PEOPLES DAILY, WEDNESDAY, JULY 25, 2012
PAGE 33
Egypt’s Mursi names new prime minister M ohamed Mursi, the Egyptian president, has named former irrigation minister Hesham Qandil as the country's new prime minister, state television has announced. Qandil has been tasked with forming a cabinet, which he says he will do "in days", in coordination with the president. The appointment yesterday comes 25 days after Morsi was
sworn in as Egypt's first civilian and freely elected head of state. He replaced Hosni Mubarak, who was driven from office by a popular uprising in January last year. Qandil was irrigation minister in the outgoing government of Kamal Ganzuri, whom he replaces as prime minister. "This appointment of a patriotic and independent figure comes after much study and discussion to choose
a person able to manage the current scenario," said Yassir Ali, a spokesman for President Mursi. Speaking at a press conference following the announcement on Tuesday, Qandil said his priority was to fulfill Mursi's 100-day plan (which focuses on five main issues: security, traffic, bread, public cleanliness issues and fuel). Qandil was part of the delegation headed by Mursi to the
EU Summit in Ethiopia in midJuly. He was first appointed as minister of irrigation in July 2011. He represented Egypt in several international conferences on water issues and also worked in the African Development Bank. Al Jazeera's Rawya Rageh, reporting from Cairo, said that Qandil had served in various departments linked to irrigation
Vietnam, Philippines slam China garrison plan
Afghan policemen defect to Taliban in Farah province
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ietnam and the Philippines yesterday lashed out at China's moves to establish a military garrison in the South China Sea, amid escalating tensions in the disputed waters. Hanoi filed a formal protest with Beijing against the plan outlined by China this week to station troops in Sansha in the disputed Paracel Islands, saying it "violates international law." Manila, which is involved in a dispute over another archipelago, the Spratly Islands, also weighed into the row, summoning the Chinese ambassador to lodge a complaint against the garrison announcement. An intensifying spat over the South China Sea - the site of key shipping routes and thought to have vast oil and gas reserves - has seen a barrage of diplomatic moves between the countries with competing territorial claims. Taiwan, one of several claimants to portions of the Spratly chain, plans to boost firepower at its base on that archipelago's biggest island Taiping from next month, Taipei's coastguard said on Tuesday. Longer-range artillery and mortars are to be added to existing weaponry at the site, in a move that could further stoke tensions in the region. China says it owns much of the South China Sea, while Vietnam, the Philippines, Taiwan, Brunei and Malaysia each claim portions. The disputes have become particularly acrimonious in recent weeks, with Vietnam and the Philippines criticizing what they call Chinese encroachment. Beijing's garrison plan "violates international law, seriously violates Vietnam's sovereignty... and is invalid," Foreign Ministry spokesman Luong Thanh Nghi told AFP. China attracted Hanoi's ire and sparked a series of rare protests in the Vietnamese capital - when it last month designated Sansha as its administrative center for the Paracels and the Spratly Islands. The state-backed China National Offshore Oil Corporation also announced it was welcoming bids to explore oil blocks in the disputed waters, a week after Vietnam adopted a law placing the Spratlys under its sovereignty. Nghi told AFP Tuesday that China must revoke its "wrongdoings" and urged "friendly and cooperative" relations in order
and water issues. She said that he was also involved in the Nile Basin Initiative in the African continent and that this signalled that Mursi, who has been trying to rekindle relations with the African continent after years of neglect under former president Hosni Mubarak, was serious about settling squabbles over Egypt's share of the Nile's water resources.
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Egyptian President Mohamed Mursi, left, has tasked Hesham Mohammed Qandil with forming a new cabinet In this July 20, 2012 file photo shows a fishing ship sails past the Meiji reef in Sansha city in south China's Hainan province.
n Afghan police commander and 13 junior officers have joined the Taliban in the western Afghan province of Farah, in what correspondents say could be the biggest defection by police. They say the commander, named as Mirwais, was in charge of a 20-man checkpoint when he defected on Sunday. The men are said to have taken heavy weaponry, radios and police vehicles including US-made armoured Humvees. Farah is one of the most insecure areas in the relatively peaceful west. The commander was based in Shewan village in the district of Bala Bulak, which was until recently considered a Taliban stronghold. The insurgents were driven out of the area following a series of operations carried out by Afghan security forces. But local officials say insurgents have regrouped in the area recently.
Syria’s President reshuffles top security posts
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resident Bashar Assad yesterday reshuffled the generals at the core of his regime's highly secretive security apparatus after last week's bombing that killed four top officials charged with fighting the tenacious rebellion rocking the country, an official said. The shakeup comes as the Syrian regime is fighting to regain the upper hand in its battle with rebels who recently have taken the fight to the heart of government power with attacks on the capital Damascus and the country's largest city of Aleppo. The government official said that Assad appointed Maj. Gen. Ali Mamlouk, the former head of General Intelligence, to the key post of head of the National Security Council. His predecessor, Maj. Gen. Hisham Ikhtiyar, died of wounds sustained in the bombing, a government official said. Maj. Gen. Abdel Fattah Qudsiyeh, the former head of Military Intelligence, was named the council's deputy chief, replacing a general who was apparently fired. The EU has imposed sanctions on Qudsiyeh for his role in the crackdown on the uprising.