Two Syrian MPs from the protest hub city of Daraa yesterday told al-Jazeera television they were quitting parliament in protest at the bloodshed in their country.
“I announce my resignation from parliament,” Khalil al--Rifai, a deputy from the southern city said in remarks broadcast by al-Jazeera.
The satellite channel said he became the second MP from Daraa to quit after Nasser al-Hariri, who earlier announced his resignation also on al-Jazeera, saying he was frustrated because he could not protect his constituents.
At least eight mourners were shot dead yesterday as Syrians swarmed the streets to bury dozens of demonstrators killed in massive protests and world leaders denounced the bloodshed. Activists said the death toll from Friday’s nationwide protests could reach 100 and expected fresh protests to form after the funerals.
Friday’s deaths signaled no let-up from Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, whose forces used live ammunition and tear gas against demonstrators nationwide, witnesses and activists said.
The bloodshed erupted as tens of thousands of demonstrators took to the streets for “Good Friday” protests to test long sought-after freedoms a day after Assad scrapped decades of draconian emergency rule.
Tens of thousands of mourners packed buses and headed yesterday for the southern town of Ezreh for the funerals of 18 people killed the previous day, a rights activist said by telephone.
Another activist later said “12 martyrs were buried in Ezreh” and that two men who were part of the funeral cortege were shot dead by security forces.
Other activists spoke of five mourners killed in Ezreh and outside a hospital in Daraa, with the toll expected to rise.
Snipers also pinned down mourners in the Damascus suburb of Douma, killing at least three people yesterday, a witness and a human rights activist there said.
They opened fire from roof-tops as mourners marched from a local mosque to a cemetery, the sources said, adding that tens of thousands of people took part in the procession.
The government is aiming to recruit 1,096 foreign English teachers and teaching assistants this year, the Ministry of Education said yesterday. The foreign teachers would work closely with elementary and junior-high instructors to create and teach courses, ministry official Tsai Yi-ching (蔡宜靜) said. Together, they would create an immersive language environment, helping to motivate students while enhancing the skills of local teachers, she said. The ministry has since 2021 been recruiting foreign teachers through the Taiwan Foreign English Teacher Program, which offers placement, salary, housing and other benefits to eligible foreign teachers. Two centers serving northern and southern Taiwan assist in recruiting and training
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‘CARRIER KILLERS’: The Tuo Chiang-class corvettes’ stealth capability means they have a radar cross-section as small as the size of a fishing boat, an analyst said President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) yesterday presided over a ceremony at Yilan County’s Suao Harbor (蘇澳港), where the navy took delivery of two indigenous Tuo Chiang-class corvettes. The corvettes, An Chiang (安江) and Wan Chiang (萬江), along with the introduction of the coast guard’s third and fourth 4,000-tonne cutters earlier this month, are a testament to Taiwan’s shipbuilding capability and signify the nation’s resolve to defend democracy and freedom, Tsai said. The vessels are also the last two of six Tuo Chiang-class corvettes ordered from Lungteh Shipbuilding Co (龍德造船) by the navy, Tsai said. The first Tuo Chiang-class vessel delivered was Ta Chiang (塔江)
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