MYANMAR
NGOs seek arms embargo
Non-governmental organizations (NGOs) from 31 countries on Wednesday signed an open letter calling for the UN Security Council to urgently impose an arms embargo on the country’s military. “The UN Council should urgently impose a global arms embargo on Myanmar in response to the military coup and to deter the junta from committing further abuses,” the letter said. The nearly 130 NGOs went on to say: “Governments that permit arms transfers to Myanmar — including China, India, Israel, North Korea, the Philippines, Russia, and Ukraine — should immediately stop the supply of any weapons, munitions, and related equipment.”
CHINA
Xi boasts of tackling poverty
President Xi Jinping (習近平) yesterday declared that his country had achieved the “human miracle” of eliminating extreme poverty. In a glitzy ceremony in Beijing, Xi bestowed medals on officials from rural communities and promised to share this “Chinese example” with other developing nations. “No other country can lift hundreds of millions of people out of poverty in such a short time,” he said. Beijing’s claims have met with skepticism. Critics have pointed to the relatively low poverty line, claims of corruption cases linked to poverty funds and perennial questions over whether official data is massaged.
TURKEY
IS man held, Yazidi rescued
Police have detained a suspected Iraqi Islamic State (IS) militant and rescued a seven-year-old girl from Iraq’s Yazidi religious minority that he had allegedly been holding captive, the state-run Anadolu Agency reported on Wednesday. The man was detained in an early morning raid in the capital Ankara, the report said. The suspect had once served as an officer in the Iraqi army, it said, adding that the raid was timed so that the child was not placed at risk. The girl was later placed in the care of social services.
UNITED KINGDOM
Drug users turn to dark Web
Illicit drug users have reported few problems maintaining their supply since the first COVID-19 lockdown, a study published yesterday found. Users reported some difficulty in finding a supplier and desired drug during the first lockdown last year, an online survey of 2,621 respondents carried out by drugs charity Release showed. Since then, most respondents “did not report finding a supplier to be more difficult compared to before the arrival of COVID-19,” lead author Judith Aldridge said, as one in 10 purchases reported were made on the dark Web. Thirteen percent of those using such Web sites reported that it was the first time they had done so. Cannabis was the most sought-after drug. More respondents said that their drug use had increased rather than decreased since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic.
UNITED STATES
Wolf kill target dessimated
Hunters and trappers blew past Wisconsin’s wolf kill target in less than 72 hours, forcing a premature end to the hunt. The Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources closed the season on Wednesday afternoon after 178 wolves had been killed — 59 more than the state’s target. The agency estimated that about 1,000 wolves roamed the state before the hunt and has a population goal of 350. Animal rights advocates have said that wolf populations are too small to support hunting, while farmers and rural residents have said that wolves are killing their livestock and pets.
Brazil, the world’s largest Roman Catholic country, saw its Catholic population decline further in 2022, while evangelical Christians and those with no religion continued to rise, census data released on Friday by the Brazilian Institute of Geography and Statistics (IBGE) showed. The census indicated that Brazil had 100.2 million Roman Catholics in 2022, accounting for 56.7 percent of the population, down from 65.1 percent or 105.4 million recorded in the 2010 census. Meanwhile, the share of evangelical Christians rose to 26.9 percent last year, up from 21.6 percent in 2010, adding 12 million followers to reach 47.4 million — the highest figure
A Chinese scientist was arrested while arriving in the US at Detroit airport, the second case in days involving the alleged smuggling of biological material, authorities said on Monday. The scientist is accused of shipping biological material months ago to staff at a laboratory at the University of Michigan. The FBI, in a court filing, described it as material related to certain worms and requires a government permit. “The guidelines for importing biological materials into the US for research purposes are stringent, but clear, and actions like this undermine the legitimate work of other visiting scholars,” said John Nowak, who leads field
‘THE RED LINE’: Colombian President Gustavo Petro promised a thorough probe into the attack on the senator, who had announced his presidential bid in March Colombian Senator Miguel Uribe Turbay, a possible candidate in the country’s presidential election next year, was shot and wounded at a campaign rally in Bogota on Saturday, authorities said. His conservative Democratic Center party released a statement calling it “an unacceptable act of violence.” The attack took place in a park in the Fontibon neighborhood when armed assailants shot him from behind, said the right-wing Democratic Center, which was the party of former Colombian president Alvaro Uribe. The men are not related. Images circulating on social media showed Uribe Turbay, 39, covered in blood being held by several people. The Santa Fe Foundation
NUCLEAR WARNING: Elites are carelessly fomenting fear and tensions between nuclear powers, perhaps because they have access to shelters, Tulsi Gabbard said After a trip to Hiroshima, US Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard on Tuesday warned that “warmongers” were pushing the world to the brink of nuclear war. Gabbard did not specify her concerns. Gabbard posted on social media a video of grisly footage from the world’s first nuclear attack and of her staring reflectively at the Hiroshima Peace Memorial. On Aug. 6, 1945, the US obliterated Hiroshima, killing 140,000 people in the explosion and by the end of the year from the uranium bomb’s effects. Three days later, a US plane dropped a plutonium bomb on Nagasaki, leaving abut 74,000 people dead by the
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