id stringlengths 32 32 | url stringlengths 31 1.58k | title stringlengths 0 1.02k | contents stringlengths 92 1.17M |
|---|---|---|---|
43b9ad34e972e4c8b571b47bd10baa21 | https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-55728575 | Vietnam's party congress picks new communist leaders | Vietnam's party congress picks new communist leaders
Vietnam's political elite is gathering to choose the country's leadership for the next five years amid a largely successful battle against Covid-19 and a booming economy.
In most other countries, we'd look at something along the lines of a general election.
But Vietnam has a communist government, and leadership is done differently.
Think of the tightly choreographed political theatre one sees at China's or North Korea's party congresses, and you get the idea.
Vietnam is a lot like that, albeit slightly more low-key.
The country is one of Asia's fastest growing economies and a linchpin of stability in the region. Like China, it's essentially a booming capitalist powerhouse underneath a communist cloak.
The government has successfully established ties with both China and the US, putting the country into a very good strategic position.
Economically, Vietnam has good relations with both of those superpowers - and the current trade dispute between Beijing and Washington has put it into an even better position.
Many multinationals now operate in Vietnam, including global tech giants like Apple and Samsung.
It's also the only country in South East Asia which managed to minimise the economic damage from Covid-19 and managed moderate growth during the past year.
Militarily, the country is also delicately walking the line between China and the US. It's fought wars against both of them but in recent years has been at odds particularly with Beijing over conflicting claims in the South China Sea.
Unlike China or North Korea, the country does not have a single strongman at the helm. There are four main jobs that collectively are running the show: The Communist Party General Secretary, the Prime Minister, the President and the Chair of the National Assembly.
The vote for those four jobs moves upward along a pyramid. Every five years, about 1,600 delegates vote some 200 members into the Central Committee. That committee then picks the politburo of about 20. Out of those, the four top jobs are nominated.
While this reads like a democratic process from the bottom up, there's usually extensive political manoeuvring beforehand and the selections are predetermined.
Just as the political changeover is tightly controlled and managed, so is anything seen as criticism of the authorities.
That's nothing new in Vietnam - it is, after all, a one-party state with no real media freedom.
Yet over the past months there's been a renewed crackdown on dissent. Amnesty International and news agency Reuters both said there'd been a record number of political prisoners and longer jail terms for activists.
Earlier this month, three freelance journalists were found guilty of spreading anti-state propaganda and received 11 and 15 years in prison. This intensified grip on dissent can in part draw on a special military cyber unit, called Task Force 47, which since 2018 has been targeting criticism online.
"Most of those arrested are writers and activists who use social media - particularly Facebook - as the platform," explains Nguyen Khac Giang, Vietnam researcher at the Victoria University of Wellington.
"The situation will get tougher for critics as the government seems determined to crack down any signs of online activism."
Out of the four top jobs, the General Secretary is the most important one.
Currently, the person holding that job is 76-year old Nguyen Phu Trong. He's serving his second term after receiving an exemption to contest as he was above the age limit of 65.
That should have made it unlikely he would run again - but over the weekend, the four appointees were leaked and widely circulated across Vietnamese media: Mr Trong is set to stay for a third term.
He is known for his "blazing furnace" war against corruption launched in 2016, which saw many high-ranking officials including a Politburo member sent to jail.
Yet even a leadership change would hardly have sparked any sharp changes in direction. "Vietnam is a highly institutionalised authoritarian regime - major decisions are made based on consensus of all leaders," Nguyen Khac Giang explains.
Nguyen Giang, BBC Vietnamese
The 13th Congress of the Communist Party of Vietnam began with a show of force by anti-riot police marching through the streets of Hanoi last week.
However, there is no serious threat to the ruling party of five million members which seems in full control of the country's future for at least the next 10-15 years. Whether it can keep its socialist ideals alive that long remains to be seen.
Over the next decade, the country has a good chance of maintaining its booming economy, able to compete with neighbouring nations. It has already managed the pandemic quite well, with its economy one of the few to show a positive growth rate for 2020.
And the leadership seems to understand that.
They are determined to stay on, despite their old age. This is despite them saying they want all new MPs for the Vietnamese parliament to be under 55, and females under 50. It seems they want to make sure the country will get a younger, more creative leadership - just not yet.
The new leadership will have to look at the crucial next five years. The global pandemic is expected to pull much of the world into a recession and Vietnam will try to retain its growth.
Just late last year, the growth target for 2021 was set at an ambitious 6.5%. In 2020, it had slowed to 2.9%, the lowest level in more than 30 years - but the country is still doing better than most of the rest of the world.
Last year's slower growth was of course largely due to the pandemic, and it seems certain that 2021's growth will again be held back by the virus.
Vietnam will continue to seek an economic and geopolitical balance between China and the US.
China's aggressive stance is expected to push Hanoi to continue looking towards the US. And if the trade conflict between Washington and Beijing continues, Vietnam will likely also continue to profit from that.
|
312d4933f1008cd032fd055b1e80495b | https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-55761504 | Indonesia plane crash probe focuses on autothrottle | Indonesia plane crash probe focuses on autothrottle
Investigators looking into the Sriwijaya Air crash in Indonesia say they are now focusing on the plane's autothrottle.
Sixty-two people were on board the passenger plane when it plunged into the sea minutes after taking off from Jakarta on 9 January.
A few days before the crash, a problem with the Boeing 737's autothrottle had been reported, officials said.
The autothrottle controls the engine power of an aircraft.
Usually pilots can also control the throttle manually and it remains unclear whether it is in fact was the cause of the crash.
"There was a report of malfunction on the autothrottle a couple of days before to the technician in the maintenance log, but we do not know what kind of problem," National Transportation Safety Committee (KNKT) investigator Nurcayho Utomo told news agency Reuters.
"If we find the CVR (cockpit voice recorder) we can hear the discussion between the pilots, what they talked about and we will know what is the problem."
So far
only the aircraft's flight data recorder has been recovered
from the debris in the Java Sea. Divers are still searching for the cockpit voice recorder.
A preliminary report is expected within 30 days of the crash, in line with international standards.
The airline itself said it would not comment on the investigation before the official statement.
The Sriwijaya Air passenger plane departed from Jakarta's main airport at 14:36 local time (07:36 GMT) on 9 January. Flight SJ182 was en route to the city of Pontianak on Borneo island.
Minutes later, at 14:40, the last contact was recorded.
There were 50 passengers - including seven children and three babies - and 12 crew on board, though the plane has a capacity of 130. Everyone on board was Indonesian, officials say.
Witnesses said they had seen and heard at least one explosion. A damaged fan blade found by the divers suggested the plane was still functioning when it hit the sea, and did not explode mid-air.
The 26-year-old Boeing 737 passed an airworthiness inspection in December 2020 after it had been grounded for some time during the pandemic.
Sriwijaya Air, founded in 2003, is a local budget airline which flies to Indonesian and other South-east Asian destinations.
|
12061d989aa1c3ab3bd139793570c9ce | https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-55851052 | China warns Taiwan independence 'means war' as US pledges support | China warns Taiwan independence 'means war' as US pledges support
China has warned Taiwan that any attempt to seek independence "means war".
The warning comes days after China stepped up its military activities and flew warplanes near the island.
It also comes after new US President Joe Biden reaffirmed his commitment to Taiwan, and set out his stance in Asia.
The US has called China's latest warning "unfortunate", adding that tensions did not need to lead to "anything like confrontation".
China sees democratic Taiwan as a breakaway province, but Taiwan sees itself as a sovereign state, with its own constitution, military, and elected leaders.
Analysts say Beijing is becoming increasingly concerned that Taiwan's government is moving the island towards a formal declaration of independence and it wants to warn President Tsai Ing-wen against taking steps in that direction.
President Tsai, however, has repeatedly said that Taiwan is already an independent state, making any formal declaration unnecessary.
On Thursday, Chinese defence ministry spokesman Wu Qian defended the recent military activities near Taiwan, saying they were "necessary actions to address the current security situation in the Taiwan Strait and to safeguard national sovereignty and security".
"They are a solemn response to external interference and provocations by 'Taiwan independence' forces," he added.
"We warn those 'Taiwan independence' elements - those who play with fire will burn themselves, and Taiwan independence means war."
The US responded later on Thursday.
"We find that comment unfortunate," Pentagon press secretary John Kirby told reporters, in the first statement by the new administration on China-Taiwan relations.
Mr Kirby added that the Pentagon "sees no reason why tensions over Taiwan need to lead to anything like confrontation".
The new US administration is expected to maintain pressure on China over a wide range of issues including human rights, trade disputes, Hong Kong and Taiwan, amid the deteriorating relationship between the two powers.
Taiwan's Mainland Affairs Council, meanwhile, said China should "not underestimate" the island's determination to defend its sovereignty and uphold freedom and democracy.
China's official spokespeople try not to talk about war. They almost always emphasise that theirs is a peace-loving country.
China is not a nation with a history of expeditionary military confrontation far beyond what it regards as its borders.
However, under Xi Jinping's leadership, China has repeatedly said that it would use military force to prevent any move towards formal independence by Taiwan, which it regards as a renegade province.
Threatening a war isn't as nuanced as talk of military intervention. It's blunt, more frightening. It is different too. Military intervention could come in a multitude of ways; not necessarily an out-and-out war between two competing sides and their allies.
But Taiwan's status is a red line for Beijing, a part of what it regards as its unimpeachable territorial integrity. An "internal affair", alongside Hong Kong.
The language deployed by the government spokespeople may not always be this provocative but when it comes to Taiwan it's fair to assume this is what China is, ultimately, willing to resort to.
In January 2020 Taiwan's president Tsai Ing-wen told the BBC that China needed to respect the will of Taiwanese people. "We don't have a need to declare ourselves an independent state," she said.
|
143fa10d265c8d66866823d1369166c2 | https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-55882938 | Myanmar's coup: Why now - and what's next? | Myanmar's coup: Why now - and what's next?
Myanmar's military has announced it has taken control of the country, a decade after agreeing to hand power to a civilian government.
The coup has sent a shudder of fear through the country, which endured almost 50 years of rule under oppressive military regimes before the move towards democratic rule in 2011. The early morning arrests of Aung San Suu Kyi and other politicians were all too reminiscent of days many hoped they had left behind.
For the past five years, Suu Kyi and her once-banned National League for Democracy (NLD) party led the country after being elected in 2015 in the freest and fairest vote seen in 25 years. On Monday morning, the party should have begun its second term in office.
But behind the scenes, the military has kept a relatively tight grip on Myanmar (also known as Burma), thanks to a constitution which guarantees it a quarter of all seats in parliament and control of the country's most powerful ministries.
Which raises the question why did it seize power now - and more to the point, what happens next?
The exact timing is easily explained, as the BBC's South East Asia correspondent Jonathan Head points out: Monday morning should have been the first session of parliament, which in turn would have enshrined the result. This now won't happen.
Elections in November saw the NLD win more than 80% of the vote, remaining hugely popular even in the face of allegations of genocide against the country's Rohingya Muslims.
The military-backed opposition immediately began making accusations of fraud after the vote. The allegation was repeated in a signed statement released by the newly-instated acting president to justify the imposition of the year-long state of emergency.
"The UEC [election commission] failed to solve huge voter list irregularities in the multi-party general election which was held on 8 November 2020," Myint Swe, a former general who had been vice-president, said.
But there has been little evidence to support the allegation.
"Obviously Aung San Suu Kyi won a resounding election victory," Phil Robertson, deputy director of Human Rights Watch (HRW) in Asia, tells the BBC. "There have been allegations of electoral fraud. It is somewhat Trumpian - all these allegations of fraud with no evidence."
Even so, Mr Robertson describes the takeover as "inexplicable".
"Did [the vote] mean a loss of power? The answer is no."
November's vote may have seen the military-backed Union Solidarity and Development Party (USDP) win a fraction of the vote, but the military still holds massive sway over the government thanks to a controversial 2008 constitution drawn up during junta rule.
It not only gives the military a quarter of parliamentary seats automatically, but also hands it control of three key ministries - home affairs, defence and border affairs.
So, as long as the constitution remains the same, the military retains some control. But could the NLD, with its majority, have amended the constitution?
Unlikely, says Jonathan Head, as that requires the support of 75% of the parliament - an almost impossible task when the military controls at least 25%.
Aye Min Thant, a former journalist, suggests there may be another reason for today's action: embarrassment on the part of the military.
"They weren't expecting to lose," the tech educator tells the BBC from Yangon (Rangoon). "People whose families were in the military must have voted against them."
Of course, it is far more than that.
"You need to understand how the army views its position in the country," Aye Min Thant adds. "International media are quite used to referring to Aung San Suu Kyi as 'mother'. The army considers itself the 'father' of the nation."
As a result, it feels a sense of "obligation and entitlement" when it comes to ruling - and in recent years, as the country has become more open to international trade, it has not liked what it has seen.
"They view outsiders especially as a danger."
The pandemic and international concerns over the Rohingya being disenfranchised in the November vote may have emboldened the military to act now, Aye Min Thant suggests. All the same, it still raised surprise.
Indeed, experts appear unsure of exactly why the military acted now, as there seems little to gain.
"It is worth remembering that the current system is tremendously beneficial for the army: it has complete command autonomy, sizeable international investment in its commercial interests and political cover from civilians for war crimes," Gerard McCarthy, a postdoctoral fellow at the National University of Singapore's Asia Research Institute, tells the BBC.
"Seizing power for a year as it has announced will isolate non-Chinese international partners, harm the military's commercial interests and provoke escalating resistance from millions of people who placed Suu Kyi and the NLD in power for in another term of government."
Perhaps, he says, they hope to improve the USDP's standings in future elections, but the risks of such a move "are significant".
HRW's Phil Robertson points out the move puts Myanmar in danger of becoming a "pariah state" once more, while angering the people at home.
"I do not think the people of Myanmar are going to take this lying down," he adds. "They do not want to head back to a military future. They see Suu Kyi as a bulwark against a return to military power."
There are still hopes that this can be resolved through negotiation, he says, but adds: "If we start seeing major protests beginning, then we are into a major crisis."
|
d4b88ad1ee37833a63142e0bf4e5543f | https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-55902070 | Myanmar coup: What is happening and why? | Myanmar coup: What is happening and why?
Mass protests have been taking place across Myanmar since the military seized control on 1 February.
Elected leader Aung San Suu Kyi and members of her National League for Democracy (NLD) party are among those detained.
Hundreds of people, including children, have been killed.
Myanmar, also known as Burma, is in South East Asia. It neighbours Thailand, Laos, Bangladesh, China and India.
It has a population of about 54 million, most of whom are Burmese speakers, although other languages are also spoken. The biggest city is Yangon (Rangoon), but the capital is Nay Pyi Taw.
The main religion is Buddhism. There are many ethnic groups in the country, including
Rohingya Muslims
.
The country gained independence from Britain in 1948. It was ruled by the armed forces from 1962 until 2011, when a new government began ushering in a return to civilian rule.
The ruling military changed the country's name from Burma to Myanmar in 1989. The two words mean the same thing but Myanmar is the more formal version.
Some countries, including the UK, initially refused to use the name as a way of denying the regime's legitimacy.
But use of "Myanmar" has become increasingly common, and in 2016 Ms Suu Kyi said it did not matter which name was used.
The military is now back in charge and has declared a year-long state of emergency.
It seized control on 1 February following a general election which Ms Suu Kyi's NLD party won by a landslide.
The armed forces had backed the opposition, who were demanding a rerun of the vote, claiming widespread fraud.
The election commission said there was no evidence to support these claims.
The coup took place as a new session of parliament was set to open.
Ms Suu Kyi has been held at an unknown location since the coup. She is facing various charges, including violating the country's official secrets act, possessing illegal walkie-talkies and publishing information that may "cause fear or alarm".
NLD MPs who managed to escape arrest formed a new group in hiding. Their leader has urged protesters to defend themselves against the crackdown.
Military commander-in-chief Min Aung Hlaing has taken power.
He has long wielded significant political influence, successfully maintaining the power of the Tatmadaw - Myanmar's military - even as the country moved towards democracy.
He has received international condemnation and sanctions for his alleged role in the military's attacks on ethnic minorities.
In his first public comments after the coup, Gen Hlaing sought to justify the takeover. He said the military was on the side of the people and would form a "true and disciplined democracy".
The military says it will hold a "free and fair" election once the state of emergency is over.
The protests over the coup have been the largest since the so-called Saffron Revolution in 2007, when thousands of monks rose up against the military regime.
Protesters include teachers, lawyers, students, bank officers and government workers.
The military has imposed restrictions, including curfews and limits to gatherings.
Security forces have used water cannon, rubber bullets and live ammunition to try to disperse protesters.
On 27 March, in the deadliest day since the coup,
more than 100 people were killed.
Aung San Suu Kyi became world-famous in the 1990s for campaigning to restore democracy.
She spent nearly 15 years in detention between 1989 and 2010, after organising rallies calling for democratic reform and free elections.
She was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1991 while under house arrest.
In 2015, she led the NLD to victory in Myanmar's first openly contested election in 25 years.
Ms Suu Kyi's international reputation has suffered greatly as a result of Myanmar's treatment of the Rohingya minority.
Myanmar considers them illegal immigrants and denies them citizenship. Over decades, many have fled the country to escape persecution.
Thousands of Rohingya were killed and more than 700,000 fled to Bangladesh following an army crackdown in 2017.
Ms Suu Kyi appeared before the International Court of Justice in 2019, where she denied allegations that the military had committed genocide.
Numerous countries have condemned the military takeover and subsequent crackdown. US Secretary of State Antony Blinken has accused the security forces of a "reign of terror".
The US, UK and European Union have all responded with sanctions on military officials.
China blocked a UN Security Council statement condemning the coup, but has backed calls for the release of Ms Suu Kyi and a return to democratic norms. The country has previously opposed international intervention in Myanmar.
South East Asian countries have been pursuing diplomatic efforts to end the crisis.
|
4b067b4b334b79a209efc9f4bce891e5 | https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-55913947 | Myanmar coup: China blocks UN condemnation as protest grows | Myanmar coup: China blocks UN condemnation as protest grows
China has blocked a UN Security Council statement condemning the military coup in Myanmar.
The military took power in the South East Asian nation on Monday after arresting political leader Aung San Suu Kyi and hundreds of other lawmakers.
The coup leaders have since formed a supreme council which will sit above the cabinet.
In Myanmar's biggest city Yangon though, signs of resistance and civil disobedience have been growing.
Doctors and medical staff in dozens of hospitals across the country are stopping work in protest against the coup and to push for Ms Suu Kyi's release.
The United Nations Security Council met on Tuesday but failed to agree on a joint statement after China did not support it. China has the power of veto as one of five permanent members of the council.
Ahead of the talks, the UN's Special Envoy on Myanmar, Christine Schraner, strongly condemned the military takeover which came after the army refused to accept the outcome of general elections held in November.
She said it was clear that "the recent outcome of the election was a landslide victory" for Ms Suu Kyi's party.
In further criticism, the Group of Seven major economic powers said it was "deeply concerned" and called for the return of democracy.
"We call upon the military to immediately end the state of emergency, restore power to the democratically-elected government, to release all those unjustly detained and to respect human rights and the rule of law," the statement released in London said. The G7 comprises Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, the UK and the US.
China has been warning since the coup that sanctions or international pressure would only make things worse in Myanmar.
Beijing has long played a role of protecting the country from international scrutiny. It sees the country as economically important and is one of Myanmar's closest allies.
Alongside Russia, it has repeatedly protected Myanmar from criticism at the UN over the military crackdown on the Muslim minority Rohingya population.
"Beijing's stance on the situation is consistent with its overall scepticism of international intervention," Sebastian Strangio, author and South East Asia editor at The Diplomat, told the BBC.
While China does benefit strategically from Myanmar's alienation from the west, this does not mean that Beijing is happy with the coup, he cautions.
"They had a pretty good arrangement with the NLD and invested a lot to build a relationship with Aung San Suu Kyi. The return of the military actually means that China now has to deal with the institution in Myanmar that historically is the most suspicious of China's intentions."
"Through this foreign policy equivalent of gaslighting, China seems to be signalling its tacit support, if not emphatic endorsement, for the generals' actions," Myanmar expert Elliott Prasse-Freeman, of the National University of Singapore, told the BBC.
"China seems to be proceeding as if this is Myanmar's 'internal issue' in which what we are observing is a 'cabinet reshuffle,' as China's state media put it."
While he thinks a UN statement would not have made an immediate difference, it would still serve as "a first step for cohering an international response. That appears to not be forthcoming".
Aung San Suu Kyi, who led the now-ousted elected government, has not been seen since she was detained by the military on Monday morning.
Dozens of others also remain detained, including President Win Myint, members of her party's central committee and her personal attorney. They are reportedly being held under house arrest.
Her National League for Democracy (NLD) demanded her immediate release on Tuesday. It has also called upon the military to accept the results of the November election, which saw the NLD win more than 80% of the votes.
Meanwhile, the United States said it had been unsuccessful in contacting the Myanmar military and has formally declared the takeover to be a coup d'etat. This means the US cannot directly assist the government, though most of its assistance goes to non-governmental entities.
The EU, UK, Australia and others have also condemned the takeover.
Myanmar, also known as Burma, was ruled by the armed forces until 2011, when a nominally civilian government was sworn in.
Power has been handed over to commander-in-chief Min Aung Hlaing. Eleven ministers and deputies, including those in finance, health, the interior and foreign affairs, were replaced.
In the first meeting of his cabinet on Tuesday, Min Aung Hlaing repeated that the takeover had been "inevitable".
The country was calm in the aftermath of the coup, with troops patrolling all major cities and a night-time curfew in force.
Myanmar has a long history of military rule and
many people can still remember the terror of previous coups.
But on Tuesday evening, car horns and the banging of cooking pots could be heard in the streets of Yangon in a sign of protest.
Activist groups have called for civil disobedience campaigns, setting up a Facebook group to organise their efforts.
Staff at 70 hospitals and medical departments across the country have reportedly stepped away from all non-emergency work.
Hundreds of healthcare workers, including senior doctors, have participated in the "Red Ribbon movement", with many donning a red ribbon on their clothes to show they were against the coup. Online, many changed their social media profile pictures to one of just the colour red.
Some medics are also
wearing symbols like black ribbons in silent protest
.
Myanmar is a country of 54 million people in South East Asia which shares borders with Bangladesh, India, China, Thailand and Laos.
It was ruled by an oppressive military government from 1962 to 2011, leading to international condemnation and sanctions.
Aung San Suu Kyi spent years campaigning for democratic reforms. A gradual liberalisation began in 2010, though the military still retained considerable influence.
A government led by Ms Suu Kyi came to power after free elections in 2015. But a deadly military crackdown two years later on Rohingya Muslims sent hundreds of thousands fleeing to Bangladesh and triggered a rift between Ms Suu Kyi and the international community.
She has remained popular at home and her party won again by a landslide in the November 2020 election. But the military have now stepped in to take control once more.
|
b6b3b309522559acb2b91dd5aa188f04 | https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-55929404 | Tokyo Olympics chief Yoshiro Mori 'sorry' for sexism row | Tokyo Olympics chief Yoshiro Mori 'sorry' for sexism row
The head of the Tokyo Olympics organising committee has apologised for making "inappropriate" remarks about women, after calls for his resignation.
Yoshiro Mori retracted the comments but said he was not planning to stand down.
The Games chief, 83, was earlier quoted as saying women talk too much and that meetings with many female board directors would "take a lot of time".
The International Olympic Committee told Reuters it considered the "issue closed" following the apology.
Japan's Olympic Minister Seiko Hashimoto said she wanted to hold "thorough discussions" with Mr Mori, a former Japanese prime minister.
"The Olympics' fundamental principle is to promote women's advancement in sport at all levels and organisations in order to realise gender equality," she said, according to local media.
Mr Mori made the remarks at Wednesday's meeting of the Japanese Olympic Committee.
The committee board currently has 24 members, five of whom are women.
In 2019, the committee - which is responsible for selecting Japanese Olympians - set itself a goal of increasing the number of female board directors to 40%.
"If we increase the number of female board members, we have to make sure their speaking time is restricted somewhat, they have difficulty finishing, which is annoying," Mr Mori was quoted as saying by the Asahi Shimbun newspaper.
"We have about seven women at the organising committee but everyone understands their place," he said.
Mr Mori is known in the country for a string of gaffes and undiplomatic statements he made while in office from 2000 to 2001.
His latest comments triggered anger on social media, with the hashtag #Moriresign trending on Twitter.
"Shame. It's time, get out," one user tweeted, while another urged athletes to boycott the Games if Mr Mori kept his job.
Mr Mori told Japan's Mainichi newspaper that female family members had also lambasted him.
"Last night, my wife gave me a thorough scolding. She said: 'You've said something bad again, haven't you? I'm going to have to suffer again because you've antagonised women,'" he said.
"This morning, my daughter and granddaughter scolded me as well," the paper quoted him as saying.
At a press conference on Thursday, he was asked on what basis he said women board members were too long-winded.
"I don't talk to women that much lately, so I don't know," Mr Mori replied.
Responding to questions in parliament, Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga said the remarks should not have been made.
The Tokyo Olympics organising committee - which has 36 executive board members - is tasked with "ensuring the successful delivery of the Olympic and Paralympic Games", which have been delayed by a year because of the coronavirus outbreak.
The committee takes its members from various organisations including the Japanese Olympic and Paralympic Committees, the Tokyo metropolitan government, and Japan's national government.
|
f563141faa1b8463398fcb5d621cd5fa | https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-55929654 | Myanmar coup: How Facebook became the 'digital tea shop' | Myanmar coup: How Facebook became the 'digital tea shop'
It is widely said that, in Myanmar, Facebook is the internet, so when the military asked for it to be blocked for the sake of "stability" it sent a shockwave through the country.
As
Myanmar's military seized control in a coup on 1 February
, many Burmese watched events unfold on Facebook in real-time. It's the primary source of information and news, where businesses operate and how authorities disseminate vital information.
Its ubiquity has meant it plays an outsized role in what information is amplified and its real-world impact.
Up until the mid-2000s most people did not have access to the internet or mobile phones under the military-run government.
A sim card could cost hundreds of dollars with the state-owned telecommunications firm, MPT, so mobile penetration was one of the lowest in the world.
The country started to liberalise in 2011 and by 2014 two telecommunications companies had been given permission to enter the country, Norway's Telenor and Qatar's Oredoo.
It was the first time many Burmese had access to any kind of telecommunications and led to a rapid adoption of mobile phones as prices plummeted.
"Myanmar came online more or less overnight and almost all at once," says Richard Horsey, an independent political analyst based in the biggest city Yangon.
Entering the country in 2010, Facebook initially allowed its app to be used without incurring data charges, so it gained rapid popularity. It would come pre-loaded on phones bought at mobile shops and was a cultural fit.
"During the years of censorship, if you wanted to know what was going on you had to go down to the tea shop and chat with people. When Facebook came along it gelled with that way of doing things - a digital tea shop," Mr Horsey says.
It is now used by more than half of the country's population of 54 million people, the company says.
In 2012 communal violence broke out in Rakhine state between the Buddhist majority and minority Rohingya Muslims.
And there were fears that social media - namely Facebook - had the ability to amplify those existing tensions resulting in violence.
As an example, in 2014 an extremist and anti-Muslim monk, Ashin Wirathu, shared a post alleging that a Buddhist girl had been raped by Muslim men. It went viral on Facebook.
Days later a mob descended on those accused of being involved and two people died in the ensuing violence. A police investigation later found that the monk's accusation had been completely fabricated.
UN human rights investigators have since concluded that hate speech on Facebook played a key role in fomenting violence in Myanmar. The company
admitted it had failed to prevent its platform being used to "incite offline violence" in Myanmar.
"Facebook was complicit in a genocide. There were already signs and strong calls for Facebook to handle the incitement of violence on the platform but their inaction really contributed to the fanning of violence in Myanmar," says Rin Fujimatsu from research and advocacy group Progressive Voice.
Since then the platform has taken some steps to actively remove hate speech and ban military officials.
In 2018, Facebook banned Min Aung Hlaing, the leader of Myanmar's armed forces and the man who led the coup this week. It also banned the army's television channel Myawaddy from its platform.
The military has asked internet providers to block the platform to ensure stability.
That throws into question the impact on the civil disobedience campaign against the coup, businesses and also the dissemination of public health advice on Covid-19 which happens largely on Facebook.
"It's really a violation of people's right to information and expression as well as freedom of speech - this is really crucial at a time when information is necessary to keep themselves safe from the pandemic," says Ms Fujimatsu.
People are now scrambling to find alternatives. Other social media and messaging platforms have seen a surge in users in Myanmar including Twitter, Signal and offline messaging app Bridgefy after the
military temporarily disrupted internet access
.
Facebook has said: "We urge authorities to restore connectivity so that people in Myanmar can communicate with family and friends and access important information".
It has also said it is now treating the current situation in Myanmar as an emergency and is actively removing content that praises or supports the coup.
The platform is a key factor in the civil disobedience campaign. Many users have changed their profile pictures to show support for the political party of deposed civilian leader Aung San Suu Kyi.
And given its history in the country, there is a sentiment that Facebook has an obligation to protect human rights and freedom of expression there.
So might this chip away at Facebook's importance? Observers think it's unlikely.
"People have also seen how easy it is to crack down on Facebook and how fragile communication is especially under the current military coup, so they will diversify where they get their information and how they communicate with each other in order to show their defiance," says Ms Fujimatsu.
But ultimately she and others believe Facebook is too integrated into the daily lives of people of Myanmar for people to move away from it.
|
1d19c4b8c4977f882deb314dbf8cc856 | https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-55930344? | Uighur camps: US, UK governments condemn reports of systematic rape | Uighur camps: US, UK governments condemn reports of systematic rape
The US government has said it is "deeply disturbed" by a
BBC report
detailing allegations of systematic rape of Uighur women in Chinese camps.
"These atrocities shock the conscience and must be met with serious consequences," a spokesperson said.
A UK government minister, Nigel Adams, said in parliament on Thursday that the report showed "clearly evil acts".
According to estimates, more than a million Uighurs and other minorities have been detained in camps in China.
An investigation published by the BBC on Wednesday contained first-hand testimony of systematic rape, sexual abuse and torture of women detainees by police and guards.
China's foreign ministry has denied the allegations, accusing the BBC of making a "false report".
Spokesman Wang Wenbin said there was "no systemic sexual assault and abuse against women" and China operated all of its facilities within guidelines on human rights.
"China is a country [ruled] by law, our constitution guarantees and protects human rights, and it is embodied in our legal system under which governments work," he said.
The testimony given to the BBC detailed allegations of rape and sexual abuse of Uighur women detained in China's internment camps in the Xinjiang region.
One woman told the BBC that women were removed from their cells "every night" and raped by one or more masked Chinese men. Tursunay Ziawudun, who fled the region after her release and is now in the US, said she was tortured and later gang-raped on three occasions, each time by two or three men.
A Kazakh woman from Xinjiang who was detained for 18 months in the camp system said she was forced to strip Uighur women naked and handcuff them, before leaving them alone with Chinese men.
The Chinese men "would pay money to have their pick of the prettiest young inmates", said Gulzira Auelkhan. "They forced me to take off those women's clothes and to restrain their hands and leave the room," she said.
A former guard at one of the camps, who spoke on condition of anonymity, described torture and food deprivation of inmates.
Adrian Zenz, a leading expert on China's policies in Xinjiang, said the testimony gathered by the BBC was "some of the most horrendous evidence I have seen since the atrocity began.
"It provides authoritative and detailed evidence of sexual abuse and torture at a level clearly greater than what we had assumed," he said.
In a statement on Wednesday, a US state department spokesman said: "We are deeply disturbed by reports, including first-hand testimony, of systematic rape and sexual abuse against women in internment camps for ethnic Uighurs and other Muslims in Xinjiang".
"These atrocities shock the conscience and must be met with serious consequences."
In an urgent question to the UK parliament on Friday, MP Nus Ghani said: "These horrifying stories add to the huge and growing body of evidence detailing atrocities perpetrated by the Chinese authorities in Xinjiang - atrocities which may even be genocidal."
Ms Ghani called on UK Minister of State for Asia Nigel Adams to "make a promise today that no further deepening of any ties of any kind will take place with China until a full judicial inquiry has investigated these crimes".
Mr Adams said the government was "leading international efforts to hold China to account".
"Anybody who has seen the BBC report cannot help but be moved and distressed by what are clearly evil acts," he said. The UK would continue to work with European nations and the new US administration to pressure China, he added.
Australia's Foreign Affairs Minister Marise Payne also commented on the report, saying the United Nations should be given "immediate" access to the region.
"We consider transparency to be of utmost importance and continue to urge China to allow international observers, including the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Michelle Bachelet, to be given immediate, meaningful and unfettered access to Xinjiang at the earliest opportunity," she said.
Human rights groups say the Chinese government has gradually stripped away the religious and other freedoms of the Uighurs, culminating in an oppressive system of mass surveillance, detention, indoctrination, and even forced sterilisation.
In December, the International Criminal Court rejected an application from Uighurs in exile to investigate China for alleged genocide and crimes against humanity, saying it was unable to act because China was outside its jurisdiction.
In January, the outgoing Trump administration
declared that China had committed genocide
in its repression of the Uighurs - a declaration later endorsed by the new Biden administration.
China has consistently denied allegations of human rights abuses in Xinjiang, and said the camps were not detention camps, but "vocational educational and training centres".
|
e88c546c0368339468da6b59f8e8f781 | https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-55938034 | Beijing 2022: Human rights groups call for Winter Olympic boycott | Beijing 2022: Human rights groups call for Winter Olympic boycott
A senior member of the International Olympic Committee (IOC) has rejected criticism of its decision to host next year's Winter Games in China.
More than 180 organisations have called on governments to boycott Beijing 2022 because of reported human rights abuses against ethnic minorities.
The World Uyghur Congress described the event as "a genocide Olympics".
China's treatment of its own citizens has been the subject of mounting criticism across the world.
But Canadian Dick Pound - the longest serving member of the IOC - said barring athletes from participating in the event would be "a gesture that we know will have no impact whatsoever."
"The Games are not Chinese Games, the Games are the IOC Games," he told the BBC. "The decision on hosting is not made with a view to signalling approval of a government policy."
Composed of groups representing Tibetans, Uighurs, residents of Hong Kong and others, the coalition of campaigners has issued a joint open letter calling for a boycott of the Games to "ensure they are not used to embolden the Chinese government's appalling rights abuses and crackdowns on dissent".
Human rights groups say the Chinese government has gradually stripped away the religious and other freedoms of the Uighurs - a Muslim minority group which lives mostly in the province of Xinjiang province in northwestern China - culminating in an oppressive system of mass surveillance, detention, indoctrination, and even forced sterilisation.
China has consistently denied allegations of human rights abuses in Xinjiang, insisting camps were not detention camps, but "vocational educational and training centres".
"It is unfortunate that history is repeating what happened 82 years ago with the Nazi Olympics in 1936" said Dorjee Tseten of Students for a Free Tibet, one of the groups that signed the letter.
"Hosting the Games in Berlin helped legitimise Hitler's genocide against the Jewish people and bolstered the Nazi regime. Governments and the international community must boycott the Beijing 2022 Games and take a stand to uphold the values of democracy, freedom, and human rights."
Zumretay Arkin of World Uyghur Congress said: "Our sufferings were completely dismissed by the IOC. It's now up to the governments to act on it, and show some decent humanity by boycotting a genocide Olympics.''
But IOC Vice-President Pound dismissed the criticism.
"Our perspective on all of this is that no matter how complex and how conflicting views may exist among countries, we're trying to steer a middle course here using sport as a means of communication even in the worst of times" he said.
Rights groups have also called for the IOC to find an alternative host for the Olympics, which start less than six months after the delayed Tokyo summer Games.
When asked whether the event should have been awarded to China - which also staged the 2008 Summer Games - Pound said, "Where would you celebrate the Olympic Games if you take that kind of attitude?"
He accepted some countries may consider a diplomatic boycott, but insisted it should not extend to athletes.
"You can withdraw ambassadors during the Games…you could suspend consular functions, there are all kinds of ways that states can signal disapproval. But cancelling a sport competition really doesn't make sense, either philosophically from the sport perspective or as a determinate of state conduct."
The US blocked American athletes from attending the 1980 Summer Games in the former Soviet Union, with the USSR then leading a boycott of the 1984 Los Angeles Olympics in retaliation.
"When people sit down and think what it means…they will look and say 'it's not going to be effective', we know that from the [1980 and 1984] boycotts" Pound said.
"It does not change the conduct, so why would we sacrifice our athletes and their dreams in a gesture that we know will have no impact whatsoever?"
The IOC's "rule 50" forbids athletes from protesting at Olympic venues, and critics say Beijing 2022 will put competitors in a difficult position.
"Athletes have no say on the rules of Olympic engagement, but will be the ones blamed for attending," said Rob Koehler, general secretary of advocacy group Global Athlete.
"National Olympic Committees must demand that the IOC align the Olympic Charter with the UN Declaration of Human Rights, and demand that athletes are never placed in this position again.
"Athletes need to be given a say and a voice, that is why we are demanding that rule 50 be rescinded."
When asked about the letter, China's foreign ministry spokesperson, Wang Wenbin, said he was "fully confident the Beijing Winter Olympics will be a splendid event.
"It is highly irresponsible for some parties to try and disrupt, intervene, and sabotage the preparation and holding of the Games to serve their political interests. Such actions will not be supported by the international community and will never succeed."
|
54e41828309d1220a8809148ce00b622 | https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-55950420? | Myanmar coup: What now for Aung San Suu Kyi? | Myanmar coup: What now for Aung San Suu Kyi?
How would you describe Myanmar's military leadership?
Few people, speaking freely, would reach for labels of affection. But in 2018, a year after the world watched the horrific expulsion and mass murder of the Rohingya people - an alleged genocide - Aung San Suu Kyi opted for the phrase "rather sweet" to describe the generals in her cabinet.
Three years on, as she sits under house arrest once again - the victim of the swiftest of coups - her decision to defend the army, either for personal, political or patriotic reasons, looks a very bad one.
Her supporters will tell you she was in an impossible position and that taking a tougher stance would have hastened her incarceration. Her critics insist she still could have shown at least a flicker of compassion for the persecuted Muslim minority.
Either way, her prospects and those of a democratic Myanmar look bleak.
While her international halo may have slipped and shattered, Aung San Suu Kyi is still adored by tens of millions in Myanmar. This popularity cannot be overstated. The thumping general election victory for her National League for Democracy saw them win more than 80% of the vote.
If you wander the crumbling streets of downtown Yangon - with the canopy of tangled power wires overhead and the occasional scurry of cat-sized rats at your feet - and pop your head into any doorway, there's one face you're more than likely to meet. Whether it's on a poster, a painting or a calendar, Mother Suu's image looks backs at you.
These are the same streets which now after dark reverberate with the clanging of pots in support of their democratically elected - and now summarily detained - leader.
"We normally make this noise to drive out evil spirits," explained Ma Khin in a description to her social media post. "Now we want to drive the military out so that Aung San Suu Kyi can be free."
As well as the din of the pans, a much more soothing sound fills the warm night air. The songs of the 1988 Uprising - that upswell of democratic fervour that propelled a young Suu Kyi into the domestic and international limelight, and precipitated her first of many periods under house arrest.
Wai Wai Nu, a Rohingya human rights activist, captioned her own uploaded street video with the words "very painful to see" as she recalled singing the revolutionary verses in jail with fellow political prisoners.
In the footage, I was struck by an image which epitomises a defining irony in the violent, twisted and tragically repetitive history of Myanmar. Illuminated by the light of smartphones held aloft, there was a portrait of Aung San Suu Kyi's father - General Aung San: the still-revered leader, assassinated in his prime in 1947 before he could guide Burma into independence from the British.
He was also the founder of the modern Burmese army, also known as the Tatmadaw: the very institution now depriving his daughter of her liberty and his country of their leader. Again.
The same mobile phones that keep the memory of her father burning brightly could yet lead Aung San Suu Kyi from the darkness.
For if previous struggles for freedom - in 1988 and 2007 (the Saffron Revolution) - were played out on the streets, this one will be powered online. On Facebook to be precise, the platform that millions of Burmese use above all others to send and receive their news and views.
This, of course, if the army doesn't persist in blocking access to the site and app. Because the military, whose senior command are now banned from Facebook after using it to such devastating effect in the last decade to whip up nationalist sentiment, spread hate speech and fake news, know its power. And fear it, you'd imagine.
The Tatmadaw's capacity for murderous brutality - in slaying their own people, students and monks seeking freedom - cannot be beaten. But they are pulverised in any fight for Burmese hearts and minds.
The problem for Aung San Suu Kyi and her supporters is harnessing this digital power. Many were taken aback by the directness of her purported plea in a letter to "protest against the coup". Some feared it may be a military trap, to lure protestors to their arrest - or worse.
Flooding the street in the name of "The Lady" may provide high quality images and a powerful message for global social media and TV news. But the grainy film of 1988 is a chilling reminder that these very roads were bathed in blood when soldiers cut down a previous generation who were asking for freedom.
There's nothing new that I can see that suggests the Tatmadaw would stop short of carrying out a live-streamed massacre in the major cities of Myanmar.
There is another paradox in the country's latest traumatic chapter.
Aung San Suu Kyi's chances of finding freedom, and possibly even a return to power, are dependent on the action or inaction of the "international community". A simplistic label for a disparate grouping of friend and foe, East and West.
As far as the privileged society that is the West is concerned, Suu Kyi was Life-President - a beacon of all the values elected leaders will tell you they hold dear. But it's a club she turned her back on following the avalanche of criticism she received for refusing to support or protect the Rohingya.
She was seemingly unmoved as titles, awards, prizes were rescinded by horrified universities and charities.
One illustration of the souring relationship was with my employer. The BBC World Service was a loyal companion for her during her more than 15 years of house arrest. But following the atrocities of 2017 in Rakhine State, it all changed. Like for other Western media outlets, my frequent letters of request for an interview or audience were not returned. There was apparently no need to engage those who, in her view, could never understand the complexities of her country.
In my two years covering Myanmar, the closest I got to a conversation was at the International Court of Justice in The Hague after she chose to personally defend Myanmar's army from the charge of genocide.
"Will you ever say sorry, Ms Suu Kyi?" I called out as she glided from her executive car into the cold arena where accounts of the worst imaginable crimes are considered. No answer. Not that I was expecting one.
Aung San Suu Kyi decided to be the face of the effort to justify the crimes of Myanmar's unaccountable army. Despite the widespread loathing of the military, it boosted her popularity at home and she was praised for protecting the country's honour.
But some now believe she should no longer be the ubiquitous face of the nascent struggle to free the country from newfound military dictatorship.
"The response to this situation should not be seen in narrow terms as 'Helping Aung San Suu Kyi'," Richard Horsey, a Yangon-based political analyst, told me.
"It's about opposing a military coup against a popularly elected government and supporting the vast majority of ordinary Myanmar people and their democratic rights and freedoms."
Others are more blunt.
"When I heard about the coup I thought she had been outsmarted after making a pact with the devil," said Bill Richardson, a former US Ambassador to the UN.
He was a friend of Suu Kyi until the pair fell out in 2018 after he says he implored her, wholly unsuccessfully, to do more to protect the Rohingya.
"I was one of her biggest fans until she got elected," he said.
Mr Richardson believes the National League for Democracy finally needs to develop new leaders, particularly women, especially at a time when their democratic mandate has been crushed.
Aung San Suu Kyi faces trumped up charges which could see her jailed, which would bar her from office. The generals claim there will elections at some point once the country emerges from its designated "state of emergency". It's clear they want to puncture the tyres of this electoral juggernaut who would smash every army road block on the road to democracy if the rules of the game were fair.
What will his former friend of 20 years be thinking now as she faces months, if not years under house arrest or worse, I ask Mr Richardson.
"I think she'll feel that she's been betrayed by the military she provided international cover for. Her position is bleak. But I hope they don't take steps to hurt her or silence her permanently."
And if Aung San Suu Kyi is allowed a voice once again, what then?
"If she is able to speak out and acknowledges the crimes against the Rohingya people in a way that the international community would think is credible and honest, it's still not too late. That would rally the world into action against this coup," he said.
"It would be a risk. But she's taken risks before."
Nick Beake is the BBC Brussels correspondent and was the BBC's Myanmar correspondent from 2018-2020.
|
0697a1cef8b266587518270a3f752f0e | https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-55966175 | Village submerged by red water after flood hits batik factory | Village submerged by red water after flood hits batik factory
An Indonesian village has been inundated by blood-red water after flooding hit a local batik factory.
The crimson dye was released through the street of Jenggot in central Java on Saturday.
The area, south of the city of Pekalongan, is famed for its traditional wax and dye batik textiles.
Thousands of social media users shared images of the coloured water washing through the village. A local relief official confirmed they were genuine.
"The red flood is due to the batik dye, which has been hit by the flood," Dimas Arga Yudha told Reuters news agency. "It will disappear when it mixes with rain after a while."
Rivers in in Pekalongan have previously changed colour due to the dyes used in making batik designs, with bright green waters flooding another village last month, according to Reuters.
Indonesia is frequently hit by flooding, with at least 43 people killed following a storm that hit the capital Jakarta earlier this year.
Local authorities turned to cloud seeding - where planes inject chemicals into clouds - in an attempt to prevent further rainfall
, amid the worst flooding in the area since 2013.
|
54005b2c22c8ffcc49f169a13fd92618 | https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-56005909 | Myanmar coup: Woman shot at protest fights for life | Myanmar coup: Woman shot at protest fights for life
A woman who was shot in the head while protesting against Myanmar's military coup is in a critical condition at a hospital in the capital Nay Pyi Taw.
Mya Thwe Thwe Khaing, 19, was hurt on Tuesday when police tried to disperse protesters using water cannon, rubber bullets and live rounds.
The wound was consistent with one from live ammunition, rights groups say.
US President Joe Biden says his government will impose sanctions on those responsible for the coup.
Mr Biden said the sanctions would focus on military leaders and their family members along with their business interests. The US will also enforce strong export controls.
"The people of Burma are making their voices heard and the world is watching," he said, vowing to take further action if needed.
"As protests grow, violence against those exerting their democratic rights is unacceptable and we're going to keep calling it out," he added.
There have been reports of serious injuries as police have increased their use of force, but no deaths so far.
Meanwhile, dozens of police officers joined protesters in eastern Kayah state.
Tens of thousands have turned out in street protests against last week's coup, which overthrew Aung San Suu Kyi's democratically-elected government in the South East Asian country, despite a recent ban on large gatherings and a night curfew.
Demonstrations re-started on Wednesday morning, for a fifth consecutive day, with a large group of civil servants gathering in Nay Pyi Taw to protest.
On Tuesday, police used water cannon in Nay Pyi Taw against protesters, who refused to retreat.
Warning shots were reportedly fired into the air before rubber bullets were used. Doctors later said it appeared live ammunition had hit protesters.
According to BBC Burmese, who spoke to an unnamed medical officer from a Nay Pyi Taw hospital, Mya Thwe Thwe Khaing suffered a serious head injury and another demonstrator had chest injuries.
Mya Thwe Thwe Khaing, who turns 20 on Thursday, is now in intensive care.
Her sister, Mya Tha Toe Nwe, who was also at the protest, said the chances of her sister surviving are slim.
"It's heart breaking," she said. "We only have our mother, our dad is already dead.
"I'm the eldest of four siblings, she's the youngest. I can't comfort mum, we have no words."
The injured woman's brother Ye Htut Aung told the Reuters news agency she had insisted on protesting, and that he spoke to her on the phone shortly before she was shot.
"What are you going to do if they shoot?" he reportedly asked.
"No, they wouldn't," she replied. "It's OK. Even if they fire, it should be fine."
According to a report by Human Rights Watch,
a doctor from the hospital said the teenager had a "projectile lodged in her head and had lost significant brain function".
The unidentified doctor said the wound was consistent with the use of live ammunition, and that a metal bullet had penetrated the back of the injured woman's right ear. A man wounded at the same protest also appeared to have similar injuries.
A separate report by Fortify Rights
quoted a doctor who said the woman was brain dead from an "imminently fatal gunshot wound to the head".
Earlier, a clip purportedly showing a woman being shot circulated online. The footage shows the woman wearing a motorbike helmet collapsing abruptly.
Separately, pictures on social media showed what appeared to be a blood-stained helmet. The BBC has not verified the authenticity of the images.
The United Nations special rapporteur on Myanmar has warned the country's security forces that they face prosecution under international law if they use excessive force against demonstrators.
"Myanmar military personnel and police need to know that 'following orders' is no defence for committing atrocities and any such defence will fail, regardless of their place in the chain of command," Thomas Andrews said in a statement issued in Geneva.
He said that "hundreds of arbitrary detentions" had been recorded since the coup.
Previous protests against the country's decades-long military rule, in 1988 and 2007, saw large numbers of demonstrators killed by the security forces. At least 3,000 protesters died in 1988 and at least 30 people lost their lives in 2007. Thousands were imprisoned during both sets of events.
Late on Tuesday, Myanmar's military also raided Ms Suu Kyi's National League for Democracy (NLD) party headquarters in the country's largest city, Yangon, the party said.
BBC Burmese understands that security forces broke down the doors by force. No party members were present in the building at the time. Footage of the headquarters filmed by the AFP news agency showed damaged computer servers and ransacked cupboards.
The raid took place during a nationwide curfew, which lasts from 20:00 to 04:00 (13:30 to 21:30 GMT).
In eastern Kayah state, dozens of police officers appeared to have joined the protesters' cause and staged their own demonstration.
According to the local news outlet Myanmar Now, they were holding posters that read "We stand with the people" and "We don't want the dictatorship".
One protester at the scene told the BBC that as many as 40 officers took part and they were later seen trying to protect the demonstrators from other police.
Another eyewitness said some of the police protesters were later arrested.
Meanwhile, large crowds continued to gather in various cities, including Nay Pyi Taw and Yangon.
Several groups of
young people staged colourful protests wearing ball gowns and sitting in inflatable tubs.
The military seized control on 1 February following a general election which the NLD won by a landslide.
The armed forces had backed the opposition, who were demanding a rerun of the vote, claiming widespread fraud. The election commission said there was no evidence to support these claims.
The coup was staged as a new session of parliament was set to open.
Ms Suu Kyi is under house arrest and has been charged with possessing illegally imported walkie-talkies. Many other NLD officials have also been detained.
|
bfe63de1a3395cf930e10dc675c5ae55 | https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-56015749 | Myanmar coup: US announces sanctions on leaders | Myanmar coup: US announces sanctions on leaders
US President Joe Biden has issued an executive order to impose sanctions on the leaders of Myanmar's coup.
The sanctions target 10 individuals, including Myanmar's acting president, and three companies.
Steps are also being taken to block access by the military to $1bn (£720m) of government funds held in the US.
The sanctions come as a woman who was shot in the head during protests against the coup fights for her life at a hospital in the capital Nay Pyi Taw.
Mya Thwe Thwe Khaing was hurt on Tuesday when police tried to disperse protesters using water cannon, rubber bullets and live rounds.
The wound was consistent with one from live ammunition, rights groups say.
Tens of thousands have turned out in street protests against last week's coup, which overthrew Aung San Suu Kyi's democratically elected government in the South East Asian country - also known as Burma - despite a recent ban on large gatherings and a night curfew.
There have been reports of other serious injuries as police have increased their use of force, but no deaths so far.
Mr Biden called for the coup to be reversed and for the release of civilian leaders including Ms Suu Kyi.
"The people of Burma are making their voices heard and the world is watching," he said, vowing to take further action if needed.
"As protests grow, violence against those exerting their democratic rights is unacceptable and we're going to keep calling it out," he added.
On Thursday the US Treasury
released a list
of eight new targets of its sanctions, which included Myanmar's acting president Myint Swe, home affairs minister Soe Htut, and defence minister Sein Win.
It also named three companies in the jade and gems sector.
Two other Myanmar military leaders had already been blacklisted
over atrocities against Rohingya Muslims, and have had their sanctions updated in reaction to the coup.
"We're also going to impose strong exports controls. We're freezing US assets that benefit the Burmese government, while maintaining our support for health care, civil society groups, and other areas that benefit the people of Burma directly," Mr Biden said.
This is Mr Biden's first use of sanctions since he took office last month.
The military have been conducting raids and making more arrests amid continuing protests and demonstrations.
Among those held was one of Ms Suu Kyi's most senior advisers. Her National League for Democracy (NLD) party said Kyaw Tint Swe and four others were arrested overnight.
Other arrests included local government officials and officials working for the election commission, which has refused to back the military's allegations of widespread electoral fraud in the November election which swept Ms Suu Kyi's NLD to power.
Meanwhile, Mya Thwe Thwe Khaing is still in intensive care in the capital. She turns 20 today.
Her sister, Mya Tha Toe Nwe, who was also at the protest, said the chances of her sister surviving are slim.
"It's heart breaking," she said. "We only have our mother, our dad is already dead.
"I'm the eldest of four siblings, she's the youngest. I can't comfort mum, we have no words."
Previous protests against the country's decades-long military rule, in 1988 and 2007, saw large numbers of demonstrators killed by the security forces. At least 3,000 protesters died in 1988 and at least 30 people lost their lives in 2007. Thousands were imprisoned during both sets of events.
The military seized control on 1 February following a general election which the NLD won by a landslide.
The armed forces had backed the opposition, who were demanding a rerun of the vote, claiming widespread fraud.
The coup was staged as a new session of parliament was set to open.
Ms Suu Kyi is under house arrest and has been charged with possessing illegally imported walkie-talkies. Many other NLD officials have also been detained.
|
e4d4918f605597b1c5b5d5a7c50269f7 | https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-56053007 | Myanmar coup: What will the military do now? | Myanmar coup: What will the military do now?
The man who stunned the world by bringing Myanmar's democratic experiment crashing down has made just two public appearances on state television to explain himself.
Looking nervous in front of the teleprompter, General Min Aung Hlaing made no mention of his coup, the detention of the country's elected leaders, the mass demonstrations against military rule in all corners of Myanmar and from all walks of life, the storm of international condemnation and the threat of renewed sanctions.
Instead he repeated tired old military slogans about the need for discipline and unity, and his still unsubstantiated allegations of electoral irregularities in last November's poll. Aside from his evident uneasiness in the unfamiliar role of trying to assuage a furious public, Min Aung Hlaing betrayed no awareness of the dangerous crisis into which he has dragged his country by seizing power.
From the point of view of the rest of the world, and the millions of Burmese who turned out in unexpectedly large numbers to vote resoundingly for a second term of office for Aung San Suu Kyi and her National League for Democracy last November, the coup is a brazen power-grab by a military which has failed spectacularly at the ballot box, and by a commander whose career after mandatory retirement in July this year looked a lot less promising after that result.
But the generals themselves do not see it that way. They spent years shaping the current constitution to preserve the dominant role of the armed forces after a transition to what they still call a "discipline-flourishing democracy". They always reserved for themselves the right to step in if the project was heading in a direction they did not like.
"Every time I met Min Aung Hlaing, he kept insisting the military's job is to protect democracy," one senior diplomat, who lived in Myanmar for several years, told the BBC. They spoke on condition of remaining anonymous.
"From their point of view, the armed forces had to step in because there were irregularities in the country's democracy. That is their justification
.
They believe they have acted according to the constitution. I think they believe the rest of the world will understand that. They do not think what they have done was a coup."
The 2008 constitution, drafted during the last period of military rule by an assembly of hand-picked delegates, created a hybrid democracy, in which the Tatmadaw, as the armed forces are known, retained a guaranteed one quarter of the seats in the lower and upper houses of parliament, had continued control of the three most powerful ministries, no matter what government was in power, and controlled much of the provincial administration.
The charter also barred anyone with a non-Burmese spouse or children from the presidency, excluding Aung San Suu Kyi from the top job.
I remember asking the Minister of Information at the start of the drafting process in late 2006 what examples Myanmar intended to follow in its path to democracy, and he told me, quite sincerely, that they saw Suharto's authoritarian regime in Indonesia as the most appropriate model.
So when the generals began their democratic opening at the end of 2010 with the release of Aung San Suu Kyi, they expected to retain the whip hand. They expected their proxy party, the USDP, to do well enough in the 2015 election to be able, in combination with the unelected military MPs, to prevent the NLD from forming a single party government, and were shocked by the scale of their defeat.
Last year they fully expected a better result, after five years of sometimes disappointing NLD administration, only to see their share of the seats whittled down even further, to less than seven percent. It is quite possible Min Aung Hlaing genuinely believes his allegations of substantial fraud as the only possible explanation for his party's dismal performance.
Now that the armed forces have seized power, in the name of protecting their version of democracy, what will their next step be?
Dealing with what is turning into a national resistance movement against the coup is their immediate challenge. On everyone's minds in Myanmar is whether they can do this without killing large numbers of protesters, as they have in the past.
But the junta needs a path back to political legitimacy. It has given itself a one-year state of emergency to fix the problem of the NLD's persistent popularity at the ballot box, although that could be extended.
There is an obvious playbook for the Burmese generals to follow, in neighbouring Thailand.
There, the coup-makers in 2014 also grappled with the problem of how to stop a popular party, in this case Pheu Thai, the party led by Thaksin Shinawatra and his sister Yingluck, which had won every election held since 2001.
Aside from drafting a new constitution with an appointed 250-seat senate as a counterweight to an elected government, the junta in Thailand carefully redesigned the electoral system, to ensure Pheu Thai would win fewer seats. The junta in Myanmar is likely to do the same. The NLD's widespread popularity gives it a much higher proportion of seats than its share of the vote in the existing first-past-the-post system.
The Thai junta also appointed members of the election commission, and greatly influenced membership of the constitutional court. Both those institutions have played a crucial role in ensuring the election rules were interpreted in a way that favoured the military's proxy party, and that court verdicts are always unfavourable to parties opposed to the military's role in politics.
The military in Myanmar has already filed laughably trivial criminal charges against Aung San Suu Kyi and the elected president, Win Myint, who is also from the NLD. It is likely that the nightly raids on the NLD headquarters and on election commission offices around the country are in pursuit of documents which could help the military build a more plausible electoral fraud case against the NLD, with the aim of having it or its top leaders disqualified from a future election.
But in Thailand the country was genuinely divided, with large parts of the population hostile to Thaksin Shinawatra. The military-aligned PPRP actually won more votes than any other party, though fewer seats, and with the help of the election commission was able to scrape together a ruling coalition.
In Myanmar the extraordinary levels of public anger against the coup suggest that in any election which is even close to free and fair the USDP, or whatever party is backed by the Tatmadaw, may do even worse than last November.
The amount of electoral manipulation and repression required to engineer any election in the near future which the military party can win risks leaving any government formed after such an exercise with threadbare legitimacy. The alternative is many more years of military rule, the generals hoping that age and exclusion from power remove Aung San Suu Kyi, who is 75 years old, and the NLD, from the scene.
These are very grim prospects for Myanmar after the huge improvements experienced in the past 10 years.
"I know it's hard to believe, but the armed forces really think they are working towards a multi-party democratic system," said the senior diplomat. "They must be told that if they take these actions, they will not get the understanding of the rest of the world. They will not get the kind of investment and co
-
operation that came their way in the last decade. This must be expressed to the armed forces in a manner that invites no misunderstanding."
Joe Biden's administration in Washington has already announced new sanctions, targeting, it says, the military and its extensive business interests
-
but their influence on the Tatmadaw will be limited.
"We don't have a whole lot of leverage," says Derek Mitchell, who was the first US ambassador in Myanmar after the political opening. "The key is our allies. That's a very difficult path, because some of our allies - Japan, India, Korea - have a lot of investment. They will be worried about growing Chinese influence there. We have to find a way to work with allies to apply real and consistent pressure, and not accept this.
"But we don't want to go back to the old-style sanctions. The sanctions need to be very carefully crafted to go after money, weapons, prestige - all the things the military values. The thing they fear most is the country's overdependence on a large neighbour, like China. We have to demonstrate that there is a cost, that if you want balance in your relationships, you're not going to get it this way. The military must understand this."
Will they? Myanmar's economy has already been hit hard by the Covid-19 pandemic, and foreign investment was knocked back after the ethnic cleansing of Rohingyas by the Tatmadaw in 2017. Sanctions may have a limited impact, but foreign companies may pull out anyway to avoid the reputational damage of operating under such an unpopular military regime.
And local businesses warn that attempts by the junta to close down internet access, in an attempt to block the organisation of protests, could cause serious damage to an economy in which small companies now make extensive use of Facebook, in particular, to sell their products. Severe economic distress might persuade the generals to think again.
But having destroyed the power-sharing arrangement which allowed the transition of the past 10 years to happen, it is not clear how they could walk back from the coup, even if they were willing to. Aung San Suu Kyi, who held out against the generals for 20 years while under house arrest, is hardly likely to make concessions to them now they have deposed her in this fashion. Releasing her would only inspire even greater public resistance to the coup. Most likely Min Aung Hlaing will plough on, adding his own dismal chapter to the long tragedy of military misrule in Myanmar.
|
a9196bba4ec88d1d6c7f84dcdc8bb8c9 | https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-56057038 | Fukushima: Powerful earthquake rocks Japan weeks from disaster anniversary | Fukushima: Powerful earthquake rocks Japan weeks from disaster anniversary
More than 100 people have been injured after a powerful earthquake struck off the coast of Fukushima in Japan.
Saturday's 7.3-magnitude quake was felt strongly in Tokyo, but no tsunami warning was issued.
The quake came nearly a decade after an earthquake and tsunami killed over 18,000 people.
That tsunami caused a nuclear accident at the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant - the worst such incident since the 1986 Chernobyl disaster.
Japan's meteorological agency (JMA) said Saturday's earthquake was believed to be an aftershock of the massive 2011 quake.
Aftershocks after a large earthquake
can continue over a period of many years.
Saturday's quake hit at 23:08 local time (14:08 GMT) at a depth of 60km (37 miles) in the Pacific, off Japan's eastern coast, JMA said. Aftershocks have continued to hit the region since.
The quake caused nearly one million homes to lose power while a smaller number lost water. Train services have been halted.
It also triggered landslides, with one burying a motorsport complex.
But there were no reports of irregularities at nuclear plants.
"Surveys are being done at Fukushima Daiichi nuclear pant... We have received reports that Onagawa nuclear plant and Fukushima Daichi nuclear plant are not showing any abnormality," Chief Cabinet Secretary Katsunobu Kato said.
Despite reassurances from officials, many residents on the coast evacuated their homes and headed for higher ground, Japanese news agency Kyodo reports.
"Even if people say we don't need to worry about a tsunami, I won't buy it," one 50-year-old man told the publication. "I learned from my bitter experience 10 years ago, and that's why I evacuated."
|
0d0c494ce3eaf9c8f4319806c5c55103 | https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-56067423 | Myanmar coup: Protesters face up to 20 years in prison under new law | Myanmar coup: Protesters face up to 20 years in prison under new law
Myanmar's military has warned anti-coup protesters across the country that they could face up to 20 years in prison if they obstruct the armed forces.
Long sentences and fines will also apply to those found to incite "hatred or contempt" towards the coup leaders, the military said.
The legal changes were announced as armoured vehicles appeared on the streets of several cities.
Hundreds of thousands of people have taken part in protests in recent days.
The demonstrators are demanding the release from detention of their elected leaders, including Aung San Suu Kyi, and the restoration of democracy in Myanmar, also known as Burma.
On Monday, Ms Suu Kyi's lawyer said she would be detained for a further two days. She will then be tried via video link at a court in the capital Nay Pyi Taw on Wednesday, Khin Maung Zaw added.
Ms Suu Kyi was rounded up with other members of the government on 1 February, but her detention was due to end on 15 February, according to Reuters news agency.
The charges against her include possession of unlawful communication devices - walkie-talkies used by her security staff.
Her party was elected in a resounding victory last November, but the military has alleged voter fraud without providing proof.
Internet access in Myanmar is being blocked for a second consecutive night, an internet service provider has told BBC Burmese.
The ruling junta has threatened long prison sentences and fines on anyone found to incite hatred towards the military, "by words, either spoken or written, or by signs, or by visible representation".
In a statement posted on a military website on Monday, it said that people preventing the security forces from carrying out their duties could face 20 years in prison, while those found to stir up fear or unrest in public could be imprisoned for terms of three to seven years.
The military government on Saturday gave itself the power to make arrests, carry out searches and hold people for more than 24 hours without a court ruling.
It has also told journalists not to describe the military's takeover as a coup.
The military's heightened presence is the latest sign of a potential crackdown on opposition to the coup. At many strategic locations, soldiers have replaced the police.
In the main city, Yangon, eight-wheeled armoured vehicles have been seen trying to navigate the rush-hour traffic, sometimes surrounded by cars honking their opposition to the coup.
Protests focused on the central bank building, the US and Chinese embassies, and the city headquarters of Ms Su Kyi's National League for Democracy.
As demonstrators gathered in the central city of Mandalay again on Monday, there were reports of security forces firing rubber bullets to disperse crowds.
In footage posted on social media, the sound of what appears to be gunshots can be heard as crowds flee, with several people later appearing to display injuries.
Police in the city were also reported to have used sling-shots against protesters and were met with volleys of bricks.
A leading student activist who has gone into hiding, Myo Ko Ko, told the BBC why he and others were willing to risk their lives.
"We strongly believe in democracy and human rights. We know that it's risky," he said.
"I have to move to another place day by day because of being searched (for) by police. We hope the international community will help us."
In the city of Myitkyina, in Kachin state, shooting could also be heard as security forces clashed with anti-coup demonstrators. It was not clear whether rubber bullets or live rounds were fired.
Students also protested in Nay Pyi Taw. Dozens were arrested and later released.
A doctor at a hospital in Nay Pyi Taw told the BBC the security forces were carrying out night-time raids on homes.
"I'm still worrying because they [made] a curfew statement... not to go outside between 20:00 and 04:00, but this makes a time for the police and soldiers to arrest people like us," said the doctor, who cannot be named for safety reasons.
"The previous day they [broke] into the house, cut down the fence, entered and arrested people unlawfully. That's why I'm also worrying."
Residents in several cities are reported to have formed night-watch groups to deter mobs rumoured to have been dispatched by the military to cause unrest.
Thousands of prisoners have been been given amnesty. Though this is normal to deal with prison overcrowding, there are fears that the military will use some of those released to exert pressure on anyone opposing the regime.
|
b293dcff1ea04e39877e2982c3e85806 | https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-56080282 | New Zealand lashes at Australia in citizenship row over terror suspect | New Zealand lashes at Australia in citizenship row over terror suspect
New Zealand's Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern has accused Australia of "abdicating its responsibilities" amid a row over a woman accused of having links to the Islamic State (IS).
The woman is facing deportation to New Zealand after being caught entering Turkey from Syria with two children.
But Ms Ardern says the dual national should be sent to Australia.
The 26-year-old held both Australian and New Zealand citizenship until Canberra revoked it last year.
However, Ms Ardern pointed out that the woman - who the Turkish Ministry of National Defence has identified as a member of IS - had not lived in New Zealand since she was a child.
"They left New Zealand at the age of six, were resident in Australia from that time, became an Australian citizen, left from Australia to Syria, and travelled on an Australian passport," she said.
She summed up by saying: "New Zealand frankly, is tired of having Australia exporting its problems."
Mr Morrison responded by saying his job was to protect "Australia's interests".
He added that legislation passed in parliament automatically cancels the citizenship of a dual citizen accused of being engaged in terrorist activities.
Mr Morrison said he was scheduled to speak with Ms Ardern today.
This is not the first time a citizenship row has erupted over a terror suspect.
In 2019, Shamima Begum - the schoolgirl who fled London to join the Islamic State - was stripped of her UK citizenship.
Ms Begum is believed to be eligible for Bangladeshi citizenship through her mother. But Bangladesh's ministry of foreign affairs refuted this, adding that there was "no question" of her being allowed into the country.
Ms Begum has launched an appeal to have her citizenship restored.
|
33f7390c9518e380cadd0e817944856a | https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-56091287 | Thai child modelling agent charged over child sex abuse images | Thai child modelling agent charged over child sex abuse images
Thai police have arrested the head of a child modelling agency after more than 500,000 indecent images of children were found on computer hard drives.
Danudetch "Nene" Saengkaew, 23, has been charged with child sexual abuse and downloading child abuse images.
Investigators say the images were found in a raid on the Nene Modelling Agency, north of the capital Bangkok.
The raid was the culmination of a months-long operation that began with a tip-off from Australian police.
The FBI and New Zealand police were also involved in the investigation, officials said, along with Operation Underground Railroad - a non-profit group that helps governments rescue sex trafficking victims.
According to the Bangkok Post
, the Nene agency, in Pathum Thani Province, is one of the best-known child modelling agencies in Thailand.
Thailand's Department of Special Investigation (DSI) said the victims included Thai children and also thousands of others from various countries.
"This is a child-porn industry and we're proud to have cracked it," said Khemachart Prakyhongmanee, a deputy director at DSI,
quoted by Channel News Asia (CNA)
.
He said image files confiscated at the Nene agency had been organised into different folders according to countries. Children's costumes and toys were also seized.
A portfolio found by police during the raid claimed the agency had worked with more than 8,400 child models and actors since 2013, CNA added.
Police Col Korrawat Panprapakorn, director-general of the DSI, told reporters that the raid came a year after Australian authorities contacted them.
An investigation, named Operation Casting Call, was launched but police only had a single photograph of a child to work with, Col Korrawat said.
Painstaking analysis of the image led to the arrest in May last year of a man believed to have taken the picture. He later gave police the address of Nene Modelling Agency, the DSI said.
Col Korrawat said the amount of evidence convinced investigators that the agency "must have been behind the abuse of thousands of children".
Mr Danudetch has been charged with importing pornographic images into a computer system and sexually abusing minors, the Bangkok Post reported.
|
5e73e3db5d9e55b02e19b89059b71dff | https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-56093689 | North Korean leader Kim Jong-un's wife makes first appearance in a year | North Korean leader Kim Jong-un's wife makes first appearance in a year
The wife of North Korean leader Kim Jong-un has appeared in public for the first time in over a year, according to state media.
Ri Sol-ju joined her husband at a concert on Tuesday to mark the birthday of Kim's late father and former leader, Kim Jong-il.
Ms Ri has often accompanied Mr Kim to major events in the past, but had not been seen since January last year.
Her absence stoked speculation over her health or a potential pregnancy.
South Korea's National Intelligence Service had reportedly told congressmen yesterday that Ms Ri was avoiding appearing in public due to concerns over Covid-19 and may have been spending time with her children.
North Korea has not officially reported any Covid-19 cases - though experts say this is unlikely.
According to the Rodong Sinmun, the couple entered the Mansudae Art Theatre together on Tuesday to "thunderous cheers".
Photos showed the couple laughing - as well as a conspicuous lack of masks or social distancing measures.
Ms Ri comes from an upper class family, with her father being a professor and her mother an obstetrician, according to analyst Cheong Seong-chang.
Media reports say Ms Ri, who is reportedly aged 31, was previously a singer in the Unhasu Orchestra - an elite troupe whose members are handpicked by the state.
Mr Cheong adds that she is believed to have married Mr Kim in 2009, with the marriage arranged in a hurry by the late Kim Jong-il after he suffered a stroke in 2008.
According to South Korean intelligence, the couple have three children together.
Former US basketball star Dennis Rodman had previously revealed that the couple had a baby daughter named "Ju-ae", adding that Mr Kim was a "good dad" to her.
Mr Kim had earlier in the day also visited the Kumusan Palace of the Sun, where the bodies of his father and grandfather lie, to lay wreaths for their anniversary, known as the Day of the Shining Star.
State media also once again referred to Mr Kim as "President" - a departure from his usual official title, which is "Chairman".
The title of president was first used by North Korea's Central News Agency last week.
Typically, the title of president in North Korea is usually reserved for the late Kim Il-sung - the state's founder and grandfather of Mr Kim.
|
1e3ce6f0dfbc8b8fb4e87f525c9c7c33 | https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-56095222 | New Zealand deploys insects to tackle wasp problem | New Zealand deploys insects to tackle wasp problem
New Zealand has some of the highest numbers of wasps in the world, and is now taking action to tackle them by introducing two insects from Europe.
The hover fly and wasp-nest beetle were given the green light by the country's Environmental Protection Authority.
They target the nests of wasps, which have overrun parts of the South Island.
The
German wasp was introduced in New Zealand in the 1940s
and the common wasp arrived in the late 1970s but is now widespread, the government says.
Tasman District Council, based in Richmond, South Island, had applied for permission to introduce the hover fly and wasp-control beetle as bio control agents.
In its application, the council said the region's honey dew-covered bean trees had the highest density of wasps in the world - with as many as 30 wasp nests per hectare.
So many thousands of wasps had disrupted the local ecosystem - killing honey bees and other insect life - and costing New Zealand's economy $133m annually in damages and management, local media reported.
The EPA said it had assessed the impact of introducing non-native species and deemed it to be safe.
"The reason why it's safe is because these two insects only attack wasps and that's been established both where they come from in Europe but also elsewhere," said Chris Hill, the EPA's general manager of hazardous substances and new organisms.
Tasman District Council's biosecurity and biodiversity co-ordinator Paul Sheldon said it was one of a number of ways to tackle the wasp problem. "It's not a silver bullet, but it's one tool in the tool box," he said.
You might also like:
|
4ad603844b3e9e5f49afcef71921be5d | https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-56104597 | Sugarbook dating app maker arrested over 'promoting prostitution' | Sugarbook dating app maker arrested over 'promoting prostitution'
The founder of a controversial "sugar daddy" dating app in Malaysia has been arrested under anti-prostitution laws, police said on Thursday.
Police did not name the suspect but media and the website of Sugarbook say the founder is 34-year-old Darren Chan.
Sugarbook promises to link younger women with older men who are expected to provide financial support.
Last week the app boasted that thousands of students, which it called "sugarbabies", had joined.
Access was then blocked after an outcry.
The app's founder was arrested in Kuala Lumpur. He was released, but the Straits Times said he was rearrested on Thursday.
He is not thought to have commented since his arrest but on Tuesday tweeted: "Although we do not have any form of nudity, adult content nor prostitution, we've lost the battle.
"We believe that our Malaysian government knows what's best for the people."
The app's slogan is "where romance meets finance" and it says it offers users a "sugar relationship" in which both people "define what they want in a relationship in exchange for financial support".
It also says it is "a social networking platform that helps build beneficial relationships with our society's elite".
Last week it claimed on Facebook that thousands of students from 10 elite universities in Malaysia were using the app to finance their lifestyles.
"We are investigating the case for publishing or circulating any statement, rumour or report with intent to cause fear or alarm to the public, sharing offensive or menacing content, and prostitution," police chief Fadzil Ahmat said
according to the Straits Times website.
On Tuesday the Sugarbook website was blocked by Malaysian authorities who said it had breached internet regulations.
Founded in 2016, the app is used in a number of countries including Singapore, Thailand and the US.
|
af8251ab39ba16c71ef072645a82cddf | https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-56109579? | Tokyo 2020: Japan Olympics minister Seiko Hashimoto appointed head of Games | Tokyo 2020: Japan Olympics minister Seiko Hashimoto appointed head of Games
Japan's Seiko Hashimoto has been appointed the next Tokyo 2020 president, after her predecessor quit over sexist comments he made.
The former Olympics Minister is a seven time Olympian herself, having competed as a cyclist and a speed skater.
Former chief Yoshiro Mori resigned following a backlash, after he was quoted as saying women talk too much.
Another octogenarian male leader was initially billed to replace him, but this was also met with protests.
The Japanese Olympic Committee board currently has 24 members, five of whom are women.
Mr Mori had earlier commented that should the number of female board members increase, they would have to "make sure their speaking time is restricted somewhat, they have difficulty finishing, which is annoying".
He later apologised for his "inappropriate statement" and added that the priority was to make sure the Olympics were held in July.
Ms Hashimoto said on Thursday that she had resigned from her role as Olympic minister to take on her new position as chief of the Tokyo Games.
Speaking to the media on Thursday, Ms Hashimoto said she wanted the legacy of the Tokyo Games to be a society that accepted people regardless of gender, disability, race, or sexual orientation.
"I'm sure the Games are going to attract more attention related to gender equality, and in this regard I am determined to regain trust, by my fullest endeavours," she said.
"As someone with an athletic background, I will carry out a safe Games for both athletes and citizens."
The International Olympic Committee welcomed the appointment.
President Thomas Bach said in a statement that Ms Hashimoto was "the perfect choice" and her political experience would "help to deliver a safe and successful" Games.
The Summer Olympics will begin on 23 July, after already being postponed by a year due to the pandemic.
by Mariko Oi, BBC News
There were calls for a woman to replace Yoshiro Mori after he resigned over his sexist comments.
When it was reported that 84-year-old Saburo Kawabuchi, a former Japan Football Association president, had agreed to take over the post, some asked: don't we have a woman or a younger man who could do the job?
It also raised eyebrows that Mr Mori had handpicked a successor. Last week Seiko Hashimoto - in her position as the Olympic Minister then - asked for transparency in the process. Now she has ended up in the role.
Ms Hashimoto isn't without controversy - in 2014, Japanese media ran pictures of her kissing figure skating champion Daisuke Takahashi, and noted she was 49 then while he was 28.
Ms Hashimoto later said she "regretted" her behaviour, while Mr Takahashi said he didn't consider it to be sexual or power harassment. But that didn't stop her critics from speculating that he must have been pressured to say so due to her position.
Those critics are now not pleased with her appointment, saying it is just lip service to choose a woman following the Mori controversy.
But Ms Hashimoto has bigger things to worry about: how to hold the Tokyo Games during a global pandemic, the recent spike in Covid-19 cases in Japan, and falling public support as the cost of the Games balloons.
|
fd583a7cfc6c19dfeb4f53fe8d198c6f | https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-56150755 | What's causing vaccine delays in some Asian countries? | What's causing vaccine delays in some Asian countries?
An estimated 160 million Covid-19 vaccinations have been administered so far globally, but most of that has been in the US and Europe.
In the Asian region, vaccination programmes are steadily progressing in places like India which says it has administered around 14 million doses since January.
In others countries however, vaccine programmes are either yet to begin or are still at a very early stage. The reasons for this have been varied - ranging from an abundance of caution to high levels of vaccine scepticism.
We looked at some of the countries in this situation and the different reasons behind it.
In the
Philippines
, many still recall the scare around the vaccine Dengvaxia - introduced in 2016 to inoculate against dengue fever.
Two years later it was suddenly suspended due to fears of side effects when some children who received it died.
The country's health secretary was prosecuted leading to a massive controversy. Public health officials say the incident led to a surge of vaccine scepticism that threatens to hijack the country's plans to use the vaccines as a way out of the pandemic.
A recent survey suggests that just 19% of Filipinos - or one out of five adults - are willing to be inoculated. Apart from that, a bulk of the vaccines themselves are yet to arrive in the country.
Shipments of China's Sinovac vaccine arrived in the country on 28 February - the first shipment to reach there. The country authorised its emergency use a few days before it arrived.
According to the BBC's Virma Simonette in Manila, the drive was supposed to have begun on 15 February but this did not happen when shipments of Pfizer-BioNTech and Astrazeneca - both approved for emergency use - did not arrive in time.
Astrazeneca finally arrived in the country on 4 March.
In
Pakistan
too, fear is a factor - but this is largely down to misinformation and some particularly effective viral videos.
In one viral video from 2020, a private school teacher is shown shouting frantically and gesturing to a group of boys who are seemingly passing out. He blames the polio vaccine, saying that the children are "unconscious" and berates officials for "forcing" them to administer it. A mob burned down a clinic as a result.
The video and others like it have long contributed to the declining rates of polio vaccination in the country. Even though they have been debunked and removed from social media, millions had already watched them.
The fallout has unsurprisingly affected plans to vaccinate the population against Covid as well. One report quoted a doctor in Peshawar as saying that on the first day of the vaccination drive, about 400 health care workers were supposed to get the jab, but only about a dozen showed up.
In other Asian countries, where vaccine programmes are just getting off the ground, officials and experts say that's down to caution rather than hesitancy. Many of these nations have been largely able to control the pandemic and feel they have the luxury of time.
Catherine Bennett, an epidemiologist at Australia's Deakin University, was quoted by the Associated Press news agency as saying by waiting, these countries have been able to get data on things like what happens in cases of accidental over dosage, and how it impacts pregnant women without exposing their own populations to the risk.
South Korea
's Prime Minister Chung Sye-kyun reiterated this when he defended his government's late rollout - it began vaccinations on 25 February - by saying it was deliberately done to see how the vaccine had fared elsewhere.
"You know that Koreans are the master of speed," he told the BBC's Laura Bicker in Seoul.
Other countries in the region - Singapore, Cambodia, Vietnam - have seen similar comments about the importance of "waiting" made by officials.
Despite the delay though, many of them hope to begin vaccinating in earnest. South Korea for instance, is
aiming to archive herd immunity by autumn
.
Thailand
will only begin vaccinations in March but says it hopes to vaccinate half its population by the middle of the year.
And
Singapore
which has vaccinated around 250,000 people despite procuring enough jabs for its entire population, says it will ramp up its programme by the end of April.
In
Japan
, where a successful drive is being seen as crucial to the country's chances of successfully hosting the Olympics as planned, vaccine hesitancy has long been a problem. The country has one of the lowest rates of vaccine confidence in the world.
In the early 1990s a measles, mumps and rubella inoculation was suspected to leading to higher rates of aseptic meningitis. No definitive link was established but the shots were discontinued from use.
Dr Riko Muranaka, a researcher with the Kyoto University School of Medicine, feels there has been a lack of a cohesive strategy to explain the importance of the vaccine to the public, but also that the "sensationalist" headlines on vaccine mishaps in the past have had a similar effect as the more recent online-driven "anti-vaxxer campaign".
Gaining public trust for such an essential campaign has been deemed so important that Japan actually delayed approving vaccines like the one from Pfizer.
After the company reported the results of its phase three trials, the US and UK immediately authorised it for use in early December. But Japan insisted on additional testing and only began vaccinations on 17 February.
Dr Muranaka told the BBC that the pandemic not hitting Japan as hard as many other countries also meant that people really didn't see the "point" of getting the vaccine, though she feels that sentiment has changed for the better.
"But now after seeing how many people have taken it with very few adverse effects, they are more willing."
She believes that sentiment has shifted significantly very quickly, perhaps in the last three weeks of February as more countries began mass vaccination drives.
|
abe1a0c417389d36eb17e6276e6fafd0 | https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-56157627 | Afghanistan: A year of violence on the road to peace | Afghanistan: A year of violence on the road to peace
A year ago this week, the Taliban signed a deal with the United States designed, in theory, to pave the road to peace in Afghanistan. It committed the Taliban to preventing attacks on US forces and the US to withdrawing its remaining troops from the country. It did not commit the Taliban to a ceasefire with respect to Afghanistan's government, or its citizens.
One Sunday morning last month, Qadria Yasini got ready as usual for work. She put on a new coat and woke her son Wali to say that she had left some money for food. Her driver wound through the Kabul neighbourhood on the way to the office, stopping to collect Yasini's friend and fellow Supreme Court judge, Zakia Herawi.
Yasini, who was 53, and Herawi, who was 47, were two of Afghanistan's roughly 250 female judges - a number which has risen steadily from zero under the Taliban two decades ago and amounts to about 14% of the country's total. The two women were not high-profile politicians; they were not military figures. Neither had ever received a warning from the Taliban, as many journalists and activists have. They were not accustomed to taking day-to-day security precautions. Yasini had recently turned down a government offer of a pistol, her family said. She didn't think she needed it.
In the end, the pistol probably would not have saved her. The assassins knew where the two judges would be. They knew the car, the route. There were three of them. When they prized open the door, Yasini clutched her handbag to her chest and the five bullets that hit her passed through it, piercing her purse, her books, and a handwritten Mother's Day card from her sons that she had carried with her for the best part of a year. "She told us once that she looked at our card every day," her son Wali said.
Dear Mother! From the first time that we opened our eyes to this world we witnessed your self-sacrifice for us. We cannot compensate you for what you have done, but we hope that, in this moment, this
card
will make you happy. Thank you for being with us! Happy Mother's Day!
Wali, who is 18, and his brother Abdullwahab, who is 19, heard from their uncle by phone that there had been an attack. They waited at home, for their own safety, and eventually police came with their mother's bullet-holed bag. When they were shown CCTV footage of the assassination, the brothers saw the gunmen escaping on motorbikes, shouting
Allahu akbar - God is great
. They saw boys their own age.
"Young people like I see every day at school," Wali said, ruefully. "You would never think that they could kill your mother."
A year on from the US-Taliban deal, a wave of targeted killings of civilians has terrorised Afghanistan, even as the nation seeks a political route to peace. Assassins have come for the country's judges,
journalists
, and activists, using motorcycle drive-by shootings and magnetic "sticky bombs" hidden under cars. They have killed people who long expected their life to be cut short and people who had never received so much as a warning they were at risk.
The assassinations surged after intra-Afghan peace talks began in September. According to figures published by the UN on Tuesday, 707 people died in targeted attacks last year - nearly half of those in the last three months. Overall, the number of civilian casualties fell, because the number of US airstrikes and large-scale Taliban attacks fell (though the civilian death toll from Afghan Air Force strikes rose sharply). The death toll from assassinations increased by 45%, according to the UN, and expanded to include even softer targets than Afghanistan was used to.
Adding to the climate of fear, many of the assassinations have gone unclaimed. "People are dying, bombs are exploding, and no one is taking responsibility," said Habib Khan, founder of the monitoring group Afghan Peace Watch. "The Taliban used to fight in big numbers, they would overrun district headquarters and city urban centres," he said.
Then came the deal with the US, secret annexes of which reportedly committed the Taliban to foregoing complex attacks in major cities. That prompted the group to "shift its focus from military attacks to targeted assassinations", Mr Khan said.
The lack of claims of responsibility has led some to accuse affiliates of the so-called Islamic State group, or suggest political factions are taking advantage of the chaos to settle scores. But few doubt that the Taliban have been behind the majority of the killings.
"Everybody hoped that through the US deal the Taliban would transform from a military force to a political force or quasi-political force - basically that they would change," said Tamim Asey, a former deputy defence minister of Afghanistan. "But nobody sees any indication the Taliban has changed. They simply changed their tactics; they are assassinating because it is not strictly against the deal."
The Taliban have been accused of using the assassinations to eliminate their critics ahead of a return to power, and instil a deep fear in those left alive. If you ask Wali Yasini who killed his mother, he will say only that it was a "powerful religious group".
"I know what you are asking but I'm not really… I just can't say who was responsible," he said.
Now, as the US draws closer to its 1 May deadline for troop withdrawal, the Taliban appears to be shifting the balance of its strategy
back towards major military operations
. Some believe a withdrawal extension could be peacefully negotiated, but were the US to remain in the country longer, as many Afghan officials hope, the Taliban would likely see it as a violation of the Doha deal and a justification to return to war against the Americans. The country is in a precarious state.
Qadria Yasini came of age
before the Taliban seized power in 1996. She grew up in a relatively modest family in Kabul, the daughter of a car mechanic and homemaker, but her mother pushed her to embrace school.
"Our mother didn't have much opportunity to study but her dream was to be educated," said Qadria's older sister Shukria, now 57 and a lecturer in law at Kabul's Aryana University.
"She told us that when individuals become educated all of society becomes a little better educated, and in that way you can change your country."
Young Qadria stood out even amid her bright and diligent brothers and sisters. She loved the French language and later French films. Aged 11, she passed the entrance exam for the Lycee Malalai - a leading French school for girls that was free to attend. Her time there was a joyous period in her life, her sister said. It paved the way for a law degree at the University of Kabul and a job offer to write for a journal of the Supreme Court. After two years on the journal, Yasini joined the law department at her old university and then, aged just 25, she passed the judicial entrance exam - the gateway to becoming a judge.
Yasini's friend Zakia Herawi, who died alongside her last month, also moved quickly from her law degree to completing a judicial internship. She finished first in her class, her brother Haji Mustafa Herawi said. "She loved the law," he said. "And she loved her country."
Herawi graduated a few years after Yasini, but before either judge could join the bench Afghanistan fell into civil war and both the Yasini and Herawi families fled to Pakistan. Four years later, the Taliban swept into Kabul, shuttered the Lycee Malalai and told Afghanistan's girls to stay home.
Yasini waited patiently in Peshawar, Pakistan. She studied English and midwifery and wrote articles for a law journal. She married a man she had known in Afghanistan who had also fled. But she dreamed of returning home. "The instant the Taliban was pushed out of power she left for Kabul," her sister said.
Herawi and her brother, who had worked in a clothes factory in Pakistan, returned about six months later. "She applied for a job as we arrived in Kabul, and believe me within two days she was again a professional member of the Department of Research and Studies," he said proudly.
Yasini worked as a midwife for a while after returning, but eventually she found her way back to the law. She published journal articles and a book on inheritance law and, in 2010, finally became a judge. She had two sons - Abdulwali and Addullwahab. Then about five years ago, when the boys were 12 and 14, their father left the family to start another. Alone with them, Yasini redoubled her emphasis on their education, Wali said. "All of my achievements are because of my mother's encouragement to study."
Wali is a talented artist and linguist, but his dream is to study medicine abroad before returning to Afghanistan. His brother Abdullwahab, born the year the Taliban fell, is a student of economics at the University of Kabul. Abdullwahab was at the university last November when gunmen stormed the campus and killed 22 of his fellow students, setting off a frantic effort by his mother to reach him and a wave of relief when she heard he was OK.
By the time the gunmen came for her and her friend, last month, there had been so many assassinations in Kabul that the killings had lost some of their power to shock. The fact that the two women had never spoken publicly against the Taliban, or anyone for that matter, might have made their deaths seem senseless. But the attack embodied the strategy the Taliban have been accused of pursuing - wounding the institutions the government relies on and sending a warning to women about what they should and shouldn't do with their lives.
"When these women were killed I kept thinking about how hard it is for a woman to become a judge in Afghanistan, how much difficulty they must have overcome, and how brutal it is that after all that they would die in this way," said Shaharzad Akbar, the chairwoman of the Afghanistan Independent Human Rights Commission.
"So many times Afghan women have been told they don't have a place in public life. But women like these two persevered, they continued to hope, they stayed in their country, invested in their country and fought for a better future for everyone. And it makes the loss all the more heartbreaking."
This past Tuesday,
the Taliban and Afghan government negotiating teams announced they had resumed talks after weeks of deadlock. Going into the talks, the Taliban maintain they are committed to a political solution, and claim they bear no responsibility for the wave of assassinations that has terrorised civil society.
In Kabul, many activists are either leaving the country or curtailing their lifestyles. "I don't drive any more in Afghanistan," said Dr Patoni Isaaqzai, a women's rights activist in Kabul. "I take a taxi or borrow a car. I go out only when I have to. These are small things but I am not alone - people are fearful.
"If you want to know if I am afraid, yes I am," she said. "I am afraid."
Mr Khan, the founder of Afghan Peace Watch, said he rarely leaves the small compound that contains his home and office. "People are adapting to this harsh new reality," he said.
He and his fellow activists fear an even harsher reality should the US push ahead with its planned troop withdrawal by 1 May. There are hopes that President Biden will delay the withdrawal and put greater pressure on the Taliban to seek a negotiated peace, but as the anniversary of the Doha deal approaches everything remains uncertain. Both sides are bracing for war.
"If they stick to the May deadline and withdraw abruptly Afghanistan will plunge into civil war," said Mr Asey, the former deputy defence minister. "You will see al-Qaeda revived and other terror groups revived, and they will use Afghanistan as a safe haven to launch attacks. The US will lose interest and leverage, and Afghanistan will turn into another Syria or Libya."
For the family members of those assassinated this past year, there is no road back to their loved ones in this lifetime. Many do not even know for certain who killed them. They cannot do anything to affect the outcome of the peace talks or the withdrawal arrangements; only carry their grief with them and attempt not to give into it.
"This pain I have experienced, that my mother and sister have experienced, I do not want anyone else to experience this pain," Mustafa Herawi said, his eyes full of tears.
Qadria Yasini's sister Shukria said she would ignore the risks and carry on her work for the Ministry of Women's Affairs - travelling the country teaching young women from rural areas about their opportunities and rights. As of last week, she had held classes in 32 of Afghanistan's 34 provinces.
"I have no fear of the Taliban," she said. "The Taliban can threaten me but I will still be working for the women of Afghanistan. They deserve to know that they are valuable to their country, and that they have a huge value to society."
Back in early 2019, around the time the US and Taliban met for the negotiations that would lead to their deal, registration for Afghanistan's judicial entrance exam went online for the first time, with the goal of bringing more women from the provinces to the bench. According to the Supreme Court, there are currently 99 women around the country training to become a judge. "That number needs to keep going up," Shukria said. "My sister would have wanted it. And women make good judges."
Photographs by Andrew Quilty for the BBC
|
a0ce2251ea2f15954a2aa592efc4d8c7 | https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-56178271 | North Korea enslaved South Korean prisoners of war in coal mines | North Korea enslaved South Korean prisoners of war in coal mines
Generations of South Korean prisoners of war are being used as slave labour in North Korean coal mines to generate money for the regime and its weapons programme, according to a report released by a human rights organisation. The BBC has taken a closer look at the allegations.
"When I see slaves shackled and dragged on TV, I see myself," Choi Ki-sun told me. He was one of an estimated 50,000 prisoners seized by North Korea at the end of the Korean War in 1953.
"When we were dragged to labour camps, we were at gun point, lined up with armed guards around. What else could this be if not slave labour?"
Mr Choi (not his real name) said he continued to work in a mine in North Hamgyeong province alongside around 670 other prisoners of war (POWs) until his escape, 40 years later.
It is not easy to get stories out of the mines. Those who survive, like Mr Choi, tell stories of fatal explosions and mass executions. They reveal how they existed on minimal rations while being encouraged to get married and have children who - like Mr Choi's - would later have no choice but to follow them into the mines.
"Generations of people are born, live and die in the mining zones and experience the worst type of persecution and discrimination throughout their lifetime," explains Joanna Hosaniak, one of the authors of a new report, Blood Coal Export from North Korea, from the Citizens' Alliance for North Korea Human Rights (NKHR).
The report outlines the inner workings of the state's coal mines and alleges that criminal gangs, including the Japanese Yakuza, have helped Pyongyang smuggle goods out of the country earning untold sums of money - one report estimates the figure at hundreds of millions of dollars - which is thought to be used to prop up the secretive state's weapons programme.
The report is based on the accounts of 15 people who have first-hand knowledge of North Korea's coal mines. The BBC interviewed one of the contributors and we have independently heard from four others who claim to have suffered and escaped from North Korea's coal mines. All but one person asked us to protect their identity to keep their remaining families in North Korea safe.
Pyongyang consistently denies allegations of human rights abuses and refuses to comment on them. It insists all POW's were returned according to the armistice terms, with a government official previously saying that any who remained wished "to remain in the bosom of the republic".
But Mr Choi says this is not true. He told us that he lived inside a fenced-off camp guarded by armed troops.
At first he was told that if he worked hard enough he would be allowed to go home. But eventually all hope of returning to the South faded.
The current system of forced labour in North Korean coal mines appears to have been set up after the Korean War. The report by the NKHR described it as "inherited slavery".
South Koreans were taken to major coal, magnesite, zinc and lead mines mostly in North and South Hamgyeong Provinces, according to the human rights group investigation.
But not everyone who ends up in the mines is a prisoner of war.
Kim Hye-sook was told by guards that her grandfather went South during the war and that is why she was sent to work in the coal mine with her family as a teenager.
Her fate was determined by her "songbun" - or class, a judgement made on how loyal a family has been to the regime and how many are members of the Worker's Party of Korea.
Connections to South Korea automatically puts a person in the lowest class.
Ms Kim was just 16 when she started work in the mine. The NKHR report has accounts from survivors who said they started part-time work in the mine from age seven.
"When I first got assigned there were 23 people in my unit," she recalled. "But the mines would collapse and the wires that pulled the mine trolley would snap and kill the people behind it.
"People would die from explosions while digging the mines. There are different layers, in the mines, but sometimes a layer of water would burst and people could drown. So in the end only six remained alive of the initial 23."
But your "songbun" doesn't just determine your fate in the mines - it can also determine whether you live or die, according to a former member of the Ministry of State Security (MSS) quoted in the NKHR investigation.
"You try to let loyal class people live. You try to kill off people from a lower class."
But he said any executions - mainly of "South Korean spies" - were done according to "North Korean laws".
"You need the data analysis to show it's very justifiable to kill this person. Even if they've committed the same crime, if your class is good they will let you live. They don't send you to the political prison camp. You go to an ordinary prison or a correctional labour camp.
"You don't kill them because death is a good ending. You can't die, you have to work under orders until you die."
The interviewee described a "shooting gallery" at the back of the MSS interrogation room where some prisoners were killed. He said some were publicly executed while others were killed quietly.
The BBC has been unable to independently corroborate this account. But we did hear from Ms Lee who remembers the moment her father and brother were executed.
"They tied them to stakes, calling them traitors of the nation, spies and reactionaries," she told my colleagues from BBC Korean in an interview.
Her father was a former South Korean prisoner of war and that meant she too was forced to work in the mines.
Ms Lee's father had praised his South Korean hometown, Pohang and her brother had repeated that claim to his workmates. Ms Lee said that for that, teams of three executioners shot both of them dead.
North Korean officials appear to have allowed the prisoners of war some aspects of normal life within the mining camps. They gave the miners citizenship in 1956. For most, that was the moment they knew they were not going home.
All of our interviewees were allowed and even encouraged to get married and have children. But Ms Kim believes this too had a purpose.
"They would tell us to have a lot of children. They needed to maintain the mines but people died every day. There are accidents every day. So they would tell us to have a lot of children. But there's not enough food and no diapers etc - so even if you do give birth to a child it was hard to raise them successfully."
Ms Kim was released from the prison camp in 2001 as part of a country-wide amnesty, and eventually escaped from North Korea by crossing a river near the border with China.
She decided to sketch illustrations of her 28 years in the mine, saying it helped her deal with some of her nightmares, and show others what she'd been through.
Hunger was a constant problem for all our interviewees and is documented in the NKHR report.
"A day didn't pass without going hungry. We were always hungry. One meal a day, we didn't know other people ate three times a day. We were given long grain rice, which continues swelling soaked in water," Ms Kim told us.
One former prisoner of war told us that even if they were sick they needed to go to work.
"If you missed a working day, then your meal ticket could be taken away," he said.
Miners were given quotas to fulfil, he told me, estimated at around three tonnes of anthracite (a form of hard coal) a day by the NKHR report. Not meeting it could mean no meal ticket which meant going hungry.
The United Nations Security Council banned North Korean coal exports in a bid to choke off funding for its nuclear and ballistic missile programmes.
But two years later, a report by independent sanctions monitors said that Pyongyang had earned hundreds of millions of dollars "through illicit maritime exports of commodities, notably coal and sand".
In December, the United States said North Korea continued "to circumvent the UN prohibition on the exportation of coal, a key revenue generator that helps fund its weapons of mass destruction programs".
The NKHR report also claims that the mines are continuing to expand.
Deputy Director Joanna Hosaniak called on the UN to fully investigate North Korea's dependence on slavery and forced labour including "the full extent of the extraction and illegal export of coal and other products, and the international supply chain linked to these exports".
"This should also be enforced through a clear warning system for the businesses and consumers."
In the South, the administration has focused on engagement with Pyongyang and even discussed the possibility of a peace economy with the North. Seoul has argued that taking a more aggressive approach on human rights would see Pyongyang storming away from the negotiating table and could also lead to an increase in hostilities.
But a report by the UN Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights in Seoul said it was time to "integrate human rights into the peace and denuclearisation talks" which should also involve input from North Korean defectors.
For two former prisoners of war who were forced to work in the mines there has been some hope, however. They won a landmark legal victory after Seoul Central District Court ordered North Korea and its leader, Kim Jong-un, to pay them $17,600 (£12,400) in damages for holding them against their will and forcing them to work in the mines.
This was the first time a court in the South recognised the suffering of prisoners of war held in the North.
Mr Choi was one of them.
"I am not sure I will see the money before I die but winning is more important than money," he told me at his apartment south of Seoul.
But his mind always returns to those left toiling in the mines as he serves me a plate of fruit which would once have been an unthinkable luxury. He tells me he's trying to send his family in the North some money.
"I think of how much they must be suffering while now I am happy," he sighed.
Illustration by Kim Hye-sook.
|
012aecddb9279a82327f8611e90d9c26 | https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-56178512 | New Zealand: Pilot whales refloated at stranding spot | New Zealand: Pilot whales refloated at stranding spot
Rescuers have successfully refloated 28 pilot whales on a notorious New Zealand beach where they had repeatedly beached themselves.
The long-finned pilot whales were part of a pod of around 50 first found on Monday at Farewell Spit, known for its mass strandings.
At least 15 from the pod have died.
However, the surviving whales, who were rescued twice, have remained close to shore and could beach themselves again, wildlife officials said.
"The live whales haven't stranded overnight, so it's looking like success right now. We're using the phrase 'cautiously optimistic'," Daren Grover, general manager of animal rescue charity Project Jonah, told news agency AFP.
Some 40 whales were pushed out to sea on Monday evening, but they swam back ashore by the next day.
A group of 50 volunteers then had to help push the 28 survivors back into the water for a second time.
"The beaches have been checked all the way along Farewell Spit and there's no sign of live whales ... So far, so good," Mr Grover said.
Farewell Spit, a 26km (16 mile) hook of sand that protrudes into the sea, has been a frequent site of strandings, although scientists are unclear why.
One theory is that the spit creates a shallow seabed in the bay which interferes with the whales' sonar navigation systems.
The area has seen at least 10 pilot whale strandings in the past 15 years. The most recent was in February 2017, when almost 700 of the mammals beached, resulting in 250 deaths.
It is not fully understood why whales became stranded but pilot whales are known to be more prone to getting beached. They are not considered endangered, although exact population numbers are not known.
|
884fa6c6ea3ac7892a609083349eb934 | https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-56178987 | Monsters, mania and the unstoppable march of Pokémon | Monsters, mania and the unstoppable march of Pokémon
In Tokyo's ritzy Roppongi neighbourhood, Tsunekazu Ishihara, president of The Pokémon Company, sits opposite a giant map of the world.
Red pins mark the countries where every arm of the Pokémon empire - games, trading cards, Pokemon GO, the animated TV series - is available.
There's a lot of red.
Pokémon started life as an 8-bit video game in Japan - where players capture creatures and store them in pocket-sized capsules (Pokémon is short for "pocket monsters") - but has grown into a cultural megahit.
By some estimates, Pokémon is now the biggest media franchise in history, worth more than Harry Potter and Star Wars combined.
Over its 25-year journey, it has spawned several global crazes, involving celebrities paying millions for trading cards and people walking tens of thousands of kilometres in pursuit of rare monsters.
These are the moments when Pokémania swept the globe.
Pokémon started small. The game's developer, Game Freak, was a Tokyo-based company that had started life as a self-published video gaming magazine.
"It took about seven years to develop the games. We thought they would sell well in Japan, perhaps a million copies of each," says Mr Ishihara, who was part of the original games' development team.
He turned out to be right. The series' first instalments, Pokémon Red and Green, were released in Japan on 27 February 1996. They proved popular, with players using cables to link their Game Boys and trade for certain Pokémon that were exclusive to each version.
"But we never considered selling Pokémon abroad," Mr Ishihara says.
"People said there was no chance it would work because American children wouldn't play a game where you had to read a lot of text, where there was no action and where you took turns to fight battles."
Pokémon Red and Blue - based on an updated version of the Japanese originals - were released in North America in 1998 and in Europe in 1999. They were followed by Pokémon Yellow, Gold, Silver and Crystal.
"All told, they sold 76 million copies worldwide. I was absolutely shocked," Mr Ishihara says.
Mr Ishihara believes that the tortuous process of translating the games into English was part of the success, with the North American release of the anime building hype for the delayed Game Boy games, which in turn fed demand for a newly-launched trading card game.
"As we launched more and more products and expanded the business, it became a social phenomenon," he says.
At its height in the early 2000s that phenomenon - branded "Pokémania" - led religious leaders in Saudi Arabia to ban Pokémon entirely, saying the game promoted Zionism and gambling, while western media published lurid stories of "Pokémon card crime".
There was some truth to the stories: in one incident, an eight-year-old boy in southern England caused an outcry after he phoned in to a local radio station and attempted to swap his infant sister for a holographic Vaporeon card.
Although this wave of Pokémania died down in the years that followed, Pokémon never went away.
2008 saw the launch of a new generation of WiFi-enabled Pokémon games. Suddenly, players could trade and battle with anyone, anywhere.
"As a kid, I watched a lot of people battle on WiFi battles in 2008, that's when that really blew up on YouTube," says Aaron Zheng, who started a YouTube channel focused on competitive Pokémon after coaching his younger brother to victory in the games' world championships in 2013.
The channel led to work commentating at official Pokémon tournaments, taking Zheng from his home in New York to Australia, Brazil and the UK.
"The cool thing about Pokémon is it's a really global game. I think if I went to a big city, there'd probably be someone that I know from Pokémon that I could probably crash with. I think that's so cool," he says.
On 12 February 2014, a channel on the streaming service Twitch began an experiment.
The channel, "Twitch Plays Pokémon", broadcast a stream of Pokémon Red. What was different was that viewers could play the game, interacting with it live by typing commands into Twitch's built-in chat.
"I think Twitch served as sort of that perfect platform. You've got the video, you've got the chat, it was right for something like that," says Marcus "djWHEAT" Graham, a long-time esports expert and head of creator development at Twitch.
"The streamer's original system fit perfectly, like, yeah, throw me the commands, I'll begin parsing them into the game and we'll see what chaos this creates," he says.
The chaos was compelling. More players joined in, thousands of people telling the game to do different things all at the same time.
Twitch Plays Pokémon went viral, gaining widespread media attention within days. According to Twitch, the stream's peak saw over 120,000 simultaneous players trying to control the action.
The sheer number of players sometimes made the game almost impossible to play. At one point progress was held up for almost 10 hours as players repeatedly fell down a ledge, while stray button presses in an in-game menu caused some of the stream's most beloved Pokémon to be "released", meaning they were lost forever.
But after 16 days, seven hours, 45 minutes and 30 seconds of play, the stream completed the game. In all, 1.16 million people had played, and more than nine million had watched.
Marcus Graham believes the "Pokémon" part of Twitch Plays Pokémon was the key to success, as the stream combined the simple goals of catching monsters and collecting gym badges with players' nostalgia for the classic game and its cast of familiar characters.
"I really do think that because the game was Pokémon that played a massive part in the explosive virality of it all. It was kind of that perfect storm."
While the world watched millions play Pokémon Red on Twitch, a Japanese software engineer was working on an April Fool's joke.
Tatsuo Nomura (who declined to be interviewed for this article) worked for Google's maps division. A Pokémon fan since childhood, Nomura decided to blend the two, hiding Pokémon on a map of the world for users to find.
"Mr Nomura used to find exploits in Pokémon Red and Green when he was a kid, that's how he became interested in computer programming," explains the Pokémon Company's Tsunekazu Ishihara, who greenlit the project after receiving a pitch from Google-owned game developer Niantic.
"That passion led him to join Google, then Google Maps, and consequently he created Pokémon GO."
The mobile game was an instant success, introducing millions of players to a world of "augmented reality" gaming. To play, users must walk around in the real world in order to find and catch Pokémon on their phone screens.
One Japanese player, playing under the name Kyarorina, got hooked after his workplace organised a walking competition for its staff.
"The goal of simply walking turned into an obsession with chasing after rare Pokémon and catching them all," he says.
The stats tell the full story: since first downloading Pokémon GO in July 2016, he has walked over 31,000km (19,200 miles) and visited more than a million Pokéstops - real-life locations where players can collect in-game items.
In 2019, Kyarorina became the first person to catch one million Pokémon in-game.
"Recently I've been spending about eight to 10 hours a day catching Pokémon, about 2,000 a day. I think I'll hit two million by the end of this month and announce it on Twitter," he tells the BBC.
Pokémon GO's initial popularity was matched by its profitability. In 2020, five years after the game was first released, it saw record revenues of over $1bn (£718m). The free-to-play game makes money both by charging players for items and by charging businesses for the privilege of appearing on the in-game map.
For Neriko Doerr and Debra Occhi, cultural anthropologists who co-authored a book on Pokémon GO, the game is evidence of Pokémon's broad appeal - something that can help explain the franchise's success.
"Pokemon GO attracted people who are into going outside, walking around and people who are happy with just collecting Pokemon into the game world, some of whom became very enthusiastic," Ms Doerr says.
As Pokémon's 25th birthday approached, the franchise once again hit headlines as YouTuber Logan Paul paid $2m for six boxes of vintage Pokémon cards.
"This is a newfound obsession of mine and I am so excited to share it with other enthusiasts around the world," the controversial entertainer wrote on social media.
"Pokemon cards have always been highly prized," says Tracy Martin, an expert in valuing post-war collectables.
"This is down to nostalgia and obviously the rarity of a card, but also Pokemon is still very current. It's a phenomenon that seems to grip both children and adults, and that's the main reason why it's still going strong," she says.
"That was not what we expected," says Pokémon's Tsunekazu Ishihara, who was himself featured on a Pokémon card that last year sold for $50,000.
So what does Ishihara expect the next 25 years will bring for Pokémon?
"World domination" he says, eyes fixed on the red pins that dot his map.
Additional reporting by the BBC's Sakiko Shiraishi.
|
73bf0258869f5d540f39daa10f6e468d | https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-56191656 | Singapore: Police officer's wife admits to killing Myanmar maid | Singapore: Police officer's wife admits to killing Myanmar maid
The wife of a Singaporean police officer has admitted to starving, torturing and ultimately killing her domestic worker from Myanmar.
The worker reportedly weighed only 24kg (53lb) when she died from her injuries in the 2016 incident.
Prosecutors have called Gaiyathiri Murugayan's actions "evil and utterly inhumane".
It is among a series of high-profile maid abuse cases in the wealthy city-state in recent years.
Rights groups have raised concerns about how foreign domestic workers, many of whom come from neighbouring countries in Asia, have been treated.
On Tuesday, Ms Murugayan, 40, pleaded guilty in a Singapore court to 28 charges including culpable homicide against Piang Ngaih Don. If she is convicted, she could be jailed for life.
The court heard that Ms Piang started working for Ms Murugayan in 2015, in her first job overseas.
Ms Murugayan began abusing her from October 2015 after claiming Ms Piang was "slow, unhygienic and ate too much", according to local media reports citing court proceedings.
CCTV footage from cameras installed in the house showed the abuse she suffered in the last month of her life, often being assaulted several times a day. Ms Murugayan also reportedly burned her with a heated clothes iron and was accused of "throwing her around like a ragdoll".
The court heard that Ms Piang's meals often consisted of sliced bread soaked in water, cold food from the fridge, or some rice. She lost 15kg - about 38% of her body weight - in 14 months.
The 24-year-old helper died in July 2016 after she was repeatedly assaulted over several hours by Ms Murugayan and her mother. An autopsy report later found Ms Piang died from oxygen deprivation to her brain after being repeatedly choked.
Prosecutors called for life imprisonment for Ms Murugayan, while defence lawyers have asked for a reduced sentence arguing that she was suffering from depression at the time and had been diagnosed with obsessive compulsive personality disorder.
Her husband, police officer Kelvin Chelvam, and her mother also face multiple charges. Local media reports say Mr Chelvam was suspended from the police force in 2016.
On Wednesday Singapore's Manpower Minister Josephine Teo said that Ms Piang's situation had not been noticed despite multiple doctors' visits and checks by her employment agency.
In one instance, the doctor saw bruises but Ms Murugayan had claimed that the victim fell down frequently.
Ms Teo called the case "appalling" and said multiple safeguards to protect foreign domestic workers have been implemented in recent years.
She later told reporters that her ministry is reviewing how doctors report medical examinations, adding that they had a "duty" to report to the police if they detected signs of abuse.
Singapore is home to around 250,000 foreign domestic workers, typically from countries like Indonesia, Myanmar or the Philippines.
Abuse cases are not uncommon. In 2017,
a couple were jailed for starving their domestic worker from the Philippines
. In 2019, another couple was jailed for abusing a worker from Myanmar.
In 2017 the BBC spoke to a Filipino housemaid who said she was abused by a rich family in Brazil.
|
8fbacaa67388d5ed08d4076fcc7ae595 | https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-56200809 | Myanmar coup: Protesters attacked with knives, clubs in Yangon | Myanmar coup: Protesters attacked with knives, clubs in Yangon
Supporters of Myanmar's military have tussled with anti-coup protesters, as turmoil over the ousting of the country's elected government spills onto the streets.
Myanmar has been jolted by unrest since the military seized power in a coup on 1 February.
Since then mass protests have been seen across the country, with many calling for a return to democracy.
More anti-coup protests took place in the main city of Yangon on Thursday.
But before coup opponents had a chance to gather in large numbers, about 1,000 supporters of the military turned up for a rally in the city centre.
By Thursday's afternoon, the rally had descended into violence, as scuffles between military supporters and opponents in parts of the city escalated.
Some of the military supporters involved in the violence were armed with knives, clubs, pipes and catapults used to hurl rocks, witnesses said.
In one incident, several men, one wielding a large knife, attacked a man outside a city-centre hotel, according to Reuters news agency. It said the man's condition was not known.
At least three protesters and one policeman have been killed in violence at rallies against the coup.
The coup saw military leaders overthrow the elected government of civilian leader Aung San Suu Kyi.
She has been placed under house arrest and charged with possessing illegal walkie-talkies and violating the country's Natural Disaster Law.
The military justified its seizure of power by alleging widespread fraud in November elections, which Ms Suu Kyi's party had won convincingly.
Protesters are demanding an end to the military's rule and want Ms Suu Kyi released, along with senior members of her National League for Democracy (NLD) party.
The coup has been widely condemned outside Myanmar, prompting sanctions against the military and other punitive moves.
In the latest rebuke, social media giant Facebook banned Myanmar's military and its affiliates from its platforms on Thursday, citing deadly violence against protesters.
The company said it acted after deciding "the risks of allowing the Tatmadaw [Myanmar military] on Facebook and Instagram are too great".
Since the military seized power, it has arrested protesters, ordered internet blackouts and also banned social media platforms - including Facebook.
Protests against the coup have continued despite a thinly veiled threat earlier this week by a military-linked broadcaster, which suggested it would use lethal force against demonstrators.
|
b212a53fa760ec5abac104712b99eac7 | https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-56205737 | Covid-19: Sri Lanka reverses 'anti-Muslim' cremation order | Covid-19: Sri Lanka reverses 'anti-Muslim' cremation order
Sri Lanka has reversed a controversial mandatory order to cremate the bodies of all those who died of Covid-19.
Critics had said the order was intended to target minorities and did not respect religions. The cremation of bodies is forbidden in Islam.
The government had argued that burials could contaminate ground water.
The reversal came after a visit by Pakistan's PM Imran Khan. Sources told the BBC that Sri Lanka has sought Pakistan's support at a UNHRC session.
The council is expected to consider a new resolution responding to mounting rights concerns in Sri Lanka, including over the treatment of Muslims.
Sri Lanka is being called to hold human rights abusers to account and to deliver justice to victims of its 26-year-old civil war, which killed at least 100,000 people - mostly civilians from the minority Tamil community.
Sri Lanka has strongly denied the allegations and has asked member countries not to support the resolution.
The country had earlier come under intense criticism from rights groups, including the UNHRC, over the cremation order.
They said it failed to respect the religious feelings of the victims and their family members specially of the Muslims, Catholics and some Buddhists.
The government had argued that burials could contaminate ground water, based on the say-so of an expert committee, the exact composition and qualifications of which are unknown.
But political, religious and community leaders had repeatedly questioned this, pointing to the more than 190 countries allowing burials, and World Health Organization advice
It even took its fight to the Supreme Court, but the cases were dismissed without any explanation.
Public debate intensified when a 20-day-old Muslim baby was forcibly cremated.
|
cf9e1441ac55386aee6e9aabd2f9f17c | https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-56206036 | Singapore: Briton jailed for breaking strict quarantine | Singapore: Briton jailed for breaking strict quarantine
A Briton has been sentenced to two weeks in prison and a S$1000 fine ($753; £539) for breaking Singapore's quarantine rules by leaving his hotel room to visit his fiancée.
Nigel Skea, 52, walked up an emergency staircase to spend the night with Agatha Maghesh Eyamalai, 39, in September. The couple are now married.
Eyamalai was also given a week's prison sentence.
Singapore requires people to spend 14 days in a hotel upon arrival.
Earlier this month, Skea had pleaded guilty to one charge of contravening a control order and one of failing to wear a face mask.
Court documents said Skea had left his quarantine room at the Ritz Carlton Millenia Singapore Hotel three times to visit Eyamalai, who had booked a room in the same hotel despite living in Singapore.
Eyamalai admitted a single charge of conspiring to contravene a control order.
The court heard Skea walked up 13 flights of stairs to spend the night with Eyamalai, who opened an emergency exit door for him. They spent nine hours together.
Skea, from Southampton, had also been caught "loitering in the corridor" twice, according to the charges.
Suranjana Tewari, BBC News, Singapore
Nigel Skea didn't react when the judge read out his sentence. His wife, however, let out a gasp when she heard she would spend one week in prison for abetting his crime.
The judge dismissed a number of previous cases that the defence cited, saying that Skea exposed hotel staff to risk with his actions. She said it didn't matter that he stayed on the hotel premises even in the breach, he intentionally chose to breach his quarantine order from the moment he arrived at the hotel by texting his fiancée at the time.
The defence had argued that Skea had travelled to Singapore in order to propose and they were both overcome by emotions after not seeing each other for a very long time. The judge said this was not a mitigating factor - restrictions are necessary to prevent the spread of the pandemic and disruptions to relationships are an inevitable consequence.
Their lawyer said the couple had mixed feelings about the sentence but that they were pleased it was less than what the prosecution sought. He added that Skea does not plan on appealing, that he wants to "finish the matter" and go back to the UK and his job as soon as possible.
Singapore has been been one of the most successful countries in tackling the pandemic.
Despite a big outbreak among low-income migrant workers
, many of whom are housed in large dormitories with cramped facilities, local infection rates have for months been low.
Last June, a group of British men living in Singapore were banned from working there again after
breaking lockdown to go on a "bar crawl".
They were also fined around S$9,000 each ($6,800; £4,893).
Briton jailed for breaking Singapore quarantine
|
66aff167fa2d4c502affa535eacecaf6 | https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-56214817 | Japan gender equality minister opposes change on separate spouse surnames | Japan gender equality minister opposes change on separate spouse surnames
Japan's minister for women's empowerment and gender equality has joined a group of lawmakers opposing a legal change to allow married couples to have separate surnames.
An 1896 law in Japan says married couples must adopt the same surname.
Campaigners have long argued that this is discriminatory as most couples end up using the husband's surname.
Tamayo Marukawa said her opposition was a "personal belief" that would not affect her duties, media reports say.
"My role is to help create an environment where the public can deepen their discussions [on the issue]," she said in response to a question from an opposition lawmaker this week, according to the Asahi Shimbun newspaper.
Ms Marukawa was one of 50 people from the ruling Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) to sign a letter last month asking members to reject in their local assemblies a written opinion favouring a policy change.
Written opinions adopted in local assemblies can help to build momentum for debates in parliament.
A challenge over the issue was previously brought to the Supreme Court in 2015. The case was brought by three individual women and one couple in a civil partnership, who argued that the law was unconstitutional, discriminatory and archaic.
But
the court upheld the law, saying it did not violate the constitution.
Judge Itsuro Terada noted at the time that among the Japanese there was already informal use of maiden names, which eased the impact of the law. He said it was up to lawmakers to decide on whether to pass new legislation on separate spousal names.
Ms Marukawa uses her maiden name at work, but her legal, married surname in official documents.
|
8e5991050acdc91fe46affe0588bf94a | https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-56218554 | BTS: Radio host apologises for comparing band to Covid | BTS: Radio host apologises for comparing band to Covid
A German radio host has apologised after comparing K-pop group BTS to the coronavirus during a live broadcast.
Matthias Matuschik said he did not intend to "racially insult," adding that making a connection between the band and Covid was "completely wrong".
The incident comes amid an increase in anti-Asian sentiment and racist attacks since the pandemic began.
BTS is one of the biggest bands in the world with an incredibly large and vocal fan base.
Many took to social media to share their outrage at the comments.
On Wednesday, during his show on Bayern3, Mr Matuschik played the group's cover of Coldplay's "Fix You" on his show, calling it "blasphemy".
"For this you will be vacationing in North Korea for the next 20 years!" he added.
Mr Matuschik then described BTS as "some crappy virus that hopefully there will be a vaccine for soon as well".
The host then started to backtrack telling listeners: "You can't accuse me of xenophobia. I have a car from South Korea. I have the coolest car ever."
The station
issued a statement on Thursday
saying: "It is the character of this show and also of the presenter to express his opinion clearly, openly and unvarnished."
It added that he "overshot the mark in his choice of words" and he did not intend to hurt the feelings of the BTS fans.
But many on social media responded by sharing the quote "racism is not an opinion" in English, German and Korean.
Others said his comments highlighted anti-Asian racism.
In his statement, Mr Matuschik said: "I have thought a lot in the past few hours and I understand and accept that I could have racially insulted many of you, especially the Asian community, with my words.
"That was never my intention, but I know that in the end it is how the words are received by the recipients - and not how they were meant," he added.
It comes amid a rise in attacks on Asian people around the world.
A United Nations report found that there were 1,800 racist incidents against Asian Americans in the US between March and May 2020. It
linked the attacks and other incidents to the coronavirus outbreak.
|
a394ae6e4b2f21989f49ffdb8d04641e | https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-56222987 | Myanmar coup: UN ambassador fired after anti-army speech | Myanmar coup: UN ambassador fired after anti-army speech
Myanmar's military rulers say they have fired the country's ambassador to the United Nations, a day after he called for help to remove the army from power.
In an emotional speech, Kyaw Moe Tun said no-one should co-operate with the military until it handed back power to the democratically elected government.
UN sources told Reuters that as they do not recognise the junta, Kyaw Moe Tun remains Myanmar's UN ambassador.
Security forces intensified a crackdown on anti-coup protesters on Saturday.
Local media say dozens were arrested, and that a woman was shot in the city of Monwya. Her condition is not clear.
The country has been rocked by protests since top government leaders, including Aung San Suu Kyi, were overthrown and detained after the army took power on 1 February.
Speaking at the UN General Assembly on Friday, Kyaw Moe Tun urged the international community to use "any means necessary to take action" against the military to help "restore the democracy", saying he was representing Ms Suu Kyi's ousted government.
"We need further strongest possible action from the international community to immediately end the military coup, to stop oppressing the innocent people, to return the state power to the people and to restore the democracy," he said.
The speech was met with applause and Linda Thomas-Greenfield, the new US envoy to the body, was among those praising his remarks as "courageous".
In a further show of defiance, Kyaw Moe Tun held up three fingers, a gesture against authoritarian rule that has been adopted by anti-coup protesters in the country.
Myanmar's state television announced his removal on Saturday, saying he had "betrayed the country and spoken for an unofficial organization which doesn't represent the country and had abused the power and responsibilities of an ambassador".
Speaking on condition of anonymity, a UN official told Reuters that as they do not officially recognise the junta as Myanmar's new government, they consider Kyaw Moe Tun to be still in post as the country's UN ambassador.
In a separate, official statement, UN spokesman Stephane Dujarric also said: "We have not received any communication concerning changes to the representation of Myanmar at the United Nations in New York."
Further protests were held in several cities with water cannon reportedly deployed and journalists among dozens detained.
In the main city of Yangon, crowds of protesters were advanced upon by police firing tear gas. Witnesses who spoke to the Reuters news agency said people were arrested and beaten by police, who also reportedly fired into the air, with similar clashes reported in the second city of Mandalay.
A number of local media outlets reported that a woman had been shot at a protest in the central city of Monwya, close to Mandalay. Images and an alleged identity circulated on social media but have not been independently confirmed.
An ambulance service official later told the Reuters news agency she was in hospital, contradicting other reports she had died.
A medic in the town told the AFP news agency he had also seen a man "severely injured" in his leg with at least 10 others treated for more minor injuries. Local media there also reported alleged beatings by plainclothes officers.
Protesters in some places, including Yangon, were seen building makeshift barricades to try and hinder the crackdown against them.
General Min Aung Hlaing has defended the coup he led, but at least three protesters and one policeman have died so far in violence against it.
According to the Assistance Association for Political Prisoners monitoring group, more than 770 people have been arrested and sentenced since the coup began.
At least three journalists were detained on Saturday including a photographer from the Associated Press, the AFP news agency reported.
Military leaders justified the seizure of power by alleging widespread fraud in November elections, which Ms Suu Kyi's National League for Democracy (NLD) won in a landslide.
She was placed under house arrest and charged with possessing illegal walkie-talkies and violating the country's Natural Disaster Law. But there is growing uncertainty about her whereabouts amid reports on an independent news website on Friday that she had been moved to an undisclosed location.
A lawyer for the 75-year-old ousted leader told Reuters he had also heard she was moved and has been given no access to her ahead of her next hearing.
The army has ordered internet blackouts and also banned social media platforms but demonstrations have continued daily. The coup has been widely condemned outside Myanmar, prompting sanctions against the military and other punitive moves.
|
3bcb12d52c18a76b87672ed6390927ef | https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-56228357 | Myanmar coup: Deadliest day of protests as police open fire | Myanmar coup: Deadliest day of protests as police open fire
Police have fired on protesters in Myanmar killing at least 18, the UN human rights office says, on the deadliest day of anti-coup rallies.
Deaths were reported in several cities including Yangon, Dawei and Mandalay as police used live rounds and tear gas.
Security forces began the violent crackdown on Saturday, after weeks of largely peaceful protests against the 1 February military takeover.
Government leaders, including Aung San Suu Kyi, were overthrown and detained.
Social media footage from Sunday showed protesters running away as police charged at them, makeshift roadblocks being erected, and several people being led away covered in blood.
The police operation was expanded on Sunday as coup leaders sought to quash a civil disobedience campaign that has shown no sign of ending.
US National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan said the Biden administration was preparing "additional actions" against those responsible for the violent crackdown.
"We will continue co-ordinating closely with allies and partners in the Indo-Pacific region and around the world to hold those responsible for violence to account," he said in a statement on Sunday.
The US has already
imposed sanctions on Myanmar's military leaders
since the army seized power.
At the scene: BBC video journalist
As I arrived on Hledan road in Yangon an ambulance passed me. I heard one man had been shot. I ran to the location and when I arrived the volunteers had already lifted him into the ambulance.
I saw blood on the road and a homemade shield next to it. The bullet had passed through the shield.
A few minutes later, more protesters occupied the road, blocking the area with shields and carts and readying themselves to take on the police.
Many more arrived, sitting down on the road and chanting. There were so many I couldn't see the back of the crowd.
Two people were shot dead here and one was badly injured. But the people did not retreat.
The United Nations Human Rights Office condemned the violence against protesters, saying it had "credible information" that at least 18 people had been killed on Sunday. More than 30 others have been injured.
"The people of Myanmar have the right to assemble peacefully and demand the restoration of democracy," spokesperson Ravina Shamdasani said. "Use of lethal force against non-violent demonstrators is never justifiable under international human rights norms."
Activists and medical workers said at least four people had been killed in the largest city,
Yangon
, as police fired bullets, stun grenades and tear gas.
The protesters remained defiant. "If they push us, we'll rise. If they attack us, we'll defend. We'll never kneel down to the military boots," Nyan Win Shein told Reuters.
Another protester, Amy Kyaw, told AFP: "Police started shooting just as we arrived. They didn't say a word of warning. Some got injured and some teachers are still hiding in neighbours' houses."
Some demonstrators were herded away in police vans.
In the south-eastern city of
Dawei,
security forces moved to break up a rally. There are reports of live rounds being used. Four people were killed in the city, activists told the BBC.
Police also cracked down on a large rally in
Mandalay
, where police used water cannon and fired into the air. One person was killed there, the BBC has been told.
Protests have continued elsewhere, including the north-eastern town of
Lashio
.
The UN said deaths had also been reported in
Myeik
,
Bago
and
Pokokku
.
The number of arrests since the protests began has not been confirmed. The Assistance Association for Political Prisoners monitoring group has put the figure at 850, but hundreds more appear to have been detained this weekend.
Activists held rallies across Asia, including in Taipei and Hong Kong, to support the protesters in Myanmar.
In Bangkok, police used tear gas and water cannon against demonstrators who were also calling for the resignation of the Thai prime minister.
Myanmar's civilian leader has not been seen in public since she was detained in the capital Nay Pyi Taw as the coup began.
Her supporters and many in the international community have demanded her release and the restoration of the November election result that saw her National League for Democracy party win a landslide.
Ms Suu Kyi is scheduled to face court proceedings on Monday on charges of possessing unregistered walkie-talkies and violating coronavirus rules. But her lawyer says he has been unable to speak to her.
Military leaders justified the seizure of power by alleging widespread fraud in the elections, claims dismissed by the electoral committee.
The coup has been widely condemned outside Myanmar, prompting sanctions against the military and other punitive moves.
|
fe31366c569a7187fef883228fd9122a | https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-56245404 | Covid: Japan asks China to stop anal tests on its citizens | Covid: Japan asks China to stop anal tests on its citizens
Japan has asked China to stop taking anal swab tests for Covid-19 on its citizens when they enter the country.
Some have complained that the procedure caused them "psychological distress", officials say.
China, which has largely brought the virus under control, started carrying out anal swabs in January.
Last week,
it denied it had required US diplomats to undergo such tests
after US media reported some had complained about the procedure.
"Some Japanese reported to our embassy in China that they received anal swab tests, which caused great psychological pain," Chief Cabinet Secretary Katsunobu Kato said.
It was not known how many Japanese citizens received such tests, he added.
The tests are used on some of those quarantined or entering China, he also said, noting their use "has not been confirmed anywhere else in the world".
China had not so far responded to the request, he said, adding that the Japanese government had made the request through the embassy in Beijing.
Some Chinese cities have introduced anal swabs, with local experts claiming they can "increase the detection rate of infected people".
At the time of their launch,
state media reported those tests had been "controversial among experts"
, and that they were far less efficient than tests in the upper respiratory tracts.
The existing tests were preferred, as they believe most people contract the virus orally, they said.
The tests involve inserting a cotton swab 3-5cm (1.2-2.0 inches) into the anus and gently rotating it.
|
97fe9f37a1f5194a04c3c3dcac6c0804 | https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-56249805 | Covid-19: Sri Lanka chooses remote island for burials | Covid-19: Sri Lanka chooses remote island for burials
A remote island has been chosen by Sri Lanka's government for the burial of Covid-19 victims from the minority Muslim and Christian communities.
The government previously forced minorities to cremate their dead in line with the practice of the majority Buddhists. It claimed burials would contaminate ground water.
But the government backed down last week in the face of vehement criticism from rights groups.
Islam prohibits cremation.
Iranathivu island in the Gulf of Mannar is the designated site for burials.
It lies some 300km (186 miles) away from the capital, Colombo, and was chosen, the government says, because it is thinly populated.
Muslims were angered by the ban, introduced last April, and said there was no scientific basis to it. Muslims make up nearly 10% of the population.
Human rights groups, including Amnesty International, and the United Nations had also raised objections.
Government spokesman Keheliya Rambukwella said a plot of land had been set aside on the island, according to the Colombo Gazette.
The World Health Organization has provided extensive guidance on how the bodies of those who have died from Covid should be handled safely, but points out there is no scientific evidence to suggest cremation should be used to prevent infection.
"There is a common assumption that people who died of a communicable disease should be cremated to prevent spread of that disease; however, there is a lack of evidence to support this. Cremation is a matter of cultural choice and available resources."
The UN High Commissioner for Human Rights has said the policy on cremations failed to respect the religious feelings of the victims and their family members, especially Muslims, Catholics and some Buddhists.
The forcible cremation of a 20-day-old Muslim baby intensified criticism of the policy.
But some Muslim and Christian leaders have reacted negatively to the government's latest move.
"This is a ridiculous and insensitive decision," Hilmy Ahamed, vice-president of the Muslim Council of Sri Lanka, told the BBC. "This is an absolute racist agenda. The saddest part is it's almost pitting Muslims against the Tamils living in those areas."
Fr Madutheen Pathinather, a priest living on the island, told the BBC the community was "deeply pained" by the decision. "We strongly oppose the move. This will cause harm to the local community."
He said the island's population of around 250 Tamils, who were displaced due to the civil war in the early 90s, only returned in 2018.
By Anbarasan Ethirajan, BBC World Service South Asia regional editor
Sri Lanka's Muslim and Christian communities have been seething with anger. They felt relieved when the government last week announced an end to the mandatory cremation and allowed burials. But the latest announcement is seen as nothing but adding to the insult.
They say they have to travel far away from their homes to bury their dead and it will be difficult to pay homage to their buried relatives during festivals and anniversaries.
More than 450 people have died with Covid in Sri Lanka so far and around 300 are from the minority communities.
The government's hurried announcement seems to coincide with the ongoing UN Human Rights Council meeting in Geneva where it has faced strong criticism from the UN human rights chief, Michelle Bachelet, over the issue.
The decision to lift the burial ban followed a visit by Pakistan's Prime Minister Imran Khan.
Sources told the BBC that Sri Lanka sought Pakistan's support at a United National Human Rights Council session, which is expected to consider a new resolution on mounting rights concerns in Sri Lanka, including over the treatment of Muslims.
Sri Lanka is being called to hold human rights abusers to account and to deliver justice to victims of its 26-year-old civil war.
The 1983-2009 conflict killed at least 100,000 people, mostly civilians from the minority Tamil community.
Sri Lanka has strongly denied the allegations and has asked member countries not to support the resolution.
|
f447bc7df260475778ea49b7d5506eed | https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-56254356 | Afghan war: Female TV workers 'shot dead by IS' in Jalalabad | Afghan war: Female TV workers 'shot dead by IS' in Jalalabad
Islamic State militants have said they shot dead three women who worked for a TV station in eastern Afghanistan.
The women were killed in two separate but co-ordinated attacks as they made their way home from work in Jalalabad. A fourth was critically hurt.
Tuesday's shootings are part of a wave of killings, with rights activists, judges and journalists among targets.
The Taliban are thought to be behind many of the incidents - but IS also has a presence, particularly in the east.
The three women killed in Jalalabad were aged between 18 and 20, and had recently finished high school. They worked in the dubbing department of the privately-owned Enikas TV station, said its head, Zalmai Latifi.
Officials say Mursal Wahidi was attacked as she walked home. The two others - identified as Sadia Sadat and Shahnaz - were killed in a separate incident on the same night, also while returning home.
"They are all dead. They were going home from the office on foot when they were shot," Mr Latifi told AFP news agency.
On Wednesday IS released a statement claiming its fighters had targeted the women but did not provide further details. Authorities had earlier arrested a man they said was the main suspect in the shootings and said they were looking for accomplices.
They claimed the suspect detained was a member of the Taliban, the largest insurgent group in Afghanistan, but it denied involvement.
A wave of targeted assassinations has spread fear in Afghanistan in recent months, as the US draws down troops following a February 2020 deal with the Taliban, which paved the way for peace talks.
There is anger at the government's failure to stem a campaign of killing that appears aimed at silencing progressive voices. In Jalalabad relatives held funerals on Wednesday. Sadia's cousin Mohammad Nazif said she had received no warnings.
"I don't know why the militants target such innocent girls. I ask them to stop the targeted killing of media workers," he told AFP.
Enikas TV station says of 10 women it employed, four have now been killed - including a presenter, Malalai Maiwand, who was shot dead in December along with her driver while travelling in Jalalabad. IS claimed it was behind the attack.
In January,
two women Supreme Court judges were shot dead in the capital, Kabul.
Afghan President Ashraf Ghani told the BBC last month that he did not fear a Taliban military takeover of the country, saying: "This is not a government that is collapsing."
In February
Nato said it had not yet decided whether its troops would leave
by May as agreed under the deal with the Taliban. Around 9,000 Nato soldiers remain, of whom about 2,500 are US troops.
One of US President Joe Biden's most pressing tasks is to decide if his government will keep to the terms of the deal signed under his predecessor Donald Trump.
This week the US special envoy to Afghanistan Zalmay Khalilzad returned to Kabul
to continue discussions with Afghan leaders and the Taliban
over the faltering peace process.
|
2b6d4e8cef17dffbce6d3d06e62d0b46 | https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-56256804 | Tokyo 2020: Organisers boost number of women on board | Tokyo 2020: Organisers boost number of women on board
The Tokyo Olympic Games organising committee is set to add 12 new female directors to its executive board.
The move comes weeks after
long-time president Yoshiro Mori was forced to quit for making sexist remarks
.
His female replacement, Seiko Hashimoto, aims to have women make up 40% of the board members.
The changes - just five months before the games begin - come after public outrage over Mr Mori's complaint that women talked too much in meetings.
The committee's chief executive, Toshiro Muto, said on Tuesday the group planned to add 12 new female directors to its board, raising the ratio of women to 42%.
"It is possible to add 12 more members, so we decided to add 12 women to the board of directors."
During a meeting of the executive board, the organisers agreed to a rule change allowing a maximum of 45 members, up from the current 35.
"We already have seven female directors, so 19 out of 45 will be female directors (after planned addition of new members). Based on the calculation, women will account for 42% of the board members," Mr Muto said
Ms Hashimoto said the new members would be announced after being approved by committee members on Wednesday.
"Regarding promoting the gender equality, I believe that it is necessary to take swift action and provide solid results in order to rebuild trust in the organising committee," the seven-time Olympian said.
Mr Mori had previously commented that should the number of female board members increase, they would have to "make sure their speaking time is restricted somewhat, they have difficulty finishing, which is annoying".
He later apologised for his "inappropriate statement" and added that the priority was to make sure the Olympics were held in July.
The Summer Olympics will begin on 23 July, after already being postponed by a year due to the pandemic.
|
f529b6c1704d3dbd07bbd5c22cbdd469 | https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-56261574 | Japanese billionaire seeks eight people to fly to Moon | Japanese billionaire seeks eight people to fly to Moon
Japanese billionaire Yusaku Maezawa has invited eight members of the public to join him for a trip around the Moon on Elon Musk's SpaceX flight.
"I want people from all kinds of backgrounds to join," he said in a video via Twitter, where he also
shared a link to application details
.
He said he will pay for the entire journey, so those who come onboard will fly for free.
The mission, called dearMoon, is scheduled to fly in 2023.
Applicants need to meet two criteria: they should advance "whatever activity" they are in to "help other people and greater society in some way", and are "willing to support other crew members who share similar aspirations", he said.
"I have bought all the seats, so it will be a private ride," he added.
Mr Maezawa, a fashion mogul and art collector, previously said that he planned to invite "artists" for the voyage on the Starship rocket, but the adjusted project "will give people from around the globe the chance to join this journey".
"If you see yourself as an artist, then you are an artist," he said.
Last year, he also launched a documentary search for a new girlfriend to join him on the trip, before
cancelling due to "mixed feelings"
.
In 2018, Mr Maezawa was named as the first private passenger due to be flown around the moon by SpaceX, the company owned by Elon Musk.
The price Mr Maezawa agreed to pay for his ticket to space has not been disclosed, but according to Mr Musk it was "a lot of money".
Planned for 2023, the mission would be the first lunar journey by humans since 1972.
|
9fef9961ad7eb7d59c18d391d568a388 | https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-56275563 | Thai navy rescue four cats from burning ship | Thai navy rescue four cats from burning ship
Thai navy sailors have rescued four ginger cats that were abandoned on a burning ship in the Andaman Sea.
The human crew had already been evacuated, but the navy soon discovered a few forgotten members when they were sent to check the site for oil spills.
A sailor swam out to the capsized boat, before putting the cats on his back to take them to safety.
Reportedly, the felines suffered no injuries and are healthy.
They are now being cared for by their rescuers at their command post, said Reuters news agency.
On Tuesday, the Phamonsin Nava 10 fishing boat had caught fire and started to sink, about 13km (eight miles) off the paradise island of Koh Adang.
All eight of the ship's crew members had jumped off the vessel and into the sea, and were rescued by a passing fishing ship, said Thai newspaper The Nation.
When the navy was called in to inspect the site, they discovered the cats huddled together on a wooden beam.
"I used my camera to zoom in to the boat, and I saw one or two cats popping their heads out," said First-Class Petty Officer Wichit Pukdeelon of the navy's air and coastal defence division.
A Facebook post on the rescue received more than 2,500 comments on Wednesday praising the crew.
|
460dc96c6d41208834a6013d61094af8 | https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-56277164 | Raya and the Last Dragon: Disney's new heroine representing 670 million people | Raya and the Last Dragon: Disney's new heroine representing 670 million people
It's taken almost 90 years - but Disney's first South East Asian heroine premiered on Thursday.
Raya is the titular character of Raya and the Last Dragon, which sees her travel around the region to reunite its people and attempt to save the world in the process.
But aside from bearing the weight of humanity on her shoulders - she's got another burden to bear.
South East Asia is a region that is home to 11 countries and 673 million people.
There are dozens, if not hundreds of different cultures in this region, which begs the question - what exactly is a South East Asian identity and can Disney's latest heroine really embody it?
The movie is set in Kumandra - a fantasy land that's home to five tribes - each of which has its own distinct culture, inspired by different places in South East Asia.
Director Don Hall told the BBC the decision to film in the region was inspired by a trip the filmmaking team took there.
The film doesn't take place in today's timeline, but rather imagines what the region might have looked like thousands of years ago.
It's clear that bits of South East Asia are peppered through the film.
Raya wears a hat that looks like the Salakot - a traditional headgear in the Philippines.
Her loyal sidekick and also her form of transportation is named Tuk Tuk - a cheeky reference to a rickshaw that is a popular mode of transportation there.
And her fighting technique is inspired by Silat - a traditional martial arts form practiced commonly in Malaysia and Indonesia.
Producer Osnat Shurer said they tried "to look at what are the underlying ideas that are shared... the most important one for us was this sense of community and working together."
Some online complain that the movie is essentially picking and choosing bits and pieces from different cultures in the region and throwing it together into one film.
But Malaysian-born Adele Lim, who is the co-scriptwriter for the movie, says it goes "deeper".
"When you talk about cultural inspiration, it wasn't just like 'Oh, we like how this looks, [so we] put it in'. It was much deeper than that," she said.
"[For example] the scene where Raya's father is making her soup - you know, as South East Asians, so much of our love is shown to us through food..[so that was] something that really touched me."
One Indonesian Twitter user told the BBC however, that she felt it was "impossible" to represent all of South East Asia, and felt the movie should have just "focused on a certain culture" in particular.
But the filmmakers say that the movie is simply "inspired" by the region - and was never meant to focus in on just one culture or country.
"I equate it to how the Arthurian legends were built on dramatic European [tales]. You can point to something French, something English," said Vietnamese-American co-scriptwriter Qui Nguyen.
"So this is our opportunity to create a wholly original story, but have its DNA be from somewhere that's real. We don't want to tell a story where the bad guys are from Thailand and the good guys are from Malaysia. So this felt like the way to do it."
"The question of what constitutes South East Asian identity is still being deliberated by South East Asians themselves," David Lim, an associate professor at the Open University Malaysia told the BBC.
He pointed out that the colonisation of the region also added to the different cultural lenses each country is shaped by. Vietnam, for example, was colonised by the French, and Indonesia by the Dutch.
"I think the history of colonialism has to a certain extent shaped the way we look at ourselves and what cultures we aspire to be more like, and who we identify as," he said.
"I suspect some in South East Asia will know less about their regional counterparts [than their colonisers]. Those in Vietnam for example, might know more about France than Thailand."
He adds that many in South East Asia do not view themselves as being "South East Asian", in the same way one might view themselves as being "European".
One example he brought up is the way countries in South East Asia compete to claim dishes as their own.
"There's an important point to be made about nationalism [in this region]. I think there's that sort of national competition going on," said Prof Lim.
Prof Lim also points out that it is "unfair" to put the burden of accurately representing an entire region on one film.
"The burden of [representing] the whole of South East Asia… who can carry that burden? I think if you start to impregnate the film with too many ideas that you project onto it, then it's rather unfair," he said.
"[But instead] look at the film as a way in to talk about South East Asia, to trigger conversation about the region."
That is definitely the way many others are choosing to look at it - pointing out that the film, while perhaps not perfect, is a step in the right direction.
"It's not perfect in terms of representation," said one Twitter user. "But it's one step closer."
|
1c48f623844dc194b766772550515a27 | https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-56277165 | Myanmar coup: 'Everything will be OK' teenage protester mourned | Myanmar coup: 'Everything will be OK' teenage protester mourned
Crowds gathered in Mandalay on Thursday for the funeral of a 19-year-old woman who was shot dead during Myanmar's anti-coup protests a day earlier.
Kyal Sin, known as Angel, was wearing a T-shirt with the phrase "Everything will be OK" when she died.
Tributes have flooded in on social media, with many calling her a hero.
Since the 1 February coup, Myanmar has been gripped by mass protests demanding an end to military rule and the release of detained elected leaders.
More than 54 people have been killed by security forces in the protests so far, according to the UN Human Rights Office, although other reports put the figure much higher. Wednesday was the bloodiest day since the coup, with 38 protesters killed in cities and towns across the country.
UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Michelle Bachelet called on security forces to "halt their vicious crackdown on peaceful protesters".
Dozens of countries have now condemned the violence in Myanmar, though this has been largely ignored by the coup leaders.
And Myanmar's ambassador to the UN, who the military said they had fired after he pleaded for help to restore democracy, called for "the strongest international actions" against the military.
"You see these last 3-4 days how many of our innocent and young lives have been taken away," Kyaw Moe Tun told the BBC World Service's Newshour programme in his first interview since he was replaced. "What we want for the people of Myanmar is protection."
Meanwhile his deputy Tin Maung Naing, who the military appointed in his place, said he had resigned and that Kyaw Moe Tun was still ambassador.
On Thursday in Mandalay, people lined the route of Angel's funeral procession.
Mourners sang revolutionary songs and chanted anti-coup slogans, Reuters news agency reports.
Images of the teenager wearing her "Everything will be OK" T-shirt at the protests had gone viral.
Aware of the dangers of taking part in the protests, she had written her blood type details on Facebook and requested that her organs be donated in the event of her death.
Myat Thu, who was with her at the protest on Wednesday, said she had kicked open a water pipe so protesters could wash tear gas from their eyes. She had also tried to help him as police opened fire.
"She told me 'Sit! Bullets will hit you'," he told Reuters. "She cared for and protected others."
He said police hit them with tear gas and then the bullets came.
Myat Thu said Angel, who had proudly voted in elections for the first time last year, was a "happy girl".
"She loved her family and her family loved her so much too," he said. "We are not in a war. There is no reason to use live bullets on people."
People also paid tribute to Angel on social media. One friend wrote on Facebook: "My heart feels so my hurt."
Another said: "Rest in peace my friend. We will fight this revolution to the end."
Moe Myint, BBC Burmese
In a video which showed Kyal Sin's last minutes, she was seen leading a group of young protesters. When tear gas rained down and shooting came from security forces at the other end of the road, all of them looked worried but she shouted: "Are we united?", and they chanted "United, United". A family friend later said she was a truly inspirational leader.
Kyal Sin is one of several teenagers who gave up their lives on Wednesday. Gen Z, as they are called, believe their future must not be shaped by a military regime. But the same old army again committed atrocities even in urban areas where people film on their mobile phones.
One protester told me that he had never seen this kind of inhumane cruelty by police and soldiers who are shooting unarmed protesters with live ammunition, many of them in the head. But he insisted they would not be silenced and the military's barbaric acts made him even more determined.
At Kyal Sin's funeral, her aunt also vowed: "I feel sad but they must fall soon. Our fight must win."
Undeterred by Wednesday's deaths, protesters made their way out on to the streets of Yangon and Mandalay - the country's two biggest cities - as well as those of other cities and towns.
According to news site Myanmar Now, tens of thousands of people were protesting in the town of Myingyan, where a demonstrator had been shot dead the day before.
Reuters news agency says police opened fire and used tear gas to break up protesters in Yangon and the town of Monywa.
Residents said that five fighter jets had made low passes in formation over Mandalay early on Thursday, in what appeared to be a show of military strength.
More than 1,700 people, including members of parliament and protesters, have been detained since the coup, Ms Bachelet said in a statement. Arrests have been escalating with 29 journalists detained in recent days, she said.
She warned the figures could be much higher due to the large scale of the protests and difficulty in monitoring developments.
On Wednesday, police and soldiers reportedly opened fire with live rounds in several cities and towns with little warning.
Protesters said they used rubber bullets but also live rounds.
UN envoy to Myanmar, Christine Schraner Burgener, said one video clip showed police beating an unarmed volunteer medic.
Myanmar's military seized power after overthrowing the government of including Aung San Suu Kyi and declared a state of emergency.
Just days later, the civil disobedience movement began to emerge, with many people refusing to return to work.
The movement quickly started to gain momentum and it was not long before hundreds of thousands of people began taking part in street protests.
A violent crackdown began on the largely peaceful protests last weekend.
The military has not commented on the deaths.
|
1e23addf3d8088b5d6ede657f7c19267 | https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-56282401 | Myanmar coup: YouTube removes channels run by army amid violence | Myanmar coup: YouTube removes channels run by army amid violence
YouTube has removed five channels run by Myanmar's military amid ongoing violence following a coup last month.
The video-sharing platform said on Friday that it had removed the channels in line with its community guidelines.
Myanmar has been gripped by mass protests demanding an end to military rule and the release of detained elected leaders.
Another protester was shot dead by security forces on Friday, in Mandalay, taking the death toll to at least 55.
The channels taken down by YouTube include the state network, MRTV, (Myanmar Radio and Television) as well as the military-owned Myawaddy Media, MWD Variety and MWD Myanmar, the platform said.
"We have terminated a number of channels and removed several videos from YouTube in accordance with our community guidelines and applicable laws," a YouTube spokeswoman said.
The platform is owned by Alphabet, the parent company of Google.
In a separate development on Friday, local officials in India said a group of Myanmar police officers had crossed the border seeking refuge after refusing to carry out orders.
And Myanmar's deputy envoy to the UN, Tin Maung Naing, refused to take over from the current ambassador, Kyaw Moe Tun, who was fired last week after speaking out against the military.
The single death recorded on Friday capped the bloodiest week in Myanmar since the military overthrew the country's democratic government on 1 February, with at least 38 people killed on Wednesday alone.
YouTube's decision to take down military channels comes over a week after Facebook banned all pages run by Myanmar's armed forces.
In December, shortly after Myanmar's general election, Google blocked 34 YouTube channels linked to the country.
A review by the Reuters news agency found many dozens of channels had promoted election misinformation while posing either as news outlets or political programmes.
Crowds gathered in Mandalay on Thursday for the funeral of a 19-year-old woman who was shot dead during protests on Wednesday.
Kyal Sin, known as Angel, was pictures moments before she was shot in the head, wearing a T-shirt with the slogan "Everything will be OK".
Myanmar's military seized power at the beginning of February after detaining the democratically elected leader Aung San Suu Kyi.
Days later, a civil disobedience movement began, with many people refusing to return to work and some taking to the streets to protest.
The movement gained momentum and before long hundreds of thousands of people were protesting. Myanmar's security forces responded with a violent crackdown - firing live rounds at unarmed protesters.
The military has not commented on the deaths, which now number at least 55.
More than 1,700 people have been detained since the coup, according to UN human rights chief Michelle Bachelet, including members of parliament, protesters, and at least 29 journalists.
Ms Bachelet said the figures could be much higher due to the large scale of the protests and difficulty in monitoring developments.
|
dc6a9671f0a00a40b88d4a115fdfc26e | https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-56285659 | New Zealand earthquakes: Tsunami warnings lifted after evacuations | New Zealand earthquakes: Tsunami warnings lifted after evacuations
Three earthquakes, including one of the strongest ever to hit the region, struck off the coast of New Zealand on Friday, triggering tsunami warnings that have now been stood down.
Thousands were evacuated from some coastal areas of the North Island after the third, 8.1-magnitude quake struck.
There were reports of traffic gridlock as people tried to reach higher ground.
The national tsunami warning was lifted at 15:43 (02:43 GMT), some 13 hours after the first quake.
Some wave surges hit parts of the coast but, by Friday afternoon, authorities said the largest waves had passed. Residents were told they could return home but were warned to stay off beaches.
The South Pacific archipelagos of New Caledonia and Vanuatu have been warned to prepare for dangerous waves.
Their coasts could see wave surges as high as 3m (10ft), while parts of South America - including Peru, Ecuador and Chile - were warned they could see 1m waves reaching their coasts.
The Hawaii-based
Pacific Tsunami Warning Center said "tsunami waves have been observed"
, but as yet no damage had been reported.
New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern posted on Instagram: "Hope everyone is ok out there."
The three earthquakes, all above 7.0 magnitude, came during the early hours of Friday.
The last, at 8.1, struck at around 08:30 near the uninhabited Kermadec Islands, 1,000 km (621 miles) north-east of New Zealand.
While earlier tsunami warnings had been called off, the third quake prompted the National Emergency Management Agency to send out a new alert and tsunami sirens sounded in some areas.
The agency told people near the coast in several areas to move immediately to high ground or get inland as far as possible.
It said "strong and unusual currents and unpredictable surges" with tsunami activity continuing for several hours.
Local media reported gridlock in towns such as Whangarei and Whakatane as people tried to flee their homes, schools and workplaces.
In nearby Ohope town, resident Leslie Peake was quoted by the New Zealand Herald as saying the traffic was "bumper to bumper" with "huge queues of people evacuating".
New Zealand's civil defence department advised people to walk or cycle to avoid getting caught in traffic
Meanwhile local media posted footage of waves rolling into Tokomaru Bay.
Just last week, New Zealand marked the 10th anniversary of the 6.3 magnitude earthquake that destroyed parts of Christchurch in the south Island, killing 185 people.
Tsunami warnings were also issued for Hawaii and American Samoa, but later stood down.
Patrick Ti'a Reid, 37, was among those in American Samoa, situated some 3,300 km (2,000 miles) north-east of New Zealand, who had been told to evacuate to higher ground in an emergency bulletin.
"Alarms went off in our executive office building and we immediately took for higher ground," Mr Ti'a Reid, who works for the government in the US territory, told the BBC.
He said the
tsunami of 2009
, which was triggered by an 8.1-magnitude earthquake, was "very much vivid in many Samoans' minds".
Are you in the region? Share your experiences by emailing
haveyoursay@bbc.co.uk
.
Please include a contact number if you are willing to speak to a BBC journalist. You can also get in touch in the following ways:
If you are reading this page and can't see the form you will need to visit the mobile version of the
BBC website
to submit your question or comment or you can email us at
HaveYourSay@bbc.co.uk
. Please include your name, age and location with any submission.
|
e3e573721a3ebaa39627755266f7949c | https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-56309338 | Myanmar coup: India asked to return police officers who crossed border | Myanmar coup: India asked to return police officers who crossed border
Myanmar has asked neighbouring India to return several police officers who crossed the border seeking refuge after refusing to carry out orders.
Indian officials said the officers and their families had crossed the border in recent days.
In a letter, Myanmar authorities asked for their return "in order to uphold friendly relations".
Myanmar has been gripped by mass protests and strikes following a military coup last month.
Security forces have taken a hard line against the demonstrations and at least 55 deaths have been reported.
Police carried out raids overnight on Saturday in the largest city, Yangon, ahead of further protests in defiance of the military.
Video footage showed security forces repeatedly firing at buildings as they moved into one street to make arrests.
Hours later, thousands of demonstrators had gathered again in Yangon and the city of Mandalay.
It followed demonstrations across the country on Saturday, with police in Yangon using tear gas, rubber bullets and stun grenades to disperse crowds, reports said.
There were no reports of fresh casualties.
Deputy Commissioner Maria CT Zuali, a senior official in Champhai district in the Indian state of Mizoram, told Reuters news agency that she had received a letter from her counterpart in Myanmar's Falam district requesting the return of the police officers.
The letter said that Myanmar had information about eight police officers who had crossed into India.
"In order to uphold friendly relations between the two neighbour countries, you are kindly requested to detain eight Myanmar police personnel who had arrived to Indian territories and hand-over to Myanmar," the letter read.
Ms Zuali said she was awaiting instructions from India's home affairs ministry in Delhi.
According to Reuters, about 30 people including the officers and their family members have crossed the border into India seeking refuge in recent days.
On Saturday, scores of other Myanmar nationals were waiting at the border hoping to flee the turmoil, AFP news agency reported, citing Indian officials.
Myanmar's military seized power at the beginning of February after detaining the democratically elected leader, Aung San Suu Kyi.
Days later, a civil disobedience movement began, with many people refusing to return to work and some taking part in huge street protests.
Myanmar's security forces responded with a violent crackdown - firing live rounds at unarmed protesters. The military has not commented on the deaths.
More than 1,700 people have been detained since the coup, according to UN human rights chief Michelle Bachelet, including members of parliament, protesters, and at least 29 journalists.
Ms Bachelet said the figures could be much higher due to the large scale of the protests and difficulty in monitoring developments.
|
652a5189180dbd1277ec5d0ec6acec4a | https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-56312147 | Myanmar coup: Party official dies in custody after security raids | Myanmar coup: Party official dies in custody after security raids
An official from Aung San Suu Kyi's party has died in custody in Myanmar after being arrested during raids by security forces in Yangon.
On Sunday the body of U Khin Maung Latt was released to his family, who were reportedly told that he had died after fainting.
Photos show a bloodstained cloth around the 58-year-old's head.
Activists say he was beaten while being detained by police and soldiers, and subjected to a harsh interrogation.
Protests continue against last month's coup despite a bloody crackdown.
The UN says more than 50 people have been killed since the military detained Ms Suu Kyi, Myanmar's democratically elected leader, on 1 February.
The authorities have exhumed the body of one victim, 19-year-old Kyal Sin, and said she had not been killed by police as she had been shot from behind.
Photos from the protests show she had her head turned away from the police.
In another development,
the military rulers asked neighbouring India to return several police officers
who had crossed the border seeking refuge after refusing to carry out orders.
He actively campaigned for candidates of Ms Suu Kyi's National League for Democracy (NLD) in recent general elections and was also known for his welfare work, The Irawaddy reports.
He had been "violently beaten and kicked before being taken from his home" at around 22:00 (15:30 GMT) on Saturday, according to witnesses quoted by the news outlet.
On Sunday morning, his family was informed he had died after "fainting" and they collected his body from a military hospital.
U Tun Kyi, from the Former Political Prisoners Society, told AFP news agency: "He was beaten and taken in a raid since last night and it seems he underwent a harsh interrogation."
On Friday, an NLD local official in a village in Magwe region, U Htway Naing, was reportedly hacked to death by supporters of the military.
In Yangon, police carried out other night-time raids on Saturday.
The UN special rapporteur, Tom Andrews, told the BBC that video from different parts of Myanmar showed security forces firing repeatedly at buildings as they made arrests.
"And you can see them walking down the streets in Yangon, firing up through the windows as people look in horror down on the streets," he said.
"These are gangs. This is criminal activity. They're terrorising these neighbourhoods. So there is a compelling reason for the world to act and for the world to act now."
Security forces fired tear gas on Sunday in the country's second biggest city, Mandalay, after thousands of protesters turned out.
Demonstrations were also held in half a dozen other cities, Reuters news reports, with police using force against protesters in Yangon, Lashio and Bagan.
In the southern town of Dawei, one protest leader was quoted by Reuters as saying: "They are killing people just like killing birds and chickens. What will we do if we don't revolt against them? We must revolt."
|
3ecd34c3b0428e09558d2374a1fdf101 | https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-56329220 | Myanmar coup: Protesters flee after being 'trapped' overnight | Myanmar coup: Protesters flee after being 'trapped' overnight
Dozens of Myanmar anti-coup protesters who had been cornered overnight by security forces in Yangon have escaped from the area where they were trapped.
About 200 people were caught in a four-street area in Sanchaung district which the police sealed off.
At least 40 people were arrested and taken away but others managed to escape as police numbers dwindled overnight, a local resident told BBC News.
More demonstrations are being staged in Myanmar's biggest city on Tuesday.
Mass protests have been seen across the south-east Asian nation since the military seized power on 1 February in a coup.
At least 54 people have died in the protests, which are calling for an end to military rule and the release of the country's elected government leaders - including Aung San Suu Kyi - who were overthrown and detained in the coup.
According to United Nations (UN) chief Antonio Guterres, many of those trapped on Monday had been women who were marching in support of International Women's Day.
The UN had appealed to the military for their "safe release", with Mr Guterres urging "maximum restraint".
Many protesters, who had nowhere to turn to, were taken in by local residents. Others were trapped.
Early on Tuesday, one protester told the BBC that he was able to leave at around 06:30 local time (00:00 GMT). He said security forces had left the area early in the morning.
He added that 40 people had been arrested overnight, but the rest of them remained hidden until the morning and were able to leave.
Another protester told the BBC that she and a group of people were taken in by hosts when troops begin blocking the streets.
"There were seven of us trapped - six women and one man. [After a while of being inside] we got anxious and realised the [troops] were not going to leave," she said. "So we came up with some solutions to get out of that house."
She, along with another protester, eventually managed to sneak out of the host's house and left to spend the night somewhere "safer". They eventually managed to leave the area on Tuesday morning.
Myanmar police on Monday night started raiding houses in the area looking for people who were from outside the district.
Reports later emerged that security forces had surrounded a group of young people in the Sanchaung neighbourhood - with explosions heard from the area.
Activist Maung Saungkha said on Twitter late on Monday that he managed to "escape" Sanchaung, but added that "almost 200 young protesters are blocked by police and soldiers there".
In Yangon, huge numbers of people gathered on the streets, defying a curfew, in an attempt to distract security forces. They were heard chanting: "Free the students in Sanchaung."
Security forces fired guns and used stun grenades in an attempt to disperse them, Reuters news agency reported.
It's thought that three people died in demonstrations across the country on Monday.
Separately on Monday, the military government revoked the publishing licences of five local news outlets - Mizzima, DVB, Khit Thit Media, Myanmar Now and 7Day News - that had been widely covering the protests.
In a statement on Facebook, Mizzima said it would defy this ban, adding that it would "continue to fight against the military coup by publishing and broadcasting through multimedia platforms".
Just before the government's announcement, Myanmar Now reported that its office in central Yangon had been raided by soldiers and police.
They added that computers, printers and parts of the newsroom's data server had been seized. One of the news agency's reporters was arrested while livestreaming a protest in Yangon last month.
|
c2cd86a78cd732a786a209dcc2d5a201 | https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-56342798 | Myanmar coup: Envoy to UK recalled after pro-Suu Kyi remarks | Myanmar coup: Envoy to UK recalled after pro-Suu Kyi remarks
Myanmar has recalled its ambassador to the UK after he spoke out against a military coup and demanded the release of deposed leader Aung San Suu Kyi.
Kyaw Zwar Minn had told the BBC that the country was already "divided" and could be at risk of civil war.
Myanmar's military seized power in a 1 February coup claiming there was voter fraud in a recent election.
Ms Suu Kyi's party the National League for Democracy (NLD) had won a landslide victory in the polls.
International observers have disputed the military's claims of election fraud and said they did not observe any irregularities.
Key leaders of the government were arrested. Ms Suu Kyi is being held in an undisclosed location and faces several charges including causing "fear and alarm" and illegally importing walkie talkies.
The ambassador, who is a former military colonel, had on Monday issued a statement calling for the release of Ms Suu Kyi and ousted president Win Myint.
He was praised by British foreign minister Dominic Raab, who commended his "courage and patriotism".
In a subsequent interview with BBC Burmese, Mr Kyaw Zwar Minn had said he decided to issue the statement after seeing increasing casualties at protests.
"I don't want to see citizens of Myanmar dying. I am arguing for all [protesters and military] to stop," he said. "The country is already so divided and at risk of possible civil war. I want peace."
He also reiterated his call for Ms Suu Kyi's release, and appeared to stand firmly by her.
"Ms Suu Kyi appointed me and I will take her orders," he said. "I demand for her and President U Win Myint to be released. The solution is not in New York or London, it is in [Myanmar capital] Nay Pyi Taw."
He maintained that his latest remarks were not "betraying the country", adding that he was standing on "middle" ground.
During the interview Kyaw Zwar Minn, who has represented Myanmar in London since 2013, said he did not have plans to defect or get asylum in the UK. He added that the Burmese embassy in the UK had no direct communication with the military.
The Myanmar government later issued a statement saying he was recalled. His current plans are not known.
Last week, Myanmar's embassy in Washington also issued a statement condemning the deaths of civilians protesting the coup, and called on authorities to "fully exercise utmost restraint".
Myanmar's military seized power after overthrowing the government and declared a state of emergency.
Just days later, the civil disobedience movement began to emerge - professionals who are refusing to return to work in protest.
The movement quickly started to gain momentum and it was not long before hundreds of thousands of people began taking part in street protests.
But there has been an escalation of violence between police officers and civilians in recent days - at least 54 people have died in the protests so far.
|
8098e06a9363adf4d7993b828d97329e | https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-56521171?at_campaign=64&at_medium=custom7&at_custom4=6515825A-8D5B-11EB-86A8-F4574D484DA4&at_custom3=BBC+News&at_custom1=%5Bpost+type%5D&at_custom2=facebook_page | Miscarriages and stillbirths: New Zealand to allow bereavement leave | Miscarriages and stillbirths: New Zealand to allow bereavement leave
Couples in New Zealand who have a miscarriage or stillbirth will be eligible for paid bereavement leave under a new law approved by parliament.
MP Ginny Andersen, who put forward the bill, said it would allow mothers and their partners to "come to terms with their loss" without taking sick leave.
The bill also applies to those having a child though adoption or surrogacy.
New Zealand joins a small number of countries in the world to introduce the measure, including Philippines and India.
The legislation, which was unanimously passed in parliament, provides three days of bereavement leave.
Ms Anderson said one in four women in New Zealand have had a miscarriage and she hoped the new provision would give them "time to come to terms with their loss without having to tap into sick leave".
"Their grief is not a sickness, it is a loss. And loss takes time," she said, adding that New Zealand was "leading the way for progressive and compassionate legislation".
A year ago, parliament passed a reform bill that decriminalised abortion and allowed women to choose a termination up to 20 weeks into a pregnancy.
You might also want to read:
|
97ac32b5d6153673e982e2a91bd91df2 | https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-56586210 | Why Narendra Modi's visit to Bangladesh led to 12 deaths | Why Narendra Modi's visit to Bangladesh led to 12 deaths
Bangladesh had hoped that Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi's presence at its 50th independence anniversary celebrations last week would be memorable.
But the visit turned deadly as violent protests broke out against Mr Modi, leaving at least 12 people dead.
Mr Modi is a polarising figure both at home and abroad. His government, led by the Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), has often been accused of pursuing policies that target Muslim minorities, and not doing enough to curb violence against them. The BJP denies the charges.
His contentious image appears to have sparked the protests in the capital Dhaka - and the violence that followed no doubt was an embarrassment to both countries. It also casts a shadow on what has always been an amicable relationship between India and Bangladesh.
Mr Modi arrived in Dhaka for a two-day visit on 26 March, Bangladesh's independence day. It also coincided with the birth centenary of Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, the country's founder and father of the current prime minister, Sheikh Hasina.
Leaders of the Maldives, Sri Lanka, Bhutan and Nepal were all guests of honour at the event. But Mr Modi's visit, which was meant to cap off the 10-day long celebrations, set off protests.
A group of Muslim worshippers held a protest on 26 March after Friday prayers at a mosque in the city. Soon, clashes erupted and police used tear gas and batons to disperse the crowd.
Protests then spread to other parts of the country and a hardline Islamist group, Hefazat-e-Islam, called for a nationwide shut down on 28 March to protest the attacks on those who held rallies against Mr Modi's visit.
Police fired tear gas and rubber bullets to disperse the crowd, which threw rocks and stones at security forces.
Dhaka and the eastern district of Brahmanbaria
witnessed some of the worst violence
. Buses, a train, a Hindu temple and several properties were damaged. A number of people with gunshot wounds were admitted to hospitals.
"Madrassa students holding processions were attacked by security forces and supporters of the [governing] Awami League. That led to the conflict. But there was no need to open fire on unarmed people," Dr Ahmed Abdul Qader, vice chairman of the Hefazat, told the BBC.
Officials say 12 protesters have died so far but the Islamist group say there were many more casualties.
"Bangladesh is a democracy and everybody has a right to say what they have to say. But they [the protesters] cannot take law and order in their hands," Anisul Haq, Bangladesh's law minister, told the BBC.
"They [the protesters] exceeded the limit. To protect the citizens of the country, and to protect law and order, the law enforcing agencies intervened," Mr Haq said.
The protests were led by Islamists, students of madrassas (religious schools) and left-wing groups opposed to Mr Modi's visit to Bangladesh. They accused him of pursuing anti-Muslim policies.
Those who organised the rallies and even supporters of the ruling Awami League have accused security forces of brutally attacking protesters.
The incident prompted
a group of eminent citizens and activists to issue an open statement
demanding justice for the attacks on protesters.
Despite good bilateral relations, there has always been an undercurrent of anti-India sentiment among a section of Bangladeshis.
After the BJP came to power in India in 2014, "the anti-India sentiments turned into more of an anti-Modi feeling in Bangladesh", Shireen Huq, a women's rights activist, told the BBC.
"The protesters were not against India or the people of India. They were angry at the invitation to Mr Modi, who's extremely controversial and who's known for his anti-Muslim stance," she added.
"Bangladesh could have invited the president of India. That would have been acceptable to everyone."
But the government has justified its decision to invite Mr Modi.
"The government and the people of Bangladesh want to invite somebody from a country which steadfastly helped in our nine-month long independence war," Mr Haq said.
India and Bangladesh have historically enjoyed a good relationship.
Bangladesh was formerly East Pakistan. It became a part of Pakistan when the Britain divided the subcontinent into a Hindu-majority India and a Muslim-majority Pakistan in 1947.
But in 1971, Bangladesh fought for its independence from Pakistan and with the help of Indian military intervention, it became a separate country.
But the BJP's rise to power has complicated matters.
In recent election campaigns in the border states of West Bengal and Assam, Mr Modi and other senior BJP leaders have often raised the issue of alleged unauthorised immigration from Bangladesh. Bangladeshi officials have denied the accusation.
In a 2019 election rally, Home Minister Amit Shah described illegal immigrants as "termites", adding that the BJP government would "
pick up infiltrators one by one and throw them into the Bay of Bengal
".
Mr Shah's comments drew sharp criticism from rights groups and triggered anger in Bangladesh too.
But the repeated references to unauthorised Muslim immigrants from Bangladesh, especially during polarising election campaigns, have caused resentment in Dhaka. Ms Hasina's government, which is seen as pro-India by the opposition, is facing domestic pressure.
In 2019, Mr Modi's government passed a contentious citizenship law that would give asylum to religious minorities fleeing persecution from Afghanistan, Pakistan and Bangladesh. By definition, that does not include Muslims.
The Citizenship Amendment Act was seen as anti-Muslim
and it drew widespread criticism from India's opposition parties and rights groups.
The controversial law took Dhaka by surprise as well.
Ms Hasina went on the defensive and denied that minorities were fleeing Bangladesh due to religious persecution. Hindus constitute around 8% of Bangladesh's population of more than 160 million.
At one point Bangladesh even
cancelled a few high-profile ministerial visits to India
following domestic criticism of the citizenship law and a proposed National Register of Citizens (NRC).
The final NRC in Assam has left out nearly two million, including Hindus and Muslims, who ostensibly lacked sufficient documentation to prove that they were not unauthorised immigrants from Bangladesh. Hindu hardliners want the Muslims who have not made it to the list to be deported to Bangladesh.
Another thorn in the bilateral relationship is the killing of Bangladeshi civilians along the border by Indian security forces. Rights groups allege that
more than 300 people have been killed since 2011
and the shootings have triggered widespread anger in Bangladesh.
Indian officials say most of those killed are smugglers from criminal gangs. But Bangladesh maintains that many of the victims were civilians. Activists point out that despite repeated assurances from Delhi, the killings have not stopped.
"India-Bangladesh relations has been one-way traffic. Bangladesh has given lots of concessions to India without getting much in return. Still, we have many unresolved issues like the sharing of river water," Ms Huq said.
The two countries share 54 rivers and except for one, they all flow from upstream India to Bangladesh before reaching the Bay of Bengal. So India has the ability to regulate the water flow. But except for the Ganges, the two countries have not yet signed an agreement on any other river, much to the displeasure of Bangladeshis.
Maintaining a good relationship with Bangladesh is key to India's security in its north-eastern region where several indigenous separatist groups operate. Many of them have been subdued over the years with Dhaka's help.
India often boasts of its "excellent" relationship with Bangladesh. It's seen as a silver lining in its diplomacy in its backyard given Delhi's troubled ties with other neighbours such as Pakistan and China.
The anger over Mr Modi's visit is therefore a clear warning to Delhi - if the sensitivities of its neighbour are not addressed, India may end up being friends only with the government in Dhaka and not with the people of Bangladesh.
|
52ac3587cb92e6fc6193bf6e9af9be7b | https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-56602683 | The Myanmar beauty queen standing up to the military | The Myanmar beauty queen standing up to the military
Speeches by beauty pageant contestants rarely make headlines.
But when Han Lay, Miss Grand Myanmar, spoke out last week against alleged atrocities committed by her country's military, her speech turned heads.
"Today in my country Myanmar ... there are so many people dying," she said at the Miss Grand International 2020 event in Thailand. "Please help Myanmar. We need your urgent international help right now."
A little over a month ago, Han Lay, who is 22, was on the streets of Yangon, Myanmar's largest city, protesting against the military.
The unrest in Myanmar began two months ago when the military seized control of the country, undoing a democratic election in which Aung San Suu Kyi's National League for Democracy (NLD) party won by a landslide.
When tens of thousands of people took to the streets nationwide to protest the coup, the military used water cannon to disperse them. After a week, the response escalated to rubber bullets and then live ammunition.
The deadliest day of the conflict came last Saturday, when more than 100 people were killed. A local monitoring group puts the overall death toll at more than 500. According to Save the Children, 43 of those killed were children.
Han Lay, a psychology student at the University of Yangon, decided to use the pageant as a platform to speak out about her homeland on an international stage.
"In Myanmar, journalists are detained ... so I decided to speak out," she told the BBC in a phone interview from Bangkok.
She is concerned now that her two-minute speech could have put her on the radar of the military. She said she had decided to stay put in Thailand for at least the next three months.
Han Lay said she knew before she left for Thailand that she would be potentially putting herself at risk and would need to stay there for a while.
"I am so worried about my family and my security because I spoke out a lot about the military and the situation in Myanmar. In Myanmar everyone knows there are limits on speaking out about what is happening," she said.
"My friends told me to not come back to Myanmar."
Her fears are not unfounded. Security forces issued arrest warrants last week for 18 celebrities, social media "influencers" and two journalists under a law against material "intended to cause a member of the armed forces to mutiny or disregard their duty", state media reported. All of them had spoken out against the coup.
Han Lay said she had not been contacted by the military or any other officials after her speech, but she said she had been on the receiving end of threatening comments on her social media accounts.
"On social media they threatened me, saying when I go back to Myanmar ... prison is waiting for me," she said. She doesn't know who is behind the threatening remarks. The vast majority of social media comments had been supportive, she said.
Many of Han Lay's fellow students who she protested with in the first weeks after the coup had been jailed, she said. According to the Assistance Association for Political Prisoners (AAPP) activist group, at least 2,500 people have been arrested in the military crackdown.
And one of her friends was killed, Han Lay said.
"He wasn't even protesting. He went to a restaurant to drink some coffee one evening and someone shot him," she said.
Han Lay's family are safe, she said, but communication with them is sporadic because the internet is being regularly cut in Myanmar. She asked that the BBC did not publish the name of her home town, to protect them.
Han Lay's public political remarks, including direct criticism of the Myanmar's military and calls in an interview with fans on the pageant's official channel to "win the revolution", are not common among pageant contestants, who often prefer to stay apolitical.
Speaking before the competition, Lyv Chili, Miss Grand Cambodia, called on fans to stay out of politics.
But Han Lay sees speaking out as her "duty", she said. She called Ms Suu Kyi her "greatest inspiration". The ousted democratic leader was charged last week with violating Myanmar's official secrets act, a charge which carries a prison term of up to 14 years.
Han Lay previously planned on training to be a flight attendant after graduating, but she said she was unsure now about which path to take. Some have tried to persuade her to enter politics, she said, but she doesn't think it's for her.
In the meantime, she plans to keep using her voice to speak out.
"These are crimes against humanity, that's why we want the UN to take action urgently," she said. "We want our leader back and we want real democracy back."
|
f33222a64b542b13b1a64d0758514c20 | https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-56622336 | Taiwan train crash: Site boss bailed amid grief 51 deaths | Taiwan train crash: Site boss bailed amid grief 51 deaths
Officials investigating a train crash in Taiwan that killed 51 people are focusing on a maintenance lorry that slid onto the track.
The train hit the lorry then crashed inside a tunnel on Friday. A construction site manager suspected of negligence has been granted bail.
Rescuers are yet to extract a number of mangled carriages from the tunnel and fear they may find more bodies.
The train had been packed with people travelling to celebrate a holiday.
The accident was Taiwan's worst rail disaster in more than 70 years.
The disaster command centre says three foreigners are among the dead: two American women and a Frenchman.
The train had been travelling from the capital Taipei to Taitung and was entering the tunnel north of Hualien when the crash happened. Many of the nearly 500 passengers on board may have been standing because the train was so full.
The 408 train is one of the fastest deployed on Taiwan's network and can reach speeds of 130km/h (80mph).
President Tsai Ing-wen visited a hospital in Hualien on Saturday to "express my sympathy to the families of the victims," she said.
Grieving relatives, some holding makeshift shrines and weeping openly, held prayers at the crash site on Saturday.
Flags across the island are being be flown at half mast for three days. Among those honouring the victims were baseball players from the Fubon Guardians team, who observed a minute's silence ahead of a game on Friday.
Rescuers remain at the scene as part of the mangled train is still in the tunnel.
On Saturday the unnamed construction site manager was released on $15,000 (£11,000) bail after prosecutors sought a warrant for his arrest.
He could face charges of causing death by negligence and of forging documents and he said he was co-operating with investigators.
"Prosecutors will certainly step up investigation and understanding of the crimes or of other suspects involved in the case," department of prosecutorial affairs director-general Lin Jinn-tsun said.
Meanwhile, recovery teams have begun removing the rear carriages of the train which were relatively unscathed. Fire service chiefs said they expected to find more bodies trapped in the carriages still inside the tunnel.
It took place at about 09:00 local time (01:00 GMT) on Friday.
Some passengers at the back of the train were able to walk away unscathed, while 100 were rescued from the first four carriages.
Many were trapped inside the wreckage for hours and some survivors told how they smashed windows to escape.
The train driver is among the dead.
Images show a large, yellow flatbed truck lying at the side of the tracks. A construction project has been under way near the north end of the tunnel.
It is not known how the vehicle slipped down the embankment.
Many of those on the train are believed to have been travelling to celebrate Taiwan's Tomb Sweeping festival - a time when people pay their respects to the dead by visiting the graves of family members, sprucing them up and making offerings to their spirits.
The death toll is the highest for a train crash in Taiwan in 73 years. In 1948 in Xindian district in Taipei, a passenger brought flammable material on to a train, causing a fire that burned four carriages, killing 64 people.
|
92d1dab29ac35c23ba449abddee26138 | https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-56623734 | Graffiti art defaced by spectators at South Korea gallery | Graffiti art defaced by spectators at South Korea gallery
Graffiti artwork on display in South Korea has been damaged by a couple who thought brushes and paint laid in front of the piece were for visitors' use.
"They thought they were allowed to do that as participatory art and made a mistake," the head of the exhibition in Seoul told Reuters news agency.
After staff spotted fresh brushstrokes CCTV footage identified the accidental vandals, a man and woman in their 20s.
The untitled piece is estimated to be worth about $500,000 (£360,000).
It was painted by US graffiti artist JonOne in front of an audience in Seoul in 2016.
It has since been displayed at various venues, along with the paint and brushes used in the live performance - which are regarded as integral parts of the artwork.
Kang Wook, the head of the exhibition at Seoul's Lotte World Mall, told Reuters: "We are currently in discussions with the artist about whether to restore it."
Police found and questioned the couple at the gallery. Organisers decided not to press charges and the pair were released.
The incident prompted the gallery to put up a small fence in front of the graffiti with additional signs saying: "Do Not Touch".
|
3486fa7e907468a605cafa124613754a | https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-56645611 | Tokyo Olympics: North Korea to skip Games over Covid-19 fears | Tokyo Olympics: North Korea to skip Games over Covid-19 fears
North Korea has announced it will not take part in the Tokyo Olympics this year, saying the decision is to protect its athletes from Covid-19.
The decision puts an end to South Korea's hopes of using the Games to engage with the North amid stalled cross-border talks.
In 2018, both sides entered a joint team at the Winter Olympics which led to a series of historic summits.
Pyongyang says it has no cases of the virus but experts say this is unlikely.
The country's health system is thought to be completely inadequate for dealing with the Covid pandemic, the BBC's Tokyo Correspondent Rupert Wingfield-Hayes reports.
The announcement makes North Korea the first major country to skip the delayed 2020 Games because of the pandemic. The event is due to begin on 23 July.
This will be the first time North Korea has missed a Summer Olympics since 1988, when it boycotted the Seoul Games during the Cold War.
Pyongyang's decision was made at an Olympic committee meeting on 25 March, according to a report by the state-run site Sports in the DPRK.
However, the International Olympic Committee (IOC) said it had not "received an official application" from North Korea to step back from the Games.
It added that despite repeated requests, the country's National Olympic Committee had failed to "hold a telephone conference during which the Covid-19 situation in North Korea should also have been discussed".
North Korea has taken stringent measures against the virus since it broke out last year.
It shut its borders in late January and later quarantined hundreds of foreigners in its capital.
Since early last year, trains and wagons have been forbidden to enter or leave North Korea, with most international passenger flights stopped as well.
There were hopes from South Korea's President Moon Jae-in that the Games could be a catalyst for progress between both Koreas.
That had been the case in 2018, when North Korea sent 22 athletes to the Winter Olympics in South Korea, along with government officials, journalists and a 230-member cheering group.
Among the contingent was North Korean leader Kim Jong-un's sister, Kim Yo-jong - a move which helped it initiate diplomacy with South Korea and the US.
The talks that followed led to a series of historic, high-profile meetings between the North Korean leader and former US President Donald Trump.
There were hopes for improved relations after the meetings, but nothing materialised and the atmosphere has since deteriorated.
North and South Korea are technically still at war because no peace treaty was signed when the Korean War ended in 1953.
Japan and North Korea also have their own enduring tensions, rooted in Japan's 35-year colonisation of Korea, Pyongyang's pursuit of nuclear and missile programmes, and the North's past abduction of Japanese citizens.
Meanwhile, in Japan, an Olympic preparatory event was cancelled after Covid infections broke out at a training camp for the Japanese water polo team - with seven people testing positive for the virus.
It follows the announcement that the Osaka leg of the Olympic torch relay will be cancelled after infections in the city hit record highs.
There have been growing concerns in Japan that more infectious strains of the virus could be driving a potential fourth Covid wave in the country.
Watch how a group of Russian diplomats and their families made an unusual exit out of North Korea on a hand-pushed rail trolley, due to strict Covid measures.
|
c77ee4a2f3caab2d60cd7cfb4ad07cb7 | https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-56648049 | 'Mrs Sri Lanka' beauty queen injured in on-stage bust-up | 'Mrs Sri Lanka' beauty queen injured in on-stage bust-up
The winner of a major Sri Lankan beauty prize has suffered head injuries after a brawl broke out on stage.
Beauty queen Pushpika De Silva won the "Mrs Sri Lanka" title at a ceremony on national TV on Sunday.
Moments later, the 2019 winner seized Mrs De Silva's crown, claiming she could not be awarded the title because she was divorced.
The prize has now been returned to Mrs De Silva, after pageant organisers confirmed she is not a divorcee.
Judges named Ms De Silva the 2021 winner at the Mrs Sri Lanka final in a theatre in Colombo on Sunday night.
But the 2019 winner, Caroline Jurie, stripped Mrs De Silva of her crown, citing a pageant rule that competitors must be married and not divorced.
"There is a rule that prevents women who have already been married and are divorced, so I am taking steps to make the crown go to second place," Mrs Jurie told the audience.
She placed the crown on the runner-up, prompting a tearful Mrs De Silva to walk off stage,
a video of the incident showed
.
The organisers have apologised to Mrs De Silva, who says she is separated, but not divorced.
In a Facebook post, she said she went to hospital
to be treated for head injuries after the incident.
Mrs De Silva said she would take legal action for the "unreasonable and insulting" way she was treated.
"There are a lot of single mums like me today who are suffering in Sri Lanka," Mrs De Silva told a press conference. "This crown is dedicated to those women, those single mums who are suffering to raise their kids alone."
The national director of Mrs Sri Lanka World, Chandimal Jayasinghe, told the BBC that the crown would be returned to Mrs De Silva on Tuesday.
"We are disappointed," he said, adding: "It was a disgrace how Caroline Jurie behaved on the stage and the Mrs World organisation has already begun an investigation on the matter."
Police have questioned Mrs Jurie, who is the current holder of the "Mrs World" title, as well as Mr Jayasinghe, about the incident.
The Mrs Sri Lanka World beauty pageant is a major contest in the country. The prime minister's wife was among the guests at the ceremony.
|
f89474e40cda84c9b151d5aa33f1a280 | https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-56660706 | Imran Khan criticised for rape 'victim blaming' | Imran Khan criticised for rape 'victim blaming'
Human rights groups in Pakistan have accused Prime Minister Imran Khan of being a "rape apologist" after he blamed a rise in sexual assault cases on how women dress.
During a live television interview, he advised women to cover up to prevent temptation.
Mr Khan added "in any society where vulgarity is prevalent, there are consequences."
Hundreds of people have signed a statement demanding an apology.
Pakistan is ranked as one of the most dangerous countries in the world for women in terms of safety and equality.
Sexual abuse,
so-called "honour" killings
and forced marriage are common, and criminal complaints are rarely reported to police, or seriously investigated.
In a two-hour-long, question-and-answer interview with the public on live television, Imran Khan was asked what steps his government had taken to prevent sexual abuse.
After denouncing crimes against women and children, he said that sexual violence was a result of "increasing obscenity", adding it was a product of India, the West and Hollywood movies.
The prime minister said women in Pakistan should remove "temptation" because "not everyone has willpower". He said women should observe purdah - a term referring to women wearing modest clothes around men or segregation between sexes.
Last year Imran Khan was criticised following a similar national television interview, where he failed to challenge a Muslim cleric's opinion that women were to blame for the coronavirus pandemic.
A statement condemning the prime minister's comments
and demanding an apology has been co-signed by multiple human rights organisations and hundreds of individuals.
It said his words were "factually incorrect, insensitive and dangerous" and "actively fostered and promoted rape culture".
"Such statements have the effect of further traumatizing and silencing survivors of sexual violence by placing the blame on them, instead of on those who carry out the crime and the system that enables rapists," it reads.
Soon after his comments, there was widespread outrage on social media.
Journalist Zahid Hussain wrote in his column in Pakistan's leading newspaper, Dawn,
that "Imran Khan's views on rape are not very different from the callous comments made by a former Lahore police chief about the Motorway gang rape last year. He blamed the victim for driving late at night. His comments reflected the thinking of a large segment of society that prefers to blame the victim."
The
Motorway gang rape
, which sent shockwaves throughout Pakistan, has become a key example of the violence perpetrated against women, and the attitudes towards it by some senior officials.
In September 2020, a Pakistani-French mother and her two children were parked on the side of a highway near Lahore, waiting for help after running out of fuel.
Two men broke into the car, robbed them and raped the woman in front of her children.
In several TV interviews, Lahore's most senior police officer, Umer Sheikh, questioned why the victim had not taken a busier road or checked her fuel before departing, implying the woman was to blame.
The case sparked massive protests
, as women took to the streets to voice their anger and demand change.
The outcry led to new anti-rape measures, including the creation of a national sex offenders register, the protection of victims' identities, and allowing chemical castration of some offenders.
There are at least 11 rape cases reported in Pakistan every day, according to official statistics. Over 22,000 rape cases were reported to police across the country in the past six years, however, only 77 accused have been convicted , which is 0.3% of the total figure.
|
54f3bc212df86e884baccce9393bc13f | https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-56661303 | Taiwan accuses China of 'vaccine diplomacy' in Paraguay | Taiwan accuses China of 'vaccine diplomacy' in Paraguay
Taiwan has accused Beijing of offering Chinese-made Covid vaccines to pressure Paraguay to sever ties with the island.
Foreign Minister Joseph Wu claimed China had promised millions of doses for Paraguay which has been hit hard by the pandemic.
Beijing considers Taiwan to be a part of China and says it should unite with the Chinese mainland.
China has denied using vaccines to try and persuade Paraguay to change allegiance.
Paraguay is only one of a handful of countries that recognise the self-governing territory of Taiwan as a sovereign nation.
Speaking on Wednesday, Mr Wu accused China of "vaccine diplomacy".
"The Chinese government was very active in saying if the Paraguay government is willing to sever diplomatic ties with Taiwan, they will be able to get quite a few million vaccine doses from China," he added.
Mr Wu said Paraguayan President Mario Abdo Benítez had been put under pressure and Taiwan had asked other countries to help procure vaccines for Paraguay. India says it has sent 100,000 doses.
The country has also received 36,000 doses from AstraZeneca, 4,000 doses of the Russian Sputnik V vaccine and 20,000 of the Chinese Sinovac.
Last month Paraguay said unofficial brokers who claimed to have access to China's vaccines had offered a deal. However, Paraguay's foreign ministry said their links with China and its government had not been proven.
China's Foreign Ministry then denied the claims and said they were
part of a "disinformation campaign originating in Taiwan".
Paraguay has reported 224,736 cases of Covid-19 and 4,522 deaths, according to data from Johns Hopkins University. Last month protests
broke out in the country over the handling of the pandemic.
Only 15 countries officially recognise Taipei over Beijing. A number of allies are under pressure to change their allegiance. On Wednesday, Surangel Whipps, president of the South Pacific island nation of Palau, claimed he would often receive calls from Chinese officials in the run-up to elections last year. He is adamant that despite the pressure, he will remain tied to Taipei.
China has proposed that Taiwan be governed under a "one country, two systems" structure similar to Hong Kong.
|
7c5570fed4b5037cfd2f4146dcffc196 | https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-56661349 | Buddhist monk freed from flooded cave in Thailand after four days | Buddhist monk freed from flooded cave in Thailand after four days
Thai rescue workers have freed a Buddhist monk from a flooded cave, four days after he went inside to meditate.
The monk, who was on a pilgrimage, entered the cave in Thailand's Phitsanulok province on Saturday, rescuers say.
But an unseasonal rainstorm struck the area on Sunday, causing water levels to rise and flood the cave.
A team of 17 divers from a local rescue unit helped to bring the monk out to safety on Wednesday.
The monk, Phra Ajarn Manas, 46, makes a pilgrimage to the Phra Sai Ngam cave each year "to sit in contemplation",
a local rescue unit said in a Facebook post (in Thai).
But when he did not return after the heavy rain, residents in the area alerted authorities.
Rescuers went in to find him on Tuesday, but had to call off the search due to rising water levels.
The unit said they had no contact with the monk because there was no phone signal inside the cave and the area could only be accessed by divers. They were concerned he may be "exhausted or unconscious because of not having food at all".
A team of 17 divers managed to reach the monk on Wednesday morning after the rain stopped.
"At 11.30am we successfully rescued Phra Manas from the cave," the rescue unit announced on their Facebook page.
A video posted by rescuers shows the monk fitted with a diving mask making a 12-metre swim underwater.
He was was led out of the cave to safety and received treatment in an ambulance, footage on social media shows.
The incident has similarities to the 2018 ordeal of the Wild Boars football team, when
12 boys and their football coach became stuck in a flooded cave
in the northern town of Chiang Rai.
Thai Navy Seals and an international team of cave divers managed to rescue the boys and their coach from the cave.
|
3747ab4a6da293229fcab42bb0497aae | https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-56672054 | Myanmar: Celebrity model arrested amid coup crackdown | Myanmar: Celebrity model arrested amid coup crackdown
One of Myanmar's most popular celebrities has been arrested by the military as part of a growing crackdown on artists and actors.
Paing Takhon, a model and actor with millions of fans in Myanmar and Thailand, had been active in both online protests and in-person rallies.
Takhon's Instagram - with more than a million followers - has been taken down along with his Facebook account.
The military seized power in a coup on 1 February, sparking weeks of protests.
Around 600 civilians have been killed as forces respond to the demonstrations with increasing levels of violence.
According to a Facebook post by Takhon's sister Thi Thi Lwin, around 50 soldiers with eight military trucks came to arrest him at around 05:00 local time (22:30 GMT Wednesday) on Thursday.
A close acquaintance of his, who did not wish to be named, told the BBC he was taken from his mother's home in North Dagon, a township in Yangon.
They said that he had been suffering from "serious depression".
The acquaintance added that Takhon had been suffering from a physical condition, adding that he could not even "stand or walk properly", though no further details were given.
However, they said he had been "aware of the consequences" that awaited him, adding that he was "not scared at all". Both his mobile phones were taken along with him, they added.
The 24-year-old had previously been seen participating in several demonstrations and marches.
He had also posted images of ousted civilian leader and pro-democracy icon Aung San Suu Kyi.
"We strongly condemn military coup. We demand immediate release of state counseller [sic] Daw Aung San Suu Kyi, President U Win Myint, civilian government ministers and elected members of perliment [sic]," Mr Takhon is said to have written in an online post which has also been taken down.
"We demand to respect 2020 election results and form new civillian [sic] government soonest by NLD led perliment [sic]."
His detention is the latest in a sweeping crackdown on celebrities in recent days.
It also comes a day after Myanmar's ambassador to London said
a military attaché had taken over the embassy and forced him out.
It comes after Kyaw Zwar Minn, who has now been removed from his position, called from ousted leader Aung San Suu Kyi to be released.
Arrest warrants for around 100 filmmakers, actors, celebrities and journalists have been issued for speaking out against the coup.
Earlier this week security forces arrested the country's best-known comedian Zarganar.
Last week, Myanmar beauty pageant winner Han Lay, spoke out against the coup in a speech at an event held in Thailand.
Mass protests have been taking place across Myanmar, also known as Burma, since the military seized control on 1 February and declared a year-long state of emergency.
The armed forces claim there had been widespread fraud during a general election late last year which had returned elected leader Aung San Suu Kyi and her National League for Democracy party (NLD) to power.
|
d387c69cda43fbd900da5b8e946b7c31 | https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-56675193 | Sri Lanka Mrs World arrested over pageant bust-up | Sri Lanka Mrs World arrested over pageant bust-up
Police in Sri Lanka have arrested the reigning Mrs World Caroline Jurie, after she allegedly injured a fellow beauty queen in an on-stage bust-up.
Pushpika De Silva won the "Mrs Sri Lanka" title in a televised ceremony on Sunday, and former winner Mrs Jurie was meant to crown her.
Instead, she pulled the crown off Mrs De Silva's head, claiming she could not hold the title as she was divorced.
The winner later said she is separated from her husband, not divorced.
Mrs Sri Lanka is part of the Mrs World beauty pageant series for married women. The winners of each country's title progress to the overall Mrs World competition.
"There is a rule that prevents women who have already been married and are divorced, so I am taking steps to make the crown go to second place," Mrs Jurie told the audience.
She placed the crown on the runner-up, prompting a tearful Mrs De Silva to walk off stage,
a video of the incident showed
.
In a Facebook post, Mrs De Silva said she went to hospital
to be treated for head injuries after the incident.
"There are a lot of single mums like me today who are suffering in Sri Lanka," she later told a press conference. "This crown is dedicated to those women, those single mums who are suffering to raise their kids alone."
She added that she would take legal action for the "unreasonable and insulting" way she was treated.
Another Sri Lankan model involved in the fracas was also arrested.
"Police arrested Caroline Jurie and model Chula Padmendra over Sunday's incident on charges of simple hurt and criminal cause," police spokesman Ajith Rohana told the BBC.
Both Mrs Jurie and the chief organiser of Mrs Sri Lanka pageant, Chandimal Jayasinghe, were questioned by police on Thursday. Mrs Jurie and Chula Padmendra were bailed to appear in Colombo Magistrates Court on 19 April.
Mrs De Silva has now been re-crowned, and the pageant's organisers have said they expect Mrs Jurie to issue a public apology.
Mr Jayasinghe told the BBC earlier: "We are disappointed. It was a disgrace how Caroline Jurie behaved on the stage and the Mrs World organisation has already begun an investigation on the matter."
The Mrs Sri Lanka World beauty pageant is a major contest in the country. The prime minister's wife was among the guests at the ceremony.
|
3ab55f1e9802d27658a8dd677f50678c | https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-56675201 | Kyrgyzstan: Fury over death of 'bride kidnapping' victim | Kyrgyzstan: Fury over death of 'bride kidnapping' victim
Angry protests have broken out in Kyrgyzstan after a woman was abducted and killed in a case of "bride kidnapping".
Aizada Kanatbekova, 27, was snatched on Monday by three men who pushed her into a car. It is believed one of them wanted to marry her by force.
Security footage showing the abduction spread widely on social media but police could not track the vehicle.
Ms Kanatbekova's body was found in an abandoned car on Wednesday.
A shepherd came across the vehicle in a field outside the capital, Bishkek, and raised the alarm.
The young woman's kidnapper and suspected murderer was also found dead. Police said he died from knife wounds, which were thought to have been self-inflicted.
Ms Kanatbekova's family said she knew the man, and they had asked him before not to hassle her.
Another of the three men was detained by police, according to state TV.
The illegal abduction of women for marriage is thought to be widespread in the country.
Many believe bride kidnapping is an ancient Kyrgyz tradition, but some researchers argue it became popular in the Central Asian country only a few decades ago.
It was outlawed in 2013, but convictions are rare and women are often unwilling to report it for fear of reprisals. UN figures suggest one in five marriages in Kyrgyzstan happens after a woman has been kidnapped.
Parents and relatives relentlessly pressure young men in Kyrgyzstan to marry after they reach a certain age. For many, especially those from poor families, bride kidnapping is the cheapest and quickest way.
About 500 people gathered to demonstrate in front of the interior ministry on Thursday, shouting "Shame!" and demanding the minister's resignation.
"It is impossible to be quiet and observe the violence that our women, who lack any rights, must endure," local journalist Mahinur Niyazova told the AFP news agency.
Prime Minister Ulugbek Sharipov urged the crowd to "have patience" while police investigate, but several called for him to be fired too.
Some of the signs carried by protesters read: "Who will answer for Aizada's murder?" and "Who still thinks that murder is a tradition?"
Writing on Facebook, Kyrgyzstan's President Sadyr Japarov described Ms Kanatbekova's death as "a tragedy and pain not only for her family, but also for our entire state".
The incident should be "the last bride kidnapping in history", he said.
Kyrgyzstan has been here before, however.
In 2018, a 20-year-old medical student, Burulai Turdaaly Kyzy, was stabbed to death at a police station, as she prepared to file a statement against her kidnapper.
Her killer was sentenced to 20 years in prison, and more than 20 police officers were punished.
|
ba73041c502119b52d1409b4cf6c2a22 | https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-56684073 | Covid patient receives world's first living donor lung transplant | Covid patient receives world's first living donor lung transplant
A woman in Japan has become the world's first Covid patient to receive a living donor lung transplant.
The patient received lung segments from her son and husband after her organs failed because of damage caused by the coronavirus.
Doctors in Kyoto hope she will make a complete recovery within months.
Waiting lists for full lung transplants - where the organ is provided by donors who have died - are very long in Japan and elsewhere.
The procedure at Kyoto University Hospital took around 11 hours to perform. Both donors and patient are in a stable condition, doctors said.
Dozens of lung transplants to treat coronavirus infections have been carried out in China, Europe and the United States by using the lungs of organ donors who have passed away, but the waiting list can be years-long in Japan, the hospital said.
When it became clear that the patient - who had no underlying health conditions - would need a lung transplant in order to survive, her son and husband decided to donate part of their lungs. They were warned of health risks due to decreased lung capacity.
Professor Hiroshi Date, a thoracic surgeon who was in charge of the operation,
told Kyodo News
: "I think there is a lot of hope for this treatment in the sense that it creates a new option."
|
be43c513f80bb2a5e7035078b69fd9ff | https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-china-16154099 | Human Right Watch: West 'ignores Uzbekistan abuses' | Human Right Watch: West 'ignores Uzbekistan abuses'
Western governments are ignoring human rights abuses in Uzbekistan as they seek closer ties with the country, Human Rights Watch (HRW) says.
In a new report,
the campaign group says Uzbekistan is continuing to use torture
in its criminal justice system.
The report documents cases of detainees being subjected to physical and psychological torture.
Western countries have dramatically weakened their stance on human rights in the central Asian country, it says.
There has been no comment as yet from the Uzbek government on the report.
The 107-page document makes for a chilling read, says the BBC's Central Asia correspondent Rayhan Demytrie.
It is based on interviews with torture victims, their families, lawyers and human rights activists.
One torture case describes police officers handcuffing an espionage suspect and burning his genitals with a lighted newspaper.
Others include allegations of interrogators pouring boiling water on an activist, beating detainees, hanging them by their wrists and ankles and subjecting them to rape and asphyxiation.
The report also alleges that Tashkent has been disbarring some of the country's most outspoken lawyers, as well as routinely denying detainees access to legal counsel.
Human Rights Watch calls on governments to consider punitive measures such as asset freezes and visa bans for Uzbek officials alleged to have been involved in torture.
The report criticised the EU for dropping sanctions on Uzbekistan two years ago, while the US moved in September to waive Congressional human rights restrictions on assistance, including on military aid, to the Uzbek government.
Steven Swerdlow, who was the head of Human Rights Watch's Uzbek programme before being expelled from the country, criticised the United States and European Union countries for their close ties to the "dictatorial regime".
"That's because Uzbekistan borders Afghanistan, and Uzbekistan has this single functioning rail line from the north to the south into Afghanistan", Mr Swerdlow told the BBC.
"And the United States and the EU have of late, moved away from criticising the human rights situation in favour of co-operating with the country in order to supply their troops in Afghanistan," he says.
Washington officials insist that it is important to remove restrictions on military aid.
"We need this waiver to allow the United States to provide defensive equipment to enhance Uzbekistan's ability to protect its border through which a lot of cargo that is destined for our troops in Afghanistan is passing," says US Assistant Secretary of State Robert Blake.
"But we raise human rights on every occasion that we have engagement with Uzbekistan," he told the BBC.
Uzbekistan is now a key part of the Northern Distribution Network (NDN) - an increasingly important supply route for NATO troops in Afghanistan.
It is an alternative route to the one through Pakistan shut down last month following a NATO air strike that killed 24 Pakistani soldiers.
More than half of US supplies are already shipped to Afghanistan through Central Asia.
|
8f9d81cd107f4403b9ca7029c0adfdfb | https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-china-16154113 | School bus crash in China's Jiangsu province kills 15 | School bus crash in China's Jiangsu province kills 15
Fifteen children have been killed in China after their school bus veered off a road into an irrigation ditch.
Many of the children drowned as ditch water gushed into the overturned bus in eastern Jiangsu province, officials said.
The tragedy comes amid a national outcry over recent similar incidents.
Only on Sunday, the government issued draft measures to guarantee children's safety, including compulsory checks on buses and their drivers.
Monday's accident happened as the 29 children were being driven home from school along a rural road in Fengxian county.
The bus driver - who officials say has now been taken into custody - had apparently swerved to avoid a motorised rickshaw.
Nearby factory workers heard cries and rushed to help the children, many of whom were trapped at the bottom of the overturned bus.
"The water was not very deep, probably more than a metre (yard) or so - up to an adult's waist - but it was deep enough to drown some of the children," Zhang, the wife of the factory owner, told the Associated Press.
"We tried so hard and cracked open one of the windows and started to pull the kids out. It was freezing cold."
She said the children ranged in age from six to 14. Eight of the children were injured.
Officials have said the bus could carry 52 people so was not overloaded at the time of the accident.
They have been keen to draw a distinction between a crash in Gansu province last month in which 19 kindergarten children died, the BBC's Michael Bristow in Beijing reports.
On that occasion, more than 60 youngsters were crammed into a minibus that originally had just nine seats.
Officials will, nevertheless, face tough questions about this latest accident involving a school bus, our correspondent adds.
Monday also saw another crash involving a school bus, this time in southern Guangdong province. Some 37 pupils were injured after the bus carrying 59 children was hit by a heavy-duty truck, Xinhua news agency reports.
Correspondents say school buses are often overloaded in China, and children are increasingly being forced to travel further as schools close in rural areas hit by migration to the cities.
Millions of messages have been posted on the Chinese social media site Weibo, expressing outrage, sadness and frustration: "Another schoolbus accident!!! How much longer before this can be rectified?!" one user wrote.
Some also criticised the new safety regulations being drafted by the government, saying that allowing schools a three-year transition period to adopt the rules is too long.
"In China, history repeats itself," wrote one microblogger. "You can wait three years, but life can't. The ink and blood have yet to dry. Do we need more heartache?"
|
2f21ebac78705fca93064603b51f9226 | https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-china-17254523 | China's Premier Wen opens National People's Congress | China's Premier Wen opens National People's Congress
Premier Wen Jiabao cut China's economic growth target as he opened the last parliament session under the current leadership.
Speaking to some 3,000 delegates at Beijing's Great Hall of the People, Mr Wen addressed land and military issues.
He talked of "property rights" for farmers and said China needed to be able to win "local wars".
This is the last National People's Congress before a leadership transition begins later this year.
The once-in-a-decade transfer of power will begin in October. Vice-President Xi Jinping is widely expected to take over the party leadership from President Hu Jintao.
Behind the scenes of this session senior officials will be jockeying for power, say correspondents, but the Communist party will be determined to keep any divisions within its ruling elite behind closed doors.
In an address seen as China's "state of the nation" speech, Mr Wen said China had set a 7.5% economic growth target this year - lower than the 8% target of the last eight years.
He said the move aimed to allow changes to the pattern of economic development, making it "more sustainable and efficient".
China also set its inflation target at 4% and pledged to create nine million new jobs in towns and cities.
Mr Wen spoke of boosting domestic consumption, increasing spending on social services and raising incomes of middle and low-income groups, as well as expanding consumer credit.
"We aim to promote steady and robust economic development, keep prices stable, and guard against financial risks by keeping the total money and credit supply at an appropriate level, and taking a cautious and flexible approach," he said.
The premier addressed the issue of land rights - a topic that has become more prominent in recent months following high-profile protests against land seizures for development in the Guangdong village of Wukan.
"Farmers' rights to the land they contract to work on, to the land on which their houses sit and to proceeds from collective undertakings are property rights conferred by law, and these rights must not be violated by anyone," he said.
Security issues were also high on the agenda. Parliament convened a day after China announced a 11.2% increase in its defence spending - pushing it above $100bn (£65bn) for the first time.
"We will enhance the armed forces' capacity to accomplish a wide range of military tasks, the most important of which is to win local wars under information-age conditions," Mr Wen said.
In recent months tensions between China and its neighbours over territorial disputes in the South China Sea have been growing.
An increase of 11.5% in public security spending was also announced, bringing the annual total to $111bn.
This comes amid tension in ethnic Tibetan parts of China and days after an attack in Xinjiang - home to minority Muslim Uighurs - left 20 people dead.
During the meeting, which ends on 14 March, parliament is expected to approve changes to the criminal procedure law which officials say will give suspects more rights - but which activists fear could legalise secret detentions.
|
cada96d9e9cbb71f2e6f3536a761af99 | https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-china-17673673 | Netizens debate Bo Xilai despite censorship | Netizens debate Bo Xilai despite censorship
China's decision to strip political superstar Bo Xilai of his Politburo post has prompted lively discussion in cyber space, despite renewed internet censorship.
Social media platforms such as Sina Weibo and Baidu Tieba are filtering posts with keywords such as "Bo Xilai", "Gu Kailai" and "Heywood". Attempts to search these phrases return no results.
Twitter-like Weibo posts on Bo Xilai have been filtered on and off since the scandal surrounding Bo Xilai and his wife began to unfold.
Although the reinstated filters make it hard for people to look for comments, China's internet users have managed to tweet - and re-tweet - some 1m posts on the latest developments so far.
Netizens use the hash-tag "important news" for posts on the issue, and "Wood" instead of "Heywood" when discussing the British businessman whose death Bo Xilai's wife is being questioned about.
Some Weibo users express their frustration over the censorship, while others praise those who came up with the workarounds for their creativity.
"Do you really have to do this, Sina? There is already a press release from the central government," wrote a Weibo user in Guangzhou, who put on the "important news" tag.
A user from Shanghai posted an alert that he received from the site moderator notifying him that his tweet about Neil Heywood's death "had been encrypted".
Another from the southern city of Shenzhen who managed to scale the Great Firewall of China also expressed his discontent over the censorship. "All I can say is, fake democracy is thinner than paper," he said.
In terms of the comment, some users question whether the fact that Mr Heywood was a British citizen led to Beijing's "swift" action, saying that if it were the death of an ordinary Chinese person, it would just be covered up.
However, most of the posts on micro-blogs and online forums that have not been filtered praise Beijing's actions.
"He's indeed a good student of [reformist leaders] Zhao (Ziyang) and Hu (Yaobang). Premier Wen will leave a good record in history," said
a thread
in Baidu Tieba, praising Wen Jiabao for removing Bo Xilai.
This fits with the official line. CPCNews.cn, a website run by the People's Daily,
runs an online report
saying many netizens support the investigations into the Bo family.
It was quite hard to find any comment in support of Mr Bo. One, posted on Baidu Tieba, read: "I feel sad to see the news about Mr Bo. He is in his 60s. Please leave him in peace!"
But one Twitter user from Shanghai said the scandal was "more interesting than any other 8pm TV drama".
Meanwhile, most major newspapers only published
the brief statement
by Xinhua News Agency on Mr Bo's removal, as well as
the Xinhua report
on the detention of Gu Kailai, Mr Bo's wife.
They also published
a front page commentary
by the People's Daily which calls for people to support the government's actions, but refrain from making their own comments on the issue.
The Global Times ran
a bilingual editorial
which stressed stability, but it is actually a subsidiary of the People's Daily.
Beijing News
is among the rare outlets which ran its own editorial. It says the only way to maintain stability is for the government to release updates on important events in a timely manner.
Shanghai's China Business News
runs a commentary that reacts indirectly to Mr Bo's suspension.
There is only one possible outcome for those who attempt to break the law but expect no consequences, it says, "which is when you have the strength to lift the rock, you only throw it towards yourself".
|
0fbf68aa759fd4b24de866552f6d3eeb | https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-china-18299065 | China 'arrests high-level US spy' in Hong Kong - reports | China 'arrests high-level US spy' in Hong Kong - reports
A Chinese security ministry official has been arrested on suspicion of spying for the US and passing on state secrets, Hong Kong media reports say.
The man, who was private secretary to a vice-minister in the security ministry, was arrested earlier this year, various press reports say.
US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton declined to comment on the reports.
If confirmed, it would be the third major incident to hit China-US relations in the past few months.
It would also be the highest-level spy case involving China and the US to become public since 1985, when intelligence official Yu Qiangsheng defected to the US.
The official had been recruited by the CIA, local press and Reuters report.
Hong Kong-based Oriental Daily quotes the monthly New Way as saying on 25 May that the official "fell into a pretty woman trap" set up by the CIA.
After the two were photographed in secret liaisons, he was blackmailed and agreed to supply secret information to the US, the reports say.
"The destruction has been massive," a source told Reuters.
The official was arrested between January and March on allegations that he had passed information to the US for several years on China's overseas espionage activities, Hong Kong press and Reuters report.
China's foreign ministry did not respond immediately to a request for comment faxed by Reuters on Friday.
China-US relations have been fraught with tension in recent months, following two high-profile cases.
In March, rising political star Bo Xilai was sacked as Communist party chief in the city of Chongqing, after his police chief fled to the US consulate in the city of Chengdu in neighbouring Sichuan province.
And earlier this month, blind activist Chen Guangcheng left for a new life in New York, after he caused a diplomatic crisis by escaping from house arrest and seeking refuge in the US embassy in Beijing.
It would put further pressure on China's security chief, Zhou Yongkang. Rumours were swirling about his possible downfall in the wake of Mr Bo's sacking,
wrote the BBC's Beijing correspondent
Damian Grammaticas at the time.
Most China-US spy cases involve industrial espionage. Last year, an Indian-born engineer was found guilty in the US state of Hawaii of selling military secrets to China to do with the B-2 bomber.
In 2003, a US woman who had been recruited to spy on China by the FBI was arrested along with her lover, a former FBI agent, but a judge later dismissed the charges against her.
|
38132370644c9f1e62386fa51f243dcd | https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-china-18964733 | Hong Kong lashed by strong typhoon | Hong Kong lashed by strong typhoon
A strong typhoon hit Hong Kong overnight, leaving scores injured, hundreds of trees felled and many flights cancelled or delayed.
Typhoon Vicente hit late on Monday, bringing winds of more than 140 km/h (87 mph) and heavy downpours.
The storm warning was briefly raised to the highest level of 10 for the first time in 13 years but downgraded on Tuesday as the storm passed.
Trading on the stock exchange was temporarily delayed on Tuesday morning.
The stock exchange was expected to resume trading in the afternoon.
Although the typhoon was forecast to move away from Hong Kong across western Guangdong, the
Hong Kong Observatory
warned that gale force winds were still prevailing on Tuesday morning.
Authorities warned that flight disruptions could continue.
More than 100 people aged between four and 86 sought treatment at public hospitals, officials said.
Flooding has also been reported in some areas and hundreds of trees were felled overnight.
The Hong Kong government has opened 24 temporary shelters and more than 250 people have sought refuge.
The Airport Authority said that between midnight (1600 GMT) to 0800 local time, 60 flights had been cancelled, 60 delayed and another 16 diverted.
Public transportation systems were resuming service gradually on Tuesday morning.
|
b19cb56f12878cdb1e01bfd7db045ed0 | https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-china-19062639 | China swimmer Ye Shiwen clean, says BOA boss Moynihan | China swimmer Ye Shiwen clean, says BOA boss Moynihan
Teenage Chinese swimmer Ye Shiwen is not a drug cheat, the British Olympic Association's chairman has said, after a US coach cast doubt on her world record-breaking swim.
Lord Colin Moynihan said Ye, 16, had passed drug tests, was "clean" and deserved recognition for her talent.
Ye smashed her personal best by at least five seconds in the 400m Medley.
Senior US coach John Leonard said her performance was disturbing and hinted that doping could have been involved.
Mr Leonard, executive director of the World Swimming Coaches Association, said the performance reminded him of the East German women swimmers in the 1980s, who were doping on a systematic basis.
"History in our sport will tell you that every time we see something, and I will put quotation marks around this, unbelievable, history shows us that it turns out later on there was doping involved," he told the UK's Guardian newspaper.
But Ye, who will compete later in the 200m Medley final, has strongly defended herself and denied that she would ever use banned substances.
China's anti-doping chief has said Chinese athletes have undergone nearly 100 drugs tests since arriving in London, and that not a single Chinese athlete had tested positive.
Former swimmers, other Olympic champions and experts have all given their support to Ye.
Lord Moynihan told a news conference that the World Anti-Doping Agency (Wada) was "on top of the game".
"She's been through Wada's programme and she's clean. That's the end of the story. Ye Shiwen deserves recognition for her talent," he said.
International Olympic Committee (IOC) officials also insisted that
if there were any drugs cheats, they would be caught
.
Dick Pound, an IOC member and former president of Wada, told the BBC that Ye's performance was "surprising".
"Nobody's ever seen somebody swim that fast before. You expect that to be an occurrence at an Olympic Games," he said.
"The problem is - with all the suspicions about drug use throughout sport - when something is really, really spectacular, the first thing you do after you see that performance is say, 'hmm, I wonder'."
Mr Pound added: "It's a fact of life that people say, 'wasn't that magnificent, was it too magnificent?'"
The US Olympic Committee (USOC) has distanced itself from Mr Leonard's comments - its spokesman, Patrick Sandusky, told the BBC the Americans were trying to smooth things over with the Chinese.
A member of USOC's international relations team is expected to make contact with the Chinese Olympic Committee later on Tuesday, says the BBC's David Bond.
"We are reaching out to the Chinese and their Olympic committee to ensure they know that this gentleman [Mr Leonard] is not part of our delegation, USA Swimming or the US Olympic Committee," the USOC member said.
"His comments are an independent view and not from us."
Earlier, former British Olympic champion Adrian Moorhouse said the rumours appeared to be a case of sour grapes.
"The Chinese might have just found this really talented kid, who can work really hard, has the perfect shape and can cope with all the pressure thrown at her," he told the BBC.
Suspicions over Ye's performance were heightened when it was pointed out that in the final 50m of her race she swam faster than the winner of the men's race, Ryan Lochte.
However, her world-record time was still 23 seconds slower than Lochte's winning time, and several of Lochte's competitors were faster than her over the final 50m.
Chinese officials also pointed out that Lochte was easing to the finish, comfortably in the lead, whereas Ye had to battle to the end to take first place.
China's swimming team was repeatedly hit by doping scandals in the 1990s.
Seven swimmers tested positive for drugs in the 1994 Asian Games, and four years later four Chinese swimmers failed pre-tournament drug tests before the World Championships in Australia.
Chinese officials insist they have cleaned up the sport, but earlier this year another 16-year-old swimming prodigy, Li Zhesi, failed a drug test.
All medal winners at the Olympics are drug tested. In addition, any athlete whose performance is far better than anything they have achieved before can be targeted for extra tests.
|
1aa31fe87dd0da069ae40e7a6f36ba5f | https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-china-19177372 | Bo Xilai scandal: Gu Kailai on trial for Neil Heywood death | Bo Xilai scandal: Gu Kailai on trial for Neil Heywood death
The first day of the trial of the wife of former high-flying Chinese lawmaker Bo Xilai on charges of murdering UK businessman Neil Heywood has ended.
Gu Kailai is accused of poisoning Mr Heywood in 2011 in Chongqing, where her husband was the Communist party head.
State media has called the case against her and an aide "substantial".
The country is preparing to install a new generation of leaders, and Bo Xilai had once been seen as a strong contender for one of the top jobs.
He was sacked in March and is currently under investigation for unspecified "disciplinary violations".
The BBC's John Sudworth says some Chinese leaders are said to welcome the demise of such an openly ambitious colleague, but the case still needs careful handling for fear it might taint the Communist Party itself.
Ms Gu, 53, who is a well-known lawyer, is being tried in the city of Hefei. It is not clear how long her trial might last or when any verdict might be delivered.
Dozens of uniformed and plain-clothes police were stationed around the court building as it got under way.
British diplomats are being allowed to witness the trial but journalists will not be attending. Ms Gu is being represented by state-appointed lawyers.
Mr Heywood's body was found at a hotel in Chongqing in November 2011, and the death was recorded as a heart attack at the time.
But four months later Mr Bo's right-hand man, police chief Wang Lijun, fled to a US consulate to allege murder and a massive cover-up.
Ms Gu and her aide Zhang Xiaojun are now accused of killing Mr Heywood, who is said to have been a business associate.
State media said Ms Gu and her son Bo Guagua fell out with Mr Heywood over "economic interests" and that Ms Gu was worried about "Neil Heywood's threat to her son's personal security".
"The facts of the two defendants' crime are clear, and the evidence is irrefutable and substantial," a Xinhua news agency report said.
Ms Gu and her husband have not been seen in public since April, when the investigation was announced.
Bo Guagua, 24, is believed to be in the US after graduating from Harvard University.
"As I was cited as a motivating factor for the crimes accused of my mother, I have already submitted my witness statement," he wrote in an email to US broadcaster CNN on Wednesday.
"I hope that my mother will have the opportunity to review them," he wrote. "I have faith that facts will speak for themselves."
Discussion of the case has been very limited in Chinese media. In the week leading up to the trial, no reports have been observed in state press.
Comment also appears to be tightly controlled on the internet, with an increasing number of keywords related to the case apparently blocked.
"I have noticed that in China's weibo (Twitter-like microblogging sites) and the internet, there are people expressing the view that she should be given a fair trial," Lijia Zhang, a Beijing-based writer and journalist, told the BBC.
"I have to tell you that she's not a very popular figure here. But some people do believe she's the victim of a political struggle among the very top leaders."
Seven members of the politburo Standing Committee are due to retire later this year. Bo Xilai, now sacked from his official positions, had been tipped for the top until his fall from grace.
Bo Zhiyue, of the National University of Singapore, said China's leaders were keen to make the focus of the case criminal, rather than political.
''Bo Xilai is a controversial figure. The central leadership may be divided over how to handle Bo Xilai. I think they have some consensus over how to deal with Gu Kailai,'' he said.
He added that there were signs she would be treated with a degree of leniency, pointing to the suggestion in state media that Ms Gu was in some way trying to protect her son.
Jin Xiaopeng, a Beijing-based lawyer, told the BBC he believed that "due to Ms Gu's special status, the most she will get is a suspended death sentence".
|
9d8b856327e7adccd3b3d5a727f74f84 | https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-china-19252173 | Profile: Wang Lijun | Profile: Wang Lijun
Former high-flying policeman Wang Lijun was the public trigger for the scandal that engulfed his mentor, former Chongqing party chief Bo Xilai.
It was his flight to the US consulate in Chengdu on 6 February 2012 that set off a chain of events that rocked the Chinese leadership.
Reports emerged that he had gone there to seek assistance after falling out with Mr Bo over an investigation into the death of a British businessman, Neil Heywood.
Mr Bo's wife, Gu Kailai, has since been convicted of Mr Heywood's murder. Mr Bo has been sacked from all his official posts.
And Wang has been jailed for 15 years after being convicted of "bending the law for selfish ends, defection, abuse of power and bribetaking".
Wang was born in December 1959 to an ethnic Mongolian father and a Han Chinese mother. He is also known as Unen Baatar, which means "rising sun hero".
He spent his time in rural villages as a "rusticated youth" during the Cultural Revolution before picking up secretarial work in the army.
He first become a police constable in Liaoning in 1984 and gradually climbed up the ladder to become a police chief, earning two master's degrees in business administration through remote learning.
In 2008, Wang was appointed deputy police chief in Chongqing. He led a major crackdown against gang activities that was one of Bo Xilai's high-profile policies.
He reportedly led the arrest of his predecessor Wen Qiang, who was the highest-ranking official charged in connection with the scandal. Wen was executed in July 2010.
The crackdown made Wang a popular figure in the municipality. He was praised as Chongqing's "hero gang buster", and even became the subject of a TV drama.
A 2011 report by Global People
- a magazine under the Global Times newspaper - said local gang masters put a bounty on his head.
Wang was promoted to police chief in March 2009 and appointed Chongqing's vice-mayor in May 2011.
Instead of the iron-fist image that he demonstrated during the organised crime crackdown, local official media promoted him as friendly and approachable.
For instance
a Chongqing Economic Times report
in August 2011 said Wang picked up taxi driver shifts in order to gauge public opinion on security by chatting with passengers.
But his fall from grace was rapid. On 2 February, the municipal government announced he was no longer the city's police chief. He was reassigned to look after education, environment and cultural policies.
This was seen as the first public confirmation of his fall-out with Mr Bo.
Four days later he went into the US consulate. He then emerged to undergo "holiday-style treatment" for intensive work stress, the authorities said, and disappeared from public view.
Announcing his dismissal from the party in April, Li Yuanchao, the head of the organisation department, called Wang's visit to the US consulate a "serious incident with very bad consequences".
At his trial in Chengdu in September, the indictment against Wang said he knew that Gu Kailai was a murder suspect, but "consciously neglected his duty and bent the law for personal gain", state news agency Xinhua reported.
A court official said after the two-day hearing that he had not contested the charges. Following his conviction and sentencing, Wang said he would not appeal the verdict, state media reported.
|
8954d77c49ce47e509221584995077ee | https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-china-19553903 | Where is Xi Jinping? | Where is Xi Jinping?
China is the world's second biggest economy, its rising superpower, and is on the cusp of a once-in-a-decade leadership change, but the man expected to take over at the head of the Communist Party has vanished from view, and we don't know why.
Is Xi Jinping sick? Has he had a mild heart attack? Did he hurt his back playing football or swimming? Is he extraordinarily busy preparing for the day, probably next month, when he will be elevated to take over from Hu Jintao as the head of China's Communist Party, or is there some more sinister power struggle happening?
All have been suggested as explanations on China's buzzing social media sites.
It has even been claimed he was injured in a car crash, which was maybe a plot against him. But that seems fanciful.
However, nobody knows for certain because China's government is not saying, and that in itself is unsettling many.
When Communist party figures disappear from view it sometimes sends a signal that they are in trouble. There is no evidence that is the case now but, without a simple explanation, rumours have been swirling and they have broken into the open.
China's leaders often keep a low profile. Their movements are rarely announced in advance, and they may be out of sight for days at a time.
But Mr Xi, China's vice-president and the heir apparent, who is 59, has been cancelling meetings with visiting foreign leaders, which is unusual.
He was last seen on 1 September. He cancelled a meeting with Hillary Clinton at the last minute last Wednesday. American officials said they understood a back problem was the reason.
Danish sources said the next day, on Thursday, he cancelled again, this time on the visiting Danish Prime Minister Helle Thorning-Schmidt, who was due to meet him on Monday.
They couldn't say why. But Mr Xi has also cancelled on Singapore's Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong. China's leaders are usually sticklers for protocol, so calling off these events is highly unusual.
According to the
Reuters news agency
"a source close to the Beijing leadership" said that "Xi injured his back when he went for a daily swim... the source declined to give further details on the injury, including exactly when and where the incident took place."
A second source, "citing people close to Xi, told Reuters 'He's unwell, but it's not a big problem.'"
But given China's new status, its new weight as an economic and political power, such uncertainty is a problem. And if Mr Xi is about to take over as China's leader for the next 10 years his health is an issue that is significant for the Communist Party, for China and for the rest of the world.
China has undergone an extraordinary transformation in the past decade under Hu Jintao. But what has not changed is the secrecy surrounding its leaders. Their health, their personal lives, their families and much more are often hidden from view and that is increasingly difficult to sustain.
China's Foreign Ministry was unable to say where Mr Xi is or why he had been a no-show at so many events.
Asked repeatedly for an explanation, the Foreign Ministry spokesman Hong Lei said "I have already answered reporters' questions on this many times. I have nothing new to add."
What the whole affair has added is a fresh twist of uncertainty to China's coming leadership change. The handover has already been complicated by the scandal over the fall of Bo Xilai, who was tipped for a top post.
In China, where the Communist Party stage-manages its once in a decade leadership shuffle, ensuring a smooth succession is of the utmost importance.
Until Mr Xi appears again in public, the uncertainty won't abate.
But in a nation that is now a vital part of the global economy, integrated into global diplomacy, and whose citizens are wired up to the internet, the old-style secrecy surrounding the Communist Party and its leaders looks increasingly untenable.
|
ca865259caa20f595305f8c4780b4ce4 | https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-china-20116546 | China protesters force halt to Zhejiang factory plan | China protesters force halt to Zhejiang factory plan
Plans to expand a petrochemical plant in eastern China have been shelved after days of protests.
On Friday, crowds opposed to the expansion attacked police in the city of Ningbo in Zhejiang province.
Officials from Ningbo's city government announced on Sunday evening that work on the project would now not go ahead.
Environmental protests have become more common in China. They come ahead of a once-in-a-decade change of national leaders in Beijing.
Protesters gathered again in Ningbo on Sunday, marching on the offices of the district government. They are opposed to the expansion of the plant by a subsidiary of the China Petroleum and Chemical Corporation.
"There is very little public confidence in the government," protester Liu Li told the Associated Press.
"Who knows if they are saying this just to make us leave and then keep on doing the project," she added.
On Saturday, police dispersed more than 1,000 protesters in Ningbo.
Witnesses described scuffles and said a few people were arrested.
Local police accused protesters of throwing stones and bricks at officers. Residents, however, said the violence came after police used tear gas and made arrests.
Local officials met demonstrators later on Saturday to hear their demands.
The huge growth in China's economy has come at a huge environmental cost.
Many Chinese are becoming more environmentally aware and are deeply concerned about pollution, correspondents say.
|
460a79d3cf40a1bf00592126978aec3a | https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-china-20860264 | China orders children to visit their elderly parents | China orders children to visit their elderly parents
China has passed a law requiring adult children to visit their elderly parents regularly or risk being sued.
The law does not specify how frequently such visits should occur, but warns that neglect could risk court action.
Reports suggest a growing number of elderly Chinese have been abandoned or neglected by their offspring.
Chinese state media reported earlier this month that a woman in her nineties had been forced by her son to live in a pigsty for two years.
Newspapers are full of such stories, or of tales of children trying to seize their parents' assets, or of old people dying unnoticed in their homes.
The rapid pace of development in China has damaged the traditional extended family in China.
An eighth of the population of China is over the age of 60, and more than half of them live alone.
Their children often leave home to work in the major industrial centres.
The dislocation of families has been exacerbated by China's one-child policy and a dramatic advance in life expectancy.
China has nearly 167 million people aged over 60, and one million above 80.
There are fewer working offspring to support more elderly relatives.
There are few affordable alternatives, such as retirement or care homes, for the elderly or others unable to live on their own.
|
6637b71aae4999014ce116e0ee68fed3 | https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-china-21332266 | Visiting China's 'snake village' of Zisiqiao | Visiting China's 'snake village' of Zisiqiao
It is a sleepy village with a deadly secret. A couple of decades ago, locals in Zisiqiao made a living from farming and fishing.
But now they rear snakes - among them pythons, vipers and cobras. There are three million snakes in total - leaving the locals outnumbered by the serpents by a ratio of almost 3,000 to one.
Step into any of the more than 100 snake farms in the village and you will see the snakes slithering about in small wooden boxes piled on top of each other.
During the summer months, you can see concrete pits full of some of the most dangerous snakes in the world. One snake is particularly feared here - the so-called "five-step snake".
The snake is so deadly, say villagers, that if you are bitten the furthest you will get is five steps before dying.
The reptiles are reared for their meat, which is sold to restaurants, and their body parts, which are highly sought after in traditional Chinese medicine.
And with Chinese Year of the Snake about to start - Chinese New Year begins this weekend - locals are expecting a profitable 12 months.
"In the year of snake we hope our company's profits will double," says Yang Hongchang, the 61-year-old farmer who introduced snake breeding to the village decades ago.
"May the snake bring us prosperity and happiness."
Mr Yang says he first caught wild snakes to cure a serious illness he suffered as a young man.
Spotting a business opportunity, he then turned his hand to breeding the snakes and quickly made a small fortune. Other villagers then followed his lead.
There are obvious risks in rearing snakes. Mr Yang says he knows of one man who died after being bitten by a poisonous snake.
But with rising demand for snakes, the once poor village of Zisiqiao is now relatively wealthy, with many residents boasting revenue of tens of thousands of dollars.
"Domesticating snakes takes experience and technique," says Mr Yang, who says his business is now a multi-million dollar enterprise.
His company carries out research into improving the diet of snakes as well as investigating techniques for incubating eggs, so survival rates will increase.
Snakes are renowned for their medicinal properties in Chinese medicine. They are often drunk in a soup or even in wine to boost the patient's immune system.
At Mr Yang's snake farm, there is a shop selling an array of goods including snake powder.
While most of his business is done domestically, Mr Yang says he exports his products overseas to Japan and South Korea, as well as Germany and the US.
On his snake farm, I met one young man who had travelled hundreds of miles for treatment.
He says he was bed-ridden for three years. But after taking snake medicine for several months, he claimed, he could now walk.
"Snakes are my saviour," he said. "When I first came here I was scared of snakes but that's no longer the case."
|
ac3fdb74a2f07ed03a68d5895a2b5b9c | https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-china-21441917 | China's delicate balancing act with North Korea | China's delicate balancing act with North Korea
North Korea's nuclear test came at an inconvenient time for Chinese diplomats. While millions across China celebrate the Lunar New Year, Beijing's foreign ministry workers were forced to grapple with Pyongyang's nuclear ambitions.
Perhaps fatigue from the festivities explains Beijing's tepid response to the problem.
Foreign Minster Yang Jiechi summoned North Korea's ambassador to a meeting in which Mr Yang voiced his displeasure over the underground nuclear test.
A formulaic statement from the ministry then proposed a return to the six party talks - a series of multi-national negotiations aimed at ending North Korea's nuclear ambitions.
Calls to restart the talks were echoed in commentaries published in China's state-run media.
"Dialogue and negotiations, instead of confrontation and trading barbs, are the optimal means to eventually solve the nuclear crisis on the Korean Peninsula," says the Global Times, a newspaper known for its nationalist stance on major issues.
Both the foreign ministry and the Global Times failed to mention that the talks were last convened in 2007.
In 2009, North Korea announced it would never return to the talks. A plan to restart negotiations in 2012 was cancelled after Pyongyang attempted to launch a satellite in April of that year.
What if China really wanted to voice anger over North Korea's budding nuclear programme? Beijing would need to drop its diplomatic efforts in favour of economic sanctions.
With little notice, Beijing could decimate North Korea's flimsy economy by limiting trade between the two countries, explains Marcus Noland, senior fellow and director of studies at the Peterson Institute for International Economics in Washington DC.
Trade between China and North Korea is rising, but it is extremely unbalanced, said Dr Noland.
"China accounts for 70% of North Korea's trade. North Korea accounts for less than 1% of Chinese trade," he said.
China's north-eastern Jilin province would be affected by a steep drop in business with North Korea, but few other regions would notice a change.
"If China were to decide to impose an economic embargo on North Korea, it would be absolutely crippling to North Korea and would essentially be unobservable to the Chinese economy," said Dr Noland.
Moreover, the size of China's food aid contributions to North Korea is unclear, but it is believed that China donates a large percentage of the North's food supply.
Even more importantly, North Korea's fuel needs are serviced by China. That is a major consideration in the middle of winter.
"If you turn off the oil pipeline, and there is literally a pipeline, the North Koreans freeze pretty quickly," Dr Noland explains.
China is thought to have reduced oil shipments to North Korea in the past. Following a missile test by the North in 2003, China temporarily cut off oil shipments though its pipeline, though it blamed technical problems for the suspension.
Still, the decision to limit trade or aid with North Korea again would not be taken lightly.
Average people in North Korea would certainly feel the effects of Beijing's wrath before Pyongyang's political elite.
Also, Beijing would have to carefully consider any option that could lead to the collapse of the North Korean state, a possibility that could lead to millions of North Korean refugees pouring into China.
Dr Noland believes that the tipping point in China's tolerance for North Korea rests with the delicate power balance in Asia.
"If North Korea really ever provokes the United States and South Korea and Japan, then China may wake up," he said. "A real arms race in north-east Asia is not in China's interest."
That possibility lies on the horizon. For now, Beijing's beleaguered diplomats are left to deal with China's troublesome neighbour.
|
c5cf4c999261921b522d9b0d04e6a467 | https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-china-21790384 | China's new President Xi Jinping: A man with a dream | China's new President Xi Jinping: A man with a dream
China's new President, Xi Jinping, says he is a man with a dream, which he calls "the China Dream".
His ambition, he's indicated in speeches in recent weeks, is to lead a Chinese renaissance so China can resume its rightful place in the world.
Confirmed as China's new head of state, Mr Xi is now one of the most powerful leaders on the planet. He can, if he wishes, influence the destiny of hundreds of millions of people, inside and outside China. He can try to shape history. So will he? And if so, how? What does his dream mean?
China isn't a democracy, it's a one-party, authoritarian state. Three thousand delegates at the National People's Congress voted to approve Xi Jinping as president. But that means that for roughly every 460,000 Chinese, just one person got to vote for their new leader.
And Mr Xi's real power comes not from the job he began today, as China's president but from the two roles he was appointed to last November, as general secretary of the Communist Party and commander-in-chief of China's armed forces.
So Mr Xi has not had to campaign publicly for the job of president, he's not set out a manifesto, he's not had to put his character and policies on display. But he has indicated his dream is to make China prosperous, powerful and proud once again.
To reinforce that message, he has been making high-profile visits to carefully chosen locations around China in recent weeks. State television has given prominent coverage to his trips.
The first was to the "Special Economic Zone" of Shenzhen in the south, the cradle of China's economic revolution. The message of that visit was that Mr Xi wants to be seen as a reformer in the mould of Deng Xiaoping, the man who set China's economy free but kept its political system under tight control.
Then Xi Jinping visited two very poor areas - a village in the mountains in Hebei near Beijing, and the arid lands of Gansu in the west.
He was filmed meeting peasants, tasting their food, chatting with them in their homes. This time the message was that Mr Xi wants to be seen as a "man of the people", in touch with the concerns of poor Chinese.
The Communist Party is aware that its image and authority have been eroded as people have seen corruption and inequality soar along with China's growing wealth.
The party risks becoming viewed as the defender of privilege. So Mr Xi is promising more action to tackle corruption, to spread China's wealth, to create a fairer society.
Finally he's also paid visits to high-profile military units. Part of Xi Jinping's dream is also to make China a major military power.
His message to the armed forces was that they must continue to pledge allegiance to the Communist Party. China's military is expressly political, controlled by the party not by the state. Its duty is to uphold the rule of the party.
Mr Xi is a "princeling", the son of one of the men who led China's communist revolution. He's from a powerful and privileged background.
Alongside him in China's new leadership are many other princelings. Their patrimony imbues them with a sense of entitlement. They are the inheritors and the guardians of China's communist revolution.
But Mr Xi's relatives and many other powerful families have also become rich in recent years. According to an investigation by the Bloomberg news agency, Mr Xi's family has accumulated hundreds of millions of dollars worth of assets.
Tackling inequality and corruption may become problematic if it starts to affect the wealth of the party elite.
So perhaps the most significant indication of Mr Xi's intentions as China's new leader was not his public talk of his dream, but a private speech he gave to Communist Party members during his visit to Shenzhen.
The writer Gao Yu, who follows the politics of China's leaders, was passed quotes from the speech. She says Xi Jinping "knows exactly where the party's critical mistakes are".
First there's the fact that China must reform the way its economy is developing to make growth more sustainable, more equitable, less damaging to the environment.
Then there is the "wealth gap" that has opened up in China. "The benefits of reform have basically been taken by government officials. Money has flowed to them and to the rich, not into protecting our environment, or into social security, medical insurance or education," Ms Gao says.
"The whole world sees how corrupt our government officials are and how angry our people are. In their hearts people no longer believe in the legality of the party's rule. That is the most important thing that Xi has to solve."
And she says that when Xi Jinping speaks of reform, he does not mean political reform. In his private speech, Gao Yu says, Mr Xi was explicit, telling party members: "Some people define reform as changes towards the universal values of the West, the Western political system. This is a stealthy tampering with the concept and a misunderstanding of our reform. Our reform is reform that keeps us moving forward on the path of socialism with Chinese characteristics."
So, she believes, Mr Xi has his a different vision. "His political blueprint is to build a highly efficient and clean government. But whether this goal can be realised without democracy, constitutional rule, multiple parties or press freedom is the question," she says.
And Xi Jinping also posed a question to his private audience of party members. "Why must we stand firm on the party's leadership over the military?" he asked.
The answer he gave was "because that's the lesson from the collapse of the Soviet Union. In the USSR, where the military was depoliticised, separated from the party and nationalised, the party was disarmed."
And Mr Xi warned, when the Soviet Union came to crisis point "a big party was gone just like that. Proportionally, the Soviet Communist Party had more members than we do, but nobody was man enough to stand up and resist."
So for all that Mr Xi is being portrayed as a reformer, a man with a dream, Gao Yu believes he won't do anything that will destabilise China's current system. "The army is the foundation of our country, that's the way Xi thinks," says Gao Yu.
"After all he's not elected by the votes of the people, he thinks the army is the ultimate guarantee of the party's rule. The party has to control the military. It doesn't belong to the country or the people."
And she adds, Xi Jinping's vision of making China richer and stronger matters not as a goal in itself, but because it will strengthen the rule of the Communist Party.
|
a7e109ec35cc73f57da330c9d8c9713b | https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-china-22133791 | China bird flu: Beijing reports its first case | China bird flu: Beijing reports its first case
A girl of seven is being treated in hospital in Beijing, in the first case of H7N9 "bird flu" reported by Chinese officials in the capital.
The child, whose parents are poultry traders, developed a fever, sore throat and headache on Thursday. Her condition is said to be stable.
Two people in close contact with her were quarantined for observation but have shown no symptoms so far.
The UN had recorded
28 cases and nine deaths
in China as of Wednesday.
There are no reported cases outside the country, according to the World Health Organization (WHO).
China's national disease control centre confirmed on Saturday that the girl take ill in Beijing had the H7N9 virus.
The first cases of the virus were reported in February, in eastern China.
According to the WHO
, there is no evidence that the H7N9 virus is being transmitted between people, and most cases come from poultry.
International health experts have commended China on its transparency in reporting the spread of the virus, in sharp contrast to its handling of a Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (Sars) outbreak in 2003, when 8,096 people were infected worldwide and 744 died.
|
38aa4b843557653caba402d799aa429c | https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-china-22244805 | China quake: Rescue teams blast roads amid aftershocks | China quake: Rescue teams blast roads amid aftershocks
China is continuing a massive rescue operation in Sichuan province, deploying thousands of workers, after a powerful earthquake on Saturday.
Rescue workers are using dynamite and heavy equipment to get through roads blocked by landslides to reach remote areas, reports say.
But reaching these areas has been a struggle, with bad weather and powerful aftershocks contributing to delays.
At least 188 people are known to have died in the quake, says state media.
More than 11,500 others have also been reported injured since the 6.6 magnitude quake struck at 08:02 local time (00:02 GMT).
More than 18,000 soldiers and police have been mobilised in the rescue efforts, state news agency Xinhua said on Sunday.
Twenty-three helicopters from the armed forces were also being deployed to help out in the operations, Xinhua said on Sunday, quoting an official statement.
Some of those who have been made homeless are complaining that they have not yet received food or water, says the BBC's John Sudworth in Sichuan province.
Rescue teams had already reached the remote villages in mountainous Baoxing County on foot, but landslides were blocking access to aid trucks and preventing some of the casualties from being brought out.
Even in the more accessible areas of neighbouring Lushan county, the aid effort has been hampered by road congestion, our correspondent adds.
Officials have set up an outdoors hospital in Ya-an, the city closest to the epicentre.
"The biggest problem is that the worst-hit spots are spread out in the mountains and it is very hard for rescuers to get the injured people out," said Zhou Shaohua, chief surgeon at the People's Hospital of Lushan.
"It takes hours for them to be able to reach a place where they can catch a vehicle."
"I dare not go anywhere near a mountainside," a woman named Zhu was quoted by Agence-France Presse news agency, in the village of Baoxing, centre of Lushan county, as saying.
"Many people are worried that the rain will bring more devastation."
Correspondents say the hill villages, where farmers grow rice, vegetables and corn on terraced plots, were hit the hardest by the earthquake.
Sichuan province was also devastated by a massive quake five years ago that claimed tens of thousands of lives and left five million without homes.
Many of the collapsed buildings were schools and nurseries, leading to widespread criticism of local government's planning policies.
Although on the same fault line, this earthquake was much less powerful than the previous one.
Once again, though, it is the poor who have born the brunt of the disaster, with the biggest killer not the earthquake itself but poorly-constructed houses, our correspondent adds.
|
e290a2d106caaf9a3ddc0a0dfedabb6a | https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-china-22348480 | Health fears for Chen Guangcheng's nephew | Health fears for Chen Guangcheng's nephew
The imprisoned nephew of blind Chinese activist Chen Guangcheng is suffering from appendicitis and has been denied medical parole, his father says.
Bottles and rocks had also been thrown at their family home, he added.
Chen Kegui was sentenced to more than three years in jail for assaulting local officials who were looking for his uncle, who had fled house arrest.
Chen Guangcheng took refuge at the US embassy in Beijing and was eventually allowed to travel to the US.
The activist - whose flight from house arrest caused a diplomatic crisis between Washington and Beijing - has long expressed fears his relatives would face reprisals.
"[Chen Kegui] was diagnosed with appendicitis on 24 April," Chen Kegui's father, Chen Guangfu, told the BBC.
"I was told [on Monday] by the prison that the appendicitis had become acute. We were so worried. We filed a medical parole application, but the prison refused to accept the filing," he said.
Cheng Guangfu said a physician at Linyi prison told him they were treating Chen Kegui's appendicitis with heavy doses of antibiotics.
But he said he was told the prison did not have the capacity to perform surgery, and that if Chen Kegui needed surgery he must be transferred to a proper hospital.
Jared Genser, founder of advocacy group Freedom Now, also
wrote to the UN rapporteur on torture
on Monday appealing for help.
"In light of the life-threatening nature of Chen Kegui's illness, the denial of adequate medical treatment in this case presents an urgent threat to his well-being," he said.
Calls to Linyi Prison and Linyi Prison Hospital by the BBC went unanswered.
Separately, Chen Guangfu told the BBC that his home had been attacked.
"This morning, I spotted a car coming towards the edge of my courtyard. Just as I was puzzled, I heard banging, and they threw beer bottles and rocks into my courtyard," he said.
Calls to the police were not answered, he added.
Cheng Guangfu has previously described other forms of harassment at his home, including dead ducks and chickens being left at his doorstep, rocks being thrown at his windows and threatening notes being stuck on his front door.
Campaigners say that relatives of activists in China are often harassed with the intention of intimidating the activists.
Chen Guangcheng, a self-taught lawyer, campaigned against forced abortions under China's one-child policy and was jailed for four years in 2006 for disrupting traffic and damaging property.
He was placed under house arrest after his release in 2010. After he fled to the US embassy, his relatives' homes were raided and his nephew, Chen Kegui, was detained by police after a scuffle.
The authorities said that Chen Kegui hacked and wounded officials. However, family members said he acted in self-defence after the officials stormed his home and assaulted his parents.
|
ab5eb665fe17996d60f27fec08377769 | https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-china-22523903 | How a Chinese journalist took on a top official | How a Chinese journalist took on a top official
In China, it takes a lot of courage for a journalist to accuse a senior Communist Party official of corruption.
Luo Changping, a seasoned newspaper reporter, told the BBC by e-mail that he was "exhausted both in heart and body" after waging a long campaign to expose the shady dealings of Liu Tienan, a top economic planning official.
On Sunday, Chinese authorities announced Mr Liu was under investigation for "serious disciplinary violations".
Mr Liu has also been fired from his position as the deputy head of China's central National Development and Reform Commission.
Last December, Caijing, the respected business magazine where Luo Changping, 32, serves as deputy editor, published an article accusing Liu Tienan's wife and son of illegal business dealings.
The article did not mention Mr Liu by name. Instead, it simply stated he was a high-ranking official with the national economic planning committee.
The investigative journalist, Luo Changping, was not so reserved.
In three hard-hitting posts on weibo, China's equivalent of Twitter, Mr Luo argued Liu Tienan and his family had enriched themselves by obtaining illegal loans from Chinese banks.
Mr Liu was also accused of lying about his education and issuing death threats to his former mistress.
Then, for months, both Mr Luo and the Chinese media fell silent on the topic. That is, until China's anti-corruption agency announced it was investigating Liu Tienan.
After that, the floodgates opened. The Chinese media published reports on Liu Tienan's investigation and Mr Luo's own newspaper, Caijing, reposted his allegations on Caijing's weibo account.
So, do Chinese journalists now have the green light to target corrupt officials?
Not necessarily, says Zhan Jiang, a journalism professor at Beijing Foreign Studies University, who describes the Chinese media landscape as "one country, many situations".
"There is no stable media policy," Prof Zhan explains.
"On one hand, you can say so many journalists and media are suppressed by the authorities. But on the other hand, you can say so many courageous journalists and media are trying to do a very good job in China."
Luo Changping, the journalist, was able to publish his allegations on weibo, rather than in the print version of the Caijing magazine, because the two outlets are ruled by separate groups.
"Information on the internet is controlled by the State News Office," Prof Zhan says, while "print media are controlled by the Central Propaganda Office."
"These two government organs have different views. One is more open-minded and one is more reserved."
It helps, too, that Luo Changping was writing about government corruption, a key target of the new Chinese government headed by Xi Jinping.
"Investigations of senior officials are relatively rare, as more reports tend to focus on local officials. However, given the current top-down campaign against corruption, I think the report is less surprising, as it tunes in with the agenda of the party-state," explains Maria Repnikova, a doctoral candidate at Oxford University who studies media-state relations in China.
Nonetheless, Luo Changping's attempts to publicise his research into the official, Liu Tienan, seem to have hit another road block.
After the corruption investigation was announced, Mr Luo promised to release all of his information on the story.
However, his internet account was soon deleted.
In a brief email to the BBC, Mr Luo did not appear to be optimistic about the future.
"[The announcement of a corruption investigation into Liu Tienan] is only a breakthrough in one case," he wrote. "There's no change to the whole system."
|
3bee530dcea8110bd6263e17c84ac5a6 | https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-china-22685445 | China rescuers save baby lodged in sewage pipe | China rescuers save baby lodged in sewage pipe
Firefighters in China have rescued a newborn baby boy lodged inside a sewage pipe leading off a toilet.
Residents of an apartment building in Jinhua city, Zhejiang province, called rescuers on Saturday after they heard the infant's cries.
Rescuers tried to pull the baby out of the pipe but failed and ended up sawing through a section of the pipe instead.
They took the pipe to hospital, where it was carefully pulled apart to release the infant.
The baby, thought to be just a few days old, was found inside a pipe 10cm (4 in) in diameter, the China Daily newspaper said.
Footage from state television showed firefighters and doctors working together using pliers to cut the pipe apart to get to the baby.
The baby is now in stable condition, reports say.
The infant was named Baby No 59 - after the number of his hospital incubator, the Associated Press news agency reported.
A number of visitors had arrived at the hospital with contributions of nappies, baby clothes and powdered milk, it added.
Meanwhile, a police officer in Jinhua told Agence France-Presse that the baby's unmarried mother had hidden her pregnancy.
The baby fell into the toilet after she unexpectedly gave birth, the officer said.
"The woman was on the scene during the entire rescue process... and admitted [she was the mother] when we asked her," he told AFP.
He said police were still investigating whether "she had any malicious intentions" before deciding if charges should be filed. There was still no information on the baby's father, he said.
The case generated condemnation on weibo, China's version of Twitter.
"The parents who did this have hearts even filthier than that sewage pipe," one user was quoted by Reuters as saying.
"Can these people be called human beings?" another user quoted by AFP said.
China has strict family planning rules, with the one-child policy in place for more than three decades. Although there are a number of exceptions, couples can face fines if they violate the policy.
There have also been cases of babies born outside marriage being abandoned, or female newborns abandoned because of a traditional preference for sons.
|
2963f2d0c031f0e704ce70acf77d715f | https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-china-23094994 | China denies lifting ban on Dalai Lama worship | China denies lifting ban on Dalai Lama worship
The Chinese government has issued a strong denial of reports that its long-standing ban on openly worshipping the Dalai Lama has changed.
It comes after reports that restrictions on worshipping the Dalai Lama had been eased in some areas.
In a statement to the BBC, the state bureau for religious affairs said there had been no policy change.
The Dalai Lama, the spiritual head of Tibetan Buddhism, fled in 1959 after a failed uprising against Chinese rule.
For years, senior Communist officials have infuriated Tibetan Buddhists by referring to the Dalai Lama with a series of derogatory names, the BBC's Celia Hatton in Beijing reports.
Zhang Qingli, the Communist Party chief in charge of Tibet until 2011, famously referred to the Buddhist cleric as "a wolf in monk's robes".
A report on Radio Free Asia suggested that Buddhists in China's Tibetan areas were able to worship the Dalai Lama openly and that some temples could display portraits of the Dalai Lama and no one was allowed to criticise him.
But monasteries contacted by the BBC said they were unaware of any change in policy and, in a faxed statement to the BBC on Friday, the government said that China's policy towards the Dalai Lama was "consistent and clear".
"If the Dalai Lama wants to improve his relationship with the Central Government, he must really give up his stance in favour of 'Tibetan Independence' or independence in any disguised forms."
He now lives in Dharamsala in northern India, travelling the world to seek support for more rights for Tibetan people.
Beijing accuses him of trying to split Tibet, with its separate culture and language, from the rest of China. The Dalai Lama says he only wants greater autonomy.
|
103dcabed7fe048353f6eb14c70ceed1 | https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-china-24170726 | Bo Xilai found guilty of corruption by Chinese court | Bo Xilai found guilty of corruption by Chinese court
A Chinese court has found disgraced former top politician Bo Xilai guilty of bribery, embezzlement and abuse of power.
The former party chief of Chongqing was sentenced to life imprisonment, but has the right to appeal.
He had denied all the charges against him in a fiery defence at his trial.
Bo was removed from office last year amid a scandal which saw his wife convicted for the murder of British businessman Neil Heywood.
The verdict was handed down by the Intermediate People's Court in Jinan, Shandong province.
Passing sentence the judge told Bo that he had damaged China's national interests and the interests of its people, wrongfully using his position in power to receive bribes totalling 20 million Chinese Yuan ($3.2m; £2m).
He rejected Bo's claims that his confession to the crimes was acquired through illegal means such as torture and interrogation, and said it therefore stood.
The BBC's John Sudworth, outside the court, said that the judge completely dismissed Bo's defence arguments.
During Bo's trial last month the court took the unprecedented step of releasing details about proceedings on its Weibo microblog.
Bo was sentenced to life in prison on the bribery charges, 15 years for embezzlement and seven years for abuse of power - our correspondent says that he has been politically buried. In addition all his personal wealth has been confiscated.
He has 10 days to appeal against his sentence and conviction, but correspondents say that any such move is highly unlikely to be successful.
Although his trial was conducted under an unprecedented degree of openness for China, many analysts say that the guilty verdict was always a foregone conclusion - and many see the process against him as having a very strong political dimension.
Prosecutors had said that Bo accepted the bribes and embezzled public funds from Dalian, where he used to be mayor.
He was also accused of abusing his office by using his position to cover up for his wife Gu Kailai, convicted last year of murdering Neil Heywood in 2011.
In lengthy comments in court, he said he did not illegally obtain millions of dollars or cover up Mr Heywood's killing.
He also dismissed the testimony of two key witnesses, describing his wife's statement as "ridiculous" and his former police chief Wang Lijun's testimony as "full of lies and fraud".
Bo's fall from power was triggered when Wang sought refuge in the US consulate in Chengdu in February 2012.
The incident prompted an investigation into the death of Mr Heywood. Wang has since been jailed for 15 years for helping Gu cover up the murder.
The Bo Xilai scandal triggered a crisis in the Communist Party, which was about to hold its once-in-a-decade leadership handover, and revealed divisions at the top of the party over how Bo should be handled.
Two years ago Bo Xilai was seen as a candidate for promotion to the Politburo Standing Committee, China's top decision-making body.
His downfall was seen as the biggest political shake-up to hit China's ruling elite in decades.
But his trial also offered the public a rare glimpse into the life of China's rich and powerful, with lurid details emerging of lavish vacations and luxury villas.
Earlier this week, an overseas-based dissident Chinese news website published a letter allegedly written by Bo in prison on 12 September.
Hong Kong newspaper South China Morning Post said that unidentified insiders with close ties to Mr Bo had confirmed that the letter, addressed to Bo's family, was genuine.
"I am an innocent victim and I feel wronged," the letter read. "But I believe one day truth will prevail...I will wait quietly in jail for that day to come."
|
08da878cd2e0dfb3ceb16179e3c30305 | https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-china-24394243 | China's scorned mistresses take revenge on 'corrupt lovers' | China's scorned mistresses take revenge on 'corrupt lovers'
Lust, power and corruption can make for an explosive mix. An unlikely whistle-blower for President Xi Jinping's much publicised crackdown on official corruption has emerged - the scorned mistress.
In recent weeks their public accounts have offered a rare glimpse of the extravagant lifestyles of the Communist Party elite, enraging the Chinese public.
The most high-profile case is that of Ji Yingnan - a mistress who shamed her former lover in the full glare of China's hundreds of millions of microblog users.
Sensationally, the 26-year-old identified him as Fan Yue, a deputy director at the State Administration of Archives.
This summer Ms Ji posted videos and pictures of the couple on the internet. There were pictures of the couple enjoying shopping sprees, splashing about in a private swimming pool, and at a party where the official asked his mistress to marry him.
According to Ms Ji's account, she exposed her boyfriend after discovering he was married with a teenage son.
"I had no idea he was such a liar," Ms Ji, the TV presenter, told the Global Times, a Chinese newspaper.
"He always promised to marry me and I always thought he would be my fiance, or even husband."
But what shocked the public were the staggering sums of cash involved. According to the mistress, her lover gave her more than a $1,000 (£600) a day in pocket money, a luxury car and promises of an apartment.
She told the Global Times that she initially reported Mr Fan to the authorities, believing he was involved in corruption. But she said she never received a reply and then decided to post her allegations online.
The details of her lavish lifestyle raised the obvious question: how could her lover afford all this on a modest government salary?
According to the state-run news agency, Xinhua, Mr Fan was sacked from his job in June and is now being investigated over the corruption allegations. The BBC could not reach Mr Fan for comment.
One of the main sites that posted the revelations is run by Zhu Ruifeng, an anti-corruption blogger. He shot to prominence last year after posting an explosive sex tape starring a government official, Lei Zhengfu, which triggered a corruption investigation, ultimately landing the official in jail.
With the growing power of the internet, details that would have once remained private are now leaking into the public domain.
Sex scandals, of course, happen in all countries. But the difference in China, says Mr Zhu, is that government officials are using public money to pay for their love lives.
"In China nothing is clear," he says, "The public don't know what officials are up to. But mistresses live with government officials, they spend their money, they know about everything that goes on.
"When a mistress stands up, the truth comes out."
A powerful energy official, Liu Tienan, was sacked from his post in May after his former mistress told a journalist that her lover had helped defraud banks of $200 million.
Mistresses have become the ultimate symbol of corruption in China. According to a government report in 2007, an astonishing 90% of top officials brought down by corruption scandals had kept a mistress - and in many cases they had more than one.
Former Railways Minister Liu Zhijun, jailed for corruption earlier this year, reportedly kept 18 mistresses.
I met a 26-year-old who told she me was once a mistress. With her long, black hair and designer clothes, she looked like she had just stepped off a catwalk.
She did not want to be identified, but told me her lover was a top company executive. She says that she witnessed corruption.
"Businessmen and officials work together very closely," she said. "A government official asked my boyfriend for a favour. But this time, he didn't want money. He wanted my boyfriend to get him a mistress."
Mistresses are nothing new in China. Emperors were renowned for keeping concubines. But China's top sexologist, Li Yinghe, believes that many Chinese men believe they are still living in imperial times.
"I think many Chinese men have an emperor's complex," she says. "Being an emperor means you can have many women. This is something they are proud of. They see women as trophies of their success."
Little wonder then that the ruling Communist Party is now trying to stop its pillow talk becoming public.
In May, the People's Daily newspaper - the mouthpiece of the party - ran an editorial saying that the country cannot count on mistresses to expose corruption.
"Some [mistresses] directly solicit bribes or seek huge illegal profits," it said. "To pin anti-corruption hopes on them is to go in for evil attacking evil."
In recent weeks, authorities have also introduced tougher measures to control the internet - where many of the revelations have emerged. It is clear that the party wants to draw a veil over its most intimate secrets.
|
988a1faa2a6356c8bcc826a72eb6f8a2 | https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-china-24997186 | Typhoon Haiyan: China sends relief team to Philippines | Typhoon Haiyan: China sends relief team to Philippines
China is sending an emergency medical team and a disaster relief team to the typhoon-hit Philippines, following criticism of its initial response.
Chinese Red Cross workers, a medical team and a large hospital ship will be sent to assist the Philippines, China's Foreign Ministry said.
Typhoon Haiyan killed more than 4,000 people when it tore into the Philippines on 8 November.
The UN estimates around 11 million people have been affected by the storm.
China initially offered $100,000 (£60,000) in aid, a fraction of that committed by other major nations. The Chinese Red Cross pledged another $100,000.
The amount was criticised by western media and analysts, although some Chinese microblog users objected to China sending any aid at all.
China and the Philippines are currently embroiled in a territorial dispute - seen by many as the reason for Beijing offering so little assistance, says the BBC's China correspondent Martin Patience.
China later pledged another $1.6m (£1m) in relief goods, although it was still a lower contribution than that of several other countries including Australia, South Korea, and the UK.
On Wednesday, China confirmed that rescue workers would also be sent to the Philippines.
"China has always been concerned about the Philippines typhoon disaster," Foreign Ministry spokesman Hong Lei said.
"In the spirit of helping the dying and healing the injured, we plan to send rescue workers to the disaster area."
Naval medical ship the Peace Ark will make its way to the Philippines "as soon as possible", Hong Lei added. The Peace Ark has 300 beds and eight operating theatres.
The announcement will be seen as an attempt by Beijing to repair the damage to the country's battered reputation, our correspondent says.
|
c8b9f06b35dfd4a0deaacdc33957b94c | https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-china-25823953 | China activist lawyer Xu Zhiyong on trial | China activist lawyer Xu Zhiyong on trial
Xu Zhiyong, a prominent human rights lawyer who campaigned against corruption, has gone on trial in China.
Mr Xu is charged with "gathering crowds to disrupt public order". He is one of several activists from a transparency movement to be tried this week.
Rights groups have criticised President Xi Jinping - who pledged to fight corruption - over their trials.
They come as a report says many members of
China's elite have set up offshore companies in overseas tax havens
.
The trial of Xu Zhiyong, who was arrested in July 2013, began on Wednesday in Beijing.
There was tight security outside the court, with police blocking journalists from approaching or filming outside.
A BBC team reporting from a street near the court were forced to move after a group of men in plain clothes pushed the crew down the street.
CNN reporter David McKenzie said on his Twitter feed that he had been "manhandled, detained, and [had] equipment broken" near the courthouse.
Western diplomats said they were able to enter the building but were not allowed into the courtroom itself.
Mr Xu's lawyer, Zhang Qingfang, told the BBC that Mr Xu and his lawyers both viewed the court proceedings as illegal, and stayed silent during the trial in protest.
Earlier, Mr Zhang told reporters that a fair trial looked "unlikely". He said that he had not been given the opportunity to defend Mr Xu in a fair court.
"Last week I applied for five witnesses to come and testify, but not only did the court reject my application, but also the police have been restricting these witnesses in the last two days," he said.
In a press briefing on Tuesday, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Hong Lei described Mr Xu's case as a "common criminal case" and that Mr Xu had been "arrested in accordance with the law".
Mr Xu, who was also previously under house arrest, is a leading advocate of a group campaigning for government officials to reveal their wealth.
Seven members of the informal grassroots group, New Citizens Movement, also face separate trials this week on similar charges.
A known legal scholar, Mr Xu also campaigned on behalf of inmates on death row and families affected by tainted baby milk formula in 2009.
In a video message from prison last year, he urged people to unite in pursuit of democratic freedoms.
No matter how "absurd" society was, he said, "this country needs brave citizens who can stand up and hold fast to their convictions".
Mr Xu now faces up to five years in prison for disturbing public order, the BBC's Celia Hatton in Beijing reports.
Human rights advocates say Mr Xu's true crime was to go too far in pushing the ruling Communist Party to expose the illicit wealth of some government officials, our correspondent adds.
Rights group Amnesty International condemned what it called China's "hypocritical crackdown on anti-corruption campaigners".
"Instead of President Xi Jinping's promised clampdown on corruption, we are seeing a crackdown against those that want to expose it," Roseann Rife, East Asia research director, said in a statement on Tuesday.
Xu Zhiyong was a "prisoner of conscience and he should be released immediately and unconditionally", Ms Rife added.
"Anything less would make a mockery of the Chinese government's ongoing anti-corruption efforts."
Meanwhile, a report by the
International Consortium of Investigative Journalists
(ICIJ) said relatives of many of China's political elite, including the brother-in-law of Mr Xi, and the son and son-in-law of former Premier Wen Jiabao, owned offshore companies in international tax havens.
It said that almost 22,000 offshore clients with addresses in mainland China and Hong Kong appear in leaked documents from two offshore firms that set up offshore companies and accounts for clients.
The practice is legal, but the revelations, if true, shine a light onto the wealth of the families of many Chinese leaders, and could embarrass members of the political elite.
Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Qin Gang dismissed the allegations.
"From a reader's point of view, the logic in the article is hardly convincing," he told a regular press briefing. "That is sure to raise suspicions over the motives behind it."
The Guardian newspaper
, which was part of the investigation, said that its website appeared to be partially blocked in China on Wednesday, as was the website of the ICIJ.
In October 2012, a
New York Times
investigation said that members of then-Premier Wen Jiabao's family had amassed "hidden riches" of billions of dollars.
Lawyers for Mr Wen's family rejected the claims, and said that while some of the family were involved in business activities none of it was illegal.
Both the New York Times' Chinese and English sites were blocked in China after the report.
|
c0a95ec047b2c6c75a4905cf5b9aef41 | https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-china-25860494 | Report reveals offshore dealings of China's elite | Report reveals offshore dealings of China's elite
A trove of leaked financial documents 160 times bigger than the famous Wikileaks classified cables has now revealed the secret offshore banking dealings of thousands of well-connected people in China, Hong Kong and Taiwan.
Reporters from several different news organisations, working together under the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists (ICIJ), reportedly spent months combing through a cache of 2.5 million electronic files to uncover hidden offshore accounts held by Chinese citizens.
The BBC was not involved in the compilation of the ICIJ report and has not been able to independently verify its contents.
The report's authors say they have found evidence of the secret business dealings of some of China's richest and most powerful people, including China's richest woman, Yang Huiyan, and the brother-in-law of China's President, Xi Jinping.
Strictly speaking, it is not illegal for a Chinese citizen to set up a company in an offshore tax haven, like the Cayman Islands or the British Virgin Islands. In order to circumvent Chinese regulations making it difficult to list on a foreign stock exchange, Chinese entities often set up offshore parent companies in such locations.
"What I think they've documented in this report is the extensive use of offshore tax haven companies by individuals, including many who are connected with the government at fairly high levels," explains Paul Gillis, professor of accounting at Peking University.
"What it doesn't tell us is what these companies were actually being used for and whether those purposes were legitimate or illegitimate."
So are the people named in the leaked documents guilty of anything?
"I think the real concern is if these entities were used to take money that was obtained in illegitimate ways and to hide it outside of China, outside of the jurisdiction of Chinese regulators who might get it, and in ways that evade China's foreign currency laws and its tax laws," he said.
China has long struggled with illegal overseas transfers of capital. According to Global Financial Integrity, a Washington-based non-profit organisation, more than $1tn (£602bn) in illicit funds flowed out of China between 2002 and 2011. That money often comes from criminal activity, tax evasion or state corruption.
However, the ICIJ report received scant public reaction from the Chinese government.
"I don't know the details, but as a reader, I think the logic in the article is unconvincing, which raises suspicions on its intentions," foreign ministry spokesman Qin Gang told reporters on Wednesday.
News of the ICIJ report has been censored from Weibo, China's version of Twitter. The story was also not mentioned in China's state media outlets, though some in China still managed to uncover the news.
"I read it on social media like Weixin and other microblogs. A lot of people transferred those articles and the text of the report itself. We can read it," explains economist Xia Yeliang.
An outspoken critic of Communist Party rule, Mr Xia was fired from his teaching position at Peking University last year on the grounds of poor job performance evaluations.
Angry Chinese citizens accuse those involved in offshore banking of offloading the state's assets, Dr Xia said.
"The high-ranking officials tried to transfer their capital to foreign countries and foreign markets, so they're trying to take what we have produced and transfer it to foreign countries."
"China has adequate laws to regulate this area. It really comes down to enforcement. Likewise, the United States had adequate laws on foreign bank accounts too, but it was unable to enforce them until it was able to force the Swiss banks to disclose who was actually using those accounts," Paul Gillis said.
New information on those who appear to be involved in offshore banking will soon be released. The ICIJ will soon publish an online list of 37,000 people from China, Hong Kong and Taiwan whose names appear on the leaked documents.
"If the tax bureau does what I expect they'll do, they'll take that list and they'll start asking questions," Paul Gillis predicts.
"Why do you have a BVI company? What's in it? Why didn't you report it when you set it up?"
|
16d4ce2ac35e33c339a3685ce86d064c | https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-china-26129171 | China and Taiwan in first government talks | China and Taiwan in first government talks
China and Taiwan have held their first high-level talks since the end of the Chinese civil war in 1949.
Wang Yu-chi and Zhang Zhijun, the top cross-strait officials from each side, attended the four-day talks in Nanjing.
No official agenda was released for the talks, which are widely seen as a confidence-building exercise.
China regards Taiwan as part of its territory. In the past, all talks have gone via quasi-official organisations.
Mr Zhang, head of mainland China's Taiwan Affairs Office, said: "It's impossible to imagine in the past that we could sit here and meet."
"We must have some imagination if [we want to] resolve some difficulties, not just for such a meeting, we should also have a bigger imagination for cross-strait future development," he added.
Mr Wang, head of Taiwan's Mainland Affairs Council, described the meeting as "a new chapter for cross-strait relations".
"For us to simply sit at the same table, sit down to discuss issues, is already not an easy thing."
Given the sensitivities, the meeting room had no flags on display, and the officials' nameplates had no titles or affiliations, the AFP news agency reported.
Beijing insists that Taiwan is part of China and has a stated aim of reclaiming the island.
Taiwan still calls itself the Republic of China and nominally claims the same territory as the Communist government in Beijing, although it does not press these claims.
The US is committed to defending Taipei, despite not formally recognising Taiwan as an independent country.
The situation has created a decades-long military stand-off between Beijing and Washington.
But cross-strait ties have improved since Taiwan's pro-Beijing President Ma Ying-jeou was elected in 2008.
Cross-strait flights began in 2008, and tourists from the mainland have boosted Taiwan's economy.
Trade agreements have allowed Taiwanese technology firms to expand massively, investing billions of dollars in the mainland.
However, Mr Ma is unpopular and analysts say his governing Kuomintang party is likely to lose local elections later this year.
The talks are the first formal government-to-government dialogue since the 1949 split.
For years, mainland China and Taiwan dealt with each other indirectly, though so-called friendship associations and trade groups, the BBC's Celia Hatton in Beijing reports.
Amid all the smiles, tension remains: China refuses to retract its long-standing threat that it could eventually take back Taiwan, by force if necessary, our correspondent adds.
Taiwan negotiators are likely to propose the posting of permanent representatives on each other's territories.
But they will also face pressure to talk about press freedom after China refused accreditation to several media outlets.
"Press freedom is a universal value," Taiwan's Mainland Affairs Council said in a statement.
"We've repeatedly said that the most important thing regarding news exchange between the two sides is the free and equal flow of information."
Many Taiwanese are sensitive to issues of press freedom, having lived under a dictatorship that tightly controlled the media until the 1980s.
Correspondents say Beijing's negotiators are likely to press for closer economic co-operation.
|
e9e65135f0e1f5476721cfec0692af12 | https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-china-27584367 | China media: Human rights 'progress' | China media: Human rights 'progress'
Media welcome what they call "progress" on human rights in China as authorities pledge to safeguard "rights to freedom of speech".
The West and international organisations like the UN are critical of Beijing's human rights record, and have expressed concern at the arrest of dissidents, the continued use of the death penalty and the use of torture in law enforcement, among other things.
On Monday, the State Council, the cabinet which oversees China's government machine, issued a white paper, the
"Progress in China's Human Rights in 2013"
, outlining what it sees as the country's achievements in improving civil liberties.
According to
China Radio International
, the document states that the Chinese government has "effectively safeguarded its citizens' right to life and health, personal liberty, personal dignity and other rights of the individual".
"People's livelihoods have improved significantly. Basic public services in both urban and rural settings have been better safeguarded," Li Yunlong, a human rights researcher, tells the radio network.
The Beijing Times
highlights the point that the internet has become an "important avenue" for the public to express their views. It notes that the authorities have promised to "promote and safeguard" the "citizens' right to freedom of speech".
The Changjiang Daily
notes that China has been publishing the report since 1991, and this is the first time that the "right to freedom of speech" has been listed as a separate heading.
"Right to freedom of speech has been placed as separate content. This has grabbed the attention of many… it goes to show that the authorities have recognised and given prominence to such rights. The next step will be how to guarantee those rights," says the paper.
For
Guangming Daily
, the report promotes an understanding among the international community of the human rights situation in China.
"In recent years, everyone can see that China has achieved progress in its human rights record. We are also aware that there are problems caused by imbalanced and unsustainable growth. The report is an objective one. It is close to the viewpoint of ordinary people and shows the confidence that the Chinese type of socialism has on the issue of human rights," the paper concludes.
Meanwhile, the media criticise the US for being "unscrupulous" after the Chinese government published a report accusing Washington of cyber surveillance.
The report by the China Academy of Cyber Space is entitled "America's global surveillance record" and comes a week after Washington charged five Chinese army officers of hacking into US companies.
The report claims that the US is targeting Chinese leaders, research institutes and companies, the
Beijing Youth Daily
says.
An article on the
China Net
website notes that the document is a "counter-attack" on Washington's rebalancing strategy in Asia "in the area of information in cyberspace".
"China would like to expose to the world the double standards of the US… This also shows that, if there is no dialogue and understanding between Beijing and Washington, the war on cyber information will be made public and become more widespread."
The state-run
Xinhua News
agency lashes out at Washington for displaying "hegemonic behaviour" in cyberspace and engaging in "unscrupulous spying".
"Facing the rise of China, the second largest economy in the world, the US has become unsure of its position. On the surface, Washington says it wants to build a new major power relationship with Beijing, but in secret, it views China as an opponent and even resorts to distasteful methods such as cyber snooping," it says in a commentary.
In its Chinese edition, the
Global Times
criticises Beijing for being "passive" in the past and urges more "counter-attacks" on Washington.
"The report is a summary of content that was already available publicly and does not contain any spicy new information, but it is still worth the applause. The US has abused its power by embarking on global spying activities and we are no longer going to keep silent," writes the daily.
BBC Monitoring
reports and analyses news from TV, radio, web and print media around the world. For more reports from BBC Monitoring,
click here
. You can follow BBC Monitoring on
Twitter
and
Facebook
.
|
095a4d4d30de51cf5d48e28cd8b84601 | https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-china-27659475 | Miao Deshun: China's last Tiananmen prisoner? | Miao Deshun: China's last Tiananmen prisoner?
When the streets were still and the shooting had stopped following the violent showdown between protesters and soldiers in June, 1989, the Chinese government began rounding up people it deemed to be criminals. Many were detained and released, but 1,600 people received formal prison sentences.
Now, it's believed that only one person convicted during that era remains behind bars.
We don't have his photo, but we know his name: Miao Deshun. A factory worker from Beijing, he was convicted of arson for throwing a basket at a burning tank. For this seemingly minor offence, he received a suspended death sentence, which was commuted to life in prison a few years later. Miao is not scheduled for release until 15 September 2018.
"He was a quiet person. He was often very depressed," remembers Dong Shengkun, a fellow Tiananmen convict who once shared a prison cell with Miao Deshun.
Everyone interviewed by the BBC who knew Miao describes him as being painfully thin, almost emaciated.
"We had both been given suspended death sentences and we were supposed to have our feet in shackles," Mr Dong says. "I was chained but he wasn't. He said the guards probably thought he was too thin to be able to wear foot chains. He wouldn't be able to walk under the weight of the chains."
Beijing's Bureau of Prisons refused to answer inquiries about Miao Deshun, noting they never answer questions from foreign journalists. However, Dui Hua, a US-based organisation advocating the legal rights of Chinese prisoners, says it is highly likely that Miao is the last prisoner with offences dating back to the Tiananmen uprising in 1989.
Of course, it's possible that Miao Deshun died in prison years ago, and the news of his passing has yet to surface. The Bureau of Prisons will only confirm prisoners' status to direct relatives.
But assuming that Miao Deshun is still alive, why did he stay in prison long after most others were released?
Most former prisoners agree, that, unlike most others, Miao refused to sign letters admitting regret for his participation in the Tiananmen protests. He also refused to participate in prison labour, choosing instead to spend his days reading the newspaper in his cell.
Tiananmen protests
Timeline: Tiananmen protests
"He is the last prisoner because he never admitted he was wrong, he refused to obey regulations and refused to participate in labour through re-education," a former prisoner, Sun Liyong remembers.
Mr Sun now lives in Sydney, Australia. During the day, he works as a labourer on construction sites. In his spare time, he runs a fund devoted to helping victims and former prison inmates with connections to the Tiananmen protests. He says he isn't even sure if Miao is alive.
"I keep in touch with former inmates and every time I ask them if they have heard from Miao. The last time anyone saw him was about a decade ago."
But other former prisoners also blame Miao's long sentence on his lowly status as a worker who became involved in the protests.
"When the jail terms were handed out, ordinary citizens were given harsher sentences," explains another former prisoner, Zhang Baoqun. "The guys with good connections, or those who were protected by certain associations, received lesser sentences."
"No-one spoke up for people like us," Mr Zhang says. "Wang Dan, one of the protest organisers, was only given four years in prison."
"In the early 1990s when [Miao's] families went to visit him, he refused family visits. He doesn't want his old parents to travel so far to see him. Since then, no-one has seen him. Sometimes Miao and I were locked in single rooms at the same time, my cell just opposite his."
"The authorities treated him as if he was insane. I heard they moved him to Yanqing," Mr Dong says quietly. He doesn't know much about the prison, he explains, except that it's very far away.
The BBC drove for hours through the mountains to reach the gates of Yanqing prison, an institution for elderly and mentally ill prisoners. The prison's remote location makes it seem like Miao Deshun has been banished from modern society, far away from the politics of Tiananmen Square.
Former inmates have had varying degrees of success reclaiming their daily lives.
After leaving prison in 2003, Zhang Baoqun has tried a variety of different jobs in an attempt to support his wife and young son, who was born after his release.
Denouncing his time in prison as a "dirty spot" on his record, Mr Zhang questions his actions during 1989.
"I wouldn't participate in something like that again. It was meaningless. You cannot change your country no matter how hard you try," he explains.
Since leaving prison eight years ago, Dong Shengkun has never been able to find a full-time job. Estranged from his wife and child, he lives with his 76-year-old mother, but he has no regrets about his past choices.
"I have a clear conscience," he explains, adding: "So many people sacrificed so much. They didn't sacrifice their lives for today's materialistic society. Chinese people have become richer now but we shouldn't care less simply because we have better lives now."
Mr Dong is stoic when asked about the last prisoner, Miao Deshun's, long incarceration.
"I am not surprised he is still inside," he sighs. "It has been 25 years but the authorities can do anything they like."
|
3b5e11be97838fd57f6e159e880cda71 | https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-china-27830225?ocid=socialflow_twitter | Pandas will not predict World Cup, says China | Pandas will not predict World Cup, says China
Panda cubs at an enclosure in China have been forbidden from predicting the scores at the football World Cup.
The giant bears had been primed to choose their food from various baskets emblazoned with the national flags of the teams, thereby predicting winners.
But moments before the opening game kicked off, the Chengdu research base pulled out of the stunt.
The idea of animals predicting football scores has become a standard publicity stunt for zoos and other organisations.
The most famous example from the last tournament was Paul the octopus, who apparently correctly guessed the winners of games until the semi-final.
This year, a whole variety of animals across the world are being touted as the successor to Paul.
The pandas' attempt to emulate Paul had been eagerly anticipated on social media.
But late on Thursday, the Chengdu facility said it had been ordered to stop the stunt.
"The predictions have been halted by the authorities," a spokesman told the AFP news agency without giving any details.
However, the Chinese newspaper Global Times quoted a spokesman from the research enclosure as denying the authorities had stepped in.
The spokesman said the stunt had been cancelled by the research centre because it would have harmed the pandas by requiring too much contact with humans.
|
9ab81c1700613bf8239e5d15d87f4cb4 | https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-china-29405747 | China media: Hong Kong protests | China media: Hong Kong protests
Mainland papers condemn the protests in Hong Kong, blaming "radical opposition forces" for stirring up trouble.
Pro-democracy protests erupted into a major street campaign on Sunday. Protesters want Beijing to scrap rules allowing it to vet candidates for Hong Kong's top job in the 2017 polls.
Most
Chinese language papers
in the mainland have criticised the protest, calling it an "illegal assembly". The papers, however, have refrained from publishing photographs or giving details.
Describing the gathering as "unlawful" and "unauthorised", a report in the English edition of the
China Daily
mentions that the police fired tear gas on protestors.
The paper's
editorial
calls the protest an "opportunistic adventure", and blames the Occupy Central group for using the students to threaten Hong Kong's "economic well-being and social stability".
"Realising their failure to summon residents' support for their cause, the 'Occupy' organisers are trying to take advantage of the students' idealism and enthusiasm for promoting democratic advancement in the city," says the daily.
The paper adds that the protesters have a "political agenda".
"By knowingly putting young students in jeopardy, 'Occupy' organisers demonstrate a desperate attempt to advance their political agenda, even at the expense of the safety of innocent people… the political extremists in the city have completely exposed the opportunistic nature of their endeavours," it points out.
The English edition of the
Global Times
reports that the police have shown "restraint in handling demonstrators".
The editorial
criticises the "street movement", adding that it is ruining Hong Kong's image.
"As Chinese mainlanders, we feel sorrow over the chaos in Hong Kong on Sunday. Radical opposition forces in Hong Kong should be blamed," says the paper.
It goes on to criticise some US media outlets for "linking the Occupy Central movement with the Tiananmen Incident in 1989".
"By hyping such a groundless comparison, they attempt to mislead and stir up Hong Kong's society. China is no longer the same nation it was 25 years ago. We have accumulated experience and drawn lessons from others, which help strengthen our judgment when faced with social disorder," it says.
The paper also asks the Hong Kong government to "take actions to resume order in response to the damage the radical forces caused to society".
"The central government must firmly support the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region in taking resolute action against radical activities, including drawing the red line of Hong Kong's rule of law. It must be made clear that there is no uncertainty over political reform in Hong Kong," it warns.
An article by Wang Qiang, a professor at the College of Armed Police, on
Sohu news portal
suggests "the armed police" can be mobilised to handle the situation if the law enforcers in Hong Kong "do not have the ability to do so".
In contrast to the limited reporting in China's press, media outlets in Hong Kong are giving prominent coverage to the protests.
Pro-Beijing media outlets have urged the students to end their protest, while independent outlets are scathing in their criticism of the government.
Pro-Beijing
Sing Tao Daily
blames the Occupy Central activists for pushing Hong Kong to dangerous ground.
"The conflict is not only affecting the financial district area, but all regions and industries are affected. These activists should bear the responsibility," warns the paper.
In an emotionally-charged editorial, the popular pro-democracy
Apple Daily
tells the "heartless", "tyrannical", "unreasonable" regime to "get lost" after police fired tear gas and pepper spray on the protesters.
"What mistakes have the people committed? They were only speaking up for the students and protecting them as they could not bear to see the authorities bullying them," it says.
"People have lost hope in this government that has been elected by a small group of people. We know that the determination of the people and students to fight for democracy will never be weakened," it says.
The Ming Pao
daily, known as an intellectual paper in Hong Kong, subtly criticises the protesters for "not realising their promise" of a "non-violent protest" based on the "ideal of love and peace", while noting that the police should have refrained from using tear gas on the protesters.
"Up to this stage, perhaps the authorities should consider what is best for Hong Kong. For example, having a temporary freeze on the political reform discussions and wait until the second round of consultation," suggests the editorial.
And finally, an article in the
South China Morning Post
shines some optimism.
"But perhaps there is an even simpler reason for optimism: this generation of students who have, again and again, showed their willingness to stand up and speak truth to power. If they are indeed the leaders of tomorrow's Hong Kong, we can still hope for change," says the article.
BBC Monitoring
reports and analyses news from TV, radio, web and print media around the world. For more reports from BBC Monitoring,
click here
. You can follow BBC Monitoring on
Twitter
and
Facebook
.
|
a8d30581c563e937837d1182d7fe1902 | https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-china-29975423 | Hong Kong protesters carry out 'yellow ribbon' march | Hong Kong protesters carry out 'yellow ribbon' march
Hundreds of pro-democracy protesters in Hong Kong have marched to the office of China's top representative in the city.
Activists are angry about a decision by China to screen candidates for Hong Kong's 2017 leadership election. They want direct talks with Beijing.
Government supporters also took to the streets and confronted the protesters outside the representative's office.
Activists tied yellow ribbons, a symbol of their demand for more democracy, on the gates of the China liaison office.
The march on Sunday follows almost six weeks of sit-ins and road blockades in a number of central districts.
Hong Kong Chief executive CY Leung - who is in Beijing - received the full support of President Xi Jinping in his dealings with the protesters.
Mr Xi said that he firmly supported Hong Kong in "driving forward the development of democracy according to the law, and in safeguarding the prosperity and stability of Hong Kong".
The BBC's John Sudworth in Hong Kong says that there is no sign that the Hong Kong government is prepared to make any concessions.
Protesters say that attempts to negotiate with the Hong Kong government have failed and now appear to be directing their grievances towards China's national leaders, our correspondent says.
China now has ultimate sovereignty over Hong Kong following the handover from Britain in 1997, although the territory still enjoys a large degree of autonomy.
The protesters began blocking a number of key areas of the city six weeks ago after they accused Beijing of breaking a promise of greater democracy.
The ruling communist party's new rules for the election of Hong Kong's chief executive allow it to veto candidates it deems unsuitable.
|
b5a95a1e444333c4279adb344168071c | https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-china-30222276 | China media: US human rights | China media: US human rights
Papers in China have raised questions over the US's human rights record in the wake of the unrest in Ferguson.
Crowds gathered in cities across the US this week to protest against a grand jury's decision on Monday not to charge white police officer Darren Wilson over the killing of unarmed black teenager Michael Brown.
The family of Michael Brown said they were left "crushed" by the ruling, which has triggered nationwide debates over relations between black communities and law enforcement in the US.
The US and China have often traded accusations over human rights issues. Washington often criticises Beijing for its human rights record, while China says the US has its own set of human rights problems.
"There are probably few other countries in the world as self-righteous and complacent as the US when it comes to human rights issues, but the Ferguson tragedy is apparently a slap in the face," remarks an article in the
Xinhua News Agency
.
It adds that the death of the teenager should "serve as a stark reminder for Uncle Sam that there are a lot of human rights violations in its own soil, and it should first fix its own problems before criticising other countries".
The People's Daily
highlights that racial problems are "polarising" the US society even though the country has an African-American president.
Echoing similar views, a
commentary in the pape
r wonders why the governments of other countries "have never criticised the US over its shortcomings on racial discrimination issues".
"There are many unfair cases in the US over judicial and racial discrimination issues, and this shows that the country is very far from being perfect," notes the article.
The Global Times
agrees, saying "the Ferguson riots show that the US is not the promised land", and adds that the country is "probably driven by more social problems than China".
The Chinese edition
of the paper further points out that the unrest shows that the confidence of the US society over its political and economic systems is "shaking", and it is "no longer as confident in itself in the wake of China's rise".
Without making any direct reference to any social and political problems in China, the article blames the West for "supporting some factors" that cause political instability in the country.
"The Chinese political system is still at its infancy, we need more time to gain the confidence to deal with various issues," the editorial concludes.
Meanwhile, state media criticise Hong Kong protesters for "distorting the image" of the territory.
The China News Service
says that the two-month protest has damaged Hong Kong's reputation as a "shopping paradise" and a "civilised society".
Another repor
t praises the efficiency of the officers for clearing up some of the protest sites.
Turning to domestic news, papers blame "some countries" for showing "reluctance" in helping China track down corrupt officials who stash money abroad.
China has been trying to find corrupt officials who stash money abroad or leave the country after amassing illegal wealth.
Xu Hong, top official with the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, said in a press conference on Wednesday that "some countries" are prejudiced against China and they refuse to extradite suspects, the
China Daily
reports.
The daily notes that the US and Canada, where many accused corrupt Chinese officials are allegedly hiding, have not signed extradition treaties with China.
The People's Daily
also criticises "some countries" for holding prejudice towards China.
"Hunting down these corrupt officials is an important work in Beijing's fight against corruption. It affects the country's image, dignity of the law and also political stability as well as confidence of the people towards the party… so it has to succeed", notes the daily.
And finally, an article in the Chinese edition of the
Global Times
urges China "not to give up on North Korea".
Disagreeing with the views of "some analysts" who suggest that Beijing should "discard the disobedient Pyongyang", the article says that such a move might prompt North Korea "to embrace another country", or might lead to its further isolation causing it to become even more belligerent.
A UN human rights committee recently passed a resolution calling on the Security Council to refer North Korea to the International Criminal Court for alleged crimes against humanity.
BBC Monitoring
reports and analyses news from TV, radio, web and print media around the world. You can follow BBC Monitoring on
Twitter
and
Facebook
.
|
e09e1717acbfab0af0a03ee42fbca9b9 | https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-china-31079840 | Hong Kong pro-democracy protesters return to streets | Hong Kong pro-democracy protesters return to streets
Thousands of pro-democracy activists have returned to the streets of Hong Kong for their first big rally since mass protests last year.
But the number of protesters - put by organisers at 13,000 but by police at half that figure - was far lower than the earlier demonstrations.
Their key demand is fully democratic elections for the territory's leader.
A large police presence was in force to prevent demonstrators from occupying key areas of Hong Kong.
But the protesters did not carry out a repeat of the occupations that shut down parts of the city for more than two months last year.
Last year's Occupy demonstrations at their peak were attended by tens of thousands of people from all walks of life. There were later violent clashes with police, and the final protest camp was dismantled in December.
One organiser of the latest march, Daisy Chan, told
the South China Morning Post
that although the turnout was lower than expected it "only shows that Hong Kongers are no longer satisfied with conventional ways of protest" and people were taking up "new ways to pressure the government".
The protesters were watched by about 2,000 police officers as soon as they began their march through the city's upmarket shopping and financial districts.
Those who took to the streets in Hong Kong said they needed to stand up and be counted, if only to protect existing freedoms. That means exercising the freedom to march even if no-one in power is listening.
Some of the younger marchers put the low turnout down to fatigue, saying large numbers would pour back on to the streets when the moment was right. But one 60-year-old cautioned against youthful optimism, warning that Hong Kong would have to wait for the downfall of the Chinese Communist Party before seeing genuine democracy.
That party has comfortably outlived many predictions of its demise. It is watching events in Hong Kong closely and will see a low turnout as vindication of its strategy to avoid force and overt direction of events while making no compromises on political reform.
At this point, Beijing will feel it has won the battle - if not yet the war - and is likely to carry on shaping Hong Kong's political destiny according to its own design.
China has promised the semi-autonomous territory direct elections in 2017, but ruled that candidates had to be vetted by Beijing.
Pro-democracy legislators - who hold about 40% of the seats in the Legislative Council - strongly oppose the move.
Protester Julia Choi told the AP news agency that pro-democracy candidates "would not even be nominated, so this is pseudo-universal suffrage, we do not have the rights to elect who we want".
Many demonstrators carried yellow umbrellas - the symbol of the political campaign. A large banner caricaturing Hong Kong's Chief Executive CY Leung read: "Reject fake democracy, we want real universal suffrage."
But speaking on local radio on Sunday, Lam Woon-kwong of the Executive Council, Hong Kong's top policy-making body, warned protesters: "You can't threaten the central authorities."
|
b3334c6225181d6461ea155e7a3fa028 | https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-china-33844095 | China TV anchor Bi Fujian to be punished for Mao insult | China TV anchor Bi Fujian to be punished for Mao insult
A Chinese star TV anchor is facing "severe punishment" over jokes he made about Mao Zedong, state media report.
A video of Bi Fujian singing a parody song at a private banquet and insulting the former Chinese leader in strong language was posted online in April.
Mr Bi was taken off air shortly after the incident, amid great controversy.
But
People's Daily said
officials had ordered his employer, state broadcaster CCTV, to punish him for "a serious violation of political discipline".
Mao, who led the country through the Cultural Revolution and a crippling famine which killed millions, remains the subject of much debate.
Mr Bi hosts CCTV's annual hugely popular New Year variety show, and is best known in China for hosting the talent show Star Boulevard.
What did Did Bi Fujian sing?
He sang Taking Tiger Mountain by Strategy, a Mao-era song which dramatises a 1946 incident where a soldier infiltrated and helped to destroy a group of bandits.
In the video, he was seen singing part of the song and interjecting the lyrics with his comments.
"We are the peasant soldiers who have come to the deep mountains - come to the deep mountains to do what, eh?
"To vanquish the reactionaries - can you defeat them?
"Changing the earth and sky, several decades of revolutionary war in the north and south - it was tough enough.
"The Communist Party, Chairman Mao - Ugh, let's not talk about this son of a bitch any longer, he's caused us so much suffering."
Mr Bi's last statement on his Weibo microblog account was an April statement apologising for the incident, saying that his remarks had "created serious adverse consequences... as a public figure I must learn my lesson, and learn to have high standards and strict self-discipline".
News of his punishment has been greeted with a mixed reaction on Weibo, with some criticising the lack of freedom of speech and others arguing that he needed to be punished.
Some noted the swift clampdown on Mr Bi was reminiscent of the brutal purges of dissent during the Cultural Revolution led by Mao.
"He was a bit too much, but he was just talking at the dinner table and someone told on him. If this isn't the Cultural Revolution, then what is?" said user Call Me Lixiumei.
Others also noted that many Weibo posts on the topic had been deleted, particularly comments that praised Mr Bi. China regularly scrubs the microblogging network especially on sensitive topics.
While China officially acknowledges there were faults in Mao, he remains hugely respected, and insulting him and other leaders is a taboo.
His legacy is also growing in popularity among those who feel China has moved too far away from his communist ideals.
|
7d30986fe3fbde98343f15701ceeed39 | https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-china-34536268 | Chinese actress Angelababy's face examined for court case | Chinese actress Angelababy's face examined for court case
A top Chinese actress has had her face examined as part of a high-profile legal case in China, local media report.
Actress Angelababy is suing a clinic for defamation after it alleged she had plastic surgery done on her face.
Doctors who examined her on Thursday said that her looks were genuine.
It came a week after her widely-publicised wedding to actor Huang Xiaoming, who has defended her, saying she "sometimes looks quite ugly".
A Beijing judge had suggested that her face be examined by medical professionals to certify its authenticity.
The 26-year-old actress, whose real name is Yeung Wing, went through a series of X-ray scans and tests - which at one stage involved a
doctor prodding her face
- at a plastic surgery hospital in the capital on Thursday. She was accompanied by notaries public and several journalists.
Hospital chief Qi Zuoliang later pronounced her looks to be genuine. "Baby's entire head and facial bones do not have any signs of incisions," he told reporters, using a popular abbreviation of the actress' stage name.
News of her examination dominated discussion on Chinese social network Sina Weibo on Thursday, with many of her fans expressing support.
Angelababy, who first shot to fame as a model and actress in Hong Kong, has long been dogged by rumours that she had plastic surgery, with pictures purportedly showing her natural face circulating online in recent years.
She is suing Beijing beauty clinic Ruili for carrying an article on its website in 2012 alleging that she had plastic surgery, and is seeking 500,000 yuan (£51,000; $79,000) in compensation.
She has insisted that her unique looks come from her European heritage - her paternal grandfather was German.
Angelababy married Huang last Thursday in one of the biggest and most lavish celebrity weddings China had seen, which reportedly cost 200 million yuan (£20.3m; $31.5m).
Huang has previously defended the actress, saying in a 2014 interview: "Actually she sometimes looks quite ugly to me."
"I'm not an idiot, I definitely can tell she hasn't had plastic surgery, sometimes she doesn't put on make up and she really looks like those ugly pictures of her."
|
Subsets and Splits
No community queries yet
The top public SQL queries from the community will appear here once available.