"More HCL Talk" - Tues. PM KTFA Thoughts/News 3/26/19

by **Ssmith** Wed Mar 27, 2019 9:55 am

KTFA

Iobey777 » March 26th, 2019

More HCL talk!! I bet the citizens will be happy when they make good this promise!!!I also bet we will be happy too!

Samson » March 26th, 2019

Each Iraqi citizen to get part of oil revenues, proposal

26th March, 2019 extra to post 162 last thread

Some Iraqi parliamentarians suggested allocating 10% of oil revenues to the Iraqi people.

The proposal suggested that the funds should be under the name of “Citizen’s Fund”, which shall be affiliated to the ministry of finance.

The MPs said that “all Iraqi wealth belongs to the people, but most of the funds were wasted due to mal-administration”.

It is expected that all political blocs will support this suggestion. LINK

Abdul Mahdi to disrupt the official working day next Tuesday

26th March, 2019

Prime Minister Adel Abdul-Mahdi to disrupt the official working day on Tuesday, the second of April, on the occasion of the martyrdom of Imam Kadhim "AS".

"We have canceled the official working day on Tuesday, the second of April, on the occasion of the martyrdom of Imam Kadhim, peace be upon him," Abdul Mahdi said during his weekly press conference.

Millions of believers visit the city of Kadhimiya, north of Baghdad, to commemorate the martyrdom of Imam Musa al-Kadhim (AS), while the security forces take strict measures and cut off some roads and streets. LINK

Thirty-seven officials arrested in Mosul over corruption charges

2019/3/26 17:38

Revealed a local source familiar with the arrest of 37 officials in Mosul against the background of corruption files.

The source told the correspondent of the agency {Euphrates News} that "the Integrity Commission announced the arrest of 37 officials in Mosul against the background of files of corruption."

It is noteworthy that the tragedy of Mosul, which claimed the lives of more than 120 people, mostly women and children revealed the extent of corruption in the city. The latest statistics on the victims of the sinking of the ferry in the city of Mosul, indicating the arrival of the number to 120 Gaiha, mostly children and women. Official statistics recorded the loss and missing 98 people.

The Supreme Judicial Council decided to form a special investigative body to investigate the sinking of the ferry in the Tigris River in Nineveh province.

For his part, voted the House of Representatives last Sunday, unanimously to dismiss the governor of Nineveh Nawfal al-Akoub of his post and two deputies. LINK

StephenMac63 » March 26th, 2019

Uhuh, here's my article I'm looking for....."need to cancel internet because of studies".........lemme guess, no internet for 3 days

Samson » March 26th, 2019

Telecommunications Company Announces Loss of "Sea Cable" The Most Important Internet Resources in Iraq

2019/3/26 19:42

The General Company for Communications and Informatics announced on Tuesday the loss of one of the most important Internet sources in Iraq, noting that it is continuing to follow up the subject and restore the service normally.

The company said, in a statement received by the {Euphrates News} copy of it, we would like to inform you that the submarine cable, which is one of the most important sources of the Internet in Iraq has been cut off at about 8:30 am yesterday.

The engineering staff at the General Company for Communications and Informatics continue to follow up the matter to ensure that the service is returned with the best quality," Mbea said. "The submarine cable is an important source of the Internet. The Ministry of Communication In Iraq.

The company explained that the submarine cable runs from Faw in southern Iraq to the Persian Gulf and the Red Sea and the Suez Canal, and then into the Mediterranean and Europe, citing the Internet capacities across the world to Iraq. LINK

ARAB SUMMIT: ECONOMIC COMPLEMENTARITY AT STAKE

26th March, 2019

A large number of Arab leaders are expected this week in Tunis to attend the 30th Summit of the Arab League, due on March 31.

The Tunis summit is held at a time when the Arab world is still shaken by crises and changes in terms of politics and security in the region. Changes that have made the dream of Arab economic complementarity have been slow to come true. Geographically, the Arab region covers a large area of over 13 million km2. It is populated by nearly 400 million people who speak the same language.

Analysts and economists expect, however, that the Tunis summit will succeed in narrowing the differences and identifying ways to restore hope to the Arab peoples in an Arab world with joint economic interests, although politically it is far from being coherent.

Director of the Arab Centre for Research and Policy and Social Analysis (CARAPS) in Geneva Riadh Sidaoui, Academic and professor of economics at the University of Tunis Ridha Chkondali, and Hakim Ben Hammouda, former Minister of Finance focused in their interviews given to TAP, on the issue of Arab economic complementarity, evaluating the joint Arab action in this sense.

Complementarity between hammer and anvil

'The Arab States that have begun the process of union, even before it was launched by Europe, have achieved only 'very negative results,' while Europe is currently united financially, logistically, militarily and economically, Riadh Sidaoui considered.

This failure in achieving Arab economic complementarity is attributed, according to him, to the failure to achieve two main demands: freedom of movement of persons and capital in the Arab region.

'The goals targeted by the Arab League have never been achieved. The regional divisions of the Arab League, such as the Gulf Co-operation Council (GCC) and the Arab Maghreb Union (AMU) are deadlocked because of political disputes, including that concerning the Qatari crisis.

The political scientist went so far as to say that 'there is no hope for Arab economic complementarity. The Arab countries will not achieve any economic objective.'

The Tunis Summit will be held shortly after the Arab Economic Summit in Beirut, Lebanon, January 20, 2019, which few Arab leaders attended. The summit did not lead to any decisions that could boost Arab economic rapprochement.

Sidaoui also described the Arab summits as 'festivities and meetings of diplomatic courtesy without any tangible results.'

The Tunis Summit, an attempt to remedy the political divide

Riadh Sidaioui believes that Tunisia remains a country with moderate positions. 'The country is still seeking unity and condemns discord. It could have played a better role at the regional level, if it has not been in transition and in economic difficulty.” According to him, the imminent Arab summit will not bring miracles. 'It is bound to fail because of several endogenous and exogenous factors, including the positioning of the Israeli entity in the heart of the Arab world.'

For this Tunisian intellectual based in Geneva, the Arab world is still in the grip of the West and it works to ensure that the region does not turn into an economic giant by fuelling discord, maintaining its policies and attracting the region’s competences.' 'Arab public opinion is no longer interested in the conclaves of Arab politicians. They have made no tangible decision expressing the Arab public opinion since 1973,' he told TAP.

The Arab world: Missed opportunities for complementarity

Former Finance Minister Hakim Ben Hammouda (January 29, 2014-February 6, 2015) described the Arab economic reality as 'difficult,' with low growth rates and financial imbalances, as well as conflicts and wars that persist in some countries. He also considered that the obstacles hitherto hindering the Arab economic complementarity are the result of the lack of diversification of economic activities and the heavy dependence on raw materials, underlining 'the low level of inter-Arab trade and investment'. Ben Hammouda considered that the main challenge facing the Arab world today is the establishment of new visions and a new political and economic project that takes into account the political and geographical changes in the region. 'The question is whether the Arab institutions in place are capable of taking up this challenge.'

According to the former minister, 'all the Arab summits organised so far since that of Kuwait in 2009, have emphasized the importance of Arab complementarity, except that this concept has remained at the slogan stage, in the lack of concrete measures that could convert it into reality.' 'The level of Arab complementarity remains very low, compared to other processes of complementarity and economic integration launched by other Asian and African regional groupings,' he lamented.

Arab complementarity in figures

According to academic Ridha Chkondali, 'the Arab countries represent a market of 400 million consumers and have a GDP of $ 2,354 billion, an average annual income per capita of around $ 5,900.' 'However, one cannot ignore the existing gap in the distribution of wealth between the Arab Maghreb countries which shelter a quarter of the inhabitants of the Arab region but who hold only 13.8% of the Arab GDP, against more than 50% owned by the countries of the Gulf Co-operation Council (GCC) whose population does not exceed 13.4% of the Arab population,' he specified.

Thus, the average annual income per capita in the GCC countries is $ 25,708, eight times that of the countries of the Arab Maghreb ($ 3,242). The average annual income per inhabitant in the signatory countries of the Agadir Agreement is $ 3,068. He added that 'in spite of the existence of a legislative and institutional framework conducive to the establishment of an Arab economic complementarity, the level of inter-Arab trade remains very low, with inter-Arab imports representing only 13.8% of the total imports from Arab countries and inter-Arab exports representing barely 12% of exports from Arab countries in 2016.”

Chkondali divides the Arab world into three major groups. The first, that of the Gulf Co-operation Council countries which constitutes, according to him, the most integrated group of the Arab region with imports between its countries worth 85.1% of their total imports from the Arab countries and exports accounting for 72.1% of their total exports to Arab countries. However, these countries' trade with the Arab Maghreb countries represents barely 1.2% of their imports from the Arab countries and 3.8% of their exports to the Arab countries.

The second group including the member countries of the Agadir Agreement (Tunisia, Morocco, Egypt, Jordan), records a low volume of trade between its countries, whose mutual imports represent only 9.5% of their total imports from Arab countries. Exports among the countries in this group are barely 12.8% of their total exports to Arab countries. This group is, however, the most open group on the other groups, in this case on the oil-producing countries from which the Agadir countries import 80.3% of their imports from the Arab countries and to which, they export 65.3% of their exports to the Arab countries.

The third group, which includes the Arab Maghreb Union (AMU) countries, knows an average level of trade between its countries (Tunisia, Algeria, Morocco, Libya, Mauritania), which import between them 42.6% of their imports from the Arab world and which export, among them, 58.6% of their total exports to the Arab countries.

Arab economic complementarity between people's dreams and the complexity of stakes

A recent study prepared by the IMF’s Middle East and Central Asia Department, whose main results were published by TAP in February 2019, showed that 'thanks to the integration of the Maghreb countries, the combined GDP of Maghreb countries could have reached, in 2017, 360 billion US dollars (equivalent to the GDP of the United Arab Emirates) and that each individual would have an average income of nearly 4 thousand dollars.

The study entitled 'Economic Integration of the Maghreb: Untapped source of growth,' also affirmed that the integration of Maghreb countries requires the reduction of barriers to trade and investment, the connection of networks, the liberalisation of markets, improvement of the business climate and the strengthening of regional and international integration.

However, long decades after the creation of the Arab League, Arab economic complementarity remains a dream that cradles people, concerns researchers and the media but breaks on the pitfall of a bitter reality. A reality that remains very far from the slogans and speeches reproduced by the Arab leaders on the occasion of each summit. Have the Arabs really agreed not to agree? LINK

Surprise ... Discover life on Mars

2019/3/25 19:15

Scientists from the US agency NASA have found life on Mars, after finding fungi and algae growing on the Red Planet.

According to the British newspaper "Daily Express", a group of algae, lichen plants and fungi on Mars were photographed by the vehicle "Koryosity Rover". Images show 15 mushroom-shaped images that these organisms grow larger and emerge from under the red sand of Mars.

Vincenzo Rizzo, a biologist at the National Research Council, said the seasonal fluctuations in the Martian methane were further evidence of life. "90% of the Earth's methane has a biological origin. Seasonal fluctuations in methane in the atmosphere are directly related to plant growth and death cycles, and cyclical mutations in Martian methane are a reflection of active biology that also appears before and after the images of the samples taken by NASA.

NASA concluded that there is a strange life growing on Mars, after a large number of scientific studies in this matter. Scientists have been preoccupied with hundreds of years of probing life on Mars since Italian astronomer Giovanni Chiaparelli converted his telescope to the Red Planet, making him the first man to draw a map of Mars.

Chiaparelli noted the dark areas, which are supposed to be seas, which have linear advantages hundreds of kilometers long, called "canals". LINK

Source: Dinar Recaps
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Samson » March 26th, 2019

In the presence of 300 officials .. The establishment of the US national day in Baghdad and the last receive a message

26th March, 2019

On the occasion of the 24th anniversary of the independence of the United States of America, the Embassy in Baghdad celebrated the US National Day.

The ceremony was attended by more than 300 US and Iraqi government officials and diplomats from various countries, as well as a group of Iraqi civil society leaders and business leaders.

"Iraq must understand that building a nation based on the democratic ideals of all people is hard work and does not happen overnight," said Chargé d'Affaires Joy Hood in his opening speech. "However, the system based on these principles will last.

Can not be erased for all American citizens is what makes our democracy strong, not just on July 4, but every day. " LINK

Oil surges amid continuing supply cuts, but recession fears curb it

26th March, 2019

Oil prices rose on Tuesday, driven by OPEC-led supply cuts and US sanctions on Iran and Venezuela, but fears of a possible recession have prevented further market gains

At 0747 GMT, Brent crude futures were at $ 67.48 a barrel, up 27 cents, or 0.4 percent, from their latest close

US crude was up $ 59.35 a barrel, up 53 cents, or 0.9 percent from the previous settlement
Oil prices have been supported since the beginning of 2019 by the efforts of the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) and its allies such as Russia, which have pledged to withhold about 1.2 million barrels per day of supply this year to lift markets

Trafigura said on Monday it expected Brent to float between $ 66 and $ 67 a barrel, or slightly higher, for the rest of the year LINK

Iraq registers more than 8,000 tourists in three days

26th March, 2019

The Tourism Authority announced on Tuesday the entry of more than eight thousand tourists to Iraq during the three days of last week on the occasion of Norouz holidays, indicating that more than half of them entered through the airports of Baghdad and Najaf Ashraf.

The Director of Relations and Information in the Authority Mohammed Al-Rifii said in a statement to the "information", "The Commission registered the entry of 8025 tourists for the period from 18 to 21 March of this year of different nationalities."

He added that "4555 tourists entered Iraq through Baghdad and Najaf international Ashraf," noting that "the number of Iranian arrivals through Najaf airport and the port of Shalamjah amounted to 3470 Iranian expatriates." LINK