Lao prime minister resigns amid soaring inflation, criticism over mining concessions

Sonexay Siphandone is chosen to be the Southeast Asian nation’s new premier.

By RFA Lao
2022.12.30

Phankham Viphavanh, at the time the prime minister of Laos, arrives to attend the EU-ASEAN (Association of Southeast Asian Nations) summit at the European Council headquarters in Brussels on Dec. 14, 2022.
Credit: AFP

Lao Prime Minister Phankham Viphavanh resigned on Friday for health reasons, retiring after serving in the position for less than two years amid a tanking economy, with soaring inflation and a sharp drop in the value of the currency, the kip. 

Viphavanh, 72, submitted his resignation to the National Assembly earlier in the day. He took office in April 2021 following a general election. 

“In the current situation, our country is experiencing a lot of hardships. I’m not able to do this difficult job any further,” he said in a speech at the Lao National Assembly. He said he submitted his resignation to the president on Dec. 15, and the president granted his request.

The leadership change comes as the government tries to temper inflation that has reached nearly 40 percent, with people complaining that the price of some basic necessities have nearly doubled.

About 500,000 people, or 21% of the workforce, are unemployed due to the economic downtown and coronavirus pandemic, according to the Ministry of Labor and Social Welfare.

Minutes after Viphavahn’s speech, lawmakers of the country’s one-party government voted overwhelmingly for Deputy Prime Minister Sonexay Siphandone to be the Southeast Asian nation’s new premier.  

President Thongloun Sisoulith, who is also general secretary of the Lao People's Revolutionary Party, has been the country’s president since March 2021.

In his acceptance speech, Siphandone, 56, said he was honored and very proud to be elected prime minister. He is the Soviet-educated son of Khamtai Siphandone, 92, a former president of Laos.

The country’s constitution permits prime ministers to hold up to two five-year terms.

 

New Laos Prime Minister Sonexay Siphandone addresses the national assembly in the capital Vientiane in this screenshot from Laos state broadcaster Lao TV, Friday, Dec. 30, 2022. Credit: AFP/Lao TV

Viphavanh’s resignation comes amid criticism that he granted too many concessions for mining exploitation, especially in the northern provinces of Xieng Khouang and Xaysomboun, a source with knowledge of the political scene said. When taxes from the operations failed to go into the state budget, the country’s debt jumped.

Viphavanh also failed to make headway cracking down on rampant corruption, the source said. 

The president of the State Audit Organization reported to parliament last week that 141 billion kip, or about U.S.$9 million, of tax revenue did not go into the state budget and that more than 1,430 companies, most of them Chinese, had not paid taxes to the Lao government for more than a year.

Finance Minister Bounchom Oubonpaseuth also told lawmakers that at least 53 employees from his ministry had been disciplined or fired for corruption in 2022.

Some Lao citizens said they hoped the new prime minister could solve the country’s current financial and economic woes, especially high inflation and the depreciation of the Lao currency, the kip.

But a retail store owner in Savannakhet province was not optimistic. “I don’t think the new prime minister is going to make any difference,” he said. “Whoever is at the top, it will be the same.”

 

Translated by Max Avary for RFA Lao. Written in English by Roseanne Gerin. Edited by Malcolm Foster.

Trinity College Dublin faces islanders' demands to return 400-year-old skulls stolen by 'men of science'

Two men who smuggled the 13 skulls off Inishbofin island 132 years ago were affiliated with Ireland's oldest and most prestigious university, Trinity College Dublin.

Stephen Murphy
Ireland correspondent @SMurphyTV
Saturday 31 December 2022 01:57, UK

The stolen skull collection in Trinity College Dublin. Pic: Ciaran Walsh

When the two men crept into the ruined island monastery to steal human skulls under the cover of darkness, they knew what they were doing was wrong even by the ethical standards of 1890.

The raiders "lay low" at the sound of approaching travellers.

"When the coast was clear," Alfred Haddon later wrote, "we put our spoils in the sack."

But these were not common thieves, they regarded themselves as men of science.

Haddon was a British anthropologist and a fellow of the Royal College of Science. His accomplice in the skull-snatching was Irish medical student Andrew Dixon.

The pair smuggled the 13 skulls off Inishbofin island - an Atlantic-battered island off Ireland's west coast - by telling sailors their sack contained poitin, an Irish distilled spirit.

The men were affiliated with Ireland's oldest and most prestigious university, Trinity College Dublin (TCD), and the remains found their way to the university's collections.

'We want them to rest in peace'

One hundred and thirty two years later, the skulls are still locked away in Trinity's Old Anatomy Museum. Now, the islanders of Inishbofin are determined to get them back.

"We just want them home," says Marie Coyne, an Inishbofin historian and a vocal member of the island's campaign to have the remains repatriated.

"This is where they were stolen from," she tells Sky News, standing at the St Colman's site.

"That's a crime. We want our people's remains brought back to 'Bofin and we want to bury them here. And we want them to rest in peace."

St Colman's monastery on Inishbofin. Skulls are visible in bottom right corner. 

Pic: Trinity College Dublin

St Colman's monastery today

TCD, which possesses 484 sets of human remains collected from around the globe in colonial times, does not dispute that the skulls were taken from Inishbofin illegally, and has set up a working group to try to tackle the "problematic legacies".

Those legacies also include the shadow of slavery.

TCD's main library is named after the famed Irish philosopher George Berkeley, a fellow at the university in the 1700s. He later moved to America, and the city of Berkeley, California, and its renowned university are both named in his honour.

An islander's skull being measured with a craniometer on Inishbofin in 1893. 

Pic: Trinity College Dublin

However, records show that he also purchased at least four slaves to work on his Rhode Island plantation during the 1730s, and present-day students at Trinity are demanding that the Berkeley Library be de-named.

"I think Trinity as an institution should be embarrassed," says Gabi Fullam, president of the TCD Students' Union. "As a student, and somebody who goes to that library, I don't just find it embarrassing, I find it degrading."

'We're going to tackle this head-on'

Professor Eoin O'Sullivan is a senior dean at TCD and is leading the working group tackling the historical issues.

"I think it reflects an old university," he told Sky News, "and that there were practices in the university that from today's stance we wouldn't stand over, but were at the time perfectly explicable and understandable.

"I think the important thing is that Trinity are saying 'we're going to tackle this head-on'."

The Berkeley Library at Trinity College Dublin, named after slave-owner George Berkeley

In a statement, TCD said its board has decided to "work with the people of Inishbofin and the statutory authorities to find a solution that respects the wishes of the islanders."

It is still taking submissions from the public on the separate Berkeley Library issue until January.

Other legacy issues

TCD, created in 1592 by Queen Elizabeth's royal charter and an important tourist attraction in Dublin, is by no means the only university or museum grappling with legacy issues.

University College Cork announced in September that it is to repatriate ancient mummified human remains to Egypt. In Northern Ireland, the Ulster Museum recently returned human remains and other sacred objects to Hawaii.

In the UK, the University of Cambridge is making plans to return more than 100 Benin bronzes stolen from Nigeria, while the British Museum is under continued pressure from Greece to hand back the famous Parthenon marbles.

Back on Inishbofin, the wider international picture seems irrelevant. For the islanders, the injustice is black and white and so therefore is the solution.

"The skulls were stolen from here," says Ms Coyne, "and they need to come back here. They need to come home."

ESSAY: THE NEW DIGITAL IMPERIALISM

Nasir Abbas Nayyar

Published January 1, 2023

Illustration by Radia Durrani

What does a writer desire from the world?

Certainly neither honours, awards, nor positions. He desires to maintain a distance from all those invested with authority to bestow awards and positions. Hence, he can revere and safeguard the freedom to question and the freedom of expression. By manoeuvring for lucrative positions and highest awards, writers are forced to lock their tongues or suffer a blister on their tongues.

Shakaib Jalali, a modern Urdu poet says:

Haq baat aa ke ruk si gayi thi kabhi Shakaib
Chhaalay parray huay hain abhi tak
zubaan par

[Once I had shirked from pronouncing the truth/ That’s why I still have blisters on my tongue.]

To initiate a conversation with the self that has the writer write is the best moment a writer can imagine. Because it is the self that has him write, even when he is insufferably rejected by his times, the authorities and even by his contemporaries.

Hazrat Ali has said that “Do speak, so that you are known.” A writer is known not just by his national, racial or linguistic identity, but also by whether he went into silence where he was required to speak or dared to speak truth to power. A writer stays alert about the actual and contextual powers of his words.

A writer is an eternal traveller. Aside from plunging deep into the dark, terrifying dungeons of the human psyche, he steps into the prohibited planes of history, tradition, culture and politics. He declines all those paradises bedecked with cushions, goblets and where Hoors are in abundance, but where penetrating the realm of power is prohibited and/or pawning his voyager soul made mandatory. A writer wants to keep narrating fearlessly the stories of wretchedness and callousness humans are made to suffer.

Noted Urdu critic Nasir Abbas Nayyar delivered the keynote speech at the inaugural session of the 15th International Urdu Conference on December 1, 2022 at the Arts Council of Pakistan in Karachi. Eos is presenting here a slightly edited version of the address, translated from the Urdu by the author himself…

We have recently witnessed some queer events of contemporary history put an unprecedented challenge to the freedom of writers.

In the post-9/11 world, we all have found ourselves surrounded and ensnared by a smart system of surveillance. At each step, we are accountable to an unseen power. The existence of an ‘invisible Other’ is powerfully felt in our outside and inner worlds alike.

We Muslims believe that the angels Munkqr and Nakeer appear in graves soon after the burial is finished and begin to question the deeds and beliefs of the buried one. It seems the whole world has been turned into a gigantic grave and Munkar-Nakeer of the cyberworld are uninterruptedly interrogating all of us. Our existence in this world is tethered to answer to each of the questions put by the angels of the cybersphere. The Foucaultian Panopticon is unendingly surveilling within and without.

“I think, therefore I am,” was the maxim Western people would cherish to define their identity from the 17th to the 20th century. The maxim “I resist, therefore I am,” was popular among Afro-Asian colonised people to define their identity during the 19th and 20th centuries. Now the whole world seems to have cuddled up to a new maxim: “I share, therefore I am.”

Smart technology is a new earthly ‘god’. Not only does it know much more about us than we do but it exercises a sort of technological clout over all of us. Our thinking, interrogating, resisting selves are rapidly metamorphosing into a creature that unlocks and unveils all its secrets unresistingly, which are surreptitiously being stored in the form of data. What an irony! We ourselves are penning a charge-sheet against ourselves.

The idea of personal life was introduced by the liberal, democratic Western world. The same Western world has set off to tarnish the sanctity of personal life by its neo-liberal economic policies, which work in tandem with the crushing domination of the cybersphere.

In Sartre’s No Exit, three major characters are doomed to a hell-like mysterious room, but they don’t see any hellfire there. Upon their query, they are told that “Hell is other people.”

But now, because of the overpowering smart surveillance system, our personal life — stored as data — is turning into our hell. What a hell! Our digitised personal life is our hell.

We used to have whisperings, a language of love, invocation, loneliness and monologue. Whispery language has been superseded by crying words pouring out instantly and incessantly on our social media walls. It reminds me of Azm Behzad’s couplet:

Mujhay yaad aaya ik daur tha sargoshi ka
Aaj is daur ko ik kam-sukhanai [sukhani?] yaad ai
[I happen to recall that there was an age of whispering/ Today I evoked susurration of that age.]

Today, each person is thoughtlessly revealing all personal secrets through their social media accounts. He cares less about how vast the ambit of authority is and what the intentions are of the new earthly god. He is less concerned about the fact that both his social and inner worlds have been ‘digitally colonised’.

It needs to be stressed that ‘digital colonialism’ is quite distinct from past forms of colonialism. Those old forms of colonialism used to be staggeringly evident and their horrors would have been conveniently discernible, so their ubiquity ‘evoked’ and stoked resistance. But digital colonialism is so subtle, so indiscernible, and so deeply entrenched in our instinct of compliance and conformity, that we fail to realise that it is any sort of imperialism.

Our tragedy is distinct — and complex from the rest of the world. We Pakistanis have not yet fully liberated ourselves from the old forms of colonialism. For the last 75 years we have succumbed to structural and institutional imperialism. Most of the questions related to national, educational, cultural and literary realms sprout from this complex form of imperialism. Besides structural and institutional colonialism, we are also entangled in digital colonialism.

Aik aur darya ka saamna tha Munir mujh ko
[I was to face up to another river]

As disobedience against heavenly and earthly gods is ingrained in humans’ nature, so there are prospects, though dim, of resistance against smart forms of power. Smart power itself can be used against both obvious and indistinct forms of subjugation. There is a lot to be learned from how smart technology is being used by Irani women in their resistance against the ‘godly’ role of their state.

In recent years, we have observed, and suffered, the effects of the lethal combination of post-truth, the politics of populism and religiosity. Smart power has been ruthlessly used in this phenomenal episode of our recent history.

We Pakistanis are divided afresh, with novel intensity. This division doesn’t breed ‘diversity of ideas’, which is the hallmark of any strong, healthy society. Rather, this division is the killer of variety and variability.

By expressing our views, we together build a ‘world of opinions’. Peace in our real world rests upon our efforts to keep this ‘world of opinion’ a democratic one, permitting every person to form independently and express fearlessly their opinions.

However, this world of opinion is so fragile that it can easily be turned into an ‘Empire of opinion’, permitting only selective authoritative figures to express and propagate their opinions as unquestionable truths. The ‘Empire of opinion’ recklessly traverses the potentials and promises of imperialism.

This terrible lack of diversity of ideas, in tandem with a hard-nosed division, has us bogged down in a rut of a few questions. The questions of the basis of our national and cultural identity, of the role of Urdu and other Pakistani languages in informing identity, of the place of pre-Islamic cultures in the landscape of our national Muslim identity, of any prospects of the negotiation between religion and modernity, all are persistently raised, just to remain unanswered and plunging us again into a rut.

Instead of initiating a meaningful dialogue in this respect, we keep defending our point and disproving that of others. So, we are not a character of any epic, but the refrain of a tragic song! In the words of Zafar Iqbal:

Darya ruka hua hai hamara
Sehra mein rait beh rahi hai
[Our river is stagnant/ While the sand in the desert is, ironically, flowing.]

The writer is a Lahore-based critic and short story writer. His new book Naye Naqqaad Ke Naam Khatoot is coming soon

Published in Dawn, EOS, January 1st, 2023

Afghan educator who quit over women ban vows to fight
AFP Published December 31, 2022 

Ismail Mashal, a lecturer of journalism at three universities, speaks during an interview with AFP in Kabul on Dec 30. — AFP

An Afghan academic who caused a storm by quitting and tearing up his degree certificates on live television to protest the ban on women in universities has vowed to fight the order “even if it costs my life”.

Ismail Mashal, a lecturer in journalism for more than a decade at three universities in Kabul, shred his qualifications and resigned from the institutions after the ban was issued this month.

“I’m raising my voice. I’m standing with my sisters […] My protest will continue even if it costs my life,” Mashal, 35, told AFP at his office in the Afghan capital.

“As a man and as a teacher, I was unable to do anything else for them, and I felt that my certificates had become useless. So, I tore them.”

Footage of his outburst on Tuesday on TOLOnews — a leading private television channel — went viral on social media, leading to criticism by some supporters of Afghanistan’s Taliban authorities.

In the deeply conservative and patriarchal society, it is rare to see a man protest in support of women, but Mashal said he would stand up for women’s rights.

“In a society where books and pens are snatched away from mothers and sisters, it will only lead to crimes, poverty, and humiliation,” he said.

Authorities say the ban on women attending university was imposed because they were not observing a strict Islamic dress code.

But Mashal, who also runs an educational institute for men and women, dismissed that justification.

“They told us to implement the wearing of hijabs for women — we did that. They told us to segregate classes — we did that too,” he said, dressed in a black suit.

“The Taliban have so far not given any logical reason for the ban, which is affecting about 20 million girls.”
‘God-given right’

The ban had no basis in Islamic sharia law, he added.

“The right to education for women has been given by God, by the Quran, by the Prophet (Muhammad PBUH), and our religion,” said Mashal as he held religious books.

“So, why should we look down on women?” he added.

While the Taliban promised a softer regime when they returned to power in August last year, they have instead imposed harsh restrictions on women — effectively squeezing them out of public life.

Last week, authorities also ordered all aid groups to stop women employees from coming to work.

Secondary schools for girls have been closed for over a year, while many women have lost jobs in government and are being paid a fraction of their salary to stay home.

Women have also been barred from going to parks, gyms and public baths. They are blocked from travelling without a close male relative and must cover up in public.

“In my view, we are becoming regressive,” said Mashal, whose wife lost her job as a teacher after the Taliban returned.

He is worried for his daughter, who is in sixth grade, the last year of primary school, after which the ban on education takes effect.

“I don’t know how to tell her to stop studying after grade six,” he said. “What crime has she committed?” he asked.

Palestinians welcome UN vote on Israel’s occupation as ‘a victory’

Reuters Published December 31, 2022 

The United Nations headquarters building 

The Palestinians on Saturday welcomed a vote by the United Nations General Assembly requesting that the International Court of Justice (ICJ) provide an opinion on the legal consequences of Israel’s occupation of the Palestinian territories.

The Hague-based ICJ, also known as the World Court, is the top UN court dealing with disputes between states. Its rulings are binding, though the ICJ has no power to enforce them.

The vote on Friday nonetheless presents a challenge for Israel’s incoming Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who took office on Thursday at the head of a hard-right government that includes parties that advocate for occupied West Bank lands to be annexed.

Israel captured the West Bank, Gaza and East Jerusalem — areas the Palestinians want for a state — in a 1967 war. Peace talks broke down in 2014.

“The time has come for Israel to be a state subject to law, and to be held accountable for its ongoing crimes against our people,” Nabil Abu Rudeineh, spokesman for Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, said.

Israeli officials have not yet issued a comment on the vote. It was condemned by Israel’s UN envoy Gilad Erdan before it was held as the Jewish Sabbath began.

Senior Palestinian official Hussein al-Sheikh said on Twitter that the vote “reflects the victory of Palestinian diplomacy”. There were 87 members who voted in favour of adopting the request; Israel, the United States and 24 other members voted against; and 53 abstained.



The Palestinians have limited rule in the West Bank and East Jerusalem was annexed by Israel in a move not recognised internationally. Its settlements in those territories are deemed illegal by most countries, a view Israel disputes citing Biblical and historical ties to the land, as well as security.

The UN General Assembly asked the ICJ to give an advisory opinion on the legal consequences of Israel’s “occupation, settlement and annexation … including measures aimed at altering the demographic composition, character and status of the Holy City of Jerusalem, and from its adoption of related discriminatory legislation and measures.”

The new Israeli government has pledged to strengthen its settlements in the West Bank but Netanyahu has given no indication of any imminent steps toward annexing them.

 

UN seeks ICJ opinion on Israel’s illegal occupation of Palestine

The resolution will see International Court of Justice give opinion on Israel’s occupation of Palestinian territory.

Published On 31 Dec 202231 Dec 2022

The United Nations General Assembly has passed a resolution calling on the International Court of Justice (ICJ) to give an opinion on the legal consequences of Israel’s illegal occupation of Palestinian territories.

The General Assembly voted 87 to 26 with 53 abstentions on the resolution, with Western nations split but with virtually unanimous support in the Islamic world – including among Arab states that have normalised relations with Israel. Russia and China voted in favour of the resolutionend of list

Israel, the US and 24 other members – including the United Kingdom and Germany – voted against the resolution, while France was among the 53 nations that abstained.

The Hague-based ICJ, also known as the World Court, is the top UN court dealing with disputes between states. Its rulings are binding, though the ICJ has no power to enforce them.

Palestine’s UN ambassador Riyad Mansour noted that the vote came one day after the swearing-in of a new far-right Israeli government, which he said promises an expansion of illegal Jewish settlements and will accelerate “colonial and racist policies” towards Palestinians. He also hailed nations that voted in favour of the resolution and were “undeterred by threats and pressure”.

“We trust that, regardless of your vote today, if you believe in international law and peace, you will uphold the opinion of the International Court of Justice when delivered and you will stand up to this Israeli government right now,” Mansour told the General Assembly.

The UN General Assembly asked the ICJ to give an advisory opinion on the legal consequences of Israel’s “occupation, settlement and annexation … including measures aimed at altering the demographic composition, character and status of the Holy City of Jerusalem, and from its adoption of related discriminatory legislation and measures”.

The UN resolution also asks the ICJ to advise on how those policies and practices “affect the legal status of the occupation” and what legal consequences arise for all countries and the UN from this status.

The ICJ last weighed in on the issue of Israel’s occupation in 2004, when it ruled that Israel’s wall in the occupied West Bank and East Jerusalem was illegal. Israel rejected that ruling, accusing the court of being politically motivated.

“No international body can decide that the Jewish people are ‘occupiers’ in their own homeland. Any decision from a judicial body which receives its mandate from the morally bankrupt and politicized UN is completely illegitimate,” Israel’s UN ambassador, Gilad Erdan, said in a statement ahead of the vote.

During the June 1967 war, Israel occupied all of historic Palestine and expelled 300,000 Palestinians from their homes. Israel also captured the Syrian Golan Heights in the north and the Egyptian Sinai Peninsula in the south. In 1978, Egypt and Israel signed a peace treaty which led to Israel withdrawing from Egyptian territory.

The occupied Palestinian territories have been under Israeli military control since 1967. This makes it the longest occupation in modern history. The segmented territories include Gaza, the West Bank and East Jerusalem.

“We do not feel that a referral to the International Court of Justice is helpful in bringing the parties back to dialogue,” UK diplomat Thomas Phipps said of the UN vote.

“It is also the position of the UK that it is inappropriate without the consent of both parties to ask the court to give an advisory opinion in what is essentially a bilateral dispute.”

Among Western nations that backed the resolution was Portugal, whose representative acknowledged the “risk of overjudicialising international relations” but said the world court “underpins the international rules-based order which we seek to preserve”.

Pakistani diplomatic property in US going to ‘highest bidder’

Anwar Iqbal 

Published December 31, 2022

WASHINGTON: The highest bidder for a Pakistan embassy property in the US capital is Shahal Khan of Burkhan World Investments and he is also the likely winner of this bid, sources privy to the development told Dawn.

Mr Khan is believed to have offered $6.8 million for the property. Burkhan World is based in Washington and claims to “invest in projects that it believes will have a positive impact on our society”.

A Jewish group, which presumably wanted to build a synagogue at this site, submitted the ‘second-highest’ and not the ‘highest bid’, as reported earlier. The third bidder was an American investment company, which apparently employs US citizens of Indian origin as well.

Official sources told Dawn that “the process of implementing the bid has started”, which can be interpreted as “the highest bidder will get the property”, as agreed.

In an emailed response to Dawn, Devin Orrego Guevara, a representative for Burkhan World, also confirmed that the highest bid for the property was submitted by Shahal Khan.

Shahal Khan of Burkhan World Investments said to have offered $6.8m

Mr Khan “would like to make the building the centre of peace and it will also be tied to the Khan Institute of Economic Security and Peace at American University”, Mr Guevara wrote.

Mr Guevara also sent a newspaper clipping, confirming that Burkhan Investments had submitted a bid of $6.8m for the building.

Reports in the Pakistani media stated that on Nov 30, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MoFA) informed the federal cabinet that the Pakistan embassy in Wash­in­g­ton relocated to its present site in April 2003.

Since then, two old chancery buildings, at 2201 R Street and 2315 Massa­ch­usetts Avenue, have remained unoccupied.

In 2010, the then-prime minister approved the repair and renovation of both buildings through a loan of $7m secured from the National Bank of Pakistan in Washington.

About 60 per cent of the repair/renovation work at the R-Street property was completed by the end of 2012 and then it was abandoned. The former embassy building, however, was completely renovated.

In 2018, the diplomatic status of the R-Street property was revoked, rendering it liable to local taxes.

In 2019, the embassy paid $819,833, and since then, $1.3m in taxes have accumulated.

This tax liability would keep growing at $100,000 per quarter. Local authorities, however, have indicated that if the property is sold quickly, the outstanding tax liability may be waived.

Published in Dawn, December 31st, 2022

China-India tensions: Nun investigated for ‘spying’ on Dalai Lama

Daily Telegraph UK
By Joe Wallen
30 Dec, 2022


The Dalai Lama, in a yellow ceremonial hat, earlier this year when he watched a welcome dance performed in India. Photo / AP

A Chinese agent masqueraded as a Buddhist nun to spy on the Dalai Lama, Indian authorities claim amid rising tensions between the two neighbouring countries.

Indian police arrested Song Xialolan, 50, at an important Buddhist pilgrimage site where the spiritual leader and figurehead of the Tibetan independence movement is delivering sermons until December 31.

India has increased security around the Dalai Lama, 87, as a result of the investigation into the surveillance, local media reported. The accusations come just weeks after soldiers engaged in hand-to-hand combat in a contested part of the Himalayas.

India has hosted the 14th Dalai Lama and the Tibetan government in exile since 1959 to the anger of the Chinese authorities who argue that Delhi is encouraging the Tibetan separatist movement to flourish close to the border.

As the Dalai Lama grows old, China is also said to be watching with keen interest to see who will be appointed as his successor and what stance they will take towards Tibetan independence.

Indian authorities allege that Xialolan first attended a series of the Dalai Lama’s sermons in the city of Kangra in 2019 and then remained in the country throughout the Covid-19 pandemic, following the Buddhist spiritual leader around the city of Dharamsala.

Earlier this month, exiled Tibetans performed a traditional dance as they marked the anniversary of the awarding of the Nobel Peace Prize to their spiritual leader the Dalai Lama in India. Photo / A

When Xialolan, who was in India on an expired tourist visa, made plans to trail the Dalai Lama to Bodh Gaya last week, a manhunt was launched for the suspected spy.

“Local police have received input about a Chinese woman who has been living in Bodh Gaya. We were getting inputs on her for the last two years. In view of this, an alert has been given and searches are underway,” said a police spokesperson in the state of Bihar.

“There is no information at present about the location of the Chinese woman. We cannot rule out suspicion of her being a Chinese spy.”

Xialolan was then traced to a guest house in Bodh Gaya, an important Buddhist pilgrimage site in the northern Indian state of Bihar, on Thursday morning and has been taken for further questioning, the Indian authorities confirmed.

Tibet ‘functionally independent’

In 2018, the Indian police discovered two bombs had been planted at the Mahabodhi Temple Complex in Bodh Gaya ahead of a planned sermon by the Dalai Lama, while five people were injured after a series of explosives were detonated in the same place in 2013.

In his recent sermons at the temple, the Dalai Lama appealed to people across the world to “collectively take a stand against weapons of mass destruction”.

China claims Tibet has been part of its territory for centuries, although backers of the exiled Dalai Lama say it was functionally independent for most of that time.

Communist forces invaded in 1950 and China has ruled the Himalayan region with an iron fist ever since, imposing ever stricter surveillance and travel restrictions since the last uprising against Beijing’s rule in 2008. Lengthy prison sentences in dire conditions are imposed for acts of defiance, including defending the region’s unique language and Buddhist culture from attempts at assimilation.

The Dalai Lama will live to 113, according to his own visions. Buddhist leaders have ruled that only the Dalai Lama himself can decide on his reincarnation. China, however, says the decision lies with Beijing.

Buddhist high priests have recently denied that the Dalai Lama is planning to refuse to declare his reincarnation to save Tibetan Buddhism from attempts by the Chinese Communist Party to control who becomes the religion’s next spiritual leader.

India allows the Dalai Lama freedom to travel and preach in the country despite protestations from China.

Violent clashes on shared border

The detention of Xialolan is the latest flashpoint in rising tensions between nuclear superpowers, with a succession of recent, violent clashes along the country’s shared border.

Following the clash between unarmed soldiers, India announced that it would build a new frontier road along more than 1600km of its border, so that it could more rapidly deploy troops and equipment to combat increasing Chinese aggression.

Delhi also successfully tested a nuclear-capable ballistic missile off its eastern coast, in what was seen as a show of strength to Beijing.

China last week sanctioned two US citizens in retaliation for action taken by Washington over human rights abuses in Tibet amid an ongoing standoff between the sides over Beijing’s treatment of religious and ethnic minorities.

The Foreign Ministry said in a statement that Todd Stein and Miles Yu Maochun, along with their close family members, would be banned from entering China. Any assets they had in China would be frozen and they would be barred from contact with people or organisations within China.

Ronaldo becomes highest-paid footballer ever after joining Al Nassr in record-breaking deal
CGTN

Cristiano Ronaldo (L) is presented with Al-Nassr's number seven jersey by club president Musalli Al-Muammar in Madrid, Spain, December 30, 2022. /Al-Nassr's official Twitter account

Cristiano Ronaldo, the all-time leading scorer in men's international football with 118 goals, has joined Saudi Arabian side Al-Nassr on an astounding 200 million euro ($214 million) a year contract, which is thought to be the highest salary in football history, following his rancorous departure from English giants Manchester United.

The five-time Ballon d'Or winner was pictured in a tweet from Al Nassr's official account holding up the club's blue and yellow shirt with his iconic number seven printed on the back. He has signed a two-and-a-half year contract to June 2025 and will be unveiled to fans in Riyadh in the coming days.

"The world's greatest athlete, officially signed for Al Nassr," read a statement. "This is a signing that will not only inspire our club to achieve even greater success but inspire our league, our nation and future generations, boys and girls to be the best version of themselves."

Cristiano Ronaldo holds up the Al-Nassr's blue and yellow shirt in Madrid, Spain, December 30, 2022. /Al-Nassr's official Twitter account


The stunning move to Asia has dramatically ended Ronaldo's trophy-laden career as the leading talisman at some of Europe's most prestigious clubs, including Spanish behemoth Real Madrid, Italian powerhouse Juventus and United, that spanned two decades.

"I am fortunate that I have won everything I set out to win in European football and feel now that this is the right moment to share my experience in Asia," said Ronaldo. "I am looking forward to joining my new teammates and together with them help the club to achieve success.

"I am excited to experience a new football league in a different country. The vision of what Al Nassr are doing and developing in Saudi Arabia both in terms of men's and women's football is very inspiring. We can see from Saudi Arabia’s recent performance at the World Cup that this is a country with big football ambitions and a lot of potential."

Cristiano Ronaldo of Portugal walks off the pitch after his team's World Cup loss to Morocco at Al Thumama Stadium in Doha, Qatar, December 10, 2022. /CFP


Nine-time Saudi Pro League champions, Al Nassr are coached by the former Roma and Lyon boss Rudi Garcia and currently sit second in the league table. It has been claimed that part of Ronaldo's role at the club will be to help Saudi Arabia's joint bid with Egypt and Greece to host the 2030 World Cup.

The history-making deal with Al Nassr caps a tumultuous few weeks for Ronaldo, starting with an explosive, unauthorized interview that saw his United career come to a bitter end and a humiliating elimination from the World Cup in Qatar where the Portugal captain lost his place in the starting lineup.

Portuguese sports newspaper Record revealed that Ronaldo threatened to leave the World Cup after being told he would not start against Switzerland, but Portugal coach Fernando Santos denied that had happened and only admitted that his skipper was not happy.

Cristiano Ronaldo (R) of Portugal sits on the bench during his team's World Cup clash with Morocco at Al Thumama Stadium in Doha, Qatar, December 10, 2022. /CFP

"I've no regrets," Santos said about his bold decision to demote Ronaldo. "I do not think that what happened to Cristiano and all the criticism that he faced had any impact on the match... Cristiano is a great player and he came in when we thought it was necessary."

At club level, Ronaldo also experienced a miserable period. He refused to come on as a substitute against Tottenham at Old Trafford in October before claiming he had been "betrayed" by United. He launched a sensational verbal attack on manager Ten Hag after he was benched by the Dutch tactician and publicly hit out at United's owners the Glazer family.

After terminating his contact with United last month, Ronaldo became a free agent. He had been linked with Chelsea, Atletico Madrid, Bayern Munich and Napoli but none of those European titans made concrete offers.\

Cristiano Ronaldo of Manchester United looks on prior to the team's Europa League clash with Sheriff Tiraspol at Old Trafford in Manchester, England, October 27, 2022. /CFP


The fiercely competitive Ronaldo the world knows would have done something spectacular on the pitch to answer his critics and change the whole narrative. But regrettably, he was largely powerless in the twilight of his career and struggled to have any impact throughout his limited playing time.

"I love Manchester United and I love the fans, that will never change," said Ronaldo on social media after leaving Old Trafford. "But it feels like the right time for me to seek a new challenge."

Now the 37-year-old has to accept the cold reality that he will see out his last years as professional player far away from the mainstream of top level football.

South Korean military’s solid fuel rocket test sparks UFO scare

The test flight was a follow-up to another launch conducted on March 30, the ministry said. 

PHOTO: THE KOREA HERALD/ ASIA NEWS NETWORK

SEOUL – South Korea’s Defence Ministry said on Friday that the multiple, unidentified aircraft flying over the capital Seoul was a successful test of its solid-fuel space rocket, appeasing concerns that it could be aliens visiting Earth.

The test flight was a follow-up to another launch conducted on March 30, the ministry said.

It added that the launch was conducted to beef up national defence capabilities in areas like independent, space-based surveillance and reconnaissance.

The ministry also apologised for not warning the public in advance.

At around 6pm, strange rainbow-coloured lights were spotted in the sky across South Korea, including in Seoul and parts of Gangwon, Gyeonggi and South Chungcheong provinces.

The meandering path and colour of the rocket caused some witnesses to initially speculate it was an unidentified flying object, or UFO, until the ministry made an announcement.

South Korea launched a solid-fuel space rocket for the first time in March, as part of a project to develop civilian and military surveillance satellites.

It was the first test since South Korea and the United States agreed in 2021 to end restrictions on the country’s ballistic missile and rocket development. 

THE KOREA HERALD/ASIA NEWS NETWORK

Spain to strip Franco-era police officers of honours

Interior minister enforces the Democratic Memory Law, which tackles the legacy of Franco's dictatorship from 1939-1975 and the three-year civil war that preceded it.

Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez walks past a wall with the names of people killed by late Spanish dictator Francisco Franco's forces during the Civil War, as he visits the exhumation work of a mass grave at El Carmen cemetery in Valladolid, Spain last October. (Reuters Archive)

Spain's leftist government has announced that it will strip decorations awarded to police officers involved in state repression during the right-wing dictatorship of General Francisco Franco.

Interior Minister Fernando Grande-Marlaska ordered police forces to make the move to comply with a new law focused on the historical impact of the leader, the interior ministry said in a statement on Friday.

The Democratic Memory Law aims to tackle the legacy of Franco's 1939-1975 dictatorship and the three-year civil war that preceded it, including measures honouring those who suffered persecution or violence under his rule.

It calls for the withdrawal of honours from police officers involved in "events incompatible with democratic values and the principles of respect for human rights," the interior ministry statement said.

Among those reportedly affected is Juan Antonio Gonzalez Pacheco, a notorious former Madrid police inspector known as "Billy the Kid" who died in 2020 of Covid-19.

He is accused of torturing prisoners during Franco's rule.

READ MORE: The Silence of Others: “The past is never the past”

Officers targeted by the measure will be given the opportunity to present "defences" before a final decision is made, the statement said.

These decorations allowed police officers who were awarded them to collect higher pensions.

Iron fist

Franco ruled Spain with an iron fist from the end of the country's 1936-39 civil war until his death in 1975, marking one of Europe's longest dictatorships.

Honouring those who died or suffered violence or repression during the war and decades of dictatorship that followed has been a top priority for Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez since he came to power in 2018.

In 2019, he had Franco's remains removed from a vast grandiose mausoleum near Madrid and transferred to a discreet family plot.

READ MORE: Spain to exhume ex-dictator Franco's remains to discreet grave

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