Category: Foreign

Our Reporter

International leaders, including human rights authorities and Non Governmental Organisations(NGOs) have criticised the arrest of six Shincheonji church authorities in South Korea on charges of hiding crucial information from contact-tracers and other offences after the COVID-19 infections spiked in late February.
Among the arrested leaders is the church’s founder and President of Heavenly Culture, World Peace, Restoration of Light (HWPL), Lee Man Hee, 89.

Former President and Honorary Life President of the World Jurist Association, Franklin Hoet Linares said: “We strongly condemn the harassment against Mr. Hee Lee and kindly request the Government of Korea to order the review of Government agencies or officials acting against freedoms and practices established in Article 21, Chapter II of the Korean Constitution.

“We do not understand why, in a a country where freedom of religion is enshrined, the Government can allow the Korean Constitution to be violated, whereas it clearly states in Article 20, Clauses 1 and 2, ‘All citizens will enjoy the freedom of religion’ and ‘religion and state will be separated’,” the Senior Partner of Hoet Pelaez Castillo & Duque lamented.

The arrests in early August were the biggest clampdown on the church’s activities since the spike of the infections in late February.

“The Shincheonji church provided the personal information of its members (including the members living abroad, outside the region of South Korea) to the government even after they had shut down all of the facilities after a member was confirmed with COVID-19,” officials of the church insisted.

The HPWL believed its license was withdrawn because it had the same head as the Shincheonji church.

Members of HWPL, find the situation “frustrating, unfair and unjust” while pleading for global support and cooperation to salvage the situation.

In the United Kingdom, Chairman of International Human Rights Committee, Iftikhar Ayaz considered reactions toward the church to be “brutal persecution of the members”.

The committee head also described the Korean government denial of unregistering the HPWL as “inhumane” while going further to term the act “horrible negligence of State Responsibility must treat all citizens equally”.

In his reaction, Director of Human Rights Without Frontiers (HRWF), Willy Fautre views the backlash on the church “as an attempt by the fundamentalist Protestant groups to weaken and destroy their strong competitor in the religious market”.

Recently, 12 European civil society organizations co-signed a document “Scapegoating members of Shincheonji for COVID-19 in the Republic of Korea” submitted to the UN Special Rapporteur on Freedom of Religion.

In the report, it was stated that “the virus cannot be an excuse to violate human rights and religious liberty of many believers” calling for an end to “intolerance violence and discrimination against the members”.

A statement from the church explains that 512 members of the church have donated their blood plasma in the bid to support the development of a vaccine and as a form of reward for treatment offered by the government.

The church has indicated readiness to support the government in the fight against the pandemic.

Our Reporter

The US District Court for Columbia has issued a summons order for Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed Bin Salman over the failed assassination attempt of former intelligence officer Saad Al-Jabri who lives in a secret location in Canada.

Al-Jabri accused Bin Salman of sending a hit team known as the ‘Tiger Squad’ to assassinate him in the same style as Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi, who was brutally dismembered in the kingdom’s consulate in Istanbul in 2018.

The court also summoned 13 Saudi officials including former Deputy Director of Intelligence Ahmed Al-Asiri and former adviser in the royal court Saud Al-Qahtani who was also involved in Khashoggi’s assassination.

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Al-Jabri, who lives under increased security in a secret location in the Toronto area, claimed that his close ties with the US intelligence community and deep knowledge of the prince’s activities had rendered him one of the aspiring monarch’s key targets, Al Jazeera reported.

According to the lawsuit, the hit squad attempted to enter Canada using tourist visas and one diplomatic visa, within two weeks of Khashoggi’s killing, however they were denied entry and deported.

(www.newsnow.co.uk)

Our Reporter

Russia has announced the world’s first vaccine for COVID-19 amid concerns it may not have fully tested its product.

Announcing regulatory approval for a test vaccine produced by Moscow’s Gamaleya Institute after shortened trials, Vladimir Putin claimed testing had demonstrated the product was safe, worked effectively and formed long-term immunity.

“One of my daughters did the inoculation herself,” he said before a cabinet meeting on Tuesday morning. “After the first injection, her temperature went up to 38, but by the next day it was just a little over 37.”

According to Deputy Prime Minister Tatyana Golikova, Russia plans to begin inoculating medical staff in August, with mass vaccination starting early next year. Health Minister Mikhail Murashko said a course of two injections would provide immunity for up to two years.

Russia has embraced the race to approve the world’s first vaccine, with Kirill Dmitriev, head of the country’s sovereign wealth fund, likening the search to the Soviet launch of the world’s first satellite in 1957.

Russia is one of two dozen countries involved in vaccine trials. In July, the United Kingdom accused Russia of hacking data from advanced trials at the University of Oxford — to the consternation of Moscow.

The Russian vaccine uses adapted strains of the adenovirus, a virus that usually causes the common cold, but researchers have failed to produce evidence of its safety or efficacy. Testing was carried out on soldiers and medical students, with regulatory approval arriving several months ahead of the scheduled completion of trials.

READ ALSO: 15 countries purchase Russia’s pandemic medication

That speed and lack of transparency has fuelled concerns that geopolitics may have been prioritised at the expense of science.

Mikhail Favorov, an epidemiologist at the US Centre for Disease Control and Prevention who sat on the board of the Gamaleya Institute between 1989-90 has suggested his former colleagues may be guilty of cutting corners to deliver the goods. Writing in a social media post, he revealed he asked for data about the adenovirus vaccine without success.

“I hope with my whole heart that the vaccine will be protective and safe,” he said. “We’ll know soon enough if the vaccinated don’t get ill with Covid-19, which will be great. If they do get ill, we’ll know it doesn’t work, which is bad. But if people start dying at a proportion of one in hundred or a thousand, then it will be especially bad, and for [the developers] who will face prison.”

At a congressional hearing last month, Anthony Fauci, the man leading the US coronavirus response effort also warned about the dangers of an under-tested vaccine.

“I do hope that the Chinese and the Russians are actually testing the vaccine before they are administering the vaccine to anyone,” he said. “Claims of having a vaccine ready to distribute before you do testing is problematic in the very least.”

(www.newsnow.co.uk)

Our Reporter
China on Monday announced unspecified sanctions against 11 U.S. politicians and heads of organizations promoting democratic causes, including Senators Marco Rubio and Ted Cruz, who have already been singled out by Beijing.

Foreign ministry spokesperson Zhao Lijian on Monday said the 11 had “performed badly” on issues concerning Hong Kong, where China has cracked down on opposition voices following its imposition of a national security law in the semi-autonomous southern Chinese city last month.

The number of Americans named by the ministry exactly equals the number of Hong Kong and Chinese officials placed on a sanctions list by the U.S. last week over the crackdown.

China showed its determination to defy such pressure on Monday by arresting leading independent media tycoon Jimmy Lai and raiding the publisher’s headquarters.

“The relevant actions of the U.S. blatantly intervened in Hong Kong affairs, grossly interfered in China’s internal affairs, and seriously violated international law and the basic norms of international relations,” foreign ministry spokesperson Zhao Lijian said at a daily briefing on Monday.

“China urges the U.S. to have a clear understanding of the situation, correct mistakes, and immediately stop interfering in Hong Kong affairs and interfering in China’s internal affairs.”

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Others named by the foreign ministry included Senators Josh Hawley, Tom Cotton and Pat Toomey and Representative Chris Smith. National Endowment for Democracy President Carl Gershman, National Democratic Institute President Derek Mitchell, International Republican Institute President Daniel Twining, Human Rights Watch Executive Director Kenneth Roth, and Michael Abramowitz, President of Freedom House, were also on the sanctions list, according to Zhao.

Beijing already placed a travel ban on Rubio, Cruz and Smith last month after Washington announced similar measures against Chinese officials linked to measures taken against Muslims in the northwestern Chinese region of Xinjiang.

The standing committee of China’s national legislature passed the National Security Law last month, bypassing the city’s Legislative Council and the public, where such legislation has faced stiff opposition for years.

The move came in response to months of sometimes violent anti-government protests last year that Beijing said were encouraged by foreign forces in a bid to overthrow Chinese rule over the former British colony that was handed over to Chinese rule in 1997 under a “one country, two systems” framework meant to last until 2047.

(www.newsnow.co.uk)

Agency Reporter

Facebook’s CEO has joined Amazon’s CEO, Jeff Bezos, and Microsoft’s founder Bill Gates, as the only people with centibillionaire status.

According to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index Bloomberg Billionaires Index, Mark Zuckerberg’s fortune has topped $100bn for the first time, placing him among members of the world’s centibillionaires’ club.

This comes after Facebook’s shares surged by 6% on the news that the company plans to launch Instagram Reels, a rival to the Chinese video-sharing application TikTok.

Earlier this week, US President Donald Trump banned US companies from dealing with ByteDance and Tencent – the Chinese owners of TikTok and the WeChat messaging service.

The 36-year old media magnate has joined Jeff Bezos, the Amazon founder, and Bill Gates, Microsoft’s founder, as the only people who have centibillionaire status, the Bloomberg Billionaires Index said.

Zuckerberg, who founded Facebook while a student at Harvard in 2004, owns a 13% stake in the company. Earlier, he said that he was going to give away 99% of his Facebook shares over his lifetime to charity.