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China: Scores missing after landslide buries industrial park buildings

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Landslide also ruptured national gas pipeline, causing explosion

A landslide struck the city of Shenzhen, China Sunday, toppling buildings and leaving dozens of people missing. (Photo: ChinaTopix/AP)

A landslide struck the city of Shenzhen, China Sunday, toppling buildings and leaving dozens of people missing. (Photo: ChinaTopix/AP)

by Andrea Germanos, Common Dreams

Scores of people were missing Sunday after a landslide occurred in an industrial park in southern China that buried dozens of buildings, sparked an explosion from a ruptured national gas pipeline, and forced the evacuation of roughly 900 people.

“I saw red earth and mud running towards the company building,” Xinhuaquotes one local worker as saying.

Official reports from the government-controlled media left out the cause of the landslide in Shenzhen, Guangdong Province, the New York Timesreports.

Filmmaker Michael Moore to Donald Trump: We are all Muslim

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American filmmaker Michael Moore chastised Donald Trump for his anti-Muslim comments.

Michael Moore holding "we are all Muslim" sign in front of Trump Tower in New York city.

Michael Moore holding “we are all Muslim” sign in front of Trump Tower in New York city.

by Ali Younes, Al Jazeera

American filmmaker, political and social activist Michael Moore has sent Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump a letter chastising him on his recent anti-Muslim statements and his call to “ban all Muslims from coming to the United States”.

In his letter, which he posted on his Facebook page on Wednesday night, Moore said Trump’s anti-Muslim statements “were made in depression and insanity”.

Moore also published a picture of himself in front of Trump Tower in New York with the caption “We are all Muslim”.

During his campaign stops, Trump called for a “total and complete” block on all Muslims entering the US and an end to Muslim immigration to the country.

Trump is the current frontrunner among the Republican candidates seeking the party nomination for the presidency of the United States.

In the letter, Moore reminded Trump that the US today is no longer a country of “angry white guys”, that the future US president will be chosen by more diverse voters and that “fortunately” the US no longer looks like Trump or his supporters.

Addressing Trump, Moore said: “Here’s a statistic that is going to make your hair spin: 81 percent of the electorate who will pick the president next year are either female, people of colour, or young people between the ages of 18 and 35 … In other words, not you” or “the people who want you leading their country”.

Moore went on to say that he was raised to believe in equality of people as brothers and sisters, regardless of race, colour and religion.

He added that “we are all Muslim, just as we are all Mexican, we are all Catholic and Jewish and white and black and every shade in between.”

Moore, born in Michigan in 1954, is known for his documentary films that criticised US gun laws, globalisation, the Iraq war and the US healthcare system.

He has been awarded several awards for his work, including an Academy Award for “Bowling for Columbine”, the 2002 film that examined the Columbine high school massacre in Colorado.

Gitmo survivor calls for amnesty so officials may confess their war crimes

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“Everything that happened to us is a war crime in Guantánamo,” says freed detainee held for 14 years without charge

"I just want people to tell the truth," says Shaker Aamer. (Photo: BBC/Screenshot)

“I just want people to tell the truth,” says Shaker Aamer. (Photo: BBC/Screenshot)

by Deirdre Fulton, Common Dreams

Despite being held for 14 years without charge at Guantanamo Bay; despite the torture, beatings, and psychological trauma he says he endured there; and despite signs that British intelligence agents knew of the abuse, 48-year-old Shaker Aamer says top UK officials should be granted legal immunity if it will encourage them to tell the truth about their government’s complicity in such atrocities.

“They should be guaranteed that they are not going to go behind bars, so they can tell their part of the story,” Aamer said in an interview with ITV News, his first since returning to the UK in October.

Comparing the U.S. military prison to Harry Potter’s Azkaban—where creatures suck the happiness from criminals—the father of two said Guantánamo Bay is designed to “destroy a human being totally”—mentally, physically, and spiritually.

Aamer called for U.S. President Barack Obama to shut down the offshore prison immediately.

“Everything that happened to us is a war crime in Guantánamo,” he said. “Everything that is happening right now is a war crime in Guantánamo.”

“My message to the President of the United States [Barack] Obama … that if he wants to be the hero, to close Guantánamo,” Aamer continued. “If he really wants to establish justice, if he really wants to live by his word, he’s not going to need to wait for the whole United States of America to support him. He should practice his right as a president, his right as the head of the army, and just close it—close it and the brothers they will help him, if you start thinking about the brothers in Guantánamo as human beings, they will help you to close it.”

In a separate interview with the BBC, also broadcast Monday, Aamer said he does not intend to sue the UK government. “I don’t believe the court will bring justice because of what happened in the past,” he said. “I do not want to prosecute anybody. I do not want anybody to be asked about what his role [was] in the past. I just want people to tell the truth.”

Aamer said he was “80, 90 percent” sure that on one occasion, a British intelligence officer was present when an American interrogator was beating his head against a wall.

Watch the full BBC interview, in which Aamer speaks about being reunited with his children after more than a decade of abuse and isolation, below:

With anti-Muslim bombast, Trump doubles down on ‘fascist demagoguery’

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‘The truth is his language is dangerous,’ say Bernie Sanders and other critics

"If I win the election for President, we are going to Make America Great Again," Trump stated in a press release calling for "a total and complete shutdown of Muslims entering the United States." (Photo: Michael Vadon/flickr/cc)

“If I win the election for President, we are going to Make America Great Again,” Trump stated in a press release calling for “a total and complete shutdown of Muslims entering the United States.” (Photo: Michael Vadon/flickr/cc)

by Deirdre Fulton, Common Dreams

GOP presidential frontrunner Donald Trump is doubling down on his xenophobic remarks about Muslims, even as they provoke widespread outrage and condemnation across the political spectrum.

On Tuesday, Trump defended his fascist plan for a “total and complete shutdown of Muslims entering the United States” by comparing it with President Franklin Roosevelt’s decision to inter Japanese Americans during World War II.

“This is a president who was highly respected by all,” Trump said in morning TV interviews on Tuesday. “If you look at what he was doing, it was far worse.”

But those who oppose Trump’s controversial platform dispute his interpretation of both history and current events.

“For God’s sake,” Council on American-Islamic Relations executive director Nihad Awad told ABC7 in Washington, D.C. on Monday night. “Haven’t we learned lessons from history by targeting religious minorities and ethnic minorities?”

Flanked by members of Congress and civil rights leaders at a Virginia press conference earlier on Monday, Awad declared: “Donald Trump is using his platform to create a division within America. Leadership is about uniting Americans, not exploiting division based on race and religion. I know it is helping Donald Trump and others to stay high in the polls, but they are low in the minds of those who think and reflect upon our history.”

Still, Awad and others warned that to write off Trump’s bombast would be dangerous.

 

“[I]t’s important not to treat Trump as some radical aberration,” The Intercept‘s Glenn Greenwald wrote on Tuesday. “He’s essentially the American id, simply channeling pervasive sentiments unadorned with the typical diplomatic and PR niceties designed to prettify the prevailing mentality. He didn’t propose banning all Muslims from entering the U.S. because it’s grounded in some fringe, out-of-the-mainstream ideas. He proposed it in part to commandeer media attention so as to distract attention away from his rivals and from that latest Iowa poll, but he also proposed it because he knows there is widespread anti-Muslim fear and hatred in the U.S.”

He continued: “Whatever else you want to say about him, Trump is a skillful entertainer, and good entertainers—like good fascist demagogues—know their audience.”

Noting that “cultural, religious, ideological, financial and tribalistic motives for isolating and demonizing Muslims” preexist Trump’s candidacy, Greenwald warned: “Trump is not an outlier, and it’s dangerous to treat him as one.”

White House hopeful Bernie Sanders, whom recent polls have shown would beat Trump in a general election match-up, added his censure to the mix in an email to supporters late Monday night.

“It’s fun for the political media to treat Donald Trump like he’s the lead character in a soap opera or the star player on a baseball team,” Sanders said. “But the truth is his language is dangerous, especially as it empowers his supporters to act out against Muslims, Latinos, and African-Americans.”

Other presidential contenders blasted Trump’s comments as “unhinged,” “fascist” and “downright dangerous.”

And the watchdog group Media Matters revealed Monday that Trump’s proposal leans on a misleading poll from a group led by “one of America’s most notorious Islamophobes,” Frank Gaffney, president of the conservative thinktank Center for Security Policy.

Members of New York City’s Arab, Muslim, and human rights communities are planning to gather at Columbus Circle near the International Trump Tower on Thursday in solidarity with refugees and in protest of harmful racism, Islamophobia, and xenophobia.

Children die in Aegean Sea in unabated refugee wave

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Eleven people drown and more missing as wooden boat sinks, while police round up refugees near border with Macedonia.

Several refugees were also rescued during an operation near the Greek island of Lesbos on Tuesday [AP]

Several refugees were also rescued during an operation near the Greek island of Lesbos on Tuesday [AP]

by Al Jazeera

At least 11 people including children have died and 13 others remain missing after a boat carrying about 50 refugees sank in the eastern Aegean Sea, Greek authorities say.

The coast guard said the accident occurred early on Wednesday when a wooden boat carrying the refugees from Turkey sank near the islet of Farmakonisi.

At least 26 people have been rescued alive.

The dead were five children, four men and two women. Their nationalities were not immediately known.

The latest incident happened just a day after six Afghan children drowned off the coast of the western Turkish province of Izmir, as the rubber dinghy they were in sank before reaching the Greek island of Chios.

Greece is the main entry point for refugees seeking a better life in the European Union.

More than 600,000 people have arrived in Greece this year by making the short but perilous journey by boat or rubber dinghy from Turkey to outlying islands. Thousands more have drowned.

Greece-Macedonia border

The latest drownings came as witnesses said Greek police started removing hundreds of refugees stranded on the Greek-Macedonian border and blocking rail traffic.

About 1,200 people – mostly from Pakistan, Morocco and Iran – were stuck near the northern Greek town of Idomeni, demanding to cross into Macedonia to reach northern Europe after non-EU Balkan states began filtering refugees by nationality.

The police official said the refugees would be taken to Athens on buses and will be accommodated in centres before being sent back to their home countries.

Hundreds of thousands of people streamed into Europe this year, mostly through Greece, but Balkan states began blocking passage last month to all but Syrians, Iraqis and Afghans, who are considered as refugees because they are fleeing war zones.

Clashes have flared in the past two weeks between police and stranded migrants blocking the Greek-Macedonian crossing for refugees and the railway line running between the two countries.

A Moroccan man was electrocuted on the line last week.

Macedonia has erected a metal fence to keep others out and plans to extend it to cover more than 40km of the border.

Muslim men’s jailing in Myanmar ‘tainted with torture’

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Mandalay court convicts 12 men for alleged links to armed group, whose real existence has been called into question.

The Fortify Rights group said there are "very worrying trends" among some nationalist movements targeting Muslim minorities [Reuters]

The Fortify Rights group said there are “very worrying trends” among some nationalist movements targeting Muslim minorities [Reuters]

by Ted Regencia, Al Jazeera

A dozen Muslim men from Myanmar have been convicted for their alleged links to a previously unknown armed group and sentenced to five years in prison, following a trial which human rights groups say was tainted by allegations of torture.

Fortify Rights, a watchdog group, told Al Jazeera on Tuesday that the 12 men from the central region of Mandalay were denied a fair trial, and that elements of anti-Muslim prejudice played a part in their case.

The men, including a 19-year-old labourer, a 34-year-old restaurant worker and a 58-year old merchant, were all found guilty on Monday of undermining national security, after allegedly training with the so-called Myanmar Muslim Army.

“I think it’s a huge injustice,” Matthew Bugher, a Harvard lawyer and Fortify Rights representative in Myanmar, said of the verdict issued by a judge at the Aung Myay Thar San township court.

“The government has not provided any evidence to support their allegations against these men.”

He said the allegations of torture openly made in court merit an investigation.

Bugher was referring to one of the court testimonies he witnessed, wherein a defendant told the judge that he was forced to sign a confession document, after undergoing torture while in detention.

“The court case against these men and their convictions are tainted by those torture allegations,” he said.

Bugher also questioned the real existence of the so-called Myanmar Muslim Army, saying, “the court record is so thin that we really can’t even make any analysis” of the group.

“This is the first that any of us have heard of this group. We could do a better job of assessing government claims if they actually provide some evidence that we could analyse. But they haven’t.”

Call to release accused men

During the trial, state witnesses claimed protection under the country’s Official Secrets Act as a reason for not providing more evidence to the public, arguing that the evidence had come from high levels in government, Bugher told Al Jazeera.

Separately, Phil Robertson, Asia deputy director of Human Rights Watch, told Al Jazeera that the identity of the Myanmar Muslim Army “remains as much of a mystery after the trial as before it”.

“What’s clear is that the government failed to provide sufficient evidence that these twelve men had anything to do with that group – so they should be released immediately,” he said.

A trial at which prosecution witnesses used the government laws to deflect demands that prosecutors produce evidence in court “can hardly be called either free or fair”.

He said that the case shows the danger of Myanmar’s “draconian yet vaguely defined laws”, wherein convictions are secured “for just about any act the government unilaterally finds troubling.”

He called on the incoming government in Myanmar, led by the National League for Democracy (NLD) of opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi, to “immediately revoke” those laws, as a clear sign of reform.

Al Jazeera could not immediately reach a government spokesman to respond to the allegations.

However, in a previous interview with The Intercept, Zaw Htay, the presidential spokesman, said authorities have all the evidence against the accused.

He said that the government carried out a “pre-emptive strike” to protect the country against “any possible attack”.

‘Worrying trends’

From Mandalay, Fortify Rights’ Bugher warned that the most recent convictions and detentions of Muslims, “are colouring perceptions” of the Buddhist-majority country, and providing extra rhetoric to some right-wing groups.

“So we are concerned about a narrative of an extremist threat that’s actively being propagated by the government,” he said.

Bugher also said that there are “very worrying trends” among some of the nationalist movements targeting individuals, both Muslims and inter-faith activists.

“I don’t think it’s an isolated thing,” he said. “I think it’s a major concern that affects all parts of the country.”

Bugher said he expects the convicted suspects to appeal their case. He said that there is hope among the defendants that the incoming government led by the NLD “will take action on this case.”

U Ottama Sara, a monk at the Phaung Daw Oo monastery in Mandalay, has been working to promote inter-faith events with Muslims and other religious minorities in Myanmar.

He told Al Jazeera that prejudice against Muslims has been “a problem for a long time”.

U Ottama Sara blamed “poor education, lack of knowledge and weak civil engagement” for the Buddhist majority’s misguided perception of the Muslim minorities and Islam.

He recalled that as a child, he was made to believe that Muslims are enemies of Buddhists. He said that he only started to question the prevailing belief when he grew up.

“I asked myself if it’s really true that they are bad people,” U Ottama Sara said.

“So I became curious and I started to make friends with them. Now I know that what I was told was not true.”

Donald Trump calls for halt on Muslims entering the US

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Leading Republican presidential hopeful cites “extraordinary influx of hatred” in statement that is swiftly condemned.

Trump has been increasingly virulent in his remarks targeting Muslim Americans since the Paris attacks [Reuters]

Trump has been increasingly virulent in his remarks targeting Muslim Americans since the Paris attacks [Reuters]

by Al Jazeera

Republican presidential front-runner Donald Trump has called for a “total and complete” block on Muslims entering the United States.

A statement from Trump’s campaign team said the halt on Muslims entering the country should remain in place “until our country’s representatives can figure out what is going on.”

The statement does not specify if the proposal would affect both tourists and immigrants.

Trump’s campaign cites poll data allegedly showing “hatred towards Americans by large segments of the Muslim population”.

“Where this hatred comes from and why we will have to determine,” the billionaire real estate mogul, who is leading in opinion polls among likely Republican voters, said in the statement.

“Until we are able to determine and understand this problem and the dangerous threat it poses, our country cannot be the victims of horrendous attacks by people that believe only in jihad, and have no sense of reason or respect for human life.”

Trump has been increasingly virulent in his remarks targeting Muslim Americans since the deadly Paris attacks, and again in the wake of last week’s shooting attack in California, which was carried out by a Muslim couple, leaving 14 dead and 21 wounded.

“Just put out a very important policy statement on the extraordinary influx of hatred & danger coming into our country. We must be vigilant!” Trump tweeted after the statement was released.

His announcement unleashed quick condemnation on Twitter.

“@realdonaldtrump removes all doubt: he is running for President as a fascist demagogue,” Democratic presidential contender Martin O’Malley said.

The Council on American-Islamic Relations group said: “We’re entering into the realm of the fascist now.”

US mosque threatened as fears of shooting backlash rise

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Advocacy group denounces California shooting while saying it has been a target of anti-Islam hate calls and threats.

Police say they are still investigating the motive of the California shooting that killed 14 people [Reuters]

Police say they are still investigating the motive of the California shooting that killed 14 people [Reuters]

by Ted Regencia, Al Jazeera

The largest Muslim advocacy group in the United States has raised concerns of a backlash following the deadly California shooting with reports of a threat of violence received at one mosque and many hate calls.

Ibrahim Hooper, spokesman for the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) in Washington DC, on Thursday condemned the killing of at least 14 people in San Bernardino, while pleading “to not generalise from the acts of individuals to an entire faith community”.

US authorities said they were still investigating the motive behind the shooting spree, allegedly carried out by the suspects Syed Farook, 28, and his wife Tashfeen Malik, 27. Reports said they were heavily armed with guns, bombs and ammunition.

Following the shooting, the New York Post – the Rupert Murdoch-owned tabloid newspaper – ran a banner headline calling the two dead suspects “MUSLIM KILLERS”. The paper later changed the headline.

“It’s completely outrageous that the New York Post would use that front-page headline,” Hooper told Al Jazeera.

He called the newspaper “irresponsible”, but added he was not surprised because “it is known for its anti-Muslim bigotry”.

“It’s inflammatory and we believe it incites hatred against all Muslims, not just against the people who allegedly carried out the San Bernardino attacks.”

Phone threats

As the names of the suspects were reported on Wednesday, the Manassas Mosque in Virginia received a voice message from an anonymous male caller threatening he would do to worshippers at the mosque what had been done to the victims in San Bernardino.

The mosque’s imam, Abu Nahedian, told Al Jazeera he received the half-minute profanity-laced message, forwarded to his personal phone, shortly before 11pm on Wednesday (0400 GMT Thursday).

Nahedian said he reported the incident to police, who were investigating the call along with the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI).

Nahedian has been preaching at the mosque for more than 20 years, he said. In 2014, the Manassas Mosque was also vandalised.

He blamed a lack of education and awareness about Islam on the threats, saying educated people “know that we [Muslims] are the also victims” of violence.

Nahedian said worshippers at the mosque had been subjected to verbal abuse and other threats even before the San Bernardino attack had happened.

“This is part of our life anyway,” he said. “But we always teach the congregation to be kind to people, and to let your action be the defender of your faith.”

Spewing hatred

At CAIR’s heaquarters in the US capital, Hooper reported that he and his staff had received “lots and lots of hate messages” on Thursday.

“Most of them are just spewing hatred against Islam and Muslims, which is not illegal,” Hooper said.

In California, where the shooting happened, Ojaala Ahmad, spokesman of the state’s CAIR office, said Muslim Americans were as “heartbroken” about what happened as the rest of the country.

She admitted that she also became worried after hearing the identities of the attackers.

“I think it has become very common now that every time a Muslim person might be the perpetrator, the public and the media are quick to say that this was an act of terror without investigating what the actual motives were,” Ahmad said.

But in California anti-Islam sentiment “is not that blatant” as in other states, said Ahmad, and the Muslim community received “overwhelming support” from inter-faith advocates.

“They are saying that they support us and that they know that Islam is not a bad religion, and for us to stay strong in times of what we might be facing in the coming days with the anti-Muslim climate,” Ahmad said.

Cambodia medic jailed over mass HIV infections

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Unlicensed medical practitioner sentenced to 25 years in jail for spreading HIV among almost 300 villagers.

Yem Chrin, right, admitted to routinely reusing syringes but denied intentionally spreading the virus [EPA]

Yem Chrin, right, admitted to routinely reusing syringes but denied intentionally spreading the virus [EPA]

by Al Jazeera

A Cambodian court has convicted an unlicensed medical practitioner of murder and sentenced him to 25 years in prison for spreading HIV among almost 300 villagers.

A spokesman for the court in the northwestern province of Battambang said Yem Chrin, 56, was found guilty on Thursday of torture and cruel behaviour resulting in death, intentionally spreading HIV and practising medicine without a licence.

Ten of the villagers have died since the outbreak began, village officials said.

Authorities detected an epidemic of human immunodeficiency virus, the virus that causes AIDS, on December 9 when they started testing a community in Battambang.

The victims ranged from a two-year-old to elderly in their 80s.

Authorities decided to test villagers after a 74-year-old man tested positive for HIV in November.

The man convinced others in the village who had also visited Yem Chrin to get tested, the court heard.

“The court found Yem Chrin guilty of operating health treatment without license, injecting people with syringes that spread HIV and torturing people to die,” Yich Na Chheavy, a provincial court judge, said in a verdict read to a packed courtroom.

Yem Chrin admitted to routinely reusing syringes but denied intentionally spreading the virus.

He was arrested in December last year and taken into protective custody, with the authorities fearing he might be lynched by residents of Roka village

Police said Yem Chrin was a well-respected doctor who villagers believed had healing powers and who provided cheap treatment for the poor.

US police probe motive of California mass shooter

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Two slain suspects identified after 14 people are killed and 17 wounded at staff Christmas party in San Bernardino.

San Bernardino

by Al Jazeera

US authorities are investigating the motive behind a shooting spree that left 14 people dead and another 17 wounded at a social services centre hosting a Christmas party  in Southern California.

A man and a woman suspected of taking part in Wednesday’s attack in San Bernardino died in a shoot-out with police hours later, authorities said.

The slain suspects were identified by police as Syed Farook, 28, and Tashfeen Malik, 27, were described as a couple.

Jarrod Burguan, San Bernardino police chief, said US-born Farook had attended a holiday banquet for employees of the local public health department, and later returned to open fire on the celebration.

The attackers were dressed in military-style gear and carried assault weapons as they burst into the auditorium where the shooting took place, at the campus of a social-services agency.

The couple were dressed in assault-style clothing and also placed several bombs at various locations, which police detonated. Beyond the 14 dead, the shooting left at least 17 people wounded, including 10 in critical condition.

No details have yet been released on the victims’ identities.

House-to-house search

Police were conducting a house-to-house search in the area where the third suspect was apprehended and completed the search early in the evening, when the “shelter-in-place” warning to residents was lifted, according to police.

“This is the first time we’ve seen it like this, on lockdown,” Hector Guerrero, husband of an employee who works in the facility, told Al Jazeera.

“I don’t think anything like this has happened in the Inland Empire,” he said, referring to the area east of Los Angeles.

Farook’s brother-in-law has said he was stunned to hear of his relative’s involvement in Wednesday’s shooting.

Farhan Khan, who is married to the sister of Syed Farook, made the comments at the Anaheim office of the Council on American-Islamic Relations.

Khan, who said he last spoke to Farook about a week ago, said he had “absolutely no idea why [Farook] would do this. I am shocked myself”.

The latest killings are likely to fuel to an ongoing debate about the definition of “terror attacks” in the US and what role the ethnicity of perpetrators play in media coverage of gun violence.

Al Jazeera’s Rob Reynolds, reporting from San Bernardino, said: “The nomenclature is very troubling in the US. What defines terrorism? Is it simply someone with a political motive, is it someone who kills a number of people for motives that are unknown? School shootings, work place shootings – these things happen all the time in the US.”

President Barack Obama, who just last week made a plea for tougher gun-control measures after three people were killed at a family-planning centre in Colorado, again urged Congress to take action.

In the Colorado Springs attack, a man killed three people and wounded nine in a shooting  rampage at a Planned Parenthood clinic .

In October, an armed man killed nine people at a college in Oregon, and in June, a white attacker killed nine black churchgoers in South Carolina.

‘Pattern of mass shootings’

“The one thing we do know is that we have a pattern now of mass shootings in this country that has no parallel anywhere else in the world,” Obama told CBS News.

“There are some steps we could take, not to eliminate every one of these mass shootings, but to improve the odds that they don’t happen as frequently.”

Wednesday’s attack marked the deadliest gun violence in the country since the massacre at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Connecticut, in December 2012, in which 27 people, including the shooter, were killed.

So far in 2015, there have been more than 350 shootings in which four or more people have been wounded, according to the crowd-sourced website shootingtracker.com, which keeps a running tally of US gun violence.

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