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Greens co-leader Cem zdemir launched an election-year broadside in the Sunday edition of the populist broadsheet "Bild," calling Germany's government compliant with rights abuses in Turkey.

He also criticized Chancellor Angela Merkel's planned trip to Ankara in April, just ahead of a referendum in which Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan will seekto expand his powers - and the amount of time he spends in office.

zdemir said the trip could "only be evaluated as support for Erdogan's journey toward dictatorship."

He condemned a planned pre-referendum speech by Erdogan in Germany. "Erdogan abuses our democracy to campaign for his dictatorship," zdemir said. Seventy-seven percent of respondents in a recent survey also want Germany's government to find a way to ban Erdogan's speech.

zdemir also said the government had been too reticent in callsfor the release of Deniz Ycel, a journalist for the German newspaper "Welt" - also owned by "Bild" publisher Axel Springer - who has been arrested in Istanbul for his reporting.

Afghanistan: 'Not safe'

zdemir also struck out at Foreign Minister Sigmar Gabriel's pursuing of deportations of rejected asylum applicants to Afghanistan despite the fact that much of the country remains at war or experiences warlike conditions. Gabriel must "swiftly adapt the appraisal of the situation to the reality," zdemir told Bild.

Other Greens took to the press Sunday to criticize Gabriel anddeportations sought by Interior Minister Thomas de Maiziere. Federal parliamentarianOmid Nouripour told the public broadcaster Deutschlandfunk that the classification of Afghanistan as a "safe" country for deportations was "politically motivated." Nouripour, who recently traveled to Afghanistan to evaluate the situation with his own eyes, said the ruling parties had fallen into a "panic" in the face of the rising anti-immigrant, nationalist party Alternative for Germany.

Last week, Gabriel said the situation could not be evaluated in Afghanistan as a whole - and that 56 percent of asylum applicants from the nation were approved anyway. "There are safe and very unsafe regions," Gabriel said on Wednesday. According to numbers reported by "Welt" at the end of January, Germany has ordered more than 12,500 Afghans deported, and some politicians, especially from Bavaria's ruling Christian Social Union, have called for removals to be accelerated.

Dietary dispute

In the interview, the Greens lawmaker also gave "Bild" a bit of personal information.

Now 51, zdemir told the newspaper that he quit eating meat when he was 17 years old - and that his parents were not happy with the decision.

"For my father, meat was something that one had to work hard for," zdemir said. "He did not accept that his own son no longer wanted to eat it."

mkg/tj (AFP, kna, epd, dpa)

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German Greens co-chief zdemir raps Merkel and Gabriel on Turkey, Afghanistan - Deutsche Welle

Rail networks of Iran and Afghanistan will be connected by March 2018 as part of the Khwaf-Herat route, according to an official with the Islamic Republic of Iran Railways. The railroad has so far reached the border [from the Iranian side], but its extension on the Afghan soil will be completed by the end of the next Iranian year (March 20, 2018), Hossein Ashouri was also quoted as saying by Mehr News Agency. When completed, the railroad will link the Iranian city of Khwaf in the northeastern Khorasan Razavi Province to Herat, Afghanistans third-largest city. The first section of the route, from Khwaf to the mine-rich city of Sangan, became operational early September. The second section extends to the border city of Shamtigh in Afghanistan. The other two sections are in the Afghan territory covering 114 km from Shamtigh to Herat. The 62-km section 3, connecting Shamtigh to Ghurian, is being built by Iran. Ashouri said the trackbed is currently being prepared for the third section. The corridor in its entirety, from Herat to Khwaf, will connect Iranian mineral plants to those of Afghanistan, while also connecting Afghan deposits to the international waters in the south of Iran. This will be Afghanistans first railroad link to Iran and the countrys only link to the Persian Gulf and the Sea of Oman. Upon completion, the railroad will be used for transportation of both passengers and cargo. However, exploiting its cargo capabilities is a priority for both governments, according to Reza Ahmadi with Irans Ministry of Roads and Urban Development. Ahmadi believes the railroad will have the capacity of transporting 27 million tons of cargo a year.

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Rail Linkup With Afghanistan by March 2018 - Financial Tribune

Photo Credit: Getty Images

New Delhi: Even as his teammates are busy playing an ODI series in Zimbabwe, Afghanistan fast bowler Shapoor Zadran is currently busy working on his game in Mumbai. Out for six months with a right knee injury, Zadran is working towards hitting full throttle before the start of the home season for the Afghan boys in Noida.

In the country ahead of his teammates, Zadran is preparing for the long spells he will be bowling in the scorching heat when Afghanistan plays other associate teams. Interestingly, Mumbai also is home to his favourite Bollywood hero Shah Rukh Khan.

Ever since landing in Mumbai, Zadran wants to meet his matinee idol. But then, Umesh Patwal, a maidan cricketer who once served on the Afghanistan coaching staff as batting coach and is currently Zadrans guide, has made the pacer understand that Shah Rukh is busy shooting in England.

I would like to go but he must be a busy man. Plus, when I reached the airport Umesh told me that I had to bowl as many overs as possible to get back into the groove, Zadran told The Indian Express.

But Zadran also remembers the bad experience he has had while meeting superstars in the past. Being a Pathan, Zadran always thought that former Pakistan skipper Shahid Afridi would treat him with warmth.

But sadly, Zadran only got a wave from far and Zadran says things only changed after retirement. The Afghanistan pacer says that post retirement Afridi has been warm and had a word or two when they met.

Yet, he loves MS Dhoni and Virat Kohli for welcoming the minnows to the big league. Zadran says that while Dhoni met the boys after a game and said that the team had a lot of talent, Kohli even hugged the boys and that sense of affection touched their hearts.

But then, his first love definitely is Shah Rukh as the pacer just cant have enough of Devdas, a movie starring Shah Rukh Khan.

Originally posted here:
Afghanistan Pacer Shapoor Zadran in Mumbai, Wants to Meet Shah Rukh Khan - News18

For International Financial Reporting Standards to truly take hold in Iran, they must be accorded significance on the national scale, the governor of the Central Bank of Iran said. "A successful implementation of IFRS requires everyone to treat it as a national scheme that must go beyond a concept ratified by the Securities and Exchange Organization of Iran and even CBI, because it would benefit a wide variety of people," Valiollah Seif was also quoted as saying by the official website of the central bank. Seif made the statements as the keynote speaker at the Conference on IFRS and Their Role in Improving Transparency of Financial Markets held in Tehran on Saturday. Minister of Economic Affairs and Finance Ali Tayyebnia, President of the Central Insurance of Iran Abdolnasser Hemmati and Director of the Audit Organization of Iran Akbar Soheilipour were among top officials in attendance. International Financial Reporting Standards is a single set of accounting standards, developed and maintained by the International Accounting Standards Board with the intention of those standards being capable of being applied on a globally consistent basis by developed, emerging and developing economies. IFRS provides investors and other users of financial statements with the ability of comparing the financial performance of publicly listed companies on a like-for-like basis with their international peers. On the prerequisites deemed important by the central bank, the official outlined nine principles, with the first being the implementation of bank infrastructures. These infrastructures include a software update that could help access the information required by the new financial statements. Seif said how IFRS9 is used, "which will replace IAS39 in 2018", is the second principle. IFRS9 standard includes requirements for recognition and measurement, impairment, de-recognition and general hedge accounting. He noted that "a reasonable amount of trust enjoyed by CBI as the supervising entity" is the third principle and the fourth calls for strengthening independent bank auditors "for the purpose of mastering the application of IFRS in banking". The top CBI official focused attention on the structure of financial reporting and outfitting the evaluation regime, and using "suitable and credible models of evaluation" as the next two principles. In describing the next principle, he stressed that unreliable evaluation reports must not be published, while referring to amending a number of tax rules and regulations as the eighth one. In outlining the final principle, he referred to a number of statistics "influenced by the banking laws of Iran, which are fundamentally not within the framework of auditing standards", be it national standards or IFRS ones. The IFRS-based balance sheet templates were first released by CBI in February to improve financial transparency and the international operations of Iranian banks. Lenders are now required to report their statements as per IFRS guidelines. Data Transparency The head of CII said considering the legal obligation of insurance companies to draft their financial statements in accordance with the sample approved by the Supreme Council of Insurance, "the prerequisites required to draft financial statements in line with international standards have been completed." Hemmati stressed that the process of separating accounts pertaining to life and non-life insurances is being completed. The head of Audit Organization of Iran said if the information is released in an ambiguous atmosphere, "we cannot expect complete transparency from IFRS". Soheilipour stressed that the foundations of information must be made transparent and publishing data "will give us transparency". He announced that Majlis Research Center has obtained six IFRS books, the translation of which has already begun. "With the implementation of Iran's nuclear accord in January and the relative easing of sanctions, an agreement was signed with [international entities] and the audit organization managed to obtain the necessary permits related to the issue," he said.

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Iran Holds Key Conference on IFRS Adoption - Financial Tribune

Irans largest automaker Iran Khodro Group (IKCO) plans to open new plants in neighboring Azerbaijan following years of absence from neighboring CIS markets. The issue was on the agenda of the Azerbaijan-Iran Business Forum in Urmia, where a delegation headed by Azeri Economic Minister Shahin Mustafayev arrived in the northwestern Iranian city to discuss expansion of cooperation, according to Azer News. Mustafayev told the meeting that Irans biggest automaker Iran Khodro plans to open four new production lines in Azerbaijan with production of locally developed models and the Samand, Soren and Runna being the most likely candidates. In 2016, Azerbaijans AzEuroCar LLC and Iran Khodro signed an agreement to create a joint car plant in the Neftchala Industrial Area. The plant with a capacity of about 10,000 cars per year will produce four Iranian models including the Dena. The cost of the future auto project is estimated at $15 million. The plant is expected to produce the first cars in May. Some 20% of the vehicles will be exported to other CIS countries including Georgia and southern Russia. The cars produced at the Azeri plant will meet Euro 5 standard as per Azeri law. Mustafayev noted that Azerbaijan and Iran intend to increase bilateral trade to $500 million in the coming years. Trade turnover between the two neighbors reached $15.77 million in January, while last year during the same month it was $9.56 million. In 2016, Azerbaijans trade turnover with Iran amounted to $210.76 million, which was 70% more than in 2015. He noted that 538 companies with Iranian shareholders operate in Azerbaijan and have invested $150 million in the neighboring republic.

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Iran Khodro to Expand Azeri Operations - Financial Tribune