UNREST in other COUNTRIES

[mlurp]

Most of what I am posting comes out of the M.E., so I hope each reader still uses the LINKS to see the other hot spots in diverse places.

.Palestinian split looms large in West Bank vote

By KARIN LAUB and MOHAMMED DARAGHMEH | Associated Press – 26 mins ago.

RAMALLAH, West Bank (AP) — Palestinians voted for new local councils in dozens of West Bank towns in long delayed elections Saturday, part of an attempt by Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas and his Fatah movement to recapture dwindling political legitimacy.

However, the toxic rivalry between Fatah and the Islamic militant Hamas loomed large over the first Palestinian ballot in six years, and made it unlikely that Saturday's voting will be followed anytime soon by overdue elections for parliament and president.

Hamas prevented voting in the Gaza Strip, the territory the group seized in 2007 from forces loyal to Abbas, and boycotted the contest in the West Bank. Hamas argues that elections can only be held once Hamas and Fatah reconcile.

"We ask to stop this disgrace," said Hamas spokesman Fawzi Barhoum, dismissing Saturday's vote as meaningless.

Saeb Erekat, a senior Abbas aide, countered that "Hamas cannot have a veto on democracy." Critics say the group banned voting in Gaza to prevent largely vanquished rivals, particularly from Fatah, from gaining a new foothold there.

Fatah, though running virtually unopposed in the West Bank, could still be bruised if party renegades defeat Abbas-endorsed candidates in several of the larger towns.

Despite the Hamas boycott and widespread apathy, election officials reported a turnout of 54.8 percent.

The election was held at a time when Abbas' Palestinian Authority, a self-rule government in parts of the Israeli-controlled West Bank is facing a slew of difficulties. It is mired in a chronic cash crisis. Efforts to heal the Palestinian political split have failed. And prospects are virtually nil for resuming meaningful negotiations with Israel's government on setting up a Palestinian state in the West Bank, Gaza and east Jerusalem, the territories Israel captured in 1967.

"People are crushed by heavy burdens," said Mohammed Nasser, a 25-year-old accountant in the city of Ramallah who planned to stay at home. "Would these elections solve our problems? Of course not."

Others did vote, including 30-year-old Amani Qasim, who said she wanted to see new faces in Ramallah's city council.

Some 505,000 voters were eligible to choose new councils in 93 towns and villages in the West Bank, picking from lists of candidates rather than individuals. In an additional 179 communities, residents reached power-sharing deals, many brokered by clan leaders, and decided to forgo elections.

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Palestinian split looms large in West Bank vote - Yahoo! News

22 comments.

[mlurp]

These are the major links for Asia and the Middle East.. As well as other regions.


Middle East News Headlines - Yahoo! News

Asia News Headlines - Yahoo! News

Africa News Headlines - Yahoo! News

These are links to other regions worth watching...

Latin America News Headlines - Yahoo! News

Europe News Headlines - Yahoo! News

Australia / Antarctica News Headlines - Yahoo! News

My to each reader & all who help by adding to this thread..

[mlurp]

I have been watching Myanmar for a while now. And I think others should take a peek even mnow and again.

.Myanmar: New clashes between Muslims, Buddhists

Associated Press – 1 hr 31 mins ago. 23 Oct. 2012 ............

YANGON, Myanmar (AP) — New clashes between Muslims and Buddhists have broken out in volatile western Myanmar, leaving at least two people dead and more than a thousand homes burned to the ground, authorities said Tuesday.

The information ministry said the violence was continuing and authorities were trying to restore law and order.

The unrest, which began Sunday night, is some of the worst reported between Rohingya Muslims and ethnic Rakhine Buddhists since skirmishes swept the region in June, displacing about 70,000 people.

Rakhine state Attorney General Hla Thein said the latest violence began in Minbyar township, about 25 kilometers (15 miles) north of the state capital, Sittwe. It later spread farther north to Mrauk-U township. Both areas are remote, reachable only by foot, Hla Thein said.

Authorities imposed a dusk-to-dawn curfew in the townships on Monday, Hla Thein said. He said both areas were calm Tuesday, but the Information ministry announced later in the day that the violence was continuing.

Hla Thein said one Buddhist man and two Muslim women died in Sunday's riots, but the ministry put the death toll at two — a man and a woman. It said 531 houses from six villages in Minbyar and 508 houses in two villages in Mrauk-U had been destroyed in arson attacks.

The unrest comes four months after members of the two religious groups turned on each other across Rakhine state in June after the alleged rape and murder of a Buddhist woman by three Muslim men in late May.

That violence left at least 90 people dead and destroyed more than 3,000 homes and dozens of mosques and monasteries. The two groups are now almost completely segregated in towns such as Sittwe, where the Rakhine are able to roam freely while the Rohingya are mostly confined to a series of camps outside the city center.

The last serious clashes in the state took place in August, when government officials said seven people were killed in the town of Kyauktaw. The United Nations said 600 homes were burned at the time.

The crisis in Myanmar's west goes back decades and is rooted in a dispute over where the region's Muslim inhabitants are from. Although many Rohingya have lived in Myanmar for generations, they are widely denigrated as foreigners — intruders who came from neighboring Bangladesh to steal scarce land.

The U.N. estimates their number at 800,000. But the government does not count them as one of the country's 135 ethnic groups, and so — like Bangladesh — denies them citizenship. Human rights groups say racism also plays a role: Many Rohingya, who speak a distinct Bengali dialect and resemble Muslim Bangladeshis, have darker skin and are heavily discriminated against.

The conflict has proven to be a major challenge for the government of President Thein Sein, which has embarked on democratic reforms since a half century of military rule ended in 2011

Myanmar: New clashes between Muslims, Buddhists - Yahoo! News

Asia News Headlines: Asia News Headlines - Yahoo! News

[mlurp]

Change the country's name doesn't mean other things will change.

.In Myanmar, only sickest HIV patients get drugs

By MARGIE MASON | Associated Press – Mon, Oct 22. Posted 24 Oct. 2012 .....

YANGON, Myanmar (AP) — Thein Aung has been trained not to show weakness, but he's convinced no soldier is strong enough for this.

He clenches his jaw and pauses, trying to will his chin to stop quivering and his eyes not to blink. But he's like a mountain that is crumbling. His shoulders shake, then collapse inward, and he suddenly seems small in the denim Wrangler shirt that's rolled up to his elbows and hanging loosely off his skinny arms. Big tears drip from his reddened eyes, and he looks away, ashamed.

As he sits outside a crowded clinic on the outskirts of Myanmar's biggest city, he knows his body is struggling to fight HIV, tuberculosis and diabetes — but he can't help wishing he was sicker.

Although Aung is ill enough to qualify for HIV treatment in other poor countries, there are simply not enough pills in Myanmar. Only the sickest of the sick are lucky enough to go home with lifesaving medicine here. The others soon learn their fate is ultimately decided by the number of infection-fighting cells found inside the blood samples they give every three months.

The World Health Organization recommends treatment start when this all-important CD4 count drops to 350.

In Myanmar, it must fall below 150.

____

Antiretroviral therapy, in the past considered a miracle only available to HIV patients in the West, is no longer scarce in many of the poorest parts of the world. Pills are cheaper and easier to access, and HIV is not the same killer that once left thousands of orphaned children in sub-Saharan Africa.

But Myanmar, otherwise known as Burma, remains a special case. Kept in the dark for so many decades by its reclusive ruling junta, this country of 60 million did not reap the same international aid as other needy nations. Heavy economic sanctions levied by countries such as the United States, along with virtually nonexistent government health funding, left an empty hole for medicine and services. Today, Myanmar is among the hardest places to get HIV care, and health experts warn it will take years to prop up a broken health system hobbled by decades of neglect.

"Burma is like the work that I did in Africa in the'90s. It's 15, 20 years out of date," says Dr. Chris Beyrer, an HIV expert at Johns Hopkins University who has worked in Myanmar for years. "If you actually tried to treat AIDS, you'd have to say that everybody with every other condition is going to die unless there are more resources."

Of the estimated 240,000 people living with HIV, half are going without treatment. And some 18,000 people die from the disease every year, according to UNAIDS.

The problem worsened last year after the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria canceled a round of funding due to a lack of international donations. The money was expected to provide HIV drugs for 46,500 people.

But as Myanmar wows the world with its reforms, the U.S. and other nations are easing sanctions. The Global Fund recently urged Myanmar to apply for more assistance that would make up the shortfall and open the door for HIV drugs to reach more than 75 percent of those in need by the end of 2015. It would also fight tuberculosis, a major killer of HIV patients. TB in Myanmar is at nearly triple the global rate as multi-drug resistant forms of the disease surge.

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In Myanmar, only sickest HIV patients get drugs - Yahoo! News

45 comments.

Asia News Headlines: Asia News Headlines - Yahoo! News

[mlurp]

This unrest has not settled down yet. So what the UN going to do? This is from the Asia site.

.UN says 28,000 displaced in Myanmar ethnic clashes

By AYE AYE WIN and KHIN MAUNG WIN | AP – 12 hrs ago. 29 Oct. 2012 ...

SITTWE, Myanmar (AP) — Myanmar's government said Monday it has boosted security in a western state hit by ethnic and sectarian unrest as the number of displaced rose to 28,000 people, mostly Muslims.

The latest violence between ethnic Rakhine Buddhists and Rohingya Muslims, which began Oct. 21, killed at least 84 people and injured 129 more, according to the government. Human rights groups believe the true toll could be far higher.

A tense calm has held across the region since Saturday, Rakhine state spokesman Myo Thant said.

He said security had been stepped up in the state, with additional police and soldiers deployed, but he declined to give details.

The priority now is to ensure those who lost homes have adequate shelter and food, he said.

U.N. Resident and Humanitarian Coordinator in Myanmar Ashok Nigam said the figure of 28,000 displaced was likely to rise because some people who fled affected areas along the coast by boat have yet to be counted.

An estimated 27,300 of the displaced are Muslims, Nigam said, adding that the U.N. figure was based on statistics from local authorities.

Human Rights Watch has said that the Rohingya have suffered the brunt of the latest violence.

Tensions have simmered in the region since clashes first broke out in June, displacing 75,000 people — also mostly Muslims.

The long-brewing conflict is rooted in a dispute over the Muslim residents' origin. Although many Rohingya have lived in Myanmar for generations, they are widely denigrated as intruders who came from neighboring Bangladesh to steal scarce land.

The U.N. estimates their population in Myanmar at 800,000. But the government does not count them as one of the country's 135 ethnic groups, and so — like neighboring Bangladesh — denies them citizenship. Human rights groups say racism also plays a role: Many Rohingya, who speak a Bengali dialect and resemble Muslim Bangladeshis, have darker skin and are heavily discriminated against.

___

Associated Press writer Aye Aye Win reported from Yangon, Myanmar.

UN says 28,000 displaced in Myanmar ethnic clashes - Yahoo! News

Just 8 comments.

[mlurp]

I was thinking about Bahrain the other day. As I haven't heard much about any terror acts where our 5th Fleet is stationed sense the Arab Spring..

.Five bomb blasts hit Bahrain capital, two killed

Reuters – 5 hrs ago. 5 Nov. 2012 ................

DUBAI (Reuters) - Five bombs exploded in the heart of the Bahraini capital Manama on Monday, killing two people, officials said, in rare attacks targeting civilians during the 21-month-old uprising against the kingdom's U.S.-backed rulers.

The blasts, one outside a cinema, could be a sign that radical elements of the opposition are escalating violence. They took place days after the government said it had banned all rallies and opposition gatherings to ensure public safety.

The victims were Asian street cleaners and one died after kicking a device which then blew up, said the Interior Ministry. It said the bombs were home-made and described the blasts as "terrorist acts" - its term for attacks by opposition activists.

Police have been targeted by explosions several times this year, as the government has stepped up efforts to quell the uprising that has simmered since democracy protests broke out in early 2011.

But bombs targeting civilians are rare in the Gulf nation, where the Sunni Muslim Khalifa dynasty rules over a majority Shi'ite population. The kingdom hosts the U.S. Fifth Fleet, which patrols oil shipping lanes in the Gulf region.

The explosions on Monday took place between 4.30 am and 9.30 am (0130 and 0630 GMT) in the Qudaibiya and Adliya districts of Manama, the BNA agency said, citing a police official. It described the explosives as "locally made bombs". A third Asian worker was wounded, it said.

Washington has called on Manama to begin dialogue on democratic reforms with the opposition but criticism has been offset by its support for a country that plays a key role in U.S. efforts to challenge Iranian influence in the region.

The United States and Gulf allies fear Iran's nuclear energy program is a front for developing nuclear weapons, a charge Tehran denies. Iran, a Shi'ite power, also denies accusations from Manama of fomenting the unrest in Bahrain.

Thirty-five people were killed in Bahrain during protests in February and March 2011 and the two months of martial law that followed. But almost daily clashes have continued since between protesters and riot police in Shi'ite districts.

Activists and rights groups say nearly 50 civilians have been killed in clashes with police since the end of martial law in June last year, while the authorities say two policemen have died including one killed by a bomb attack last month.

Opposition politician Matar Matar of Shi'ite party Wefaq said he doubted opposition activists were behind Monday's attacks, noting that leading Shi'ite clerics had called on followers to avoid escalating the conflict with the government.

He suggested the police or military may have been responsible, or a rogue unit.

"This incident is strange - why would anyone target workers?" he said. "I'm worried that police and military are losing control of their units or it is (preparation) before declaring martial law."

The rallies ban announced last week was condemned by Amnesty International as a violation of the right to freedom of expression and peaceful assembly.

(Writing by Andrew Hammond; Editing by Pravin Char)

Five bomb blasts hit Bahrain capital, two killed - Yahoo! News

162 comments.

[mlurp]

Al-Qaida is behind both of these and plenty of other places. So unlike some Liberals say this group is not near over and will attack the USA again in the future.

The West best be aware...

.Yemen security official assassinated in capital

By AHMED AL-HAJ | Associated Press – 3 hrs ago. 7 Nov. 2012 ........

SANAA, Yemen (AP) — Yemeni officials say an intelligence officer has been assassinated in the capital city of Sanaa, in the latest attack against security forces in the country.

Officials say at least 55 military, intelligence and police officers have been killed in Yemen since mid-2011, with most of the assassinations focusing on individuals working in counterterrorism operations.

The officials say Mohammed El-Fil was shot in the head Wednesday by assailants on a motorbike. They spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak to the media.

Last month, two senior officers were assassinated by militants in a drive-by shooting just outside the capital.

Officials believe that al-Qaida is waging a retaliation campaign against top officials after a military offensive pushed its militants out of their strongholds in southern Yemen.

Yemen security official assassinated in capital - Yahoo! News

3 comments.

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.Al-Qaida leader urges Muslims to fight in Somalia

Associated Press – 10 hrs ago. 7 Nov. 2012 ............

CAIRO (AP) — Al-Qaida's leader is urging Muslims to join militants in Somalia in the battle against African Union troops, which he says have been boosted by U.S. support.

Ayman Al-Zawahri says Somalia's al-Qaida branch, al-Shabab, should use guerrilla tactics and suicide bombings to wage jihad, or holy war.

Somalia had been in chaos for years, ruled by warlords and insurgents bent on creating an Islamic state. The militants, who once controlled nearly all of Mogadishu, have been gone from the capital for more than a year, and in September the African troops booted them out of their last urban stronghold, the port city of Kismayo.

In his seven-minute audio message posted late Tuesday on militant websites, al-Zawahri says the loss of Kismayo came after "clear, direct and flagrant support from the Americans."
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Al-Qaida leader urges Muslims to fight in Somalia - Yahoo! News

58 comments.

[mlurp]

Well now the America will make it offical by our POTUS visiting what was once
Burma...

.Myanmar says Obama to visit later this month

By AYE AYE WIN | Associated Press – Thu, Nov 8, 2012. Posted 9 Nov. 2012 ...

YANGON, Myanmar (AP) — President Barack Obama will make a groundbreaking visit later this month to Myanmar, an official said Thursday, following through with his policy of rapprochement to encourage democracy in the Southeast Asian nation.

The Myanmar official speaking from the capital, Naypyitaw, said Thursday that security for a visit on Nov. 18 or 19 had been prepared, but the schedule was not final. He asked not to be named because he was not authorized to give information to the media.

The official said Obama would meet with opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi as well as government officials including reformist President Thein Sein.

It would be the first-ever visit to Myanmar by an American president. U.S. officials have not yet announced any plans for a visit, which would come less than two weeks after Obama's election to a second term.

Obama's administration has sought to encourage the recent democratic progress under Thein Sein by easing sanctions applied against Myanmar's previous military regime.

Officials in nearby Thailand and Cambodia have already informally announced plans for visits by Obama that same week. Cambodia is hosting a summit meeting of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations, and Thailand is a longtime close U.S. ally.

The visit to Myanmar, also known as Burma, would be the culmination of a dramatic turnaround in relations with Washington as the country has shifted from five decades of ruinous military rule and shaken off the pariah status it had earned through its bloody suppression of democracy.

Obama's ending of the long-standing U.S. isolation of Myanmar's generals has played a part in coaxing them into political reforms that have unfolded with surprising speed in the past year. The U.S. has appointed a full ambassador and suspended sanctions to reward Myanmar for political prisoner releases and the election of Nobel laureate Suu Kyi to parliament.

From Myanmar's point of view, the lifting of sanctions is essential for boosting a lagging economy that was hurt not only by sanctions that curbed exports and foreign investment, but also by what had been a protectionist, centralized approach. Thein Sein's government has initiated major economic reforms in addition to political ones.

A procession of senior diplomats and world leaders have traveled to Myanmar, stopping both in the remote, opulent capital city, which was built by the former ruling junta, and at Suu Kyi's dilapidated lakeside villa in the main city of Yangon, where she spent 15 years under house arrest. New Zealand announced Thursday that Prime Minister John Key would visit Myanmar after attending the regional meetings in Cambodia.

The most senior U.S. official to visit was Hillary Rodham Clinton, who last December became the first U.S. secretary of state to travel to Myanmar in 56 years.

The Obama administration regards the political changes in Myanmar as a marquee achievement in its foreign policy, and one that could dilute the influence of China in a country that has a strategic location between South and Southeast Asia, regions of growing economic importance.

But exiled Myanmar activists and human rights groups are likely to criticize an Obama visit as premature, rewarding Thein Sein before his political and economic reforms have truly taken root. The military — still dominant and implicated in rights abuses — has failed to prevent vicious outbreaks of communal violence in the west of the country that have left scores dead.

Myanmar says Obama to visit later this month - Yahoo! News

341 comments.

[mlurp]

Well now the the situation in Bahrain has reached a point where the govt., has called out it's National Guard, to try to stop the killing of it's leadership. This is how Al-Qaida does it.

The same tactics they & the Taliban use in Pakistan and other hot spots.

.Opposition: Bahrain forces deploy against unrest

Associated Press – 3 hrs ago. 10 Nov. 2012 ........

MANAMA, Bahrain (AP) — Bahrain's main opposition group says the kingdom's paramilitary National Guard is deploying to back up police as authorities try to quell rising political violence.

Wider use of the Guard could signal a tougher strategy by Bahrain's Sunni embattled monarchy as riot police struggle to contain the Shiite majority's 21-month uprising.

Hadi al-Musawi, a spokesman for Al Wefaq, says Guard troops were seen Saturday setting up in Sitra, a center of the revolt. Previously, Guard forces — separate from the regular military — have been used mainly at key sites in the capital Manama.

Heavy clashes erupted Saturday after the funeral of a teenager killed in a traffic incident during a clampdown on marchers the day before.

More than 55 people have died in Bahrain's unrest.

Opposition: Bahrain forces deploy against unrest - Yahoo! News

14 comments.

[mlurp]

I have doubts that fter yesterdays earthquake in Myanmar that our President will travel there.
On this report we see how easy even in todays ways of life how easy the mosquitoes can carry this or other infections .

..WHO: 107 dead from yellow fever in Darfur, Sudan

By MAGGIE FICK | Associated Press – 2 hrs 47 mins ago.. .


CAIRO (AP) — A yellow fever outbreak in Sudan's Darfur region has killed 107 people in the last six weeks, the World Health Organization reported Tuesday, warning that the disease could spread all over the country.

The number of deaths from the outbreak is steadily rising, and Sudan is working on an emergency vaccination drive. Officials reported last week that 67 people had died in the outbreak.

There is no medicinal cure for yellow fever, which is spread by mosquitoes. Doctors treat the main symptoms — dehydration, fever, bleeding and vomiting — and wait for the viral infection to pass.

The WHO estimates that more than 500 million people in 32 countries in Africa are at risk of yellow fever infection.

As part of the emergency response program, 2.4 million doses of the yellow fever vaccine are scheduled to arrive in the Sudanese capital next week, Dr. Anshu Banerjee of the WHO office in Sudan told The Associated Press by phone on Tuesday.

More than 350 suspected cases of yellow fever have been reported in Darfur since late September, and more than 30 percent of people showing symptoms have died, according to a WHO statement.

Around 70 percent are under 29 years old, according to a statement released Monday by the Sudanese Health Ministry and the WHO.

Banerjee warned that yellow fever cases are "definitely spreading" to new areas of the remote region of Darfur, where Sudan's government has been battling rebel groups since 2003. More than 300,000 people have been killed in the conflict, and health care services are not available to many residents as a result of the turmoil.

Some of these people are so hateful they will attack any group that is rendering aid.

He said that while no yellow fever cases have been found outside Darfur, the WHO is planning a risk assessment in the next two weeks on the assumption that all areas in Sudan may be at risk of infection.

Banerjee said that Darfur's heavy rainy season this year created additional breeding sites for the disease-carrying mosquitos.

Sudan's last outbreak of yellow fever killed 160 people in the South Kordofan region in 2005.

WHO: 107 dead from yellow fever in Darfur, Sudan - Yahoo! News