Myanmar’s anti-coup protesters returned to the streets in force on Wednesday, staging the biggest demonstrations since troops fanned out around the country to quell opposition to the new military junta.Much of the country has been in open revolt since the army deposed Nobel laureate Aung San Suu Kyi’s government at the start of the month and charged her under an obscure import law.Tens of thousands rallied in Yangon, some blockading roads with vehicles to stop security forces from moving around the nation’s biggest city.Police and soldiers were spotted near a key protest junction but appeared to be hanging back, looking…
Author: Mike Harrison
According to a media report, investment companies linked to former Communist party members and their family stood to gain from the IPO. China’s President Xi Jinping pushed for blocking what would have been a record-breaking initial public offering (IPO) for billionaire Jack Ma’s Ant Group last year because of Communist Party-linked “political families” who stood to gain billions of dollars through opaque investment vehicles, according to a new report.Investment companies linked to the grandson of former President Jiang Zemin and the son-in-law of former Politburo Standing Committee member Jia Qinglin stood to profit from the IPO, the Wall Street Journal…
Sri Lanka will “re-acquire” the World War-era oil tanks in the eastern city of Trincomalee that were leased out to an Indian Oil Corporation (IOC) subsidiary in 2003, Sri Lanka’s Minister of Energy Udaya Gammanpila has said.“I am proud to announce that the oil tanks the use of which had been denied to us since 2003 will be soon ours,” Mr. Gammanpila was quoted as saying by news agencies on Wednesday. The Minister was speaking at an event held in a northern suburb of Colombo, when he referred to a recent discussion with the Indian High Commissioner to Sri Lanka.…
“My father is alive in me…my father is talking through me,” he said. Congress leader Rahul Gandhi on Wednesday said the killing of his father Rajiv Gandhi in 1991 brought him tremendous pain but he nursed no anger or hatred towards those responsible for it. During an interaction the Congress MP had with students of a State-run women’s college in Puducherry, a pupil posed,”your father was killed by the LTTE (Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam) what are your feelings about these people? and he answered by saying violence cannot take away anything. “I don’t have anger or hatred towards anybody.Of…
The U.S. and German companies said in a statement that the doses come on top of the 300 million vaccine doses the bloc has initially ordered As worries about vaccine delays swept across Europe, Pfizer and BioNTech said on Wednesday they have finalised an agreement to supply the European Union with another 200 million doses of their COVID-19 vaccine.The U.S. and German companies said in a statement that the doses come on top of the 300 million vaccine doses the bloc has initially ordered. The EU’s executive Commission has an option to request a further 100 million doses.They said the…
Ms. Ramani, who was acquitted in a defamation case filed by former Union Minister M.J. Akbar, said the verdict would help inspire more women to speak up against sexual harassment at the workplace Following a Delhi court’s verdict acquitting journalist Priya Ramani in a defamation case filed by former Union Minister M.J. Akbar, Ms. Ramani said that she felt vindicated on behalf of all the women who have ever spoken up against sexual harassment at the workplace.Also read: #MeToo | Women lawyers, activists hail ‘historic’ judgement acquitting Priya RamaniSpeaking to The Hindu, Ms. Ramani said, “This case was not about…
Pakistan was placed on the FATF ‘grey’ list in June 2018 and given a timeline to address global concerns by implementing 27 action points Pakistan is unlikely to exit the Financial Action Task Force’s ‘grey’ list until June, despite its efforts to garner support from the member nations ahead of the plenary meeting of the global terror financing and money laundering watchdog next week, according to a media report on Wednesday.Also read: Pakistan likely to remain on FATF greylist, say sourcesThe FATF’s Plenary and Working Group meetings, scheduled to be held from February 21 to 26 in Paris, is all…
Their analysis suggests that we can expect similar impacts every 250 million to 750 million years. Sixty-six million years ago, a huge celestial object struck off the coast of what is now Mexico, triggering a catastrophic “impact winter” that eventually wiped out three-quarters of life on Earth, including the dinosaurs.A pair of astronomers at Harvard say they have now resolved long standing mysteries surrounding the nature and origin of the “Chicxulub impactor.”Their analysis suggests it was a comet that originated in a region of icy debris on the edge of the solar system, that Jupiter was responsible for it crashing…
In the northeastern city of Barcelona, thousands of protestors set trash cans on fire and threw rocks at the police. Police in Spain say 14 people were arrested in violent street protests in several cities following the arrest of Spanish rap artist Pablo Hasel, who had barricaded himself at a university with dozens of supporters to avoid prison and defend his fight for free speech.Emergency services said Wednesday that 33 people were treated for injuries in the disturbances.In the northeastern city of Barcelona, thousands of protestors set trash cans on fire and threw rocks at the police. Several stores and…
An Israeli defense official had earlier said that authorities approved the delivery, adding that it’s ‘not in Israel’s interest to have a Gaza health crisis.’ The Palestinian Authority sent the first shipment of coronavirus vaccines to the Hamas-ruled Gaza Strip on Wednesday, two days after accusing Israel of preventing it from dispatching the doses amid objections from some Israeli lawmakers.Palestinian Health Minister Mai Alkaila said in a statement that the PA sent 2,000 doses of the Russian Sputnik V vaccine, which would go to front-line medical workers. An Associated Press photographer in Gaza saw the shipment arrive midday at the…