China wants to facilitate Bangladesh-Myanmar dialogue over Rohingya crisis

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Visiting Chinese foreign minister Wang Yi on Saturday expressed his country's willingness to facilitate talks between Bangladesh and Myanmar to resolve the protracted Rohingya crisis which has hit Bangladesh hard, reports UNB.

Wang Yi made the offer when he met prime minister Sheikh Hasina at her official residence Ganobhaban.

PM's press secretary Ihsanul Karim briefed newsmen after the meeting.

He said the visiting Chinese foreign minister mentioned that Rohingya issue is the internal problem of Myanmar, but this is affecting Bangladesh.

"China is willing to facilitate a dialogue between Myanmar and Bangladesh to resolve the Rohingya crisis. This is a big challenge for Bangladesh...this is Myanmar's internal problem, but this is affecting Bangladesh," Ihsanul Karim quoted the Chinese foreign minister as saying.

The Chinese foreign minister said his country does not want the activities of BCIM Economic Corridor to slow down because of the Rohingya issue.

Sheikh Hasina urged the Chinese foreign minister to mount pressure on Myanmar to take back their nationals.

She said Bangladesh has given shelter to over one million Rohingyas on humanitarian ground. "Myanmar will have to take back their nationals ensuring their safety, security and dignity for a durable solution to the crisis," she said.

Hasina mentioned that Rohingyas are Myanmar nationals and they have to take back their citizens from Bangladesh as the relations between Bangladesh and Myanmar are good.

The prime minister narrated the plight of the Rohingya people in Bangladesh, especially the women and children, and said a good number of Rohingya women are pregnant.

Iterating the government's stance not to allow the land of Bangladesh for using by any terrorist group to commit any acts of insurgency in neighbouring countries, she said, "This is our firm decision."

The Chinese foreign minister recalled prime minister Sheikh Hasina's visits to China in 2010 and 2014 as well as the visit of the Chinese president to Bangladesh in October last year.

He said he is now touring Bangladesh to see the progress of Strategic Partner Cooperation that the two countries agreed for it during the Chinese president's visit to Bangladesh.

On Bangladesh-China economic cooperation, Wang Yi said his country's concessional loan now has crossed five billion dollars. "China wants to help Bangladesh more under the South-South cooperation," he said.

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US nuclear chief to resist 'illegal' presidential strike order

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The top nuclear commander in the US says he would resist any "illegal" presidential order to launch a strike.

Air Force Gen John Hyten, said as head of the US Strategic Command he provided advice to a president and expected that a legal alternative would be found.

His comments come just days after US senators discussed a president's authority to launch a nuclear attack.

Some of them expressed concern that President Donald Trump might irresponsibly order such a strike.

Others though said a president must have the authority to act without meddling from lawyers. It was the first such hearing in more than 40 years.

In August, Mr Trump vowed to unleash "fire and fury like the world has never seen" on North Korea if it continued to expand its atomic weapons programme and threaten America.

Last month, the Senate Foreign Relations Committee's Republican chairman, Senator Bob Corker, accused the president of setting the US "on a path to World War Three".

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Speaking at the Halifax International Security Forum in Canada, Gen Hyten said: "We think about these things a lot. When you have this responsibility, how do you not think about it?"

"I provide advice to the president, he will tell me what to do," he said.

"And if it's illegal, guess what's going to happen? I'm going to say: 'Mr President, that's illegal.' And guess what he's going to do? He's going to say, 'What would be legal?' And we'll come up with options, of a mix of capabilities to respond to whatever the situation is, and that's the way it works.

"It's not that complicated," Gen Hyten added.He also added: "If you execute an unlawful order, you will go to jail. You could go to jail for the rest of your life."

President Trump has not publicly commented on Gen Hyten's remarks.

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‘Mounting evidence’ of Rohingya genocide: Rights groups

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Myanmar security forces slit the throats of Muslim Rohingya and burned victims alive, watchdogs said in a report on Wednesday that cited mounting evidence of genocide against the minority group.

The report by the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum and Southeast Asia-based Fortify Rights documents “widespread and systematic attacks” on Rohingya civilians between October 9 and December of last year, and from August 25 of this year.

The 30-page report, entitled “They tried to kill us all,” is based on more than 200 interviews with survivors and eyewitnesses, as well as international aid workers.

Some world leaders have already described as “ethnic cleansing” the scorched-earth military campaign against the Rohingya.

Evidence gathered by Fortify Rights and the Holocaust Museum demonstrates that “Myanmar state security forces and civilian perpetrators committed crimes against humanity and ethnic cleansing” during two waves of attacks in the majority Buddhist nation, the report says.

“There is mounting evidence to suggest these acts represent a genocide of the Rohingya population,” it says.

Almost 700,000 Rohingya, more than half of the population in northern Rakhine state, have been forcibly displaced since October last year when Myanmar’s army began “clearance operations” after a previously unknown group attacked and killed security officers.

Those operations were, in practice, “a mechanism to commit mass atrocities,” the report said.

“State security forces opened fire on Rohingya civilians from the land and sky. Soldiers and knife-wielding civilians hacked to death and slit the throats of Rohingya men, women, and children,” it said.

“Rohingya civilians were burned alive. Soldiers raped and gang-raped Rohingya women and girls and arbitrarily arrested men and boys en masse.”

The report said investigators from Fortify Rights and the Holocaust Museum’s Simon-Skjodt Center for the Prevention of Genocide traveled to Rakhine and the Bangladesh-Myanmar border area, where Rohingya have fled.

It quoted eyewitness testimony of mass killings in three villages in late August.

“When the killing was complete, soldiers moved bodies into piles and set them alight,” after soldiers reportedly murdered hundreds in one attack, the report said, adding to chilling and consistent accounts of widespread murder, rape and arson at the hands of security forces and Buddhist mobs.

Global outrage is building over the violence, while Myanmar’s army insists it has only targeted Rohingya rebels.

The watchdogs’ report came a day after Washington’s top diplomat, Secretary of State Rex Tillerson, said there were “credible reports of widespread atrocities committed by Myanmar’s security forces and vigilantes.”

Speaking during a visit to Myanmar, he urged authorities there to accept an independent investigation into those allegations.

The army and administration of de facto civilian leader Aung San Suu Kyi—a Nobel peace laureate—have dismissed reports of atrocities and refused to grant entry to UN investigators tasked with probing allegations of ethnic cleansing.

“Without urgent action, a risk of further outbreaks of mass atrocities exists in Rakhine state and possibly elsewhere in Myanmar,” Fortify Rights and the Holocaust Museum wrote.

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Google's Missouri problem mirrors woes in EU

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As an aggressive antitrust investigation plays out in Europe against Google, its practices have drawn comparatively little scrutiny from regulators on the US side of the Atlantic. But the midwest state of Missouri wants to change that.

The state's Attorney General Josh Hawley has launched an investigation which appears to mirror the probe by EU authorities, demanding information on how Google uses data gathered on consumers, and examining whether the internet giant abuses its dominant position in search.

"No entity in the history of the world has collected as much information about you as Google. My office wants to know what Google is doing with this information," said a tweet from Hawley, a Republican who is running for the US Senate.

Hawley added that he sees "substantial evidence" that Google manipulates search results to list affiliated websites higher than those of rivals.

"If true, these actions may reflect an unlawful attempt to leverage Google's monopoly power in the search-engine market to stifle competition," he said.

In the US, the Federal Trade Commission in 2013 dropped a two-year antitrust investigation of Google after the company agreed to make changes to some practices to ease competition concerns.

But a number of Google critics and competitors have argued the US probe did not go far enough. They point to the European Commission's three-pronged inquiry into Google's dominance in search, its advertising platform and its Android mobile operating system.

The EU has already imposed a fine of 2.4 billion euros ($2.7 billion) over search results and could impose stiffer penalties as the investigations proceed.

Scott Cleland, a consultant and longtime Google critic -- who operates the "watchdog" website Google Monitor -- said the EU probe may represent a turning point for stiffer actions against Google.

Even if the federal government remains on the sidelines, "the states represent a law enforcement and a political and government force that Google can't ignore," Cleland said.

If several state regulators band together, "they are very formidable," he added.

- Shifting political landscape -
Google's position has become more precarious with the election of President Donald Trump, following years of close -- some say too cozy -- ties between Silicon Valley and the White House.

And the failure of firms such as Google, Facebook and Twitter to crack down on disinformation and Russian-sponsored propaganda has also eroded support of the tech sector in Washington.

"Google's biggest challenge is that the American political landscape has shifted beneath its feet," said Mark Blafkin, a co-founder of the technology and business consultancy Vrge.

"In the age of Trump, there is growing political momentum in both parties for holding Google and other tech giants accountable on competition, fake news, and a series of other issues."

Google's share of search is estimated at around 90 percent in many markets. Google and Facebook are scooping virtually all the growth in digital advertising revenues, according to analysts. And its Android system powers more than 80 percent of smartphones worldwide.

Europe's top antitrust regulator Magrethe Vestager has argued that firms with dominant market share have a "special responsibility" not to misuse their power.

But in the US, an antitrust action against Google could be complicated by a decades-old standard of measuring consumer harm. Since Google's services are mainly free, it could be hard to argue its actions are hurting consumers or raising prices.

But antitrust standards in other parts of the world are different, and some analysts see the EU probe as opening the door to more legal woes for Google.

"After nearly a decade of holding competition regulators around the world at bay, the European Commission's ruling represents the first significant break in the dam for Google's legal and public affairs strategy," Blafkin said.

"Not only will Google face years of ongoing European Commission investigations covering search, AdSense, and Android, but history suggests a ruling like this could provide the foundation for other regulators to launch investigations or scrutinize mergers and acquisitions."

John Simpson at Consumer Watchdog, another longtime Google foe, said it appears the winds are shifting against Google.

The latest actions in Missouri and congressional hearings on online abuse "are symbolic of a growing awareness... that the big tech companies deserve a harder look," Simpson said.

"From the left and the right, we can see a new attitude, which is questioning some of the procedures of the tech industry."
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Apple delays launch of smart speaker

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Apple is delaying the release of its HomePod smart speaker until 2018.

The electronics giant said the device, which was due to be released in December this year, still needed development work.

It said the HomePod would be ready to go on shop shelves in the US, UK and Australia "early in 2018".

The news is a blow to its plans to take on rivals Amazon and Google in the growing market for home devices that use AI to help consumers.

'Not surprising'

In a statement sent to news organisations, Apple said the wireless speaker needed "a little more time before it's ready for our customers".

The delay will mean Apple misses the lucrative holiday season during which many consumers buy gadgets as gifts.

The gadget was first unveiled in June this year when Apple said it would go on sale in the US for $349 (£265). In the UK it was expected to cost £350.

It was designed to be a competitor to other smart speakers - such as Amazon's Echo and Google's Assistant. Sonos, Microsoft and others also make similar gadgets.

Like them it was designed to play music and act as a hands-free helper letting owners set timers, maintain shopping lists and get reports about the news, weather and other subjects.

Since Apple unveiled the HomePod both Google and Amazon have added new models to their ranges of smart speakers, intensifying the competition with Apple.

Writing in Engadget, associate editor Jon Fingle said the delay was "not surprising" given that the HomePod was Apple's first try at a smart speaker.

"The HomePod isn't necessarily in trouble," he said. "but it may face a tougher battle than it did beforehand."

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Germany bans children's smartwatches

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A German regulator has banned the sale of smartwatches aimed at children, describing them as spying devices.

It had previously banned an internet-connected doll called, My Friend Cayla, for similar reasons.

Telecoms regulator the Federal Network Agency urged parents who had such watches to destroy them.

One expert said the decision could be a "game-changer" for internet-connected devices.

"Poorly secured smart devices often allow for privacy invasion. That is really concerning when it comes to kids' GPS tracking watches - the very watches that are supposed to help keep them safe," said Ken Munro, a security expert at Pen Test Partners.

"There is a shocking lack of regulation of the 'internet of things', which allows lax manufacturers to sell us dangerously insecure smart products.

"Using privacy regulation to ban such devices is a game-changer, stopping these manufacturers playing fast and loose with our kids' security," he added.

In a statement, the agency said it had already taken action against several firms offering such watches on the internet.

"Via an app, parents can use such children's watches to listen unnoticed to the child's environment and they are to be regarded as an unauthorised transmitting system," said Jochen Homann, president of the Federal Network Agency.

"According to our research, parents' watches are also used to listen to teachers in the classroom."

The agency also asked schools to "pay more attention" to such watches among students.

Tracking children

Such watches - which are sold by a large number of providers in Germany - are generally aimed at children between the ages of five and 12.

Most are equipped with a Sim card and a limited telephony function and are set up and controlled via an app.

In October, the Norwegian Consumer Council (NCC) reported that some children's smartwatches - including ones made by Gator and GPS for Kids - transmitted and stored data witho

ut encryption.

It meant that strangers, using basic hacking techniques, could track children as they moved or make a child appear to be in a completely different location.

It is not clear whether the German decision to ban such devices was based on the privacy issues associated with them or wider security flaws that have been uncovered by NCC and others.

Both firms said that they had resolved the security issues.

Finn Myrstad, head of digital policy at the NCC said: "This ban sends a strong signal to makers of products aimed at children that they need to be safer."

He called for Europe-wide measures to increase the security of such devices.

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North Korean defector found to have 'enormous parasites'

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A North Korean soldier who was shot while fleeing across the border has an extremely high level of parasites in his intestines, his doctors say.

The defector crossed the demilitarised zone on Monday, but was shot several times by North Korean border guards.

Doctors say the patient is stable - but "an enormous number" of worms in his body are contaminating his wounds and making his situation worse.

His condition is thought to give a rare insight into life in North Korea.

"I've never seen anything like this in my 20 years as a physician," South Korean doctor Lee Cook-jong told journalists, explaining that the longest worm removed from the patient's intestines was 27cm (11in) long.

How do you get a parasite?

Humans can get parasites through eating contaminated food, by being bitten by an insect or by the parasite entering through the skin.

In the case of the North Korean defector, the first case is most likely. Parasites which enter the body via contaminated food are often worms.

The North still uses human faeces as fertilisers. If these faeces are untreated and fertilise vegetables that are later eaten uncooked, the parasites get into the mouth and the intestines of the person.

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While some don't cause any severe symptoms, others can be life-threatening, explains Prof Peter Preiser from the School of Biological Sciences at Nanyang Technological University in Singapore.

"What they all do is take nutrients away from your body," he told the BBC. "So [even] if most of them might go unnoticed, they all indicate a poor health status. To put it simply: people who have parasites are not healthy."

What does it tell us about N Korea's standards of health?

"North Korea is a very poor country and like any other poor country it has serious health problems," Prof Andrei Lankov of Kookmin University in Seoul told the BBC.

In 2015 South Korean researchers studied the health records of North Korean defectors who had visited a hospital in Cheonan between 2006 and 2014.

They found that they showed higher rates of chronic hepatitis B, chronic hepatitis C, tuberculosis and parasite infections, compared to South Koreans.

"I don't know what is happening in North Korea, but I found many parasites when examining other defectors," Professor Seong Min of Dankook University Medical School was quoted by the Korea Biomedical Review as saying.

But Prof Lankov points out that compared with other countries with a similar per capita income - like Bangladesh or many African countries - the population in North Korea is healthier than one would expect. The country's life expectancy is well above average considering the level of economic poverty, he says.

"North Korea does not have the resources to have a modern medical system," he says. "Its doctors are relatively poorly trained and have to work with primitive equipment."

Are the parasites endangering the soldier?

Yes. Considering that he is already in a critical condition, they are making a bad situation much worse.

The soldier was shot at least six times when North Korean border guards opened fire on him as he ran across the Joint Security Area in Panmunjom to the South Korean side.

The young soldier was rushed by helicopter to a hospital in South Korea and has undergone emergency surgery.

Doctors say there is a severe contamination of the wounds by both parasites and faeces.

"We are paying close attention to prevent possible complications," surgeon Lee Cook-jong told reporters, explaining that "an enormous number of parasites" including roundworms had been found in the small intestine.

If the intestines are disrupted and parasites are released into the body cavity, they can be a lot more dangerous and much more complicated to treat.

Also, he is likely to have had the parasites for a long time. This means "that patient will generally be in a weaker state so any wounds and surgery will become more dangerous," explains Prof Preiser.

Is this a problem particular to North Korea?

Parasites, especially worms, are thought to be widespread in North Korea. However, they also affect many developing countries where diets include uncooked vegetables fertilised with faeces.

There are ways to treat faeces so they can be used as a safe fertiliser, but many poor countries neglect to do so. Prof Lankov says this seems to be the case in North Korea.

The poor health and nutrition has widespread consequences "but North Korea does not admit this because they fear this will affect their image too much".

Should there ever be a reunification of the two Koreas though, there would be massive health problems for officials to deal with for decades to come, Prof Lankov warns.

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