NEWS Africans to lose as US axes visa... Continued from Page 1
By comparison, in the same period only 10 percent of Europeans who became permanent residents and 3 percent of Asians did so through the lottery. “It has proven to be a way of helping those who come from the continent of Africa, those who come from a number of other areas where it is very difficult to get a visa,” said Sheila Jackson Lee, a member of the Congressional Black Caucus, whose members are all Democrats. But in an effort to preserve the comprehensive reform being negotiated for months by the two parties, the Democrats and President Barack Obama agreed to ditch the lottery. Representative Charles Schumer, who authored the program in 1990, said it was impossible to keep it. Schumer said the system that will replace it in 2017 is merit-based and will also give Africans a chance. On average they are more educated than people from other continents. And English-speaking Africans would get a boost because of that language skill.
But Michael Fix of the Migration Policy Institute said: “It really probably won’t admit enough people to offset the effects of the loss of the diversity visa for some years after that. “It’s a long time away. It won’t be immediately offset by any means.” The diversity visas would vanish starting next year under the reform being negotiated. Only four percent of African immigrants - compared to 21 percent of Asians and 22 percent of Europeans received a green card for employment reasons in 2012. The National Association for the Advancement of Colored People says the number of African immigrants will go down even with the merit-based system. “In essence, we’re concerned,” said Hilar y Shelton, the NAACP Washington bureau director. Dame Babou, who hosts a radio show that caters to Senegalese people in New York, said the scrapping of the lottery is disheartening for Africans. “Every year many people thought this was going to be their year,” Babou said. “Again, what is being eliminated is hope.” — AFP
Obama vows new bid to shut... Continued from Page 1 Out of 166 inmates held at the prison at the remote US naval base in southeastern Cuba, 100 are on hunger strike, according to the latest tally from military officers. And of those, 21 detainees are being fed through nasal tubes. “I don’t want these individuals to die. Obviously, the Pentagon is trying to manage the situation as best as they can, but I think all of us should reflect on why exactly are we doing this,” he said. Obama has long argued for prosecuting enemy combatants in civilian courts and transferring those cleared of wrongdoing to their home countries. As a candidate in 2008, Obama pledged to close the jail and announced plans to close Guantanamo immediately after entering office in 2009. But a majority of lawmakers, particularly Republicans, have insisted the jail should stay open, that the detainees are too dangerous to hold on the US mainland and that the suspects should only be tried before military tribunals. Obama said he would try again to per-
suade Congress to find a way to close the Guantanamo prison, which was set up by his predecessor, George W Bush, to hold those captured in Afghanistan and elsewhere after the attacks of Sept 11, 2001. “I’m going to reengage with Congress to try to make the case that this is not something that’s in the best interest of the American people. And it is not sustainable.” Obama warned the situation would only get worse and said it made no sense to hold more than 100 people in a “no man’s land” indefinitely - even after the withdrawal of US forces from Iraq and soon in Afghanistan. It is “contrary to who we are and our interests and it needs to stop,” Obama said, adding: “It is a hard case to make.” Rights groups, which have long branded the prison as a legal “black hole”, welcomed Obama’s remarks. “The writing is on the wall. It’s time for the failed Guantanamo experiment to end and for our nation to return to the values that have kept us strong,” Daphne Eviatar of Human Rights First said in a statement. — AFP
Willem-Alexander is sworn... Continued from Page 1 “many beautiful years during which she was our queen.” “I’m treading in your footsteps. I have a clear vision of my office. But no one knows what the future brings,” he said. “Wherever that path leads and however far it goes, I will carry your wisdom and warmth with me,” he said. The king swore “to preserve the independence and territory of the kingdom to the best of my ability ... so help me God.” His ermine-lined cloak has been criticised by animal rights activists in the Netherlands, but WillemAlexander noted that it is old and so no blood had recently been shed for it. MPs and senators then swore an oath to the king, although 16 MPs have refused to do so saying they have already pledged allegiance to the constitution. A who’s who of royals-in-waiting, including Britain’s Prince Charles, Spain’s Prince Felipe and Japan’s Prince Naruhito and his wife, Crown Princess Masako, attended the ceremony. Princess Masako is on her first trip abroad in nearly seven years, while Prince Charles also attended Beatrix’s enthronement in 1980. Former UN secretary general Kofi Annan and International Olympic Committee head Jacques Rogge also attended. Police escorted two republicans from in front of the royal palace shortly before the abdication after they brandished a large sign reading: “I’m not a subject”. They were escorted to an authorised protest area but police later apologised for detaining the anti-monarchists. Willem-Alexander is the first Dutch king since 1890 and the first of a new wave of relatively youthful European monarchs. “Beatrix has been queen for 33 years, our queen,” Ruud, 49, told AFP on the Dam after the abdication, a tear in his eye. “She was a stabilising factor and a symbol of our country. It’s sad to see her go after all these years, a page in our collective history is turning.” Amsterdam’s population was set to dou-
ble with around a million visitors flooding the city’s streets and canals to mark the abdication and enthronement. Over 10,000 police have been deployed in Amsterdam, with authorities saying they had arrested 70 people since Monday. The monarchy is popular in the Netherlands, but some question the cost of the royal household and republicans are seeking to get the king’s Ä825,000 million tax-free salary reduced. While Beatrix was known for her formal court, Willem-Alexander has already said that he will not be a “protocol fetishist”. Beatrix’s enthronement in 1980 was marred by violent protests and running street battles over a housing crisis that left the city looking like a war zone. Anti-royalists this time have been allotted six locations in Amsterdam to stage protests. But only around 100 republicans turned up for a protest at just one of the locations, an AFP correspondent reported. Preparations for the day had been overshadowed by a rancorous debate about the event’s official song, known as the Koningslied, which many considered ill-fitting, with its mix of traditional and rap music. The nation was to sing the Koningslied as one yesterday evening, just before the royal family headed off on a water pageant behind Amsterdam’s central train station. Maxima is largely responsible for having made her husband popular after an allegedly boozy youth which earned him the nickname “Prince Pils”. Ever smiling, she has mastered the Dutch language and even taken a charit y swim in Amsterdam’s canals, endearing herself further in a country that expects their royals to be at once normal and regal. Speaking ahead of the enthronement, Willem-Alexander said that “people can address me as they wish because then they can feel comfortable”. He stressed he wanted to “be a king that can bring society together, representative and encouraging in the 21st century”. — AFP
Deporting expats for traffic... Continued from Page 1 be considered as a violation of the law,” Turaiji said. MP Khaled Hussein AlShatti also urged the government not to mistreat expats and clearly explain how it plans to carry out its strategy to annually deport 100,000 expats. “We are totally with adjusting the imbalance in our population, deporting marginal unnecessary labor and fighting visa traffickers. I strongly support law enforcement on whoever violates the state’s laws, yet at the same time am against arbitrarily tightening the screws on expats,” he said, expressing his full rejection of “insulting” expats by deporting them. “Laws must be applied in compliance with international human rights and values,” he emphasized. Shatti agreed on measures to reduce the number of marginal laborers who have no work or jobs in Kuwait, provided this is done legally and in a civilized man-
ner. “Expats have outstanding roles in various fields in Kuwait,” he said, expressing his wish that annually deporting 100,000 expats will not be done arbitrarily and become a black spot in Kuwait’s human rights record. Shatti expressed surprise over deporting expats for committing traffic violations and stressed that this step might open the way wide for wasta, favoritism and abuse of powers in violation of basic human rights. In another development, the National Assembly yesterday passed a law calling to establish a Public Food Authority that will control the food sector, especially combating imports of expired foodstuff. The Assembly also approved another law to amend the commercial licences legislation issued more than 40 years ago and Commerce and Industry Minister Anas AlSaleh said the law will be implemented in less than three months to end red tape in issuing commercial licences.
WEDNESDAY, MAY 1, 2013
Palestinian killed in Gaza by targeted Israeli strike In West Bank, Palestinian stabs settler to death GAZA/JERUSALEM: Israel yesterday launched its first targeted attack on a militant in Gaza since a war in November, killing a Palestinian jihadist in an air strike that put further strain on a five-month-old ceasefire. There was also bloodshed in the Israeli-occupied West Bank, where for the first time since 2011, a Palestinian killed a Jewish settler. Israeli soldiers shot and wounded the attacker after he stabbed the man at a busy intersection. Both incidents held the potential of wider confrontation - along the Gaza frontier, where factions linked to al Qaeda have been carrying out intermittent rocket attacks, and in the West Bank, where clashes between stone-throwing Palestinians and the Israeli military intensified in recent months. Israel said the Palestinian killed in the air strike, Haitham Al-Meshal, 29, was a jihadi who was an expert in making rockets. It accused him of involvement in a rocket attack from Egypt’s Sinai peninsula against Israel’s Red Sea resort of Eilat on April 17, which had caused no injuries or damage. “I had said we would not sit by quietly and let this pass ... we will not accept a drizzle of fire from Gaza or from Sinai,” Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said after the strike. In Gaza, Meshal’s body was wrapped in a black flag of the Salafi factions after the air strike, near a Hamas training camp. “The Sword of Islam” Salafi group, threatened to avenge his death, saying “the response will come very soon”. An Islamist website that carries statements from Al-Qaeda-related groups, described Meshal as a leader of Magles Shoura AlMujahideen, which claimed responsibility for the Eilat hit. Hamas appeared to take softer tone. A spokesman for the movement, Fawzi Barhoum, said the Israeli attack was “unjustified
URIF: Palestinians carry a wounded man during clashes with Israeli settlers in this West Bank village near Nablus yesterday after an Israeli settler was stabbed to death. — AFP and a dangerous escalation”, but he urged tory after the incident. “They are throwing Egypt to press Israel “to abide by calm and stop stones and attempted to set a house on fire. the aggression”. They also hurled rocks at a school bus and In the nearby West Bank, the killing of Eviatar smashed its windows. The situation is going Borovsky, 31, stoked anger among settlers, who from bad to worse. A mosque was also complained the military had failed to respond attacked,” Daghlas said. strongly to mounting stone-throwing incidents. Nine Palestinians have been killed by Israeli Borovsky’s attacker, who a military spokesman forces in the West Bank since the beginning of said grabbed his weapon after stabbing him, the year, mainly in clashes that have risen was identified as Salam Assad Az-Zaghal of the sharply in recent months, raising fears that a mainstream Fatah movement. Palestinian offi- third popular uprising, or Intifada, might be in cials said he was released two months ago from the offing. The Palestinians want to establish a an Israeli prison after serving a 3-1/2-year term. state in the West Bank, the Gaza Strip and East Ghassan Daghlas, a Palestinian official in the Jerusalem, territories Israel captured in a 1967 West Bank city of Nablus, said settlers launched war. Peace talks between the sides broke down “large-scale attacks” in four villages in the terri- in 2010. — Reuters