RE: Myanmar arrests 44 over sectarian violence

 News on the 4 October 2013:

YANGON — The authorities in Myanmar arrested 44 suspects for their alleged role in sectarian violence that wracked a coastal township in western Myanmar over the last week, state media reported. Five Muslims were killed and scores of homes set on fire when Buddhist mobs went on a rampage in Thandwe, a coastal township in Rakhine state. 

The violence came even as President Thein Sein visited the region last week for the first time since in Rakhine in June 2012, killing hundreds of people and forcing more than 140,000 more to flee, the majority of them Muslim. 

Few details were released about the latest arrests but a report broadcast on state television late yesterday (Oct 5) indicated members of both communities were arrested. 

Officials in Rakhine state said last week that the chairman of a Rakhine political party and several of its members were among those detained. Today, the state-run Myanma Ahlin newspaper put the total of houses burned down in Thandwe last week at 114 houses. It said three religious buildings — most likely mosques — were destroyed, and 482 people were left homeless. Thein Sein has been widely praised for overseeing an unprecedented political opening in the Southeast Asian nation since the army ceded power two years ago to a nominally civilian government led by retired military officers. 

But rights groups also accuse his government of tolerating, or even abetting, what they describe as ethnic cleansing directed against Muslims in Myanmar, also known as Burma. 

They say authorities have done little to crack down on religious intolerance and failed to bridge a divide that has left hundreds of thousands of Muslims marginalized, many of them confined by security forces in inadequately equipped camps after fleeing their homes. AP

THANDWE (Myanmar) — Even as President Thein Sein visited western Myanmar to urge an end to sectarian violence last week, security forces could not prevent Buddhist mobs from committing violence against minority Muslims, at times even unwittingly encouraging them. 

That has raised questions about whether the government can quench hatred towards Muslims in largely Buddhist Myanmar, allegedly fuelled by radical monks, that has been blamed for the deaths of more than 240 people in the last 18 months. 

Five Muslims were killed last Tuesday in this township in western Rakhine state. Yesterday, the state-run Myanma Ahlin newspaper said 114 houses were also burned down and 482 people left homeless. State-run media on Saturday night said 44 suspects had been arrested, though few details were given. 

As soldiers patrolled the village of Thabyuchaing, Muslim residents said the authorities had opportunities to prevent the attacks, but did nothing. The police detained three suspects but released them almost immediately following threats of more violence, said Mr Myint Aung, 52.  Foreign Minister Wunna Maung Lwi has denied charges that law enforcement or government troops failed to take necessary action. 

Late on Saturday, in the town of Kyaunggon in the southern delta region, news spread that a 14-year-old girl had allegedly been raped by a Muslim man. The police and residents said Buddhist mobs destroyed a pair of Muslim homes there. 

It was the first time sectarian unrest was reported in the area since the violence started in June last year. A poorly trained and ill-equipped police force — made up almost exclusively of Buddhists — is tasked with dealing with sectarian violence, the army only stepping in at the invitation of civilian authorities or during states of emergency. 

From my point of view from the news above. Why must there be violence and war to happen? And why must there be raping scene always in some other news too?Isn’t this what GOD detest and against with..if they are pure human they don’t have to be some kind of wild animal til they have to do some kind of nuisance issue. Well i hope somebody can make them change that side of them or they themselves should change for the better. Well though human in this world tends to change to either between good or bad..well that’s for today topic! Thanks for reading! 

 

RE: Anti-Korea ‘hate speech’ illegal: Japanese court

 This news related from 7 October 2013.

TOKYO — A Japanese court ordered a group of anti-Korean activists to pay a Korean school in Kyoto ¥12 million (S$154,000) in compensation today (Oct 7) for disturbing classes and scaring children by holding “hate speech” rallies outside the school.

The landmark ruling acknowledged for the first time the explicit insults used in the rallies constituted racial discrimination, human rights experts said, and it could prompt a move to exempt hate speech from Japan’s constitutional right to free speech.

In the Kyoto District Court ruling, judge Hitoshi Hashizume said hateful language the members of the anti-Korea group Zaitokukai and their supporters shouted and printed on banners during the rallies around the school were illegal and disturbed classes and scared off school children. The judge said the video footage of the racist rallies posted by the group on the web was illegal.

The court said the rallies “constitute racial discrimination” defined under the United Nations’ convention on the elimination of racial discrimination, which Japan has ratified.

Today’s ruling also banned the group from staging further demonstrations in the neighbourhood of the pro-Pyongyang Korean elementary school in southern Kyoto, according to a court spokesman Naoki Yokota.

Several hundred thousand Koreans comprise Japan’s largest ethnic minority group, many of them descendants of forced labourers shipped to Japan during its 1910-1945 colonial rule of Korea, and still face discrimination.

Such rallies have escalated this year and spread to Tokyo and other cities with Korean communities amid growing anti-Korean sentiment. In street rallies held in major Korean communities in the Tokyo area, hundreds of group members and supporters called Koreans “cockroaches”, shouted “Kill Koreans” and threatened to “throw them into the sea”.

Zaitokukai, which boats more than 10,000 members, said they were only protesting the school’s use of a nearby city-run park without permission. They also say that they protest against the “privileges” given to ethnic Koreans in Japan and that slurs against them are part of “freedom of expression”.

The school filed the lawsuit in June 2010 against the group and eight activists over the hate-speech rallies held on three occasions between December 2009 and March 2010 near the ethnic Korean elementary school. The activists threatened Koreans and called them in names, causing some children to develop stomach pains.

An earlier ruling related to the demonstrations found four of the eight activists guilty of obstruction of business and vandalism, but did not discuss the racist content. AP

From my point of view above, why must Japan people have a grudge against Korean? Whereby they did nothing wrong against Japan. And even Music Industry also included ? and they even hate it just because those stars are from Korean?!?! That doesn’t mean it will effect Japan student who are still schooling, i mean about 50% of people who likes and another 50% who doesn’t. Music can’t be HATED! because without music in this world it will be a very dull boring life, and nothing fun gonna happen if there’s no entertainment! As we all know that even japan themselves do music in their own industry!! So they can’t just become Unfriendly with Korea over small issue. If they can just change of heart..so that there won’t be any argument or so whatever. Everything will go smoothly and more warm welcome. Not to just war or hating each other over small matter that it seems Racist or rather some childish issue. Can they just stop all this nuisance “ANTI – HATERS ” Issue!! and grow up Please!! Well that’s about it for today! Thank you for reading!

 

RE: North Korea puts army on alert, warns US of ‘horrible disaster’

 SEOUL — North Korea said today (Oct 8) its military would be put on high alert and be ready to launch operations, stepping up tension after weeks of rhetoric directed against the United States and South Korea, who it accuses of instigating hostility.

Reclusive North Korea has often issued threats to attack the South and the United States but has rarely turned them into action. Such hostile rhetoric is widely seen as a means to perpetuate its domestic and international political agenda.

In the latest outburst, a spokesman for the North’s military warned the United States of “disastrous consequences” for moving a group of ships, including an aircraft carrier, into a South Korean port.

In March, the North declared it was no longer bound by the armistice that ended fighting in the 1950-53 Korean War signed with the United States and China, threatening to use nuclear weapons to attack US and South Korean territories.

The North has defied international warnings not to build nuclear and long-range missiles and is believed to have enough fissile material to build up to 10 nuclear bombs. Most intelligence analysis says it has yet to master the technology to deploy such weapons.

The United States, which has 28,500 troops stationed in the South, regularly engages in drills with its ally, and has said the aircraft carrier USS George Washington was leading a group of ships to visit South Korea in a routine port call.

South Korea’s Defence Ministry said yesterday (Oct 7) the ships were taking part in a routine maritime search and rescue exercise and said any criticism by North Korea was “wrong”. The impoverished North’s large but ageing conventional military is considered unfit to fight an extended modern battle but it staged surprise attacks against the South in 2010 that killed 50 people in aggression unprecedented since the war.

An attempt at dialogue in August led to the reopening of a jointly run factory park that was shut amid high tensions in April. However, talks have since hit a stalemate. REUTERS

From my point of view from the above news. The US has nothing better to do then to trying to investigate on just certain issue. Things like this has always been happening around. Where some certain foreign people tends to spy for the sake on behalf of their leaders from their country. If only they can just hold on to a conference talk over a video call. To any point of matter related to discuss. That doesn’t mean that any Country whereby they must Fought War against. Isn’t this a little too common throughout the years. Where they tend to be too “Racist“. When can this war ever ends? Waiting for the “End of The World” is that what they asking for, where only one man standing that kind of thing! This is totally nuisance and childish way of doing. If in this world where the word “WAR” never existed in our dictionary. But we all know that, were rubbish things started just without warning or some certain discussion. Can all this ever talk peacefully through some connection or email or call. And so there won’t be any cold walls in between these 2 country Korea and the US, that includes other country that apply to these matter. Like i say in my previous blog about this “World Peace”  so yeah..i hope someday they will learn their lesson to lessen their childish topic. Well that’s about today topic. Thank you for reading!

RE: Six workers contaminated by Fukushima leak

 News On the 9 October 2013 and disaster related. 

TOKYO — Six workers at Japan’s crippled Fukushima nuclear plant were exposed to a leak of highly radioactive water today (Oct 9), the latest in a string of mishaps the country’s nuclear watchdog has attributed to carelessness, saying they could have been avoided.

Tokyo Electric Power, also known as TEPCO, has been battling to contain radioactive water at the plant, which suffered triple meltdowns and hydrogen explosions following a devastating earthquake in March 2011.

 In the latest incident, a worker mistakenly detached a pipe connected to a treatment system to remove salt from the hundreds of tonnes of water TEPCO pumps over the melted fuel in wrecked reactors at Fukushima to keep them cool.

 

Mr Tanaka urged TEPCO to improve its handling of contaminated water, but stopped short of saying if it faced any penalties.

The accidents at the Fukushima Daiichi plant, 220km north of Tokyo, are adding to a crisis no one seems to know how to contain, and stirring doubt over TEPCO’s abilities to carry out a complex cleanup widely expected to take decades.

Just last week, the regulator ordered TEPCO to draft in additional workers and report within a week on its measures to tackle the hazardous clean-up.

TEPCO said seven tonnes (7000 kg) of water were spilled in today’s incident at the treatment facility but were contained within the site, adding that the leaked water had an all-beta radiation level of 34 million becquerels per litre. Beta radiation is not as harmful to humans as other types, although it can still cause DNA damage.

Mr Tanaka said the leaked water had already been treated to remove cesium, which emits strong gamma radiation harmful to humans.

On Monday, TEPCO said a plant worker accidentally halted power to pumps used to cool the damaged reactors. A backup system kicked in immediately, but the event was another reminder of the precarious situation at the plant.

Last week, TEPCO said 430 litres of contaminated water had spilled out of a storage tank at Fukushima and probably flowed to the ocean.

Japan’s nuclear regulator said today that incident was equivalent to “Level 0” on the International Nuclear and Radiological Events Scale (INES), but gave no official rating.

In August, a leak of 300 tonnes (300,000kg) of highly radioactive water from a hastily built site tank was given a “Level 3” or “serious incident” rating on the INES scale.

Also in August, TEPCO said two workers were contaminated with radioactive particles, the second such incident in a week involving staff outside the site’s main operations centre.

TEPCO is trying to restart its only remaining viable plant — Kashiwazaki Kariwa, the world’s largest nuclear power station, to cut high fuel costs and restore its finances. REUTERS

From my point of view above mention in news, as i know that Japan had gone through alot of hard times where they go through Earthquakes on the 2011. And now this matter have been spread in news around the world. As i know they are currently very wounded and in trauma as what they had experience in that Earthquakes. Just like how Haiti , Indonesia , Phillipines , China related to something like this issue. As we know that not all of them survive on that very cruel moment. Some manage to escape and go to a certain location where they are very much safe over there. This is also due to “Global Warming” issue again. Where the earth being corrupted with lots of things. Even include those who lived on the mountain side where the “Volcano” Erupted was in Indonesia. 

 

As i can feel the tension as where they had to go through all disaster they facing. News like this people will never want to ignore. As this is where people tragic lives begun in mysery and emotional. As those foreigners tends to find a way to support their country people just by doing larbor work in overseas or even include in Singapore they too willing to do anything just to earn some cash for a living. As this is the only way for them to survive for their expanses for food , clothes , transport , travel..ETC; Till this very day, still thousand or million of them still happily moving on in their working lives. Whether the Asian or the Foreigner side. We are very much willing to help them as much as we can. This is called the Friendly Zone around the World! World Peace! Peace No War! That would all for today! Thank you for reading! 

 

RE: US shutdown slows or halts health, safety efforts

 WASHINGTON — The government shutdown has slowed or halted federal efforts to protect Americans’ health and safety, from probes into the cause of transportation and workplace accidents to tracking foodborne illness. The latest example: An outbreak of salmonella in chicken that has sickened people in 18 states.

The federal Centres for Disease Control (CDC) and Prevention said yesterday (Oct 8) that it was recalling some of its furloughed staff to deal with the outbreak, which has sickened more than 270 people. Before then, the CDC had only a handful of scientists working on outbreak detection, severely hampering its ability to track potentially deadly illnesses.

 

With federal workers on leave, the states have had to pick up much of the slack.

In the case of food safety, state labs are investigating foodborne illnesses and communicating with each other — without the help of federal authorities, in many cases — to figure out whether outbreaks have spread.

Dr Christopher Braden, head of the CDC division that investigates foodborne illness, said the agency will be able to better monitor the salmonella outbreak with the recalled federal staff. But the agency is monitoring more than 30 outbreaks, and gaps still exist as the federal bureaucracy limps through a shutdown beginning its second week.

With staff furloughed last week, the CDC stopped monitoring for some foodborne pathogens, including shigella and campylobacter. The agency is now watching for those again, but Dr Braden said some investigations are still on the back burner, including an ongoing outbreak of salmonella from handling live poultry that has sickened more than 300.

CDC isn’t the only agency protecting health and safety that’s strained. The shutdown has forced the federal Mine Safety and Health Administration (MSHA) to halt its regular mine safety inspections, which it normally conducts at each of the nation’s underground mines every three months.

The lack of inspections is coming under scrutiny after three mine workers died in separate accidents on three consecutive days during the past week. The coal mining industry has not had three consecutive days of fatal accidents in more than a decade. MSHA has said it’s premature to draw any conclusions about the link between the shutdown and the accidents, but the nation’s largest mine workers union has raised alarms.

Federal occupational safety and health inspectors also have stopped most workplace checks, and the National Transportation Safety Board is only investigating accidents if officials believe lives or property are in danger.

The Food and Drug Administration also has stopped routine inspections of food facilities in the United States and abroad, and border controls could be delayed. Food imports are still being inspected at borders, but any samples that need to be analysed could be stalled because there are fewer scientists to analyse them.

The CDC also has had to halt its surveillance of flu, an infectious disease that kills about 24,000 Americans in an average year.

This early in the flu season there is little illness, meaning little to test yet. But to fill in the gap, some state health departments have been receiving and testing samples that otherwise would have gone to CDC, said Ms Kelly Wroblewski of the Association of Public Health Laboratories.

CDC also is slashing its staffing on quarantine stations at 20 airports and entry points. When airline pilots or customs workers become aware of a sick traveler, they flag quarantine officers who can detain, examine and isolate those who might be an infectious threat to the US public.

During the shutdown, quarantine station staff has been cut by 80 per cent, meaning there’s essentially only one person working at each station, said Dr Martin Cetron, who leads CDC’s division of global migration and quarantine. The lack of staff could heighten the possibility that some diseases could slip into the country at a time when measles is raging in Turkey and cholera is breaking out in Mexico.

Still, many federal workers who protect safety and health are still working, from air traffic controllers to airport screeners to the majority of federal law enforcement. Active duty military personnel are on duty. USDA’s Food Safety Inspection Service, the agency responsible for investigating the poultry farm in California that is linked to the salmonella outbreak, is also mostly staffed.

But the absence of so-called nonessential workers who are furloughed can have a dangerous ripple effect, said Ms Caroline Smith De Waal, director of food safety advocacy at the Washington-based Centre for Science in the Public Interest.

She noted that the CDC website has limited information and the USDA website is shut down, preventing concerned members of the public from finding out more information on the salmonella outbreak and other food-borne illnesses. The agencies aren’t tweeting or disseminating health safety information except for a few releases to the media. 

From my point of view from the above news. They are obviously doing their best effort just to save their hometown from being shutdown. If the government had given them a chance to change for the better , thereby they don’t have to go through some difficult situation such as shutting down company, fire staff, ETC;..i believe that if they do some little changes such like take care of things and environment issue. Like re-do where the mistake happens. Such like clear up unwanted items or things. Things like this if wanted to avoid disappointment they really need to start from now, OR they might just regret later in near future where they will loose those dear to them. So if i were in their shoes, i would make a biggest change even how little items or things might be. As i know that health is important to almost everybody across the globe. But if we just ignored important issue..things like this will just happen over and over again. Each every year people die of some cancer and illness related. And almost 99% of most people all send to the hospital, whether from work , school , public or even at home. As you can see our Earth , has a biggest problem in “Global Warming” issue, where there is some changes around us where the disaster happen such like “Tsunami , Tornado , Earthquakes , Country/Places Collapse..ETC;” and if the government around the world didn’t start any new ideas such like creating new things into this Earth, disaster wouldn’t start or happen too fast. What they need to keep in mind is that, they need to decressed what they trying to create and more nature if possible. World Peace People! That would be all for today! Thank you for reading! 

RE: US cutting hundreds of millions in aid to Egypt

WASHINGTON — The United States yesterday (Oct 9) cut hundreds of millions of dollars in aid to its Mideast ally Egypt, responding to the military ouster last summer of the nation’s first democratically elected president and the crackdown on protesters that has sunk the country into violent turmoil.

While the State Department did not provide a dollar amount of what was being withheld, most of it is linked to military aid. In all, the US provides US$1.5 billion (S$1.9 billion) in aid each year to Egypt.

Officials said the aid being withheld included 10 Apache helicopters at a cost of about US$500 million, F-16 fighter jets, M1A1 tank kits and Harpoon anti-ship missiles. The US also is withholding US$260 million in cash assistance to the government until “credible progress” is made toward an inclusive government set up through free and fair elections.

Washington had already suspended the delivery of four F-16 fighter jets and cancelled biennial US-Egyptian military exercises.

In Cairo, military spokesman Colonel Ahmed Mohammed Ali declined immediate comment. Before the announcement, General Abdel Fattah El Sissi, the Egyptian military leader, described his country’s relations with the United States as “strategic” and founded on mutual interests. But he told the Cairo daily, Al Masry Al Youm, in an interview published yesterday that Egypt would not tolerate pressure, “whether through actions or hints”.

Neighbouring Israel also has indicated concern. The Israelis consider the US aid to Egypt to be important support for the peace agreement between Egypt and Israel.

The State Department stressed that the long-standing US partnership with Egypt would continue and that it sees the aid decision as temporary. Still, the decision puts ties between the US and Egypt at their rockiest point in more than three decades.

The US will continue to provide support for health and education and counterterrorism, spare military parts, military training and education, border security and security assistance in the Sinai Peninsula where near-daily attacks against security forces and soldiers have increasingly resembled a full-fledged insurgency.

The US officials providing the details did so only on condition of anonymity because they were not authorised to comment by name.

Other details about what military assistance is being cut were not immediately known, and the State Department declined to give an indication of how severe the impact of the cuts in assistance might be in Egypt.

Senator Patrick Leahy, who chairs the Senate Appropriations panel that funds US assistance to Egypt, criticised the Obama administration’s action as too little.

Others, including some sharp political opponents of Mr Obama on other subjects, supported the president’s decision.

Sen Rand Paul, whose bill to halt aid to Egypt was roundly defeated in the Senate in July, said he was happy to see the administration “finally thinking about following the law”.

Administration officials, on a conference call to brief reporters on the decision, said Defence Secretary Chuck Hagel talked on the phone yesterday with Gen El Sissi, who led the military effort that ousted Mr Morsi. They said the conversation was cordial, professional and ended on a positive tone.

But the decision certainly creates new friction in Washington’s already uneasy relations with the government that ousted Mr Morsi. And the consequences won’t end there. The move will anger Persian Gulf states, push Egypt to seek assistance from US rivals and upend decades of close ties with the Egyptians that have been a bulwark of stability in the Middle East.

Egypt gives the United States permission to fly over its territory to supply American troops in the Gulf, allows the US to move troops and materiel through the Suez Canal without delay and cooperates with American intelligence agencies. It is unclear if cooperation on these fronts will be affected by the aid decision.

The US has been considering such a move since July, when the Egyptian military ousted Mr Morsi. Ensuing violence between authorities and Mr Morsi supporters has killed hundreds. The scheduled Nov 4 trial of Mr Morsi on charges that he incited the killings of opponents while in office and the US decision to cut its aid to Egypt threaten to add to the turmoil.

The cutoff of some, but not all, US aid also underscores the strategic shifts underway in the region as US allies in the Gulf forge ahead with policies at odds with Washington. Saudi Arabia and other Gulf states, including the United Arab Emirates and Qatar, are strong backers of Syrian rebel factions and were openly dismayed when the US set aside possible military strikes against Syrian President Bashar Assad’s government. The Gulf states also feel increasingly sidelined as Washington reaches out to their rival, Iran.

Iran had moved quickly to heal long-strained ties with Egypt following Mr Morsi’s election but now is redirecting its policies with Egyptian leaders who don’t share Tehran’s agenda.

US aid to the Egyptians has a long history. Since the late 1970s, the country has been the second-largest recipient — after Israel — of US bilateral foreign assistance, largely as a way to sustain the 1979 Egypt-Israeli peace treaty.

The United States gave Egypt US$71.6 billion in assistance between 1948 and 2011, according to a Congressional Research Service report issued in June. That included US$1.3 billion a year in military aid since 1987. The rest was economic assistance, some going to the government, some to other groups.

Egypt has other allies who may be able to fill the financial void. In fact, Saudi Arabia and some of its Gulf Arab partners have provided a critical financial lifeline for Egypt’s new government, pledging at least US$12 billion so far and aiding in regional crackdowns on Mr Morsi’s Muslim Brotherhood.

On Monday, Egypt’s interim president, Mr Adly Mansour, visited Saudi Arabia on his first foreign trip in a sign of the importance of the Gulf aid and political backing. AP

From my point of view from this news. I don’t understand why, must they do such a violence issue to their country. I mean they are some innocent human, trying to live each of their lives. And just over small matter and they make it big and then create a war against them. Can there be some discussion over a video call so that at least there won’t be any misunderstanding and so the war too wouldn’t have to start or just to kill them. I mean it’s very childish war, what all of us hope that we could change for a better life, a life where no misunderstanding. Peace No War Thank You!! We all want a peaceful life no some childish things over small issue.. Well that’s about it for today! Thank you for reading!