MYAMMAR
Rohingya villages hit: group
Human Rights Watch said high-definition satellite images show 820 newly identified structures destroyed this month in five Rohingya Muslim villages in Myanmar’s troubled Rakhine State. In a statement yesterday, the US-based group urged the government to invite the UN to assist in an impartial investigation. The government has admitted using helicopter gunships in support of ground troops in counterinsurgency operations in the area since nine police officers were killed in attacks last month. Rohingya Muslims have been violently targeted in Rakhine State, where the Buddhist majority views them as illegal migrants despite inhabiting the region for generations.
NEW ZEALAND
China FTA to be upgraded
China and New Zealand have agreed to start formal negotiations to upgrade the pair’s free-trade agreement (FTA), New Zealand Prime Minister John Key said yesterday. Key said in an e-mailed statement that the upgrade would ensure the existing trade agreement “takes into account the FTAs that China has negotiated with other trading partners since 2008.” The first round of negotiations would begin in the first half of next year and would be followed by an as yet unknown number of talks that would take place in both China and New Zealand. Issues that would be covered include technical barriers to trade, such as customs rules, as well as e-commerce, competition policy and the environment. China entered into a free-trade agreement with New Zealand, the first Western country to do so, in 2008, which has helped the Asian giant grow to become New Zealand’s largest goods export partner.
RWANDA
Catholic Church apologizes
The nation’s Catholic Church on Sunday apologized for its role in the 1994 genocide, saying it regretted the actions of those who participated in the massacres. “We apologize for all the wrongs the church committed. We apologize on behalf of all Christians for all forms of wrongs we committed. We regret that church members violated [their] oath of allegiance to God’s commandments,” said the statement by the Conference of Catholic Bishops, which was read out in parishes across the country. The statement acknowledged that church members planned, aided and executed the genocide, in which over 800,000 ethnic Tutsis and moderate Hutus were killed by Hutu extremists. “Forgive us for the crime of hate in the country to the extent of also hating our colleagues because of their ethnicity. We didn’t show that we are one family but instead killed each other,” the statement said. Bishop Phillipe Rukamba, spokesman for the Catholic Church, said the statement was timed to coincide with the formal end on Sunday of the Holy Year of Mercy declared by Pope Francis to encourage greater reconciliation and forgiveness in his church and in the world.
AUSTRALIA
Snakes in the grass strike
A man working to clear trees and shrubs in the Outback has been bitten by venomous snakes twice in three days. The RACQ Rescue helicopter service said in a statement on Monday the 18-year-old man was bitten on his right leg by an unidentified snake in a field in Queensland state Friday. After treatment, he returned to work in the same field and was bitten by a brown-colored snake Sunday. A helicopter flew him back to Mackay Base Hospital 300km for treatment.
CONFRONTATION: The water cannon attack was the second this month on the Philippine supply boat ‘Unaizah May 4,’ after an incident on March 5 The China Coast Guard yesterday morning blocked a Philippine supply vessel and damaged it with water cannons near a reef off the Southeast Asian country, the Philippines said. The Philippine military released video of what it said was a nearly hour-long attack off the Second Thomas Shoal (Renai Shoal, 仁愛暗沙) in the contested South China Sea, where Chinese ships have unleashed water cannons and collided with Philippine vessels in similar standoffs in the past few months. The China Coast Guard and other vessels “once again harassed, blocked, deployed water cannons, and executed dangerous maneuvers” against a routine rotation and resupply mission to
GLOBAL COMBAT AIR PROGRAM: The potential purchasers would be limited to the 15 nations with which Tokyo has signed defense partnership and equipment transfer deals Japan’s Cabinet yesterday approved a plan to sell future next-generation fighter jets that it is developing with the UK and Italy to other nations, in the latest move away from the country’s post-World War II pacifist principles. The contentious decision to allow international arms sales is expected to help secure Japan’s role in the joint fighter jet project, and is part of a move to build up the Japanese arms industry and bolster its role in global security. The Cabinet also endorsed a revision to Japan’s arms equipment and technology transfer guidelines to allow coproduced lethal weapons to be sold to nations
‘POLITICAL EARTHQUAKE’: Leo Varadkar said he was ‘no longer the best person’ to lead the nation and was stepping down for political, as well as personal, reasons Leo Varadkar on Wednesday announced that he was stepping down as Ireland’s prime minister and leader of the Fine Gael party in the governing coalition, citing “personal and political” reasons. Pundits called the surprise move, just 10 weeks before Ireland holds European Parliament and local elections, a “political earthquake.” A general election has to be held within a year. Irish Deputy Prime Minister Micheal Martin, leader of Fianna Fail, the main coalition partner, said Varadkar’s announcement was “unexpected,” but added that he expected the government to run its full term. An emotional Varadkar, who is in his second stint as prime minister and at
Thousands of devotees, some in a state of trance, gathered at a Buddhist temple on the outskirts of Bangkok renowned for sacred tattoos known as Sak Yant, paying their respects to a revered monk who mastered the practice and seeking purification. The gathering at Wat Bang Phra Buddhist temple is part of a Thai Wai Khru ritual in which devotees pay homage to Luang Phor Pern, the temple’s formal abbot, who died in 2002. He had a reputation for refining and popularizing the temple’s Sak Yant tattoo style. The idea that tattoos confer magical powers has existed in many parts of Asia