Day: December 2, 2022

US Designates Iran, China as Countries of Concern Over Religious Freedom

Chin@Strategy

WASHINGTON —  The United States on Friday designated China, Iran and Russia, among others, as countries of particular concern under the Religious Freedom Act over severe violations, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said. In a statement, Blinken said those designated as countries of particular concern, which also include North Korea and Myanmar, engaged in or tolerated severe violations of religious freedom. Algeria, the Central African Republic, Comoros and Vietnam were placed on the watch list. Several groups, including the Kremlin-aligned Wagner Group, a private paramilitary organization that is active…

Vietnamese former prisoner tells of repeated abusive treatment while in detention

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A former prisoner of conscience in Vietnam said she was beaten by guards and repeatedly threatened by the prison warden, who demanded she take off her clothes, banged on her door to wake her and forced her to sing to him. In October 2019, Nguyen Thi Hue was sentenced to 2 ½ years for “abusing the rights to freedom and democracy” after being arrested for protesting a new law on a special economic zones and allegedly harassing police.  During her time in pretrial detention in la Grai district, in Vietnam’s…

VOA Interview December 2: John Kirby

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white house —  VOA White House correspondent Paris Huang spoke with John Kirby, National Security Council (NSC) Coordinator for Strategic Communications, on Friday about protests in China, the Chinese military, Taiwan, South Korea, and the Russian war in Ukraine. The following transcript has been edited for clarity. VOA: We’ll start with the protests happening in China right now, that the world is watching. So, the scale of the protests in China right now is something that we haven’t seen since the Tiananmen Square happened in 1989. The Chinese top security…

North Korea publicly executes 2 teenagers for distributing South Korean movies

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North Korea has publicly executed three teenagers by firing squad – two for watching and distributing South Korean movies and one for murdering his stepmother – two sources who witnessed it told Radio Free Asia. The alleged crimes committed by the teens, estimated to be 16 or 17, were equally evil, authorities told terrified residents, who were forced to watch, the sources said. “They said, ‘Those who watch or distribute South Korean movies and dramas, and those who disrupt social order by murdering other people, will not be forgiven and…

North Korean worker in Laos dies after elevator repair accident

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A North Korean worker in Laos has died after falling while servicing an elevator at the Dansavanh Hotel in downtown Vientiane, sources in the Lao capital told Radio Free Asia. The accident happened at the hotel’s casino on Nov. 14. The man was unconscious when rescue workers arrived and transported him to a hospital in Vientiane province’s Thoulakhom district where he died shortly after, the sources said.  “He was unconscious but was still breathing,” an official from the hospital, who declined to be named, told RFA’s Lao Service Thursday. “CPR…

Australian PM Albanese says trip by MPs to Taiwan ‘not a government visit’

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Asked about the travelling politicians’ intentions, Albanese said: “I have no idea, I’m not going, you should ask them.” The group includes former leader of the National Party Barnaby Joyce, a spokesperson for Joyce confirmed to Reuters on Saturday. Two Labor MPs are also said to be going. Advertisement A Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade spokesperson said politicians from various parties regularly travelled to Taiwan before the Covid-19 pandemic and the current delegation “represents a resumption of that activity”. The group will reportedly meet with Taiwan President Tsai Ing-wen…

Huge nuclear arms push by China would worry neighbours, analysts warn, as US report sees 1,500 warheads by 2035

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Another element is strengthening the People’s Liberation Army’s strategic deterrence capabilities, it added. China is fast boosting its nuclear power and is on track to nearly quadruple its number of warheads to 1,500 by 2035, thus rapidly closing its gap with the US, the report said. Advertisement Dismissing the claim, the Chinese foreign ministry said the exaggerated number is Washington’s excuse to develop its own military power. The US, by comparison, currently has 3,750 active nuclear warheads. Zhou Chenming, a researcher from the Yuan Wang military science and technology think…

UN rights chief slams Myanmar death penalty cases

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More than 130 people have been sentenced to death in secret closed-door trials held by Myanmar’s military junta since it seized power last year, a top U.N. official said Friday, calling the pattern a “political tool to crush opposition.” The closed-door trials are a violation of people’s basic right to due process and a fair trial, U.N. human rights chief Volker Türk said. Death sentences have been handed out to 139 people since the military seized power, Türk said, with the regime carrying out its first executions in about three…

Myanmar’s Archbishop calls for dialogue after military raid on his home village

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Myanmar’s Catholic Archbishop has called for a peaceful solution to the country’s political crisis following a brutal attack by the military on his home village in embattled Sagaing region, despite public criticism over his dealings with the junta. Speaking to RFA Burmese on Thursday, Cardinal Charles Maung Bo, Archbishop of the Catholic Episcopal Church of Myanmar, said he was deeply saddened by the bloody Nov. 23 raid on his home village of Mon Hla in Sagaing’s Khin-U township. A 7-year-old child, a 40-year-old woman, and a 30-year-old man – all…