This content originally appeared on Common Dreams and was authored by Newswire Editor.

Despite government attempts to tightly control prices, the cost of many items on informal markets called jangmadang, which became part of the economy after the famine that hit North Korea in the 1990s, have steadily risen.

North Korean authorities initially forbid jangmadang, but they gradually allowed the markets because they provided a means for people to survive. Many women in particular have set up stalls and small businesses to earn money for their families because the salaries their state-employed husbands receive is so low.

But over the past two years, the price of eggs, sugar, pork, rice and cooking oil have jumped twofold to fivefold, according to two sources from Yanggang province.

(Kin Cheung/AP)

The main reason appears to be a shortage of supplies and the depreciation of the North Korean won against the Chinese yuan and U.S. dollar, which makes goods more expensive in local currency, the sources say.

“Market prices have jumped at least twofold and, in some cases, more than fivefold,” said a Yanggang province resident who requested anonymity for security reasons. “Now, instead of carrying a money pouch to the market, people literally have to bring a backpack full of cash.”

North Korea doesn’t report consumer price data, so examples of specific products reflect the changes.

For example, a kilogram of sunflower oil, used for cooking, has nearly tripled to 75,000 won over the past two years, while sugar has jumped fourfold to 40,000 won. A kilogram of pork has more than tripled to 87,000 won.

Since 1,000-won notes are commonly used for daily transactions, buying a kilogram of sugar would require a stack of 40 such bills. Smaller bills would require even more.

North Korea is chronically short of food, and most people struggle to get food on their tables amid poor harvests and a weak economy still recovering from COVID-19 shutdowns. Every year, people starve to death, experts say.

The U.N. World Food Programme says that agriculture regularly falls short of meeting the people’s food needs due to the shortage of arable land and the lack of access to fertilizers and modern agricultural equipment.

That’s prompted some to take desperate measures. Last month, RFA reported that hungry North Korean soldiers are selling some of their military equipment to buy food.

In August 2023, RFA Korean reported that murder and other violent crimes were on the rise amid spreading hunger.

Wage hikes

Also, prices appear to have increased after the government raised wages in January 2023.

In North Korea, nearly everyone’s salaries are set by the state. In 2023, workers’ base salaries were raised from 2,000 won a month to 30,000 won.

The apparent goal of this plan was to raise wages while keeping prices stable. Authorities wanted to encourage workers to rely on their salaries for living expenses rather than engaging in side businesses or money-making activities in the jangmadang markets.

However, because of the widespread shortages of food and many other goods, the plan failed. On jangmadang markets across the country, prices have been steadily climbing, residents say.

Two years ago, before the wage hikes, a kilogram of salt cost 500 won, but now it goes for 2,000 won. A carton of eggs has risen from 800 won to 2,000 won, residents say.

Footwear is also more expensive. Before the wage hike a pair of sneakers made at the Sinuiju Shoe Factory sold for 19,800 won, but now they cost 170,000 won on the black market.

“As wages have risen, so have the prices of all other necessities, making it unclear why the government decided to raise wages in the first place,” he said. “Instead of improving people’s livelihoods, the wage increase has only made daily life even more difficult.”

A party official from Yanggang province who also requested anonymity said the price of rice has nearly doubled to 9,400 won per kilogram in the jangmadang markets.

Tobacco and cigarette prices have surged. Last March, a kilogram of “Yanggang wild tobacco” cost 400,000 won, but now it has soared to 2.5 million won.

“To buy just 1 kilogram of tobacco, you would need 500 of North Korea’s highest-denomination 5,000-won bills,” said official said.

Weaker won

Meanwhile, the domestic currency has weakened against the U.S. dollar and Chinese yuan, which are widely used in the markets -- despite authorities’ attempts to restrict their use.

It has also raised the price of goods if customers pay in won.

Before the 2023 wage hike, 1 Chinese yuan bought 1,260 won and 1 U.S. dollar equaled 8,500 won on the black market. But now, a yuan is worth about 3,500 won and a dollar is worth 24,000 won.

“The North Korean currency has become so worn out that it is barely recognizable, and with prices skyrocketing, people have no choice but to use Chinese yuan,” said party official said.

Using foreign currency has even become a status symbol.

“Among young and wealthy people, a common way to show off is to say, ‘I don’t play with North Korean money,‘” the official said. “Those with financial means only use Chinese yuan or US dollars, while North Korean currency has essentially become the currency of the poor.”

Edited by Malcolm Foster.

This content originally appeared on Radio Free Asia and was authored by RFA Korean.

The accident happened at 9:07 a.m., when the Jeju Air flight erupted in flames after going off the runway and hitting a wall at an airport in South Korea’s southwestern county of Muan, South Jeolla Province, about 288 kilometers (179 miles) southwest of the capital Seoul.

“It is estimated that most of the 181 passengers, with the exception of the two who were rescued, died,” the Jeollanam-do Fire Department said.

“After colliding with the fence, passengers poured out of the aircraft. There is almost no chance of survival.

“The plane body was almost destroyed, and the dead are difficult to identify. It is taking time to identify the location of the remains and recover them.”

The authorities confirmed 85 deaths from the accident so far.

(Yonhap via Reuters)

A total of 181 people, including six crew members, were on board the plane from Bangkok, most of whom were Koreans, with the exception of two Thai nationals. Among them, one passenger and one crew member – both women – were rescued shortly after the accident and are currently receiving treatment at a hospital in Mokpo.

Thailand’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs said the country’s embassy in Seoul was in touch with South Korean authorities to try to ascertain the condition of the two Thai passengers.

Videos broadcast by local TV stations reveal the plane attempting to land without deploying its landing gear. It skidded across the ground, collided with a concrete wall, and exploded, becoming engulfed in flames.

Authorities suspect that landing gear failure, potentially caused by a bird strike, may have led to the accident. An on-site investigation is underway to determine the precise cause.

(Kim Hong-Ji/Reuters)

Acting President Choi Sang-mok arrived at the crash site around noon, instructing officials to make all-out efforts for search operations, expressing deep condolences to the bereaved family members and promised to offer them all possible government assistance.

Choi has been serving as acting president since Friday, after the National Assembly voted to impeach Prime Minister Han Duck-soo, who was suspended less than two weeks after assuming the role from President Yoon Suk Yeol on Dec. 14.

“I believe no words of consolation will be enough for the families who have suffered such a tragedy,” Choi said, noting that government agencies are working closely to respond to the accident.

“The government will spare no effort in supporting the bereaved families,” the acting president added.

Edited by Mike Firn.

This content originally appeared on Radio Free Asia and was authored by Taejun Kang for RFA.

The missile, the Hwasongpho-11 Da-4.5, was test fired on Monday, and the result of the test was “of great significance,” said the Korean Central News Agency.

“The test-fire was conducted with a missile tipped with a simulated heavy warhead to verify flight stability and hit accuracy at the maximum range of 500 km [311 miles] and the minimum range of 90 km [55 miles],” the news agency reported.

South Korea’s military said on Monday North Korea fired two ballistic missiles over the sea off its east coast early that day.

One short-range ballistic missile was launched from the Jangyon area in South Hwanghae Province at about 5:05 a.m. in a northeastern direction, said the South’s Joint Chiefs of Staff.

Another unidentified ballistic missile was launched at around 5:15 a.m, it added, without providing further details. 

The North Korean test came shortly after South Korea, the United States and Japan concluded joint military exercises. 

The North, which regards such exercises as preparations by the U.S. and its allies to invade the country,  condemned the exercise on Sunday and vowed to take “offensive and overwhelming countermeasures” to protect its sovereignty.

The North Korean news agency said Monday’s test was “part of the regular activities of the administration and its affiliated defense science institutes.”

It added it would test the Hwasongpho-11 Da-4.5 this month to verify its flight characteristics, accuracy “and explosion power of super-large warhead at the medium range of 250 km [155 miles].”

Edited by Taejun Kang and Mike Firn.

This content originally appeared on Radio Free Asia and was authored by By RFA Staff.

In all, 82 village and ward administrators, clerks and others have been killed in the past four months, according to statements from the People’s Defense Force militias, largely made up of ordinary citizens who have taken up arms against the military rulers.

Myanmar’s ruling junta activated the mandatory conscription law, dormant since 2010, as it lost ground — and troops — to ethnic armies and PDF guerilla fighters.

The law allows for men ages 18 to 45 and women ages 18 to 35 to be drafted into the armed forces for two years. Medical doctors and other specialists up to age 45 must serve for three years. 

Evading conscription is punishable by three to five years in prison and a fine.

Rebel groups have sought to undermine the draft, and killing those ordered to carry it out has been one way. 

“In the past, administrators were well-regarded by the people,” said a relative of an administrator killed in Yangon. “Now, they are becoming widely disliked by the public. Even after his death, his remaining family members face ostracism.”

‘Only one fitting punishment’

In Yangon, administrators in Kungyangon, Insein and North Dagon townships were killed after resistance forces warned them to resign, to stop supporting the junta, and to stop conscripting civilians.

“If they continue these actions without compliance, then there is only one fitting punishment during the revolution,” said an official from the People's Defense Force of Shwebo township in northwestern Myanmar’s Sagaing region.

In the central Mandalay region, two dozen administrators have been killed during the past four months — the highest number of fatalities in a single region or state — followed by Magway region with 18 fatalities.

Nearly 40 administrators have resigned, other officials said.

Residents say that some administrators are extorting amounts equivalent to hundreds of U.S. dollars from civilians who refuse to perform military service.  

An administrator in Ayeyarwady region, who wished to remain anonymous for safety reasons, said he is waiting for the junta to approve his resignation.

“I won’t continue because my family's lives are in danger,” he said. “Although I have resigned, the head [of the township’s General Administration Department] will not accept it. As a result, our lives are now filled with chaos and uncertainty.”

The military council has not issued any statements about the administrators’ deaths.

‘Alternative strategies’

A former military officer, who also requested anonymity for safety reasons, said civilian conscription efforts have not slowed down despite the number of administrators who have been killed.

“If one administrator dies, the next assigned administrator will continue the task,” he said. “Killing individuals will not stop the process. If this method fails, the military will pursue alternative strategies.”

The junta’s Central Body for Summoning People’s Military Servants based in Myanmar’s capital of Naypyitaw said it would work with security forces in relevant states and regions to step up protection for administrators.

Political analyst Than Soe Naing said administrators are arbitrarily mistreating civilians under the pretext of the law.

“There is no police department to lodge complaints about these cases, nor a court to file a lawsuit,” he said. 

“When the public protests, they are met with gunfire, torture and imprisonment,” he said. “These actions have persisted, leading the public to resist this unjust law in acts of civil disobedience.”

Translated by Kalyar Lwin for RFA Burmese. Edited by Roseanne Gerin and Malcolm Foster. 

This content originally appeared on Radio Free Asia and was authored by By RFA Burmese.

Instead, true socialists carry bags on their back or in one hand, people are told, sources in the reclusive country said.

It’s the latest example of authorities controlling even the personal details of North Koreans’ lives.

Women are told they can’t wear shorts, people are punished for using loan words from English, which they may have learned from South Korean TV dramas that get smuggled into the country on thumb drives, and couples getting married are strongly discouraged from holding wedding banquets or even clinking wine glasses at the reception.

Most of these no-nos come under the draconian Rejection of Reactionary Thought and Culture Law, which aims to root out an invasion of so-called capitalist behavior. 

Bag violators can have their bags confiscated, be kicked out of school or even sent to labor centers for daring to tote their loot close to their hips, sources say.

“A patrol organized by the Socialist Patriotic Youth League cracked down on a college student who wore a bag on their side at the main gate of Hamhung Medical University,” a resident of the eastern province of South Hamgyong told RFA Korean on condition of anonymity for security reasons. “This is the first case of a crackdown on college students for how they carry bags.”

He said that the crackdown will continue until April 15, the Day of the Sun, a major holiday in North Korea that commemorates the life of leader Kim Jong Un’s grandfather, national founder Kim Il Sung.

Fashion item

Bags are one of the few ways that North Korean youths can express their individuality.

Prior to the 1990s, the government provided all school supplies, including backpacks for students. 

This ended with the collapse of the Soviet Union. Aid from Moscow dried up, ruining North Korea’s centrally planned economy and throwing the country into the “Arduous March,” which is what North Koreans call the 1994-1998 famine that killed hundreds of thousands of people.

Since then, it fell on the students to provide their own bags, which have become a fashion item of sorts.

To counter this tendency, authorities supplied backpacks to students in elementary, middle and high schools this year but were not able to provide backpacks to all incoming college and university students because of production shortages. 

So the crackdown instead puts the burden on the students to appear uniform.

But young people are influenced by South Korean TV shows and movies, which are illegal for them to watch.

“College students prefer to wear shoulder bags with long straps on their side because they often watch South Korean TV shows,” a resident of the western province of South Pyongan told RFA on condition of anonymity for personal safety.

She said that the administration at Pyongsong University of Education and Teachers Training College announced at the school’s opening ceremony that from now on, anyone carrying a bag on their side would be punished for spreading the culture of the South Korean “puppets,” a demeaning term for its southern neighbor that alludes to its close ties with the United States.

Translated by Claire S. Lee. Edited by Eugene Whong and Malcolm Foster.

This content originally appeared on Radio Free Asia and was authored by By Son Hyemin for RFA Korean.

The Singapore cargo ship Dali chartered by Maersk, which collapsed the Baltimore bridge in the United States last month, was carrying 764 tonnes of hazardous materials to Sri Lanka, reports Colombo’s Daily Mirror.

The materials were mostly corrosives, flammables, miscellaneous hazardous materials, and Class-9 hazardous materials — including explosives and lithium-ion batteries — in 56 containers.

According to the Mirror, the US National Transportation Safety Board was still “analysing the ship’s manifest to determine what was onboard” in its other 4644 containers when the ship collided with Baltimore’s Francis Scott Key Bridge, collapsing it, on March 26.

• READ MORE: Baltimore Key Bridge collapse investigation begins

The e-Con e-News (ee) news agency reports that prior to Baltimore, the Dali had called at New York and Norfolk, Virginia, which has the world’s largest naval base.

Colombo was to be its next scheduled call, going around South Africa’s Cape of Good Hope, taking 27 days.

According to ee, Denmark’s Maersk, transporter for the US Department of War, is integral to US military logistics, carrying up to 20 percent of the world’s merchandise trade annually on a fleet of about 600 vessels, including some of the world’s largest ships.

The US Department of Homeland Security has also now deemed the waters near the crash site as “unsafe for divers”.

13 damaged containers
An “unclassified memo” from the US Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) said a US Coast Guard team was examining 13 damaged containers, “some with Centers for Disease Control and Prevention [CDC] and/or hazardous materials [HAZMAT] contents.

The team was also analysing the ship’s manifest to determine if any materials could “pose a health risk”.

CISA officials are also monitoring about 6.8 million litres of fuel inside the Dali for its “spill potential”.

Where exactly the toxic materials and fuel were destined for in Sri Lanka was not being reported.

Also, it is a rather long way for such Hazmat, let alone fuel, to be exported, “at least given all the media blather about ‘carbon footprint’, ‘green sustainability’ and so on”, said the Daily Mirror.

“We can expect only squeaky silence from the usual eco-freaks, who are heavily funded by the US and EU,” the newspaper commented.

“It also adds to the intrigue of how Sri Lanka was so easily blocked in 2022 from receiving more neighbourly fuel, which led to the present ‘regime change’ machinations.”

This content originally appeared on Asia Pacific Report and was authored by APR editor.

The question is how far each side might go in carrying out their warnings without drawing Tehran into a broader Middle East conflict in defense of the Huthis, whose sustained attacks on maritime shipping in the Red Sea and Gulf of Aden led to its redesignation as a terrorist organization by Washington last week.

"Our aim remains to de-escalate tensions and restore stability in the Red Sea," the United States and the United Kingdom said in a joint statement following their latest round of air strikes on Huthi targets in Yemen on January 21. "But let us reiterate our warning to [the] Huthi leadership: we will not hesitate to defend lives and the free flow of commerce in one of the world’s most critical waterways in the face of continued threats."

The Huthis responded with vows to continue their war against what they called Israel's "genocide" of the Palestinian people in the Gaza Strip.

"The American-British aggression will only increase the Yemeni people’s determination to carry out their moral and humanitarian responsibilities toward the oppressed in Gaza," said Muhammad al-Bukhaiti, a senior Huthi political official.

"These attacks will not go unanswered and unpunished," said Huthi military spokesman Yahya Saree.

On cue, the two sides clashed again on January 24 when the Huthis said they fired ballistic missiles at several U.S. warships protecting U.S. commercial vessels transiting the Bab al-Mandab Strait off the coast of Yemen. U.S. Central Command said three anti-ship missiles were fired at a U.S.-flagged container ship and that two were shot down by a U.S. missile destroyer while the third fell into the Gulf of Aden.

With the stage set for more such encounters, Iran's open backing and clandestine arming of the Huthis looms large. While continuing to state its support for the Huthis, Tehran has continued to deny directing their actions or providing them with weapons. At the same time, Iran has showcased its own advanced missile capabilities as a warning of the strength it could bring to a broader Middle East conflict.

The United States, emphasizing that the goal is to de-escalate tensions in the region, appears to be focusing on preventing the Huthis from obtaining more arms and funding. In addition to returning the Huthis to its list of terrorist groups, Washington said on January 16 that it had seized Iranian weapons bound for the Huthis in a raid in the Arabian Sea.

The United States and United Kingdom also appear to be focusing on precision strikes on the Huthis' military infrastructure while avoiding extensive human casualties or a larger operation that could heighten Iran's ire.

On January 24, the Pentagon clarified that, despite the U.S. strikes in Yemen, "we are not at war in the Middle East" and the focus is on deterrence and preventing a broader conflict.

"The United States is only using a very small portion of what it's capable of against the Huthis right now," said Kenneth Katzman, a senior adviser for the New York-based Soufan Group intelligence consultancy, and expert on geopolitics in the Middle East.

Terrorist Designation

The effectiveness of Washington's restoration on January 17 of the Huthis' terrorist organization label and accompanying U.S. sanctions -- which was removed early last year in recognition of the dire humanitarian situation in Yemen and to foster dialogue aimed at ending the Yemeni civil war involving the Huthis and the country's Saudi-backed government forces -- is "marginal," according to Katzman.

"They don't really use the international banking system and are very much cut off," Katzman said. "They get their arms from Iran, which is under extremely heavy sanctions and is certainly not going to be deterred from trying to ship them more weapons by this designation."

But the strikes being carried out by the United States and the United Kingdom, with the support of Australia, Bahrain, Canada, and the Netherlands, are another matter.

The January 21 strikes against eight Huthi targets -- followed shortly afterward by what was the ninth attack overall -- were intended to disrupt and degrade the group's capabilities to threaten global trade. They were a response to more than 30 attacks on international and commercial vessels since mid-November and were the largest strikes since a similar coalition operation on January 11.

Such strikes against the Huthis "have the potential to deter them and to degrade them, but it's going to take many more strikes, and I think the U.S. is preparing for that," Katzman said. "You're not going to degrade their capabilities in one or two volleys or even several volleys, it's going to take months."

The Huthis have significant experience in riding out aerial strikes, having been under relentless bombardment by a Saudi-led military collation during the nine-year Yemeni civil war, in which fighting has ended owing to a UN-brokered cease-fire in early 2022 that the warring parties recommitted to in December.

"They weathered that pretty well," said Jeremy Binnie, a Middle East defense analyst with the global intelligence company Janes.

"On the battlefield, airpower can still be fairly decisive," Binnie said, noting that air strikes were critical in thwarting Huthi offensives during the Yemeni civil war. "But in terms of the Huthis' overall ability to weather the air campaign of the Saudi-led coalition, they did that fine, from their point of view."

Since the cease-fire, Binnie said, the situation may have changed somewhat as the Huthis built up their forces, with more advanced missiles and aging tanks -- a heavier presence that "might make them a bit more vulnerable."

"But I don't think they will, at the same time, have any problem reverting to a lighter force that is more resilient to air strikes as they have been in the past," Binnie said.

Both Binnie and Katzman suggested that the Huthis appear willing to sustain battlefield losses in pursuit of their aims, which makes the group difficult to deter from the air.

The Huthis have clearly displayed their intent on continuing to disrupt maritime shipping in the Red Sea, which they claim has targeted only vessels linked to Israel despite evidence to the contrary, until there is a cease-fire in the Gaza Strip.

This has brought the Huthis' complicated relationship with Iran under intense scrutiny.

'Axis Of Resistance'

The Huthis have established themselves as a potent element of Iran's so-called "axis of resistance" against Israel and the United States, as well as against Tehran's regional archrival, Saudi Arabia.

But analysts who spoke to RFE/RL widely dismissed the idea that the Huthis are a direct Iranian proxy, describing the relationship as more one of mutual benefit in which the Huthis can be belligerent and go beyond what Tehran wants them to.

While accused by Western states and UN experts of secretly shipping arms to the Huthis and other members of the axis of resistance, Iran has portrayed the loose-knit band of proxies and partners and militant groups as independent in their decision-making.

The grouping includes the Iran-backed Hamas -- the U.S. and EU designated terrorist group whose attack on Israel sparked the war in the Gaza Strip -- and Lebanese Hizballah -- a Iranian proxy and U.S. designated terrorist group that, like the Huthis, has launched strikes against Israel in defense of Hamas.

"The success of the axis of resistance ... is that since Tehran has either created or co-opted these groups, there is more often than not fusion rather than tension," between members of the network and Iran, explained Behnam Ben Taleblu, senior fellow at the Washington-based Foundation for Defense of Democracies think tank.

But the relationship is not simply about "Iran telling its proxies to jump and them saying how high," Taleblu said. "It’s about Iran’s ability to find and materially support those who are willing to or can be persuaded to shoot at those Tehran wants to shoot at."

Iran's interest in a certain axis member's success in a given area and its perception of how endangered that partner might be, could play a crucial role in Tehran's willingness to come to their defense, according to Taleblu.

Middle East observers who spoke to RFE/RL suggested that it would take a significant escalation -- an existential threat to Tehran itself or a proxy, like Lebanese Hizballah -- for Iran to become directly involved.

"The Islamic republic would react differently to the near eradication of Hizballah which it created, versus Hamas, which it co-opted," Taleblu said. "Context is key."

"Iran is doing what it feels it can to try to keep the United States at bay," Katzman said, singling out the missile strikes carried out on targets this month in Syria, Iraq, and Pakistan that were widely seen as a warning to Israel and the United States of Tehran's growing military capabilities. Iran is "trying to show support for the Huthis without getting dragged in."

Iran is believed to have members of its Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps on the ground in Yemen. Tehran also continues to be accused of delivering arms to the Huthis, and at the start of the year deployed a ship to the Gulf of Aden in a show of support for the Huthis before withdrawing it after the U.S.-led coalition launched strikes in Yemen on January 11.

"So, they are helping," Katzman said, "but I think they are trying to do it as quietly and as under the radar as possible.

A U.S.-led ground operation against the Huthis, if it came to that, could change Iran's calculations. "Then Iran might deploy forces to help them out," Katzman said.

This content originally appeared on News - Radio Free Europe / Radio Liberty and was authored by News - Radio Free Europe / Radio Liberty.

Kiev’s forces knowingly downed a Russian plane carrying Ukrainian prisoners of war that crashed on Wednesday, killing all on board, in order to pin the attack on Moscow, the Defense Ministry has said, adding that Kiev had once again shown its “true colors”.

In a statement following the incident, the ministry revealed that a Russian IL-76 cargo plane had crashed in Belgorod Region, claiming the lives of 65 Ukrainian POWs, as well as six crew members and three Russian soldiers.

The Defense Ministry claimed that the “Kiev regime committed a terrorist act” by targeting the plane, which was transporting POWs for a further prisoner exchange, from the Chkalovsky military airbase near Moscow to Belgorod.

Russian officials stated that the plane had been hit at 11:15am local time by Ukrainian air defense forces stationed in Kharkov Region, adding that the military had registered the launch of two missiles.

Confirming that everyone aboard was killed in the attack, the ministry said that the Ukrainian leadership was well aware of the flight and its mission. It noted that Moscow and Kiev had agreed to conduct a prisoner exchange later on Wednesday near the Russian border village of Kolotilovka in Belgorod Region.

Nevertheless, the Nazi Kiev regime [carried out this attack] in a bid to accuse Russia of killing members of the Ukrainian military. By committing this terrorist act, the Ukrainian leadership showed its true face, disregarding the lives of its citizens.

Russian officials stated earlier that the attack used either US-made or German air defense systems, with State Duma Chairman Vyacheslav Volodin urging Kiev’s Western backers to finally realize that they are backing a “Nazi regime.”

Russian MP Andrey Kartapolov said a second plane had been carrying another 80 captured Ukrainian troops, which was swiftly diverted from the danger zone after the first aircraft was attacked.

The Ukrainian Defense Ministry has so far declined to comment on the incident, saying only that it was looking into the matter. However, Andrey Yusov, a spokesman for Kiev’s Main Directorate of Intelligence (GUR), confirmed that Russia and Ukraine were indeed scheduled to carry out a prisoner exchange on Wednesday, adding that it had since been canceled.

Ukrainian newspaper Ukrainskaya Pravda initially reported, citing unnamed defense officials in Kiev, that the IL-76 was destroyed by the country’s military. Later, however, it removed the mention of Kiev’s role in the attack.

The post Belgorod Plane Attack: Kiev Deliberately Shot Down Plane Carrying Its POWs, Moscow Says first appeared on Dissident Voice.

This content originally appeared on Dissident Voice and was authored by RT.

]]> https://www.radiofree.org/2024/01/24/belgorod-plane-attack-kiev-deliberately-shot-down-plane-carrying-its-pows-moscow-says/feed/ 0 454650 https://www.radiofree.org/2024/01/24/no-survivors-in-crash-of-plane-russia-says-was-carrying-65-ukrainian-pows/ https://www.radiofree.org/2024/01/24/no-survivors-in-crash-of-plane-russia-says-was-carrying-65-ukrainian-pows/#respond Wed, 24 Jan 2024 09:50:33 +0000 https://www.rferl.org/a/russia-plane-crash-ukrainian-pows-belgorod/32789779.html

The United States and Britain on January 23 followed Australia in imposing sanctions on Russian citizen Aleksandr Yermakov, who was designated for his alleged role in a cyberattack that compromised the personal information of 9.7 million Australians.

The U.S. Treasury Department announced its sanctions against Yermakov after Australian authorities said their investigation tied him to the breach of Australian private health insurer Medibank in October 2022.

The department said in a statement that the United States and Britain imposed sanctions on Yermakov because of the risk he poses. The U.S. action freezes any assets he holds in U.S. jurisdiction and generally bars Americans from dealing with him.

“Russian cyber actors continue to wage disruptive ransomware attacks against the United States and allied countries, targeting our businesses, including critical infrastructure, to steal sensitive data,” said Brian Nelson, U.S. undersecretary for terrorism and financial intelligence.

"Today’s trilateral action with Australia and the United Kingdom, the first such coordinated action, underscores our collective resolve to hold these criminals to account," he added in a statement.

Yermakov, 33, who used the online aliases blade_runner, GustaveDore, and JimJones, resides in Moscow, according to the U.S. Treasury Department.

The Australian government imposed its power to sanction an individual for cybercrime for the first time, applying the law against Yermakov after Australian Federal Police and intelligence agencies linked the Russian citizen to the Medibank cyberattack.

"This is the first time an Australian government has identified a cybercriminal and imposed cybersanctions of this kind and it won't be the last," Home Affairs Minister Clare O'Neil told reporters.

The cyberattack on Medibank, Australia’s largest health insurer, involved sensitive medical records that were released on the dark web after the company refused to pay a ransom.

O’Neil said it was “the single most devastating cyberattack we have experienced as a nation."

The leaks targeted records related to drug abuse, sexually transmitted infections, and abortions.

"We all went through it, literally millions of people having personal data about themselves, their family members, taken from them and cruelly placed online for others to see," O’Neil said, calling the hackers “cowards” and “scum bags."

The Australian sanctions impose a travel ban and strict financial sanctions that make it a criminal offense punishable by up to 10 years imprisonment for anyone found guilty of providing assets to Yermakov or using his assets, Foreign Minister Penny Wong said.

Australian Deputy Prime Minister Richard Marles said the sanctions are part of Australia’s efforts to expose cybercriminals and debilitate groups engaging in cyberattacks.

“In our current strategic circumstances we continue to see governments, critical infrastructure, businesses, and households in Australia targeted by malicious cyberactors," Marles said in a statement.

With reporting by AP, Reuters, and AFP

This content originally appeared on News - Radio Free Europe / Radio Liberty and was authored by News - Radio Free Europe / Radio Liberty.

But it isn’t clear if it's an effort to guard state secrets, as the government claims, or simply an excuse for police to shake down people for bribes. Or both.

North Korea introduced the State Secrets Protection Law in February to prevent photos and videos – especially those of propaganda lecture materials – from finding their way out of the country.

The country remains blocked off from the global internet, making it hard for most people to send any kind of information outside the country through their phones. 

But people living along the border with China do sometimes use smuggled Chinese phones to access the Chinese cellular network, and can transmit photos and videos that way.

Now it appears that authorities are trying to stop people from taking any photos that would reveal anything at all about life in the isolated country.

Police in plain clothes patrol the marketplaces and stop people walking around with their cellphones in their hands, a resident of South Pyongan province, north of the capital Pyongyang, told RFA Korean on condition of anonymity for security reasons.

“Recently, when police see people walking around in the marketplace with cell phones in their hands, they stop them and check their phones,” he said, adding that it isn’t possible to know how many police are observing a particular location, since they are not wearing uniforms.

Excuse for extortion?

Previously, when police would stop to check people’s electronic devices, the goal was to find contraband media, such as TV shows or movies from South Korea. But now they are simply looking for pictures, the resident said. 

“The crackdowns on cell phones involve searching for photos and videos of the marketplace among the photos in the phone,” he said. 

If such a photo were to be found, there is a possibility that the phone owner could be accused of spying and trying to sell secret information to South Korea, and imprisoned.

“As the police randomly crack down on cell phones, market merchants say it is a tactic to extort money ahead of the end of the year,” he said.

Police are more privileged than the civilian population, but just like the average citizen, the salary from their government-assigned job is nowhere near enough to make a living. Most families must run side businesses selling goods or services in the local market to support themselves. 

Police, however, can catch people doing questionable or illegal activities and accept a bribe to look the other way. So it is possible that the increased scrutiny is a way to collect some cash before year-end, the residents said.

In the city of Sinuiju, on the border with China in North Pyongan province, police have been on the lookout for phones near the train station and at the marketplace all December, a resident there told RFA on condition of anonymity to speak freely.

“Residents who were caught [with their phones] say it is ridiculous because the police said … they want to check whether they are taking pictures of their surroundings,” he said. 

“The police threaten them, saying that preventing people from taking ‘internal photos’ with cell phones … is merely upholding the State Secrets Protection Law.” 

But many people aren’t buying the police officers’ explanations, the North Pyongan resident said. 

“[They say] authorities are creating anxiety by cracking down on cell phone owners as leakers of national secrets,” he said. “But the scenes around the market and the station are not national secrets.”

Translated by Leejin J. Chung. Edited by Eugene Whong and Malcolm Foster.

This content originally appeared on Radio Free Asia and was authored by By Son Hyemin for RFA Korean.

Sunday’s landings in Aceh included about 250 people who were on a boat that had reached the province’s coast last Thursday but was pushed back to sea by villagers at two locations before it was finally allowed to come ashore after an urgent appeal by UNHCR, the U.N.’s refugee agency.

“The three ships that landed this morning were in three different locations, in Bireuen, Pidie and East Aceh, with around 500 people,” Mitra Salima Suryono, a spokesperson for UNHCR in Indonesia, told BenarNews, a news outlet affiliated with Radio Free Asia. The landings brought to 866 the total number of Rohingya who have arrived in Aceh aboard five people-smuggling boats since last Monday. 

The three boats that landed on Sunday had spent between a month to two months on the open water after setting sail from Cox’s Bazar, in southeastern Bangladesh, officials said. The district is home to sprawling camps that house about 1 million stateless Rohingya Muslim refugees from the nearby Rakhine in Myanmar, officials said. 

Some of the 241 Rohingya who disembarked from the boat in Pidie regency (pictured) looked famished, sick and exhausted, according to a representative of a local fishermen’s association.

“Their physical conditions were unstable because they didn’t eat enough while at sea,” Marfian, the secretary in Pidie for Panglima Laot, the fishermen’s group, told BenarNews.

A police official in Bireuen confirmed that the boat with 249 people, which was pushed back to sea twice earlier, had landed in that regency along the northern coast near the western tip of Sumatra island. 

“We are looking after them and making sure everything goes well,” Second Inspector Marzuki, a spokesperson for the Bireuen police who goes by one name, told BenarNews.  

Residents of two villages along Aceh’s coast pushed back the boat on Thursday after two other boatloads of Rohingya had landed in the region on Nov. 13 and Nov. 14. Police at the time said that locals had been complaining about bad behavior shown by some among the 1,000-odd Rohingya who were already sheltering in Aceh. 

Indonesia and neighboring Malaysia, both majority-Muslim countries, are popular destinations for Rohingya who decide to pay human smugglers money to embark on the often perilous and potentially deadly sea journey from Cox’s Bazar. 

“[T]he sailing season has started, and many refugees try to leave the camps in Bangladesh where they face precariousness, overcrowding, insecurity, lawlessness and now also food rations cuts,” Chris Lewa, the director of the Arakan Project, a Thailand-based human rights group that advocates for rights for the stateless Rohingya people, told BenarNews in an email early Monday (Bangkok time). 

“We know of one more boat still at sea, maybe more. Surely more will be planning to leave.”

Miftachuddin Cut Adek, deputy secretary-general of Panglima Laot, the fishermen's association, said that members of his group were always open to allowing in the Rohingya. 

"We accepted them for humanitarian reasons," he told BenarNews. “It's a pity that they were adrift in the sea when they reached the shoreline, but were rejected.”

Usman Hamid, executive director of Amnesty Inetrnational’s branch in Indonesia called it irresponsible for locals to have forced the Rohingya on that one boat to return to potential perils out on the open sea.

“This reflects a major decline in Indonesian civility. Even though the locals previously showed generosity and humanity towards Rohingya refugees,” Usman Hamid said in a statement issued before the boat with 249 people aboard was allowed to land.

“Indonesia has an obligation to help them. The policy of returning them to their country of origin clearly violates the non-refoulement principle, a basic pillar of the life of civilized nations," said Usman.

In January 2023, Jakarta called for region-wide cooperation to conduct rescue operations for Rohingya stranded at sea, so that Indonesia wouldn’t have to bear the burden of this task disproportionately.

Indonesia does not grant asylum or legal status to refugees. Refugees who arrive in Indonesia are usually confined to temporary shelters or detention centers, and face an uncertain future, as they have no access to formal education and jobs.

Human rights groups have said that the number of Rohingya leaving for third countries highlights the dire conditions at the refugee camps in southeastern Bangladesh and the deteriorating situation in post-coup Myanmar.

Many Rohingya have grown desperate because they see no hope of being repatriated to Myanmar, which has been convulsed with violence following the February 2021 coup by the Burmese military, rights advocates and NGOs in the region have said.

The year 2022 was the deadliest since 2014 for Rohingya attempting such sea voyages, according to the United Nations. At least 348 individuals died or went missing at sea, UNHCR reported in January.

Imran Vittachi contributed to this report from Washington.

BenarNews is an online news outlet affiliated with Radio Free Asia.

This content originally appeared on Radio Free Asia and was authored by Pizaro Gozali Idrus and Uzair Thamrin for BenarNews.

The foreign ministry said people smugglers had taken advantage of Indonesia’s generosity over the years in allowing in members of the stateless and persecuted minority group from Myanmar, while police said that locals were complaining about bad behavior by some among the 1,000-odd Rohingya sheltering in Aceh.

The wooden boat, which had been adrift for several days, first made its appearance on Thursday near the shore of Bireuen district, where police and the military tried to persuade villagers to let the refugees land on humanitarian grounds, said a spokesman for the Bireuen police.

But the villagers refused, saying they had unpleasant experiences with Rohingya who arrived on previous occasions and had been “troublesome,” said spokesman Marzuki, who goes by one name.

“We negotiated, but the locals refused to accept them,” the police official told BenarNews.

The police and the military have the power to override the locals, but Marzuki didn’t say why officials did not use that authority.

Jolly Ronny Mamarimbing, an intelligence officer for the Bireuen police, said the Rohingya were given food and drinks, and five of them who appeared very unwell were allowed to disembark and stay on in the village.

The boat then left and attempted to dock at Lhokseumawe, in northern Aceh, but was met with similar resistance from locals there, said Salman Alfarisi, a local police spokesman.

“They were going to [set] sail again, but their boat had engine trouble,” he said.

This latest group of Rohingya followed the more than 400 others who arrived in Aceh by sea on Monday and Tuesday. The Aceh police and the local fishing community said they provided food, water, medical care and temporary shelter to the people who disembarked from the first two boats.

According to fishermen, Rohingya on those boats had sailed from the refugee camps in southeastern Bangladesh. One of the refugees on the boat that was turned away on Thursday, told the Agence France-Presse news agency that its passengers had also left Bangladesh’s Cox’s Bazar district near the Myanmar border, where the crowded camps are located. 

The camps host some 1 million Rohingya, nearly 740,000 of whom escaped a military crackdown in 2017, which the U.N. later described as a “textbook example of ethnic cleansing.” A Muslim minority, the Rohingya have faced decades of systematic discrimination, statelessness and targeted violence in Buddhist-majority Myanmar.

Indonesia, the world’s most populous Muslim-majority country, has a history of welcoming Rohingya, who are considered one of the most persecuted minorities in the world. 

In 2015, Indonesia allowed thousands of Rohingya to disembark on its shores, along with migrants from Bangladesh, after they were stranded at sea for months.

Indonesia has no legal or practical obligation to host refugees, nor can it offer them a permanent solution, because it is not a signatory to the 1951 Refugee Convention, said Lalu Muhammad Iqbal, a spokesman for Indonesia’s Foreign Ministry.

“Ironically, many countries that are parties to the convention have closed their doors and even implemented push-back policies against the refugees,” he said in a statement Thursday.

“Indonesia’s kindness in providing temporary shelter has been exploited by people smugglers who seek financial gain from the refugees without caring about the high risk they face, especially vulnerable groups such as women and children,” he said.

UNHCR ready to assist

The U.N. refugee agency (UNHCR) urged the Indonesian government to keep its borders open to refugees.

“UNHCR is ready to assist the government, the authorities and the community in carrying out efforts to save the lives of refugees,” Mitra Salima, spokeswoman for the agency in Indonesia, told BenarNews.

“But we hope they will still provide assistance, considering there are many vulnerable women and children.”

In January, Jakarta called for regional cooperation to conduct rescue operations for Rohingya stranded at sea, so that Indonesia wouldn’t have to disproportionately bear the burden of this task. 

Indonesia does not grant asylum or legal status to refugees. 

Refugees who arrive in Indonesia are usually confined to temporary shelters or detention centers, and face an uncertain future, as they have no access to formal education and jobs.

Meanwhile, human rights groups have said that the numbers of Rohingya leaving for third countries further highlight the dire conditions at the Cox’s Bazar camps and the deteriorating situation in Myanmar after the February 2021 military coup.

Many Rohingya have grown desperate because they see no hope of being repatriated to Myanmar, which is convulsed with violence following the coup, human rights advocates and NGOs in the region have said. 

In Bangladesh, the refugees cannot work or properly educate their children.

To flee what feels like a hopeless situation, many undertake perilous journeys by sea, often on ramshackle boats, so they can lead a better life in one of the Southeast Asian nations, where they can access schools and jobs. 

Last year was the deadliest since 2014 for Rohingya attempting such sea voyages. At least 348 individuals died or went missing at sea, the U.N. refugee agency UNHCR said.

BenarNews is an RFA-affiliated online news organization.

This content originally appeared on Radio Free Asia and was authored by By Pizaro Gozali Idrus for BenarNews.

The small, wooden vessel was stopped off South Korea’s eastern city of Sokcho after being spotted near the inter-Korean maritime border early on Tuesday, South Korea’s Joint Chiefs of Staff said in a statement.

“In collaboration with the Korean Coast Guard, the vessel was taken under custody off the eastern coast of Sokcho,” it said, adding that the South Korean military, using coastal surveillance tools such as radar and Thermal Observation Device (TOD), had been monitoring the ship.

The military statement did not disclose how many people were on board, but the Korean Coast Guard said four North Koreans were on the vessel.

An official from South Korea’s Unification Ministry told reporters in Seoul that relevant authorities are currently investigating the matter but refused to elaborate further. 

A South Korean government official, who asked for anonymity due to the sensitivity of the matter, however, told Radio Free Asia that they had expressed their intent to defect.

South Korea usually prepares a pan-governmental team, comprising investigators from its military, police, intelligence agency, and unification ministry, for an investigation. The primary objective of these investigations are to confirm the identities of the escapees, and assess the genuineness of their intent to defect.

The Unification Ministry’s measured stance Tuesday on confirming the escapees’ defection intent stems from the necessity to adhere to the official joint investigation procedure. While infrequent, instances have arisen where individuals reverse their decision during the probe and indicate a wish to go back to the North.

Should their intention to defect be verified as genuine, it would mark the second known instance of North Koreans crossing the maritime border seeking defection in recent times, following an incident in May where two families of nine individuals crossed the western NLL on a fishing boat.

South Korea, during the previous Moon Jae-in administration, sent back two North Korean fishermen in 2019 who were believed to have killed 16 crew members on their ship while traversing the sea border. 

The latest news comes amid Seoul witnessing an increase in the number of North Korean escapees, crossing the border. According to data compiled by the Unification Ministry, the number of North Korean escapees entering the South has reached a total of 139 by the third quarter of this year, 40 more individuals from the second quarter.

The ministry official told reporters it remains uncertain whether the number will continue to grow in the future. But China’s repatriation of North Korean escapees shortly after the Hangzhou Asian Games indicates that those who want to escape from the country may choose to directly cross the inter-Korean border with the South.

Human Rights Watch reported earlier this month that Chinese authorities had forcibly returned over 500 North Koreans to the reclusive nation. Most of these North Koreans were civilians and religious figures who were arrested while attempting to travel to South Korea from China, RFA has learned. 

Edited by Taejun Kang and Mike Firn.

This content originally appeared on Radio Free Asia and was authored by By Lee Jeong-Ho for RFA.

The small, wooden vessel was stopped off South Korea’s eastern city of Sokcho after being spotted near the inter-Korean maritime border early on Tuesday, South Korea’s Joint Chiefs of Staff said in a statement.

“In collaboration with the Korean Coast Guard, the vessel was taken under custody off the eastern coast of Sokcho,” it said, adding that the South Korean military, using coastal surveillance tools such as radar and Thermal Observation Device (TOD), had been monitoring the ship.

The military statement did not disclose how many people were on board, but the Korean Coast Guard said four North Koreans were on the vessel.

An official from South Korea’s Unification Ministry told reporters in Seoul that relevant authorities are currently investigating the matter but refused to elaborate further. 

A South Korean government official, who asked for anonymity due to the sensitivity of the matter, however, told Radio Free Asia that they had expressed their intent to defect.

South Korea usually prepares a pan-governmental team, comprising investigators from its military, police, intelligence agency, and unification ministry, for an investigation. The primary objective of these investigations are to confirm the identities of the escapees, and assess the genuineness of their intent to defect.

The Unification Ministry’s measured stance Tuesday on confirming the escapees’ defection intent stems from the necessity to adhere to the official joint investigation procedure. While infrequent, instances have arisen where individuals reverse their decision during the probe and indicate a wish to go back to the North.

Should their intention to defect be verified as genuine, it would mark the second known instance of North Koreans crossing the maritime border seeking defection in recent times, following an incident in May where two families of nine individuals crossed the western NLL on a fishing boat.

South Korea, during the previous Moon Jae-in administration, sent back two North Korean fishermen in 2019 who were believed to have killed 16 crew members on their ship while traversing the sea border. 

The latest news comes amid Seoul witnessing an increase in the number of North Korean escapees, crossing the border. According to data compiled by the Unification Ministry, the number of North Korean escapees entering the South has reached a total of 139 by the third quarter of this year, 40 more individuals from the second quarter.

The ministry official told reporters it remains uncertain whether the number will continue to grow in the future. But China’s repatriation of North Korean escapees shortly after the Hangzhou Asian Games indicates that those who want to escape from the country may choose to directly cross the inter-Korean border with the South.

Human Rights Watch reported earlier this month that Chinese authorities had forcibly returned over 500 North Koreans to the reclusive nation. Most of these North Koreans were civilians and religious figures who were arrested while attempting to travel to South Korea from China, RFA has learned. 

Edited by Taejun Kang and Mike Firn.

This content originally appeared on Radio Free Asia and was authored by By Lee Jeong-Ho for RFA.

The small, wooden vessel was stopped off South Korea’s eastern city of Sokcho after being spotted near the inter-Korean maritime border early on Tuesday, South Korea’s Joint Chiefs of Staff said in a statement.

“In collaboration with the Korean Coast Guard, the vessel was taken under custody off the eastern coast of Sokcho,” it said, adding that the South Korean military, using coastal surveillance tools such as radar and Thermal Observation Device (TOD), had been monitoring the ship.

The military statement did not disclose how many people were on board, but the Korean Coast Guard said four North Koreans were on the vessel.

An official from South Korea’s Unification Ministry told reporters in Seoul that relevant authorities are currently investigating the matter but refused to elaborate further. 

A South Korean government official, who asked for anonymity due to the sensitivity of the matter, however, told Radio Free Asia that they had expressed their intent to defect.

South Korea usually prepares a pan-governmental team, comprising investigators from its military, police, intelligence agency, and unification ministry, for an investigation. The primary objective of these investigations are to confirm the identities of the escapees, and assess the genuineness of their intent to defect.

The Unification Ministry’s measured stance Tuesday on confirming the escapees’ defection intent stems from the necessity to adhere to the official joint investigation procedure. While infrequent, instances have arisen where individuals reverse their decision during the probe and indicate a wish to go back to the North.

Should their intention to defect be verified as genuine, it would mark the second known instance of North Koreans crossing the maritime border seeking defection in recent times, following an incident in May where two families of nine individuals crossed the western NLL on a fishing boat.

South Korea, during the previous Moon Jae-in administration, sent back two North Korean fishermen in 2019 who were believed to have killed 16 crew members on their ship while traversing the sea border. 

The latest news comes amid Seoul witnessing an increase in the number of North Korean escapees, crossing the border. According to data compiled by the Unification Ministry, the number of North Korean escapees entering the South has reached a total of 139 by the third quarter of this year, 40 more individuals from the second quarter.

The ministry official told reporters it remains uncertain whether the number will continue to grow in the future. But China’s repatriation of North Korean escapees shortly after the Hangzhou Asian Games indicates that those who want to escape from the country may choose to directly cross the inter-Korean border with the South.

Human Rights Watch reported earlier this month that Chinese authorities had forcibly returned over 500 North Koreans to the reclusive nation. Most of these North Koreans were civilians and religious figures who were arrested while attempting to travel to South Korea from China, RFA has learned. 

Edited by Taejun Kang and Mike Firn.

This content originally appeared on Radio Free Asia and was authored by By Lee Jeong-Ho for RFA.

This is a developing news story... Check back for possible updates...

A BNSF train carrying ethanol derailed and caught fire early Thursday morning in Raymond, Minnesota, forcing residents living near the crash site to evacuate.

U.S. Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg, who has faced backlash for responding inadequately to the disaster in East Palestine, Ohio, said the Federal Railroad Administration is "on the ground' in Raymond following the derailment.

"At present no injuries or fatalities have been reported," said Buttigieg. "We are tracking closely as more details emerge."

BNSF, which is controlled by Warren Buffett's Berkshire Hathaway, has lobbied aggressively against enhanced rail safety regulations at the state and federal levels in recent years.

An OpenSecrets analysis published earlier this month found that BNSF has spent nearly $13 million on state-level lobbying since 2003. BNSF's parent company is also among the rail industry's top federal lobbying spenders over the past two decades, according to federal disclosures.

BNSF said in a statement that more than 20 train cars "carrying mixed freight including ethanol and corn syrup" derailed in Raymond on Thursday.

The wreck and resulting blaze forced local authorities to issue evacuation orders for people living within a half-mile of the site. The Minnesota Department of Transportation said a nearby highway was also closed due to the fire.

The local sheriff's department said in a press release that "no travel is advised to the city of Raymond" as emergency workers attempt to contain the fire.

This content originally appeared on Common Dreams and was authored by Jake Johnson.

The female flight attendants said they agreed to transport the toothpaste tubes for an individual who approached them in Paris and paid them more than 10 million dong, or about U.S.$424, to take the tubes on the flight to Ho Chi Minh City.

The women said they were unaware of the narcotics, and that they did not know the identity of the person who asked them to transport the toothpaste tubes.  

Upon arrival in Ho Chi Minh City on March 16, authorities found more than 11 kilograms (25 lbs.) of MDMA, commonly referred to as ecstasy, ketamine and cocaine in tablet and powder form in the tubes in their luggage.

On Tuesday, police searched their homes, but found no illegal drugs.

Meanwhile, police have opened a case to further investigate the illegal transportation of narcotics and to hold the perpetrators to account, said a statement issued the same day by Vietnam’s Ministry of Public Security. 

From Jan. 1 to March 14, customs officials at Tan Son Nhat International Airport detected eight cases of drug trafficking and confiscated nearly 15 kilos (33 lbs.) of various illegal narcotics.

Translated by Anna Vu for RFA Vietnamese. Edited by Roseanne Gerin and Malcolm Foster.

This content originally appeared on Radio Free Asia and was authored by By RFA Vietnamese.

The latest denial is related to the incident of explosion in the Nord Stream pipelines.

The famous journalist Seymour Hersh’s investigation found that the US destroyed the Nord Stream pipelines in the Baltic Sea in a covert operation.

Citing a source with direct knowledge of the planning of the operation, the legendary investigative reporter, said in an article:

Explosives were planted at the pipelines in June 2022. It was planted by US Navy divers. The job of planting explosives was carried on under the guise of a NATO exercise named BALTOPS22.

Hersh presented the findings in an article posted on February 8, 2023 in his Substack.

The reporter’s findings said that the explosives were detonated on September 26, 2022 with a signal from a sonar buoy. The buoy was dropped near the pipelines by a surveillance plane of the Norwegian Navy.

The planning for the job was initiated in December 2021. A task force was set up, in which US National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan participated.

The Pulitzer prize-winning reporter said he had reached out to the White House and the CIA, seeking comments on his finding. Both firmly rejected Hersh’s findings. The finding was termed “completely and utterly false” and “false and complete fiction”.

Hersh, famous for his exposure of the 1968 My Lai Massacre committed by US soldiers in Vietnam that brought him the Pulitzer in 1970, said in the article:

As long as Europe remained dependent on the pipelines for cheap natural gas, Washington was afraid that countries like Germany would be reluctant to supply Ukraine with money and weapons it needed to defeat Russia.

He wrote:

US President Joe Biden’s Administration was focused on jeopardizing the Nord Stream. First, it was through sanctions; and then, sabotage. The Nord Stream appeared as a key to swaying Europe to its cause amid then-looming conflict in Ukraine.

Hersh — well reputed for his exposure of other political scandals including the US covert bombing of Cambodia, the CIA’s illegal domestic spying, and the US military’s torture and abuse of prisoners in Iraq — detailed the sabotage operation, the planning and logistical considerations carried out among the White House, the US military, and the CIA. A major part of the planning was wiping out signs of the US’ involvement.

The sabotage operation’s stakes were high was clear to all involved with the operation.

According to the journalist’s source, the operation was actually an act of war, and some officials were in favor of dropping the idea of sabotage.

The Nord Stream’s possible role in Europe was clear to all including the Empire. It was opposed by the Empire from the very beginning of the project. Nonetheless, Russia completed construction of the significant pipelines. US Empire refused to permit the pipelines to function. Russia pointed out this part of the explosion incident: Who benefits from failure of the pipelines?

A few developments after the Nord Stream explosion are well reported. These include SMS from Ms. Liz Truss, then PM of the UK: “It’s done”. Another was one official’s saying: The US was doing everything possible to stop Nord Stream. After completion of setting up of the pipeline, it was also told: We’re going to get rid of it.

What was done? What step was taken to stop the pipeline? The questions lead to actors intolerant with the pipeline.

After the exposure by Hersh, Snowden, the famous whistleblower, in a tweet briefly mentioned the Bay of Pigs incident.

Snowden referred to a 1961-news report, in which Dean Rusk, then US secretary of state, denied that the Bay of Pigs incident was staged from the US soil. But later, it was exposed that the Bay of Pigs operation was a CIA organized operation to overthrow Fidel’s revolutionary government in Cuba.

File photo taken on 5 February 2003, US Secretary of State Colin Powell holds up a vial that he said was the size that could be used to hold anthrax as he addresses the UN Security Council in New York. (Photo by Timothy A. Clary / AFP)

There are other famous lies by the empire. These include the poison-vial story that asserted Iraqi President Saddam Hussein had lethal chemical weapons. This was told on the UN podium with then-US Secretary of State Colin Powell waving a vial as proof of the chemical weapon. There are plenty of lies related to the Empire’s Vietnam War.

After these practices, the Empire calls upon all to follow rules-based world order, and have trust on its words. But who shall believe the Empire?

Even, the Empire’s proxies do not trust their master. They know the Empire would dump them at any opportune moment – when the Empire’s necessity so demands. This was experienced in many countries, including South Vietnam.

The Nord Stream sabotage exposure again exposes the “mainstream” media. The report exposing the sabotage has been ignored by the MSM, although, immediately after the explosion, the MSM placed blame on Russia.

Will it be possible to hush facts if further exposures of the sabotage follow? Will not continued silence or denials erode trust further? Powerful propaganda with participation of the MSM will not be able to stop this erosion of trust.

Following the sabotage exposure, Russia has demanded an international investigation of the incident. But, it is assumed that this demand will go unheeded. Immediately after the explosion, Russia had pointed to involvement of the US-UK in the sabotage. That went unheeded.

With this world order, the imperialist practice of marketing lies undoubtedly will continue. People, especially peoples in lands destroyed by imperialism, will not believe these lies, as their experiences always question statements from imperialist sources.

The Nord Stream sabotage shows a dangerous aspect: A powerful actor can sabotage any other initiative by any country if the initiative is considered harmful to the powerful actor’s interest. All countries will reflect upon this aspect, concerned for their safety should they try to leave the Empire’s orbit. It’s a characteristic of this world order.

However, it will be questioned: Is this the rules-based world order? It is no doubt a rules-based order, but the rule is the Empire’s rule, and the order is the empire order.

This content originally appeared on Dissident Voice and was authored by Farooque Chowdhury.

The youths apologized after being ordered to do so, but explained that they wanted to promote the arts and meant no disrespect.

The idea for the procession came from Lao literature and history, and the woman – an “Upson girl,” whose job it was to entertain kings in the past – was based on a sculpture at an ancient temple, a member of the group who organized the procession wrote on his FaceBook page.

“This sculpture is now kept in the [old] Emerald Buddha Temple in Vientiane,” he wrote. “Our new generation of Lao artists picked this piece of art and just wanted to recreate it.”

“We had no intention to show any disrespect to the stupa,” he wrote. “We conducted that activity to promote the arts, but we now understand that that activity was not appropriate from the point of view of the public.”

But the Nov. 6 procession around the large gold-covered Pha That Luang, known as the Great Stupa, in the center of Laos’ capital of Vientiane, sparked heavy criticism from monks, government authorities and members of the public.

Many said it ran counter to Lao tradition and culture. Some said only kings or monks should be carried around in a palanquin, while others pointed out that an “Upson girl” was considered to be a “bad girl,” or a one of the ancient court’s prostitutes.

“Carrying a woman on a wooden box and on the shoulders in a parade around the That Luang Stupa like that is wrong,” said a senior monk in Vientiane, who like other sources in this report requested anonymity for safety reasons. “The act shows that the group didn’t respect our sacred place, tradition and culture. It’s not right; I’ve never seen anything like this in my 60 years of existence.”

A young Buddhist follower told RFA’s Lao Service that parading an “Upson girl” around the stupa strongly violated Laos’ tradition and culture. 

“In the past, only the king could sit on the palanquin and be carried around,” he said. “It’s not appropriate that a woman should be carried. It must be a king, according to our tradition, culture and history.”

The procession took place during the week-long annual That Luang Festival, Vientiane’s most important Buddhist celebration held during November’s full moon. 

Laotians from across the country go to the temple wearing ethnic costumes, playing traditional music, dancing, and bearing flowers, incense and candles. Led by chanting monks, worshipers typically walk clockwise around the stupa three times.  

The That Luang Stupa Festival Organizing Committee decided a day after the procession to take action against the youths because they had not first obtained permission for the procession, and because their act was offensive to Lao tradition and culture.

The youths were told to formally apologize the That Luang Stupa and to the public at a ceremony during which they also would present four beeswax castles and four packages of candles and flowers to senior monks at the temple.

The member of the group who apologized on Facebook said that the group members were not aware of the religious ceremony at the stupa and that guards at the gate did not stop them from entering.

A district police officer said the police would investigate the incident and “re-educate” the group. “That would be it; no other punishment would be imposed,” he said.

Re-education entails reminding offenders of the rules and standards of the Lao People’s Revolutionary Party, the county’s sole ruling party, and government policy on specific subjects. 

A few days later, an official from Vientiane’s Saysettha district confirmed that the group offered a formal apology at a stupa, and added that the festival organizing committee believed the youths did not intend to insult Lao tradition and culture.

Translated by Max Avary for RFA Lao. Written in English by Roseanne Gerin. Edited by Malcolm Foster.

This content originally appeared on Radio Free Asia and was authored by By RFA Lao.

The Mississippi River, which carries 60% of the country’s export of grain, has reached historically low water levels. This week, the Mississippi reached negative 10.75 feet in Memphis, Tennessee, a level never before seen.

“It’s never been this bad in my career,” Butler Miller of St. Louis-based barge company Robert B. Miller and Associates told St. Louis Public Radio. “The last time the river levels were this low was in the 1980s. Rain is really the only thing that will fix it.”

The low water levels are caused by the nation’s ongoing drought, which has left the region without rain for weeks. The lack of rain has dried up the Mississippi, and even revealed human remains and lost shipwrecks across the river. 

Barges have been stalled or slow-moving across the river for weeks, causing major disruption in the agricultural industry at a time when farmers generally expect to move harvested grains.

Before the Mississippi dried out, grain was booming in the U.S. While Ukraine typically exports tens of millions of pounds yearly, the ongoing Russian-Ukrainian war has caused the global supply of grains to stagnate. Amidst this conflict, U.S. grain prices soared early in the year, but now the main way of transporting these commodities has stalled, causing supply to build up at ports and prices to drop. According to Bloomberg, corn shipments in the Mississippi are declining by the week, with more than 2,000 ships waiting to move down the river.

Soybeans and other commodities have been left to rot outside of grain storage elevators, according to industry reports. As more and more farmers try to offload harvest commodities, space is running out as the wait to move downriver is slow moving. 

“I’ve never been in a harvest where I was hoping for a hurricane. But this year, it wouldn’t hurt my feelings,” Southern Illinois farmer Adam Thomas told Farm Week Now, a division of the Illinois Farm Bureau. 

The Mississippi is a crucial waterway where droughts and floods have pinpointed monumental years along its 2,300 miles. A drought in 1988 dropped water levels in the Mississippi to their previous record low, which lasted nearly two years. Three years ago, the river flooded in the summer, causing $2 billion in damages, and was the longest-lasting flood the river has seen in recent history. 

According to the United States Geological Survey, climate change is causing more extreme weather events—such as regions oscillating between droughts and floods. 

Weather predictions from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration show that ongoing droughts across the Corn Belt and the West will continue into January, with little to no rain in sight. These predictions are already hampering growers who normally plant winter crops, such as winter wheat in Kansas and Oklahoma. 

In addition to supply chain and agricultural woes, concerns over drinking water contamination have begun. The Gulf of Mexico is rising with sea levels, causing saltwater to make its way into the currently barren Mississippi. 

The US Army Corps of Engineers is constructing an underwater, 1,500-foot-wide levee to block salt water from contaminating water supplies, with communities in Louisiana already issuing drinking water notices. According to the Environmental Protection Agency, more than 50 cities rely on The Mighty Mississippi for their drinking water. 

This story was originally published by Grist with the headline As drought chokes Mississippi River, barges carrying grain shipments have nowhere to go on Oct 26, 2022.

This content originally appeared on Grist and was authored by John McCracken.

Locals told RFA the Coast Guard went to stop the boat on Monday after reports it had been drifting for several days in the sea near Gayatgyi island.

“I heard that the navy from Ka Don went to arrest them,” said a local, who declined to be named for safety reasons.

“There were dead bodies on the boat. It seems the boat’s engine broke down and it floated in the sea for a long time and people died of starvation.”

Residents said the dead were three men and three women. They said a child from the boat died after survivors were taken to Bogale Police Station, but RFA could not verify this independently.

RFA called Maung Than, who is Minister of Social Affairs and the spokesman for Ayeyarwady regional military council, but calls went unanswered on Wednesday.

It is not yet known how the Rohingyas arrested on Monday will be sentenced. Previous group have been sentenced to between three and six months in prison under Myanmar’s immigration law.

On June 21, local authorities arrested 28 Rohingya as their boat neared a village in Ayeyarwady region’s Kyaiklat township.

More than a million Rohingya Muslims used to live in the Buthidaung and Maungdaw areas on the northern tip of Rakhine State. Nearly 800,000 fled to Bangladesh to escape army scorched-earth operations in 2017 and live in squalid refugee camps there.

Of those that remained, hundreds were killed, including women and children and many villages were burned down.

The United Nations International Court of Justice (ICJ) is investigating the military for genocide. The U.S. State Department has already labelled their actions as genocide.

Even though five years have passed stateless Rohingya refugees are still unable to return home, according to the U.N.

Some 600,000 Rohingya who did not flee to Bangladesh in 2017 have suffered greater repression since last year’s coup and their movements in Rakhine state are more restricted, a human rights activist based in the state told RFA last week. Zarni Soe said the situation may worsen amid renewed fighting between the Arakan Army and junta troops in the north of the state.

This content originally appeared on Radio Free Asia and was authored by By RFA Burmese.

Tweeting the video, a user named Sudhir Srivastava wrote, “This has happened for the first time, clouds are carrying water from the Ganges at the Sangam of Allahabad….” (Archived link)

इलाहाबाद के संगम में गंगा से बादल पानी ले जाते हुए यह पहली बार हुआ है।
प्रकृति का अद्भुत दृश्य देखें….
हर हर महादेव pic.twitter.com/0wJQ3UUX0C

— सुधीर श्रीवास्तव (सोनू) (@sudhirshiv567) August 1, 2022

A user named Amit made the same claim while tweeting a few screengrabs from the video. (Archived link)

इलाहाबाद के संगम में गंगा से बादल पानी ले जाते हुए यह पहली बार हुआ है।
प्रकृति का अद्भुत दृश्य देखें….
हर हर महादेव pic.twitter.com/mIQ1u6kYwX

— अमित (@Am_du1) August 1, 2022

Another user named Rakesh Kumar Pandey made a similar claim while posting this video on Facebook.

The video went viral with the same claim back in 2018 on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.

Twitter user Satveer Singh made a similar claim while tweeting the video in 2018. (Archived link)

इलाहाबाद के संगम में गंगा से बादल पानी ले जाते हुए प्रकृति का अद्भुत दृश्य pic.twitter.com/Haiebcc0q4

— SATVEER SINGH (@actorsatveersin) July 27, 2018

Fact-check

Alt News performed a reverse image search using a frame from the viral video. We found tweets posted by Pune Mirror and TOI+ from June 2018. The posts claim that a tornado-like situation was witnessed in Maharashtra.

#Tornado witnessed in #Maharashtra for the first time!! https://t.co/RWrBXuo6x7 pic.twitter.com/TfTFiWWNeX

— Pune Mirror (@ThePuneMirror) June 9, 2018

We performed a keyword search and came across a report by Pune Mirror dated June 9, 2018. According to this article, a tornado-like situation was observed on June 8, 2018, in Ranmala village near Nazre Dam in Pune. After a video of this incident went viral, a three-member team from the Center for Citizen Science (CCS) reached the spot on June 9, 2018. The group performed an investigation and questioned more than 10 eyewitnesses about it. The team gathered various information related to this and also collected videos and photographs recorded by the people present at the time of the incident.

Based on observations and video records, the preliminary conclusion was that the tornado lasted approximately 90 to 120 seconds. It covered a distance of about 800 to 1,000 meters, covering water and land. CCS Senior Meteorologist Dr JR Kulkarni stated, “After observing the matter, our team concluded that the tornado had progressed from F0 to F5 (Fujita scale).”

To sum it up, social media users falsely shared a 2018 video of a tornado that struck Ranmala village in Pune as clouds carrying water from the Ganges river at the Allahabad Sangam.

The post Old video of tornado in Pune viral as clouds carrying water from the Ganges at Allahabad Sangam appeared first on Alt News.

This content originally appeared on Alt News and was authored by Abhishek Kumar.

Greenpeace activists have forced a Greek tanker carrying 33,000 tonnes of Russian diesel to the United Kingdom to turn around in the River Thames near London, part of a campaign to pressure British lawmakers and Prime Minister Boris Johnson to stop buying the fossil fuels funding Moscow's war on Ukraine and start focusing on a rapid clean energy transition.

"Putin's oil and gas is still getting through. So we showed them how it's done."

Skirting security, a dozen volunteers "reached the Andromeda tanker's intended berth at Navigator Terminals by boat late [Sunday] night and climbed onto it," according to Greenpeace. "Images from a vessel-tracking website show the tanker being turned around in the Thames shortly after the activists were in position."

Although police started making arrests in the early hours of Monday morning, "several protesters remain in place," the organization said, "with one activist on the offloading pipes, another hanging off the jetty, and others occupying the jetty preventing the tanker from docking."

As they prevented a tanker carrying nearly $37 million worth of Russian diesel from docking in Essex, campaigners unfurled banners with messages including "fossil fuels war" and "oil fuels war."

Greenpeace research published at the end of April showed that the U.K. imported almost two million barrels of Russian oil, worth roughly $270 million, in the first two months after Russian President Vladimir Putin launched his full-scale military assault on Ukraine.

"Putin invaded Ukraine nearly three months ago, and yet fossil fuel money from the U.K. is still funding his war chest," Georgia Whitaker, an oil and gas campaigner at Greenpeace U.K., said Monday in a statement. "Ministers have kicked a ban on Russian oil imports to the end of the year despite strong public support for it."

"The U.K.'s attachment to fossil fuels has backfired in the worst way possible," Whitaker continued. "We're funding a war, our energy bills and fuel costs are sky-high, and we're driving the climate crisis. It has to stop."

"To stand up to Putin, bring bills down, and tackle climate change," she added, "the prime minister must get us off fossil fuels as fast as possible, stop ludicrous energy waste from our substandard draughty homes, and prioritize cheap, clean, homegrown renewable power."

Last October, Russia brought in more than $500 million per day from global fossil fuel sales, which account for three-fifths of the nation's exports. Greenpeace's Russian Tanker Tracker reveals that hundreds of ships carrying oil and gas have continued to depart Russia for countries around the world since the start of Moscow's war on February 24.

The U.K. currently depends on Russia for 5% of its gas imports, 8% of oil imports, and 18% of its diesel. Kwasi Kwarteng, U.K. secretary of state for business, energy, and industrial strategy, has pledged to phase out Russian oil imports over the course of the year.

As a first step, the U.K. has vowed to turn away Russian-flagged and Russian-owned vessels from its ports. Russian fossil fuels are still arriving in vast quantities, however, via ships registered to other countries. That includes the Andromeda tanker, which is transporting diesel from the Russian port of Primorsk, supplied by the LLC KINEF refinery, under a Greek flag.

"Putin's oil and gas is still getting through," Greenpeace U.K. wrote Monday in a blog post. "So we showed them how it's done."

In recent weeks, Greenpeace activists have used the organization's tracking service to block shipments of Russian fossil fuels in the U.S., Denmark, Sweden, Poland, Belgium, Spain, and the Baltic Sea.

Turning to the United States and other countries to fill the energy void left by Russia sanctions with more fracked gas exports will not end the world's destructive reliance on fossil fuels, Greenpeace U.K. made clear.

"This is our moment," the organization wrote. "To tackle rising energy bills, the climate crisis, and stop funding war, our only long-term solution is to get off fossil fuels. To do this as fast as possible, we need to transition to renewable energy and make our homes energy efficient."

"Investing in wind and solar power on land and energy efficiency is the safest, least volatile, and quickest solution," argued Greenpeace. "We don't need more North Sea fossil fuel projects that will take decades to deliver. These won't tackle rising bills and will worsen the climate crisis. Instead, if we fund renewable energy and make our homes greener, we can cut our need for Russian gas this year and save money on our bills."

The British government "can set out an energy plan that protects and creates jobs, meets the U.K.'s energy needs in an environmentally friendly way, gives us stability in the face of future shocks, and means that we aren't funding wars across the world," Greenpeace stressed. "Let's move towards a renewable energy system that's fairer for people and the planet."

This content originally appeared on Common Dreams - Breaking News & Views for the Progressive Community and was authored by Kenny Stancil.

Greenpeace activists have forced a Greek tanker carrying 33,000 tonnes of Russian diesel to the United Kingdom to turn around in the River Thames near London, part of a campaign to pressure British lawmakers and Prime Minister Boris Johnson to stop buying the fossil fuels funding Moscow's war on Ukraine and start focusing on a rapid clean energy transition.

"Putin's oil and gas is still getting through. So we showed them how it's done."

Skirting security, a dozen volunteers "reached the Andromeda tanker's intended berth at Navigator Terminals by boat late [Sunday] night and climbed onto it," according to Greenpeace. "Images from a vessel-tracking website show the tanker being turned around in the Thames shortly after the activists were in position."

Although police started making arrests in the early hours of Monday morning, "several protesters remain in place," the organization said, "with one activist on the offloading pipes, another hanging off the jetty, and others occupying the jetty preventing the tanker from docking."

As they prevented a tanker carrying nearly $37 million worth of Russian diesel from docking in Essex, campaigners unfurled banners with messages including "fossil fuels war" and "oil fuels war."

Greenpeace research published at the end of April showed that the U.K. imported almost two million barrels of Russian oil, worth roughly $270 million, in the first two months after Russian President Vladimir Putin launched his full-scale military assault on Ukraine.

"Putin invaded Ukraine nearly three months ago, and yet fossil fuel money from the U.K. is still funding his war chest," Georgia Whitaker, an oil and gas campaigner at Greenpeace U.K., said Monday in a statement. "Ministers have kicked a ban on Russian oil imports to the end of the year despite strong public support for it."

"The U.K.'s attachment to fossil fuels has backfired in the worst way possible," Whitaker continued. "We're funding a war, our energy bills and fuel costs are sky-high, and we're driving the climate crisis. It has to stop."

"To stand up to Putin, bring bills down, and tackle climate change," she added, "the prime minister must get us off fossil fuels as fast as possible, stop ludicrous energy waste from our substandard draughty homes, and prioritize cheap, clean, homegrown renewable power."

Last October, Russia brought in more than $500 million per day from global fossil fuel sales, which account for three-fifths of the nation's exports. Greenpeace's Russian Tanker Tracker reveals that hundreds of ships carrying oil and gas have continued to depart Russia for countries around the world since the start of Moscow's war on February 24.

The U.K. currently depends on Russia for 5% of its gas imports, 8% of oil imports, and 18% of its diesel. Kwasi Kwarteng, U.K. secretary of state for business, energy, and industrial strategy, has pledged to phase out Russian oil imports over the course of the year.

As a first step, the U.K. has vowed to turn away Russian-flagged and Russian-owned vessels from its ports. Russian fossil fuels are still arriving in vast quantities, however, via ships registered to other countries. That includes the Andromeda tanker, which is transporting diesel from the Russian port of Primorsk, supplied by the LLC KINEF refinery, under a Greek flag.

"Putin's oil and gas is still getting through," Greenpeace U.K. wrote Monday in a blog post. "So we showed them how it's done."

In recent weeks, Greenpeace activists have used the organization's tracking service to block shipments of Russian fossil fuels in the U.S., Denmark, Sweden, Poland, Belgium, Spain, and the Baltic Sea.

Turning to the United States and other countries to fill the energy void left by Russia sanctions with more fracked gas exports will not end the world's destructive reliance on fossil fuels, Greenpeace U.K. made clear.

"This is our moment," the organization wrote. "To tackle rising energy bills, the climate crisis, and stop funding war, our only long-term solution is to get off fossil fuels. To do this as fast as possible, we need to transition to renewable energy and make our homes energy efficient."

"Investing in wind and solar power on land and energy efficiency is the safest, least volatile, and quickest solution," argued Greenpeace. "We don't need more North Sea fossil fuel projects that will take decades to deliver. These won't tackle rising bills and will worsen the climate crisis. Instead, if we fund renewable energy and make our homes greener, we can cut our need for Russian gas this year and save money on our bills."

The British government "can set out an energy plan that protects and creates jobs, meets the U.K.'s energy needs in an environmentally friendly way, gives us stability in the face of future shocks, and means that we aren't funding wars across the world," Greenpeace stressed. "Let's move towards a renewable energy system that's fairer for people and the planet."

This content originally appeared on Common Dreams - Breaking News & Views for the Progressive Community and was authored by Kenny Stancil.

Israeli soldiers on Friday brutally beat Palestinian mourners carrying the coffin of longtime Al Jazeera journalist Shireen Abu Akleh, who was killed earlier this week while covering an Israeli military raid on a refugee camp in the occupied West Bank.

London-based artist Khadijah Said shared Al Jazeera's footage of the assault by the Israeli Defense Forces (IDF), describing it as "one of the most horrifying things I've seen."

Nick Dearden, director of U.K.-based Global Justice Now, said that the IDF's "horrific" attack—which included the use of stun grenades, tear gas, and batons—showed "an apartheid state in action" and "should be front-page news everywhere."

Thousands of Palestinians gathered for Abu Akleh's funeral service in the Old City of occupied East Jerusalem.

The slain Palestinian-American journalist—described as "an icon in Palestine and the wider Arab world" by Al Jazeera, the Qatar-based network where she worked since 1997—was buried alongside her deceased parents in the Mount Zion Protestant Cemetery.

Abu Akleh, 51, was fatally shot in the face on Wednesday while reporting on the IDF's ransacking of the Jenin refugee camp. Al Jazeera accused Israel of "blatant murder." Human rights groups have demanded a thorough and transparent investigation of the killing, while Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas has vowed to pursue justice at the International Criminal Court.

Pallbearers almost dropped Abu Akleh’s coffin on Friday when the IDF attacked them near St. Louis French Hospital. "Police eventually allowed the family to drive the casket to a Catholic church in the Old City, which was packed with mourners, before sealing off the hospital and firing tear gas at scores of protesters," Al Jazeera reported.

According to the news outlet, Israeli forces arrested at least four mourners, including at least two men who hoisted the Palestinian flag in occupied East Jerusalem.

"Two men were arrested for actually raising the Palestinian flag," said reporter Imran Khan. "That's actually illegal under Israeli law."

"When Shireen's car carrying the casket actually came in, there was a Palestinian flag on display in the back of the car," Khan added. "The Israeli police actually smashed that window in and took the flag."

This content originally appeared on Common Dreams - Breaking News & Views for the Progressive Community and was authored by Kenny Stancil.

A video of a group of people apprehending a young man, claiming that he murdered a girl and put her dead body in a suitcase, is viral on social media. When asked, the youth says his name is ‘Ayan’. The video is being circulated as an incident of ‘love jihad’.

This is the Final stage of L0ve Jih@d .

Jaag jao,varna j@@n se jaoge. pic.twitter.com/D4L1wotA80

— Dr.Monika Langeh (@drmonika_langeh) March 25, 2022

A handle named @BhagwaHindu21 shared the video with a Hindi caption amplifying the ‘love jihad’ claim. (Archive link)

एक और लव जिहाद मेरा वाला अच्छा है प्यार करता है करेगा यह कहने वाली लड़कियां अधिकतर सूटकेस में देखी हैं या जो बच जाती हैं वह बाजारों में बेच दी जाती हैं हिंदू लड़कियों को कब अक्ल आएगी कब इन्हें अपने मां-बाप की फिकर होगी ? यह लव जिहाद का सिलसिला उत्तराखंड में बहुत तेजी से चल रहा है pic.twitter.com/0VkvLttfRQ

— भगवा हिंदू इन्दु (@BhagwaHindu21) March 25, 2022

Some users claimed that the video was recorded at the Kaliyar Guest House in Haridwar. Twitter handle ‘@ashu_nauty’ also posted the clip, identifying the woman as ‘Kajal’ and the woman as ‘Gulsher’. (Archive link)

नोट- सेंसिटिव कंटेंट
पिरान करीयर में लव जिहाद। अपनी प्रेमिका काजल की हत्या कर सूटकेस में लाश को कलियर गेस्ट हाउस से ठिकाने लगाने जा रहा ज्वालापुर का गुलशेर।

डिटेल्स @thelaatanews पर कुछ देर में pic.twitter.com/4MAWXFp0gt

— Ashish Nautiyal (@ashu_nauty) March 25, 2022

The video is gathering a lot of traction on Facebook and Twitter with the same claim.

An Instagram user shared the video and wrote, “Falling in love with Abdul means ending up inside a suitcase.”

Fact-check

Alt News performed a keyword search, which led us to a few news articles reporting the incident. According to Dainik Jagran, the incident took place in Uttarakhand’s Roorkee. A young man allegedly killed his lover after she refused to marry him. The two had arrived at a hotel in Kaliyar around 5 PM. The staff grew suspicious after they saw the man leaving the hotel three hours later with a suitcase. When they forcefully opened the suitcase, the woman’s dead body was found inside.

The manager informed the police, who reached the spot immediately and arrested the man. The article identifies him as ‘Gulbez’, a resident of Jwalapur. Meanwhile, the woman has been identified as ‘Ramsa’, daughter of Rashid. It is also mentioned that the woman submitted a fake ID card while checking into the hotel, which claimed her name was ‘Kajal’.

Aaj Tak reported that the two had been in a relationship for the last eight years. When their families refused to allow them to marry, the two decided to consume poison and die by suicide. They had booked the hotel room for the same. The man claimed that his lover consumed the poison before him and died immediately. He also said that he decided to dump her body in a nearby river and jump in himself.

Alt News reached out to Kaliyar Police Station for more information. SO Dharmendra Rathi informed us that the duo was from the same community, and had been in a relationship for many years. The police filed a case at the behest of the woman’s father and the accused was also sent to prison. The officer also informed that the deceased used to show fake IDs and that her real name was ‘Ramsa’.

Thus, while the incident was shared with a ‘love jihad’ angle, the couple hailed from the same community.

The post Video of youth carrying woman’s corpse in suitcase shared with false ‘love jihad’ spin appeared first on Alt News.

This content originally appeared on Alt News and was authored by Kinjal.