Tag: InternationalNews

{Report says more than half of the 118 dead are from Myanmar, the source for thousands of refugees coming to Malaysia.}

More than 100 foreigners have died from various diseases and unknown causes in the past two years in Malaysia’s immigration detention centres, according to documents reviewed by the Reuters news agency.

The reported toll, which has not been previously disclosed, is based on Malaysian immigration department data provided to the National Human Rights Commission, which is known by its Malay acronym Suhakam.

Reuters reported on Thursday that documents from the government-funded commission detailed 83 deaths in 2015 and at least 35 in 2016 up to December 20.

More than half of the 118 dead were reportedly from Myanmar, the source for tens of thousands of refugees coming to Malaysia, including Rohingya Muslims escaping persecution by Myanmar’s authorities and its majority Buddhist population.

It is unclear whether the death rate is higher than in neighbouring countries. Government officials in Indonesia and Thailand told Reuters they do not disclose such numbers.

The rate is higher than in countries such as the United States, which in the last financial year recorded 10 deaths in its much larger immigration detention system.

{{‘Appalling’}}

Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Razak has been a harsh critic of the Myanmar government and its de-facto leader Aung San Suu Kyi after a crackdown in October by Myanmar’s security forces led many Rohingya to flee across its borders amid multiple allegations of mass killings and gang rapes by troops.

He has called for foreign intervention to stop the “genocide” in Myanmar.

Najib’s office did not return calls seeking comment.

“The numbers are too many and are shocking and it calls for the overhaul of the system,” said Jerald Joseph, one of eight commissioners at Suhakam, which is due to publicly announce the numbers next week in its annual report on human rights issues in Malaysia.

Joseph described conditions at the centres, some of which he had visited, as “appalling” and said the deaths should be investigated as a criminal matter.

The illnesses that led to some of the deaths may have been caused or exacerbated by poor sanitation and food, physical abuse and a lack of medical attention, said Joseph, who was speaking on behalf of the commission.

Malaysia’s home ministry, which oversees the immigration department, said it was trying to improve the conditions in the centres but that its budget was constrained.

“I agree there is some overcrowding and the conditions are not ideal. We are always trying to improve the procedures, health conditions and management of these sites. The problem is we hit a budget brick wall,” deputy home minister Nur Jazlan Mohamed told Reuters.

Source:Al Jazeera

{Donald Trump’s daughter will become an official White House employee in an unpaid role.}

Ivanka Trump will take an official government role as an unpaid adviser to her father US President Donald Trump, the White House announced on Wednesday.

The first daughter, whose husband Jared Kushner also works as a senior advisor to the president, will not receive a salary for her work as a federal employee. Kushner, a real estate developer, is also unpaid.

“We are pleased that Ivanka Trump has chosen to take this step in her unprecedented role as first daughter and in support of the president,” a White House statement said.

“Ivanka’s service as an unpaid employee furthers our commitment to ethics, transparency, and compliance and affords her increased opportunities to lead initiatives driving real policy benefits for the American public that would not have been available to her previously.”

In the couple of months since her father became president Ivanka, 35, has been a regular presence at the White House, where she already has an office.

She was present when her father received Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe in January, and earlier this month took part in a round-table discussion with President Trump and Chancellor Angela Merkel during the German leader’s visit to the White House.

Her involvement with her father’s official duties has raised eyebrows in some quarters over possible conflicts of interest.

But Ivanka, who was part of her father’s business empire and ran a fashion line, said those qualms are unfounded.

“I have heard the concerns some have with my advising the president in my personal capacity while voluntarily complying with all ethics rules, and I will instead serve as an unpaid employee in the White House Office, subject to all of the same rules as other federal employees,” she said in a statement.

“Throughout this process I have been working closely and in good faith with the White House Counsel and my personal counsel to address the unprecedented nature of my role.”

Neither Kushner nor Ivanka Trump has any experience in elected office or public policy.

In addition to raising questions over possible conflicts of interest, the young couple’s influence on the president has fueled broader debate on the absence of clear boundaries between the Trump family’s business dealings and its member’s political activities.

Ivanka Trump’s lawyer, Jamie Gorelick, told the news website Politico last week that the president’s daughter will have access to classified information and be bound by the same rules that apply to other White House advisers who are on the government payroll.

“Our view is that the conservative approach is for Ivanka to voluntarily comply with the rules that would apply if she were a government employee, even though she is not,” Gorelick told the outlet.

Inside Story – Will conflicts of interest drag down President Donald Trump?
“Having an adult child of the president who is actively engaged in the work of the administration is new ground.”

Part of the novelty stems from the fact that relatives of elected officials cannot legally be hired for most federal jobs due to potential conflicts of interests.

Yet Trump succeeded in getting Kushner on board at the White House by arguing that the executive office of the president was not covered by federal anti-nepotism rules. Kushner said that by putting his interests in a trust, and not being paid for the job, he could avoid the rule.

Kushner’s family business has invested some $7bn in property acquisitions in the past decade, often with overseas partners – and his father-in-law now is formally in charge of financial regulation.

Two Democratic senators, Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts and Tom Carper of Delaware, sent a letter to the Office of Government Ethics on Wednesday saying that Ivanka Trump’s “increasing, albeit unspecified, White House role … (has) resulted in substantial confusion,” and questioned how her ethics compliance would be ensured.

Source:Al Jazeera

{London to outline immediate plans towards leaving the European Union as EU reacts to the triggering of Article 50.}

The British government will on Thursday introduce legislation known as the Great Repeal Bill – a crucial part of its next steps towards leaving the European Union.

The move comes the day after UK Prime Minister Theresa May set the wheels of Brexit in motion by invoking Article 50 of the EU’s Lisbon Treaty, officially triggering talks to leave the bloc.

Thursday’s bill repeals the European Communities Act 1972 and effectively ends the supremacy of European law in the Britain, transferring all EU laws currently in force onto the UK statute book.

It will ensure the UK leaves the jurisdiction of the European Court of Justice.

The bill will come into force on the day the UK leaves the EU. On the current two-year timetable that will be in March 2019.

MPs will get a chance to debate and vote on the bill before it is passed into law. Brexit Secretary David Davis has said this is an important step in giving certainty to businesses, workers and consumers.

May published columns in seven European papers on Thursday to stress that a Brexit deal was “in all our interests”, striking a relatively conciliatory tone before negotiations begin.

“We will continue to play our part in ensuring that Europe remains strong and prosperous and able to lead in the world,” May wrote in the Irish Times.

She said Brexit was not an attempt “to do harm to the European Union or any of the remaining member states”.

But she also reiterated her warning that failure to reach a trade deal would hamper security ties.

“It would be to the detriment of us all if unnecessary barriers to trade were erected,” she said.

{{A sombre mood}}

Theresa Villiers, an MP with the ruling Conservative Party, told Al Jazeera: “I feel a sense of optimism and anticipation, I very much welcome the fact that the UK is going to be come an independent, self-governing democracy again.”

But Tim Farron, leader of the Liberal Democrats , said “it’s a blow to Europe, it’s a much bigger blow to Britain, and as a patriot I want what’s best for my country, I want us to stay in the EU, so I’m in no mood to give up.”

The mood was sombre in Brussels as the letter invoking Article 50 was handed over.

“There is no reason to pretend that this is a happy day – neither in Brussels nor in London. After all, most Europeans including almost half the British voters wish that we would stay together, not drift apart” Donald Tusk, President of the European Council, said in a statement.

Germany’s Chancellor Angela Merkel has spoken of her desire for the UK and the EU to remain close partners, but said that there cannot be parallel talks about trade deals alongside those concerning the terms of Brexit.

“The old EU, the so-called intergovernmental EU, is dead it doesn’t work any more it’s not equipped for the 21st century so we need to move into a political union that is equipped to respond adequately, flexibly, quickly,” Sophie in’t Veld, a member of the European Parliament from the Netherlands, told Al Jazeera.

{{Requiem for a dream}}

Tony Nash, chief economist and managing partner at Complete Intelligence, told Al Jazeera that the UK was fortunate not to have to deal with leaving the Euro and that, while the pound has lost value recently, the devaluation could compensate for having to pay tariffs to access the EU market.

Nash said that financial services were the biggest immediate issue for the UK and that there were questions over whether there another European city could claim London’s crown as the continent’s financial centre.

“If you look at places like Frankfurt or Paris, they just can’t compete with London as a financial centre,” Nash said. “I don’t think the impact on services is going to be as bad as many people have said because you just don’t have the skills and capabilities on the continent that you do in London.”

A recent survey , though, suggested growing pessimism in the UK over the economic impact of Brexit.

Just 29 percent of British households surveyed in March believed it would be good for Britain’s economy over the next 10 years, according to IHS Markit – down from 39 percent in July 2016.

Outside parliament in London on Thursday, a choir of protesters sang the adopted anthem of the EU.

“It’s called an Ode to Joy,” reported Al Jazeera’s Barnaby Phillips. “But for those who lost the referendum, [it is] a requiem for a dream that died.”

Source:Al Jazeera

{The activists charged for their role in the Umbrella Movement have criticised the case as an attack on free speech.}

Nine pro-democracy Hong Kong activists appeared in court on Thursday for their role in the 2014 Umbrella Movement mass protests. They’ve criticised the case as a form of political persecution.

The group of campaigners, including students and lawmakers, were charged the day after pro-Beijing leader Carrie Lam was selected as city leader by a committee skewed towards the mainland camp.

The case comes as fears grow that semi-autonomous Hong Kong’s freedoms are increasingly under threat from Chinese authorities.

It also precedes an expected visit by China’s President Xi Jinping in July to mark the 20th anniversary of the handover of Hong Kong to China by Britain in 1997.

The nine activists, ranging from 22 to 73-years-old, were charged with either conspiring to cause public nuisance or inciting others to do so in relation to the 2014 protests, which called for fully free leadership elections.

The case was adjourned to May 25 after a brief hearing in magistrates’ court, during which the defence requested a High Court jury trial so that the public could participate in the decision.

The defendants could face up to seven years in prison. They have yet to enter a plea.

Dozens of Beijing supporters and pro-democracy protestors faced off outside the court, yelling profanities at each other, before the nine defendants were due to emerge.

Some pro-China supporters slapped a picture of activist Benny Tai Yiu-ting with a pink plastic slipper, mimicking a local custom practised by some residents where a shoe is used to beat an image of an enemy.

The 2014 uprising saw hundreds of thousands of people take to the streets to protest against Beijing’s insistence that Hong Kong’s leader – the chief executive – must be vetted by a 1,200-person committee before facing a public vote.

Speaking outside court, movement leader Benny Tai Yiu-ting told reporters the activists would not give up on the fight for democracy in Hong Kong.

“I believe our society is steeped with the spirit of civil disobedience,” said Tai, co-founder of Occupy Central, one of the groups behind the 2014 Umbrella Movement rallies.

“We won’t give up until Hong Kong has real democracy and real universal suffrage,” he added.

Rights group Amnesty International condemned the charges, saying the case showed Hong Kong’s freedom of expression and right to peaceful assembly was “under a sustained attack”.

New leader Lam has promised to try to unify divided Hong Kong, but opponents said the court case immediately undermined that pledge.

Source:Al Jazeera

{Top US commander in Iraq says ‘fair chance’ coalition bombing had role in killing scores of people.}

The top US commander in Iraq on Tuesday acknowledged the likelihood that the US-led coalition played a role in blasts in Mosul that killed many civilians this month, but said an investigation was under way and ISIL may also be to blame.

“My initial assessment is that we probably had a role in these casualties… What I don’t know is were they [the civilians] gathered there by the enemy? We still have some assessments to do,” Lieutenant-General Steve Townsend told a Pentagon news briefing, speaking from Iraq.

“I would say this, that it sure looks like they were.”

Conflicting accounts have emerged since the March 17 explosion in al-Jadida district in west Mosul, where Iraqi forces backed by US-led coalition air strikes are fighting to clear Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) fighters from Iraq’s second city.

Investigators are in Mosul to determine whether a US-led coalition strike or ISIL-rigged explosives caused a blast that destroyed buildings and may have killed more than 200 people.

“My initial impression is the enemy had a hand in this. And there’s also a fair chance that our strike had some role in it,” Townsend said.

“I think it’s probably going to play out to be some sort of combination. But you know what, I can’t really say for sure and we just have to let the investigation play out.”

More than 300 civilians have been killed in west Mosul since Iraqi forces and the US-led coalition began an offensive last month to push ISIL out of its last stronghold in Iraq, the UN said on Tuesday, adding the toll could exceed 400 if new killings are verified.

“This is an enemy that ruthlessly exploits civilians to serve its own ends, and clearly has not even the faintest qualm about deliberately placing them in danger,” UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Zeid Ra’ad al-Hussein said in a statement.

“[ISIL’s] strategy of using children, men and women to shield themselves from attack is cowardly and disgraceful. It breaches the most basic standards of human dignity and morality,” he said.

Hundreds of thousands more civilians are still trapped inside west Mosul after Iraqi forces and the US-coalition recaptured the city’s east from ISIL in January.

West Mosul is both smaller and more densely populated than the city’s east, meaning this stage of the battle poses a greater danger to civilians than those that came before.

Amnesty International’s Donatella Rovera said field research in east Mosul showed “an alarming pattern of US-led coalition air strikes, which have destroyed whole houses with entire families inside”.

“The high civilian toll suggests that coalition forces… have failed to take adequate precautions to prevent civilian deaths, in flagrant violation of international humanitarian law,” she said.

In the east, the Iraqi forces adopted a strategy of encouraging civilians to stay at home, dropping leaflets into the city with safety instructions for residents.

“The fact that Iraqi authorities repeatedly advised civilians to remain at home instead of fleeing the area indicates that coalition forces should have known that these strikes were likely to result in a significant numbers of civilian casualties,” Rovera told Al Jazeera.

Witnesses told Amnesty that people were killed in their own homes after heading government advice not to flee the city.

The UN said it also received reports of another 95 people killed in four western Mosul neighbourhoods between March 23-26.

The rights office said it was not in a position to provide a breakdown of the deaths caused by ISIL violence and air strikes by the international anti-ISIL coalition.

Source:Al Jazeera

{Israeli police arrest Palestinian guards after they try to stop archaeologist from removing ancient stone from compound.}

Jerusalem – The Grand Mufti of Jerusalem says Israel’s detention of Palestinian security guards working at the al-Aqsa compound is “unacceptable” and Israeli police are trying to change the status quo at the holy site.

Israeli police detained several guards working at the al-Aqsa Mosque compound in occupied East Jerusalem earlier this week after they prevented an Israeli archeologist from trying to remove a stone from the religious compound.

“I believe the Israeli police are trying to impose a new reality and are trying to intimidate the al-Aqsa guards and to stop them from carrying out their duty,” Mufti Muhammad Hussein told Al Jazeera.

{{“That is unacceptable.”}}

The initial confrontation happened on Monday morning after the guards at al-Aqsa intervened when Yuval Baruch, employed by the Israeli Antiquities Authority and escorted by Israeli police, entered the compound and tried to take a stone from a pillar in an underground section of the al-Qibli mosque.

A heated argument ensued when one of the guards allegedly noticed Baruch remove a small piece of stone from the pillar and place it in his pocket. Baruch has denied trying to remove it.

The antiquities employee was removed from the area by police, but later tried to re-enter the underground Marwani prayer hall. Al-Aqsa guards quickly refused him entry.

Israeli police returned to the compound and arrested three guards, according to the Jerusalem Islamic Waqf, a religious trust tasked with managing the al-Aqsa compound.

The police later raided the homes of four other guards and arrested them, before detaining another guard on Tuesday.

Six guards remained in Israeli police custody as of Tuesday night.

Qasem Kamal, Khalil Terhoni, Arafat Najeeb, Osama Siam, Samer Qabbani and Emad Abdeen were expected to appear before a judge in Jerusalem on Wednesday, the Waqf said.

Israeli police told Al Jazeera in a brief statement only five people had been detained for “attacking police officers” and the incident was under investigation.

Mufti Hussein demanded that Israel respect the status quo that has prevailed since before Israel occupied East Jerusalem in 1967.

While Jews and non-Muslims are allowed to visit the compound, non-Muslim worship is prohibited according to an agreement signed between Jordan and Israel shortly after Israel occupied East Jerusalem in 1967.

The agreement put Islamic Waqf in charge of the compound’s administration.

The Mufti added that maintenance and renovation work at the compound are matters dealt with only by the Waqf and Israel has no right to intervene.

Tensions at al-Aqsa Mosque were a significant contributor to the wave of unrest that began in October 2015, after right-wing Israelis made frequent visits to the compound during the Jewish high holidays.

The al-Aqsa compound, also known as the Noble Sanctuary, is the third holiest site in Islam. Jews, who refer to the area as Temple Mount, also see it as a venerated holy site and believe it sits where the First and Second Temples once stood.

Sheikh Omar Keswani, a senior Waqf official, told Al Jazeera the Israeli authority had “no business” in the al-Aqsa compound, but that it frequently “breaks in with a police force”.

Israeli police routinely escort Jewish visitors around the compound, and they often facilitate the visits of right-wing Israeli politicians who have been charged with attempting to “change the status quo” at the holy site.

Right-wing activist and member of parliament Yehuda Glick petitioned Israel’s High Court on Tuesday to repeal a ban barring members of Israel’s parliament – or Knesset – into the compound.

Glick was shot and wounded in October 2014 in an assassination attempt.

He is a member of the Temple Mount Faithful, a group that calls for “liberating the Temple Mount from Arab occupation”.

The group advocates rebuilding a Jewish temple at the religiously important site, including the area containing the mosque.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Monday the prohibition on Knesset members and ministers visiting the al-Aqsa compound – in place since tensions erupted in December 2015 – would gradually be phased out over the course of three months, if security conditions permit it.

Source:Al Jazeera

{Beijing says the activist is being investigated on suspicion of ‘pursuing activity harmful to national security’.}

China has confirmed it is detaining Taiwanese pro-democracy activist Lee Ming-che, who went missing last week.

Ma Xiaoguang, spokesman for China’s Taiwan Affairs Office, said Lee was being investigated on suspicion of “pursuing activities harmful to national security”.

Lee disappeared on March 19 after clearing immigration in Macau. He never showed up for a planned meeting later that day with a friend across the border in China’s city of Zhuhai.

China considers the self-ruled Taiwan a breakaway province.

Chinese authorities said Lee was in good health, but gave no information about where he was being held or other terms of his detention.

“Regarding Lee Ming-che’s case, because he is suspected of pursuing activities harmful to national security, the investigation into him is being handled in line with legal procedures,” Ma told reporters.

Ma said Taiwanese people coming to China for “normal” activities did not have anything to worry about and their rights would be protected.

“The mainland has rule of law,” he said. “On this point, Taiwan compatriots can rest at ease.”

{{‘Sensitive’ material}}

Cheng Hsiu-chuan, president of a Taipei college where Lee worked, told the Associated Press news agency on Tuesday that Lee may have attracted the attention of Chinese security after using the Chinese social media service WeChat to “teach” China-Taiwan relations to an unknown number of people.

“For China, the material he was teaching would be seen as sensitive,” Cheng said.

Cheng urged Beijing to release public records, such as CCTV images, about Lee’s entry.

He added that Lee had travelled annually to China for the past decade to see friends, saying he would discuss human rights in private but had never held any public events there.

However, in mid-2016 Chinese authorities shut down Lee’s WeChat account and confiscated a box of books published in Taiwan on political and cultural issues, Cheng said.

“According to the news we’ve gotten, the state security bureau there doesn’t know how to handle Lee’s case,” Cheng said.

Taiwan’s presidential spokesman Alex Huang said on Tuesday that the Mainland Affairs Council had “engaged” and that it will do its “best”.

Lee’s wife, Lee Ching-yu, said the Taiwanese government agency also told her this week it had indirect information pointing to a Chinese state security detention.

“I want the government of China to act like a civilised country and tell me what they’re doing with my husband on what legal grounds and, like a civilised country, what they plan to do with him,” Lee said.

She added that her husband might be in need of hypertension medicine.

In June, China halted communications with Taiwan, a move triggered by Taiwan President Tsai Ing-wen’s failure to endorse the “one China” principle, which requires countries that seek diplomatic relations with China to break official relations with Taiwan.

China and Taiwan split amid civil war in 1949. China insists the two sides must eventually unify – by force if necessary.

Source:Al Jazeera