Taliban battle for final holdout province of Panjshir - CNA

FIGHTING BRAVADO

Panjshir fighters - and their media-savvy leaders - are full of fighting bravado.

"We are ready to defeat them, if they dare to invade," one Panjshir fighter said.

But despite their confidence, the odds seem increasingly stacked against them.

Geography at least is on the side of the Panjshir's fighters, said Motwani, and while the Taliban claim to have blocked roads into the valley, that is "very different" from controlling all sides.

The 115km-long valley surrounded by jagged snow-capped peaks offers a natural military advantage, since defending units can use high positions to ambush attacking forces below.

But the conflict appears to be escalating, Martine van Bijlert, of the Afghanistan Analysts Network, warned.

"Taliban forces have been massing around the entrance to the valley but have been hit in ambushes and have sustained casualties," Van Bijlert wrote in a recent analysis.

"Whereas both sides mainly seemed to be trying to hurt each other in order to strengthen their hand in negotiations, without starting an all-out battle, according to the latest reports, the Taliban are now summoning forces from other provinces."

The Panjshir - mainly inhabited by ethnic Tajik people - has immense symbolic value in Afghanistan as the area that has resisted occupation by invaders in the past.

For Afghans opposed to the Taliban, the holdout province stands as a symbol to show that the hardline Islamists are not the welcome rulers of all of Afghanistan, Motwani said.

"It gives hope to those Afghans who have lost almost everything in a blink of an eye," he said. "It is somewhere where people can go outside Taliban rule."

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2021-09-03 11:54:14Z
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China's new stock exchange plans fuel fears of a bourse war - CNA

SHANGHAI : China's plans to launch a new exchange in Beijing, announced by President Xi Jinping on Thursday, boosted shares in Chinese brokerages but knocked down Shenzhen start-up board ChiNext and shares of Hong Kong's bourse amid fears of rising competition.

Although China's securities regulator said the planned Beijing stock exchange is based on the city's existing New Third Board, and complements Shanghai and Shenzhen bourses, some fear a rivalry for listing resources is inevitable.

"The Beijing stock exchange has equal footing with Shanghai and Shenzhen bourses. If it prospers, the three will share the market in tripartite confrontation," wrote Rock Jin, economist and CEO of investment adviser PopEton.

Although it was good news for the economy, it boded ill for the market in the short term because "after all, it diverts capital away from Shanghai and Shenzhen markets."

Xi unveiled plans for the new exchange in a video address at the opening of a conference late on Thursday. The bourse will serve innovative small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), and is part of a reform of Beijing's New Third Board.

Neither Xi nor the China Securities Regulatory Commission (CSRC) said if the Beijing stock exchange would attract overseas-listed firms. If that is the case, "it would increase the competition" in listings for the Hong Kong Exchanges and Clearing Ltd (HKEx), Jefferies said in a note.

HKEx shares dropped more than 2per cent on Friday and Shenzhen's ChiNext fell over 1per cent, both underperforming the broader market.

But shares of brokerages, including Northeast Securities Co, Dongxing Securities Co and Shenwan Hongyuan Group Co jumped, as investors bet they will benefit from more initial public offerings (IPOs).

"This is a step forward in capital market reforms, as it enhances the multi-layered capital market system and direct financing," Morgan Stanley said in a note.

The bank added that the implementation of a registration-based IPO mechanism on the Beijing exchange paves the way for the rollout of the listing system on China's main boards. Currently, only Shenzhen's ChiNext, and Shanghai's tech-focused STAR Market adopts the U.S.-style IPO system.

FUNDING DIFFICULTY

China is launching the new exchange as part of efforts to channel more household savings into the stock market to fund innovation and economic recovery, while reducing the economy's reliance on bank lending. It also comes as U.S.-listed Chinese companies face the risk of delisting amid Sino-U.S. tensions.

"Funding difficulty is the main challenge facing SMEs," wrote Liu Hui, fund manager at Invesco.

"Supporting SMEs with direct financing helps promote China's consumption, as SMEs employ most of the labour force in China."

CSRC said on Friday that the new exchange will be based on the current "select tier" of Beijing's New Third Board, meaning all the 66 companies listed in that tier will be transferred to the Beijing exchange.

CSRC also announced draft rules for share sales, trading and delisting on the new venue. Companies to be listed on the Beijing exchange are "smaller and newer" than those listed in Shanghai and Shenzhen, and eligible ones can also migrate to the other two bourses seamlessly, CSRC official Zhou Guihua told a press conference on Friday.

In addition, only qualified investors can trade on the Beijing exchange, which sets higher bar in line with the higher risks involved in investing in SMEs, he said.

Zhou also vowed to crack down on insider trading, stock manipulation and false disclosures, in order to promote long-term, rational investing on the new board.

The New Third Board, which was set up in 2013, currently houses a total of 7,299 SMEs, mostly in the "base tier" and "innovation tier".

The board once attracted more than 10,000 companies listed in 2013-16, but the market has suffered from poor liquidity since China's spectacular 2015 market boom and bust.

Economist Jin said it was a big question mark whether the new exchange would thrive, as "the city of Beijing doesn't have the right culture for an exchange."

(Reporting by Samuel Shen and Andrew Galbraith; Editing by Stephen Coates and David Evans)

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2021-09-03 09:52:25Z
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Desperate and short of options, Suga had no choice but to quit as Japan's prime minister - The Straits Times

TOKYO - Japan is a nation with many superstitions, and as Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga calls time on his year-long tenure as its leader, he will no doubt be aware of the two jinxes that ruined his political career.

First, no premier has survived in a year when Japan hosted the Olympics - in the 1964 Tokyo Games, the 1972 Sapporo Winter Games or the 1998 Nagano Winter Games - even if they all resigned for different reasons.

Second, a period of political stability is followed by a revolving door of prime ministers. Until Mr Shinzo Abe took office in 2012, there were six prime ministers in as many years after Mr Junichiro Koizumi stepped down after five years in power. And before that, there were 10 leaders over 14 years after Mr Yasuhiro Nakasone, who was in office from 1982 to 1987.

Even the pro-government Yomiuri newspaper headlined a story on Friday (Sept 3) with "Desperate Japanese prime minister has few options in bid to save his job".

Sophia University political scientist Koichi Nakano told The Straits Times: "Suga appears like King Lear, desperately clinging to power, but it has become increasingly apparent that he was completely pushed to the corner and he has exhausted every available option.

"Each time he tried something new, he was finding himself more and more isolated. I think he intended to stay on, but it was against heavy odds."

Mr Suga came to power in September last year as the antithesis to tradition within the Liberal Democratic Party (LDP), scoring high approval ratings for his rise to the pinnacle despite a humble background as the son of Akita strawberry farmers, and despite not belonging to any party faction.

But he quickly fell out of favour with the public over what was perceived as a blundering response to Covid-19. Mr Suga's poor approval ratings of around 30 per cent led to unease within the party, and this was compounded by his inability to coalesce a solid party base during his year in office.

Dr Nakano pointed out that this meant he was subject to the headwinds of an intense political rivalry between LDP secretary-general Toshihiro Nikai on one end, and Mr Abe and Finance Minister Taro Aso on the other.

"He's a general without his own troops," Dr Nakano said.

To make matters worse, some of Mr Suga's closest allies have been tainted by corruption scandals, including former justice minister Katsuyuki Kawai and former trade minister Isshu Sugawara, who were both indicted.

"He was left at the mercy of these political headwinds with nobody to protect him, nor did he come up with any effective measures to fight back," Dr Nakano added.

Dr Mikitaka Masuyama of the National Graduate Institute for Policy Studies in Tokyo told ST that it was "incomprehensible" for a prime minister responsible for the current policies to be quitting at this stage.

"I think he has realised the changing mood inside the party over the last few days," Dr Masuyama said.

Mr Suga scrambled to find a way to save his job this week. Yet his efforts only incurred a backlash within the LDP.

He mooted dissolving the Lower House next week for a snap election to win a popular mandate, which would have pushed back the calendar for the LDP presidential election.

But Mr Suga's reputation among the public, according to opinion polls, had become so noxious that many junior LDP lawmakers feared fighting an election with him as their leader.

He was then put on the back foot by his key rival, former foreign minister Fumio Kishida, who said he would freshen up the party image if he were elected by booting out Mr Nikai, the 82-year-old party secretary-general.

Former Japanese foreign minister Fumio Kishida delivering a policy speech in Tokyo on Sept 2, 2021. PHOTO: EPA-EFE

Mr Suga followed suit by saying that he would reshuffle the LDP leadership positions, and possibly the Cabinet, next week. But he was unable to settle on a combination that would please everybody.

Yet his decision to force out Mr Nikai - while seen positively by Mr Abe and Mr Aso - alienated the Nikai faction that had propelled him to office.

He then thought of appointing former defence chief Shigeru Ishiba as secretary-general to help freshen up the party image. Mr Ishiba ranks among the top in media surveys of the public's choice for next prime minister.

Mr Ishiba, though, is deeply unpopular among influential LDP party brass, including Mr Abe and Mr Aso.

"Without his own power base within the LDP, Suga was utterly at the mercy of the five largest factions that put him as PM in the first place. But now, he cannot count on any of them to give him solid support," Dr Nakano said.

What complicates things for Mr Suga is the unique political circumstances he found himself in this year, as the LDP presidential race and the general election will be held within weeks of each other.

Dr Masuyama noted that the single-member district electoral system has made a party leader's popularity "significantly influential" in election results.

"Party leaders need to be appealing to floating voters," he said, adding that the LDP's forthcoming presidential election has taken on added significance since a new leader could have an outsized impact on the party's chances at the general election, which will likely be held next month.

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2021-09-03 06:51:19Z
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'Extremist' inspired by Islamic State stabs several people in Auckland mall, shot dead by police - CNA

WELLINGTON: New Zealand police on Friday (Sep 3) shot and killed a knife-wielding "extremist" who was known to authorities, Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern said, after he stabbed and wounded at least six people in a supermarket.

The attacker, a Sri Lankan national who had been in New Zealand for 10 years, was inspired by the Islamic State militant group and was being monitored constantly, Ardern said.

"A violent extremist undertook a terrorist attack on innocent New Zealanders," Ardern told a briefing.

"He obviously was a supporter of ISIS ideology," she said, referring to Islamic State.

The attacker, who was not identified, had been a "person of interest" for about five years, Ardern said, adding that he had been killed within 60 seconds of beginning his attack in the city of Auckland.

Police following the man thought he had gone into the New Lynn supermarket to do some shopping but picked up a knife from a display and started "running around like a lunatic" stabbing people, shopper Michelle Miller told the Stuff online news outlet.

"It literally happened in front of me. I was just buying stuff and walking toward the milk aisle and then suddenly I heard a person shouting loudly 'Allahu akbar' (God is greatest) and just running," a 34-year old witness told the New Zealand Herald.

"He had a knife, a pretty big knife - like I would say the size of his arm. It was very scary ... It was four or five steps away from me, and I had a clear path to run so I ran.

"While people were coming out I could see one lady wearing a white T-shirt completely bleeding and really panicking. People were trying to help her ... I saw another person bleeding from the shoulder really bad."

Police Commissioner Andrew Coster told the briefing the man was acting alone and police were confident there was no further threat to the public.

"We were doing absolutely everything possible to monitor him and indeed the fact that we were able to intervene so quickly, in roughly 60 seconds, shows just how closely we were watching him," Coster said.

New Zealand has been on alert for attacks since a white supremacist gunman killed 51 people at two mosques in the city of Christchurch on Mar 15, 2019.

Ardern, asked if the Friday attack could have been revenge for the 2019 mosque shootings, said it was not clear. The man alone who was responsible for the violence, not a faith, she said.

"It was hateful, it was wrong. It was carried out by an individual, not a faith," Ardern said. "It would be wrong to direct any frustration to anyone beyond this individual."

"SOMEBODY GOT STABBED"

A video posted on social media showed shoppers in the supermarket seconds after the attacker struck.

"There's someone here with a knife ... he's got a knife," a woman can be heard saying. "Somebody got stabbed."

Amit Nand, who was in the supermarket aisle where the stabbing took place, told Newshub that he had seen the attacker and, along with another man, told him to drop the knife.

"He went past us by the aisle. This undercover cop came to me ... I was going to hit him ... The cop is like 'get back' and he started shooting him, five times and killed him."

"(One woman's) head was pushed on the food so I had to put something on it because she didn't want to get up. I gave her something for her head. She was stabbed in her head and her stomach."

A guard asked people to leave the shopping mall shortly before about 10 quick shots rang out.

Ardern's compassionate response to the 2019 mosque shootings united her shocked country but the Friday violence is likely to lead to questions about why the attacker was allowed to remain free if the authorities had suspicions about him.

Ardern said the man had not committed offences that would have led to his arrest.

"If he had committed a criminal act that would have allowed him to be in prison, that's where he would have been. Unfortunately, he didn't ... instead he was being monitored constantly, constantly, and followed," she said.

She said she was "absolutely gutted" when she got news of the attack.

Of the six wounded people, three were in critical condition, one in serious condition and two were in moderate condition, the St John ambulance service said.

Another witness, Amit Nand, told the Newshub outlet he had seen the attacker and told him to drop the knife just before police arrived.

"This undercover cop came to me ... I was going to hit him .... The cop is like 'get back' and he started shooting him," Nand said.

Gamal Fouda, imam of the Al Noor mosque, the main target of the gunman in Christchurch in 2019, said both white nationalists and Islamic State stood for hate.

"We are broken hearted but we are not broken again ... We stand with the victims of the horrible incident," he said. 

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2021-09-03 04:57:00Z
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China bans men it sees as not masculine enough from TV - CNA

Broadcasters must "resolutely put an end to sissy men and other abnormal aesthetics", the National Radio and TV Administration said, using an insulting slang term for effeminate men – "niang pao", or literally, "girlie guns".

That reflects official concern that Chinese pop stars, influenced by the sleek, fashionable look of some South Korean and Japanese singers and actors, are failing to encourage China's young men to be masculine enough.

Broadcasters should avoid promoting "vulgar Internet celebrities" and admiration of wealth and celebrity, the regulator said. Instead, programmes should "vigorously promote excellent Chinese traditional culture, revolutionary culture and advanced socialist culture".

Xi's government also is tightening control over Chinese Internet industries.

It has launched anti-monopoly, data security and other enforcement actions at companies including games and social media provider Tencent Holding and e-commerce giant Alibaba Group that the ruling party worries are too big and independent.

Rules that took effect on Wednesday limit anyone under 18 to three hours per week of online games and prohibit play on school days.

Game developers already were required to submit new titles for government approval before they could be released. Officials have called on them to add nationalistic themes.

The party also is tightening control over celebrities.

Broadcasters should avoid performers who "violate public order" or have "lost morality", the regulator said. Programmes about the children of celebrities also are banned.

On Saturday, microblog platform Weibo Corp suspended thousands of accounts for fan clubs and entertainment news.

A popular actress, Zhao Wei, has disappeared from streaming platforms without explanation. Her name has been removed from credits of movies and TV programmes.

Thursday's order told broadcasters to limit pay for performers and to avoid contract terms that might help them evade taxes.

Another actress, Zheng Shuang, was fined 299 million yuan (US$46 million) last week on tax evasion charges in a warning to celebrities to be positive role models.

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2021-09-03 02:22:53Z
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Malaysia set to reopen Langkawi islands to tourists under local travel bubble plan - The Straits Times

KUALA LUMPUR (BLOOMBERG) - Malaysia plans to reopen the tourist haven of Langkawi islands as it renews efforts to rebuild parts of the economy worst hit by the pandemic.

Langkawi, in the state of Kedah, will open to locals under a travel bubble plan from Sept 16, Prime Minister Ismail Sabri Yaakob said in a statement on Thursday (Sept 2). Other destinations will be allowed to operate when the locality's vaccination rate hits 80 per cent, he said.

Malaysia is preparing for life with Covid-19 even as daily cases remain elevated, mirroring Thailand's tourism-reopening plan based on a pilot project in the popular resort island of Phuket.

Covid-19 will be treated as endemic and it is time for Malaysians to learn to live with the virus, Health Minister Khairy Jamaluddin said at a briefing on Wednesday.

New infections have soared despite the containment measures, hitting a record 24,599 in a single day late last month and turning the country into South-east Asia's Covid-19 hot spot. The nation added 20,988 cases on Thursday.

Still, the virus' effective reproduction rate, or R-naught, has fallen below 1 nationwide for the first time in few months, Ismail Sabri said, amid an increase in vaccination.

More than 84 per cent of the adult population has received at least one dose, and 64 per cent has been fully inoculated, according to the health ministry.

Based on projected data, the average vaccination rate among adults in each state is expected to reach 80 per cent by month-end, and 100 per cent by end of October, Ismail Sabri said.

"Eventually we have to live with Covid-19 as is the case around the world," he said.

Meantime, Melaka state will move into the second phase, and Negeri Sembilan into the third stage of the national recovery plan from Saturday after meeting the threshold limits in reducing Covid-19 infections, the prime minister said.

The decision was made by the National Security Council, which will now be renamed as the Special Committee on Pandemic Management, he said. The committee will include representatives from opposition parties as well.

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2021-09-03 01:07:58Z
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Ida's record rain floods New York-area homes, subways; at least 26 dead - CNA

The number of disasters, such as floods and heat waves, driven by climate change has increased fivefold over the past 50 years, according to a report released earlier this week by the World Meteorological Organization, a UN agency.

US President Joe Biden on Thursday said the federal government stood ready to provide "all the assistance that's needed."

The governors of New York and New Jersey, who declared emergencies in their states on Wednesday, urged residents to stay home as crews worked to clear roadways and restore service to subways and commuter rail lines serving millions of residents.

"Right now my street looks more like a lake," said Lucinda Mercer, 64, as she peered out her apartment window in Hoboken, New Jersey, just across the Hudson River from New York.

Subway service in New York City remained "extremely limited" and was not likely to be restored until later in the day, transit officials said. Commuter rail service to the city's northern suburbs, most New Jersey Transit rail lines and Amtrak passenger service between Philadelphia and Boston were canceled. About 370 flights were cancelled at New Jersey's Newark Liberty Airport.

Mark Haley of Summit, New Jersey, said getting home after a 15-minute drive to a bowling alley to celebrate his daughter's sixth birthday on Wednesday night became a six-hour slog through floodwaters that frequently blocked his route.

"When we got out, it was a war zone,” said Haley, 50, a fitness trainer. When he made it home, he found almost 0.6m of water in his basement.

Nearly 170,000 electricity customers were without power on Thursday in four northeastern states that got the bulk of the rain overnight, mostly in Pennsylvania and New Jersey, according to PowerOutage.US, which gathers data from utility companies.

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2021-09-02 22:47:17Z
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