News in Brief

Date: 27 January 2018 - 21:46

News ID: ۴۹۳۷۶

DHAKA, Bangladesh (AP) -- Indonesian President Joko Widodo is in Bangladesh on a two-day visit to discuss bilateral issues and visit sprawling refugee camps for hundreds of thousands of Rohingya Muslims who have fled Myanmar.
Widodo arrived Saturday and is expected to fly Sunday to Cox's Bazar, the main town near where the camps are located.
Widodo's visit is focused on bilateral cooperation but the Rohingya issue is expected to draw the most attention.
Nearly 700,000 Rohingya have fled Myanmar since August, after Myanmar security forces began "clearance operations" in the wake of alleged attacks by Rohingya insurgents on police posts. The UN has described the campaign as ethnic cleansing.
Bangladesh and Myanmar have signed a deal to repatriate the Rohingya, though international agencies say few are likely to return voluntarily due to safety concerns.

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EDINBURGH (AFP) -- Britain's defense minister Gavin Williamson said a new radar off Scotland's Shetland Islands would help tackle the "severe and real" threat from Moscow.
In a return to the Cold War days when Shetland had hosted an early warning radar, the new Royal Air Force facility is being built to track unidentified military or civilian aircraft.
"We will always protect our skies from Russian aggression," Williamson said Friday, describing the radar as vital to British defenses.
"Russia's actions are not limited to Europe's eastern borders - the threat to British livelihoods is severe and real," he added.
The £10 million ($14.1 million) radar on Unst, Britain's most northerly inhabited island, is due to be fully operational soon, the Ministry of Defense said.
Once launched it will feed into the country's quick reaction alert system, which in the past has been used to scramble RAF jets to intercept Russian aircraft.
On Jan. 15 two fighter jets were launched to monitor two Russian military aircraft, which the Ministry of Defense said did not respond to air traffic control authorities.

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MOSCOW (Reuters) -- Newly-imposed U.S. sanctions against two Russian energy ministry officials are "unlawful" and Moscow will seek explanations from Washington, Russian Energy Minister Alexander Novak said on Saturday, according to local news agencies.
The United States added Russian officials and energy firms to a sanctions blacklist on Friday, days before details of further possible penalties against Moscow are due to be released.
One person added to the list was Russian Deputy Energy Minister Andrey Cherezov, who was put under sanctions by the European Union over his role in the delivery of turbines to Crimea last year.

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SRINAGAR, India (AP) -- Indian soldiers opened fire on protesters in the disputed region of Kashmir Saturday, killing two young men and wounding several others, police said.
The protesters threw stones at the soldiers as their convoy was passing through a village in southern Shopian, prompting them to open fire, police said. Police said several people were wounded, one critically, and taken to hospitals. Villagers put the number of wounded at nine.
As the news of the killings spread, hundreds hit the streets chanting anti-India slogans and demanding an end to Indian rule. Rebel groups demand that Kashmir be united either under Pakistani rule or as an independent country, a view that is widespread even among civilians in the region.
Tension in Shopian was already running high after government forces killed two local rebels and a teenage boy during a gun battle Wednesday. One of the slain rebels was from the village where Saturday's shooting took place.

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ADDIS ABABA (AFP) -- Former Brazilian president Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva said Saturday that efforts to block him from seeking re-election were only making him stronger, in a video address at the African Union summit.
Lula lashed out at authorities who blocked him from travelling to the summit in Ethiopia where he was due to attend a meeting organized by the UN Food and Agriculture Organization, a day after his graft conviction was upheld.
The corruption ruling strikes a blow to 72-year-old Lula's hopes of running in this year's presidential election, in which he is regarded as a frontrunner. However analysts say he still has a shot at running and can file further appeals in higher courts.
"They don’t want me to be a candidate because the more they accuse me, the more they persecute me, the more I grow in public opinion polls," Lula told the meeting in Addis Ababa via a conference call.

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TEGUCIGALPA (Reuters) -- Honduran President Juan Orlando Hernandez was set to be sworn in Saturday for an historic second term after prevailing last year in a bitterly disputed election that sparked deadly protests and international condemnation over alleged fraud.
Hernandez appeared set to lose the Nov. 26 election until an abrupt halt in the vote count and a shift in the results, taking victory away from his center-left rival, Salvador Nasralla.
The opposition cried foul, and more than 30 people were killed in protests that persisted through January in the impoverished Central American country. Nasralla has called for continued demonstrations.
International observers said the election was marred by irregularities, and the Organization of American States called for a new presidential vote.