SEOUL: South Korea, the United States and Japan on Tuesday (Dec 19) activated a system to share real-time data on North Korean missile launches, Seoul’s defence ministry said, as the three countries seek to bolster security cooperation against the nuclear-armed North. The announcement came a day after Pyongyang conducted itsContinue Reading
“As a prominent and outspoken journalist and publisher, Jimmy Lai has been targeted in a clear attempt to stop the peaceful exercise of his rights to freedom of expression and association,” Cameron said in a statement. “I call on the Hong Kong authorities to end their prosecution and release JimmyContinue Reading
SEOUL: South Korea’s defence ministry said on Friday (Dec 15) it expressed regret and lodged a protest to China and Russia over the intrusion of its air defence zone by the neighbouring counties’ military aircraft on Thursday. The protest was conveyed by the ministry’s head of the international policy bureauContinue Reading
LONDON: The World Health Organization (WHO) on Thursday (Dec 14) urged governments to treat e-cigarettes similarly to tobacco and ban all flavours, threatening cigarette companies’ bets on smoking alternatives. Some researchers, campaigners and governments see e-cigarettes, or vapes, as a key tool in reducing the death and disease caused byContinue Reading
Jean-Loup Samaan, a senior research fellow at the Middle East Institute of the National University of Singapore and a former adviser with the French defence ministry and NATO, described the past 15 years as “the collapse of the Oslo process”, as the election of Hamas in Gaza and the increaseContinue Reading
China claims almost the entire South China Sea, including waters and islands near the shores of its neighbours, and has ignored an international tribunal ruling that its assertions have no legal basis. It deploys boats to patrol the busy waterway and has built artificial islands that it has militarised toContinue Reading
SAO PAULO: A fire in a camp belonging to Brazil’s Landless Workers’ Movement MST in the northern state of Para killed nine people and left eight injured on Saturday night, the movement said on Sunday (Dec 10).
The incident was caused by a short circuit in the electrical network during the installation of internet wiring in the rural farmers’ camp, located in the city of Parauapebas, according to MST.
Community leaders told a press conference that the short circuit happened at around 8 p.m. local time, when an antenna touched the high-voltage network, setting fire to power cables and some shacks in the camp.
Among the nine dead, six were residents of the camp and three were workers from the internet company.
Eight other people were injured and taken to a hospital, seven of them have already been discharged, and one remains hospitalized with second-degree burns but is not at risk of death.
According to the MST, the fire was later contained by the local fire brigade.
MST fights for land distribution in Brazil, sometimes occupying areas it says are not producing anything and then seeking its expropriation by the government.
The camp is close, but, according to the movement, does not occupy a 60,000-hectare (150,000-acre) farm in the region that they argue is the product of land grabbing.
Members of the camp said at Sunday’s press conference that they are already receiving government aid, such as water and food distribution and funeral help.
President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva asked his agrarian development minister, Paulo Teixeira, and head of lands rights agency Incra, Cesar Aldrighi, to travel to the city to “follow the case closely and bring all the support of the federal government to the families of the victims of this tragedy”, the government said in a statement.
KABUL: The UN refugee agency has warned that Afghans could die in harsh winter conditions if they don’t get adequate shelter once they cross the border from Pakistan.
Almost half a million Afghans have left Pakistan since early October, when the Islamabad government announced it would arrest and deport foreigners it said were in the country illegally. The overwhelming majority of them are from neighbouring Afghanistan, though Islamabad insists the policy doesn’t target a specific nationality.
The forced returns are piling pressure on Afghanistan and aid agencies, which are providing the bulk of essential services like health care. Freezing temperatures are setting in and conditions at the border remain dire.
“Many Afghan returnees are vulnerable, including women and children, who could lose their lives in a harsh winter if left without adequate shelter,” the UN refugee agency said in a report published Friday (Dec 8). “People arriving at the border are exhausted and require urgent assistance as well as psychosocial support.”
Families told the agency they were worried that colder winter temperatures in certain areas, particularly mountainous regions, may prevent them from returning home right away.
“Many are arriving with illness, for example bronchitis, as a result of the cold weather and the difficult journey from Pakistan,” the agency said in a message to The Associated Press on Sunday (Dec 10). “They may not have all their belongings, including clothing, and therefore be unable to protect themselves from the elements.”
It said that among those returning to Afghanistan are families who have never lived in the country. They have been living in Pakistan for one or more generations and may not have homes or extended family to return to.
Cash to pay rent is needed, while families with some existing social networks could stay with family or friends. Others may return to homes needing repair. The agency said it will provide tents to such households.
“For those who have nowhere to go, with limited means, they may stay in camps, established near the border,” the refugee agency said.
A Taliban committee said it is distributing food, water, SIM cards, clothing and cash at two key border crossings: Torkham and Spin Boldak. Families are also learning about Afghanistan, the Islamic system, temporary living arrangements, registration and relocation, the committee said Sunday.
But extreme temperatures and limited access to clean water and sanitation have led to a surge in infectious diseases and malnutrition.
UN Women said there are additional challenges for Afghan women and girls leaving Pakistan as they have to deal with Taliban restrictions that could affect their mobility and access to information and services if they don’t have a male relative. It expressed similar concerns after October’s deadly earthquakes in Afghanistan’s west.
The agency said around 80 per cent of Afghans returning through Torkham and Spin Boldak are women and children.
In its latest report, also published Friday, it said many women have lived through “distressing experiences” in Pakistan including being the victims of illegal detention, witnessing their spouse or family members be arrested, or being separated from relatives and returning to Afghanistan alone.
Women told UN agencies they were “compelled” to hand their possessions over in exchange for transportation, leave all their belongings behind or saw their income taken by Pakistani authorities.
The crackdown is hugely controversial and has drawn condemnation from rights groups, the Taliban, aid agencies and the UN
DUBAI: China on Saturday (Dec 9) lodged a protest after calls at the UN climate talks in Dubai to include Taiwan, the self-governing island claimed by Beijing. Two of the dwindling number of countries that recognise Taiwan – Guatemala and the tiny Pacific island of Nauru – both hailed supportContinue Reading
WASHINGTON: The United States on Friday (Dec 8) slapped sanctions on dozens of people over human rights abuses, including Iranian officers it accused of being involved in the targeting of US officials, ahead of Human Rights Day on Sunday (Dec 11).
The US Treasury and State Departments imposed sanctions and visa restrictions on 37 people in 13 countries, Secretary of State Antony Blinken said in a statement, in actions coordinated with Britain and Canada.
Over the last year the Treasury has sanctioned more than 150 individuals and entities across a dozen countries, freezing their US assets, for issues relating to human rights abuse. Americans who engage in certain transactions with them also risk being hit with sanctions.
Two Iranian intelligence officers who recruited people for US operations are listed, the Treasury Department said in a statement. Their mission included the lethal targeting of current and former US government officials as revenge for the 2020 killing of Quds Force Commander Qassem Soleimani.
The officers, Majid Dastjani Farahani and Mohammad Mahdi Khanpour Ardestani, also recruited people for surveillance activities focused on religious sites, businesses and other facilities in the United States, Treasury added.
Iran promised vengeance after a US air strike in Baghdad killed Soleimani, Tehran’s most prominent military commander and the architect of its growing influence in the Middle East.
Iran’s mission to the United Nations in New York did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Taliban members were sanctioned for their links to the repression of women and girls. These include the minister for the so-called Ministry for the Propagation of Virtue and Prevention of Vice that the Treasury said has engaged in killings, abductions, whippings and beatings.
The Taliban administration spokesman did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Two mid-level Chinese officials were cited for their connection to “ongoing serious human rights abuse in Xinjiang”, the western Chinese region where the US says authorities are committing genocide against Uyghurs and other Muslim minority groups.
The officials are Gao Qi, a Xinjiang public security official; and Hu Lianhe, the deputy office director for the Xinjiang Work Coordination Small Group of the Central Committee, which helped design policies for what Washington calls internment camps in the region.
Chinese embassy spokesperson Liu Pengyu said the sanctions were illegal.
“Such acts grossly interfere in China’s internal affairs, flagrantly violate the basic norms governing international relations and seriously undermine China-US relations. China firmly opposes and strongly condemns them,” he said.
The United States on Friday also restricted imports from three more Chinese companies, including COFCO Sugar Holding, over forced labour practices involving Uyghurs and other minorities in China, the US government said on Friday.
“Our commitment to upholding and defending human rights is sacrosanct,” Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen said in the statement.
“Treasury’s targeted sanctions announced today and over the past year underscore the seriousness of our commitment to promoting accountability for human rights abuse and safeguarding the US financial system from those who commit these egregious acts.”
Also sanctioned are leaders of the Islamic State in Democratic Republic of Congo, the heads of four criminal gangs in Haiti, and the Commissioner General of the Uganda Prisons Service, which Treasury said has engaged in torture and others serious human rights abuse including of LGBTQ community members.
Uganda enacted one of the world’s harshest anti-gay laws in May, which calls for the death penalty for certain same-sex acts.
Washington also targeted people in Liberia, South Sudan, Uganda and Central African Republic.