fellow Arab citizens who have left to join Daesh insurgents in Syria or Iraq.
Negotiating discreetly through relatives and go-betweens, he would offer them reduced jail terms if they returned to Israel, cooperated with security services and helped deter other would-be Daesh recruits by publicly disavowing the group.
A half-dozen volunteers took the deal, Kara says.
But with the number of Daesh sympathizers in Israel growing from its initial trickle, and some accused of trying to set up armed cells within the country’s 18-percent Muslim minority, the deputy minister no longer sounds so accommodating.
“I used to work hard to dissuade people from joining ISIS, but now I say that there’s no point,” he told Reuters in an interview, using an acronym for the insurgents.
“If, by this point, when the dangers are abundantly clear to everyone, they still want to go, then they are beyond saving and it’s a one-way ticket for them. It’s literally a dead end.”
Kara, a confidant of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, was expressing a hardening of government policy against Daesh, which, though preoccupied with battling Syrian and Iraqi regime forces, has recently inveighed against Israel.
“Jews, soon you shall hear from us in Palestine, which will become your grave,” promised a Dec. 26 voice recording on social media attributed to Daesh chief Abu Bakr Al-Baghdadi.
In October, two video clips surfaced in which Daesh gunmen threatened to strike Israel. They spoke in near-fluent, Arabic-accented Hebrew, suggesting they were among the several dozen Israeli Arabs who the Shin Bet domestic intelligence service estimates have joined the group abroad.
Israel sees a major cross-border attack on it by Daesh as unlikely. But it is less sanguine about support for the group inside Israel, which is already beset by Palestinian street violence that has surged in the last three months, stoked in part by strife over a contested Jerusalem mosque complex.
“It (Daesh influence) is beginning to spread here as well,” Intelligence Ministry director-general Ram Ben-Barak told Israel’s Army Radio on Sunday. “The ISIS scenario we worry about is ISIS cells arising in Israel to carry out terrorist attacks.”
Among Israel’s Muslim minority, pro-Palestinian sympathies are common but political violence rare.

Paraglider, ex-army defector among recruits
Still, a series of spectacular incidents involving Israelis and Daesh has unsettled the Shin Bet.
One Arab citizen who had volunteered to serve in Israel’s army later defected to the insurgents’ ranks in Syria, it emerged this month — a blow for a military that regards itself as a sectarian melting pot in the Jewish-majority country.
Separately, an Israeli Arab used a paraglider to fly into Syria in what the Shin Bet said was a bid to join Daesh, and three others were arrested on suspicion of trying to set up an armed cell to carry out attacks in Israel on orders from two Israeli Arabs who are already with Daesh in Iraq.
The paraglider incident prompted Netanyahu to order the revocation of Daesh volunteers’ Israeli citizenship. Such a move, if it passes higher court review, would effectively shut the door on their return, a step that also has been a controversial topic of debate in European nations whose citizens have been fighting for Daesh.
It marks a policy shift for Israel, which last year repatriated Marhan Khaldi, an Arab citizen wounded while fighting for Daesh in Iraq and who made his way back to Turkey, where Israeli diplomats replaced the passport he had discarded en route to the war zone.
Israel jailed Khaldi for 42 months, a sentence comparable to previous cases of citizens who joined Daesh abroad.
Prosecutors had sought an 8- to 12-year prison term for Khaldi and appealed to the Supreme Court to harshen his punishment, saying in a statement that due the risk posed by Daesh “the time is ripe to get tough on such offenses.” The Supreme Court’s ruling on the appeal could take months.
Khaldi’s lawyer, Hussein Abu Hussein, said Israeli judges lacked court precedents on which to base sweeping new sentences due to the fact that the country outlawed Daesh only in September 2014 — a delay he attributed to the Netanyahu government’s reluctance to take sides in Syria’s civil war.
Israeli legislation introduced in December 2014 that would raise the maximum jail sentence for joining foreign groups like Daesh to five years is still under parliamentary review.
“It has taken time for the monstrousness of ISIS to dawn, so while Israel is seeking greater penalties for joining it, this had been taking time too,” said Abu Hussein, who also heads the Israeli Arab civil rights group Adalah.
Abu Hussein said the Shin Bet appeared to be refocusing its anti-Daesh efforts on social media activity by Arab citizens that might flag up nascent sympathizers for arrest.
According to Kara, the value to Israeli intelligence of Arab citizens who came back from Daesh’s fiefdoms had waned — meaning any returnees had less to bargain with for clemency.
“There was a time when someone would come back and provide useful information on their camps and recruitment, et cetera,” Kara said. “But that’s in the past now. The whole world is fighting Daesh and everything is pretty much known.”

Dubai's Dh46.1b budget to boost growth, jobs

________ A to Z kerala .......... [kvk] [www.atozkerala.in , www.atozkerala.blogspot.com]

Experts say higher allocations to infrastructure, social spending bode well for economy.

Dubai on Sunday approved a zero-deficit budget of Dh46.1 billion for 2016 with a major chunk of expenditure on social development and infrastructure.
His Highness Shaikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Vice-President and Prime Minister of the UAE and Ruler of Dubai, approved the budget with 12 per cent more state spending compared to 2015's Dh41.177 billion.
Thirty-six per cent of the government spending would go towards wages and salaries, as the government plans to add 3,000 new jobs for its citizens next year. The government spending on infrastructure, transport and economic development would rise by slightly more than 12 per cent, accounting for 36 per cent of total spending.
Analysts, financial experts and the corporate circle have welcomed the government of Dubai's second consecutive budget with a zero deficit, which features a 12 per cent increase in state spending and an operating surplus of Dh3.4 billion for 2016.
Abdulrahman Saleh Al Saleh, director-general of the Government of Dubai's Department of Finance, said: "The break-even point between government revenues and expenditures has come as a result of strict financial policies of the Dubai Supreme Fiscal Committee... which focused on increasing spending for the development of the sectors of the economy, infrastructure, communications, security, justice and safety, government services and excellence and social development."
Analysts said this a landmark budget, which proves how the emirate's diversification from oil into trading, services and hospitality has helped the government.

Abu Dhabi bars schools from taking fee for excursions

________ A to Z kerala .......... [kvk] [www.atozkerala.in , www.atozkerala.blogspot.com]

Adec official said excursions organised by schools must be "relevant to education outcomes".

The Abu Dhabi Education Council (Adec) has barred schools from collecting any fee from students for recreational excursions.
Mohammed Salem Al Dhahiri, executive director of school operations at the Adec, said school excursions are a key tool to complement school curricula as they enrich students' experience.
Al Dhahiri said excursions organised by schools must be "relevant to education outcomes".
A teacher who wants to organise a school trip must request the school principal at least a week before the date of the journey, the Adec pointed out.
The teacher has to mention how the trip will be relevant to education outcomes, cost of the journey, risk assessment and arrangements to oversee students during the trip.
To supervise and watch over students during an excursion, Al Dhahiri said at least one teacher is required for every 10 pupils in the KG and first elementary school cycles, while one teacher should be assigned to oversee 20 students in cycles two and three.
reporters@khaleejtimes.com

This could be the last word in producing cheap solar energy

________ A to Z kerala .......... [kvk] [www.atozkerala.in , www.atozkerala.blogspot.com]

• Share
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• Vote
  1
• 

Maryam Mohammad Al Hashmi (right) and Noora Hamad Al Marri, the two young scientists who won awards for their innovations, urge women to enter the realm of science.
(Photo by Leslie Pableo)

Meet two budding Emirati scientists who strive to make world a better place through their inventions.

After year-long research and experiments, Maryam Al Hashmi, an 18-year-old Emirati student, has invented an affordable method to produce solar energy.
Her invention titled 'Epilogue of Plasticus' could eventually replace silicone filaments in solar cells with plastic photocells.
When Khaleej Times asked how she did it, a reserved Hashmi said: "I can't reveal that secret, I experimented with several chemicals to make this invention. but one plastic photocell on a solar panel can conduct 202 to 349 milliwats of energy. Eventually, all silicone-based solar panels can be replaced with these plastic photocells."
Her invention can make solar energy cheaper and easily accessible.
The young Emirati contested her invention at the 6th Intel Science Competition Arab World and has won the first place under the 'Environmental Engineering' category.
Hashmi, student of Al Ittihad Private School, Jumeirah, was also awarded second place for the category Grand Awards from the Intel Foundation. Thirteen Emirati boys and girls participated for the competition, which took place recently in Alexandria, Egypt.
The competition celebrates young scientists and played host to over 110 students from across 11 Arab countries who presented 77 projects and competed for $20,000 worth prize money.
The finalists were selected from 77 projects spanning from biochemistry to electrical and mechanical engineering to energy and transport.
Their projects were evaluated on the site by over 40 judges representing 10 Arab countries, all of which are university professors from the region.
The projects were selected based on creativity and originality of the idea, scientific thought of the project, achieving engineering goals, thoroughness of detail, skills of performance, clarity of ideas and team collaboration.
Speaking about how her idea for the project was developed, Hashmi said: "I got the idea from the YouTube viral video about solar electricity bottles being used in Philippines. If it is being used there, I was sure it could be used for this project as well."
Hashmi spent an entire year working on the project.
"I've always loved science as a subject. I attended my first science competition when I was in 10th grade, I've been hooked since then."
Crucial for women
Noora Hamad Al Marri, 18-year-old student of Dubai National School in Al Twar whose invention 'Thermoelectric Smart Buildings' got the second place under the 'Physical Energy' category said that it is crucial for women to enter the field of sciences.
Her project converts the air temperature surrounding buildings to power electrical appliances inside the building.
The project will work in both hot and cold temperatures. Al Marri invented the project along with her teammate Marwa Rashed Saif Ali Khatem. "We're still using fossil fuels as a major source of electricity. I thought to myself, there must be some other way to generate power," said Al Marri.
"My interest in science began since I was in Grade 2. Unlike other schools that say science is not for girls, my school really motivated me to take up more interest in science," said Al Marri.
"The Intel Science Competition is a crucial event for the future of young scientists in the Arab world. These finalists represent the best and the brightest innovators and leaders from our region," said Taha Khalifa, Regional General Manager for Intel, Middle East and North Africa.
"Judging by the caliber of the projects presented this week, I am confident that these young innovators will make our world a better place."
dhanusha@khaleejtimes.com