LONDON, MAY 30 (DNA) – Britain, France and Germany on Saturday strongly condemned a US decision to end sanctions waivers for companies from nations that remain in a nuclear accord with Iran.

The waivers were part of the landmark agreement signed with Tehran in 2015 that sought to limit Iran’s nuclear ambitions in return for lifting crippling economic sanctions.

They allowed European, Chinese and Russian companies to work on the conversion of a heavy water reactor in Arak, a major industrial city in western Iran.

“We deeply regret the US decision to end the three waivers covering key JCPOA nuclear projects in Iran,” read a joint statement from the three European powers.

“These projects, endorsed by U.N. Security Council Resolution 2231, serve the non-proliferation interests of all and provide the international community with assurances of the exclusively peaceful and safe nature of Iranian nuclear activities.”

US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo announced the decision to end the waivers earlier this week.

The nuclear deal, known formally as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), was signed by the US, Britain, China, France, Germany and Russia as well as Iran.=DNA

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Tashkent, Uzbekistan ,  MAY 30 — A meeting with the leadership and residents of Sergeli district of Tashkent took place in the new ecopark.

“Today I came here to find out what worries our people in the current difficult situation caused by the coronavirus pandemic, and together discuss what else needs to be done to improve their lives,” the head of state said.

Investment projects formed for Sergeli district are considered.

In particular, this year it is planned to implement 61 investment projects worth 1.8 trillion soums, creating more than 5 thousand jobs.

22 projects with the participation of foreign investments worth $ 83 million will also be implemented.

For example, the Tashkent Pipe Plant, together with Chinese partners, will launch production of 500 thousand tons of sheet metal per year. This year, US$85 million will be invested in this project.

Due to the narrowing to 65-80 meters of the channel of the Chirchik River, a reserve of 565 hectares of land will arise on its 16-kilometer section in Bektemir and Sergeli districts. By placing new investment projects here, it will be possible to create 160 thousand new jobs. Responsible persons are entrusted with a detailed study of this issue.

The head of state emphasized the need to develop small businesses, increase employment and reduce poverty by supporting community initiatives.

A number of projects for the development of transport and municipal infrastructure are being implemented. In particular, Uzbekistan Temir Yollari JSC is constructing the Sergeli Elevated Metro with a length of 7 kilometers and a cost of 83 million dollars. The task was set to put this line into operation in September this year.

Instructions are given on improving sewer and heating networks, modernizing centralized heating by transferring it to a closed system.

NEW YORK, May 30 (DNA):Protests over police brutality and the killing of an unarmed African-American man at the hands of policemen ignited once again on Friday across the United States, as demonstrators clashed with security forces in Minneapolis, New York, Atlanta and other cities, according to media reports.

In Washington, DC, hundreds of people rallied outside the White House, which was briefly put under lockdown on Friday, demanding justice over the death of George Floyd, the reports said.

A former Minneapolis police officer has been arrested and charged with murder over  Floyd’s death in custody.

Derek Chauvin, who is white, was shown in footage kneeling on 46-year-old Floyd’s neck on Monday. He and three other officers have since been sacked.

Chauvin, 44, is due to appear in court in Minneapolis for the first time on Monday.

Gatherings were largely peaceful as people marched in the streets from Los Angeles to New York, but in Atlanta, demonstrators set a police car ablaze and broke windows at CNN’s headquarters.

The Minnesota governor, who set a curfew for the city of Minneapolis, had pledged that Friday would be different from the previous night, when officers abandoned the area around the third police precinct to thousands of angry demonstrators who set fire to the building.

But as the curfew arrived, the protesters were back out in force and not giving ground, as TV channels clover the events live. Thousands gathered around the police station.

Once again the police retreated. Once again the protesters took control. Defying repeated orders, and waves of teargas, they kept pushing forward until the police gave way.

Within half an hour the police station, the symbol of what the protesters saw as their victory the previous evening, was back in their hands. They celebrated with selfies and tours of its wrecked interior.

As the sun went down, the protesters kept pushing the police back. The governor had threatened to send in the national guard, but it was nowhere to be seen. Neither, for now, was there a repeat of the looting and burning of buildings.

Protests have raged all week in the wake of Floyd’s death, with protesters calling for an end to police brutality and justice for him and other black Americans, including Breonna Taylor, who was shot and killed in March by police officers in Kentucky, and Ahmaud Arbery, who was killed by a retired law enforcement officer and his son in Georgia while out jogging.

ISLAMABAD, May 30 (DNA): Zhongao Law Firm, a first Chinese-funded law company has been established to provide legal services and assistance to the Chinese enterprises and citizens in Pakistan.

China and Pakistan are all-weather strategic partners. Pakistan is not only an active responder to the Belt and Road Initiative, but also co-builder of its flagship project China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC)

However, due to the different political systems, cultural and legal systems of China and Pakistan, in terms of economic and trade exchanges and cultural exchanges, overseas Chinese and Chinese-funded enterprises urgently need legal persons who understand the laws of China and Pakistan and can effectively communicate with the parties of China and Pakistan to provide legal services,Cheng Deyong, senior partner and legal representative of “Zhongao Law Firm” told Economic Daily-China Economic Net.

He said, With the construction of the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor, we expect that economic, trade, and cultural exchanges between the two countries will become more frequent.ť

Cheng Deyong said in the future, more Chinese companies will go out, and we are willing to use Chinese, English and Urdu languages and legal knowledge of China and Pakistan to resolve legal matters of Chinese companies in Pakistan, safeguard their legitimate rights and interests, serve China-Pakistan economic and trade exchanges, the construction of the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor and the cause of China-Pakistan friendship.

To this end, in addition to the Chinese lawyers who are based in Lahore, Zhongao Law Firm also recruits Pakistani lawyers, introduces legal expert consultants, and cooperates with local law firms in Pakistan through various forms to provide clients, professional services in litigation and taxation.=DNA

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Istanbul, May 30 (DNA): Turkish mosques reopened on Friday for mass prayers after more than two months as the government further eased strict restrictions to stop the spread of the new coronavirus.

Turkey has been shifting since May to a “new normal” by easing lockdown measures and opening shopping malls, barbershops and hair salons.

President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has said many other sites — restaurants and cafes as well as libraries, parks and beaches — will reopen from Monday.

Hundreds of worshippers wearing protective masks performed mass prayers outside Istanbul’s historic Blue Mosque for the first time since mosques were shut down in March.

In the Ottoman-era Fatih mosque, worshippers prayed both inside and outside, with the municipality handing out disinfectants and disposable carpets.

Gulcek Uyanik, 55, was exultant.

“I have waited a lot for this, I have prayed a lot. I can say it’s like a new birth, thanks to God, he has brought us back here,” he said.

Another worshipper, Asum Tekif, 50, said: “It has a been a long time… we missed the mosques.”

Turkey, a country of 83 million, has so far recorded 4,489 coronavirus-related deaths and 162,120 confirmed cases.

Washington, May 30 (DNA):US President Donald Trump said he is severing ties with the World Health Organization over its handling of the coronavirus pandemic, as the death toll from the disease spiked again in the United States and Brazil.

Trump’s move signals an end to hundreds of millions of dollars in funding to the United Nations agency just when it needs it most, with outbreaks in many parts of the world yet to reach their peak.

Countries in Latin America are bracing for difficult weeks ahead, especially Brazil, where the death toll shot up by 1,124 on Friday and there were a record number of new infections.

Trump initially suspended funding to the WHO last month, accusing it of not doing enough to curb the early spread of the virus and being too lenient with China, where the virus emerged late last year.

On Friday he made that decision permanent in a major blow for the UN agency’s finances, as the United States is by far its biggest contributor, pumping in $400 million last year.

“Because they have failed to make the requested and greatly needed reforms, we will be today terminating our relationship with the World Health Organization,” Trump told reporters.

The Republican leader said the US would be redirecting WHO funds “to other worldwide and deserving urgent global public health needs.”

“The world needs answers from China on the virus. We must have transparency,” Trump said.

Beijing has furiously denied US allegations that it played down or even covered up the threat from the virus after it was detected in the Chinese city of Wuhan in December, insisting it has been forthcoming.

ATLANTA (DNA) -Atlanta Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms on Friday evening denounced vandalism in her city as “chaos” after demonstrations over the death of George Floyd while in in the custody of Minneapolis police turned violent.

“What I see happening on the streets of Atlanta is not Atlanta. This is not a protest. This is not in the spirit of Martin Luther King, Jr. This is chaos,” an impassioned Lance Bottoms said at a news conference.

“A protest has purpose. When Dr. King was assassinated, we didn’t do this to our city,” she said. “If you want change in America, go and register to vote. … That is the change we need in this country.”

The protests had started as peaceful Friday afternoon when crowds gathered in the city’s famed Centennial Park. But by 6 p.m. ET, protesters began moving toward the front of the Center, where police had gathered. Over the next few hours, the demonstration swelled as SWAT officers were called in to help with crowd control. Anger over the death of Floyd spilled over into multiple cities across the country after the former officer seen in a video with his knee on Floyd’s neck was arrested and charged with murder.

Demonstrators funneled their anguish in cities like New York and Washington into chants, signs, and outbreaks of violence, smashing windows and setting vehicles ablaze.

“I am a mother to four black children in America, one of who is 18 years old,” Lance Bottoms said. “Yesterday, when I heard there were rumors about violent protests in Atlanta, I did what a mother would do, I called my son and I said, ‘Where are you?’ I said, ‘I cannot protect you, and black boys shouldn’t be out today.’ “

Brown University, one of the top American universities, named Professor Beshara Doumani the first holder of the ‘milestone’ chair

Brown University has become the first in North America to appoint a faculty chair in Palestinian Studies.

The university, among America’s high-ranking Ivy League schools and located in Rhode Island, announced this week that it was establishing the “Mahmoud Darwish chair” in Palestinian studies after the late, famed poet.

“Named after Mahmoud Darwish, a towering and beloved figure of Palestinian and Arab literature and humanistic values, this chair is the first of its kind at a major research university,” the announcement read.

Even after his passing in 2008, Mr Darwish is regarded as a national poet for Palestinians and a symbol for his people’s struggle to fight displacement and the Israeli occupation. He authored more than 30 volumes of poetry and eight books of prose.

Professor Beshara Doumani is the first holder of the Mahmoud Darwish Chair at Brown and will start his tenure in July. He is a well-known academic in the field of Middle East studies.

“By joining together the names Mahmoud Darwish and Beshara Doumani, the appointment embraces the vitality of Palestinian life as a driving concern in academic, cultural, and political affairs at the global level,” the university said.

Elias Muhanna, a professor at Brown, told The National that the creation of the Mahmoud Darwish chair and appointment of Mr Doumani was a real marker.

“This is the first faculty chair in Palestinian studies at a North American university, which represents a major milestone,” Mr Muhanna said.

“Over the last several decades, Palestinian studies has faced the kind of pressure that other fields rarely encounter,” he added, arguing that this brings “long-overdue institutional recognition.”

Palestinian voices have faced an uphill battle in seeking representation in the US. In 2012, former Republican Speaker of the House Newt Gingrich called the Palestinians “an invented people.”

“I think that we’ve had an invented Palestinian people who are in fact Arabs and who were historically part of the Arab community,” Mr Gingrich told The Jewish Channel.

The struggle for Palestinian academic recognition has gone hand in hand with the broader political battle.

In 2018, the Trump administration closed the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) office in Washington and is now signalling a conditional acceptance of Israeli annexation of occupied Palestinian areas in the Jordan Valley and the West Bank in July.

ISLAMABAD (DNA) -Ambassador Furkat Sidikov has been appointed as deputy for Foreign Minister of Uzbekistan. The President of Uzbekistan has issued a decree of in this regard.

Ambassador Furqat spent an eventful tenure in Pakistan and during his tenure relations between the two countries were further strengthened.

Ambassador Furqat will soon take charge of his new assignment in Tashkent.

Pakistan, Uzbekistan relations saw new heights during Mr.Furqat tenure. During his tenure he arranged a number of bilateral visits as well as exhibitions in order to promote Uzbekistan in Pakistan.

It was because of his untiring efforts that Uzbek air started operations from Pakistan due to which peoples of both countries had chance to visit each other.

Resumption of flights also increased tourism.

Developing story…….