Tag: InternationalNews

{Three prisoners captured, 17 shot dead, and 57 still at large in a mass jailbreak from Buimo jail, according to reports.}

Prison guards have killed at least 17 prisoners after a mass breakout at a jail in Papua New Guinea (PNG), according to reports, with dozens of inmates still on the run.

The incident took place in Buimo jail in the Pacific nation’s second-largest city, Lae, on Friday, but only became public after media reports on Monday.

“Unfortunately these incidents, tragic as they are, happen all too frequently in Papua New Guinea as there is poor accountability with police and security officers,” Kate Schuetze, Amnesty International’s Pacific Researcher, told the Reuters news agency.

The PNG Post-Courier and The National newspapers both cited local police as confirming 17 people were killed, three were caught and 57 were still at large.

“These are undesirable people and will be a threat to the community,” Lae police metropolitan commander Chief Superintendent Anthony Wagambie Jr said of those who escaped, warning the public to be vigilant.

“The majority of those who escaped were arrested for serious crimes and were in custody awaiting trial.

“A good number were arrested by police last year for mainly armed robberies, car thefts, break and enter and stealing.”

Buimo is the same prison where police shot dead 12 inmates during a jailbreak last year. The jail, one of the largest in the country, has been criticised in the past for overcrowding and for poor prisoner conditions.

Wagambie urged family members and associates of the escapees not to harbour them.

“I am warning them that they will be caught. They must do what is good for them and surrender,” he said.

Source:Al Jazeera

{State media says latest test was aimed at verifying missile’s capability to carry a ‘large scale heavy nuclear warhead’.}

North Korea said on Monday it had successfully launched a new type of ballistic missile in its latest test which it said was aimed at building capacity to launch nuclear missiles.

The North fired a ballistic missile that landed in the sea near Russia on Sunday in a launch that came just days after South Korea’s new President Moon Jae-in, who has called for closer engagement with Pyongyang, was inaugurated in Seoul.

Sunday’s launch was of a “new ground-to-ground medium long-range strategic ballistic rocket” named the Hwasong-12, the official Korea Central News Agency (KCNA) said.

Leader Kim Jong-un personally oversaw the test, it said, and “hugged officials in the field of rocket research, saying that they worked hard to achieve a great thing”.

Kim accused the United States of “browbeating” countries that “have no nukes” and warned Washington not to misjudge the reality that its mainland is in the North’s “sighting range for strike”, KCNA reported.

EXPLAINED: Why North Korea tests nuclear weapons

The missile was launched at the highest angle so as not to affect the security of neighbouring countries and flew 787km reaching an altitude of 2,111.5km, KCNA said.

Experts said the altitude reached by the missile tested meant it was launched at a high trajectory, which would limit the lateral distance it travelled.

But if it was fired at a standard trajectory, it would have a range of at least 4,000km, according to experts.

It “represents a level of performance never before seen from a North Korean missile”, aerospace engineering specialist John Schilling wrote on the respected 38 North website.

“The test-fire aimed at verifying the tactical and technological specifications of the newly developed ballistic rocket capable of carrying a large-size heavy nuclear warhead,” KCNA said.

It appeared to demonstrate an intermediate-range ballistic missile (IRBM) that could “reliably strike the US base at Guam” in the Pacific, he said, and “more importantly, may represent a substantial advance to developing an intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM)”.

In a statement after the launch, US President Donald Trump’s White House called North Korea a “flagrant menace” and urged “far stronger sanctions” against the isolated nation.

The North says it needs atomic weapons to defend itself against the threat of invasion and has carried out two atomic tests and dozens of missile launches since the beginning of last year.

Tensions on the Korean Peninsula have heightened in recent weeks due to Pyongyang’s nuclear programme and missile tests and threats from Trump that the US could take unilateral action against it in retaliation.

“The timing is particularly significant because South Korea has a new president – testing him is partly what this is about,” Al Jazeera’s Andrew Thomas, reporting from Seoul, said. “This is also a sign that they don’t feel intimidated by Donald Trump,” he added.

“It does seem that this may be a new type of rocket that is being tested – that makes this the most significant launch in at least a year.”

Source:Al Jazeera

{Prime Minister Netanyahu says embassy move to Jerusalem would be positive for peace process with the Palestinians.}

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has challenged US concerns over moving the American embassy to Jerusalem and said a move will help the peace process progress.

During his election campaign, US President Donald Trump promised to move the embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem, whose status is one of the thorniest issues of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

“The transfer of the American Embassy to Jerusalem not only will not harm the peace process, but the opposite,” Netanyahu said in the statement on Sunday.

“It will advance it by correcting a historic injustice and by smashing the Palestinian fantasy that Jerusalem is not the capital of Israel.”

The statement from Netanyahu’s office came after US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson said Trump is still assessing the impact of the potential move.

“The president is being very careful to understand how such a decision would impact the peace process,” Tillerson said.

He said Trump’s decision would be informed by feedback from all sides, including “whether Israel views it as helpful to a peace initiative or perhaps a distraction”.

The Palestinians and the Arab world fiercely oppose a move, and the international community has warned that it could spark fresh unrest.

Palestinians argued moving the embassy would prejudge one of the most sensitive issues in the conflict, undermining America’s status as an effective mediator.

Former US presidents have repeatedly waived a US law requiring the embassy be moved to Jerusalem.

The most recent waiver, signed by Barack Obama, expires on June 1. Trump is expected to sign a six-month renewal of the waiver, as he continues deliberating, before it expires.

In another sign the White House is proceeding cautiously, Trump’s ambassador to Israel, David Friedman, plans to work out of the current embassy in Tel Aviv rather than out of the US Consulate in Jerusalem, as some had urged him to do.

Israel occupied the West Bank and east Jerusalem in 1967. It later annexed east Jerusalem in a move never recognised by the international community.

In 1980, Israel declared “reunited” Jerusalem its capital in a move unrecognised by major states.

Source:Al Jazeera

{Marwan Barghouti rejects authenticity of the video that Israel released, saying he will see his protest ‘to the end’.}

Palestinian hunger-strike leader Marwan Barghouti has denied the authenticity of a video purportedly showing him eating secretly in his prison cell, his lawyer said.

Barghouti, along with 1,500 Palestinian prisoners held by Israel, launched a hunger strike on April 17, demanding better conditions, including family visits.

Last week, Israeli authorities, in an apparent attempt to discredit Barghouti, released a video that they said showed the 58-year-old Barghouti having food.

On Sunday, his lawyer Khader Shkirat said he described the video to Barghouti who told him it’s not authentic.

According to Shkirat, Barghouti said the cell featured in the video, with a bunk bed, is much nicer and cleaner than the run-down cell where he is being held, which has a single bed, smelly blanket and no pillow.

“Marwan said that he does not know when these pictures were taken, and he considered publishing the video as blackmail and illegal action by the Israeli government,” Shkirat said before adding that Barghouti is preparing to see his protest “to the end” by refusing to drink water.

“I plan to escalate my hunger strike soon. I will stop drinking water,” Barghouti was quoted as saying. “There is no backtracking. We will continue until the end.”

Israel has alleged Barghouti, widely seen as a potential successor to Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, staged the strike to raise his political profile.

Barghouti is serving multiple life sentences after an Israeli court convicted him of directing attacks that killed five people during the second Palestinian uprising.

Barghouti, in prison since 2002, never mounted a defence, saying the court had no jurisdiction over him.

He has been kept in isolation since the hunger strike began last month. His lawyer added that Barghouti has not been permitted to change his clothes, and that Israeli guards search his room four times a day.

In a rare statement last week, the International Committee of the Red Cross said it is Israel’s responsibility to ensure prisoners receive family visits.

Human rights groups say it is a violation of international law to move prisoners from occupied territories to detention centres in Israel, which also makes it more difficult for relatives to visit the inmates.

Israeli Prison Service spokesman Assaf Liberati said the video was authentic and was taken in Barghouti’s current cell.

Source:Al Jazeera

{Six intelligence officials express ‘concern’ over Moscow-based internet security firm Kaspersky Labs.}

Top US intelligence chiefs on Thursday publicly expressed doubts about the global cyber-security firm Kaspersky Labs because of its roots in Russia.

Six leading intelligence officials told a Senate hearing on external threats to the United States of their concerns over the firm’s broad presence, without specifying any particular threat.

Asked if he was aware of a security threat tied to Kaspersky software, Federal Bureau of Investigation acting director Andrew McCabe replied: “We are very concerned about it and we are focused on it very closely.”

Defense Intelligence Agency director Lieutenant General Vincent Stewart said his agency is avoiding the company’s products.

“There is, as well as I know, no Kaspersky software on our networks,” he said, adding that the agency’s private sector contractors are also steering clear.

The allegations against Kaspersky come amid heightened US concerns over Russian hacking after what intelligence chiefs say was a significant effort directed by Russian President Vladimir Putin to interfere with last year’s election.

President Donald Trump’s former national security advisor Michael Flynn is under investigation for his links to Russia, which include being paid $11,250 to speak at a Kaspersky function.

Also indicating their concerns in brief were the heads of the Central Intelligence Agency, the National Security Agency, the National Geospatial Intelligence Agency, and the director of National Intelligence.

“I am personally aware and involved as director of the National Security Agency in the Kaspersky Lab issue,” NSA head Mike Rogers said.

Kaspersky was founded in Moscow in 1997 by Eugene Kaspersky, a computer engineer who served in the Russian military.

The company quickly expanded to a global presence, with 3,600 employees, 400 million users of its software, and revenue of some $620m in 2015, according to its website.

Its antivirus programmes regularly rank in the top five of such software for personal and business computers.

But US officials have expressed doubts over its recruitment of some staff with alleged links to Russian defence and intelligence bodies.

Some worry it might offer Russian intelligence a secret backdoor into users’ computers. US officials are particularly worried that foreign hackers could penetrate US infrastructure via suspect software and malware.

Kaspersky denied having ties to any government.

“The company has never helped, nor will help, any government in the world with its cyber espionage efforts,” it said in a statement on Thursday.

“Kaspersky Lab believes it is completely unacceptable that the company is being unjustly accused without any hard evidence to back up these false allegations.”

Commenting on Reddit, Eugene Kaspersky also said his company had no links to the Russian government, offering to testify in the Senate.

“I respectfully disagree with their opinion, and I’m very sorry these gentlemen can’t use the best software on the market because of political reasons,” he said, referring to the intelligence chiefs.

Sean Kanuck, a former CIA officer who was the first US national intelligence officer for cyber issues, said the worries about Kaspersky have mainly come from US lawmakers who don’t understand that it gets paid by companies and US government agencies to have “front-door” access to their systems.

“That means that any Congressional questions about ‘back doors’ in Kaspersky products reflect a certain naivete, because many of Kaspersky’s clients are intentionally paying for full-content monitoring on their networks.”

Source:Al Jazeera

{Pyongyang demands handover of ‘terrorist’ conspirators after saying CIA, South Korea planned to kill leader Kim Jong-un.}

North Korea will seek the extradition of anyone involved in what it says was a CIA-backed plot to kill leader Kim Jung-un last month with a biochemical weapon, a top official says.

Han Song-ryol, the vice foreign minister, called a meeting of foreign diplomats on Thursday in Pyongyang to outline North Korea’s allegation that the CIA and South Korea’s intelligence agency bribed and coerced a North Korean man into joining in the assassination plot, which the North Korean Ministry of State Security has suggested was thwarted.

North Korea’s permanent mission to the UN late on Thursday issued a statement calling the purported plot to kill Kim a “declaration of war”.

It said the aim was to hurt “the mental mainstay that all the Korean people absolutely trust” and “eclipse the eternal sun” of the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (DPRK), the country’s official name.

The CIA and the White House declined to comment on the statements. The South Korean intelligence service said the charge was “groundless”.

North Korean state media has been running stories about the plot since last week. The security ministry has vowed to “ferret out” anyone involved in the alleged plot, which it called “state-sponsored terrorism”.

The permanent mission to the UN said the Ministry of State Security has declared that a “Korean-style anti-terrorist offensive will be commenced to mop up the intelligence and plot-breeding organisations of the US and South Korea”.

Han took that a step further with the extradition statement.

“According to our law, the Central Public Prosecutor’s Office of the DPRK will use all available methods to start to work to demand the handover of the criminals involved, so as to punish the organisers, conspirators, and followers of this terrible state-sponsored terrorism,” he said.

North Korea claims the primary suspect is a man it has identified only by the ubiquitous surname “Kim”. It says he is a North Korean resident of Pyongyang who worked for a time in the Russian Far East. State media said he was involved in the timber industry in Khabarovsk, which is one of the primary places North Koreans can go overseas to work.

The North further said a South Korean agent named Jo Ki-chol and a “secret agent” named Xu Guanghai, director general of the Qingdao NAZCA Trade Co Ltd, met Kim in Dandong, on North Korea’s border with China, to give him communications equipment and cash. The North also said “a guy surnamed Han” taught Kim how to enlist accomplices.

“These terrorists plotted and planned in detail for the use of biochemical substances, including radioactive and poisonous substances, as the means of assassination,” Vice Minister Han said, reading from a prepared statement.

“These biochemical substances were to be provided with the assistance of the CIA … while the South Korean Intelligence Service was going to provide necessary support and funding for this attempt at assassination on our supreme leader.”

North Korea’s UN mission said the organisers infiltrated “the terrorist” into the country with several pieces of satellite communications equipment so he could be updated “with the operational code of terrorism against the supreme leadership, various terrorist methods of using biochemical substances, ways of bribing and hiring the one who would actually carry out the terrorist act and ways of entering the venue of the event”.

The statement said the organisers also gave him instructions to report on the “creed” of the person who would carry out the attack “and the state of his ‘brainwashing”, and to make sure the preparations were perfect, as there could be a war if it was revealed that South Korea’s intelligence agency backed the operation.

In statements for foreign distribution, North Korea often refers to its leader Kim Jong-un without naming him, instead using the phrase “supreme leadership” or “supreme dignity”.

The last time that Han appeared to brief foreign diplomats in Pyongyang was last December, to present North Korea’s response to the latest round of UN sanctions after its September 2016 nuclear test.

Source:Al Jazeera

{Officials say Miriam Rodriguez was shot dead by gunman after dedicating life to finding those who have gone missing.}

Gunmen shot and killed a prominent Mexican activist who spent years searching for her missing daughter and organised others to looked for “disappeared” people in the Mexico’s northern state of Tamaulipas, authorities said.

Miriam Rodriguez was shot a number of times on Wednesday and died en route to hospital, local civic society group Citizen Community in Search of the Disappeared in Tamaulipas, a group Rodriguez belonged, said in a statement.

The United Nations human rights office in Mexico condemned the attack and called on the government to ensure that Rodriguez’s murder is “properly investigated … and does not remain in impunity”.

It added that it was “even more chilling” that Rodriguez’s death took place on Mexico’s Mother’s Day, a day it said has in recent years become an emblem of the fight for justice of the disappeared.

Rodriguez began a search for her daughter after she went missing in 2014. She eventually found her remains in the Tamaulipas town of San Fernando, according to Citizen Community.

Months later she warned authorities about the perpetrators of the crime, which eventually led to their arrest, the group said in a statement.

Mexico’s National Human Rights Commission said Rodriguez’s death underscored the government’s failure to keep the public safe and prevent rights violations of people working as human rights advocates.

Tamaulipas Attorney General Irving Barrios said the state had been protecting Rodriguez, sending police patrols three times a day to her house, following requests from the family.

He added that nine people had been put on trial for her daughter’s kidnapping and murder.

Barrios’ office denied reports that a man blamed by Rodriguez for her daughter’s murder remained free after escaping from prison. The man, who has been charged but not yet tried, was part of a prison break of 29 inmates in March, but was recaptured almost immediately, it said.

{{‘Negligent response’}}

The number of people in Mexico who have disappeared under suspicious circumstances, often related to drug violence, rose to 30,000 by the end of 2016, with Tamaulipas registering 5,563 missing, the highest state total, according to Mexico’s national registry of data on missing persons.

More than 100,000 people have died in drug-related violence in Mexico in the past decade.

Amnesty International said in a statement that Mexico has become “a very dangerous place for those who have the courage to devote their lives to search for missing persons.

“The nightmare they face not knowing the fate or whereabouts of their relatives and the dangers they face in their work, which they perform given the negligent response from the authorities, is alarming.”

On Twitter, Tamaulipas Governor Francisco Cabeza de Vaca said the government will “not allow the death of Miriam Rodriguez to be another statistic”.

Source:Al Jazeera

{Facebook blocks 178 pages deemed unlawful by the Thai criminal court, including some allegedly insulting the monarchy.}

Facebook has blocked access to scores of web pages in Thailand with “inappropriate” content, including some containing alleged insults against the royal family, on the orders of the country’s criminal court.

The National Broadcasting and Telecommunications Commission (NBTC) told reporters on Thursday that Facebook has restricted local users’ access to 178 out of some 309 pages on the criminal court’s blacklist.

Facebook Thailand will face legal action if it fails to block the remaining 131 pages, the NBTC warned.

The social network giant did not confirm the number of pages it had blocked, but told the DPA news agency that it restricts access to content if it determines that local laws were violated.

Thailand’s criminal court has ordered nearly 7,000 “inappropriate” web pages be shut down since 2015, according to the Ministry of Digital Economy and Society,

Under Thailand’s lese majeste or royal insult law, criticism of the royal family is an offence punishable by up to 15 years in prison.

Internet service providers are able to block access to most pages, but said some 600 could not be shut down because of encryption. More than half of these were on Facebook.

READ MORE: Thai lawyer faces 150 years in jail for royal insult

The UN Human Rights Council declared access to the internet to be a human right in July 2016.

David Kaye, the UN’s rapporteur on freedom of opinion and expression has also encouraged companies to “push back” when states request a block on web pages.

“They should ask questions so they don’t just do it right off the bat,” he said in an interview with Al Jazeera this week. “They need to make the countries explain themselves at the very least, to mitigate the risk.”

Kaye has previously criticised the Thai authorities for using lese majeste laws “as a political tool to stifle critical speech”.

The military government has cracked down on lese majeste suspects since it took power in May 2014, arresting more than 100 people on charges of insulting or defaming the royal family.

Source:Al Jazeera