Foreign News
At least eight dead after major rioting and unrest in Papua New Guinea
At least eight people have died after major rioting and unrest hit Papua New Guinea’s capital, Port Moresby.
Shops and cars were set on fire and supermarkets looted after police went on strike over a pay dispute. Hundreds had taken to the streets on Wednesday.
In the aftermath, Prime Minister James Marape addressed the nation saying lawlessness would not be tolerated. “Breaking the law does not achieve certain outcomes,” he told the public on Thursday.
The army has been deployed to restore order and while most of the the riots had died down by Wednesday night, Marape acknowledged: “It’s still tense out there”.
A local official had earlier said that the looting had largely been carried out by “opportunists”.
“We have seen unprecedented level of strife in our city, something that has never happened before in the history of our city and our country,” National Capital District Governor Powes Parkop said in a radio address on Wednesday, according to a Reuters report. He had confirmed that “some people sadly lost their life today” though he did not give a number of dead.
The Port Moresby General Hospital had confirmed eight deaths, regional media reported.
The violence had also spread outside the capital – another seven people died in the city of Lae, local police said. The extent of violence in the second-largest city of Papua New Guinea was unclear.
The unrest was triggered after police and other public servants staged a protest strike outside parliament on Wednesday, after discovering their pay had been reduced by up to 50%.
Prime Minister James Marape said up to about $100 (£78) had been deducted from the pay-checks of public servants because of a computer glitch, and the government was not raising taxes as claimed by some protesters. “Social media picked up on this wrong information, misinformation,” said Mr Marape, according to the New York Times, adding that people had taken advantage of police being off the streets.
TV footage showed large crowds and looting across the city. A large shopping centre was among the buildings set on fire.
Ambulance officials said they had attended to several shooting injuries, while the US embassy reported shots near its compound.
The Chinese embassy has also lodged a complaint with the PNG government, saying several Chinese businesses were attacked and a number of Chinese nationals injured – though they did not specify how many. “The Chinese Embassy in Papua New Guinea has lodged solemn representations with the Papua New Guinea side over the attacks on the Chinese shops,” the embassy said on WeChat.
Australia, a neighbouring and major security partner for PNG, on Thursday called for calm in the country. Mr Marape, who met with Australia’s leader last month, has yet to ask for peacekeeping help from the country.
Amid an economic slump in his country that has seen higher inflation and unemployment rates, the prime minister has faced increased pressure. The opposition been working to cast a place a vote of no confidence against him.
Analysts say the unhappiness among the population had led to Wednesday’s unrest in the capital, home to about 400,000 people.
“The events of today in Port Moresby are manifesting and revealing the inner social and economic pains and suffering of police, military and other public servants of PNG, as well as all workers and ordinary people,” PNG Think Tank analyst Samson Komati told the Australian Broadcasting Corporation.
(BBC)
A leading independent journalist and book author from Vietnam has been sentenced to 30 months in jail over Facebook posts critical of the government.
Following a trial that lasted only for a few hours, a court in the capital Hanoi convicted 63-year-old Huy Duc of “abusing democratic freedoms to infringe upon the interests of the state” through posting 13 articles on Facebook.
“These articles have a large number of interactions, comments and shares, causing negative impacts on social order and safety,” the indictment quoted by Vietnam News Agency read.
Huy Duc worked for influential state-run newspapers before authoring one of Vietnam’s most popular blogs and Facebook accounts, where he criticised the country’s communist leaders on issues such as corruption, media control and relations with China.
Huy Duc, whose real name is Truong Huy San, is a former senior army lieutenant. He was fired from a state news outlet in 2009 for criticising past actions by Vietnam’s former communist ally, the Soviet Union.
In 2012, Huy Duc spent a year at Harvard University on a Nieman Fellowship. During his time abroad, his account of life in Vietnam after the end of the war with the United States, The Winning Side, was published.
His conviction comes just a few months after blogger Duong Van Thai was jailed for 12 years on charges of publishing antistate information.
He had almost 120,000 followers on YouTube where he regularly recorded livestreams critical of the government.
In January, a prominent former lawyer was also jailed for three years over Facebook posts.
Shortly before his arrest in June, Huy Duc took aim online at Vietnam’s new powerful leader To Lam, as well as his predecessor Nguyen Phu Trong. It is unclear if the charges were related to these particular posts.
Vietnam, a one-party state, has no free media and clamps down hard on any dissent. It is one of the world’s top jailers of journalists, according to the Reporters Without Borders (RSF) press freedom campaign group.
RSF said previously that his articles were “an invaluable source of information enabling the Vietnamese public to access censored information by the Hanoi regime”.
Rights campaigners say the government has in recent years intensified its crackdown on civil society.
In December, Vietnam enacted new online rules requiring Facebook and TikTok to verify user identities and hand over data to authorities.
Under “Decree 147”, all tech giants operating in Vietnam must verify user accounts by phone number or Vietnamese identification numbers and store that information alongside their full name and date of birth.
[Aljazeera]
Actress Michelle Trachtenberg, who rose to fame as a child star in the 1990s and 2000s, has died aged 39.
Police in Manhattan said they responded to an emergency call on Wednesday morning and found Trachtenberg “unconscious and unresponsive”. She was pronounced dead at the scene.
The US actress was best known for playing Buffy the Vampire Slayer’s younger sister Dawn Summers, and later took on the role of manipulative socialite Georgina Sparks in Gossip Girl as an adult.
Trachtenberg made her film debut in Harriet the Spy in 1996, and also appeared in several Nickelodeon productions.
Co-stars paid tribute to her, describing her as a “fiercely intelligent” person who “cared deeply” about her work.
Her family’s representatives confirmed her death in a statement.
“It is with great sadness to confirm that Michelle Trachtenberg has passed away. The family requests privacy for their loss,” it said.
Authorities said her death was not being treated as suspicious.
“Criminality is not suspected. The medical examiner will determine the cause of death. The investigation remains ongoing,” the NYPD said in a statement.
Trachtenberg got her start in acting at age nine on the Nickelodeon television series The Adventures of Pete & Pete.
In the early 2000s, she was nominated for several acting awards – including a Daytime Emmy Award – for her role in Buffy the Vampire Slayer.
She also starred in films including EuroTrip, Ice Princess, Killing Kennedy, and Sister Cities.
Blake Lively, a Gossip Girl co-star, said everything Trachtenberg did “she did 200%”.
“She laughed the fullest at someone’s joke… she cared deeply about her work, she was fiercely loyal to her friends and brave for those she loved, she was big and bold and distinctly herself,” she wrote on social media.
“The real tragedies in life are the ones that blindside you on an idle Tuesday. Hold those you love and have loved dear.”
US comedian Rosie O’Donnell, who starred alongside Trachtenberg in her Harriet the Spy debut, said her death was “heartbreaking”.
“I loved her very much. She struggled the last few years. I wish I could have helped.”
Josh Safran, a writer and producer on Gossip Girl, said it was “an honour and joy to write for Michelle for so many years”, as she had a “clear voice” as an actor.
“You heard her as you typed,” he wrote. “You knew she’d make each line rougher, more real, much funnier – and that made the writing better.
Former castmates also paid tribute.
Buffy cast member James Marsters said on social media that the actress was “fiercely intelligent, howlingly funny, and a very talented person”.
“She died much too young, and leaves behind scores of people who knew and loved her,” Marsters said.
How I Met Your Mother actress Alyson Hannigan, who played Willow Rosenberg in Buffy, shared a series of photos on social media, including images of the two sharing scenes, and said Trachtenberg “brought a loving energy to the set of Buffy”.
Trachtenberg first appeared in Gossip Girl – which ran from 2007 to 2012 – in 2008. She returned to the role for two episodes of the second season of HBO Max’s reboot in 2023.
Her last major acting role was in 2021 as the host of a true-crime docuseries Meet, Marry, Murder, which appeared on digital streamer Tubi.
In 2021, Trachtenberg accused Buffy the Vampire Slayer creator Joss Whedon of inappropriate behaviour on set, after her co-star Charisma Carpenter said she had been left traumatised due to the treatment she received from Whedon.
[BBC]
At least 40 Uyghurs have been deported to China, the Thai authorities have confirmed, despite warnings from rights groups that they face possible torture and even death.
The group is thought to have been flown back to China’s Xinjiang region on Thursday, after being held for 10 years in a Bangkok detention centre.
China has been accused of committing crimes against humanity and possibly genocide against the Uyghur population and other mostly Muslim ethnic groups in the north-western region of Xinjiang. Beijing denies all of the allegations.
It is the first time Thailand has deported Uyghurs since 2015.
The deportation has been shrouded in secrecy after serious concerns were raised by the United States and United Nations.
Thai media reported that several trucks, some with windows blocked with sheets of black plastic, left Bangkok’s main immigration detention centre in the early hours of Thursday morning.
Hours later, tracker Flightrader24 showed an unscheduled China Southern Airlines flight leaving Bangkok, eventually arriving in Xinjiang. It was not immediately clear how many people had been deported.
The Thai defence minister told Reuters news agency that Beijing had given assurances the deportees would be looked after.
Beijing said that 40 Chinese illegal immigrants were repatriated from Thailand, but refused to confirm that the group were Uyghurs.
“The repatriation was carried out in accordance with the laws of China and Thailand, international law and international practice,” the foreign ministry said.
Chinese state media said the group had been bewitched by criminal organisations and were stranded in Thailand after illegally leaving the country.
Thailand’s Prime Minister Paetongtarn Shinawatra did not initially confirm any deportations had taken place when asked by reporters.
“In any country in the world actions must adhere to the principles of law, international processes, and human rights,” she said.
The group is thought to be the last of more than 300 Uyghurs who were detained at the Thai border in 2014 after fleeing repression in Xinjiang.
Many were sent to Turkey, which usually offers Uyghurs asylum, while others were deported back to China in 2015 – prompting a storm of protest from governments and human rights groups.
“What is the Thai government doing?” asked opposition lawmaker Kannavee Suebsang on social media on Thursday.
“There must not be Uyghur deportation to face persecution. They were jailed for 11 years. We violated their human rights for too long.”
The detention centre where the Uyghurs – who had been charged with no crime, apart from entering Thailand without a visa – were kept was known to be unsanitary and overcrowded. Five Uyghurs died in custody.
In a statement on Thursday, Human Rights Watch said the group now face a high risk of torture, enforced disappearance and long-term imprisonment.
“Thailand’s transfer of Uyghur detainees to China constitutes a blatant violation of Thailand’s obligations under domestic and international laws,” said the organisation’s Asia director, Elaine Pearson.
“Until yesterday [Wednesday], senior Thai officials had made multiple public assurances that these men would not be transferred, including to allies and UN officials.”
Phil Robertson, director of the Asia Human Rights and Labour Advocates (AHRLA) group, said that the deportations “totally destroyed” the “charade” that the current Thai government was different to the previous one “when it comes to transnational repression and cooperating with authoritarian neighbours”.
Amnesty International described the deportations as “unimaginably cruel”.
Bipartisan members of the US House China Committee on Wednesday issued a statement warning that the deportations “would constitute a clear violation of international human rights norms to which the Kingdom of Thailand is obligated under international law”.
The UN said that it “deeply regrets” the deportations.
There are about 12 million Uyghurs, mostly Muslim, living in Xinjiang, which is officially known as the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region (XUAR).
The Uyghurs speak their own language, which is similar to Turkish, and see themselves as culturally and ethnically close to Central Asian nations. They make up less than half of the Xinjiang population.
Recent decades have seen a mass migration of Han Chinese (China’s ethnic majority) into Xinjiang, allegedly orchestrated by the state to dilute the minority population there.
China has also been accused of targeting Muslim religious figures and banning religious practices in the region, as well as destroying mosques and tombs.
[BBC]
Vietnam court jails journalist Huy Duc for 30 months over Facebook posts
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