Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy has dismissed the head of the constitutional court, who has opposed some anti-corruption reforms, calling his actions a threat to national security, Zelenskiy’s office said Saturday.
Zelenskiy and the court under Oleksandr Tupytskyi have been locked in a stand-off since last year over anti-corruption legislation, hobbling Ukraine’s chances of securing more foreign loans.
Zelenskiy signed a decree canceling the appointment of Tupytskyi as a judge of the court. Tupytskyi was appointed in 2013 by former President Viktor Yanukovych.
“Certain judges of the Constitutional Court of Ukraine appointed by Viktor Yanukovych, continuing to exercise their powers, pose a threat to the state independence and national security of Ukraine,” said the document published Saturday on the presidential website.
The constitutional court did not respond immediately to a request for comment.
The court ruled in October against some anti-corruption laws, citing as excessive the punishment for false information on officials’ asset declarations, and also struck down some powers of the main NAZK anti-graft agency.
Following that, Zelenskiy temporarily suspended Tupytskyi. Tupytskyi has previously accused Zelenskiy of trying to engineer a “constitutional coup” by removing him. Tupytskyi is under investigation in a witness-tampering case that he has called falsified and politically motivated.
Restoring all anti-corruption measures is a key condition of unlocking more loans under a $5 billion stand-by approved by the IMF last June. Ukraine has received only one tranche since then.
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Month: March 2021
Police: 2 Dead, 8 Wounded in Virginia Beach Oceanfront Shootings
Two people are dead and eight people were wounded in shootings along Virginia Beach’s oceanfront, police said Saturday.
Eight people were shot just after 11 p.m. Friday, Virginia Beach police said in a news release. All eight were taken to local hospitals, with conditions ranging from serious to life-threatening.
One woman died of a gunshot wound on the scene, the release said. At an earlier news conference, police Chief Paul Neudigate said the death possibly stemmed from an unrelated shooting.
The release also said one officer suffered minor injuries. Neudigate had said the officer was struck by a vehicle during the investigation.
A different officer fatally shot a man at the shooting scene. While officers were investigating the original shooting, shots were fired nearby, Neudigate said. The officer confronted the man, leading to the deadly gunfire.
The officer, who has been with the department for five years and is assigned to its special operations division, has been placed on administrative leave.
The original shooting and the officer shooting were being investigated concurrently, the release said.
“We have a very chaotic incident, a very chaotic night,” Neudigate said during the news conference.
No suspect information was immediately available. Neudigate said several people were in police custody but their possible involvement in the shooting was still under investigation.
Multiple roads were blocked off throughout the night while police worked in the area.
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Cameroon Prisoners Blame Overcrowding, Poor Hygiene for COVID Spread
Prisoners in Cameroon’s overcrowded prisons are protesting what they say is neglect in prison centers, leading to a rapid spread of the coronavirus. Over the past month, protests were reported in several locations, including the Kondengui Maximum Security Prison in the capital, Yaounde, the New Bell prison in the coastal city of Douala, and the central prison in the English-speaking western town of Bamenda, according to authorities.
A Kondengui prison inmate told VOA that prisoners have been holding ‘prayer protests’ for 30 minutes every day for the past two weeks. During these protests, prisoners say they have been crying out for help, pleading for protection against the spread of the virus. The prisoner, who asked to remain anonymous for fear of retaliation, was able to speak to VOA via the WhatsApp messaging platform.
“The COVID-19 is ravaging our country. We need to be able to have proper hygiene. At times they cut water for two to three days. To wash hands is very very difficult. Government should come and look for solutions so that together we can help to fight this COVID-19 and ensure that we have proper hygiene,” the prisoner said.The prisoner said sanitation at the facility is poor and it is overcrowded. About 4,500 inmates are being held there, he said, even though it was built to hold fewer than 1,500 prisoners. Lack of sanitation and face masks add to the difficulties prisoners face in conditions where access to health workers is limited.
Authorities say the country has about 30,000 inmates in 78 detention facilities built to accommodate a maximum of 9,000. The government says close to 700 of the 16,250 inmates tested within the past three months in 21 prisons were COVID-positive. Fewer than 300 tested COVID-positive last year.FILE – Prisoners are seen being moved into a truck for transport, at Kondengui Central Prison, in Yaounde, Cameroon, July 23, 2019. (Moki Edwin Kindzeka/VOA)Justice Minister Laurent Esso said there was a spike in COVID cases among inmates, but he rejects prisoners’ claims that inmates get very little assistance, saying the claims are unfounded.
He said a few inmates whose health conditions were already critical died while being rushed to hospital. There is lack of awareness among inmates about the virus and many inmates don’t come forward once they do test positive, he said.Additionally, following precautions to keep a 1.5-meter distance from one another is difficult, due to the overcrowding of these centers, Esso admitted. However, he added that inmates are required to wash their hands regularly and face mask requirement are enforced. Also, the government has reduced the number of visitors and suspended all social gatherings and activities at prison yards to limit the spread of COVID, he said.
Esso said all inmates will be tested for COVID, and those infected with the virus will get free treatment. He said the government will administer anti-COVID vaccines to prisoners who will accept vaccinations.
Fabrice Vavemi Lena, coordinator of the nongovernmental group Prison Watch Cameroon, which works to improve living and health conditions for inmates, said that to reduce the spread of COVID among inmates, the government should release pretrial detainees who have been held for long periods with no evidence of wrongdoing.
“The prisons are overcrowded. This is largely due to the number of persons that were from the Anglophone crisis (conflict in southern Cameroon’s regions), some whose cases have not been opened at the military tribunal and some who have already been condemned. With the new variant of the COVID-19, the government had to take measures because the procedures of law are very cumbersome. If the spread continues at the magnitude in which it is, it might also affect the prison guards,” he said.
Lena said the government could also grant freedom to prisoners, incarcerated for misdemeanors, if they have served half of their sentences.
Esso said he had given instructions to judges to speed the trial of suspects in tribunals all over Cameroon.
In April 2020, President Paul Biya announced that thousands of the country’s prisoners would be released in an effort to lessen prison crowding and to prevent the spread of COVID.Inmates have been among the groups with the highest level of exposure, according to the government.
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US Envoy for Afghanistan Heads to Turkey, Region to Push Talks to End Conflict
The U.S. special envoy for Afghanistan Zalmay Khalilzad has departed for Turkey and the region, the U.S. State Department said Saturday, in a push to encourage Afghan parties to accelerate negotiations to end conflict in the country.
President Joe Biden is deciding whether to meet a May 1 deadline for the withdrawal of the last 3,500 American troops in Afghanistan that was set in a February 2020 accord struck with the Taliban under former President Donald Trump.
Biden’s administration has sought to build international pressure on the Taliban and U.S.-backed Afghan President Ashraf Ghani’s government to reach a peace agreement and a cease-fire before the deadline.
“He will engage the two sides on their preparatory efforts for talks on a political settlement that produces a permanent cease-fire and a durable and just peace,” the State Department said in a statement, adding that Khalilzad departed Thursday for the talks.
The Taliban said Friday it would resume hostilities against foreign forces – which ended under the U.S.-Taliban deal – if they remain beyond the deadline.
Biden said Thursday it would be hard to comply with the deadline, which also requires the departure of some 7,000 allied forces.
The Taliban has said it was committed to the agreement, which it has termed the “most sensible and shortest path” to end 20 years of war in Afghanistan – America’s longest foreign conflict.
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Iran, China Sign 25-Year Cooperation Agreement
The Chinese and Iranian foreign ministers on Saturday signed a 25-year cooperation agreement between the two allies in a ceremony carried live on state television.
“Our relations with Iran will not be affected by the current situation, but will be permanent and strategic,” Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi was earlier quoted by Iranian news agencies as saying.
“Iran decides independently on its relations with other countries and is not like some countries that change their position with one phone call.”
Wang met President Hassan Rouhani ahead of the signing of the agreement, which is expected to include Chinese investments in key sectors such as energy and infrastructure.
The accord is an example of “successful diplomacy,” Rouhani’s adviser Hesameddin Ashena was cited by Iranian media as saying. “A country’s strength is in its ability to join coalitions, not to remain isolated.”
Saeed Khatibzadeh, an Iranian foreign ministry spokesman, said the document was a “roadmap” for trade, economic and transportation cooperation, with a “special focus on the private sectors of the two sides.”
China, one of Iran’s largest trading partners and a long-standing ally, agreed in 2016 to boost bilateral trade by more than 10 times to $600 billion over a decade.
Its commerce ministry said on Thursday that Beijing will try to safeguard the 2015 Iran nuclear deal and defend the legitimate interests of Sino-Iranian relations.
The United States and the other Western powers party to the deal are at odds with Tehran over which side should first return to the accord, which was abandoned by former U.S. President Donald Trump in 2018.
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At Least 90 Killed as Myanmar Military Continues Crackdown, Holds Parade
At least 90 people have been killed Saturday in Myanmar as the junta continues a brutal crackdown on pro-democracy protesters country wide on Armed Forces Day, according to witnesses and multiple news reports. It’s one of the most deadly days of protests since the country’s February 1 military coup.
The Myanmar Now news site reports at least 29 people were killed in Mandalay, including a boy as young as 5 years old, and at least 24 protesters died in violent night clashes with police in Yangon.
In a show of force, the military regime held a massive parade in the capital Naypyidaw to celebrate the Armed Forces Day, which commemorates the start of local resistance to the Japanese occupation during World War II.
As troops marched alongside army vehicles, junta leader General Min Aung Hlaing defended the coup again and pledged to relinquish power after new elections, without specifying any date.
Junta leaders have justified the coup saying the November 8 general election won by Aung San Suu Kyi’s National League for Democracy (NLD) party was fraudulent — an accusation the electoral commission rejected. Ongoing protests have spread nationwide since the coup often followed by a heavy-handed security crackdown against protesters.Myanmar’s junta leader General Min Aung Hlaing, who ousted the country’s elected government in a Feb. 1 coup, presides an army parade on Armed Forces Day in Naypyitaw, Myanmar, March 27, 2021.Myanmar’s military government had warned protesters they could risk being shot in the head during anti-coup demonstrations Saturday as the country observed Armed Forces Day, according to state media.
The junta’s warning came one day after nine people were killed in Myanmar, according to the daily report of the activist group, the Assistance Association for Political Prisoners (AAPP).
Military forces have killed at least 320 people during the crackdown and more than 2,900 people have been arrested, charged or sentenced since the crackdown began, the AAPP said in a report.
The United States and Britain imposed sanctions on Myanmar’s ruling junta on Thursday, blacklisting military-controlled businesses.
“Today the United States is taking its most significant action to date to impose costs on the military regime,” said Secretary of State Anthony Blinken in a statement Thursday.
The United States has designated two entities linked to the coup leaders, Myanma Economic Holdings Public Company Limited (MEHL) and Myanmar Economic Corporation Limited (MEC). “MEHL and MEC are the two largest military holding companies in Burma, and all shares in them are held and managed by current or former Burmese military officers, regiments, and units, and organizations led by former service members,” the statement said.
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5 Die in Cairo Building Collapse
Officials in Egypt say an apartment building collapsed in the capital early Saturday, killing at least five people.Many people remained trapped in the rubble in Cairo, according to witnesses who spoke to Reuters.Emergency workers are engaged in a search and rescue effort.The cause of the collapse was not immediately clear.
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Spurred by Lockdown, Spain Gives 4-day Week a Try
After years of waiting tables, Danae De Vries is one step closer to achieving her lifetime dream of becoming a theater coach.Ironically, she owes that to the pandemic. It was after last year’s brutal lockdown that shut the Spanish economy down for weeks that the owners of a small restaurant chain in Madrid offered De Vries to cut her weekly work schedule by one day.Already struggling to make ends meet in a city that has seen rental prices spiral, the 28-year-old was hesitant at first — and then enthusiastic when she was told her wages would remain untouched.“Now I have time to work, to see my family and friends, and to find enough time to study,” she said. “It’s marvelous to have time, to not rush everywhere and find a bit of inner peace.”A happier and more motivated De Vries is also better for her boss María Álvarez, the entrepreneur who turned her two-restaurant business upside-down when she proposed rotational four-day week shifts. Álvarez, a mother of two toddlers, and her startup partner at La Francachela had both struggled to keep the business going with no childcare support.“There was a feeling that society had turned its back on families, that we had been betrayed,” explained Álvarez. “As business owners, we had to come up with some solutions for our businesses, our employees and also for our personal lives.”Experimenting with cutting back one workday per week is about to go nationwide in Spain — the first country in Europe to do so. A three-year pilot project will be using 50 million euros ($59 million) from the European Union’s massive coronavirus recovery fund to compensate some 200 mid-size companies as they resize their workforce or reorganize production workflows to adapt to a 32-hour working week.The funds will go to subsidizing all of the employers’ extra costs in the first year of the trial and then reduce the government’s aid to 50% and 25% each consecutive year, according to a blueprint by the Más País progressive party that’s behind the initiative.Maria Alvarez co-owner of La Francachela and founder of the Campaña 4 Suma poses for a picture at La Francachela restaurant in Madrid, Spain, March 26, 2021.The only condition is that the readjustment leads to a real net reduction of working hours while maintaining full-time contract salaries, explained Héctor Tejero, a lawmaker with Más País in the Madrid regional assembly.“It’s not using the European funds for Spaniards to work less, it’s about seeing how we can improve productivity and competitiveness of our companies,” said Tejero.Arguments in favor of the move also cite benefits for the overall economy. A mass shift to a three-day weekend would lead to more consumption, especially in entertainment and tourism, a backbone of the Spanish economy.Reducing work hours from 40 to 35 per week in 2017 would have resulted in a 1.5% GDP growth and 560,000 new jobs, a study published earlier this year in the Cambridge Journal of Economics found. Salaries would have also increased nationally by 3.7%, especially benefitting women who more often take part-time jobs, the research said.Software Delsol, in southern Spain, invested 400,000 euros last year to reduce working hours for its 190 employees and has since then reported a 28% reduction in absenteeism, with people choosing to go to the bank or see their doctor on their weekday off. Their sales increased last year by 20% and no single employee has quit since the new schedule was adopted.Rocio Sanchez works in the kitchen at La Francachela restaurant in Madrid, Spain, March 26, 2021.Critics say that a pandemic-shaken economy is not the best scenario for experiments. With a 10.8% GDP contraction last year, its worst since the 1930s Civil War, Spain has suffered from intermittent lockdowns and the near-total freeze in international travel. Some experts argue that the priority should instead be fixing the country’s dysfunctional labor market, which is dragging one of Europe’s highest unemployment rates and is marred by precarious, low-wage jobs.ESADE Business School’s Carlos Victoria also warned against the one-size-fits-all approach of the proposal. “There are probably industries or economic areas in which a reduction of working hours won’t necessarily lead to productivity gains,” the economic policy researcher said.But Más País argues that it’s best to try first and decide later how to scale it up — or whether to do it at all.Still, not all unions are fully backing the plan, conservatives have been defensive and CEOE, the main Spanish business association, has so far offered a lukewarm response to the project.Nevertheless, at least half a dozen companies have already reached out expressing interest, according to Tejero, who said the pilot won’t be launched at least until September, when and if mass vaccination helps revive the economy.“In Spain, we have moved from presenteeism, where people had to be at the office for a very long time, to be in front of the computer, at home, for an even longer time,” said La Francachela’s Álvarez. “People are increasingly angry because remote working in itself is not going to solve our problems from a broader perspective.”
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UN Commission Urges Equality for Women in Decision-making
The U.N.’s premiere global body fighting for gender equality called for a sharp increase of women in global decision-making in a hotly debated final document adopted Friday night that saw continuing pushback against women’s rights and a refusal to address issues of gender identity.The Commission on the Status of Women reaffirmed the blueprint to achieve gender equality adopted 25 years ago at the Beijing women’s conference and shone a spotlight on several major issues today, including the imbalance of power between men and women in public life and the growing impact of violence against women and girls in the digital world.Diplomats were negotiating until almost the last minute over language on women human rights defenders, gender-based violence, and earlier on reproductive and sexual health and rights. Some Western nations sought unsuccessfully to get the commission to recognize gender non-conforming and transgender women. The closest they got was a reference to women and girls “who experience multiple and intersecting forms of discrimination” and face “diverse situations and conditions.”The European Union said it would have liked to see “more ambitious language” in the 23-page document, stressing that “the systematic attempts by some delegations to derail the process and question international commitments and obligations on gender equality show that the pushback against women’s rights continue.”Shannon Kowalski, director of advocacy and policy for The International Women’s Health Coalition, said at a briefing earlier Friday that this year “Russia has been very vocal and on the front lines” in pushing “for language that is often regressing and that seeks to deny women and girls … their rights.” The Holy See often joined their positions, and Saudi Arabia, Bahrain and Cuba were also vocal opponents on many issues, she said, while China opposed any reference to women human rights defenders.”Russia played an exceptionally disruptive role in the negotiations,” an EU diplomat said. “Today’s low common denominator result demonstrates that a pushback against women’s rights continues at the U.N., and that Russia is doing all it can to undermine progress on the issue.” The diplomat spoke on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of private discussions.Saudi Arabia, China have objectionsThe “Agreed Conclusions” were negotiated by the 193 U.N. member nations and adopted by consensus by the commission’s 45 members at the end of a two-week meeting. The U.N. women’s agency said more than 25,000 members of civil society registered to participate in the partly in-person but mainly virtual meeting that saw 200 side events led by member states and more than 700 events by civil society representatives.After Ambassador Mher Margaryan, the commission chair, banged the gavel signifying consensus, about two dozen countries spoke.Saudi Arabia stressed that any reference to gender “means women and men” and to marriage as “between women and men.” China said it would not join consensus on the role of women human rights defenders.In the document, the commission supports the important role of civil society in promoting and protecting the human rights and freedoms of all women, “including women human rights defenders.”U.N. Women Executive Director Phumzile Mlambo-Ngcuka said areas in the outcome document “do not please everybody,” and the conclusions could have been “more ambitious” and the recommendations “even bolder and decisive.”She urged member states to use the recommendations “as a building block and to outperform what is contained in these Agreed Conclusions.” She said next week’s mainly virtual Gender Equality Forum in Mexico City, another follow-up to the 1995 Beijing conference, “will take forward what we have learned from the discussions of this commission and look at how we take concrete actions.”Mlambo-Ngcuka said the conclusions “contribute to important advances” on women’s participation in public life, the main focus of the meeting along with tackling violence against women which increased during last year’s COVID-19 pandemic.The commission recognized that despite some progress women have a long road to reach equality with men in elections or appointments to decision-making bodies and administrative posts, she said. And it recognized that temporary special measures, including quotas, substantially contribute to increasing women’s representation in national and local legislatures, and called on all governments to set specific targets and timelines to achieve the goal of 50/50 gender balance in elected positions.’Very strong leadership’On violence against women in the digital world, Mlambo-Ngcuka said the commission noted the lack of preventive measures and remedies. She said member states should take action to encourage women’s digital participation and protect them, including from cyberstalking and cyberbullying.The Beijing declaration and platform approved by 189 countries in 1995 called for bold action in 12 areas to achieve gender equality, including combating poverty and gender-based violence, ensuring all girls get an education and putting women at top levels of business and government, as well as at peacemaking tables.It also said, for the first time in a U.N. document, that women’s human rights include the right to control and decide “on matters relating to their sexuality, including their sexual and reproductive health, free of discrimination, coercion and violence.”In Friday’s outcome document, the commission urges governments at all levels to “ensure universal access to sexual and reproductive health and reproductive rights.”It also urges governments to provide information on sexual and reproductive health and HIV prevention, gender equality and women’s empowerment” to adolescent girls and boys and young women and men, “with appropriate direction and guidance from parents and legal guardians.”On a positive note, the International Women’s Health Coalition’s Kowalski said the commission’s meeting saw “very strong leadership” from a number of Latin American and Pacific island countries and the “really strong and vital return of the United States as a leader and defender of sexual and reproductive health and rights, gender equality and women’s rights more broadly.”A highlight of the meeting was the virtual appearance by U.S. Vice President Kamala Harris, who told the commission “the status of women is the status of democracy” and President Joe Biden’s administration will work to improve both.
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Chinese Statistics Reveal Plummeting Births in Xinjiang During Crackdown on Uyghurs
New Chinese government statistics reveal the devastating consequences of what the United States and other countries have condemned as a genocidal campaign against the nation’s ethnic Uyghur population, mainly based in Xinjiang, the northwestern region of China.According to the China Statistical Yearbook 2020, compiled by the “While the CCP is increasingly keen for more couples to have a second child to reverse the decline in the size of China’s labor force and to redress the gender imbalance, it wants more Han children rather than ethnic minority children to shore up the Han-majoritarian state,” Finley said.Accusations of genocideChina has built a vast system of reeducation camps targeting ethnic Uyghurs, which the United States and other countries have said amount to an act of genocide. Outside rights groups estimate more than a million people have been detained in them.While China insists the camps provide education and training aimed at lifting people out of poverty, Finley is one of many observers who describe them as punitive internment camps.“The knowledge that upwards of 1 million Uyghurs and other [ethnic minorities] are interned in these camps, in many cases because of bearing too many children, serves as a powerful disincentive to either have more children or to resist the state’s coercive birth control policies,” she said.“We have stacks of evidence that show couples exceeding birth limits are subject to incarceration, mainly in the form of ‘reeducation,’” said Tim Grose, associate professor of China Studies at Indiana’s Rose-Hulman Institute of Technology.Allegations of forced sterilizationsWhile China’s official yearbook attributes declining birthrates to a cultural shift away from marriage and family, Ilshat Hassan Kokbor of the Uyghur American Association offers a simpler explanation — forced sterilizations and abortions by the Chinese government.According to an Associated Press investigation based on government statistics, state documents and interviews with 30 ex-detainees, family members and a former detention camp instructor, the state regularly subjects minority women to pregnancy checks, and forces intrauterine devices, sterilization and even abortion on hundreds of thousands of detainees, leading to what some experts call a campaign of “The Communist Party “has also effectively mobilized ‘public health’ officials who have distributed and, in many cases, imposed birth control methods on women,” Grose told VOA. “The party has also incentivized smaller families in some rural communities of southern Xinjiang by offering monetary rewards for couples who forego a third birth.”In a response to a similar report by CNN last September, the Chinese government insisted that those who complied with the family planning policies did so voluntarily.“People of all ethnic groups are free to choose whether or not to have contraception and how to practice it with no organization or individual intervening,” said an August 2020 article in China’s state-run Global Times newspaper.Statistical accuracy questionedYi Fuxian, a senior scientist at the University of Wisconsin-Madison and author of Big Country with an Empty Nest, said discrepancies within official Chinese statistic make it especially challenging to draw firm conclusions.Data from the Xinjiang Statistical Yearbook, for example, shows the Uyghur population in the region in 2018 is 11.6786 million, while the analysis of population changes in Xinjiang published by Tianshannet, a Xinjiang government-run news website, states the number is 12.7184 million, a difference of more than 1 million people.Yi said the region has also experienced urbanization, which can delay marriages, birthrates and people’s attitudes towards having children.“On the other hand, education in Xinjiang has improved. The people’s attitudes towards fertility have changed, marriages have been delayed and urbanization rates have increased rapidly,” said Yi. “The so-called ‘concentration camps’ as described by the West, what China calls reeducation camps, have led to separation of families, affecting fertility rate.”Regardless of the cause, results show an alarming decrease in Uyghur birth rates that critics say amounts to a slow-motion genocide.Finley of Newcastle University said the overall policy suggests an intent to destroy foundations on which the Uyghur ethnic group is based.“This is not a dramatic, sudden episode of mass killings; it is slow, progressive, creeping,” she said.”But it is nonetheless a genocidal act and process, which, taken together with the other policies of cultural erasure, will ensure a vastly depleted Uyghur population in numerical terms, and that only a hollow shell or husk of the Uyghur identity will remain.”
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US Vaccination Effort Quickens as COVID Cases Rise Again
As cases of the coronavirus continue to rise in the United States, officials are racing to open up vaccine eligibility in the hope of staving off another wave of the pandemic.Dr. Rochelle Walensky, head of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, expressed concern Friday about rising case numbers, noting the seven-day average daily case count was up 7% over the past week.“We have seen cases and hospital admission move from historic decline to stagnation to increases, and we know from prior surges that if we don’t control things now there is a real potential for the epidemic curve to soar again,” she said at a White House briefing.Walensky noted that about 1,000 Americans a day are dying of COVID-19 and said, “Please take this moment very seriously.”As of Friday evening, the U.S. led the world in the number of COVID-19 cases since the pandemic began, with 30.2 million, and the number of deaths, with more than 548,000, according to the Johns Hopkins Coronavirus Resource Center. Globally, more than 126 million people have contracted COVID-19 and almost 2.8 million have died.Inflection pointNew U.S. cases peaked at nearly 260,000 a day in early January, and that month saw an average of more than 3,100 people dying every day. Case numbers and deaths began to fall later in January and continued to drop in February.New Mexico Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham talks with National Guard members after receiving her Pfizer COVID-19 vaccine during a vaccination event held in the gym at Desert Sage Academy in Santa Fe, N.M., March 26, 2021.Currently, case numbers are starting to rise, with the average daily case count at 57,000. The increase comes at a time when optimism of a return to normal is growing in the United States with more and more Americans being vaccinated. CDC data on Friday showed that 27% of the U.S. population had received at least one vaccine dose and nearly 15% had been fully vaccinated.Health officials have indicated that the U.S. could be at an inflection point for the pandemic: a time when the country either turns the corner in its battle with the virus or faces a setback.Dr. Anthony Fauci, the government’s top infectious-disease expert, said at a White House briefing earlier this week: “I’m often asked: Are we turning the corner?“My response is really more like: We are at the corner. Whether or not we’re going to be turning that corner still remains to be seen.”On March 4, Fauci told CNN that states shouldn’t ease restrictions to prevent COVID-19 until new coronavirus cases fell below 10,000 daily.U.S. officials have been warning about the danger of more contagious variants of the virus, like the one first identified in Britain, which is now causing new surges of the pandemic in a number of European countries.FILE – Dr. Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, speaks at a U.S. Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee hearing in Washington, March 18, 2021.Last week, Fauci said that variant likely accounted for 20% to 30% of coronavirus infections in the United States, adding that the numbers were likely growing. If the variant were to become the dominant strain in the United States, health officials say, reinfections would become more likely among those who have already had COVID-19. Such reinfections, along with the higher transmission rate of the variant, could lead to a wave of new cases.Race to vaccinateTo try to stave off the spread of the new variants, the Biden administration and U.S. state officials are trying to speed up the pace of vaccinations across the country.The governors of South Carolina and Kansas announced Friday that their states would open up vaccine eligibility next week to anyone older than 16.They will join at least a dozen states that have allowed those 16 and older to schedule vaccination appointments. At least 34 states have announced plans to make everyone 16 and older eligible for the vaccine by mid-April, according to a review by The Washington Post.FILE – Michelle Melton, who is 35 weeks pregnant, receives the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine against COVID-19 at Skippack Pharmacy in Schwenksville, Pa., Feb. 11, 2021.Of the three vaccines approved for emergency use in the United States, the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine is authorized for those 16 and older while the Moderna and Johnson & Johnson vaccines are approved for those 18 and older. No vaccine has been approved for anyone younger than 16.President Joe Biden has set a deadline of May 1 for all states to open up vaccinations to all adults. Jeff Zients, coordinator of the White House coronavirus response, said 46 states have confirmed that they will be able to meet the deadline.He acknowledged, however, that some states were opening up their eligibility for adults more quickly than planned because they had not been able to fill appointments for the most vulnerable populations, including the elderly and those with underlying health conditions.”If there are states that are lagging behind, we’re working with those states to ensure they continue to prioritize the most vulnerable populations,” he said during a briefing Friday.Data from the CDC on Friday showed that more than 71% of people 65 and older had received at least one vaccination shot.3 more vaccination centersThe White House announced Friday that three more cities — Boston, Massachusetts; Norfolk, Virginia; and Newark, New Jersey — were getting new federally run mass vaccination centers as part of the president’s new goal of vaccinating 200 million Americans by the end of April. Biden had previously set a goal of vaccinating 100 million Americans during his first 100 days in office, a goal he surpassed last week.Zients said that while the pace of vaccinations was encouraging, there is still concern about the increasing case numbers of the coronavirus across the country.“It is clear there is a case for optimism, but there is not a case for relaxation,” he said. “This is not the time to let down our guard.”
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Former US Military Translator Pleads Guilty of Espionage
A former U.S. military translator pleaded guilty Friday of divulging classified information to a Lebanese national with suspected ties to the Lebanese Hezbollah.Mariam Taha Thompson, 63, who worked as a contract linguist for the U.S. military from 2006 to 2020, pleaded guilty to one count of delivering national defense information to aid a foreign government.She faces a maximum penalty of life in prison. Her sentencing is scheduled for June 23.Thompson, who was born in Lebanon and became a U.S. citizen in 1993, was arrested in February 2020 at a U.S. special operations base in Irbil, Iraq.Prosecutors say she used her top secret clearance to pass the names of U.S. intelligence assets to the Lebanese national in whom she had a romantic interest and and whom she believed would share the information with Hezbollah. Hezbollah was designated as a foreign terrorist organization in 1997.According to court documents, the unnamed Lebanese national, described as “wealthy and well-connected,” claimed to have received a ring from Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah and had a nephew who worked in the Lebanese Ministry of Interior.Names sought in attack on SoleimaniAfter a U.S. airstrike killed Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps Quds Force commander Qassem Soleimani in December 2019, the Lebanese national, her unindicted co-conspirator, asked Thompson to provide Hezbollah with information about the human assets who had helped the U.S. target Soleimani, according to prosecutors.Over a six-week period leading up her arrest in February 2020, Thompson provided the Lebanese national with the identities of at least 10 clandestine human assets; at least 20 U.S. targets; and multiple tactics, techniques and procedures, according to the Justice Department.“Thompson jeopardized the lives of members of the U.S. military as well as other individuals supporting the United States in a combat zone when she passed classified information to a person she knew was connected to Lebanese Hizballah, a foreign terrorist organization which intended to use the information to hurt this country,” Assistant Attorney General John C. Demers said in a statement.
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North Korea Assails Biden Remarks on Its Latest Missile Test
North Korea said Saturday that U.S. President Joe Biden had revealed “his deep-seated hostility” toward Pyongyang and had encroached on its right to self-defense by criticizing its latest missile test, the official KCNA news agency said.North Korea on Friday claimed it had launched a new type of tactical short-range ballistic missile. Biden said that the test had violated U.N. Security Council resolutions but that he remained open to diplomacy with Pyongyang.Ri Pyong Chol, secretary of the Central Committee of the Workers’ Party of Korea, said the missile test was self-defensive against threats posed by South Korea and the United States with their joint military exercises and advanced weapons.”We express our deep apprehension over the U.S. chief executive faulting the regular test fire, exercise of our state’s right to self-defense, as the violation of U.N. ‘resolutions’ and openly revealing his deep-seated hostility,” Ri said in a statement carried by KCNA.”Such remarks from the U.S. president are an undisguised encroachment on our state’s right to self-defense and provocation to it.”Ri warned that Washington might face “something that is not good” if it continued to make “thoughtless remarks without thinking of the consequences.”
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Mali Officials Accuse French Military of Killing Civilians
Officials in Mali on Friday accused the French military of killing civilians in a Thursday airstrike. Reuters said the number of killed was six, while AP reported at least five deaths. The incident happened in the western Gao region of Mali and was the second time this year France has been accused of killing civilians. The French military reported the strike had killed a group of militants 60 kilometers north of Deliman. “This strike was ordered after a phase of surveillance and identification permitting the characterization of the presence of an armed terrorist group,” it said in a statement, according to Reuters. The strike was a part of Operation Barkhane, a effort led by the French military to root out Islamic extremism in the Sahel. The operation began in 2014. Local officials claim those killed were civilian males aged 15 to 20, and that they were hunting birds with one gun among them. “I know all these young people. Some are from my family,” Mohamed Assaleh Ahmad, mayor of the nearby village of Talataye, told Reuters by telephone. “We have seen these airstrikes in the past here. We have never said anything, but this time, it is 100% an error.” The United Nations is investigating a January 3 incident near the village of Bounti. Local officials said a French airstrike hit a wedding party, killing 10. The French military denied the account and said it killed 30 extremists. Al-Qaida-linked extremists have been waging a widening campaign against national militaries across the Sahel.
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Wanted Myanmar Activist Says People ‘Expecting’ Nationwide Civil War
The military coup in Myanmar is nearly two months old, but the armed forces, also known as the Tatmadaw, are continuing their violent pushback against anti-coup demonstrators.According to the Assistance Association for Political Prisoners Burma, thousands have been detained and hundreds killed.The junta government, officially the State Administrative Council, has also imposed widespread internet shutdowns that have hampered protesters’ online communications, a key method for organizing demonstrations.Several pro-democracy activists speaking out against the coup have been forced into hiding to avoid harsh repercussions.Moe Thway, one of the activists who protested against a controversial copper mine project, gives thumbs-up sign from police truck as he leaves a township court with other activists on Nov 22, 2013, in Yangon Myanmar.Moe Thway is a veteran activist and co-founder of Generation Wave, a pro-democracy movement that was created following the 2007 Saffron Revolution, the last time major demonstrations were held against military rule in Myanmar, which is also known as Burma.The 40-year-old is no stranger to Myanmar authorities. He told VOA he’d faced more than 20 criminal cases for his activism in the past and had served two stints in jail.“The first one was in 2012 for nine days,” he said. “In 2013 I was sentenced after facing one of them trials, I was sentenced for one month.”He is now one of the hundreds of activists wanted by Myanmar authorities following a crackdown on the latest demonstrations.“I’m on the warrant list issued by the military council,” he said. “They accuse me [of] building the network to run the Civil Disobedient Movement together with the other students and youth. They accuse me as kind of vocal person for all civil society.”Those who have joined the Civil Disobedient Movement (CDM) are usually Myanmar professionals, such as health workers and lawyers, who have refused to work under military rule. The movement has recently been nominated for a Nobel Peace Prize, according to reports.But in comparison to what Thway faces today, his previous stints in jail may seem relatively short. He told VOA he was wanted for violating section 505(B) of Myanmar’s penal code, which can carry a prison sentence for inciting public unrest.“Up to seven years in jail, maybe more than that,” he said. “The charge isn’t really important because if they arrest, if they caught anyone, they can add any charge … high treason or whatever.”But Thway admitted that the prospect of facing jail again was different this time because of the military’s brutal crackdown.“We’ve heard a lot of news they’ve tortured the [detainees], activists and people these days,” he said. “Some are tortured and interrogated because they want information from them, and to [link them to pro-democracy groups].”And some are tortured for no reason,” said Thway. “People were killed after [being] captured.”Despite the risks, Thway said he’s determined to evade capture and continue resisting the coup, echoing concerns of fellow prominent activists such as Maung Saungkha and Thinzar Shunlei Li, who’ve both said the movement would suffer if they were captured.“The reason why we are hiding is to continue the movement,” said Thway.Demonstrators display flags during a protest in Launglone, Dawei district, Myanmar on March 26, 2021. (Dawei Watch/Reuters)After gaining independence from Britain in 1948, Myanmar has spent most of its modern history under military rule.Aung San Suu Kyi’s National League for Democracy had led the country since its first open democratic election in 2015, but Myanmar’s military contested last November’s election results, claiming widespread electoral fraud, largely without evidence.On February 1, they removed the NLD government, detaining Suu Kyi and President Win Myint.The military has since deployed armored vehicles and fired live ammunition to suppress protests, while martial law has been imposed in townships across the country.In response to the coup, ousted NLD lawmakers formed the Committee Representing Pyidaungsu Hluttaw (CRPH), which refuses to recognize the new regime.Thway is hopeful a three-pronged, anti-coup resistance — sustained protests backed by the CDM and the CRPH movements — can prevail.“We are hoping and expecting there might be another form of government,” he said. “Also, the CRPH and the acting government are already discussing the new federal constitution. That is very important.”The Myanmar Now news service recently reported that a proposed draft constitution that would collate all opposition parties into a formal coalition is nearing completion.“We need unity among the different ethnicities in the country,” Thway told VOA. “At the same time, the political leaders are saying if we have a legitimate government, we need a legitimate army, officials to protect the people.”Spanning seven decades, conflict in Myanmar has already been the world’s longest ongoing civil war, with a series of insurgencies largely arising from ethnic-based hostilities.And Thway admits two governments battling for power would lead to a nationwide conflict but believes people are prepared for the worst.“This could be a very intensified second wave and a bigger civil war than before. In this case, most of the people are expecting that,” he said.“Many parts of the country will be in chaos. I don’t think we can win the coup and have normal activities,” he added. “There could be an economic crisis, [or] other crises like food and humanitarian crises.“The revolution is already for 70 days,” he said. “[Ethnic groups] know how to survive. We have to learn from that.”
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Trains Crash in Southern Egypt, Killing at Least 32
Two trains crashed Friday in southern Egypt, killing at least 32 people and injuring 165, authorities said in the latest of a series of deadly accidents on the country’s troubled railways. Someone apparently activated the emergency brakes on the passenger train, and it was rear-ended by another train, causing two cars to derail and flip on their side, Egypt’s Railway Authorities said, although Prime Minister Mustafa Madbouly later added that no cause has been determined. The passenger train was headed to the Mediterranean port of Alexandria, north of Cairo, rail officials said. Video showed twisted piles of metal with passengers covered with dust trapped inside, some bleeding and others unconscious. Bystanders removed the dead and laid them on the ground nearby. People inspect the damage after two trains collided near the city of Sohag, Egypt, March 26, 2021.One passenger was heard shouting on the video, “Help us! People are dying!” A female passenger appeared to be upside down, squeezed under the seats, and was crying, “Get me out, boy!” Hazem Seliman, who lives near the tracks and heard the crash, said he initially thought the train had hit a car. When he arrived at the scene, he said he found the dead and injured on the ground, among them women and children. “We carried the deceased and put the injured into ambulances,” he said. More than 100 ambulances were sent to the scene in the province of Sohag, about 440 kilometers (270 miles) south of Cairo, Health Minister Hala Zayed said, and the injured were taken to four hospitals. Injuries included broken bones, cuts and bruises. Two planes carrying a total of 52 doctors, mostly surgeons, were sent to Sohag, she added at a news conference in the province, accompanied by Madbouly, who added that a military plane would bring those needing special surgery to Cairo. Chief Prosecutor Hamada el-Sawy was on the scene to investigate the crash, he said. “The [railway] service has been neglected for decades to an extent that made it quite outdated and extremely dangerous,” Madbouly told reporters. “We have spent billions to upgrade the railway, but we still have a long way to go in order to complete all the required work.” The government will pay the equivalent of $6,400 in compensation to each family that lost a relative in the crash, Madbouly said, while the injured will get $1,280 to $2,560, depending on how badly they were hurt. President Abdel-Fattah el-Sissi said he was monitoring the situation and that those responsible would receive “a deterrent punishment.” “The pain that tears our hearts today cannot but make us more determined to end this type of disasters,” he wrote on his Facebook page. Egypt’s rail system has a history of badly maintained equipment and mismanagement, and official figures said there were 1,793 train accidents in 2017. In 2018, a passenger train derailed near the southern city of Aswan, injuring at least six people and prompting authorities to fire the chief of the country’s railways. The same year, el-Sissi said the government needed about 250 billion Egyptian pounds ($14.1 billion) to overhaul the rail system. Those remarks came a day after a passenger train collided with a cargo train, killing at least 12 people. Egypt’s deadliest train crash was in 2002, when more than 300 people were killed after fire broke out in a train traveling from Cairo to southern Egypt.
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Putin Praises Russian Military Arctic Exercise
Russian President Vladimir Putin on Friday praised a recent Russian military exercise in the Arctic region showcasing the Russian military’s ability to operate in extreme conditions. During the exercise, three nuclear-powered submarines surfaced through the polar ice simultaneously, reported the commander-in-chief of the Russian fleet, Nikolai Yevmenov, during a videoconference with the Russian leader. Yevmenov also said three Russian warplanes flew over the North Pole.FILE – Russian President Vladimir Putin chairs a video-conference meeting at Novo-Ogaryovo state residence outside Moscow, Russia, Feb. 10, 2021.Putin called the exercise unprecedented.”The Arctic expedition … has no analogues in the Soviet and the modern history of Russia,” Putin said, according to Reuters. He also ordered continued “Arctic expeditions and research in the Far North to help ensure Russia’s security,” according to The Associated Press. The exercises were conducted near Alexandra Land, a large island among the Franz Josef Land archipelago, where Russia recently constructed a military base, according to The Associated Press.Russia has also invested in other bases in the region. Countries with a stake in the polar region, including Russia, the U.S., Canada, Denmark and Norway, are eager to assert their jurisdiction in the area as potential shipping lanes open because of melting ice caps. The region is also rich in natural resources, including oil. Putin has said Arctic mineral reserves could be worth up to $30 trillion, news wires reported.
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14 Years Later, Turkish-Armenian Journalist’s Assassination Leads to Life Sentences
A Turkish court sentenced two former police chiefs on Friday to life in prison for their role in the killing of prominent Turkish-Armenian journalist Hrant Dink more than 14 years ago, the Turkish state-owned Anadolu news agency said.Editor of the bilingual Turkish-Armenian weekly Agos and a leading promoter of reconciliation between the Turkish and Armenian communities, Dink was shot twice in the head outside his office in central Istanbul.After the slaying, tens of thousands of people gathered in central Istanbul to mourn. His death plunged Turkey’s Armenian community into mourning and sparked a sprawling trial that lasted more than a decade and involved senior security officers who were accused of being aware of the plot to kill Dink but failing to act.Demonstrators hold a banner reading “For Hrant, For Justice” during a gathering in front of the Caglayan Courthouse in Istanbul, March 26, 2021.Istanbul’s main court sentenced the city’s former police intelligence chief Ramazan Akyurek and his former deputy Ali Fuat Yilmazer to life in prison for “premeditated murder,” according to Agos.Former top Istanbul interior ministry officers Yavuz Karakaya and Muharrem Demirkale were also jailed for life, while charges against another top city police chief were dropped because of the statute of limitation.In 2011, Dink’s assassin, Ogun Samast, was sentenced to nearly 23 years in prison by a juvenile court. He was 17 when the killing took place. The following January, a man named Yasin Hayal was sentenced to life in jail for instigating the killing.Ali Oz, a former interior ministry commander of the Black Sea region of Trabzon where the gunman came from, was sentenced Friday to 28 years in jail.Dink’s supporters and rights activists still maintain that the most senior police officials have gone unpunished and want the investigation and trials to run on. “Some of those responsible for this assassination, including the sponsors, have still not been prosecuted,” said Erol Onderoglu, Turkey representative for Reporters Without Borders (RSF), who has closely followed the trial. ”This partial justice rendered after 14 years leaves a bitter taste and should not mark the end of the search for the truth.” State media said the court ruled that the murder was carried out in line with the goals of a clandestine network linked to U.S.-based Fethullah Gulen, a Muslim preacher whom Ankara accuses of orchestrating an attempted coup in July 2016. FILE – Islamic preacher Fethullah Gulen is pictured at his residence in Saylorsburg, Pa., Sept. 26, 2013.Gulen, who has lived in the United States since 1999 and denies any involvement in the failed putsch, was one of 13 fugitives from justice among 76 defendants on trial in the Dink case. The court did not rule on the case of Gulen and the other 12 fugitives and instead separated their cases.Various other defendants in the Dink case were given jail sentences on charges including accessory to murder and membership of a terrorist group — because of links to Gulen’s network — as well as faking and destroying documents, state media said.The Istanbul court ruled Friday that Dink’s murder was committed “in line with the objectives of Feto,” an acronym Ankara uses for Gulen’s banned movement, NTV reported.Dink’s wife, Rakel, had said in January that blaming Gulen’s movement for her husband’s death nearly a decade before the failed coup was like, “I didn’t kill him, but my hand did.”
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Boulder Police Chief: Still No Motive for Grocery Store Shooting That Killed 10
Boulder, Colorado’s chief of police said Friday investigators still have not determined the motive for the shooting deaths of 10 people, including a police officer responding to the crime, at a grocery store earlier this week.At a news briefing, Boulder Police Chief Maris Herold told reporters her office along with 25 other law enforcement agencies were working around the clock to determine why the 21-year-old suspect chose Boulder, some 30 miles from his home in Arvada, Colorado, and why this grocery store.She said those questions will haunt everyone in the community until they know the answers. Boulder County District Attorney Michael Dougherty, who also spoke at the news conference, said determining the motive will be the focus of all their efforts. Herold said the suspect, identified earlier as Ahmad Al Aliwi Alissa, legally purchased an AR-556 pistol at a gun store in his hometown. He also carried a handgun which was, they believe, not used in the attack. She said Alissa was shot and wounded in the leg during the incident by one of the responding police officers. That officer has been put on administrative leave, which is department policy.Doughtery said the suspect was charged with attempted murder, along with the 10 murder charges because of his exchange of gunfire with officers at the scenes. The district attorney said there may be additional charges. Alissa made an initial appearance in court Thursday. His lawyers as asked for two to three-month delay before his next court appearance for a mental evaluation and investigators to collect evidence. The suspect was moved to a jail outside of Boulder for security reasons. He is being held without bail.
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Myanmar’s Junta Warns Protesters of Deadly Force Ahead of Armed Forces Day, Report Says
Myanmar’s military government reportedly has warned protesters they could be shot in the head during possible anti-coup demonstrations Saturday as the country observes Armed Forces Day.
The warning was broadcast on the Myanmar Radio and Television channel, according to Reuters.
“You should learn… that you can be in danger of getting shot to the head and back,” the MRTV broadcast reportedly said.
Activists have called for more nationwide protests on Armed Forces Day, when the country’s military might will be on display during its annual parade.
“The time has arrived again to fight the military’s oppression, activist Ei Thinzar Maung wrote in a Facebook post.
The junta’s warning came one day after nine people were killed in Myanmar, according to the daily report of the Assistance Association for Political Prisoners.
Demonstrators were out in force in a continued show of opposition against the ruling military junta, one day after Wednesday’s “silent” strike left the streets of many cities across the country practically empty.
There were scattered reports of soldiers using force to break up protests in the southeastern city of Mawlamyine and in Hpa-An, the capital of southeastern Karen state. Soldiers also confronted protesters staging candlelight vigils across the country, with reports of at least one man shot and killed.
The AAPP said in the report that at least 320 people have been killed by military forces during the crackdown. One of those killed was a 7-year-old girl who was shot Tuesday when soldiers broke into her home in Mandalay, according to Myanmar Now and Reuters. The child was reportedly sitting on her father’s lap when the soldiers broke in and demanded to know if everyone in the family was at home. The father said yes, but the soldiers accused him of lying and opened fire, hitting the girl. This photo received from an anonymous source via Facebook March 26, 2021, shows protesters carrying signs during a demonstration against the military coup in Yangon, Myanmar.The AAPP also said that more than 2,900 people have been arrested, charged or sentenced since the crackdown began. But more than 600 protesters were released Wednesday from Insein prison in the main city of Yangon in an apparent goodwill gesture by the junta. Associated Press journalist Thein Zaw, who was arrested while covering a street protest in Yangon along with eight other media workers, was among those released.
Agence France-Presse has reported that a Molotov cocktail thrown at the Yangon headquarters of the National League for Democracy party of detained civilian leader Aung San Suu Kyi caused a small fire.
AFP quoted Soe Win, an NLD member in charge of the headquarters, saying that “when the residents nearby knew about the fire, they called the fire service department to put it out … it was under control by around 5 a.m.”
The United States and Britain imposed sanctions on Myanmar’s ruling junta on Thursday, blacklisting military-controlled businesses.
“Today the United States is taking its most significant action to date to impose costs on the military regime,” said Secretary of State Anthony Blinken in a statement Thursday.
The United States is designating two entities linked to the coup leaders, Myanma Economic Holdings Public Company Limited and Myanmar Economic Corporation Limited. MEHL and MEC are the two largest military holding companies in Burma, and all shares in them are held and managed by current or former Burmese military officers, regiments, and units, and organizations led by former service members.”
Blinken added that Britain would be taking similar actions against MEHL.FILE – Soldiers take part in a military parade to mark Armed Forces Day, in the capital Naypyitaw, Myanmar, March 27, 2019. Farhan Haq, a spokesman for United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres, issued a statement Wednesday urging the junta to exercise “maximum restraint” as Armed Forces Day on March 27 approaches. He called for “accountability for all the crimes and human rights violations that continue to be perpetrated in Myanmar.”
Suu Kyi is facing four criminal charges, including the possession of unlicensed walkie-talkies, violating COVID-19 restrictions, breaching telecommunication laws and incitement to cause public unrest. She has also been accused by the junta of accepting $600,000 in illegal payments.
Suu Kyi was scheduled to appear in court via videoconferencing Wednesday, but the session was postponed until April 1. Khin Maung Zaw, a lawyer for Aung San Suu Kyi, told VOA that police blocked the thoroughfare that led to the courthouse, and only allowed two junior lawyers to enter. Khin said the judge told the two lawyers the video conferencing sessions on the docket could not take place.
Wednesday’s appearance by Suu Kyi was originally scheduled for March 15 but was called off because of a lack of internet service. Authorities have imposed nightly internet shutdowns for several weeks to prevent any sharing of protests from across the country.
Junta leaders also justified their coup by saying the November 8 election won by Suu Kyi’s NLD was fraudulent – an accusation the electoral commission rejected.
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Former US Officials Condemn Hate Crimes Targeting Asian Americans
A bipartisan group of former U.S. government officials has issued a statement condemning the spike in crimes against Asian-Americans, saying the increase comes as Asians face “wrongful blame for the virus.”
“We, the undersigned Americans of Asian and Pacific Islander (AAPI) descent, who served as senior officials in both Republican and Democratic administrations and congressional offices, strongly denounce the alarming increase in violence, rhetoric, and bigotry against the AAPI community,” the group’s statement read.
Citing statistics provided by the nonprofit group Stop AAPI Hate, the signatories say 2020 witnessed a 150% increase in hate crimes against Asian Americans.
The group says the crimes include bullying, racial epithets, and verbal abuse and harassment and physical violence, some of which has led to death.
“For centuries, [Asian American and Pacific Islanders] have contributed much to the vibrancy and success of this country. Yet we are sometimes still seen as “the foreigner” or “less American” and treated as the “other,” the statement read.
Among those signing the statement are former secretary of transportation Elaine Chao, a Republican, and former commerce secretary and Ambassador to China, Gary Locke, a Democrat.
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Uyghur Leader Detained in Turkey as China Foreign Minister Visits
The house detention of a Uyghur leader during the Chinese foreign minister’s visit to Turkey this week is stoking concerns among Turkey’s large Uyghur refugee community about deepening ties between Ankara and Beijing.
Uyghur leader Seyit Tumturk, head of the East Turkistan National Assembly, was detained at home during Wang Li’s visit to Turkey. Speaking to VOA, Tumturk said health authorities quarantined him without a COVID-19 test, after he called for protests against the Chinese minister’s visit.
“This time they used the COVID tracking method to prevent me from protesting, how will they prevent me next time from protesting in front of [the] Chinese embassy when someone else comes,” he said. “I am having serious worries and concerns about my security, my health and my freedom,” Tumturk said.
Uyghurs protested in Ankara and Istanbul during Wang Li’s three-day visit, which ended Friday. Many Uyghurs have found refuge in Turkey. But with Turkey’s relations increasingly strained with its traditional western allies, Ankara is deepening its economic and financial ties with Beijing, despite China’s ongoing crackdown on Uyghurs. During Wang’s visit, both countries committed to work together towards developing a strategic partnership.Turkey’s President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, right, and Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi pose for a photo before a meeting, in Ankara, Turkey, March 25, 2021.Beijing is pressing Ankara to ratify a new extradition agreement, as it seeks Uyghur dissidents’ return. Human rights lawyer Ibrahim Ergin who represents Uyghurs in Turkey says he is alarmed.
“If this extradition agreement is approved in the parliament, we can foresee that this will result in some or all our clients’ death,” he said.
The Turkish parliament is yet to ratify the extradition agreement. Support of the Turkic-speaking Muslim group is strong in Turkey, crossing the country’s deep political divide.
But Cagdas Ungor of Istanbul’s Marmara University says economic pragmatism could prevail, with geopolitics playing a role.
“If the world is going to be polarized between the western hemisphere led by the United States and China, I think it’s going to be a harder game to keep good relations with China. Because in a cold war, bipolar environment, the gray area, the room to maneuver, that’s going to be narrow,” Ungor said.Ankara has invited Chinese President Xi Jinping for a state visit. Still, at the same time, Turkey is seeking to repair strained ties with the United States. But whatever road Ankara takes is likely to be closely followed by Uyghurs who’ve found sanctuary in Turkey.
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Cameroonians Stranded After Road to Troubled Western Regions Collapses
Thousands of Cameroonians are stranded after heavy rains Thursday collapsed the only road to the country’s troubled Northwest Region. Among them is 36-year-old nurse Doris Tendong with Cameroon’s ministry of health. She was traveling to the English-speaking town of Bamenda with COVID-19 test kits and treatment, and to educate people on the virus. She said more than 20 people in Bamenda died of COVID-19 within one week, and the number of health workers testing positive is increasing due to negligence and lack of knowledge. Tendong, who was dispatched from Cameroon’s capital, Yaoundé, is among thousands of people waiting for authorities to repair the road.Officials said the damage has stopped at least 200 vehicles from getting into or out of Bamenda, the region’s capital. The stranded travelers also included traders and aid workers helping people suffering from the region’s separatist conflict. Cameroon’s public works minister, Emmanuel Nganou Djoumessi, said engineers have been sent to build an emergency road, and measures will be taken to prevent further damage. He said he has ordered signposts to be erected that will prohibit vehicles for up to two hours after rainfall. Cameroonians should rest assured, he added, that peace is returning to the English-speaking western regions and the entire road will be constructed very soon. Armed attackersEfforts to repair the road in 2018 were abandoned after armed men attacked workers and torched construction equipment. Work resumed in 2020, but armed men again attacked, abducting some workers, who were only freed after ransom was paid. Cameroon authorities blamed anglophone rebels fighting to create a breakaway state from the French-speaking majority. Separatists did not confirm or deny the attacks on construction workers but have claimed responsibility for previous attacks on buses along the road. Crucial linkAuthorities said the engineers sent to build an emergency road to rescue the stranded would be protected by Cameroon’s military.”The road is of capital economic importance,” said Bamenda lawmaker Nestus Fru Manju. “Bamenda acts as a linkage between west Africa and central Africa because from Bamenda you have access to all of the Republic of Cameroon, which in turn has access to Chad, Gabon, Equatorial Guinea or Central Africa (CAR). People who leave from Nigeria can freely circulate into the (Economic Community of Central African States) zone and do business.” A 443-kilometer extension of the road linking Bamenda to the Nigerian town of Enugu was completed in 2020. It is part of the Trans-African Highway conceived more than 30 years ago as a transcontinental link from Lagos, Nigeria, on the Atlantic Ocean to Mombasa, Kenya, on the Indian Ocean.
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EU Leaders Tell AstraZeneca: Deliver Promised Vaccine Before Exporting Elsewhere
European Union (EU) leaders have told the British-Swedish makers of the AstraZeneca vaccine they must honor their contract with the EU and deliver promised vaccine before exporting doses to other parts of the world.
At a news conference following the summit, European Commission President Ursula Von der Leyen singled out AstraZeneca, saying “the company has to catch up.”
The comments followed the EU’s summit, in which EU leaders agreed on a plan announced earlier in the week that would tighten criteria for exporting EU-made COVID-19 vaccines in a bid to secure supplies for citizens inside the bloc.
Von der Leyen insisted the new export criteria was not about punishing any one country or company, but about a level playing field for trade.
“The reciprocity element is something where we needed also transparency to show how much is going in different countries that are also producing vaccines so that it is in our common interests that supply chains stay intact, that an exchange of vaccines is the normal state of play,” she said.
Britain, the main supplier of AstraZeneca vaccine, has been the focus of the new export rules. The British government and the commission issued a joint statement earlier this week pledging to work together to “ensure a reciprocally beneficial arrangement” on COVID-19.
The focus on vaccine by EU leadership comes as the continent is facing a “third wave” of coronavirus infections and the overall vaccination rollout has been slow or stalled in some areas.
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