Agency Reporter

Alibaba Group Holding Ltd co-founder Jack Ma has cut his stake in the company over the past year to 4.8 per cent from 6.2 per cent, cashing out around 8.2 billion dollars at its current share price, the firm’s annual filing released on Friday showed.

The divestment comes as Jack retired as the Chinese e-commerce company’s executive chairman in September and pulled back from formal business roles to focus on philanthropy.

Alibaba did not disclose the average selling price of his divestment.

Its share price has risen around 40 per cent since jack reported his 6.2 per cent holding in the company a year ago.

The stock’s stellar performance has been helped by forecast-beating earnings growth, even as China’s economy sharply slows, as more people shop online for essentials due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

READ ALSO: COVID-19: Jack Ma donates 500,000 test kits, gloves to Nigeria, others

Alibaba Executive Vice Chairman Joseph Tsai also reduced his stake in the company over the same period, to 1.6 per cent from 2.2 per cent.

The offloaded shares were worth 3.3 billion dollars as of Friday.

Both Jack and Joseph have been steadily less involved in Alibaba’s regular operations since Daniel Zhang was announced as Ma’s successor as company chairman.

He assumed that role formally in September 2019.

Throughout this year, the two have donated millions of units of personal protective equipment (PPE) via their individual charity arms to hospitals worldwide to help fight the spread of COVID-19.

An April 2019 filing with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission stated that Jack would plan to sell up to 21 million shares within one year to support his philanthropic efforts. (Reuters/NAN)

IRAN’S Civil Aviation Organisation blamed a misalignment of a radar system and lack of communication between the air defence operator and his commanders for the accidental downing of a Ukrainian passenger plane in January that killed 176 people aboard.

Iran’s Revolutionary Guards shot down the Ukraine International Airlines flight with a ground-to-air missile on Jan. 8 shortly after the plane took off from Tehran,in what Tehran later acknowledged as a “disastrous mistake” by forces who were on high alert during a confrontation with the United States.

“A mistake in aligning the radar system had caused human error. An operator had forgotten to re-adjust the direction on the radar system after moving to a new position, an error that contributed to misreading the radar’s data,” an interim report on the Civil Aviation Organisation (CAO) website said.

The CAO report, which was published late Saturday, said the missile battery that targeted the passenger plane had been relocated and “was not properly reoriented”.

The downing occurred at a time of high tension between longtime foes Iran and the United States. Iran was on alert for attacks after it fired missiles at Iraqi bases housing U.S. forces in retaliation for the killing on Jan. 3 of its most powerful military commander, Qassem Soleimani, in a U.S. missile strike at Baghdad airport.

“A failure occurred after the relocation of one of the air defence units of Tehran? … It occurred because of a human error,” the CAO report said, adding that the plane was detected by the system as a target approaching Tehran.”

The operator of the air defence system “lacked awareness of the relocation of the air defence unit”, and fired the two missiles without authorisation from the command centre, the report said.

“When the first missile was fired, the passenger plane was flying at a normal altitude and trajectory,” the report added.

Last month, Iran said the black boxes of the Boeing 737-800 airliner will be sent to France, to be analysed starting July 20.

Agency Reporter

German students studying in the United States have appealed to their government for help after being threatened with expulsion from the country under new pandemic-era rules.

“We are counting on your support,” reads an open letter addressed to German Foreign Minister Heiko Maas and signed by almost 100 current, future and former German students in the US.

On July 6, U.S. immigration authorities announced foreign students attending universities offering online-only teaching due to the pandemic must transfer to another institution or leave the country.

Foreign students with a place at a university exclusively teaching online from next semester will not be allowed to enter the country.

READ ALSO: German singer Hannah Guendemir: Why I’m doing Afrobeat

The letter, published on Friday, slammed the U.S. for “an increasingly xenophobic immigration policy.”

It also asked Germany to “resolutely oppose the latest visa regulations in the interests of the European and international student body in the USA.”

“The move not only threatened students’ futures, but was “a serious attack on international academic exchange and knowledge transfer, as well as the freedom of teaching and research,’’ the letter stated.

Signatories to the letter voiced concern that Trump was trying to pressure universities into holding classes in person, even if this was not safe during the pandemic.

The German Foreign Ministry issued a response, noting the U.S. rule change and acknowledging the prerogative of all states to “take appropriate measures according to their particular situation” in the pandemic.

(dpa/NAN)

Agency Reporter

Iran is determined to develop its oil industry in spite of U.S. sanctions imposed on the country, Iranian Oil Minister Bijan Zanganeh said.

Zanganeh, who said this in a televised speech on Saturday, added: ”We will not surrender under any circumstances.

“We have to increase our capacity so that when necessary with full strength we can enter the market and revive our market share.”

READ ALSO: Court sentences Iranian dissident blogger to death

The minister said this before the signing of a 294-million-dollar contract between the National Iranian Oil Company and Persia Oil & Gas, an Iranian firm.

He also stressed that the contract was to develop the Yaran oilfield that is shared with neighbouring Iraq’s Majnoon field.

“The agreement aims to produce 39.5 million barrels of oil from the Yaran oilfield in Khuzestan province in southwestern Iran,’’ the Iranian Oil Ministry’s news agency SHANA said. (Reuters/NAN)

Agency Reporter

The U.S. State Department on Saturday warned American citizens to “exercise increased caution” in China due to heightened risk of arbitrary law enforcement, including detention and a ban from exiting the country.

“U.S. citizens may be detained without access to U.S. consular services or information about their alleged crime,” the State Department said in a security alert issued to its citizens in China.

It added that U.S. citizens could face “prolonged interrogations and extended detention” for reasons related to state security.

“Security personnel may detain or deport U.S. citizens for sending private electronic messages critical of the Chinese government,” it added, without citing specific examples.

READ ALSO: China sends warning to India amid border clash fallout

The state department also did not say what prompted the security alert.

The security alert came as bilateral tensions intensify over issues ranging from the coronavirus pandemic, trade, the new Hong Kong security law and allegations of human rights violations against Uighurs in the Xinjiang region.

Washington and Beijing recently exchanged visa bans against each other’s officials, underscoring the deteriorating relations.

The Chinese foreign ministry could not be immediately reached for comment outside of business hours on Saturday.

On Wednesday, Beijing called a similar warning issued by Australia about the risk of arbitrary detention in China “completely ridiculous and disinformation.”

(Reuters/NAN)

Agency Reporter

Bosnians on Saturday commemorated the massacre of about 8,000 Muslim men and boys in Srebrenica, marking the 25th anniversary of the killings that shocked the world.

The killings had stood out as Europe’s only atrocity since World War Two constituting genocide.

Grieving families stood by green-draped coffins of nine newly identified victims who will be buried at a flower-shaped cemetery near the town, where tall white tombstones mark the graves of 6,643 other victims.

About 1,000 victims of the massacre in the eastern town during Bosnia’s 1992 to 1995 war are still missing.

World leaders addressed the solemn ceremony by video link, unable to attend because of coronavirus epidemic.

Instead of tens of thousands visitors who typically attend the annual commemoration, only a few thousand came after organisers banned organised visits.

During the Bosnian war, Bosnian Serb forces pushed non-Serbs out of territories they sought for their Serb statelet.

Fleeing Muslims took shelter in several eastern towns, including Srebrenica, that were designated as United Nations “safe zones”.

On July 11, 1995, the Serb forces commanded by Gen. Ratko Mladic attacked and overrun Srebrenica, which was protected by lightly armed Dutch peacekeepers.

They separated women and children from men and bussed them to territory controlled by the Bosnian army.

READ ALSO: Bosnians Roar:It’s fire for fire against Nigeria

The men and boys were killed, while those who tried to escape through the woods were captured and executed.

Their bodies were dumped into mass graves and later exhumed by UN investigators and used as evidence in war crimes trials of Bosnian Serb leaders.

“We grieve with the families that tirelessly seek justice for the 8,000 innocent lives lost, all these years later,” said U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo.

Washington brokered Bosnia’s peace deal months after the massacre.

Most people at the commemoration were Muslim Bosniaks, showing that Bosnia has not achieved reconciliation almost 25 years since the end of its war, in which about 100,000 people were killed.

The UN war crimes tribunal for the former Yugoslavia convicted Mladic and his political chief Radovan Karadzic over Srebrenica genocide however remained heroes for Serbs, many of whom deny that genocide happened.

A non-government organisation called “Eastern Alternative” in the nearby town of Bratunac organised an event honouring July 11 as the “Srebrenica Liberation Day”, when killings of Serbs in the area by the Bosnian army stopped.

“There can be no trust as long as we witness attacks on the truth, denial of genocide and glorification and celebration of executors,” Sefik Dzaferovic, the Bosniak chairman of Bosnia’s tripartite presidency, told the commemoration gathering.

(Reuters/NAN)