Brexit: Britain says it should still be able to influence EU regulations after leaving it

LONDON: The UK wants to continue to influence the writing of parts of EU regulation after Brexit despite leaving the bloc, according to the latest plan by Whitehall officials.

The latest government position paper says that “regulatory cooperation between the UK and the EU on a range of issues will be essential” to avoid damaging Britain’s economy and security.

A paper released on Thursday, which focuses on data protection laws, suggests that the UK’S Information Commissioner could still have a say on shaping EU data protection rules in Brussels, attending regulatory fora and maintaining its influence. The paper says Britain should be able to help write EU rules because the rules will still apply to UK businesses that want to trade with countries in the EU – as they do to every other country in the world.

The fact that EU rules would apply to UK businesses trading with the EU after Brexit was one of the main arguments the Remain campaign deployed in favour of staying in the EU.

“After the UK’S withdrawal, regulatory cooperation between the UK and the EU on a range of issues will be essential, including data protection – not least because [EU rules] will continue to apply to UK businesses offering goods or services to individuals in the EEA,” the paper says.

“A new relationship could therefore enable an ongoing role for the UK’S ICO in EU regulatory fora, preserving existing, valuable regulatory cooperation and building a productive tackle future challenges.” Officials say the Information Commissioner’s Office is “well-regarded” internationally and that its “resources and experience are part of an established and effective EU regulatory dynamic”.

The Government is set to incorporate the EU’S data protection regulations into its own domestic law, which gives it the option of asking the European Commission to sign off British law as conforming to “adequacy”. MOSCOW: Russian Ambassador to Sudan Migayas Shirinskiy died on Wednesday in the capital Khartoum, the Russian Foreign Ministry said in a statement.

Shirinskiy, born in 1954, was appointed to the post in 2013. The diplomat died while swimming in the pool of his residence, according to state broadcaster Russia 24.

Shirinskiy manifested symptoms of an acute heart attack, embassy staff told the state broadcaster.

Embassy spokesman Sergei Konyashin said the staff called an ambulance but doctors were not able to save the ambassador. The Sudanese police have ruled out the possibility of an assassination attempt, Russia 24 reported, quoting local law enforcement agencies.

Shirinskiy graduated from the Moscow State Institute of International Relations (MGIMO) and held diplomatic positions at Russia’s embassies in Yemen, Egypt and Saudi Arabia. He also served as Russian ambassador to Rwanda prior to his most recent post.

Though there is no evidence to suggest anything suspicious about Shirinskiy’s death, he is the latest in a long line of Russian emissaries to die in the past year.

Since the start of 2017, four Russian diplomats have died. Nine have died since late 2016.

In February, Vitaly Churkin, 64, Russia’s ambassador to the United Nations died of an apparent heart attack, according to the Russian mission at the UN. Less than a month earlier, the Russian ambassador to India, 67-year-old Alexander Kadakin, died after a short illness. A spokeswoman for the embassy added there was nothing “special or extraordinary” about his death.

Two weeks before that, on January 9, a senior diplomat at the Russian embassy in Greece was found dead on the floor of his apartment. A Greek police report said he had died of natural causes. NEW YORK: A 49-year-old Nepali woman had a narrow escape after a stranger pushed her onto the train tracks at a subway station here but she was pulled to safety just minutes before a train approached the platform.

Kamala Shrestha, was returning home from work at a nail salon on Tuesday night and was standing at the subway platform when a black man approached her and pushed her onto the tracks.

“(The) train was almost coming,” she was quoted as saying by the New York Daily News. “At that same time the guy came and said, I’m going to kill you. He was very strong and he just pushed me,” she said.

Shrestha hit the subway tracks, her head struck the metal and split open, leaving a large gash. As she shouted for help, two persons rushed to pull her back onto the platform just before a train approached the station. “I tell someone, ‘Help me! Help me!’ I was scared. The two guys, they give me (their) hands, saying ‘Come on! Come on!’” “They pulled me out,” she added. “I feel so good because they helped me,” she said.

She was immediately rushed to a local hospital and treated for injuries.

“I got a new life today,” Shrestha told the Daily News from the hospital. “I feel good, actually. I almost died today.”

Police is looking for the man who pushed her and then walked out of the station.

Shrestha said she hopes the police will find the man as he could try and push other people too, putting their lives in danger. “I want to find the guy,” she said. “My kids, my family, everybody uses the subway. I want him arrested. I don’t want him to do this to anyone else.”