The Nation Newspaper

Tag: U.S state department

  • Malaysia hits back at U.S. criticism over human rights

    Malaysia hits back at U.S. criticism over human rights

    Malaysia on Friday lambasted a U.S. State Department document that criticised alleged human rights violations and restrictions on civil liberties in the country.

    The State Department’s Country Reports on Human Rights Practices for 2015, released two days ago, noted that the most significant

    human rights problems included government restrictions on freedoms of speech and expression, press and media, assembly, and association.

    It cited police intimidation, investigations into alleged sedition and illegal assembly as well as “politically motivated prosecution and jailing of opposition leader Anwar Ibrahim.”

    Anwar is serving a five-year jail sentence after being convicted of sodomy.

    The Malaysian Foreign Ministry responded to the report, saying it had taken a “one-sided approach” and did not include the government’s efforts to protect human rights.

    “This unwarranted report by the U.S. was prepared in the absence of any formal engagement with government officials,” the ministry said.

    Malaysia has been under fire from local and foreign activists over its repressive laws, such as the colonial-era Sedition Act that prohibits people from criticising the government.

    Several political activists and critics of the government, including top Malaysian political cartoonist Zunar, have been charged in court under the Sedition Act.

  • U.S. condemns ‘horrific’ attacks in Nigeria, Cameroon

    The United States on Friday condemned Boko Haram suicide attacks in Cameroon and Nigeria as “horrific and indiscriminate” and deplored the militant group’s use of children as bombers.

    Multiple bomb blasts at two bus stations in Gombe killed 37 people on Wednesday, while two suicide bomb attacks killed at least 13 people in northern Cameroon.

    The U.S “strongly condemns the horrific and indiscriminate suicide attacks,” the State Department said.

    “Boko Haram’s unconscionable use of children as suicide bombers and indiscriminate targeting of men, women and children highlights the group’s senseless brutality,” State Department deputy spokesperson, Mark Toner, said in the statement.

    The attacks came on the heels of President Muhammadu Buhari’s four-day visit to Washington, where he met with U.S. President Barack Obama. The two leaders on Monday discussed security issues including the threat posed by the extremist group.

    Following their talks, Obama said Buhari had a “clear agenda” for defeating the militants and tackling corruption.

    Boko Haram which has killed thousands of people in a six-year insurgency has been increasingly employing young people as suicide bombers since it allied itself with Islamic State.

  • Boko Haram, IS, others increased global terror in 2014 – U.S

    Boko Haram, IS, others increased global terror in 2014 – U.S

    Boko Haram and extremists in Iraq and Afghanistan unleashed a savage rise in violence between 2013 and 2014, according to new statistics released by the State Department on Friday.

    Attacks largely at the hands of the Islamic State and Boko Haram raised the number of terror acts by more than a third, nearly doubled the number of deaths and nearly tripled the number of kidnappings.

    The figures contained in the department’s annual global terrorism report said that nearly 33,000 people were killed in almost 13,500 terrorist attacks around the world last year.

    That’s up from just over 18,000 deaths in nearly 10,000 attacks in 2013, it said.

    24 Americans were killed by extremists in 2014, the report said, while abductions soared from 3,137 in 2013 to 9,428 in 2014.

    The report attributed the rise in attacks to increased terror activity in Iraq, Afghanistan and Nigeria and the sharp spike in deaths to a growth in exceptionally lethal attacks in those countries and elsewhere.

    Terror attacks took place in 95 countries in 2014, but were concentrated in the Mideast, South Asia and West Africa. Iraq, Pakistan, Afghanistan, India and Nigeria accounted for more than 60 percent of the attacks and, if Syria is included, roughly 80 percent of the fatalities, the report found.

    There were 20 attacks that killed more than 100 people each in 2014, compared to just two in 2013, according to the figures that were compiled for the State Department by the National Consortium for the Study of Terrorism and Responses to Terrorism at the University of Maryland.

    Among the 20 mass casualty attacks in 2014 were the December attack by the Pakistani Taliban on a school in Peshawar, Pakistan that killed at least 150 people and the June attack by Islamic State militants on a prison in Mosul, Iraq, in which 670 Shiite prisoners died.

    At the end of 2014, the prison attack was the deadliest terrorist operation in the world since September 11, 2001, according to the report.

  • U.S issues global travel alert

    U.S issues global travel alert

    The U.S state department has issued a global travel alert because of fears of an unspecified al-Qaeda attack.

    The department said the potential for an attack was particularly strong in the Middle East and North Africa.

    The United States intercepted electronic communications between senior al-Qaeda figures, according to officials quoted by the New York Times.

    BBC reports that the alert comes shortly after the U.S government announced nearly two dozen embassies and consulates would be shut on Sunday.

    The U.S state department said the alert expires on August 31 and it recommended America’s citizens travelling abroad be vigilant.

    “Current information suggests that al-Qaeda and affiliated organisations continue to plan terrorist attacks both in the region and beyond, and that they may focus efforts to conduct attacks in the period between now and the end of August,” the statement said.

    The alert warned of “the potential for terrorists to attack public transportation systems and other tourist infrastructure.”