PAKISTAN
Captain Safdar sent to Adiala Jail: Dawn
July 09, 2018

Former prime minister Nawaz Sharif’s son-in-law, retired captain Mohammad Safdar, who was arrested by the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) yesterday, was shifted to Adiala Jail amid tight security on Monday morning. According to jail officials, Safdar underwent a medical examination in the penitentiary and was later shifted to a barrack specified for ‘B’ category prisoners. On Friday, Safdar had reportedly gone underground after being convicted along with his father-in-law Nawaz and spouse Maryam Nawaz in the Avenfield corruption reference. He, however, reemerged a day later in Rawalpindi and spearheaded a rally of PML-N workers before finally being arrested by NAB officials amid resistance from his supporters. Click here to read.....

Officials from the Afghanistan Independent Human Rights Commission (AIHRC) said on Sunday that over 85 percent of Afghan women and children face some sort of harassment. On Sunday officials from nearly 20 government and non-government organizations came together to report back to parliament’s human rights and women’s affairs commission on their efforts to combat harassment of women and children. According to AIHRC, a large percentage of women are forced to give up work because of harassment, while others accept illegal offers from men in order to keep their jobs. Qadria Yazdan Parast, an AIHRC commissioner, said they recently interviewed over 1,500 women and girls, of whom over 1,300 have said women face harassment. “Our investigation shows that over 15 types of harassment exist in this society and are carried out against women and children,” said Yazdan Parast. The findings of their survey have not yet been released, but AIHRC said they would do so in the next few days. In the meantime, officials from parliament’s human rights and women’s affairs commission said the responsible departments and organizations have failed to implement the new women and children anti-harassment law. Click here to read.....

Now locked in a bitter political standoff with India, Maldives continues to pose fresh security challenges for India almost on a monthly basis. While this would have been unthinkable until four years ago, the fact is that under Maldives President Abdulla Yameen there has been growing cooperation between the two countries. The Maldives state electricity company Stelco officials visited Pakistan and signed an MoU for cooperation in “institutional-building” activities. Click here to read.....

Sri Lanka has already sold China a port that gets almost no ships. The island nation now wants India to take control of an airport with no scheduled flights. The nation first tried to offer China the Mattala Rajapaksa International Airport in the southern district of Hambantota, but is now in talks with India, Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe told Sri Lanka's parliament on Thursday. The move follows the $1.1 billion sale of the loss-making port in Hambantota to state-owned China Merchants Group. The efforts are part of Sri Lanka's attempt to salvage loss-making projects built under a previous administration criticized for its close ties with China. Hambantota's port was a "white elephant" that accumulated nearly $300 million in losses since 2011, Wickremesinghe told parliament. But the port's sale to China was a "great victory" for Sri Lanka, he said, and getting Indian involved in the airport could help revive that asset too, he added. Click here to read.....

Chinese Premier Li Keqiang on Sunday wrapped up his successful trip to Bulgaria with a clear message that China will further consolidate relations with its European partners and safeguard the multilateral trade regime. During his stay in Sofia, Li paid an official visit to Bulgaria, attended the seventh leaders' meeting of China and 16 Central and Eastern European Countries (CEECs), and held bilateral meetings with CEEC leaders. The Chinese premier and his CEEC counterparts agreed to further boost bilateral and 16+1 cooperation and, in face of gathering protectionist clouds, reiterated their shared commitment to building an open world economy and making economic globalization more dynamic, inclusive and sustainable. Click here to read.....

Shares of Xiaomi fell from their initial offer price during their trading debut in Hong Kong, a victim of bad timing as the unfolding trade war between the US and China deterred investors from putting their money into the equity markets. Click here to read.....

Xi Jinping, general secretary of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China (CPC), presided over the third meeting of the central committee for deepening overall reform Friday. Since the 19th National Congress of the CPC, the CPC Central Committee has launched major reforms of overall importance, and significant new progress has been made in comprehensively deepening reform, said Xi, also Chinese president, chairman of the Central Military Commission, and head of the central committee for deepening overall reform. More efforts should be made on tackling key difficult issues, invigorating the system, using the experiences from the primary level and inspiring cadres to push reform deeper, said Xi. Click here to read.....