UNITED NATIONS: The United Nations yesterday called on Myanmar authorities to end a ban on families having more than two children in two Muslim-majority townships in a troubled state.
UN deputy spokesman Eduardo del Buey said that pressing the policy in Rakhine state, where there have been widespread clashes between Buddhists and Muslims, would infringe “fundamental human rights”.
Rakhine authorities say the two-child rule has been reaffirmed in two townships in the state where most people are Rohingya Muslims. The rule was first imposed by Myanmar’s military junta.
President Xi criticised
BEIJING: More than 100 people whose relatives were killed in China’s 1989 Tiananmen Square crackdown hit out at the country’s new president Xi Jinping in an open letter, days ahead of the anniversary of the deaths.
The Tiananmen Mothers group has for decades called on China’s leaders to reverse their verdict on the 1989 pro-democracy protests in Beijing, when troops killed hundreds of protesters labelled as “counter-revolutionary”.
In an open letter confirmed by a member yesterday, the group said Xi, who took office in March, was “not a real reformer”. “What we see, precisely, are giant steps backwards towards Maoist orthodoxy,” it said. “This has caused those individuals who originally harboured hopes in him in carrying out political reform to fall into sudden disappointment and despair.”
China probes chemical sales
BEIJING: China launched an anti-dumping probe yesterday into chemical imports from the European Union and United States, the government said, amid heightened trade tensions between the giant economies.
Beijing’s commerce ministry said it has started investigating whether EU and US firms were selling perchlorethylene at below cost -- a tactic to win market share and eliminate competitors -- after complaints from domestic companies.
Agencies
