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UN demands action after Sri Lanka anti-Muslim riot

[email protected] (Agencies)
June 17, 2014

Alutgama, Jun 17: Sri Lanka slapped an indefinite curfew in a popular tourist region on Monday after rioting Buddhist mobs killed three Muslims in a surge of religious violence that triggered international concern.

Riot-victim grievesLocal community leaders accused authorities of doing little to prevent Sunday night's carnage that made hundreds of Muslims homeless after attacks on their homes, shops, factories, mosques and even a nursery.

The most senior Muslim member of President Mahinda Rajapakse's government threatened to resign at the decision to allow militant Buddhists to rally in the flashpoint region.

"Three deaths have occurred and 78 people have been seriously wounded in the mob attacks... Places of Muslim religious worship have also been attacked with total impunity," Justice Minister Rauf Hakeem said as he toured the damage in the neighbouring towns of Alutgama and Beruwala.

"The government allowed the Bodu Bala Sena (BBS) to hold their gathering and therefore they must take responsibility for what has happened," he said, referring to a hardline outfit better known as the Buddhist Force.

Hakeem told reporters that he was now under pressure from his own supporters to quit the government to protest the failure to prevent the attacks, the latest in a series of violent incidents involving the BBS.

The UN human rights chief Navi Pillay expressed concern that the religious riots could spread to other areas of Sri Lanka and demanded that Colombo immediately bring the perpetrators of Sunday's attacks to justice.

"The government must urgently do everything it can to arrest this violence, curb the incitement and hate speech which is driving it, and protect all religious minorities," Pillay said in a statement issued in Geneva.

"I am very concerned this violence could spread to Muslim communities in other parts of the country," she added.

The United States, which has led international condemnation of Sri Lanka's human rights record, had also urged Colombo to end the violence.

The unrest erupted on Sunday night when followers of the BBS staged a protest over a recent road rage incident in the area.

After stones were allegedly thrown at them, the BBS supporters then tore through the two towns, attacking people on the street and setting fire to property and vehicles.

Local residents said police did little to protect them when the Buddhist mobs started their onslaught around sundown in the mainly Muslim towns which are around 60 kilometres (37 miles) south of the capital Colombo.

Police fired teargas and imposed a night-time curfew but the violence went on for several hours, according to residents.

"We pleaded with the police to come and stop the mob attacking our houses but the police did nothing," said Mujahedeen, a resident of Alutgama's Milton Road where around a dozen buildings were set on fire.

Police chief NK Illangakoon said the situation was "improving" although the curfew would remain overnight Monday.

He said eight people had been arrested in connection with the riots, but added that an unspecified number of them had already been freed on bail.

President urges 'restraint'

Both towns are popular beach resorts frequented by international tourists, but there were no reports of any foreigners or hotels being caught up in the violence.

However, hotels told their guests to remain indoors while Western embassies advised their nationals to avoid travelling to the region.

Rajapakse, currently in Bolivia, said in a statement that he would not allow "anyone to take the law into their own hands" and urged "restraint".

The attacks are the latest in a series of religious clashes to hit the island following unrest in January and also last year when Buddhist mobs attacked a mosque in the capital Colombo.

BBS leader, Buddhist monk Galagodaatte Gnanasara, is currently on bail after being arrested in May on a charge of insulting the Quran.

Sri Lanka, facing an international probe of its war record in crushing separatists Tamil rebels in may 2009, is also criticised for its alleged failure to protect minority religious groups.

Muslims make up about 10 percent of Sri Lanka's 20 million population.

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UN demands action after Sri Lanka anti-Muslim riot

Alutgama, Jun 17: Sri Lanka slapped an indefinite curfew in a popular tourist region on Monday after rioting Buddhist mobs killed three Muslims in a surge of religious violence that triggered international concern.

Local community leaders accused authorities of doing little to prevent Sunday night's carnage that made hundreds of Muslims homeless after attacks on their homes, shops, factories, mosques and even a nursery.

The most senior Muslim member of President Mahinda Rajapakse's government threatened to resign at the decision to allow militant Buddhists to rally in the flashpoint region.

"Three deaths have occurred and 78 people have been seriously wounded in the mob attacks... Places of Muslim religious worship have also been attacked with total impunity," Justice Minister Rauf Hakeem said as he toured the damage in the neighbouring towns of Alutgama and Beruwala.

"The government allowed the Bodu Bala Sena (BBS) to hold their gathering and therefore they must take responsibility for what has happened," he said, referring to a hardline outfit better known as the Buddhist Force.

Hakeem told reporters that he was now under pressure from his own supporters to quit the government to protest the failure to prevent the attacks, the latest in a series of violent incidents involving the BBS.

The UN human rights chief Navi Pillay expressed concern that the religious riots could spread to other areas of Sri Lanka and demanded that Colombo immediately bring the perpetrators of Sunday's attacks to justice.

"The government must urgently do everything it can to arrest this violence, curb the incitement and hate speech which is driving it, and protect all religious minorities," Pillay said in a statement issued in Geneva.

"I am very concerned this violence could spread to Muslim communities in other parts of the country," she added.

The United States, which has led international condemnation of Sri Lanka's human rights record, had also urged Colombo to end the violence.

The unrest erupted on Sunday night when followers of the BBS staged a protest over a recent road rage incident in the area.

After stones were allegedly thrown at them, the BBS supporters then tore through the two towns, attacking people on the street and setting fire to property and vehicles.

Local residents said police did little to protect them when the Buddhist mobs started their onslaught around sundown in the mainly Muslim towns which are around 60 kilometres (37 miles) south of the capital Colombo.

Police fired teargas and imposed a night-time curfew but the violence went on for several hours, according to residents.

"We pleaded with the police to come and stop the mob attacking our houses but the police did nothing," said Mujahedeen, a resident of Alutgama's Milton Road where around a dozen buildings were set on fire.

Police chief NK Illangakoon said the situation was "improving" although the curfew would remain overnight Monday.

He said eight people had been arrested in connection with the riots, but added that an unspecified number of them had already been freed on bail.

President urges 'restraint'

Both towns are popular beach resorts frequented by international tourists, but there were no reports of any foreigners or hotels being caught up in the violence.

However, hotels told their guests to remain indoors while Western embassies advised their nationals to avoid travelling to the region.

Rajapakse, currently in Bolivia, said in a statement that he would not allow "anyone to take the law into their own hands" and urged "restraint".

The attacks are the latest in a series of religious clashes to hit the island following unrest in January and also last year when Buddhist mobs attacked a mosque in the capital Colombo.

BBS leader, Buddhist monk Galagodaatte Gnanasara, is currently on bail after being arrested in May on a charge of insulting the Quran.

Sri Lanka, facing an international probe of its war record in crushing separatists Tamil rebels in may 2009, is also criticised for its alleged failure to protect minority religious groups.

Muslims make up about 10 percent of Sri Lanka's 20 million population.

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News Network
April 30,2020

London, Apr 30: The coronavirus is roiling global job markets, but the picture is not all gloomy. Finance, technology and consumer goods firms are hiring tens of thousands in the United States and other countries, according to data from Microsoft Corp's professional networking site LinkedIn.

Across seven countries in North America, Europe and Asia, healthcare providers are among the busiest recruiters given the ongoing battle against the novel coronavirus, which has killed over 200,000 people and infected over 3 million people worldwide, LinkedIn said. But lifestyle changes during lockdown are also driving demand for financial consultants, factory workers, animators and game designers, and delivery workers.

Overall, the hiring rate has plunged in the first quarter from the year-ago period, and in late April remains lower than a year ago across most countries surveyed by the platform. But the data offer a glimmer of hope with a gradual uptick in China, where the coronavirus emerged last year and which leads the world in surfacing from a months-long lockdown.

LinkedIn, with over 690 million users worldwide, counts new hires when people add a new employer to their profile. The rate is the number of new hires divided by the total number of LinkedIn members in a country.

The figures, tracked since mid-February, are not corroborated by official jobs data and do not represent the actual number of jobs in an economy. Government figures are usually released with a time-lag of several weeks.

"We are confident that our data is directionally correct in that there has been a huge decline in hiring in the U.S. and abroad," Guy Berger, principal economist at LinkedIn in California, told Reuters.

Hiring in China plummeted 50% during the height of its coronavirus crisis in mid-February from 12 months earlier. Since restrictions were eased in early April, the hiring rate has inched up, and for the week ending April 24 was 3% lower than the same period in 2019.

Hiring in the United States, United Kingdom, France and Italy - which lead the world in coronavirus-related deaths - remains hugely depressed, but is falling less rapidly than a few weeks ago as the countries pass the peak of their epidemics.

Retailers including Walmart Inc, Amazon.com Inc and Instacart have said they would hire a total of over 700,000 workers to meet a surge in demand for groceries and household essentials during the coronavirus outbreak.

Coronavirus state-wise India update: Total number of confirmed cases, deaths on April 30

Consumer goods manufacturers such as Unilever, whose products include soap and shampoo, confirmed on Wednesday it was hiring to fill 300 jobs globally, but declined to elaborate.

Nestle told Reuters it was looking to fill 5,000 full-time U.S. positions in "a variety of levels across corporate and frontline."

Fidelity Investments, a Boston-based financial services firm, said it had accelerated recruitment because of the pandemic and was looking to fill at least 2,000 full-time roles for financial consultants, software engineers and customer service staff in the United States in 2020.

Companies hiring in the United States and other countries also include Apple Inc; ByteDance, the Chinese parent of video-sharing social network TikTok; Takeda Pharmaceutical Co Ltd; and aerospace and defence company Lockheed Martin Corp. These companies did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

DIRE WARNINGS

The International Labour Organization warned on Wednesday that 1.6 billion workers, or nearly half of the global workforce, especially in the informal economy, could lose their livelihoods.

Record numbers of people have applied for U.S. jobless benefits since mid-March, and the unemployment rate is expected to soar to 16%, White House economic adviser Kevin Hasset said this week, from a 50-year low of 3.5% before the pandemic hit.

Both Italy and France, in lockdown for nearly two months, have seen hiring rates drop by around 70% from a year ago, according to LinkedIn.

Since China is ahead of other countries on the pandemic timeline, improvements there could suggest the same is in store elsewhere, Berger said. Several American states and European countries have begun allowing some non-essential businesses and schools to reopen in the hopes of restarting the economy and allowing a gradual return to normal life.

"It's still slightly early to call it a firm recovery," Berger said, referring to improving prospects in China. "We're not expecting a full recovery but rather it's an indication that parts of the economy will switch on as lockdowns are eased, at least relative to the worst point of the pandemic."

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Agencies
May 8,2020

United Nations, May 8: UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said Friday the coronavirus pandemic keeps unleashing a tsunami of hate and xenophobia, scapegoating and scare-mongering. 

The UN chief said anti-foreigner sentiment has surged online and in the streets, anti-Semitic conspiracy theories have spread, and COVID-19-related anti-Muslim attacks have occurred. 

Guterres said migrants and refugees have been vilified as a source of the virus -- and then denied access to medical treatment. 

With older persons among the most vulnerable, contemptible memes have emerged suggesting they are also the most expendable, he said. 

And journalists, whistleblowers, health professionals, aid workers and human rights defenders are being targeted simply for doing their jobs. 

Guterres appealed for an all-out effort to end hate speech globally. The secretary-general called on political leaders to show solidarity with all people, on educational institutions to focus on digital literacy at a time when extremists are seeking to prey on captive and potentially despairing audiences. 

He called on the media, especially social media, to remove racist, misogynist and other harmful content, on civil society to strengthen their outreach to vulnerable people, and on religious figures to serve as models of mutual respect. 

And I ask everyone, everywhere, to stand up against hate, treat each other with dignity and take every opportunity to spread kindness, Guterres said.

The secretary-general stressed that COVID-19 does not care who we are, where we live, what we believe or about any other distinction. His global appeal to address and counter COVID-19-related hate speech follows his April 23 message calling the coronarivus pandemic a human crisis that is fast becoming a human rights crisis. 

Guterres said then that the pandemic has seen disproportionate effects on certain communities, the rise of hate speech, the targeting of vulnerable groups, and the risks of heavy-handed security responses undermining the health response. 

With rising ethno-nationalism, populism, authoritarianism and a push back against human rights in some countries, the crisis can provide a pretext to adopt repressive measures for purposes unrelated to the pandemic, he warned.

In February, Guterres issued a call to action to countries, businesses and people to help renew and revive human rights across the globe, laying out a seven-point plan amid concerns about climate change, conflict and repression.

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News Network
March 28,2020

Washington, Mar 28: A US-based lab has unveiled a portable test that can tell if someone has COVID-19 in as little as five minutes, it said in a statement Friday.

Abbot Laboratories said the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) had given it emergency authorization to begin making the test available to healthcare providers as early as next week.

The test, which is the size of a small toaster and uses molecular technology, also shows negative results within 13 minutes, the company said in a press statement.

"The COVID-19 pandemic will be fought on multiple fronts, and a portable molecular test that offers results in minutes adds to the broad range of diagnostic solutions needed to combat this virus," said Abbot president and chief operating officer Robert Ford.

The test's small size means it can be deployed outside the "traditional four walls of a hospital in outbreak hotspots," Ford said, and Abbott is working with the FDA to send it to virus epicenters.

The test has not been cleared or approved by the FDA, and has only been authorized for emergency use by approved labs and healthcare providers, the company said.

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