The international community must cut off all support to Myanmar’s military as part of efforts to hold army commanders to account for crimes against humanity and genocide, UN investigators have said following a fact-finding mission in the country. In a statement, the UN said there had been no progress in protecting the Rohingya minority, more than a million of whom have fled military “clearance operations” in the Rakhine region.

“The situation is at a total standstill,” said Marzuki Darusman, chair of the UN independent international fact-finding mission. Myanmar authorities in the Buddhist-majority country have razed empty Rohingya villages, destroying criminal evidence of abuses. About 120,000 people remain in displacement camps in fear of military reprisals. The authorities should focus on the “real betterment of the remaining Rohingya community in Myanmar,” Darusman said.

Myanmar security forces are accused of killing, gang-rape and arson during a campaign of violence that drove 730,000 Rohingya people from Rakhine in 2017. More than a million Rohingya have now been forced into exile. Myanmar has persistently denied allegations of human rights abuses, saying its security forces have not targeted civilians, and rejected a report in September last year by the UN panel, which said top military officers who conducted the campaign against the Rohingya should be prosecuted for war crimes.(theguardian)…[+]

Military experts were reportedly sent to investigate the incident and found a large hole in each of the tankers. No evidence has emerged to show that Iran was involved. The affected countries are yet to assign blame. The incident has increased tensions between Iran, which borders the nearby Strait of Hormuz, and the US.

About a fifth of oil that is consumed globally passes through the strait. Last month, Iran threatened to “close” it if it was prevented from using the waterway. This followed a US decision to end exemptions from sanctions for major importers of Iranian oil. The team of US military investigators discovered large holes in all four of the affected ships and believe they were caused by explosive charges, the Associated Press reports, quoting an unnamed official. They did not explain how the damage was linked to Iran.

Few details have been released about the incident, which is said to have taken place at about 06:00 (02:00 GMT) on Sunday within UAE territorial waters in the Gulf of Oman, east of the emirate of Fujairah.The UAE foreign ministry said four commercial ships had been targeted in a “sabotage attack” near Fujairah port, just outside the Strait of Hormuz.

There were no casualties but Saudi Arabia said two of its ships had suffered “significant damage”.The country’s energy minister, Khalid al-Falih, said one of the tankers had been on its way to be loaded with Saudi oil which was to be delivered to customers in the US.(BBC)…[+]

What was supposed to be a day of celebration for Bridgette “Tutty Gran Rosie” Bailey quickly turned to mourning yesterday morning when her son Danekey Bailey was shot and killed. The younger Bailey, otherwise called Coco, was seeking treatment for a previously inflicted gunshot wound at Maxfield Park Health Centre in Kingston when the incident occurred, some time near 9:30. A female was also shot and injured in the incident. The health centre was subsequently closed for the day.

When the Jamaica Observer arrived on the scene just after midday, the mother was seen sitting in a police service vehicle outside the medical facility before policemen assigned to St Andrew South Division escorted her to view her son’s body. “Mek mi kiss him nuh, please? Mek mi kiss him nuh, please?!” she wailed before exiting the compound. Bailey, 46, became popular in 2013, when a clip of a television interview she gave demanding government compensation for her flooded house on Sunlight Street in west Kingston went viral.(Jamaica Observer)…[+]