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DT<br />
8<br />
World<br />
FRIDAY, NOVEMBER <strong>25</strong>, <strong>2016</strong><br />
SOUTH ASIA<br />
Afghanistan vows to reduce<br />
violence against women<br />
Afghan ministries Thursday signed<br />
an agreement to eliminate violence<br />
against women, a largely symbolic<br />
effort in a country that still consider<br />
one of the worst in the world<br />
to be female. The Afghan attorney<br />
general’s office recorded more than<br />
3,700 cases of violence against<br />
women in the first eight months of<br />
<strong>2016</strong>, with 5,000 cases recorded in<br />
the whole of 2015. AFP<br />
INDIA<br />
Protests over land rights<br />
flare in Jharkhand<br />
Protests over land rights flared for<br />
a second day in the eastern Indian<br />
state of Jharkhand, as activists<br />
and indigenous people took to the<br />
streets after the state assembly<br />
approved amendments to colonial-era<br />
land laws despite strong<br />
opposition. The state assembly on<br />
Wednesday approved changes to<br />
two laws that will allow the state to<br />
buy protected tribal land. REUTERS<br />
CHINA<br />
China power plant<br />
collapse kills 67<br />
At least 67 people were killed<br />
when part of a power station under<br />
construction in China collapsed<br />
Thursday, the latest industrial<br />
accident in a country with a dismal<br />
safety record. A cooling tower platform<br />
plunged to the ground in the<br />
early hours, trapping an unknown<br />
number of people beneath it. AFP<br />
ASIA PACIFIC<br />
Indonesians protest over<br />
Rohingya cause<br />
Hundreds of Indonesians, angered<br />
over the persecution of Rohingya<br />
Muslims in Myanmar, protested<br />
Thursday outside the Myanmar<br />
Embassy in the Indonesian capital.<br />
Jakarta police spokesman Awi<br />
Setiyono said at least 200 people<br />
joined the demonstration. They<br />
marched in three groups to the<br />
embassy, which was guarded by<br />
dozens of police, and staged a<br />
noisy but peaceful protest. AP<br />
MIDDLE EAST<br />
Kurds, Shias to coordinate<br />
after sealing off Mosul<br />
Iraqi Kurdish and Shia forces<br />
agreed to coordinate movements<br />
after cutting off Mosul from the<br />
rest of the territory held by IS in<br />
western Iraq and Syria, US and<br />
Iraqi officials said on Thursday.<br />
The agreement was reached at<br />
meeting on Wednesday between<br />
commanders of Kurdish Peshmerga<br />
forces and Hadi al-Amiri, the<br />
leader of the Iranian-backed Badr<br />
Organisation. REUTERS<br />
West voices concern at handling of<br />
Rohingya crisis<br />
• Reuters, Yangon/UN<br />
Western nations are increasingly<br />
concerned at how Aung San Suu<br />
Kyi’s government is dealing with<br />
violence in Myanmar’s divided<br />
northwest, with the US envoy to the<br />
United Nations privately warning<br />
fellow diplomats the country could<br />
not handle the crisis on its own.<br />
Violence in Myanmar’s Rakhine<br />
State has sent hundreds of Rohingya<br />
Muslims fleeing across the border<br />
to Bangladesh amid allegations<br />
of abuses by security forces, posing<br />
the biggest test yet for Suu Kyi’s<br />
eight-month-old administration.<br />
Samantha Power, Washington’s<br />
ambassador to the UN, outlined<br />
the level of concern at a closed<br />
meeting of the United Nations Security<br />
Council, held at the United<br />
States’ request at the body’s headquarters<br />
in New York last Thursday,<br />
diplomats said.<br />
Suu Kyi responded the next day<br />
by telling a gathering of diplomats<br />
in Myanmar’s capital, Naypyitaw,<br />
that her country was being treated<br />
unfairly, sources said.<br />
Abuse allegations<br />
Soldiers have poured into the area<br />
along Myanmar’s frontier with<br />
Bangladesh, responding to coordinated<br />
attacks on three border<br />
posts on October 9 that killed nine<br />
police officers. Myanmar’s military<br />
and the government have rejected<br />
Trump names staunch critic as envoy to UN<br />
• Reuters, Florida/Washington,<br />
DC<br />
Donald Trump on Wednesday<br />
named South Carolina Governor<br />
Nikki Haley, a former critic with<br />
little foreign policy experience,<br />
as the next US ambassador to the<br />
United Nations at a time of uncertainty<br />
over America’s international<br />
role under his presidency.<br />
Haley, one of two women chosen<br />
so far for a job in Trump’s<br />
Cabinet, is “a proven dealmaker,<br />
and we look to be making plenty<br />
of deals. She will be a great leader<br />
representing us on the world<br />
stage,” the Republican president-elect<br />
said in a statement.<br />
Trump on Wednesday also<br />
picked wealthy Republican donor<br />
and school choice advocate Betsy<br />
DeVos to lead the Education Department.<br />
Haley, the 44-year-old daughter<br />
of Indian immigrants, represents<br />
what some Republicans hope<br />
allegations by residents and rights<br />
groups that soldiers have raped<br />
Rohingya women, burnt houses<br />
and killed civilians during the military<br />
operation in Rakhine.<br />
Presidential spokesman Zaw<br />
Htay said Myanmar was “releasing<br />
correct news immediately” to prevent<br />
the spread of misinformation.<br />
At the New York meeting last<br />
week, Power renewed Washington’s<br />
call for the opening of an<br />
office of the OHCHR, the UN’s human<br />
rights body, in Myanmar.<br />
She also warned that years of disenfranchisement<br />
might have triggered<br />
radicalisation of some elements<br />
of the Rohingya community, describing<br />
the Security Council meeting as a<br />
“classic prevention moment”.<br />
State Department spokeswoman<br />
Nicole Thompson declined to<br />
comment on what was said at the<br />
closed-door Nov. 17 meeting.<br />
“We remain concerned by reports<br />
of ongoing violence and displacement<br />
in northern Rakhine<br />
State,” Thompson said.<br />
“We continue to urge the government<br />
to conduct a credible, independent<br />
investigation into the<br />
events in Rakhine State, and renew<br />
our request for open media access.”<br />
Britain also expressed its concerns<br />
at the meeting, diplomats<br />
said, as did Malaysia, which voiced<br />
worries the violence could prompt<br />
a renewed regional migration crisis.<br />
Underscoring the diplomatic<br />
Governor of the US State of South<br />
Carolina Nikki Haley at the Golden<br />
Temple in Amritsar, India<br />
AFP<br />
MYANMAR’S ROHINGYA<br />
Stateless Muslim ethnic group<br />
BANGLADESH<br />
Around 300,000<br />
Rohingya living in<br />
coastal areas<br />
Source : UNHCR<br />
BAY OF<br />
BENGAL<br />
Over 120,000 people<br />
have fled Rakhine since<br />
religious violence in 2012,<br />
according to UNHCR<br />
More than 30,000<br />
people displaced,<br />
at least 70 killed under<br />
military lockdown in<br />
the north of Rakhine<br />
since October<br />
tensions, Muslim-majority Malaysia<br />
said on Wednesday it was considering<br />
pulling out of a regional<br />
soccer tournament co-hosted by<br />
Myanmar in protest over its handling<br />
of the crisis.<br />
Egypt’s representative said it too<br />
was concerned by reports of radicalisation<br />
500 km among the Rohingya.<br />
could be the new face of their party:<br />
a younger, more diverse generation<br />
of leaders.<br />
Haley took Trump strongly<br />
to task during the presidential<br />
campaign over his harsh rhetoric<br />
about illegal immigration and for<br />
not speaking forcefully enough<br />
against white supremacists.<br />
America’s global role<br />
The choice of Haley may be aimed<br />
at countering criticism of Trump’s<br />
divisive comments about immigrants<br />
and minorities, as well as<br />
accusations of sexism during his<br />
election campaign.<br />
Haley led a successful effort last<br />
year to remove the Confederate<br />
battle flag from the grounds of the<br />
South Carolina state capitol after<br />
the killing of nine black churchgoers<br />
in Charleston. The flag was<br />
carried by pro-slavery Confederate<br />
forces during the Civil War and is<br />
viewed by many as a racist emblem.<br />
Haley said she had accepted<br />
MYANMAR<br />
Rakhine<br />
State<br />
Muslim Rohingya at a<br />
displacement<br />
camp, September 7<br />
Home to most of the<br />
1 million Rohingya<br />
Buddhist-majority<br />
Myanmar see the<br />
Rohingya as<br />
illegal Bangladeshi<br />
immigrants<br />
The Rohingya are<br />
denied citizenship<br />
and smothered<br />
by restrictions on<br />
movement and work<br />
The UN High Commissioner for<br />
Refugees has pressed the Burmese<br />
government to provide immediate<br />
humanitarian access to provide<br />
aid to the Rohingya in accordance<br />
with international law and has<br />
asked Bangladesh to keep its border<br />
open to any civilians fleeing<br />
the violence. •<br />
Trump’s offer and would remain<br />
governor pending her confirmation<br />
to the Cabinet-level post by<br />
the US Senate.<br />
Sharp words for Trump<br />
Haley would succeed Obama’s UN<br />
envoy, Samantha Power, a foreign<br />
policy expert before she took the<br />
job. In contrast, Haley, a state lawmaker<br />
before becoming governor,<br />
has little experience in international<br />
relations.<br />
She was a robust critic of Trump<br />
during the early stages of the Republican<br />
presidential nominating<br />
race, including condemning him<br />
for not disavowing the support of<br />
the Ku Klux Klan and one of the<br />
white supremacist group’s former<br />
leaders, David Duke.<br />
In a rebuttal to Obama’s State<br />
of the Union address in January,<br />
Haley called for tolerance on immigration<br />
and civility in politics,<br />
in what some saw as a rebuke of<br />
Trump. •