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June
India tightens security after militants threaten attacks over anti-Muslim remarks
Written by Nur Yasmin
India tightened public security on Wednesday after the circulation of a letter warning of Islamist militant attacks to avenge derogatory remarks about the Prophet Mohammad by an official of the ruling Hindu nationalist party.
Several Indian media groups shared the June 6 letter attributed to al Qaeda's branch in the Indian subcontinent (AQIS) in which threats were made to carry out suicide bombings in Indian states to defend, it said, the honour of the Prophet.
A federal home ministry official said intelligence agencies were checking the authenticity of the threats issued by AQIS.
"We have also ordered state police to ensure public gatherings or protests are not allowed as they could be targeted by the militant group," a senior home ministry official in New Delhi said.
The security threat surfaced days after a spokeswoman for Prime Minister Narendra Modi's Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) made comments about the Prophet Mohammad during a TV debate.
BJP spokeswoman Nupur Sharma's remarks sparked uproar among Muslims in India and triggered diplomatic protests from Islamic countries demanding an apology from the Indian government.
Sharma has been suspended from the party while another spokesman, Naveen Kumar Jindal, was expelled over comments he made about Islam on social media.
Police in northern India arrested a BJP youth leader for posting anti-Muslim comments on social media, along with 50 other people who took part insporadic unrest among minority Muslims in parts of India last week over Sharma's remarks.
India's foreign ministry said on Monday the offensive tweets and comments did not in any way reflect the government's views.
Instructions have been issued to several senior members of the BJP to be "extremely cautious" when talking about religion on public platforms.
But domestic outrage gained fresh momentum after leaders from Islamic nations including Qatar, Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Oman, Indonesia, Malaysia, Pakistan, Iran and Afghanistan demanded apologies from New Delhi and summoned diplomats to protest against the remarks in the TV debate.
The influential 57-member Organisation of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) said in a statement that the insults came in the context of an increasingly intense atmosphere of hatred toward Islam in India and systematic harassment of Muslims.
India's minority Muslims have felt more pressure on everything from freedom of worship to hijab head scarves under BJP rule. There were Hindu-Muslim clashes during religious processions recently, following deadly riots in 2019-20.
The new controversy has become a diplomatic challenge for Modi who in recent years has cemented strong relations with energy-rich Islamic nations.
Islamic rights groups in India said that it was the first time influential foreign leaders had spoken out against what they called humiliations experienced by the minority community.
"Our voices have finally been heard, only world leaders can nudge Modi's government and his party to change their attitude towards Muslims," said Ali Asghar Mohammed, who runs a voluntary rights group for Muslims in India's commercial capital Mumbai. (Reuters)
June
Bangladesh police open investigation into deadly container depot fire
Written by Nur Yasmin
Police in Bangladesh on Wednesday opened an investigation into eight officials from a shipping container depot after a blaze killed at least 44 people, including 10 firefighters, and injured around 200 others, officials said.
Firefighters put out the blaze at the depot in Sitakunda, 40 km (25 miles) from the southeastern port city of Chittagong, on Wednesday, four days after it began late on Saturday, triggering a series of explosions.
The investigation was opened into officials who were directly involved operating the depot on suspicion of negligence and mismanagement, senior police official Ashraful Karim said.
No one has yet been arrested. The owners are not under police investigation as two probe committees were looking into the matter.
Authorities have not determined the cause of the disaster but they suspect a container of hydrogen peroxide was the source for a massive blast that shook the neighbourhood followed by multiple other explosions.
Fire service officials said they had not been informed that chemicals had been stored at the depot.
A senior fire service official, Monir Hossain, said fire safety measures had not been implemented, with only a handful of extinguishers in a depot storing dozens of containers full of everything from clothes to chemicals.
The director and one of the owners of facility, the BM Container Depot, did not answer calls to his mobile telephone seeking comment.
The owners were quoted on Tuesday in Bangladesh newspapers including the Dhaka Tribune as saying hydrogen peroxide was being exported through the depot "following due process with the permission of the concerned authorities".
"The container depot has an office of customs authority. They supervise the import-export work of the depot round the clock. It is mysterious that just one of the thousands of containers at the depot exploded. We want a fair and impartial investigation into this incident," General Manager of Smart Group Major Shamsul Haider Siddiqui was quote as saying.
The death toll has risen to 44 after a worker from the depot died from his injuries on Wednesday, police said. Of the 200 or so injured, 50 were rescue officials, police said.
Some of the injured are in a critical condition, Chittagong’s chief doctor Mohammed Elias Hossain said.
Troops were trying to prevent chemicals spreading into canals and along the Bay of Bengal coastline, officials said.
Bangladesh is the world's second-biggest exporter of garments but its industrial safety standards have not kept pace with its economic development and fires are common in factories and other places of work. read more
The last major fire in Bangladesh was in July when 54 people were killed at a food processing factory outside Dhaka. (Reuters)
June
Turkey struggles to push Russia, Ukraine into grain deal to avert food crisis
Written by Nur Yasmin
Turkish efforts to ease a global food crisis by negotiating safe passage for grain stuck in Black Sea ports met resistance as Ukraine said Russia was imposing unreasonable conditions and the Kremlin said free shipment depended on an end to sanctions.
The war between Russia and Ukraine, the world's third and fourth largest grain exporters respectively, has added to food price inflation and put global food supplies at risk.
Russia has seized large parts of Ukraine's coast in nearly 15 weeks of war and its warships control the Black and Azov Seas, blocking Ukraine's farm exports and driving up the cost of grain.
Ukraine and the West accuse Moscow of weaponising food supplies. Russia says Ukrainian mines laid at sea and international sanctions on Moscow are to blame.
Speaking alongside his Russian counterpart Sergei Lavrov, Turkey's foreign minister Mevlut Cavusoglu said talks on Wednesday in Ankara were fruitful and restarting Ukrainian grain exports along a sea corridor was reasonable.
Lavrov said the onus was on Ukraine to de-mine its ports as a precondition for safe shipment.
KYIV/ANKARA, June 8 (Reuters) - Turkish efforts to ease a global food crisis by negotiating safe passage for grain stuck in Black Sea ports met resistance as Ukraine said Russia was imposing unreasonable conditions and the Kremlin said free shipment depended on an end to sanctions.
The war between Russia and Ukraine, the world's third and fourth largest grain exporters respectively, has added to food price inflation and put global food supplies at risk.
Russia has seized large parts of Ukraine's coast in nearly 15 weeks of war and its warships control the Black and Azov Seas, blocking Ukraine's farm exports and driving up the cost of grain.
Ukraine and the West accuse Moscow of weaponising food supplies. Russia says Ukrainian mines laid at sea and international sanctions on Moscow are to blame.
Speaking alongside his Russian counterpart Sergei Lavrov, Turkey's foreign minister Mevlut Cavusoglu said talks on Wednesday in Ankara were fruitful and restarting Ukrainian grain exports along a sea corridor was reasonable. read more
Lavrov said the onus was on Ukraine to de-mine its ports as a precondition for safe shipment. read more
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters Russian grain volumes could only be delivered to international markets if sanctions were lifted. He said there were "no substantive talks about this yet".
'INSUFFICIENT FORCE'
The United Nations is working on plans with Kyiv and Moscow to restart grain exports from Ukraine's Black Sea ports, with Turkey possibly providing naval escorts to ensure safe passage.
"A food crisis that was already affecting several areas of the world risks, with the war in Ukraine, degenerating into a global food crisis if action is not taken now," Italian Foreign Minister Luigi Di Maio told a news conference in Rome.
Among the many challenges, Ukraine's ambassador to Turkey said on Wednesday that Russia was putting forward unreasonable proposals, such as checking vessels. read more
A Ukrainian official also cast doubt on Turkey's power to mediate the free passage of blocked Ukrainian grain.
"Turkey as a guarantor is an insufficient force in the Black Sea to guarantee the safety of cargo," director of Ukrainian grain traders' union UGA Serhiy Ivashchenko told an online conference on Wednesday.
He said it could take at least two-to-three months to remove mines from Ukrainian ports and that the Turkish and Romanian navies should be involved.
Ukrainian leader Volodymyr Zelenskiy said this week Ukraine had discussed with Britain and Turkey the idea of a navy from a third country guaranteeing safe passage for Ukraine's grain exports through the Black Sea.
Ukraine exported up to 6 million tonnes of grain a month before Russia launched its invasion on Feb. 24. Moscow calls its action a special military operation.
Volumes have since fallen to about 1 million tonnes as Ukraine, which used to export most of its goods through seaports, has been forced to transport grain by train via its western border or via its small Danube river ports.
Even with increased loading and handling capacity, the state railway Ukrzaliznytsia said Danube ports and trains cannot compensate for the lack of seaports.
Valerii Tkachov, deputy director of Ukrzaliznytsia commercial department, told Wednesday's online grain conference the maximum volume of grain it can deliver to exports could rise to 1.5 million tonnes a month over the coming weeks from around 800,000 tonnes in May.
But he said the was a significant build-up of grain wagons at border crossings and the cargo might have to wait at least a month to cross them. (Reuters)
June
Ukraine grain silos half-full ahead of harvest as exports remain stalled
Written by Nur Yasmin
Grain silos in Ukraine's government-controlled territory are about half full in the run-up to this year's harvest, meaning crops could be left in the ground if Russia continues to blockade the country's ports, the head of the Ukraine Grain Association said on Wednesday.
There are some 30 million tonnes of grain stored in Ukrainian-held territory out of capacity of around 55 million tonnes, Mykola Gorbachov told an International Grains Council (IGC) conference in London, adding there were 13-15 million tonnes of storage capacity in Russian-occupied areas.
World food prices have soared to record levels and hunger levels are rising around the globe following Russia's Feb. 24 invasion of Ukraine, the world's fourth largest grains exporter.
Gorbachov said without access to its Black Sea ports, Ukraine would at best be able export 20 million tonnes of grains next year, with alternate routes via road, river and rail limiting exports to no more than 2 million tonnes a month.
That compares to shipments of 44.7 million tonnes last year.
Ukraine and the West accuse Moscow of weaponising food supplies. Russia blames the situation on what it says are Ukrainian mines in Black Sea waters and on international sanctions against Moscow.
Gorbachov estimated half of Ukraine's corn crop will be left in the ground, unharvested, if Russia maintains its blockade of the Black Sea ports. Ukraine is the world's fourth-largest corn exporter.
"I can tell you we won't find a solution (for) exports (without Black Sea port access)," he told the IGC conference.
The United Nations is trying to broker a deal to enable Ukraine's grain to be shipped from ports such as Odesa, while Turkey has also been holding talks with Russia aimed at securing Ukrainian exports via ports. read more
Gorbachov said the Turkey-Russia talks were not likely to lead to the security guarantees required to ship and instead called on the United States, Britain and France to provide safe convoy for vessels carrying Ukrainian grains out the country.
"I don't believe any company will load (Ukrainian) grain if the Russians sign something with the Turks. Insurance won't cover this risk. We need international guarantees, only in this case the grain will move," he said. (Reuters)
June
More than 1,000 monkeypox cases reported to WHO - briefing
Written by Nur Yasmin
There have been more than 1,000 monkeypox cases reported to the World Health Organization in the current outbreak outside the countries in Africa where it more commonly spreads.
WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said the risk of monkeypox becoming established in these non-endemic countries was real, but preventable at this point.
Twenty-nine countries have reported cases in the current outbreak, which began in May. None have reported deaths.
At a media briefing in Geneva, Tedros also said there had been more than 1,400 suspected cases of monkeypox this year in Africa and 66 deaths.
"It's an unfortunate reflection of the world we live in that the international community is only now paying attention to monkeypox because it has appeared in high-income countries," he said.
He said the outbreak was showing signs of community transmission in some countries. WHO recommends people with monkeypox isolate at home.
Cases are still predominantly among men who have sex with men, the WHO said, although cases in women have been reported.
The U.N. agency is working with organizations including UN AIDS and community groups to raise awareness and stop transmission.
Post-exposure vaccination, including for health workers or close contacts, including sexual partners - ideally within four days of exposure - may be considered for some countries, WHO added. The vaccines being used are designed against smallpox, a related, more dangerous virus that the world eradicated in 1980, but also work to protect against monkeypox, studies have shown.
WHO senior official Sylvie Briand said the agency is assessing the potency of vaccines stockpiled against smallpox and contacting manufacturers and countries who have previously pledged vaccines. (Reuters)
June
Her Majesty the Queen’s Birthday Party held in Jakarta on evening of 31 st May – for the first time since 2019 due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
Written by nuke 
British Ambassador to Indonesia and Timor Leste during opening speech -
More than 700 people – mostly Indonesians and Brits, came together on Tuesday night at the Ritz Carlton, in Mega Kuningan, Jakarta to celebrate the UK’s thriving relationship with Indonesia and with ASEAN, and both Her Majesty Elizabeth II’s birthday and 70 years of service.
Guests were entertained with British food and beverages, with traditional classics like Fish & amp; Chips and Roast dinner served alongside Curries and Daal - dishes brought to the UK by the unlimited migration from Commonwealth countries between the years of 1948 and 1962 – which saw the UK transformed by migrants from India, Pakistan, the Carribean and many more. British desserts and cheeses were laid out for guests – including Sticky Toffee pudding, Eton Mess and Bread & Butter pudding.
Guests were able to check out a VR booth that took them to virtual experiences in the UK and earn a copy of the British Embassy’s new Tourism Guidebook; use a 180 degrees Glam Cam to take photos; and take Lavender seeds home to plant – as part of the Queen’s Green Canopy initiative that has seen 1 million trees planted in the UK to celebrate the Queen’s Platinum Jubilee.
Guests were entertained by a 10-piece military band flown over specially from the UK to play at this event, and Indonesian rock group ‘Centre Stage’ – who played British music hits from Queen, The Beatles, Oasis, Blur, Coldplay, Ed Sheeran, Adele and more. Speeches from British Ambassador to Indonesia and Timor Leste Owen Jenkins and British Ambassador to ASEAN Jon Lambe, thanked Indonesia and ASEAN for the growing partnership “we are weaving even closer together”, reflected on the Queen’s 70 years on the throne, and the huge changes in that time, and looked forward to expanding and strengthening the relationship.
According to a release receive by Voice of Indonesia on Tuesday (31/05/22), the growing global importance of Indonesia and ASEAN has long been apparent to the UK. In 2021 the UK went further - setting out its ‘tilt’ to the Indo-Pacific – putting growing relations with the region at the heart of the UK’s foreign, defence, security and development policy. Two weeks ago, the UK set out its development strategy, with Indonesia one of only a couple of countries named more than once.
The UK wants to see Indonesia and ASEAN develop and grow more prosperous, and the UK believes helping countries grow will help the UK to build strong friendships around the world, in the near and long term. Just as Her Majesty the Queen has seen a lot of changes in her 70 years on the throne – so will the world see a lot of changes in the coming 70.
In recognition of the Queen’s historic achievement, the outer embassy wall in Patra Kuningan will be lit up with purple lights throughout the 4 day weekend. The celebrations in Jakarta are complemented by those in the UK. The UK will enjoy a one-off four day weekend, from Thursday 2nd to Sunday 5th of June, with full coverage on BBC World News. British people are extremely excited, with streets transformed for street parties, cakes baked and more//VOI
June
Taiwan appeals to U.S. not to forget its desire for free trade deal
Written by Nur Yasmin
Taiwan's top trade negotiator appealed to the United States on Tuesday not to forget that the island wants a free trade deal, but understands this will not happen immediately and is willing to make other agreements first as "building blocks".
Taiwan has long campaigned for such a deal, in what would be a strong show of support for the Chinese-claimed island in the face of unrelenting diplomatic and military pressure from Beijing. It says it is a reliable partner for the United States with shared democratic values.
Taiwan and the United States last week announced a new U.S.-Taiwan Initiative on 21st-Century Trade, which envisages new trade talks. read more
Taiwan's top trade negotiator, John Deng, who goes to Washington at the end of the month for talks with senior U.S. officials, told Reuters in an interview that ultimately what they wanted was a free trade agreement, even if the U.S. government has put all such negotiations on ice.
"This is our hope, we must speak about this goal clearly, and let me more people know this is Taiwan's aim that we are hoping for," he said in his office, close to the presidential office in central Taipei.
But Taiwan is "very realistic" and knows this is not something than can be achieved in the short term, Deng added.
"Please don't forget this is what Taiwan wants. But of course, we understand you can't move now."
"Building blocks" can be established first, and then tariffs can be addressed at the end, he said.
While Taiwan has strong bipartisan support in Congress and the Senate, the Biden administration last month excluded Taipei from its Asia-focused economic plan designed to counter China's growing influence, the Indo-Pacific Economic Framework, or IPEF.
Deng said IPEF would be "more complete" if Taiwan was allowed in.
Biden angered China last month when he said the United States would get involved militarily if China were to attack the island, seeming to break with a long-held policy of not making clear how the United States might react. The United States denied any policy change.
CPTPP APPLICATION
The other grouping Taiwan wants to join, and applied to do so in September, is the Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership (CPTPP). China has also applied, and says it opposes Taiwan joining.
Deng said Taiwan would have to wait for Britain's more advanced application to be approved first before member states - Canada, Australia, Brunei, Chile, Japan, Malaysia, Mexico, New Zealand, Peru, Singapore and Vietnam - would consider Taiwan.
"Their answer for now is that Britain is taking up too much manpower," he said, adding a working group to consider Taiwan's application has not been set up.
But Deng said he did not think the CPTPP should have to follow the World Trade Organization model, whereby both Taiwan and China joined at the same time, to avoid any thorny political issues of favouring either party.
"No country has proposed this, not formally," Deng said. "It should be based on merit." (Reuters)
June
Myanmar's shadow government to create its own police force
Written by Nur Yasmin
A parallel government opposed to military rule in Myanmar announced on Tuesday it was forming its own police force, in its latest effort to hamper the junta's efforts to govern after a coup last year.
Myanmar has been in turmoil since the overthrow of Aung San Suu Kyi's elected government, which ended a decade of tentative democracy and sparked nationwide opposition by groups determined to force the generals to cede power.
The military has labelled its opponents "terrorists", including the shadow National Unity Government (NUG), an alliance of anti-junta groups of which many members are in hiding or in self-imposed exile.
The NUG said it was ready to take responsibility for domestic law enforcement with a police force accepted by the people.
Its purpose was "to take lawful action against the terrorist military council for committing human rights violations, war crimes and terrorism acts against the people," the NUG said in a statement.
It is not immediately clear how and when the NUG would form and operate a police force and how many personnel it would recruit. Spokespersons for the NUG and the ruling military council could not immediately be reached by Reuters for comment.
The NUG has since last year led a campaign to raise funds and stifle the military's efforts to consolidate power, ranging from tax boycotts and overseas bond issues to a mock sale of junta chief Min Aung Hlaing's mansion.
The NUG last year called for the public to rise up against the military in a "people's defensive war", announcing the formation of People's Defence Forces, which have battled troops in the countryside.
About 700,000 people have been displaced by fighting and instability in Myanmar since the coup, according to the United Nations. (Reuters)
June
Vietnam's health minister, Hanoi city chief arrested amid anti-graft drive
Written by Nur Yasmin
Vietnam on Tuesday arrested its health minister and the leader of its capital city Hanoi, after the two were accused of violating the ruling Communist Party's rules and allegedly causing losses to the state budget, authorities said.
Nguyen Thanh Long and Chu Ngoc Anh were earlier sacked from their roles as health minister and chairman of the People's Committee of Hanoi. Their arrests come amid an intensifying anti-corruption drive that was launched in 2016.
Dozens of senior health officials have been arrested in recent months, accused of wrongdoings in medical equipment procurement, including COVID-19 test kits. Senior finance and diplomatic officials have also been targeted, and many have faced trials and been jailed.
The National Assembly, the country's lawmaking body, voted on Tuesday to remove Long, 55, from the position of health minister, which he assumed in 2020, the government said in a statement.
Long has been accused of mismanagement and facilitating a local firm to overstate its prices of COVID-19 test kits, according to the statement.
The People's Council of Hanoi held a meeting on Tuesday to unanimously dismiss Anh, who was a minister of science and technology before being appointed as Hanoi chairman in September, 2020.
Long and Anh were also expelled from the Communist Party of Vietnam on Monday, according to another government news release.
The government said Long and Anh have "degraded...political ideology, violated the party's regulations and caused losses to the state budget".
Calls to Long's phone went unanswered, and Anh could also not be reached.
The Ministry of Health has assigned its deputy minister Do Xuan Tuyen as the acting minister, official Vietnam News Agency cited the ministry as saying. Hanoi will be temporarily led by the city's deputy chairman, Le Hong Son. (Reuters)
June
Sri Lanka needs $5 billion, help from China for essentials
Written by Nur Yasmin
Sri Lanka will need $5 billion over the next six months to ensure basic living standards, and is renegotiating the terms of a yuan-denominated swap worth $1.5 billion with China so as to fund essential imports, the prime minister said on Tuesday.
The island nation's worst economic crisis in seven decades led to a shortage of foreign exchange that stalled imports of essential items such as fuel, medicine and fertiliser, provoking devaluation, street protests and a change of government.
To tide over the turmoil, Sri Lanka will need about $3.3 billion for fuel imports, $900 million for food, $250 million for cooking gas and $600 million more for fertiliser this year, Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe told parliament.
The central bank has estimated the economy will contract by 3.5% in 2022, Wickremesinghe said, but added that he was confident growth could return with a strong reform package, debt restructuring and international support.
"Only establishing economic stability is not enough, we have to restructure the entire economy," said Wickremesinghe, who is working on an interim budget to balance battered public finances.
"We need to achieve economic stability by the end of 2023."
The Indian Ocean nation of 22 million is negotiating a loan package worth about $3 billion from the International Monetary Fund, in addition to help from countries such as China, India and Japan.
On Tuesday, the cabinet approved a $55-million credit line from India's Exim Bank to fund 150,000 tonnes of urea imports - a critical requirement as supplies have run out during the current cropping season.
"Farmers do not need to be worried about not having inputs for the next season," cabinet spokesman Bandula Gunawardena told reporters, estimating that 150,000 tons of urea would be needed for the next cultivation cycle.
While food inflation of 57% is partly driven by higher global commodity prices, a depreciated currency and low domestic production, it is estimated that yields from the next harvest will be halved by the lack of fertiliser.
The United Nations is set to make a worldwide public appeal for Sri Lanka on Wednesday, and has pledged $48 million for food, agriculture and health, Wickremesinghe said.
Sri Lanka was also renegotiating with China the terms of a yuan denominated swap worth $1.5 billion agreed last year.
The initial terms provided that the swap could only be used if Sri Lanka maintained reserves equivalent to three months of imports.
But with reserves now well below that level, Sri Lanka has to request China to reconsider the requirement and allow the swap to proceed, Wickremesinghe said.
Wickremesinghe, who is also finance minister, will unveil an interim budget next month that he said aims to slash government expenses and looks to increase annual welfare spending to $500 million from about $350 million. (Reuters)