Israel minister welcomes Jordan meeting with Palestinians

Agence France-Presse

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JERUSALEM // Israeli and Palestinian negotiators headed to Jordan yesterday for their first face-to-face meeting in nearly 16 months, although both sides stressed it did not mark a renewal of talks.

Israel's chief negotiator, Yitzhak Molcho, and his Palestinian counterpart, Saeb Erakat, were due to sit down together today on the shores of the Dead Sea.

They were invited by the Jordanian foreign minister, Nasser Judeh.

Tony Blair, the Quartet on the Middle East envoy, was also to attend the session, along with other officials of the diplomatic grouping, which represents the European Union, Russia, the UN and the US.

"This is a positive development," said Dan Meridor, an Israeli cabinet minister. "It is the first time in a long while that the Palestinians have been prepared to come and talk to us directly, without preconditions."

Mr Meridor, who holds the intelligence portfolio and is the deputy prime minister, said the meeting did not constitute a return to direct talks, but he hoped it would be a springboard that would "allow the Palestinians to return to negotiations".

Mr Erakat made the same point in an interview with Voice of Palestine radio. "This meeting will be devoted to discussing the possibility of making a breakthrough that could lead to the resumption of negotiations. Therefore, it will not mark the resumption of negotiations," he said.

In Ramallah, Mr Erakat urged Israel not to waste the rare opportunity of a face-to-face meeting.

"This is a valuable opportunity for peace and Israel shouldn't waste it and once again be the reason for the failure of efforts by the international community, by the Quartet and by Jordan, to resume the negotiations," he said.

Should today's meeting end without progress, a committee of officials from the Palestinian leadership would look into the available options and "present its recommendations to President [Mahmoud] Abbas within the next few days," he said. "If the Israeli premier [Benjamin Netanyahu] thinks that by continuing to build settlements and destroying any prospect of implementing the two-state solution, that he can stop our efforts, then he is wrong."

News that the two sides would meet sparked anger among Gaza's Hamas rulers, who are trying to push through a reconciliation deal with Mr Abbas's Fatah movement.

"We demand a boycott of this meeting," said a Hamas spokesman, Sami Abu Zuhri. "Going to such a meeting is only betting on failure."

The leftist Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine also denounced the move as a "fatal error" that would force the Palestinians back into another pointless waiting game.

"The occupation and the Quartet are the only beneficiaries from the Amman meeting that is, in fact, a negotiations meeting that drains the Palestinian national account," the group said.

Mr Meridor said the initiative to get the two sides talking after a hiatus of nearly 16 months had come from Jordan, in what he described as a "positive change". "Jordan is a neighbour and we have important relations with it ... its involvement in any solution to the Palestinian problem is" crucial, he said.

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Indian minister Sharad Pawar slapped in face by protester

Associated Press

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NEW DELHI // A man slapped India's agriculture minister in the face today, apparently to draw attention to rising food prices and corruption.

Sharad Pawar was talking to reporters at a political function when the man attacked him. TV news reports said the man was shouting in protest about inflated food prices and graft.

Television footage showed the man brandishing a knife as he was dragged away by security officials and Pawar's aides.

"Don't you know why I hit him? The common man is distressed. Am I wrong?" he shouted as he was being taken away.

CNN-IBN TV reported that the man was detained by police. Pawar was not seriously hurt.

Such incidents have become increasingly common in India, where ministers and other officials have had shoes thrown at them and their offices ransacked by angry citizens.

The incidents have usually been over political decisions, corruption, or real or perceived injustices.

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Minister attacks research standards at India's prestigious IIT colleges

Samanth Subramanian

NEW DELHI // A cabinet minister's blunt criticism of the work of the faculty at India's most prestigious educational institutions has set off a storm of controversy, and also brought into debate the quality of scientific innovation and research in India, particularly in the government-funded Indian Institutes of Technology (IITs).

Last week, Jairam Ramesh, India's environment minister, told reporters: "There is hardly any worthwhile research from our IITs. The faculty is not world-class; it is the students in IITs who are world-class. So the IITs are excellent because of the quality of students, not because of quality of research or faculty."

There are now 15 IITs, universities focused on science and engineering, in India; Mr Ramesh graduated from the IIT in Mumbai in 1975 with an undergraduate degree in mechanical engineering.

Ever since the IITs' establishment, they have been synonymous with India's ambitions. In 1956, the then Indian prime minister, Jawaharlal Nehru, speaking at the convocation of the first IIT, saw the institute as "representing India's urges, India's future in the making. [It] seems to me symbolical of the changes that are coming to India".

Of the 400,000-plus candidates who take the IIT entrance examinations every year, only the top 13,000 or so are selected. The IITs have acquired a reputation for academic rigor and for producing intelligent, well-trained undergraduates. Bill Gates, the chairman of Microsoft, once called India's IITs "an incredible institution".

This close association of the IITs with India's stature has been augmented over the past decade, as the graduates of these institutes have started to power the intellectual economy.

Mr Ramesh's criticism thus drew a sharp response from the opposition Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP). "The BJP wants to say categorically that it is proud of our IITs," said Rajiv Pratap Rudy, a party spokesman. "There is hardly a Fortune 500 Company which is not headed by or has somebody in a senior position who is a former IITian or an IIM (Indian Institute of Management) pass-out."

Such was the unpopularity of Mr Ramesh's remarks that, three days later, his own cabinet colleague, the human resources minister, Kapil Sibal, issued a rebuttal and an explanation.

"The discourses on these premier institutes should be based on evidence and not on perceptions," Mr Sibal said, adding that he had "complete trust in the creative potential of the faculty of IITs. While the US spends $250 billion [Dh918bn] on research, India spends around $8 billion. Is this the fault of the faculty?"

But commentators have also used this occasion to point out that Mr Ramesh's opinion on the quality of the original research conducted by faculty at these institutes was fairly accurate.

Writing in the Hindustan Times, Sandipan Deb, an IIT alumnus and the author of the book The IITians, pointed out that Mr Ramesh was "merely articulating Indian higher education's worst-kept secret".

Recalling working with a government committee trying to improve the IIT system, Mr Deb wrote: "There was not much interaction — one committee member was repeatedly dozing off — and the same problems were discussed: faculty, faculty and faculty."

According to a survey in 2009 by Thomson Reuters, the number of research publications out of India increased from 16,500 in 1998 to 30,000 in 2007.

But in comparison to China, India's quality and quantity of research appear weak. Last year's Science and Engineering Indicators report, published by the National Science Foundation in the United States, ranked India 11th and China second in terms of publication output. In 1995, India was ranked 12th and China 14th.

"Funding has a lot to do with it," said T A Abinandanan, a professor at the Indian Institute of Science in Bangalore and the author of Nanopolitan, a popular blog focused on higher education. He pointed out that Johns Hopkins University in the United States gets close to $2bn of funding for its research, whereas the IITs share a pool of about $160 million.

"In addition to this funding," Mr Abinandanan said, "the IITs can apply for further research grants from the government." But the total of such available grants works out to an annual $450m; the remainder, out of Mr Sibal's figure of $8bn, is allocated to government research organisations in atomic energy, space, agriculture and defence. Next page

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India¿s environment minister says 'there is hardly any worthwhile research from our IITs', sparking row with opposition party but bringing agreement from many academics.

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UK minister awestruck by students' interest in region

Dubai: UK Minister for Middle East and North Africa, Alistair Burt, says he was struck by Arab students' genuine curiosity and their keen interest in political issues, during a visit to the University of Sharjah (UOS) on Tuesday.

Burt is currently in the UAE to meet with government officials as part of the UK-UAE Taskforce, which builds cooperation in the areas of culture, education, business and defence. The minister held a roundtable discussion with UOS students on recent events in the region. He answered questions and gave a UK perspective on political activities.

"There is a huge and genuine spirit of enquiry and students, like the rest of us, are surprised at what has happened after many years of apparent stability," Burt said.

UOS media student Sally Saeed said her friends were interested in Burt's feedback on Gaza, Iraq and Libya and their questions were about the UK's policies relating to those countries. "I think the minister was very surprised as there isn't a high expectation that Arab students are interested in politics. He said that we have a very good background of Middle East Affairs and said our countries would be very proud of us."

He said students were curious to know what the UK's stance is on issues such as action against Libya and how it was distinguishing between various countries.

"And, of course, Israel and Palestine is a long-running sense of concern and they wanted to know what our attitudes were towards that."

Foreign influence

The students also asked Burt if there was any foreign influence on the turn of events in the Middle East.

"We don't think there is. We think in all these cases... there have been enough domestic reasons for concern and protest...," he said.

However, the minister said that the UK has tried to ensure consistency in their stance, emphasising their belief in the freedom of expression, of assembly, and the right to demonstrate in a peaceful manner.

Burt added that behind some of the questions "there was obviously personal experience, sometimes very heartfelt but with emotions in check no matter how difficult the circumstances were.

"I think any politician finds it enormously rewarding when they're listening to people who have such personal experience to bring and where you get a challenge where a global issue becomes immediately personal. …we believe all politicians should be exposed to enquiry from people, and it's in those places where that spirit does not exist that we see the greatest risk," he said.

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Lawyer charged with duping former Thai prime minister released on bail

Dubai: An Emirati lawyer charged with embezzling £60 million (Dh359.55 million) from Thailand's former prime minister Thaksin Shinawatra has been released on bail, Gulf News has learnt.

"The 45-year-old lawyer deposited a Dh5 million financial bond and placed his passport and a guarantor's passport in custody before he walked out on bail. He will appear before the Dubai Misdemeanour Court on April 28," a prosecution source told Gulf News.

The lawyer had earlier denied the charge of embezzling £60 million that Shinawatra had entrusted him amid efforts to clinch a £150-million deal to sell English Premier League club Manchester City.

When he appeared before Presiding Judge Zakaria Abdul Aziz Othman, the lawyer, K.K., denied embezzling £60 million that Shinawatra had deposited in a bank account belonging to his firm on the basis of trust as the Manchester City deal was taking place.

Prosecutors also charged K.K. with embezzling another $25.45 million (Dh93.46 million) that Shinawatra transferred to the lawyer's bank account purely on the basis of trust.

Prosecutors also charged K.K. with embezzling $25.45 million that Shinawatra requested him to accept on his behalf from a company named BBD in Switzerland that sent a bank transfer

Political compulsion

Prosecution records said Shinawatra asked K.K. to open a bank account for him in the Republic of Montenegro so that he could collect the money. K.K. had apparently convinced Shinawatra to open an account in his [K.K.'s] name and transfer the money to avoid it being seized by European authorities due to the political tensions Shinawatra was facing in Thailand. Shinawatra agreed after being commissioned to run the account, but K.K. allegedly siphoned off the money deposited in his personal account.

K.K. was additionally charged with embezzling another Dh39.5 million from the £150 million meant for the football club deal after Shinawatra asked him to buy a villa on his behalf. Records said K.K. bought a villa worth Dh38 million in Emirates Hills and registered it in his name. K.K. paid Dh380,000 in brokerage fees and Dh620,000 in registration fees to the Lands and Properties Department. He also took Dh495,926 in fees for his own firm.

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