Senin, 08 Maret 2021

Nationwide strike in Myanmar as anti-coup campaign intensifies - Al Jazeera English

Myanmar’s biggest trade unions has begun a widespread strike in the latest attempt to pressure the country’s generals to step down after seizing power in a coup last month.

At least 18 labour organisations representing industries including construction, agriculture and manufacturing on Monday called on workers “union and non-union alike” to stop work to reverse the February 1 coup and restore Aung San Suu Kyi’s elected government to power.

“The time to take action in defense of our democracy is now,” the unions said in a statement. “No one can force any Myanmar citizen to work. We are not slaves to the military junta now and we never shall be.” They added that the nationwide stoppage would continue until “we receive our democracy back”.

Witnesses reported the sound of gunfire and stun grenades in different parts of Yangon, Myanmar’s biggest city, during the night.

Soldiers were also deployed to public buildings around the country, sparking confrontations with protesters, the Myanmar Now news agency reported. State media said on Monday that security forces were maintaining a presence at hospitals and universities across the country, as part of their law enforcement efforts.

Some of the biggest protests in recent weeks took place on Sunday, with police firing stun grenades and tear gas to break up demonstrations in Yangon, the northern town of Lashio and a sit-in by tens of thousands of people in the second-biggest city Mandalay. At least 50 people have been killed since the demonstrations began, according to the United Nations.

Women’s groups called for a Htamein (Sarong) movement to mobilise in force and mark International Women’s Day while condemning the generals.

Protest leader Maung Saungkha on Facebook urged women to come out strongly against the coup on Monday, while Nay Chi, one of the organisers of the Sarong movement, described the women as “revolutionaries”.

“Our people are unarmed but wise. They try to rule with fear, but we will fight that fear,” she told the Reuters news agency.

Raids

At least three protests were held in Yangon on Sunday, despite raids on campaign leaders and opposition activists by security forces late on Saturday.

An official and local campaign manager from Suu Kyi’s National League for Democracy (NLD) Khin Maung Latt died in police custody.

Ba Myo Thein, a deposed legislator, said reports of bruising to Khin Maung Latt’s head and body raised suspicions that he had been “tortured severely”.

Police in Pabedan, where Khin Maung Latt was arrested, declined to comment. A spokesman for the military did not answer calls seeking comment.

People flash three-finger salutes as they attend the funeral of Khin Maung Latt, 58, a National League for Democracy (NLD) ward chairman in Yangon who died in military custody on Sunday [Stringer/Reuters]
The army has said it is dealing with protests lawfully.

In a statement on Monday, the military said it had arrested 41 people the previous day.

An announcement by the military carried on the front page of the state-run Global New Light of Myanmar newspaper on Monday threatened unspecified “action” against anyone who directly or indirectly works for a committee of deposed legislators that has declared itself the country’s legitimate authority.

The announcement said the committee was illegal and had committed “high treason”.

The killings have drawn anger among the governments of liberal democracies, and the United States and others have tightened sanctions on the generals.

Australia on Monday said it was ending cooperation with the Myanmar military as a result of the increased violence and death toll. Campaigners had been urging it to do so since the brutal crackdown on the Rohingya in 2017, which was led by military chief Min Aung Hlaing, who led the coup.

Myanmar’s giant neighbour China on Sunday said it was prepared to engage with “all parties” to ease the crisis and was not taking sides.

The Assistance Association for Political Prisoners, which is tracking arrests since the coup, says 1,790 people had been detained as of March 7. A total of 1,472 remain in custody.

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2021-03-08 05:17:18Z
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Left-wing Democrats stand in way of Joe Biden's $1.9tn Covid relief bill - The Times

President Biden faced an anxious 48 hours after left-wing Democrats threatened to torpedo a giant $1.9 trillion spending bill on which he has staked much of his authority and hopes for an American recovery.

The blockbuster Covid relief bill would give hundreds of thousands of Americans cheques of up to $1,400 each in an effort to bolster the pandemic-ravaged economy, and its approval by the Senate was hailed as the centrepiece of Biden’s first 100 days.

However, the so-called American Rescue Plan has to go back to the House of Representatives where left-wingers were scathing about cuts to proposed unemployment benefits and the minimum wage introduced in horse-trading to get it through the upper house.

White House advisers warned yesterday that there was “no room

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2021-03-08 00:01:00Z
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Minggu, 07 Maret 2021

Switzerland referendum: Voters support ban on face coverings in public - BBC News

A poster promoting "Yes to the burka ban" is seen in Oberdorf, in the canton of Nidwalden, Switzerland, 16 February 2021
EPA

Switzerland has narrowly voted in favour of banning face coverings in public, including the burka or niqab worn by Muslim women.

Official results showed the measure had passed by 51.2% to 48.8% in Sunday's referendum.

The proposal was put forward by the right-wing Swiss People's Party (SVP) which campaigned with slogans such as "Stop extremism".

A leading Swiss Islamic group said it was "a dark day" for Muslims.

"Today's decision opens old wounds, further expands the principle of legal inequality, and sends a clear signal of exclusion to the Muslim minority," the Central Council of Muslims said in a statement, adding that it would challenge the decision in court.

The Swiss government had argued against the ban saying it was not up to the state to dictate what women wear.

According to research by the University of Lucerne (in German), almost no-one in Switzerland wears a burka and only around 30 women wear the niqab. About 5% of Switzerland's population of 8.6 million people are Muslim, most originating from Turkey, Bosnia and Kosovo.

Muslim face coverings explained
spacer

Swiss people are given a direct say in their own affairs under the country's system of direct democracy. They are regularly invited to vote on various issues in national or regional referendums.

It is not the first time Islam has figured in a Swiss referendum. In 2009 citizens went against government advice and voted to ban the building of minarets - a proposal also put forward by the SVP which said minarets were a sign of Islamisation.

The proposal in Sunday's referendum did not mention Islam directly and was also aimed at stopping violent street protesters from wearing masks. However, the vote was widely referred to as "the burka ban".

The latest proposal predated the coronavirus pandemic, which has meant all Swiss adults having to wear masks in many settings.

Grey line

Swiss voters give face covering ban a 'jein'

Analysis by Imogen Foulkes, BBC News, Geneva

Was today's vote about all face coverings, from niqabs and burkas to the scarves rioters sometimes pull over their faces?

That's what the Yes campaigners from the Swiss People's Party insisted - but their posters and literature said otherwise, showing threatening looking women in black niqabs, and warning of Islamic extremism.

So does the result mean the Swiss are becoming more extreme? Are they Islamophobic?

Perhaps not. In the end, the ban only just squeaked through. In the past the Swiss People's Party has had much bigger majorities for its populist initiatives, often aimed at restricting asylum and immigration.

It successfully pushed through a ban on minarets in 2009 with a similar campaign to this one. But the debate around face coverings touched all sorts of different nerves. Many Swiss feminists view the burka and niqab as oppressive to women but they also oppose laws telling women what they can and cannot wear.

When it came to voting they were torn. A regular answer from women asked whether they would support the ban was "Jein", a cross between "Ja" (yes) and "Nein" (no). Today's close vote in Switzerland was probably very much a "Jein" as well.

Grey line

Sanija Ameti, a member of Switzerland's Muslim community, told the BBC that the campaign - and the depiction of Muslim women in the posters - had been upsetting.

"So many Muslims in Switzerland will feel insulted and not part of this society, and pushed into a corner where they don't belong. We don't look like these women in the pictures, we just don't," she said.

However, others in the Muslim community supported the ban.

Imam Mustafa Memeti, from the city of Bern, told the BBC he thought the motivation behind the campaign was "probably Islamophobic". But he said he supported the ban anyway because it could help to emancipate Muslim women in Switzerland.

Ahead of the vote, Walter Wobmann, chairman of the referendum committee and an SVP lawmaker, described Muslim face coverings as "a symbol for this extreme, political Islam which has become increasingly prominent in Europe and which has no place in Switzerland".

"In Switzerland our tradition is that you show your face. That is a sign of our basic freedoms," he said.

Amnesty International spoke out against the proposed ban, calling it "a dangerous policy that violates women's rights, including to freedom of expression and religion".

The wearing of Islamic veils in public has been a controversial topic in other European countries. France banned wearing a full face veil in public in 2011 while the Netherlands, Denmark, Austria and Bulgaria have put in place full or partial bans on wearing face coverings in public.

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2021-03-07 21:01:08Z
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Hundreds injured and many feared dead as huge explosions rip through city in Equatorial Guinea - Daily Mail

At least 17 people are killed and hundreds more injured as massive explosions from an army barracks rip through city in Equatorial Guinea

  • The city of Bata was rocked by a series of explosions at a military barracks on Sunday
  • The Health Ministry said 17 deaths have been registered and at least 420 people had been injured, while 'many' are feared to be trapped under the rubble
  • Hospitals are reportedly overwhelmed and appeals have been launched for blood donations and volunteers 
  • The cause of the blasts, which levelled homes in the Mondong Nkuantoma de Bata neighbourhood, is unknown

By Reuters and Charlotte Mitchell For Mailonline

Published: | Updated:

Hundreds are injured and more than a dozen dead after a series of large explosions rocked the city of Bata in Equatorial Guinea on Sunday. 

At least 17 people have been killed and some 420 injured in the blasts, the Ministry of Education said, citing hospital reports. 

'Many' more are feared dead or trapped under rubble, the ministry said in a series of tweets on Sunday which included an appeal for blood donations and for voluntary health workers to go to the Bata Regional Hospital.

The cause of the blasts is unknown but the health ministry said the explosions had happened at a military base in the city's Mondong Nkuantoma de Bata neighbourhood.

Hundreds are injured and many feared dead after a series of large explosions rocked the city of Bata in Equatorial Guinea on Sunday

Hundreds are injured and many feared dead after a series of large explosions rocked the city of Bata in Equatorial Guinea on Sunday

The cause of the blasts is unknown but the health ministry said the explosions had happened at a military base in the city's Mondong Nkuantoma de Bata neighbourhood

Deutsche Welle, citing local witnesses, reported that there were four blasts, which began at 1pm local time.

Local television showed groups of people pulling bodies from under piles of rubble. Some of the bodies were carried away wrapped in bed sheets. 

Hospitals in the central African nation are reportedly overwhelmed, with local media footage showing pick-up trucks filled with survivors, many of whom were children, drive up to the front of a local hospital where some victims were seen lying on the floor.  

In the blast area, iron roofs were ripped off half-destroyed houses and lay twisted amid the rubble, Reuters news agency reported. Only a wall or two remained of most residences. People ran in all directions, many of them screaming.

A column of smoke reached into the sky and around its base firefighters sought to calm the blaze. 

Unverified videos shared on Twitter and claiming to have been filmed from near the blast site showed plumes of smoke rising into the sky and debris from buildings littering the roadside.

In one clip, people could be heard screaming as the camera panned between roofless buildings.  

Local media reported that the vice president of Equatorial Guinea, Teodoro Nguema Obiang Mangue had arrived at the scene of the explosion.

'Pain has hit Equatorial Guinea again right in the middle of its fight against the coronavirus pandemic with explosions this Sunday in the Rapid Intervention Barracks in Nkoantoma, in city of Bata. From here, I express my sincere grief for the victims,' the vice president tweeted. 

'Following developments in Equatorial Guinea with concern after the explosions in the city of Bata,' said Spanish Foreign Minister Arancha Gonzalez Laya on Twitter.

The Spanish Embassy in Malabo encouraged its nationals to stay in their homes.

The blast comes as Equatorial Guinea, an oil producer, is suffering a double economic shock linked to the coronavirus pandemic and a drop in the price of crude, which provides around three-quarters of state revenue. 

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2021-03-07 19:04:37Z
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Switzerland votes in favour of ‘burka ban’ outlawing face coverings - Financial Times

Swiss voters have narrowly approved a nationwide ban on face coverings that will outlaw full-face Islamic veils, despite opposition from the federal government and the Muslim community.

With only a small number of votes left to be counted on Sunday evening, results showed about 52 per cent of Swiss had backed a proposal to outlaw most face coverings. There are exceptions for medical masks and celebratory carnival-type masks.

Under Switzerland’s system of direct democracy, the referendum result will mean the ban is formally incorporated into the Swiss constitution.

The rightwing populist Swiss People’s party — the largest political party in the wealthy alpine country — campaigned vigorously in support of the measure, which it cast as a stance against religious extremism and political Islam.

But support was markedly lower for the ban in comparison to the 2009 referendum — fought along similar cultural faultlines — in which Switzerland banned the construction of new minarets at mosques.

Voters also narrowly approved a free trade deal with Indonesia, the world’s most populous Muslim country. Just over 51 per cent voted for the pact — a far narrower victory than many in the Swiss political and business community had expected. In particular, opposition to the trade deal from the environmentally conscious Swiss crystallised in recent weeks around the issue of Indonesian palm oil production. 

Representatives of Switzerland’s Muslim community condemned the ban on face coverings. “Today’s decision opens old wounds, further expands the principle of legal inequality and sends a clear signal of exclusion to the Muslim minority,” the Central Council of Muslims said in a statement.

While the law does not specifically identify Islam as its target, the referendum is widely referred to in Switzerland as the “burka ban”.

Switzerland is home to some 450,000 Muslims — about 5 per cent of the country’s population. Only a tiny proportion wear full face coverings.

The Italian-speaking canton of Ticino has banned face-veils since 2013 and Denmark, France, Austria, Belgium and Bulgaria have all prohibited the wearing of full Muslim veils in public.

The referendum was triggered in 2017 after 100,000 signatures were collected from Swiss citizens supporting a nationwide vote on the issue.

The Swiss government in Bern declared its opposition to the ban earlier this year, arguing that full face coverings were a marginal phenomenon.

Sunday’s result nevertheless showed a clear majority of Swiss cantons backed the measure, with the exception of the country’s large urban centres. A majority of voters in the cantons of Basel, Bern, Geneva and Zurich rejected the proposal.

“The people have said that the veiling of a woman does not have any place in our culture,” said Walter Wobmann, a parliamentarian for the Swiss Peoples’ party and chairman of the committee that formally proposed the vote. The vote against religious face coverings was a “symbolically” important move, Wobmann said.

The ban is widely opposed by many in the Swiss hospitality industry, who say it will hurt tourism.

“A veiling ban at national level [will] damage Switzerland’s image in Muslim countries in the long term. This would not only affect vacation tourism, but also the [trade] and business sector,” said officials from the influential Association of Swiss Tourism.

“It is a mockery that the [Swiss People’s party] played itself up as the saviour of women in the referendum campaign,” said parliamentarian Tamara Funiciello, co-president of the Swiss Social Democratic party’s women’s movement. Just 30 women in Switzerland actually wore a full niqab, Funiciello added.

“This party considered marital rape as not problematic, denies wage inequality and opposes, still today, any improvement of the situation of women in this country and internationally.”

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2021-03-07 18:31:53Z
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Switzerland referendum: Voters support ban on face coverings in public - BBC News

A poster promoting "Yes to the burka ban" is seen in Oberdorf, in the canton of Nidwalden, Switzerland, 16 February 2021
EPA

Switzerland has narrowly voted in favour of banning face coverings in public, including the burka or niqab worn by Muslim women.

Official results showed the measure had passed by 51.2% to 48.8% in Sunday's referendum.

The proposal was put forward by the right-wing Swiss People's Party (SVP) which campaigned with slogans such as "Stop extremism".

A leading Swiss Islamic group said it was "a dark day" for Muslims.

"Today's decision opens old wounds, further expands the principle of legal inequality, and sends a clear signal of exclusion to the Muslim minority," the Central Council of Muslims said in a statement, adding that it would challenge the decision in court.

The BBC's Imogen Foulkes, in Geneva, says the result is not the thumping majority that the SVP had hoped for but it is enough to ensure a ban on face coverings will be written into Switzerland's constitution.

The Swiss government had argued against the ban saying it was not up to the state to dictate what women wear.

According to research by the University of Lucerne (in German), almost no-one in Switzerland wears a burka and only around 30 women wear the niqab. About 5% of Switzerland's population of 8.6 million people are Muslim, most originating from Turkey, Bosnia and Kosovo.

Muslim face coverings explained
spacer

Swiss people are given a direct say in their own affairs under the country's system of direct democracy. They are regularly invited to vote on various issues in national or regional referendums.

It is not the first time Islam has figured in a Swiss referendum. In 2009 citizens went against government advice and voted to ban the building of minarets - a proposal also put forward by the SVP which said minarets were a sign of Islamisation.

The proposal in Sunday's referendum did not mention Islam directly and was also aimed at stopping violent street protesters from wearing masks. However, the vote was widely referred to as "the burka ban".

The latest proposal predated the coronavirus pandemic, which has meant all Swiss adults having to wear masks in many settings.

Ahead of the vote, Walter Wobmann, chairman of the referendum committee and an SVP lawmaker, described Muslim face coverings as "a symbol for this extreme, political Islam which has become increasingly prominent in Europe and which has no place in Switzerland".

"In Switzerland our tradition is that you show your face. That is a sign of our basic freedoms," he said.

Amnesty International spoke out against the proposed ban, calling it "a dangerous policy that violates women's rights, including to freedom of expression and religion".

The wearing of Islamic veils in public has been a controversial topic in other European countries. France banned wearing a full face veil in public in 2011 while the Netherlands, Denmark, Austria and Bulgaria have put in place full or partial bans on wearing face coverings in public.

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2021-03-07 18:07:19Z
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Biden on brink of passing historic $1.9tn boost to US economy - Financial Times

Joe Biden is on the brink of securing final approval from Congress for his $1.9tn stimulus bill — a bet that massive fiscal intervention aimed at lower and middle class families will speed up America’s recovery without overheating the economy.

After the US Senate voted to approve the package on Saturday, the Democrat-controlled House of Representatives is poised to give its final green light to the bill on Tuesday, allowing it to be signed into law by Biden.

Barring any last-minute trouble in the House, where Democrats hold a slim majority, the stimulus legislation will mark a big political victory for Biden, who made it his top priority since entering the White House on January 20.

The stimulus bill — known as the American Rescue Plan — represents one of the largest US government interventions in the economy of the post-world war two era — just short of the size of the $2.2tn March 2020 pandemic stimulus, but larger than the $787bn recovery plan during the 2009 financial crisis.

The prospects for its passage have already led many private-sector economists to upgrade their forecasts for US growth this year. Federal Reserve officials are likely to do the same when they publish their latest economic projections next week.

But the plan has attracted criticism from Republican lawmakers — who have so far unanimously opposed the plan — as well as some economists, including Lawrence Summers, the treasury secretary under Bill Clinton — who say it risks a harmful spike in inflation.

A recent sell-off in long-term government debt — with yields on 10-year Treasury bonds rising above 1.5 per cent for the first time in more than a year — has fuelled those concerns, though senior US policymakers including Janet Yellen, the treasury secretary, and Jay Powell, the Federal Reserve chair, have dismissed the worries.

Around the world, the US stimulus package could give a fresh jolt to the global recovery amid hopes that widespread vaccinations throughout the year will help reopen many economies. But any unintended jump in US inflation or debt yields could unsettle markets and prove particularly harmful for emerging markets.

Domestically, Biden’s top aides and many Democrats on Sunday touted the plan as “historic and transformational” legislation for families that have struggled through the pandemic. The bill — which will be financed entirely by adding to the US deficit — will dispatch $1,400 means-tested payments to most Americans; extend emergency federal jobless benefits worth $300 per week until September; increase a tax credit for children; provide aid to states and local governments; and boost funding for schools and vaccinations.

“This is a bill that reflects President Biden’s belief that the best way to get the economy back on track and get it growing is to invest in working people and middle class people,” Kate Bedingfield, the White House communications director, told CNN. “It is urgent aid that is going to help people all across the country but it’s also making a long-term investment,” she added.

The US president had applauded passage of the Senate’s version in remarks on Saturday, following an all-night session in the upper chamber of Congress.

Biden was on Sunday expected to sign an executive order to boost voting rights, at an event commemorating the civil rights protesters who were tear-gassed and beaten by state troopers in Selma Alabama 56 years ago. 

Senate passage of the stimulus legislation — by a party-line 50 to 49 vote — was held up for hours as Democratic leaders sought to get the decisive consent of Joe Manchin, the moderate West Virginia Democrat, who was insisting on tighter terms for the jobless benefits.

On Sunday, Manchin did the rounds of US television networks to trumpet his role in the talks, rejecting any fears that the Biden plan was excessive.

“I can assure you, we have helped every segment of society right now, more so than ever before with this piece of targeted legislation,” he told Fox News Sunday.


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2021-03-07 16:43:52Z
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