Tag: InternationalNews

{Troops pour into Muslim area near Bangladesh after “mobs” with knives accused of killing nine border guards.}

Myanmar’s border guards buried nine officers killed in the western state of Rakhine following three deadly attacks on posts along the northwestern frontier with Bangladesh.

Most people in the area are Muslim Rohingya, a stateless minority whom Buddhist nationalists vilify as illegal immigrants from Bangladesh – even though many have lived in Myanmar for generations.

Officers carried wooden coffins draped with national flags through rain and thick mud on Tuesday before laying them to rest in a cemetery in the town of Maungdaw.

Troops have poured into the town and surrounding area after Sunday’s attacks by what authorities have described as mobs armed with knives and homemade weapons.

At least four people were killed in clashes with soldiers who hunted for the attackers, police said. Locals put the toll at seven and said they were unarmed residents.

On Tuesday, residents reported sporadic gunfire in some villages north of Maungdaw.

One local teacher, who did not give her name, said she had been hiding in a house along with about 20 other school staff and students, too scared to come out because of the sound of gunfire.

“We haven’t eaten for two days. The situation is not so good,” she told AFP news agency from Ngakhura, 42km from Maungdaw. “We heard fighting here and there. We do not dare to go out.”

Two Muslim men captured during Sunday’s attacks have reportedly confessed, Rakhine state police Major Sein Lwin told the Reuters news agency.

Pictures sent to AFP by a photographer in the area showed one of them, bedraggled and topless, being interrogated by intelligence officers in Sittwe.

He said the men, who were charged with murder, conspiracy to murder, and the assault of civil servants, said the attacks had been planned by a single “leader”.

Lwin declined to name the leader, but said he had ties to an unnamed armed group operating across the Bangladesh border, which Myanmar has closed, and where Bangladesh has stepped up patrols.

Some officials have pointed the finger at the Rohingya, including a long-silent armed group called the Rohingya Solidarity Organisation, while others have blamed Bangladeshis and drug-traffickers.

Some activists said the military may be using the border attacks as a pretext to target the long-persecuted Rohingya.

“There’s historical precedent for the authorities using lethal force against Rohingya in the area and we’re concerned a crackdown is unfolding,” said Matthew Smith, chief executive of Fortify Rights.

Vijay Nambiar, the UN special adviser on Myanmar, called on civilians in troubled Rakhine state on Tuesday to exercise maximum restraint and refrain from responding to the recent fighting.

“At this delicate juncture,” Nambiar said, “the local communities at all levels must refuse to be provoked by these incidents and their leaders must work actively to prevent incitement of animosity or mutual hatred between Buddhist and Muslim communities.”

Nambiar said authorities in the capital Naypyidaw had informed him “that firm instructions have been issued from the highest levels” for officials to take action within the law “to maintain peace and avoid escalation”.

Authorities have extended a regional curfew to between 7pm and 6am, and closing about 400 schools around the area for the next two weeks.

Myanmar’s de facto leader Aung San Suu Kyi has appealed for calm and several ministers and army top brass flew to Rakhine’s capital Sittwe on Tuesday to try to ease tensions in nearby displacement camps.

In August, Suu Kyi appointed former UN chief Kofi Annan to chair an advisory panel on Rakhine state that visited the area for the first time in September, but it has yet to go to the northern Muslim-majority townships.

The violence in 2012 killed more than 100 people and left about 125,000, mostly Rohingya, unable to return home.

{Philippine president, facing criticism for his war drugs, plans to roll out countrywide smoking ban this month.}

Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte, who is under fire for his deadly war on illegal drugs, is planning to impose a nationwide ban on smoking in public before the end of this month.

The country’s health minister told The Associated Press news agency on Tuesday that her department was pushing for the ban to start before a law providing for graphic health warnings on tobacco products was fully implemented on November 4.

Paulyn Ubial said Deterte wants a 100 percent smoke-free environment in public places similar to Davao, the southern city where he was formerly mayor.

Designated smoking areas are to be outdoors and away from the public, and local government units will be asked to issue ordinances to enforce the smoking ban and set penalties.

She said e-cigarettes will be included in the ban because they too produce smoke.

Davao city, which enforced a successful smoking ban under Duterte’s mayorship, is being touted as a role model.

The Health Secretary said that the smoking ban in Davao worked because the city government strictly enforced it and created a task force of enforcers specifically to implement the ban.

It will be up to provinces and towns to determine if they will follow that example, and what penalties they will impose for violators, she said.

The executive order takes effect immediately after Duterte signs it, but the rules to implement it will need to be crafted by national government agencies and by local governments through ordinances.

Assistant Health Secretary Eric Tayag said the order aims to protect the public from secondhand or thirdhand smoke – that inhaled when a smoker is nearby or when smoke lingers afterward.

Ubial said there was no reason for smokers and tobacco companies to oppose the ban.

“I don’t see any reason why they will oppose that,” she told the AP. “We’re not stopping them from smoking, we are just telling them not to smoke around non-smokers.”

Duterte took office on June 30 vowing to expand policies from Davao such as his anti-drug campaign.

The crackdown has left about 3,600 suspected drug pushers and users dead, including more than 1,500 suspects killed in gunbattles with police.

The killings have been widely condemned by human rights groups, and the United States, European Union and United Nations.

{South Korean firm – the world’s top smartphone maker – says it is halting sales after multiple fire incidents.}

Samsung has halted sales of its Galaxy Note 7 smartphones and told owners to switch them off while it investigates more reports of the flagship phones bursting into flames.

The world’s top smartphone maker said on Tuesday it had asked all global carriers to stop sales of Note 7s and stop exchanging original devices for replacements, while it worked with regulators to look into the problem.

“Consumers with either an original Galaxy Note 7 or replacement Galaxy Note 7 device should power down and stop using the device,” the South Korean firm said in statement.

Samsung’s decision to pull Note 7s off the shelves for the second time in less than two months not only raises fresh doubts about the firm’s quality control but could result in huge financial and reputational costs.

Claire Reilley, senior writer at CNET Australia, told Al Jazeera “there were criticisms that Samsung did not move swiftly enough” after fires were first reported.

“I think the initial delay was because a recall is very scary for company as they think about brand damage, bottom-line and share price,” she said. “They moved a lot more swiftly which is what they had to do in the second case.”

READ MORE: No smooth sailing for Samsung smartphones

Top US and Australian carriers on Monday suspended sales or exchanges of the Note 7s, while aviation authorities banned passengers using the phones, after smoke from a replacement device forced the evacuation of a passenger plane in the United States last week.

Investors wiped 14.7 trillion South Korean won ($13.2bn) off Samsung Electronics’ market value at mid-day trade on Tuesday as shares tumbled 7 percent to touch a two-week low.

Aviation risk

The premium device launched in August and was supposed to compete with Apple Inc’s latest iPhone for supremacy in the smartphone market. Well received by critics, its first problem was a shortage as pre-orders overwhelmed supply.

But within days of the launch images of charred Note 7s began appearing on social media, in the first sign that something was seriously amiss. Samsung has since recalled 2.5 million Note 7s due to faulty batteries.

“This has probably killed the Note 7 brand name – who knows if they’ll even be allowed to re-release it,” said Edward Snyder, managing director of Charter Equity Research.

Samsung did not immediately comment on whether it was considering ending Note 7 sales permanently or whether it had identified the cause for the fires in replacement devices. The company is offering refunds and to exchange Note 7s for other products.

The Korean Agency for Technology and Standards met with Samsung and experts on Monday and “confirmed the possibility of defects in the new (Galaxy Note 7) product,” the agency said in a statement on Tuesday.

The US Consumer Product Safety Commission said Samsung was making the right decision by halting sales and exchanges of the device.

The US Federal Aviation Administration and South Korea’s transport ministry added their voices to concerns from the aviation industry, saying no Note 7s should be used or charged inside airplanes.

Verizon Communications Inc, the largest US wireless carrier, said it may shift marketing away from the Note 7 heading into the critical holiday selling season.

Three other US carriers – AT&T, T-Mobile, and Sprint – suspended sales in September.

{Move comes after deal signed with the FARC rebel group – a pact that was narrowly rejected by voters in a referendum.}

Colombian President, and freshly-crowned Nobel Peace Prize laureate, Juan Manuel Santos and the National Liberation Army (ELN) rebel group are to start peace talks, officials have said.

The negotiations with the 2,000-strong National Liberation Army (ELN) will start on October 27 in Ecuador’s capital Quito, according to an agreement signed in Caracas by both sides under the auspices of Venezuela’s government.

“We are a special nation that grows despite adversities,” Santos said in a speech after the announcement.

“Peace won’t slip through our fingers. On the contrary, it will be stronger, and now that we will advance with the ELN, it will be complete.”

READ MORE: President Santos bids to save peace deal

Santos won the Nobel Peace Prize last week for his efforts to end a 52-year-old war with the leftist Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) – a surprising choice given voters then narrowly rejected the deal in a referendum.

Al Jazeera’s Alessandro Rampietti, reporting from Bogota, said the peace talk is expected to open doors to the possibility of complete peace in Colombia.

“Many analysts here think that this announcement also boosts Santos’ chances at reaching a deal with the opposition in Colombia since a narrow majority of Colombians voted against the current peace accord with the bigger rebel group, the FARC,” our correspondent said.

“Santos with the oppositions is looking at the changes to that accord to save the peace and there is no doubt that this announcement could help this process.”

Colombia and the ELN agreed in March to launch peace talks, in parallel with the government’s negotiations with the FARC, but the government said negotiations with the ELN could not begin until the group freed all of its hostages.

In the text presented in Caracas, the ELN vowed to “initiate the process to free hostages before October 27”.

The Red Cross said ELN fighters had handed over the latest hostage, who it did not identify, in a remote area in Arauca, on the Venezuelan border.

Catholic Church sources identified the hostage as Nelson Alarcon, kidnapped three months ago.

The conflict in Colombia has killed more than 260,000 people, left 45,000 missing and uprooted nearly seven million. Over the decades, it has drawn in several leftist rebel groups, right-wing paramilitaries and drug gangs.

The last two leftist guerrilla groups, the FARC and ELN, have been at war with the state since 1964. The ELN is estimated to be about one fourth the size of the FARC, with about 1,500 fighters.

Santos’s Nobel prize was seen as a boost for the process, as the government negotiates with both the opposition and the FARC to salvage the deal.

Meanwhile, FARC leader Timoleon “Timochenko” Jimenez tweeted that the ELN could “count on our militant support and solidarity. Many successes in this process that has now started”.

Formal peace talks with the ELN would mark another victory for Santos, who has staked his legacy on ending the oldest armed conflict in the Americas.

{Cyril Almeida “informed” he is on Exit Control List, just days after scoop hinting at civilian-military leadership rift.}

A prominent journalist has been put on Pakistan’s Exit Control List after the respected Dawn newspaper published his scoop that appeared to confirm long suspected rumours of a rift between the country’s civilian and military leaderships.

The Exit Control List is a system of border control maintained by the Pakistan government under an ordinance which allows it to bar people whose names appear on the list from leaving the country.

Cyril Almeida, Dawn’s assistant editor, pointed via Twitter on Monday to his name’s appearance on the list.

The Pakistani authorities have yet to comment on the development.

In the October 6 exclusive news report, Almeida said some in the civilian government complained at a top-secret meeting that they were being asked to do more to crack down on armed groups, yet whenever law-enforcement agencies took action “the security establishment … worked behind the scenes to set the arrested free”.

Insisting that the law should apply equally to all, the civilian government’s representatives at the meeting gave warning that Pakistan risked international isolation if the security establishment did not take take the recommended course of action, according to the Dawn report.

Almeida’s scoop came against a backdrop of heightened tension in the region following a claim by the Indian government of a cross-border “surgical strike” by army commandos on September 18, apparently in response to a deadly assault on an army post in Indian-administered Kashmir.

India blames Pakistan-based armed groups for the attack, a charge rejected by the Pakistani government led by Nawaz Sharif, the prime minister.

The report said that the arguments made by the foreign secretary and the Punjab chief minister during the meeting in the prime minister’s offices were designed to trigger a debate with the military leadership.

A spok­es­­man for the Pakistani Prime Minister’s Office later disputed Almeida’s account, labelling it “not only speculative but misleading and factually incorrect” and describing it as an “amalgamation of fiction and fabrication”.

A statement from the Prime Minister’s Office said that participants at a meeting of the top civilian and military leadership on Monday expressed concern over the publication of what it termed as a “fabricated news story” pertaining to security issues purportedly discussed in a meeting of the National Security Committee.

The statement said “the participants were unanimous that the published story was clearly violative of universally acknowledged principles of reporting on national security issues and has risked the vital state interests through inclusion of inaccurate and misleading contents which had no relevance to actual discussion and facts”.

The statement further said the “prime minister took serious notice of the violation and directed that those responsible should be identified for stern action”.

Late on Monday Zaffar Abbas, Dawn’s editor-in-chief, published an editorial note confirming that Almeida had been placed on the Exit Control List.

Abbas stood by Almeida’s report, saying that it was “verified, cross-checked and fact-checked”.

“Dawn would like to clarify and state on the record several things,” the editorial note said.

“First, this newspaper considers it a sacred oath to its readers to pursue its reporting fairly, independently and, above all, accurately. The story that has been rejected by Prime Minister’s Office as a fabrication was verified, cross-checked and fact-checked.

“Second, many at the helm of affairs are aware of the senior officials, and participants of the meeting, who were contacted by the newspaper for collecting information, and more than one source confirmed and verified the details.”

The government’s decision quickly drew strong reactions from senior journalists and rights activists on social media.

Hundreds of people, including dozens of Pakistani journalists, have declared that they are supporting Almeida and press freedom by tweeting under the hashtag, #StandWithCyril.

The action against Almeida is being seen by many public intellectuals as the latest in a long line of steps by which clear parameters have been set for the country’s news media.

As Pakistan’s English-language print media is viewed as one of the last enclaves of relative freedom, the move against Almeida has fuelled fears on social media of assertion of complete control over the press whereby no criticism of the military or intelligence establishment will be tolerated.

Recently Pakistan passed the controversial Cyber Crime Act which grants sweeping powers to regulators to block private information they deem illegal.

Government officials say internet restrictions under the new law are needed to ensure security against growing threats, such as “terrorism”.

But the law has alarmed human-rights and pro-democracy activists, who fear that its vague language could lead to curtailment of free speech and unfair prosecutions.

{The devastating hurricane wiped some towns and villages off the map, the UN chief said, after pledging $120m in aid.}

Haiti faces a crisis that requires a “massive response” from the international community, the United Nations has said, with at least 1.4 million people needing emergency aid after Hurricane Matthew.

The storm killed almost 1,000 people in the impoverished Caribbean nation, with that toll likely to rise as rescue workers reach previously inaccessible areas.

Matthew, the most powerful Atlantic storm since 2007, last week leveled homes, fouled water sources and killed livestock, leaving victims pleading for help to arrive quickly.

“Some towns and villages have been almost wiped off the map,” UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon told reporters.

The UN has launched a $120m flash appeal to cover Haiti’s needs for the next three months.

After pummeling Haiti on October 4 as a monster Category 4 storm, packing winds of 230km an hour, Matthew slammed into the southeastern United States, where it killed at least 20 people.

Hundreds of people were rescued by boat and helicopter as floodwaters inundated towns in the state of North Carolina on Monday, and officials warned that life-threatening flooding from swollen rivers would continue for days.

Memories of 2010 quake

In Haiti, more than 300 schools have been damaged, while crops and food reserves were destroyed, Ban said.

UN aid chief Stephen O’Brien said the hurricane had triggered the worst humanitarian crisis in the country since the 2010 earthquake.

Nearly 300,000 Haitians are in shelters across the country, and damage to roads and communications has hampered deliveries of supplies.

“I understand of course the frustration,” Jean-Luc Poncelet, the country representative for the UN’s World Health Organization, said after arriving at the airport outside Jeremie, one of the worst-hit cities.

“When you have no means of communication, no radio, no telephone, no roads and even a helicopter can’t land – this is what explains the massive delay,” he told the AFP news agency.

The UN’s World Food Programme tapped into food stocks previously set aside for schools to feed hundreds of desperate families, spokesman Alexis Masciarelli said.

US army helicopters were unloading boxes of supplies from the US Agency for International Development to be stored by the UN in Jeremie before being taken to other parts of the south.

Honduras, which maintains a force of 60 troops in Haiti as part of a UN peacekeeping mission, was sending a planeload of aid on Tuesday, along with 50 military officers to help the victims, President Juan Orlando Hernandez said.

But getting aid to Haitians now reduced to drinking unclean water and living in roofless houses will be challenging.

On a road crossing the mountainous centre of the peninsula, some villagers blocked roads in an effort to stop aid convoys from passing through without delivering supplies.

{{Cholera fears}}

Haiti is also grappling with a worsening cholera outbreak in the storm-hit areas.

Matthew came as Haitians were already struggling with the intestinal disease spread by contaminated food and water, with more than 500 new cases each week.

UN peacekeepers have been blamed for introducing the disease to Haiti, where it has killed 10,000 people since October 2010.

While some towns and villages reported an apparent spike in infections since the storm, Poncelet said “the number of cases of cholera that we have confirmed are low”.

He declined to give a number, but said there were “tens” of cases in one area of the peninsula.

While evaluation teams were working to get a precise picture of the health situation, medical supplies were being brought in, he said.

Mourad Wahba, the UN humanitarian coordinator in the country, urged aid organisations to focus on delivering supplies to smaller rural communities, where many families survive on subsistence farming and have had all their crops washed away.

If aid is only delivered to cities such as Jeremie and Les Cayes, villagers will flock there for supplies and never leave, leading to overcrowding.

“We must think about developing a plan, to coordinate support and deliver it where it’s most needed and not where it’s easiest to access,” Wahba said.

{Authorities bury bodies in mass graves as cholera threat from contaminated water stokes fears of new major outbreak.}

The number of people killed in Haiti by Hurricane Matthew has hit 1,000 as the country battles new deaths from a cholera outbreak and buries bodies in mass graves.

The powerful hurricane, the fiercest Caribbean storm in nearly a decade, slammed into Haiti on Tuesday, whipping it with 230 kilometre an hour winds and torrential rains.

The country is struggling to cope with a rise in cholera cases with officials warning that contaminated water and a lack of hygiene are posing serious risks to thousands of people in the impoverished country.

While the capital and biggest city, Port-au-Prince, was largely spared, the south suffered devastation. Aerial footage from the hardest-hit towns shows a ruined landscape of shanties with tin roofs blown away and downed trees everywhere. Mud from overflowing rivers covered the ground.

Citing local officials, Reuters news agency reported that at least 1,000 Haitians had been killed.

Authorities began burying the dead in mass graves in some areas – such as Jeremie, a city of 30,000 people – as bodies started to decompose, said Kedner Frenel, a government official.

Frenel said there was great concern about cholera spreading, and authorities were focused on getting water, food, and medication to thousands of people living in shelters.

Cholera causes severe diarrhoea and can kill within hours if untreated. It is spread through contaminated water and has a short incubation period, which leads to rapid outbreaks.

Government teams fanned out across the hard-hit southwestern tip of the country over the weekend to repair treatment centres and reach the epicentre of one outbreak.

In the village of Labei, locals said that the river had washed down cadavers from villages upstream. With nobody coming to move the corpses, residents used planks of driftwood to push them down the river and into the sea.

Down by the shore, the corpse of one man lay blistering in the sun. A few hundred metres to his left in a roadside gully, three dead goats stewed in the toxic slime.

“It seems to me like a nuclear bomb went off,” said Paul Edouarzin, a UN Environmental Programme employee.

“In terms of destruction – environmental and agricultural – I can tell you 2016 is worse than 2010,” he added, referring to the devastating 2010 earthquake from which Haiti has yet to recover.

Diarrhoea-stricken residents in the village of Chevalier were well aware of the nearby cholera outbreak, but had little option except to drink the brackish water from the local well, which they believed was already contaminated by dead livestock.

“We have been abandoned by a government that never thinks of us,” said Marie-Ange Henry, as she surveyed her smashed home.

She said Chevalier had yet to receive any aid and many, like her, were coming down with fever. Cholera, she feared, was on its way.

Up to 80 percent of crops in Haiti have been lost in some areas, according to the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs.

CARE France, a humanitarian group, said about one million people were in need of urgent assistance, and that many had “nothing left except the clothes on their back”.