Zeshan News: Asia

Asia

Jacob Zuma: ANC leaders call NEC meeting for Wednesday

By: Admin on February 06, 2018 / comment : 0 Asia, Slider, World

https://zeshannews.blogspot.com/2018/02/jacob-zuma-anc-leaders-call-nec-meeting.html

South Africa's ruling party has called a meeting of its top body for Wednesday, amid growing pressure on President Jacob Zuma to stand down.

In a statement, the ANC said that the meeting was called to discuss the "management of the transition" between the Zuma and Ramaphosa administrations.
On Monday, senior politicians held an emergency meeting in Johannesburg to discuss Mr Zuma's future.
The president has resisted calls to quit over corruption allegations.
Mr Zuma, 75, was replaced as party leader in December, and his deputy and successor, Cyril Ramaphosa, 65, would step into the presidency if he were recalled by the ANC.
An ANC spokeswoman told Reuters news agency that the removal of President Zuma was not on the agenda at Monday's meeting.
The president, in power since 2009, is due to make a state of the nation address on Thursday, and some in the party want Mr Zuma to leave office ahead of that speech.
On Wednesday the ANC's National Executive Committee will meet.
If the committee agrees to recall Mr Zuma, the BBC's Andrew Harding says, it would be very hard for him to resist.
He might even face a no-confidence motion in parliament the next day, our correspondent adds.
Mr Zuma, who spent time in prison for his part in the fight against apartheid, met the ANC's top six on Sunday. They are said to have failed to convince him to stand aside.
Julius Malema, an opposition leader and former ANC member, said on Twitter that Mr Zuma had refused to go early.

Other unconfirmed reports from Sunday's meeting say that Mr Zuma asked for protection from prosecution for himself and his family.

Why does the ANC want to remove him?

Mr Zuma's presidency has been overshadowed by allegations of corruption.
In recent years his links to the wealthy India-born Gupta family, who are alleged to have influenced the government through their relationship with Mr Zuma, have caused his popularity to plummet. In South Africa, it has become known as "state capture".
Both Mr Zuma and the Guptas deny the allegations.
Then there is also the country's struggling economy, with the unemployment rate rising to about 28%.

What are the allegations against him?

2005: Charged with corruption over multi-billion dollar 1999 arms deal - charges dropped shortly before he becomes president in 2009
2016: Court orders he should be charged with 18 counts of corruption over the deal
2005: Charged with raping family friend - acquitted in 2006
2016: Court rules he breached his oath of office by using government money to upgrade private home in Nkandla - he has repaid the money
2017: South Africa's public protector said he should appoint judge-led inquiry into allegations he profiteered from relationship with wealthy Gupta family - he denies allegations, as have the Guptas
2018: Zuma approves inquiry

Crowdfunding pays hospital bills of injured India girl

By: Admin on February 06, 2018 / comment : 0 Asia, India, Slider

https://zeshannews.blogspot.com/2018/02/crowdfunding-pays-hospital-bills-of.html

A crowdfunding site in India has raised more than 1.6 million rupees ($24,976; £17,680) for a four-year-old girl who was critically injured after a drunk man fell on her from a three-storey building.

The girl, Dhanyashri Sridhar, is still recovering in hospital.
The fund, only a week old, has received money from more than a thousand people.
It was launched by a group of young men who live in the same neighbourhood as the Sridhars in Chennai city.
"It feels good to know she is recovering," said Sathish Kumar Mohan, one of the men who helped launch the crowdfunding campaign.
Mr Mohan, a 30-year-old software engineer, told the BBC that he and his friends found out about the accident through a group on WhatsApp.
The group has about 20 participants, all of whom live in the neighbourhood of Old Washermanpet. One of the members messaged on 30 January, saying a little girl had been badly injured and her family needed help.

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Mr Mohan said this was not unusual because they had collected money or mobilised help in the past by spreading messages through WhatsApp groups.
Messages on WhatsApp, especially on groups, travel quickly in India where the messaging platform has more than 200 million monthly active users.
But this time, Mr Mohan said, they needed a lot more money. Dhanyashri had fractures in her spine and her legs, and she also needed surgery.
That's when some of Mr Mohan's friends suggested creating an online campaign that would crowdsource funds. "They told me, it will help you reach out to many more people," he said.
Mr Mohan first contacted the girl's father, A Sridhar, over the phone. Then he met him personally to explain that they were raising money to help Dhanyashri.
Mr Sridhar told the Zeshannews that he hopes his daughter will recover soon. He added that he wanted to thank everyone for the money they have contributed.
The campaign was launched on 31 January with photos of Dhanyashri and details of what happened.

It's done "exceptionally well" considering it only launched on January 31, Arti Rajan, the communication officer for the crowdfunding platform, told Zeshan news.
She said the donations varied from $1.56 to $780. Now, the fund is just $6,000 short of its target: $31, 200. It has 24 days left to reach the goal.
He is still in touch with Dhanyashri's father, Mr Sridhar.
"I spoke to him last night and he told me she woke up and recognised her sister," Mr Mohan said. "He said she is eating again and they gave her some dosa with milk."

North Korea to send ceremonial head Kim Yong-nam to South Korea

By: Admin on February 04, 2018 / comment : 0 Asia, North Korea, Slider, South Korea

North Korea is to send its highest ranking official for years to the South amid an easing of tensions during the Winter Olympics.

Kim Yong-nam, the ceremonial head of state, will lead a 22-member delegation to the South beginning on Friday, said the South's Unification Ministry.
The two Koreas' athletes will march under one flag at the opening ceremony.
The North's participation in the Games is widely seen as a diplomatic manoeuvre by Pyongyang.
North Korea currently faces growing international pressure and sanctions over its nuclear and missile programmes.

Arriving by ship

North Korea on Monday proposed sending an art troupe to the Games by ferry, a move that would require an exemption from bilateral sanctions.
Pyongyang proposed that its delegation use the Mangyongbong 92, a ferry that usually operates between North Korea and Russia, for transportation and as accommodation for the group, according to the South's unification ministry.
All North Korean ships have been banned from entering South Korean ports since 2010.
"We're seeking to apply an exemption... to support a successful hosting of the Olympics," South Korean ministry spokesman Baik Tae-hyun told a press conference.
On Sunday, the united Korean women's ice hockey team played its first match, but lost the friendly against Sweden 1-3.

Sunday's outing was the first and only practice match for the newly minted Korean squad.
Kim Yong-nam is the head of the parliament in the North and will be the highest-level official to visit South Korea in four years.
An unnamed official from the South's presidential Blue House told the BBC that they believe this reflected a willingness on the part of North Korea to improve inter-Korean relations, and demonstrated the North's sincerity.
Mr Kim will lead a delegation of three other officials and 18 support staff, the unification ministry said.
It did not say whether he would attend Friday's opening ceremony of the Games in Pyeongchang, a county in the mountainous east of South Korea.

If so, it would put him in the company of US Vice President Mike Pence at a point of high tension with Washington over the North's nuclear ambitions.
In another development on Sunday, the Washington Post reported that Fred Warmbier, whose son Otto Warmbier was jailed by North Korea and died days after returning to the US, would attend the opening ceremony as a guest of Mr Pence.
Mr Warmbier and his wife, Cindy, were guests of US President Donald Trump at last week's State of the Union address.
The North has conducted a series of missile tests designed to demonstrate its nuclear capability.
North Korea's participation in the Olympics, which run from 9 to 25 February, was a sudden turn towards reconciliation.
It came after the hereditary leader Kim Jong-un extended an olive branch to the South in a New Year message, saying he was open to dialogue and could send a team to the Games.
As well as the ice hockey players, North Korean athletes will compete in skiing and figure skating events. It is also sending hundreds of delegates, cheerleaders and performers.
However, there have already been some bumps in the road to reconciliation.
Earlier this week it emerged that the North had scheduled a large-scale military parade for 8 February, the day before the Winter Olympics commences.
Amid negative headlines, North Korea said no-one had the right to take issue with its plans and promptly cancelled a cultural event it was to hold jointly with the South.
Meanwhile, although Seoul and Washington have agreed to delay the annual big joint military exercises which always enrage the North, they will still go ahead at the end of the Paralympics.

International Criminal Court judges consider Afghanistan war crimes inquiry

By: Admin on February 01, 2018 / comment : 0 Afghanistan, Asia, Slider

Judges at the International Criminal Court (ICC) are deciding whether to authorise an official war crimes inquiry into events in Afghanistan.

They are due to begin examining written submissions from victims in Afghanistan about whom and what any potential investigation should focus on.
In 2017, ICC prosecutor Fatou Bensouda said there was a "reasonable basis to believe" war crimes had been committed.
Possible perpetrators included the Taliban, CIA and Afghan forces.
Warning: some readers may find some of the details below distressing.
The Zeshan news has learnt that one of the most high-ranking officials to be named in the submissions to the court is Gen Abdul Rashid Dostum. Claims of human rights abuses have dogged the current vice-president of Afghanistan for decades.
He is currently in Turkey in de facto exile after one particularly grim allegation.
In late 2016, Ahmad Eshchi, a political rival of Gen Dostum, said he had been beaten and sodomised on his orders.
"He told his guards, 'Rape him until he bleeds and film it'," Mr Eshchi told the zeshanews "They put a Kalashnikov [rifle] into my anus. I was screaming in pain."
Gen Dostum refused to appear in court in Afghanistan. In May 2017 he travelled to Turkey for medical treatment. Some analysts believe the Afghan government pressured him to leave.

Gen Dostum attempted to return to Afghanistan in July of last year but his plane was refused permission to land.
Because he is still in Turkey, Mr Eshchi believes the ICC needs to step in.
"It's been 14 months and Dostum still hasn't answered any questions about this," he said. "As time goes on I am losing hope that the government here will ever bring him to justice."
Gen Dostum's spokesman has previously denied that Mr Eshchi was detained or sexually assaulted by anyone connected to Dostum.

Bereaved by the Taliban

Others in Afghanistan are hoping the ICC can help hold the insurgent groups in the country to account.
Samara, 32, was a cook at an orphanage in Kabul. She died after being caught in a Taliban suicide bombing in July 2017.
Her daughter, 17-year-old Fatima, told the zeshanews about the moment she found out: "I heard on the news that there had been a suicide attack. I called my mum's phone but a policeman answered. He said he had found it at the scene of the blast."
Fatima is one of those who have written to the ICC. She does not believe the Afghan authorities will give her family justice.
"Whenever they announce on the TV they've arrested someone and brought him to court, they release him a few days later, and the bombings continue," she says.

Despite the risks, Fatima says she is not afraid of speaking out.
"My mother fought against my other relatives and social pressure to let me join a football team, and to learn the guitar," she says. "She did so much for me. Now it's my turn to fight for her."
Fatima also wants the ICC to investigate the Afghan government for its failure to stop the attacks. It seems unlikely that that would fall under the remit of the ICC though. And bringing the Taliban to justice would not necessarily be an easy task.

Guantanamo submissions

Philippe Sands QC is the director of the Centre on International Courts and Tribunals at University College London.
"You have got to catch the Taliban and you need evidence," he says. "Evidence comes in the form of documents, in the form of witness statements and that gathering exercise for an institution without its own police force is incredibly problematic.
"The court has a policy of only going after upper-echelon individuals - they don't want the foot soldiers. So you've got to apprehend those people."

The proposed investigation by the ICC would cover events from May 2003 onwards, when Afghanistan signed up to the court. Any alleged crimes committed in the country after that date are eligible to be investigated, even if by foreign nationals.
That means the alleged torture of some prisoners in Bagram detention centre before they were transferred to Guantanamo Bay would also be covered.
The detention centre was originally built and run by the Americans but later handed over to Afghan control.
The charity Reprieve is making submissions to the ICC on behalf of a number of current and former Guantanamo Bay detainees.
Maya Foa, director of Reprieve, told the zeshannews the alleged abuses detainees suffered at Bagram included "Russian roulette with guns, men held in stress positions for days… Abuses which destroyed the men both physically and mentally".
"These abuses were perpetrated at the behest of top commanders," she said. "The kinds of people the ICC are trying to target."
American officials have said that whilst they support attempts to bring the Taliban to justice, they believe an ICC investigation would be "unwarranted and unjustified". The United States is not a signatory to the ICC.
In 2002 Congress passed the American Service-Members Protection Act, which allowed the US authorities to "free" US personnel detained for trial in the ICC by "all means necessary".
That makes successful prosecutions of American officials extremely difficult. But the ICC is under pressure to show that it can take on politically sensitive cases. Up until now it has focused on incidents in Africa.

Why only Africans?

UCL's Philippe Sands told the BBC: "On the website of the ICC everyone indicted is African and black or both.
"That's a problem because Africans don't have a monopoly on international crime.
"That has caused a backlash. African countries are saying, 'Why focus on us? Look at what is going on around the world.'"
The ICC judges still need to decide whether to authorise a formal investigation, let alone level charges, but many in Afghanistan are looking to the court to provide some kind of justice after years of violence.

India unveils 'world's largest' public healthcare scheme

By: Admin on February 01, 2018 / comment : 0 Asia, India

India has announced an ambitious health insurance scheme, which is designed to be a safety net for millions of people who struggle to afford medical care.

It's thought to be one of the largest such schemes in the world, and is likely to be popular with rural voters.
India presently spends a little over 1% of its GDP on public healthcare, one of the lowest in the world.
The announcement came in the annual budget, aimed at boosting growth ahead of a general election next year.
Finance Minister Arun Jaitley also allocated billions of dollars for health, education, social security and rural infrastructure.

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He said the flagship health insurance scheme would cover more than 100 million poor families and provide 500,000 rupees ($7,825;£5,520) in medical coverage for each family annually.
"This will be the world's largest government-funded healthcare programme," Mr Jaitley told parliament in his speech.
"The government is steadily but surely progressing towards a goal of universal health coverage."
The BBC's Soutik Biswas says although it is laudable to give medical coverage to the poor in a country where quality healthcare costs are prohibitive, what is not clear is how this programme is going to be designed to protect the poor from being exploited by private hospitals.
India's private healthcare system is largely unregulated, opaque and often unscrupulous. It also overcharges patients with impunity, our correspondent adds.
"Private hospitals also have a long history of being hostile towards the poor, and not allocating enough mandated cheap beds for them," he says.
"It is not clear how the government will be able to get around this problem - and where the funds from the scheme will come from."

Winners and losers of India's budget

Devina Gupta, BBC News Delhi
This was a budget for the rural economy with distressed farmers and villagers emerging as the biggest winners. But the finance minister also outlined incentives for others that will help boost growth, create jobs and promote private investment.
The government's new National Health Protection Scheme could be a game changer for as many as 500 million people in need and unable to afford healthcare.
But consumers will be affected. Despite Prime Minister Narendra Modi warning against the threat of global protectionism just last week in Davos, he has approved increased custom duties on foreign phones and televisions.
The Indian government hopes that this will boost local manufacturing in India but tech giants like Apple and Google are bound to lose out too unless they shell out more money to open local manufacturing units.
The lowering of corporate tax on small and medium business could boost employment.
But on the whole, industry watchers in Delhi have not been very impressed. Some described the policies as 'token' without much substance.
And without any change in income tax rates and few incentives for the salaried middle class, they will not be the only ones disappointed with this year's budget.

Mr Jaitley added India's $2.5 trillion economy was "firmly on path to achieve 8% plus growth soon".
Earlier this week a government forecast said India's growth rate is set to rise over the coming year after a prolonged slowdown.
The country's slowdown has been blamed on several factors, including declining exports, falling private investment and declining farm incomes.
Also the sudden cancellation of nearly 86% of the cash in circulation in November 2016 - the effect lasted until 2017 - and glitches in the rollout of a single Goods and Services Tax (GST) had a severe impact on growth.

Eleven die in fire at a welfare home in Japan

By: Admin on February 01, 2018 / comment : 0 Asia

Eleven people have been killed after a fire at a Japanese residential facility for people in financial difficulty.

TV footage on the country's public broadcaster NHK showed the house engulfed in flames late on Wednesday night.
Of the 16 people living in the home, five were rescued by firefighters battling the blaze.
The three-storey building in the northern city of Sapporo is home to mostly elderly residents.
The home is run by an organisation providing affordable accommodation and helping people on welfare find work, NHK reported.
Authorities have launched an investigation into what caused the fire.
In 2010, seven people were killed in a fire at Sapporo nursing home for the elderly.

Kabul military academy hit by explosions and gunfire

By: Admin on January 28, 2018 / comment : 0 Afghanistan, Asia, Slider

Heavy gunfire and explosions have been heard at a military academy in the Afghan capital, Kabul.

The Marshal Fahim National Defense University came under attack early Monday morning, reports said.
It comes days after the deadliest bombing for months hit Kabul when an ambulance packed with explosives killed at least 100 people.
Islamic State and the Taliban have recently carried out attacks in the city.
Several explosions were heard, as well as small arms fire, as the attack began at about 05:00 local time (00:30 GMT), the BBC's Mahfouz Zubaide reported from Kabul.
Security forces have blocked off all roads in the area, Afghan media outlet Tolo said.
According to Tolo, the president's spokesperson has confirmed the attack, saying that none of the attackers had been able to get further than the first gate.
News agency AFP cited a police spokesman confirming rocket and gunfire but saying it was now calm.
According to Reuters, police said there had been an incident inside at a military site but said it was not clear if it was an attack by militants.
Reports say some of the gunmen have been killed in the attack.

Can Afghan military turn the tide in Taliban fight?
Four days behind the Taliban front line
Who are the Taliban?

The ambulance attack on Saturday, took place just one week after another attack on a Kabul hotel killed 22 people - mostly foreigners. The Taliban said it had carried out both attacks.
Afghan military institutions are frequently targeted by militants.
In October 2017, 15 military cadets were killed in an explosion outside the Marshal Fahim military academy, which is located west of the Kabul city centre.

Elite climbing team save French woman from Pakistan's 'Killer Mountain'

By: Admin on January 28, 2018 / comment : 0 Asia, Pakistan

A French climber stranded on top of one of Pakistan's most deadly mountains is safe after a dramatic rescue operation.

The search for her Polish climbing partner, however, has been called off.
Elisabeth Revol and Tomasz Mackiewicz were climbing Nanga Parbat, nicknamed "Killer Mountain", when they got stuck at 7,400m (24,280ft) on Friday.
An elite climbing team from Poland who were on nearby K2 rushed to the rescue, scaling the mountain overnight to find Ms Revol alive.
Four members of the team, who had been attempting the first winter ascent of K2 - the second highest mountain in the world - were brought to Nanga Parbat by a Pakistani military helicopter.
They were dropped off about 1,000 metres below the lost climbers' last known location.
Denis Urubko and Adam Bielecki began the climb while Jaroslaw Botor and Piotr Tomala established a camp.
Contact with Ms Revol and Mr Mackiewicz had been lost as the team climbed towards their last known location.
Then, in the early hours of Sunday morning local time, the climbing team's Facebook page announced: "Elisabeth Revol found!"
Tomasz Mackiewicz, however, had been separated from Ms Revol. Earlier reports said that he had been suffering from frostbite and snow blindness.
Ludovic Giambiasi, a friend of Ms Revol's who had been in sporadic contact with her, said the climbers would rest for an hour or two in the open air before beginning the descent with Ms Revol.
"The rescue for Tomasz is unfortunately not possible," he wrote. "Because of the weather and altitude it would put the life of rescuers in extreme danger.
"It's a terrible and painful decision. We are in deep sadness. All our thoughts go out to Tomek's family and friends. We are crying."
All five climbers still alive are expected to be evacuated by helicopter to the town of Skardu later on Sunday.

A crowdfunding campaign to pay for the rescue attempt had raised more than $100,000 (£74,000) by the time the news of Ms Revol's safety emerged.
Masha Gordon, who set up the crowdfunding campaign, posted an update to the 4,000 supporters: "we are crying from happiness".
Mountaineers nicknamed Nanga Parbat, in northern Pakistan, "Killer Mountain" after more than 30 climbers died trying to conquer it before the first successful summit in 1953.
Last year, a Spaniard and an Argentinean were presumed dead in an avalanche after they went missing trying to scale the peak.
In 2013, gunmen killed 10 foreign climbers and their Pakistani guide at the Nanga Parbat base camp.

Kabul mourns 100 dead after ambulance bomb

By: Admin on January 28, 2018 / comment : 0 Asia, Slider

More than 100 people are now known to have been killed in a suicide bombing on Saturday in Kabul.

Attackers drove an ambulance past a police checkpoint to get to a crowded street in a district full of government buildings and embassies.
Afghanistan's government has declared a day of mourning for Sunday, as funerals take place and relatives search hospitals for survivors.
The Taliban - a hardline Islamist group - said it was behind the attack.
It was the deadliest attack in Afghanistan for months and took place a week after an attack on a Kabul hotel in which 22 people were killed.

Who are the Taliban?
Four days behind the Taliban front line

Interior minister Wais Barmak said a number of people died in hospital overnight and the death toll now stood at 103, with 235 wounded. Most of the injured are men.
AFP news agency reports that some foreign organisations are "reassessing their presence" in the country after the spate of attacks.
A local shopkeeper, Mohammad Hanif, told Reuters agency: "How are we to live? Where should we go?
"We have no security, we don't have proper government, what should we do?"

What happened in the latest attack?

Witnesses say the area - also home to offices of the European Union, a hospital and a shopping zone known as Chicken Street - was crowded with people when the bomb exploded on Saturday at about 12:15 local time (08:45 GMT).
Nasrat Rahimi, deputy spokesperson for the Interior Ministry, said the attacker got through a security checkpoint after telling police he was taking a patient to nearby Jamhuriat hospital.
He detonated the bomb at a second checkpoint, said Mr Rahimi.
The International Committee of the Red Cross said the use of an ambulance was "harrowing".

A Taliban spokesman later linked the attack to US efforts to assist Afghan forces with troops and airstrikes.
In a statement, Zabihullah Mujahid said: "If you go ahead with a policy of aggression and speak from the barrel of a gun, don't expect Afghans to grow flowers in response."

What was the response?

The Afghan government has condemned the bombing as a crime against humanity, and accused Pakistan of providing support to the attackers.
The Taliban control large swathes of Afghanistan and parts of neighbouring Pakistan.
Pakistan denies supporting militants that carry out attacks in Afghanistan. This month, the US cut its security aid to Pakistan, saying it had failed to take action against terrorist networks on its soil.
US President Donald Trump condemned the attack and said it "renews our resolve and that of our Afghan partners".
UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres said: "Indiscriminate attacks against civilians are a serious violation of human rights and humanitarian laws, and can never be justified."
In France, the Eiffel Tower turned off its lights at midnight on Saturday as a mark of respect for the dead and injured.

Paris Mayor Anne Hidalgo wrote on Twitter: "The city of Paris and Parisians are with the Afghan people who are once again facing terrorist barbarity," she said.

How does it compare to other recent attacks?

The attack is the deadliest in Kabul in several months.
In October, 176 people were killed in bomb attacks across Afghanistan in one week. The country's security forces in particular have suffered heavy casualties at the hands of the Taliban, who want to re-impose their strict version of Islamic law in the country.
In May, 150 people were killed by a suicide bomb attack in Kabul. The Taliban denied any role, but the Afghan government says its affiliate, the Haqqani group, carried it out with support from Pakistan.

Who are the Taliban?

The hardline Islamic Taliban movement swept to power in Afghanistan in 1996 after the civil war which followed the Soviet-Afghan war, and were ousted by the US-led invasion five years later, but returned to run some key areas
In power, they imposed a brutal version of Sharia law, such as public executions and amputations, and banned women from public life
Men had to grow beards and women to wear the all-covering burka; television, music and cinema were banned
They sheltered al-Qaeda leaders before and after being ousted - since then they have fought a bloody insurgency which continues today
In 2016, Afghan civilian casualties hit a new high - a rise attributed by the UN largely to the Taliban
Civilian casualties remained at high levels in 2017, the UN said

Kabul attack: Taliban kill 95 with ambulance bomb in Afghan capital

By: Admin on January 27, 2018 / comment : 0 Asia, Slider

A suicide bombing has killed at least 95 people and injured 158 others in the centre of Afghanistan's capital, Kabul, officials say.

Attackers drove an ambulance laden with explosives past a police checkpoint in a secure zone, home to government offices and foreign embassies.
The Taliban have said they carried out the attack, the deadliest for months.
US President Donald Trump called for "decisive action" against the group after the "despicable" bombing.
A week ago, Taliban militants killed 22 people in a luxury Kabul hotel.

What happened in the latest attack?

Witnesses say the area - also home to offices of the European Union, a hospital and a shopping zone known as Chicken Street - was crowded with people when the bomb exploded on Saturday at about 12:15 local time (08:45 GMT).
Nasrat Rahimi, deputy spokesperson for the Interior Ministry, said the attacker got through a security checkpoint after telling police he was taking a patient to nearby Jamhuriat hospital.
He detonated the bomb at a second checkpoint, said Mr Rahimi.
The BBC's Zia Shahreyar, speaking from the scene, says it is not easy to get through the checkpoints. Cars are searched and drivers' identities checked.
He adds that questions will be asked about how the attacker got through.
The International Committee of the Red Cross said the use of an ambulance was "harrowing".

What did witnesses say?

MP Mirwais Yasini told the BBC the area looked like a butcher's afterwards.
He was having lunch at his family home, just metres away, when the blast went off. "First of all we thought it was inside our house," he said. Then he went outside and saw scattered bodies. "It is very, very inhumane."

Who are the Taliban?
Four days behind the Taliban front line
How Kabul's Chicken Street fell on hard times

Another witness, a software engineer who wished to remain anonymous, told the BBC he was about a 1km away when he heard the noise.
"I saw a huge flame," he said. "The smoke was pungent. It entered my eyes and I was not able to see for some time."
He said when he moved closer he saw the dead bodies, and it looked like a "brutal graveyard".
"It was a terrible moment. [The area] is completely destroyed."

What was the response?

What is the reaction in the rest of the world?

In a statement, US President Donald Trump said:
"I condemn the despicable car bombing attack in Kabul today that has left scores of innocent civilians dead and hundreds injured. This murderous attack renews our resolve and that of our Afghan partners."
UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres said: "Indiscriminate attacks against civilians are a serious violation of human rights and humanitarian laws, and can never be justified."
In France, the Eiffel Tower will turn off its lights on Saturday night as a mark of respect for the dead and injured.
Paris Mayor Anne Hidalgo made the announcement on Twitter. "The city of Paris and Parisians are with the Afghan people who are once again facing terrorist barbarity," she said.

How does it compare to other recent attacks?

Who are the Taliban?

The hardline Islamic Taliban movement swept to power in Afghanistan in 1996 after the civil war which followed the Soviet-Afghan war, and were ousted by the US-led invasion five years later, but returned to run some key areas
In power, they imposed a brutal version of Sharia law, such as public executions and amputations, and banned women from public life
Men had to grow beards and women to wear the all-covering burka; television, music and cinema were banned
They sheltered al-Qaeda leaders before and after being ousted - since then they have fought a bloody insurgency which continues today
In 2016, Afghan civilian casualties hit a new high - a rise attributed by the UN largely to the Taliban
Civilian casualties remained at high levels in 2017, the UN said

How Aung San Suu Kyi sees the Rohingya crisis

By: Admin on January 27, 2018 / comment : 0 Asia, Myanmar, Rohingya, Tube

Myanmar leader Aung San Suu Kyi has overseen what is said to be the world's fastest growing refugee crisis, as hundreds of thousands of Rohingya Muslims flee to neighbouring Bangladesh.

Risking death by sea or on foot, more than half a million have fled persecution in northern Rakhine state since August 2017. The government sees the Rohingya as illegal immigrants from Bangladesh and denies them citizenship
Many of those who have fled describe troops and Rakhine Buddhist mobs burning their villages and attacking civilians. But Myanmar's military says it is fighting Rohingya militants, and denies ever targeting civilians.
Ms Suu Kyi, a Nobel Peace Prize winner who lived under house arrest for many years for her pro-democracy activism, is facing allegations that she has failed to speak out over violence against the Rohingyas.
So what has she said?

What you need to know about the crisis
Why won't Aung San Suu Kyi act?
From human rights heroine to alienated icon

Human rights heroine

In 2012, more than 20 years after being awarded the Nobel Peace Prize, Ms Suu Kyi gave her acceptance speech in Oslo. She said the prize "had drawn the attention of the world to the struggle for democracy and human rights in Burma [Myanmar]".
"Burma is a country of many ethnic nationalities and faith in its future can be founded only on a true spirit of union," she said, before reading some of her "favourite passages" from the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.
"Ultimately our aim should be to create a world free from the displaced, the homeless and the hopeless, a world of which each and every corner is a true sanctuary where the inhabitants will have the freedom and the capacity to live in peace".
They are the words of someone who, for many years, was hailed as the heroine of the human rights community. From the early 1990s until her final release from house arrest in 2010 she was a brave symbol of defiance against what was then a brutal military dictatorship.

Media captionThousands of Rohingya refugees flee to Bangladesh

Staying quiet

The same year she delivered her Nobel speech, an outbreak of communal violence in Myanmar saw more than 100,000 Rohingya people displaced and forced to live in makeshift refugee camps. At least 200 people were killed in fierce clashes between Buddhist and Muslim communities in Rakhine state.
Ms Suu Kyi, who was leader of the opposition at the time, sought to reassure the international community and pledged to "abide by our commitment to human rights and democratic value".
But critics accused her of staying quiet, and one senior British minister told The Independent newspaper: "Frankly, I would expect her to provide moral leadership on this subject but she hasn't really spoken about it at all."
The displacement of the Rohingya continued in 2013, and by the autumn more than 140,000 people had been forced to leave their homes. The violence had spread from Rakhine state to other areas including central Myanmar, and substantial international assistance was being channelled through NGOs and UN agencies.

Media captionWhen she was opposition leader in 2013, Aung San Suu Kyi said: "We cannot become a genuine democratic society with the [current] constitution"

Blaming government

Ms Suu Kyi spoke to the BBC's Mishal Husain about the crisis in October of that year. She blamed the continued violence on a "climate of fear", and denied that Muslims had been subjected to ethnic cleansing.
"Muslims have been targeted but Buddhists have also been subjected to violence," she said. "This fear is what is leading to all this trouble".

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She said that it was down to the government to bring an end to the violence.
"This is the result of our sufferings under a dictatorial regime. I think that if you live under a dictatorship for many years people do not like to trust one another - a dictatorship generates a climate of mistrust," she added.
In 2015, Ms Suu Kyi faced calls from around the world to condemn the ongoing crisis. The Dalai Lama said that he had twice urged her to act over the issue.
"I met her two times, first in London and then the Czech Republic. I mentioned about this problem and she told me she found some difficulties, that things were not simple but very complicated," he told The Australian.

In November of that year, Ms Suu Kyi's National League for Democracy party won a landslide election victory. Hundreds of thousands of people, including the Muslim Rohingya, were not allowed to vote, and no voting took place in seven areas where ethnic conflict was rife.
She spoke to the BBC's Fergal Keane about the Rohingya crisis as votes were still being counted. "Prejudice is not removed easily and hatred is not going to be removed easily… I'm confident the great majority of the people want peace… they do not want to live on a diet of hate and fear," she said.
Ms Suu Kyi could no longer defer responsibility to the government. Her stock response before the 2015 election was that it was a problem for the leadership to solve. Now she had to prove she was willing to deal with it.
But she finds herself in an awkward position.
Ms Suu Kyi makes most of the important decisions, but the military retains control of three vital ministries - home affairs, defence and border affairs. That means it also controls the police. The military is the real power in northern Rakhine State, along the border with Bangladesh.
So Ms Suu Kyi has very little control over events there. Speaking out in support of the Rohingya would almost certainly prompt an angry reaction from Buddhist nationalists and military officials. Not to mention the general public who have very little sympathy for the Rohingya.
This goes some way to explaining why she has rarely spoken out in their favour.

Media captionWatch: Drone footage from last October shows the extent of sprawling camps on the Bangladesh border

Playing it down

In 2016 the crisis escalated. Some government officials blamed a militant Rohingya group for the deaths of nine police officers who were killed in co-ordinated attacks near Maungdaw. A massive security operation was launched in response, and Rohingya activists said more than 100 people were killed in the crackdown.
In November 2016, a senior UN official told the BBC the new military offensive was a "textbook example of ethnic cleansing" - something Myanmar denies.
Some observers said Ms Suu Kyi's failure to condemn the ongoing violence was an outrage. She avoided journalists and press conferences, but when forced, said the military in Rakhine was operating according to the "rule of law". Few believed that to be the case.

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When she did occasionally comment on the situation, it was to play it down or suggest that people were exaggerating the severity of the violence.
"I'm not saying there are no difficulties,'' she told Singapore's Channel NewsAsia in December 2016. "But it helps if people recognise the difficulty and are more focused on resolving these difficulties rather than exaggerating them so that everything seems worse than it really is.''
Tun Khin, from the Burmese Rohingya Organisation UK, said her failure to defend the Rohingya was "extremely disappointing". "The point is that Aung San Suu Kyi is covering up this crime perpetrated by the military," he said.

Media captionAung San Suu Kyi was questioned by the BBC's Fergal Keane in April on why she hadn't done more for the Rohingyas

In an exclusive interview with the BBC last April, she acknowledged problems in Rakhine state but she said ethnic cleansing was "too strong" a term to use.
"I don't think there is ethnic cleansing going on. I think ethnic cleansing is too strong an expression to use for what is happening," she said.
"I think there is a lot of hostility there - it is Muslims killing Muslims as well, if they think they are co-operating with the authorities," she added.
Ms Suu Kyi has missed several opportunities to speak publicly about the issue. She did not attend the UN General Assembly in New York last September, and later claimed the crisis was being distorted by a "huge iceberg of misinformation".
"We make sure that all the people in our country are entitled to protection of their rights as well as, the right to, and not just political but social and humanitarian defence," she said. Her comments are at odds with observers on the ground, who say the whole refugee population - almost one million people - require food aid.
That same month, she also said she felt "deeply" for the suffering of "all people" in the conflict, and that Myanmar was "committed to a sustainable solution… for all communities in this state".

Mounting pressure

The international pressure against Ms Suu Kyi has continued to mount since then.
In November last year, she was formally stripped of an honour granting her the Freedom of Oxford because of her muted response to the Rohingya crisis. Musician Bob Geldof handed back his Freedom of Dublin award to protest against the inclusion of Ms Suu Kyi on the honours list.
In December, the UN human rights chief, Zeid Ra'ad Al Hussein, did not rule out genocide charges against Ms Suu Kyi and criticised her for failing to use the term "Rohingya". "To strip their name from them is dehumanising to the point where you begin to believe that anything is possible," he said.
The BBC asked Ms Suu Kyi and the head of the Myanmar armed forces for a response. But neither of them replied.
Her failure to denounce the military or address allegations of ethnic cleansing has been criticised by world leaders and groups such as Amnesty International.
The pressure has continued to grow this year, with veteran US diplomat Bill Richardson resigning from an international panel set up by Ms Suu Kyi to advise on the Rohingya crisis.
He claimed the panel was a "whitewash" and accused Ms Suu Kyi, his long-time friend, of lacking "moral leadership". Myanmar accused him of pursuing "his own agenda".

Coincheck: World's biggest ever digital currency 'theft'

By: Admin on January 27, 2018 / comment : 0 Asia, Business

One of Japan's largest digital currency exchanges says it has lost some $534m (£380m) worth of virtual assets in a hacking attack on its network.

Coincheck froze deposits and withdrawals for all crypto-currencies except Bitcoin as it assessed its losses in NEM, a lesser-known currency.
It may be unable to reimburse the funds lost on Friday, a representative told Japanese media.
If the theft is confirmed, it will be the largest involving digital currency.
Another Tokyo exchange, MtGox, collapsed in 2014 after admitting that $400m had been stolen from its network.
The stolen Coincheck assets were said to be kept in a "hot wallet" - a part of the exchange connected to the internet. That contrasts with a cold wallet, where funds are stored securely offline.
Coincheck says it has the digital address of where the assets were sent.

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What do we know about the hack?

Hackers broke in at 02:57 on Friday (17:57 GMT Thursday), the company said in a statement, but the breach was not discovered until 11:25, nearly eight and a half hours later.
Company chief operating officer Yusuke Otsuka said 523m NEMs had been sent from Coincheck's NEM address during the breach.
"It's worth 58bn yen based on the calculation at the rate when detected," he told reporters at the Tokyo Stock Exchange.

Coincheck was still examining how many customers had been affected and trying to establish whether the break-in had been launched from Japan or another country.
"We know where the funds were sent," Mr Otsuka added. "We are tracing them and if we're able to continue tracking, it may be possible to recover them."
Coincheck reported the incident to the police and to Japan's Financial Services Agency.

How damaging is the loss?

NEM, the 10th-largest crypto-currency by market value, fell 11% over a 24-hour period to 87 cents, as of 18:30, Bloomberg news agency reports.
Among the other crypto-currencies, Bitcoin dropped 3.4% and Ripple retreated 9.9% on Friday, according to prices seen by the agency.
More was lost on Friday than in 2014, when MtGox lost what it thought was 850,000 bitcoins. However, MtGox later found 200.000 bitcoins in an old digital wallet.
"In a worst-case scenario, we may not be able to return clients' assets," an unnamed Coincheck representative was quoted as saying on Saturday by Japan's Kyodo news agency.
After the collapse of MtGox shook the digital currency world, a licensing system was introduced in Japan to increase oversight of local currency exchanges such as Coincheck.
"What's the lasting impact? It's hard to tell," Marc Ostwald, global strategist at ADM Investor Services International in London, told Bloomberg.
"Japan is one of the most pro-crypto trading countries, among the G-20. In Japan they don't really want a wholesale clampdown. So it will be interesting how Japanese regulators respond to this, if they indeed do."

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What is Coincheck?

Founded in 2012, the company is based in Tokyo, where it employed 71 people as of August last year.
Its headquarters are located in the city's Shibuya district, an area popular with start-ups that was also home to MtGox, Bloomberg reports.
Last year, Coincheck began running adverts on national television featuring popular local comedian Tetsuro Degawa, the agency adds.
Kunihiko Sato, a 30-year-old customer from Tokyo, told Kyodo he had deposited about 500,000 yen ($4,600), into his account with the exchange.
"I never thought this kind of thing would happen with Japan's developed legislation," he said.

How do crypto-currencies work?

Whereas money is printed by governments or traditional banks, digital currencies are generated through a complex process known as "mining". Transactions are then monitored by a network of computers across the world using a technology called blockchain.
There are thousands of them, largely existing online, unlike the notes or coins in your pocket.
It may be more useful to think of them as assets, rather than digital cash. The vast majority of Bitcoin holders, for instance, appear to be investors. But the anonymity that crypto-currencies afford has also attracted criminals.
The value of a crypto-currency is determined by how much people are willing to buy and sell them for.

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