International

Ousted Myanmar leader Aung San Suu Kyi yesterday appeared at a court hearing via video conferencing as supporters marched in several towns and cities in defiance of a crackdown after the bloodiest day since the February 1 military coup. Police fired tear gas and stun grenades to disperse hundreds of protesters in the main city of Yangon yesterday, witnesses said. They later combed through side streets firing rubber bullets and at least one person was hurt, media reported. In an evening address on state television, army chief senior general Min Aung Hlaing said protest leaders and “instigators” would be punished. The army was also investigating financial abuse by the civilian government, he said. Suu Kyi, 75, looked in good health during her appearance before a court in the capital Naypyidaw, one of her lawyers said. Two more charges were added to those filed against her after the coup, she said. “I saw Amay on the video, she looks healthy,” lawyer Min Min Soe said, using an affectionate term meaning “mother” to refer to Suu Kyi.” She asked to meet her lawyer.” The Nobel Peace laureate, who leads the National League for Democracy (NLD), has not been seen in public since her government was toppled and she was detained along with other party leaders. She was initially charged with illegally importing six walkie-talkie radios. Later, a charge of violating a natural disaster law by breaching coronavirus protocols was added. Two more charges were added yesterday, one under a section of a colonial-era penal code banning publication of information that may “cause fear or alarm”, the other under a telecommunications law stipulating licences for equipment, the lawyer said. The next hearing will be on March 15. Critics of the coup say the charges were trumped up. Myanmar has been in chaos since the military seized power after alleging fraud in a November election that the NLD won in a landslide, with daily protests getting increasingly violent as police and troops try to stamp them out. In his speech, read out by a newsreader on state-run MRTV, senior general Min Aung Hlaing said action would be taken against civil servants refusing to work for the junta. He said the military was investigating what he called corruption by the civilian government, accusing the authorities of misusing money meant for Covid-19 prevention efforts. “The respective ministries are working to find out such financial abuse,” he said, adding that action would be taken against organisations where foreign currency funds were found. He said a committee formed by ousted lawmakers from the civilian government, which has announced the formation of a government-in-exile, was illegal and anyone associated with it would be punished. The junta has promised a new election but not set a date. The Committee Representing Pyidaungsu Hluttaw, whose name uses the Burmese word for the Myanmar parliament, yesterday declared the junta a terrorist group and condemned the violence against protesters as a “declaration of war on unarmed civilians”. On Sunday, police fired on crowds in several places, killing 18 people, the United Nations human rights office said. A committee representing lawmakers elected last year said 26 people were killed but Reuters was unable to verify that. “We have to continue the protest no matter what,” Thar Nge said after tear gas volleys from the police forced him and others to abandon a barricade in a Yangon street. The military has not commented on Sunday’s violence and police and military spokesmen did not answer calls. The state-run Global New Light of Myanmar newspaper warned that “severe action will be inevitably taken” against “anarchic mobs”.

Myanmar’s junta fired its United Nations ambassador yesterday for breaking ranks to denounce the military’s ouster of civilian leader Aung San Suu Kyi, as police stepped up a crackdown on protesters across the country.  The country has been shaken by a wave of demonstrations since a coup toppled civilian leader Aung San Suu Kyi on February 1. Authorities have ramped up the use of force to suppress dissent, deploying tear gas, water cannon and rubber bullets to disperse some protests. Live rounds have been used in isolated cases. In justifying its seizure of power, the military has alleged widespread fraud in the November elections, which Suu Kyi’s party won in a landslide, and promised fresh polls in a year. But its ambassador to the United Nations on Friday broke ranks and made an emotional appeal to the international community for “the strongest possible action... to restore democracy”. Kyaw Moe Tun also pleaded with his “brothers and sisters” in Burmese to keep fighting. “This revolution must win,” he said, flashing the three-finger salute that has become a symbol of resistance against the junta. By Saturday night, state-run TV announced that Kyaw Moe Tun was no longer Myanmar’s UN ambassador.  “(He) didn’t follow the order and direction by the state and betrayed the country,” according to a MRTV broadcast. “That is why he is revoked from his position starting from today.”  News of Kyaw Moe Tun’s removal follows a day of crackdowns and mass arrests by Myanmar’s security forces as the country enters its fourth week of daily protests against the generals’ grip on power. Chaos unfolded across commercial hub Yangon, with police closing in early on peaceful demonstrators and deploying rubber bullets to disperse them from Myaynigone junction. Protesters scattered into residential streets and started building makeshift barricades out of stacked tables and trash cans to stop the police.  Many wore hard hats and gas masks, wielding homemade shields for protection. “What are the police doing? They are protecting a crazy dictator,” the protesters chanted angrily. Local reporters broadcast the chaotic scenes live on Facebook, including the moments when the shots rang out, which AFP reporters on the ground also witnessed. “We want to fight until we win,” said protester Moe Moe, 23, who used a pseudonym. At nearby Hledan junction several rounds of stun grenades were fired, according to AFP reporters. At least three media workers were detained, including an Associated Press photographer, a video journalist from Myanmar Now, and a photographer from the Myanmar Pressphoto Agency. Another protest near a shopping centre in nearby Tamwe Township was broken up by police. Aye Myint Kyi, a distraught mother of one shopper, said she reached her daughter briefly on the phone, who said she was being taken. “I don’t know where she was taken,” she told AFP, crying. “She was unjustly arrested.” In the central city of Monywa, a rally had barely started before police and soldiers moved in on demonstrators, said a medic with a local emergency rescue team. Htwe Aung Zin said his team had been “sent a man who was severely injured in his leg from the police crackdown”, adding that they treated 10 others with minor injuries.  He declined to say what kind of bullets caused the man’s injury. Another medic – who did not give their name – told AFP that a woman with severe injuries had been sent to the intensive care unit. Meanwhile, two local media outlets saw their journalists arrested as they attempted to broadcast live video of protests on Facebook.  Monywa Gazette’s Kyaw Kyaw Win was beaten and arrested by plainclothes police, while Hakha Times’ Pu Lalawmpuia was nabbed as he was filming authorities fanning out around him. More than 770 people have been arrested, charged and sentenced since the putsch, according to the Assistance Association for Political Prisoners (AAPP) monitoring group, with some 680 still behind bars. But Saturday is expected to push the number up, said AAPP’s Bo Gyi. “More than 400 were arrested (today),” he said, adding that only a fraction will make it into the group’s daily updated list as they were not able to confirm the names of everyone. Earlier in the day, MRTV also broadcast the arrival of more than 1,000 Myanmar nationals deported from Malaysia despite a court order halting the repatriation. The migrants – whom activists say include vulnerable asylum seekers – received a hero’s welcome at Yangon’s navy port, attended by military families and officials.  Some of the returnees include ethnic minorities from Rakhine and Kachin state who may have “protection concerns”, said John Quinley of Fortify Rights. “The military has been on an all-out campaign to crack down on protesters, journalists, activists, and anyone calling for democracy,” he said.  Since the coup, at least five people have been killed – four of them from injuries sustained at anti-coup demonstrations that saw security forces open fire on protesters. The military has said one police officer has died while attempting to quell a protest.

* Police around the country move to prevent protests * UN ambassador urges 'strongest' action * Concern over Suu Kyi's whereabouts * Regional neighbours hope to help end crisis Myanmar police moved decisively on Saturday in a bid to prevent opponents of military rule gathering throughout the country after Myanmar's UN envoy urged the United Nations to use ‘any means necessary’ to stop a Feb. 1 coup. The Southeast Asian country has been in turmoil since the army seized power and detained elected leader Aung San Suu Kyi and much of her party leadership, alleging fraud in a November election her party had won in a landslide. Uncertainty has grown over Suu Kyi's whereabouts, as the independent Myanmar Now website on Friday quoted officials of her National League for Democracy (NLD) party as saying she had been moved this week from house arrest to an undisclosed location. The coup has brought hundreds of thousands of protesters to Myanmar's streets and drawn condemnation from Western countries, with some imposing limited sanctions. Police were out in force early in the main city of Yangon and elsewhere, deployed at usual protest sites and detaining people as they congregated, witnesses said. Several media workers were detained. But people still gathered, some for a march by ethnic minorities in Yangon, their numbers building through the day. Crowds chanted and sang, then melted into side streets as police advanced, firing tear gas, setting off stun grenades and firing guns into the air, witnesses said. Similar scenes played out in the second city of Mandalay, and several other towns including Dawei in the south, witnesses and media reported. A protester in the central town of Monwya said police had fired water cannon as they surrounded a crowd. ‘They've blocked all the ways out,’ Aye Aye Tint told Reuters from the town. ‘They used water cannon against peaceful protesters, they shouldn't treat people like that.’ Junta leader General Min Aung Hlaing has said authorities were using minimal force. Nevertheless, at least three protesters have died. The army says a policeman was also killed. 'PREVAIL' At the UN General Assembly, Myanmar's Ambassador Kyaw Moe Tun said he was speaking on behalf of Suu Kyi's government and appealed to the body ‘to use any means necessary to take action against the Myanmar military and to provide safety and security for the people’. ‘We need further strongest possible action from the international community to immediately end the military coup, to stop oppressing the innocent people ... and to restore the democracy,’ he told the 193-member group, receiving applause as he finished. Kyaw Moe Tun appeared emotional as he read the statement on behalf of a group of elected politicians that he said represented the legitimate government. Delivering his final words in Burmese, the career diplomat raised the three-finger salute of pro-democracy protesters and announced ‘our cause will prevail’. Reuters was not immediately able to contact the army for comment. Opponents of the coup hailed Kyaw Moe Tun as a hero and flooded social media with messages of thanks. ‘The people will win and the power-obsessed junta will fall,’ one protest leader, Ei Thinzar Maung, wrote on Facebook. UN Special Rapporteur Tom Andrews said he was overwhelmed as he watched the ambassador's ‘act of courage’. ‘He spoke up for the people of Myanmar and against an illegal coup. It's time for the world to answer that courageous call with action,’ Andrews said on Twitter. China's envoy did not criticise the coup and said the situation was Myanmar's ‘internal affairs’. China supported diplomacy by Southeast Asian countries, he said. 'LOSS OF RIGHTS' A lawyer acting for Suu Kyi, Khin Maung Zaw, told Reuters he had also heard from NLD officials that she had been moved from her home in the capital, Naypyitaw, but could not confirm it. Authorities did not respond to a request for comment. The lawyer said he had been given no access to Suu Kyi ahead of her next hearing on Monday, adding: ‘I'm concerned that there will be a loss of rights to access to justice and access to legal counsel’. Protesters have been demanding the release of Suu Kyi, 75, and recognition of the result of last year's election. A Nobel Peace laureate and daughter of Myanmar's independence hero, Suu Kyi spent nearly 15 years under house arrest during military rule. She faces charges of illegally importing six walkie-talkie radios and of violating a natural disaster law by breaching coronavirus protocols. The army has promised an election but not given a date. It has imposed a one-year state of emergency. The question of an election is at the centre of a diplomatic effort by the Association of Southeast Asian Nations, of which Myanmar is a member. Indonesia has taken the lead but coup opponents fear the effort could legitimise the junta and what they see as its unlawful bid to annul the November election.  

President Joe Biden scored his first legislative win as the House of Representatives passed his $1.9 trillion coronavirus relief package early Saturday, though Democrats faced challenges to their hopes of using the bill to raise the minimum wage. Democrats who control the chamber passed the sweeping measure by a mostly party-line vote of 219 to 212 and sent it on to the Senate, where Democrats planned a legislative maneuver to allow them to pass it without the support of Republicans. The American Rescue Plan would pay for vaccines and medical supplies and send a new round of emergency financial aid to households, small businesses and state and local governments. Democrats said the package was needed to fight a pandemic that has killed more than 500,000 Americans and thrown millions out of work. ‘The American people need to know that their government is there for them,’ House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said in debate on the House floor. Republicans, who have broadly backed previous Covid-19 spending, said much of the current package was not necessary, highlighting elements like a subway near Pelosi's San Francisco district. Only 9% of the total would go directly toward fighting the virus, they said. ‘It just throws out money without accountability,’ House Republican Leader Kevin McCarthy said. The House vote amounted to a successful first test for Democrats, who hold a narrow 221-211 majority in the chamber. Progressives and moderates in the party who are often at odds will face tougher battles ahead on immigration and climate change initiatives that Biden wants to push. The president has focused his first weeks in office on tackling the greatest US public health crisis in a century, which has upended most aspects of American life. Democrats aim to get the bill to him to sign into law before mid-March, when enhanced unemployment benefits and some other types of aid are due to expire. The bill's big-ticket items include $1,400 direct payments to individuals, a $400-per-week federal unemployment benefit through Aug. 29, and help for those in difficulty paying rents and home mortgages during the pandemic. The action now moves to the Senate, where Democratic Vice President Kamala Harris may have to cast a tie-breaking vote in a chamber where Republicans control 50 seats and Democrats and their allies control the other 50. FATE OF MINIMUM WAGE HIKE UNCLEAR Democrats will have to sort out how to handle a proposed minimum-wage increase, which may have to be stripped from the bill due to the complicated rules that govern the Senate. The House-passed bill would raise the national hourly minimum wage for the first time since 2009, to $15 from $7.25. The increase is a top priority for progressive Democrats. However, the Senate's rules expert said on Thursday that the wage hike did not qualify for special treatment that allows the rest of the bill to be passed with a simple majority, rather than the 60 votes needed to advance most legislation in the 100-seat chamber. Pelosi predicted the relief bill will pass Congress with or without the increase, and said Democrats would not give up on the matter. It is not clear whether the minimum-wage hike would have survived the Senate even if it were to be kept in the bill. At least two Senate Democrats oppose it, along with most Republicans. Some senators are floating a smaller increase, to the range of $10 to $12 per hour, while Democrats are considering a penalty for large corporations that do not voluntarily pay a $15 wage, according to a Democratic aide. Efforts to craft a bipartisan coronavirus aid bill fizzled early on, shortly after Biden was sworn in as president on Jan. 20, following a series of bipartisan bills enacted in 2020.  

More than 400 prisoners were on the run in Haiti on Friday a day after they escaped from jail in a violent breakout that left 25 people dead, including the prison director, officials said. AFP photographs showed at least three dead bodies lying outside the prison on Thursday and some captured prisoners under armed guard in the back of a truck. ‘Twenty-five people died including six prisoners and Divisional Inspector Paul Hector Joseph who was in charge of the prison,’ Secretary of Communication Frantz Exantus said of the Thursday's mass escape from the jail in the suburbs of capital Port-au-Prince. ‘Among those killed were some ordinary citizens who were killed by the prisoners during their escape,’ Exantus told a press conference, adding 1,125 of the 1,542 prisoners at the Croix-des-Bouquets jail were in their cells on Friday morning. One of the inmates who died was gang leader Arnel Joseph, who was gunned down on Friday at a police check 120 kilometers (75 miles) north of the prison. ‘Arnel Joseph was killed while attacking a police patrol which had stopped the motorcycle he was on. The police responded and Arnel Joseph is dead,’ Exantus said. Joseph, allegedly head of one of Haiti's main criminal networks, was arrested in 2019 and had tried to escape from the prison last July after advertising his plan in a social media video a few days before the attempt. While serving a sentence for murder, Joseph had already escaped twice from another prison, in Port-au-Prince, in 2010 and 2017. Inaugurated in 2012, the high-security Croix-des-Bouquets prison was built with funding from Canada and has a maximum capacity of 872 inmates, although nearly double that number were incarcerated there before the escape.  

The Russian Ministry of Health announced that a third vaccine against Covid-19, labelled CoviVac. The CoviVac vaccine against the novel coronavirus infection has demonstrated its efficacy and safety during clinical trials, Russian Healthcare Minister Mikhail Murashko told journalists. Earlier, Russian Prime Minister Mikhail Mishustin said that the vaccine was officially registered. According to him, the first 120,000 doses of CoviVac will enter civilian circulation in the middle of March, (TASS) news agency said. "The Russian Healthcare Ministry made a decision to register the third Russian CoviVac vaccine developed by the Chumakov Federal Scientific Center for Research and Development of Immune and Biological Products. During clinical trials on volunteers the vaccine demonstrated safety and efficacy. Its large-scale studies will continue during the post-registration phase," the minister said.

At least 37 people were injured after an earthquake measuring 5.6 on the Richter scale hit Yasuj and Sisakht cities in the Kohgiluyeh and Boyer-Ahmad province in southwestern Iran on Wednesday. President of the University of Medical Sciences in Yasuj Dr Parviz Yazdanpanah stated that fortunately the earthquake did not lead to any casualties, but it injured 32 people, and that their general health conditions are good. Other reports also stated that five other people were injured in Semirom city in Isfahan Governorate, close to the earthquake zone.

Myanmar’s deposed civilian leader Aung San Suu Kyi was hit with another charge yesterday, after the military imposed a second straight overnight Internet shutdown in an attempt to grind down an anti-coup uprising. In the two weeks since the generals ousted Suu Kyi and put her under house arrest in the administrative capital Naypyidaw, big cities and isolated village communities alike have been in open revolt. The military justified its power seizure by alleging widespread voter fraud in November elections won by Suu Kyi’s party. After her detention in a dawn raid on February 1 — the day of the coup — she was charged under an obscure import and export law, over walkie talkies that were found in her home during a search. The Nobel laureate’s lawyer said yesterday she had been hit with a second charge, of violating the country’s disaster management law. “She was charged under section 8 of the Export and Import law and section 25 of the Natural Disaster Management law as well,” Khin Maung Zaw said. While it was unclear how the disaster law applied in Suu Kyi’s case, it has been used against deposed president Win Myint — also arrested on February 1 — relating to a campaign event that the junta alleges broke coronavirus-related restrictions. Khin Maung Zaw added that Suu Kyi and Win Myint, both of whom he has yet to have any contact with, were expected to appear via video conference during a March 1 trial. Both defendants were in a “safer place” and “in good health”, according to military spokesman Zaw Min Tun. “It’s not like they were arrested — they are staying at their houses,” the general, who became the country’s vice-minister of information after the coup, told a press conference yesterday. But British Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab blasted the charges, and reiterated a call to release Suu Kyi and other detained politicians. “The charges against Aung San Suu Kyi are politically motivated,” he said in a statement, warning, “We will ensure those responsible are held to account”. More than 420 people have been arrested since the coup, according to a list of confirmed detentions from the Assistance Association for Political Prisoners monitoring group. Security forces have used increasing force to quell huge nationwide street protests and a disobedience campaign encouraging civil servants to strike. Troops have fanned out around the country in recent days. Rubber bullets, tear gas and even sling shots have been used against protesters, and one demonstration in Mandalay on Monday saw police beating journalists hours before authorities again cut Internet access. “They shut down the Internet because they want to do bad things,” said 44-year-old Win Tun, who lives in the commercial capital Yangon. “We didn’t sleep the whole night so we could see what would happen.” Undeterred, crowds returned to the streets of Yangon and around the country yesterday morning. “I want more people to join the protests, we don’t want to be seen as weak,” said university student Thwe Ei Sann. A large crowd blocked railway tracks outside Mawlamyine to prevent a Yangon-bound train from leaving the port city. Many of the country’s train drivers have joined the anti-coup work boycotts, frustrating junta efforts to restart the national railway network after a Covid-19 shutdown.

Myanmar’s junta yesterday suspended laws constraining security forces from detaining suspects or searching private property without court approval and ordered the arrest of well-known backers of mass protests against this month’s coup.  A series of announcements came on the eighth day of country-wide demonstrations against the Feb. 1 takeover and detention of elected leader Aung San Suu Kyi, which halted an unsteady transition to democracy that began in 2011. The announcements bore echoes of the near half-century of military rule before reforms began, when the Southeast Asian country was one of the world’s most repressive and isolated states. An order signed by military ruler General Min Aung Hlaing suspended three sections of laws “protecting the privacy and security of the citizens”, which had been introduced during the gradual liberalisation. Those sections include the requirement for a court order to detain prisoners beyond 24 hours and constraints on security forces’ ability to enter private property to search it or make arrests. The suspensions also free up spying on communications. The statement gave no specific end date. The coup has prompted the biggest street protests in more than a decade and has been denounced by Western countries, with the United States announcing some sanctions on the ruling generals and other countries also considering measures. As anti-coup protests sprang up again in the biggest city Yangon, the capital Naypyitaw and elsewhere on Saturday, the army said arrest warrants had been issued for seven high profile critics of military rule over their comments on social media. People should inform the police if they spot any of those named and will be punished if they shelter them, the army’s True News information team said in a statement. It said cases had been filed under a law which provides up to two years jail for comments that could cause alarm or “threaten tranquillity”. On the wanted list is Min Ko Naing, 58, who was imprisoned for most of the time between 1988 and 2012, and who has been prominent in encouraging protests and a civil disobedience movement followed by a swathe of government workers. Reuters was not immediately able to reach him for comment. Others with warrants against them included “Jimmy” Kyaw Min Yu, also a veteran of the 1988 student uprising, and singer “Lin Lin” Htwe Lin Ko. “I am so proud to have a warrant issued along with Min Ko Naing. Catch me if you can,” said Ei Pencilo, to her more than 1.6mn followers on Facebook. Like several others named, she worked with Suu Kyi’s National League for Democracy (NLD), which won a landslide in a November election the army alleged to be tainted with fraud – an accusation dismissed by the electoral commission. Protests in support of Suu Kyi and the election sprang up across Myanmar again on Saturday in spite of a junta call for people to avoid mass gatherings due to the coronavirus epidemic. The junta also appealed to civil servants who have been following the civil disobedience campaign to return to work, with a threat of possible disciplinary action against those who do not. The United Nations human rights office said on Friday more than 350 people have been arrested in Myanmar since the coup. Journalist Shwe Yee Win, who had reported on opposition to the coup in the western town of Pathein, was taken away by police and soldiers on Thursday and has not been heard from since, her TimeAyeyar news website and her mother said.“I am really worried,” said Thein Thein, now looking after her daughter’s one-year-old child. The government did not respond to requests for comment.

Myanmar’s army chief yesterday insisted military rule would be different this time, as martial law was declared across swathes of the country after massive protests against the new junta. Orders covering parts of Yangon, Mandalay and other areas banned people from protesting or gathering in groups of more than five, and imposing an 8pm to 4am curfew. New junta chief general Min Aung Hlaing, wearing a green military uniform, made his first televised speech since seizing power, insisting the putsch was justified by “voter fraud”. He echoed previous military insistence that the power grab was in line with the constitution, but declared that this time things would be “different” from the army’s previous 49-year reign, which ended in 2011. “After the tasks of the emergency period are completed, free and fair multi-party general elections will be held according to the constitution,” he said. “The winning party will be transferred state duty according to democratic standards.” The general said the country welcomed foreign investment and also announced lifting of coronavirus restrictions, including reopening schools and Buddhist pagodas. Rohingya refugees who escaped to Bangladesh during a 2017 crisis will continue to be repatriated to Rakhine state, he added. The junta has so far refrained from using deadly force against the demonstrations sweeping most of Myanmar, but with pressure building riot police fired water cannon in an attempt to disperse thousands gathered in Naypyidaw yesterday. The military last week detained civilian leader Aung San Suu Kyi and dozens of other members of her National League for Democracy party, ending a decade of partial civilian rule and triggering international condemnation. In the face of an increasingly bold wave of defiance, state broadcaster MRTV in the afternoon warned that opposition to the junta was unlawful and signalled a potential crackdown. “Action must be taken according to the law with effective steps against offences which disturb, prevent and destroy the state’s stability, public safety and the rule of law,” said a statement read by an announcer on the channel. In Yangon, the nation’s commercial capital, dense crowds yesterday spilled onto the city’s main roads, immobilising traffic and dwarfing the previous day’s rally. “Down with military dictatorship” and “release Daw Aung San Suu Kyi and arrested people”, protesters chanted, flashing the three-finger salute that has come to symbolise their movement as car horns were honked in support. Textile workers, civil servants and railway employees went on strike and hit the streets. “This is a work day, but we aren’t going to work even if our salary will be cut,” one protester, 28-year-old garment factory worker Hnin Thazin, said. Construction worker Chit Min, 18, joined the Yangon rally, saying his loyalty to Suu Kyi outweighed concerns about his financial situation. “I am jobless now for a week because of the military coup, and I am worried for my survival,” he said. Similarly large crowds marched in Mandalay, the country’s second-largest city, many clutching photos of Suu Kyi and waving the red flags of her party. Huge rallies were also reported across much of the country, from Muse on the Chinese border to the southern cities of Dawei and Hpa-an. Nationwide rallies wrapped up in the early evening, but protesters are widely expected to defy authorities and hit the streets again today.

Tens of thousands of people took to the streets of Myanmar’s cities yesterday to denounce this week’s coup and demand the release of elected leader Aung San Suu Kyi despite a blockade on the Internet by the junta. In an upwelling of anger in the country’s largest city, Yangon, protesters chanted, “Military dictator, fail, fail; Democracy, win, win” and held banners reading “Against military dictatorship”. Bystanders offered them food and water. Late in the evening, a rumour of Suu Kyi’s release — quickly denied by her lawyer — triggered noisy street celebrations. Cheering and letting off firecrackers, residents said the message was shared by the military-run media Myawaddy. But Suu Kyi’s lawyer Khin Maung Zaw denied that the 75-year-old leader had been freed and told Reuters she was still in detention. Suu Kyi’s National League for Democracy (NLD) won Nov 8 elections in a landslide, a result the generals have refused to recognise, claiming fraud. Earlier, thousands marched on Yangon’s City Hall. Drivers honked horns and leaned out of their cars and raised the three-finger salute, a gesture returned by protesters. Some of them held up NLD flags or pictures of Suu Kyi and clapped and danced. By evening, the protesters had mostly dispersed. But for a fifth night, a cacophony rose in the darkness as people banged on pots, pans and drums in a show of resistance even as power cuts affected many districts of the city. Thousands more took to the streets in Myanmar’s second city Mandalay and its military-built capital Naypyidaw, home to the nation’s government servants, where demonstrators chanted anti-coup slogans and called for Suu Kyi’s release. The protests built despite a blockade of the Internet imposed after demonstrators first began to gather. All day, the state-run broadcaster MRTV showed scenes praising the military. Monitoring group NetBlocks Internet Observatory reported a “national-scale Internet blackout”, saying on Twitter that connectivity had fallen to 16% of usual levels. The junta did not respond to requests for comment. It extended a social media crackdown to Twitter and Instagram after seeking to silence dissent by blocking Facebook, which counts half of the population as users. Facebook urged the junta to unblock social media. “At this critical time, the people of Myanmar need access to important information and to be able to communicate with their loved ones,” Facebook’s head of public policy for Asia-Pacific emerging countries, Rafael Frankel, said in a statement. The United Nations human rights office said on Twitter that “Internet and communication services must be fully restored to ensure freedom of expression and access to information.” Norwegian mobile network provider Telenor ASA said authorities had ordered all mobile operators to temporarily shut down the data network, although voice and SMS services remained open. Myanmar civil society groups appealed to Internet providers to resist the junta’s orders, saying in a joint statement they were “essentially legitimising the military’s authority”. Telenor said it regretted the impact of the shutdown on the people of Myanmar but said it was bound by local law and its first priority was the safety of its local workers. Army chief Min Aung Hlaing seized power alleging fraud, although the electoral commission says it has found no evidence of widespread irregularities in the November vote. The junta announced a one-year state of emergency and has promised to hand over power after new elections, without giving a timeframe.

A surreal, blood-red river inundated the Indonesian village of Jenggot after floods hit a nearby batik factory yesterday, causing a frenzy on social media. Thousands of users on Twitter shared photos and videos of the village south of Pekalongan city in Central Java being flooded by crimson-coloured water, which some social media users said reminded them of blood. “I am so afraid if this photo gets into the bad hands of hoax spreaders,” said a Twitter user Ayah E Arek-Arek. “Fear mongering narratives about signs that it is the end of the world, bloody rain etc”.  Pekalongan is a city known for manufacturing batik, a traditional Indonesian method of using wax to resist water-based dyes to depict patterns and drawings, usually on fabric. It is not uncommon for rivers in Pekalongan to turn different colours. Bright green water covered another village north of the city during a flood last month. “Sometimes there are purple puddles on the road too,” said Twitter user Area Julid, who claimed to be from the area. The section head for disaster mitigation and preparedness of the Pekalongan Disaster Mitigation Agency, Dimas Arga Yudha, confirmed that the photos being circulated were real. “The red flood is due to the batik dye, which has been hit by the flood. It will disappear when it mixes with rain after a while,” he said.

The military ouster of Aung San Suu Kyi’s government in Myanmar was “inevitable”, army chief General Min Aung Hlaing said yesterday, as Washington formally designated the takeover as a coup. Myanmar’s powerful military stunned the nation on Monday when it detained Suu Kyi and other National League for Democracy (NLD) party leaders in pre-dawn raids ahead of a scheduled resumption of parliament. General Min Aung Hlaing was given “legislative, judicial and executive powers”, effectively returning Myanmar to military rule after a 10-year experiment with democracy. In his first public comments since the putsch, the general said the military takeover was “in line with the law” after the government failed to respond to its grievances over electoral fraud. “After many requests, this way was inevitable for the country and that’s why we had to choose it,” he said during the first cabinet meeting, according to a speech posted on the military’s official Facebook page. In Washington, the state department said it had assessed that “Aung San Suu Kyi, the leader of (Myanmar’s) ruling party, and Win Myint, the duly elected head of government, were deposed in a military coup.” The designation means the US cannot assist the Myanmar government, though any impact will be mainly symbolic as almost all assistance goes to non-governmental entities. The military was already under US sanctions over its brutal campaign against the Rohingya minority. In the capital Naypyidaw, armed troops were stationed outside the dormitories for parliamentarians. One NLD lawmaker described it as “an open-air detention centre”, though by nightfall some politicians said they were free to leave. A statement on the NLD’s verified Facebook page called for Suu Kyi’s release, as well as that of President Win Myint and all detained party members. It also demanded the military “recognise the confirmed result of the 2020 general election”. By afternoon, a party officer said there had been no direct contact with Suu Kyi, though a neighbour saw her in her Naypyidaw residence. “She walks sometimes in her compound to let others know she’s in good health,” NLD press officer Kyi Toe said. Yesterday evening, in the country’s commercial hub of Yangon, residents honked car horns and clattered pots and pans in protest at the coup, following a social media campaign. Some chanted “Long live Mother Suu”. The military has alleged widespread fraud in elections held three months ago that the NLD won in a landslide. It said it would hold power under a state of emergency for 12 months, claiming it would then hold fresh elections — a vow the army chief repeated during the first cabinet meeting post-coup. “Until the new government is formed after the election, we will try to maintain the country,” he said. US President Joe Biden has led a chorus of global outrage, calling for a quick restoration of democracy. Washington has contributed $1.5bn to Myanmar since 2012 to support democracy, internal peace and violence-hit communities, the state department said. “The international community should come together in one voice to press the Burmese military to immediately relinquish the power they have seized,” Biden said. UN secretary-general Antonio Guterres, the European Union and Australia were among others to condemn the coup. But China’s response was less emphatic, with the official Xinhua news agency describing the coup as a “cabinet reshuffle”. The UN Security Council held an emergency meeting yesterday. Myanmar’s November polls were only the second democratic elections the country had seen since emerging from the 49-year grip of military rule in 2011. The NLD won more than 80% of the vote — increasing its support from the 2015 elections. But the military claimed to have uncovered more than 10mn instances of voter fraud, and signalled last week it was considering a coup. It strangled the Internet as the putsch was unfolding, but eased restrictions later in the day. There were few signs of extra security in Yangon, Myanmar’s biggest city, indicating the generals’ belief that, for now, they faced no mass protests. On the streets, people voiced anger, fear and helplessness. “We want to go out to show our dissatisfaction,” a taxi driver said. “But Mother Suu is in their hands. We cannot do much but stay quiet at this moment.”

Myanmar’s military seized power yesterday in a coup against the democratically elected government of Nobel laureate Aung San Suu Kyi, who was detained along with other leaders of her party in early morning raids. Western nations condemned the sudden turn of events, which derailed years of efforts to establish democracy in the poverty-stricken country and raised even more questions over the prospect of returning a million Rohingya refugees. The UN Security Council will meet today, diplomats said, amid calls for a strong response. The army said it had responded to “election fraud”, handing power to military chief General Min Aung Hlaing and imposing a state of emergency for a year in the country, also known as Burma, where neighbouring China has a powerful influence.  The generals made their move hours before parliament had been due to sit for the first time since the National League for Democracy’s (NLD) landslide win in a Nov. 8 election viewed as a referendum on Suu Kyi’s fledgling democratic rule. The NLD said Suu Kyi had called on people to protest against the military takeover, quoting comments it said had been written in anticipation of a coup. Phone and Internet connections in the capital, Naypyitaw, and the main commercial centre Yangon were disrupted and state television went off air after the NLD leaders were detained. Summarising a meeting of the new junta, the military said Min Aung Hlaing, who had been nearing retirement, had pledged to practice a “genuine discipline-flourishing multiparty democratic system”. He promised a free and fair election and a handover of power to the winning party, it said, without giving a timeframe. The junta later removed 24 ministers and named 11 replacements to oversee ministries including finance, defence, foreign affairs and interior. Suu Kyi, President Win Myint and other NLD leaders were “taken” in the early hours of the morning, NLD spokesman Myo Nyunt told Reuters by phone. UN human rights chief Michelle Bachelet said at least 45 people had been detained. A video posted to Facebook by one MP appeared to show the arrest of regional lawmaker Pa Pa Han. Her husband pleads with men in military garb standing outside the gate. A young child can be seen clinging to his chest and wailing. Troops and riot police stood by in Yangon where residents rushed to markets to stock up on supplies and others lined up at ATMs to withdraw cash. Banks suspended services but said they would reopen from Tuesday. Foreign companies from Japanese retail giant Aeon to South Korean trading firm POSCO International and Norway’s Telenor scrambled to reach staff in Myanmar and assess the turmoil. Multinationals moved into the country after Suu Kyi’s party established the first civilian government in half a century in 2015. The Nobel Peace Prize laureate’s election win followed decades of house arrest and struggle against the military, which had seized power in a 1962 coup and stamped out all dissent for decades. While still hugely popular at home, her international standing was severely damaged after she failed to stop the expulsion of hundreds of thousands of Rohingyas in 2017.  The detentions came after days of tension between the civilian government and the military in the aftermath of the most recent election, in which Suu Kyi’s party won 83% of the vote. An army takeover would put Myanmar “back under a dictatorship”, the pre-written statement on Facebook quoted Suu Kyi as saying. “I urge people not to accept this, to respond and wholeheartedly to protest against the coup by the military,” it said. Reuters was unable to reach any NLD officials to confirm the veracity of the statement. Supporters of the military celebrated the coup, parading through Yangon in pickup trucks and waving national flags. “Today is the day that people are happy,” one nationalist monk told a crowd in a video published on Facebook. Democracy activists and NLD voters were horrified and angry. Four youth groups condemned the coup in statements and pledged to “stand with the people” but did not announce specific action. “Our country was a bird that was just learning to fly. Now the army broke our wings,” student activist Si Thu Tun said. Senior NLD leader Win Htein said in a Facebook post the army chief’s takeover demonstrated his ambition rather than concern for the country. In the capital, security forces confined members of parliament to residential compounds on the day they had expected to take up their seats, representative Sai Lynn Myat said. The United Nations led condemnation of the coup and calls for the release of detainees and restoration of democracy in comments largely echoed by Australia, Britain, the European Union, India, Japan and the United States. “The military must reverse these actions immediately,” US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said, while Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell called on Joe Biden’s new Democratic administration to respond strongly. In Japan, a major aid donor with many businesses in Myanmar, a ruling party source said the government may have to rethink the strengthening of defence relations with the country undergone as part of regional efforts to counterbalance China. China called on all sides in Myanmar to respect the constitution and uphold stability in a statement which “noted” events in the country rather than expressly condemning them. Bangladesh, which is sheltering around 1mn Rohingya who fled violence in Myanmar, called for “peace and stability” and said it hoped a process to repatriate the refugees could move forward. Rohingya refugees in Bangladesh also condemned the takeover. The Association of Southeast Asian Nations, of which Myanmar is a member, called for “dialogue, reconciliation and the return to normalcy” while in Bangkok, police clashed with a group of pro-democracy demonstrators outside Myanmar’s embassy.  “It’s their internal affair,” a Thai government official said of events in Myanmar – a hands-off approach also taken by Malaysia and the Philippines. The November vote faced some criticism in the West for disenfranchising many Rohingya but the election commission rejected military complaints of fraud. In its statement declaring the emergency, the military cited the failure of the commission to address complaints over voter lists, its refusal to postpone new parliamentary sessions, and protests by groups unhappy with the vote. “Unless this problem is resolved, it will obstruct the path to democracy and it must therefore be resolved according to the law,” the military said, citing an emergency provision in the constitution in the event sovereignty is threatened.

New Zealand's borders will remain closed for most of this year as the Covid-19 pandemic rages on, but the country will pursue travel arrangements with neighbouring Australia and other Pacific nations, Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern said on Tuesday. Medical authorities, meanwhile, may approve a Covid-19 vaccine as early as next week, Ardern said, as pressure mounts for a start to vaccinations after the country confirmed its first case of the new coronavirus in the community in months. ‘Given the risks in the world around us and the uncertainty of the global rollout of the vaccine, we can expect our borders to be impacted for much of this year,’ Ardern said at a news conference. For travel to restart, authorities either needed confidence that those vaccinated don't pass Covid-19 on to others, which is not yet known, or enough of the population needed to be vaccinated so people can safely re-enter New Zealand. But both possibilities will take some time, she said. ‘In the meantime, we will continue to pursue travel bubbles with Australia and the Pacific, but the rest of the world simply poses too great a risk to our health and our economy to take the risk at this stage.’ The recent community case, in a woman who returned to New Zealand on Dec. 30 and had tested positive for the South African strain of the virus after leaving a two-week mandatory quarantine, led Australia to immediately suspend a travel bubble with New Zealand for 72 hours. Ardern said the country's medicines regulator Medsafe was working towards granting provisional approval for the Pfizer Inc and BioNTech SE vaccine. The first vaccines are due to arrive in New Zealand by the end of the first quarter, but the government wanted everything is in place in case of an earlier arrival. A tough lockdown and geographical isolation helped the country of 5 million virtually eliminate the novel coronavirus within its borders. New Zealand reported 2 new cases of Covid-19 at its managed isolation facilities on Tuesday and no new community cases. The country has 65 active cases, 1,934 confirmed cases in all, and 25 deaths.  

Kazakhstan abolished the death penalty, making permanent a nearly two-decade freeze on capital punishment in the authoritarian Central Asian country, a notice on the presidential website said Saturday. The notice said President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev had signed off on parliamentary ratification of the Second Optional Protocol to the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights -- a document that commits signatories to the abolition of capital punishment. Executions were paused in Kazakhstan from 2003 but courts continued to sentence convicts to death in exceptional circumstances, including for crimes deemed acts of terror. Ruslan Kulekbayev, a lone gunman who killed eight policemen and two civilians during a rampage in Kazakhstan's largest city Almaty in 2016, was among the convicts set to be executed if the moratorium were lifted. Kulekbayev will now serve a life sentence in jail instead.

Fiji declared a state of natural disaster on Thursday, ordering its entire population to take shelter ahead of a nightly curfew as a potentially devastating cyclone approached the Pacific Island nation. Cyclone Yasa, a top category five storm, is expected to bring winds of up to 250 km per hour (155 miles per hour) and torrential rain across the South Pacific archipelago when it makes landfall overnight. Still a few hours out from the worst weather, Fiji's Meteorological Service said storm force winds and heavy rains have been recorded in some parts of the country already. Images shared on social media showed roads blocked by landslides, floodwaters and fallen trees. By 8 p.m. (0800 GMT), the centre of Yasa is forecast to be 100 km (62 miles) east of the village of Yasawa-i-Rara and potentially over Fiji's fifth-most populous province of Bua, home to 15,000 people, Fiji's National Disaster Management Office said. Reinforcing the threat, Fiji Prime Minister Frank Bainimarama told the country's near 1 million population to find safe shelter ahead of a 14-hour nationwide curfew beginning 4 p.m. (0400 GMT) ‘The impact for this super storm is more or less the entire country,’ Bainimarama said in a video posted to Facebook. Yasa would ‘easily surpass’ the strength of 2016's Cyclone Winston, he added, referring to the southern hemisphere's most intense tropical storm on record, which killed more than 40 Fijians and left tens of thousands of people homeless. The curfew order was given as part of the state of natural disaster order, which will run for 30 days. Over 95% of the population live in the direct path of Yasa, said Bainimarama, adding weather forecasts anticipated flash flooding and ‘severe coastal inundation’ that included waves up to 10 metres (33 ft) high. Residents in the areas deemed most at risk said the warnings were been heeded. ‘We'll see what happens,’ said Alumita Bati, a chef from the capital Suva who was forced to evacuate with her son and husband from their corrugated tin house in a low-lying settlement outside the country's most populous city. Bati's family boarded up the windows of their house with more tin before going to her sister's house on higher ground where she felt safer but still ‘a bit scared’. Fiji banned the running of public transport, and was taking precautions with some 50 foreign yachts moored in the southern part of the island chain. ‘The boats have been moved to mangrove shelter, which provide good protection against the winds,’ said Cynthia Rasch, chief executive officer of Port Denarau Marina. Fiji in October opened to foreign boats in a bid to revive a tourism industry hit hard by the coronavirus. Dubbed the Blue Lane initiative, foreign yachts have to follow stringent requirements to enter Fiji, including a 14-day quarantine out at sea.

Dressed in impeccable camouflage fatigues with Kalashnikovs slung over their shoulders, Russian peacekeepers stand guard along the last road linking Armenia with the restive region of Nagorno-Karabakh. After meticulously writing down a car's registration number in a large notebook, a soldier stands aside to let the driver pass and wishes him a good journey. "When the peacekeepers arrived, the situation became calmer than during the war. It's reassuring," says Erik Tovmasyan, who is driving from Karabakh's main city Stepanakert to the Armenian capital Yerevan for eye surgery. For Armenians still reeling from defeat in recent fighting with Azerbaijan, the peacekeepers who deployed under a Moscow-brokered peace deal are a welcome presence. But with the region surrounding the road set to be handed back to Azerbaijan next week, many here are facing an uncertain future. Russia has sent 2,000 peacekeepers to the region under the deal that ended six weeks of heavy fighting over Nagorno-Karabakh, an ethnic Armenian enclave that broke away from Azerbaijan's control in a war in the 1990s. Fresh clashes over Karabakh erupted in late September and ended after Azerbaijani forces had reclaimed large areas from Armenian control. The peacekeepers have deployed between the two sides including along a 60-kilometre  stretch connecting Stepanakert with the Armenian border in the south. The strategic road runs through the Lachin district, the third and last territory near Nagorno-Karabakh that Armenia will cede to Azerbaijan on December 1 under the peace deal. Two other districts -- neighbouring Kalbajar and Aghdam to the northeast -- were returned to Azerbaijan earlier this month. In its northern part, the Lachin corridor diverges towards Shusha, a strategic and historic town overlooking Stepanakert that was captured by Azerbaijan in a pivotal moment of the war. The small road leading to Shusha is blocked by soldiers from Baku, who are positioned close to the Russians. AFP journalists passing nearby could hear Azerbaijani songs and music broadcast over loudspeakers from their position. "They do it from time to time," says one of Moscow's soldiers. At another checkpoint on a road leading into the town, an Azerbaijani special forces captain tells AFP that the situation inside is calm. "There are only soldiers in Shusha," says the officer, who will not give his name. "Civilians (Azerbaijanis) come from time to time only to repair infrastructure" damaged in the fighting. When Armenian separatists gained control of these districts three decades ago, local Azerbaijanis fled the territories and Armenians moved in. Now, it is the Armenians who are deciding whether to abandon their homes, fearing what will happen when Azerbaijanis return. In the town of Lachin, at the heart of the five-kilometre-wide (three-mile-wide) corridor, the manager of a grocery store is wondering what to do. "We have no information about whether we should leave," says the man who does not wish to give his name, adding that he hopes to keep his store. In front of his shop, 81-year-old Margarita Khanagyan leans on her cane as she stands next to an armoured vehicle belonging to the Russian peacekeepers. "I left during the war, then we were told to come back and I came back. Now we have to leave again, but to where?" Uncertainty also looms over the village of Aghavno, the last residential area before the border with Armenia where several dozen houses were built 10 years ago, just below the road. Men here are always carrying rifles, prepared to defend themselves at any moment. "They can't scare us," says village head Andranik Chavushyan, 39. "We will still be living here." Standing next to him, Narine Rasoyan begins to cry. Pregnant with her sixth child, Rasoyan lost her husband in the recent fighting. "I have nowhere to go with my five children, where would I stay?" she says through her tears. "Let them give me a house and I will leave."

An opposition leader in Armenia has been arrested and accused of preparing to kill the prime minister, his lawyer said, adding to the political turmoil created by a controversial peace deal with neighbouring Azerbaijan. Artur Vanetsyan, head of the centre-right Homeland party, was arrested on Saturday after being summoned to the headquarters of the Armenian security forces, his lawyers Lusine Sahakyan and Ervand Varosyan said. They called the detention a "persecution" and denied the allegations against their client -- that he was preparing to seize power after the murder of Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan. Pashinyan has faced violent street protests and fierce criticism from Armenia's political opposition since he signed a peace deal with Azerbaijan to end fighting over the disputed region of Nagorny Karabakh which erupted in September. Armenia faced heavy losses by technologically superior Azeri troops and Pashinyan agreed to cede large parts of the region to Muslim-majority Azerbaijan in order to bring an end to the hostilities. Vanetsyan, a former boss of Armenia's security services known for his links to Russia, was also briefly detained last week along with other senior opposition figures during anti-government protests which saw the prime minister called a "traitor". Armenian security services announced the arrest late on Saturday of another unnamed man "with anti-government views" who was allegedly found in possession of a "large number of weapons." He was preparing "an assassination attempt against a public figure and the seizure of power" in step with "politicians with anti-government views and their supporters."

* Ceasefire deal ended fighting over Nagorno-Karabakh * Azerbaijan hailed deal as a victory * Armenian protesters demand prime minister quit * Russian peacekeepers deployed to the region Thousands of Armenian demonstrators, chanting "Nikol is a traitor", demanded Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan resign on Wednesday over a ceasefire that secured territorial advances for Azerbaijan in Nagorno-Karabakh after six weeks of fighting. The ceasefire, announced on Tuesday, ended the worst fighting in the region in decades, and has been celebrated as a victory in Azerbaijan. Pashinyan has called it a disaster but said he had no choice but to sign it to stave off a defeat. Several thousand people defied a martial law ban on street rallies to protest in the capital Yerevan, a day after protesters stormed and ransacked some government buildings. Wednesday's protesters, some wearing protective masks, gathered despite the arrest of a prominent opposition leader and several others at the start of the rally, and regardless of the coronavirus pandemic that has hit Armenia hard. The ceasefire halted military action in and around Nagorno-Karabakh, an enclave internationally recognised as part of Azerbaijan but populated by ethnic Armenians. Under the agreement, 2,000 Russian peacekeeping troops are being deployed to the region. Since the early 1990s, ethnic Armenians had military control over all of Nagorno-Karabakh and substantial swaths of Azeri territory surrounding it. They have now lost much of the enclave itself as well as the surrounding territory. Pashinyan said he concluded the peace deal under pressure from his army. Nagorno-Karabakh's leader said there had been a risk of Azerbaijan taking control of the whole enclave following the fall of its second biggest city, Shushi, known by Azeris as Shusha. "This is a big failure and disaster," Pashinyan said on Tuesday. He said he was taking personal responsibility for the setbacks, but he rejected calls to step down. He did not immediately respond to Wednesday's protests. Seventeen political parties called Wednesday's protest to step up demands for Pashinyan to quit. Among those arrested were Gagik Tsarukyan, leader of the opposition Prosperous Armenia party, according to a Facebook post by Hripsime Arakelian, a member of his party. Prosperous Armenia is the second biggest faction in parliament. The Russian peacekeepers - who are due to stay in the region for five years - started leaving Russia on Tuesday and are now controlling the Lachin corridor, a mountain pass linking Armenia and Nagorno-Karabakh, the Russian army said.