US declares Myanmar military committed genocide against Rohingya Muslims
The evidence shows “a clear intent behind these mass atrocities – the intent to destroy Rohingya, in whole or in part,” Blinken said. US Secretary of State Antony Blinken has formally declared that the Myanmar military’s attacks on the Rohingya in 2016 and 2017 was “genocide”, saying there was “clear intent” to destroy the Muslim minority. “I have determined that members of the Burmese military committed genocide and crimes against humanity against Rohingya,” Blinken said on Monday. The evidence shows “a clear intent behind these mass atrocities – the intent to destroy Rohingya, in whole or in part,” he said at the US Holocaust Memorial Museum. At least one member of Congress, Democratic Sen. Jeff Merkley of Oregon, welcomed the anticipated step. “I applaud the Biden administration for finally recognising the atrocities committed against the Rohingya as genocide,” he said in a statement. “While this determination is long overdue, it is nevertheless a powerful and critically important step in holding this brutal regime to account,” Merkley said. Merkley called on the administration to continue the pressure campaign on Myanmar by imposing additional sanctions on the government to include its oil and gas sectors. Additional international pressure The designation does not in and of itself portend drastic new measures against Myanmar’s military-led government, which has already been hit with multiple layers of US sanctions since the campaign against the Rohingya ethnic minority began in the country’s western Rakhine state in 2017. But it could lead to additional international pressure on the government, which is already facing accusations of genocide at the International Court of Justice in The Hague. Human rights groups and lawmakers have been pressing both the Trump and Biden administrations to make the designation. Myanmar security forces have been accused of mass rapes, killings and the burning of thousands of homes. (Source: AFP)
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China Eastern plane carrying 132 crashes in Guangxi province
(21 Mar 2022) A China Eastern Airlines passenger plane carrying 132 people has crashed in southern China, shortly after losing contact with air traffic control and dropping thousands of metres in under three minutes. The airline “expresses its deep condolences for the passengers and crew members who died in the plane crash,” it said in a filing with the Shanghai Stock Exchange. There was no word on the cause of the crash of the plane. State broadcaster CCTV said the crash “caused a mountain fire” which was later extinguished. The Boeing 737-800 flight from the city of Kunming to the southern hub of Guangzhou “lost airborne contact over Wuzhou” in the Guangxi region on Monday afternoon, according to the Civil Aviation Administration of China (CAAC).
“This flight has crashed,” the CAAC said, adding the jet was carrying 123 passengers and nine crew members.
Sharp drop: Fears for the fate of the jet spread on Monday afternoon as local media reported that China Eastern flight MU5735 had not arrived as planned in Guangzhou after taking off from Kunming shortly after 1:00pm (0500 GMT). Flight tracking website FlightRadar24 showed no data for the flight after 2:22 pm. The tracker showed the plane sharply dropped from an altitude of 29,100 feet to 3,225 feet (8,870 to 982 metres) in three minutes, before flight information ceased.
Safety record: The safety record of the country’s airline industry has been among the best in the world over the past decade.(SOURCE: AL JAZEERA AND NEWS AGENCIES)
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Saudi Aramco’s Jeddah oil depot hit by Houthi attack
(25 Mar 2022) Yemen’s Houthis rebels have acknowledged a series of attacks on Saudi Arabia after state media in the kingdom reported rocket and drone strikes targeting an oil depot in Jeddah and other facilities in Riyadh. A huge plume of black smoke was seen rising from the plant in Jeddah, as the city prepared to host a Formula One race on Sunday. Later on Friday, Houthi military spokesperson Yahya Sarea said the group attacked Aramco’s facilities with missiles and the Ras Tanura and Rabigh refineries with drones.Sarea added that the attack also targeted vital facilities in the Saudi capital Riyadh. The attacks targeted “Aramco facilities in Jeddah and vital facilities in the capital of the Saudi enemy, Riyadh”, tweeted Saree. Facilities of oil giant Aramco were also attacked in Jizan, Najran, Ras Tanura and Rabigh with “a large number of drones”, he added. Al Arabiya TV, quoting the coalition, said the kingdom’s air defence system destroyed two explosive-laden drones targeting Najran. Following the Jeddah attack, people on the F1 track could see the large black smoke cloud in the distance.Drivers and teams later decided to go ahead with the race. “We have received total assurance that the country’s safety is first,” Formula One chief executive Stefano Domenicali told reporters after a meeting with drivers, teams and local authorities. Saudi Arabia has been leading a coalition battling the Houthis, who seized Yemen’s capital of Sanaa in September 2014, for seven years.(SOURCE: AL JAZEERA AND NEWS AGENCIES)
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Saudi Arabia executes 81 men in one day for terrorism
By Aziz El Yaakoubi
RIYADH, March 12 (Reuters) – Saudi Arabia executed 81 men including seven Yemenis and one Syrian on Saturday, the interior ministry said, in the kingdom’s biggest mass execution in decades. The number dwarfed the 67 executions reported there in all of 2021 and the 27 in 2020. Rights groups have accused Saudi Arabia of enforcing restrictive laws on political and religious expression, and criticised it for using the death penalty, including for defendants arrested when they were minors.”There are prisoners of con science on Saudi death row, and others arrested as children or charged with non-violent crimes,” Soraya Bauwens, deputy director of anti-death penalty charity Reprieve, said in a statement. “We fear for every one of them following this brutal display of impunity,” she added. Saudi Arabia denies accusations of human rights abuses and says it protects its national security through its laws.(Source: Reuters)
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Iranian Guards claim ballistic missile attacks in Erbil
(13 Mar 2022) Iran’s Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC) have taken responsibility for ballistic missile attacks in Iraq’s northern Kurdish regional capital of Erbil, according to Iran’s state media. The elite forces in a statement released on Sunday said it targeted the Israeli “strategic centre” in the country.
“Any repetition of attacks by Israel will be met with a harsh, decisive and destructive response,” the statement said.Israel killed two Iranian members of the IRGC earlier this week in Syria, a close ally of Tehran.Earlier, Kurdish officials said a dozen ballistic missiles launched from outside Iraq struck the region, with Erbil Governor Omed Khoshnaw telling local broadcaster Rudaw that there was a terror attack against the US Consulate. According to the Kurdish interior ministry, the missiles caused only material damage to the new consulate building and injured one civilian. A US State Department spokesperson called it an “outrageous attack” but said no Americans were hurt and there was no damage to US government facilities in Erbil. Iraqi state TV quoted the semi-autonomous Kurdish region’s counterterrorism force as saying 12 missiles launched from outside Iraq hit Erbil.(Source: Al Jazeera News Agency)
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Rahul Gandhi says India made “huge strategic mistake” in Kashmir
India today is completely isolated and surrounded, says Congress leader Rahul Gandhi. (By-APP | 3 February 2022) Indian Congress leader Rahul Gandhi attacked Narendra Modi’s government for committing a “huge strategic mistake” in Kashmir, the imprudent foreign policy that isolated India and for promoting the elitist economy. “We have made huge strategic mistakes in J&K and in our foreign policy… Ask yourself why you are not able to get a guest on Republic Day. India today is completely isolated and surrounded,” the Congress leader said addressing the Lok Sabha during the motion of thanks to the President’s address.He told the Indian parliament that the country had been surrounded by adversaries on all sides and was isolated in the region. “The nation is at risk from outside and inside. and I don’t like that. This worries me,” he added. “Do not underestimate what we are facing. This is a serious threat to India,” he said, adding that we made a “huge strategic mistake” in Jammu and Kashmir, referring to the revocation of Article 370 that revoked the special status granted to the state. He also questioned the Modi government’s failure to get any world leader on the country’s Republic Day. Ask yourselves why you are not able to get a guest on Republic Day. Today India is completely isolated & surrounded. We are surrounded in Sri Lanka, Nepal, Burma, Pakistan, Afghanistan, China. Everywhere we are surrounded. Our opponents understand our position. We have been weakened. Our institutions are under attack,” he commented and also mentioned the strengthening China-Pakistan relations. “This is the single biggest crime against the people of India,” he remarked. Criticizing Narendra Modi’s elitist economic policies, Gandhi said currently, there were two Indias one for the poor and one for the rich. The chasm between these two Indias is increasing continuously. He said there was a 46% drop in manufacturing jobs in India because the government was completely focused on 5-10 people. Referring to industrial tycoons, Ambani and Adani, he said the AA variant was spreading across the Indian economy.“You talk of Made in India. But there cannot be Made in India today. The matter has ended because who are the people involved in Made in India? Small and medium industry, unorganised sector whom you have finished. Made in India is not going to take place,” he commented.
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Japan PM Kishida announces $42 billion investment in India
MUMBAI, March 19 (Reuters) – Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida on Saturday announced a 5 trillion yen ($42 billion) investment in India over the next five years during a meeting with Prime Minister Narendra Modi in New Delhi. The two leaders were meeting to strengthen security amid the Ukraine crisis and improve economic ties between the two nations. Japan in recent years has supported India’s urban infrastructure development and the high-speed railway based on its bullet train technology. In 2014, then-Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe announced 3.5 trillion yen in investment and financing over five years during a visit to India.
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A 40 member’s delegation of UAE visit to Srinagar to explore the investment potential of Jammu and Kashmir.
(March 21, 2022) As the government of Jammu and Kashmir government is working relentlessly to provide an investment-friendly environment to the global investors, a high-level business delegation from the United Arab Emirates (UAE) landed in the summer capital here to enhance ties and look at the investment opportunities in the region. A 40-member delegation from the UAE has reached the Valley for a four-day (March 20-23) visit, months after Jammu and Kashmir Lieutenant Governor Manoj Sinha’s Dubai visit. The delegation also includes Indian businessmen based in the UAE and a representative of the Rulers Office in Abu Dhabi. “The UT administration is aiming to attract new investments in industries and tourism by highlighting key opportunities and growth sectors in Jammu and Kashmir to the delegation,” an official said.The aim is to create a favourable infrastructure for export promotion and an entrepreneurial friendly environment.(Source: Kashmir Observer)
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China successfully launches new Yaogan-34 02 remote sensing satellite
CGTN: 17-Mar-2022) China successfully sent a new remote sensing satellite, Yaogan-34 02, into space from the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center in northwestern China at 3:09 p.m. on Thursday 17th March.
The satellite was carried by a Long March-4C rocket and successfully entered its planned orbit. The optical remote sensing satellite will be used to survey urban planning, the confirmation of land rights, crop yield estimation, and disaster prevention and reduction. The satellite will work with other Yaogan-34 devices, including a similar satellite launched back in April 2021, to support the development of the Belt and Road area.It was the 411th launch of a Long March carrier rocket. (Source: CGTN)
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North Korea confirms ICBM test; warns of ‘long’ US confrontation
(25 Mar 2022) Kim, dressed in a black leather jacket and sunglasses, oversaw the Thursday launch of what was described as a “new-type” of ICBM, the Hwasong-17. The first full ICBM test by nuclear-armed North Korea since 2017 drew swift condemnation from South Korea and Japan, as well as the US. United Nations chief Antonio Guterres condemned the launch as a “clear violation” of Security Council resolutions. According to state media, the weapon was launched from Pyongyang International Airport, travelled up to a maximum altitude of 6,248 km (3,880 miles) and flew a distance of 1,090 km (680 miles) during a 67-minute flight before falling into the Sea of Japan.Believed to be about 25 metres (82 feet) long, the Hwasong-17 was first revealed in a military parade in October 2020. Kim ordered the test because of the “daily-escalating military tension in and around the Korean peninsula” and the “inevitability of the long-standing confrontation with the US imperialists accompanied by the danger of a nuclear war,” the official news agency for North Korea, KCNA, reported.KCNA called the successful test a “striking demonstration of great military muscle”, while Kim said it was a “miraculous” and “priceless” victory by the Korean people.(SOURCE: AL JAZEERA AND NEWS AGENCIES)
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World ‘sleepwalking’ to climate catastrophe: UN
(22-3-2022) UN chief Antonio Guterres warned of the threat of fossil fuel addiction as emissions are still set to rise 14 percent before the end of the decade. UN chief Antonio Guterres has said the world is “sleepwalking to climate catastrophe”, with major economies allowing carbon pollution to increase when drastic cuts are needed. The planet-saving goal of capping global warming at 1.5 degrees Celsius is already “on life support,” he told a sustain ability conference in London. The report is expected to conclude that CO2 emissions must peak within a few years if the Paris temperature targets are to be met. Guterres described Covid recovery spending as “scandalously uneven” and a missed opportunity to accelerate the turn toward clean energy. The Russian invasion of Ukraine, he added, could further derail climate action with importers locking in fossil fuel dependence as they scramble to replace Russian oil and gas. (Source: AFP)