Myanmar military limits internet, seizes satellite TV dishes
YANGON, Myanmar — An information blackout under Myanmar’s military junta worsened Thursday as fiber broadband service, the last legal way for ordinary people to access the internet, became intermittently inaccessible on several networks.
Authorities in some areas have also started confiscating satellite dishes used to access international news broadcasts.
Protests against the Feb. 1 coup that ousted the elected government of Aung San Suu Kyi continued Thursday despite the killing of 11 people by security forces a day earlier.
It was unclear if the internet interruptions for at least two service providers, MBT and Infinite Networks, were temporary. MBT said its service was halted by a break in the line between Yangon and Mandalay, the country’s two biggest cities. But internet users had been complaining for the past week of major slowdowns in the services.
The junta has gradually throttled down internet service since the coup. It initially imposed a largely ineffective block of social media such as Facebook and then cut mobile data service, the most common way of connecting to the internet, but only at night. As the junta increased its use of deadly force against protesters, it also imposed a total ban on mobile data use.
At least 598 protesters and bystanders have been killed by security forces since the takeover, according to the Assistance Association for Political Prisoners, which monitors casualties and arrests.
The use of satellite television as a source of information also appeared to be under threat. In Laputta and other towns in the Irrawaddy Delta southwest of Yangon, local government vehicles announced over loudspeakers that it was no longer legal to use satellite dishes and that they must be turned in at police stations. Police also raided shops selling the dishes and confiscated them.
Australia limits vaccine:
Australia on Thursday become the latest country to restrict use of the AstraZeneca vaccine by recommending that it not be given to people under age 50.
The announcement came after Australian drug regulators held a series of urgent meetings earlier in the day. The recommendation came after the European Medicines Agency said it had found a “possible link” between the shot and the rare blood clots, though regulators in the United Kingdom and the European Union emphasized that the benefits of receiving the vaccine continue to outweigh the risks for most people.
Prime Minister Scott Morrison said he’d received a series of recommendations from an advisory group on Thursday night, and that chief among them was that the Pfizer vaccine should now be adopted as the preferred vaccine for people under 50.
Morrison said the recommendations were made with an abundance of caution due to the rare but serious side effects, which have mostly been associated with younger people.
Finally flown from Macao:
About 50 people of various nationalities boarded a chartered flight from Macao to Malaysia on Thursday after many were stranded for months by the pandemic
and border restrictions.
The flight to Kuala Lumpur was organized by Malaysia’s consulate in Hong Kong and Macao to repatriate its citizens from the territory. A flight earlier Thursday from Kuala Lumpur to Macao carried about 12 passengers.
There are currently no direct commercial flights between Macao and Malaysia due to travel restrictions. Many of the people on the chartered AirAsia flight had been stranded in Macao since the pandemic began.
Israel rejects ICC probe:
Israel said Thursday that it would formally reject the International Criminal Court’s decision to launch a probe into potential war crimes against the Palestinians, denying that it has committed such crimes and saying the court lacks the jurisdiction to investigate.
A panel of judges at the ICC ruled in February that the court does have jurisdiction, allowing the investigation
to proceed. Israel’s response to a formal notification sent out last month is not expected to reopen that debate, though judges may reconsider the issue of jurisdiction later in the process.
The court is expected to look at possible war crimes committed by Israelis forces and Palestinian militants during and after the 2014 Gaza war, as well as Israel’s establishment of settlements in the occupied West Bank and annexed east Jerusalem that now house over 700,000 settlers. International law prohibits the transfer of civilians into occupied territory.
7th arrested in abuse case:
A former youth detention center worker accused of responding to a bruised and crying teenager’s rape allegations by saying, “Look, little fella, that just doesn’t happen,” was arrested Thursday in the latest development in a broad investigation into the New Hampshire facility.
Gordon Thomas Searles, 65, of Brooksville, Florida, was charged with one count of rape a day after the arrest of six other former workers at the Sununu Youth Services Center. He was being held without bail in Florida, and it was unclear whether he has an attorney to speak on his behalf.
The Manchester facility, formerly known as the Youth Development Center, has been under investigation since July 2019, when two former counselors were charged with raping a teenage boy 82 times in the 1990s.
Those charges were dropped last year in order to strengthen the expanded investigation, but both men were arrested again Wednesday, along with four others based on allegations from 11 victims from 1994 to 2005.
South Korea elections:
South Korea’s conservative opposition party has won sweeping victories in
mayoral by-elections in the country’s two biggest cities, a blow to President Moon Jae-in ahead of next year’s presidential vote.
Oh Se-hoon of the opposition People Power Party won 57.5% of the votes cast in Wednesday’s election in Seoul, the capital city, according to the final vote tally released by the National Election Commission. Park Young-sun of the ruling Democratic Party won 39.2% of the votes.
In the mayoral election in Busan, the country’s second-largest city, People Power Party candidate Park Heong-joon beat Democratic Party candidate Kim Young-choon by about 28 percentage points, the tally showed.
In recent months, Moon and his ruling party have been grappling with falling approval ratings due to soaring house prices, allegations of real estate speculation involving public officials and other purported policy missteps.