EU plans to ban food imports from deforested areas


Deforestation in regions like the Amazon has Europeans worried (AFP/CARL DE SOUZA)


Wed, November 17, 2021

The EU plans to bar food and wood imports from deforested areas, according to a proposal unveiled Wednesday aimed at using its trade power to drive sustainability.

The draft law, which Brussels wants to turn into binding rules for all 27 European Union nations, would require companies show their soy, beef, palm oil, cocoa, coffee and wood products are certified "deforestation-free".

It follows an international pledge made at the COP26 summit last week to end deforestation by 2030.

"This proposal is a truly ground-breaking one," the EU commissioner for climate action policy, Virginijus Sinkevicius, told a media conference.

"It targets not just illegal deforestation but also deforestation driven by agricultural expansion," he said.

Under the EU plan, two criteria would have to be met: that the commodities are produced in accordance with the origin country's laws; and that they were not produced on land deforested or degraded since the beginning of 2021.

Imports from higher-risk countries would be subject to tighter checks.

The European Commission did not say when it hoped to have the new legislation adopted.

The rules could impact countries such as Brazil, where European disquiet at razing of the Amazon rainforest by cattle farmers is holding up implementation of an EU-Mercosur trade deal.

Clearing of the Amazon hit a new record last month, according to Brazil's National Institute for Space Research.

The environmental protection group WWF says the huge EU market is responsible for 16 percent of global deforestation linked to international trade.

It and other NGOs welcome the EU plan as a first step, but say it does not go far enough. Greenpeace says it does not address deforestation from other commodities such as rubber and maize, or from pig and poultry farming.

- Waste and soil -

Other sustainability proposals presented alongside the anti-deforestation rules were on waste management and improving the health of soils.

"These initiatives show that the European Union is serious about the green transition and just keeps moving forward with it," said the Commission vice president in charge of overseeing the EU's Green Deal, Frans Timmermans.

On waste, the Commission wants to see "circular economy" principles attached to the way it sends abroad its millions of tonnes of discarded metals, cardboard, plastic, textiles and other detritus.

Waste exports to non-OECD countries would be restricted and allowed only if those destinations agree and were able to handle them sustainably. Currently the two top destinations for EU waste in that category are Turkey and India.

Shipments to OECD countries would be monitored and suspended if grave environmental problems arose. Those destinations include Britain, Switzerland and Norway.

The soil strategy aims for a mix of voluntary and mandatory measures to increase soil carbon in farmland and fight desertification, to get soil ecosystems healthy by 2050.

rmb-jug/del/tgb

EU pitches new plan to battle global deforestation from home


Deforested mountains from massive limestone quarries are seen in Ipoh, Perak state Malaysia, Friday, Nov. 5, 2021. Deforestation affects the people and animals where trees are cut, as well as the wider world and in terms of climate change, and cutting trees both adds carbon dioxide to the air and removes the ability to absorb existing carbon dioxide. World leaders are gathered in Scotland at a United Nations climate summit, known as COP26, to push nations to ratchet up their efforts to curb climate change.

 (AP Photo/Vincent Thian)

RAF CASERT
Wed, November 17, 2021

BRUSSELS (AP) — The European Union on Wednesday pitched a new plan for the bloc's citizens to battle global deforestation from home, offering assurances that a sip of coffee or bite of chocolate will not have come at the cost of trees.

Following up on deforestation commitments made at the recent COP26 climate meeting on global warming, the 27-nation EU is proposing that companies must ensure that products for sale in the market of 450 million people do not harm forests elsewhere.

“We must take the responsibility to act at home,” EU Vice President Frans Timmermans said.

If approved by EU member states and the European Parliament, the Commission's proposal would force companies and producers to give assurances that products are “deforestation-free.”

Deforestation in South America, Africa and Asia is driven mainly by agricultural expansion. The key commodities the EU is targeting are soy, beef, palm oil, wood, cocoa and coffee.

To compel company compliance, businesses would need to collect geographical coordinates from where the commodities were grown and make sure they did not impact deforestation. They would also need to perform due diligence to make sure everything meets EU standards.

Deforested mountains from massive limestone quarries are seen in Ipoh, Perak state Malaysia, Friday, Nov. 5, 2021. Deforestation affects the people and animals where trees are cut, as well as the wider world and in terms of climate change, and cutting trees both adds carbon dioxide to the air and removes the ability to absorb existing carbon dioxide. World leaders are gathered in Scotland at a United Nations climate summit, known as COP26, to push nations to ratchet up their efforts to curb climate change. (AP Photo/Vincent Thian)

The EU hopes that with the scheme it can save some 3.2 billion euros ($3.6 billion) annually in carbon emissions.

“Our deforestation regulation answers (the) citizens' call to minimize the European contribution to deforestation and to promote sustainable consumption," Timmermans said.

“It ensures that we only import these products if we can ascertain that they are deforestation-free and produced legally,” he said.

At COP26, over 100 nations representing more than 85% of the world’s forests pledged to halt and reverse deforestation by 2030. Among them were several countries with massive forests, including Brazil, China, Colombia, Congo, Indonesia, Russia and the United States.

Environmental groups cautiously welcomed the plan, even though they said the proposals still contained far too many loopholes.

“For the first time there is a glimmer of hope that the EU – one of the world’s biggest markets – could curb its destructive impact on the world’s forests," Greenpeace campaigner Sini Eräjää said .

“EU governments and the European Parliament must tighten up the law so people can be sure that what’s in their shopping basket isn’t linked to the destruction of nature,” Eräjää added.

___

Follow AP’s climate coverage at https://apnews.com/hub/climate

ZIONIST INTIMIDATION

Video: Palestinian kids lined up for photo in Israeli raid


TIA GOLDENBERG
Thu, November 18, 2021, 

TEL AVIV, Israel (AP) — A video has emerged showing an Israeli soldier lining up school-aged Palestinian children and photographing them in a nighttime raid on their home. The video shines a light on the military's tactics in the occupied West Bank, which activists say violate Palestinian rights.

The video was released Wednesday by the Israeli rights group B'tselem and shows soldiers in a Palestinian home after dark. The Palestinian adults are seen gathering up the children from the home — some of them appearing to have been roused from sleep — and ushering them onto a balcony. A girl is seen crying, and a woman comforts her by saying “it's just routine.”

The soldier raises his phone to take a picture of the children — many of them grade-schoolers and younger — and implores them to “say cheese.”

The incident caught on camera, which according to B'tselem and the military took place in the West Bank city of Hebron in September, was filmed by a B'tselem activist. She is heard challenging the soldier: “They are kids. You like when soldiers come and take pictures of your kids?”

The video comes after a recent report by former Israeli soldiers and the Washington Post described an effort by Israeli soldiers to gather photos of Palestinians in the West Bank for use in surveillance technology that could assist the military to identify lawbreakers. Critics say the initiative is an intimidation tactic and violates privacy rights of Palestinians.

“It seems that for the military, all Palestinians, including school-age children, are potential offenders. At any time, it is permissible to wake them up at night, enter their homes and subject them to a lineup,” B'tselem wrote in a statement.

The military said the soldiers arrived at the house in Hebron after Palestinians were seen throwing stones from it at a nearby settlement. The soldiers entered the home to identify the stone throwers, according to the military.

“While the soldiers were in the suspects’ home, minors were photographed by the officer at the scene in order to identify the stone throwers. The officers’ actions at the scene diverted from standard protocol,” the military said, adding that a soldier was “reprimanded for his wrongful actions.”

The military's statement did not explain why the minors needed to be photographed in order to be identified nor which action diverted from protocol. The military declined to answer further questions, including about the surveillance technology mentioned in the Washington Post report.

A post on the Israeli military's website from June, which refers to the surveillance technology in passing, says it was working to increase soldiers' use of technology in the West Bank to help apprehend Palestinian outlaws.

“We have advanced technology, smart cameras with sophisticated analytics, sensors, which can alert in real time about a suspicious activity and the movement of a suspect,” battalion commander Uriel Malka is quoted as saying. “The goal was that all combatants and commanders in the field will know how to operate these systems in the best way.

In another development, international rights group Amnesty International accused a British heavy machinery company of allowing its diggers and excavators to end up in the hands of clients who use them to demolish Palestinian homes and construct settlements in the West Bank.

The group said J.C. Bamford Excavators Limited's equipment is sold to an Israeli intermediary, who then sells it onward to customers that include the Israeli Defense Ministry. Amnesty said use of a middleman doesn't absolve it of ensuring its equipment is not used to violate human rights.

“JCB’s failure to conduct proper human rights due diligence on the end use of its products represents a failure to respect human rights,” the group said in its Thursday report.

The company is among more than 100 businesses listed in a U.N. database of companies that operate in Israel’s West Bank settlements. The company could not immediately be reached for comment on the Amnesty report.

The international community overwhelmingly considers the settlements, built on occupied land claimed by the Palestinians for a future state, to be illegal. Israel rejects such claims, citing the land’s strategic and religious significance, and says the matter should be resolved in negotiations.

Also on Thursday, one of the five Palestinian hunger strikers protesting against Israel’s controversial policy of being detained without charge ended his strike after reaching a deal with Israeli authorities, said a prisoner rights group.

According to a statement issued by the Palestinian Prisoners Club, which represents former and current prisoners, Alaa al-Araj ended his 103-day hunger strike after Israeli authorities agreed to his immediate release from so-called “administrative detention.”

Rights organizations say Israel’s policy of holding Palestinians without charge denies them the right to due process, while Israel says it is needed to protect sensitive intelligence that, if exposed, could compromise military sources.

Israel’s Shin Bet security agency did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Israel has been under increasing pressure to release the five prisoners who have been on hunger strike for months. Last week, Palestinians across the occupied West Bank and Gaza held demonstrations in solidarity with the prisoners.

Hunger strikes are common among Palestinian prisoners and have helped secure concessions from Israeli authorities in recent years.

A sixth prisoner ended his 113-day hunger strike last week after Israeli authorities said he would be released from detention in three months time.

Cleaner for Israeli defense minister charged with espionage

Thu, November 18, 2021

TEL AVIV, Israel (AP) — Israel has charged the housekeeper for the country's defense minister with espionage for offering to spy for hackers reportedly linked to Iran, Israeli officials said Thursday.

The man, identified as Omri Goren, reportedly has a criminal record but worked at Defense Minister Benny Gantz's home as a cleaner and caretaker.

How he got close, personal access to an Israeli leader with security clearance remains something of a mystery, even to experts. The incident raised questions about how thoroughly such workers are vetted.

The Shin Bet security service, which announced the arrest, said it was reviewing its vetting procedures.

According to the security service and the indictment, Goren saw reports in the Israeli media about a hacker group called “Black Shadow." He looked up the group and used the Telegram app to contact one of its agents, presenting himself as someone who worked for Gantz. Goren demonstrated his access to the defense minister by sending photographs of various items in Gantz's home, including his computer.

The government said Goren, also identified in the indictment under the name Gorochovsky, discussed infecting Gantz's computer with malware but was arrested before any plans were carried out. He had no access to classified material, it said.

Goren’s public defender, Gal Wolf, was quoted in news reports as saying the suspect was desperate for money and had no intention of damaging national security.

Israeli media reported that Goren has been sentenced to prison on four occasions, including for armed robbery and breaking into homes. According to the reports, he did not undergo a security review before working for Gantz.

The incident drew attention on Thursday from Israel's robust cybersecurity industry, especially for the hackers' reported connection to the country's archrival, Iran. “Black Shadow” is well-known in Israel for crashing widely-used web sites.

Experts said the group's activities appear to be an example of a state willing to use cyberterrorism to undermine feeling of safety among civilians living in a rival country.

The fact that Goren allegedly reached out to the hackers - and not the other way around - reflects to some extent the group's success at spreading word of their brand.

“I think they got more than what they hoped to,” said Lionel Sigal, who leads cyber threat intelligence at Israel-based CYE and is a veteran of the Defense Ministry. “People here know ‘Black Shadow.’ It's a common term here, now."

NATO'S UGLY STEP CHILD
After years of war, Libya's Benghazi a chaotic urban sprawl



After years of war, Libya's Benghazi a chaotic urban sprawlBenghazi was the epicentre of the 2011 revolt that overthrew dictator Moamer Kadhafi, sparking years of lawless chaos in Libya (AFP/Abdullah DOMA)More

Thu, November 18, 2021, 9:05 PM·3 min read

Over a decade of war in Libya the second city Benghazi has mushroomed to twice its size, creating an unplanned and chaotic urban sprawl.

The fighting has displaced countless families, forcing many to build new homes without permits in a jumble of unplanned neighbourhoods that often lack infrastructure, from proper roads to schools or sewerage systems.

As the oil-rich but poverty-stricken North African country tries to stabilise and rebuild, authorities are scrambling to address the legacy of years without urban planning.


"We had to leave our homes in the city centre because of the war," said one Benghazi resident, Jalal al-Gotrani, a health ministry employee in the northeastern coastal city.

"When the fighting stopped, we found our houses destroyed and uninhabitable. We couldn't afford to pay rent, so we had to build a little house in an unplanned neighbourhood."

Benghazi was the epicentre of the 2011 revolt that overthrew dictator Moamer Kadhafi, sparking years of lawless chaos in Libya.

The city was the site of the 2012 jihadist attack that killed the US ambassador Christopher Stevens, and it saw more heavy fighting between 2014 and 2017 that pulverised large districts.

Gotrani, who supports a family with six children on a salary of just $130 a month, said that so far "there has been no state plan and no help to rebuild the areas that were destroyed".

- 'Stop building' -

As a result, entire informal neighbourhoods have sprung up in outlying areas zoned for farming, with no building permits and no masterplan.

"Stop building and contact the planning department!" reads a notice on the fence of one unauthorised building site on the outskirts of Benghazi.

The state faces a surge in unregulated building that "it can't keep up with", said Abu Bakr al-Ghawi, housing minister in Libya's unity government, which took power in March.

Municipal planning chief Osama al-Kazza warns the phenomenon is creating districts that lack roads, green spaces and schools and are unconnected to vital water and sewerage networks.

The eastern city has swelled from 32,000 hectares to 64,000 hectares since the last urban masterplan in 2009, largely due to unlicensed buildings which now make up half the city, he said.

"More than 50,000 housing units are outside the public plan" -- half of the city's buildings -- Kazza told AFP.

"Development is running ahead of planning."

After years of war, Libya's Benghazi a chaotic urban sprawlAn illegal construction project is pictured in Benghazi, where entire informal neighbourhoods have sprung up in outlying areas zoned for farming, with no building permits and no masterplan (AFP/Abdullah DOMA)

- Homeless again -

Libya's capital Tripoli, some 1,000 kilometres (600 miles) to the west, has also seen entire districts emerge without a single building permit, for similar reasons.

A year-long battle between eastern-based general Khalifa Haftar and Tripoli-based armed groups caused massive damage to the outskirts of the capital, displacing thousands and creating a housing crisis.

A year of relative peace since an October 2020 ceasefire, with UN-led efforts underway to bring a more permanent peace, has focused minds on the massive job of reconstruction.

Ghawi said the government is working with Libyan and foreign consultants to lay out a new nationwide urban development strategy, the third in the country's history.

The last one, in 2009, was never implemented because of the war and the years of lawlessness that followed the overthrow of Kadhafi.

But a scramble to enforce planning laws without providing alternative housing has had human consequences.

In recent weeks, authorities in Tripoli have demolished a string of structures built since Kadhafi's fall, including cafes and restaurants -- but also homes.

Yet by demolishing unlicensed buildings without providing their occupants with alternatives, authorities risk making some families, already displaced by war, homeless for a second time.

bur-str-hme-rb/par/jsa/fz/reb

Rare original copy of US constitution auctioned for $43 mn


The document is one of only 11 known surviving copies of the US charter

 (AFP/Yuki IWAMURA)


Thu, November 18, 2021,

An extremely rare original copy of the US Constitution sold Thursday for $43 million -- a world record for a historical document at auction -- with a cryptocurrency consortium that coveted the text outbid by another investor.

Sotheby's auction house, which staged the sale, said the item was one of only 13 known surviving copies of the US charter, signed on September 17, 1787 at Philadelphia's Independence Hall by America's founding fathers including George Washington, Benjamin Franklin and James Madison.

The winning bidder was not immediately identified.

A group of cryptocurrency investors had raised $40 million to try to buy the document but failed to secure the prize, the consortium said.

"We didn't get the constitution, but we made history nonetheless" the group, ConstitutionDAO, said on Twitter.

"We broke the record for the largest crowdfund for a physical object and most money crowdfunded in 72h, which will of course be refunded to everyone who participated," it said.

A Sotheby's spokesman said the sale -- for $43.2 million including commissions -- was a world record for a historical document offered at auction.

Selby Kiffer, a manuscripts and ancient books expert at Sotheby's, said in September that this copy was probably part of an edition of 500 printed the day before the signing, and likely came off the printing presses on the evening of September 16 1787.

The text, with its celebrated opening of "We the People of the United States, in Order to form a more perfect Union," went on to be ratified by the individual states, starting with Delaware in December 1787 and ending with Rhode Island in May 1790.

It officially became the United States' founding charter on June 21, 1788, when New Hampshire became the ninth of 13 states to ratify it.

The original copy sold Thursday -- one of just two still in private hands, in this case the US collector Dorothy Tapper Goldman -- was estimated last September at between $15 and $20 million.

- Gone in eight minutes -

In the end it went for more than twice that sum, and in just eight minutes as bidders in the New York auction room but also on the phone from around the globe upped their offers.

The cryptocurrency consortium that sought the rare document called itself ConstitutionDAO, the last three letters standing for "decentralized autonomous organization."

It had raised some $40 million in the cryptocurrency ethereum in recent days, but fell short at the auction. According to its Twitter account, it had more than 17,000 contributors.

Such groups have begun forming loose coalitions recently to raise funds to bid on expensive collectibles, including one group that pulled together $4 million for a rare Wu-Tang Clan album that had previously been owned by jailed hedge fund founder Martin Shkreli.

nr/dw/jh/mlm

Folkster Bongeziwe Mabandla sings South African blues


Bongeziwe Mabandla sings love songs in his home language, Xhosa, on his latest album (AFP/GUILLEM SARTORIO)

Claire DOYEN
Thu, November 18, 2021

Bongeziwe Mabandla cuts a striking figure: a muscular folk musician with his trousers rolled up above his ankles, there is still something of the little boy who grew up in the hills of South Africa.

Nominated for a South African Music Award in 2018, Mabandla has grown hugely popular in his home country and has performed at concerts and festivals overseas.

He cut his latest album during the height of the pandemic, drawing on the heritage of maskandi, the musical tradition of migrant workers.

During apartheid, trains crossed South Africa carrying workers in livestock cars to labour on the gold and coal mines.

Others walked miles to work sugar cane fields.

Men left their wives and children behind, and during their long absences they created a new genre of music.

They sang about their loneliness, their labour, and the travails of everyday life.

Thus was born the "Zulu blues".

In his thirties -- he refuses to reveal his exact age -- Mabandla performs with his guitar, alone on stage with a drummer.

On his latest album Iimini, or "The Days", he sings love songs in his home language, Xhosa, with all of its distinctive clicks.

"Xhosa language is very lyrical, very expressive," he told AFP. "It's a form of activism, keeping your culture, loving yourself."

Even those who don't speak the language can understand the emotions of what he's singing.

His voice conveys both the hurt and the jumbled feelings that love can engender.

"It really speaks about how love can change you," he said of the lead single "Zange", or "Never".

- "Humble" -

Born in a village in the south of the country, Mabandla burst onto the Afro-folk scene in 2012 with his debut album Umlilo.

He'd discovered the guitar as a child in the Eastern Cape, the vast southeastern province that's home to a rich tradition of music and literature.

"My childhood was very happy, I grew up with my mother. A normal, humble sort of growing up," he said. "I never thought I'd be a musician."

Like many others from rural South Africa, he left for the city in the early 2000s, hoping to make his way in Johannesburg, home to much of the country's recording industry.

He cites among his influences American artists Tracy Chapman and Lauryn Hill, as well as the Zulu singer Busi Mhlongo -- a pioneer of modern interpretations of the maskandi sound.

For Iimini, he decided to incorporate some sampling and electro elements.

So he tapped Mozambican producer Tiago Correia-Paulo, the former guitarist of South African hip hop group Tumi and the Volume, which enjoyed international success before breaking up.

The end result is well-paced, rhythmic sequences and RnB-style escalations that fill the room.

At a recent concert in Johannesburg, the crowd shouted out "Yebo!", a South African word of approval, as the crowd sang and danced in a concert hall that Covid had for too long left silent.

cld/gs/mbx

Mixed-race Brazilians increasingly embrace blackness

Louis GENOT
Thu, 18 November 2021,
 

Brazilian philosopher and writer Djamila Ribeiro holds her book "Small Anti-Racist Manual” during an interview with AFP in Sao Paulo, Brazil, on November 8, 2021 (AFP/NELSON ALMEIDA)

 Henrique Vieira, an Evangelical pastor with a black father and white mother


When Bianca Santana was little, her grandmother used to put her forearm alongside her mother's and her own, proudly showing how the family's skin had lightened across the generations.

Now 37, Santana, a Brazilian writer and activist, sees the long-loaded issue of race in her country through a different lens: she is proud to call herself black.

"When a child was born with lighter skin, that was cause for celebration," says Santana, recalling the messages she received about race growing up.

She remembers how her black grandmother used to make her pull her hair into a tight bun, so she wouldn't look like "'those little blackies.'"

"She liked to talk about how my mother's father had Italian blood, how his mother had blue eyes," she says.

Today, Santana, author of the book "How I Discovered I Was Black," proudly wears her hair in an afro, a style she only embraced at age 30.

Her shifting sense of identity is increasingly common in Brazil, the country with the largest black population outside Africa.

Brazil, which will celebrate Black Consciousness Day Saturday, struggles with structural racism and the legacy of slavery, which it only abolished in 1888 -- the last country in the Americas to do so.

But for the large mixed-race population in this sprawling country of 213 million people, the stigma long attached to blackness is fading.

"Mixed-race people in Brazil increasingly identify as black," Santana says.

"They're straightening their hair less, they're embracing black identity more and more."

- 'Racial democracy myth' -

Brazil's last official census, in 2010, found 43.4 percent of the population self-identified as "pardo," or mixed-race, and 7.5 percent as "preto," or black.

It was the first time black and mixed-race Brazilians constituted a majority. In 2000, 53 percent of the population identified as white.

The 2020 census was delayed by the coronavirus pandemic, but partial surveys indicate the trend has continued.

Today, 45.9 percent of the population identifies as mixed-race, 8.8 percent as black and 44.2 percent as white, according to mid-2021 figures from the national statistics institute, IBGE.

Meanwhile, less than five percent of management positions at Brazil's 500 biggest companies are occupied by blacks, who represent a disproportionately high number of the poor and unemployed.

White Brazilians earn nearly 75 percent more than people of color on average.

A long-dominant narrative in Brazil held that the country was a "racial democracy," where black, white and indigenous were so mixed that racism did not exist.

But that is a "myth," says Djamila Ribeiro, a philosopher and author of the best-seller "A Little Anti-Racist Handbook."

"Black movements have worked hard to raise awareness about blackness in Brazil, because the country was founded on that myth of a 'racial democracy,' and that has made it difficult for black people to even see themselves as black," she says.

"Many people who are black grew up not thinking they were."

- 'Color of sin' -

A key turning point has been the introduction of race quotas for university spots and government jobs over the past decade and a half, says Roberta Calixto of ID_BR, an organization that promotes the inclusion of blacks in the workplace.

"Before, there was an ideology of 'whitening' in Brazil. We grew up with the idea that being white was the goal, because being black was considered bad," she says.

"Quotas have inverted that logic. Now, it's valuable to identify as black, which leads to a process of self-knowledge that I think is fundamental."

For Henrique Vieira, an Evangelical pastor with a black father and white mother, that awakening took years.

"When I was a boy, I had a book from church that talked about black being the color of sin and white the color of saintliness. I went home and told my mom I wanted to be the same color as her, that I didn't want to look like my dad," says Vieira, 34.

He says reading the Bible from a "less colonialist" perspective and getting involved in social movements helped him understand the heavy weight of racism, including in his own life.

"It's been a life-long conquest to identify as a black man," he says.

lg/jhb/mdl/dw

Myanmar arrests ex-lawmaker it says masterminded anti-junta attacks


Self-declared civilian 'people's defence forces' have sprung up to fight for democracy since Myanmar's generals seized power in a February coup (AFP/STR)

Fri, November 19, 2021

Myanmar security forces have arrested a former lawmaker and prominent hip-hop artist accused of masterminding a string of attacks targeting regime forces and officials, the junta said on Friday.

Self-declared civilian "people's defence forces" have sprung up to fight for democracy since the generals seized power in a February coup, with dissidents targeting officials perceived to be working with the junta.

Maung Kyaw, 40, was arrested from an apartment in the commercial hub Yangon following a "tip-off and cooperation from dutiful citizens," the junta's information team said.

The former lawmaker -- who also goes by the name Phyo Zeya Thaw -- was in possession of two pistols, ammunition and an M-16 rifle, it added.

Maung Kyaw had been accused of orchestrating several attacks on regime forces, including the brazen shooting on a commuter train in Yangon in August that killed five policemen.

A hip-hop pioneer in Myanmar whose subversive rhymes irked the previous junta, he was jailed in 2008 for membership in an illegal organisation and possession of foreign currency.

He was elected to parliament from Aung San Suu Kyi's National League for Democracy party in the 2015 elections that ushered in a transition to civilian rule.

The Southeast Asian country has been in turmoil since the coup sparked massive protests and a bloody military crackdown on dissent, which has killed more than 1,200 people according to a local monitoring group.

The junta has stepped up arrests of dissidents in Yangon, which has been rocked by near-daily bomb blasts and shootings.

Earlier this month, a top executive from a major military-backed Myanmar telecoms firm was gunned down outside his home.

bur-rma/ssy

#KASHMIR IS #INDIA'S #GAZA
Kashmir shut down after two 'civilians' reburied


1 / 2

Kashmir shut down after two 'civilians' reburiedMourners carry the coffin of one of the two civilians killed during a security operation by the authorities in Kashmir (AFP/Tauseef MUSTAFA)

Fri, November 19, 2021, 2:43 AM·2 min read

Thousands of Kashmiris defied the biting winter cold to attend the funerals Friday of two men killed during a security operation, heralding a widespread shutdown in the Indian-administered territory.

The pair -- who police said had died in "crossfire" on Monday in a gunfight with suspected separatists -- had been hurriedly interred by authorities in a remote graveyard.

The deaths sparked anger in the restive region with their families insisting they had no links to the militants, accusing security forces of murdering them in "cold blood" and demanding their bodies be returned for a proper Islamic burial.


Officials on Thursday ordered a probe into the killings of Mohammad Altaf Bhat and Mudasir Ahmed Gul before exhuming their remains and handing them over to relatives amid wails and emotional post-midnight scenes in Srinagar.

Thousands of people turned out for their pre-dawn reburials, with some angry mourners shouting "we want freedom!" and others reciting Quranic verses, an AFP photographer on the scene said.

"Your death has shattered us completely," Bhat's niece Saima Bhat posted on Twitter, adding she did not know "if we'll be able to cope up from this tragedy!"

Family members told AFP that officers had instructed them to bury the men at night and not to allow crowds to assemble.

"There was just about enough time for our family and his children to have a last glimpse," said one of Bhat's relatives, declining to be identified.

Residents in large parts of the territory observed a complete shutdown later Friday to protest the killings, in response to a call by the All Parties Hurriyat Conference, a group of separatist parties seeking self-determination for Kashmir.

Shops and business establishments stayed shut across Srinagar and public transport did not circulate, with only a trickle of private cars on the roads.

Similar shutdowns took place in most main towns across the highly militarised disputed territory, which is also claimed by Pakistan.

Police and paramilitary troops in riot gear were deployed in force in the dead men's neighbourhoods and at some "volatile points".

Such shutdowns have been largely impossible since 2019 when New Delhi annulled the region's partial autonomy and brought it under direct rule, but with tensions at a peak authorities decided not to intervene on this occasion.

Police in Kashmir have previously denied families access to the bodies of slain militant suspects or their "associates", saying it helps stop the "glorification" of anti-India rebels, whose funerals were usually attended by thousands of people.

Kashmir has been divided between India and Pakistan since their first war over the Himalayan region soon after independence in 1947.

The South Asian arch-rivals claim the territory in full but separately administer parts of the region.

An armed rebellion against Indian rule erupted three decades ago and the conflict has left tens of thousands of people, mostly civilians, dead so far.

pzb/slb/stu/ssy

EGYPT;THE GENERALS STATE

State security court sentences former MP, two journalists to prison for 'destabilising public peace'

Amr Kandil , Ahram Online , Wednesday 17 Nov 2021

An Egyptian emergency state security misdemeanour court sentenced lawyer and former MP Ziad El-Eleimy to five years in prison on Wednesday for spreading false news on social media among other charges


Ziad El-Eleimy. 

The court also sentenced journalists Hossam Mones and Hisham Fouad to four years in prison on the same charges.

El-Eleimy served as an MP representing the Egyptian Social Democrartic Party in the 2012 Parliament.

The prosecution charged the 13 defendants with crimes including cooperating with a group established in violation of the law, disseminating false news and information about the political and economic conditions in the country in order to destabilise public peace and undermine trust in state institutions.

In June 2019, El-Eleimy, Mones and Fouad and the rest of the defendants in the case were arrested for what the interior ministry described at the time as a hostile plot dubbed ‘Hope Cell’ to “disrupt the national economy.”

In the same case, Activists Mohamed Bahnasy and Hossam Nasser received three years. Meanwhile, Labour activist Fatma Abul-Maaty received a three-year sentence in absentia.

The court also imposed a fine of EGP 500 on all defendants in the case.

The ruling is final and cannot be appealed.

Unlike ordinary courts, emergency state security court rulings cannot be appealed.

The defendants, however, have the right to petition for clemency.

In April last year, a Cairo criminal court said the terrorist-designated Muslim Brotherhood leaders had tasked members and associates of the group in Egypt, including the Hope Cell defendants, with providing logistical support and weapons to carry out the scheme against the state.

According to the court, the plot sought to "provide financial support for hostile actions against the Egyptian state with the aim of harming national interests and economic security, and carrying out aggressive actions against the army and the police to topple the regime."

In July of this year, the Court of Cassation upheld a ruling placing the 13 defendants in the case on the country's terrorism list for five years.

Egyptian ex-lawmaker and journalists get prison sentences


FILE - Egyptian protesters shout slogans against the then ruling military council during a rally in support of then member of Parliament Zyad el-Elaimy outside the Egyptian parliament in Cairo, Egypt, Feb. 21, 2012. An Egyptian court on Wednesday, Nov. 17, 2021, sentenced former lawmaker el-Elaimy, a prominent human rights lawyer, to five years in prison for his conviction on charges that rights advocates have decried as baseless and politically motivated. The court found el-Elaimy guilty of conspiring to commit crimes with an outlawed group -- a reference to the Muslim Brotherhood, which Egypt has banned as a terrorist organization. The banner shows el-Elaimy with Arabic that reads, "your hands raised in front of injustice will move future generations." (AP Photo/Amr Nabil, File)More


Wed, November 17, 2021, 

CAIRO (AP) — An Egyptian court on Wednesday sentenced a prominent human rights lawyer to five years in prison for his conviction on charges that rights advocates have decried as baseless and politically motivated.

The Misdemeanors State Security Emergency Court in Cairo found Zyad el-Elaimy, a former lawmaker, guilty of conspiring to commit crimes with an outlawed group. That's a reference to the Muslim Brotherhood, which Egypt has banned as a terrorist organization.

The court also sentenced journalists Hossam Monis and Hisham Fouad to four years in prison on the same charges. Two other defendants got three-year sentences. All were fined 500 Egyptian pounds (around $32).


Defense lawyer Khalid Ali said Wednesday's verdict is not subject to appeal before civilian courts because it was issued by an emergency court. He said the defense would file an appeal to a military court.

The global rights watchdog Amnesty International condemned the charges against the defendants, saying they stemmed from "their peaceful political activities.” It called for President Abdel Fattah el-Sissi to quash the sentences and release them.

"These politicians and activists should never have been arrested in the first place and yet they have been convicted and sentenced to prison on charges related to their legitimate criticism of the Egyptian authorities," said Philip Luther, Amnesty's regional research and advocacy director.

The convicted men were arrested in June 2019 after they met with political parties and opposition lawmakers to hash out how to run in the 2020 parliamentary elections.

In March 2020, a court sentenced el-Elaimy to a year in prison after it found him guilty of “deliberately spreading fake news.”

El-Elaimy was added by a court in 2020 to a list of suspected terrorists for the next five years, a decision upheld by the Court of Cassation — Egypt’s highest criminal court.

A vocal critic of the government, el-Elaimy is a leading activist in the secular Egyptian Social Democratic Party. He served as a member of parliament after the 2011 uprising that toppled autocrat President Hosni Mubarak.

The Egyptian government has in recent years waged a wide-scale crackdown on dissent, jailing thousands of people, mainly Islamists, but also secular activists involved in the 2011 Arab Spring uprising that toppled longtime autocrat Hosni Mubarak.