Hong Kong will allow children age 12 and above to receive the Pfizer coronavirus vaccine as it seeks to boost immunization rates in the city. Government officials said Thursday they will offer the vaccine to about 240,000 children from 12 to 15 years old starting Friday, joining other countries that have started vaccinating children. The move comes as Hong Kong is urging its 7.5 million population to get inoculated. Since its vaccination drive began in late February, just over 15% of the population has been fully vaccinated. The city has seen widespread vaccine hesitancy due to a mistrust of the government and outsized fears of side effects after several people died following inoculations, despite a determination that the deaths were not directly related to the vaccine. “The government attaches high importance to getting adolescents and students vaccinated, and it is the government’s hope that more students, parents and teachers will be vaccinated,” said Secretary for the Civil Service Patrick Nip. Since they are below 18, children must obtain parental approval before they can be vaccinated. Health minister Sophia Chan urged parents to let their children get vaccinated to “help them to go back to school for their normal lives as soon as possible.” Students in kindergarten through secondary school are currently attending only half-day classes as part of preventive measures during the pandemic. The semi-autonomous Chinese city is offering the Pfizer vaccine — better known as BioNTech in the city — and the Chinese-made Sinovac vaccine. Hong Kong officials say those wanting to receive the Pfizer vaccine must do so by the end of August before the doses expire, and that vaccination centers administering the Pfizer vaccine will cease operations in September. The private sector is offering a slew of incentives to encourage people to get vaccinated. Companies are offering gold bars, a Tesla car and even an apartment in lucky draws open to vaccinated residents. Hong Kong ended a 6-week streak with no local infections last week when a 17-year-old girl tested positive despite having no travel history. Her mother and sister later also tested positive. 
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Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin rolled out a departmentwide effort Wednesday aimed at more effectively addressing China as the “pacing challenge” for the U.S. military.While some of the initiatives will remain classified, defense officials told reporters the effort puts new organizational structures in place to better prioritize competition with China and to make sure the challenges in the Indo-Pacific region are “gaining the attention they deserve.”
“It’s an assessment of how the department’s doing with respect to truly treating China as the number one pacing challenge, and the task force found some gaps and seams, some things that we could be doing better,” Pentagon press secretary John Kirby said.The effort is not a “new strategy or change of direction from where the Biden administration has been to date,” according to another defense official who spoke to reporters Wednesday.“This directive from the secretary is ultimately about getting the department’s house in order, ensuring that the department lives up to the stated prioritization of China as the number one pacing challenge,” the defense official said.The initiatives are based on the Pentagon’s China Task Force, which was established in February to review the department’s China-related policies and spotlight top priorities. The group reviewed thousands of pages of documents, interviewed current and former defense officials, and consulted other government agencies along with Congress, according to officials.FILE – Ensign Grayson Sigler of Corpus Christi, Texas, watches from the pilot house as the USS John S. McCain conducts operations in the Taiwan Strait, Dec. 30, 2020. China accused the U.S. of staging a show of force in the strait. (U.S. Navy)’Ascending power’During his confirmation hearing in January, Austin told lawmakers China is an “ascending power” and “the most concerning competitor that we’re facing.”U.S. officials have consistently raised concerns about what they say is China’s industrial espionage, its theft of biomedical information and the potential manipulation of technology, like 5G cellular networks.Bradley Bowman, a defense expert with the Foundation for Defense of Democracies, told VOA that anything the Pentagon does “to bring a more laser focus” on resourcing and strategy on China is a good thing.However, he criticized the Pentagon effort for lacking “the simple things” such as “giving the Indo-PACOM [Indo-Pacific] commander what he says he needs.”“Unfortunately, in the budget request that just went to [Capitol] Hill a short while back, many of the things that Indo-PACOM said that it needs were either absent or underfunded,” Bowman said.VOA’s Jeff Seldin contributed to this report.
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U.N. agencies have commended the Indonesian government for offering a safe haven to dozens of Rohingya refugees who have been stranded at sea for months.Ninety Rohingya embarked on their ill-fated journey from Cox’s Bazar, Bangladesh in the first week of February.  Nine refugees reportedly had died by the time their harrowing four-month odyssey came to an end last Friday.   Spokesman for the U.N. Migration Agency Paul Dillon said the boat ran into trouble almost immediately after it set sail. He said the engine broke down leaving the group adrift at sea and putting the refugees’ lives at risk.“They ran into engine trouble again near East Aceh last week. Local fishermen discovered their stranded vessel and brought them to safety. Upon disembarkation, the local government of Aceh officials immediately conducted rapid COVID-19 tests and COVID-19 vaccinations were subsequently provided to all of the arrivals,” he said.Dillon said his agency is providing food, drinking water and medical support to the 81 Rohingya who survived the journey. He said the group consists of 45 women, 17 men and 19 children.U.N. refugee spokesman Babar Balloch said the UNHCR and humanitarian partners also are onsite to provide additional support and to ensure that refugee needs are met.Rohingya Muslims rest on a beach after their boat was stranded on Idaman Island in East Aceh, Indonesia, June 4, 2021.He notes this is not the first time Rohingya refugees at sea have been rescued by the communities and local authorities in Aceh, Indonesia. He praises them for providing a lifeline to the desperate people, noting not all nations are as humane.“It is both a humanitarian imperative and an international obligation to provide vessels in distress with life-saving assistance and disembarkation to a place of safety…Vulnerable women, children and men should not be left to the mercy of the high seas,” said Balloch.Hundreds of thousands of Rohingya fled to Bangladesh to escape violence and persecution in Myanmar in 2017. Human rights officials say thousands of refugees flee the overcrowded camps in Cox’s Bazar every year in hopes of achieving a better life in countries such as Malaysia and Thailand.The International Organization for Migration says roughly 1,400 Rohingya found themselves stranded at sea during the 2020 sailing season, which ended with the arrival of the monsoons in early June. It says at least 130 Rohingya are reported to have died.
 
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Officials in Australia have confirmed the discovery of a previously undiscovered species of dinosaur, the largest ever found on the continent, and one of the largest to have ever lived.A study published Monday in the scientific journal Paleontology and Evolutionary Science describes how bones originally discovered in 2006 have been officially designated as Australotitan Cooperensis, a giant sauropod, a type of long-necked plant-eating dinosaur.Queensland Museum paleontologist Scott Hocknull told reporters Tuesday the animal stood five to six-and-a-half meters high and was 25 to 30 meters long from head to tail.The dinosaur is known as Australotitan for short, and affectionately as “Cooper” by the members of the team that conducted the study. The bones were originally discovered on a family farm in 2006 about 1,000 kilometers west of Brisbane in the Eromanga Basin.The team of paleontologists, geologists and volunteers spent 15 years studying the bones using 3-D digital scanning technology to compare the dinosaur with its close relatives, to determine and confirm what they had found. Hocknull said, “We compared Australotitan’s bones to all of these gigantic sauropods and it’s in the top 10 to 15.”The bones had been on display in the museum since 2007 pending the results of the study.That part of the titanosaur family lived about 100 million years ago. The Queensland Museum says they were the last surviving group of long-necked sauropod dinosaurs and the largest known land-dwelling animals to have ever lived.
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Australia is facing renewed calls to introduce fresh sanctions on the military government in Myanmar to help free a Sydney academic. Sean Turnell, an economic adviser to the Southeast Asian nation’s ousted de facto leader Aung San Suu Kyi, remains in prison after being arrested earlier this year.Colleagues and associates regard Australian academic Sean Turnell as a devoted friend to the people of Myanmar.  He grew up in Macquarie Fields, a working-class suburb of Sydney. His first job was at the Reserve Bank of Australia at age 19. He said his “great passion was money and banking.” He later became an academic at Macquarie University, specializing in research on the Myanmar economy.  He is a professor of economics and the highly regarded author of Fiery Dragons, a history of the financial sector in Myanmar. He has also advised the United States Congress on the Southeast Asian nation.  Turnell has been an adviser to various international agencies. His expertise and dedication caught the attention of Aung San Suu Kyi, the leader of Myanmar’s National League for Democracy party. Turnell has been a long-serving economic aide to Suu Kyi. Both were arrested following February’s military takeover in Myanmar. They have reportedly been charged with breaking the country’s official secrets law. Earlier this year, hundreds of academics signed a petition demanding his release, describing Turnell as the “nicest human you will ever meet.” His wife, Ha Vu, is also an academic at Macquarie University. She said she was “distraught” about his detention. His family said he had “fallen in love” with Myanmar. The military crackdown against the pro-democracy movement is reported to have killed more than 800 people. Several thousand people have been arrested.   Australia has been criticized for not doing enough to secure Turnell’s release. The Australian Council for International Development, an umbrella organization for international aid agencies, has said that while the United States, Britain, Canada and the European Union have imposed sanctions on senior Myanmar military officials since February, Canberra has not. Tim Harcourt, a friend of Turnell’s and an economist at the University of Technology Sydney, believes Turnell is being treated well in prison. “I understand it that Sean has been allowed to talk to his wife and he is reasonably healthy and getting along with all the guards and things.  But obviously the legal situation is not real good,” Harcourt said.There has been no comment from Australian Foreign Minister Marise Payne. She has previously called for Turnell’s release, describing him as a “highly regarded member of the academic community in Australia.”   Myanmar, formerly known as Burma, was controlled by a repressive military government from 1962 to 2011. A government effectively led by Suu Kyi came to power after elections in 2015.  Myanmar has a population of about 57 million people. It borders the Andaman Sea and the Bay of Bengal, between Thailand and Bangladesh.  
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Analysts say a rare burst of anger from Malaysia over the flight of Chinese air force planes near its airspace and a coast guard vessel spotted in a disputed waterway indicates Beijing has crossed a line with Kuala Lumpur in its slow maritime expansion. Malaysia’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs said in a June 1 statement it would summon the Chinese ambassador over 16 People’s Liberation Army Air Force planes that flew over a Malaysian “maritime zone.” Malaysia’s air force scrambled its own jets to push China’s planes out. Days later, a Malaysian Maritime Enforcement Agency official said a Chinese coast guard ship had been seen 156 kilometers from shore, according to the Borneo Post domestic news website. Malaysia normally keeps quiet or protests out of public view when the militarily stronger China passes ships into waters Kuala Lumpur sees as its own. Aircraft sightings are less common. It “bends over backwards to accommodate” China because of their deep economic relationship, said Oh Ei Sun, senior fellow with the Singapore Institute of International Affairs.  China has been Malaysia’s top trading partner for the past 12 years and a source of investment in domestic infrastructure. Steady coast guard presence But Malaysian officials have long simmered privately as Chinese coast guard ships frequent waters in their exclusive economic zone north of Borneo, said Alexander Vuving, a professor at the Daniel K. Inouye Asia-Pacific Center for Security Studies in Hawaii. The coast guard has kept a regular presence there since 2013, he estimates. Malaysia drills for natural gas in those waters, which are part of the 3.5 million-square-kilometer South China Sea. China says 90% of the sea, including the tract that its coast guard patrols, falls under its flag.  The two Asian nations entered into a standoff in November after a Chinese coast guard ship stationed itself near Luconia Shoals north of Borneo, the same tract where the vessel appeared this month. Malaysia says those waters belong to a maritime exclusive economic zone.China and Malaysia, Usually Friends, Land in Another Maritime Standoff The Royal Malaysian navy is tailing a Chinese coast guard vessel that sailed unusually close to Malaysia, analysts say Malaysian statements June 8 about the Chinese coast guard show the frequency of those vessels is “getting a bit too much,” Oh said.  Domestic media outlets quoted the maritime enforcement agency official saying his agency and the Malaysian navy were “monitoring the situation closely.” Malaysia cannot do much against China militarily because Chinese forces are stronger, analysts agree. “What can they do?” said Shariman Lockman, senior foreign policy and security studies analyst with the Institute of Strategic and International Studies in Malaysia. This month’s tiffs will mark a “really bad patch” in relations, he said. 
 
“Those Chinese ships are always there,” Lockman said. “They come and go but they have a permanent presence at Luconia Shoals. Obviously, this is an irritant in the relationship. It is not appreciated by the Malaysian government.” 
 Exercises with a U.S. carrier groupChina is probably giving Malaysia a “stress test” after it joined the United States, Beijing’s rival superpower, for military air exercises in April, Oh said. The USS Theodore Roosevelt Carrier Strike Group carried out the exercises in the South China Sea alongside Malaysia’s air force. “This is the Chinese simultaneously signaling their unhappiness to Malaysia and also flexing muscle to the U.S.,” Oh said. China hopes to take more control over the wider sea bit by bit, Vuving said. “I think it’s another slice in the salami,” he said. “China’s end goal in the South China Sea is to control the water and the skies, so every day they advance a little.” Brunei, the Philippines, Taiwan and Vietnam claim all or parts of the same sea as well. They prize the waterway for its undersea fuel reserves and rich fishing grounds. China has alarmed the others by landfilling tiny islets over the past decade for military installations.  Vietnam and the Philippines speak out against China when its ships, planes or oil rigs overlap their offshore economic zones. The United States has no claim in the South China Sea but counts Malaysia, the Philippines and Taiwan as allies. U.S. officials regularly pan China over its expansion in the waterway, sparking angry rebuttals from Beijing. The United States passed navy ships through the sea 10 times in 2019 and another 10 times last year. 
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Three journalists from military-ruled Myanmar who were convicted of illegal entry after they fled to Thailand have been sent to a third country where they are safe, their employer said Monday.The three staff members of the Democratic Voice of Burma, better known as DVB, were arrested on May 9 in the northern Thai province of Chiang Mai along with two other people from Myanmar described as activists. On May 28, they each were fined $128 (4,000 baht) and sentenced to seven months’ imprisonment, suspended for a year.Rights groups and journalists’ associations had urged Thai authorities not to send them back to Myanmar, where it was feared their safety would be at risk from the authorities. Thailand’s government has relatively cordial relations with Myanmar’s military regime.Myanmar’s junta seized power in February by ousting the elected government of Aung San Suu Kyi, and has attempted to crush widespread opposition to its takeover with a brutal crackdown that has left hundreds dead. The junta has tried to silence independent news media by withdrawing their licenses and by arresting journalists.All five people convicted in Chiang Mai of illegal entry left Thailand recently for the third country, DVB’s executive director and chief editor, Aye Chan Naing, said in an emailed statement. Without elaborating, he said he could not mention where they had been sent “as the entire case remains very sensitive.”
 
He expressed gratitude to “everyone in Thailand and around the world that helped to make their safe passage possible and for campaigning for a positive outcome,” and he said the employees would resume their duties in the near future after “recovering from their ordeal.”At least two other DVB journalists have been sentenced to prison for their reporting. DVB, an independent broadcast and online news agency, was among five local media outlets that were banned in March from broadcasting or publishing after their licenses were canceled. Like other banned media outlets, it continued operating.According to Myanmar’s Assistance Association for Political Prisoners, about 90 journalists have been arrested since the takeover, with more than half still in detention, and 33 in hiding. Those still being held include two U.S. citizens, Danny Fenster and Nathan Maung, who worked for Myanmar media.Secretary of State Antony Blinken said the U.S. has had contact with Maung in detention but has not yet had consular access to Fenster. “We are pressing this in every way that we can,” Blinken said in congressional testimony Monday in Washington.He reiterated the U.S. was working on trying to bring the detained journalists home.Fenster, the managing editor of the news and business magazine Frontier Myanmar, was detained at the Yangon airport while trying to head to the Detroit area to see his family.Maung is editor in chief of the Myanmar news website Kamayut Media. New York-based Committee to Protect Journalists, citing accounts in Myanmar media, said Maung was arrested in March.
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North Korean leader Kim Jong Un gathered his senior advisors Monday to discuss his economic policies ahead of a key meeting of the North’s ruling party. State-owned Korean Central News Agency released a statement and said Kim laid out a plan to usher in “tangible change in stabilizing” the state economy and people’s living conditions. The statement did not provide any specifics of Kim Jong Un’s plans. The ruling Workers’ Party powerful Central Committee is set to meet in early June to review overall state affairs for the first half of 2021 and to determine what measures to enact to solve pending economic issues.   According to South Korea’s Yonhap news agency, an unnamed official in the South’s Unification Ministry says Monday’s meeting marked the first time the North has held such a consultative meeting under the current leader.   North Korea’s economy has been crippled by decades of mismanagement, U.S.-led economic sanctions over the North’s nuclear weapons program, and strict border controls it imposed at the start of the COVID-19 global pandemic. The secretive regime has yet to confirm any COVID-19 cases.  
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A global sting involving an encrypted communications platform developed by the FBI has sparked raids and arrests around the world, delivering “an unprecedented blow” to crime gangs, law enforcement authorities said Tuesday.Operation Trojan Shield involved police swoops in 16 nations. More than 800 suspects were arrested and more than 32 tons of drugs — cocaine, cannabis, amphetamines and methamphetamines were seized along with 250 firearms, 55 luxury cars and more than $148 million in cash and cryptocurrencies.”Operation Trojan Shield is a shining example of what can be accomplished when international law enforcement partners from around the world work together and develop state-of-the-art investigative tools to detect, disrupt and dismantle transnational criminal organizations,” Calvin Shivers, assistant director of the FBI’s Criminal Investigative Division, said at a news conference in The Hague.It was, said Australian Federal Police Commander Jennifer Hearst, “a watershed moment in global law enforcement history.”Dutch National Police Chief Constable Jannine van den Berg said the operation dealt “an unprecedented blow to criminal networks, and this is worldwide.”The seeds of the operations were sown when law enforcement agencies earlier took down two other encrypted platforms, EncroChat and Sky ECC. That meant crime gangs which traffic drugs and organize underworld hits around the world were in the market for new secure phones.The FBI had just what they needed. An app called ANOM that was installed on modified mobile phones.”There was a void that was created by a lack of these encrypted platforms,” said Shivers. “So that created an opportunity for collaboration with our international partners, to not only develop the specific tool but also to develop the process of gathering the intelligence and disseminating the intelligence.”The app formed the backbone of Trojan Shield, an operation led by the FBI that also involved the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration, the European Union police agency Europol and law enforcement agencies in more than a dozen countries.The ANOM app was popular and got more popular as criminals told one another it was a safe platform. Over the past 18 months, the FBI provided encrypted devices to more than 300 crime gangs operating in more than 100 countries. That allowed police to look over the shoulders of criminals as they discussed hits, drug shipments and other crimes.Intelligence gathered and analyzed “enabled us to prevent murders. It led to the seizure of drugs that led to the seizure of weapons. And it helped prevent a number of crimes,” Shivers said.Earlier Tuesday, authorities in Australia and New Zealand said they’d dealt a huge blow to organized crime after hundreds of criminals were tricked into using the messaging app.In this undated photo supplied by the New Zealand police, a bag of marijuana is displayed during a police raid as part of Operation Trojan.Australian authorities said they arrested 224 people and seized more than four tons of drugs and $35 million in an ongoing operation that dates back three years. New Zealand police said they had arrested 35 people and seized drugs and assets worth millions of dollars.”Today, the Australian government, as part of a global operation, has struck a heavy blow against organized crime,” Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison told reporters. “Not just in this country, but one that will echo around organized crime around the world.”European police last year delivered a major blow to organized crime after cracking an encrypted communications network, known as EncroChat, used by criminal gangs across the continent.In March, Belgian police arrested dozens of people after cracking another encrypted chat system, called Sky ECC, and seizing more than 17 tons of cocaine.The latest operation went even further.”The success of Operation Trojan Shield is a result of tremendous innovation, dedication and unprecedented international collaboration,” Shivers said. “And the results are staggering.”
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The United States renewed its call to “get to the bottom of” the origins of COVID-19, singling out China for bending international organizations to its worldview as the U.S. restores its annual contributions to the World Health Organization.On Monday, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken told the FILE – Secretary of State Antony Blinken, June 3, 2021.”What we’ve seen, more than unfortunately, from the PRC (People’s Republic of China) since the beginning of this crisis is a failure to meet its basic responsibilities in terms of sharing information and providing access,” Blinken said, stopping short of elaborating on what the U.S. would do to pressure China for a full-access investigation. “WHO is in need of reform,” he added, stressing that the U.S. is reengaging in the WHO in hopes to “prevent, detect and mitigate” the next pandemic.In Geneva, a senior WHO official said the organization cannot force the Beijing government to provide more information on the origins of the coronavirus.”WHO doesn’t have the power to compel anyone in this regard,” said Mike Ryan, executive director of the organization’s emergencies program, at a press conference on Monday, Reuters reported.Ryan said the organization will propose necessary studies to take the understanding of COVID-19 origins to the “next level.”While not weighing in on the origins of COVID-19, Blinken pointed out there are “two possible and likely scenarios”: one is that “it emerged from the laboratory; the other is that it was naturally occurring.”The U.S. is distributing the first 25 million doses of its committed 80 million excess doses of COVID-19 vaccines to Asia, Africa and Latin America, while China is actively pushing Beijing’s “vaccine diplomacy,” positioning itself as the dominant provider of COVID-19 vaccinations to other countries.  “We are moving out as expeditiously as we possibly can in getting the vaccines out there, including to Taiwan,” Blinken said. The U.S. promised to give Taiwan 750,000 doses of COVID-19 vaccine.On Sunday, a bipartisan trio of U.S. senators — Democrat Christopher Coons of Delaware, Democrat Tammy Duckworth of Illinois and Republican Dan Sullivan of Alaska — visited Taiwan, signaling Washington’s support to secure vaccines for the self-ruled democracy as it battles a spike in domestic coronavirus cases.US Donates 750,000 COVID Shots to TaiwanBoris Johnson to ask world leaders to ‘vaccinate the world’ by end of 2022In Beijing, Chinese officials pushed back, accusing the U.S. of politicalizing the coronavirus origins investigation.”Tracing the origin of the virus is a scientific matter that should be studied by scientists worldwide in collaboration, rather than be politicized,” said Wang Wenbin, a spokesperson for China’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs.“The WHO released the report of the WHO-China joint study of the origins in March. Compiled in line with WHO procedures and following science-based methods, it was an authoritative and scientific report,” Wang said Monday during a briefing.In late May, Biden instructed U.S. federal agencies to “redouble” efforts to collect and analyze information that “could bring us closer to a definitive conclusion” amid growing speculation that COVID-19 might have leaked from a Chinese laboratory.U.S. officials have stressed for months that a lack of cooperation from the government in Beijing hinders outside efforts to learn more about the origins of the coronavirus that has killed at least 3.4 million people worldwide, including nearly 600,000 in the United States.Biden Orders Fresh Intelligence Report on COVID-19 OriginAmid growing speculation that COVID-19 might have leaked from Chinese laboratory, president tells US intelligence community to report back to him in 90 daysThe United States is proposing $2.8 billion in foreign assistance to advance human rights, fight corruption and strengthen democracies. The State Department has requested $300 million for the National Endowment for Democracy.Last week, Biden signed an executive order to ban American investments in 59 Chinese companies that undermine the security or democratic values of the U.S. and its allies. The move expands a Trump-era list of Chinese companies blacklisted for their alleged ties to the country’s military. Biden Expands List of Sanctioned Chinese Firms A new executive order signed Thursday will take effect August 2On Monday, Blinken told American lawmakers that the Biden administration is building more resilient and diversified supply chains, including those of 5G and surveillance technology.The U.S. is also consulting with allies on a “shared approach” to the 2022 Winter Olympics in Beijing amid calls to boycott the Chinese Communist Party over human rights abuses.”More on that in weeks to come,” Blinken said during the House Foreign Affairs Committee hearing.China is scheduled to host the next Winter Olympics in February 2022. But the CCP is under international scrutiny over crushing the democratic opposition in Hong Kong and using practices that the U.S. deems genocide against ethnic minorities in Xinjiang, an allegation that China has rejected.VOA’s White House correspondent Steve Herman contributed to this story. 
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Health authorities in Thailand began their much-anticipated mass rollout of locally produced AstraZeneca vaccines on Monday, but it appeared that supplies were falling short of demand from patients who had scheduled vaccinations for this week. Hospitals in various parts of the country have been posting notices for several days that some scheduled appointments would be delayed, adding to existing public skepticism about how many doses Siam Bioscience would be able to produce each month.  The government has said it will produce 6 million doses in June, then 10 million doses each month from July to November, and 5 million doses in December. “The vaccines will be delivered as planned,” Prime Minister Prayuth Chan-ocha told reporters Monday morning as he paid a visit to a vaccination station at an indoor stadium in the capital, Bangkok. Prayuth’s government has come under fierce criticism for failure to secure timely and sufficient vaccine supplies. It also faces criticism for its reliance on Siam Bioscience, which is owned by the country’s king and had no previous experience in vaccine production. A person receives the first dose of the AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccine as Thailand starts a mass inoculation at a gymnasium inside the Siam paragon Shopping center, Bangkok, Thailand, June 7, 2021.Prayuth said the Health Ministry had confirmed that vaccinations could begin Monday in every province, and vaccines would be allocated according to the infection rate in each area. Opas Karnkawinpong, director-general of the Department of Disease Control, reported that 143,116 people nationwide had received vaccinations Monday by midday, about half of them 60 years of age or older. The stadium vaccination station Prayuth visited can provide 1,500 shots a day, said Mongkon Wanitphakdeedecha, director of Vichaivej International Hospital, who was supervising the operation. He said they have three days’ supply on hand, but he did not know if other sites had enough for more than one day. One of the people getting vaccinated there was Kanokarn Chueboonchart, who said afterward that she felt no side effects. “I am working at a bank and I must meet with customers,” she said. “So now that I have received the shot, I feel a bit better, knowing that the vaccine will give me some protection.” Thailand last year had been considered a success story in containing the spread of the virus and limiting the number of related deaths. It had originally planned to obtain supplies to cover just 20% of the country’s 69 million people, with most available only in the second half of this year. However, a surge of the coronavirus beginning in April has been devastating and underlined the need for a more ambitious vaccination campaign. The surge has accounted for 84% of the 179,886 total confirmed cases in Thailand since January 2020, and 92.5% of the total of 1,269 related deaths. The government has now targeted vaccinating 70% of the population this year, a figure believed to confer herd immunity against the disease. As of Monday, Thailand had reported giving a total of 4.22 million vaccinations, with just more than 4% of the country’s 70 million people receiving at least one jab. The government has been scrambling to obtain additional supplies to supplement the Chinese-made Sinovac it has been using so far and the AstraZeneca now coming onstream. It has said it has been in negotiations with Pfizer and Johnson & Johnson. China has supplied 6.5 million doses of Sinovac to Thailand, including 500,000 doses that arrived Saturday. Siam Bioscience was reported to have delivered its first 1.8 million doses to AstraZeneca’s local office last Wednesday, which were then turned over to the Health Ministry on Friday. Up-to-date data on how much had been delivered by Monday to the various provinces was not available. 
 
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U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken welcomed a pledge by a shadow government in Myanmar to address discrimination and human rights abuses against minority Rohingya Muslims.Blinken said in a tweet Sunday that the pledge by the National Unity Government (NUG) is “an important signal to all those working for an inclusive, democratic future.”The NUG, set up by a group of ousted lawmakers in Myanmar, called last week for the Rohingya to help it overthrow the military government, promising the group citizenship in a future democratic state.”We invite Rohingyas to join hands with us and with others to participate in this Spring Revolution against the military dictatorship,” the group said in a statement.Protesters hold posters in support of the National Unity Government (NUG) during a demonstration against the military coup on “Global Myanmar Spring Revolution Day” in Taunggyi, Shan state on May 2, 2021.Myanmar has been in turmoil since the military seized power in a February 1 coup, overthrowing a democratic government led by Aung San Suu Kyi.A local monitoring group says security forces have killed at least 800 protesters and bystanders since the coup. Military leaders dispute the figures.The military government has labeled members of the NUG shadow government as terrorists. The NUG is made up of ousted lawmakers, mostly from Suu Kyi’s National League for Democracy.The NUG has promised to repeal a 1982 law that denies citizenship to most Rohingya, and it said it was committed to repatriating more than 740,000 Rohingya who have fled to neighboring Bangladesh.Muhammed Taher, a Rohingya teacher living in a Bangladesh refugee camp, told the VOA Rohingya Lifeline program that he welcomes the NUG’s comments and that he is thankful the shadow government used the term “Rohingya” in its statement. Myanmar’s government has generally avoided using the term, referring to the group as “Muslims living in Rakhine” state.Taher, however, said that he has “no confidence” that the NUG would restore the citizenship rights of the Rohingya, and he noted that the shadow government has not included representatives from the group in its government.FILE – A Myanmar security officer walks past burned Rohingya houses in Ka Nyin Tan village of suburb Maungdaw, northern Rakhine state of western Myanmar, Sept. 6, 2017.Largely Buddhist, Myanmar has long faced criticism of its treatment of the Rohingya minority. The United Nations has accused the military of carrying out a campaign against the Rohingya with “genocidal intent.”Suu Kyi defended the military’s conduct while she was still in power, coming under international criticism. She argued that Myanmar’s security forces had carried out legitimate operations against Rohingya insurgents when the refugees went to Bangladesh.Last month, junta leader Min Aung Hlaing cast doubt on the return of Rohingya Muslims from Bangladesh, according to Reuters news agency.The Reuters news agency cited a transcript of an interview that Min Aung Hlaing gave to Chinese-language Phoenix Television, in which he was asked whether the Rohingya would be allowed back to Myanmar’s Rakhine state.”If it doesn’t comply with Myanmar’s laws, what else is there to consider? I don’t believe there is any country in the world that would go beyond their own country’s refugee laws to accept refugees,” Min Aung Hlaing responded.VOA’s Bangla Service contributed to this report. 
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A South Korean court on Monday rejected a claim by dozens of wartime Korean factory workers and their relatives who sought compensation from 16 Japanese companies for their slave labor during Japan’s colonial occupation of Korea.
    
The decision by the Seoul Central District Court appeared to run against landmark Supreme Court rulings in 2018 that ordered Nippon Steel and Mitsubishi Heavy Industries to compensate Korean forced laborers.  
    
It largely aligns with the position maintained by the Japanese government, which insists all wartimes compensation issues were settled under a 1965 treaty normalizing relations between the two nations.
    
A total of 85 plaintiffs had sought a combined $7.7 million in damages against 16 Japanese companies, including Nippon Steel, Nissan Chemical and Mitsubishi Heavy Industries.  
    
The court dismissed their civil lawsuit after concluding the 1965 treaty doesn’t allow South Korean citizens to pursue legal action against the Japanese government or nationals over wartime grievances. Accepting the plaintiffs’ claim would violate international legal principles that countries cannot use domestic law as justification for failures to perform a treaty, the court said.  
    
Some plaintiffs told reporters outside court they planned to appeal. An emotional Lim Chul-ho, 85, the son of a deceased forced laborer, said the court made a “pathetic” decision that should have never happened.  
    
“Are they really South Korean judges? Is this really a South Korean court?” he asked. “We don’t need a country or government that doesn’t protect its own people.”
    
South Korea’s Foreign Ministry said in a statement that it respects the decisions by domestic courts and is willing to engage in talks with Tokyo to find “rational” solutions that can satisfy both governments and the wartime victims.  
    
It wasn’t immediately clear how the ruling would affect diplomacy between the estranged U.S allies, which have faced pressure from the Biden administration to repair relations that sank to post-war lows during the Trump years over history and trade disputes.
    
The Seoul court in April had issued a similar ruling on a claim by Korean victims of Japanese wartime sexual slavery and their relatives, another sticking point in bilateral relations. The court in that ruling denied their claim for compensation from Japan’s government, citing diplomatic considerations and principles of international law that grant countries immunity from the jurisdiction of foreign courts.  
    
Relations between Seoul and Tokyo have been strained since the Supreme Court in 2018 ordered Nippon Steel and Mitsubishi Heavy Industries to compensate Korean forced laborers. Those rulings led to further tensions over trade when Japan put export controls on chemicals vital to South Korea’s semiconductor industry in 2019.  
    
Seoul accused Tokyo of weaponizing trade and threatened to terminate a military intelligence-sharing agreement with Tokyo that is a major symbol of their three-way security cooperation with Washington. South Korea eventually backed off and kept the deal after being pressured by the Trump administration, which until then seemed content to let its allies escalate their feud in public.
    
South Korea’s tone on Japan has softened since the inauguration of President Joe Biden, who has been stepping up efforts to bolster three-way cooperation between the countries that declined under Donald Trump’s “America first” approach, to coordinate action in the face of China’s growing influence and North Korea’s nuclear threat.
    
South Korean President Moon Jae-in in a nationally televised speech in March said his government was eager to build “future-oriented” ties with Japan and said that the countries should not allow their wartime past to hold them back. 
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Australia’s most decorated Afghanistan veteran will deny alleged war crimes Monday at the start of his high-stakes defamation trial against one of the country’s biggest media companies. Ben Roberts-Smith will seek to prove he was unfairly portrayed in newspaper stories as having broken the moral and legal rules of war. He is seeking damages in Australia’s Federal Court from Nine Entertainment Co. and three journalists. Newspaper reports in 2018 alleged Ben Roberts-Smith murdered a man in Afghanistan and encouraged his colleagues to drink beer from his victim’s prosthetic leg. He was also accused of killing an unarmed Afghan shepherd by kicking him off a cliff and ordering his fellow soldiers to shoot him. The former Special Air Service Regiment (SAS) trooper, who received the Victoria Cross, Australia’s highest military honor, in 2011, has denied any wrongdoing. He said articles published by The Age, The Sydney Morning Herald and The Canberra Times newspapers portrayed him as a war criminal who disgraced his country by murdering Afghan civilians. Roberts-Smith said the stories were “baseless” and “flawed.” His lawyer told the hearing Monday that he was “an exceptional soldier” but was the victim of “dishonest journalism” and “corrosive jealousy and lies.” The trial in Sydney is expected to hear from about 60 witnesses over the next ten weeks. Current and former members of Australia’s special forces are scheduled to give evidence anonymously. Other witnesses will testify via a video link from a law firm in Kabul. Associate professor Ben Wadham, a military historian from Flinders University, told the Australian Broadcasting Corp., the case goes to heart of Australia’s conduct during times of conflict. “It has brought into tension that question about: does everything and anything go in war, or do we actually have some responsibility to these higher values, and shouldn’t we be upholding them?” Wadham said.Last November, a landmark inquiry into Australian special forces in Afghanistan found “credible evidence” of the “murder” of 39 prisoners, farmers, or other civilians.  A lengthy investigation examined claims of unlawful killings and other possible breaches by Australia’s elite special forces in Afghanistan between 2005 and 2016. Ben Roberts-Smith left the army in 2013 and is currently the general manager of the Seven Network, a media company, in Brisbane and regional Queensland. 
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A slew of crypto-related accounts in China’s Twitter-like Weibo platform were blocked over the weekend, as Beijing stepped up a crackdown on bitcoin trading and mining. More actions are expected, including linking illegal crypto activities in China more directly with the country’s criminal law, according to analysts and a financial regulator. Last month, China’s State Council, or cabinet, vowed to crack down on bitcoin mining and trading, escalating a campaign against cryptocurrencies days after three industry bodies banned crypto-related financial and payment services. Over the weekend, access to several of widely followed crypto-related Weibo accounts was denied, with a message saying each account “violates laws and rules.” “It’s a Judgment Day for crypto KOL,” wrote a Weibo bitcoin commentator, or key opinion leader (KOL), who calls herself “Woman Dr. bitcoin mini.” Her main account was also blocked on Saturday. “The government makes it clear that no Chinese version of Elon Musk can exist in the Chinese crypto market,” said NYU Law School adjunct professor Winston Ma, referring to the Tesla founder and cryptocurrency enthusiast. Ma, author of the book “The Digital War,” also expects China’s supreme court to publish a judicial interpretation soon that may link crypto mining and trading businesses with China’s body of criminal law. The view was echoed by a financial regulator, who said that such an interpretation would address the legal ambiguity that has failed to clearly identify bitcoin trading businesses as “illegal operations.” All the rules against cryptocurrencies so far in China have been published by administrative bodies. The Weibo freeze comes as Chinese media have stepped up reporting against crypto trading. The official Xinhua News Agency has published articles that exposed a series of crypto-related scams. State broadcaster CCTV has said cryptocurrency is a lightly regulated asset often used in black market trade, money laundering, arms smuggling, gambling and drug dealings. The stepped-up crackdown also comes as China’s central bank is accelerating testing of its own digital currency. 
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Thailand is concerned by the violence in many parts of Myanmar and wants to see the implementation of steps agreed by Southeast Asian leaders with the military junta to help end the turmoil since the Feb. 1 coup, the foreign ministry said on Sunday.Myanmar’s junta has shown little sign of heeding the five-point ‘consensus’ agreed among the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) in April – which calls for an end to violence, political talks and the naming of a regional special envoy.”We have been following developments in Myanmar closely with much concern, especially incidents of violence in many parts of the country,” foreign ministry spokesperson Tanee Sangrat said in a statement.He reiterated a call for an end to the violence, the release of all detainees and the “concrete implementation of the Five-Point Consensus” as soon as possible.The junta has failed to impose control since seizing power from elected leader Aug San Suu Kyi, who is among more than 4,500 people detained since the coup. At least 847 have been killed, a rights group says. The army disputes that figure.Meanwhile, daily protests against the military have evolved in parts of Myanmar into armed insurrections while decade old ethnic conflicts have flared anew.Opponents of the junta have voiced frustration at the lack of tough action by ASEAN and say the meeting of two representatives of the group with junta leader Min Aung Hlaing on Friday gave him greater legitimacy but brought no benefit.Thailand has a longer border with Myanmar than any other country and fears the conflict could bring a flood of refugees.Its government is itself led by a former army chief who seized power in a coup before holding elections.”Much of what Thailand has done may not have been made public as we believe that quiet and discreet diplomacy between neighbors would be more effective and in line with traditional Thai diplomacy,” Tanee said.
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Microsoft Corp. blamed “accidental human error” for its Bing search engine briefly not showing image results for the search term “tank man” on the anniversary of the bloody military crackdown in Beijing’s Tiananmen Square in 1989.Users in different parts of the world, including the U.S., said Friday that no image results were returned when they searched for the term “tank man.””Tank man” refers to the iconic image of a standoff between an unidentified civilian and a line of military tanks leaving Beijing’s Tiananmen Square after a brutal crackdown on pro-democracy protesters. The photo has become a symbol of defiance around the world.After being alerted by reporters, Microsoft said in a statement that the issue was “due to an accidental human error and has been resolved.” Hours later, images of “tank man” photographs were returned by the search engine.The company did not elaborate on what the human error was or how it had happened. Nor did it say how much of its Bing development team is China-based. The company’s  largest research and development center outside the United States is in China, and it posted a job in January for a China-based senior software engineer to lead a team that develops the technology powering Bing image search.Chinese authorities require search engines, websites and social media platforms operating within the country to censor keywords and results deemed politically sensitive or critical of the Chinese government.References to the Tiananmen Square crackdown in 1989 are blocked in China, as are images relating to the event, such as “tank man.”Microsoft’s Bing is one of the few international search engines that operate in China, where it abides by local censorship laws and competes with larger Chinese search engines such as Baidu and Sogou.Bing has a 2.5% market share in China, according to data site Statcounter.Rival Google exited the Chinese market in 2010 after four years of operation, following disputes over censorship and a major hacking attack that Google believes originated in China.
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Myanmar’s security forces clashed Saturday with villagers armed with catapults and crossbows during a search for weapons in the Ayeyarwady River delta, and local media reported as many as 20 people had been killed.State television news said three “terrorists” had been killed and two arrested at the village of Hlayswe as security forces went to apprehend a man accused of plotting against the state.A junta spokesman did not answer calls from Reuters to request comment on the violence at the village in the Kyonpyaw township of Ayeyarwady Region. Reuters was unable to confirm the toll independently.The army has struggled to impose control since February 1 when it overthrew the elected leader, Aug San Suu Kyi, after a decade of democratic reforms had opened up the once isolated state.A meeting Friday between junta leader Min Aung Hlaing and envoys from the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) drew anger in parts of Myanmar on Saturday.Clashes broke out before dawn Saturday at Hlayswe, about 150 kilometers (100 miles) northwest of the main city of Yangon, when soldiers said they had come to search for weapons, at least four local media outlets and a resident said.’A lot of casualties'”The people in the village only have crossbows and there are a lot of casualties on the people’s side,” said the resident, who asked not to be identified for fear of retribution.Khit Thit Media and the Delta News Agency said 20 civilians had been killed and more wounded. They said villagers had tried to fight back with catapults after soldiers assaulted residents.MRTV state television said security forces had come under attack with compressed air guns and darts. After the shootout, the bodies of three attackers had been found, it said.If confirmed, the toll given by the local media would be the highest in one day in nearly two months. An activist group, the Assistance Association for Political Prisoners, reports that about 845 people have been killed by the army and police since the February 1 coup. The junta disputes that figure.The Ayeyarwady region is an important rice-growing area that has large populations of both the Bamar majority ethnic group, from which much of the army is drawn, and the Karen minority.Since the coup, conflicts have flared in the borderlands where about two dozen ethnic armies have been waging insurgencies for decades. The junta has also faced daily protests and paralyzing strikes.The anti-junta Shwegu People’s Defense Force said it had attacked a police station in northern Shwegu late Friday together with the Kachin Independence Army (KIA).Reuters was unable to reach the KIA for comment.In eastern Myanmar, the MBPDF (Mobye People’s Defense Force) said it had clashed with the army on Friday and four “terrorist soldiers” had been killed.Protesters against Myanmar’s junta burn the flag of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations, in Mandalay, Myanmar, June 5, 2021.Army stands firmDespite the turmoil, Myanmar’s army has shown little sign of heeding calls from its opponents to relinquish its hold.This week, the junta received its first high-profile foreign visitors, the head of the International Committee of the Red Cross and the two ASEAN envoys.An underground opposition government set up by opponents of the junta said after the envoys’ visit Friday that it had lost faith in ASEAN’s attempts to end the crisis, the main international effort to resolve it.Protesters in Myanmar’s second city of Mandalay burned an ASEAN flag on Saturday and accused the group of giving legitimacy to the junta. One placard said, “ASEAN way just means standing by uselessly.”
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China’s Guangzhou city, a port city of more than 13 million people, on Saturday ordered more restrictions due to a rise in COVID-19 cases that began in late May.Of the 24 new cases of COVID-19 reported in China on Saturday, 11 were transmitted in Guangzhou province, where the city is located.Authorities had imposed restrictions earlier in the week but sought additional limits on business and social activities. Authorities closed about a dozen subway stops, and the city’s Nansha district ordered restaurants to stop dine-in services and public venues, such as gyms, to temporarily close.Officials in the districts of Nansha, Huadu and Conghua ordered all residents and any individuals who have traveled through their regions to be tested for COVID-19, the disease caused by the coronavirus, Reuters reported.Also, Sinovac Biotech’s COVID-19 vaccine has been approved for emergency use for young people between the ages of 3 and 17, the company’s chairman, Yin Weidong, said on state television Friday. China’s current vaccination program is restricted to those 18 and older.As Afghanistan attempts to beat back a surge in COVID-19 cases, it has received the news that the 3 million doses of vaccines it was expecting from the World Health Organization in April will not arrive until August, according to the Associated Press.Afghan health ministry spokesman Ghulam Dastagir Nazari told AP that he has approached several embassies for help but has not received any vaccines. “We are in the middle of a crisis,” he said.On Saturday, India’s health ministry reported 120,529 new COVID-19 cases in the previous 24 hours period, the lowest daily count of new infections in 58 days. More than 3,000 deaths were also recorded.Britain’s Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency Friday approved the Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine for 12- to 15-year-olds.The decision follows similar approvals by U.S. and European Union regulators.Johns Hopkins Coronavirus Resource Center reported early Saturday more than 172 million global COVID infections. The U.S. has the most cases with 33.3 million, followed by India with 28.7 million and Brazil with nearly 17 million.
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Chinese state media report that scientists are developing an inhalable, fine-mist COVID-19 vaccine. The Chinese Food and Drug Administration has approved the vaccine for expanded clinical trials and is applying for emergency use of the vaccine.Also in China, Sinovac Biotech’s COVID-19 vaccine has been approved for emergency use for young people between the ages of 3 and 17, the company’s chairman, Yin Weidong, said on state television Friday. China’s current vaccination program is restricted to those 18 and older.As Afghanistan attempts to beat back a surge in COVID cases, it has received the news that the 3 million doses of vaccines it was expecting from the World Health Organization in April will not arrive until August, according to the Associated Press.Afghan health ministry spokesperson Ghulam Dastigir Nazari told AP that he has approached several embassies for help but has not received any vaccines.  “We are in the middle of a crisis,” he said.On Saturday, India’s health ministry reported 120,529 new COVID-19 cases in the previous 24-hours period, the lowest daily count of new infections in 58 days. More than 3,000 deaths were also recorded.Britain’s Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency Friday approved the Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine for 12- to 15-year-olds.The decision follows similar approvals by U.S. and European Union regulators.British Health Secretary Matt Hancock welcomed the news Friday and said he will wait for clinical advice from the Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunization regarding how the vaccine should be administered. He said Britain should have enough supply of the vaccine to inoculate the nation’s adolescents.Meanwhile, U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Director Rochelle Walensky on Friday urged parents of adolescents in the United States to get their children vaccinated as soon as possible, following the release of a CDC report showing a spike in hospitalizations among 12- to 17-year-olds between January and April.The study indicated one-third of those hospitalizations were intensive care patients and 5% of those patients had to be put on ventilators. Walensky said the figures saddened her and show that even young patients can get seriously ill from the virus that causes COVID-19.Johns Hopkins Coronavirus Resource Center reported early Saturday more than 172 million global COVID infections. The U.S. has the most cases with 33.3 million, followed by India with 28.7 million and Brazil with nearly 17 million.  
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North Korean leader Kim Jong Un has presided over a meeting of his ruling party in his first public appearance in about a month and called for a larger political conference to discuss efforts to salvage a decaying economy.The North’s official Korean Central News Agency said Saturday that Kim expressed appreciation that a lot of works were being sped up thanks to the “ideological enthusiasm and fighting spirit of self-reliance” demonstrated by the party and his people.But he also said there was a need to correct “deflective matters” and called for a plenary meeting of the Workers’ Party’s Central Committee to review overall state affairs for the first half of 2021. The party announced that the plenary meeting was set for early June.Kim’s appearance at Friday’s Politburo meeting was the first time he showed himself in public since May 6, when he held a photo session with families of North Korean soldiers.North Korea’s battered economy has deteriorated further amid pandemic border closures, which significantly reduced trade with China, its major ally and economic lifeline.The Workers’ Party last held a plenary meeting of Central Committee members in February, when Kim ripped into state economic agencies for their “passive and self-protecting tendencies” in setting their annual goals.While Kim said Friday that North Korea was continuing to face challenges brought by “unfavorable subjective and objective conditions and environment,” the KCNA report did not mention any comments he made toward the United States or South Korea.North Korea has so far ignored the allies’ calls to resume nuclear negotiations that have stalled since the collapse of the second summit between Kim and former President Donald Trump in February 2019. The Americans then rejected North Koreans’ demands for lifting sanctions in exchange for a piecemeal deal toward partially surrendering their nuclear capabilities.Following a meeting last month in Washington, President Joe Biden and South Korean President Moon Jae-in said in a joint statement that Washington would take a “calibrated and practical approach that is open to and will explore diplomacy” with Pyongyang.But North Korea has questioned the sincerity of the proposals and claimed that Biden’s agreement to end Washington’s decades-long range restrictions that capped South Korea’s missile development, which was announced after his meeting with Moon, demonstrated continuing U.S. hostility toward the North.U.S. officials have suggested Biden would adopt a middle ground policy between his predecessors — Trump’s direct dealings with Kim and Barack Obama’s “strategic patience.” But some experts say Washington won’t likely provide the North with meaningful sanctions relief unless it takes concrete denuclearization steps first. Kim has vowed to strengthen his nuclear weapons program in recent political speeches, while saying that the fate of bilateral relations depends on whether Washington discards what he perceives as hostile policies.During a rare ruling party congress in January, Kim urged his people to be resilient in the struggle for economic self-reliance. He called for reasserting greater state control over the economy, boosting agricultural production and prioritizing the development of chemicals and metal industries.Experts say such sectors are crucial to North Korean hopes to revitalize industrial production that has been decimated by sanctions and halted imports of factory materials amid the pandemic.
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Editor’s note: This story contains graphic descriptions of violence.Before he was killed, Khet Thi’s poems railed eloquently against Myanmar’s sudden coup, joining a deluge of protest verse celebrating democracy demonstrators and defying the military’s brutal war on words.As soldiers unleashed a violent crackdown on resistance to the army takeover, he implored the public to stand firm against what he saw as an existential threat to the country’s future.”We have to fight to win this battle,” he wrote. “If we lose: North Korea. If we win: South Korea.”Last month, scores of police and soldiers surrounded the home he shared with his wife and family in the central city of Shwebo.They accused the poet — who baked cakes and made ice cream to support his family — of planning a series of bomb blasts, and demanded he give himself up.The next day his wife Chaw Su was summoned to a hospital in Monywa around 80 kilometers away.”I thought I would able to (bring) him some clothes,” she told AFP.But there was no need, according to a police officer, who told Chaw Su her husband was dead.”I got only the dead body back,” she told AFP.Myanmar has been in uproar since the February coup ended a 10-year experiment with democracy that had loosened the fetters of censorship and allowed for greater self-expression.As some protesters picked up hunting rifles and slingshots, poets like Khet Thi joined a fight against the coup staged by a population unwilling to surrender hard-won democratic freedoms.Along with violence in the streets, the junta has tried to stifle dissent with internet blackouts and by rounding up celebrities and civil servants who have called for rebellion.A video uploaded to Facebook soon in the weeks after the putsch showed a collage of defiant protesters reciting poems against the military.”With what conscience can you go to work while everyone goes out and protests?” asked one man, referring to a mass strike campaign launched to pressure the junta.’Overwhelmed with rage’Poetry played a prominent role in Burma’s struggle for independence against colonial power Britain and the decades of military rule that followed, when scores of writers were locked up as political prisoners.U.K.-based poet Ko Ko Thett believes the medium has struck a chord with ordinary people “overwhelmed with rage, disbelief and grief” at the junta’s takeover.He put his own writing on the back burner in order to concentrate on translating works by fellow poets writing from post-coup Myanmar — some of whom, like Khet Thi, have since been killed.Among them were Myint Myint Zin and K Za Win, both teachers, who died during a ferocious military assault on protesters in Monywa.Footage of security forces dragging away the body of K Za Win later went viral on social media.’A clear conscience’The transition to democracy “liberated” Burmese poetry, said Ko Ko Thett, making it “more diverse in form and content, also more openly political.”Many have mobilized online in their battle against the junta, including an underground collective of 30 bards from across the country spreading their verse on Facebook.”There is so much crime against humanity (in Myanmar). Poets in such situations live with tears in every single breath,” one poet, who asked to remain anonymous for security concerns, told AFP.”Our poems are hordes of screaming children.”Ko Ko Thett said he was “numb with grief” over the deaths of his fellow poets.All of them “should have been noted for their poetry (but) got noted in the international media only after they got killed,” he said.Khet Thi, the poet abducted in Shwebo, composed a verse two weeks after the coup to declare that he didn’t want to be a martyr or hero.”I do not want to be a supporter of (the junta’s) violence,” he wrote.”If there is only one minute left to survive I want to have a clear conscience even for that minute.”
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Australian police said Friday they foiled a plan to bring nearly three tons of cocaine into the country, the largest drug interdiction in the nation’s history. At a news conference, New South Wales State Police Commander Stuart Smith told reporters that officers had arrested three men for their roles in a conspiracy to bring drugs into the country. He said the amount was equal to the cocaine consumed in New South Wales in an entire year. Smith said authorities were first tipped off to the criminal enterprise early in 2020, when detectives noticed a man gambling a large sum of money in a casino. That led to an investigation, which eventually revealed a large international syndicate operating on four continents. Smith said the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration, acting on information from the New South Wales Police, intercepted 870 kilograms of cocaine as it was being transported off the coast of Colombia in October of last year. In April of this year, the U.S. Coast Guard intercepted a boat off the coast of Ecuador carrying another 900 kilograms of cocaine. The police commander said the operation culminated Thursday with the arrest of the three suspects in New Castle, New South Wales, who have been charged with conspiracy to supply prohibited drugs. 
 
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For the second year in a row, authorities have banned the annual Tiananmen Square vigil in Hong Kong that usually attracts thousands of people in memory of the Chinese government’s crackdown in Beijing in 1989. Thirty-two years ago, thousands of pro-democracy protesters took to the streets in Beijing demonstrating against the Chinese government and demanding economic and political reforms. After several weeks, China’s People’s Liberation Army occupied the area with tanks and opened fire against the student-led demonstrators, killing an unknown numbers of demonstrators. Thousands of mourners in Hong Kong have attended the annual remembrance vigil for decades, but authorities banned it for the first time last year, citing the global pandemic. The event is illegal in mainland China. People hold up their phones with the light on in the Causeway Bay district of Hong Kong, June 4, 2021, after police closed the venue where Hong Kong people gather annually to mourn the victims of China’s Tiananmen Square crackdown in 1989.Up to 7,000 police officers were reportedly deployed Friday to handle potential gatherings, with 3,000 alone stationed at Hong Kong’s Victoria Park in Causeway Bay, the usual location for the memorial. Authorities again pointed to COVID-19 and the current four-person cap on gatherings as this year’s reason the vigil could not go ahead. Police also warned that any protesters who defied the ban, chanted slogans or wore black — a color affiliated with anti-government protesters in 2019 — would be arrested. Swedish journalist Johan Nylander told VOA that although the park was nearly empty, the atmosphere was “hostile” Friday, saying the police warned him he would be arrested. Hong Kong police prevent protesters from gathering to commemorate the 32nd anniversary of the Tiananmen Square crackdown in Beijing, Victoria Park, Causeway Bay, Hong Kong, June 4, 2021. (Photo courtesy of Johan Nylander)”Every street corner you had big groups of police. And also in the park, police everywhere. Five percent of the park was still open but was heavily guarded by police. “I was taking pictures, not in the off-limit area, and the police stormed up to me and said, no, you’re not allowed to take photographs. I had been there three to four minutes and it almost happened immediately.  “He was clearly threatening to arrest me if I didn’t leave,” Nylander added. Earlier in the day, Hong Kong police arrested pro-democracy human rights activist Chow Hang Tung for allegedly promoting unauthorized assembly. This video frame grab taken from AFPTV footage shows Chow Hang Tung, leader of the Hong Kong Alliance, being led away by plainclothes police officers after being detained in Hong Kong on June 4, 2021.Chow, a lawyer who had represented at least one defendant during the bail hearing for the 47 activists charged under the national security law earlier this year, is also the vice chairwoman of the Hong Kong Alliance, which organizes the annual vigil. Her arrest is believed to stem from a social media post that discussed the Hong Kong Alliance’s failed appeal for the vigil to go ahead, according to local reports. Her colleague, Lee Cheuk Yan, the Hong Kong Alliance chairman, is in jail following illegal assembly offenses dating back to 2019. Prior to his imprisonment, Lee was pessimistic on the possibility of large rallies being legally approved on sensitive dates in Hong Kong, including the Tiananmen Square vigil. “It can be very difficult, it’s not the Tiananmen Square vigil, it’s everything that has attraction for the masses,” the activist told VOA earlier this year. Police detain people near Victoria Park in the Causeway Bay district of Hong Kong, June 4, 2021.Lee, who was born in mainland China, was one of the protesters who survived the events in Beijing. He was interrogated by Chinese authorities for his role in Beijing at the time but was released and escaped back into Hong Kong. Despite the gathering ban firmly in force, Hong Kong residents have found other ways to remember the date. Social media posts showed how individuals had attended the park the day before, on June 3, to show their respects. At Hong Kong University, a ceremony took place around Pillar of Shame of Hong Kong — a concrete sculpture depicting 50 twisted bodies as a representation of those who died during the Tiananmen Square protests. Others have told VOA they plan to attend Remembrance Mass, an event to commemorate the crackdown in churches across the city. University students observe a minute of silence in front of the Pillar of Shame statue at the University of Hong Kong in Hong Kong, China, June 4, 2021.Emily Lau, a former Democratic Party chairperson, is one prominent political figure who planned to attend mass in the evening. She told VOA, “The annual candlelight vigil at Victoria Park shows many people will not forget the atrocities 32 years ago. “The banning of the Victoria Park gathering last year and this year shows the Chinese government, and the Hong Kong government, don’t want the people to remember. The Hong Kong people want the authorities to investigate what happened in 1989 and punish those responsible for the massacre,” she added. Wong Yat Chin, organizer of Hong Kong’s Student Politicism, a political group aiming to promote values of democracy, was to screen a documentary with an open forum about the crackdown, and about more recent events in Hong Kong.  “As we have officially descended into the age of one country, one system, any slight act of dissent has been sanctioned by the regime, which has caused the complete loss of fundamental freedom and rights, blatant violations of our human rights,” he said. Livestreams from local Hong Kong media showed Wong Yat Chin was later handcuffed and detained by police officers during his presentation. Authorities then raised a warning flag to alert gathering crowds to disperse or risk arrest.   Police officers disperse people mourning at Victoria Park on the 32nd anniversary of the crackdown on pro-democracy demonstrators at Beijing’s Tiananmen Square in 1989, in Hong Kong, China, June 4, 2021.Last year’s vigil was canceled for the first time, but thousands of people turned up anyway, lighting candles and holding up lights from their phones. The night ended without incident in the immediate area. Twenty-four activists were charged in August for participating in or organizing the illegal rally. Joshua Wong was one of four activists jailed in May and given a 10-month sentence, but was already serving time for other offenses. The remaining 20 people are awaiting sentencing. Under the “one country, two systems” agreement signed by Britain and China in 1997, after the city was transferred back to Chinese rule, Beijing promised that Hong Kong would retain a “high degree of autonomy” until 2047.  After 2019’s pro-democracy protests, Beijing implemented a national security law for Hong Kong that prohibits secession, subversion, terrorism and collusion with foreign forces, and its details can be widely interpreted.  
 
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