Iranian, Russian deputy foreign ministers discuss Syria over phone

Moscow, Oct t 6, IRNA – Deputies of Iranian and Russian Foreign Ministers Hossein Jaberi Ansari and Mikhail Bogdanov in a telephone conversation on Thursday underlined need for resolving the crisis in Syria through political means and sending humanitarian aid to the civilians.

During the phone conversation, Jaberi Ansari and Bogdanov dismissed military solution to the problems in Syria, and said the Syrian people should decide their own fate under a tranquil atmosphere and without foreign interference.

They also stressed the necessity for sending humanitarian aid to different parts of Syria, especially Aleppo. 

IS recruits more educated than average-- World Bank study

Recruits into the Islamic State group are better educated than their average countryman, contrary to popular belief, according to a new World Bank study.
Moreover, those offering to become suicide bombers ranked on average in the more educated group, said the newly released study titled Economic and Social Inclusion to Prevent Violent Extremism.
The study, which aimed to identify socioeconomic traits that might explain why some are drawn to the Syria-based extremist group, made clear that poverty and deprivation were not at the root of support for the group.
Almost without exception, fighters joining IS's Syria and Iraq-based forces had several more years of education in their home countries -- whether in Europe, Africa or elsewhere in the Middle East -- than the average citizen.
The data shows clearly, the report said, that poverty is not a driver of radicalization into violent extremism.
Out of 331 recruits described in a leaked Islamic State database, only 17 percent did not finish high school, while a quarter had university-level educations.
Only those from Eastern Europe were below the average, and only marginally so, according to the study.
Foreign recruits from the Middle East, North Africa and South and East Asia are significantly more educated than what is typical in their region, the Bank report said.
About 30 percent of the recruits told the extremist group what positions in the force they wanted. Around one in nine volunteered for suicide operations, and their educational levels were on par with those who sought to be administrators, the report said.
The proportions of administrators but also of suicide fighters increase with education, it said.
Most of the 331 recruits also reported having a job before traveling to join the Islamic State group, also known as Daesh, according to the study.
However, it noted that a significant number of those choosing suicide fighter as their preferred option when enlisting said that they had not been employed back in their home country, or that they were in the military before joining the group.
An important finding is that these individuals are far from being uneducated or illiterate. Most claim to have attended secondary school and a large fraction have gone on to study at university, the report said.
We find that Daesh did not recruit its foreign workforce among the poor and less educated, but rather the opposite. Instead, the lack of economic inclusion seems to explain the extent of radicalization into violent extremism.

Istanbul to host World Energy Congress starting Oct. 9

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By Dilara Zengin

ANKARA

The 23rd World Energy Congress 2016 in Istanbul will bring together hundreds of leaders and representatives of the sector with the participation of decision and policy-makers between Oct. 9-13.

The congress will be co-hosted by Prime Minister Binali Yildirim and Energy and Natural Resources Minister Berat Albayrak, and held under the auspices of President Recep Tayyip Erdogan.

The triennial event, for which Anadolu Agency will be the Global Communication Partner, will open at the Istanbul Congress Valley on Sunday, Oct. 9.

The congress will witness exchanges among policymakers from several countries central to the energy field. Russia's President Vladimir Putin will also attend.

Along with Maros Sefcovic, the European Commission’s vice-president for the energy union, and Khalid El-Falih, Russia's energy minister, ministers of energy, the environment, the economy and industry from some 54 countries, including Iran, Saudi Arabia, Iraq, the United Arab Emirates, Jordan, Venezuela, Germany, Switzerland, Bulgaria, Algeria, Nigeria, Sudan, Ethiopia, Tanzania, Argentina, Bolivia, and Uruguay, among others, will convene at the congress to steer the global energy agenda.

Under the theme “Embracing New Frontiers,” the congress program will lead delegates through the current and critical issues facing the energy industry.

The four-day program will open with a focus on future visions for the global energy industry. Day two will focus on business opportunities and resource management, as well as responses to new challenges of adaptation and innovation to ensure a secure, reliable energy system. Day three will lead with discussions of policy implications, with sessions designed to address the necessary institutional change to balance the World Energy Trilemma – energy security, energy equity, and environmental sustainability.

Day 4: Africa

The final day will be dedicated to Africa, with sessions exploring critical drivers and innovations working to secure a sustainable energy future for the region.

The umbrella topic on the final day will be "Africa: Securing a Sustainable Energy Future," to be discussed in eight separate sessions.

Energy giants, international finance

The 266 speakers from 80 countries at the world’s most comprehensive energy event will include CEOs and top executives of global energy giants such as BP, Gazprom, Royal Dutch Shell, GE, Total, Saudi Aramco, Rosatom, SOCAR, Lukoil, OMV, EDF, EnBW, ENGIE, TANAP, E.ON, Wintershall, VNG, DESFA, and the China National Nuclear Corporation.

Additionally, top technology companies including Bosch, Siemens, DHL, Silver Spring Networks, ThyssenKrupp, and Westinghouse will guide the debate on future innovative trends.

Top executives from the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development, European Investment Bank, Asian Development Bank, Islamic Development Bank, OPEC Fund for International Development, Development Bank of Latin America, Goldman Sachs, and ING will join in to discuss the financing of global energy transitions.

Paperless congress

For the first time in its history, the congress will be paperless, with all information-sharing and programming to be conducted on digital platforms.

Turkish military presence in Bashiqa 'to continue': PM

    

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Turkish Prime Minister Binali Yildirim said Thursday that Turkey's military presence in Bashiqa would continue despite the Iraqi parliament’s mislabeling Turkish troops in the country as “occupiers”.

"Our aim is to prevent more human tragedy and more bloodshed [in the region]," Yildirim told a news conference in the capital Ankara.

"Turkey has always been in the region throughout history," the Turkish premier said, adding that Baghdad has no right to say inappropriate words towards Turkey while there are many countries in the region which have no bond with Iraq.

Yildirim also said the label was improper considering Iraq's indifferent attitude towards the PKK terrorist group, which has been taking shelter in the country for decades.

"It is nonsense for Iraq to focus on Turkey's military presence [in Bashiqa] while putting aside troops from 63 countries in the country with the same aim as Turkey, which is combatting terror and Daesh," he said.

Iraq’s parliament urged the government Tuesday to send a diplomatic note to the Turkish ambassador in Baghdad describing Turkish troops training forces against Daesh as “hostile occupying forces”. They also called for a reassessment of trade and economic ties with Turkey.

On Wednesday, the Turkish Foreign Ministry summoned Iraq’s ambassador in Ankara over the incident.

In turn, Iraq’s Foreign Ministry summoned Turkey’s ambassador in Baghdad.

On Tuesday, the Turkish Foreign Ministry slammed what it described as the Iraqi parliament's "mischaracterization" of the Turkish military presence in Bashiqa.

"We strongly condemn the Iraqi parliament's unacceptable assertions, including baseless accusations leveled against the Turkish President [Recep Tayyip Erdogan]," the ministry declared in a statement.

In 2007, Turkey’s parliament gave a mandate to the country’s armed forces to take military action against terrorist groups in Iraq. In 2014, with the emergence of the Daesh terrorist group, that mandate was expanded to include Syria.

Last week, the Turkish parliament renewed the mandate, drawing criticism from certain Iraqi political circles.

Last December, Turkey sent some 150 troops and about two dozen combat tanks to Camp Bashiqa, located some 12 kilometers (7.46 miles) northeast of the Daesh-held city of Mosul.

The deployment -- which was criticized at the time by Baghdad -- was aimed at protecting Turkish military personnel tasked with training Iraqi volunteers to fight Daesh.

Reporting by Aylin Sirikli and Hande Ilbeyi Canca : Writing by Burcu Arik

Blast near police station in Istanbul injures 10 people

ISTANBUL

A bomb-laden motorcycle exploded near a police station in Istanbul, injuring 10 people on Thursday, the city's governor said.

Speaking to reporters at the blast site, Istanbul Governor Vasip Sahin said the attack took place in Bahcelievler district, located on the European side of the city.

“Ten of our citizens were injured in the explosion; no one is seriously injured,” Sahin said.

Earlier, the governor tweeted that one of the injured was critical.

Preliminary reports based on police sources said the blast took place in an area close to the Yenibosna police station at around 3.50 p.m. (GMT 1250).

The explosion also damaged nearby cars and broken windows in the densely-populated residential district.

Several fire-fighting vehicles and ambulances were seen rushing towards the scene following the incident.

Security forces evacuated the area and were said to be on the look out for a suspect across the city. A helicopter is also being used in the search operation. 

Interview-

Michael Kosterlitz-: Nobel Prize came as a surprise

©  the EPA / Markku Ojala

The Nobel Committee at the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences awarded the October 4 working in the United States by the British scientist David Thouless, Duncan Haldane and Michael Kosterlitz- the Nobel Prize in 2016 in physics - "for the theoretical discovery of a topological phase transitivity and topological phase of matter." One of the researchers, Michael Kosterlitz-, is currently in the Finnish Aalto University, where he had gone to work for only a few months. In an interview with Tass, he told about his discovery and how it changed after his normal life.

- How do you know that you won the Nobel Prize?

- When I first heard the news about it, I was in the underground car park in Espoo (satellite city of Helsinki -.. Note TASS) and going up to the shopping center to go for lunch. At this point, I got a call and was told that I won the Nobel Prize. I was not even quite sure what I was told, because it was noisy around.

- Was this unexpected news for you?

- Let's just say I thought that our (and his colleagues) work good enough and that we could have a Nobel Prize. But so much time has passed since then, as we have done, and I decided that this would not happen. So in this sense the award was a big surprise.

- Could you explain the discoveries made by you?

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- In the beginning it was a purely theoretical problem - try to combine mathematical theory, which, as it seemed, it was assumed that the phase transition(change of state of matter -. Note Tass.) Does not exist in certain systems with two dimensions, with a number of experimental observations, which showed the phase transition is still probably exists, for example, from solid to liquid. It was interesting to try to explain why the theory in these cases is not valid.

But then began holding some new experiments in systems with two dimensions, for example in a thin film of superfluid liquid helium, were also experiments with crystals and finally with cloud of cold atoms. The behavior of all of these systems can be explained in terms of our theory. This makes it clear why she could be worthy of the Nobel Prize.

- Where's your discovery can be used in which areas of science or in some practical things?

- If we speak about practical things, instruments, or something like that, I can not tell where it will be applied. But it explains, for example, superconductivity in a very delicate matter, it can be used in practice. If something has two dimensions, whereas the theory can be applied to it. But to build some real existing system is not so simple in two dimensions.

- What are you currently working in Finland?

- Here in Finland, I came to work on a completely different problem.

SEE ALSO

Nobel in physics: five interesting facts from the history of the award

But during my stay here I have not been able to carry out any research since the impression that my life no longer belongs to me. In fact, in Finland, I had wanted to learn from the people I work with now, because they are engaged in a very interesting study.But circumstances have prevailed, and I have not had a chance to discuss with them what they are doing.

Since the award of the Nobel Prize, my life is becoming more and more chaotic. I get a lot of calls and the number of unread messages in the e-mail came close to a thousand. And I have no idea when I can open them

Подробнее на ТАСС:
http://tass.ru/opinions/interviews/3683112

North Korea news-Prices of daily commodities soar in N. Korea over U.N. sanctions

HONG KONG, Oct. 6 (Yonhap) -- Prices of daily commodities have jumped dramatically in North Korea, a businesswoman claimed Thursday, apparent fallout from both U.N. sanctions and the devastating floods that have hit the communist country.

Lie Ok-jin, managing director of Green Leaves Development Ltd., said that Chinese traders increased the prices of rice, sugar, flour and diesel oil by about 50 percent by taking advantage of the short supply of the commodities due to sanctions. China is North Korea's most important trading partner and a key source of food and fuel.

Lie, an ethnic Chinese who was born and raised in North Korea before moving to Hong Kong in 1973, also said North Koreans are going through tough times, as the value of North Korean currency has recently dropped by about 50 percent.

Still, it remains unclear whether she meant that the North Korean currency declined against the U.S. dollar or whether its foreign exchange rate was based on North Korea's official foreign exchange rate or on black market currency exchanges.

Lie, who said she traded raw materials such as coal and iron ore with North Korea, said the volume of her business with North Korea has been cut dramatically following the U.N. sanctions.

North Korea has been under the toughest U.N. sanctions ever over its fourth nuclear test and its long-range rocket launch earlier this year.

The sanctions call for, among other things, the mandatory inspection of all cargo going into and out of the North and a ban on the country's exports of coal and other mineral resources to cut off North Korea's access to hard currency.

Lie also said outside assistance to North Korea over its recent floods has been cut compared to that of previous years, even though drinking water, food and clothes are in short supply in flood-ravaged areas.

The U.N. has announced a plan to stage a campaign to raise some US$28 million to assist residents in the six North Hamkyong areas, which saw the country's worst-ever flooding. The U.N. estimates that 138 North Koreans were killed and 400 others are missing, with about 20,000 houses destroyed.

North Korea has been hit by devastating floods in recent years due in part to deforestation.

Over 80% of young Italians live with parents

(ANSA) - Paris, October 5 - As many as 80.6% of Italian young people live with their parents, according to the annual report from the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) on social wellbeing and its trends in the 34 most industrialised countries.
    The impact of young people (aged 18-29) not in employment, education or training (NEET) amounts to 1.4% of GDP, the report said.
    The percentage of NEETs among the youth population has risen to 27%, the second highest in the OECD after Turkey.

Over 100,000 Italian expats in 2015, majority aged 18-34

ANSA) - Rome, October 6 - Over 100,000 Italians emigrated in 2015, up 6.2% over the previous year, according to a report by the Migrantes Foundation out Thursday. Of the total of 107,529 Italian expats, 36.7% or 39.410 are aged 18-34 and the preferred destination was Germany (16,568 emigrants), records showed. The main regions people emigrated from are Lombardy (20.088) and Veneto (10.374) in Italy's wealthy industrialized north. The report also showed 69.2% of Italians emigrated elsewhere in Europe. Emigration to South America dropped 14.9% over last year, while that to Central and North America were stable.
    Over 60,000 or 56.1% of expats were men, and unmarried people of both genders made up 60.2%.
    Emigration "sometimes is a sign of impoverishment rather than a free choice inspired by the circulation of knowledge and experience," Italy's President Sergio Mattarella wrote.
    The Migrantes Foundation is a Catholic organization.

Pakistan passes long-awaited anti-honour killing legislation

Pakistan's National Assembly passed legislation Thursday closing a loophole that allowed people who killed in the name of "honour" to go free, mandating life imprisonment even if the victim's relatives forgive the murder.

Honour killings "claim the lives of hundreds of victims every year", the bill stated, adding that the legislation was "essential in order to prevent these crimes from being repeatedly committed".

Rights groups and politicians have for years called for tougher laws to tackle perpetrators of violence against women in Pakistan and the move follows a slew of high-profile killings in the country.

The perpetrators of so-called honour killings -- in which the victim, normally a woman, is killed by a relative -- often walk free because they can seek forgiveness for the crime from another family member.

A 2005 amendment to the law pertaining to honour killings prevented men who kill female relatives pardoning themselves as an "heir" of the victim.

But punishment was left to a judge's discretion when other relatives of the victim forgive the killer -- a loophole which critics say is exploited.

The amendments passed Thursday and published on the National Assembly website mandate judges to sentence someone who kills in the name of "honour" to life imprisonment, even if they have been forgiven, said senior opposition lawmaker Farhatullah Babar.

The assembly also passed a bill boosting the punishments for some rape offences.

Rape conviction rates are close to zero percent, largely due to the law's reliance on circumstantial evidence and a lack of forensic testing.

Afghan asylum seekers stranded at Hungary-Serbia border

A 24-year-old man from Afghanistan lost his leg due to a land-mine explosion. He said he fled his country with his wife and two children because, “the Taliban are killing people.” Photo by Danielle Villasana

"Now there's a stalemate, and people who are coming are not going to get in. Nobody seems to have an answer as to how it will improve in light of Hungary's closure over the last couple of months," said Albert Grain, the volunteer coordinator for Refugee Aid Miksaliste, a nongovernmental organization in Belgrade providing assistance to migrants.

Thirty-six-year-old Marzia, far left, holding her youngest daughter, walks with her two other daughters toward Belgrade’s “Afghan Park” after receiving food from a distribution center. Photo by Danielle Villasana

Grain said about 65 percent of people they receive are from Afghanistan. Thirty-six-year-old Marzia and her husband left Afghanistan with their three daughters because of the ethnic and religious discrimination they faced as Shiite Muslims. "Every day it's becoming worse and worse," said her husband, adding that they will try to reach Western Europe using smugglers.

Marzia says her children suffer from psychological problems and from the pressures of the long journey that has now lasted eight months. “My little daughter is very nervous. She’s not the same as she was, and she’s not listening to me as she would before.” Photo by Danielle Villasana

"The main problem for vulnerable groups like families is the lack of accommodation and the lack of a safe space, where they can rest even for a couple of hours," said Grain. Like Marzia and her family, the majority of migrants sleep in these two parks on cardboard, covering themselves with blankets provided by aid organizations.

Faced with overcrowded camps with poor facilities, where people wait for extended periods hoping to be admitted into Hungary, people are increasingly turning toward smugglers.

Marzia’s daughters look at a map of Serbia in a pamphlet that provides information for migrants and asylum-seekers. “I think this is a problem that will dramatically change the entire concept of borders and the entire geography of Europe, if we’re not careful,” Grain said. Photo by Danielle Villasana

"The conditions of the transit zones, the lack of adequate shelters, hygiene, proper water systems and showers are creating increasing problems with skin conditions and gastrointestinal diseases," said Medecins Sans Frontieres humanitarian affairs officer Francois Tillette de Mautort, at the Horgos border camp, where 60 percent of the occupants are women and children, most of them waiting an opportunity to cross the border.

The makeshift refugee camp is located near one of two border crossings in an area that is neither Serbian territory nor administered by Hungary. Organizations such as Medecins Sans Frontieres are working to improve camp conditions. Photo by Danielle Villasana

"The world has forgotten about Afghanistan because our country has been at war for 40 years. [First] Russia, then the Taliban, now Daesh [Islamic State] and the Taliban, are all in my country," said Mohammad Hanif, who left Afghanistan six months ago with his wife and four children, and now lives in the Horgos camp. Hanif was an employee at Kabul's Northgate Hotel, which was attacked by the Taliban in August.

Afghan asylum seeker Mohammad Hanif, left, attempts to fix a sink in Horgos border camp. Hanif, who left Afghanistan six months ago, now lives in the camp with his wife and four children. Photo by Danielle Villasana

Many of these families "don't see any futures in their home countries because even if these countries are not at war in this moment or involved in a conflict, they're all coming from countries with histories of conflict and violence," said Tatjana Ristic, who works with Save the Children in Belgrade.

Twenty-seven-year-old Maroof, not pictured, carried his son, who has disabilities, on his back, while fleeing Afghanistan with his wife and two other children. Photo by Danielle Villasana

Save the Children provides a child-friendly space and a teenage corner where Ristic said children and their families can relax and feel like they're at home. "Because we are working with children in distress, children who went through traumatic experiences, we provide a space where they rest, relax, feel safe and also have a chance to be children again so that they can play and express themselves as they want to, in their way," she added.

One of the activities that the child-friendly space offers is called “Superhero” in which children can paint and draw superheroes that resemble themselves as a way to focus on their strengths that helped them during their journey. Photo by Danielle Villasana

Refugee Aid Miksaliste is one of the Belgrade-based organizations serving as a distribution and integration center. From distribution of non-food items such as clothing, shoes, hygiene supplies and blankets, to providing "safe" spaces for mothers and minors, as well as computers, showers and various workshops, the organization covers a range of asylum seekers' needs. They also provide meals to about 350 and 400 migrants a day.

An Afghan man holds his daughter as he walks into Refugee Aid Miksaliste, a distribution and integration center in Belgrade. Photo by Danielle Villasana

Recounting his experience of arriving in Greece by boat only to find out that the borders had been closed, Hanif asks: "Why did you allow the women and the children in, and then close the borders?"

Hanif’s daughter helps her sister drink juice that is distributed daily, along with other food items such as bread and milk, by the Hungarian government. Photo by Danielle Villasana

Danielle Villasana is an independent photojournalist whose documentary work focuses on women, identity, human rights and health. This article originally appeared on Refugees Deeply, and you can find the original here. For important news about the global migration crisis, you can sign up to the Refugees Deeply email list.

Infants use prefrontal cortex for learning, study finds

Researchers typically regard the prefrontal cortext to be too undeveloped for infants to use, but Brown University scientists say this may not be the case. Photo by Alena Ozerova/Shutterstock

PROVIDENCE, R.I., Oct. 6 (UPI) -- Infants may begin using their prefrontal cortex earlier than previously believed, according to a study conducted by Brown University scientists.

Researchers have traditionally considered the prefrontal cortex, the portion of the brain responsible for higher cognitive activity, to be too underdeveloped in young children. However, a study involving 8-month-old infants suggests this may not be the case.

In the study, published in the Journal of Neuroscience, babies were tasked with learning simple hierarchical rules. Researchers observed the infants employed many of the same circuits to complete those tasks as adults do. Senior study author Dima Amso says their findings may mean the prefrontal cortex in an infant is not necessarily less developed, but rather adjusting to a different environment.

"The wow factor isn't 'Look the PFC works," Amso said in a press release. "It's that what seems to be happening is that its function is a really good fit for what these babies need to be mastering at that moment in their development."

The research team came to their conclusion after testing 37 babies in a bilingual scenario. The babies were placed in front of screens, which showed a face and then an image of a toy. The task was to determine which words were associated with which person, effectively testing two sets of vocabulary. Researchers measured their responses by tracking brain activity and eye blinks.

Brown University scientists say their study changes the conventional understanding of neurodevelopment.

"Atypical development, then, might reflect an inability to adapt to an environmental challenge, or an earlier adaptation because of a negative environment," Amso added. "We and others are probing with these ideas as relevant to PFC development."