Daily Archives: February 6, 2017

I met Than Htut Aung for the first time a little over a year ago. It was a heady moment. I was visiting Burma as its citizens were taking part in their first free election after long years of harsh military rule, and few people embodied its promise as powerfully as he did.

In the dark days of the old junta,he had dared to create an independent media company whose journalists just three of them at first found bold and creative ways to cater to the publics desperate need for access to the truth. When a reformist government decided to launch a Burmese version of perestroika in 2010, Than Htut Aungs Eleven Media Group was poised to take advantage. By the time he and I met on the eve of the election in November 2015, his company by then encompassing five weekly magazines, several newspapers and one of the countrys most popular Facebook pages had grown to 250 reporters, all of whom were busily taking advantage of the new freedom of expression.

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It still wasnt easy. Than Htut Aung told me how his journalists were still coming under severe pressure from the still-powerful military. He himself had been attacked by an assailant during the election campaign, though hed managed to escape without serious injury.

Still, he was optimistic. He predicted that Aung San Suu Kyi, the Nobel Prize laureate and champion of the democratic opposition, was going to score a big win. The Lady is our greatest hope, he said, using the reverential term favored by many of her supporters. She deserves our support.

He was right about one thing: She won in a landslide. But I dont think he foresaw everything that happened next. Thanks to her electoral triumph, Aung San Suu Kyis National League for Democracy (NLD) came to power at the end of January 2016 to the broad acclaim of the Burmese people. But even though the NLD chose the new president, with Aung San Suu Kyi herself assuming key powers in the government, things soon took a dark turn.

Aung San Suu Kyi promised a far-reaching peace agreement to end the long-running civil war between the central government and restive ethnic minority groups. Since then, however, the conflict has only deepened. And the grim plight of the Rohingya, the beleaguered Muslim minority group whose very existence was long denied by the countrys overwhelmingly Buddhist elite, has only worsened. Some observers warn of potential genocide. Aung San Suu Kyis striking unwillingness to take a public stand on the issue has shocked many of her former supporters.

Now, its true that the new government doesnt have full control. Despite the NLDs big election victory, Burmas junta-era constitution still gives sweeping powers to the military, including virtually total control over all security-related matters. And its the military that has been at the forefront of the brutal treatment of the Rohingya, which has left some 120,000 of them languishing in internment camps and driven 65,000 more across the border into Bangladesh.

None of that, though, ought to have prevented Aung San Suu Kyi from exercising her moral power as the countrys most revered leader. Yet she has been disturbingly reluctant to take a stand even as members of her own government have taken up overtly nationalistic positions on the Rohingya and other issues.

Her defenders insist that her critics should give her time: These are, after all, problems that have been around for decades, and no one could expect her to solve them overnight, especially when the military still has every reason to make it hard for her to do so. Fair enough, perhaps.

But this special pleading wears especially thin when it comes to the governments recent treatment of the press. Dozens of journalists have been jailed since Aung San Suu Kyis government came to power. (PEN Myanmar cites at least 38 such cases.) In several cases, charges were brought after journalists directly criticized Aung San Suu Kyi or other leading members of her party. Many reporters have been charged under a junta-era law forbidding the use of telecommunications to extort, threaten, obstruct, defame, disturb, inappropriately influence or intimidate.

[Aung San Suu Kyis] government has stood by silently as some of the more outdated laws on the books are being used to suppress press freedom, says Shawn Crispin of the Committee to Protect Journalists. These laws are effectively giving her government the legal power to suppress press freedom at a time when the country urgently needs press freedom and open dialogue. Particularly worrisome, says Crispin, are the cases that have targeted Aung San Suu Kyis critics. If she had any say over this, youd assume she wouldnt want people going down for the way they portray her on social media. But thats exactly whats been happening.

The telecom law has also been used against Than Htut Aung himself. Last fall, he and one of his journalists published a newspaper report accusing a leading NLD official of corruption. One might have expected a leader of Aung San Suu Kyis standing to call for an independent investigation of the allegations. But thats not what happened.

[We cant let Trump go down Putins path]

On Nov. 11, police summoned Than Htut Aung and his colleague to a police station. The two men were informed that they were being charged with defamation under the telecom law. In most countries, libel charges dont usually result in the accused going straight into jail but thats what happened to the two men from Eleven Media. They were dispatched to Rangoons notorious Insein Prison, a place well-known to critics of the old regime, and onlyreleasedfive weeks later after paying bail. Than Htut Aung suffered a heart attack during his imprisonment. (His spokesman declined my request for an interview, citing Than Htut Aungs poor health.) Eleven Media issued an apology about the article, but the official in question says hes determined to proceed with the charges.

Needless to say, all of this has had a profoundly chilling effect on Burmas press even as the continuing civil war and the appalling fate of the Rohingya cast their own shadows on the countrys hopes for democracy.

Aung San Suu Kyi certainly isnt responsible for all of her countrys ills. But her status as a democratically elected leader means that she must also expect to be held accountable especially when it comes to those matters where she does have control. She certainly shouldnt be prosecuting her critics, and she shouldnt be allowing members of her party to do the same.

Her compatriots and her friends abroad should continue to hold her to the same high standards that once made her such a shining example of opposition to the old regime. To do otherwise would be to betray her most positive legacy not to mention the Burmese people themselves.

See more here:

Press freedom in Burma is under attack again and Aung San Suu Kyi isn't doing anything about it - Washington Post

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In a recent public consultation, the UNs newly appointed independent expert on the defense of LGTB rights, Vitit Muntarbhorn, said that negative moral judgments on homosexual activity were a recent phenomenon, stemming from colonial law.

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More recently, in colonial law, or remnants of colonial law, gays were criminalized, are criminalized, even though beforehand they were not criminalized, he claimed during the Jan. 25 conference.

When challenged about the clash between LGBT rights and religious freedom by Henk Jan van Schothorst of the Transatlantic Christian Council, Muntarbhorn said that religious freedom is not absolute and must yield to homosexual rights.

There are some absolute rights, he said in apparent reference to LGBT rights, but there are some that are not absolute. He went on to explain that freedom of expression and expression of religion are not absolute rights and that they can be curtailed when necessary.

While praising a desire to engage with the heart of religion, Muntarbhorn said this should be done without the mythology overriding the heart of the religion.

The independent expert also emphasized the role of education so children can be born and bred from a young age with the right attitudes toward sexual orientation and identity, a practice that some have denounced as indoctrination or even gender ideology or ideological colonization.

Last summer, the UN Human Rights Council approved the appointment of an independent expert on the defense of the LGTB collective, and in October the Council chose Vitit Muntarbhorn of Thailand to fill the post.

The following month, a coalition of 54 African states challenged the legality of the appointment, asking that his mandate be put on hold. They submitted a resolution calling for the suspension of the UNs LGBT investigator, noting that gender identity and sexual orientation have no place in international human rights instruments.

While Muntarbhorn has been tasked with assessing implementations of existing international human rights law and raising awareness of violence and discrimination based on sexual orientation and gender identity (SOGI), critics suggest that his very mandate will constitute interference with the laws of many UN countries.

Seventy-three countries worldwide, and almost 40 percent of all UN member states, currently have anti-sodomy laws on their books. In Africa alone, 33 states have laws making homosexual acts a crime, including Uganda, Nigeria, Sudan and Mauritania.

Speaking on behalf of the African nations, Botswanas ambassador told a General Assembly human rights committee in November that African nations are alarmed that the Human Rights Council is delving into national matters and attempting to focus on people on the grounds of their sexual interests and behaviors.

Ambassador Charles Ntwaagae said that the Council had no business looking into sexual orientation and gender identity, which are notoriously absent from the United Nations charter document, the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.

Those two notions are not and should not be linked to existing international human rights instruments, said Ntwaagae. The UN has never adopted an official position regarding putative rights of gender identity or sexual orientation, though it does guarantee the rights of life, liberty, security, property and equal protection to all persons without distinction.

We therefore call for the suspension of the activities of the appointed independent expert pending the determination of this issue, said Ntwaagae.

The Africa group claimed that a focus on homosexual rights also takes attention away from other issues of paramount importance, such as racism and the right to development.

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Excerpt from:

UN Gay Rights Envoy: Religious Freedom 'Not an Absolute Right' - Breitbart News

Showing no sign he would give himself up to the U.S., WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange reportedly begged the United Kingdom and Sweden to "do the right thing andrestore my liberty" Monday, claiming he deserves freedom.

SEAN HANNITY: TRUMP, SPICER TURN TABLES ON ALT-LEFT MEDIA

Assange has been holed up for more than four years at the Ecuadorian Embassy in London. He has refused to meet prosecutors in Sweden, where he remains wanted on rape accusations.

He spoke out one year after a United Nations group found the U.K. and Sweden were "arbitrarily" detaining him. Assange argued,"These two states signed treaties to recognise the U.N. and its human rights mechanisms,"the BBC reported.

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British officials previously said the finding from the U.N.'sWorking Group on Arbitrary Detention "changes nothing."

Last month, Assange raised eyebrows across the Internet when heappeared to offer himself upas a kind of swap for ChelseaManning, the former private convicted of leaking the hundreds of thousands of documents that made WikiLeaks a household name. The group made its offer to then-President Barack Obama.

"If Obama grants Manning clemency Assange will agree to US extradition despite clear unconstitutionality of DoJ case," WikiLeaks tweeted, apparently referring to the U.S. Department of Justice's continuing investigation into the radical transparency website. But when Obama granted clemency to the ex-Army analyst a week later, setting a May release date that lops almost 30 years off her sentence, Assange's lawyers said it wasn't enough.

"There's no question that what President Obama did is not what Assange was seeking," said Barry Pollack, who represents the WikiLeaks chief in the United States. "Mr. Assange was saying that Chelsea should never have been prosecuted, never have been sentenced to decades in prison, and should have been released immediately."

Melinda Taylor, who also represents Assange, agreed, saying in an email that clemency was "far short of what Mr. Assange asked for and what Ms. Manning deserved (which is to be pardoned and freed immediately)."

Neither supplied any evidence that Assange had used the words "immediate" or "pardon" in relation to his extradition offer, but Pollack said it was clear that was what Assange meant noting that the Australian computer expert had previously pushed for Manning's pardon.

"Why would he be called for Manning's release in a few months from now?" Pollack said. "You can parse his tweets any way that you want to parse them. I think his position has been clear throughout."

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

Excerpt from:

'Restore my liberty': Assange pleads for freedom while holed up in embassy - Fox News

An AFA spokesperson says people of faith need to continue urging the White House to sign a document on religious freedom.

An extensive presidential executive order has been proposed and circulated among federal agencies in Washington. It has also been leaked, and since then, LGBT activists have demanded that President Trump not sign it. But Sandy Rios, director of governmental affairs for the American Family Association, explains that it instructs the government to respect genuine religious freedom.

"It doesn't just deal with the freedom of worship. It is freedom of religion, expression of your faith in your practical life, in your business, in your work and how you do things -- that you should not be punished because you believe that marriage should be between one man and one woman, or that bathrooms should be assigned according to biological sex," Rios submits.

The proposed order warns the federal bureaucracy to do an about-face and show some respect.

"It instructs all the agencies of the federal government to permit federal employees to practice their faith without fear of punishment, to not worry about what they say if they're expressing their viewpoints," the governmental affairs director details. "It prevents the federal government from withholding contracts from people who hold religious conscience on LGBT issues."

OneNewsNow columnist Bryan Fischerdescribes the draft document as "a masterpiece ... stunningly and brilliantly crafted." But the White House has been so battered by LGBT activists opposed to it that the support of at least two highly-placed government officials appears to be weakening. So Rios urges people to contact the White House and encourage the president to sign the document.

The American Family Association is the parent organization of the American Family News Network, which operates OneNewsNow.com.

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Respect for religious freedom - OneNewsNow

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Around 20 per cent of all websites on the dark web were taken offline in a hack, with those responsible publishing details of the website administrators.

Freedom Hosting II, a site with 10,000 Tor-based webpages, was attacked after a hacker said child pornography was being hosted on the websites.

On Friday, visitors to any of the websites hosted by the firm saw the message: "Hello, Freedom Hosting II, you have been hacked." The statement explained that when the attacker was searching through Freedom Hosting II's database, they found 50 per cent of websites were "child porn" noting, "you host many scam sites".

The hack has been confirmed by security experts and a list of impacted websites was curated and posted online.

The attacker, who told Motherboard it was their first ever hack, also claimed to take 74GB of files and a 2.3GB database.

Since the breach, the Freedom Hosting II database has been made available on information sharing websites and been verified. Troy Hunt, whose Have I Been Pwned website holds more than two billion compromised online accounts, has been given the 2GB MySQL database and says it includes 381,000 email addresses.

Describing the data breach Hunt said it is a "pretty serious incident" and the database has backups from customers, including those running WordPress websites with the dark web host. "As you can imagine, a lot of the data is very explicit," he says.

Within the email addresses, Hunt says there are "thousands" of .gov addresses but cautions they may not be legitimate.

While the dark web is known to host child pornography and allow the sales of drugs and illegal services, it is also used by journalists and those wishing to avoid surveillance from oppressive regimes. It is likely the database of leaked email addresses affects those who use the anonymous browsing method for legal purposes.

Dark web and privacy researcher Sarah Jamie Lewis conducted a review of Freedom Hosting II in October 2016 and said she believed there were 1,500 to 2,000 active sites being hosted.

"FHII made it easy for people to start playing with anonymous publishing - and in doing so created a huge vulnerability," Lewis tweeted. "I have never been a fan of dark web hosting providers. The threat model there for everyone is ridiculously hard to secure."

Hunt also said the details included on the Freedom Hosting II are likely to have been collected by police and intelligence agencies. "Law enforcement will absolutely have this data, it's *very* public. It also obviously has many real email addresses in it".

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Hackers took more than 10000 dark web sites offline - Wired.co.uk

Japanese Self Defense forces will not participate in US military patrols in the vicinity of South China Sea, the country Defense Minister clarified, a day after US and Japan agreed to enhance engagement in the disputed maritime region.

At a meeting in Tokyo on Saturday, Japan's Defense Minister Tomomi Inada promised the newly appointed US Defense Secretary Jim Mattis to enhance Japan's role in the South China Sea.

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I said that freedom of navigation operations and other actions by the US forces in the South China Sea contribute to maintaining maritime order based on the rule of law, and that I support these efforts, Inada said Saturday during the joint press conference with Matis. We agree that including capacity-building initiatives, we will enhance engagement in the South China Sea.

China immediately voiced criticism over the understandings reached between US and Japan, warning the US not to stir up trouble in the region. With such developments of the events, on Sunday Tokyo somewhat backtracked on his promise, stressing that no militarily capabilities will be offered by Japan to the US.

I told Secretary Mattis that Japan supports the US militarys freedom of navigation operation in the sea. But the SDF will not be sent to the area," Inada said Sunday, Jiji press reports.

Japan will play its role through defense cooperation and training, she added, clarifying that Tokyo will also consider increasing its defense budget and reinforcing its defense capabilities.

On his first trip to Asia as secretary of defense, Mattis explicitly stated in Tokyo that the Trump administration will honor US-Japan security treaty and protect Japan against any aggression.

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As tensions between US and China reach new levels, the US Navy continues to dispatch warships and military planes in the immediate proximity of the disputed islands, claiming the moves are designed to ensure the principles of freedom of navigation in international waters. Washington has also been involved in a number of military drills in the region.

The situation has been further exacerbated by Chinas militarization of the South China Sea. The Spratly Islands, or Spratlys, comprise more than 750 islets, atolls and reefs, and lie off the coastlines of Vietnam, the Philippines, Malaysia, Brunei and China, with all the claimants having their own national names for the archipelago. Beijing continues to claim the reefs in defiance of a Hague International Arbitration Court verdict.

Ahead of Mattis visit to Japan, Beijing has once again reminded the US that it will defend the country's territorial integrity.

China has indisputable sovereignty over the relevant islands and reefs in the South China Sea and the adjacent waters, Foreign Ministry spokesman Lu Kang told reporters Friday during a regular press briefing. China will firmly safeguard its territorial sovereignty and maritime rights and interests in the South China Sea.

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Japan supports but won't join US 'freedom of navigation' patrols in South China Sea - RT

WINNIPEG A man who beheaded and cannibalized a fellow passenger on a Greyhound bus in Manitoba is expected to ask for his freedom today.

Will Baker, formerly known as Vince Li, was found not criminally responsible for the killing of Tim McLean in 2008.

Diagnosed with schizophrenia, Baker was initially kept inside a secure wing at the Selkirk Mental Health Centre.

He was gradually granted more freedom over the years at annual appearances before the Criminal Code Review Board, and started living on his own last year, but is still subject to monitoring and random drug tests.

Baker's annual review is scheduled for this afternoon and the victim's mother, Carol de Delley, says justice officials have told her Baker's lawyer will ask for an absolute discharge.

De Delley has said that would mean there would be no more monitoring to ensure Baker continues to take his medication.

Baker sat next to the 22-year-old McLean on the bus after the young man smiled at him and asked how he was doing.

Baker said he heard the voice of God telling him to kill the young carnival worker or "die immediately.''

Must order absolute discharge if no public safety threat: SCOC

He repeatedly stabbed McLean while the young man fought for his life. As passengers fled the bus, Baker continued stabbing and mutilating the body before he was arrested.

His medical team has said he has been a model patient and understands the need to continue to take anti-psychotic medication.

The Supreme Court of Canada ruled in 1999 that a review board must order an absolute discharge if a person doesn't pose a significant threat to public safety.

The ruling added there must be clear evidence of a significant risk to the public for the review board to continue imposing conditions after a person is found not criminally responsible.

Manitoba Conservative member of Parliament James Bezan, who represents the Selkirk area, said Baker's request for a discharge should be denied.

Read more:

Vince Li, Greyhound Attacker Who Beheaded Passenger,May Ask For Full Freedom - Huffington Post Canada

While watching film, the Freedom-South Riding girls basketball team avoids wasting time worrying about its own performance. Instead, the defense-obsessed Eagles search for weaknesses in their upcoming opponents offensive game.

After they have studied, Coach Teddy Whitney takes time during practice drills to quiz players on the opposition.

Hell go around and ask What hand is number 11? Is she a shooter or does she like to drive?, senior guard Kiara Davis said. Our team is about defense, defense, defense. So when we prepare, were looking for advantages on defense.

Friday night against neighborhood rival Champe, the Eagles did not allow a basket in the first quarter on their way to a 52-14 win. After a 46-35 loss to Loudoun County on Jan. 23, Freedom won three straight games to clinch its second straight regular season title in Virginia Conference 22.

That loss was a pretty nice gut check, sophomore Jaelyn Batts said, who leads the Eagles (18-3, 8-0) with 17.9 points per game. We learned that we cant come out flat and expect to be able to come back.

After the girls victory, Freedoms boys team took the floor in Aldie in search of its own conference championship. After a rough start, the Eagles pulled out a 67-63 win.

In December, the Knights topped Freedom in double overtime behind 63 points, including 28 made free throws, from senior Dom Fragala. In the rematch, the Eagles limited Fragala, who leads the area with 37.2 points per game, to four free throw attempts and 28 points.

We knew if we stop him, we win, said junior Zyan Collins, who scored 23 points and leads the Eagles with 19.1 per game. We knew we had to sag in and be ready to help, and we executed that.

[Boys Top 20: Still-unbeaten Rock Creek Christian rises to No. 1]

Freedom (16-5, 7-1) trailed 23-6 after one quarter and did not take the lead until the fourth. Once the Eagles clawed their way in front, they held on in front of a packed house to secure the schools first regular season conference championship in boys basketball and complete a road sweep of their rival.

All season, one teams success has been motivation for the other.

Its not a rivalry, but we definitely push each other to be better, Davis said. Lets call it a friendly competition.

The Big number: 1,000

Career points for Briar Woods senior guard Amani Rascoe, who surpassed the milestone with 16 in Fridays loss to Tuscarora.

Player of the week

G David Walls , Potomac Falls, Sr.

Walls dropped a season-high 38 points as the Panthers outlasted Stone Bridge, 83-71, on Friday night. Potomac Falls (14-6, 6-1) can clinch the Conference 14 regular season title at home against Tuscarora on Tuesday.

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Loudoun basketball notebook: Freedom-South Riding sweeps Champe for Conf. 22 titles - Washington Post