Thousands in need of food, shelter after Myanmar clashes - Reuters UK
SITTWE |
SITTWE (Reuters) - Thousands of displaced Muslim Rohingyas and ethnic Rakhine Buddhists were in need of food, water and shelter in northwestern Myanmar on Thursday after fleeing the country's worst sectarian clashes in years.
Houses were burnt down late on Wednesday in two villages near the Bangladesh border, but there were no reports of further deaths. Scores of people are feared to have died in the rioting that broke out in Rakhine state on June 8.
Violence has largely subsided in after days of arson attacks and killing that have presented reformist President Thein Sein with one of his biggest challenges since taking office last year.
Places that had been flashpoints earlier in the week, including state capital Sittwe, were quiet, said Caw Tun, a member of a development group, the Wan Latt Foundation.
"Tensions between the two groups have eased. There are around 20,000 refugees in Sittwe. Most of them are from the villages where people fled in fear of the violence," Aung Myat Kyaw, a senator for Rakhine state, told Reuters.
"They are in need of food and, because of the heavy rain, there are concerns about the refugees' health and whether they have enough shelter," he added.
The violence had killed 21 people as of Monday, state media said, but activists fear the death toll could be much higher. At least 1,600 houses have been burnt down.
The army has taken hundreds of Rohingyas to Muslim villages outside Sittwe to ensure their safety.
"They are worried for their lives. The army is there so their life is secure," said Shwe Maung, a Muslim member of parliament for the ruling Union Solidarity and Development Party. "There are still so many Rohingyas in downtown Sittwe and they are afraid of being attacked."
The United Nations and a medical aid group said this week they were pulling staff out of the area because of the violence. U.N. special envoy for Myanmar, Vijay Nambiar, travelled to the area on Wednesday.
It is unclear what sparked the rioting. Relations between the two communities have been uneasy for generations and tension flared last month after the gang rape and murder of a Buddhist woman that was blamed on Muslims.
That led to the killing of 10 Muslims in reprisal on June 3, when a Buddhist mob stopped a bus they were travelling on. The passengers had no connection to the murdered woman. State media said three Muslims are on trial for the woman's death.
POLITICAL REFORM
The violence follows a year of dramatic political change after nearly 50 years of repressive military rule.
Hundreds of political prisoners have been freed, truces struck with ethnic minority rebel groups and the opposition party of Nobel Peace laureate Aung San Suu Kyi swept by-elections.
The government has also allowed trade unions and promised to get rid of forced labour. Recognising this progress, the International Labour Organization lifted restrictions on Myanmar on Wednesday.
That announcement in Geneva came just before Suu Kyi arrived in the city for her first trip to Europe in a quarter of a century.
That is another sign of the transformation of the former Burma: under the junta, she refused to leave the country, afraid the generals would not let her back in to pursue the fight for democracy.
The communal violence in Rakhine state and the international reaction may prompt further change: the Rohingyas are not included among the officially recognised ethnic groups of Myanmar but Thein Sein may be forced to improve their plight.
Up to 800,000 Rohingyas live along Myanmar's border with Bangladesh in abject conditions. Neither country recognises them as citizens and the Bangladeshi authorities have turned away boats of Rohingyas fleeing the violence this week.
(Reporting by Reuters staff reporters; Writing by Alan Raybould; Editing by Robert Birsel)
Australia player strike threatens England tour - ESPN.co.uk
Australia's cricketers will fly out for a one-day tour of England and Ireland on Thursday knowing that time is running out for a new pay deal to be signed. Cricket Australia and the Australian Cricketers' Association (ACA) were due to resume negotiations on Thursday as they aim to find common ground on a new Memorandum of Understanding (MoU), with the existing agreement to expire on June 30.
If a new MoU is not completed by then, Australia's players will need to decide whether to play on - they will have four ODIs remaining against England in early July - or call a strike. Australia's Twenty20 captain and one-day batsman George Bailey, who is also a member of the ACA executive committee, said the players remained hopeful that they would not be put in such a difficult position.
"The players still have full faith that the ACA and CA will be able to sort out the differences they have at the moment and come to a conclusion," Bailey said. "Whenever there's talk of a strike I think that's very much a last, last resort. It would be a disaster if both the ACA and CA got to the stage where that had to occur. I've still got full faith that both parties will be able to rectify that in the next few days."
It is not just the national players who could be affected by the ongoing failure to reach a deal. State cricketers have been left in limbo, not knowing whether they will have a contract for next season and unable to negotiate a move interstate, as Cricket Australia has banned any player movements until a new MoU is agreed.
That has left a number of domestic players with no choice but to train with their existing state in the knowledge that they might not be part of the squad next summer. Bailey, the captain of Tasmania, said it was a difficult situation for some players, particularly those on the fringes of the state system who did not know what their immediate future would hold.
"There's players who are in a position where they aren't sure whether they should be training because the reality is they might not be playing for Tassie in a few months," he said. "It's that balance of should they be looking for work or should they be talking to other states, who actually aren't allowed to talk to them at the moment. It's a bit of a challenge for those guys.
"They're probably the guys you feel for most, the guys at the domestic level who are in limbo, not knowing where they're going to be playing, who they're going to be playing for, and the state associations are looking at who they're going to recruit, who they're going to contract. At that level you can understand the state associations are starting to get pretty frustrated and players would be wanting to know what's going on. It's probably less so at the national level."
The Australians begin their tour with a one-off ODI against Ireland in Belfast on June 23, before a five-match series against England from June 29 to July 10. The squad features several men who are returning after spending time out of the national side, including the fast bowlers Pat Cummins and Mitchell Johnson, neither of whom have played for Australia since the tour of South Africa last November due to injuries.
The allrounder Steven Smith is also back in the mix, having been overlooked since the one-day portion of the South African tour in October. The bowlers will be under the guidance of Ali de Winter, the Tasmania assistant coach, who has been seconded to the squad as temporary bowling coach.
Brydon Coverdale is an assistant editor at ESPNcricinfo. He tweets here
© ESPN EMEA Ltd
Westlife singer Shane Filan is declared bankrupt - BBC News
Westlife singer Shane Filan has been declared bankrupt in the UK.
The Irish band have sold millions of records but Mr Filan suffered enormous losses in his country's property crash.
In a statement, the 32-year-old said he had "worked long and hard" to tackle his debts and was devastated that his problems have come to this conclusion.
The pop star filed for bankruptcy in the UK which has a less onerous bankruptcy regime than the Republic of Ireland.
In the UK the period of bankruptcy typically lasts for a year but in the Republic of Ireland it is at least three years and more commonly 12 years.
Mr Filan owns a property company, Shafin Developments Limited, with his brother Finbarr.
It was established in 2004 and had been involved in developments in Counties Leitrim and Sligo in the west of Ireland.
Last month, the company was placed in receivership.
EscapeEarlier this week, the singer was declared bankrupt at Kingston-upon-Thames County Court and his name has been placed on the UK insolvency register.
The father-of-three is the latest in a steady stream of highly indebted Irish property developers who have filed for bankruptcy in the UK.
Ireland has agreed to liberalise its bankruptcy regime as one of the conditions of its EU/ IMF bailout.
However the country's banks are concerned that the reforms could lead to a flood of mortgage defaults as ordinary homeowners use bankruptcy to escape from negative equity.
Westlife is one of the most successful boy bands of the last decade, selling more than 44m records.
Last October, they announced they were splitting up.
The band is currently in the middle of a farewell tour and continues to fill major concert venues.
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