B4
SUNDAY, APRIL 2, 2017 Cesar Barrioquinto, Editor
World
/ Joyce Pangco-Pañares, Issue Editor
mst.daydesk@gmail.com
JAPAN’S CHERRY BLOSSOM FEVER KICKS OFF
This file photo taken on September 20, 2016 shows then-Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump (L) looking on as Egyptian President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi speaks during a meeting at the Plaza Hotel in New York.Egypt’s President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi is expected to meet on April 3, 2017 with US President Donald Trump, who has made no secret of his admiration for the ex-army chief who overthrew his Islamist predecessor and cracked down on his supporters. This is Sisi’s first state visit to Washington after almost four years of tense relations during the tenure of Trump’s predecessor Barack Obama. Trump had met with Sisi earlier before his election in 2016 on the sidelines of the 71st UN General Assembly, his first meeting with a leader from the Muslim world. Sisi was also reportedly the first leader to congratulate Trump upon his election in November 2016. AFP
EGYPT’S SISI TO MEET DONALD TRUMP
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fTER four years of tension with the United States, Egypt’s President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi now has a fan in the White House and on Monday he meets President Donald Trump. The American former reality television star and tycoon has made no secret of his admiration for the ex-army chief who overthrew his Islamist predecessor and cracked down on his supporters. Mohamed Morsi’s ouster in 2013, a year after he had won Egypt’s first democratic election, and the ensuing crackdown on Islamists prompted then US president Barack Obama to suspend military aid tbo Cairo temporarily. But when Sisi meets Trump on Monday during his first state visit to Washington, he will see a counterpart who better appreciates his “mission” to fight Islamists and jihadists, without Obama’s handwringing over human rights. “As a matter of fact Presidentelect Trump has shown deep and great understanding of what is
taking place in the region as a whole and what is taking place in Egypt,” Sisi, who met Trump in September before his election, said in an interview. A senior White House official said Friday that Trump wants to “build on the strong connection the two presidents established” then. Trump has been gushing about Sisi. “He’s a fantastic guy. Took control of Egypt, and he really took control of it,” he told Fox Business of the period after Morsi’s overthrow which saw hundreds of Islamist protesters killed and thousands detained. And he really took control of it,” he told Fox Business of the period after Morsi’s overthrow which saw hundreds of Islamist protesters killed and thousands detained.
Over the past three years, Sisi has met a trickle of delegations from American think-tanks and other groups, drumming home the importance of supporting him. “He made a passionate and convincing case for why all nations should stop working with Islamists,” said a member of one delegation who requested anonymity. Sisi often speaks of himself as though he were a Cassandra whose warnings go unheeded. “We warned two years ago our European friends, the foreign fighters in Syria will return and commit terrorism in Europe,” he said during a 2016 visit by French President Francois Hollande. Cairo is pleased by signals from Trump’s administration and Congress that they may consider blacklisting Morsi’s Muslim Brotherhood movement, a move which also has its critics in Washington. “America prepares to confront the Brotherhood,” read a banner headline in red in the official AlAhram newspaper. “Beyond Sisi being thrilled that
Trump replaced Obama, and the opportunity to turn a page, this is Egypt trying to reassert itself in a more central way to US Middle East strategy,” said Issandr El Amrani, the International Crisis Group’s North Africa director. Egypt—one of two Arab countries to have a peace treaty with Israel—had traditionally played a central role in US regional alliances, in return receiving $1.3 billion in annual military aid. Cairo has also mediated between Israel and the Palestinians. Sisi’s office said he will broach the issue with Trump, who has confusingly suggested that he is fine with either a two-state or a onestate solution to the conflict. Sisi had already made a goodwill gesture on that front in January, retracting a UN Security Council resolution condemning Israeli settlements after a call from the then president-elect who opposed it. The resolution was reintroduced after objections by other Security Council members, and passed with the US abstaining. AFP
AUSTRALIA FLOODS RISING WITH 2 DEAD, 4 MISSING FLOODED rivers were still rising Saturday in two Australian states with two women dead and four people missing after torrential rains in the wake of a powerful tropical cyclone. Queensland police warned that the Logan River, which runs through Beenleigh south of Brisbane, would only hit peak flood levels during the afternoon while further north the city of Rockhampton was also facing a serious threat. Commissioner Ian Stewart warned there was “still a major risk to the community around Logan and further south caused by that flooding situation.” Rockhampton, with a population of over 80,000 on the Fitzroy River, was expected to suffer flood levels not seen for a century and Stewart urged residents in low-lying areas to leave. “By Wednesday, we will be at peak flooding in Rockhampton,” he said. “It will be a gradual rise, so I encourage people to move now.” Queensland police tweeted “we currently have four people missing... that we have serious concerns about,” including a 77-year-old man.
Tens of thousands of people have been evacuated from a string of towns in Queensland and New South Wales as the floods move south towards Ballina, cutting roads. Others have tried to stick it out to save their properties. The scene was grim along the Logan river. Casey Bently, a 47-year-old mechanic from North Maclean appeared visibly upset as she looked at her house, submerged to the roof. “We got as much out as we could in the short time that we had,” she told AFP. “People have lost everything. I’d only just finished renovating the house, and it is all gone again now.” Nearby a calf was stuck in a tree as a man in a kayak paddled out to see if it was alive. Dozens gathered to watch but by the time two people on jet skis arrived to help the calf only to discover it was dead. Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull called on residents in affected areas to exercise caution. AFP
SPACE LAUNCH. SpaceX’s Falcon 9 rocket lifts off from space launch complex 39A at Kennedy Space Center, Florida with an SE communications satellite. SpaceX blasted off a recycled rocket for the first time on, using a booster that had previously flown cargo to the astronauts living at the International Space Station. AFP
JAPAN’S cherry blossom season kicks off boozy parties across the country and draws tourists from far and wide, but the annual coming-of-spring ritual isn’t official until inspectors like Hisato Nishii sign off on it. Over the past few weeks, local weather offices have been sending civil servants like Nishii out to so-called barometer trees that signal when sakura—cherry blossom in Japanese—have bloomed. It’s no small matter. Millions of Japanese celebrate the explosion of white and pink flowers heralding the change of season, with the Tokyo area expected to hit full bloom this week. Parks are full, restaurants are packed, and companies get in on the action with sakura-branded merchandise, from pink beer cans to flower-motif candy. The festivities come at a time when Japan kicks off a new business year, many university graduates start their first full-time jobs, and older colleagues shift into new positions. AFP
SRI LANKA STOPS JUMBO FLYING TO NEW ZEALAND A SRI LANKAN baby elephant gifted to New Zealand has been prevented from leaving the South Asian island after animal activists said it was cruel to separate her from her family. Six-year-old Nandi was bequeathed to former New Zealand Prime Minister John Key by President Maithripala Sirisena at a meeting in Colombo in February 2016 to mark “excellent bilateral relations” between the two countries. New Zealand vets had visited Sri Lanka last year to prepare Nandi for the journey to Auckland Zoo. But animal rights activists have since intervened, arguing against moving the elephant to a foreign country where she will likely find it difficult to be separated from her family and adapt to the new climate. The group of 18 secured a temporary victory Friday when a Sri Lankan court was assured by the state that Nandi would not be flown out of the country pending a final decision on the case next month. AFP
BOKO HARAM KIDNAPS 22 GIRLS, WOMEN BOKO Haram Islamists have abducted 22 girls and women in two separate raids in northeast Nigeria, residents and vigilantes told AFP Friday. In the first attack on Thursday, the jihadists raided the village of Pulka near border with Cameroon where they kidnapped 18 girls. “Boko Haram fighters from Mamman Nur camp arrived in pickup vans around 6:00 am and seized 14 young girls aged 17 and below while residents fled into the bush,” a Pulka community leader told AFP by phone. “They picked four other girls who were fleeing the raid they came across in the bush outside the village,” said the community leader who asked not to be named for fear of reprisals. According to the official, the attackers were loyal to the faction headed by Abu Musab AlBarnawi, the son of Boko Haram founder Mohammed Yusuf. Barnawi was appointed last year by the Islamic State group to replace leader Abubakar Shekau, who had pledged allegiance to the Middle East jihadist group in 2015. AFP