News in Brief

Date: 09 May 2021 - 22:56

News ID: ۹۰۰۵۰

NAIROBI (Reuters) -- The head of Ethiopia’s Orthodox Church has said that atrocities amounting to genocide are being committed in Tigray, in his first comments on the conflict in the region that broke out in November and has killed thousands. Abune Mathias, who has been head of the church since 2013, did not say who was responsible for this.  Fighting erupted in early November in Tigray between federal forces and the Tigray People’s Liberation Front (TPLF), a party that dominated the national government until three years ago. The government declared victory at the end of November and says the region is returning to normal. Aid groups say many parts of Tigray remain unreachable due to ongoing conflict. "Nowadays, all over Ethiopia in general and in Tigray in particular, many barbarisms have been conducted,” Abune said. "Genocide is being committed now,” he said, before describing alleged atrocities such as the raping of women and the bombing and other types of destruction of churches.

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LONDON (Reuters) -- Sadiq Khan was re-elected London Mayor on Saturday as had been widely expected, providing some joy to the opposition Labour Party which has suffered a series of disappointing results in other local elections. Khan, who became the first Muslim to head a major Western capital after his victory in 2016, saw off his main challenger, Shaun Bailey, the candidate from Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s Conservative Party. He won by 55.2% to Bailey’s 44.8% in a result which had been widely predicted, although his winning margin was smaller than his victory five years ago. Khan, a former member of parliament who replaced Johnson as leader of the British capital with a population of almost nine million people, has faced criticism over rising violent crime in the capital, particularly stabbings involving teenagers. Khan’s success comes after a bruising set of results for Labour in local elections in its former heartlands in central and northern England - known as the party’s "Red Wall” - which followed a disastrous performance in the 2019 national vote.  Analysts attribute this to the city’s younger, more ethnically-diverse and more pro-European Union population, which unlike most of England, overwhelmingly opposed Brexit.

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NAYPYITAW (Reuters) -- Myanmar’s military rulers have branded a rival National Unity Government a terrorist group and blamed it for bombings, arson and killings, state-controlled media said. Myanmar’s army has struggled to impose order since seizing power on Feb. 1 and detaining elected leader Aung San Suu Kyi. Bombings are reported daily and local militias have been formed to confront the army while anti-junta protests have not stopped across the Southeast Asian country and strikes by opponents of the coup have paralyzed the economy. The National Unity Government (NUG), which operates under cover and itself describes the army as a terrorist force, announced this week that it would set up a People’s Defense Force. Protesters marched against the junta in dozens of places on Saturday. At least 774 civilians have been killed by security forces and 3,778 are detained, according to the Assistance Association for Political Prisoners activist group. Fighting has also flared on Myanmar’s periphery with ethnic armies that have been fighting for decades and some of which have rallied behind the protesters.

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BEIJING (Reuters) -- China is expected to release the results of its once-in-a-decade census conducted late last year on May 11, according to a notice from the State Council Information Office. Officials from the census and statistics bureaus will brief the media on the census results on May 11, the State Council Information Office said in a notice on Sunday. The National Bureau of Statistics said previously that the results would be released at a media briefing scheduled for early April. It later said the announcement had been delayed, as more preparatory work needed to be done.

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MOSCOW (Reuters) -- Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko has signed a decree allowing the transfer of presidential power to the security council if he is murdered or otherwise unable to perform his duties, state Belta news agency reported. Lukashenko said in April he was planning to change the way power in Belarus is set up. Previously, if the president’s position became vacant, or he was unable to fulfil his duties, power would be transferred to the prime minister until a new president took oath.

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TRIPOLI (Reuters) -- A senior official at Libya’s new Presidency Council denied that groups who entered a hotel where the body meets had been armed or used force, playing down an incident that had appeared to illustrate the risks facing the unity government. Earlier, the Council’s spokeswoman had said armed groups had stormed the Corinthia Hotel on Friday, though she also said nobody from the body had been in the building at the time. "There was no kidnapping, gunfire, or an attack on me or the hotel,” the head of the Presidency Council’s office, Mohamed al-Mabrouk said in a social media video, adding that he had been in the hotel at the time of the incident. Mabrouk said the head of the Presidency Council, which functions as Libya’s head of state for now, would meet with the groups involved.The Presidency Council was chosen through a United Nations-facilitated process that also selected a new Government of National Unity that took office in March, replacing rival administrations in east and west. Armed groups based in western Libya have voiced anger at the Government of National Unity’s Foreign Minister, Najla el-Mangoush.