Global Times - 02.09.2019

8 Monday September 2, 2019

WORLD

Sad anniversary

A woman lays flowers in front of the Golden Gates of Kensington Palace on the 22nd anniversary of Princess Diana’s death on

Saturday in London. People also left flowers and messages at Princess Diana’s London home to mourn her death on August 31, 1997

in Paris. Photo: VCG

Britons protest PM’s Brexit move

Australian

govt urged

to ban child

marriages

A women’s advocacy group is

urging the Australian govern-

ment to ban minors from get-

ting married under any circum-

stances.

Good Shepherd Austra-

lia New Zealand, an advocacy

group for girls and women,

called on the government to en-

sure that no minor is married

in order to prevent forced mar-

riages.

The marriage age under

Australian law is 18 but court

can approve a union where one

of the parties is at least 16, with

parental consent from both

sides.

Nine Entertainment news-

papers reported on Sunday that

Stella Avramopoulos, chief ex-

ecutive of Good Shepherd, told

a senate inquiry that teenagers

are being forced into marriage

overseas “with the expectation

they will then sponsor their

new spouse for migration to

Australia.”

“There is growing consen-

sus internally that what is need-

ed to end child or underage

marriage is to set a minimum

age of 18,” she said.

The senate is hearing sub-

missions on laws proposed by

the governing Liberal National

Party Coalition that would in-

crease protections against child

sexual exploitation.

The landmark act, Royal

Commission into Institutional

Responses to Child Sexual

Abuse, which delivered its final

report after five years in 2017,

made 409 recommendations

to address child abuse.

If passed by the parliament,

the new laws would expand the

definition of forced marriage to

include all marriages involving

children under the age of 16 re-

gardless of consent.

Xinhua

US and Taliban negotiators are close to

a deal that would open the way for peace

in Afghanistan, a top US official said on

Sunday, as the insurgents followed their

weekend assault on the strategic center

of Kunduz by attacking a second north-

ern city.

Zalmay Khalilzad, the Afghan-born

US diplomat overseeing negotiations

for Washington, said he would travel to

the Afghan capital of Kabul on Sunday

for consultations after wrapping up the

ninth round of talks with Taliban offi-

cials in Qatar.

“We are at the threshold of an agree-

ment that will reduce violence and open

the door for Afghans to sit together to

negotiate an honorable and sustainable

peace and a unified, sovereign Afghani-

stan that does not threaten the United

States, its allies, or any other country,”

he said in a Twitter post.

The comment came as Taliban fight-

ers attacked Pul-e Khumri, in the north-

ern province of Baghlan, just a day after

a major show of strength by hundreds of

fighters who overran parts of Kunduz, a

strategic city the insurgents have twice

come close to taking in recent years.

While Kunduz was calm after clear-

ance operations that had driven out in-

surgents, interior ministry spokesman

Nasrat Rahimi said, fighters had taken

up positions in two areas of Pul-e Kh-

umri and were battling security forces.

Local officials and residents said the

city was locked down with Taliban fight-

ers occupying positions around one of

the main entry points into the center

and cutting the main highway connect-

ing Kabul with the north.

“Right now, clashes are under way

between the Taliban and security forces

in the city, close to the governor’s com-

pound and police headquarters,” said

Abdul Jamil, a Pul-e Khumri resident

reached by telephone.

“The city is closed and very little

movement can be seen. People are ter-

rified,” he said.

There was also fighting in the central

province of Ghazni and Laghman prov-

ince, east of Kabul, Taliban and govern-

ment officials said. With talks in Doha

close to wrapping up, the latest fighting

underlined the Taliban’s apparent deter-

mination to go into any deal from a posi-

tion of strength on the battlefield.

Reuters

Protesters wielding pro-de-

mocracy placards and EU flags

rallied on Saturday in dozens

of British cities against Prime

Minister Boris Johnson’s con-

troversial move to suspend

parliament just weeks before

Brexit.

In the biggest demonstra-

tion, thousands of whistle-

blowing, drum-banging people

gathered raucously outside the

gates of Downing Street in Lon-

don chanting “Boris Johnson

shame on you!”

“I’m absolutely disgusted by

what’s happening here,” said

attendee Maya Dunn, 66, a

Dutch citizen living in Britain,

who accused Johnson of “riding

roughshod over everybody.”

“You just can’t trust him,”

she said.

The demonstrations come

ahead of an intense political

week in which Johnson’s oppo-

nents will go to court to block

his move to suspend parlia-

ment from mid-September and

legislate against leaving the

European Union without an

agreement.

Johnson, who only came to

power in July following a Con-

servative Party leadership elec-

tion, hit out at the prospect in a

newspaper interview published

Sunday.

“What on earth are we

achieving by this?” he told the

Sunday Times, noting Brexit

had already been delayed twice

this year and warning rebel

Tory MPs risked toppling the

ruling Conservatives.

“What we need to do is get

a deal done, or if we can’t get

a deal done then get out of the

EU on October the 31st, come

what may.

“And that’s what we’re going

to do,” he added.

However, the EU’s chief

Brexit negotiator said Brussels

would not change the divorce

deal struck with his predeces-

sor Theresa May.

“I am not optimistic about

avoiding a ‘no deal’ scenar-

io,” Michel Barnier wrote

in the Sunday Telegraph

newspaper.

Johnson’s parliament sus-

pension was widely seen as a

way of limiting the time his

opponents have to organize

against him.

In London, participants

heard speeches from oppo-

sition politicians on a stage

erected on Whitehall before

marching through Westmin-

ster. Some held hand-written

signs reading “Defend de-

mocracy: resist the parliament

shutdown” and “Wake up

UK! Or welcome to Germany

1933.”

Organizers using the slo-

gan #StopTheCoup claimed

as many as 100,000 people

turned out in London.

AFP

US, Taliban near deal as fighting intensifies in Afghanistan’s north

 Opponents head to court to stop suspension of parliament

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