International

Philippines President Rodrigo Duterte on Wednesday cancelled his weekly national televised address due to an increase in active cases of Covid-19 among his staff, including some of his security detail, government officials said. The Philippines is battling one of the worst coronavirus outbreaks in Asia, with hospitals in the capital overwhelmed with record daily infections and authorities facing delays in delivery of Covid-19 vaccines. The Philippines has seen new daily cases surge in recent weeks, surpassing 15,000 on April 2, most of those in the capital Manila. ‘The physical safety of the president remains our utmost concern,’ presidential spokesman Harry Roque said in a statement, adding they were also concerned for the wellbeing of staff. Many people working for the president have tested positive for Covid-19, including the secretary of defence and some members of the presidential security group, Christopher Go, a sitting senator and Duterte's closest aide, told reporters. He did not specify how many were infected. Before the pandemic, Duterte, 76, maintained a busy schedule, at times attending multiple public events and delivering several speeches each day, often late into the night. His public activities have since been replaced by a weekly nighttime address. Duterte has yet to be vaccinated against the coronavirus and says he is awaiting his doctor's advice and regulatory approval of the vaccine of China's Sinopharm, which some of his guards admitted to secretly using last year. Go reassured the public that Duterte was in good health. ‘Nothing to worry about,’ Go said. ‘In fact, we are together and he continues working.’ With more than 819,000 Covid-19 cases and over 14,000 deaths, the Philippines has since last year been under tight and lengthy lockdowns that have decimated its economy and suffered one of Asia's deepest contractions last year.  

* Myanmar likely becoming failed state: Fitch Solutions * Five killed as troops target protesters * Parallel government to submit evidence of atrocities to UN * Myanmar seeing collapse into information abyss: NetBlocks * UK discusses support for Southeast Asia push for resolution   Myanmar troops fired at anti-coup protesters on Wednesday, killing at least five people and wounding several, media said, as activists defied a bloody crackdown and internet blockade by the ruling junta. More than 580 people have been killed, according to an activist group, in the turmoil in Myanmar since a Feb. 1 coup that ended a brief period of civilian-led democracy. Nationwide protests and strikes have persisted since then despite the ruling military's use of lethal force to quell the opposition. Security forces opened fire on Wednesday on protesters in the northwestern town of Kale as they demanded the restoration of Aung San Suu Kyi's civilian government, a resident told Reuters. News outlets cited witnesses saying there were casualties and repeated gunfire. The Mizzima and Irrawaddy news outlets said five people were killed and several wounded. The Kale resident said the information was provided to him by witnesses, who took pictures of five bodies. Reuters could not independently verify the toll. The mostly youth-led anti-coup movement's ability to organise campaigns and share information via social media and instant messaging has been severely hamstrung by curbs on broadband wireless internet and mobile data services. Fixed-line services, which few in Myanmar have access to, are available. ‘Myanmar has been subject to a stepwise collapse into the information abyss since February,’ Alp Toker, founder of internet blockage observatory NetBlocks told Reuters. ‘Communications are now severely limited and available only to the few.’ With print media also halted, protesters have sought workarounds to get their message across, producing their own A4-sized daily news pamphlets that are shared digitally and printed for distribution among the public. On Tuesday, Dr Sasa, who leads a parallel government of the remnants of Suu Kyi's administration, said in a statement that its legal counsel would be submitting evidence of military atrocities to different UN human rights bodies. Sasa, a medical doctor who uses one name, said lawyers for his Committee Representing the Pyidaungsu Hluttaw (CRPH) had received 180,000 items of evidence and would meet on Wednesday with representatives of an independent investigative mechanism for Myanmar. According to the Association for Political Prisoners (AAPP) advocacy group, 581 people, including dozens of children, have been shot dead by troops and police in almost daily unrest since the coup, and security forces have arrested close to 3,500 people, with 2,750 still detained. JUNTA 'LOSING CONTROL' Arrest warrants have been issued for hundreds of people, with the junta this week going after scores of influencers, entertainers, artists and musicians. The country's most famous comedian, Zarganar, was arrested on Tuesday, media reported. British Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab discussed how Britain and the international community could support a Southeast Asian effort to resolve the crisis in Myanmar, Indonesia's Foreign Minister Retno Marsudi said, after meeting her British counterpart in Jakarta. Indonesia is among several Southeast Asian countries leading a push for high-level talks on Myanmar. Western countries including the United States, Britain and Australia have imposed or tightened sanctions on the generals and the military's huge network of business monopolies in response to the coup, detentions and use of lethal force against demonstrators. The European Union is expected to follow suit. Russia, which has shown support for Myanmar's ruling military council, on Tuesday said the West risked triggering civil war in the country by imposing sanctions on the junta. Fitch Solutions said in a report issued on Wednesday that targeted Western sanctions alone were unlikely to succeed in restoring democracy. It predicted in the medium-term a violent revolution between the military on one side and an armed opposition comprised of members of the anti-coup movement and ethic militias. Some ethnic minority forces, which control large swathes of border regions, have said they can not stand by as the junta kills people and already engaged the military in skirmishes. Fitch said Myanmar was heading towards being a failed state. ‘The escalating violence on civilians and ethnic militias show that the Tatmadaw (military) is increasingly losing control of the country,’ it said, adding that the vast majority of people backed the parallel government.    

* 'Blood has not dried' - activists mark protest deaths * Calls for burning Chinese goods, water festival boycott * Wireless broadband, cellular data curbs remain * Comedian held; arrests of dozens of influencers sought Myanmar's pro-democracy protesters sprayed red paint on roads in Yangon on Tuesday in a reminder to the junta that it had blood on its hands as the crisis created by a military coup in the Southeast Asian nation dragged on with no end in sight. Several groups called for a boycott of next week's Thingyan Water Festival, which marks the Buddhist new year. Leaflets calling for the ban, distributed in Yangon, said it would be a sign of compassion for the families of those killed. About 570 people have been killed during two months of unrest since the Feb. 1 coup, and security forces have arrested close to 3,500 people, with about four-fifths of them still in detention, advocacy group the Association for Political Prisoners (AAPP) said on Tuesday. Demonstrators woke early in Yangon, Myanmar's biggest city, to spray and splash pavements, roads and bus shelters with red paint in protest at a sweeping crackdown by security forces that has caused weeks of international outrage. ‘The blood has not dried,’ said one message in red. Another daubed across a bus shelter implored rank-and-file soldiers not to be exploited by kleptocratic generals clinging onto power. ‘Don't kill people just for a small salary as low as the cost of dog food,’ it said in a message that went onto accuse junta leader, Senior General Min Aung Hlaing, of stealing from people. Anger has swept Myanmar in the past two months over the return of a military government and an abrupt end to a brief era of democratic and economic reform and international integration that was absent under the military's oppressive 1962-2011 rule. Some protesters have called their movement a ‘spring revolution’, characterised by street marches, quirky acts of non-violent rebellion and civil disobedience campaigns aimed at crippling the government apparatus. Another protest scheduled for Wednesday has called for the burning of Chinese-made goods. Many protesters are opposed to China because it is seen as supporting the junta. ‘The state of people now is that it doesn't matter who called for what kind of protest, people are always ready to follow,’ Khin Sandar, an activist and a protest organiser, told Reuters by phone. INTERNET BLACKOUTS But the ability to organise protests may have been hampered in recent days by the military's restriction of broadband wireless internet, adding to a weeks-long blockage of mobile data services that had been the main channel for spreading word of what was happening in the country during the crackdown. Those able to access social media, including some journalists, on Tuesday shared pictures of striking workers marching for a second day in the city of Mandalay, some wearing gas masks and giving the three-finger salute that has become a symbol of resistance to army rule. Authorities have issued arrest warrants for dozens of celebrities, models and influencers, and on Tuesday a popular comedian was arrested in Yangon, the Mizzima news site reported. Sithu Aung Myint, a prominent journalist, was on the wanted list. Writing on Facebook, he said he was proud to be considered a threat. ‘When the coup council who have been committing crimes announces you as a lawbreaker together with the whole country, you will be more than happy because you are recognised as a hero in this revolution,’ he wrote. ‘Your next generation will be proud of you.’ Protesters and workers have come out daily against the military takeover, which followed several years of awkward power-sharing between generals and Aung San Suu Kyi's civilian government under a democratic system created by the army. Suu Kyi's party won an election by landslide in November, and had pledged to change the constitution to reduce the military's political clout. Despite the election commission saying the vote was fair, the military justified its coup by alleging that the ballot was fraudulent, and has promised to hold a new election at an unspecified time. Western countries have called for a restoration of Suu Kyi's government, a position echoed by only a handful of Myanmar's regional neighbours. Brunei, the chair of the 10-member Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) on Monday agreed to a meeting of its leaders over the crisis in Myanmar, though no date was set. ASEAN operates by consensus but the divergent views of its 10 members on how to respond to the army's use of lethal force against civilians and the group's policy of non-interference has limited its ability to act.  

Tropical cyclone Seroja pounded Indonesia and East Timor yesterday after torrential rains triggered floods and landslides that have killed at least 113 people and left dozens more missing. Packing heavy winds and rain, the storm heaped more misery on the Southeast Asian nations after Sunday’s disaster turned small communities into wastelands of mud, uprooted trees and forced thousands of people into shelters. Downpours are expected over the next day as the storm triggers offshore waves as high as six metres, Indonesia’s disaster agency said. The cyclone, which was picking up strength as it moved towards the west coast of Australia, hampered efforts to reach trapped survivors. At least 86 people have been killed in Indonesia, with another 71 missing, while 27 have died in East Timor, a tiny half-island nation of 1.3mn that lies between Indonesia and Australia. Its capital Dili was inundated, with the front of its presidential palace transformed into a mud pit. In Indonesia’s remote East Flores municipality, torrents of mud washed over homes, bridges and roads. Images from Indonesia’s search and rescue agency showed workers digging up mud-covered corpses before placing them in body bags. On Lembata, an island east of Flores, parts of some villages were swept down a mountainside and carried to the shore of the ocean. Soon after flash floods began tearing into resident Basir Langoday’s district in the early morning, he heard screams for help from a nearby home covered in rubble. “There were four of them inside. Three survived but the other one didn’t make it,” he told reporters. Langoday and his friends scrambled to try and save the trapped man before he was crushed to death. “He said ‘hurry, I can’t hold on any longer,” Langoday added.  Juna Witak, another Lembata resident, joined his family at a local hospital where they wept over the corpse of his mother, who was killed in a flash flood Sunday. Her body was found by the seashore. “There was a rumbling sound and the floods swept away homes, everything,” Witak said. The European Union said it was ready to offer assistance to poverty-stricken East Timor, officially known as Timor-Leste. “The catastrophic floods come at a time when Timor-Leste is working hard to contain the spread of Covid-19 among its population, putting a considerable additional strain both on resources and on the Timorese people,” the EU said.

At least 87 people are dead and dozens more still missing after flash floods and landslides hit Indonesia and neighbouring East Timor, officials said Monday. Torrential rain unleashed a deluge and subsequent landslides, turning small communities into wastelands of mud and uprooted trees and forcing thousands into shelters. Cyclones continued to pound the hard-hit region Monday, hampering efforts to reach trapped survivors. Indonesia's disaster agency said about 66 people have been killed so far. Another 21 people also died in East Timor, said an official in the tiny half-island nation of 1.3 million that lies between Indonesia and Australia. Many of the deaths were in Timor's inundated capital Dili. In Indonesia's remote East Flores municipality, mud has washed over homes, bridges and roads, while strong waves have prevented search teams from accessing the hardest-hit areas. On Lembata, an island east of Flores, parts of some villages were swept down a mountainside by torrents of mud and carried to the shore of the ocean. Soon after flash floods began tearing into resident Basir Langoday's district in the early morning, he heard screams for help from a nearby home covered in rubble. "There were four of them inside. Three survived but the other one didn't make it," he told reporters. Langoday and his friends scrambled to try and save the trapped man before he was crushed to death. "He said 'hurry, I can't hold on any longer," Langoday added. Indonesian President Joko Widodo expressed "deepest condolences" over the devastation. "I understand the deep sorrow suffered by our brothers and sisters because of this disaster," he said in a nationwide address. Across the region, residents have flocked to temporary shelters or taken refuge in what was left of their homes. "The evacuees are spread out. There are hundreds in each sub-district but many others are staying at home," said Alfons Hada Bethan, head of the East Flores disaster agency. "They need medicine, food, blankets." Some 2,500 people had been evacuated in East Timor. Pounding rains challenged efforts to find any survivors. "We suspect many people are buried but it's not clear how many are missing," Bethan said. In Lembata, local officials were forced to deploy heavy equipment to reopen the roads. Images from the island showed barefoot locals wading through mud and past collapsed houses to evacuate victims on makeshift stretchers. Fatal landslides and flash floods are common across the Southeast Asian archipelago during the rainy season. January saw flash floods hit the Indonesian town of Sumedang in West Java, killing 40 people. And last September, at least 11 people were killed in landslides on Borneo. The country's disaster agency has estimated that 125 million Indonesians -- nearly half of the country's population -- live in areas at risk of landslides. The disasters are often caused by deforestation, according to environmentalists.

More than 50 people were killed after flash floods and landslides swept through eastern Indonesia and neighbouring Timor Leste yesterday, authorities said, warning the toll could rise further. Floods sparked by torrential rain wreaked havoc and destruction on islands stretching from Flores Island in Indonesia to Timor Leste, a small nation east of the Indonesian archipelago. The deluge and subsequent landslides caused dams to overflow, submerging thousands of houses and leaving rescue workers struggling to reach survivors trapped in the aftermath. “Four sub-districts and seven villages have been impacted. After verifying the data with our team in the field, we found that there are 41 people dead,” Indonesian Disaster Mitigation Agency spokesperson Raditya Jati told journalists, revising down earlier figures. “27 people are still missing and nine people are injured,” he added. Mud inundated homes, bridges and roads in the East Flores municipality, where rescuers struggled to reach a remote and badly-hit area because of rains and strong waves. In neighbouring Timor Leste, 11 were killed by floods in the capital Dili, authorities said. “We are still searching for the areas impacted by the natural disasters,” Secretary of State for Civil Protection for Timor Joaquim Jose Gusmao dos Reis Martins told journalists. The death toll and the number of injured victims could still rise, authorities warned. East Flores deputy regent Agustinus Payong Boli estimated there were 60 casualties in his municipality. “The majority of them, 55, are in Lemanele village. Many people died here because the village was hit by both landslides and flash floods,” he said, providing numbers not yet confirmed by national authorities. Images from Lemanele showed engulfed houses, debris covering entire roads, fallen trees and damaged power lines. In Lembata, an island halfway between Flores and Timor, parts of affected villages were displaced down a mountain slope and near the coastline, according to an AFP journalist on the scene. Road access has been cut off and local officials were forced to deploy heavy equipment to reopen the roads. Injured victims have been evacuated to neighbouring villages that were unaffected by the flash floods, as well as local hospital and health facilities. Images from Lembata showed barefoot locals wading through mud evacuating victims on makeshift stretchers surrounded by collapsed houses. Separately yesterday, two people were killed in major floods in Bima city in the neighbouring province of West Nusa Tenggara, according to the disaster agency. Dams in four sub-districts also overflowed, submerging nearly 10,000 houses in Bima following a nine-hour downpour, said Jati. Fatal landslides and flash floods are common across the Indonesian archipelago during the rainy season. January saw flash floods hit the Indonesian town of Sumedang in West Java, killing 40 people.

More than 50 people were killed after flash floods and landslides swept through eastern Indonesia and neighbouring Timor Leste on Sunday, authorities said, warning the toll could rise further. Floods sparked by torrential rain wreaked havoc and destruction on islands stretching from Flores Island in Indonesia to Timor Leste, a small nation east of the Indonesian archipelago. The deluge and subsequent landslides caused dams to overflow, submerging thousands of houses and leaving rescue workers struggling to reach survivors trapped in the aftermath. "Four sub-districts and 7 villages have been impacted. After verifying the data with our team in the field, we found that there are 41 people dead," Indonesian Disaster Mitigation Agency spokesperson Raditya Jati told journalists, revising down earlier figures. "27 people are still missing and nine people are injured," he added. Mud inundated homes, bridges and roads in the East Flores municipality, where rescuers struggled to reach a remote and badly-hit area because of rains and strong waves. In neighbouring Timor Leste, 11 were killed by floods in the capital Dili, authorities said. "We are still searching for the areas impacted by the natural disasters," Secretary of State for Civil Protection for Timor Joaquim Jose Gusmao dos Reis Martins told journalists. The death toll and the number of injured victims could still rise, authorities warned. East Flores deputy regent Agustinus Payong Boli estimated there were 60 casualties in his municipality. "The majority of them, 55, are in Lemanele village. Many people died here because the village was hit by both landslides and flash floods," he told AFP, providing numbers not yet confirmed by national authorities. Images from Lemanele showed engulfed houses, debris covering entire roads, fallen trees and damaged power lines. In Lembata, an island halfway between Flores and Timor, parts of affected villages were displaced down a mountain slope and near the coastline, according to an AFP journalist on the scene. Road access has been cut off and local officials were forced to deploy heavy equipment to reopen the roads. Injured victims have been evacuated to neighbouring villages that were unaffected by the flash floods, as well as local hospital and health facilities. Images from Lembata showed barefoot locals wading through mud evacuating victims on makeshift stretchers surrounded by collapsed houses. Separately on Sunday, two people were killed in major floods in Bima city in the neighbouring province of West Nusa Tenggara, according to the disaster agency. Dams in four sub-districts also overflowed, submerging nearly 10,000 houses in Bima following a nine-hour downpour, said Jati. Fatal landslides and flash floods are common across the Indonesian archipelago during the rainy season. January saw flash floods hit the Indonesian town of Sumedang in West Java, killing 40 people. And last September, at least 11 people were killed in landslides on Borneo. The country's disaster agency has estimated that 125 million Indonesians -- nearly half of the country's population -- live in areas at risk of landslides The disasters are often caused by deforestation, according to environmentalists.

A Taiwan court yesterday released on bond the manager of a construction site whose truck authorities believe caused a train accident that killed at least 51 people, as family members mourned the dead at the crash site.  The crash on Friday was Taiwan’s worst rail accident in seven decades, when an express train hit the truck that had slid down a bank beside the track from the building site. The site’s manager is suspected of having failed to properly engage the truck’s brake.  The train, with almost 500 people aboard, was travelling from Taipei, the capital, to Taitung on the east coast when it derailed in a tunnel just north of the city of Hualien.  Forty one people are in hospital, from among the 188 reported injured. Prosecutors had applied to a court to detain the manager on charges of causing death by negligence, a justice ministry official told reporters on Saturday. But a court in Hualien released the manager, Lee Yi-hsiang, on a bond of T$500,000 ($17,525), although it restricted him from leaving Taiwan for eight months and said he had to stay in Hualien. The court said that while the truck’s fall into the path of the train was possibly due to negligence, there was “no possibility of conspiracy”. Yu Hsiu-duan, head of the Hualien prosecutors’ office, said they were not pleased with the decision. “The court said there was no reason to keep him in custody,” she told reporters. “The court changed it to a surety of $T500,000.” Lee’s court-appointed lawyer declined to comment to reporters as he left the court.  Lin Jinn-tsun, head of the Justice Ministry’s Prosecutorial Affairs Department, said they had lodged an appeal against the decision to release Lee on bond. Family members visited the site on Saturday afternoon to mourn the dead, some crying out “Come back!”, and bringing personal belongings with them like dolls. The youngest person confirmed to have died was a six-year-old girl, the oldest a 79-year-old man, according to a government-issued casualty list. Workers have begun moving the train’s rear portion, which was relatively unscathed as it had stopped outside the tunnel away from the accident spot. Other mangled sections remained in the tunnel, where fire department official Wu Liang-yun said more bodies were likely to be found.  “We’re still carrying out rescue work,” he added. President Tsai Ing-wen visited hospitals in Hualien to speak to family members and survivors, thanking ordinary people and non-government groups for efforts to help. “This shows the good side of Taiwanese society,” she said. The government has ordered flags flown at half mast for three days in mourning, while the de facto French embassy in Taipei confirmed that one of its citizens had died in the crash.  Taiwan’s transport ministry said two US citizens were among the dead, while two Japanese, an Australian and a Chinese citizen were among the injured.  In a rare sign of goodwill from China, which claims Taiwan as its own territory, President Xi Jinping expressed his condolences over the crash, state news agency Xinhua said. The accident happened at the start of a long holiday weekend.   The train was packed with tourists and residents going home for the traditional Tomb Sweeping Day to clean the graves of ancestors. Taiwan has no domestic travel curbs as the Covid-19 pandemic is well under control, with only 43 active cases in hospital.

* Strict quarantine measures extended by at least a week * Philippines logs its second-highest daily Covid-19 cases * Hospitals in the capital reach critical capacity Philippines President Rodrigo Duterte has extended a strict lockdown in the capital region and adjacent provinces by at least one week to try to contain a renewed surge in coronavirus infections, his spokesman said on Saturday. The Philippines, which has the second-highest Covid-19 cases and deaths in Southeast Asia, reported 12,576 new coronavirus infections on Saturday, putting further strain on the healthcare system. Restrictions, which include a ban on non-essential movement, mass gatherings and dining in restaurants, will remain for at least another week, Duterte's spokesman, Harry Roque, said in a televised announcement. The measures had been set to end on April 4. "This will go with intensified prevention, detection, isolation, tracing and rehabilitation that we will monitor on a daily basis," Roque said. Active cases in the country have hit a record 165,715, 96% of which were mild, health ministry data showed. But intensive care capacity in the capital region's hospitals have reached a critical level, with 80% of beds utilised and many hospitals being forced to turn away patients. The congested capital region, an urban sprawl of 16 cities home to at least 13 million people, accounts for two-fifths of the country's 784,043 confirmed cases and a third of the total 13,423 deaths. A University of the Philippines research team on Saturday called for a speedy construction of isolation facilities to prevent infections spreading through households. Extended coronavirus curbs will continue to hurt the Philippines' economy, which posted a record 9.5% slump last year. The Philippines has so far inoculated nearly 739,000 people. This is just 1% of its target of vaccinating 70 million of its 108 million population to achieve herd immunity and safely reopen the economy.

A Bangkok residence building collapsed on Saturday, killing at least four rescue workers and a resident, according to an emergency worker. The three-story house, located in a luxury gated community in western Bangkok, was engulfed in flames around 6 am and the fire raged for about an hour before it was put out. At around 7 am, as firefighters and rescue workers were moving through the razed structure in the Thai capital, it abruptly collapsed, killing at least five, including a resident. "The cause of the collapse remains unknown. The fire could be the main reason for interiors of the residence building to collapse," Jiratthikorn Banjongkit, chief of rescue at the Poh Teck Tung Foundation, told AFP. By 4 pm, he said that rescue workers and firefighters were still working to free four of the bodies -- only one had been retrieved from under the rubble of concrete and wiring structure. AFP-verified footage showed firefighters standing by the building and hosing down its charred exterior, with at least one person on the second floor, when the building abruptly crumbled. Bangkok governor Aswin Kwanmuang told reporters that there was "no safe passage" to easily retrieve the bodies and see if more had been trapped. "We will have to gradually drill and use small-sized equipment as larger equipment could cause (the debris) to collapse further." Aswin added that a forensic team was investigating the cause of the fire. Building collapses are rare in the metropolis of Bangkok, which is replete with gleaming towering malls and residential sprawl.

* Five killed in firing on protests - witness, media * Actress, among 18 wanted over online posts, defiant * US condemns internet shutdown Myanmar security forces opened fire on pro-democracy protests on Saturday killing five people, a protester and media said, as the military reinforced its bid to end dissent with arrest warrants for online critics and internet blocks. Despite the killing of more than 550 people by the security forces since the Feb. 1 coup, protesters are coming out every day, often in smaller groups in smaller towns, to voice opposition to the reimposition of military rule. Security forces in the central town of Monywa fired on a crowd killing thee people, the Myanmar Now news service said, while one man was shot and killed in another central town, Bago, and one in Thaton to the south, the Bago Weekly Journal online news portal reported. "They started firing non-stop with both stun grenade and live rounds," the protester in Monywa, who asked not to be named, told Reuters via a messaging app. "People backed off and quickly put up ... barriers, but a bullet hit a person in front of me in the head. He died on the spot." Police and a spokesman for the junta did not answer telephone calls seeking comment. The Assistance Association for Political Prisoners activist group said earlier on Saturday the security forces had killed 550 people, 46 of them children, since the military overthrew an elected government led by Aung San Suu Kyi. The demonstrations that drew tens of thousands of people in the early days of defiance in big cities have largely stopped with opponents of the coup adopting "guerrilla rallies" - small, quick shows of defiance before security forces can respond. People also gather at night for candle-lit vigils. The authorities are waging a campaign to control information. They had shut down mobile data and on Friday ordered internet providers to cut wireless broadband, depriving most customers of access, though some messages and pictures were still being posted and shared on social media. Authorities issued warrants for 18 celebrities, including 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 late on Friday. All of them are known to oppose military rule. The charge can carry a prison term of three years. Actress Paing Phyoe Thu said she would not be cowed. "Whether a warrant has been issued or not, as long as I'm alive I'll oppose the military dictatorship who are bullying and killing people. The revolution must prevail," she said on Facebook. Paing Phyoe Thu regularly attended rallies in the main city of Yangon in the weeks after the coup. Her whereabouts were not immediately known. State broadcaster MRTV announced the warrants for the 18 with screenshots and links to their Facebook profiles. While the military has banned platforms like Facebook, it has continued to use social media to track critics and promote its message. MRTV maintains a YouTube channel and shares links to its broadcasts on Twitter, both of which are officially banned. The United States condemned the internet shutdown. "We hope this won’t silence the voices of the people," State Department spokeswoman Jalina Porter told a briefing. The coup has rekindled old wars with autonomy-seeking ethnic minority forces in the north and the east. Myanmar's oldest insurgent group, the Karen National Union (KNU), has seen the first military air strikes on its forces in more than 20 years, after it announced its support for the pro-democracy movement. The KNU said more than 12,000 villagers had fled their homes because of the air strikes. It called for an international embargo on arms sales to the military. "Their inhuman actions against unarmed civilians have caused the death of many people including children and students," the group said in a statement. Media has reported that about 20 people were killed in air strikes in KNU territory in recent days, including nearly a dozen at a gold mine run by the group. The KNU signed a ceasefire with the government in 2012 to end their 60-year insurgency. Fighting has also flared in the north between the army and ethnic Kachin insurgents. The turmoil has sent several thousand refugees fleeing into Thailand and India.

* Junta orders wireless broadband halt * Protesters look for new ways to communicate * Suu Kyi, allies charged under state secrets law * Flower "strikes" held to remember dead Opponents of military rule in Myanmar marched and laid bouquets of flowers on Friday while trying to find alternative ways to organise their campaign of dissent after the authorities cut off most users from the internet. Protests have taken place almost daily since the military overthrew the elected government of Aung San Suu Kyi on Feb. 1. Hundreds of civilians have been killed in a crackdown by security forces that has drawn international condemnation. On Friday, security forces opened fire at a rally near Myanmar's second city Mandalay, wounding four people, two critically, according to three domestic media organisations. In the town of Tamu on the Indian border, a policemen who supported the democracy movement was killed in a clash with security forces, the Monywa Gazette reported. The authorities, who had already shut down mobile data in a bid to stifle the opposition to the ruling junta, ordered internet providers from Friday to cut wireless broadband, depriving most customers of access. In response, pro-democracy groups shared radio frequencies, offline apps that work without a data connection, and tips for using SMS messages as an alternative to data services to communicate. "In the following days, there are street protests. Do as many guerrilla strikes as you can. Please join," Khin Sadar, a protest leader, said on Facebook in anticipation of the internet blackout, referring to quick protests in unexpected places that break up when the security forces appear. "Let's listen to the radio again. Let's make phone calls to each other too." The military did not announce or explain its order to providers to cut wireless broadband. Internet was available only on fixed lines, rare in Myanmar where most homes and businesses connect through wireless networks. A spokesman for the junta did not answer telephone calls seeking comment. Despite the internet shutdown, users were still able to upload pictures of marches, "flower strikes" and a funeral of a slain protester. An image shared widely on social media showed a bird's eye view of hundreds of flickering candles on a dark road, spelling out the words "we will never surrender". Across the country, demonstrators left bouquets, many with messages of defiance, at places associated with activists killed by the security forces. People held up roses while making three-finger salutes, a symbol of resistance. One arrangement of dandelions and red roses on a lakeside walkway read: "Myanmar is bleeding". More than 540 people have been killed in the uprising, many of them when troops fired on crowds, according to the Association for Political Prisoners (AAPP) advocacy group, which is tracking casualties and detentions. In the commercial hub Yangon, a Myanmar employee of South Korea's Shinhan Bank died on Friday after being shot in the head while travelling in a minibus two days earlier, the bank said. It was discussing the situation with the government. The military has said those killed instigated the violence. It says it staged the coup because an election in November - won by Suu Kyi's National League for Democracy - was rigged and the election commission failed to heed its complaints. The commission and many international bodies have dismissed that assertion. Suu Kyi, a longtime democracy campaigner who won the Nobel Peace Prize in 1991, is being held in detention. She and four allies have been charged with violating a colonial-era official secrets act, her chief lawyer said on Thursday, the most serious charge filed against her. Violations are punishable by up to 14 years in prison. The security forces have also arrested numerous suspected opponents of the coup. The Myanmar Now news portal said five women who spoke to a visiting CNN news crew on the streets of Yangon this week had been taken away by security men. Western countries have condemned the coup and some have imposed limited sanctions. But neither China nor India, which compete for influence, have denounced Suu Kyi's overthrow. Myanmar's neighbours in the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) have traditionally been reluctant to criticise their fellow member under a principle of non-interference. But there is growing dismay with a country that has for decades raised international concerns over its domestic repression. Several Southeast Asian foreign ministers met separately this week with a senior official in China, which is a major investor in Myanmar and one of the few countries able to influence the generals, to seek its backing for a bid to find a path out of the crisis. "China...supports the convening of a special meeting of ASEAN leaders to mediate as soon as possible," the Chinese government's top diplomat, Wang Yi, said after talks with Malaysian foreign minister Hishammuddin Hussein. Adding to the chaos in the former British colony, hostilities between the armed forces and ethnic minority insurgents have broken out in at least two regions.

Her Excellency Dr. Hanan Mohamed Al Kuwari, Minister for Public Health, today visited the National Health Incident Command Center (NHICC) at Hamad Medical Corporation’s Ambulance Service headquarters. During the visit, HE Dr. Hanan Al Kuwari inspected the progress of work at the Center, which operates 24/7, and met with teams on duty from HMC and Primary Health Care Corporation. The NHICC works closely with the Ministry of Public Health and other key agencies in Qatar coordinating the healthcare system’s response to the Covid-19 pandemic. The NHICC oversees the Covid-19 bed management and hospital capacity strategy. This hub ensures that the healthcare system has sufficient capacity to provide high-quality treatment to all patients with Covid-19 who require medical care. ‘As we see the number of Covid-19 cases continue to rise, the National Health Incident Command Center is fulfilling an important role as the intelligence hub that monitors and coordinates our Covid-19 strategy and response. Much of this essential and lifesaving work goes on behind the scenes but it is vital to the daily operation of our health system,’ explained H.E. Dr. Al Kuwari. ‘Covid-19 continues to challenge us on many fronts, but our healthcare workers across the system continue to devote their time and energy to contain this pandemic with unwavering commitment.’ ‘Our clinical and support staff in hospitals and medical centers are working to ensure that all Covid-19 and non-Covid patients are receiving the highest standards of care. At the same time, hundreds of healthcare professionals are working hard to vaccinate up to 25,000 people a day to protect them from the virus. ‘Thank you all healthcare workers and frontliners for your tireless work and dedication. I am so proud of all of the work being done across the healthcare sector their focus and dedication has ensured that the health system is ready to meet this additional demand.’ H.E. Dr. Al Kuwari said.  

The Philippine military said on Thursday it had documented illegal manmade structures on Union Banks in the South China Sea's Spratly Islands, near areas where hundreds of Chinese vessels had massed last month. Military chief Lieutenant General Cirilito Sobejana said the structures were not far from islands and features claimed by the Philippines inside its exclusive economic zone. He did not say which country had built the structures or the extent of the construction. They were discovered on March 30, during one of the military's maritime flight patrols over the South China Sea, where it has been closely monitoring the activities of the Chinese vessels believed to be manned by militias. ‘These constructions and other activities, economic or otherwise, are prejudicial to peace, good order, and security of our territorial waters,’ Sobejana said in a statement. ‘Our efforts to dutifully perform our mandate to protect and advance our national interests in the area continue unhampered,’ he said. The islands and reefs of the Spratlys are among the world's most contested features, with Vietnam, China, Taiwan, the Philippines and Malaysia putting structures, small communities and artificial islands there to stake their territorial claims in the strategic waterway. Video footage shared by the military showed hundreds of boats spread around Hughes, Gaven and Whitsun reefs, some moored in groups of as many as seven boats side-by-side. Calls to the Chinese embassy in Manila on Thursday seeking comment on the Union Banks structures went unanswered. Sobejana remarks come as part of a new push by the Philippines' military and diplomats to publicly challenge China's maritime activities after several years during which criticism was muted. The president, Rodrigo Duterte, has sought closer relations with Beijing and has said challenging its actions are futile and dangerous. US and Philippine national security advisers discussed their concerns over Chinese activities in the South China Sea in a call on Wednesday, while Philippine foreign Secretary Teodoro Locsin is due to meet his Chinese counterpart this week.  

Myanmar's ousted civilian leader Aung San Suu Kyi faced a court hearing Thursday, after a UN envoy warned of the risk of civil war and an imminent ‘bloodbath’ as the junta represses pro-democracy protests. More than 535 people have died in daily demonstrations since the military overthrew Suu Kyi on February 1, halting Myanmar's decade-old experiment in democracy. The UN Security Council held an urgent closed-door session on the escalating crisis on Wednesday, and special envoy Christine Schraner Burgener urged it to act. ‘I appeal to this council to consider all available tools to take collective action and do what is right, what the people of Myanmar deserve,’ she said, in remarks obtained by AFP. She said she remained open to dialogue with the junta but added: ‘If we wait only for when they are ready to talk, the ground situation will only worsen. A bloodbath is imminent.’ The emergency UN session came on the eve of Suu Kyi's latest court hearing -- she faces a raft of criminal charges that could see her barred from office for life. Her legal team on Wednesday held their first meeting with her -- by video link in a police station -- since she was ousted and detained in the early hours of February 1. The 75-year-old has not been seen in public, but her lawyers said she appeared to be in good health despite two months in detention. The hearing on Thursday is expected to be brief, and to deal only with administrative aspects of the case. The junta is also probing the Nobel laureate over allegations she took payments of gold and more than $1 million in cash, but Khin Maung Zaw, one of her lawyers, said these were not likely to translate into formal charges at this stage. A group of ousted MPs from Suu Kyi's National League for Democracy (NLD), who have been working underground against the junta, have announced plans for ‘a new civilian government’ in the first week of April. They announced that Myanmar's military-drafted 2008 constitution was ‘cancelled’, and on Thursday a group of protesters burned a pile of copies in the street in Yangon. Two military-owned supermarkets in Yangon were set on fire overnight, local media reported. - China caution -Britain's UN envoy Barbara Woodward said the Security Council was ‘united in its condemnation’ and was discussing ‘a range of measures at our disposal’. But China, considered an important ally of Myanmar, ruled out sanctions or other ‘coercive measures’. China's UN ambassador Zhang Jun also called for the protection of foreign businesses -- a key concern for China, which has seen dozens of its factories torched amid anger against Beijing. The US State Department has ordered the departure of non-essential diplomatic staff and their families from Myanmar, and Japan -- a top donor to the country -- has halted new aid payments. Linda Thomas Greenfield, the US ambassador to the United Nations, raised the possibility of action if the military does not step down. If ‘they continue the attacks that they were making on civilian populations, then we have to look at how we might do more’, she told reporters. German company Giesecke+Devrient, which supplies raw materials to Myanmar's central bank for the production of bank notes, announced Wednesday it was suspending deliveries. French renewable energy giant Voltalia said it was also withdrawing from the country because of the political and humanitarian crisis. - Civil war fears -Fears are growing that a broader conflict could erupt in a country plagued for decades by on-off fighting between the military and rebel ethnic armies. Several of Myanmar's 20 or so armed ethnic groups, who control large areas of territory mostly in border regions, have voiced their opposition to the coup and crackdown. Three of them -- the Ta'ang National Liberation Army, the Myanmar Nationalities Democratic Alliance Army and the Arakan Army -- on Wednesday threatened to join the protesters' fight against the military. Two other outfits -- the Karen National Union (KNU) and the Kachin Independence Army (KIA) -- have already stepped up attacks on military and police in recent days. In another escalation, since Saturday the military has launched regular air strikes targeting the KNU in eastern Karen state. Local media outlet Karen News reported that 11 people were killed in an air strike in a gold mining area of the state on Tuesday. AFP has yet to independently confirm these details. Meanwhile, Thailand's foreign ministry said most of the 2,788 Myanmar people who had fled across the border had returned as of Wednesday. The remaining 200 or so still in Thailand were mostly women, elderly and children.    

Some 50 Myanmar refugees who fled air strikes to neighbouring Thailand "voluntarily" returned across the border Wednesday, Thai authorities said, despite reports of continued bombings in their home state. Myanmar's military has launched air attacks in eastern Karen state for four straight days -- the first such strikes in the area in more than 20 years -- forcing 7,000 people to flee their homes. The junta's attacks targeted territory held by the Karen National Union (KNU), one of Myanmar's largest ethnic armed groups which had earlier seized a military base. The group has also been publicly critical of the military coup and is sheltering hundreds of anti-coup activists in their territory since security forces started deploying lethal weapons to quell nationwide protests. Over the weekend, some 3,000 ethnic Karen people fled the bombings into Thailand's Mae Hong Son province. Authorities said Wednesday a small group who escaped fighting was ferried back across the Salween River, which marks the border between the two nations. "A group of 56 people who escaped fighting have voluntarily crossed back into Myanmar by five mid-sized boats... by 9:50 am," said a notice released by provincial authorities. Another 201 refugees who had also agreed to the "voluntary return" remain on the Thai side. "Most of them are children, women, elderly and patients who will return to Myanmar," the notice said, without specifying when they will make the crossing. A first large batch of refugees -- about 2,300 -- had already returned to Myanmar earlier this week. A Karen human rights activist told AFP that Thai authorities had pushed the people back and accused them of blocking UN refugee officials from the area. Premier Prayut Chan-O-Cha -- a former general who came to power in 2014 by staging a coup -- denied this, with his spokesman reiterating Wednesday that they would "not push them back against their will". An official from the UN refugee agency said they still had "not been granted access" to the group. The sleepy village of Mae Sam Laep on Tuesday saw a handful of injured refugees make an emergency crossing across the Salween River, before being rushed to a nearby hospital. A doctor said their injuries came from shrapnel -- the most serious case was a 15-year-old who had a collapsed lung. "They are still afraid of the bombing," said Mae Sam Laep resident Hkara, 70. The ethnic Karen explained she had crossed the border when she was younger to escape similar attacks. "Nobody wants to go back right now," she said. Saw Lab Bray -- who crossed over Tuesday for emergency medical treatment -- said he was worried for his family left in Myanmar. "I don't want them to suffer like me," he said, his arms and legs cut up by shrapnel.

The cockpit voice recorder from a crashed Indonesian passenger jet has been found, the country's transport ministry said Wednesday, more than two months after the accident that killed all 62 passengers and crew. Officials said a press briefing "regarding the discovery of the Cockpit Voice Recorder" from the Sriwijaya Air Boeing 737-500 would be held later Wednesday morning. The 26-year-old plane -- previously flown by US-based Continental Airlines and United Airlines -- plunged around 3,000 metres into waters off Jakarta just minutes after takeoff on January 9. Divers had been searching the Java Sea for the missing voice recorder -- one of the plane's two "black boxes" -- which records flight crew conversations. A flight data recorder was earlier plucked from the wreckage-littered seabed. A preliminary report into the crash last month said Indonesian pilots had reported multiple problems with the ageing jet's throttle system before the fatal crash. But investigators had said it was too early to pinpoint an exact cause. The cockpit voice recorder could provide vital clues to what the desperate crew was saying when the flight from Jakarta to Pontianak in Borneo went down. Indonesia, a Southeast Asian archipelago that relies heavily on air transport to connect its thousands of islands, has suffered a string of deadly plane crashes in recent years. In October 2018, 189 people were killed when a Boeing 737 MAX jet from Lion Air plunged into the sea. That accident -- and another in Ethiopia -- led to the worldwide grounding of the 737 MAX over a faulty anti-stall system. The 737 that crashed last month was not a MAX variant.

The United States on Wednesday ordered the departure of non-essential diplomats from Myanmar, amid growing violence following the military coup to oust civilian leader Aung San Suu Kyi. Daily protests demanding the restoration of the elected government have been met with a military crackdown that has left more than 520 civilians dead in the weeks since the February 1 coup. The junta's violent response has triggered international condemnation -- and threats of retaliation from some of Myanmar's myriad ethnic armed groups. The US State Department said it was ordering the departure of "non-emergency US government employees and their family members". The decision was taken to protect the safety and security of staff and their families, the State Department said. World powers have repeatedly condemned the violent crackdown on dissent and hit top junta cadres with sanctions. But the pressure has not swayed the generals. Saturday, the annual Armed Forces Day, saw the biggest loss of life so far, with at least 107 people killed. The spiralling bloodshed has angered some of Myanmar's 20 or so armed ethnic groups, who control large areas of territory mostly in border regions. Three of them -- the Ta'ang National Liberation Army, the Myanmar Nationalities Democratic Alliance Army and the Arakan Army (AA) -- on Tuesday threatened to join protesters' fight unless the military reined in its crackdown. While the trio has yet to act on their warning, two other outfits -- the Karen National Union (KNU) and the Kachin Independence Army (KIA) -- have stepped up attacks on military and police in recent days. A police station in Bago was reportedly hit with a rocket attack that injured five officers on Tuesday, though it was not clear who was responsible. The KNU, one of the biggest rebel groups, took over an army base in eastern Kayin state at the weekend, prompting the military to respond with air strikes. Further strikes were launched on Tuesday, but Padoh Saw Taw Nee, the KNU's head of foreign affairs, said the group would continue its position of "strongly supporting people's movement against (the) military coup". The KNU's Fifth Brigade put out a statement on Tuesday condemning the air strikes and warning it had no option but to "confront these serious threats" posed by the military. Around 3,000 people fled through the jungle to seek safety across the border in Thailand after the weekend strikes. The Thai foreign ministry said late Tuesday about 2,300 have returned to Myanmar, while about 550 remain in Thailand. Karen activists have accused the Thai authorities of pushing people back and accused them of blocking UN refugee officials from the area. Thai Prime Minister Prayut Chan-O-Cha insisted that there was "no influx" of refugees and that the kingdom's authorities had not "scared them off with guns or sticks". Some Karen people injured in the weekend strikes sought medical treatment Tuesday on the Thai side of the border -- the most serious case was a 15-year-old with a collapsed lung and broken rib. Thai police said they had intercepted 10 parcels containing 112 grenades and 6,000 rounds of ammunition in northern Chiang Rai province that had been destined for Myanmar's notorious border town Tachileik. The UN Security Council will hold an emergency session on Myanmar on Wednesday, requested by former colonial power Britain. The 15 members will meet behind closed doors, beginning with a briefing from the UN's special envoy on Myanmar, Christine Schraner Burgener.

Several Asian countries scrambled to find alternative sources for Covid-19 inoculations on Tuesday after export restrictions by manufacturer India left a World Health Organization-backed global vaccine sharing programme short of supplies. South Korea, Indonesia and the Philippines are among countries to be hit by shipment delays to vaccines they have been promised under the Covax programme, which was created mainly to ensure supplies for poorer countries. "Our planned increase in daily vaccinations will be affected," Carlito Galvez, Philippines' vaccination chief, told reporters. India, the world's biggest vaccine maker, put a temporary hold on exports of AstraZeneca's vaccine being manufactured by the Serum Institute of India (SII), as officials focus on meeting rising domestic demand. The Serum Institute was due to deliver 90 million vaccine doses to Covax over March and April and, while it was not immediately clear how many would be diverted for domestic use, programme facilitators warned that shipment delays were inevitable. South Korea confirmed it would only receive 432,000 doses of the 690,000 it had been promised and delivery of those would be delayed until around the third week of April. "There's uncertainty over global vaccine supplies but we're working on a plan to ensure no disruptions in the second quarter and making efforts to secure more vaccines," Kim Ki-nam, head of South Korea's Covid-19 vaccination task force team. Officials said they were in talks with AstraZeneca to accelerate shipments procured through a separate deal. Philippines President Rodrigo Duterte loosened government restrictions on private sector imports of vaccines, pleading with companies to obtain supplies no matter the cost, as his country battles a resurgence of the pandemic. In Vietnam, officials have similarly asked the private sector to step in after their Covax supplies were slashed by 40% to 811,200 doses and shipments were pushed back by weeks. In Indonesia, health ministry official Siti Nadia Tarmizi told Reuters that 10.3 million doses from Covax were likely delayed until May. India has not provided details on the length of its export curb but UNICEF, a distributing partner of Covax, said at the weekend that deliveries are expected to resume by May. India's decision is the latest in a series of setbacks for the Covax facility, relied on by 64 poorer countries, after production glitches and a lack of funding contribution from wealthy nations. China and Russia are primed to step into the breach. "We have good diplomatic relations with China and Russia and we are asking if we can have access to their vaccines in April," the Philippines' Galvez said. Both the Philippines and Indonesia are currently relying heavily on vaccines from China's Sinovac Biotech to run their inoculation drives. The Philippines and Vietnam have both approved Russia's Sputnik V vaccine, along with more than 50 other countries, mainly developing nations. The Philippines expects to receive its first batch of Sputnik V in April. Chinese vaccine maker Sinopharm, meanwhile, plans to produce its Covid-19 vaccine at a new plant in the United Arab Emirates. The spate of export curbs is also being felt by wealthier countries that are reliant on foreign manufacturing, including Japan, where the national vaccine rollout has been slow due to the limited number of Pfizer vaccines shipped from Europe. "Some people are using vaccines for diplomacy, some people are trying to prioritize. Some people are buying like three to five times as many vaccines compared to their population. That's unnecessary," Japan's vaccine minister, Taro Kono, told Reuters on Monday in an interview. "We really need to have the global leaders sit down and think this is a global issue, not the domestic issue, and try to solve this together."

A court in Vietnam handed a two-year suspended jail term to a Vietnam Airlines flight attendant on Tuesday after finding him guilty of breaking Covid-19 quarantine rules and spreading the virus to others, police said. Duong Tan Hau, 29, was convicted of "spreading dangerous infectious diseases" at the one-day trial at the People's Court of Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam's Ministry of Public Security said in a statement. Vietnam has been praised for its efforts to contain the virus through mass testing and tracing and strict centralised quarantining. It has recorded fewer than 2,600 Covid-19 infections and only 35 deaths due to the disease. Hau breached the country's 14-day quarantine regulations and met 46 other people following his flight from Japan in November, according to the indictment posted on a police ministry website. Hau had mingled with other people during a stint in state quarantine and according to the indictment visited cafes, restaurants and attended English classes while he was supposed to be self-isolating. He tested positive for Covid-19 on Nov. 28. Hau's violations resulted in the quarantine and testing of around 2,000 other people in the city at a cost of 4.48 billion dong ($194,192), the indictment said. State media said he had infected at least three other people. "Hau's violation was serious, put society in danger and endangered the safety of the community," the statement said. Reuters could not immediately reach his lawyer for comment. In December, Vietnam sentenced the head of the Hanoi Center for Disease Control and Prevention to 10 years in prison after finding him guilty of wrongdoing linked to the procurement of equipment intended to help tackle the Covid-19 outbreak.